TAX REVOLTS ARE NOT A THING OF THE PAST:

Massachusetts. The issue is whether to erase the state’s income tax in two phases. The 5.3% tax would be sliced in half next year and then disappear entirely the following year. Advocates of repeal are hoping for support from voters worried about tough economic times and angered by bloated government spending. Six years ago, a similar proposal attracted 45% of the vote.

Eliminating this tax “will mean less money in the hands of politicians and will give back an average of $3,700 to each of 3.4 million workers and taxpayers in Massachusetts — not just once but every year,” says Carla Howell of the Committee for Small Government, a nonprofit citizen group battling to repeal the tax. “There are tax-cut activists around the country who are very interested in what we’re doing here,” she says. “If it does well, we may see copycat initiatives in 2010 and 2012 across the country.”

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, a Washington-based coalition of taxpayers and taxpayer groups opposed to tax increases, agrees. The Massachusetts vote, officially dubbed “Question One,” “could be a model for the future” in many other states, he says.

We interviewed Carla Howell yesterday; the podcast will be up later. The initiative to abolish the Massachusetts income tax got over 45% of the vote last time. Here’s more. And here’s the campaign website.

THE DUKE AND DUCHESS of Edwards?

INFLATION: “A clear and present danger.” Hmm. Could be. “Wholesale inflation soared in July, leaving prices rising at the fastest pace in nearly three decades. While recent declines in oil and other commodity prices raise hopes inflation may have peaked, some economists worry about the widespread nature of the July price surge and caution it will take more time for that pressure to ease on Wall Street and Main Street.”

CLASS, and the lack thereof.

MORE TALK ABOUT LOWERING THE DRINKING AGE TO 18. I’m in favor of that, but how about letting our Presidential candidates talk about getting the federal government — wrongly injected into this matter via Elizabeth Dole’s politicking — out of the area and letting states set their own drinking ages without federal interference? Both the candidate of small government and the candidate of youth and change should agree on this one. You’d think.

Maybe someone should ask ’em.

MORE ON FAY at Weather Nerd.

IMPORTANT LEGAL NEWS: “A New Zealand court has allowed a parade of topless porn stars on motor bikes to proceed on the main street of the country’s biggest city, local media said Tuesday.”

READER KEVIN GREEN thinks he knows who Obama wants for VP: “Obama has chosen Caroline Kennedy to be his running mate in a bid to include a woman who is not Hillary Clinton. Kennedy is the only woman Democrats would accept who is not Hillary.” Hmm.

MEGAN MCARDLE: “China is proving that American companies will throw freedom of speech out the window if the price is right.”

REALCLEARPOLITICS: McCain Takes Electoral Lead. That’s if you count leaners. Should you? I don’t know, but this may explain why the Obama folks have seemed so worried this week.

UPDATE: There’s also this from CNN: “In what could be an ominous sign for Barack Obama just days before he is formally named the Democratic presidential nominee, a new CNN poll of polls out Tuesday shows the Illinois senator’s lead over John McCain has been cut in half in recent days.”

MAKES SENSE TO ME: Drug legalization as a defensive measure against narco-terror.

MORE ON BOEING’S truck-mounted defensive laser. “The end goal for the system is to develop a laser and beam control system that can deflect incoming rocket, artillery and mortar projectiles before they hit troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and other fronts.”

JOE BIDEN: “I’m not the guy.”

YUM! Cheeseburger in a Can, and Other Bachelor Treats.

LEE STRANAHAN: Where the John Edwards scandal is headed.

OUCH: “Speaking before the Veterans of Foreign Wars this morning, Barack Obama delivered an amazing show of chutzpah. . . . Of course, if Obama were to accuse McCain of picking his positions on national security based on politics or personal ambition, everyone would laugh, because it obviously is not true. By contrast, there is quite a bit of evidence that Obama has placed political expediency above national security.” But, then, he places political expediency above everything.

DAVID GERGEN: Is the Obama Tide Turning? “McCain came roaring out of the gate from the first question and was a commanding figure throughout the night as he spoke directly and often movingly about his past and the country’s future. By contrast, Obama was often searching for words and while far more thoughtful, was also less emotionally connective with his audience.”

RUSSIA, GEORGIA, AND DOGS CHASING CARS.

HEH:

Where was he when Alderman Dorothy Tillman — who reportedly brandished a .38-caliber pistol during a ward redistricting session — faced a tough reelection fight in 2007? Endorsing her. (Finally, Obama is willing to stand up for a gun owner.)

Finally, indeed.

LAB-TESTING the latest stud finders. I have one of those but it’s useless — for some reason it goes off whenever I get near it . . . .

BACK TO SCHOOL TIPS for families with dogs.

WELL,THIS MUST BE EMBARRASSING FOR SOME PEOPLE:

There’s been a ton of buzz on the web for the last day or so — beginning with this Daily Kos diary — suggesting that John McCain patterned his story about a Vietamese captor drawing a cross in the dirt before him on a similar episode from Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s time in the Soviet gulags.

But it turns out that this episode probably never happened to Solzhenitsyn at all, and according to a Solzhenitsyn biographer it appears nowhere in his published writing.

The rowbacks are commencing. The desperation, however, remains palpable.

A LIVE CHAT with Chevy Volt design director Bob Boniface at 3 pm Eastern today.

TREATING SUCCESS AS a form of failure.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY CRASHERS target Denver.