"THE STATE IS NOT YOUR FRIEND":

So sayeth Perry de Havilland at Libertarian Samizdata. He makes a compelling case.

SCOURGE:

The latest from Charles Austin at SQNP. Learn it. Know it. Live it.

UNILATERILISM FOR EVERYONE!:

John Coumarianos at Innocents Abroad praises a piece by Fareed Zakaria for pointing out that Tony Blair is now forcing Europe's hand in regard to Iraq. John also finds the European cries of "unilateralism" more than a little two-faced:

We all know how Europe has handled Saddam until now -- by letting greed rule to such an extent as to make Gordon Gekko blush. And they say that Americans are bourgeois.... Having used multilateralism as an excuse for naked self-interest, their seats on the U.N. Security Council as platforms for their own unilateralism in dealing with Saddam (and doing deals with Saddam), France and Russia stand to lose much from the U.S returning the unilateralist favor. Basically, the U.S. wins in a unilateralist world. Are the Europeans sure they want that?

Bush's willingness to go it alone in taking on Saddam is cited as the real reason the ball is in the European court now. The real question to be answered is how, in the face of imminent conflict with Saddam, to maintain lucrative contracts with Iraq (France and Russia) while placating their ever-burgeoning Muslim population (France and Germany).

DAILY QUOTE:

Sorry I've been so lax about getting these up. Anyway, here it is -

"Democracy is a form of government that cannot long survive, for as soon as the people learn that they have a voice in the fiscal policies of the government, they will move to vote for themselves all the money in the treasury, and bankrupt the nation."
-- Karl Marx, 1848

THE LUNATICS ARE ON THE GRASS:

D.C. is like a ghost town today. The anti-globilization/anarchist/communist/socialist/dirt-hippie/clueless protesters descended upon the city today in order to disrupt the meeting of the World Bank and the IMF, as well as anyone else who conveniently got in the way. Only most of Washington's daytime denizens gave the crowd a collective head fake and decided to work from home today. That is, except for the D.C. police. They came to work ready and willing to take charge, which happened right on cue.

It seems that a few of the rowdier, and coincidentally grungier, protesters (a.k.a. Anarchists) revealed the power of their intellectually stimulating arguments against globilization, etc. by breaking the window of a bank. "Why a bank?" you might ask, "Why not one of the thousands of coffee bars that populate pretty much every street corner?" Well if they did that, then where would they rally later for their "die-in"? No, the bank is the obvious, if not the wisest, choice. In fact, this may have been the anarchists most clever moment since they are here protesting the World Bank after all. Thus far they haven't managed to articulate a coherent argument for or against anything. At least this shows they're aiming in a consistent direction.

So a few anarchists bravely assault a closed bank, striking fear into the hearts of capitalists everywhere, which, of course, sets in motion the predictable rounding up the usual suspects. "Hey you! Yeah you with the orange dreadlocks, tied-dye shirt that hasn't been washed in months, canvas knapsack full of 'Save The Rainforest' flyers and weed, and smelling like patchoulie. Get in the wagon now!" And then the equally predictable "resistence" which rather resembles the Keystone Kops trying to round up Bozo and his buddies and force them back into the ridiculously small car they recently emerged from. I actually saw one of the "captured" protesters trying to film everything with his $1000 digital camera, while "resisting" and shouting as many obscenities as he could think (which as far as I could make out was two -- "fuck" and "asshole"), so maybe we will get to see a speeded-up version set to carnival music.

In the very least, the idiots-on-parade made my commute quite roomy this morning and will no doubt afford a certain luxury this evening when I travel to my sister-in-law's rehearsal dinner in relatively traffic-free conditions. So maybe this protesting thing ain't so bad afterall.

While doing some research I came across this interesting piece by the Joint Economic Committee - The Reagan Tax Cuts: Lessons for Tax Reform. It's concise, informative and probably well known by now, but a great reference piece just the same.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY:

Michael Wade - 1968
Bruce Springsteen - 1949
Ray Charles - 1930
John Coltrane - 1926
Caesar Augustus - 63 B.C.

among many others.

HOW TO WIN GRACIOUSLY:

I was reading the "Around the Nation" section of the Washington Times today when I noticed the Oregon piece:

OREGON
Anti-tax activist under fire in lawsuit
PORTLAND — A former house painter who became one of the most powerful political influences on the Oregon tax system by taking initiatives directly to the voters is in court to answer questions about his own corporate finances.
A former aide to tax activist Bill Sizemore says she saw flagrant violations of accounting and tax-reporting practices, including a constant flow of money between Mr. Sizemore's tax-exempt Oregon Taxpayers United Education Foundation — prohibited from engaging in political activity — and his political I&R Petition Services.
Mr. Sizemore is two weeks into the trial of a fraud and racketeering lawsuit filed against him by the state's two largest teachers' unions, which say they spent millions of dollars fighting measures that never should have made it onto the ballot.

The fact that Mr. Sizemore was being sued by the two teacher's unions raised the red flag a little, and the fact that the suit was for "fraud and racketeering" got it waving about a bit. What really got the flag into a tempestuous, whistle-blowing, bell-ringing fury was the fact that the case centered on a tax-exempt entity engaging in political activity. Such a pot-meet-kettle moment is on par with this little gem about the recipient of Mugabe largesse.

The first thing that came to mind was that this is the sort of story you hear from the rugged libertarian/anarchist set about government persecution when one tries to change the status quo. I generally find such stories amusing, but often a little too paranoid. However, the flags, bells and whistles wouldn't let up, so I looked around for a bit more on this story.

First, the Portland Tribune story. This only gave me a few details so I then went to this link. The least helpful, and (as usual) most biased was the Oregon Public Broadcasting piece.

The Register-Guard didn't offer much more info, but at least it didn't treat Mr. Sizemore like some sort of nut-job activist just because he wants to lower taxes and decrease the size of the government.

In the end, it seems that there's much more to this story than has gotten out so far. And the fact that the two largest teacher's unions in the state would sue this organization after they won suggests that they harbor more than a little animosity towards Mr. Sizemore. I'm hoping that anyone who has more insight into the case will comment, email, or link to this post with any updates.