Ongoing Earmark Battle

The Seattle Times has a great story on earmark-related corruption in the 2008 defense spending bill.

But time after time, Congress exploited loopholes or violated those rules, a Seattle Times investigation has found. An in-depth examination of the 2008 defense bill found $8.5 billion in earmarks. Of those, 40 percent — $3.5 billion — were hidden.

(h/t Instapundit)

Bush and Palin

Read through the transcript from the Biden-Palin debate. Who does Palin remind you of?

"May I call you Joe," "Darn right," "Bless their hearts."

Then read what Peggy Noonan of the WSJ said about Palin.

She is not a person of thought but of action. Interviews are about thinking, about reflecting, marshaling data and integrating it into an answer. Debates are more active, more propelled—they are thrust and parry. They are for campaigners. She is a campaigner. Her syntax did not hold, but her magnetism did.

I'm done with action-only people. I want action AND thinking. I don't want any more "campaigners". Such people lack persuasion skills. And you cannot govern a nation of 300 million without persuasion.