The Politics of Drafting

At a town hall meeting in New Mexico today, John McCain endorsed the draft, telling a pro-draft question-asker "I don't disagree with anything you said."

The question is:
1)Will enough of the right kind of people (i.e. people who don't spend their days writing "Moulitsas" after their first name all over their notebook) will notice/care about this to put it on the teevee tonight/this week/ever?
2)IF (and, obviously, only IF) this does become an issue, and McCain is forced to address it in some way, will he back out of this statement? Sure, it's on the internet, but he's a politician, and the draft issue actually comes equipped with a really handy escape-hatch: "I respect the bravery and heroism of the men and women of our volunteer military..." &c, &c. Yay troops! Yay military! Yay [Apologizing politician]! Points are scored with the right demographics, the end. But McCain is also pitching himself on his "straight talk," such that actually being coerced into repudiating his own statement in a relatively short time-frame would potentially do some damage (consider Obama's recent polling woes against the background of the "moving to the center" meme that's been percolating all summer for the general idea.) The thing is, a lot of people (NOT just THE MSM [boo! hiss! off with their heads! &c], but real, genuine, vote-casting people) completely buy into McCain's honest maverick schtick, because he sells it hard, and it makes sense to people—McCain plays on the whole Rambo/The A-Team locus in the American popular consciousness. The net effect is why I wonder about 1, above.

I'd like to think that reinstating the draft is held so abhorrent among the general populace that McCain's support for it would significantly decrease his popularity. On the other hand, there are a lot of people whose bellicosity has survived (if not increased) in the face of the senescence and/or obesity that has long disqualified them for military service, but not for voting.

I still don't think it'll ever get brought up effectively, though.


[Hat tip Queerty]


(Totally ADD BONUS LINK: NAND)

It's Stuff Like This That Prevents Me From Being Too Worried About November

The f'ing WALL STREET JOURNAL OP-ED PAGE DOESN'T LIKE MCCAIN.

It's funny, because the editorial actually accuses McCain of acting like his opponent will lose the race on his own; in fact, it seems like Obama is the one who could be resting on his laurels right now. Hopefully (see what I did there?) he doesn't.


[Via TMN]

Panopticon

I guess there's only so much ambient Bill-of-Rights-support to go around, as hot on the heels of the Supreme Court's dismissal of the D.C. gun ban in Heller, comes this little gem:

PHILADELPHIA - JUNE 26, 2008 (WPVI) -- 44-year old Andre Moore is being held at the 18th Police District by the very officers he apparently wanted to kill.

At least that's the message he allegedy sent out to the world in a disturbing, hate filled rant on YouTube.

...

Moore faces a number of charges, including aggravated assault.

(Emphasis mine.)

Seriously? As the article points out, it's highly unlikely that any of these charges will stick. That's not really the point, however; the burden of proof needs to be on the State when it comes to exercising force against its citizens.

[Hat Tip Hit & Run]

Perhaps...Too Clever?

This week, the The Onion did their American Voices feature on Ron Paul's dropping out of the presidential race. All three people featured have the last names of people who work for Reason Magazine, including Radley Balko, the guy I interned for at Cato.

("Hat tip" Reason Hit & Run and Radley's blog The Agitator)

Irony!

Isn't it funny that Florida and Michigan's tragic mania to influence the election by being the earliest states to hold primaries DIRECTLY CAUSED the chain of events before us, when the last 8-10 states to hold primaries may end up determining the Democrat nominee, and therefore the next 4 years?

HAHA.

I guess I'm ultimately glad my parents moved out of Florida when my brother and I were still young...(They could've picked a better state than Maine, though.)


In other news, I'm pretty sure that my recent trip to D.C. has caused me to fall impossibly behind in my RSS-reading. That I'm doing this doesn't help, but whatever.

I can't believe I'm blockquoting Bill Maher

But I am (apparently):

There's a seemingly dry headline this week that is a lot scarier than it looks: Bank of America's profit declined 77% this quarter. They're a big bank. They're a consumer-oriented bank. And it turns out their losses are not just coming from the subprime mortage crisis. They're coming from small business loans, construction loans, and simple credit card debt. Bottom line--people can't pay their bills.

The time for arguing over whether or not we're in a recession is not only past, it seems almost quaint now--a little math game that we had the luxury of playing back when things seemed like they might improve at any moment. Whether or not the eventual numbers reveal that this is technically a recession, professional and amateur economists alike can now agree that the economy is technically "in the shitter."

Wow.

I'm pretty sure that the Iraq war is significantly contributing to this recession. It's costing us hundreds of trillions of dollars, the costs to local governments and businesses to comply with various bizarre 'anti-terrorism' regulations is onerous, and the already-rising costs of health care are only going to be pumped up to incredible new heights by the demand from veterans—both military and civilian (in the form of contractors and volunteers)—who have been both physically and psychologically wounded by their experiences. It's a god-damned shame.


I'm pretty sure Frederique Bastiat is loling in his grave right now...