IN THE MAIL: ZOOM: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future. Faster, please.

RALLYING AGAINST THE STATE INCOME TAX, in Boston. “About 200 activists rallied at Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston today, urging voters to abolish the state income tax at the ballot box in November. Supporters of Question 1, a measure that would eliminate the state’s 5.3 percent income tax, denounced government spending as wasteful and excessive and said workers deserve to keep more of their wages in hard economic times. . . . In 2002, a similar ballot measure gained 45 percent of the vote, a level of support that stunned many political observers.”

We interviewed Carla Howell, a proponent of this measure, not long ago.

MORE ON BIDEN, PALIN, THE VICE PRESIDENCY and the Constitution. Sorry if I was unconvincing. But at least the piece was short!

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: He Should Have Known He Needed a Prescription for an OTC Drug.

Tar. Feathers.

STEPHEN GREEN notices some idiotic moral equivalence. Yeah, it’s a dog-bites-man story, but . . . .

UPDATE: The first comment is delightful.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, we’d see a war against porn that would cause filmmakers to be imprisoned for their craft. And they were right!

In federal court today, as he faced a federal prison sentence, Paul F. Little trembled and begged a woman for mercy.

“It just seems a very high price to pay, I think,” Little told U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew, “and I ask you to understand how much I’ve suffered.”

Little and his attorneys argued that his conviction in June for 10 counts of distributing obscene materials over the Internet and through the mail had devastated his business and left him near ruin. That, they said, should be punishment enough.

But Bucklew sentenced Little to three years and 10 months in federal prison.

I guess the war on sex is out of control. Stupid Christianists!

UPDATE: Reader Steven Cohen writes:

Re: this story, the judge was a Clinton appointee

http://www.flmd.uscourts.gov/judicialInfo/Tampa/JgBucklew.htm

I don’t like Bush, etc, but this can’t be a “They told me if GWB were reelected” thing.

Yes, I knew that she was appointed by Clinton. But this whole series is tongue-in-cheek. I thought everybody knew that, but I guess not.

ABC NEWS: “With the news that the McCain campaign is launching a full assault on Obama’s associates, preparedness, and judgment in a TV ad campaign to start Wednesday — as detailed in this morning’s Washington Post — the Obama campaign is planning a pre-emptive assault on the TV airwaves to start Monday.”

See, he’s not against pre-emption when it’s to protect something important.

TAKING THE TURING TEST: ‘Intelligent’ computers put to the test.

DO SOME WOMEN HATE SARAH PALIN because she’s “too pretty” and “too confident?” (Via Ann Bartow, who comments: “I don’t hate Sarah Palin but I do hate Time Magazine.”)

But it’s not just women: “Biden often was a joy to watch, especially on the split screen when Palin was twisting the knife. Much of the time he came across as frustrated and angry, as if it was beneath his dignity–he, a 36-year veteran of the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body–to share a stage with this . . . this . . . girl!”

HOW THEY COUNT “OVERWHELMING” at CNN. It was in the script — the show of hands was irrelevant. (Via Creative Minority.)

Megan McArdle comments: “Thanks, Soledad, for giving credence to everyone who thinks women are bad at Math.”

CHARGES OF BARNEY FRANK CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.

Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank’s relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

Others, however, are afraid to bring it up because he’s gay. Is this the “soft bigotry of low expectations?” Or is it just, you know, a case of convenient political correctness?

UPDATE: Andrew Marcus emails:

Regarding your post this morning on Barney Frank, for what it is worth, he sponsored legislation to reform Fannie/Freddy in 2007. Better late than never I guess. It passed the House and sat in committee in the Senate.

Here is the link to the resolution: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR1427:

And here is a link to Founding Bloggers where I examine the resolution in context of Nancy Pelosi’s claims of ignorance regarding the whole problem.

Better late than never, but that’s four years after McCain was on the issue. And is the fact that Frank acted after the conflict-of-interest had ended really exculpatory?

AT CNET, A ROUNDUP OF sweeteners in the bailout bill. “Millions in tax breaks and related pork for kids’ wooden arrows, Puerto Rican rum producers, auto race tracks, and corporations operating in American Samoa. (The likely explanation for the latter: StarKist has a large tuna-canning operation in American Samoa. And StarKist’s parent company happens to be located in the district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.)” Plus much, much more . . . .

JAKE TAPPER: Obama About to Be Hit on Questionable Associates.

Plus: Bill Ayers: No Regrets. And some background on Ayers and the Weathermen here. “Obama was indeed only eight in early 1970. I was only nine then, the year Ayers’s Weathermen tried to murder me.”

SENATOR JON KYL CALLS FOR breakup, sale of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. Sounds like a good idea. (Via NewsAlert).

JERRY POURNELLE is still trying to figure out what Biden meant about Hezbollah.

SCORE ONE FOR MCCAIN: L.A. Times Finally Admits that the President Can Fire the SEC Chair After All. Only a week or so behind the blogosphere on this one . . . .

FIRST DOLLY PARTON, NOW THIS: Hillary Praises Palin: ‘Composed and Effective Debater’. “It’s amazing, you know, she’s been thrust into the national spotlight with very little preparation and I think that, all things considered, you saw a very composed and effective debater last night.” Unlike Dolly, though, she also praises Biden.

THESE ARE NOT the happy thoughts you are looking for.

PALIN IN CARSON: Here’s a report from someone who was there. And below are a couple of pictures emailed to me by readers.