Quick Evening Hits (091608)

Well, the office and residential electric is back, but the Internet isn’t. So this is coming to you from a Fedex Kinko’s store, which has actually been renamed Fedex Office, in one of the dumbest corporate naming moves I’ve ever seen (someone at Fedex REALLY didn’t like the old Kinko’s culture, and is stamping out any and all remnants — to their detriment, I believe).

I see that Nix is still without power. Gordon Gekko at Taxman Blog and Matt at Weapons of Mass Discussion have been picking up the Greater Cincinnati slack very nicely. It’s been a bit hard to keep up with goings-on in the past 48 hours, but here are some relevant items I picked up:

• “The One” I refer to as “Mr. BOOHOO-OUCH” (Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi” Obama – Objectively Unfit Coddler of Haters) is still blowing through cash as fast or faster than he can raise it, according to Newsweak. The Obama-Dem stash is about half that of the candidate I refer to as JS3M3 (John Sidney the Mad Maverick McCain III) and the RNC.
• I’ll pick Brent Baker’s NewsBusters post for the link. The story is all over the place, as it should be. Obama’s risible claim that he will cut taxes for 95% of Americans is statistically impossible, as at least 1/3 of filers have a tax bill of zero or less (because of the Earned Income Credit). I’ve also seen figures as high as 40% who don’t pay tax. This higher figure may come from adding in those who don’t have to file at all.
• This one is gaining currency too, as it should — “Obama Tried to Stall GIs’ Iraq Withdrawal.” As Rush and many others, including Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, pointed out today, Obama’s denial was really an admission that he interfered as alleged.
• Not that this is a point of pride, but the Proportional to GDP, the amount of money Russia’s finance ministry has said it might pour into its system after the equity market dropped 17% before trading was halted is much larger than what the US Fed has promised. There’s less substance to Russia’s economy, so a financial meltdown there would appear to be more possible than here, and would be more damaging than it would be here if it were to happen …. but it’s not as if it can’t happen here.
• I think Larry Kudlow has it right on the Fed’s decision to keep interest rates where they are — “Even though inflation indicators have been falling and today’s CPI dropped one-tenth of a percent, 12-month growth is still 5.4 percent for headline inflation and the core rate is 2.5 percent. The CPI less energy is up 3.1 percent, and non-energy prices in fact kicked up by three-tenths of 1 percent. So it would appear that the Fed wants to defend King Dollar and hold down prices. This is good.”