Barack Obama and Senator Biden, you’ve said no to everything in trying to find a domestic solution to the energy crisis that we’re in. You even called drilling — safe, environmentally-friendly drilling offshore as raping the outer continental shelf.

Sara Palin, on Twitter:

Extreme Greenies:see now why we push”drill,baby,drill”of known reserves&promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR? Now do you get it?

We’ve always been at war with Eastasia? It makes me want to laugh until I think about the power that this person could potentially wield. Then it scares the hell out of me.

The upshot is that he claims the extra $159 billion (on top of the already committed $549 billion) to be spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan isn’t necessary, and should instead be used to pay the income tax on the first $35,000 of income for every taxpayer in the country. As a supporting argument, he shows how current U.S. military spending is about the same as the rest of the world’s military spending combined.

Something’s wrong with his math, though. $159 billion is on the order of $1,000 for each taxpayer in the United States. How does that pay for the taxes on $35,000 of income? Most of that money falls into the 10% and 15% federal tax brackets, so even with a pretty hefty deduction, I’m guessing most people pay at least two or three times that $1,000 on their first $35,000 of income. The deduction wouldn’t even apply for people whose adjusted gross income is over $35,000.

Although those making less than $35,000 pay less in taxes, obviously, is it really enough to make up the difference? Rep. Grayson claims about one third of Americans earn less than $35,000, which overlaps significantly with the 38% with no income tax liability. So that leaves us with about $1,500 per taxpayer — still off by at least a factor of two.

Something just doesn’t add up here, and while I agree with both the sentiment (why do we need to spend as much on military as the rest of the planet combined?) and the general idea of a small tax break for middle-income workers, I’m left with a sour taste in my mouth because politicians invariably twist the numbers to suit their purposes. “We pay your taxes on $35,000″ certainly sounds a lot more impressive than “about $1,500 per taxpayer”, even if it does somehow add up. Not to mention Grayson’s emotional appeal to the third of taxpayers making less than $35,000, who wouldn’t even benefit from it, since they have little or no tax liability.

Phew, good thing my marriage is no longer under attack.

May the generations to come look back on us and be ashamed.

(click for larger version)

I’d always thought that our local Safeway (Rivermark Plaza in Santa Clara, actually a fairly “nice” area) was pretty lax in keeping their milk coolers clean, because of the vile smell of rotten milk when opening the doors. It’s a little hard to see in the BlackBerry photo, but there are several layers (in a few different colors) of congealed milk built up on the shelves — I don’t think these shelves have ever been wiped down. Somehow I never noticed this at Wegman’s.