If you are really cool, you know his albums.

Michelle Malkin notes that Andrew Sullivan raised $200k last year in donation drives and is now on hiatus, and off to European vacation. It's like when Martin is calculating the revenues for his shows, and goes:

3000 seat hall at $800 a seat...two point four million dollars.

One show...goodbye.

As former governor of Texas, I am sure that he is aware of what happened with the Galveston County employee retirement system:

The Alternate Plan that began as a fledgling, upstart employee benefit plan has stood the test of time and has shown that it can and does outperform Social Security. The plan that started in Galveston County ended the first year with a modest balance. Today, with over 5,000 employees from these three counties The Alternate Plan has grown to a very healthy and sizable portfolio. Those who retire after 20 years will receive three to four times the rate as under Social Security. This Alternate Plan is not just an isolated act of a group of responsible and dedicated Texans. There are countless other examples of other local and state government entities showing the same responsibility and initiative throughout the United States. There are now five states that are not under Social Security and have their own plans: California, Nevada, Maine, Ohio, and Colorado. In the Colorado plan they now have over $14 billion in assets. Local govern-ment entities such as police and fire depart-ments have long handled their own retirement plans.

Heard this on Hannity's show today (working at night in a datacenter leaves free time in the day). No doubt you"ll hear more in the future.

I wonder if Democrats want to attack CALPERS.

I ended up being at work until 11 last night (once again, the joys of working in datacenters), so I missed the speech. Near as I can tell, reaction is good. Heard some Democrats trotting out the old "he's planning to starve your grandma" stuff, but I don't think that is going to sell.

People are pointing to this column and Jon Stewart's statement about Bush maybe being right in the euphoria over the Iraqi election. It reveals something powerful. That the Left fears George Bush (and hence the United States) succeeding more than it fears losing to the terrorists. I guess this opens up a lot of "I told you so's," but this was revealed a long time ago - Chris Matthews said it explicitly on Hardball a while back:

If we do succeed in reconstructing Iraq along the lines of a moderate democracy, then the people who supported the intervention, the preemptive act, the preventive attack on that country, will say we were right. That‘s the problem.

And if he's right about Iraq, maybe he's right about the whole Middle East, the problem is a scarcity of freedom. After Arafat's death, it seems Bush was right about him, too.

UPDATE: I actually had a specific point in mind when I got started with this post, and forgot it as I wrote. My point is, even with this writer saying "maybe Bush was right," his immediate concern then is our "exit strategy." I continue to say that the phrase "exit strategy" has been GEN Powell's biggest disservice to this country. There are no exit strategies, there is only victory or loss. Note that we have troops in Germany, Italy, and Japan today. And you know what, we talk about withdrawing troops, and they aren't parading in the streets - they get mad that we are leaving.

How you like them apples, Peggy?

Flipping channels, I landed on John Kerry on Meet the Press this morning. What I total consuming bore that man is. Seriously, who the hell wants to hear about "modalities of American withdrawal" or whatever else he was droning on about. I can't imagine him being President for 4 years.

For those who think President Bush talks like a moron, at least you get some laughter out of it.