Ouch!

What was that bang? Something smelly just ripped through the fan. The Bush administration—seven and a half years delinquent—was just forced to tell the truth about what's happening to our environment. SETH BORENSTEIN writing for the Associated Press reports on the dramatic report issued by the government describing what's in store for the United States over the course of the next seventy plus years, and it ain't pretty folks. Looks like Mr. Bush's pompous assurances that history would vindicate his administration's reckless, feckless behavior are on their way to being flushed quite properly.

What's that you see stuck up in the air? Why it's your president, with his head buried in the sand. You can figure out what's waving in the air.

Death Toll in China Keeps Rising:

The government in China has now raised the death toll from the recent quake to nearly 29,000, according to The New York Times, and millions are now fleeing the area in fear of flooding. Evidently, the quake dammed up 13 rivers and lakes, and water is rising by several feet.

A word from the Dude from Yesteryear: "After all, a week ago, there were—Yasser Arafat was boarded up in his building in Ramallah, a building full of, evidently, German peace protesters and all kinds of people. They're now out. He's now free to show leadership, to lead the world." — George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., May 2002.

Energy Prices Surge—No Problem for Europe:

Like you, I haven't heard much lately about the lazy European labor force that refuses to make the proper sacrifices for efficiency's sake. You no, shorter vacations, longer hours, no health care. Unlike Americans, Europeans have six weeks of vacation a year, work about five fewer hours, and, oh, yeah, there's that universal health care thing.

So how's their economy doing now that oil prices and the price of everything else that depends on oil doing? Up 1.5 percent over the past three months, thank you very much. In case you're not an economist, that's significant. Germany is leading the way, according to The New York Times.

The Dude interprets the Declaration of Independence: "We hold dear what our Declaration of Independence says, that all have got uninalienable rights, endowed by a Creator." — George W. Bush, Moscow, Russia, May 2002. (Exactly!)

China Facts: "Number of privately owned cars in China 11,500,000. Number of additional cars on Beijing roads every day 1,000. Year the government began encouraging private car ownership in China 1994." (Source: ngm.com)

Parents Build Stuff—Kids Play with Stuff:

The decline in engineers in the United States has been the hot topic in education, government and business for more than twenty years. American engineers built stuff, and their kids just want to use that stuff. Now the Japanese are experiencing the same "flight from science."

The New York Times reports that Japanese "companies are slowly starting to import foreign workers, or sending jobs to where the engineers are, in Vietnam and India." As an added note, The Times points out that Japan has one of the lowest birthrates in the world. Turning the country around doesn't seem very likely.

Holy Cow! Bobby! Maybe the times are changing:

Republicans have been hit with their third defeat in a row in special elections as a special Congressional election in Mississippi fell to the Democrat even though the Republicans tried their hardest to ignite the race card.

The New York Times reports that the Republican leadership has been trying to ride the coat tails of "straight talking" John McCain, but evidently voters are recognizing that Sen. McCain's "straight talk" is more about "sounding like" straight talk, when in fact, brother John changes his position faster than a rattlesnake can strike.

China Facts: "Last year 29 members of the press spent China's National Journalists' Day behind bars. Foreign reporters feel the pinch too. Says one: 'The aim is intimidation and fear, and it works.' In a recent assessment of press freedom by Reporters Without Borders, China ranked 163 out of 169 nations. Some pundits say censorship will inevitably disappear as coutnries 'engage' China, but others say that's far too optimistic. As James Mann, author of The China Fantasy: Why Capitalism Will Not Bring Democracy to China, observes, 'As other authoritarian leaders around the world seek to stifle political opposition, they look to China as a model.' —Alan Mairson." (Source: ngm.com)

The Dude on gun violence: "For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America … And we're going to do something about it." — George W. Bush, Philadelphia, PA, May 14, 2001.

Nissan To Sell Electric Car by 2010:

That's just two short years away. According to The New York Times, Nissan will sell the cars in the United States and Japan initially and then make the cars available world wide by 2012.

When you check the story out, take a look at the photo of the place where you'd normally insert the gasoline nozzle at the pump. You open it up, and there's a three pronged electrical outlet. Now that's just cool.

The next big issue: recycling batteries.

China Facts: China's population is "around 91 percent … ethnic Han …. Yet in a population of 1.3 billion, even China's minorities are sizable—and growing. Its 55 non-Han ethnic groups, largely exempt from China's one-child policy, add up to more than a hundred million citizens, on par with the population of Mexico." (Source: ngm.com)

Republican Strategy for Winning Future Elections:

The next step in disenfranchising voters is to create a requirement for proof of citizenship at the poles. Currently, it can take months for people to acquire a copy of their birth certificates from county courthouses. It should be a simple step to extend that period of time.

Missouri is set to pass the law to require proof of citizenship in time for the next presidential election. Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma and South Carolina all have bills in place that could be passed in time to disenfranchise Democratic voters for the 2010 midterm elections.

Only the Supreme Court, the same people who provided the legal coup for Bush to acquire the White House in 2000, stands in the way of the disenfranchisement act, and they demonstrated their part to be played in the destruction of democracy recently in the Indiana case.

Notice the states (above) that have such bills pending, states that have long histories of racism.

(See The New York Times story.)

Earthquake in China Kills More Than 10,000:

An earthquake in western China is reported to have taken the lives of more than 10,000 people, according to today's New York Times. Early estimates were that the quake reached a 7.9 magnitude. The epicenter is near the Wolong Nature Reserve, which is the largest panda reserve in China. The Three Gorges Dam, the largest in the world, is a few hundred miles east of where the epicenter occurred, but there was no reported damage. (New York Times photos.)

China Facts: "The number of China's elderly is ballooning … while the number of people born after the government's one0child policy … is dwindling. [The] immense workforce, key to today's boom, will shrink after 2015. … [B]y 2050 close to a third of China's citizens will be over 60." (Source: ngm.com)

Oil Prices Drop?!!

You couldn't prove it by me. As I walked back from the Post Office today, a worker was raising the price of gasoline at the pump by six cents a gallon to $2.75.9, but the price of oil per barrel dropped from $126.40 (an all time record high) to $124.23 as the stock market closed this afternoon.

The New York Times' Paul Krugman has an interested Op-Ed piece in today's paper, in which he argues that the higher oil prices aren't simply a matter of wild speculation on the part of future's buyers. The interesting part is about how the price of oil was at $50 per barrel back in 2004 when the National Review published an article declaring oil was "a bubble about to burst." Instead the price rose to $70 per barrel. At that point Steve Forbes, the businessman's magazine publisher, argued that the oil bubble would certainly burst. Instead, … well, you know the story.

What Krugman doesn't mention is that the Saudis think the price of oil ought to be at $80 per barrel.

When Will Bush Begin Issuing Pardons?

Question: At what point will President Bush begin issuing pardons for all his officials against charges of various levels of impropriety?

The Bloch case, now under investigation by the FBI, in which the U. S. Office of Special Counsel is being investigated for being a tool of Republican politics, is highest on the radar. The Washington Post provides another chapter of the unraveling story in today's issue.

It's long been held that President Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon accounted in part for his failed re-election bid in 1976. Where will Bush's loyalties lie? With the henchmen who have promoted his political agenda or with the Republican party?

Bush has been described as one of the most loyal politicians of this century, but he has also brought his own political party to the brink of political viability.

China Facts: "32 percent of Chinese say the Internet broadens their sex life, compared with 11 percent in the U. S." (Source: ngm.com)

Take the Bus:

Will Americans learn to ride the bus or take the train? Gasoline prices have been well over $4 a gallon in Europe for a long time, but Europeans have a long tradition of plentiful and excellent mass transit. Cars in Europe, for the most part, come under the heading of a luxury. But American freedom has, since World War II, been defined as the ability to have a private car and to drive it anywhere you want.

Now gasoline prices in the U. S. are rapidly heading toward the $4 a gallon price, and suddenly many Americans have discovered the price of freedom. Mas transit ridership is climbing back into favor. According to The New York Times, ridership in places like New York City and Boston, where mas transit has long had a popular appeal, is up 5 percent. In other places where the car culture has been a way of life, like Denver, it is already up 8 percent.

Questions:

(1.) Will capacity need to be increased?
(2.) Will this slow the rise in energy costs?
(3.) Will this have an adverse effect on the automotive industry?

China's Boom on the Backs of Children:

The New York Times explores the use of child labor in China where the goods Americans buy for their own children are often made by children as young as twelve:

Residents (of Liangshan, China) say children as young as 12 have been recruited by child labor rings, equipped with fake identification cards, and transported hundreds of miles across the country to booming coastal cities, where they work 12-hour shifts to produce much of the world’s toys, clothes and electronics.

One teacher reports,

“Last year I had 30 students. This year there are only 14. All the others went outside to find work,” said Ji Ke Xiaoming, 35, a primary school teacher whose students in Erwu Village are mostly ages 12 to 14. “You know, we are very poor. Some families can’t even afford a bag of salt.”

Chinese officials are downplaying the situation, stating that there are actually very few incidents of this activity, and a recent raid of some 3,000 factories revealed only a handful of violations, but it is also likely that officials tipped off the factories prior to the raids.

For two decades, the engine than has powered the Chinese economy has been cheap labor. As the country grows economically, the labor force has become more expensive.

China Facts: "Cell phones in China have grown from 87 million in 2000 to 432 million today." (Source: ngm.com)

The Dude as prophet: "There's no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds on the horizon were getting directly overhead." — George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., May 11, 2001.

Weaker Students Go Deeper into Debt This Fall:

The New York Times carries a story about universities from the Ivy League down to the lowest level of higher education digging deeper into their waiting lists to admit students for the fall term. Some 150 to 175 students who otherwise would not be admitted to Harvard this year will have the opportunity to attend. Probably many of these students will come from the wealthiest families who can afford the $70,000 a year price tag for attending the country's most elite university, but there will be a ripple effect around the nation. Harvard is certainly not the only school choosing to admit students inadequately prepared to attend college.

One of the dirty secrets of higher education is that half of all students attending universities around the country are so poorly prepared that they must take remedial courses, courses intended to bring them up to the 8th or 9th grade reading, writing and math levels, in order to provide them with some modicum of a chance to succeed.

And then there is the money issue. The cost of higher education keeps sky rocketing, causing young people, and their parents, to go deeper and deeper into debt. In the meantime, the student loan situation is in a state of flux while job opportunities for those students who do manage to graduate—only a little over half of the people who enter college actually matriculate—become more restrictive.

McCain, the Environment, and Big Land Deals:

Sen. McCain, according to the Washington Post, has been involved in pushing Arizona land deals that greatly benefit his campaign's supporters and that not only bring financial harm to taxpayers but also endanger the environment.

Developers in Arizona are swapping land of low economic value for government owned land that is extremely more valuable. This is supposed to occur only when the value is equal, but according to the Post, the land that the government receives in trade is only worth approximately 1 percent of the value that is being traded to big developers. In return for his support, McCain is reportedly receiving massive financial donations to his campaign. Naturally, the McCain camp denies any quid pro quo.

China Facts: "31 percent of Chinese 16 or older say they are religious, four times the official estimate a decade ago."

Photos of the Myanmar Disaster:

For those who can't get enough news about the cyclone/tsunami in Myanmar, The New York Times provides "The Lede" blog site, posting photos sent in by readers, as well as descriptions and comments.

Will a Tech Boom Save Us from a Recession:

Can you even have a tech boom during a recession, might be a more appropriate question. The New York Times reports that Sprint Nextel, Google, Intel, Comcast, Time Warner and Clearwire are partnering up to challenge Verizon and AT&T in the wireless market. These companies are tossing in $14.5 billion dollars to build a network for cell phone users.

The Times quotes Clearwire chairman Craig O. McCaw as stating,

The power of the mobile Internet, which offers speed and mobility, home and away, on any device or screen, will fundamentally transform the communications landscape in our country. We believe that the new Clearwire will operate one of the fastest and most capable broadband wireless networks ever conceived, giving us the opportunity to return the U.S. to a leadership position in the global wireless industry.

In the meantime, the stock market continues to be volatile, with a late Wednesday afternoon "tumble," to use the Times' terminology. The Dow was down 206.48 points and Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 1.8 percent, its worst showing in nearly a month.

Sen. Clinton Vows to Fight On:

The media is awash with predictions that the narrow victory in Indiana coupled with a resounding defeat in North Carolina spelled the end of her campaign. The big key here is a financial one. Once again Sen. Clinton, it turns out, was forced to loan her campaign millions of dollars to remain viable.

If nothing else, this campaign has shed more light on precisely what democracy means in the United States. The vote for these two candidates remains relatively close, both in the popular count and the delegate count. And there are still two states about which no one seems to know what to do, Florida and Michigan. But the money difference is well documented as heavily favoring Sen. Obama. His campaign has consistently set records for its ability to raise money. Sen. Clinton may be able to rally millions of poor white working women behind her, but they haven't funded her the way Obama's supporters have funded him.

Here's the kicker, if Sen. Clinton does not win the nomination and the White House, she will be spending considerable effort over the next few years raising money to repay the loans she made to her own campaign. "Why won't she need to do this if she becomes president?" Well, she will still need to repay the loans, but as president or former president, depending on when she sets out to raise this money, the effort will need be far less. (See The New York Times story.)

Bush Again Calls for Drilling in ANWR:

Bush once again called for domestic exploration for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, despite the fact that oil taken from their would provide little or no relief to current energy problems. Currently, it is believed that the amount of oil would be relatively small compared to current needs, and that it would take too many years to bring the oil to market to have any significant impact. However, oil drilled in ANWR would greatly benefit a few oil men. Can you guess to whom these people are connected?

What the Dude told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag about the best moment of his presidency: "I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a seven and a half pound largemouth bass in my lake." — George W. Bush, May 2006. (I know, you'd really like to have a beer with this guy. Well, the sooner the better.)

China Facts: "Authorities have added 171 new pop culture phrases to China's national language registry." (Source ngm.com)

Oil Price to Peak in June, Temporarily:

Forecasts are for the price of oil to peak in June, according to a New York Times report; however, the best analysis is that will only provide a momentary lull, followed by a steady increase over the next two years to somewhere between $150 to $200 per barrel, as demand in China and India continues to skyrocket.

The price of gasoline is expected to run as high as $7 a gallon, with home heating oil and diesel fuel to be even higher. Thus the cost of everything else will accelerate, including the price of food, which has already taken a marked jump.

In the meantime, the issue of global warming, which looms in the not so distant future, seems to be a forgotten issue.

The Haves and the Have Nots:

While the economy is in the throws of a recession and the U. S. is in the middle of a major political campaign, while millions of people have no health care and 40 percent of the world's population lives in extreme poverty, millions of others have so much money and so much time on their hands that they can afford to spend the money and the time on video games.

Don't misunderstand. I'm not opposed to video games, but surely the irony cannot be missed in the juxtaposition of news items about the high cost of energy and its effects with the news that a video game had sales of $500 million within the first week of its release. (See The New York Times story.)

For another insight into who has loads of money vs. the rest of us, see The Times story on who's buying art for hundreds of millions of dollars. (Keep in mind that none of the artists is alive and in any way benefiting from these sales.) Monet's "Railroad Bridge at Argenteuil" sold for $41.4 million. Granted, it is impossible to place a monetary value on how enriched our lives are through art. But the question here is just who has the money to do this? And we could add, why spend the money this way? The painting already exists and could easily be displayed in a museum where all who could get to that museum could have their lives enriched by it, so how is it that someone has that much money just to own such a painting? No doubt the purchaser will declare the purchase an investment, but it seems more likely to qualify as hoarding. Investing one's money in a pile of gold that is locked in a vault is decidedly different from investing one's money in a business.

This Day in History: 63 years ago today, Germany signed the unconditional surrender that ended World War II in Europe.

60,000 Missing or Dead in Myanmar:

The Washington Post is now reporting that the tsunami numbers of missing or dead past 60,000 as emergency supplies began arriving yesterday.

States Rush to Murder Inmates:

Georgia claimed the first execution last night at 7:51 p.m. as states around the U. S. rushed to begin executing convicts. Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell (R) stated that "The commonwealth has suffered, and continues to suffer, serious and irreparable harm each day the stay remains in effect," although he failed to explain just what that harm is since the man he wants to kill is securely locked up in prison. One supposes he means the harm to his reputation as a professional, hired killer. (See The Washington Post story.) Virginia has been under a stay of executions pending the outcome of the recent Supreme Court ruling with regards to the "cruel and unusual punishment" issue regarding the "three-drug" method of killing prisoners currently employed by most death penalty states and the fact that this method is outlawed by most states because it is considered cruel when used on animals.

The Dude's perspective: "And one of the things we've got to make sure that we do is anything." — George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., May 7, 2002. (Spoken, no doubt, with extreme sincerity.)

China Facts: "China has the world's largest number of Internet users—220 million—surpassing Web surfers in the U. S." (Source: ngm.com)

China: When is the price too high?

Mao declared he was willing to sacrifice one family to save tens of thousands. A noble idea, especially when the family being sacrificed is not your own. The Chinese are beginning to challenge the philosophy of sacrifice as they begin to realize their sacrifices are not so much about saving "the other" as they are about enriching the few.

Today's New York Times carries a story about a protest in Chengdu, China, "against a $5.5 billion ethylene plant under construction by PetroChina." China is perhaps the most polluted country in the world. Its air nearly unbreathable, its water often unfit even for irrigation.

China possesses about the same amount of water as The United States, but it has almost five times as many people. The Yellow River, the life blood of China, has been dammed more often than any river in the world, often with disastrous results. In the 1990s, the river often failed to reach its mouth.

The origin of the Yellow River, by the way, is in Tibet. And that's what the conflict with Tibet is about, something the American press has completely ignored.

China Facts: "67 percent of millionaires surveyed say they are sacrificing health for money." (Source: ngm.com)

Myanmar Death Toll exceeds 22,000:

Myanmar (also known as Burma) is reporting that the tsunami that struck recently has taken more than 22,000 lives. (See NPR.org) This is the worst tsunami disaster since the December 2004 tsunami which took well over 100,000 lives.

What Can $40 Billion Plus Buy?

Evidently not Yahoo. Speculation abounds. What will Microsoft buy if it has over $40 billion to spend. (See The New York Times story.) Everybody's trying to guess at what stopped Microsoft's big buyout bid of Yahoo, quickly followed by what the company might go after next. It must be terrible to have that much cash burning a hole in your pocket.

Keep in mind that Microsoft's big money makers are its operating system and office suit, both of which may become irrelevant in the near future, according to many prognosticators. Will the next big tech revolution be a Microsoft-less world?

Personal Note: So yesterday I'm driving through the middle of Pennsylvania on the Interstate, when I'm passed by this big four-wheel-drive SUV with police lights on it, but not in use, clearly exceeding the speed limit, and I'm thinking to myself "Who are these guys after?" And I read the insignia on the side of the vehicle, which clearly states, "Border Patrol," and I think, "Wait a minute! What border are these guys patrolling?" 'cause I'm not aware of any borders within the vicinity of where we are and they aren't even heading in the right direction to encounter either of the closest ones.

The vehicle is moving too fast for me to catch the license plate, so I can't determine if this is a U. S. vehicle or a Pennsylvania one, and I think does Pennsylvania even have a border patrol and why would they? Naturally it occurs to me that knowing how Pennsylvanians feel about their New Jersey neighbors the state might want to guard their border with that state, but it seems unlikely taking into account the amount of commerce that transpires between them.

So what was that vehicle doing there?

Webb Bill To Expand GI Bill:

Both sides of the government are in favor of expanding the GI Bill as proposed by Sen. Web (D-VA). Guess who's opposed. Sen. McCain and the current knuckleheads in the White House. Their argument is that if you expand benefits for veterans the guys in the service now will leave active duty to go to college, and then where will the all volunteer military be? Really tells us what the current denizen and the would be occupant think about the guys they conned into the war in Iraq, doesn't it? Of course neither Bush nor McCain had to worry about college or their education, certainly not as a vehicle for improving their lives, and then there's Dick Cheney, spelled "d-r-a-f-t-d-o-d-g-e-r."

The Dude's perspective on history: "You never know what your history is going to be like until long after you're gone." — George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., May 2006.

F.B.I. Raids Special Counsel Office:

The hot topic all afternoon has been the raid of special counsel Scott J. Bloch's office. The rational extends from accusations that Bloch has used his office for political purposes and has refused to pursue investigations that did not find in with the Bush administration's political agenda. According to The New York Times, Bloch has been "a target of a complaint filed by a group of employees who accused him of trying to dismantle his own agency, of illegally barring employees from talking to journalists and of reducing a backlog of whistle-blower complaints by simply discarding old cases."

Oil Closing Near $123:

Buyers in the futures market continue to push the price of oil higher as forecasts show oil going even higher now that summer approaches. (See The New York Times story.)

Oil Price Breaks $120:

Another new oil price record was set on Monday, as the per barrel price broke past $120. Nevertheless, gasoline at the pump, according to The New York Times, dropped by one cent nationally. Forecasts, however, still hold for $4 per gallon gasoline, with no end in sight.

The Dude on the goals for his administration: "The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany." — George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., May 5, 2006. (Who knew?)

China Facts: "One in four residents of Beijing is a migrant from the country." (Source ngm.com)

Today Is the 38th Anniversary of the Murder of 4 People at Kent State

Thirty-eight years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen, responding to directives from the Ohio governor, shot and killed four people on the campus of Kent State University. This was not the only such killings, but the massacre set off a series of protests and riots around the country that further divided the U. S. into a simmering state of civil war.

During subsequent investigations following the murders, National Guardsmen asserted that they had been fired upon first. No evidence that they were ever fired upon has, to this day, come to light. At least two of the people murdered that day were not involved in any sort of protest whatsoever. The act, an attempt at government terrorism against its citizens, failed in its intentions.

Microsoft Walks Away from Yahoo:

Microsoft announced in would not make a hostile buyout attempt for Yahoo when the latter turned down the Microsoft's bid despite the fact that it was substantially higher than market value. It will be interesting now to see what strategy Microsoft will attempt to compose to pursue the rich on line advertising revenue that Google has the lion's share of. (See The New York Times story.)

Big Brown Wins Derby, While Eight Belles Dies for Your Gambling Amusement:

The sport of kings draws big crowds of gamblers: 157,000 people turned out to watch the Kentucky Derby yesterday, as immature horses ran the course in two minutes or less. For animal lovers, the nasty secret of horse racing is that horses are forced to race when they are too young. Eight Belles, a young filly, illustrated the point yesterday, coming in second and offering the Derby winner, Big Brown, its only competition. But she paid a price. Both of her front legs were broken in the race, as a result of her lack of maturity and the peculiarities of Thoroughbred physiognomy.

Thoroughbred horses are bred to have large lungs and large haunches. When they are still three years old and younger, their foreleg bones are still under developed. When they run, all 1500 plus pounds of their weight lands on one front leg and then the other. There is a tendency under these circumstances for the bones to fracture.

The problem could be easily resolved by raising the age of the horses before they are allowed to be raced; however, horse breading and racing is a very expensive proposition. That's why it's the sport of kings. In order to recover investments, owners need to start breading their horses early, and they want to bread their animals with established winners. In other words, they've got to establish a horse as a winner as early in its life as possible in order to bread it as frequently as possible. (Read The New York Times story.)

The Double Standard:

Frank Rich points out the double standard that exists in the race to the white house, and he's not talking about the fact that a woman is running. Rich is reacting to the media frenzy that has been taking place over Sen. Obama's relationship with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the white washing Sen. McCain's relationship with Rev. John Hagee and his support of anti-Catholicism. Hagee is well known for comparing the Roman Catholic Church with Hitler and Nazism and accusing the church of promoting antisemitism. (See the youtube video here.)

Hagee is not only a supporter of Sen. McCain, he is also the pastor of a megachurch in Texas. So when, Rich wants to know, is McCain going to be called to task for accepting the support of someone who voices so much hate for such a large group of Americans? So when will McCain how expects to govern when he tacitly agrees with someone who is preaching hatred for a religion that is followed by so many millions of people around the world? How will McCain be able to conduct foreign affairs under these circumstances?

Is It Foreshadowing?

A Baton Rouge-based district in Louisiana that had gone Republican for the past 33 years has elected a Democrat. The story is related by Paul Kane in today's Washington Post. The GOP strategy was to link the Democrat, Donald Cazayoux, with Sen. Obama, but that did not deter voters from preferring the Democrat.

The Dude, once again, explaining the Iraq fiasco: "We ended the rule of one of history's worst tyrants, and in so doing, we not only freed the American people, we made our own people more secure." — George W. Bush at the pretend ranch in Crawford, Texas, May 3, 2003. (Note: Being illiterate doesn't keep you from being an elitist.)

China Facts: "Public protests rose by 50 percent" in 2007. (Source: ngm.com)

Microsoft Closing on Yahoo:

Microsoft's pursuit of Yahoo has taken another step to closing a deal to purchase Yahoo. (See The New York Times story.) Some fear this means a monopolistic strangle hold on computing by the software giant, but another possibility should be taken into consideration. Will this be an all or nothing gamble on the part of the computing company whose operating system name, Windows, has come to be synonymous with personal computing for the majority of computer users?

Yahoo has been a marginal company in recent years as Google has dominated the search and Yahoo's market plan to become a content supplier has been of questionable value.

Microsoft is hoping that Yahoo will increase their potential as a portal for computer users, allowing them to compete with Google in a computing world where the operating system on a computer is of diminishing importance.

Microsoft's most recent operating system release has had questionable sales results. Many users prefer the previous edition of Windows. Apple has seen its share of the market double in recent months, and the Linux world has produced a version of its operating system (Ubuntu) that many users believe is as easy to use and viable as either of those. (Linux already owns a major market share of the server business.)

In addition, Microsoft has been losing market share in the browser wars, where both the Mozilla FireFox browser and the Safari browser have increased market share. Both browsers are rated faster and more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE). As more and more computing is done on line, the browser becomes ever more important.

U. S. Loses 20,000 Jobs in April:

While the loss in jobs is a further sign of how badly the American economy is doing, some see the number as a plus sign due to the expectation that job loses would actually be higher. What's missing here is that the number is somewhat misleading due to the fact that it does not take into account that part-time work took less of a hit than expected. In other words, more people are now working part-time, without benefits. The New York Times reports that "employees working part time involuntarily climbed to the highest level since 1995." Additionally, the Times reports that "The average weekly pay for rank-and-file workers — about 80 percent of the American work force — fell $3.55 in April," and that figure is after adjustment for inflation has been considered.

(Note: Did you catch GW screaming at the press yesterday about the collapsing economy? "I know things are tough!" Uh, yeah, for us regular folk. He inherited millions of dollars. And you thought he'd be a good guy to have a beer with. So how many have you had with him?)

Don't you wish you could do this:

The Federal Reserve is moving to allow banks to use debt as collateral for loans. The New York Times attempts to explain the action in today's paper. The focus is on credit card and student loans. What it comes down to is that the Federal Reserve is guaranteeing your debt. The banks loan you money, and then your government, financed by your tax money, promises to cover your debt. The banks, being in the middle, will be in a win-win situation. They will receive your money (or your house or your car or garnish your wages) while collecting interest, and they will not be accepting any risk because your neighbors will be guaranteeing repayment of the loan through their tax dollars. In addition, the banks will have more money to play with as they themselves can borrow money from The Fed based on your indebtedness to the banks, at a low interest rate, thus allowing them to loan more money at interest rates higher than they are paying.

Guess which shell the pea is under.

Chevron Earnings Soar:

Another oil company reports record profits. Chevron reported $5.17 billion in profit for the last quarter, adding to the bulging coffers of the oil giants (as reported in The New York Times in a Reuters story).

Recent stories focused on a call for a "windfall profits tax" on the oil industry, but there seems little chance such a measure would pass. The attempt to create such a tax during the Carter administration turned into a fiasco. An excellent model exists from the World War II period, but any such tax seems highly improbable in light of the fact that the oil lobby owns both the Republican and the Democratic party.

The gasoline tax "time out for summer" proposal seems to have a greater probability to succeed, but workers would not benefit from an 18.4 cent a gallon reduction. Instead the oil companies would simply keep the money, magnifying their own profit margins on the backs of workers and tax payers.

The Rush to Legal Murder:

Folks like to feel they are powerful. The greatest power is over someone else's life. Can I kill you? Well, not legally, but the government can in my name. The Supreme Court said so just three weeks ago, and now states like Texas are rushing to start whacking people in the voters' names. There's nothing like being able to strut into your local bar with the warm realization that you just murdered a defenseless person (who, by the way, may or may NOT have actually committed the crime of which he's been convicted) especially if that person is, uh … err … "of color." About half the people on death row around the country are African American. (See The New York Times story.)

The Crossover Vote:

Traditionally, voters who crossed voter lines to vote in primary elections for candidates of the opposition party did so in order to promote a weak candidate to run against their own party's candidate. This election season is seeing a new kind of voter perhaps not seen since the Reagan candidacy.

In 1980 and 1984 some Democrats turned out for Reagan, helping him swamp the opposition, although most of the defection actually came from Democrats simply not voting at all.

This year, according to The New York Times, as much as 10 percent of the Republican voters are actively supporting one or the other of the Democratic candidates, turning away from Sen. McCain because he seems nothing more than another version of the worst administration in modern history.

The Dude on the good ol' days: "But I also made it clear to [Vladimir Putin] that it's important to think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that if we blew each other up, the world would be safe." George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., May 2001.

China Facts: "Urban Chinese earn more than three times as much as those in rural areas, the highest income gap since the start of reforms in 1978. (Source: ngm.com)

Chinese Learn Stocks Can Fall As Well As Rise:

The Washington Post reports on the hard lessons learned by Chinese investors, especially small investors who bet their life savings on the Chinese stock market. (See the story.) For sixty years, the Chinese have lived under the assumption that their government would back them up. Not so with the stock market.

Murdoch Turns Public Face to Political Center:

The New York Times reports this morning that Rupert Murdoch's Fox News (sic) has become friendlier to Democrats. Murdoch, known to be about as conservative a business man as they come, a dragon gathering a huge pot of gold to sit on, has ordered his Fox mouth pieces to behave in a more friendly manner to the Democrats.

(Note: There is NO political "left" in the U. S.)

Lest you feel shock over the turn of events, you should realize that Murdoch has a long standing history of buttering whatever bread he is offered. The importance of this behavior lies in the fact that Murdoch evidently believes a Democratic sweep is likely in November.

Has Sen. McCain got a heavy overcoat?

Federal Reserve Set to Regulate Plastic:

Today's Washington Post reports on long overdue regulation of the credit card industry that has gone completely bonkers:

The Federal Reserve and two other banking regulators are set to unveil today one of the most aggressive efforts in decades to crack down on the credit card industry, prohibiting practices such as arbitrarily raising interest rates on outstanding balances.

The current mess came about through the deregulation of the industry, as credit card companies and banks sought to expand the use of credit cards and to enhance their own profitability. Eventually the practice was doomed to go the way of SUVs in an oil crisis.

Trying to collect 29 percent interest out of someone who can't afford to pay the minimum on a 7 percent loan is just plain stupid.

The Times, Bobby, They Did Change:

There was a time when it seemed General Motors would rule the world, when what was good for GM was good for America. Check it out: Ford Motor Company announced a profit recently, but GM has declared a $3.3 billion loss. Ouch! (See The New York Times story.)

Economy Slumps Because Workers Forced To Live Within Their Means:

If the irony here doesn't floor you, you really don't get what's been going on for the past generation. Economic growth has slowed to its lowest level since 2001, even as the Fed continues to lower interest rates and the to pass out stimulus checks like candy at Halloween.

While economic growth did occur within the last month, almost all of it was the result of inflation. Consumers are spending their money on gasoline, heating fuel, groceries. In the meantime, Exxon Mobil and the other oil giants continue to rake in massive profits. (See The New York Times story.)

Poor Exxon Mobil—Stocks Slump!

Pity the poor oil companies. Exxon Mobil's stock prices actually fell after the company reported that they only made $10.9 billion in profit during the first three months of the year. Gee, only a net income of 17 percent, but that wasn't up to expectations, so the stock price has been devalued ever so slightly. No wonder the Bush administration wants to give them even bigger tax breaks.

Oil broke the $100 a barrel barrier this year. Care to guess what it cost last year during the same time period? $58. Currently, the price has doubled. (See The New York Times story.)

Gail Collins on the Male Ego in the Election Process:

It's the kicker at the end that makes this Op-Ed fun to read. Hey! Could Bill really be the vampire who sometimes has a soul?

The Dude on human cloning: "It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber." — George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., April 2002.

It was on May 1, 2003 that George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq on board an aircraft carrier bearing a victory banner. Unfortunately, it was the peace he couldn't figure out how to handle.

China Facts: "China has the world's highest number of annual deaths triggered by air pollution." (Source: ngm.com)