SPREADING THE WEALTH ALREADY?

The OECD, the organization of western economies, says the U.S. already has the second most progressive tax system among its members, trailing only Ireland.

Maybe there might be other ways to spread the wealth besides the tax system.

Or maybe we’re already doing that, too. Remember, no matter what we do, half the households in America will be below the median income.

DUDE, HERE’S YOUR RECESSION? After a year of talk, actual GDP contraction last quarter. “Gross domestic product contracted at a 0.3 percent annual pace, less than forecast, a Commerce Department report showed today in Washington.”

WAITING IN LONG LINES for a shot at an I.R.S. job. It’s a way to help people!

CBS: Obama’s numbers don’t add up: “If he closes every loophole as promised, saves every dime from Iraq, raises taxes on the rich and trims the federal budget as he’s promised to do ‘line by line,’ he still doesn’t pay for his list.” So if he can’t do what he’s promised, he’ll do something else. But what?

TRACKING nanotechnology cancer treatment in living mice.

TODD ZYWICKI on what’s happening to the libertarian vote.

ESQUIRE INTERVIEWS White Supremacists for Obama. Plus, one black separatist for McCain!

RANKING LAW PROFESSOR BLOGS by traffic. Not sure what the point is, but hey. . . .

IN THE MAIL: Jeff Madrick’s The Case for Big Government. With blurbs from Ted Kennedy and Barney Frank! A manifesto for an Obama administration . . . .

SO I’VE BEEN PUSHING FOR PAPER BALLOTS SINCE BEFORE THE 2002 ELECTIONS, but now we’re seeing some real movement in that direction:

Maryland will scrap its $65 million electronic system and go back to paper ballots in time for the 2010 midterm elections — and will still be paying for the abandoned system until 2014. In Virginia, localities are moving to paper after the General Assembly voted last year to phase out electronic voting machines as they wear out.

It was just a few years ago that electronic voting machines were heralded as a computerized panacea to the hanging chad, a state-of-the-art system immune to the kinds of hijinks and confusion that some say make paper ballots vulnerable. But now, after concern that the electronic voting machines could crash or be hacked, the two states are swinging away from the systems, saying paper ballots filled out by hand are more reliable, especially in a recount.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. But I said it earlier! Related items here and here. Plus, Ed Cone interviews Bruce Schneier on voting machine security. Schneier also has a new book on security; I haven’t read it, but I’m a fan of his in general.

FOUAD AJAMI: Obama And The Politics of Crowds. “We think of places like Argentina and Egypt and Iran, of multitudes brought together by their zeal for a Peron or a Nasser or a Khomeini. In these kinds of societies, the crowd comes forth to affirm its faith in a redeemer: a man who would set the world right.” Of course, Sarah Palin has been drawing huge crowds, too. Do people see her as a redeemer?

A COMPLAINT ABOUT EARLY VOTING: “It is becoming more obvious with each election cycle that that the widespread adoption of no-excuses-needed early voting has been a big mistake.” I’m not so sure. Early voting makes life a lot easier on people who actually hold jobs. I think we want to be sure that those people get a chance to vote.

IN PAKISTAN, TURNING THE TRIBES AGAINST THE TALIBAN: “As Islamic radicals have so often done over the centuries, their violence and abrasive attitudes eventually turn most Moslems against them, and that’s exactly what is happening here.” I hope the effort succeeds.

A KEY SUPPORTER FLIPS! OCTOBER SURPRISE: UFO ALIEN NOW ENDORSES McCAIN! “In a shocking reversal with major implications for the U.S. presidential election, political kingmaker, the Alien has switched his endorsement from Barack Obama to John McCain amid furor. Both political camps are buzzing about the implications, as the Alien has correctly predicted the winning president in every election for the past 28 years.” Apparently, Cindy McCain is willing to do whatever it takes to help her husband out.

MARK STEYN: “This is an amazing race. The incumbent president has approval ratings somewhere between Robert Mugabe and the ebola virus. The economy is supposedly on the brink of global Armageddon. McCain has only $80 million to spend, while Obama’s burning through $600 mil as fast as he can, and he doesn’t really need to spend a dime given the wall-to-wall media adoration.. . . And yet an old cranky broke loser is within two or three points of the King of the World. Strange.”

The Anchoress thinks it’s because America is already a post-racial society.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: “Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.”

I DIDN’T WATCH OBAMA’S INFOMERCIAL LAST NIGHT (I was watching PJTV!) — I was hoping for a review by Ann Althouse, but she had better things to do, too — but it got a bad review from top infomercial stars. Not sure it’s really the same market, though. Anyway, Althouse has video if you’re interested. (First link via JWF).

UPDATE: “All Sham, No Wow.”

HEH: Snow blankets London for Global Warming debate. “Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday – the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922.”

IN THE LATEST EDITION OF “WASHINGTON WATCH,” I talk with Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, author of Global Tax Revolution: The Rise of Tax Competition and the Battle to Defend It, Nick Gillespie of Reason and Reason TV and UCLA Law Professor Stephen Bainbridge, author of The New Corporate Governance in Theory and Practice, who blogs at ProfessorBainbridge.com. We discuss whether the bailout was necessary, what’s happening with state government finances (the news is mostly bad), and what’s going on with the defection of conservative legal figures like Doug Kmiec and Charles Fried. Plus, is there a future for libertarians in the Republican Party? It’s free to everyone with registration.

ANOTHER cool, tiny laptop: “Packing the latest 1.6-GHz Atom processor and a roomy 80-GB drive, the Wind boasts some legit PC cred. Yes, your iPod probably has more drive space, but the Wind is also running good old Windows XP, saving you from the frustrations of Vista, a Linux learning curve or (perish the thought) the laughably underpowered Win CE.”

SOREN DAYTON: The Obama-Frank defense cuts create an opening.

RASMUSSEN: McCain Trusted More on Taxes and Economy. Given how much damage he’s taken over the economic crisis — which knocked him out of the lead a few weeks back — this seems like news. Then again, all poll results should be taken with several extra grains of salt this time around, it seems . . . .

Plus this: “McCain is certainly outperforming the Republican Party when it comes to voter trust.” Well, he’d better.

HMM: Former Obama Speechwriter Will Vote for McCain-Palin.

MAYBE SOMEBODY SHOULD SPREAD SOME WEALTH AROUND IN HIS OWN FAMILY: Obama Aunt Found in Rundown Boston Slum.

Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Mr Obama’s best-selling memoir Dreams from My Father, lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston.

A second relative believed to be the long-lost “Uncle Omar” described in the book was beaten by armed robbers with a “sawed-off rifle” while working in a corner shop in the Dorchester area of the city. He was later evicted from his one-bedroom flat for failing to pay $2,324.20 (£1,488) arrears, according to the Boston Housing Court.

Funny how you have to go to the British papers — in this case the London Times — for this kind of story.

Bob Krumm emails: “The most damning part of the Obama aunt story is that once his campaign found her living in squalor they told her to not talk to the press until after the election, but they didn’t try to help her.” He has a post here to that effect.

UPDATE: Some thoughts from TigerHawk: ” I have finally figured out why somebody who has been as successful as Barack Obama believes that the government must help people who cannot or do not help themselves: He simply does not understand that helping the poor, unlucky, or incompetent is first the responsibility of family.”

Plus this: “He has used these people — his grandmother, his aunt and uncle, and so forth — as props in his political narrative. He wants us to measure him in part by his relationship to these Kenyans, but — and here is the harsh part — only as that relationship is described by him. What if his characterization of that relationship is misleading? What if it turns out that while he is delighted to cite these people as evidence of his humble beginnings — that is what I mean by using them as props — he is not so delighted to consider them as part of his family? Is that not at least a potentially useful insight into the character of this man about whom we know so little?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ann Althouse defends Obama and quotes the Bible.

ANOTHER VOTER FRAUD SCANDAL:

Congressman John Hall (D-Dover Plains) fired one of his long-time campaign advisers Tuesday, after learning that she’s embroiled in voter fraud investigations in Ohio. Amy Little, 49, has been a registered Democrat in New York since 1991, and Ulster County election officials said she voted in the party primary here in February.

But in October, Little registered to vote in Ohio.

Hmm.