Sunday, the Giants completed the ultimate Cinderella Story: a wild card team, not only makes it to the superbowl, but prevents what would have been only the 2nd perfect season in NFL history. And it was a great game right down to the last minute score to win the game. This was one of the rare moments where a ARO staffer could be called un-patriotic…

But seriously, as the big day in Primaries ramps up this morning - could the underdog spirit spillover from Sunday? Certainly Obama’s camp has positioned itself in this manner. And it has worked well up to this point. Meanwhile, pundits have been calling the race as McCain’s for longer than he’s actually been leading.

American’s love underdogs - that can win. It’s really about perceived critical mass going today. I would wager 20-30% of the vote today will hinge on how close people believe the race is. The closer the perception of the gap is - the more those crucial votes will go to Obama and Romney.

It seems strange at first, but it’s true. Now that Fred Thompson has left the race, most conservatives are now cheering for Barack Obama - but not for why you think.

Let’s look back to understand this twist. Conservatives got genuinely excited twice in this campaign season. The first time was back last summer, when Thompson spoke out a conservative message eloquently and with new media. This was a breath of fresh air that the Republican party needed. A true small government conservative that could explain conservatism in a way that made sense average Americans. AND he was able to tap into the new media - something Democrats have been doing much better than Republicans.

Conservatives waited with bated breath for their candidate. But after perhaps too much delay, Thompson entered the race with a whimper instead of a sizzle. Fred finally seemed to find his footing a few days before the South Carolina primary, coming out swinging in a debate a several speeches. Again conservatives got excited, but again it ended up being too little too late.

So now they wait and cheer for Obama to come and rescue them. Why? Because a race against Obama would require conservatism to win. A race against Hillary would require something completely different: Running against the Clintons, most of your time is spent fighting and trying to say ahead of the Clinton Machine. (Just look at the Hillary Obama race for proof of this). And a Republican candidate would try to win by focusing on Hillary’s negatives (which are quite high).

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Say good bye to the incandescent light bulb. Congress has banned them staring in 2012. Congress defends this blatant attack on consumer choice and the home is castle concept by sighting energy savings. Everyone talks about how much money and power everyone will save. Wrong!

• Save Money? Nope. You’ll spend it all on the more expensive bulbs. So instead of a check to the utility it goes to the lighting industry. Same mothballs in the wallet for the consumer.
• Save Power? Nope. If the fuel efficiency of cars is any indication, no power will be saved. Consumers will simply care less about turning off their lights. As cars have gotten better mpg, American’s simply drive more. The economic impact not some love of the planet is what drives these things. If making sure you turn off your lights only impacts your power bill $5 instead of $50… no one will bother. Increasing the power consumption back to the pre-meddling point. Sorry congress, market forces don’t change with your wims.

Sadly, when I first heard about this a few weeks ago, I asked “What’s next? Are they going to make it illegal to set my thermostat to low?” Little did I know just how quickly I would be proven right. California is trying to pass a bill to require radio controlled thermostats for “peak times” and “emergencies”. So what happens when California declares a “global warming emergency”? Wal-mart will sell out of window AC units that day. Though I probably shouldn’t point that out, or those will be banned before the emergency declaration.

• Bye Bye, Light Bulb - If only Microsoft could argue its competitors hurt the environment.
• Senate Votes on Bulb Bill
• House Votes on Bulb Bill
• Who Will Control Your Thermostat?

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The New York Times didn’t give this story a great headline or much play since it ended up on page 19. But the Times supports the troops and wants victory…. right?

American forces have routed Al Qaeda… from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the “surge” to depart as planned… “Murder victims are down 80 percent from where they were at the peak”, and attacks involving improvised bombs are down 70 percent, [Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil Jr., commander of US forces in Baghdad] said. “The Iraqi people have just decided that they had it up to here with violence,” [General Fil] said,

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Hillary has stepped in it again. First she couldn’t come up with a good answer on illegals getting drivers licenses in her home state. Now, while she remembered to add her waitress’ sad story into her next speech, she forgot to leave her a tip. Waitress Esterday, has three jobs and works 12 hour shifts - and it was her first day. (abcnews.com) And if she’s elected president, Clinton promised, people like her waitress will have it better… (NPR) But apparently not until then. Since the Senator neglected to leave a tip amid her “Middle Class Express” political tour.

Sen. Clinton used Esterday’s life story to push her compassionate candidacy, but was caught off guard when the waitress pointed out the -uhm- irony, to the local press. Since this gaff, the Clinton Campaign has tried numerous angles to make the story go away. First it was that the meal was “on the house” (15% of 0 is 0). Next it was that the Senator doesn’t carry money (no need when you have an entourage to do it for you - it’s good to know she’ll be able to connect with us middle class folk). Then it was that they did leave a tip that was “improperly dispersed” (cash on the table - its a difficult process I guess). Most recently its that $129 was paid for the “on the house” meal PLUS $100 tip apparently dispersed to faceless stranger, since no one at the diner has confirmed the campaign’s claim.

Perhaps named for the hope that the voters wouldn’t notice this time, the DREAM act amnesty failed cloture and was killed before it could get going. Here’s the latest plan for stealth amnesty:

Legal status for illegals that are less than 30, have graduated high school or have a GED and claim that they entered the country illegally before turning 16. (We’ll just check that against their immigration records - oh wait.) Also, in the interest of “family unity” or other “humanitarian purposes”, their families can stay. Families simply need to be claimed not verified by blood test or other means.

Popular guess-timates place this at legalizing 12 of the guess-timated 20 million illegals. It did strike me as funny that when the Dems are trying to slip amnesty under the radar, “a child” is defined as someone under 16, but when they’re expanding government health care “a child” is someone under 26.
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Disguised as a “fix” for the Alternative Minimum Tax, the Dems have proposed a 4% surcharge on anyone making over $150k ($200k for couples). This coupled with the decision to let the tax cuts that spurred our economy to new records expire (an easy way to raise taxes) means the top bracket for individuals will become 44% in the US. For comparison, the average for developed countries is 35.7%.

Now some of you may say that such wealthy people can afford to give us all their money. Unfortunately, small businesses owners and farmers, often pay taxes as individuals not as businesses (like corporations do). So if you’re out to screw the rich - remember that when the family loses their farm, or the small business down the street has slow customer service because they had to lay off some help to pay the new 9% of taxes.

And it’s actually even worse: the 4% increase is a surcharge not a rate hike. The difference? Surcharges are applied before tax deductions. Got a kid in college? Paying all that mortgage interest? Gave a large donation to Katrina relief? Doesn’t matter… 4% on it ALL.

So on top of punishing the successful, we’re now going to take away their incentive to give money to charity? Though, I guess if we just take even more of their money away it won’t matter if they give to charity ’cause the government can fill that void as well. Well at least until they rich take their money & income to another country to avoid the taxes. 50%, 70%, even 100% of nothing is way less that 35% of something. Read more

So the tax implications of Barry Bonds’ 756th home run ball has been discussed by several “experts” and all have failed to see the obvious: this is utterly ridiculous. I can’t think of something more American than eating a hot dog, drinking a beer and catching a home run ball while enjoying America’s past time: baseball.

And I can’t think of a better example of how deranged our tax code has become that we have made it economically infeasible to keep said memento. Seriously, you go to a game, you catch a ball, you suddenly owe the government $250,000+!!! Why is no one else objecting to the seer lunacy of this? “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” (Mugatu)

If poor Matt Murphy had decided not to sell his souvenir he would still owe 35% of whatever the IRS guess-ti mated it’s worth. The fair market value of a one of a kind ball (until the record is again broken) mixed with the taint of an asterisk? We’re talking a range of hundreds of thousands of dollars here. So who picks the worth?

Now I’ve heard several people argue that the ball’s value IS that so high because a few people would be willing to pay an exorbitant amount for it. But lets take that logic and apply it else where - like Real Estate. The South, lately, has been getting an influx of people retiring from the North East. These people are paying 2 to 3 times the normal rate per sq ft for homes marketed to them because they’re idiots their cost of living comparison is such that those homes still seem cheap to them. Does the fact that some people are paying 3 as much for a house down the street from mine triple the value of my house? Did clever distance marketing just triple my property taxes?

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So have the eco-hippies officially lost it when they start talking about the environmental impact of a natural process of mother nature?

What’s next, pollution control measures for volcanoes? Coming up with a way to stop the genocide of the bunnies by the wolves?

If you look closely at the “damage” done to the environment, it comes down to the pretty plants being replaced in some areas by less pretty, hardier plants. Don’t we support natural selection any more? Seriously though, why does it always come back to being pretty? You know what this is going to lead to: anorexic weeds.
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Yet again, the Clinton’s caught receiving illegal campaign contributions from Chinese people. Off the top of my head, this is the third time they’ve been caught doing this. I’m not sure which is scarier - the abundance of the illegal contributions, or the common Chinese thread.

Oh well, at least its all for a good cause: the first female President milestone is certainly worth overlooking a few several improprieties.
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