Links and Minifeatures 2008 09 08 Monday

Carnival of Real Estate

I am not happy that the federal government is taking over Fannie and Freddie, thereby assuming liability for their debts.

It would have been far more effective and less expensive to create a new GSE without further access to taxpayer wallets.

Bill Whittle on the McCain/Palin ticket.

Is Oprah Biased? Host Won't Interview Palin

So what?

Yes, she's biased. She's openly supporting Barack Obama. That's her right, and I'd rather have a forthright endorsement and support of Obama from her (or anyone else) than the thin pretense of fairness from all the other media talking heads who, to quote Bill Maher, himself definitely on the left of the political spectrum: "Act like they're ready to have sex with (Obama)". For Oprah, there is something admirable in standing up and forthrightly letting us know who she supports and not pretending otherwise.

There is no law that says she has to invite Sarah Palin or John McCain or anyone she doesn't want to onto her show. If the Fairness Doctrine is wrong (and it is), then it is wrong when it's absence works against the candidate I favor in one particular. Oprah's supporting Obama. Last I heard, she had the same first amendment rights (i.e. free speech and free association) as everybody else. It'll cost her some audience, I'm sure, as those people exercise their rights of free association. If she's willing to take that hit, and she appears to be, I don't have any complaints coming. I might wish she was capable of seeing things my way, but that's all. If we bumped into one another on the street, I might try to convince her of my viewpoint, just like she would be free to convince me of hers. But if she wants to believe Obama will help this country more than John McCain, she's entitled to that belief.

Wizbang on waffling about the success of the surge.

John McCain didn't support the surge because he thought it wouldn't work. He pushed for over a year before George Bush signed on because he had every reason to expect that it would work. If Obama were the kind of leader he's claiming to be, he'd acknowledge that John McCain was right and move on, instead of digging himself in deeper with every pronouncement on the subject.

Fact checking ABC

"You should never use your public office to settle a private score."

Better investigation than ABC at Flopping Aces

Even the Washington Post is giving her credit for a job well done on the new pipeline.

More Palin rumors answered here