How To Get a Bill Passed in Congress:

Make sure there are big tax breaks for businesses included in the bill. That's the answer Sen. Christopher Dodd, Conn. Dem., came up with.

The federal budget, which hasn't been balanced since the Clinton administration, will go further into the red if the senate has its way. It's time to go after those votes by bailing out homeowners who got in over their heads by buying property they couldn't afford from lenders who were irresponsible enough to sign them up to loans that weren't worth the paper they were written on.

By the way, getting votes costs lots of money, so you'd better toss in some major tax breaks for the folks who donate the big bucks for your campaign. (See The New York Times' story.)

McCain's Economic Plan:

The New York Times reports on John McCain's most recent economic speech in which he revealed a plan to nibble at the edge of problems. (See The New York Times' story with video.)

Economy in the Tank? Not if you are a hedge fund manager:

So if we're all losing money, where's it going? Well, the oil companies are making unbelievable profits, so we know they are getting theirs, even as global warming moves resolutely forward. Other huge chunks of money are landing in the laps of a few hedge fund managers' pockets, as wealth continues to consolidated in fewer and fewer people's hands.

Nobody seems to quite understand what hedge funds do or how they work. But whatever it is, they are making a few people super rich, so rich that some of them feel guilty enough about it to write books that proclaim the current economic policies are a disaster (George Soros).

So how would you like to make $3 billion dollars a year just by moving money around? (See The New York Times' story.) Here's a paragraph in the Times' story you do not want to overlook:

Since 1913, the United States witnessed only one other year of such unequal wealth distribution — 1928, the year before the stock market crashed, according to Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. Such inequality is likely to impede an economic recovery, he said.

Words of Wisdom: "We must have the attitude that every child in America—regardless of where they're raised or how they're born—can learn." — George W. Bush, New Britain, Connecticut, April 2001.

Supreme Court Gleefully Restores Death Penalty:

The U. S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, in effect restored the death penalty, which had been place on hold. The crux of the matter came down to whether it is humane to employ a "three-drug-final-solution." The state of Kentucky deems it inhumane to euthanize animals in this fashion, but perfectly humane to dispose of throwaway humans this way.

This is a particularly telling moment in American history for the Court to hand down the decision, as it coincides with the Pope's visit. The Pontiff has condemn capitol punishment, as has numerous of his predecessors. Perhaps the Court thought that the Bishop of Rome was too busy apologizing for recent "indiscretions" on the part of the priesthood to take note. Or perhaps they simply didn't care. After all, they elected the last president, surely they could do so again.

To his credit, Justice Stevens, while voting with the majority, called into question the whole validity of the death penalty. There is no doubt that the two convicts who brought the suit have been convicted of crimes that were truly horrific, taking the lives of more than one person in each case for the most venal of reasons.

The question is whether or not we, as a society, want our government murdering people so that a few politicians can parade before the electorate with puffed up chests. But I guess we answered that question during the last national election. (See The New York Times' story.)

Pope Visits Bush:

For the first time in his presidency, GW went to the airport to greet a visiting dignitary. That was yesterday's news. Today, Pope Benedict XVI visited the Methodist president in the White House.

Interestingly, the Pope had this to say to the crowd: "Democracy can only flourish, as your founding fathers realized, when political leaders and those whom they represent are guided by truth." Hard to argue with that, but one wonders if this were not a severe criticism of his host or simply an empty platitude? Still it's nice to know that one of the two men is articulate enough not to become tongue-tied in front of an audience.