http://thinktankwest.com ...The best ideas from the institutes Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:21:13 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Until the seedy practice was exposed, the host committee for the Democratic National Convention in Denver was dodging state and federal taxes by filling its cars using the city government’s gas pumps. Defenders of the scam tried to say the GOP elites were doing the same thing in Minneapolis (plausible, but ... http://thinktankwest.com/2008/07/25/one-set-of-rules-for-the-peasantry-another-set-for-the-political-elite-2/ The Wall Street Journal reports today on the front page: “States Slammed by Tax Shortfalls.” According to the story, states are in “pain” because they are having to “slash” spending, which is causing some services to be “hit hard.” The story illustrates the curious way that many newspapers report on state ... http://thinktankwest.com/2008/07/25/state-budget-crisis-2/ The French prefer Obama by a 64-4 margin. http://thinktankwest.com/2008/07/25/the-best-argument-i%e2%80%99ve-seen-for-mccain/ The WashingtonWatch.com blog has a breakout of all 36 bills in the “Coburn Omnibus.” #36: a greenhouse in Suitland, Maryland! http://thinktankwest.com/2008/07/25/the-%e2%80%9ccoburn-omnibus%e2%80%9d/ The New York Times reports that Providence’s police would prefer to spend their federal grants on crime rather than terrorism. That is because there is crime in Rhode Island but no terrorism. This conflict is national, as I discussed here. Because our domestic counter-terrorism bureaucracy is largely our crime-fighting bureaucracy, the ... http://thinktankwest.com/2008/07/25/crime-vs-terrorism-in-providence-2/ I was on the floor of the Cancun Convention Center when the September 2003 WTO ministerial conference officially ended in failure.  What struck me the most about the abrupt termination of the conference was the absolute jubilation with which the Indian trade delegation and its posse of reporters and NGO ... http://thinktankwest.com/2008/07/25/india%e2%80%99s-doha-obstructionism/