A Nation of Criminals:

A new report indicates that 1 out of every 100 American adults are currently behind bars. According to a Washington Post story, the cost to the states is nearly $50 billion per year, with the federal government kicking in another $5 billion. Just keep in mind that while that money comes out of taxpayers' pockets it goes into someone else's.

Notable quote: "Can you smell money?!?!?!" — Jack Abramoff, Republican lobbyist.

The Master Politician:

Today is that day in every fourth February when we try to make up for the fact that the earth takes six hours too long to make its way around the sun every year. People have been struggling with this phenomena ever since our concept of the seasons became important to us. Chris Turney, writing in today's New York Times, explains what Julius Caesar did about this and how his constituents thought he made their lives longer by 90 days. Now who wouldn't vote for a guy like that?

Elvis in the Building!

Gail Collins Op-Eds on the Barack phenomenon vs. the Hillary candidacy today. Seems Barack followers are fainting like Elvis fans of yore, while Hillary reminds Collins of Pete Rose sans the gambling issues, or maybe not, considering that running for White House occupancy is always a gamble.

In the meantime, did you catch that Ohio right-wing radio host begging voters to elect a Democrat after McCain repudiated the guy's introductory remarks? Gail Collins says she's an Ohio girl and Ohio folks are plain talking, hard working types. But she fails to reflect on the KKK's longstanding foothold in the state. Check the state's history during the Civil War and during the 1920s when there were more Klan members there than in Mississippi and Alabama combined. And the next time you have occasion to travel through the state on I-70, make sure you stop off at a truck stop and listen to folks. You might think you are in one of those deep south states.

Ouch! We went to war with Iraq to stop this from happening!

The dollar sank to $1.51 vs. the euro today. This was an important part of Bush's rational for taking us into the morass of the Iraqi War (not the rational he gave us, but the real one). The war was supposed to prevent or slow down the euro overtaking the dollar as a currency of choice. Saddam was trying to sell the Iraqi oil for euros. So much for that strategy, Mr. Bush. Thanks a lunch bucket! (See the Times article.)

"Well, Mr. Know-it-all, won't this make U. S. goods sell better overseas?" Sure, but so far that hasn't amounted to much. We don't make a whole heck of a lot anymore. Remember, we're a consumer society.

Gas Prices Soar—Oil Companies Continue to Profit:

Gasoline costs Americans nearly a dollar a gallon more this year than it did last, and some experts expect the price of a gallon of gas to rise to $4 a gallon by late spring or early summer. Increased demand is credited as the cause. In the meantime, the oil companies continue to profit while receiving massive tax breaks from the Bush administration. (See the New York Times story, especially for the comparison of costs of energy over the past thirty years. Inflation has tripled in that time period.)

On G. W.'s awareness of his surroundings: "It's good to see so many friends here in the Rose Garden. This is our first event in this beautiful spot, and it's appropriate we talk about policy that will affect people's lives in a positive way in such a beautiful, beautiful part of our national—really, our national park system, my guess is you would want to call it." — George W. Bush, The Rose Garden, February 2001.

Making a Mockery of the Constitution:

Dick Cheney is still doing everything within his power to undermine American democracy. The backbone of American democracy is its unique arrangement of checks and balances between legislative powers, executive powers and judicial powers. Various presidents have attempted to thwart the limitations placed upon them by the system by stacking the Supreme Court, and the Bush administration has been no stranger to this strategy, but this is the first administration to have successfully employed the strategy of having the vice president be a member of both the executive branch of government and the legislative branch.

Chris Suellentrop blogs about the situation in yesterday's New York Times as it applies to the District of Colombia's attempts to restrict handgun ownership. The District is attempting to the limit the opportunities for drug dealers and psychopaths to obtain guns within the nation's capitol, but Cheney, being the grand wizard of the far right, is doing everything he can to make sure that the people who control the NRA, the gun manufacturers and dealers, can continue to sell guns of any type to whomever they please, whenever they please.

On Saturday, The Washington Post addressed the issue in an editorial, ending with "It's yet another indication that Mr. Cheney thinks the normal rules of American democracy don't apply to him."

Ping-Pong Diplomacy Strikes New Chord:

This afternoon's buzz has been all about The New York Philharmonics' performance at the Pyongyang Grand Theater in Pyongyang, North Korea. We seem to have moved from fist waving and finger pointing to the rhythmic motion of the maestro's baton. Can I have a "Hallelujah Chorus"? Okay. Well, you do the best you can.

So what's the big deal? The following description of the finale, provided by Daniel Wakin of The New York Times, might give us a hint:

And right there, the Philharmonic had them. The full-throated performance of a piece deeply resonant for both North and South Koreans [“Arirang,” a beloved Korean folk song] ended the orchestra’s historic concert in this isolated nation on Tuesday in triumph.

The audience applauded for more than five minutes, and orchestra members, some of them crying, waved. People in the seats cheered and waved back, reluctant to let the visiting Americans leave.

Music does indeed have the power to move people.

The performance will be broadcast on the New York PBS station, WNET, as part of PBS's Great Performances series tonight at eight o'clock and is supposed to be run on other PBS stations around the U. S. at a later date. Amazingly, the performance was streamed live over WNET's web site during the early hours this morning, beginning at 4:00 A.M. No, I didn't watch it. But still …

Visa Going Public:

The world's largest credit card company intends to accumulate over $17 billion dollars by selling stock in the company to the public. According to The New York Times, Visa will sell 406 million Class A shares for somewhere between $37 to $42 apiece.

This may seem an odd thing to some, considering the current credit situation not just in the U. S. but around the world; however, Visa doesn't actually extend credit to anyone. The company simply manages credit for all of the banks who subscribe to their service, and people generally have been turning away from hard currency to make most of their purchases with plastic.

Here's a small lesson on how credit cards work: If you have a credit card from a bank and you make a purchase with it, the bank guarantees the retailer or service provider payment in full, regardless of whether you pay your credit card bill or not. However, the retailer or service provider pays the bank a fee for this guarantee, usually between 3% and 6%. So if you buy $100 worth of groceries at the store, your credit card is charged $100, but the grocer only receives somewhere between $97 and $94 in payment from the bank. The difference is subtracted from the grocer's profits.

Currently, there is a move among retailers to shift this cost of doing business to the customer, like the cell phone company I deal with, AT&T. However, it seems doubtful that this will become widespread. Eventually customers will catch on to the practice, and while they might accept it as the price of doing business for occasional purchases, it would likely affect behavior for shoppers on a more regular basis. Retailers like the idea of plastic because customers are more likely to purchase greater amounts of goods when they can place the cost on credit than when they see cash in their pockets dwindling. If customers see the cost of purchasing goods to increase through credit fees in addition to the already outrageously high interest rates some credit card users pay, the backlash will creep into retailers pockets.

But then I have been wrong before.

Taxpayer Revolt against Public Bailout of Homeowners?

Just when government is beginning to step in to help homeowners who were victims of unscrupulous lenders, John Q. Public is voicing outrage that his tax dollars are being given away to the fools who fell for the phony baloney sales pitches.

Interestingly, whenever I see a picture or TV broadcast of people complaining about being duped or driven from their homes or filling out paperwork to try to save their homes, it seems like most of these folks are black. Somehow, I doubt that all or even most of the people who fell victim to the housing scam are African American, but one wonders just how much placing a black face on the image of the victims translates into the lack of sympathy so many taxpayers are starting to give voice to.

To be plain, racism and bigotry are still alive and well, regardless of our verbal or body language. (See William Yardley's New York Times story.)

Supreme Court to Decide Whether American Citizens Should Be Guinea Pigs for Drug Companies:

That's a mouth full (all puns intended). Gardiner Harris reports in today's Times on the case pending in the Supreme Court to decide whether drug manufacturers can be held liable for withholding information about the drugs they make from the Food and Drug Administration. In other words, can a drug manufacturer cheat the system, ruin your health or kill you, and not be responsible for doing so?

The problem stems from the fact that so many drug companies have had to pay out billions of dollars in judgments for having done just that. The money is supposed to flow from the working class to the speculators, not the other way around. Have we learned nothing under the Bush administration?

How Much Poorer Can You Go?

Check out the interesting graph provided by The New York Times, illustrating what's happening to 80% of the work force's take home pay. Hint: It's going down, folks.

Afternoon Update—Inflation Up, Home Values Down:

The cost of a gallon of gas is up by 85 cents over last year, and it won't take you any further or pollute the environment any less. That's no surprise, but other indications are that inflation is reverberating through the whole economy, except in the housing market. Vikas Bajaj addresses the issue in this afternoon's update of The New York Times. He shares the following interesting quote Paul Ashworth, a senior U. S. economist at Capital Economics:

“February may go down in history as the month that the previously indefatigable U.S. consumer finally threw in the towel, beaten by a combination of deteriorating labor market conditions, surging prices for food and energy and collapsing house prices.”

Four years ago, the great man had this to say during the third presidential debate: "In all due respect, I'm not so sure it's credible to quote leading news organizations about—well, never mind."— George W. Bush. (Apparently, he couldn't remember what he was going to say. Obviously, he had a lot on his mind.)

Speaking the Unspeakable:

Jeff Zeleny, writing in today's New York Times, brings into the public discussion what to date has been mostly whispered—the high probability of assassination attempts on Barack Obama's life.

The recent shootings around the country are only the latest illustrations of the violent nature of the U. S. Race hatred hasn't been eliminated simply because it is no longer acceptable to use certain language or because African Americans have won a few film Oscars or because even white children "want to be like Mike," or whoever is the most recent sports hero.

The country is still full of people who hate and fear what does not closely resemble them when they look in the mirror. Guns of all sorts are still incredibly easy to purchase, even by the seriously mentally unstable.

The Republican party's "southern strategy" isn't based upon anyone's desire to escape the snow line in winter. The border that so many people want to seal isn't the border we share with Canada.

And now for a few words of wit and wisdom from G. W.: "The Bob Jones policy on interracial dating … I spoke against that. I spoke out against interracial dating. I support the policy of interracial dating." — George W. Bush, CBS News, February 25, 2000.

When Does Life Begin?

The more appropriate question is "when did it begin?" Anti-abortion forces and women's rights groups debate the question, but science indicates it began a long time ago, about 3.5 billion years on this planet, and it simply continues.

Anyone serious about the argument needs to consider the information set forth in Neil Shubin's article in today's New York Times, "Birds Do It. Bees Do It. Dragons Don't Need To." As it happens, virgin birth is not a religious myth, but a biological function of some creatures, who create clones of themselves.

That's not, of course, what Mary is supposed to have done.

By the way, for those fundamentalists who object to the notion that we evolved from monkeys, Shubin points out that we share a common ancestor with sharks some 400 million years ago. I'm sure they'll find the "shark image" much more palatable.

A. O. Scott on the Oscars:

Today is Academy Award Sunday, that Sunday in February when there are no big sporting events on TV to distract people, which allows Hollywood to congratulate itself in front of the largest audience possible while at the same time trying to drum up interest (dollars) in its product.

The New York Times' A. O. Scott is probably the most widely respected of current movie reviewers, and he's chimed in with what seems to me to be the most quotable quote of the day on the subject: "The wonderful thing about the Academy Awards is that they are fundamentally trivial. To pretend otherwise is to trivialize movies."

Frank Rich Explains the Hillary Fall:

Writing in today's Times, Frank Rich explains the collapse of inevitability. Now that's a concept hard to get your head around. The press has been postulating thesis after thesis about what has gone wrong with the Clinton campaign for weeks now. Rich's view requires a knowledge of addition. It's the total package.

To the shock of the press, the Obama campaign, especially its campaigners, have beaten the Clinton machine like a drum, as Rich points out:

The gap in hard work between the two campaigns was clear well before Feb. 5. Mrs. Clinton threw as much as $25 million at the Iowa caucuses without ever matching Mr. Obama’s organizational strength. In South Carolina, where last fall she was up 20 percentage points in the polls, she relied on top-down endorsements and the patina of inevitability, while the Obama campaign built a landslide-winning organization from scratch at the grass roots. In Kansas, three paid Obama organizers had the field to themselves for three months; ultimately Obama staff members outnumbered Clinton staff members there 18 to 3.

Perhaps the biggest surprise has been in spousal power. While Mrs. Obama has committed a couple of gaffs during the campaign, Mr. Clinton, the consummate campaigner, the secret weapon that was supposed to usher in his wife as the first woman president, has done far more harm to her campaign than any spouse in recent history. Brother Bill's strategy in supporting his wife seems to have been to insult as many voters as possible.

And then there is her campaign manager, who is also the head of the company that handles public relations for Microsoft. That's a nice résumé. But it hardly speaks well for his full devotion to either enterprise.

Perhaps some sage advice from that great statesman, George W. Bush, is in order: "If you don't stand for anything, you don't stand for anything!" — Austin-American Statesman, 2000.

Now how can you argue with that?

How to Get Rich on the Campaign Trail:

Senate ethics rules prohibit candidates from directly profiting from campaign donations. You can't take the money people donate to your campaign and put it into your pocket.

But you can put it into the pockets of your relatives.

Today's Washington Post reports that Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer paid her son Douglas $320,409.17 directly from her campaign coffers, between 2001 and 2006. Republican Senator Mike Enzi paid his daughter-in-law $306,718.18 during the same time period. Former baseball pitcher and Republican Senator Jim Bunning from Kentucky paid his daughter $138,933.37 over a six-year period.

It appears, however, that the House is much worse than the Senate: "72 House members paid [$5.1 million] from campaign funds to relatives or to relatives' companies or employers during the same period."

Back in January of last year, a law to tighten requirements to limit such activity was defeated (surprise, surprise) in the Senate by a vote of 54 to 41. Senator Boxer voted "present."

Many people assume that Americans' Puritan heritage has to do with attitudes about sex. They're wrong. The Puritans believed that the condition of one's soul could be determined by measuring how well one did economically on this earth. We are a country in mad pursuit of the next quarterly earnings statement.

Your FBI Is Spying on You Even When They Don't Want To:

Here comes that can of worms opened up by overzealous officials and their accomplices, both of whom watch too much Fox TV: ZDNet reports that an unnamed ISP has turned over the email of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people to the FBI by mistake! Yes, that's right, folks. They gave up far more than they were requested, and you know your national police force is going to take advantage of the situation. Now that's the kind of security we can all be pleased with. Don't you feel safer already?

Other Worldly Views:

Today's AOL news site presents 28 images gathered from the universe. Sometimes it's good to look beyond our own little world for a little perspective.

Back Here on Earth:

Basra is the laboratory for Iraqi self-governance. So far, the experiment seems to suggest that the prognosis is that Iraq will eventually be governed by whichever strongman comes out on top, likely another Saddam. So, years of war, thousands dead. Back where we started. Brilliant. Now you know why McCain is thinking in terms of a century of occupation. Solomon Moore reports on the situation in today's New York Times.

Guns and Politics:

Gail Collins brings up the dirty word, "gun control," (actually it's a phrase, but "dirty phrase" lacks impact) in her Op-Ed column in today's Times. Will anybody else talk about the verboten topic, considering the gun violence that has taken place recently? Probably not.

You can't win elections if you can't win swing states, and let's face it, Virginia's economy depends upon gun dealers selling guns without background checks at gun shows. The National Rifle Association (a euphemism for a group of gun dealers and manufacturers who will sell any kind of weapon to any person or group under any circumstances at any time) has too much money and will spew hate at any candidate who dares voice a plan to help stop violence in schools like that which occurred yesterday in California where a fourteen-year-old boy murdered a classmate with a handgun.

All the focus on that incident is on the fact that the crime is being considered a hate crime, with not a word about the fact that the crime was committed with a handgun brought into the school.

Three years ago yesterday, the great man said, "This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And, having said that, all options are on the table." — George W. Bush during an Israeli television interview, February 22, 2005.

It's the Economy, Stupid:

More indications keep pouring in regarding the collapsing economy. Yesterday's New York Times Afternoon Updated reported on indexes within the mid-Atlantic region for the month, indicating that the economy is at its lowest point since February of 2001. Thank you, G. W.

"I understand small business growth. I was one." — George W. Bush, reported by New York Daily News, February 20, 2000.

Bailing Out the Fools: This morning's New York Times has a lead story using some very interesting language:

Prodded in part by some of the nation’s biggest banks, the Bush administration and Congress are considering costly new proposals for the government to rescue hundreds of thousands of homeowners whose mortgages are higher than the value of their houses.

Not since the Depression has a larger share of Americans owed more on their homes than they are worth. With the collapse of the housing boom, nearly 8.8 million homeowners, or 10.3 percent of the total, are underwater. That is more than double the percentage just a year ago, according to a new estimate of the damage by Moody’s Economy.com.

(Edmund L. Andrews and Louis Uchitelle)

What's that old saying? Oh, yes, "A fool and his money are soon parted." And then there is "if something seems too good to be true …," and "if you can't understand the sales pitch and you can't read the small print …." If it seems astounding that there are that many millions of people who fell for this scam, keep in mind just how many big bankers fooled themselves as well. Did all of these people really think they were going to win the lottery in the near future?

Here's a new old saying: "You can fool the majority of the people most of the time." I know that's not original, but it seems to have been proven repeatedly over the past seven plus years.

Some novel ideas have been coming forth recently about how to fix or at least improve the economy. Dalton Conley, chair of NYU's sociology department argues that we should create an investor society by encouraging people to place money into accounts that not only allow them to save money but will be used to seed development. Dalton points out that in "2005, net private savings in the United States were negative. In other words, we were spending money that we didn’t have, chipping away at our national wealth." Others have suggested that at the very least we should stop taxing pass book savings accounts, the interest upon which are very low anyway, and that this might encourage more people to save at least a little money. Multiply those small amounts by tens of millions of people and the savings could be substantial.

The Environment:

The federal government has ended protection for gray wolves in three states. Does this mean that these endangered species are no longer endangered, or is this simply more pandering on the part of the Bush administration? On the surface, it seems a good sign, but in light of the overall failure on the part of the federal government and particularly the current administration, one must wonder and question.

With much of the nation in the throes of a winter storm—it's been snowing where I am since midnight—it's easy to forget that global warming has many consequences. Today's New York Times carries a story on the state of Georgia making a claim on part of the Tennessee River. Georgia and much of the south east are under a severe drought, which we heard more about this past summer. We can expect the drought to draw even more attention in the coming months once spring and summer arrive. Florida, Georgia, and Alabama are important agricultural states. The ramifications of drought in these areas will be widespread.

The McCain Incident:

Well, what else would you call it? Senator John McCain had to defray flack stemming from a New York Times article suggesting that he's had an illicit relationship (of some sort yet to be fully delineated) with a female lobbyist. David Brooks, writing in today's Times, suggest the deep throat on the issue comes from inside the McCain faction itself. It seems the straight shooter has long nurtured warring factions within his own camp and that one of the parties is willing to leak innuendos about the Republican front runner that could threaten to damage his election chances, which, by the way, at this point don't look all that exciting. (Did you catch all of the Obama chanting at Bush's every stopping point on his recent world tour? At least much of the rest of the world is already planning on a tidal wave—as opposed to just a sea change—of change in the U.S.

Was the Carter Presidency All That Bad:

Paul Krugman, always on the lookout for ways to prove liberals are much better than conservatives paint them, offers some revealing statistics in today's Times:

Jimmy Carter’s overall economic record was much better than most people realize — the average economic growth rate under his administration was 3.4 percent per year, slightly higher than the growth rate under Ronald Reagan and far better than growth under either Bush.

Reagan, as Krugman points out, made a lot of hay out of the rhetorical question of whether Americans were better off in 1980 than they had been in 1976. Lots of folks thought the answer was "no," but the truth is that they effeminately were economically. However, it was the perception that mattered most. With hostages being held in Iran and the price of gold going haywire, not to mention the country having undergone a second oil crisis, most people assumed they were worse off.

Krugman's prognosis is not particularly good. He foresees a worse scenario than the period during the first Bush administration, leading to the conclusion that in all likelihood whoever wins the next presidential election will be a one term president.

Krugman ends his Op-Ed piece with a quote from Carter's inaugural address: "'Let us create together a new national spirit of unity and trust'—and ended up delivering America into the hands of the hard right" for the next twenty-eight years. By the way, real wages have remained relatively stagnate ever since.

State of the Economy:

Inflation continues to rise as the nation moves toward recession. Oil prices have hit an all time high, exceeding $100 per barrel, with no end in sight.

Yesterday I stopped in the post office to buy some stamps. The message: don’t buy many because the price is going up another penny. I joked that I guessed the mail workers needed a raise, but it was quickly pointed out to me that the increase in the price of postage was meant to offset the cost of trucking the mail around the country. But postage is just a tiny tip to this iceberg. Everything seems to move by truck nowadays.

Check out the tables and grafts in this afternoon’s New York Times update.

Voice of a NeoCon:

Christopher Buckley writes in today's New York Times that "defiance — defiance of the gleeful kind — is a quality I’ve always associated with conservatism," as he attempts to explain why he is not not supporting Senator McCain in the presidential election. In other words, Buckley doesn't come out and state that he's supporting McCain, he simply argues that perhaps the propagandists that the right employees to spew venom at the conservatives' foot soldiers are making a mistake. After all, they have no viable substitute.

So, according to Buckley, a conservative is the kid on the playground who thrusts out his jaw and threatens to take his ball and go home if he's not allowed to be quarterback. Sounds about right.

Let's take a look at what the current conservative quarterback has to say about the continuing economic catastrophe he's helped to create: "Recession means that people's incomes, at the employer level, are going down, basically, relative to costs, people are getting laid off." — George W. Bush, Washington D. C., February 19, 2004.

There's nothing Wall Street likes to see more than companies downsizing.

David Brooks opines in today's New York Times that, while Senator Obama generates the idealism of "change," no real change is likely to occur should he be elected president. Brooks, who considers himself the consummate realist, in the mode of the safely white upper middle-class male, who has no concerns over his family's financial security or health care, wonders when the hangover will begin to occur.

He's right, of course. The ocean liner is too big to turn easily, and it's far too close to the iceberg. The question is how many will drown. The rich and powerful are already in their lifeboats.

The Myth of America:

Everybody has the chance to succeed in America. That's what democracy is all about, right? But the truth is you have a better chance to improve your lot in life in many European countries than in the U. S.

Paul Krugman points out in today's New York Times that since 1969 the rate of poverty in America has been steadily slipping back. Twenty-three percent of American children lived in poverty in 1963. Five years later, after L. B. J. declared war on poverty, that rate had dropped to 14 percent. In 2006 the rate had climbed back up to 17.4 percent. Considering the current state of the economy, that rate is likely to climb even higher. We could easily find ourselves back up to levels where one out of four children is living in poverty, including the greatest poverty of all, poverty of opportunity.

And the great man said, "Home is important. It's important to have a home." — George W. Bush, Crawford, Texas, February 18, 2001.

And on the Far Right:

Nicholas Kristof describes John McCain as "The World's Worst Panderer" in today's New York Times, describing a series of incidents in which the senator notoriously contradicted himself, like the Confederate Flag issue (“symbol of racism"/“symbol of heritage”).

Back on February 17, 2000, when McCain was running in another presidential primary, George W. Bush had this to say about him: "The senator has got to understand if he's going to have—he can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road."

Now that's killing two birds with one—mistake.


Dan Eggen reports in today's Washington Post on how the Bush administration "allowed CIA interrogators to use tactics that were 'quite distressing, uncomfortable, even frightening,' as long as they did not cause enough severe and lasting pain to constitute illegal torture."

The CIA's position seems to be that updated waterboarding isn't torture because the tactic has been refined since the Spanish Inquisition used it.

If this is permissible for the CIA to do when interrogating terrorist suspects, is it also permissible for your local police department when questioning criminal suspects? Why not? After all, if you aren't guilty of anything, what do you have to worry about, right? And, uh, the same thing can be said of your children, right? How about your mother?

The Economy Deconstructed:

Yesterday Paul Krugman explained that the collapse of the economy is a result of a crisis of faith, indicating just how much a house of cards we are all living under. The roof, it seems, is sagging in a soggy mass of pasteboard. The culprit now is "the market for auction-rate securities," a scam we had no idea we were all a part of.

"Meanwhile," according to The New York Times, "a closely watched measure of consumer confidence, the Reuters/University of Michigan survey, fell to 69 in February, the lowest reading since February 1992. It had stood at 78.4 in January." Is that a failing grade or just a "D"?

Back on February 15 of 2004, Time magazine reported George W. Bush as saying to Senator Joe Biden, "Joe, I don't do nuance." Perhaps that explains the great man's inability to communicate at all in the English language.

Happy Anniversary Jim on Most Anything!!! You've made it through five years of babble, and so far the world has only partially collapsed under the strain. Granted, you hadn't much to say during those first two years, but then you discovered the pleasure of commenting on the utter stupidity of everyone else, and linking to them.

Here you are, living proof that anyone can say anything he or she can think of on the Web, and why not, since no one is listening anyway.

Just where are we on that tower?

Who We Are:

In the discussion about torture, one question never seems to come up: If it is okay to torture someone in order to save innocent victims of an impending attack, is it also okay to torture the innocent?

Nicholas Kristof describes, in today's New York Times, the plight of Guantánamo Bay detainee Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera cameraman, who has been incarcerated for six years and subjected to humiliating and extremely painful measures in order to obtain information that, by this point, he obviously does not have.

In other words, Mr. Sami al-Hajj has been forced to suffer extreme physical and psychological torture so that Dick Cheney and his puppet George W. Bush can walk around with their chests puffed out, pretending to a machismo that both were too cowardly to express in their youth. You will recall that Cheney was a draft dodger, while Bush, using his family's connections, was a weekend warrior, pretending to be a fighter pilot.

Bush/Cheney supporters (a dwindling number, thankfully) will whine that Kristof is a bleeding heart liberal, but Bush/Cheney are the sorts of school yard bullies who don't actually dirty their hands by attacking the weak and defenseless directly. No, they are the little big mouths who stand off to the side and provoke some larger bully to do the dirty work for them, while they have their hands shoved into their pockets, playing pocket pool while watching. The definition of a sadist.

George W. Bush during the third presidential debate in Tempe, Arizona in 2004: "[Laura is] out campaigning along with our girls. And she speaks English a lot better than I do. I think people understand what she's saying."

How Far Behind Are You?

Robert B. Reich argues in an op-ed piece in today's New York Times that, if the economy in the U. S. is to be fixed, the bottom two-third of wage earners must have their incomes increased. Sounds good to me. Reich claims that

America’s median hourly wage is barely higher than it was 35 years ago, adjusted for inflation. The income of a man in his 30s is now 12 percent below that of a man his age three decades ago. Most of what’s been earned in America since then has gone to the richest 5 percent.

That sounds about right to me.

This afternoon's hot news:

Roger Clemens testifies before congress with his accuser sitting just a few short inches away. The baseball pitcher who now holds most of the notable major league pitching records and seems to have discovered the fountain of youth, or at least a way to go more gradually into that dark night of being too old to play the kids' game at a competitive level, swore that all of the people, including his good friend, fellow pitcher Andy Pettitte, are either lying or "misremembering" events from a few years ago about his being enjected with human growth hormone.

You gotta think it's a good day when the hot news is baseball instead of war, genocide, or disease. Or maybe it just says something about the U. S. news media and what American's think is important.

"What he said": "The relations with, uhh—Europe are important relations, and they've uhh—because, we do share values. And, they're universal values, they're not American values or, you know—European values, they're universal values. And those values—uhh—being universal, ought to be applied everywhere." — George W. Bush, Washington, D. C., 2005.

Ain't life grand?

It's the economy, stupid:

Another house of cards comes tumbling down. Jenny Anderson reports on the collapse of a hedge fund managed by Mark S. Fishman who oversaw $2 billion of investments in today's New York Times:

“This will be the year with the highest number of hedge fund failures given the huge number of new and untested hedge funds,” said Bradley H. Alford, founder of the Atlanta-based Alpha Capital Management, an investment advisory business.

…

Big-name funds are suffering. David Slager and Timothy R. Barakett, who run the Atticus European Fund, lost more than 13 percent, and Lee Ainslie, who heads Maverick Capital, lost 9 percent through Jan. 25, according to SYZ & Company, which tallies hedge fund returns. (Compare that with 2007 performance when the funds returned 27.7 percent and 26.9 percent, respectively.)

— (qtd. Anderson)

In the meantime, the Times reports that the credit crisis is spreading beyond the subprime mortgage problem, as "home prices fall and banks tighten lending standards, people with good, or prime, credit histories are falling behind on their payments for home loans, auto loans and credit cards."

On the Microsoft/Yahoo scene, Microsoft's stock dropped $2.00 per share after Yahoo rejected Microsoft's buyout bid, causing the actual bid to be worth substantially less as the bid included an exchange of shares as part of the deal. At this point, it is unclear how either company plans to proceed in its battle with Google. Yahoo is expected to layoff 1,000 employees soon. (Read the Times article here.)

A Pause for Irony:

Across much of the northeast, America is under a falling blanket of snow, but in a few days pitchers and catchers will be disembarking at their designated spring training camps, aspiring to the delicious notion of ending their working year in October with a victory in a World Series.

One hundred years ago, the Chicago Cubs dominated baseball, winning the World Series. But they haven't won a Series since. The last time the Cubs even played in a World Series was 1945, the year World War II ended.

The team, it should be obvious to suggest, is on a quest. In a search for symmetry, its general manager (Arthur?) has sought his Lancelot in Japan. Now think about it—this team hasn't been to a World Series since America ended its war with Japan, so now it turns to Japan in order to seek a perfect solution in its quest for the holy grail of sportsdom.

If you think I'm making too much out of this, just wait until there is a series in Wriggly Field. That series will break all the records for TV viewer-ship, and if the Cubs happen to win it, the mood of the country will be more upbeat than any time since the teams' last appearance in a World Series.

The World Series, by the way, takes place only days before the election. If such a victory were to take place and Obama is the Democratic nominee, he will win the election by an astounding margin. If, however, there is a terrorist attack on Wriggly and if it is in any way successful, John McCain will have a good shot at upsetting whoever is the Democratic candidate.

By the way, if Kosuke Fukudome is Lancelot, I'm betting the Cubs rookie catcher, Soto, is Galahad.

To Good to Pass Up:

Today marks the second anniversary of the high point of the Bush administration tenure: the day Vice President Dick Cheney shot his hunting buddy in the face with a shot gun.

Did you catch the scene when Ron Paul's supporters chased Bush propagandist Sean Hannity, chanting "Fox News sucks!" In case you'd like to see it, here's the link.

How Rich Are You?

W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm have an Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times, arguing that the true measure of wealth is not how much money you and your property earn in a given year, but how much you spend. They present some interesting statistics worth a look.


Texans Plan to Blanket State in Concrete and Asphalt:

The state government in Texas has set forth a plan to pave over much of the state with a network of 4,000 miles of toll roads, as reported in today's New York Times. The proposal calls for an estimated expenditure of $184 billion, so you can figure the actual cost would be closer to $400 billion.

Texas, which has become the fastest growing state, exceeding California last year by some 200,000 new residents, is the main corridor for goods coming into the U. S. from Mexico.

The question here is why build a massive highway system to ship these goods when it makes far more sense to ship by rail, an environmentally more friendly mode of moving goods and at a cost that would probably be equivalent to one-third the price per pound of goods shipped?

The answer as always is that highway construction is ultimately about siphoning taxpayer money out of the hands of the many into the pockets of the few. George W. Bush proved just how successful that could be. For him and the people who manage him.

Are Things Actually Changing?

The New York Times claims that Yahoo "plans to reject Microsoft’s $44.6 billion hostile bid." The rumor is that Yahoo claims that the bid undervalues the stock, although stock analysts have estimated the bid as considerably higher than its current value. Sounds like Google whispering in the ears of the Yahoo board of directors.

In the meantime, Microsoft is expected to continue its pursuit. Bill Gates has asserted all along that his mega-moneyed kingdom resided on a precipice. Software is too ethereal a product (or is it a service?) to serve as a solid foundation. If Microsoft bets the bank in its Monte Carlo bid, could this be the beginning of the end? "You gotta know when to fold 'em."

A Momentary Aside:

I don't know how things are where you are, but here, the snow is coming down side-ways outside my office window. And then the sun comes back out. Ah, February …

And Now Celebrating Over Sixty Years of Peace:

Outside of Yugoslavia, Europe has not hosted a single war since 1945. (Sorry, conservatives, the Cold War doesn't count.) This isn't the first extensive period of peace in Europe. Between the Battle of Waterloo and 1914, Europe witnessed only one war, in 1871. Should we be worried that so much militaristic idleness will eventually bring about something like the catastrophic events that transpired between 1914 and 1945, a period future historians may refer to as The Second Thirty Years War? Geoffrey Wheatcroft addresses the question in today's New York Times.

What She Said When He Said "Bye":

So what's Gail Collins take on "Losing Mitt Romney from the presidential race"? "All I know is somewhere in doggie heaven, an Irish setter is laughing." She was, of course, referencing the "dog-strapped-to-roof-of-car episode" when the Romney family vacationed in Canada, in case you've forgotten.

And now the Republicans are down to one. That other guy, the Baptist minister, is running for VP. His current campaign is just a way to help out his future boss (he hopes) by helping to continue the stir, 'less we forget about him with all the attention the Democrats are likely to get in their "for real" pennant … uh … campaign race.

How's that Microsoft/Yahoo deal coming?

Last year, Microsoft's revenues were $51 billion. No wonder they can afford to buy out Yahoo for a measly $44 billion. But the real story is why they are trying to buy the company. Their business model, selling software, is drifting off into the clouds. They can see the future, and the only solution they can find is to buy out the competition. Well, Microsoft has never been known for innovation.

According to Nicholas Carr, former editor of The Harvard Business Review and author of The Big Switch, “Most of what you need is on the Internet — and it’s free. There are early warning signs that the traditional Microsoft programs are losing their grip” (qtd. Matt Richtel).

Out of the mouths of babes: "But the true strength of America is found in the hearts and souls of people like Travis, people who are willing to love their neighbor, just like they would like to love themselves." — George W. Bush, Springfield, MO, February 9, 2004. (Makes you wonder what sort of Sunday school class teacher this guy'd make.)

Is the Spin Running Out:

According to The New York Times, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is beginning to acknowledge, at least while he's safely in Europe, that the Europeans are having trouble connecting the dots between Afghanistan and Iraq. Naturally, we've known this all along, but the usual spin coming out of the administration's mouth is the old bogeyman, Al Queda.

“Many of them, I think, have a problem with our involvement in Iraq and project that to Afghanistan, and do not understand the very different — for them — the very different kind of threat," Gates is reporting as having said.

Recently, NATO is reportedly not playing fair with placement of non U. S. troops only in safe parts of Afghanistan. All things considered, just where does the blame lie, Mr. President?

Ooopsie! A chink in the armor.

Remember when His Bushness tried to lay claim to Trumanesque qualities? But then when he was asked to accept responsibility for invading a country based on everything from faulty information to out right lies, he shrugged and pointed at the CIA.

Four years ago today, Bush gave us this revealing sentence on Meet the Press: "In my judgment, when the United States says there will be serious consequences, and if there isn't serious consequences, it creates adverse consequences."

Oh, by the way, whatever happened to all that talk about saving Social Security by taking the money away from us and investing it in the stock market? Try this quote from the Times on for size:

Wall Street finished a dismal week with a mixed performance Friday as investors grappled with fears about insurers of distressed mortgage-backed bonds and anxiety about the broader economy.

And at this very moment, playing on the radio, is that old stand by, "Release Me": "Please release me/let me go/I don't love you anymore." The next year can hardly pass fast enough.

Partisan Politics:

Last night the Republicans filibustered low-income seniors, disabled veterans and the unemployed right out of their share of the stimulus package that every law-maker wants to bribe taxpayers and voters with.

A bill sponsored by the Senate Democrats that included these folks was bullied down to exclude them, falling short by one vote. Republicans only like poor people when they are dumb enough to vote for them. They consider wealth their god-given right to possess. After all, the majority of these poor people are not likely to vote for them this coming fall anyway, so why give them any money to spend? (Read The Washington Post story here.)

A double dose of double speak from the man who slipped us all the tongue:

There is no such thing necessarily in a dictatorial regime of iron-clad absolutely solid evidence. The evidence I had was the best possible evidence that he had a weapon.

—G. W. Bush on Meet the Press, February 2004

We're concerned about AIDS inside our White House—make no mistake about it.

—G. W. Bush, Washington, D. C., February 7, 2001

The American Dream:

And the father of the 21st century American Economy said, "We ought to make the pie higher." — George W. Bush, Republican Presidential debate, February 2000.

Mixed metaphors really aren't important to anyone except English teachers, are they? I mean they don't really illustrate muddy thinking, do they? And they're never a sign that somebody is trying to con you, are they?

Maybe we should ask Fran Barbaro who now is forced to sleep on a pull-out couch in a tiny apartment. She used to have a stock portfolio worth a million bucks and hung original art on the walls of her big, fancy home, according to Peter S. Goodman, writing in today's New York Times. Ms. Barbaro is just one of the people profiled by Goodman in just another of the many news stories reporting on the American financial collapse brought about by the muddied thinking of the current "decider."

Breaking the Bank:

Why Iraq? Follow the money. That's always the answer. Now just when the economy is in the community dump, G. W. proposes a budget of $3.1 trillion, almost one-third of which is to be spent on the military, the largest expenditure since World War II. That's got to thrill you.

People are getting unbelievably rich off taxpayers. It's the only way Bush knows how to make money. If he can't sell you a ball park, he'll sell you a tank.

Three years ago today, George W. Bush told a single working mother with three children, "You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." Talk about a disconnect!

Microsoft + Yahoo + $44 Billion = Battle with Google:

Is this the battle of the century, as boxing promoters used to declare? Miguel Helft and Andrew Ross Sorkin deliver the narrative of the preliminaries in today's New York Times. The deal ain't done yet, but the timing is interesting, with Superbowl Sunday just hours away. And we all thought it was going to be a bleak winter with the writer's strike nearly ruining our Hollywood ringmasters and the recession ruining us.

But life has a way of keeping us entertained even when Hollywood fails. Is anyone even watching the NBA anymore?

Today in History:

Sixty-five years ago today, the last of the Nazi forces fighting in the battle for Stalingrad—that's in Russia—surrendered to the Russian forces. Thus began the end of World War II. The History Channel would have you believe that D-Day, in June of 1944, marked the beginning of the end of the war, but you need to check the numbers and take a closer look at history, not just the version some blathering high school teacher gave you or the narrative that some politician or Hollywood spun out; i.e., look at the story teller's motivation.

The truth is that Stalin's troops did more to bring about Hitler's downfall than the combined forces of democracy. Or, if you prefer, Hitler's own megalomania was his chief undoing. He over extended himself. Sound familiar? A man must know his own limitations—as somebody once said.

Is Mitt Romney an Android?

See Gail Collins Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times. She may not answer the question, but she does pose the possibility, and keep this in mind: if we want a president whom the folks on Comedy Central can poke the most fun of, Mitt has the greatest possibilities.

Always remember that only a damn fool believes you can run government like a business. Every Republican except the current White House resident knows this.

Speaking of which, back on February 3, 2005, The New York Times reported "Released tapes prove that Enron, which was Bush's top career patron until 2004 and among his top donors in the 2000 election, was responsible for the rolling blackouts in California as part of a price-gouging scheme."

Just remember, that George W. Bush's only successful business venture was conning Texas taxpayers into giving him hundreds of millions of tax dollars to build a baseball park that left the taxpayers poorer than they were before. Always follow the money.

Speaking of Money:

I'll bet you're like me, and you've forgotten Bush's ploy to misdirect our attention from the boondoggle of war to space flight. Today's Washington Post reminds us that billions of taxpayer dollars have already been spent to create a space station on the moon. But now NASA is worried that with a recession under way and global warming threatening to remake the geography of the earth that the next administration might not support Bush's grandiose schemes. They're planning to spend millions to have Madison Ave. create an ad campaign to promote the adventure.

Too bad they don't have Microsoft's money. They wouldn't have to depend on the whim of taxpayers worried about how they're going to pay their mortgages, the heating bills, and their kids' educations.

The Big News Today:

Which of these stories grab you? The Labor Department reported today that the economy lost 17,000 jobs in January. Or Microsoft bid $44.6 billion for Yahoo. Ironically, both are signs of failure. Everyone is aware that the American economy, perhaps even the world economy, is in some form of free fall, and things just don't look so hot.

The Microsoft bid for Yahoo, however, needs a little more thought. Yahoo hasn't made any headway in its business scheme. Google has just been too successful. And Microsoft is running scared, unable to compete with Google head to head. No, there's no worry that Microsoft is about to go broke. The company still has a stranglehold on nearly everyone's computer, regardless of the recent success of Apple and the open source community with the their innovations in Web browsers, office suits and the Linux operating system that is almost as easy to use as Microsoft's products.

The Yahoo bid illustrates the problem that Microsoft faces in competing with Google. Microsoft wants in on the search business in a much bigger way than it already is, and it has given up on being able to out think these upstarts. So it's resorting to a tactic that has served it well throughout its history. It's going to buy out a chief competitor.

Will this work? Or will the only people who will be smiling on their way to the bank be the folks at Yahoo who walk away with their share of those billions of dollars?

If nothing else, this demonstrates just how terrified Microsoft is of "Cloud Computing."

By the way, did you notice Bush's voice today when he commented on the job loss report? Talk about somebody sounding worried. There goes that illusion about legacy.

Here's what Gail Collins reported in The New York Times G. W. as saying back on Feb. 1, 2000: "I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth from the middle class, I think we should knock down the tollbooth."