PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - The "Champagne Bandit" is behind bars, officials report. Kimani Alphonso Young, 37, faces a felony theft charge in connection with a Nov. 8 incident at a local supermarket in which store officials said he stuffed four bottles of Moet & Chandon White Star into his jeans.

A manager at the same store on Nov. 5 reported two bottles of Moet & Chandon, valued at $30 each, had been stolen. The manager said the store has lost 24 other bottles of the same champagne since Oct. 5.

Security officials told a deputy the 250-pound bandit "has stolen the exact same items in the exact same manner" from other area stores.

- Stuart News

"It will take some time to develop," said Brian Lough, Muncie's downtown development director. But the alley is "the busiest and the best" in the city about 40 miles northeast of Indianapolis.

Develop an alley?  Does this mean the city cleans it up?  Add more trash cans?  These are hard times when cities switch from economic development to alley development.

--11/22/02

Libertarian Spoilers--While suffering through my sophomore slump at Hillsdale College in 1980, the big topic of the day at that politically attuned school (spare me the George Roche and family values snickers) was the Reagan Revolution that was marching down Main Street, USA on its way to victory in November.  Instead of joining the party, I cast my first ballot for the Libertarian candidate for President, Ed Clark (note his microscopic percentages).

I was too pure for the Republican Party and thought that if everyone just studied Libertarianism, usually evangelized by a combination of the “Legalize Drugs Now!” movement and anti-David Rockefeller None Dare Call it Conspiracy paranoids (what a cross section of Americana), that indeed we could do away with taxation, social security, the military stationed overseas, and then we would have more money in our pocket to buy this odd combination of TV monitor and keyboard called a personal computer.  And that sure as heck had advantages over my portable typewriter complete with bottles of Wite-Out and that’s ok because in a Libertarian free market economy all the workers who carefully strain to pour the white liquid into tiny bottles at the Wite-Out factories would then exit stage right and become software programmers and everyone would be happy. Whew!

Alas it was another quest for Utopia just as the Socialists (a combination of the “Legalize Drugs Now!” movement and people who burned IZOD alligator shirts) were maintaining that the state should give us personal computers.

Anyway, twenty plus years later, the Libertarians still barely dent the body politic, except as a spoiler.   John Miller of National Review writes in the New York Times:

There's a similar explanation for Mr. Thune's (Senate candidate from South Dakota) 524-vote loss: a Libertarian Party candidate, Kurt Evans, drew more than 3,000 votes. It marks the third consecutive election in which a Libertarian has cost the Republican Party a Senate seat. If there had been no Libertarian Senate candidates in recent years, Republicans would not have lost control of the chamber in 2001, and a filibuster-proof, 60-seat majority would likely be within reach.

So Libertarians similar to the Ross Perot loons (although I doubt the latter smoked dope) hand over the country every election cycle to liberals and then they kick start their Web sites and whine and moan about the demise of these United States.

It would be one thing if Libertarians really were playing to win, but in effect they like disrupting the World Series game by streaking across the field (most streakers would do us a big favor by keeping their clothes on, I mean how come we never see Victoria’s Secret models running from first to third?).

The latest whiner is Libertarian writer and attorney Stephan Kinsella who ran for a judgeship on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and received a couple carloads worth of votes.  While his candidacy was forgettable, his attitude gives away what his party thinks of the American people.

Below are some points he made about his recent run:

SK: On the plus side, my wife thought I was some kind of celebrity for a few days, and kept calling me "Judge." On the negative side, I didn't like that the Libertarians had such a low chance of winning. I take comfort in blaming it on the populace. As the saying goes, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

SK: I think I spent 2 cents total, for the paper used to fax something to the election commission. As for the extent of my campaigning, when friends and colleagues told me they would vote for me, I did my best to refrain from uttering my favorite aphorism, "Don't vote. It only encourages them." I'm starting to think I'm not cut out for politickin'.

No kidding.  Note “the customer is stupid” tone in his answers, which explains one reason why Libertarians only go as far as the end of their driveways.  C’mon they don’t waaahna win. 

But these picnic gnats won’t go away so Republicans (and conservatives) will have to figure out other ways to take back those Libertarian spoiler votes.  Always finding ways to cut taxes would be a start.

To paraphrase Rodney King, “Can’t we all just be practical?”

I don't like some of this domestic spying stuff coming out of the Pentagon these days, but this is an interesting quote:

"I find it somewhat counter intuitive that people are not concerned that telemarketers and insurance companies can acquire this data but feel tremendous trepidation if a government ventures into this arena. To me it just smacks of paranoia," said David Rivkin, an attorney for Baker & Hostetler LLP.

It doesn't matter whether you hate or love cats, you'll giggle at this site called rathergood.com.

--11/21/02

--11/15/02

After they towel off and drink a Starbucks, Anna and her pals should read the latest from David Brooks who takes measure of the Pelosi Democrats. Brooks warns conservatives that while the donkeys might go off and do some stupid things, the grown-ups in that party will intervene and prevent the Demos from going the way of the Whigs. He writes:

Well, Republicans can only hope. But the truth is that while Democrats are stupid, they are not that stupid. If you listen to intelligent members of the Democratic political class, you learn that the party hasn't totally lost its head. The smarter liberals say the last thing the party needs is another one of those DLC vs. populist intra-party fights. 

Instead, the first thing the party has to do is get some credibility on national defense. So long as voters don't trust Democrats to be tough on terrorism, it doesn't matter what the party says on anything else. This is so patently obvious that surely some Democrats will come up with an ostentatiously hawkish homeland security agenda over the next few months. 

Then, the smarter Democrats say, you can't fight the tax cut. The better strategy is to counter the Bush tax cut with an equally large Democratic tax cut, which might lean more heavily on payroll taxes. Pit tax cut against tax cut, just as Republicans pit one prescription drug plan against another.

Cheer up my liberal friends. You’ll be back. You just have to check the emotions at the door and do some cold calculated thinking and listen to the American people or at least the 53% that gave you the headache last Tuesday.

--11/13/02

What is not mythology is the political model of LBJ's Great Society. That belongs wholly to the Democrats. This was the decade of federally forced rights and subsidized entitlements that ended with the passage of Medicaid and Medicare in 1965. Efficacy aside, what's noteworthy about this legacy is that nothing's changed in the national Democratic Party's legislative model since that time. What of any significance is left for them to do, short of erecting a Germanic nationalized health-care system, an idea just rejected in a referendum by 79% of Oregon's voters?

Some Democratic thinkers have proposed rationalizing what government we've already got. Fat chance. In the election campaign just ended Tuesday, most congressional Democrats, following their leadership and pundits, opposed tax cuts, school voucher programs, any change in Social Security, and trade liberalization. As official party policy they literally ran for "no change" in Social Security. None?

I sometimes wonder why our pundits offer advice to liberals on how they can fight the battle of ideas better.  It's not like the libs offered any suggestions to us when we were down and out. Crabby Bill Moyers predicts the end of the world as we know it.   

--11/12/02

I don’t think the Republicans have been jerks about the Tuesday elections.  It’s the Democrats that are telling everyone that Republicans rolled them not the other way around.

However, I’m not happy with the arrogance that is starting to ooze due to the elevation of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to Minority Leader in the House.  I’m reading too many Republicans (and especially GOPer campaign consultants) crowing over this development. 

One of the Clinton era lessons is that nothing is a sure thing. Let Pelosi overplay her hand rather than GOPers jumping on the chance to demonize her as a San Francisco Democrat.  We tried to do that to Clinton and instead he turned the tables on us.  Plus let’s not forget that the Demos tried to paint Bush as a scary guy and they continue to underestimate him. 

Why adopt tactics that can only fail? (Answer:  Because we’re Republicans).

--11/09/02

--11/08/02

Unfortunately, I missed many of these developments as they were unfolding. The hardest thing to do in politics is to be an insider and think like an outsider - like a real, live voter.

I think that phrase can apply to anyone in any industry.  Can you handle more than one point of view ricocheting in your head?

--11/07/02

Now the GOPers need to put their heads down and do the yeoman work of governing and not get too high off this win as they did in 1994.

Oh and yeah the (Paleo) libertarians got their usual 2%.

--11/06/02

 --11/05/02  

 --11/04/02 

--11/04/02