And on my right ...

This is turning out to be a great holiday.

First, Jay (Folkbum) Bullock does comprehensive coverage of the school choice issue, so that your faithful scribe can get away with only a few scribbles and a link to his writings.

Now comes Dennis York, from the right side of what Bullock calls the Cheddarsphere, with an insightful commentary on the push for "campaign finance reform." Again, while I don't agree with every last word York writes, I agree with 98%, which is enough to let me simply offer this link to his blog. A sample:

For finance reformers, however, full transparency in fundraising isn't enough. They see the whole process of fundraising as evil, and therefore want to all but end that practice, as well. Not only do they not want you to be able to contribute to a candidate of your choice if you support their ideals, they want to control how much you can hear from that candidate during an election and mandate how much of your tax money that candidate will get to run their campaign. Think back to the last campaign you lived through -- are campaign ads really something you think need taxpayer support? Do we really need to subsidize mudslinging between candidates when we have other funding priorities? Campaigning is hard work, and one of the signs of a good candidate is one that is willing to do the unpleasant work of fundraising. By essentially socializing the campaign process, you are providing a government subsidy to many lazy candidates who are unwilling to do the hard work.