Enron Bosses--Guilty; George Bush--Guilty

From the Nation via AlterNet:

Lay, who President Bush affectionately referred to as "Kenny-boy" when the two forged an alliance in the 1990s to advance Bush's political ambitions and Lay's business prospects, contributed $122,500 to Bush's gubernatorial campaigns in Texas. Lay would later explain to a PBS "Frontline" interviewer that, though he had worked closely with former Texas Governor Ann Richards, the Democrat incumbent who Bush challenged in 1994, he backed the Republican because "I was very close to George W."

And

All told, it is estimated that, over the years prior the company's bankruptcy, Lay, his company and its employees contributed close to $2 million to fund George W. Bush's political rise.

And

As Waxman explained in a 2001 interview, "The fact of the matter is that Enron and Ken Lay, who was the Chief Executive Officer of Enron, had an extraordinary amount of influence and access to the Bush Administration. Lay was called a close friend by both the President and the Vice President. When the Vice President chaired an Energy Task Force, Ken Lay had an opportunity to meet privately with the Vice President and to have a great deal of influence in their recommendations."

Click here for the rest.

I had almost forgotten the now classic Bush statement a week or so after Enron's collapse in late 2001 that it was a business scandal, not a political scandal. And, after Bush distanced himself from "Kenny-boy" Lay by insisting repeatedly, and falsely, that they barely knew each other, after a few show-laws were passed by Congress to illustrate how the GOP frowns on corporate corruption, after the corporate news media happily took the bait, a business scandal is what Enron turned out to be. Of course, that's not really true--that's simply what became of public discussion on the matter. In an era where there seems to be very little practical difference between corporate America and American government, Enron was always a political scandal.

It is impossible to say what political favors Bush spooned from the Oval Office out to the convicted businessman before his company fell; after all, one of the first major and successful political battles waged by the administration was to keep secret the discussions and members of Cheney's energy task force. Remember that? However, judging from the way that business has been done in Washington in the Abramoff era, it's probably safe to say that Ken Lay got back much more than the two million he invested in Bush over the years. If we'd had a real Congress at the time of Enron's collapse, and I'm including the Democrats who had a slim one-vote majority in the Senate for the first two years of Bush's reign, there would have been Whitewater style investigations out the wazoo for months on end. Instead, there was a scramble to make sure that the popular-among-elites business establishment was able to continue uninterrupted. Pathetic.

Just think: if everyone had been doing their jobs, Bush might have felt penned in, might not have ever felt that he had the "political capital" for launching the ill-fated invasion of Iraq. Actually, a Congressional investigation of Bush and Lay's relationship might have also kept Bush from doing all sorts of stupid shit, like suppressing information about global warming and birth control, psychotic tax cuts for the rich, you name it. In the end, Enron is as much about the collapse of one corporation as it is about the collapse of our entire political system.

That's why it's all going to happen again, sooner or later.

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REAL ART THEME
SONG EXPLAINED
The Nairobi Trio

You know, at this point, I'm not one hundred percent sure how I first encountered jazz artist Dick Hyman's tune "Solfeggio," which I've been using for nearly three years as Real Art's theme song. I think that I first found it on the Ernie Kovacs tribute site from which I link the song here, or maybe I first heard it years ago in a history of radio and television class when we were covering Kovacs. I just don't recall. But that's not as important as why I picked the song: in addition to being cool, quirky, and just plain weird, it was originally performed on Kovacs' brilliant old TV shows by three people in gorilla suits, the Nairobi Trio.

From Wikipedia:

The Nairobi Trio was a skit Ernie Kovacs performed several times for his TV shows. It combined many existing concepts and visuals in a new and novel way, and is probably the first comedy bit people think about when Kovacs' name is mentioned.

People in gorilla suits have always been a comedy staple. The notion of well-known or predictable music pieces gone awry has long been practiced by artists as diverse as Stan Freberg, Spike Jones or P.D.Q. Bach. The "slow burn" of one character annoying another resulting in eventual retaliation was not new. But the combination of all those ingredients, combined with impeccable timing, produced a very unique and memorable result.

It was a live-action version of a child's animatronic wind-up music box, performed to the tune "Solfeggio." Allegedly, when Kovacs first heard a recording of the tune, he immediately came up with a mental image of what would become The Nairobi Trio: three gorillas (wearing derby hats and long overcoats) mechanically miming to the music like wind-up toys. In the middle sat the "head gorilla," always played by Kovacs (with a cigar, of course), conducting with a baton or (sometimes) a banana. To the viewer's left another gorilla stood, holding two oversized timpani mallets. (The identity of this ape varied, but among Kovacs' celebrity friends both Jack Lemmon and Frank Sinatra are known to have performed in the skit.) And seated at screen right at a piano was a female simian (often Kovacs' wife, Edie Adams), robotically thumping up and down on the keys.

Click here for the rest.

As longtime Real Art readers know, I think gorilla suits are kickass, almost as funny as rubber chickens. Of course, I've explained most of this before. What makes this explanation different is that I managed to dig up some actual video of the Nairobi Trio doing their thing. And, yeah, it's pretty darned funny.

You'd really be a fool to not go check it out right now.


A Nairobi Trio screen-capture from the Ernie Kovacs show

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FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

Frankie



Paz



Phil



Sammy



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Officials: Hastert "In the Mix" of
Congressional Bribery Investigation

From the ABC News blog the Blotter courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

Federal officials say the Congressional bribery investigation now includes Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, based on information from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with other tribes.

The other tribes were represented by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff who reportedly has provided details of his dealings with Hastert as part of his plea agreement with the government.

Click here for the rest.

Okay, this is one weird story. Of course Hastert immediately denied that he's being investigated, and a DOJ spokesman agreed with him. But then, ABC decided to stick to its story, claiming that their law-enforcement source says it doesn't matter what the DOJ is saying, Hastert is being investigated. To further complicate matters, NPR today suggested that the whole spat has something to do with the weird Congressional furor over the FBI search of alleged bribe-taker Representative William Jefferson's office in the Capitol. This is really confusing. But then, that's no surprise at all when conservatives are concerned: they don't debate these days as much as try to muddy the argument--I think they learned a lot from President Clinton's definition-of-is style of sophistry.

Anyway, what's the deal with this? Is Hastert under investigation or not? As far as I can tell, both answers are technically true. Hastert does not appear to be an official target of the overall Abramoff lobbying investigation, but he is, as ABC's source says, part of the mix. That is, they're looking at him, but haven't yet decided to go balls-to-the-walls after him yet. My bet is that he's well aware of what's going on, and is consciously parsing the official/unofficial line, and bringing in the FBI thing, all for the purpose of confusing you and me, that is, the citizens of these United States.

So, in short, Hastert is under investigation; he's simply not yet a "target." And may never be a target if nothing damning comes up. But if I was a betting man, I'd definitely put money down on Hastert being targeted. He's a DeLay loyalist, after all, and all those guys are rotten to the core.

(Thanks to the Houston Chronicle's new editorial cartoonist Nick Anderson, and the new comment feature for his cartoons, for a couple of these links.)

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ENRON JURORS FIND LAY, SKILLING GUILTY

From the Houston Chronicle:

A federal jury convicted former Enron chiefs Ken Lay on all counts and Jeff Skilling on most counts today, marking the climax of one of the most notorious corporate scandals in U.S. history and nearly ensuring prison time for two of Houston's best-known executives.

The jury heard 16 weeks of testimony and arguments and made its announcement early on its sixth day of deliberations. The eight-woman, four-man panel found Lay guilty of all six counts. They convicted Skilling on 19 of the 28 counts against him.

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake set a sentencing date of Sept. 11. The two men remain free on bond.

In Lay's separate personal banking fraud trial, Lake found Lay guilty on all four counts.

And

When asked whether he could admit that he had broken the law, Skilling replied, "No. I didn't.''

"We fought the good fight,'' Skilling said. "Some things work; some things don't.''

Shortly before 3 p.m., Lay also made a brief statement to the media outside the courthouse: "Despite what happened today, I'm still a very blessed man. At my left is this beautiful lady that's my wife. I have a very warm, loving family. And, most of all I believe God, in fact, is in control and that, indeed God works all things good for all who love the lord. We love our lord, all this will work for good."

Click here for the rest.

Well, I don't have much to say about this other than that I'm glad these two corporate scumbags are getting their comeuppance. But this is no victory for the common man. The conditions that created the context wherein Lay and Skilling's crimes took place still exist, by and large, because the Congressional and SEC reforms enacted in the wake of the wave of corporate and accounting scandals a few years ago essentially amounted to a band-aid over an open artery. That is, Lay and Skilling broke the law because of a business and political culture that rewards and respects vicious corporate behavior. The awful thing is that most white collar crimes like theirs are not even illegal because the cozy relationship between corporate America and Capitol Hill is such that corporations write the laws and staff the agencies that govern them--the Enron gang simply crossed a line, and, given the favorable climate, thought they could get away with it. Indeed, Lay and Skilling still believe that they did nothing wrong. This attitude, that it's not only okay but desirable to shaft rank and file Americans, continues to infect Washington, both the politicians and the law itself. This is definitely going to happen again because nothing has changed.

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Indiana Male, in a Dress, Barred From Prom

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

A male student who has worn women's clothes to school all year was turned away from his high school prom because he was wearing a dress.

Kevin Logan, 18, went to the West Side High School prom on Friday in a slinky fuchsia gown and heels. He believes officials discriminated against him by not allowing him inside.

"I have no formal pictures, no memories, nothing. You only have one prom," he said.

Click here for the rest.

Despite all my views about how the authoritarian nature of the public school system tends to undermine its ostensible mission to educate young Americans, I do believe in dress codes: I think students should wear clothes to school. Any restriction beyond that stifles creativity and personal expression, and in a society that increasingly insists that creativity is something to be consumed, at the mall or on television, rather than lived, self-adornment is currently the lone major bastion of artistic expression for most Americans. It is a moral crime to restrict the way that people dress--unless, of course, one is paid for such a restriction, that is, at work.

Anyway, it's obvious that the schools have no idea how to deal with cross-dressing students. The main objection, no doubt, to such behavior is that it causes disruption to the heavily regulated school environment, and that's completely true. But so what? The schools should just deal with it. Cross-dressing goes beyond simple artistic expression; it is an expression of the self, a statement of identitiy on an extraordinarily deep level. To insist that a student who desires to cross-dress refrain from doing so is every bit as destructive to the psyche as insisting that the non-cross-dresser take a walk on the wild side him or herself.

The article says this kid is considering a lawsuit. I hope he wins.

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NET NEUTRALITY
Pending Internet neutrality
legislation is vital to preserving
independent Web content and expression

From the Houston Chronicle editorial board:

Previously, Federal Communications Commission regulations required telecom companies to provide open access to the Internet. Last year, the FCC eliminated those restrictions. As a result, there are currently no laws to prevent providers from controlling their customers' Internet access.

Officials of some companies recently have suggested policies favoring some content providers over others and restricting users' ability to avail themselves of the full range of the Internet. Telephone companies have sought to prevent broadband customers from utilizing cheap, Internet-based long distance service.

In the face of these encroachments, congressional action is needed to preserve Internet competitiveness. Fortunately, there are several bills percolating in the House of Representatives that could fill the regulatory vacuum.

Click here for the rest.

I'm no tech-head, but the way I understand the situation, internet access providers now have the legal ability to cut lucrative deals with certain bigtime websites, like the Time-Warner owned AOL stuff, which allow those sites to be loaded by you and me, consumers, at a normal speed, while greatly slowing down the load times for all other websites. In other words, this could conceivably spell the end of the free-wheeling free speech oriented nature of the internet for good. And that's a very bad thing. Decades ago when radio technology first hit the scene, and then later with television, there was, at first, the promise of technology revolutionizing communications for the better in America. At that point, free speech had the potential to really take off in this country, making our historically weak democracy much stronger, allowing rank and file citizens to truly have a voice in national affairs. Obviously, that didn't happen. Big businesses, such as General Electric, stepped in, and using their many government contacts, stifled the whole thing before it had a chance to get going. We are in great danger of repeating history. If that happens, the promise of some real democracy will once again be broken.

I don't think I've ever recommended writing your congressman here at Real Art, generally because I don't think it does much good: this has the potential to be a rather desperate situation; write your congressman on this.

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OLD SCHOOL CORRUPTION
Jefferson: Raid ‘outrageous’

From the Baton Rouge Advocate:

Jefferson’s appearance was the first since a search warrant affidavit was released Sunday that contends Jefferson was captured on camera accepting a $100,000 bribe. The money was planted by an FBI informant from northern Virginia who also recorded bribe conversations with Jefferson, the affidavit said.

Jefferson said Monday he would answer the allegations and added that he intends to seek re-election in November. “There are two sides to every story,” Jefferson said. “I plan to carry out my responsibilities here as I have since the time I’ve been here.”

And

Two men already have pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson or abetting in a bribe. Jefferson has not been charged with a crime and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The affidavit states that the informant planted the $100,000 with Jefferson on July 30. On Aug. 3, agents raided Jefferson’s Washington and New Orleans homes and found $90,000 in $100 bills wrapped in aluminum foil in a freezer, the document says.

Click here for the rest.

Ninety grand in the freezer? This certainly is old school corruption, almost Simpsons-like in its brazenness, not at all the complicated, underground, major lobbying conspiracy infecting the GOP, but just as illegal, just as fucked up. There are, indeed, two sides to every story as the Democratic Representative from New Orleans has observed. But he's going to have one hell of a time explaining how he was caught on tape accepting a whole lot of money in exchange for legislative favors. I look forward to his marvelous story. Maybe it involves fairies or leprechauns; I sure hope so. At any rate, this is bullshit, despite the fact that he's dealing with chump change relative to the K Street gang. This guy needs to go down hard and fast. Fuck him.

Damned Democrats are just as money-grubbing as the Republicans. They're just not as good at it.



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Some Iraq war vets go homeless after return to US

From Reuters courtesy of Eschaton:

When the single mother was discharged in April, after her second tour in Iraq, she was 24 and had little money and no place to live. She slept in her son's day-care center.

Gamboa is part of a small but growing trend among U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- homelessness.

On any given night the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) helps 200 to 250 of them, and more go uncounted. They are among nearly 200,000 homeless veterans in America, largely from the Vietnam War.

Advocates say the number of homeless veterans is certain to grow, just as it did in the years following the Vietnam and Gulf wars, as a consequence of the stresses of war and inadequate job training.

Click here for the rest.

Obviously, this is inexcusable. As somebody quoted in the article observes, it's not a lack of money that's behind this: we're spending billions a week over in Iraq; it would take only a tiny fraction of that money to make sure vets are taken care of. I don't think I really need to go into a lengthy explanation as to why the government owes these people. In short, they've put their lives on the line for this country and deserve special status. Period. You know, I just don't understand how the GOP and their supporters can go on and on about how everybody should "support the troops," and then turn around and allow this to happen. How does it support the troops to continue slashing VA budgets? Clearly, "support the troops" is just a political slogan that amounts to a bunch of bullshit.

And why the hell are there 200,000 homeless vets from the Vietnam War?!?

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NAGIN WINS IT

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Nine months after Hurricane Katrina swamped his city and transformed him from virtual shoo-in to ripe target, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin surged to a second term Saturday, besting Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu to maintain leadership of a city still languishing in ruin.

Nagin, a former cable television executive who ran as a political outsider four years ago, overcame withering criticism of his performance in the months since the Aug. 29 storm. Acknowledging that the effort to restore basic municipal services has been painfully slow, Nagin blamed the lack of progress on a failure of state and federal government to come to the aid of a city reeling from the worst urban natural disaster in American history.

With his victory, Nagin kept alive a 60-year win streak for incumbents and continued the era of African-American leadership in the mayor's office, which began when Landrieu's father, Moon Landrieu, left office in 1978.

Nagin's re-election means he will remain at the helm of a daunting recovery effort through 2010, removing an air of uncertainty that even he admitted during the campaign has slowed the rebuilding process.

Click here for the rest.

Strangely, this election wasn't about politics. Well, okay, it was about politics, but not about political issues. As the article observes, Landrieu's and Nagin's policy positions were identical, so voters weren't choosing between different visions of how New Orleans ought to be reconstructed. Instead, as the conventional wisdom goes, this was a referendum on Nagin. Indeed, the Big Easy's Mayor had come under heavy criticism concerning the way he handled the Katrina crisis, before, during, and after. Apparently, he got enough New Orleanians to believe that he did, at least, an okay job, despite the months of mouthing.

And that's kind of my take on it, too. Certainly, what happened with Katrina was a massive, system-wide failure, and Nagin most definitely made mistakes. But I think that Houston's clusterfuck of an evacuation when category 5 Rita was headed in their direction made it obvious to all that evacuating a major city is a problematic concept at best--really, what all cities need is much better oversight and coordination from the Feds, but then, I'm just an actor, so what do I know? The bottom line for most voters in regard to this "referendum," I think, is that Nagin was on the ground during the entire Katrina story, right in the middle of things, all by himself doing his best to kick ass. Landrieu wasn't there. Blanco wasn't there. And Bush just kind of did a fly-by. I think that's how Ray Nagin re-earned his position.

Overshadowing all of this, however, is race. The final analysis is still out, but, in the end, the Picayune seems to think that between the primary and runoff Nagin managed to get enough white votes, twenty percent, to do the trick. Consequently, the election wasn't decided along a strict white-black line. That's a great thing because it will make governing the city that much easier. But it's also great, to me, because I'm of the opinion that only an African-American mayor can assure that New Orleans' enormous black population will get, at least, a shot at a fair shake. Landrieu is a Democrat, yes, but he's also a product of the old and entrenched Louisiana white power structure. As liberal as Democrats seem to be, white Democrats have a tendency, like all white Americans, to overlook and underemphasize the problems facing black Americans. And white Democrats, in the South anyway, usually look to the problems of white citizens first, blacks later. Sometimes much much later. Or never. Let's face it: most black New Orleanians have yet to return because they can't. Their neighborhoods still lie in ruins. Many of these African-Americans, because they are poor and politically powerless, do not have the lobbying resources that whites have. Even with Nagin on the job, I still fear that the needs of whites will be met first, leaving blacks to pick up the scraps dropped from the table. But with Nagin on the job, I am less fearful.

Congrats Mayor Nagin.

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FDA: High levels of benzene found in some drinks

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

The companies that make the drinks have been alerted and either have reformulated their products or plan to do so, the FDA said. Government health officials maintain there is no safety concern, an opinion not shared by at least one environmental group.

The five drinks listed by the government were Safeway Select Diet Orange, Crush Pineapple, AquaCal Strawberry Flavored Water Beverage, Crystal Light Sunrise Classic Orange and Giant Light Cranberry Juice Cocktail. The high levels of benzene were found in specific production lots of the drinks, the FDA said.

Benzene, a chemical linked to leukemia, can form in soft drinks containing two ingredients: Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, and either of the two preservatives: sodium benzoate and potassium benzoate.

Click here for the rest.

I think it's safe to conclude that things are probably worse than the FDA is indicating. After all, it's fairly well known that Federal agencies under the Bush White House have been extraordinarily friendly to the industries they are supposed to regulate, and have, in numerous documented instances, kept important information from public scrutiny, for everything from global warming to pollution levels to stem cell research. I'm betting that the drinks listed in the above excerpt are simply the worst of the worst. It's nice and all that I don't drink the worst of the worst, but I've got to ask: what's really safe and what's not? That's actually a major problem. Americans today have no way of knowing to which toxic substances they are being exposed. Really, the federal government is the only entity with the resources to figure this shit out, but, under Bush, that's just not happening.

Just another thing to worry about.

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REAL ART GOES DARK TIL MONDAY

We're headed to Houston to take care of some business for the next couple of nights, so I won't be posting until late Monday evening. Unless, of course, Miles or Tara find a little cyber-inspiration and put a little something up. Actually, I think Tara is in the midst of a long road trip from her home on the Atlantic to Boulder for work in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, so it's unlikely that we'll be hearing from her. But Miles, I'm pretty sure, is done with his finals at UT, and probably hasn't found a summer job yet, or started summer classes, or whatever he's doing, and most likely has oodles of time for blogging. You hear that, Miles? C'mon, man, you're a journalism student! Get to it, then!

See ya'll Monday.

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Senate Votes English as 'National Language'

From the Washington Post courtesy of the Daily Kos:

After an emotional debate fraught with symbolism, the Senate yesterday voted to make English the "national language" of the United States, declaring that no one has a right to federal communications or services in a language other than English except for those already guaranteed by law.

The measure, approved 63 to 34, directs the government to "preserve and enhance" the role of English, without altering current laws that require some government documents and services be provided in other languages. Opponents, however, said it could negate executive orders, regulations, civil service guidances and other multilingual ordinances not officially sanctioned by acts of Congress.

And

But its author, Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), made two last-minute changes that some opponents said would reduce its effect significantly. By stipulating that the English-only mandates could not negate existing laws, Inhofe spared current ordinances that allow bilingual education or multilingual ballots. By changing the amendment to label English the "national language" rather than the "official language" of the country, Inhofe may have lessened its symbolic power.

And

Further complicating the picture, moments after approving the Inhofe amendment, the Senate voted 58 to 39 to approve a competing amendment by Salazar. It declared English the "common unifying language of the United States," but mandated that nothing in that declaration "shall diminish or expand any existing rights" regarding multilingual services.

Senators said the conflict will have to be worked out in negotiations with the House.

Click here for the rest.

Say what?

This is one weird bill. It doesn't declare English to be the official language; instead, it makes English the "national language." Whatever the hell that means, and, as far as what this article says is actually in the bill, there are apparently no clues there. From what I can tell, I think that "national language" means that it is now patriotically correct to praise English as being better for America than other languages, and that no new programs or laws mandating the use of other languages will be enacted in the future. I think. Frankly, it sounds like the Senate was for English-as-official-language before they were against it. That is, this bill is obviously something of a patchwork quilt, designed to throw bones to as many factions of the GOP as possible, including, of course, both the right-wing xenophobes who are scared shitless of brown people, and the right-wing capitalists who want to exploit the hell out of brown people.

We may very well be watching the disintegration of the Republican Party on this issue.

You know, I've never understood why people seem to be so threatened by Spanish. I mean, I've heard some reasonable people talk about cultural unity, but such arguments seem so abstract as to be uncompelling. I've also heard people talk about how much it costs to print ballots and whatnot in multiple languages, but, again, all budgets considered, we're only talking about a drop in the bucket, which makes this argument uncompelling, too. What we're left with, then, is irrational fear of the unknown, which is just stupid. In Texas, I've had a great deal of interaction with people who speak Spanish as a first language. It's just no big deal. Even interacting with people who don't speak English at all is no big deal. We just stumble through whatever we need to get done with some improvised Spanglish and it all works out. I just don't get why people are so terrified of what, to me, is quite a lengua bonita.

We really do live in a culture of fear.

By the way, over at Emphasis Added rascally Rob Salkowitz has some wise things to say about this issue. Check it out.

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FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

Paz



Frankie and Sammy



Phil



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Marines killed Iraqis ‘in cold blood’

From MSNBC courtesy of This Modern World:

Murtha, a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, said at a news conference Wednesday that sources within the military have told him that an internal investigation will show that "there was no firefight, there was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."

Military officials say Marine Corp photos taken immediately after the incident show many of the victims were shot at close range, in the head and chest, execution-style. One photo shows a mother and young child bent over on the floor as if in prayer, shot dead, said the officials, who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity because the investigation hasn't been completed.

One military official says it appears the civilians were deliberately killed by the Marines, who were outraged at the death of their fellow Marine.

“This one is ugly," one official told NBC News.

Click here for the rest.

It's just like Vietnam all over again, right down to the initial coverup. Murtha's got it completely right: the marines who did this were in all probablity not murderous when they first arrived in Iraq, but the insanity of a long and drawn out unwinnable quagmire is obviously taking it's toll; it's turning good soldiers into evil men. This is probably the issue that makes my heart hurt the most. It's terrible, of course, what's happened to Iraq, all the needless death and destruction brought on by American action--we really are responsible for all this. But the thought that young guys, boys really, who could have been me twenty years ago are being twisted by Bush's psychotic war into violent sick fuckers who will probably never recover just makes me sad.

As Colonel Kurtz said, "the horror..."

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JAMES T. KIRK IS BORN

No, really.

From the AP via the Fairbanks News-Miner courtesy of This Modern World:

Like all parents, Marcus Weldy and his wife Rebecca McInnes Weldy of Nikiski are hoping their newborn baby will live long and prosper, but they went a step further to ensure their son's future.

"We decided to name him James Tiberius Kirk Weldy," said Rebecca in regard to the newest family member who, according to the Captain's Log, was added to the family fleet at 4:31 a.m. on Friday, April 21, 2006.

For those not in the know, James T. Kirk - played by William Shatner - was the commander of the starship Enterprise in the 1960s science fiction series "Star Trek."

Rebecca said she is not a convention-going "trekkie,"as "Star Trek" fans are called, but is a longtime fan of the show.

Click here for the rest.

Riiiight. She's not a "trekkie." Sure. I believe that.

Anyway, people can name their kids whatever they want, I say. And James Tiberius Kirk actually is a pretty cool name, Star Trek or no. You know, this reminds me of some of my own family's culture. Years ago when my younger brother Steve was four or five, he made his first trip to a mother's-day-out program at a nearby church. Apparently, so our family lore goes, when the teacher asked him what his name is he replied, "I'm Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise." The teacher thought it was so funny she told our mother about it when she came back from her "day out." We've been laughing about it now for over thirty years. I think even Steve gets a kick out of it.

I wish I'd thought to do that.

Anyway, here's a pic of the bouncing baby Kirk:



Looks like a tough guy.

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BILL O'REILLY FLIRTS WITH RACISM
Defends white power structure in America

From Media Matters for America courtesy of Eschaton, some of the Butthole's "Talking Points Memo":

O'REILLY: Now in 1986, President Reagan thought he could solve the [immigration] problem by granting about 3 million illegal aliens amnesty. The New York Times was in heaven, editorializing back then, quote, "The new law won't work miracles but it will induce most employers to pay attention, to turn off the magnets, to slow the tide." Of course, just the opposite happened. But the Times hasn't learned a thing. That's because the newspaper and many far-left thinkers believe the white power structure that controls America is bad, so a drastic change is needed.

According to the lefty zealots, the white Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tide, a rainbow coalition, if you will. This can only happen if demographics change in America.

An open-border policy and the legalization of millions of Hispanic illegal aliens would deeply affect the political landscape in America. That's what The New York Times and many others on the left want. They might get it. And that's the "Memo."

Click here for the rest.

I think it's safe to say that the right wing, flirting with racism since Nixon began his "Southern strategy," and picking up after 9/11, has finally been pushed over the edge by the whole illegal immigrant flap. I mean, Ann Coulter's desire to profile "swarthy men," and Michelle Malkin's defense of the Japanese internment camps in the US during WWII were dismissable by me as the ravings of idiot pundits. Of course, O'Reilly's an idiot, too, but never have I heard him essentially supporting American white supremacy. Indeed, the whole immigrant debate has brought out some of the worst racism in public discourse I've heard my whole life--thank god I'm too young to remember some of the bullshit from the 60s; I mean, I know it's been worse before, just not in my lifetime. Anyway, it's amazing to me how the most mainstream of conservative pundits are now sounding more like David Duke than William Buckley. And the corporate media are letting these freaks get away with it.

You know, I think I'm stealing some of these ideas from David Neiwert over at Orcinus: he's written at great length about how the far-right extremist fringe has become lately a sort of testing ground for intolerance; that is, the far far right is now where the far right appears to be getting its ideas. What was unthinkable ten years ago is now part of the overall debate. You really should go over to Neiwert's site and check out the links in the left margin to some of his trademark essays. He's a pretty brilliant guy.

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GET READY FOR INFLATION HELL
Either that, or insanely high interest rates

From Knight-Ridder via the Houston Chronicle:

It all adds up to pressure on the Fed to keep raising interest rates. Its mission is to control inflation — the increase in prices across the economy — and its main tool is the federal funds rate, the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans, which serves as a benchmark for commercial bank lending rates to consumers and businesses alike.

On May 10, the Fed's Open Market Committee raised the funds rates to 5 percent, the highest level in five years and the 16th consecutive increase since June 2004. Many hoped that the Fed wouldn't raise it again at the next meeting, June 28-29.

But Wednesday's numbers make another quarter-point increase seem probable.

For many Americans, the inflation data confirm what they're feeling in the wallet: A dollar isn't stretching as far. From April 2005 to April 2006, inflation ran at an annualized rate of 3.5 percent, while core inflation was at 2.3 percent. Energy-price inflation during that period was 17.8 percent.

On top of that, businesses' costs are soaring for energy, copper, other metals and other raw materials. With the economy growing rapidly in recent months, executives find they can pass more of these costs to consumers.

Click here for the rest.

Obviously, a lot of these inflationary pressures are because of oil: oil lubes everything in the economy, and, consequently, when oil prices rise steeply, all prices rise. But I wonder if it's just the oil. I posted recently about how federal deficit spending stands to trigger inflation which would surely result in higher interest rates in order to combat it. I'm still not sure if deficits have become high enough to start the downward inflationary spiral yet, but it seems to me that it's only a matter of time. The terrible stagflation of the 1970s was caused by, to the best of my knowledge, a very similar situation to what we have today. That is, massive spending on the Vietnam War coupled with an expansion in domestic spending crashed headlong into the oil crisis early in the decade. The result was self-sustaining inflation paired with recession: only a steep rise in interest rates along with some clever supply-side economic policy was able to pull us out. Unfortunately, the cure was a bitter economic pill for millions of working Americans who never really recovered from it. Today, we haven't expanded domestic spending as far as I know, but the psychotic tax cuts for the rich that Bush just signed into permanency amount to the same thing. In other words, we may very well be in for some deep shit, and, frankly, I don't think Bush and his advisors are really willing to do what it takes to head this off at the pass.

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CRAZY PEOPLE CAN SAY ANY CRAZY
THING THEY WANT ON THE INTERNET

I posted late Sunday night a link to an article originating on the truthout site that Karl Rove had already been indicted, although it has not yet been announced, and that the White House gossip is that he's essentially telling staffers there about it. The ever wise Rob Salkowitz of Emphasis Added dropped by to splash a little cold water on my face.

From Real Art comments:

This would be great if true. Rove has denied it, the mainstream press is utterly silent about it, and even some on the left are wondering how this reporter managed to scoop everyone on such an important story. I'm keeping my hopes low at this point, so I can only be pleasantly suprised and not disappointed.

My response:

Well, of course, this is speculative, based on what appears to be gossip. But you're right to keep your expectations low--I guess DeLay's resignation, which would have been completely unbelievable to me in 2003, has got me in an optimistic mood these days.

Turns out that there's more smoke here than even Rob knew about, maybe even some fire. This story is, indeed, a bit fishy.

From Salon courtesy of Eschaton:

Karl Rove, Jason Leopold and the hunt for the truth

We contacted Leopold again this week when Rove's spokesman denied his most recent story in interviews with the New York Sun and Byron York of the National Review. We asked Leopold the following questions:

* Are you standing by the story? And by "the story," I don't mean that Rove's indictment is imminent, but rather the story that you reported: that Rove has already been indicted, that Fitzgerald met with Luskin for "about 15 hours" Friday, that Fitzgerald "served" Rove's attorneys with a copy of an indictment, and that Fitzgerald told Luskin that Rove had "24 hours" to get his affairs in order.

* If you're standing by the story, can you shed any light on why your report is so different than the characterization Rove's spokesman is offering?

* TalkLeft says you claim to have spoken four times with Rove spokesman Mark Corallo over the weekend. Corallo tells TalkLeft that he's never spoken to anyone who identified himself as "Jason Leopold." Corallo seems to be suggesting that you may have identified yourself as someone named "Joel" from the Sunday Times of London. Can you explain?

Leopold didn't answer any of the questions. This is what he said instead:

"Call anyone else besides Corallo, Luskin? Have you ever tried to go beyond the spokesman for a story? Did you call [Fitzgerald spokesman Randall] Samborn? Have you tried to find out where Rove was Friday? Did you call the White House? Did you do any digging? No, you didn't. Call the White House. Find out where Rove was.

Click here for the rest (you'll have to click through an annoying ad to get there, though).

The Salon article also notes that this truthout reporter, Leopold, has played fast and loose with the truth before, lifting text from other people's articles, and presenting as facts events that cannot be verified. At any rate, this now sounds, to me at least, like the same sort of reporter fibbing that has plagued bigtime news outlets like USA Today and the New York Times. It's a bit surprising because the bigtime reporters are, well, bigtime, and Leopold is strictly smalltime internet potatoes. I guess every pond has a scramble to see who's going to be the big fish.

Not that the report is necessarily wrong. But given this guy's troubled past, given how he's responded to criticism, and given the fact that pretty much no other paper has picked up on the story, my skepticism has gone way up on whether Rove has actually already been indicted. Sorry to lead you astray. It's just that the story was so damned believable.

Anyway, I hope to have a more proper celebration if and when the indictment really does come down.

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Roger Clemens' Family Offers Him
One-Year, $10 Million Contract

From the Onion:

HOUSTON—Representatives from the Clemens family met with the star pitcher over an informal dinner Tuesday evening to discuss the possibility of keeping Roger Clemens home for one more season, sources close to the family reported.

Baseball analysts are calling the one-year, $10 million contract a last-ditch effort on the family's part to bring the seven-time Cy Young Award winner and three-time World's Greatest Dad back to his roots.

"It's hard to put a dollar amount on what Roger has historically meant to this family," said Clemens' wife Debbie, who has been handling most of the negotiations. "Many of the younger members of this organization really look up to Roger—growing up, he was their hero. Now Roger has the chance to be a kind of mentor to guys like Kacy and Kody. They have really been lacking the strong veteran presence that's so crucial at this point in their careers."

"We need you, Roger," Debbie added. "Please come home."

Click here for the rest.

Okay, if you have no idea why this is funny, my apologies. To further your annoyance, I've got to add that the explanation I'm about to give will probably not do anything to make you laugh. Ah, well. You can't please everybody. Anyway, this is funny, to me at least, because, as you probably know, I check the Houston Chronicle website pretty much everyday. Part of that is scanning the sports headlines. I'm not a huge sports fan--well, I'm a big football fan, but not of sports in general. But I do kind of like baseball; I was extraordinarily happy when the Astros made it to the World Series for the first time in club history last fall. Part of the reason they made it so far is former Longhorn pitcher Roger Clemons.

I was pretty amazed when we first got him: he had just retired from the Yankees, and his hometown team, which is also my hometown team, then spent weeks in negotiations to woo him out of his newfound freedom and back onto the mound. While this was going on, there was a story in the Chronicle sports section pretty much every other day about whether or not we were going to get him. It was, in effect, a sort of baseball soap opera in print, dealing with the drama of mundane contract and incentive issues. The story had a happy ending, of course. Then Clemons retired again after last year's Series.

After that, the Chronicle sports section once again returned to the Clemons contract storyline. Was he really serious about retirement? Could we get him for just one more season? Then the season started without him and the stories died off. A few weeks back, however, some sort of free agency deadline passed, and the stories started up again. Was he really serious about retirement? Could we get him for just one more season? I have no idea what's going on with that; I haven't seen any stories for over a week.

But, given Clemons' talent and experience, it doesn't surprise me at all that his family is trying to steal him out from under the Astros' noses. Personally, I think he'd be much more effective at Minute Maid park than he would be playing catch with his two young sons in the back yard. I mean, who the hell do these people think they are? Bunch of minor leaguers, if you ask me.

Damned families.

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