(Mis)Quote of the Day: UBL to Bush (whipping out his tax proposal): My Tax Cut Is Bigger Than Yours.

Osama Bin Laden's latest tape today should infuriate Mr. Bush for more than one reason. Not only does it remind the American public, next year's electorate, that OBL (UBL if you will) is alive and well- the wayward Saudi also outdoes W in a couple of points that he thought were his own points of strength.

Take taxes: OBL offers the American taxpayer conversion to Islam and the automatic kind of cuts that not even Bush, Limbough, and Bob Nardelli, combined, dare advocate. Imagine the flatest of the flat taxes: the Moslem 2.5% Zakat tithe will be all you're required to pay- no progressive rates, no worries about taxes on dividends and capital gains, and no estate taxes. And no need for expensive shelters and attorneys. And to think that Osama never went near the University of Chicago nor studied under Milton Friedman- probably never even heard of him, let alone understood the difference between positive and normative economics. Besides, Friedman was Jewish and definitely a no no for any publicly self-denying shaggy Salafi- besides he was not even an orthodox Jew, a la Wahhabis. He did, however, surprise me by mentioning Noam Chomsky- but Arabs of all political. ethnic, and sectarian stripes seem to love to refer to Chomsky these days.

(Disclaimer: Moslem taxes are a little more complex than that, and there is the alms, Sadaqa, which is more voluntary. Nevertheless, they are much much much simpler and cheaper than the IRS Code- that is why H&R Block will never thrive in the Middle East. Besides, most Arab countries do not really need income taxes: extensive public expenditures are financed directly by state oil revenues in the oil states and by foreign aid in the non-oil states. Voila! Simple, n'est-ce pas?).

Osama also tried , unsuccessfully I think, to wrest the mantle of "Uniter Not Divider" away from Bush. He rambled on about Democrats and others and did not do a good job. It is not likely that his appeal to the American people will resonate anywhere- not even on a post-post-housing debacle-Labor-Day Friday, likely the bluest of blue Fridays this year. Not with the NFL season just starting and the Colts convincingly beating the Saints, and the MLB World Series on the line.

Still, the telling blow, the one that I think drew blood, was the taunt of "my tax cuts are bigger than yours". And it was all in Arabic!

The leader of the terrorist al Qaeda also managed to get one below the belt at Arab dictators, kings, and princes. He did that a la Clinton. Remember how Clinton was rumored to steal Republican ideas as his own? Well, Osama stole the regulation jet-black hair-dye from ruling Arab potentates. As they all do, so did he, for the first time, dye his beard jet black. By imitating the potentates, is he having pretensions at "potency"? Perhaps not, it is most likely that he has only dyed his beard. The others, the rulers, are more consistent: they dye everything.....all over. Or so their peoples say- in private gatherings, of course.
Cheers
Mohammed