Gonzo Gone:

The fourth high level priest of the Bush administration resigned this morning. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales turned in his resignation, joining Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Rove in the category of once-powerful-now-gone Bush office holders. (See the Salon.com story here.)


Health Care:

Our good buddy, Paul Krugman, over at The New York Times, bemoans the fact that conservatives are opposed to free health care for children, and he compares health care to public education. According to Paul, we have public education because "it's the American way," but the truth is that we have public (taxpayer funded) education in this country because employers need an educated workforce to exploit. Public education was created in this country specifically so that taxpayers could fund the private sector's workforce. Otherwise, the private sector would be required to educate and train its own workforce. When the private sector believes it's to its benefit to provide health care for children, then conservatives will demand it.

How Your Gov't Works (if you've got the right connections):

The Washington Post reports today on the increase of "no-bid" contracts. Remember the astronaut who, when asked how it felt to during take off, replied that he always remembered the rocket had been built by the firm who had submitted the lowest bid? It turns out that under the Republican controlled White House, business with government has become much more profitable. According to the Post, a "recent congressional report estimated that federal spending on contracts awarded without "full and open" competition has tripled." Hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer moneys are being spent without any bidding. The result, according to some sources, is that officials are awarding contracts to favorites and the number of contractors providing services and goods is shrinking. Sounds a bit like a private club wherein favored status brings about wealth fueled by the taxpayer.

Defying Gravity: How "Trickle Down Economics" Really Works:

Reagonomics is the "bill of goods" sold to us by the rich who insist that if we just let them keep more of their profits they'll be happy to share with us. Wealth trickles down, we are told, because rich people put all of their profits back into the economy, making everybody wealthier. It turns out that doesn't happen at all. When you build a dam, the area below the dam receives less water.

Today's New York Times reports on what's happened with the economy over the first five years of the new millennium. Average income has actually gone down, while the cost of health care, education, and just about everything else that working class people spend their hard earned dollars on has gone up. The average tax payer in America earns $55,238 a year, which is a figure based on the total income of all Americans. This figure is almost $500 lower than it was in 2000. Interestingly, it is also very misleading about the actual income of most Americans.

90 percent of all Americans earn less than $50,000 per year. Almost 50 percent of Americans earn less than $30,000 per year.

Breaking News from the Front Lines:

The New York Times quotes Illinois Republican Ray LaHood, who announced he would not run for re-election as stating,

“People are going to continue to have heartburn over the war,” he said. “Democrats will win the White House, hold their majority in the House and in the Senate in 2008, and then in 2010 we will have an extraordinary opportunity in the off-year of a Democratic presidency and Congressional majorities to possibly win it back. But it is not going to happen the next time,” in 2008.

Ooopsie!

Mitt Romney wants to run on the immigration issue. He claims we can keep the illegals out of the U. S. The question is who will mow his lawn in that case? No, that ain't a joke. When good ol' Mitt was "gubonator" of Mass. he had a local landscaping company doing his lawn (evidently all those kids of his couldn't be bothered to mow the grass). And, yes, the company hired illegal aliens to do the grunt work. A number of these south of the border folks have been discovered by the press. Gail Collins tells part of the tale in her op-ed piece today's New York Times.

Who Do You Believe?

Today's Washington Post reports on the contradiction between AJ Gonzales's testimony before congress and the notes from the FBI Director. Gonzales testified that Ashcroft was lucid during the notorious hospital meeting in March 2004, while the FBI Director's notes used terms like "feeble," "barely articulate" and "stressed."

Karl Rove on His Way Out?

Terence Hunt, writing for AP, reports that Bush's Mephistopheles-like political adviser plans to leave the White House at the end of August. The rats continue to leave the ship.


Mitt Romney and His Five Pacifist Sons:

According to Paul Krugman of The New York Times, Romney was asked last week at a political rally "whether any of his five sons [were] serving in the military and, if not, when they plan[ned] to enlist." According to Krugman,

The candidate replied with a rambling attempt to change the subject, but near the end he let his real feelings slip. “It’s remarkable how we can show our support for our nation,” he said, “and one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected, because they think I’d be a great president.”

"The Black Sites": In depth report on the CIA's overseas torture business

Jane Mayer's must read report in The New Yorker on the CIA's secret interrogation program can be found here.

Fox News Provides Giuliani 25 % More Coverage Than Other GOP Candidates:

Bonnie Goldstein reports in Slate about the special relationship between Fox News and Ruddy Giuliani. It appears that the former mayor and has a long standing relationship with Fox News co-founder Roger Ailes.

How Many Innocent Civilians Is It Okay to Kill?

As the military attempts to determine how to wind down the ground war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the air war is growing. The smartest bombs in the world can't distinguish innocent civilians from armed combatants. So how many civilians is it okay to kill? Mark Benjamin at Salon reports on this issue.

Who Perpetrated "the Hoax" on Global Warming (and where they are running to now):

Sharon Begely, writing for Newsweek, provides a succinct history of the program of denial for profit on the part of industrialists, lobbyists, scientists and politicians.

Nixon's America Alive and Well in 2007:

Bush signed into law a bill to make it legal for the N. S. A. to continue spying on people whom it "reasonably believes" to be overseas, without warrants. According to a White House spokesman, "the new law is to give the government greater flexibility in focusing on foreign suspects overseas, not to go after Americans" The New York Times reported today.

It is generally believed that the legislation came about as a result of pressure from the telecommunications industry who were being faced with major lawsuits in the wake of the government's warrantless wiretapping program. Now the various members of that industry can simply turn over all communication, foreign and domestic, to the government so that members of the Nixon, errr, Bush administration can decide which of it is useful for them to act upon and which isn't.

Don't worry. The Bush family and Dick Chaney have nothing but your very best interest at heart.

Read The Washington Post's take here. At least the bill is scheduled to expire in six months. And, uh, there is no means of checking on the government in terms of determining whether any U. S. citizen's privacy has been compromised.


China Still Shipping Lead Children's Jewelry to America:

The dangers associated with lead poisoning have long been realized in the U. S. Recently it has come to light that China has been shipping products, notably children's toys, to this country, containing levels of lead that could lead to brain damage, possibly even death. According to today's New York Times, "of the 17.9 million pieces of jewelry items pulled from the market since the start of 2005, 95 percent were made in China."

Clinton Inches Left on War:

Today's New York Times reports on Sen. Clinton's slow slide toward opposition to the Iraq fiasco. Recently the senator-who-would-be-prez has started calling for more concrete plans to bring about a conclusion to the oil industry's plot to use U. S. troops to take over the Mid-Eastern oil fields. Evidently her polls are indicating she might not need to be a middle linebacker on steroids to become CEO of America.


Quote of the Day:

Democrats "have a Pavlovian reaction: Whenever the president says the word 'terrorism,' they roll over and play dead," said Caroline Fredrickson, Washington legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

—from The Washington Post.