John Edwards tells California State Democrats to read his lips: there will be new taxes under an Edwards administration.

News that a Democrat wants to raise taxes isn't much of a revelation for most people - sort of like someone telling you the sun rises in the east - but Edwards' description caught my attention because of its creepiness.

Usually calls for tax increases are couched in language about "paying one's fair share," but Edwards called for "an excess-profits, excess-income tax" which strikes me as confiscatory and socialist in a thuggish, Hugo Chavez kind of way.

Lord help us all if President John Edwards and rest of the folks in Washington DC start defining what is to be considered "excess profits" and "excess income."