Off to Colorado

Leaving for Colorado early in the morning.

Probably no blogging until Wednesday the 4th.

Fredheads

Republican Fred Thompson, who likes to cast himself in the role of Washington outsider, has a long history as a political insider who earned more than $1 million lobbying the federal government.

"This is no political outsider," said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for government ethics and campaign finance reform with Public Citizen. "He clearly gained a network of contacts in Congress though Howard Baker that he cashed in on and would represent anyone who would pay him."

- AP/Forbes (read the full story here)

Romney

A Florida televangelist, Bill Keller, told followers recently that a vote for Romney is a vote for Satan.

- John Fund, Opinion Journal (read his full comments here)

Ouch. Nasty attack.

The Breck Girl

I think Democrats are well advised to abandon Edwards. The Republicans would decimate an amateur such as he. It would be brutal.

- Jay Cost, Real Clear Politics (read his full comments here)

I would like to see Edwards decimated.

Penguins in Peru

Giant penguins roamed what is now Peru more than 40 million years ago, much earlier than scientists thought the flightless birds had spread to warmer climes.

- AP/azcentral (read full story here)

Winged Dragons

A quarry on the Virginia-North Carolina border has yielded fossils of an unusual gliding reptile that lived in the region about 220 million years ago.

- Science News (story available to subscribers only)

I finally broke down and renewed my subscription to Science News after a hiatus of several years.

I got tired of missing out on fascinating articles like this one.

The source rock was so hard that the bones could not be removed without damaging them.

This cute little dragon had the wingspan of a modern-day cardinal.

Creation or evolution?

Raising taxes

The bills in Congress take aim at a provision of the tax law that has allowed private equity and hedge fund operators to pay a lower capital-gains tax rate of 15 percent, instead of the ordinary top income-tax rate of 35 percent, on the performance fees that make up the bulk of their huge paychecks.

Congress will achieve a significant victory, for fairness and for fiscal responsibility, if it ends the breaks that are skewing the tax code in favor of the most advantaged Americans.

- NY Times editorial (read the full editorial here)

Translation = By raising taxes and exerting more governmental control over peoples' lives, the cause of liberalism can be advanced.