And Now, A Second Insurgency

I was still in Colorado this weekend but was entertaining guests from Kentucky, of course, conservative. They used to be Bush fans, joining the 20-odd percent of us who never bought into the myth Good Ol' Boy President. Yes, even at the height of the Bush popularity wave, I distrusted him. And yes, I don't want to see him impeached. I want to see him impotent, tied firmly in place by a Democratic Congress investigating his misdeeds and overturning his laws.

But in my loathing of Crawford's absentee idiot, I digress. It seems we're now fighting the war on a tactic on two fronts as Afghanistan erupts into an Iraqi-style insurgency. This was supposed to be the one the Shrub and his Shrublets did right, this was supposed to be a democracy (and if you count only a 50-km radius of Kabul, it was), this was the war I supported. Like almost everything the Shrub has touched, it's not going according to plan. Apparently the "Hope" strategy doesn't work well. Of course they fired in self-defense. The Marines at Haditha probably thought they were prosecuting the war in a fine fashion as they gunned down civilians in revenge for a roadside bomb attack probably not even perpetrated by their victims. Furthering our woes in the two countries we so easily took and so easily screwed up, soldiers in Iraq shot and killed a pregnant woman as she was going to the hospital. The soldiers claimed they were firing to disable the vehicle. Don't you usually do that by shooting the tires or the engine? The battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqis is lost. Declare victory and bring the troops home.

And Bush, well, he's troubled by it all. And he now has a mistake more costly than Abu Ghraib to point to, if he acknowledges his fallibility at all.

As is the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghanis.

An Fitting Punishment for the VA Identity Theft Problem

Post Nicholson's data, exactly that data their carelessness revealed about 26.5 million of us.

Granted, investigators are calling the incident a "random burglary" but why would random burglars steal a portable hard drive? Just curious.

When It Was Your Records, the Constitution Didn't Matter

Amazing how a slight change of venue changes peoples' attitudes sometimes. Like when Bush was seizing your phone calls, phone records, conducting sneak-and-peek searches and subpoenaing your library records under the Patriot Act, Congress could care less. Now that it's one of their own, they're invoking the very Constitution they've so long ignored. When the Justice Department, a branch of the Executive, raided William Jefferson's House offices, a dirtbag bought and bribed member of Congress; therefore a representative of the Legislative, Democrat and Republican stood shoulder to shoulder to defend the Constitutional protections of the Legislative Branch. Now Bush has had to step in and seal the records for 45 days.

Go ahead and hold me for contempt of Congress. They're contemptible. There are "deeply held views" in Congress on this matter. If only their views concerning our civil liberties were as deeply held.

As for Jefferson, the best thing he could do would be to resign but in the best Republican fashion, the Democrat (unfortunately) refuses to step down. Even Delay, when faced with the inevitability of his conviction (and I don't mean a strong moral stand - Delay has none), had the grace to grit his teeth and step down. Jefferson should do the same and Pelosi should stop harboring him - the last thing we need in November when we're grinding the Republicans' faces in their own corruption is them to be able to point to Jefferson and say, "You, too." He's not worth that, nor is defending him against a legal investigation worth the fallout.

Bush Endorses VA Chief - 26.5 Million Vets Face Identity Theft

Bush, in a "heckuva job" moment, endorsed Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson just days after it was revealed that 26.5 million veterans, myself included, face identity theft from the loss of a computer stolen three weeks ago. That's a lot of time for someone to live high on the hog on my credit. Fortunately I have a credit watch on my accounts. Experian and the other credit reporting agencies should be facing a flood of veterans requesting credit watches on their accounts but they're not because the VA didn't bother to tell us our social security numbers, birthdates and names were in the hands of someone with less than honorable intentions.

Of course, Bush has full faith and confidence in yet another screw-up appointee of his. Yet his defense of the VA's actions, cross your fingers and hope nothing happens, is indicative of the Bush doctrine: Hope is, to these misfits, a strategy. They hope, based on slimmer evidence than divinely caused miracles. Iraq was based on hope, the hope that a lot of things could go right. Katrina response was based on hope, the hope that things really weren't going to get bad and once they were, that they really weren't as bad as the pictures showed. Our energy policy is based on hope, the hope that there's a great, big, undiscovered oil field out there, if not underneath the U. S. underneath some friendly, hopefully stable government. Our environmental policy is based on hope, the hope that political appointees really do know more about climate, pollution, conservation and mankind's impact on it than scientists and that the scientists are wrong. Our fiscal policy is based on hope, the hope that the economy will grow fast enough to offset the deficits, both public and private, that we're accumulating. Time after time, the Bush Administration has shown their only strategy is hope and hope by itself makes a lousy strategy.

Based on the ineptitude shown by the Administration, I'd really like to see John Kerry's proposal put into law. We veterans should be given free credit reporting and monitoring for the rest of our lives based on the incompetence of the VA at safeguarding our information. We also need strong privacy regulations, although under the current information, privacy tends to take on a bit of a KGB-esque definition. And yes, this is definitely Boehner of the Week material, funny if it weren't so tragic.

The Last of the Flat Earthers

This morning on Today, Katie Couric asked John Hofmeister, President of Shell Oil Company, whether there was such a thing as global warming and if burning fossil fuels was the cause. Hofmeister didn't hesitate, didn't qualify, didn't prevaricate or attempt to defend his product. His answer was yes, the overwhelming body of evidence indicates that the Earth is warming and that we're the cause. That leaves just about Bush, Cheney and the Bush EPA as the last of the flat-earther, need-more-research, it'll-damage-the-economy crowd. Everyone else in the country knows better on all counts. Yes, George, the Earth is round, yes, George, there's enough research to demand action and yes, George, developing the technologies that will combat greenhouse emissions will create jobs.

I do not believe we will be able to maintain our ultimately mobile society in a world of lower energy use but I don't believe we'll have to. Look to Europe - a lower energy society that is still developed and still industrialized already exists. We may take the trains more, we may telecommute more, we may live closer to work but it's doable. I lived there for eight years and loved the lifestyle. In short, George, we don't need your brand of stalling on this issue. It's time to take action.

And that action is not, as the House wants, to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I am pragmatic enough to realize it will someday be drilled but I think we should sell it for a high price, for mandatory greenhouse gas emission reductions, for higher CAFE standards including all passenger vehicles, pickups and SUVs and for meaningful incentives to research alternative fuels. Hydrogen is glamorous but impractical. Ethanol is politically popular but actually a step backward in terms of net energy used. We need better batteries for our hybrids, not a procedure to burn perfectly good food for fuel at a net energy loss. In short we need leadership on energy, both from Democrats who could potentially trade the environmental damage to the refuge for some good on the energy front and from Republicans who need to realize that we won't cure our energy addiction by looking for another fix.

We're down to eleven dead in one attack in Baghdad today. That's incremental progress. Yesterday it was sixteen. Of course, if it's thirty tomorrow, that'll be progress, too, because there'll be one less insurgent, victim of his own suicide attack. Is that what's meant by incremental progress in Iraq? I'm betting on some form of a troop withdrawal between now and November, a blatant, purely political move that has nothing to do with the situation on the ground in Iraq and everything to do with the situation on the ground in Washington. It's called desperation and desperate men, particularly desperate megalomaniacs, will stop at nothing to hold on to their power.

And finally, while they're turning a blind eye to repeated violations of our privacy under the Patriot Act and the various illegal domestic spying programs, both those we know about and those we don't, Congress is protesting vigorously a raid on the offices of one of its own. This is commonly referred to as hypocrisy, commonly believed to be a privilege and commonly forgotten that Mr. Jefferson's office belongs to the people. If Jefferson is engaged in criminal activity and I have every reason to believe he is, his offices should be searched, much moreso than my telephone should be tapped. And in the joke of the day, Bin Laden is now agreeing that Moussaori had no part in the Sept. 11 attacks, we have a stooge in Supermax while one of the real masterminds rots in a foreign prison, his testimony too tainted to hold up in a U. S. court and extracted by torture.

26.5 Million Vets Face Possible Identity Theft

Including me. Don't you just love the Government? Let a mid-level analyst walk out of the building with a database of 26.5 million vets including social security numbers. Support our troops!

Eroding Democratic Values

Interestingly, Bush admited a mistake today - remember, he's the guy who didn't do anything wrong his first term? He's now concerned about the erosion of democracy in South America. Wait, isn't that where they're having elections, although they're not going precisely the way the Shrub would have them. And how about Gaza, where a party not supported by the Bush administration won power in a free and fair democratic election? Yesterday I wrote about whoring for oil, the practice of turning a blind eye when the powers that be in countries possessing oil are, ahem, a bit less than paragons of Democratic values. The leaders of the anti-American democracies, either leftist governments or islamist/jihadist parties, share one thing: They don't trust the U. S. Given our record of preemptive war and whoring for oil, I wouldn't trust us either.

Meanwhile, democratic freedoms erode in our own country, mostly at the hands of Bush and his Neocon thugs. We've scrapped the fourth amendment in the name of security - the Bushies can listen in anywhere and any time they want and our gutless Congress won't do a thing about it. They're in the process of scrapping the first amendment, threatening to prosecute journalists who divulge information that they themselves can claim compromises national security. Habeas corpus has been scrapped in the name of enemy combattants, tried and sentenced to life in prison, often in other countries where torture is a way of life, by edict of the Pentagon or the Bush Administration. Republicans in Congress are taking steps to enshrine discrimination in our
Constitution by taking up a gay marriage amendment. The list could be continued but the point is that we have little room to castigate anyone for lack of democratic values when we, through our elected officials, so readily give up our own in the name of national security. It's an old question but one that bears asking repeatedly: What good is our national security if we give up our nation to get it?

One of our own is embarassing us. William Jefferson, caught on tape taking a $100k bribe, refuses to resign. His continued presence in the House only gives Republicans a ledge on which to stand and shout, them, too! Pelosi, quit the damned apologist routine and tell Jefferson to take a walk. If we can't police our own, we're no better than the Republicans. Anyone want to bet Rove's attack machine won't be on this like stink on shit? We can't run on our superior ethics when we support a bribed Congressman caught on tape and betrayed by the man who bribed him with weasel-worded statements that are almost direct quotes from the Tom Delay playbook. Do the ethical thing and get rid of this turkey.

Bush sees incremental progress in Iraq, a far cry from "mission accomplished". Can anyone tell me what that means? That sixteen died there in sectarian violence compared to twenty-four yesterday? Incremental is not "mission accomplished", George. Stay the course is not a strategy, nor is hope. Iraq's new government, elected at the point of an American gun, is not likely to heal the rifts we created in the land nor is it likely to root out "terrorism". In fact, now that there's an official government in place, what is going on there truely qualifies as civil war.

Finally, experts are predicting a less violent hurricane season than last year. Of course, they didn't predict last year's violence accurately, either. Last year, forecasters initially predicted 12 to 15 tropical storms, seven to nine hurricanes, and three to five of those hurricanes being major. I don't think I have to remind anyone that forecast didn't verify. Shaking my magic eight-ball: At least one hurricane will cause major disruptions in the oil supply and send gas prices over $4.00 per gallon. Following that, prices will "stabilize" around the $3.00 per gallon mark for the rest of our existence or until next year, when the oil companies will flirt with $5.00 per gallon.

Boehner of the Week...

....Or should I say "Bean man" of the week in celebration of the worst idea since the Urban Legend, English as the Official Language of the United States of America. On the surface, it isn't a bad idea but as presented, it's tied to the xenophobia that's splitting the Republicans (Yay!) and uniting the Democrats. Yes, it's splitting the Republicans, not that it makes it a bad idea. English, spoken as the mother tongue of 84 percent of everyone living here, is de facto the official language of the U. S. We have Spanish signs in some places but what does that bother us? Go through any airport in Europe and you'll see signs in the native language and in English. The road signs in the Arab states are written in Arabic and, you guessed it, English. Most of the world is comfortable with second (or third or hundredth) languages. We can be, too.

Yes, the Republicans are splitting, with some of their conservative patriarchs supporting breaking away from the party. That should be as much fun to watch as Ross Perot's abortive drain of conservative votes from the Republican party the last time we elected a good President. At last the Wingnuts are beginning to realize they're a marginal group in American society. Most of us are tolerant and open minded. Most of us realize that if you give a tax break to rich, greedy men you only get richer, greedy men. Most of us know that warrantless espionage within America is wrong, that alienating the rest of the world with a doctrine of preemption without the honesty to preempt what deserves it is a road to ruin. Most of us know that massive deficits will bankrupt us and that low wages and high stock prices are not a good economy. Yet there are the Wingnuts who have all the answers wrapped up in one little package. They deserve to bring the remainder of the Republicans down with them if they think they'll assume power on their own. America is too moderate for that.

And it's a sad day when the French via AFP can legitimately chide us over whoring for oil. We completely ignore democratic values when oil is at stake, witness our support of the dictator of Kazakhstan, our coddling of the Saudi royal family, our churlish attempts to chide Russia back into the "good oil supplier" lineup. The analysis of Washington rhetoric leads to one conclusion: Like any addict, we'll do anything, sell anything, whore for anyone to supply our addiction. Bush applies democratic criteria on a case-by-case basis, sowing confusion and distrust, the thing he's best at.

And the most frightening piece of news you'll read today, Alberto "VO5" Gonzales is claiming the right to prosecute journalists who reveal sensitive information. Get out the swastikas and the jackboots, boys, they're going after the freedom of the press and they're going after it hard. Tell me, how will we learn about any of the evils of the Bush Administration (or the follow-on Democratic administration or anything that goes on in Government) if there's no freedom of the press? "We have an obilgation to see that national security is protected," Gonzales says but at what cost? "It's a case-by-case evaluation", Gonzales claims, meaning we'll go after who we want to go after and holding a threat over all journalists: Toe our line or you will be one of the cases in the case-by-case analysis. This is the most frightening abuse of power yet under the Bush administration, a short step from fascism.

Just in time for General Hayden's confirmation hearings, the Administration caves in to pressure and releases a list of Congressmen briefed about the domestic spying program, otherwise known as the U. S. KGB. It is interesting to note that thirty lawmakers were briefed and of the briefings, half have occurred since some hero revealed the illegal program to us (sorry, guys, there still is a fourth amendment). Turns out the efforts to mine data from corporations extends farther than expected. Hey, NRA'ers, you don't mind the Fourth Amendment being trampled in the name of NASCAR and country, how about the Second? Want to bet they're not checking up on who's buying guns?

There's an urban legend that German was once nearly selected as the nation's official language. I mention this because the first bill to establish a national language, English, of course, was introduced in 1983. Language has much to do with culture and the debates about establishing a national language have nothing to do with language. English is spoken as a first language by 84 percent of Americans. If we pick up a few phrases or concepts from a foreign language, great. That's English's strength, assimilation of other words and concepts, and it's why English is now the world language. I do not support bilingual education, it only puts the student at a disadvantage because, instead of having to master the de facto tongue of the land, they master their original one to their own detriment. I'm bilingual. I learned German as an adult and know how difficult learning a second language can be. It's necessary for our foreign-born students to learn English; therefore, while we should offer English as second language courses, we should keep English as the primary language in our schools and we should not educate in other languages. And I do think we should require immigrants to have basic competence in English as a criteria for citizenship.

Still, the original English as official language bill was an expression of xenophobia, not of concern for the linguistical status of the country. Ken Salazar's version was milder and hopefully, if one of the measures pass, it will be his. Or maybe we should let the Republicans win. I'd love to hear Boehner have to change his name to "Bean man."

How to Fool a Republican

Take an issue, one that may even make a bit of sense on the surface such as making English the national language. I mean, 84 percent of us speak it as our native language. It appeals to a lot of people and it is a seemingly easy fix...

Except there's no problem. Even those for whom English is a second language are calling the proposal to make English our official language after two hundred thirty years without one "reactionary" and "cultural nativism". The latter, by the way, is the tag for Conservatives who, sons and daughters of immigrants, are against further immigration. So if you live in Saint Francis (San Francisco), Saint Joseph (San Jose), School Mountain (Schulenberg, Texas), High Ground (Terre Haute, Indiana), Mill-mountain county (Muhenberg County, Kentucky), or even the state of Dark and Bloody Ground (Kentucky), or Red Colored (Colorado), you may want to stop and think of the stupidity of the Senate using their time to debate this openly frivolous issue while we have greater tasks at hand.

I mean, there's the chance that gay marriage could destroy every hetero marriage in the country. Now there's an issue the Republicans can sink their dentures into.

It's easy to fool a Republican. Take a wedge issue such as immigration, a national language or gay marriage and convince them it's more important than domestic espionage, China foreclosing on our national debt or spiraling oil prices. The wedge issues will get them back, rescue the Shrub from the results of his own incompetence and keep the Dems out of the leadership of the Congress. They'll believe in the one in a billion shot as the benevolence of the angry God they worship while denying all the scientific evidence that their SUV, the one with the fish on the back, is warming the globe dangerously. They are launching a campaign aimed to do exactly that with global warming, presenting the false dilema of a pre-industrial world where all labor is manual and all transportation on foot or the current world of wasted energy as if there's no middle ground. And it will fool a number of Republicans, sheep in the hands of the wolves who feed off them while posing as their watchful shepherds.

Just as tax cuts fool them. They'll gladly give a millionaire a $45,000 annual boost in their incomes, oblivious to the fact that when you give rich greedy men more money all you get is richer greedy men, while accepting a $20 tax cut and believing it's somehow stimulating the economy. They'll lose more than that in inflation caused by the national debt devaluing the dollar and making foreign goods, the kind we buy by the billions at Wal-Mart, more expensive.

The false patriotism of the Right fools them as well. They fly the flag, preach God and country and a strong national defense, staying the course and supporting our troops while cutting $500 million in Veterans' benefits. Somewhere there's a vet, possibly of Vietnam, of Gulf War 1 or even this one who will be denied services to give the Right's millionaire buddies $45,000 per year and to build 370 miles of fence to protect a 2000 mile border. Even Dr. Who's TARDIS can't make that space-time distortion work. In the actual bill, in exchange for the $500 million for veterans, we got $500 million in pork. While I'd love to have a bike path under Hampden Avenue, I'd rather a veteran, of which I'm one, to have the benefits. I can cross the street. The veteran I'm thinking of may not even be able to walk.

From domestic spying through tax cuts through torture at Guantanamo through protection of the flag through official languages through almost any issue, the masters of the Republican party have become masters at painting their sins and prevarications as progress and patriotism. They are neither. It's just they have a group of willing dupes, the hard core, the 25% who still supported Nixon on the day he left office. That base must be very easy to fool. They keep voting Republican.

370 Miles of Fence Along a 2000+ Mile Border

Leave it to W to say that building 370 miles of fence at 3.2 million dollars per mile along a 2000 plus mile border makes sense. Three point two million per mile? I bet a rancher with a few of those immigrant workers could put up a mile of fence for a thousandth of that but then, it's W's government and probably Haliburton who will be building the fence. Shrub, in a photo op at the border, asked for 1.9 billion for border security. Where is this money to come from? The taxes the rich are no longer paying! There are currently 6.9 miles of fence at Yuma, Arizona, site of the Shrub's blathering, and it's the busiest stretch of the border for illegal immigration.

It took xenophobia to get the Senate to make English the national language. There's an urban legend that, the last vote, German almost won. Sprechen sie Amerikanisch? Thanks to Hometown Hero Ken Salizar - yes, that's an Hispanic last name - for his resolution: "English is the common and unifying language of the United States that helps provide unity for the people of the United States." I agree, Ken.

It's still fun to watch the Republicans implode over this issue.

Our other Senator, Wayne "the torturer" Allard, wants to pander to the right Wingnuts by incorporating discrimination into the U. S. Constitution. Of course, someone had to trot out the gay marriage issue to help solidify the base, why not one of the two Senators who voted in favor of torturing prisoners? Are we picking up a pattern here? Allard does not represent Colorado or Coloradans' values and must go at the earliest possible opportunity. He is an embarassment to Colorado. We're better than that.

Nothing brings out the hypocrit in a lawmaker as fast as oil. Republicans believe it's okay to drill in Alaska where caribou will die but no one will see it but at the same time reject drilling off the coast of Florida and California, citing property values. Republicans arguing against drilling? Let me repeat, Republicans arguing against drilling? Who needs beaches, anyway?

Doesn't Saudi Arabia cut peoples' hands (and heads) off for crimes? I suppose that isn't considered torture because the Defense Department rendered fifteen prisoners to the country today. Related, over 100 people died in military clashes in Afghanistan today. Remember shock and awe, v. 1.0? We were supposed to be liberators there, too. Instead of consolidating and doing some good old fashioned nation building, we bugged out for Iraq and shock and awe v2.0. Same results: We won the battle within days and are in the process of losing the war.

Can someone explain to me why energy and food, just about the two things we can't do without, aren't included in inflation figures? I know they're volatile but they're also necessary. Can someone please explain that one?

Finally the United States, possessor of the largest stores of nuclear weapons and with ambitions to build new nuclear bunker busters, has proposed a tough new non-proliferation treaty. Not that I want the Islamabomb, but isn't this just a bit hypocritical? But when has that stopped the current regime in Washington.

Back from Delayland

Astroworld has finally been sold. I learned that on another trip to Deer Park, Texas, part of Delay's gerrymandered district in southeast Houston. I also learned that it's librul. Kind of like nucular. Even the top forty stations there are into librul bashin. 'Course, that don't matter nun caus libruls is goin' ta rule this nashun in November unless Bush kin get them Nashunl Gard trupes to the Mexicun Bordur and do them there other thangs to shor up hiz bass. Lik bashin immigrunts.

His speech was a model of Bushism: He quoted no new ideas but tried to present old ones as his own. Amazingly, his speech came the week after the Senate agreed to just about everything he wanted. I can't fault him on much in his speech, there wasn't much of substance there.

And today, with the Dow falling nearly two percent, he trumpets the effects of his tax cuts. They've created deficits that are driving the dollar down which, in our import economy, drives prices up, apart from their effect of making us a debtor nation. American workers are taking home bigger paychecks, he bloviates, oblivious to the fact that a cut of capital gains taxes and dividend taxes has absolutely no effect on paychecks, unless you're getting a monthly disbursement from a stock or bond based investment portfolio. He also claims tax revenues are up, contradicting his own staff who state that the deficit will set a record this year. Again, Bush proves that the truth doesn't matter. Sound bites do.

The only thing Bush understands is force. Under threat of losing his nominee to head the CIA, he caved in and allowed Congress to ask questions concerning his (first) domestic spying program. Not that we'll ever know anything about it. And do you trust Congress to oversee it? I look forward to November when the whole damn thing can be de-funded, i. e. shut down, by a congress not beholden to the Shrub and his gang of thugs. I guess less than thirty percent can even motivate the House Ethics Committee to resume work. Of course, in the name of "balance", they're investigating one Republican and one Democrat, the usual suspects. "Balance" is a dangerous concept when it comes to ethics and journalism. It assumes you have to find one slip on one side to counter a slip on the other. I'd much prefer "objectivity" in both ethics and journalism but then, where would Fox News stand? As Fox Opinion?

And in a nomination for the Boehner Award for this week, the Senate today approved 370 miles of fence along the border with Mexico. The border between Texas and Mexico alone is over 1200 miles long. It'll cost $3.2 million per mile. Perhaps we need to hire some ranchers with some illegal immigrant laborers to build it and save ourselves a lot of money to shift the smuggling of people and drugs to other points along the line. Reminds me of trying to catch a leak in a sieve. Still, it's good to watch the Republicans implode, no matter what the issue.

I Wish I'd Kept That E-mail

I wish I'd kept the response I got from my query about the NSA's data dump from Verizon Wireless. There was so much BS packed into so little space, they might as well just have said yes and saved a lot of electrons from their ultimate, untimely fate as electrosmog. I told them as much. Their customer service rejected it because of the word "bullshit", calling it a profanity. I edited it out, called their release of phone data to the NSA an obscenity and asked to be relieved of my contract without charge.

Every customer of every Telecom that voluntarily participated in this travesty should do exactly the same. Quest didn't. Today I'm a proud Quest customer.

Bush assures us the privacy of ordinary American citizens is fiercely protected. Not just protected, but fiercely. So of course, they're shooting the messenger, USA Today. Now there's word out in the blogosphere that an NSA whistleblower is going to leak something even better next week. God, I love to watch this Administration spin. King George the Clueless could have been celebrating his rich man's welfare victory, instead, he's having to try a Snow job on us for another over-the-line domestic espionage program. I think we can kiss Hayden goodbye. How many bets do I get that Bush will go lower than Nixon before the year's over?

He's at 29% and falling, according to the latest Harris poll. Even the true believers, overwhelmed with facts of the Administration's and the Party's incompetence, irresponsibility, outright malfeasance and ugly suits are abandoning the sinking ship. It looks like Republican rule, which began with a bang in 1994, will end with one in 2006.

So, in an attempt at smoke and mirrors leadership, Bush is deploying the already overstretched, exhausted National Guard to the Mexican border to appeal to the base by, what? Turning their 50 cal's on Mexicans crossing the border? Even the true believers, and I know a few, see through the rouses these days. Shrub plans to reveal the plan from the Oval Office, an edifice he has seen less of than any other President due to his inordinately long , frequent vacations, on Monday. I'm sure he will now have other things to lie about. It appears there is a Rove connection - he met with Southern lawmakers shortly before this was announced. Also, as it appears, Bush is appealing to the base after the deal has been done. Ried and Frist announced a compromise on immigration earlier this week. So once again, the Shrub comes up last.

The Day Republican Hopes Ended

It should have been a great day for Republicans. Once again, they managed to convince themselves that giving money to greedy rich men will make them anything other than greedy richer men by passing $70 billion more in debt for you and me. An average family gets $46 from the tax cuts, barely enough to fill my Ford Taurus. A millionaire can fill his Suck U V several times on the $10k he'll get. One Reagan and two Bushes have tried giving rich, greedy men money to stimulate the economy and the results have been the same, richer, greedy men. Still, it was a Republican priority, give more money to their base in hopes of a greater return at campaign finance time but it was overshadowed.

Today I'm proud to be a Quest customer. They didn't sell out to a demand by the Administration for millions of records of telephone calls made by anyone to anyone. Yep, if you believed them the first time, that it was only Al-Qaida operatives, that it was only calls made to or from foreign numbers, if you were one of the 25% who still believed in Nixon after he resigned, you should be thinking now that maybe they weren't quite honest then, either. Caught in the lie that involves everyone, Bush's reign is most likely over. He'll remain titular president with the Constitutional authority of the executive but his ratings will slide. In his quest for power, in his disregard for law he's made himself a sorry footnote, a sad chapter in American history and he can't take his Republican buddies down with him soon enough.

To Congress: Sack Hayden immediately. This reeks of his idea. Of course, Allard the Torturer supports the idea. According to the USA Today's source, this is one of the biggest databases in the world. The phone records of every call, if only the numbers, date and time were recorded, would be far less than the largest database in the world. My bet is that there's a sound file attached to each of those numbers. To Consumers, if you're not a Quest customer, sue your phone company for violation of their privacy policy.

Another day, another indictment, this time Republican Governer Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky. He's just giving jobs to political supporters illegally. Shame that isn't a Federal crime. We'd have impeachable offenses against Bush for most of his appointments if that were the case. Still, it's a shining example of Republican ethics: Fletcher faces fourteen counts of cronyism.

On the positive side, let's hear it for Barack Obama, if there's any justice, our 44th president. Today he told the truth, not with humor as Stephen Colbert but the plain hard truth. The President's Plan for Victory has resulted in over 2400 flag-draped coffins at Dover AFB, over 1100 Iraqi deaths last month alone. Murtha predicts troops will come home by next year. I predict a lot sooner. Today's disclosure by USA Today is really going to put heat on the Repugnicans - it's everyone's phone calls this time

Unless you're a Quest customer.

Pandering to the Base

Fresh out of ideas for real progress, yesterday it was the Republicans giving another gift to the rich with the compromise allowing today's House approval of a further $70 billion in debt for us, $70 billion given to investors in the form of a two-year extension of the capital gains and dividend tax cuts. To add insult to injustice, they even opened up the Roth IRA, one of the few tax shelters available to us non-rich, to the rich so they can put their money in and never have to pay taxes on it again. Today, gas prices, the Iraq war, Plamegate, illegal domestic espionage, stagnated Katrina rebuilding, environmental injuries and health care aside, they passed a resolution that the National Anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance and the oath of citizenship should be in English. In the closest we've ever had to a national language, so eine Haufen Idioten.

So, it's official. Bush One and Bush Two want Bush Three. Actually, it's a shame Jeb has to follow George, it seems Jeb may be the only one of the three with any substance to him. In any case, I think the Bush name may be soon gone from American politics, it having hit its nadir in King George the Clueless. Further evidence of Crawford's absentee idiot's idiocy, his latest Judicial nominee was rated as "unqualified" by the American Bar Association, making him the ideal Bush nominee. What's wrong, not enough qualified Wingnuts left for the bench? I guess being in the Federalist Society qualifies you for just about anything, regardless of what fifteen experts say about you.

Perhaps that's why generic Democrats lead generic Republicans by double digits in preference to control congress. Of course, gerrymanders will probably protect most of the Right from their righteous rewards.

In today's episode of Whoring for Dollars, the Government refused to cite China for currency manipulation. By keeping their currency cheap, they're proping up ours with their billions of dollars in reserve. They could also cause the dollar to go into free-fall should they decide to put their billions in Euros or the currency of some other, more fiscally responsive country. Some day they will call the massive debt we keep accumulating, both private and public, then we will get to see how hyperinflation feels. So, of the instruments of national power, our military is stretched to the breaking point, our diplomacy works against us and our economic power is in the hands of the Chinese, who own enough of our debt we can't apply pressure on them. Perhaps that's why generic (and specific) Republicans see the writing on the wall: The hero of the 2000 election, Katherine Harris of Florida, is trailing her Democratic opponent by double digits and they can't get anyone else to run.

There's a lot more but there are a lot more bloggers out there.

How You Got Screwed (Part 2)

The Republican Rich Man's Tax Relief Act of 2006 included another few tidbits of interest to the common taxpayer. They used smoke and mirrors to get the amount of the bill under $70 billion and extended a new tax break for the wealthy at the same time. The bill is financed by allowing anyone, any income range to open a Roth IRA and to convert their conventional IRAs. This gives a "boost" of one-time tax revenue now while giving up the rich man's taxes for the rest of their lives. Sweet....

I'm sure no Republican will have the decency to vote against this gift to their constituency - not you and me - and I'm sure all of them will claim they reduced your taxes.

How You Were (Probably) Screwed Today

Somehow believing the rich and successful need a break, Republicans today rammed through an extension of the tax that's extending Bill Gates's lead as richest man in the world, that benefited you to the tune of a few dollars a month and that could very well have spelled doom for the dollar. That's right, if you're an investor, you can breathe easier for two more years now and not pay your fair share of the Nation's tax burden. This benefits only the wealthy. Most of us little people with dividend income have it through tax sheltered investments such as IRAs or 401ks. It's those who have money to invest, ever fewer of us, who now become even more rich, making the United States look a whole lot more like Mexico than the influx of immigrants from south of the border. George, here's some truth for you. Mexico's economy sucks because there are rich and there are poor, there's no middle class. They've been eliminated due to economic policies very similar to your own.

And they did it in such a way that responsible Democrats couldn't stop it. By limiting the bill to $70 billion, it falls under fast track legislation and can't be filibustered. So, once again, we've voted against our own self-interest by electing legislators who belong to the rich, who are the rich and who have no compassion for those who aren't rich. They have little foresight, either. Already foreign countries are "diversifying" their investments, meaning they're losing faith in the Dollar and in our government's ability to rein in spending and to raise revenue. This bill does neither. About the only thing good it does is to prevent some moderately wealthy families from paying another tax that hits them but not the rich, the Alternative Minimum Tax.

If that doesn't have you reaching for the vaseline, you aren't paying attention.

Shortsighted oil policy now has the United States looking for oil like a crack whore looks for her fix. Cheney is praising the dictator of Kazakhstan, not a model of democracy and human rights, in an effort to whore for oil even as he castigates the Russians for using their natural resources in their own interest. Before long we'll be reduced to begging the Chinese and the Indians to use less. There's an interesting article in the Motley Fool today on oil prices that takes some of the onus off the administration had they not fallen into the trap of claiming responsibility for everything that goes right. Here's the link:

http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2006/commentary06050910.htm?source=mppromo

In the article, Bill Mann makes the very good point that the best thing the Government could do now is to shut up. Anything they do would only make things worse, witness Hawaii's mistaken policy of policing gas prices, a policy they terminated this weekend. The screw-up is in not providing incentives to conserve and to build more refinery capability, one that won't be fixed by a $100 band aid or drilling in pristine lands. As this worsens, we'll become oil whores or worse, go to war again over crude while protesting it's over democracy.

Cheney's duplicity, praising Kazakhstan for its authoritarian government, castigating Russia for theirs and attempting to claim we're fostering democracy one bomb at a time, will only lead to a foreign policy catastrophe for the U. S.

Last week we learned the Brits with their socialized health care were twice as healthy as us. This week's installment of "You Don't Get What You Pay For" comes in infant mortality statistics. In the developed world, only Latvia has a worse infant mortality rate than we. Republicans with their aversion to universal health care are killing far more babies than abortionists. Can I say it plainer? Apparently, though, after the baby leaves the womb it's up to God to keep it alive. They'll cut the rich's taxes but won't spend the money for adequate prenatal and pediatric care? That's hypocrisy, folks. It's also a sign that our overpriced, market-driven health care system needs an overhaul much more than the tax rate of a few rich investors. We're good at providing high-tech, high-paying health care services and drugs. We're unwilling to pay for basic services to those who can't afford it for themselves. You're killing babies, conservatives.

Bush approaches Nixon in Job Approval

You just can't convince true believers otherwise. After all, 25% still approved of Nixon the day he left office and Nixon was far more competent than our current leadership. Maybe we've realized that Republican votes are votes against our own self interest as Bush approaches Nixon by sinking to a 31% approval rating despite reshuffling the deck chairs, an attempted Snow job and further evidence that his economy truely sucks for most of us. As I said, you just can't convince true believers otherwise. He'll point to the CNN poll that shows him increasing two points in popularity to a dismal 34%, although the two percent increase is within the poll's three percent margin of error.

With numbers like that, we may have to thank him for going to Florida to campaign for fellow Repugnicans. Katherine Harris, the partisan who gave him the state in 2000, is trailing her Democratic rival by double digits, a fitting reward. No 31% President is going to save that campaign, in fact, he will most likely remind people of the dumbest decision Harris ever made in her life, disallowing a recount. Further evidence of his decline, his nominee for CIA director, Lt Gen Michael Hayden, faces stiff opposition from the President's own party. Perhaps he should have nominated someone who hasn't shown contempt of the Constitution he's sworn to support and defend by actively trying to circumvent the Fourth Amendment - Hayden is a staunch supporter and partial archtect of the Shrub's warrantless domestic espionage program. The last thing Republicans need is a KGB General Wannabe in the post of CIA director. It's a further sign of Shrub's decline: The rats are abandoning the sinking ship.

Today in Geneva, U. S. officials claimed that U. S. personnel are prohibited from torturing detainees. I suppose that is why Bush claims authority to circumvent that law as well as 749 others just because he's the President. A quick read of the Constitution shows there's only one way for the Executive to object to a law passed by Congress, the veto. Bush's signing statements simply show his disregard for the law he's supposed to enforce and are further symptomatic of a sick administration. Besides, if it's illegal, why would Bush have issued the toilet paper called a signing statement? Of course, this has nothing to do with renditions of prisoners to countries allowing torture. The one real 9/11 criminal in our custody will never be tried because the evidence, extracted through use of torture, is inadmissable in U. S. court and his testimony would embarass the Administration. If Democrats win Congress, one of the best investigations of Bush would be to demand a trial.

Finally, in a blow to the "it's a choice" crowd, studies have revealed differences in lesbian brains similar to those in homosexual men. It appears the good God who made it an "abomination" also created homosexuality. How do you explain that one, you Christian Ayatollahs? The God you venerate created the homosexuals you despise. How will you explain this one to your children but then you have a talent for ignoring science that doesn't support your preconceived notions. As I mentioned at the top, you'll never convince the true believer with facts.

The Boehner of the Week

I learned this week that Boehner pronounces in "bayner". Perhaps in precolombian Algonquin or post-conquista Inca, the dipthong "oe" is pronounced "ay". In German, the more probable source of the name, the pronunciation, impossible to an English speaker as "th" is to a German speaker, is closer to "ew". It's a simulatneous pronunciation of "e" and "o", generally referred to as an umlaut and in German, indicated by two dots over the "o". I go to this great length for two reasons: First, Boehner, son of German immigrants, has no right to castigate the latest wave and second, I pronounce the Anglicization of the name "boner." Hence the award, the Boehner of the week.

This week it belongs to Porter Goss for quitting the CIA quicker than a duffer can improve his lie. Bush didn't even have time to spin it, Goss dropped his "heckuva job" moment on the Shrub so quickly. Since the past five years have proven to us that incompetence won't get you fired from the Bush administration, Goss must have done something to embarass the born-again bozo in the Oval Office. There's nothing to indicate an involvement on Goss's part in Hookergate but, as quickly as this has gone down, sex had to have been involved. Just look at what they did to Clinton. Sex is the one thing Republicans shy away from. That and that the night with anything but a crack skank from Foggy Bottom constitutes a gift greater than $50.00. Porter, you ran an organization whose nominal job is to extract facts from people and events and spin them to the President's liking. You should have known there were other organizations collecting facts and that you were a target. For your twenty months of incompetent leadership of what should be a fact-finding organization, you definitely have earned the Boehner of the Week. Perhaps the award should be a cigarette wrapped in a Depends, one for the leaks, the other for after. Doubt you're getting any more free hookers any time soon.

So Bush has turned the same amazing powers that granted him a murky look into Vladimir Putin's soul on Angela Merkel of Germany. I hope the relationship with Germany, a country I've lived in and love, don't go the same way as our relationship with Russia.

While biking today it occured to me that the number of illegal immigrants in this country is estimated at around 12 million. There are 289 million legal residents of the country. That means there are about 25 of us for every one of them. And they call this a reconquista? How are one to twenty-five dangerous odds? And if they are dangerous odds, we seriously need to look at whether our culture needs to survive. For one to twenty-five to be dangerous, we'd have to be teetering on the brink anyway. Of course, there are some factors in our culture that need changing, our "buy now, pay later" lifestyle, for one. Immigrants are not and never have been a threat to our culture, no matter how many minutemen and Republican xenophobes scream it.

Bush, Clueless in America

Ever wonder why Bush can't speak in front of anything but a friendly audience? At a commencement speech today at Oklahoma State University, not a hotbed of free thought and liberal attitudes, Bush touted the economy. It must be frustrating, having all the numbers in your favor but being unable to convince us that the economy is good.

But then, if all your living expenses have been paid during the last five years of stagnant of falling pay, ever-increasing energy costs, low inflation in the areas the Government measures but vast increases in the price of food and transportation, falling numbers of health care and erosion of benefits, rising interest rates and housing costs you'd probably think things are going well, too. My investments (an IRA and my 401k before you start thinking I'm a trust fund baby or something - I saved the money that's in them!) are doing well, over double-digit gains for a couple of years now. I'm sure those are the numbers Bush is touting, the ones that benefit his rich donor friends and the ones that have benefited from Bush's irresponsible tax cuts. As for me, my $23 per month in benefit from the tax cuts goes to pay my gas bill or gasoline for my car. In short, what King George the Clueless doesn't get is that outside of his rich circle of friends, the economy sucks.

I now limit trips and try to combine as many as possible to reduce my fuel bill. I'd love to buy a more efficient car but the erosion in the buying power of my salary and the niggardly pay raises we've received make buying a new car something I just can't swing right now. In my office, we're seriously considering a gas-price contingency plan that will allow us to work from home. That's the Bush economy in action, another cost not offset by wages.

At least the legislators are staying at home, too, afraid of the backlash should they accept trips from lobbyists or corporations. Good. They don't need to be travelling on someone with an agenda's dime. The best part of the current Repubican ethics legislation is that we're not buying it. Fifty-nine percent of us believe Congress can't police itself, forty-one percent of us are deluded or uninformed. Real, legitimate ethics reform would eliminate travel, gifts and create publically-funded campaigns. As long as Congressmen have to raise money for their elections, there's a temptation. In short, we need to reform Congress, not lobbyists and, with the right reforms, lobbyists will go mostly away. Of course, the powerful will still find ways to sell their influence or buy Congressmen but let's make as much of it as possible illegal. Only then will Congress again operate in the interests of the American people.

Critical Mass

America, for a short time, is a better place today. Porter Goss, chief supplier of spinnable intelligence to the Bush Administration, resigned as head of the CIA. For a brief period now, the deck chairs on the Hindenburg are in better order. There's only one problem: Bush will appoint his successor. What syncophant will do a heckuva job collecting spinnable intelligence on Iran prior to the nuking? Who will go along with yellowcake lies, false ties between Saddam and Al Qaida, WMDs that had been destroyed and discredited intel in the name of policy over fact? Who will accomplish the mission of misleading the American people? Who's next?

If we could only get Rummy, Cheney, and the Shrub himself to follow suit, I might have some hope. Goss's tenure at the CIA is proof that poor leadership can ruin a good organization. Like the rest of the country following Bush, the CIA will take years to rebuild following the installation of syncophants into leadership position, the squandering of talent and experience in the name of policy and the failures that made CIA a joke both at home and abroad under Goss's misleadership. There is the matter of black prisons, of discreditation, of inability to recruit to an organization of known torturers. It will take long to rebuild the CIA, long after the discredited President who discredited the organization is replaced by someone with some leadership and vision.

Another poll, another low. I believe somewhere there is a critical mass, a point at which salvaging an administation from its own incompetence and lies is impossible. I believe that point has been passed and that Bush is doomed to three years of increasing contempt, eventually reaching Nixonian levels of job approval. He will fade into ignominity, a picture in the encyclopedia followed by a few paragraphs describing corruption, incompetence and lies, a President compared to Grant and Harding for their incompetence and their failures. Bush has reached the point where people reject almost anything he proposes from bitter experience of Iraq, of Katrina, of failure after failure. His compatriots aren't fareing better. Frist's energy proposal was laughed out of existence by conservatives. Rumsfeld speaks to overt hecklers these days, something Bush carefully screens from his carefully selected audiences. Republicans are now involved in Hookergate, a plot to buy the Congress using prostitutes, free, of course. That violates Congressional ethics rules because a hooker of interest to a Congressman surely costs more that $50, the limit of the price of a gift. Of course, Scotty the soon to be ex Mouthpiece says the polls are just a snapshot. Dream on, Scotty. We've had Snow jobs enough already.

Another critical point seems to be approaching, the point at which foreign investors are no longer willing to finance our massive debt, both public and private. The dollar is dropping as investors turn to other currencies. Options are few, we're so far in debt. About the only avenue left to prop up the dollar - raising interest rates - could well lead to a recession, something I'd rather avoid. Yet it seems impossible to avoid. Republican fiscal irresponsibility is as unlikely to end as the American populace's buy-now-pay-later habits. Last time things were this out of balance the dollar devalued by half. Of course, that might prop up some American automakers who are still pushing Suck U V's on an unsuspecting populace unaware that peak oil is more than a price spike. As I've written a number of times, eventually the Chinese will foreclose and it probably won't be a time chosen to be of advantage to us. Bush's economic plan, spend and spend and continue to cut taxes, is as likely to work as his other policies and his batting average is about as bad as his failed sports venture's. Another Bush legacy, bankrupt America.

Vaporware

So, Moussari got life without martyrdom. The Government expended millions of your dollars on an Al Qaida wannabe and in the end, citizens saw through the sham. Meanwhile we hold one of the masterminds of 9/11 abroad, unable to bring him to trial because the information tortured out of him wouldn't stand up in court and the interrogation techniques used would be an embarassment to an embarassing administration. So, the conviction of Zacharias Moussari stands as another Bush administration failure, another attempt to use smoke and mirrors rather than substance, another spin gone horribly wrong.

In the software world, vaporware is software that hasn't been developed. The Congress, in a Snow job of Rumsfeldian proportions, approved port screening with vaporware. Now screenings at our ports will be just as useful as screenings at our airports. I suppose the members, both Dumbocrat and Repugnican, who voted for the proposal thought they were getting tough on terrorism. It must be an election year. Speaking of which, the Republicans brought up their tired, old wedge issue, flag burning, again today. Restricting free speech is important, energy dependence, the President's crimes, ethics reform, tangential. Just keep people from burning that piece of cloth! It has been done maybe twice in the past year. Wait, it's the Republican greenhouse gas control measure! See, we're stopping flag burning and reducing emissions, all in one! Brilliant!

Someone must have told Bush that Hamas has no oil nor will it allow American captives to be tortured in their jails. He now refuses to deal with them until they recognize Israel, something ninety percent of our "no child left behind" victims couldn't do given a map of the world. Bush failed to realize that democracy is a funny thing, that citizens of a democracy don't always vote in their own best interests, something he should know well given his own election. In support of immigration reform, he celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Quatro de Mayo. Apparently he's just as confused with dates as he is with the results of elections in a radical Islamist state. Will he now celebrate American independence am dritten Juli?

This as a posse of 100 good conservative Arizonans get out the good old vigilante system and start hunting them down. Ken Mehlman (German for flour man) is on damage control for the Gullible Old Pessimists, saying we need both a "temporary worker program" and "consequences for illegal aliens." The Germans from whom he gets his name (or were there Native American Germans?) also tried a guest worker program. They learned that if you let them in, you have to keep them. They also denied the guest workers a right to citizenship, claiming it would dilute their Germanness. Well, they're still there, still not citizens, still not integrating themselves into German society and I'd rather eat a Doner (Turkish gyro) than a schnitzel. If you let them in, you keep them.

We are a nation of prayer, Bush claims and I agree. I pray we survive the incompetence of his administration and at the same time, I pray he stays healthy. The thought of President Cheney is too much for me to bear. Now prayer might be a bit more effective at safeguarding our ports than the vaporware proposed by the House. Hmmmm.

Next time a Conservative talks smack about all our oil coming from trouble spots, here are some facts for them. Canada is the top exporter of oil to the U.S., accounting for 17% of its imports. It has the world's second largest proven oil reserves at 179 billion barrels.

Republican Principles - Putting the Moron in Oxymoron

Perhaps the funniest thing about the recent hikes in gas prices is watching Republicans abandon their so-called principles and call for windfall profits taxes on oil companies. Of course, the past few years have given evidence to the statement that Republican principles are whatever it takes to hold power. Evidence is immigration: As long as illegal immigrants were quiet and picking our strawberries and cleaning our toilets and serving us fine tacos, as long as the Republican base didn't care they were okay. As soon as the Minutemen and other radical xenophobes surfaced and the Republicans began to lose sure thing elections, the pandering began. Lupe can clean my house but she can't stay in the States? Wrong, as in "W".

Even Boehner is dismissing Frist's latest misdiagnosis, calling his $100 buyout of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge insulting. Even moreso is Frist's implication that the bit of oil we could get by ruining that pristine area is going to do squat about our energy dependency. By the time we could pump anything out of there, gas prices will be over $6.00 per gallon. There is one circumstance against which this Progressive would give up the refuge: If Congress would ram greenhouse gas emissions down the President's throat by such a majority he couldn't veto it, if Congress would demand strict reductions in energy consumption, generous grants to research alternative energy sources, clean coal, clean nuclear and renewables, I'd give up the refuge faster than you could say caribou migration. Otherwise it's a band aid over arterial bleeding, not much worth the effort and not worth the loss. An aside: The Republicans passed a bill in the house today calling for fines of up to $150 million for oil companies caught price gouging. They have never been caught at it and how would fining them bring down prices even if they were? Desperation apparently leads to cluelessness among those about to lose their majority.

Further demonstrating the guiding Republican principle of "Whatever it takes to rule," the House passed its milktoast ethics reform. Look for more of the same from both houses. Realistic, meaningful ethics reform would have banned gifts from lobbyists and publicly funded Federal elections. None of that - the Republicans aren't going to change the system that got them funded and thereby elected. Look for more of the same and less ethics disguised as Republican ethics reform.

Not immune, William Jefferson of Louisiana, a Democrat, is going down for accepting a bribe from a Kentucky businessman. The difference is that none of us are defending him. He should be thrown under a jail and this Democrat would dig the hole.

We've spent nearly three hundred billion dollars and 2,500 lives to form states that regularly and systematically persecute non-muslims. Welcome to Iraq and Afghanistan, two of the worst mistakes the United States ever made. Of course, three key U. S. allies, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan are among the worst of the worst. Our key allies used to be tolerant European states but under Republican rule, they've drifted away to be replaced by the extremists but then, if our ayatollahs Robertson, Dobson, Osteen and others had their way, religious tolerance would be a thing of the past in this country. It makes sense that we would befriend the intolerant. We are.

Mexico has quietly done what we should, decriminalize small amounts of drugs for personal use. Our prisons are crammed with people who had an ounce of pot on them or who screwed up once, victims of Conservative, Draconian punishments for relatively harmless crimes. As a cop friend of mine said, he's had to fight a bunch of drunks but never once has he had to fight someone stoned. That Mexico could be so wise is an affront to the State Department, who demands any U. S. citizens caught for drug use there be subjected to draconian punishment. Maybe if they keep it up, conservatives can have everyone in the states guilty of something trivial, then surveilling them wouldn't be illegal. As things stand, ten percent of our population is either in prison or on parole. Like our health care system, our punishment system isn't working.

Bush wants to extend tax cuts. How about raising the minimum wage, stuck for years at the same ridiculously low rate?

Another Poll, Another Low

Progressives, take heart! The Republicans can't even buy votes any more. The President is now at a new all-time low, no news there, and a clear majority of Americans want the Democrats to control the Congress. Not even Frist's $100 bribe could change the fortunes of the misfortunate Republicans.

Did you see Dr. Distance Diagnosis this morning on Today? He looked like someone woke him way too early, either that or the Botox guy got a little happy with the needle. That grimace-grin of his never left his face as he tried to rationalize bribery, stating it was one point of an eight point energy plan. When a Tennesseean talks about eight points, they're generally talking about a buck, which brings us to our next subject, the Republican attempt to bankrupt America while re-creating the robber baron class through tax incentives to the top.

Know why there are so many poor people in Mexico? It's because the wealth is concentrated at the top of the society. The upper income Mexicans don't get taxed, the lower income Mexicans don't get an education. The result is a non-existant middle class. Sound familiar? This situation was the norm in this country just after the turn of the century. The rise of unions and the Depression leveled the playing field and a number of Progressives got things up and running again, although it really took the second World War to bring manufacturing back up to par. The Republican tax system favors the re-creation of this situation and George, it ain't trickling down. It never will. It didn't for Reagan, it didn't during the last century and it won't now. All you're doing is bankrupting the country.

Valerie Plame, the CIA agent outed by Rove and Libby, was conducting operations to determine Iran's nucular capability when Bush's stooges took her out of the picture. Talk about the irony. Is treason a high crime and misdemeanor? In his effort to sell a useless war against Iraq, Bush gave Iran the bomb. Crawford, would you please go to Washington and claim your idiot?

In possibly the biggest story of the day, buried underneath useless immigration bloviation and other fluff, was the news that America spends twice more per capita on health care than the British but we're sicker. Our rates of almost every major disease are higher than the English despite the vast number of dollars we throw at our maladies. My personal belief is that without universal, affordable health care, we wait longer to see a doctor, particularly the growing (since Bush took office) percentage of us without medical insurance. The interventions then are more costly. There's also the tendency of prescribing the newest, most expensive drug when a generic might do. Hey, I've lived under European medical care and it's pretty good. You aren't going to get the latest antihistamine when you go see a doctor but if you need it, it's there. Paradoxically, even rich Americans were less healthy than lower class British. We need more exercise and a better health care system. A bit less stress might be nice as well. That includes financial stress, a byproduct of Bush's economy.

Compassionate Conservatism, an Oxymoron

I guess those $49.95 seats behind home plate only available to lobbyists are safe for now. The House ethics reform bill still allows lobbyists to buy gifts for lawmakers, as long as they are worth $50 or less. So we have $49.95 seats behind home plate readily available only to the Republican-created K-Street crowd to buy and pay for Congressmen using seats that would cost anyone else in the hundreds. Such is Republican reform, too little and far too late.

Happy May Day, primo de mayo, whatever you want to call it. I wore my white shirt in solidarity today, my conservative friend black. Such is the compassion of the Right, deport 'em all and let God sort them out despite his own Polish nose and English last name, none of which to my recognition are native to North America, while the very ones he wants to deport are native to this continent, at least partially. But that makes no difference. My conservative friend, compassionate as he is, trots out all the arguments that have ever been used against immigrants, his Polish forefathers included, to protest the current "wave" of immigration, a slow-motion roller that has been going on for years with complicity, if not tacit support, from our Government. Only when the Republican base started making noise did we dust off the tired old racistic, xenophobic statements used for everyone since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth (unfortunately, the Native Americans were the only ones that were right about what immigrants would do to the native culture). The ultimate Compassionate Conservative argument remains they're violating the law of the land. This is the argument they would have used to support King George (the English one, not Crawford's absentee idiot) and the English Monarchy as the very forefathers they claim a telepathic connection to fought against it. It's the law of the land and it must be enforced.

Those forefathers were immigrants or sons of immigrants. They'd come here for the promise of a better life and when the law of the land was wrong, they acted. They rebelled, something we Progressives do not advocate today but certainly did then, and became the Government. Since then, every wave of immigration has been met with scepticism, hostility, even violence from the conservatives who always claim they will dilute the culture, take advantage of our resources, weaken us. In every case, they've been proven wrong. We're stronger, more diverse, more creative because of those immigrants with names like Boehner, Frist, Hastert, Bush, Tancredo, Buchanan and many, many more but more so immigrants such as Clinton, Kerry, Kennedy, Edwards, Murtha, Gore, Feingold, Hickenlooper, Salazar. But still they trot out the old lines to fire up their Minuteman base. They don't learn.

Indeed Tom the Xenophobe Tancredo (what kind of name is that?) predicted a backlash from today's protests. I, too, join Tom in a prediction: Republicans have lost the Latino vote. That bodes well for us but it isn't the prediction my xenophobic representative would have. Tom, who wants to change the Star Spangled Banner into Spanish? Didn't we raise some of the same protests when Jimmy Page played the Star Spangled Banner on his electric guitar? Much the same, Mr. X. Jimmy, if I recall correctly, was an immigrant himself, although probably not voluntarily. Slavery, Mr. X, was another platform the Conservatives supported. We don't want amnesty for those here to pick our strawberries and clean our toilets, we want to give them a chance. They're here with Government approval, otherwise border control would have been an issue long ago. All we want is a chance for them to earn their right to stay.

We reached another turning point in Iraq today according to Mr. Mission Accomplished. Democrats bashed Bush deservedly in the Congress today. Telling for the Shrub's political future, none of his fellow Republicans stood to defend him. A failed Congress fails to defend a failed President, pretty much sums up the failure of Republican rule. They were wrong on every point when it came to Iraq. Never fail to remind them of that.

Quick to snag onto any straw, the Administration trumpeted a slowdown in the increase of gas prices this week. I blame uncertainty in the market - uncertainty over whether Congress might take some meaningful action to encourage conservation. The Republican bribe certainly failed much to their suprise (surprised at the failure of their plans, picking up a theme here?) as their telephones lit up and even conservative bloviators such as Limbaugh lambasted their weak ideas. Gas is now 68 cents above the price last year.

The FISE court made modifications to 68 requests for secret intelligence intercepts last year but disapproved none. Requests for secret surveillance were up 18 percent over the previous year at just over two thousand. The Patriot Act was used 155 times to search business records. And Bush claims he needs extralegal authority to conduct clandestine surveillance?