Things I’d Like To Post About Today ….. (123008, Morning)

….. But I Don’t Have Any Time For:

• My goodness, he’s not even inaugurated, and he’s already whining (HT Small Dead Animals) about being in the media bubble. Challenge: Name one example of George Bush (not his staff, not other family members, not fellow party members, not pundits) whining.
• Kurt at FundMastery strengthens a point I made two weeks ago (”Don’t have all of your money with one adviser, especially a long ranger who has control over generating account statements”) about why Bernard Madoff was able to make off with so much investor dough (my bold) — “….. the scheme was possible only because the Madoff firm was a brokerage firm that created its own client statements.” He also has a pic of the kind of org chart with the control structure and separation of duties required to prevent, absent massive collusion that could almost never be sustained, an institutional version of what Madoff did.
• In addition to Ohio, Oregon has a Governor Ted. Oregon’s Ted Kulongoski wants to slap a mileage tax on the state’s drivers using GPS tracking. Suggestion: Oregonians should consider voting with their feet …. and their wheels. Great supplemental point from a commenter at the link: Out-of-state drivers will avoid the tax.
• Caroline Kennedy has received the coveted Rosa Ortiz endorsement.
• Patrick Poole’s latest at Pajamas Media is a blockbuster — “Israel Targets Terror Labs Funded by U.S. Islamic Group.” That “group” is in the Columbus (OH) suburb of Dublin. Question for Gov. Ted Strickland — Is this or is this not unacceptable? How many terror-funding members of Arab Student Aid International (ASAI) were at the CAIR Banquet you attended in June 2007?