links for 2008-11-29

There are legitimate questions to be raised about the advertising campaign, but two points are central here: First, the lack of early fund-raising success had a detrimental effect on the ability to set the tone for the campaign and combat the opposition’s early ads. Second, ads that focus on what is deemed important to one group tend to have adverse or unintended effects on other groups. The ads were targeted — based on extensive research — to persuadable “undecideds,” and this ultimately was where the election would be won or lost.

"They almost certainly have not violated their tax exemption," said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the leading advocacy organization on the issue. "While the tax code has a zero tolerance for endorsements of candidates, the tax code gives wide latitude for churches to engage in discussions of policy matters and moral questions, including when posed as initiatives."

Generally speaking, churches, schools, and nonprofits that are 501c(3) organizations are prohibited from spending more than 20 percent of their budgets on political activities, Lynn said, noting that his organization is held to the same standard.

The 20 percent threshold means that the Catholic or Mormon churches, whose organizations span the globe, would have had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars – if not billions – to violate their tax-exempt status.
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No violation here.

California legislators are allowed to own businesses or hold other outside jobs, and 30 report doing so.
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With term limits they need to hold onto gainful employment. Sheesh….

A new poll released Wednesday finds not enough Pennsylvania voters know who Chris Matthews is, and that he would be at a distinct disadvantage in a race against incumbent U.S. Senator Arlen Specter.

Matthews, best known as host of the MSNBC political commentary show "Hardball" has not officially announced he is seeking the Democratic nomination to run against five-term Republican Specter. But he might find such a matchup tough going, according to the results of a Quinnipiac University poll.

Specter leads Matthews among likely Republican voters by a margin of 72 percent to 9 percent. Overall, Specter leads 45 percent to 33 percent; among independent voters, Specter leads 45 percent to 27 percent.
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But, Specter will be 80 and has had cancer twice. Will he hang on?

Russia will complete Iran's first nuclear power plant in 2009, Itar-Tass news agency quoted the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation as saying on Thursday.

The launch of the Bushehr plant's nuclear reactor has frequently been delayed. Russian and Iranian officials have given different dates for the start-up. Iran's foreign minister said last year the plant would launch in mid-2008.

Russia has already delivered nuclear fuel under a $1 billion contract to build the Bushehr plant on the Gulf coast in southwest Iran. Russia has blamed previous delays on problems with receiving payment from Iran.
++++++++and, wanna bet some of the fuel is then diverted to Natanz and the enrichment centrifuges?

Daily List of Conservative Twitterati

A couple days back I asked people following me at Twitter, where I maintain two accounts under hughhewitt and hhradio, who they were and why they wanted to receive my "tweets." The responses underscore the incredible variety of people and motives that have fueled Twitter's explosive growth.

Many are simply looking for show updates –which guests are coming on, which allows for appointment listening or easy selection among podcasts.

Many others want a different sort of communication, though, one that moves outside of the content of the radio program into ideas and experiences that don't make it onto air. Others are using the feeds to advance the online activism they find crucial to the future. Blogger DenverInTranslation.com bemoans that the GOP "is simply not connected."
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Better late than never Hugh.