Links and Minifeatures 2008 06 16 Monday

Carnival of Personal Finance

Carnival of Real Estate

Outraged at the price of gas? You may want to read this before you vote: Democratic vs. Republican plans to deal with the energy issue.

I wrote this in September 2005.

I find this very encouraging: Study: Americans use Net to look beyond sound bite

"They want to see the full-blown campaign event. They want to read the speech from beginning to end," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew group. "It's a push back from the sound-bite culture."

You know, before I readthis, I would have bet quite a lot (maybe not an arm or leg, but probably fingers and toes) that there was no tape of Michele Obama's alleged racist rant, and that in fact, there had never been such a rant. In fact, I thought it very likely that the whole thing was a Trojan Horse, meant to lure the opposition in and distract the public from investigating who Barack Obama is and what disasters his policies would be.

But when someone starts damage control before the existence of something is confirmed, that tells me that there may be some truth to the rumor. I'm still very much inclined to believe that there is no such tape. Even if there is such a tape, I've already devoted too much attention to it. It's the disaster Barack Obama would be as President on so many fronts that forms the reason to vote for John McCain.

Cults of personality have never been kind to democracies. Especially if they get into office, elected or not.

Do not take my word for it. Go to Barack Obama's own website, and get the information straight from what he's making available to the general public himself as far as his plans. Then research what that stuff really translates into. If you can still vote for him after understanding

Protein Wisdom and neo-neocon's takes are both very worth reading.