MORE ON THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL
WESTAR ENERGY SCANDAL

"It never ceases to amaze me that people are so cynical they want to tie money to issues, money to bills, money to amendments," said DeLay, whose Texans for a Republican Majority PAC received a $25,000 Westar corporate contribution.

Some Democrats and Public Citizen, the citizen advocacy group, have called on the Justice Department to determine whether federal bribery laws have been broken.

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who received Westar contributions as a Senate candidate, this week declined to say whether he would recuse himself from matters involving the company, the Associated Press reported. Rep. John Conyers (Mich.), ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, yesterday called on Ashcroft to appoint a special counsel to investigate the Westar controversy in order to "offer the public the assurances that the investigation is being done fairly and impartially."

Even though this is very serious business, it's really hard not to laugh at the situation these guys are in. DeLay spouts his usual stream of stupidity, no doubt caused by brain damage resulting from his many years of inhaling bug poisons while he operated his "successful small business" in Sugarland, Texas. Ashcroft, also stupid, but not brain damaged, apparently knows when to shut up.

Hahaha.

But make no mistake: this brewing scandal is simply business as usual; we only know about it because of Westar's newly elected corporate board of directors cleaning house and 'fessing up, an unprecedented situation. Nailing a few Republican Congressmen won't fix the problem. Overhauling campaign finance and changing the American culture of greed, however, will fix the problem.

Of course, I'm not holding my breath.

Click here.

Thanks to Eschaton.

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TAX CUTS AS LONG TERM POLITICAL STRATEGY
Screwing the Poor, Making Love to the Rich

Back in January, I speculated that Bush's extremely huge, extremely irrational tax cuts were riffing on fascist economist Milton Friedman's theory about cutting social programs: cut the budget so sharply that the federal government simply cannot pay for a social safety net--conservative politicians should use politically popular tax cuts to lock in a third world approach to US society. More respectable writers than me have drawn the same conclusion.

Atlantic Monthly senior editor Jack Beatty writes:

By any definition, not acting now to narrow the gap between revenues and outlays is a dereliction of fiduciary responsibility. Cutting taxes in the face of it is willful recklessness. But this policy failure is a political success for the Rove/Bush strategy of keeping the sun from setting on the GOP era. Rove is open about the alchemy required. He laid it out for his Boswell, the invaluable Nicholas Lemann, of The New Yorker. Tax cuts and budget deficits will starve the government of funds for discretionary spending on things like after-school programs, health care, and public transportation. Receiving fewer services, Americans will demand tax relief. The idea is to create a permanent constituency for tax cuts, especially among poorer Americans, those "lucky duckies," in the words of a Wall Street Journal editorial, who pay little or no federal income taxes now. The Journal, the Administration's oracle on taxes, says the key to cutting government is to shift more of the tax burden on to the people at the lower end of the economic spectrum—those who work at Wal-Mart, who clean office buildings, staff nursing homes and school cafeterias. Since most state tax codes follow the federal template, the Bush cuts will trigger state income tax cuts, which will force more reductions in state spending and/or increases in state sales and local property taxes to balance state budgets. Sales and property taxes fall with painful severity on the less affluent. Piece by piece, under successive tax revolts, the regulatory responsibilities assumed by the federal government beginning a hundred years ago will be abandoned, and the programs of the Great Society (Medicare, Medicaid, Federal Aid to Education, Head Start, etc.) and the New Deal (Social Security) will be hollowed out, dismantled, or privatized.

Click here.

Thanks to Eschaton.

Over at ZNet, Noam Chomsky says pretty much the same while pondering Republican campaign strategy during an overall meditation on the American Empire and White House warmongering:

And that's true and what they want do is not just to stay in office but they would like to institutionalize the very regressive program put forward domestically, a program which will basically unravel whatever is left of New Deal social democratic systems and turn the country almost completely into a passive undemocratic society, controlled totally by high concentration of capitals. This means slashing public medical assistance, social security; probably schools; and increasing state power. These people are not conservatives, they brought the country into a federal deficit with the largest increase in federal spending in 20 years, that is since their last term in office- and huge tax cuts for the rich, and they want to institutionalize these programs. They are seeking a "fiscal train wreck" that will make it impossible to fund the programs. They know they cannot face an election declaring that they want to destroy very popular programs, but they can throw up their hands in despair and say, "What can we do, there's no money," after they have made sure there would be no money by huge tax cuts for the rich and sharp increase in spending for military (including high tech industry) and other programs beneficial to corporate power and the wealthy.

Click here.

It's time to end the anti-taxes dogma. Taxes are not bad; they are necessary. Taxes are not "punishment for the successful;" they are what keeps the country up and running. Conservatives have convinced the country that tax cuts equal good times: even though this is occasionally true, much of the time it is not. There are only three real questions to be asked about taxes. Who gets taxed? How much? Where does the tax money go? I think it's fairly obvious what the conservative answers to those questions are: tax cuts and payoffs for the rich, bleed the working and middle classes by cutting social programs and raising sales taxes (which almost never trouble the wealthy). It's one thing to stimulate the economy by providing tax relief to the middle class who will actually spend the money; it's quite another to fatten the bank accounts of already wealthy political campaign donors. "Trickle down" just doesn't work--wealthy investors don't have the same kind of economic punch as millions of rank and file consumers buying toothpaste and refrigerators do. It's one thing to be rooting out, say, Medicaid fraud; it's quite another to be trying to simply abolish Medicaid for ideological reasons. The free market fundamentalists want us to believe that the magical market will solve all our social woes, that the federal government always spends tax dollars unwisely. I suppose that HMOs are better than socialized medicine...

NOT!

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REAL EDUCATION
Report Card Becky

A Florida high school freshman confronts the President's brother on the issue of class sizes:

''I voted against the class size amendment because I think it restricts strategies for learning, and to me the more important thing is our children learning -- not how many kids are in a class,'' he said.

Wait a minute, when students are crammed into a classroom, learning can become much more difficult.

And

Gov. Bush did not buy my argument.

Class size isn't the only factor in learning how to read, he said.

''There are a lot of other elements to reading that are important,'' he said, noting that teacher qualifications and the use of reading specialists play a big role.

The governor also likes the idea of filling in the gaps with teachers' aides.

At this point, all I could think of was my fifth-grade class, which was packed with 37 kids.

You go, girl!

Click here.

I am so sick of people who don't know the damndest thing about education pontificating as though they were experts. I'll get right to the point: lowering class sizes to around ten students per classroom is probably the best way to greatly increase learning in all schools. That class size is somehow irrelevant is an argument who's sole purpose is to save money, not to enhance learning. Education is wealth's favorite sacrificial lamb.

Comedian, Bill Maher, a self-described reluctant conservative, who I nonetheless like a lot, better articulates the argument than does the election-rigging Florida governor, Jeb Bush: "I went to Catholic boys school and I had a good education in large classes." Maher's statement also shows why so many who are so ignorant of how education actually functions see themselves as educational experts--they all went to school, therefore they know all about it; their experience as students makes them believe that they fully understand teaching.

Obviously, being a teacher and being a student are two entirely different things--sadly, this is only one issue out of many on which conservative logic is decidedly screwy. Of course, because the logic is screwy, the conclusion is just straight up wrong. Maher managed to get a good education because he was highly motivated to do so. You don't go to private school unless your family wants you to succeed. That the school was religious is a fact that shows how his learning was also part of a familial world view, a family sense of cultural identity. Maher had his parents pushing from one side, the church from another, and, most likely, his own sense of self-worth from within. In other words, Maher educated himself, while his teachers helped out.

That's pretty much how it was with me at public school. Learning was my responsibility and I took it seriously. In retrospect, very few teachers had any profound effects on me--most were taskmasters and managers, assigning worksheets and such, all routine and order. I learned because my family impressed on me that it was important that I do so.

But what do you do with students from homes where learning is not so prized? Students from broken homes? Students with drug problems? Students who can't read? Students with mental health issues? Students with ADD (a very real, if overdiagnosed, problem)? African-American students who might see excelling in school as "acting white?" Girls with eating disorders? As if being a teenager wasn't difficult enough...

Given a heterogeneous student population, large class sizes mean two things to me as a high school teacher: first, discipline and classroom management issues take up the lion's share of my instructional energies; second, many students are able to fall through the cracks--that is, pass the course, but not really understand the subject. It's really quite simple to see how this works. If I had a class size of, say, ten students, the four or five discipline prone students that I might have in a class of thirty decrease to one or two. More importantly, with smaller classes I would be able to have a great deal more individual interaction with students, to see if my students really get it, to keep trying until they do. Tests are a monkey show: the only real way to assess learning is to know the students well, to create a real student-teacher relationship in the Socratic sense. In short, a small class is a true learning experience. A large class is ultimately warehousing kids, sink or swim.

It's funny. Contrary to popular views, I personally believe that I am paid quite well for what I do. Compared to my previous job, waiting tables, the steady paycheck, benefits, and vacation time can't be beat. I mean, $35k for babysitting! An idiot could do it!

In fact, come to think of it, many of my colleagues are idiots.

Thanks to Eschaton for the link.

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STILL NOT AFRAID OF THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT?
Meet 'The Family'

The Family is, in its own words, an "invisible" association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men. Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as "members," as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.).

Regular prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries.

And

The goal is an "invisible" world organization led by Christ – that's what they aspire to. They are very explicit about this if you look in their documents, and I spent a lot of time researching in their archives. Their goal is a worldwide invisible organization. That's their word, and that's important because it sounds so crazy.

What they mean when they say "a world organization led by Christ" is that literally you just sit there and let Christ tell you what to do. More often than not that leads them to a sort of paternalistic benign fascism. There are a lot of places that they've done good things, and that's important to acknowledge. But that also means they might be involved with General Suharto in Indonesia and if that means that God leads him to kill half a million of his own citizens then, well, it would prideful to question God leading them.

I'm normally quite dismissive of conspiracy theories. The right wing is getting away with so much in plain daylight these days that chasing down bizarre intrigues as though I was Agent Mulder seems to be a waste of time. I am, however, quite drawn to conspiracy theorists who keep saying, "It's not really a conspiracy theory, but..." The denial lends some small bit of credibility. I also believe that religion can make people do strange and destructive things: this Alternet post is yet another piece of information to make the world feel just a bit more creepy.

Click here.

Thanks to my old buddy, Matt, for the link.

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REMEMBERING CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER MEDGAR EVERS

I remember the days when we could not register and vote, when our lives were threatened, our jobs and our homes could be taken away from us. And I remember the questionnaire we were assigned that asked you to interpret a section of the Constitution. If your interpretation was not to the satisfaction of that clerk, who might have had a seventh-grade education while you had a master's degree, you would fail.

I remember the jar of beans that we were to give an accurate count of or fail. We were asked how many bubbles were in a bar of soap. Today, Mississippi enjoys the reputation of having among the largest number of black elected officials in the nation.

Click here.

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GOP: No need for further probe of Iraqi arms claims

Click here.

Republican leaders dismissed calls by Democrats for a full-blown congressional investigation into whether the Bush administration exaggerated prewar evidence of Iraqi weapons programs, while promising Wednesday to explore the matter thoroughly in routine hearings.

In closed routine hearings, that is. If this was a hearing about Clinton instead of Bush, and the MacGuffin was a semen stained blue dress instead of the non-existent WMDs, all of Washington would be in circus mode.

Sex is bad; violence is good...

Here's something from the above linked Houston Chronicle article that's even more depressing:

But a couple of recent polls show that, at least to this point, the public doesn't care too much if the weapons are found:

· A CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll released last week found that 56 percent of Americans said that deposing Saddam was justified even if proof of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction are never found.

· A Fox News Poll released Monday said 69 percent of people would still believe the war was the right decision even if such weapons are never uncovered.

As my very conservative older brother once said in disgust about Clinton, I now say in disgust about Bush, "God, the guy could shoot heroin on prime time TV and get away with it!"

Thanks to Eschaton for the Boston Globe link.

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ALL ABOUT EVIL HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER TOM DELAY
'Some Crazy Guy'

From the latest Paul Krugman essay:

So what will Mr. DeLay and his associates do with their lock on power, once it is firmly established? They will push through a radical right-wing agenda. For example, expect to see much less environmental protection: Mr. DeLay has described the Environmental Protection Agency as "the Gestapo."

Above all, expect to see the wall between church and state come tumbling down. Mr. DeLay has said that he went into politics to promote a "biblical worldview," and that he pursued President Clinton because he didn't share that view. Where would this worldview be put into effect? How about the schools: after the Columbine school shootings, Mr. DeLay called a press conference in which he attributed the tragedy to the fact that students are taught the theory of evolution.

There's no point in getting mad at Mr. DeLay and his clique: they are what they are. I do, however, get angry at moderates, liberals and traditional conservatives who avert their eyes, pretending that current disputes are just politics as usual. They aren't — what we're looking at here is a radical power play, which if it succeeds will transform our country. Yet it's considered uncool to point that out.

For the truth about Sugarland's most notorious bug man, click here (blasted NY Times registration procedure...).

Thanks to Eschaton.

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FAREWELL GREGORY PECK

From To Kill A Mockingbird:

Atticus: There are some things that you're not old enough to understand just yet. There's been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn't do much about defending this man.

Scout: If you shouldn't be defending him, then why are you doing it?

Atticus: For a number of reasons. The main one is that if I didn't, I couldn't hold my head up in town. I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do somethin' again. (He puts his arm around her.) You're gonna hear some ugly talk about this in school. But I want you to promise me one thing...that you won't get into fights over it, no matter what they say to you.

Story.

Gregory Peck.

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AMERICA'S PASSTIME
Astros score historic no-hitter in 8-0 victory over Yankees

"You can't expect to no-hit any major-league team," Astros manager Jimy Williams said. "But sometimes it happens. But usually with one (pitcher), maybe two. But not six. It just happened."

The Astros have now thrown 10 no-hitters in franchise history, the last being Darryl Kile's 7-1 victory on Sept. 8, 1993. The Yankees have been no-hit only seven times in their rich history, and they had gone exactly 6,890 games since being no-hit on Sept. 20, 1958, by Hall of Fame knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm of the Baltimore Orioles.

The last time New York was held hitless at Yankee Stadium was on Aug. 25, 1952, by Detroit's Virgil Trucks.

And

The crowd at Yankee Stadium was well aware, however, and the Astros appreciated the standing ovation they received. For one night, at least, the place and the history belonged to them.

By the time the Astros returned to their clubhouse, the Yankees had left a bottle of champagne in front of the locker of all six pitchers.

"That's how the Yankees are, they're pretty classy," Wagner said.

Click here.

Every now and then something happens that makes me realize that I am not really a cynic.

I'm not really that much of a baseball fan. Baseball is slow. It tends to be long and boring (I much prefer football). I was never a very good player when I was young--coaches often sent me to the outfield where the balls hit by other children rarely went. As I grew older, the sport became increasingly associated with jock culture, from which I was slowly moving away. By the time I was in high school, some of the biggest jerks I knew were arrogant butthole baseball players (to be fair, I also knew some pretty cool baseball players, but they seemed to be in the minority). I've been pretty ho-hum about baseball for many years.

But like it or not, baseball remains a part of my identity because I am an American. Like many, many other American men, as a child I participated in the yearly springtime ritual of little league baseball (stunningly represented by the "good game" moment in the Richard Linklater film Dazed and Confused) from kindergarten through the sixth grade. I have vivid recollections of my little league days: the smell and taste of dust and chalk and grass, the smell of leather baseball gloves, free snowcones for recovered foul balls, Super Bubble apple flavor bubble gum, itchy uniforms, cool hats, chatter from the outfield--"hey batter, batter, batter...SWING!" These are all sweet memories.

And I have many other baseball memories. I remember from Hogan's Heroes and the numerous WWII films I watched as a kid, that the best way to uncover a suspected German spy is to ask him who won the World Series in, say, 1934. I remember Joe Dimaggio hawking coffee makers; I remember Steve Garvey singing about that special something possessed by an "Aqua-Velva man." I remember Tommy Lasorda's Los Angeles Dodgers and Billy Martin's New York Yankees. I remember the Pittsburgh Pirates' "We Are Family" season. I remember following Pete Rose's hitting streak. Much later, I remember being in New York City in October of 1996 when the Yankees won the World Series for the first time in over a decade--the moment the game ended, I heard, from inside the apartment where I watched the final game, the spontaneous sounds of celebration that immediately erupted througout the city; I felt like I was a part of it all.

I remember Yogi Berra's immortal line, "It ain't over 'til it's over," being repeated endlessly throughout my entire life.

But my favorite memories are of my home team, the Houston Astros (often lovingly called the "Lastros"). I remember the Astrodome's gee-whiz light show (later torn down for more seating). I remember watching Larry Dierker pitching on TV when I was four or five years old. I remember several Astros uniform changes, from a classic baseball style, to the orange dominated rainbow look of the 70s and 80s, back to a more classic look, to the modified classic look of today. I remember Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott and 1986's oh-so-close to the World Series season. I remember good, old Larry Dierker arising from the past/broadcast booth to rejoin the Astros as their manager. I remember Craig Biggio smoking a cigar while riding around the Astrodome on a motorcycle celebrating their division win during Dierker's first year back.

It's pretty strange that, even though I don't really care about baseball (and I also believe that professional sports, along with pretty much the entire entertainment industry, diverts the population from paying any attention to important political issues), I really love the cultural institution of baseball.

Earlier tonight while flipping around channels on TV, I happened on the game at some point between the eighth and ninth innings. Excited announcers related what was going on. "Wow," I thought, "this is pretty cool." I figured I could waste a little time and watch how the no-hitter in progress would play out. I put on my Colt .45s hat (the Astros' original name from the early 1960s, before a certain arms manufacturer threatened a lawsuit), and settled down to watch some baseball history in the making. It was, indeed, pretty cool.

Watching that final inning, I felt more American than I've felt in a long, long time. It felt pretty damned good. America is not about tanks and planes and guns and soldiers. America is about baseball. America is about the uplifting cultural institutions and functions that we all share, that unite us.

Baseball is something that the conservative parrot-pundit, George Will, and I, a leftist progressive, both have in common. Now, isn't that something?

ONE FINAL NOTE: My old school, the University of Texas, just sent its baseball team to the College World Series. Hook 'em 'Horns!

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Cesspool on the Potomac

by Lisa Simpson

The city of Washington was built on a stagnant swamp some 200 years ago, and very little has changed. It stank then, and it stinks now. Only today, it is the fetid stench of corruption that hangs in the air. And who did I see taking a bribe but the "Honorable'' Bob Arnold! Don't worry, Congressman, I'm sure you can buy all the votes you need with your dirty money! And this will be one nation, under the dollar, with liberty and justice for none...

[booed off the stage]

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POLITICAL LINGUISTICS LESSON:
"WMDs" shift to "programs to create WMDs"

Bush used the term "program" in three consecutive sentences on the issue Monday. "Iraq had a weapons program," Bush told reporters. "Intelligence throughout the decade showed they had a weapons program. I am absolutely convinced, with time, we'll find out that they did have a weapons program."

And

Critics contend the word "program" is too imprecise to be meaningful. "It can mean anything," said Mel Goodman, a retired CIA analyst. "It can mean documents, anything; no matter how benign, they will find some various purpose for it."

A clear rhetorical strategy anticipating that no WMDs will be found in Iraq. Given the lousy state of US journalism, the ploy just may work.

Click here.

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LIBERATION
War's civilian deaths innumerable

The AP's finding: At least 3,240 civilians died throughout the country, including 1,896 in Baghdad. The count is still fragmentary, and the complete number -- if it is ever tallied -- is sure to be significantly higher.

Click here.

So...does that mean that we've finally avenged our WTC dead, or do we now need to kill thousands of Iranians, too?

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WASHINGTON'S OTHER BREWING SCANDAL
WeaponsGate: The Coming Downfall of Lying Regimes?

The most dramatic revolt against George W. Bush and Tony Blair can be seen from the high-level leaks of classified information from the top levels of American and British intelligence. Just consider that the United States has never experienced such repeated leaks of classified information since the years of the spies in the 1980s, a time when a number of intelligence employees were caught selling U.S. secrets to the Russians and Israelis. Yet, the current leaks are not acts of treason, but acts of unbridled patriotism.

The leaks from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), CIA, State Department, and other agencies are testimony to the deep divisions within the Bush administration over the phony war on Iraq. Intelligence agencies that are often at odds with one another over policy have united like never before in blowing the whistle on the neo-con agenda. The Bush administration lied flat out over the Iraqi WMDs and Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. It's just that simple. Career intelligence officers, who know the penalties for the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, are showing more courage than most of the Democrats in Congress who seem more fearful of the neo-cons and their supporters than in exposing "Weaponsgate."

As Michael Moore said at the Oscars, "Any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up."

Click here.

Thanks to J. Orlin Grabbe.

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HOW "DEMOCRACY" WORKS:

Congressmen Caught Red Handed

OR

Absolute Proof That Corporate Cash Runs the Country

One executive of Westar Energy Inc. told colleagues in an e-mail that "we have a plan for participation to get a seat at the table" of a House-Senate conference committee on the Bush administration's energy plan. The cost, he wrote, would be $56,500 to campaign committees, including some associated with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.), Rep. Joe Barton (Tex.), Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (La.) and Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.).

The e-mail said Tauzin and Barton "made this request" for donations, and Shelby "made a substantial request" for another candidate. It not specify a direct request from DeLay.

And

"Right now, we have $11,500 in immediate needs for a group of candidates associated with Tom DeLay, Billy Tauzin, Joe Barton and Senator Richard Shelby," the e-mail said. It said DeLay's "agreement is necessary before the House Conferees can push the language we have in place in the House bill." Tauzin and Barton "are key House Conferees on our legislation. They have made this request" for contributions to other Republican candidates "in lieu of contributions made to their own campaigns."

Lawrence's e-mail called Shelby "the lead Republican on all Senate PUHCA related matters. He is our anchor on the Senate side. He made a substantial request of us for supporting" Tom Young, Shelby's chief of staff, who in 2002 was running for a House seat from Alabama.

Click here.

Wow.

Of course, I've believed for years that corporations actually rule America, but this is the kind of smoking-gun proof that makes it pretty hard to deny, even for the most conservative, most Republican, most heavily propagandized and indoctrinated 'Mercuns down here in Bush country, a.k.a. Texas--this might even send my neo-con lawyer older brother into a tailspin...

It's not a big story now, but I think it will be soon. I learned about it by listening to an interview with Tyson Slocum of Ralph Nader's Public Citizen group on Pacifica's Flashpoints radio show, a decidedly left-wing, relatively obscure news source, but I did manage to find the above linked Washington Post story from June sixth on the Internet.

According to Slocum, the catalyst for the scandal was rooted in the now-typical outing of energy industry corruption. Executive excesses at Westar Energy resulted in the election of an entirely new board of directors. In an attempt to revive the credibility of the company, the new board decided to come clean on everything, and published a report full of damning information (in PDF format, go to page 341 for the good stuff), a veritable anarchist's bomb thrown right smack dab in the middle of Washington business-as-usual.

Some of the report contains memos written by Westar's top lobbyist that give an inside view of how our "democracy" really works. The long and the short of it is that some Republican congressmen offered their legislative services in return for Westar campaign contributions totaling $60,000 dollars. Westar wanted a regulatory exemption that would allow them to break up into smaller companies, and stick their public utility division with a lot of debt: that means that taxpayers would get screwed while most of the rest of the company becomes debt free. In the end, they didn't get their bill, but not because their bought-off legislators didn't try. In other words, these Congressmen took bribes and acted on them. Slocum says that as many as twelve Congressmen could end up as part of the scandal.

Of course, bribes are illegal.

And for good reason. The notion that our elected representatives are making their legislative decisions based on anything other than a desire to promote the general welfare is a virtual blow to our identity as Americans, the democracy-loving people. Buying the law goes against everything for which America supposedly stands. That is why it is illegal for any public offical to accept a bribe.

However, it must not be forgotten that campaign finance corruption is only a fragment of the overall dismal picture of American "democracy." Corporate power has corrupted American philosophy, American thought. Decades of corporate me-first, buy-and-buy-and-buy, "greed is good" propaganda has created an overall cultural context wherein such political corruption is all but inevitable. Many Americans would do exactly the same thing if they were fat-cat politicians.

Like their scandal-ridden corporate executive counterparts such as Jeff Skilling and "Kennyboy" Lay, DeLay, Barton, Tauzin, and Shelby are but symptoms of a much bigger problem: America worships the dollar. Hopefully, these crooked politicians will be disgraced and punished, but I will be surprised, indeed, if the people of the United States rise up against their evil god, Mammon.

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C-SPAN NOAM CHOMSKY INTERVIEW

MIT linguistics professor, Noam Chomsky, who the New York Times once called "arguably the most important intellectual alive," is, along with Howard Zinn and a few others, one of the major thought gurus of modern progressivism. Reading his essays and books have really helped me sort out many of the contradictions and lies that are inherent in the American political culture. His words are almost always enlightening.

Here's three hours worth of a streaming video interview with Noam Chomsky. You may not make it all the way through, but it's well worth checking out at least some of it. Hell, just turn it on while you're doing housework or something that allows you to split your focus, and simply listen--it's not much on visuals, anyway...

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Deadly Attacks on G.I.'s Rise

Unknown gunmen shot and killed an American soldier at a checkpoint in western Iraq on Sunday night, continuing a series of attacks that have killed nine American troops in 14 days.

The casualty rate from attacks in Iraq has risen sharply in the past two weeks, but military officials said the recent deployment of 4,000 American soldiers to central Iraq would curb the threat.

I can tell you the best way to "curb the threat;" get our soldiers the hell out of Iraq. Right now.

Click here (there is an annoying, but harmless NY Times registration procedure--just do it; it's a good article).

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Leaders of Qaeda deny ties to Saddam

In his debriefing, Zubaydah said bin Laden had vetoed the idea because he did not want to be beholden to Saddam, the official said.

Click here.

It's probably just my own cynicism, but it sure does seem like Bush just loves al-Qaeda statements when they support his bloodthirsty agenda, but really hates it when they make him look like the big liar that he is.

It's probably just my negative sense of imagination...

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POCKET O'REILLY
A Fun New Game!

Make America's biggest butthole rant and rave at your command!

Click here.

Thanks to This Modern World.

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SPOCK SINGS
"The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins"

In an obscure, funky, sixties-style video, Leonard Nimoy covers pretty much the entire plot of The Hobbit. Really. No bullshit.

Click here (needs Quicktime).

Thanks to Badmouth.

UPDATE: Badmouth has been very, very bad and exceeded its bandwidth making the above links no good! Instead, my buddy Kevin over at the all new and improved Fatnoise Farms, brings us the goofy Spock video from another source.

Click here.

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MONDAY MORNING LINKS

Saddam's trucks were for balloons, not germs

The intelligence agency MI6, British defence officers and technical experts from the Porton Down microbiological research establishment have been ordered to conduct an urgent review of the mobile facilities, following US analysis which casts serious doubt on whether they really are germ labs.

The British review comes amid widespread doubts expressed by scientists on both sides of the Atlantic that the trucks could have been used to make biological weapons.

Instead The Observer has established that it is increasingly likely that the units were designed to be used for hydrogen production to fill artillery balloons, part of a system originally sold to Saddam by Britain in 1987.

Further discrediting the "WMD smoking gun." Click here.

Thanks to This Modern World.

Vanity Fair: Spanking good journalism

And speaking of This Modern World, Tom Tomorrow's blogging sidekick, Bob Harris, has a cool meditation on neo-con hawk statements made in a recent Vanity Fair interview:

Recapping -- and regular readers know the key points, but they bear repeating until we make a damn full-blown federal case out of it -- Bush's own advisors consider him a tool, and are stunningly clear on the point. Iraq was on the drawing board for these people at least five years before 9/11. And that the WMD rationale was exaggerated "for bureaucratic reasons," in Wolfowitz's already-notorious words, leading Powell to present the U.N. with documents later shown to be plagiarized and forged, is now public record.

Bush's own statements on matters essential to our national security (e.g. the alleged proof of Saddam's involvement in WMDs and 9/11) are no better, contradicting all current evidence with soul-numbing constance.

Click here.

Time To Slay Militant Business

Turning a bit further to the left, ZNet offers this Andrew Leedham essay on corporate power:

The triumph of the new right has been to institutionalise the dogma that (big) business is good and anything that 'burdens' business, unions, taxes, regulation or a decent wage for your workers is bad. To question the wisdom of this approach, to argue that these 'burdens' are in fact valuable checks and balances on corporate power is to invite McCarthy-like opprobrium.

Corporate greed and excess has, until recently, been routinely overlooked because of the inherent, unquestionable belief that society should submit to the will of market forces. Responsibility for mass redundancies, fat cat pay, golden goodbyes and even dubious ethics is externalised to market pressures, rather than being part and parcel of the corporate decision making process. The free market imperative has over-ridden all other concerns, brooking no argument that economic growth should go hand in hand with social responsibility.

Click here.

"The victor is not asked if he tells the truth"

Finally, my favorite source for links, J. Orlin Grabbe, points the way to a brilliantly edited, very funny, very poignant anti-war video.

WHATEVER YOU DO, YOU MUST WATCH THIS COOL VIDEO!!!!!

Click here.

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