TWO FROM WORKING FOR CHANGE

Forgive me; I'm dead tired tonight, so I'm afraid the best I can muster is a couple of links and excerpts. But it's good stuff. Why, the first one comes from uber-Texan Molly Ivins:

The Graft Goes On

Of course, no one would suggest Halliburton and its subsidiaries get government contracts (more than $9 billion for reconstruction work in Iraq, with Pentagon audits thus far showing $1.03 billion in "questioned" costs and $422 million in "unsupported costs") just because Vice President Cheney is still on the payroll. Heavens no. The veep continues to receive deferred pay from the company he formerly headed -- $194,852 last year.

But Cheney has nothing to do with the Halliburton contracts -- that, friends, goes through none other than the noted lobbyist and former head of -- of all things -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Since Joe Allbaugh, who was Bush's campaign manger in 2000, left FEMA in December 2002, he has been busy making sure reconstruction contracts in Iraq go to companies that give generously to the Republican Party.

Now, aren't you ashamed of yourself for thinking there's something wrong with that? Besides, Allbaugh is now with a big-time Washington lobbying firm, where he also represents Shaw Group Inc., and -- viola -- Shaw Group, too, already has a $100 million emergency contract from FEMA for housing management and construction, and a $100 million order from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Katrina repair.

Click here for the rest.

And this next one's even better, from the Washington Post's moderate-liberal columnist E. J. Dionne:

The end of the Bush era

And so the Bush Era ended definitively on Friday, Sept. 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf States after Hurricane Katrina. There was no magic moment with a bullhorn. The utter failure of federal relief efforts had by then become clear. Monday's resignation of FEMA Director Michael D. Brown put an explanation point on the failure. The source of Bush's political success was his claim that he could protect Americans. Leadership, strength and security were Bush's calling cards. Over the last two weeks, they were lost in the surging waters of New Orleans.

But the first intimations of the end of the Bush Era came months ago. The president's post-election fixation with privatizing part of Social Security showed how out of touch he was. The more Bush discussed this boutique idea cooked up in conservative think tanks and Wall Street imaginations, the less the public liked it. The situation in Iraq deteriorated. The glorious economy Bush kept touting turned out not to be glorious for many Americans. The Census Bureau's annual economic report, released in the midst of the Gulf disaster, found that an additional 4.1 million Americans had slipped into poverty between 2001 and 2004.

Click here for the rest.

See? That wasn't so bad. Unless the content of these essays is making you sick to your stomach. That's bad. But you really do need to know what these robber barons are up to: if word gets out, really, really gets out, there's a good chance of the Democrats winning back one or both houses of Congress in '06. That's when the fun really gets started. Investigations out the butt. Impeachment? We can only hope.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$