Remember the McCain–Feingold Act? Read this post from Belmont Club and ponder the strange way that justice works in this world.

Trying to keep money from talking in an election is like trying to ban guns. It only works on honest people. The goal of champaign finance laws should never have been about limiting the amount of money people could give. Instead, it should have been about creating transparency.

Instead of mandating artificial limits, McCain should have tried to fund independent real time audits. We don’t mandate a limit on how much money can be spent training an athlete to be the best. We just require that they pass a drug test.

But that is not what we got. Instead, McCain created a system that limited what honest people could do with their own money and at the same time provided little in the way of real transparency. President Bush signed that legislation into law in spite of professing to believe that parts of the law were unconstitutional.

It is tragic that the person who tried the hardest to play by the rules should suffer the most. But it also seems just that the man who helped create those rules should also suffer from them.

From Politico…

Despite widespread predictions of record turnout in this year’s presidential election, roughly the same portion of eligible voters cast ballots in 2008 as in 2004.

The main difference was that more likely republicans voters stayed home then usual. This was balanced by more likely democratic voters going to the polls then usual.

From the New York Times…

The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.

This article is getting a lot of press. You should read it if you have not already.

What disgusts me is that it was necessary to kept raids secret from the American public that Al Qaeda clearly knew about.

Put it another way, everyone acknowledges that Al Qaeda wishes to destroy American. Few people deny that Al Qaeda would inflect serious harm on the US if it was left to its own devices. Yet the fact that US was willing to send soldiers to attack Al Qaeda bases where ever they could be found had to be kept secret because of the fuss it would cause.

This kind of hypocritical action plagued the Vietnam war as well. Nixon’s secret B-52 raids were only secret from the American people, not the dudes getting bombed. When you have to hide what is military necessary from your own people you have problems.

From the Telegraph…

A navy commander said the victims died when the vessel’s firefighting system went off during sea trials, and insisted there was no danger from radiation.

Igor Dygalo said: “During sea trials of a nuclear-powered submarine of the Pacific Fleet the firefighting system went off unsanctioned, killing over 20 people, including servicemen and workers.

Over the years I have gotten the impression that Russian Sailors are more likely to die on the job then any other peacetime navy.

From the Telegraph…

Gonzales was a real-life hit man and just the sort of violent bad guy whom Bond had no compunction dispatching in his celluloid adventures.

He is a ruthless mass killer who ran the notorious armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel, according to the Mexican authorities.

After deserting from the Mexican army in 1999, he switched sides in drugs war and helped found the Zetas, an execution squad made up of rogue former soldiers and police officers.

He was eventually captured without a shot being fired when security forces burst into a house where he was staying, officials said. His men then launched a brazen bid to free him near Reynosa airport but police fought off a gang of assailants in a lengthy gun battle.

In a separate raid in Reynosa, Mexican agents also seized 540 rifles, 165 grenades, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and 14 sticks of TNT.

From the Telegraph…

He said gangs repeatedly vandalised his car, causing £5,000 damage, and threw bricks and eggs at his window.

The retired lorry driver, who suffers from a heart condition, finally “snapped” on Halloween when fireworks rained down on his terraced house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Hertford.

Several rockets exploded against his front window just inches from his gas meter.

Mr Parker, a keen game shooter who holds a shotgun licence, took out his .177 air rifle, marched across the street and confronted a group of eight to ten teenagers who then fled.

But minutes later armed police arrived at his home, surrounded the house and cordoned off the road.

Four shotguns, for which Mr Parker had a licence, and cartridges from his gun cabinet were seized by police, as well as the air gun.

The grandfather-of-four was arrested and taken to a police station where he was given a caution for possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

These kinds of stories come out of Great Britain all the time. But they never cease to make me sick.

From the Telegraph…

Around 70 per cent of the African-American voters who overwhelmingly backed Mr Obama also approved Proposition 8, helping pass the controversial ballot measure despite a small majority of whites voting against the ban on same-sex unions. Hispanic and Asian voters were split on the issue.

The state’s black turnout jumped to 10 per cent of the electorate, up from 6 per cent in 2004, as voters inspired by Mr Obama flocked to the polls for the first time. The Democratic candidate took the state with 61 per cent of the popular vote.

Although the president-elect opposed the gay marriage ban, it appears his supporters may have helped pass the measure that was vociferously opposed by many white Democrats.

I think the thing that most surprised me about Obama’s win is how small of a margin of victory that he got in the popular vote. It’s kind of hypocritical of me to say that, because only a couple of months ago I thought that the election was going to be close. But that was Click Here to continue reading.