WHY THE REALLY RICH LOVE SOCIALISTS: “The ugly truth is that the really wealthy can manipulate the political system to their own ends better than ordinary people. They can lobby for specific tax breaks that only they can take advantage of. They can get government trade protection for their companies. They can get bailouts.”

FROM REP. CHRIS CARNEY, a ringing defense of earmarks!

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Research challenges for the diamondoid mechanosynthesis path to advanced nanotechnology.

LIBERTARIANS VOTING FOR MCCAIN: David Bernstein and Ilya Somin.

IN THE MAIL: Sarah Hoyt’s Gentleman Takes a Chance. With a nice cover-blurb from Jerry Pournelle.

UPDATE: Sarah Hoyt emails: “Thank you for the mention in the in-the-mail. I check instapundit first thing every morning for news and it was a wonderful surprise.” And so was this email, as I had no idea that Sarah Hoyt was an InstaPundit reader.

THE NUMBER ONE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE is from an Iraq veteran, addressed to Barack Obama.

ABC NEWS: OBAMA CLAUS. “Once you get past the soaring oratory, to experience a speech by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is to be hit with an astoundingly lengthy list of promises.” How lengthy? Follow the link and see the list. No wonder some people think he’ll pay for their mortgages and gas.

HEH: As a Conservative, I Must Say I Do Quite Like the Cut of this Obama Fellow’s Jib.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, journalists would be punished for straying from the party line. And they were right! “Journalists from three major newspapers that endorsed John McCain have reportedly been booted from Barack Obama’s campaign plane for the final leg of the presidential race.”

SLATE SUGGESTS THAT Obama is lying about his inability to identify small donors:

Barack Obama refuses to release the names of the 2 million-plus people who have given his campaign less than $200. According to campaign officials, it would be too difficult and time-consuming to extract this information from its database.

So how come we were able to do it in a couple hours? Not literally—we don’t have access to the campaign’s list of donors—but we created a database of similar size and format in a Web-ready file and posted it online . . . But before we get into the technical details (though, if you’re with the Obama campaign and want to skip ahead, please do), it’s worth dwelling on the reasons for the Obama campaign’s reluctance to disclose this information. It can’t be legal: No law prevents Obama from releasing these names.

Yeah, uncharitable people might think the Obama campaign is hiding something.

RICH HAILEY: The Politics of Power: Are You a Citizen or a Subject? “If a man owns your house, your bank account, your job, and your health care, he owns you. Period. Just ask a coal miner from West Virginia about the company store.”

Some related thoughts here: “The more expensive housing is, the more politicians can buy votes by offering to make it more affordable (via cheap credit, lower down payment requirements, etc.); same with education. Notice a pattern? Government distortions increase costs of living, and politicians run for government on promises not to remove those distortions, but to add new distortions that will supposedly ameliorate those high costs.”

READER TANYA WRITES: “You linked to the Living Colour video and wrote that McCain should have used that as a response to Obama’s infomercial, but I think this one would have been even better:”

WORRIES ABOUT DEFLATION.

Or “Stag-Deflation.” Whatever.

FRED THOMPSON WILL BE ON MEET THE PRESS, adding fuel to the RNC Chair rumors.

BARACK OBAMA AND AYN RAND: Reader Edward Clark emails:

Obama seems to have taken note of the John Galt talk. He recently made the comment that McCain was trying to make a virtue out of selfishness.

I seem to recall another Ayn Rand book called The Virtue of Selfishness. Maybe he is hoping for people to Go John Galt for some unknown reason.

Maybe Obama is a closet Randian, and all the lefties are the real rubes. Also, maybe I’ll get a pony. Or a unicorn.

UPDATE: Understanding the virtue of selfishness!

MICHAEL YON: A moment of opportunity for the New Media. “As budget cuts increasingly turn old media organs into fish wrap, the alternative media must be ready to take advantage.”

THE JOHN GALT CHRONICLES: Should you tip less under an Obama Administration?

Well, under an Obama Administration, nobody will have to worry about gas bills or mortgage payments, so who needs tip money anyway?

FROM DAVE KOPEL: A Second Amendment Voter Guide.

HMM: If Iraqis Could Vote, It Would Be for McCain.

FROM AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM, a political 401(k) calculator:

THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE is working again. Yay!

MICHAEL BARONE: Election Prediction: Democrats Won’t Get a Filibuster-Proof Senate. I hope he’s right.

OBAMA’S INFOMERCIAL: Only slightly better ratings than Ross Perot’s.

HMM: GOP halves Democratic lead in generic ballot. “Democrats now lead by four points, their slimmest lead in more than three years. A week ago, according to the George Washington University poll, their advantage was eight points.” Mickey Kaus thinks he knows why.

MURTHA’S IN TROUBLE: Veteran Democratic Rep. John Murtha (Pa.) has sent out a last-minute plea for $1 million to save his hotly contested seat, endangered by his own remarks describing his district as racist.

If you’d like to help his opponent, the website is here.

No this isn’t a harbinger of InstaPundit political endorsements. But it is a case of following Robert Heinlein’s advice to vote against candidates, even when you can’t find one worth voting for . . . .

UPDATE: Reader William Aronstein emails:

You make it sound as if you don’t think Colonel Bill Russell is a candidate worth voting for!

Is that what you really think?

No, sorry. I think he’s fine. Though just not being John Murtha would be enough. . . .