So long, Ted

Well, things are looking up in Alaska.

Sen. Ted Stevens has been officially recognized by the criminal justice system as a felon. This should be the end of his political career.

Unfortunately, some of the other Alaska politicians who violated the law are not up for re-election this year. But at least the rest of the country has realized that they are not qualified for a promotion.

Marathon

Conventional wisdom finally catches reality at the end of the race.

Political strategery

New McCain electoral strategy:

1. Win all 2004 Bush states except Iowa, New Mexico, Virginia, Colorado to get to 252 electoral votes.

2. Reverse 10 point polling deficit to win Pennsylvania and 273 EV.

3. Everyone gets a free pony.

Note: Free pony may have to be distributed in Pennsylvania prior to election to accomplish #2.

Creeping socialism

"Republicans begin major offensive warning of full Democratic control of Washington..."

Oh no! What if the Democrats try to take over a big insurance company like AIG? What if they start to nationalize the banks? What if their presidential candidate proposes that we spend $300 billion to buy up bad mortgages?

How would we be able to tell the Democrats apart from the Republicans?

Seems to me like McCain and Bush are the real socialists.

What about the poor?

Today Sen. Obama released his "Economic Rescue Plan for the Middle Class". I understand that Sen. Obama is trying to win an election, and that he believes proposals addressing middle-class economic problems are the way to get more votes. But I see nothing in his proposals to help those who need the most assistance.

We should realize that the poor will be hurt the most by this economic downturn. Poor people don't have individual retirement accounts, and homeless families don't have mortgages. More than one million children are homeless at some point each year, and these children are the future of our country. If our government can find $700 billion to bail out the banking system, surely we can afford the much smaller amount it would take to feed and house vulnerable children.

If Sen. Obama wins the election, as looks increasingly likely, we must speak up for those who rarely have a voice in the political process, but who have the most to lose.

Fat lady warming up

Nate Silver's projection is not alone in giving Sen. Obama a high likelihood of winning the election.

"Sen. John McCain has his work cut out for him if he is to win the presidency and there does not appear to be a role model for such a comeback in the last half century," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Basically, since the widespread use of television no candidate has won the presidency after being this far behind one month before the election.

You would have to go back to Truman-Dewey, and the pollsters missed a last-month shift in that election (last Gallup poll was 3 weeks before election!). Also in 1948, there was serious systematic error in that random voter samples were not collected. So Truman was probably never as far behind as the polls indicated.

Where's my check?

My father was born in Alaska before it became a state, but moved to St. Paul when he was a child. So he missed out on the financial windfall going out to current Alaska residents. Why do residents of Alaska get oil profit rebate checks from the state government? Is the oil a state or national resource?

I guess the money comes from state taxes on oil company profits. But if the state has so much extra cash, why are they getting any federal subsidies at all? Among the states, Alaska is always one of the largest per-capita recipients of federal subsidies. Shouldn't they be able to pay their own way with all of the oil tax dollars they are receiving? Maybe this will change if they elect a new Senator and Representative in Congress this fall.