35 minutes and counting. I've got three client issues to resolve, so this is going to be a long morning....

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Merchants just outside of Chicago are rejoicing today. Cook County's 1% sales tax increase went into effect today. Chicagoans will now pay 10.25% sales tax. If they head to Wheaton (in suburban Dupage County) the tax rate is 7.25%. This won't have a big impact on small items, but will have a huge negative impact for Cook County retailers of large-cost items such as automobiles.

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This past Sunday Wesley Clark appeared on CBS' Face the Nation and criticized John McCain's wartime service, stating,

"John McCain’s never done any of that in his official positions. I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands of millions of others in the armed forces as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee and he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn’t seen what it’s like when diplomats come in and say, `I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to get this point through or not. Do you want to take the risk? What about your reputation? How do we handle it publicly?"

Moderator Bob Schieffer told Clark, "I have to say, Barack Obama has not had any of those experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down. I mean…" This is just a bad issue for Obama to bring up, even through surrogates--it focuses attention on a strength of McCain (his character) and weaknesses of Obama (character and experience). In fact, Senator Obama hasn't had any executive experience, hasn't served in the military, and hasn't ordered the bombs to fall. Well, one of his good friends, Bill Ayers, has planted bombs (but that was in the United States). Jim Geraghty points out that this is the seventh Democratic surrogate who has attacked McCain's wartime service, so this was deliberate.
If you live in Sweden your choice of name for your child can be overruled by the Swedish National Tax Board. Parents wanted to name their daughter "Elvis" but the Tax Board said that name is "too masculine" and "inappropriate as a first name for a woman."

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An interesting article on Dungeons & Dragons in today's Wall Street Journal. [Note: This may be a $pay$ link]. Yes, I played D&D years ago. Somewhere I still have those polyhedral dice....

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The New York Times has an article about how being infected with hookworms can cure your allergies and asthma.. As an allergy sufferer I'm not sure I'd be for having parasites....

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Patti linked to the story about San Francisco flying illegal alien drug dealers back to the city because the city is a "Sanctuary" city. An update to that story shows that several of these drug dealers escaped. Where I likely disagree with Patti is that I don't think there should be sanctuary cities. Or if a city wishes to be one fine--just eliminate all federal funds from that city. Immigration laws are the laws of the country. Either change them, or obey them. There is no "opt-out" for federal laws.

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Total hold time: 52 minutes. And I'm back on hold as the IRS looks at problem #1.