Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is borrowing a post title from good ole Tom Leherer. Damn that man was funny. One can suspect that he is still funny, although not performing. Sadly, this post will be neither funny nor informative. It will likely be crap.

Since it has been a few days you’ve probably been wondering, “Self, what has happened to my Maximum Leader? I feel lost without his inspired musings.” Well… Your Maximum Leader has been taking care of Maximum Leaderly things. You know like creating fake “balloon boy” stories to distract people from the real news. He has also be shuttling his handsome children from one activity to another. Damn. Those kids are doing a lot. Karate. Piano lessons. Sports. “Play dates.” It is crazy. Then when he’s had time to sit down and relax he’s been watching some early season hockey and now baseball playoffs. Blogging hasn’t seemed like a priority.

Even if blogging hadn’t seemed like a priority over the week, your Maximum Leader’s love of his minions has caused his fingers to itch for the keyboard so that he can share some thoughts about the week’s events with you all.

First off… Your Maximum Leader, as many of you know already, is not a big Rush Limbaugh fan. And when he says “not a big fan” he really means “not a fan at all.” Anyhoo… Your Maximum Leader knows that Rush has said things in his 20 years on the air that have offended people. But to cite quotes that he apparently didn’t say in order to blackball him from a group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams football team is low. Very low. It is both lazy and inexcusable for the press to use unsourced books for gathering offensive Limbaugh quotes rather than actually trying to use the approximately 14,500 hours of recorded material from his radio show to get a quote. Your Maximum Leader feels pity and distain towards the reporters who started to circulate the fake quotes and he feels a little sympathy towards Rush Limbaugh. Your Maximum Leader knows that conservative commentators aren’t given any slack or even the benefit of doubt when it comes to racial issues; but this strikes him as being beyond the pale.

Having said that, your Maximum Leader doesn’t believe that the group dropping Limbaugh from investor list is a problem. That is a business transaction. These things happen. Frankly, the NFL saying that they didn’t want Limbaugh is a little much for your Maximum Leader; but that too is a business matter. Your Maximum Leader isn’t going to get worked up about this part of the story.

Your Maximum Leader has seen the tops of Meghan McCain’s boobs this week. Your Maximum Leader thinks that Meghan McCain is sorta cute. He is a little disappointed in the hullaballoo that has ensued after that photo got around. People need to lighten up some. If a paparazzi photo of her appeared on the internet showing her in a swimsuit would she still be a slut? Doubtful on that call. Sure this was a silly thing to do; but to jump all over her (metaphorically) is crazy.

While speaking of Meghan McCain… She seems to be writing for some web site and excoriating social conservatives for being… socially conservatives. Many conservatives don’t seem to believe that there is a place in the Republican party for Meghan McCain or others with similar beliefs. Perhaps we should all think back to 1994 when the Republican’s took back the House of Representatives. The “Contract with America” didn’t contain any major “socially conservative” clauses. (The reduction of welfare spending could be considered a budgetary matter with a social component.) The thrust of the contract was to reduce the size of the government and balance the budget. Now we know that the late Republican House didn’t end well on that count; but your Maximum Leader would argue that the future for the conservative movement, and Republican party, is to get back to the macro-economic issues and broad ideas on the size and scope of the federal government. Tabling some of the more divisive social agenda and actually producing on the economic/government side of the equation has been a winning formula in the past and should be in the future. It would likely be easier to have conservatives and Republicans coalesce around a few basic agreeable principles than to demand action on all fronts. (Indeed, just look at how action on all fronts seems to be working out for the President right now.)

Olympia Snowe voted to get the health care bill out of committee. That is sad news. One hopes that the liberal House will insist on keeping the poison-pill public-option in the bill and Olympia (and Susan Collins) will decided to opt out of the final bill. If Democrats want the bill they should pass the bill. They have the votes. It is clear that they want something resembling “bipartisanship” on the bill. But it is also clear that the votes aren’t really there. Just pass a bill if you have the balls to (which your Maximum Leader doubts). Otherwise just shut the hell up and try a different approach - like tort reform and removing some of the barriers to interstate insurance competition…

Oh yes… It looks like the dreamy Jennifer Love Hewitt might be back on the market soon. Good news for some lucky guy. (NB to JLH: call your Maximum Leader. He is not your love match. Well, perhaps an unrequited platonic love type of thing. He needs to sit you down and find out where your mind is. He fears you are becoming a needy emotional wreck like Jennifer Aniston. You don’t need to go down that path. You need to be more comfortable about yourself and less emotionally dependent on losers to validate your self-image… Your Maximum Leader is the only person from whom you need approval. Just call… And send photos… Preferably in a Naked Villainy T-shirt and Thong…)

Well… That is about it for now. Perhaps your Maximum Leader will blog more later. Perhaps not. He does know that he’s got a great weekend planned. Perhaps there will be photos in it for you later…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is always on the lookout for science he can use. Although in this case since he is already married with kids, this next story is not of much use to him. It may be of use for some of the single geeky guys out there that read this site…

According to scientists at the University of Sheffield (as reported in Canada’s Globe & Mail) , women who take the pill are more likely to fall for “good providers” (read: geeks) than “aggresive specimens” (read: jocks). Here is the meat of the science in the piece:

During ovulation, women prefer men with symmetrical, masculine features. These men are aggressive, compete with other men, and in some cases exhibit “creative intelligence,” write the authors. More importantly, their major histocompatibility complex genes – the ones that build our immune systems – are considerably unlike the individual woman’s. According to earlier research, being attracted to a person with a different immune system is advantageous because the baby will inherit a larger arsenal to combat disease.

But during the infertile phase, women appear to prefer men who are more genetically similar to their relatives. Others opt for men who exhibit more “feminine” characteristics and have the means to invest in child rearing, Dr. Alvergne said.

Well… That could be useful news for those of you out there looking for a girl or guy with whom to mate. Of course your Maximum Leader didn’t quote the best part of the piece. The one that mentioned how lap dancing strippers figured into this research. Your Maximum Leader will leave that as a tease for you to click through.

Your Maximum Leader wonders if this news is one layer of a giant plot revealed… Afterall, it is more probable that geeks were the ones that invented the contreceptive pill to begin with. Did they know that by reducing the “dual sexuality” (mentioned in the piece) tendencies in women they increased their own chances of scoring? Hummm…. Something to think on…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader hears it from here. In deepest Georgia, James Earl Carter has buried his head in the ample bosom of his wife to hide the sounds of his wailing. Mr. Carter is recounting his accomplishments. Camp David. Habitat for Humanity. All those elections he monitored. All those dictators with whom he negotiated. All those visits to Haiti… They were all steps towards earning a Nobel Peace Prize. Alas, he now recognizes the error of his ways. If he hadn’t had an accent, was younger and more buff, and was reknown for soaring oratory he wouldn’t have had to actually do anything to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t hear any crying from Henry Kissinger. Why? Because years ago Henry melted down his Nobel medal and fashioned them into little pins that read “Hammered by Henry.” He then took the pins and the prize money and spent a week in Vegas that is remembered to this day…

So Barack Obama has won the friggin Nobel Peace Prize. What can you say but “What the fuck?”

Barack Obama has done as much to advance world peace as has your Maximum Leader. Barack Obama has made a whole bunch of speeches about outreach and change. Your Maximum Leader once wrote a 10 step plan that would result in a more peaceful world. See! Same difference.

Of course this is not to say that the Norwegian Nobel Committee had much credibility with your Maximum Leader. Their picks the past few time round have been dubious at best. But this award takes the cake for undeserved honors.

In many respects this award is nothing more than a “great effort” certificate that kids get for playing team sports - regardless of their record. Only in this case there wasn’t much effort put in by the winner before getting the certificate…

If the President has any sense whatsoever (and it is likely that he does not in this matter) he’d send Hillary (or Bill) Clinton to accept the award on his behalf, and give a speech about peace… That would be on par with the accomplishments that lead to the award being given in the first place.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been busy this week. He is entertaining a guest at the Villainschloss, attending some political fundraisers, and helping Mrs Villain shuttle the Villainettes and Wee Villain from one activity to another. He’s wanted to comment at length on a number of issues in the news, but is going to settle for short bullet points today…

Did you see that Somali pirates attacked the flagship of the French Navy in the Indian Ocean? Now your Maximum Leader was surprised by this headline. Then reading the piece caused him more surprise. The first surprise was that the French flagship in the region is a fueling vessel/command vessel. One would have thought that the flagship would be a destroyer/frigate/cruiser. You know, a friggin WARSHIP with big friggin GUNS and MISSLES! Alas, it apparently is not so. After that first surprise there was a second one in the piece. The second surprise is that the French vessel was attacked by two small boats - and one got away. This probably shouldn’t surprise your Maximum Leader, but it does. Afterall, if you don’t have a warship to blow things out of the water how exactly do you expect to get both pirate boats? Still, your Maximum Leader will chalk this encounter up as a win for the French navy.

Secondly… It looks like your Maximum Leader and his best buddy Kevin will have a boys-night out on Saturday and go and see Zombieland. Woo hoo!

Thirdly… It looks like your Maximum Leader will get another boys-night out later in the month and will visit Smallholder and Polymath. While visiting those two fine gentlemen, guess what he’ll do? He’ll go and see Zombieland again… Then he’ll get to go into the woods and use a shotgun to blow the heads off zombie targets. Then he’ll get to drink beer all night while stirring the apple butter being made for the town fair. Is that a cool weekend or what?

Next up… Thanks to you all who congratulated Mrs Villain on her new PC, or those who asked how the Acer laptop is working out for us. Well… After a week all seems to be going very well. Laptop runs fine. The only beef is that the bottom of the laptop seems to get a little hotter than did her Dell. But that is a minor quibble.

About all this David Letterman stuff going on… Your Maximum Leader doesn’t really care (in a broad sense) about Dave having multiple affairs over the past 20 years. His a little disturbed that no one seems to be focusing on the whole “Dave-having-affairs-with-people-who-work-for-him” part. These women are employees of Worldwide Pants. Dave is the owner of Worldwide Pants. That seems to be a problem from a sexual harassment point of view. At least that is what attorneys your Maximum Leader knows have always told him…

And finally… Your Maximum Leader has many readers who know about these things… If you receive an invitation to a Ball (as in a glittering dance that would make Cinderella proud) and the invitation notes that the ball is “Formal” should one automatically assume that suitable attire is tuxedos for men and evening gowns for women? Your Maximum Leader awaits your thoughts on this one.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader spent money he hadn’t planned on spending this weekend. He doesn’t feel too good about it, but it is best that he ponied up the cash.

So, Mrs Villain has a laptop computer. It is a 5 year old Dell Inspiron. It was a fine computer for about 3 years. Then it started to act funny. About a year ago it got its hard drive wiped and s/w reinstalled. It got a little better. But for about a year it has been slow and unresponsive. (We’re talking about needing 15 mins to boot up on turn-on. MS-Office programs taking 3-5 minutes to initialize.) Admittedly, the laptop has been bashed, dropped and otherwise abused by both Mrs Villain and our children. In many ways it is a miracle that the laptop works at all.

Well… Mrs Villain needed to do lesson plans and such yesterday. Her habit is to park herself in front of the tv and watch football while doing the work on her laptop. Well… After taking 20 mins to boot up, the laptop was well into another 10 minutes to get MS Word going. The whole while Mrs Villain was complaining and carrying on. Finally, your Maximum Leader couldn’t take any more. He’s been suggesting to Mrs Villain that we get her an inexpensive Netbook or a real cheap laptop (since her computing needs are limited to word processing, internet checking and email) for months. Indeed he nearly bought an HP netbook on Woot.com a month or so ago. (At the time Mrs Villain said she could manage for a little while longer.)

Well. Your Maximum Leader packed the family into the truck and off we went in search of a netbook/laptop for Mrs. Villain. Yes, we were impulsive and didn’t research this endeavor like we would have liked. But if you only need a computer for word processing, internet checking and reading email do you really need to do a pile of research? Basically we were shopping for price.

Eventually Mrs Villain ended up with this Acer from Best Buy. She is very happy.

Of course, your Maximum Leader now wants a laptop for himself… Alas, his desires aren’t as economical. He spent the afternoon configuring various Alienware or MacBook Pro boxes. He shouldn’t tease himself like that…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that even President Obama’s presence and charm offensive (coupled with Oprah and others) couldn’t bring the Olypmics to Chicago.

Your Maximum Leader is a patriot. He feels pride in our nation and believes that the Olypmics brings honor and some pride to a nation. It is a time and place to showcase what is best about your nation. So your Maximum Leader is saddened by losing out on this chance to put on a big show.

That said, your Maximum Leader wonders why the President would invest himself so much in this. It seems like a waste of time and (surprisingly) political capital. When you are President everything to which you commit yourself stands to either increase or diminish your political capital. This whole endeavor seems to have been a calculated risk of political capital by a man (and his advisors) who might have a somewhat enlarged view of themselves. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t believe that by losing the Olypmics after personal lobbying the President has emperilled all of his other (many others - too many others in fact) initiatives too much. But every setback weakens you. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t understand why you would do anything to weaken yourself when you are having a hard enough time getting done what you want to get done.

Anyhooo…

Sorry Chicago. You’re still my kinda town.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t really have anything well-formulated in his mind upon which to opine. (Although that hasn’t stopped him in the past… Ba-da-dum!)

When your Maximum Leader married his lovely wife, Mrs Villain, he was exposed to a little family tradition of hers. Every 1st of the month she would gleefully exclaim to him the single word “Rabbit!” as soon as she awoke. It is a little competition in fact. After she “Rabbits” your Maximum Leader she then goes and “Rabbits” the kids. Then she gets on the phone and “Rabbits” her parents and sister. During the summer months she will often call her aunt and put the “Rabbit” throwdown on her as well.

Your Maximum Leader never fully understood why she and her whole family did this. They said it was an “old Scottish tradition” in her family. Your Maximum Leader’s family is of Scottish extraction as well, but he never recalled anyone doing this. Well a few months ago while watching Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show on CBS (which your Maximum Leader records every night) he caught Ferguson putting the “Rabbit” throwdown on his viewers explaining that his mother (in Scotland) always did it. (Although Ferguson’s mother takes it a step further and declares “little white rabbits” on the first of every month.)

If any of you loyal minions out there have experience with this little tradition, your Maximum Leader would be interested to hear about it.

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader has nuthin’ right now… So…

RABBIT!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader needs to carve out 1 hour of time to read/blog/think every day. He’s mismanaging his free time. As a result you all are deprived of his mindless ranting…

Here are some thoughts your Maximum Leader will share with you:

Sarah Palin has finished her memoir earlier than expected. One supposes that if you quit your job and thus made time to write this isn’t a big accomplishment. Your Maximum Leader is weary of Sarah Palin. In his mind she remains a quitter. He cannot support a quitter.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t know if you’ve been following the Virginia Governors race. He has. He can’t recall a time where one candidate is only running negative ads. In this case it it Democrat Creigh Deeds. The only ads Deeds seems to be running are all attacking Bob McDonnell for his (poorly written) Master’s Thesis (and his position on abortion). McDonnell’s ads seem to be a mix of attacking Deeds on his (lack of a) transportation plan and (lack of a cogent) tax plan; and some peppy “I’m going to be a jobs governor” message. Deeds’ ads are just attack McDonnell. Your Maximum Leader thinks you probably ought to throw in some “I’m a good guy” ads in there. Your Maximum Leader hasn’t seen the latest polling information but he hears that Deeds is narrowing the gap between the two men. Attack ads work at some level, but at another level you need to give voters some reason to vote for you and not just against the other guy.

Your Maximum Leader hopes he can make some time and try and catch up with FLG and read “The Republic.” It has been more than 20 years since your Maximum Leader has cracked open Plato. It would serve his brain good to do so now.

That is it. Nuthin’ more.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader knows that President Obama has said that he wants to focus on the problems that really affect Americans. Your Maximum Leader will suggest that since we are wasting stimulus money left and right we waste some money in a good way. And he knows a problem in need of a fix.

America armed, but guns not loaded.

Yup. We are in a huge ammunition crisis. Have you tried to buy ammo recently? Yikes! It is hard to come by and expensive. Your Maximum Leader should probably sell some of his stash of Russian-made 7.62 ammo. He’s got more than he’ll ever use (short of him becoming a solider-of-fortune or the coming of the zombie apocalypse).

Actually… We don’t need the government helping on this. Market forces are at work. Factories working 24/7. Prices reflecting demand. It is almost like an invisible hand is guiding the market…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is not a particularly covetous person. Indeed, he doesn’t need too much in a materialistic sort of way to be happy. But once and a while something strikes his fancy and he fixates on it…

Take for example the Chestnut briefcase (large) from the Saddleback Leather Company (which your Maximum Leader found via The Art of Manliness website).

Now let your Maximum Leader be honest now. He’s used a briefcase about 4 times in the past year. So he rarely needs one. But he feels that if he needed one the Saddleback Leather Company chestnut briefcase (large size) would be the one he would want to have. He could likely also use it as a small overnight bag in a pinch…

The other thing your Maximum Leader is fixated on right now (and has been for about 10 years now…) A 1970s era Land Rover Series II with a diesel engine, manual transmission, right hand drive and snorkel.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wants to pass along a link pretty much without comment.

Badass of the Week.

Actually your Maximum Leader thought of FLG quite a bit while reading some of the entries on past Badasses of the Week. (You can clicky here to visit the Hall of Badassitude.) You’ll know why from this little taste of the entry on The First Duke of Wellington (a favorite badass of your Maximum Leader’s):

Of course, Arthur Wellesley represented the badass knightly virtues that the people of his country seem to hold so dear, and, as such, in addition to being a fucking ass-destroying ballsmasher on the battlefield he was also a noble and righteous motherfucker as well. When the British troops started sacking and plundering everything in India following their victory, Wellesley ordered the men responsible for this complete lack of discipline to be flogged, beaten, teabagged, and/or hanged, because they were being fucking jackasses to everybody. Since he was the man responsible for single-handedly rocking so many nutsacks, Wellesley was appointed Governor of Mysore, took up residence in the lavish palace of the Sultan he had just finished pwning, and spent his days annihilating rebels, stomping the colons of jackass mercenaries, and administering Charles Bronson-style justice to gangs of murderous brigands.

This prose is a bit more (ahem) colorful than FLG’s, but there is a certain style to it…

Your Maximum Leader will go ahead and apologize in advance to anyone offended by so many f-bombs and references to nutsacks… Your Maximum Leader’s purient side was amused.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wasn’t a big Bill Clinton fan while he was in office. Frankly your Maximum Leader isn’t a Bill Clinton fan right now. Okay… Your Maximum Leader jokes about Bill Clinton working to improve the US’s image one vagina at a time; but those jests are only half-jests at best…

Anyhoo…

Your Maximum Leader hasn’t read Bill Clinton’s memoirs. He doesn’t plan to frankly. But there could be a Clinton book out there that he would want to read. Did you see on USA Today how Clinton and historian Taylor Branch met in secret 79 times throughout Clinton’s White House years and recorded interviews about what was going on in Bill’s head at the time? Your Maximum Leader didn’t know. Apparently, until a few days ago, no one knew. Now USA Today knows and has written about it.

Here are some highlights…

Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and civil rights historian, would pick up a notepad of questions and two microcassette recorders and drive his truck down Interstate 95 to Washington. Parking on the South Lawn, he would head to the White House family quarters for interviews so secret Clinton stored the tapes of them in his sock drawer.

What followed sometimes seemed like one of the bull sessions the two had two decades earlier when they shared an apartment in Austin, running George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign in Texas.

In these interviews and a new book that has followed, Branch says he tried to capture Clinton’s unvarnished perspective on the events swirling around his presidency, from the consequential to the occasionally comic.

Reluctant to discuss the affair with Monica Lewinsky that led to his impeachment, Clinton once lamented that it occurred when he felt sorry for himself and that he “just cracked” under the pressure of personal and political setback.

He also relayed how Boris Yeltsin’s late-night drinking during a visit to Washington in 1995 nearly created an international incident. The Russian president was staying at Blair House, the government guest quarters. Late at night, Clinton told Branch, Secret Service agents found Yeltsin clad only in his underwear, standing alone on Pennsylvania Avenue and trying to hail a cab. He wanted a pizza, he told them, his words slurring.

The next night, Yeltsin eluded security forces again when he climbed down back stairs to the Blair House basement. A building guard took Yeltsin for a drunken intruder until Russian and U.S. agents arrived on the scene and rescued him

…

Branch says the two conferred several times about it during the administration’s opening months. Clinton proposed Branch fill the role Arthur Schlesinger Jr. played in the Kennedy administration, a sort of court historian on the White House staff. Branch declined. Clinton tried dictating a diary but found it unwieldy; he said he needed to be interacting with someone.

In September 1993, Branch agreed to do oral history interviews with Clinton until the president could train someone on his staff for that role. No one else was ever trained, and their sessions continued until Clinton left office in 2001.

The president was determined to keep them secret to avoid what he saw as inevitable demands for disclosure.

“I was constantly wrestling with, ‘What is my job?’ ” Branch says. “Basically, my first goal was to say, ‘This is about history. … I want to get as much raw material on the record as possible.’ But it was never that simple.”

Branch was there as a historian but he also was a friend, and Clinton at times would seek his advice. From 1998 to 1999, Branch’s wife worked at the White House as a speechwriter for Hillary Clinton. As Bill Clinton finished his memoirs, he surprised Branch with a $50,000 “bonus” for his help in laying the groundwork for them.

Publication of Branch’s book has underscored the conflicting agendas of friend and historian.

Clinton on several occasions had encouraged Branch to write a book about their sessions, albeit at some undesignated point in the future. The author used the advance he received from the publishing house Simon & Schuster to have his own tapes transcribed; he had stored them in a safe deposit box at a bank.

Those tapes will be available to researchers next year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The former president had planned to use the interviews he had given when he wrote his book, but there is little sign he did. As he neared the deadline to submit his manuscript in 2004, he invited Branch to Chappaqua to read the first 700 pages. Branch was stunned to find that with only a month or two to go until his deadline, Clinton was just beginning to write about his time in the White House.

This looks like good stuff… Your Maximum Leader might actually spring for a copy when it is published. It sounds like it would be a better purchase than the money spent on “Dutch.”

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled in favor of Emily’s List and declared that soft-money donations cannot be limited by law.

According to the piece:

In his opinion, Circuit Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh agreed with Emily’s List that the regulations violated the group’s First Amendment rights to free speech.

“The First Amendment, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, protects the right of individual citizens to spend unlimited amounts to express their views about policy issues and candidates for office,” Kavanaugh wrote. “Similarly, the First Amendment, as the Court has construed it, safeguards the right of citizens to band together and pool their resources as an unincorporated group or non-profit organization in order to express their views about policy issues and candidates for public office. We agree with Emily’s List that the new FEC regulations contravene those principles and violate the First Amendment.”

Your Maximum Leader likes this line of thinking. Indeed, if he had his druthers he would not limit money spent for political activities at all. He would require full public disclosure of any and all donations made to politicians and lobbying groups (no anonymous donations) within 30 days of the donations receipt. He doesn’t mind people spending money in politics in our country. He minds restrictions on money and not knowing who the money comes from.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader hasn’t read the Cap & Trade bill passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year. He’s heard plenty of bad things about it from the usual suspects. (And to be fair, he’s heard opposite arguments from the other set of usual suspects.) On the balance the Cap & Trade system just doesn’t seem to be workable in its current form. Ideally the system would use “market forces” to “reduce carbon emissions.” There seem to be many problems directly relating to how insulated from real “market forces” the system would actually be.

Then of course there is always the issue of cost. On the CBS news blog site:

The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration’s estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.

A second memorandum, which was prepared for Obama’s transition team after the November election, says this about climate change policies: “Economic costs will likely be on the order of 1 percent of GDP, making them equal in scale to all existing environmental regulation.”

The documents (PDF) were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute and released on Tuesday.

Wow. An upper end estimate of $1761.00 per household. Fun! Just what we need to combat falling consumer prices! Your Maximum Leader can hardly wait!

Thanks to Asian Badger for the link.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader loves his Washington Nationals (as readers of this site already know). He tries to get to a half-dozen or so games a year. He also watches many games on TV. For those of you not in the area or who are in the area but do not watch the Nationals, the Nats have an ad campaign this year with the theme of “Natstown.” The ad campaign can be summarized that DC is a baseball town (a debatable premise) and that the center of the DC baseball universe is “Natstown” which is pretty much centered at the stadium on South Capitol Street. The Nationals have “Natstown” T-shirts, commericals on TV, radio ads… It is a pretty comprehensive advertising campaign…

Now the story…

So, about a week before Labor Day your Maximum Leader and the Wee Villain (aged 5) were watching the Nats on TV. One of the Natstown ads came on the TV. The conversation went like this:

Wee Villain: Dad, can we go to Natstown soon?

Maximum Leader: Sure buddy. We’ll go over Labor Day weekend.

WV: Really? That sounds like fun.

ML: Oh yeah. Lots of fun. Baseball. Sunshine. Ben’s Half Smokes. Cheer babes. Racing Presidents. It will be fun.

WV: Great. We need to go.

Well… The whole Villainous Family did go to the game on Sunday before Labor Day. It was a good time (and the Nats pulled out a win in the 9th on the backs of a Willie Harris solo homer and a 2-run Ryan Zimmerman homer). Then after the game we all went out for a huge feast of chinese food. Good times were had by all.

So yesterday night your Maximum Leader and the Wee Villain are watching the Nats/Phillies contest on TV for a few minutes before the Wee Villain had to go to bed. At the mid-inning commerical break the Wee Villain turned to your Maximum Leader and said the unexpected.

WV: Dad. When can we go back to Natstown?

ML: I’m not sure. There aren’t many games left this year.

WV: Dad. Will we go to Natstown next year?

ML: I’m sure we will.

WV: Natstown is the greatest place ever.

ML: Really? Why do you say that?

WV: You can do whatever you want in Natstown. You can eat popcorn and hot dogs. You can play on the playset. And you never go to school.

ML: Is that what Natstown is all about?

WV: Yup. Natstown is great. I wish we could move there. I love it there.

So Stan Kasten and the Nationals marketing staff… Your Natstown ad campaign has worked on at least one fan. Your Maximum Leader hopes you’re happy. (And if you happen to read this, a free Natstown t-shirt would be a great Christmas gift for a 5 year old fan.)

Carry on.