Virginia, New Jersey, NY-23

I’m in the camp that says Tuesday’s election results don’t tell us much about what to expect next November. A Republican revival? Conservative comeback? That’s not exactly what NY-23 suggests; there Democrat Bill Owens beat Conservative (and virtual Republican) Doug Hoffman by sticking to the common-sense, district-specific playbook that served the Democrats well in 2006 [...]

How I Voted

The election issue of The American Conservative includes a short piece in which I argue for writing in Ron Paul and Barry Goldwater Jr. rather than voting for any of the major- or minor-party candidates for president. Today I followed through on my own advice, casting an absentee ballot in Virginia. Writing-in a vote turns [...]

Goodbye GOP

I predict the Republicans will lose an additional Senate seat for every 500 points the Dow loses below 9500. How long before Mitch McConnell is toast?

“Atheistic Taliban”

That’s Jerome Tuccille’s description of the followers of Ayn Rand, in this Reason TV video. He has harsh words for Murray Rothbard, too. I don’t agree with him on either score, actually, but here’s the clip:

Tuccille is getting modal in his old age, but his youthful memoir, It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand, is [...]

Save the eXile

The English-language Moscow alternative magazine that’s as much samizdat for the West as it is for Russians is under threat from the authorities. Mark Ames, editor and co-founder (with Matt Taibbi, lately of Rolling Stone) blogs about it here. (And here.)
There’s a campaign afoot to save the eXile, as an online zine if not a [...]

A Ron Paul Democrat in South Carolina

This story has come out of the blue: Bob Conley, a South Carolina Democrat who voted for Ron Paul in the state’s Republican primary — he quit the GOP over Iraq, immigration, and trade — won the Democratic Senate nomination. (Although his margin was so slim that it’s gone to a recount.) The first thing [...]

The Nation and the Revolution

The lefty magazine continues to give the Ron Paul movement better coverage than the neocon press, which can only splutter in outrage at the thought of an antiwar, pro-market Republican. The Nation is none too good on market economics itself, and puts in a few nasty digs in its coverage of the rising class of [...]

A Choice in November

Clueless GOP consultants Tony Fabrizio and Dave Carney tell Politico (referring to Ron Paul’s 16 percent showing in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary):
“A large portion of those Ron Paul supporters are anti-Bush, anti-war Republicans,” he said. “They’ll wind up back with McCain because, while they may disagree on the war or be mad at Bush, the prospect [...]

Bob Barr Announces

And I’ll gladly support him. Here’s his announcement:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXJtWRW0CQI&hl=en]

The Abortion Wars in 2008

Jim Antle summarizes a few recent blog threads on abortion and the 2008 race here. Ross Douthat’s criticism of Andy Bacevich–Douthat thinks Bacevich doesn’t pay enough attention to abortion in making his case for Obama–is one of the threads Jim links to. My own response to Douthat is newly up at Taki’s Magazine.