"So" - What?

I have finally sat down in front of the madly controversial Brooks column about the tea partiers.  I will scout the critics when I have more time later today but right now I am struck by two passages:

The public is not only shifting from left to right. Every single idea associated with the educated class has grown more unpopular over the past year.

The educated class believes in global warming, so public skepticism about global warming is on the rise. The educated class supports abortion rights, so public opinion is shifting against them. The educated class supports gun control, so opposition to gun control is mounting.

The story is the same in foreign affairs. The educated class is internationalist, so isolationist sentiment is now at an all-time high, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The educated class believes in multilateral action, so the number of Americans who believe we should “go our own way” has risen sharply.

I question his use of "so", which I am taking to imply a cause and effect that is probably not there.  The "educated class" has believed in global warming for years; public skepticism was growing even before ClimateGate and may be due to the fact that, with Obama pretending to push for action on climate legislation, the issue has regained the public's attention and skepticism. 

I also suspect that polls oversimplify peoples sense of global warming.  Just to extrapolate from my own beliefs, I think global warming is almost surely happening, that there is probably a man-made component, and that none of the proposals on the table could both be effective and pass a rational cost-benefit test. Does that make me a non-believer?  Maybe.  I am certainly a skeptic of the Waxman-Markey approach.

Brooks took a swipe at the Tea Partiers and included this:

The Obama administration is premised on the conviction that pragmatic federal leaders with professional expertise should have the power to implement programs to solve the country’s problems. Many Americans do not have faith in that sort of centralized expertise or in the political class generally.

Well, professionalism certainly doesn't start at the top - we elected a guy with no discernible resume and now Brooks is passing him off as Dukakis but with a more historic hue?  That said, Team Obama does look like the Triumph of the Technocrats but that is inevitable when the Democrats take over because their impassioned True Believers are too far to the left to be able to govern (President Dennis Kucinich would have closed Gitmo on Jan 21, 2009 - why wait! - and set the prisoners loose in Times Square after giving them an apology and a Gold Card, but the public wouldn't have bought it).

But more broadly, it is hard to remember a President who did not run as an outsider and reformer intent on draining the a corrupt and dysfunctional Washington swamp.  Certainly Carter, Reagan, the Duke, Wild Bill, Bush, and Obama ran that way.

To Be Continued...

MISSING PERSONS:  Brooks doesn't admire Sarah Palin but surely he can picture her leading a revolt against the "educated class"?

Comments

[peter]

Sorry to go OT so soon, but Chris Dodd (D., CT) announces his retirement at LUN.

[daddy]

The educated class believes "I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant and I'm thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president”, so naturally the uneducated public considered the idea of his pant leg crease as confirming his potential to be a very good president as idiotic and illogical and evidence of a sexually confused and demented mind.

[Otter]

The 'Educated class.'

What a bunch of TRIPE.

I have a degree in Geology. My IQ is somewhere around 135.

I am a SKEPTIC and with good reason.

God help us if these people ever gain complete control.

[daddy]

The educated class believes "I have to tell you, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often", so naturally the uneducated public considered the idea of a male candidates speech causing a thrill to go up the leg of an educated man as idiotic and illogical and evidence of a sexually confused and demented mind.

[Captain Hate]

Does Brooks begin every day with the thought "How can I further confirm that I'm a clueless douche in print"? To his credit, he meets the challenge.

Btw, has there ever been a worse year for college football? The bowl games have been a larger insomnia cure than David "Cat in the Hat" Gergen.

[Soylent Red]

The educated class stands in wide-eyed bovine herds, chants "Yes we can", and throws up the Obama salute. The educated class sees no problem with a President who thinks there are 57 states and that Hirohito surrendered on the deck of the Missouri.

I managed to fool two universities out of degrees and be successful in a couple of careers so far. Not counting the one I'm in. So I know "educated" and "expertise" when I see it. And I stand in direct opposition to this alleged "centralized expertise" and the Platonic Philosopher King it surrounds.

In fact, from what I've seen so far, We don't have centralized expertise. We have a set of ideologues, rank amateurs and theorists on our hands who have never done anything in their lives except live off the twisted craving for being dominated some people seem to have, as exhibited by Brooks and his ilk.

The reason Palin is so abhorrent to these people is that she puts the lie to the notion that the American people require a set of elites to manage them and solve their problems.

[daddy]

"Btw, has there ever been a worse year for college football? The bowl games have been a larger insomnia..."

Correct Captain Hate,

but I did think the name of the one we got our butt's kicked in, "The Meinke Car Polish Bowl" was vaguely interesting by it's absurd stupidity. I'm sure though there were others that I missed such as "The Pant Crease Bowl" or the "Leg Tingle Bowl" that were less interesting and only appealed to the educated classes.

[The Educated Class]

We, sir, do not watch such proletariat events as football. We edify our minds and souls with the writings of David Brooks, the important films of Michael Moore (not movies, film, you ignorant cur), and the melodious stylings of Amy Winehouse.

Now be off with you, man. We are thinking great thoughts here...

[Neo]

The public is not only shifting from left to right. Every single idea associated with the educated class has grown more unpopular over the past year.
...
The tea party movement is a large, fractious confederation of Americans who are defined by what they are against. They are against the concentrated power of the educated class. They believe big government, big business, big media and the affluent professionals are merging to form self-serving oligarchy — with bloated government, unsustainable deficits, high taxes and intrusive regulation.

Let me lend David Brooks a clue .. Bernie Madoff .. not a single member of the "Tea Party" movement gave money to Bernie Madoff to invest. Now tell me who are the gullible ones ? Obviously "educated" doesn't mean "smart."

[bunky]

If Brooks is part of the elite then we are in good shape!

[Otter]

'If Brooks is part of the elite then we are in good shape! '

That would be fine, Bunky, if they weren't the ones currently running the country And the 'mainstream' media :(

[Janet]

"Organizers of Humanity"
"The claims of these organizers of humanity raise another question which I have often asked them and which, so far as I know, they have never answered: If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?"
Frederick Bastiat

legislators and their appointed agents = the educated class = power hungry snobs

[bunky]

Otter: the mainstream media is done, over. As for the country: looks like the sinking ship is leaving the rats in the water to wit: Dorgan and Dodd. There will certainly be more..........

[Captain Hate]

I did think the name of the one we got our butt's kicked in, "The Meinke Car Polish Bowl" was vaguely interesting by it's absurd stupidity.

After last night's fine performance by Ga. Tech, I'm ready to banish the ACC (and Big Least: Well done Bearcats) from a seat at the table and let them make do with at-large bids until they can prove otherwise. You can add John Swofford to my growing list of sports kumishuners I'd prefer to die in a fire.

They'll never reduce the number of bowl games because of all the idiots in local government that depend on teams that "travel well", to employ a term which abbreviates "shiftless and with more money than sense", to temporarily increase their coffers. Still who would want the homely galoots that travel like a tick-ridden mongrel horde with Boise State to infest their community?

[jimmyk]

This is a Pauline Kael moment for Brooks, as "educated class" obviously means "all the people I encounter." These are mostly people who produce little of value, but pat each other on the back about how enlightened they are.

[bunky]

"educated class": a group of people who don't believe there is a war on terror. Oh I get it, I get jokes........

[tgs]

hasnt the "educated class" been responsible for the shithole that the country is now sitting in?

[roux]

The "educated class" apparently got all these degrees and diplomas but forgot to learn anything along the way.

Anyone who has spent any time in nature knows that man cannot change the climate.

[DebinNC]

...pragmatic federal leaders with professional expertise should have the power to implement programs to solve the country’s problems.

I think Brooks confuses pragmatic with expedient. What professional expertise do Dodd, Rangel, and Frank have in the financial areas they affect?

[Otter]

DebiNC~ Spending.

[Janet]

Exactly DebinNC! I look at cities and areas that the Dems. have run for years, and they are in ruins. Why can't Americans see it?

[centralcal]

I am sure there must have been a typo and Brooks really meant "educated ass(es)."

[Jane]

The "educated class"

I'm really learning some new stuff - and frankly it's a bit scary. The left doesn't think there is a war on terror, and a whole lot of people think they are an "educated class". I dunno I'd pit the brain of almost every person here against any one of those dolts.

BTW I really wish Michael Steele would go away. And someone please tell him to stop saying: "The reality is".

Finally - Great news about Dodd. Now - put him in jail.

[Janet]

...and not just economic ruin. The moral ruin of San Francisco is unbelievable. Zombietime's photo post on the street festivals in San Fran. was one of the saddest things I had ever seen. Men and women so degraded and used...I couldn't believe it was happening in America.
Is Kevin Jennings one of the "educated class" with "expertise"?

[Janet]

Yeah Jane. The WaPo article LUN on Dodd was a puff piece...hinting around his "problems" with Countrywide Mortgage.
"Dodd's troubles were politically ironic..."
Ted Stevens brought up on charges for supposedly not listing income...but Dodd? Well the Senate ethics committee cleared him.
I guess he can retire to his Irish cottage.

[Janet]

From the comments at the WaPo article -

"Another rat deserting a sinking ship?

Or, another thief grabbing his loot and getting out of town fast?

What is over the horizon that these people know about and aren't telling?"

Maybe a NEWSpaper could look into it!

[DebinNC]

Insty posted several responses to Brooks, and this one by Eric Randolph made the most sense to me. The term Preppers was new, but I believe their approach of making ourselves as self-sufficent as possible is exactly right. Where the Dems are taking us, civil unrest and scarcities are inevitable imo. We better get ready.

[Captain Hate]

Zombietime's photo post on the street festivals in San Fran. was one of the saddest things I had ever seen. Men and women so degraded and used...I couldn't believe it was happening in America.

Are you referring to the Folsom Street festival from a while back? I'm pretty difficult to shock and had a good idea what I was about to encounter when I clicked it, and still thought I was looking at Hell on earth.

[TigerHawk]

I'm a class traitor, I suppose, since I am neither embarrassed by my tony education nor anti-intellectual in the least. But I do not have the tastes or impulses of the transnational progressives (apart from modest Francophilia, generally revolving around food and women), so I tend to sympathize with the Palinistas, or the Palindrones, or whatever her most passionate followers would like to be called.

Two other points: Tom, your position on AGW is mine, exactly. You are not alone.

Also, Captain Hate, the college football season was a thrill a minute if you are a Hawkeye fan. Never a dull moment. Just sayin'.

[Captain Hate]

Also, Captain Hate, the college football season was a thrill a minute if you are a Hawkeye fan. Never a dull moment. Just sayin'.

Yeah, well I'm grateful for your guys exposing the fraud of Penn State's garbage program. Too bad that Stanzi was hurt against Ahia State because they'd have probably played in the Rose bowl. I only wish they'd have played against either Boise State or TCU instead of substandard ACC fodder, since the BCS decided that those teams would get marginalized by playing each other in a brainless move, even for them.

Still with no rooting interest these bowl games have been unwatchable.

[Sue]

I hate snobs.

[Rick Ballard]

"I think global warming is almost surely happening, that there is probably a man-made component..."

No way to argue with that one. The end of the Pleistocene began a warming trend that has continued through the entire Holocene. Puget Sound and the Great Lakes remind us of the idyllic time when real glaciers were the order of the day.

It was those stupid, ignorant cave men and their discovery and horrible abuse of fire that did the trick and ruined an entire epoch. It's just a shame that they didn't listen to the 'educated class' of their time, warning them of the dangers of combustion.

[Old Lurker]

Otter: "God help us if these people ever gain complete control."

I'm trying to picture how that would be different than the current condition.

[Gaff]

Brooks needs to dust off his Plato to realize the cave he is in.

[MayBee]

First it was Friedman and his longing for a Chinese-style government.
Now it's Brooks and his "leaders ...should have the power to implement programs to solve the country’s problems".

Both of these guys have the ear of Obama (and he theirs). So what's up?

[DebinNC]

Whoever was asking Melinda last night about adjusting their withholding might be interested in how Dems have tinkered with the 2010 tax tables.

[Janet]

yeah Captain Hate. Another enlightened idea about sexual "freedom"...looked more like sexual slavery to me. It was so sad to see people with no self-worth.
We would look in horror at a girl or boy prostituting themselves for a heroin fix, or crack cocaine, but the same self-degrading behavior in the name of sexual freedom is a "festival" in San Francisco...with Miller beer as a corporate sponsor.

[Jane]

I hate snobs.

Me too - but I actually think that is rather snobby of us.

[Ranger]

This bit from Brooks goes hand in hand with his discusion of why we needed to bail out Wall Street. Brooks is a product of and an advocate for the "Credentialed Moronitocracy." The fear they feel right now is very real. They have spent the better part of 60 years creating a system to ensure that only they, and the specific "articulate, clean" people not born into their crowd have access to real wealth and power. They see it all slipping away, and they don't understand why.

[Otter]

I'm trying to picture how that would be different than the current condition.

Posted by: Old Lurker

Wel now, let's see... Christian children being forced to go to rehab / retraining / reconditioning / brainwashing centers for even the Slightest infraction against gays...

Re-education camps and / or prison for global warming denialists, among a great many others...

Sexual rights for pedophiles... YES, there are people out there who want that, including at least one Democrat senator...

Shall I go on? *g*

[Rob Crawford]

Let me lend David Brooks a clue .. Bernie Madoff .. not a single member of the "Tea Party" movement gave money to Bernie Madoff to invest. Now tell me who are the gullible ones ? Obviously "educated" doesn't mean "smart."

I recall a story, from a few years ago, of some lefty columnist "deep thinking" type from Australia or Britain (I read this on Tim Blair's site), who lost a great deal of money to a Nigerian scammer.

[narciso]

Well there was an accounting professor at UM,
who fell for the same scam

[Neo]

Yes Virginia, we are in the mists of an "Era of Stupid Intellectuals."

[Neo]

If brains were dynamite, a plane load of the "educated class" couldn't bring down a 747.

[Danube of Thought]

Anybody who would speak of an educated "class," with the evident intent to include himself within it, is an asshole.

Just saw Doug Schoen, the Dem pollster on Fox, say that all the leading indicators point to a 2010 tsunami. Bring it on.

TM's views on warming generally mirror mine, except that I would add the following: we can know that human activity does not cause temperatures to be lower than they otherwise would be, but whether and to what extent such activity causes them to be higher is unknowable today. And I'm still not persuaded that it's bad.

[Sue]

Me too - but I actually think that is rather snobby of us.

Really? It made me laugh, but I didn't consider disliking snobs snobby. However, I do look down my nose at them, so maybe you're right.

[Jane]

Sue,

It was a bit of a joke with some truth thrown in - because disliking snobs clearly makes us better than them.

[Rick Ballard]

If one truly wishes to understand human influence upon climate reporting, this piece provides a very graphic representation of primary causation.

[Ignatz]

--The Obama administration is premised on the conviction that pragmatic federal leaders with professional expertise should have the power to implement programs to solve the country’s problems.--

Nonsense.
This administration is filled to the brim with clueless idealogues; Holder, Napalitano, Browner, Orszag and Barry himself, to name just a few.

The only two I can think of who are both pragmatic and have some expertise in their area is Gates, a Bush holdover, and Rahm who is pragmatic and expert in being a ruthless, power-hungry, hatchet man.

[Clarice]

DoT-I said so last night--the Dems' internal polls probably come with a cover letter which reads more or less Holy SH%$!

[Clarice]

Brooks, don't forget, is sitting in that specially designed "conservative pundit" room at the NYT hq which, as I warned, sucks the brains of the occupant right out of their skulls.

Brooks while less rabid is every bit as loony as Krugman or Sullivan or Friedman..and as "conservative" as David Gergen.

[narciso]

It's the room with the Cthluthu tentacle, that's what does it. Safire was relatively
unaffected, so was Kristol

[narciso]

For another cup of thumbsucking idiocy, the full Chlhuthu, in the LUN

[jimmyk]

The Obama administration is premised on the conviction ...

For such a smart guy, that sentence is rather poorly phrased (in addition to being nonsense). The administration's goals, maybe, or its agenda?

[Ranger]

This administration is filled to the brim with clueless idealogues; Holder, Napalitano, Browner, Orszag and Barry himself, to name just a few.

The only two I can think of who are both pragmatic and have some expertise in their area is Gates, a Bush holdover, and Rahm who is pragmatic and expert in being a ruthless, power-hungry, hatchet man.

Posted by: Ignatz | January 06, 2010 at 10:55 AM

The basic problem is that they are all the product of an "educaiton system" which produces an "educated class" that simply thinks there is only one solution to every problem. That solution is of course the ideological one which every true member of the "educated class" agrees with. Therefore, in their minds, acting ideologically is acting pragmaticly. The lack of intelectual diversity within the Ivy League produces an educated class that is incapable of thinking or acting truely pragmaticly. All they know how to do is simply repeat the same old mantra's over and over again.

[MikeS]

I think these folks who view every issue in the context of race or class may be on to something.

I've been wasting my time trying to ferret out the facts on these issues when I could have been dragging my knuckles through the woods somewhere, clinging to my bible as I try to reload my gun. This, if only I would just go along with the educated class and let them implement programs to solve all my problems.

[Janet]

So true Ranger...and one component they never factor in in their utopia dream society is the reality of human nature.

[sbw]

Brooks is obviously not of the educated class.

Socrates would demand Brooks examine his premises. What is educated? What demonstrates educatedness? Can educated people make decisions that are mistaken? Is a decision by the educated class necessarily correct? Are you, Mr. Brooks, a credentialed moron?

[Clarice]

Can't go there, narciso. My brain is an old, delicate instrument which can digest just so much carp in one day.

[Extraneus]

So what's up?

Yeah, MayBee. Obama must be complaining out loud about not having enough power over those nasty Republicans trying to derail the Utopia Express.

[narciso]

You're right, it's like that malware I've been dealing with these last few months. Fallows missed the entire story of the Japanese MITI bubble, as Friedman missed the whole general Islamist current in the 90s.
So naturally they promote them to the next level

[Rick Ballard]

"educated class" = credentialed moronocracy identifiable by completion of a course of "study" at an institution of higher indoctrination.

It's actually a very democratic group - complete lack of innate intelligence is no bar to entry and failure to achieve anything of actual merit does not hinder advancement.

[DebinNC]

Rush is back on air now.

[MayBee]

Yeah, MayBee. Obama must be complaining out loud about not having enough power over those nasty Republicans trying to derail the Utopia Express.

I think so too, Ex.
A month or so ago, Obama said in an interview

OBAMA: My preference would be not to hand off anything to the next president. One of the things I would like is the next president to be able to come in and say, I've got a clean slate and I can put my vision forward that I presented to the American people.

It showed (to me) how bothered Obama is to have to deal with all the stuff he really doesn't want to have to deal with. He thinks it's in his way, rather than part of his job.
It's almost like he really didn't expect it.

It was also the most naive thing he's ever said.

[Ann]

RUSH looks good on the dittocam too!

Btw, Here is Liz Cheney's Statement on Obama's remarks:

Statement by Liz Cheney in Response to President Obama's National Security Remarks

[jimmyk]

It was also the most naive thing he's ever said.

I interpret that as not-too-subtle Bush-bashing. He's once again complaining about the big mess he supposedly inherited, but here doing so by saying "[Unlike my predecessor, m]y preference would be...."

[Porchlight]

MayBee, jimmyk - yet more proof we have an adolescent at the helm. The frustrating thing is that his attitude was all so obvious from the beginning of the campaign, yet he was elected anyway.

"I already answered, like, eight questions."

[bgates]

I'd pit the brain of almost every person here against any one of those dolts

I'm going to go ahead and take offense at "almost".

One of the things I would like is the next president to be able to come in and say, I've got a clean slate

"Because the moment my successor is sworn in, the time for badmouthing one's predecessor will be over."

[Danube of Thought]

"My preference would be not to hand off anything to the next president..."

God but this man is clueless. Every president in my lifetime, with the possible exception of JFK, has "inherited" a pretty thorny mess on a variety of fronts. Obama is simply not mature enough to recognize this fundamental truth. If there is one thing as certain as tomorrow's sunrise, it is that Obama's successor will inherit a multitude of difficult problems. Let's hope that he or she whines about it a good deal less than this guy.

[Extraneus]

It must be rough to have this socialist utopian vision to implement while also having to deal with a bunch of other crap.

[MikeS]

"So," Obama had all these theories about how to promote international peace and harmony, how to stimulate our economy, how to end racism, classism, and partisanship, how to lower the cost of healthcare for everyone, and how to stop the seas from rising...

And nothing worked? All his naive and adolescent sounding ideas turned out to be naive and adolescent?

What are the odds of being always wrong?

[narciso]

He would rather saddle her (hint,) with an unsustainable healthcare apparatus, a totally
useless stimulus and other leviathan, yey unimagined

[Ignatz]

--"My preference would be not to hand off anything to the next president..."--

Taken in the context of this clown being the lightworker we've been waiting for to halt the ocean's rise, solving all of the country's problems before he's gone seems fairly likely to me.

[Porchlight]

Who is he kidding? His administration will do everything possible to sabotage the next one. They'll even take the Ps off the WH keyboards. :)

[Mahon]

Clearly, "educated class" is a poor term for what Brooks is driving at. (I personally have degrees from Yale and Stanford, but I'll take an ex-mayor of Wasilla over an ex-editor of the Harvard Law Review.) I suggest we call it the media/academic/governmental elite, or MAGE.

[Captain Hate]

You guys are looking at this the wrong way: We should be proud of Brooksie no longer having to keep up this facade of being a "conservative" (like anybody believed that crock, *snort*) and now can be proudly full-metal douchenozzle along with the rest of Pinch's quislings. Now if we could just convince Frumsie, AllahPervert and the rest of the squishes to do likewise....

[mefolkes]

Narciso, Lovecraft's mythos involves the Cthulhu. Check your spelling. In my crazed youth I was a fan of this nut. Later, I discovered that I'm a descendant of the REAL Olaus Wormius, whose identity Lovecraft hijacked for the history of the Necronomicon.

As has been mentioned previously in this comment thread, many of us are highly intelligent and very well educated. To call the "elite" snobs is a rather polite way of saying it, much more tactful than I would phrase it.

[glenda]

If Brooks is a member of the educated class, I want no part of it! With each passing week, he writes another excuse- filled column for why Obama is failing, the liberal elite, in any form-political&academia-media, are practical idiots. Brooks has his thumb on the --sorry--not going to go there, it wouldn't be prudent...anyhoo--he is one of the most stupid SOB's with a byline, and definitely needs to widen his circle of acquaintances.

[Jane]

I'm starting to get optimistic again. Eric Cantor thinks he can stop Obamacare in the house.

[Clarice]

Whoppee!! That would be great, Jane.

[matt]

you have to remember that Obama has been aggressively coopting these clowns with soirees at the White House and in Georgetown, all in the name of outreach, and all the while pushing hard left as they write odes and paeans to Dear Leader.

What they forget is that these days the best public schools are in the Red States. More Mormons speak foreign languages and have extensive contact overseas than most East Coast elitists, who all revolve around the same circles anyway. Ask the kid in Logan, UT who spent a year on a mission in Gou daw Ful, China what he thinks.

Farmers in Missouri are tuned into demand for wheat in India and China, and sea urchin divers on the North Coast of California are competing with same off the Kamchatka peninsula. they may not go those places much, but there is certainly a much wider globalization than the elites realize in this country.

And as many of use who have been around the world realize, despite our problems, America is a hell of a lot better of with our systems and beliefs and lives and resources than 99% of the rest of the world. It is a much better thing being poor in America than rich in most other countries.

[Jane]

I think the only 2 people I would re-elect from the current Congress are Jim DeMint and Eric Cantor. Am I missing anyone?

[Clarice]

matt, that's true and an interesting point..the parochialism of the coastal elites vs the reality of an increasingly international fly over country. Wish you'd do one of your good essays on that.

[Jim Ryan]

"educated class" is a poor term

Sowell calls them people with only inconsequential knowledge.

[Jim Ryan]

I have three grad degrees in inconsequential areas, including Ph.D. But I don't have only inconsequential knowledge. I have a modicum of consequential knowledge, as much as the next Joe, which is why I don't fall for stupid kleptocratic scams.

Say, on Friday Joe the Plumber will be in town (Charlottesville) to campaign in the VA-5 GOP primary, if you can believe it. We have a handful of viable GOP candidates in the primary here, and I guess Joe has one he likes.

[Janet]

Am I missing anyone? Michele Bachmann?

[caro]

I like glasater's link.

Mostly I am intrigued by all air passengers wearing a bomb-sniffing devise. Maybe like a pendant around the neck that has an alarm or how about a patch on the back of the hand that changes color in the presence of the explosive essence.

Seems like technology could yet solve this problem.

Jane, that Cantor news sounds great!

[JM Hanes]

Yes Jane, you're missing my personal heart throb: Pete Hoekstra.

[Melinda Romanoff]

I would posit that the "educated classes" that Brooks lauds, might be suffering from their own case of inbreeding that they like to joke about regarding Appalaichia.

They just don't know any better to not recognize it amongst themselves.

Anbody catch the changes in withholding taxes this year?

I'll put up the link in a sec. It's pretty sneaky.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Glenn links that the #'s aren't so bad, but I still don't like it. LUN.

[Jane]

Michele Bachmann, Pete Hoekstra.

Yes and yes

[centralcal]

Jane: Jeff Sessions of Alabama has been very strong - especially on the Judiciary Committe. I would keep him.

[Jane]

Yeah I like him too CC - isn't Pete Hoekstra running for Governor?

[glasater]

Thanks Caro--I'm at the beach on the OR coast where up until today has been unbelievably warm--in the high fifties.
Am also on a campaign to find and eat a bunch of Dungeness crab and to take home the best smoked salmon in the world for that drunken risotto Clarice put us on to months ago:-)

Check out Cathy McMorris--think she is a whip for the R's and is low key but doing a really great job in that position.

[Clarice]

Jane, Did you see Continetti's post at the Weekly Standard yesterday to the effect that the election of Brown could change the Senate majority?

[Sue]

Am I missing anyone?

Well my rep, Ralph Hall, is too old to do much more than vote, but he does that right, so I'll keep him.

[Jane]

Clarice,

I only saw the article with the last line mentioning the race today. I'll keep looking.

[Clarice]

Jane--LUN

[Jane]

Thanks Clarice - I think everyone is talking about the race - they just have to keep it up for 12 more days.

VDH is spectacular today.