I have a number of letters about McCain and why we ought to vote Libertarian and "Send a message." I understand the argument.

The fact is that the Democrats will control Congress. If they also control the White House, we will have a series of legislative packages that will make the Great Society look like a libertarian government. . . . The argument is to give the Democrats their head, and pick up the pieces after the inevitable crash. I think that overlooks the resilience of tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect regimes. We haven't seen much in the way of reforms in Europe. The Democrats will create new bureaucracies that can never be dismantled: an example is the Department of Education. Reagan came into office determined to abolish it. Now it owns US education, and No Child Left Behind is entrenched. The Iron Law of Bureaucracy is inexorable.

He concludes: "The post-Gingrich Republicans who invented 'big government conservatism' have much to answer for."

Propelled by her husband's post-White House earnings, Sen. Hillary Clinton's average net worth soared from red ink to $30.7 million between 2000 and 2006, the fastest financial climb among members of Congress who arrived without assets, a watchdog group reported Tuesday.

Unsurprisingly, however, McCain and Obama have made out okay, too. It's a good thing that we elect such financially savvy folks to Congress. That must explain why the country's finances are in such good shape. Here's much more at the Sunlight Foundation website. And check out their Project 535 page too.

UPDATE: Still close, but with 82% in, Childers (the Democrat) is projected the winner. The GOP Congressional delegation didn't learn its lesson in 2006, and they're paying the price now.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Tom Brosz blames a last-minute dirty trick by Democrats. But the GOP keeps losing these races they shouldn't lose.

UPDATE: With 31% in, it's Hillary over Obama, 64 to 29.

ANOTHER UPDATE: It's now 65 to 28, with 42% of the vote in. Whether this election "matters" or not, that's a clobberin'.

UPDATE: More from Salena Zito.

UPDATE: Susanna Cornett emails: "Glenn - Thank you for the link to the cookware deal at Amazon. I ordered several things, and then found out at checkout that they were eligible for a 4-for-3 deal! So I got one of them free, saving another $18. I didn't just get Calphalon, so I don't think it's connected to a specific brand. I checked back, and found that the ones eligible for 4-for-3 say so on their individual specs page. You may want to bump that post up one more time!"

Consider it done!

UPDATE: TalkLeft: "West Virginia is not an anomaly. Obama's white working class problem is EAST of the Mississippi. It is not just Appalachia. It MUST be addressed. Calling West Virginia names is not going to solve the problem."

So much for driving "guilt-free."

UPDATE: Mark Murray, Why West Virginia Matters.

Meanwhile, if you visit the main Pajamas Media page you'll see a helpful scrolling list of InstaPundit headlines. We'll be doing some other cool stuff too, including a piece by me on Robert Heinlein and libertarianism. But for those who sent worried email, relax: InstaPundit will stay InstaPundit.

UPDATE: He may have a few flipflop problems: "McCain voted against the prescription-drug entitlement in 2003. Barr voted for it. And by the way, Barr, who is now running on an anti-war platform, voted to authorize military force against Iraq." He's just grown in office. Or out of it!

ANOTHER UPDATE: A modest correction: "Clark Stooksbury points out that Barr had left Congress before the bill passed in 2003. That's correct. But Barr was still in Congress in 2002, and he voted for the idea then. (I phrased the post a bit clumsily, so it sounded as though I were claiming that Barr had voted for the bill in 2003.)"

The story does its best to spin this as bad news about the slowing economy -- but if that's all it is, why is the combat-oriented Marine Corps doing the best of all the services? (Via TigerHawk, who has some thoughts).

UPDATE: Reader Alex del Castillo emails: "Because, thank god (or whatever), this country still produces people who really believe in *personal* sacrifice for something greater than themselves. One reason liberal commentators are so amazed at this type of thing is that such personal motivation sails pretty close to the whole family values/religion thing, which they like to conflate with Falwell, polygamists and other bad extremes of the Christian right for politcal reasons. Fact is, while the there are no atheists in foxholes, there are an awful lot of agnostics."

Until recently, fake malaria drugs have been a problem largely confined to Southeast Asia, where a sampling two years ago found 53 percent of the drugs substandard, and drug experts said Asia was facing “an epidemic of counterfeits.” . . . A study released last week suggests that the epidemic is spreading to Africa, where the malaria burden is even greater, and the regulatory agencies are even weaker. Tests on 195 packs of malaria drugs bought at private pharmacies found that 35 percent either did not contain enough active ingredient or did not dissolve quickly enough to work.

Find the perpetrators and shoot 'em up with the nastiest strain you can find. And limit them to their own medications . . . .

Over the last week or so, I've heard a lot of kossacks writing off West Virginia, making fun of West Virginia, and even saying West Virginia doesn't matter. Some have painted all of Appalachia as racist homophobes who will never change. Some even said that Obama is in mortal danger there. Some have suggested that we revert to Clinton-style "states that matter" campaigning, leaving West Virginia and Kentucky behind altogether. . . . I want to talk about stereotypes because so far in this diary, I've talked about the ignorant because that's the stereotype that many kossacks have of Appalachians. But West Virginia and other places like it are not as monolithic as many believe. Sure, they are more skewed to the conservative, but you will find a wide range of people.

Read the whole thing. (Via KnoxViews).

Washington, D.C., is lousy with rats, and not just of the human variety. I knew that before moving here—you’d always see them scampering around sidewalks and alleys when walking around town—but it took living full-time in the city to appreciate both the awe-inspiring magnitude of the infestation and the jaw-dropping indifference of a municipal government more focused on giving free money to billionaires than addressing the capital’s legendary civic rot.

Read the whole thing. D.C. is the only city under the complete control of the United States Congress. Wouldn't it be great if all of America worked as well? Well, they're working on it elsewhere:

Unfortunately for the rest of you, the chasm between unsexy nuts-and-bolts services and dazzling new municipal-built edifices is the rule, not the exception, of big-city governance. In Los Angeles, my former city representative, Tom LaBonge, was tolerated as an eccentric for being the only member of the 15-member City Council to express genuine interest in street repairs (though the road in front of my house still had craters large enough to hide a baby). When a coalition of black, brown, and lefty-white politicians took over city government early this decade, one local alternative weekly urged the council to “think big” and not get bogged down in mere “pothole politics.”

If you can't even fix my potholes, don't bother thinking "big."

Sunday was a day of celebration for the friends and families of 300 Tennessee National Guardsmen and women. The 1175th Transportation Company was away from home for a year.

The 1175th transportation company returned home Sunday after a one year tour of duty in Iraq. They left for Iraq in May of 2007. Friends, family and supporters welcomed the soldiers as they flew in to the guard's flight facility in Smyrna. Soldiers got a hero's welcome as they stepped off the plane, and loved ones say perhaps best of all, every member of the company returned home safely.

Good news, as I say.

They're not scared of people because there's no reason for them to be scared -- why should they be, when the worst they're likely to encounter is people yelling or throwing rocks? Some related thoughts on that problem, here.

UPDATE: Reader Chris Steinmayer emails:

I live in a Detroit suburb, that is relatively forested (Farmington Hills). For the past several years, Coyotes have been an issue. Peoples pets go missing, and we see coyotes quite often. Not long ago, my step daughter pointed out a funny looking dog just standing by the road - a busy street no less! I told her, that’s no dog, that's a coyote!

They used to avoid people because people used to kill 'em. Now there's no reason to avoid people, and plenty of yummy reasons to hang around. There's no magic about settled areas that keeps predators away. On the other hand, there's this bit of advice from Shannon Love:

Guns are not effective against coyotes. More effective techniques include canyon cliffs, anvils, defective novelty items and non-newtonian physics.

Who says you can’t learn from TV?

Well, for certain values of the word "learning," anyway . . . .

After anointing Obama as the nominee on Tuesday, the media narrative has shifted to the West Virginia and Kentucky "Appalachian" contests. They are reduced to quaint curiosities in which poor, white, uneducated mountain people from a "bygone era" have been trained to make their way to a school gym and push a button just like real people for the delight and amusement of the media elite.

The "dueling banjos" video in this post entitled "On to Appalachia" is a good example. Presumably it is a reference to the retarded West Virginia inbred voter demographic making up Clinton's 20% to 40% margin of support there.

Because it's "silly season," as Obama called it, let's analyze that more closely.

The scene is from the movie Deliverance. It was filmed on the Chattooga River, which is the border between Georgia and South Carolina. Obama won both of those primaries. Other scenes were filmed in North Carolina. Obama won that primary, too.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Reader B. Hartwig emails: "You really think a parochial backwater like Kentucky, with half the population and gross state product, equals North Carolina?" Sounds to me like this is making Randy's point.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Chad Olson emails: "Just echoing B. Hartwig's thoughts here that it's weird that a parochial backwater like North Carolina, with half the population and gross state product, equals Florida. How many delegates does Florida have at the convention this year?"

And Will Cate emails: "Pooh-pooh our friends in the Mountain State at your own peril: no Democrat has won the presidency and failed to carry West Virginia since 1916." I'm guessing that calling them a bunch of dumb hillbillies won't make that easier for Obama.

Meanwhile, in the United States: Bay Area School Closed Due to Whooping Cough. "The state averages a 99 percent immunization rate. But at East Bay Waldorf School, health officials say less than 50 percent are protected from the disease and say that's why it was able to spread so easily. . . . The Waldorf School System was founded by Rudolph Steiner in 1919. He believed children were made stronger through illness and believed in a holistic approach to medicine. A school spokesperson says they do not make recommendations to parents regarding immunizations."

I do. My recommendation is, get the shots. Meanwhile, has McCain ever backtracked from his Imus-inspired anti-vaccine talk? According to this report from Farhad Manjoo he hasn't, and Clinton and Obama seem to be on board too. However: "McCain and Obama are the worst offenders."

UPDATE: Some must-read (and -listen) thoughts from Shannon Love.

UPDATE: Various readers dispute that six percent figure. Well, Steven Malanga says this: "In 1984 the average family spent 9.3 percent of its after-tax income on food at home, but by 2006 (the latest year statistics are available) that percentage had fallen to just 5.9 percent of after-tax income." That's a Bureau of Labor Statistics number. On the other hand, this USDA figure is 9.5 percent for 2004. I assume different measurement techniques account for the difference, but I have no idea how to determine which is more accurate.