READER MICHAEL GREENSPAN sends this political advice from Dave Barry:

You know what I miss? I miss 1960. Not the part about my face turning overnight into the world’s most productive zit farm. What I miss is the way the grown-ups acted about the Kennedy-Nixon race. Like the McCain-Obama race, that was a big historic deal that aroused strong feelings in the voters. This included my parents and their friends, who were fairly evenly divided, and very passionate. They’d have these major honking arguments at their cocktail parties. But unlike today, when people wear out their upper lips sneering at those who disagree with them, the 1960s grown-ups of my memory, whoever they voted for, continued to respect each other and remain good friends.

What was their secret? Gin. On any given Saturday night they consumed enough martinis to fuel an assault helicopter. But also they were capable of understanding a concept that we seem to have lost, which is that people who disagree with you politically are not necessarily evil or stupid. My parents and their friends took it for granted that most people were fundamentally decent and wanted the best for the country. So they argued by sincerely (if loudly) trying to persuade each other. They did not argue by calling each other names, which is pointless and childish, and which constitutes I would estimate 97 percent of what passes for political debate today.

Or something. I wrote a similar column, but naturally Dave Barry says it better. Because, you know, he’s Dave Barry and I’m not.

THOUGHTS ON THE EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE and whether Hillary Clinton is ineligible to be Secretary of State.

DO SOME CANCERS go away without treatment? Of course, the trick is knowing whether that’s going to happen in a particular case . . . .

FORD FUSION HYBRID: 39 mpg city for $27K. Cool.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER CHARLES RANGEL TAX SCANDAL: “You’ve managed to reelect a tax cheat who’s been shorting the government (take your pick of New York City, New York State, District of Columbia, and the federal government) for years on end, and yet doesn’t think that this diminishes his capacity to head the very committee charged with writing tax laws for the country.”

Meanwhile, Jennifer Rubin thinks it’s time to turn up the heat on Rangel: “The Chairman of Ways and Means is a tax scofflaw, and the Democrats don’t seem to be a bit concerned. If the not-so-new Republican Congressional leadership is intent on doing its job (curbing the worst excesses of the majority and gaining credibility), they should shine a bright spotlight on Rangel. And start asking why he remains in one of the most prominent Democratic leadership posts.”

Maybe a GOP Representative should introduce legislation to give all citizens the same pass that Rangel seems to be getting . . . the “I Forgot!” defense!

UPDATE: Reader John Griffin emails:

I read your posts regarding the scandals surrounding Rep. Charles Rangle and wonder why the media isn’t plastering stories about him and his scofflaw ways on every newspaper’s front page and leading every broadcast on TV day after day.

You might remember that the media outdid themselves recently in showing how excellent they can be in uncovering $1,000 odd tax lien/scofflaws such as Joe The Plumber.

Surely they know how to do it again.

Oh, they know how to do it.

CONAN O’BRIEN: Walk If You’re Not Famous.

BEATING SPEED TRAPS with new iPhone Web apps.

IN THE MAIL: From Garr Reynolds (no relation, as far as I know), Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. Based on the presentations I see, more people need to study up on the subject . . . .

CHRIS MATTHEWS’ HONEYMOON SOFTBALL: “Rather than ask tough questions about Obama’s governing team, the Hardball host keeps on tingling.” Yeah, I know, dog bites man . . . .

MARK HALPERIN CRITICIZED THE MEDIA for being in the tank for Obama. But Rich Hailey says they did a good job: “I think the media performed flawlessly during the two year election cycle. They managed the story, shielded their candidate, attacked the opposition, sat on damaging stories, and in short did everything a good state run media should do during an election cycle.” Ouch.

The comedians are in the tank, too, according to this transcript from Howard Kurtz’s Reliable Sources:

KURTZ: All right. The word on the street is that comedians are kind of shying away from making fun of Obama. Are you man enough to do it?

KINDLER: No. I don’t want to make fun of him. That’s the thing. You can’t just decide — I don’t believe in the equal opportunity comedy where you — I give it to the left and I give it to the right. I like having a point of view. I don’t like to say left, because I don’t even know what that means. But I wanted Obama to win. So I can’t now pretend and try to find stuff about him.

Sounds like a laff riot. Plus, a video on the subject from Ed Driscoll.

[brightcove 1705722121]

INSTA-POLL: After doing a WordPress poll the other day, I solicit your views.

WELL, THEY’RE ALREADY NAMING STUFF AFTER HIM, SO FAIR’S FAIR I GUESS: “Is It Too Soon to Start Talking About the Failed Obama Presidency Just Because He Isn’t President Yet?”

But I’m waiting until at least February, I think. Just to be sporting. Besides, he’s looking ever more hawkish and tax-cutting, so who knows — things may work out . . . .

MORE THOUGHTS on Eric Holder and the Marc Rich pardon.

DEEP DIVING to save NYC’s water supply.

UPDATE: Reader Janice Lyons writes: “My 91 year old mother’s comment on this? ‘I wouldn’t mind those guys getting $78 an hour.'” I suspect they’re doing pretty well — commercial divers tend to, and this is extreme commercial diving.

NEW YORK TIMES: Another Tax Issue Surfaces for Rangel. And another, and another, and another. “The situation is potentially troublesome for Mr. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat who is already the subject of a wide-ranging internal House investigation stemming from an assortment of ethical concerns.” You don’t say.

BY POPULAR DEMAND, the InstaPundit PDA feed is back. Note the tab at the top of the page, too.

GEORGE KORDA: It’s Always Brightest Before the Inauguration.

OBAMA’S CLINTON PROBLEM: Deregulation made the prosperity of the 1990s possible. Just ask Bill Clinton.

Late in Clinton’s tenure, the White House put forth a document celebrating “Historic Economic Growth” during the administration and pointing to the policy accomplishments it deemed responsible for this growth. Among the achievements on Clinton’s list were “Modernizing for the New Economy through Technology and Consensus Deregulation.” That’s right, a Clinton White House document credited part of the administration’s success to that now dreaded d-word, deregulation.

“In 1993,” the document explained, “the laws that governed America’s financial service sector were antiquated and anti-competitive. The Clinton-Gore Administration fought to modernize those laws to increase competition in traditional banking, insurance, and securities industries to give consumers and small businesses more choices and lower costs.”

Everything in those passages is true. All that’s missing is credit to the GOP-controlled Congress elected in 1994 for passing most of the policies that led to the prosperity. But the Clinton administration, whatever its personal and policy flaws, should indeed be praised for signing and advocating this deregulation. These bipartisan financial policies, however, were the very same policies that Obama, running mate Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and other Democrats attacked during the campaign.

Oh, well, campaign’s over.

LET ‘EM FAIL: Talk of a TV network bailout.

WELL, RELIGION OR NOT, THIS JUST MAKES GOOD SENSE: “7 straight days of sex. That was the challenge Pastor Ed Young issued to all of the married couples at his Grapevine church. . . . ‘Everybody’s whining about the economy and about the world….let’s move from whining to whoopee!'” All I can say is, amen, brother. And hey, it’s something that Congress probably can’t manage to tax. Probably. . . .

SCIENCE-FICTION RAY GUN debuts in Iraq.

DISSING AUSTAN GOOLSBEE? Obama to Tap Berkeley Prof to Chair Council of Economic Advisers. No, not Brad DeLong — Christina Romer.

THOUGHTS ON THE CITI BAILOUT, from David Zaring at The Conglomerate. “Note the new addition of mission statement style bullet points at the end of the announcement; it’s good to know that the bailout team has a four part vision.”

A SHAMELESS NEO-CON ON THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS:

One of the things we clearly want to do with these prisoners is to have an ability to interrogate them and find out what their future plans might be, where other cells are located; under the Geneva Convention that you are really limited in the amount of information that you can elicit from people.

It seems to me that given the way in which they have conducted themselves, however, that they are not, in fact, people entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention. They are not prisoners of war. If, for instance, Mohamed Atta had survived the attack on the World Trade Center, would we now be calling him a prisoner of war? I think not. Should Zacarias Moussaoui be called a prisoner of war? Again, I think not.

Shameless NeoCon Eric Holder from 2002, that is. Funny, he doesn’t look Neoish. (Via BarcePundit).

At least he wasn’t underestimating the problem.

REPORTEDLY, Hossein Derkashan has been arrested. Some further thoughts here.