Good Friday morning Swordsmen. It's been a while since I dropped a NCR, but the last week of every month will always be a tough time for me. I hope everything is going well with everyone. a lot of stuff hit the Google reader that have since blown over, so if you see an old story or two, forgive me. On the ledger: a new guy in at Bank of America, Souter stepping down, Obama the socialist, black optimism, the future of the Republican Party, Chysler, cheating, and a surprise guest arrives to Twitter.

It's official.   Speaking words critical of Obama means you're just not a "true" Democrat. 

I was wandering through Daily Kos and stumbled across this diary .  It seems that the moderators at dKos see the need to put their foot down and squash any incipient signs of objective evaluation of Obama's actions. 

Obama has released his FY 2010 Budget , and there's a lot to digest in there. NPR has a helpful overview by department. My personal, overall impression is that there is some great stuff in there, but it is too big.

I'd been lightly following this Clive Crook story from afar without reading the actual article. Then I saw, via Will Wilkinson , that it's still growing and that Clive's original article even got responses from the two high profile macroeconomists mentioned in the article: Barro and Krugman.

Well, the Obama presidency is only a few days old and it's been pretty good...so far. Yes, there will be disappointments and bad policy in the coming months (from my POV at least) but in these first few days, Obama has made or is starting to make good on some good campaign promises...and that's always a good thing.

As a libertarian, I don't get much to cheer about regardless of which party is in power so seeing little battles being won in a long, daunting and bleak war is the best I can hope for.

Well, the smell of Mitt Romney's hair gel, and Meg Whitman's perfume barely cleared the room before the Democrats released their version of a stimulous package, so much for listening to testamony in order to make things better, and of course the thing is loaded with spending goodies that have nothing to do with righting the economy.

If this is true , it's a real downer for my hopes of Obama's economic outlook as president.

Some issues are big and scary and complicated (like war and our financial system), and I can understand how I'm not really in a position to specify expectations for how the government will address them.

However, some other issues are so straightforward (even if they aren't 'big') that I can confidently say that if the new Democratic government does not address these issues, then they will be guilty of negligent government.

I'm sure that many issues fall into this category, but here's are two issues that I expect the new government to take care of in fairly short order:

Ballot access expert Richard Winger's blog is an invaluable resource to a minor party/indy enthusiast like myself.  Lately he's done some work detaling the large amount of unopposed incumbents for state legislature this year.

This is about liberal Democratic failure to DO THE NEXT RIGHT INDICATED THING.

As my good friend Brutus14 pointed out in Thursday's open thread, the Barr campaign has filed suit [PDF] in Texas to have the court compel the Secretary of State to remove John McCain and Barack Obama from the ballot.

The statute in question which states in part:

Here Obama's 10 Worst Ideas .

Here's McCain's 10 Worst Ideas .

I think they are generally on the mark though I have some quibbles.

On Obama's, I'm not so sure how bad Number 4 is. Meeting with the Iranian President, by itself doesn't seem so bad to me. However, FP adds that Obama said he would do this "without precondition". Perhaps THAT isn't wise. I'm not sure. But according to a Carnegie Endowment expert on the matter:

Barack Obama losing his lead in the battlefield states of Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, and Florida - and the electoral college count as well today, I found this article spot on as to why.

As I've stated on several occasions, I find the resurgence of McCain and the GOP from the jaws of inevitable defeat to be simply astounding. In a way, the feeling is like when I, as a Phillies fan, watched the Red Sox improbable run towards a World Series victory when they were one out away from losing down 3 games to none to the Yankees in 2004. I was amazed. Not really sad, not really elated....just amazed. I was witnessing an improbable historic run.

As I watch McCain do nothing while surging ahead of Obama in the polls in a country that hates the Bush Administration, I'm intrigued.

A long time ago marketers figured out that in a consumer driven society the quickest way to sell a product is to put the “new” label on it. It doesn’t matter if the product has changed or not. A case in point is how many “new” Cokes have there been? Every couple of years we are treated to a new release of Coca Cola under some new ad campaign and packaging. Marketers have learned that the majority of Americans will buy anything so long as it is “new” just because it is labeled “new”. New and improved, under new management, and advanced formula are all familiar refrains of the marketers and have proven time and time again to be successful in attracting consumers. Unfortunately here in America we elect Presidents the way we buy products based on slick marketing and fancy packaging. Few of us have the time or the desire to investigate the people we elevate to the highest office in the land. The amazing thing about this is that we have just had the longest primary season ever and yet there are many people who claim they no nothing more about the candidates than what has been dished out by the tabloid journalists.

Public employee unions are handing over vast amounts of money to the
incumbent governor's re-election campaign, while the governor is
simultaneously sitting at the bargaining table negotiating contracts
with these very unions.

If it seems inappropriate for the governor, Christine Gregoire, who
is locked in a very tight re-election, to benefit personally from the
parties that her office is negotiating with, that's just your
conscience, not the law.

From Megan McArdle :

Sandra Tsing-Loh is shocked and hurt that Obama sends his daughters to an expensive private school rather than the local public schools.

Said Sandra:

Good old Jeff Emanuel has an article out today;