Carville said on CNN today that the pitch is simple: "If you think that what America needs is another tax cut for people making over half a million dollars a year, then vote for McCain. If you think middle-class people are struggling, that their incomes are going down and they need help, vote for Obama. It's a very simple choice out there, I think."

Yep, that works. And don't whine about class warfare -- the nation has been embroiled in a class war for the past 30 years. The top one percent have won.

(How very California-esque of our neighbors to the north.)

Harper has been governing in a minority government, and polls suggest that he may be able to strengthen his position. It appears that Harper is going to make the Liberal Party's proposed carbon tax a major feature of the campaign.

It's a busy fall, but it is important to keep an eye on what Canada is doing. (And I say that not just because I lived less than two miles from the Canadian border in high school.)

I have to admit that I share Steve Clemons' pessimism about what this deal says about our economy:

My own view is that when the U.S. government -- in a time when a not-centrist-at-all Republican occupies the Oval Office -- seizes and nationalizes a publicly held firm, then we all had better tighten our belts.

This is not a sign of economic stabilization. It's a whopper foreshock of more serious problems ahead.

I hope Clemons is wrong. But I doubt this would be happening if the economy was as sound as some are claiming.

The trick in this argument is that it ignores the enormous benefits that the government is granting by allowing a corporation to exist as a free standing legal entity. The most important of these advantages is limited liability. If a corporation produces dangerous products or emits dangerous substances that result in thousands of deaths, shareholders in the corporation cannot be held personally responsible for the damage. The corporation can go bankrupt, but beyond that point, all the shareholders are off the hook, the victims of the damage are just out of luck.

By granting corporate status, the government has allowed investors to shift risk to society as a whole. In exchange for this and other privileges of corporate status, the corporation must pay income tax on its earnings. We know that investors consider the benefits of corporate status to be worth the price in the form of the corporate income tax, because they voluntarily choose to form corporations. If investors did not consider the benefits of corporate status to outweigh the cost of the income tax, then they are free to form partnerships which are not subject to corporate income tax. In this way, the corporate income tax is a completely voluntary tax. Anyone can avoid the tax by investing in a partnership, or alternatively, any corporation can be restructured as a partnership.

Hopefully people will realize this and stop hoping our government gives the most affluent another handout.

Our political leaders do not get "deference." In case Davis has forgotten, we declared over 232 years ago that our nation would not play that game.

Sen. McCain asked Gov. Palin to be his vice presidential choice on August 27. So, the count is now 11 days.

Eleven days since a person who wants to be one heartbeat away from the presidency has had an unscripted moment with the media. That's not leadership I can believe in, my friends.

Rick Davis, campaign manager for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., just told Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace that McCain running mate Gov. Sarah Palin won't subject herself to any tough questions from reporters "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."

Deference?!?

Perhaps former Vice President Al Gore can talk about the "deference" he received from the media.

This from a campaign that openly admitted that the media was its base.

I wonder if reporters will stop thinking about their fun BBQ visits and the donuts with sprinkles on the bus and start holding John McCain to account. This is an outrageous position for a campaign to take--and John McCain should not be awarded for it.

Petraeus cited several areas of ongoing concern, including the postponement of provincial elections initially scheduled for this month, the disputed status of the northern city of Kirkuk, lingering ethno-sectarian conflicts, and questions surrounding the future of a local security force known as the Sons of Iraq. Petraeus cited several areas of ongoing concern, including the postponement of provincial elections initially scheduled for this month, the disputed status of the northern city of Kirkuk, lingering ethno-sectarian conflicts, and questions surrounding the future of a local security force known as the Sons of Iraq.

Why is this significant? As Ilan Goldenberg explains:

In other words there has been no political reconciliation and as a result the security gains have not been consolidated and the situation remains tenuous.

This is winning?

That's right -- we have no money for rebuilding our infrastructure, for any form of National Heath Care, for fixing/saving social security, but a bunch of rogue traders and Alan Greenspan, under the guise of "Deregulation" can leverage up and lose trillions, which you the taxpayer is on the hook for!

Please remember this the next time some radical conservative sings the virtues of the "free market." This is another example of the privatization of profits and the socialization of risk.

And don't worry -- these same people will make sure the government is not there to help you in bad economic conditions.

It's the free market!

At a press conference Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continued to criticize lawmakers for the overdue budget. A reporter asked "what sacrifices is your office making financially?"

Schwarzenegger: "Well, financially we have cut back. But I think that the most important thing is that we are staying in town. Our office stays in town, I am staying in town. I said I will not leave town and I will not leave this state until there is a budget. For instance, I did not go to the Republican Convention."

Did we mention he was in Burbank?

I hate it when the State Capitol moves without notice. Is it too much to ask that someone send out a press release?

"He urged California voters to start pressuring lawmakers and use the November election as a referendum on their disappointing performance.

"'You can have the power,' the governor said. 'I alone can't do the lifting.'"

So, let's get this straight. It seems like this stalemate is turning into a push for the redistricting initiative, which will help Republicans pick up seats -- even though the governor seems to be blaming them for the budget standoff? It sort of reminds us of that old P.J. O'Rourke quote: Democrats are the ones who say government can work. Republicans are the ones who say it can't work, and keep getting elected and proving it.

I've learned through the years that it's very hard to judge political turning points in real time. But my guess is that the last twelve hours will be seen as the moment when McCain pushed all his chips into the pot to bet on a "mobilize the base" strategy. Given the fundamental math in this election year, that would also be the moment when it became very hard for him to win.

It could work. But, I agree that the fundamentals of this election year do not appear to support a McCain strategy which would alienate independents and conservative Democrats.

As Klein writes:

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

Yes, they are. But such tactics have been all too effective in the past.