Moral Hazard

Moral Hazard in Politics is the title of Thomas Sowell's latest column. Like all of Sowell's work it is spot on. I'm not cutting and pasting part of the column as I don't want to dilute his message. Click the link and read the whole thing.

Latest Example of Why You Should NEVER Donate to the Republicans Nationally

I've been critical in the past of the Republican National Committee for being more concerned with reelecting moderates (RINO's) than with actually advancing conservative principles. We've seen them get involved in contested primaries most egregiously in the case of supporting the very liberal Sen. Arlen Specter over Rep. Pat Toomey in 2004. This year the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) endorsed and provided funding to Gov. Charlie Crist and he re-paid them by running as an independent when he saw polls reflecting he would likely lose the primary to Marco Rubio.

Now from AllahPundit at HotAir.com, we get another reason not to trust them to make good decisions. Joe Miller won the Alaska U.S. senate primary over incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski. So what does the NRSC do? They sent lawyers to advise Murkowski on how to challenge the results.

Sean Cairncross, the general counsel of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is headed to Alaska at the request of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) to help provide guidance to the GOP incumbent who finds herself trailing attorney Joe Miller (R) by roughly 1,600 votes.

Committee sources insisted that too much should not be read into Cairncross' presence in Alaska -- only that the NRSC is an incumbent-retention committee and, as such, provides assistance when Senators ask for it.

If you want to financially contribute to advance causes you believe in just send money to individual candidates. Never send money to a committee! Not one dime to the RNC, NRSC, NRCC.

Why I Love Extra-Inning Baseball Games

Roy Oswalt is now in left field for the Phillies in the 15th inning against his former team the Houston Astros. Oddly enough, outfielder Ben Francisco is still available on Charlie Manuel's bench.

McCain No Longer Needs to Pretend He's a Conservative

I had no prior comment on the Arizona U.S. Senate primary. The incumbent Se. John McCain had an honorable career in the military but has been unpredictable and often misguided as a senator. His opponent, J.D. Hayworth, was a relatively good congressman. He was strong on some issues but hardly a fiscal conservative. Because of the strong antipathy to the out of control spending in DC, Hayworth was unlikely to beat McCain. McCain's weak point was his support for open borders and no enforcement of immigration laws. McCain did a couple TV ads pretending to care about border security and based on tonight's voting he fooled enough people to secure the GOP nomination. Now, that the primary is behind him don't be surprised to see McCain tilt back to the left on several issues.

Beyond my distaste for McCain's incessant need to be loved by the media, I'm just personally opposed to career politicians in general. With six year terms of office, the Senate is more prone to this problem. McCain is better than Bob Byrd or Ted Kennedy but I'm equally opposed to any of them holding office for life.

Philadelphia Wins NL East

It is unusual to declare a division race over in early August. It is even more unusual to declare the second place team as the division winner. However, I can state with some confidence that the Phillies will win the NL East despite being 2 games out of first.

Why? For several reasons.
1. Last few years they have played better down the stretch.
2. They have several key players due to return from injuries.
3. Their last two games seem to indicate they have something going. One was a great outing by mid-season acquisition Roy Oswalt. The other was a come from behind victory over the Dodgers scoring eight runs over the last two innings to overcome a seven run deficit. Those sort of victories tend to inject extra confidence in a team.
4. Most importantly, the team in first place, the Atlanta Braves, saw their future Hall of Fame Third Baseman make a great defensive play last night only to see him go down with a knee injury after completing the play.

I didn't think the Braves were legitimate contenders this year. The loss of Chipper Jones convinced me they are not going to maintain their lead. Bobby Cox is retiring after this season and should be applauded for getting this team as close as he has to a division title.

Media bias? What Media Bias? Presidential Coverage Edition

After the Associated Press opened an article with this sentence: "WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is capping his birthday week with an afternoon of golfing on Saturday and a barbecue on Sunday." Jake Boot of Bigjournalism.com asked, "Does Anybody Remember Reading about George W. Bush’s ‘Birthday Week’?"

Now watch this video as author Andrew Klavan reveals how economic news was presented during the George W. Bush administration as compared to the current administration:



Think back to that video and consider the recent "Journolist" scandal (A scandal by the way which was essentially ignored as much as possible by the lamestream media) next time someone downplays media bias. During both the Bush and Obama administrations the media on multiple used nearly identical language to frame the economy in a way favorable to liberals. There is no doubt that there is message coordination from Dems to the media.

(H/T to Curmudgeonly & Skeptical)

Mitch Miller - Rest in Peace

Mitch Miller most famous for his series of records titled "Sing Along With Mitch" passed away this morning at 99 years of age. My parents had several of his albums and we got countless hours of enjoyment from his music.

The New York Time obituary for Mr. Miller was pretty interesting. It includes an anecdote regarding him helping local girl Rosemary Clooney get her start:

Ms. Clooney was making a mere $50 a recording session when Mr. Miller asked her to record “Come On-a My House,” an oddity based on an Armenian folk melody written by the playwright and novelist William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian, who later went on to create Alvin and the Chipmunks. Ms. Clooney was dubious. “I damn near fell on the floor,” she recalled.

They had a heated argument. But in the end Ms. Clooney agreed to record the song, and it became a giant hit, establishing her as a major artist. “Nothing happened to me until I met Mitch,” she later said.

The obit also mentioned how Miller's music fell out of favor with the younger generation and was later played by shopping malls to keep teenagers from hanging out and was used by the FBI to try to get the Branch Davidian cult to leave their compound.

Miller is the second famous person born on the 4th of July to die within the past month. George Steinbrenner was also born on that date.

Rest in Peace Mitch.