Seeing "humiliation" in muddled success.

Watch Out Zell! The giant newspaper you are buying is in the grip of a perverse cult! ... A rare Kausfiles Special report. ... 2:56 A.M.

Monday, Ap ril 2, 2007

David Smith with an April 1 solution to the ongoing Fannie Mae problem. ... P.S.: He left out the part where Dem bigshots Jim Johnson and Frank Raines give back the money! ... 12:36 P.M.

'Should I do missionary work in Africa or take another lucrative political consultancy? ... So hard to decide! ... I guess ... on balance ... I can do more good in politics!' I was with former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd in his front-page NYT apostasy  until this sentence at the end, about his plans for 2008:

"I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't walking around in Africa or South America doing something that was like mission work."

I'm not sure honorable people talk in public about how they might just be the type to do mission work in Africa. They either do it, or they don't. It's a boast of sorts, and it reinforced the sneaking suspicion that one of the main purposes of Dowd's interview was to make Matthew Dowd look good. After all, in terms of actually affecting the Bush policies Dowd decries, the interview's a bit late, no? ... 12:32 A.M. link

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Sullivan. Excitable! Sloppy.  Self-Righteous. April Fool's Fun!  ... [You sure the joke isn't on you?--ed I'm not sure.  Maybe Sullivan's only pretending to be gullibly taken in by an April Fool's joke as an April Fool's joke! Yeah, that's the ticket. ... P.S.: It's a good fallback position, anyway.] ... 11:15 P.M. link

He's expected to do better than expected: According to NPR, Rep. Tom Tancredo plans to announce for president Monday. ... 10:44 P.M.

I don't like motorcycles, I don't like outfits that proudly use the word "confederate," and I'm not sure you are allowed to use the word "bitchin'" anymore--but this is a bitchin'-looking motorcycle. ... 2:42 A.M

"We Are Hiring at $9.50 per hour"--sign in the window at the In-N-Out burger restaurant in Westwood, CA.  That has to be more than they were paying a year ago. ... I'm not saying you can raise a family on that (it works out to a bit less than $20,000/year). I'm saying tight labor markets--produced by growth and maybe a boost in immigration enforcement--eventually raise wages at the bottom, and we are starting to see that. Burger chain jobs set the de facto minimum wage, no? ... Update/Correction: Several---actually more than several--alert readers have emailed to note that In-N-Out famously pays more than other burger chains, so it does not, in fact, set the de facto minimum wage. On the other hand, the $9.50 wage appears to have been instituted last fall, so it represents an increase.** Plus, they apparently feel the need to advertise for new workers, which suggests that even the $9.50 wage may soon not be enough.