Ralph Radon's House of Bile

2003-02-12T17:03:00.000-05:00

Hello, I must be going

Naturally, between the time I decided to do this and the time I actually got around to doing it, it has become trendy, but here's the deal: I have a lot of responsibilities and projects right now, and this blog, although a source of great delight and a vent for huge amounts of frustration and tension for me, cannot in good conscience be placed anywhere near the top of my list of priorities. Just for one thing, I've done far less original reporting than I'd anticipated, and the world doesn't especially need another me-too blog of any political description.

So Ralph Radon's House of Bile is going on hiatus. I have no idea for how long -- it might be a few weeks; it might be forever. In case it's the latter, let me say I appreciate all the good vibes you've sent my way -- particularly you, Lisa -- and thank you all for joining me. This has been fun. Maybe it will be again one day.

Peace.

2003-02-04T23:37:00.000-05:00

Whiners

Awwww. Apparently one of the overpaid scumbags who runs Saudi Arabia is upset that Islam and the prophet Muhammad have been getting bad press.

Fortunately, Amish Tech Support is on the case.*

*It might enhance your enjoyment of his post to know that it it customary for Muslims, when naming Muhammad or any other prophet (including some also recognized by Jews and Christians, such as Abraham), to insert the phrase "peace be upon him," often abbreviated PBUH, immediately after the name.

2003-02-04T19:12:00.000-05:00

Awakenings

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post recently made a point so good it's almost possible to believe he has decided to stop sucking Resident Bush's dick:

Imagine – hard as it is – President Gore standing in the House chamber and delivering his annual address to the nation.

He calls for spending $400 billion over the next decade to strengthen Medicare and launch a prescription drug program.

He calls for $450 million to bring mentors to disadvantaged students and children of prisoners.

He calls for $600 million for treatment programs for drug addicts.

He calls for $15 billion over five years to combat AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean.

He calls for $1.2 billion to develop clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles.

What do you suppose the Republicans would be saying about Al Gore?

Big spender? Wild-eyed liberal? Doesn't understand that government is the problem, not the solution?

Wouldn't there be lots of accusations of fiscal irresponsibility – especially when the $417 billion in new spending is coupled with $674 billion in tax cuts?

But no one in the GOP that we've seen is suggesting that George Bush's brand of compassionate conservatism is, well, kind of expensive. And the Democrats, who have their own domestic laundry list, obviously don't want to go there.

Much of this, of course, was overshadowed by the intense focus on the Iraq portion of the State of the Union.

But if Bush wants to spend all this money on new programs – admirable as that might be – how is he going to restrain overall spending, as Mitch Daniels keeps promising? Exactly which programs is the White House going to cut (or, excuse us, restrain the growth of spending)? How is the administration going to keep the nasty ol' deficit – which has now shot up to $199 billion, according to the CBO yesterday – from exploding?

No Democratic president would get a pass on this sort of fuzzy math, not with the budget plunging back into the red after years of surplus.

No indeed. And if you want to understand why so many moderate-to-liberal types believe that the "liberal media" is a myth, just ask yourself how the media -- and, for that matter, the nation -- would have reacted if President Gore had done most of the same things Resident Bush has done.

2003-01-30T12:56:00.000-05:00

Plus la change ...

Remember all those reforms that were going to happen after Enron, Tyco and WorldCom came crashing down?

Yeah, neither does the president.

Just for starters, Harvey Pitt, whom Bush "fired" as SEC chairman on Election Night, remains on the job, with his successor not only unconfirmed but also not even formally nominated yet.

2003-01-29T23:08:00.000-05:00

Apology accepted, Digby. Now ...

Digby recently apologized for posting what later turned out to be an inaccurate Time.com article saying that Dubya had resumed sending a wreath to an annual ceremony honoring Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

But in the interest of contextual accuracy, he argues:

Now, I realize that this will cause a bandwidth crisis that could presage the end of the Internet as we know it, but there can be no logical consistency in requiring me to apologize for a post that linked to a Time article (to which I merely appended "Karl Rove makes Lee Atwater look like an amateur") without also requiring that Republicans and the press apologize for 8 solid years of character assassination and smears against the Clinton administration. (And I would say that the Gores deserve a mea culpa too, for the lies perpetrated against them by the press and the GOP during campaign 2000.)

It's a masterful rant. And it's absolutely correct. Go read it.

2003-01-29T22:57:00.000-05:00

Bush Moves to Restore Military Ties With Indonesia

Incredible. In-fucking-credible. How can this possibly be a good idea? Let's cozy up to murderers just because they're not Islamic murderers? Give me a fucking break.

2003-01-17T17:28:00.000-05:00

Quaking in our size-15, heavily armed boots

Look on their works, ye mighty, and despair: The militant Islamic movement Hamas says that if the U.S. attacks Iraq, Muslims and Arabs will attack American targets everywhere.

Yeah, right. Bunch of fucking wankers. If you do, Greater Israel will be a reality by nightfall and you're going to be pondering your own 2,000-year diaspora.

UPDATE: The always-excellent Silfray Hraka has this to say about that, and all I can do is stand in awe, amazement and admiration.

2003-01-16T16:07:00.000-05:00

Gee. What's Pat Robertson teaching over there at his university?

A third-year law student at Regent University, who helped run several successful campaigns for Virginia Beach-area Republicans, was arrested Jan. 10 and charged with two counts of soliciting sex with a minor over the Internet.

2003-01-16T15:29:00.000-05:00

You know your proposal to kill the estate tax is in trouble ...

... when even Bill Gates Sr. is willing to criticize it.

At least, let's hope.

2003-01-13T17:14:00.000-05:00

All politics all the time ...

... makes Ralph a dull boy. The inimitable Vectorgirl recently listed "completely trivial reasons i have dumped guys." I thought it might be ... well, if not fun, at least revealing, to go back and see why I dumped the girls I dumped.

OK, in the order in which I dumped them:

1) The summer ended. Really. I didn't like her much, but she was available, and when the summer ended and I headed back to school, that was it.

2) I met a better-looking, nicer, more sexually available woman.

3) She was moving to the Left Coast. She offered to try to keep the relationship alive, but I decided that that sounded an awful lot like work.

3a) She also was sleeping with another guy, although I wasn't supposed to know that.

4) The sex was great but everything else about her was a low-key annoyance, plus she went to work for my father. Just too weird.

5) I moved to another town. That was the pretext. The real reason was that, although very nice, she was boring.

6) I met another woman whom I would not have been embarrassed to introduce to my friends and family. (We've now been married for a decade.)

There were, of course, other relationships in which I got dumped, or in which we mutually agreed to part, interspersed with these. Those are stories for another day.

2003-01-09T16:03:00.000-05:00

Ouch

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum's forthcoming book gets to Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times ... and lo, the wounds she inflicts. Among them:

The book is filled with a spinmeister's clichés ("Bush's record has been dauntless, far-seeing, and consistent" on the war) and is riddled with contradictions and evasions. Mr. Frum hails the ambition and political imagination displayed by the Bush administration, but he writes that with the exception of the political guru Karl Rove and Mitch Daniels at the Office of Management and Budget, "conspicuous intelligence seemed actively unwelcome in the Bush White House."

And:

There are wacky and sometimes self-serving assertions in this book. Mr. Frum claims that President Bush and John F. Kennedy "owed their connections with the public above all to the power of their words." [Remember, Frum was a speechwriter.]

And, finally:

Mr. Frum's penchant for facile analogies and bellicose language underscores the dogmatic, hectoring tone of this book, a book that plays solely to readers who already share all of his certainties and that makes no effort to persuade others through historical knowledge, foreign policy acumen or simple logic.

Man, that's gotta hurt.

2003-01-09T15:06:00.000-05:00

Pardon me while I get my ribs taped

I broke a few from laughing so hard at this:

A Canadian man killed when his truck rolled on an Iraqi highway had gone to the country to act as a human shield in the event of war against Saddam Hussein, the peace group that sent him there said yesterday.

2003-01-09T14:15:00.000-05:00

On the other hand ...

I'm automatically suspicious of anyone who wants to scrap affirmative action. I grew up in the South in the 1960s; sue me. But even stauncher advocates than I have got to see that sometimes there really is something wrong with the picture.

A former member of Indiana University's law-school admissions committee has come forward to say what it is -- that that school has used racial preferences far in extent of anything ever envisioned in the original affirmative-action legislation:

As at [the University of Michigan at] Ann Arbor [an affirmative-action case from which will be decided this term by the Supreme Court], we at Bloomington enforce a de facto quota of the minimum number of blacks and other minorities we are determined to enroll in each first-year law school class. And as at Ann Arbor, we engineer our admissions process to guarantee that when the first-year class shows up in late August, our de facto quota will once again be met.

We differ in that to meet our de facto quota, we regularly lower our usual standards of admission more than our counterparts at Michigan lower theirs. For example, to meet our de facto quota of blacks in each first-year class, we deviate from our usual standards of admission more than any remotely comparable law school is willing to do. In fact, of all the law schools in the country approved by the American Bar Association, none regularly lowers its standards of admission for affirmative action purposes as much as we do. As a result, black applicants whose low grades, LSAT scores and extracurricular record would otherwise win admission only to Howard Law School in Washington, D.C., regularly win admission from us. And the overwhelming majority of applicants -- perhaps 80 percent -- for whom we lower our standards so drastically are from out of state.

Such is the affirmative action admissions policy we at the IU Bloomington Law School have followed for more than 30 years. We follow a similarly heavy-handed affirmative action policy for financial aid and faculty recruitment.

So it's not just white applicants who get screwed. It's in-state applicants of all races, at a state university, supported by state taxpayers, whose primary mission is to educate that state's residents.

Ouch.

2003-01-09T11:11:00.000-05:00

Republicans and race. Redux.

Oops. Just when the GOP thought it might have put race behind it as an issue (re-nominating Pickering was a pretty good sign of party thinking), someone strays from, literally, the party line:

The highest ranking African-American in the California Republican Party on Tuesday condemned the racism he has endured working for the GOP.

"Black Republicans are expected to provide window dressing and cover to prove that this is not a racist party, yet our own leadership continues to act otherwise," party Secretary Shannon Reeves wrote in an e-mail to party board members.

2003-01-09T09:53:00.000-05:00

Even a blind pig ...

I don't generally have much use for the Weekly Standard, but I read it anyway (online, at any rate), just in case. And that faith has been rewarded. Here's Larry Miller on one of my favorite topics, moral relativism. A sample:

1) "We're not good, they're not evil, everything is relative."

Listen carefully: We're good, they're evil, nothing is relative. Say it with me now and free yourselves.

You see, folks, saying "We're good" doesn't mean "We're perfect." Okay? The only perfect being is the bearded guy on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The plain fact is that our country has, with all our mistakes and blunders, always been and always will be, the greatest beacon of freedom, charity, opportunity, and affection in history.

If you need proof, open all the borders on Earth and see what happens. In about half a day, the entire world would be a ghost town, and the United States would look like one giant line to see "The Producers."

Amen.

2003-01-08T15:28:00.000-05:00

One way to get their attention

Supposedly, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is planning to announce he'll filibuster the nomination of Charles Pickering to a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It'd be the right thing to do, if true (nothing on Schumer's Web site about it right now) ... and the right thing to do for anyone who hopes to unseat Dubya.

In a fair election, I mean.

2003-01-08T10:03:00.000-05:00

With friends like these ...

Even the Financial Times, the bible of fiscal conservatives, says Bush's proposed economic program is not conservative. Unfortunately, FT also claims that that doesn't matter because the Republicans will be able to sell this thing because they have voters convinced that there is such a thing as trickle-down prosperity. (Not its wording, of course, but that's the gist.)

Let's hope FT is wrong on at least one of these points.

2003-01-07T15:54:00.000-05:00

The Arab Street vs. the U.S. Street

Andrea Harris of Spleenville has posted an excellent screed regarding those Palestinians who continue to support the intifada. Her main points are 1) Other Arabs don't really care about you even if they say they do; and 2) Believe it or not, your best friends right now are the U.S. and Israel, but even their infinite patience will not last forever.

Here's a taste:

Sympathy only goes so far. There is not an endless supply of the stuff in the human soul. It can be beaten out of people. It can be drained like blood from a wound. It can vanish. And when it does, stick your head between your knees and kiss your ass good-bye.

Oh, we'll feel real bad about wiping you all out. We've raised the expression of Guilt to an art form. We'll make movies about the horror of our deeds, and erect museums to your sorry dead selves. We'll flagellate ourselves and the broadcast laments of "how could we let it go so far" will go out to Andromeda. But you'll still be dead. So stop it.

Sometimes, you have to give your friends a little tough love. Andrea's showing Palestinians the love. If they're smart -- and, of course, there's no reason whatever to think that's the case -- they'll accept it and her advice.

2003-01-07T11:11:00.000-05:00

But it's only the Democrats who engage in class warfare

Anytime the Republicans accuse Democrats of class warfare, it's because they're afraid someone will notice that that's exactly what they've been waging since at least 1981 -- and that the rich have a nearly unbroken string of victories during that time.

This is important context in which to understand the Republicans' new economic proposal, particularly as it pertains to reducing or eliminating any tax on dividends.

According to Ari Fleischer, 92 million taxpayers would receive an average tax cut of $1,083 in 2003. That sounds very nice, but looking at the IRS numbers underlying that average is quite instructive (and my HTML table coding is rusty, so please bear with me):

HOUSEHOLD INCOME	NUMBER OF TAXPAYERS	TOTAL DIVIDEND INCOME	AVERAGE TAX BREAK PER HOUSEHOLD
under 50K	15,200,000	$26,900,000,000	$176.97 per filer
50k-100k	10,000,000	$27,100,000,000	$2,710 per filer
100K-200K	4,800,000	$23,800,000,000	$4,958.33 per filer
Over 1M	200,000	$25,400,000,000	$127,000 per filer

In short, the relatively tiny number of households with more than $1 million in income will get a tax cut of almost $130,000 each.

But, but, but, the Republicans stammer, shouldn't those who pay most of the taxes get most of the tax break?

There are at least two good answers: First, if you factor in payroll and Social Security taxes, as you should despite the administration's ridiculous claim that Social Security is "not a tax," the lower-income folks have a much smaller percentage of income to spend on discretionary purchases than do the wealthiest. Moreover, like it or not, most of America's recent prosperity has been consumer-driven, not investment-driven, and if the purpose of this proposal is to stimulate the economy rather than simply pay off wealthy supporters, it ought to be putting money into the hands of those most likely to spend it immediately on the kinds of purchases that will stimulate the overall economy -- things like food, clothing, shelter and education. And the people most likely to do that overwhelmingly make less than a million bucks a year.

UPDATE: Here is a list of answers to some of the most common arguments Republicans use for showering tax largesse upon the very richest Americans.

2003-01-06T16:52:00.000-05:00

Yet another reason to hate the French

2003-01-06T14:04:00.000-05:00

Yo, Howard! Wake the fuck up!!

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz let a whopper slip past on his "Reliable Sources" show Sunday: He allowed conservative radio host Laura Ingraham to repeat the canard that big jury awards and settlements are what is driving up malpractice-insurance rates (you know, the ones that made the doctors walk off the job in West Virginia recently).

In fact, as posted here 11/21, payouts, adjusted for inflation, have been pretty much flat since the mid-1980s. Why does this matter? For one thing, a lot of people will be trying to beat Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, a trial lawyer, over the head with the medical-malpractice issue. There are reasons to vote against Edwards, but this isn't one of them. Insurance companies' management of their own investments has far more effect on medical-malpractice premiums than do payouts to victims, or settlements with them.

2003-01-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

More on our quote allies unquote in the quote war on terror unquote

Many of us, such as your humble correspondent, have long been suspicious of Saudi Arabia's claims that it's doing all it can to help us put an end to al-Qaeda terrorism. Now, NBC News is confirming that these claims are, indeed, bullshit.

Folks, enough is enough. Call, write or e-mail your congresscreatures today -- don't put it off -- and demand that Congress get the Saudis on board. The evil liars who run that country have skated long enough.

2003-01-03T13:10:00.000-05:00

Is this a great country or what?

Ward Connerly, the guy who has led attacks on affirmative action nationwide, often gets called a "nut" or worse, a phenomenon conservatives usually are simply pleased to blame on the "liberal media" or on minorities with an "entitlement mentality." They never seem to consider the possibility that the guy might truly be an idiot, a moron ... a nut. For instance, Connerly writes:

I am delighted that Lott was forced to remove himself from consideration as Senate Majority Leader. But, it is truly a measure of our misplaced priorities and values when a statement made at a birthday party that might be interpreted as an endorsement of racial segregation can overwhelm issues of war and peace. For making such a statement, one gets the political death penalty. But, for having sexual liaisons in the Oval Office — and lying about it — one gets invited to give speeches all around the globe and receive speaking fees in excess of $100,000 per engagement.

OK, lemme see if I've got this straight. L'affaire Lott, which ended before Christmas, has "overwhelm(ed) issues of war and peace." Tell it to the Marines -- literally. And endorsement by the incoming Senate Majority Leader of a return to the kind of segregated society espoused by Strom Thurmond in 1948 is NOT as important as the fact that Clinton got his wang washed in the Oval Office (actually a small hallway off it, but never mind). OK. Hey, Ward -- proportion much?

2003-01-02T14:09:00.000-05:00

Advice from Uncle Dub ...

... or, at least, Silfray Hraka's Bigwig posing as Uncle Dub, on what the Democrats' real problem is. Hint: It ain't the Vast Right-Wing Media.

2003-01-02T11:29:00.000-05:00

And they're off!

RALPH: Looks like [Sen. John] Edwards is really running [for president].
SNOOP: It's an interesting prospect
RALPH: Yeah. I'm kinda looking forward to the thought of [the political correspondent for our local paper] spending next winter in NH without skiing and Iowa without ... doing whatever it is they do for fun in Iowa.
SNOOP: It has to do with corn cobs
SNOOP: cobbs
RALPH: You were right the first time. Unless you're talking about something really sick involving the corpse of a former baseball great.
SNOOP: righto
RALPH: Didn't they bury him in Georgia, though?
SNOOP: That would make it a federal crime. Transporting a corpse across state lines for immoral purposes.
RALPH: Or porpoises. Which adds a whole other dimension. Wow. Iowa. Who knew?

2002-12-31T14:56:00.000-05:00

Hittin' the hash pipe in Iraq

Apparently there'll be no more surrendering to TV correspondents if there's another war against Iraq. The country's trade minister is saying that Iraqis will fight much harder if, as is looking increasingly likely, we go to war again this winter.

Fat freakin' chance. The Iraqi army is poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly led and will have no air cover whatsoever.*

He claims civilians have been given three extra months' food rations to stockpile in case of a U.S. attack. (Which raises questions about how badly UN sanctions are supposed to be harming Iraqi civilians, but that's a subject for another post.) Right. Like Iraqi civilians outside the eyesight of senior army commanders aren't going to be showering US troops with whatever passes for flowers there on a scale to make liberated WWII Paris look like a wake.

*Granted, even a poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly led army can inflict a lot of casualties on an invading force in an urban area. But to say that presupposes there'll be a lot of urban fighting. Much more likely, US troops will surround the major cities and bomb or starve them out. Many civilians will be harmed, yes, but probably fewer than would be in house-to-house fighting.

2002-12-20T11:23:00.000-05:00

Can't hang this one on Bubba

Britain's Independent newspaper, citing reports in a leftist Berlin daily, is claiming that documents turned over to the UN by Iraq list dozens of American and German companies who have helped supply Iraq with components of weapons of mass destruction, dating as far back as 1975 and continuing in some cases until last year.

In and of itself, this says nothing about the merits of war with Iraq. OTOH, it should put a stop to GOP claims that the Clinton administration is primarily responsible for failing to deal with the war on terrorism before the attacks of 9/11. Should, I say. But I'm sure it won't.

2002-12-19T22:43:00.000-05:00

From the bigot to the whore

Looks like Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee is going to challenge Trent Lott's Senate Republican leadership come January. That's almost predictable in that, unlike Rick Santorum or pretty much anyone else in the Republican leadership, he has no real connection to racist campaigns or the Shiite Christian wing of the GOP.

But he has some problems. Oh, yes, he does. First -- and I am indebted to Hesiod for both of these tidbits -- his family bidness has been skirtin' the law a bit -- to the tune of about $1.7 billion in criminal and civil fines and penalties, and guilty pleas to 14 -- count 'em, 14 -- felonies -- just in the past couple of years. Second, and more ominously, it looks like one of the fingerprints on the Homeland Security Act provision that prematurely cleared Eli Lilly of any liability for possibly having caused autism in kids came from Frist's hand.

Now, as acts of corporate whoredom go, that little provision -- which, GOP protest to the contrary, has nothing to do with homeland security -- stands out even in the sea of corporate whoredom that Washington has become under Bush the Lesser. And what Frist and his backers forget at their peril is that every one of these autistic kids has at least one parent, guardian or caregiver who likely will be quite willing to devote whatever remains of his or her life to ruining whatever remains of Frist's.

Which, as I see it, is the very least that should happen to him or anyone else who was responsible for that bit of evil.

So where does this leave Senate Republicans? Wandering like a bunch of Diogeneses with lanterns, looking for an honest man to lead them? Cuz that's sure what it looks like from here.

2002-12-19T22:17:00.000-05:00

I don't agree with Bill Clinton on much ...

... but I damn sure agree with him on this. It's about time somebody tore the GOP a new asshole over the nasty, cynical way it has built a majority on a racist foundation. It's been this way since Nixon's '68 campaign, former Nixon campaign aide Kevin Phillips wrote a book about it, for God's sake, and yet some presumably sentient GOP defenders are perfectly willing to look you in the eye and say that if you think there are any racist appeals in Republican political campaigns in the South, you're just dreaming. Crap. I've lived here for more than 40 years. I speak the language, I know the code. And Trent Lott isn't even the worst offender. He's just the one dumb enough to say explicitly what is usually only implied.

2002-12-18T16:28:00.000-05:00

Colin Powell says the U.S. doesn't want to invade Iraq. Anyone believe him?

This article also is notable for the fact that it contains a Bush official conceding that, in its view, the Clinton Administration did at least one thing right:

Powell said the policy of regime change in Baghdad was inherited from the Clinton administration by the Bush administration.

"We came into office in 2001 and kept that policy because Saddam Hussein had not changed," Powell told the newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi by telephone last Thursday.

2002-12-18T16:21:00.000-05:00

A year-end list that's actually worth reading ...

... would be The Beast of Buffalo's 50 Most Loathsome People in America. Here's just one example: Ari Fleischer, No. 16 on the list:

Wherever he ends up placed on this list will not be high enough. This motherfucker carries G.W. Bush's demon seed in his anal womb, gestates a fresh offspring a couple times a day and produces a few Rosemary's steamers at press conferences with all the non-chalance of a Spot Coffee latte jerk. Fleischer is the very bold assertion, by the powers that be, that Americans and their media representatives are too whip-shy to just say, "Wait a fucking minute. You're telling a goddamned lie, Fleischie."

We are, quite simply, not worthy.

2002-12-18T14:24:00.000-05:00

Up is down, right is wrong, war is peace ...

... dictatorship is freedom.

2002-12-18T11:50:00.000-05:00

My, what a week it's been

First Henry Kissinger decides that keeping his high-dollar clients -- and keeping them secret -- is more important than answering the Bush family's call to cover up. Ahem. I mean, than answering his country's call to serve. Why might he do that? Because he needs the money? Well, no, unless he thinks there's a war-crimes indictment in his future for complicity in the murder of Chilean civilians after the 1973 coup. There might not be enough money in the world to get him off that particular hook, but then two years and two months ago, I would've said there wasn't enough money in the world to buy a U.S. presidential election.

On another front, the Trent Lott mess keeps bubbling and apparently will until Senate Republicans meet Jan. 6 to revisit the idea of having an unreconstructed racist as Senate Majority Leader. Problem is, none of the other big Senate Republicans look all that hot, either. Don Nickles is just as racially and religiously backward as Lott, and so is Rick Santorum. Bill Frist isn't, but he could well turn out to have been the person who slipped the Eli Lilly provision into the Homeland Security Act, in which case he's going to be in a world of hurt as well. Gee. And they say "principled Republican" isn't an oxymoron.

And, finally (at least for now), the Bushies are honestly (if that's the word) taking the position that the extremely wealthy (the top 1% of wage earners, who make $1.5 million or more per) are too heavily taxed and that the middle class and poor must shoulder more of the tax burden. I don't know about you, but I'm in the latter group and I have NOT been feeling undertaxed lately.

Plenty to spew bile about. Good thing I've got an endless supply.

2002-12-17T13:36:00.000-05:00

I'm traveling ...

... a good bit for the next couple of weeks, so posts might be, um, erratic.

Happy holidays anyway.

2002-12-13T16:22:00.000-05:00

Machiavellian ... and I mean that in the nicest possible way

The Feces-Flinging Monkey has an interesting hypothesis about what might really be up with the Bush administration's pressure on Iraq. Even if he's serious, and even if he's right -- I'm skeptical on both counts -- I don't think it justifies putting war on Iraq atop our list of Things to Do to Fight Terrorism. But it certainly would address the problem we have with support of terrorism by our "ally" and "friend," Saudi Arabia.

2002-12-10T15:33:00.000-05:00

More on those peace-loving Muslims ...

... from Mark Steyn of the National Post, who has great fun with the idea offered by a Muslim writer in response to a column by former Bush speechwriter David Frum taking issue with Muslim rioting in Nigeria.

"It is Muslims who determine what is objectionable to their religion, not (Frum) dictating it to them. ... " the writer said. "And since (Frum) cites Salman Rushdie, he should know by now the fatal consequences resulting from ignoring this fact."

OK, explain to me again how Islam doesn't endorse killing people, because I damn sure missed it the first time.

2002-12-09T22:26:00.000-05:00

What we've got here is failure to communicate

So, lessee ... while I was off enjoying the weekend, Dubya sacked his top economic advisers. Yo, dude: Changing the people won't work if the policy stays the same.

And the new Treasury guy is ... head of an industry that gets by on enormous taxpayer subsidies. OK. Hmm. Yes, there's a signal to the actual job-creating part of the economy that the president gets it.

Here's a fix for our current economic mess, at no cost to the taxpayer: Rescind the tax cut for the wealthy. Enact instead a tax cut for the middle class and working poor. Give the SEC enough funding to seriously restore investor confidence in the stock market as anything other than a fixed game. End pointless federal subsidies, like that to the steel industry. And then stand back and watch the jobs come flying.

I'll be awaiting my nomination to the Council of Economic Advisers. Not.

2002-12-09T17:17:00.000-05:00

One good reason why having Republicans appoint judges can be an incredibly bad idea:

A federal judge appointed by President Bush on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the investigative arm of Congress against Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.

2002-12-05T11:19:00.000-05:00

I wonder if the message is getting through ...

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the Egyptian democracy advocate who was imprisoned for trying to monitor elections there, has been released pending a new trial, which the country's highest court granted him.

Think maybe our "allies" are starting to get the idea just what being our ally entails? If so, it's about damn time.

2002-12-04T11:46:00.000-05:00

I'm ... too stupid for my job ... too stupid for my job ...

The New York Sun, with all the depth and credibility of an '80s synth-pop dance tune, is suggesting that The New York Times' recent criticism of Henry Kissinger as head of the 9/11 inquiry committee is a case of selective outrage, an attempt to bash a guy who frequently writes for competitors, and unfounded besides. "The right way to judge Mr. Kissinger’s work is on the the merits of the commission’s report when it finally becomes available," the Sun says.

Bullshit.

First, we're not judging Kissinger's work. We're judging his qualifications for the work we've asked him to do. Second, those qualifications are conspicuous by their absence.

Forget the fact that he's going to be arrested as a war criminal if he visits certain countries, some of which are actually on friendly terms with the U.S. His record includes, but certainly is not limited to, a long history of deceiving and lying to the American people, supporting despots and tyrants over the interests of their freedom-desiring subjects and whoring for a Republican plutocracy that might well have an interest in the events of 9/11 that it would rather hide than have disclosed. (I don't mean to say that they caused the events of 9/11 -- I have no reason to believe that -- but that their relationship with the perpetrators, or those like them, long predates 9/11.)

Indeed, even among some Republicans I know, the selection of Kissinger to lead this commission has led to some very cynical speculation about what the Bush family and its allies might have to hide. Which, one would think, would be the very last question we need to be asking about someone whose job is supposed to be to get at the truth.

Here's my question: If Rudy Giuliani was available, and he was, why not pick him?

2002-12-03T13:55:00.000-05:00

Liar, liar, pants on fire

You'll recall from yesterday how some of John DiIulio's comments in an upcoming Esquire article about the Bush West Wing being policy-free were leaked. Predictably, Fox News is serving as the mouthpiece for DiIulio's attempts to claim he never said what he said. Esquire, however, has posted the source memo from DiIulio to the Esquire writer, Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Suskind, in its entirety. Now, let's all hold our breaths awaiting the retraction and apology from Fox and DiIulio. Not.

2002-12-03T11:51:00.000-05:00

And this differs from bribery how, exactly?

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, displaying those qualities of statesmanship for which he is known and beloved the world over, has told corporate leaders: Pay up or I'll rip off your head and piss down your neck. OK, that's an exaggeration. A slight exaggeration.

2002-12-02T12:04:00.000-05:00

OK, Christopher Hitchens might be a drunk and a boob ...

... but he might also be right about the appointment of Henry Kissinger to run the "independent" investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As he puts it, " ... the cynicism of the decision and the gross insult to democracy and to the families of the victims that it represents has to be analyzed to be believed."

2002-12-02T11:30:00.000-05:00

I could've told DiIulio this would happen ...

Seems John DiIulio Jr., the guy picked by Dubya to run his administration's "faith-based" social-welfare programs, has told Esquire for an upcoming article that there is essentially no substantive policy-making going on in Dubya's White House.

Drudge, who, it should be noted, has been wrong before, offers this DiIulio quote from the article: "There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus. What you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."

Well, duh, John. Here's a guy who first decides we need a $987 trillion tax cut and then casts about for a reason, any reason, even a reason that directly contradicts last week's reason, as to why we need the cut. Here's a guy who first decides we need to invade Iraq and then casts about for a reason, any reason, even a "reason" that's flatly untrue, to do it. Dude, you're a presumably bright guy, so why would you be surprised that Bush might want to push "faith-based" initiatives -- and structure them -- as a political sop to his religious-conservative base rather than as a substantive policy proposal that might actually help the people it's supposed to be helping?

Wake the fuck up, guy.

2002-12-02T11:10:00.000-05:00

They're not hysterical because they're crazy. They're hysterical because they're right and the facts matter.

A lot of people, not all of them right-wing toadies, have been put off by claims that the Bush administration is trying to turn America into a police state. Granted, it sounds implausible. But I've got to ask: What the hell else would you call this?

This is a complete sidestepping of constitutional protections for U.S. citizens. If "police state" doesn't bother you, feel free to invent your own phrase ... as long as it's accurate, not euphemistic.

2002-12-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

That $948 trillion tax cut for the wealthy had nothing to do with it, of course ...

President Bush, citing a national emergency, said he would allow no increase in federal employees' 2003 locality adjustments, the extra money some employees get because they live in areas with high costs of living.

2002-12-02T10:53:00.000-05:00

Would someone please explain to me ...

... how this was any different from torture?

I bet the Supremes say it's OK anyhow.

2002-11-27T17:18:00.000-05:00

Pardon me whilst I wield the world's smallest violin to play "Cry Me a River" ...

... for these people.

And with that, I wish you happy Thanksgiving. I may or may not blog over the weekend.

2002-11-27T14:54:00.000-05:00

Enlightened Muslims, cont.

Seems the reporter who wrote the piece in the Nigerian paper about Mohammed selecting a wife from among the Miss World contestants (that contest was to be held in Nigeria until the article caused riots) now has a price on her head. (For the uninitiated, a fatwa for Muslims is like a "contract" for Mafiosi. We square now?)

2002-11-27T14:51:00.000-05:00

OK, this is, like, the punchline to a bad joke, right?

Henry Kissinger will "lead" the "independent" investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I imagine that the joke will be written by a lot of people, so I'll try to update this post during the afternoon (yr hmbl corrspndt plans to take a long weekend).

For starters, here's Atrios on the subject.

2002-11-27T14:29:00.000-05:00

I've got a simple proposal ...

... for whichever moron at the Wall Street Journal wrote this editorial claiming that the poor don't pay enough in taxes. That would be the editorial suggesting that that our tax system is "steeply progressive" when it caps the amount of income subject to FICA withholding and the top marginal rate is in the low 30s. That would be the editorial that, without apparent irony, calls those making $12,000 a year -- $240 a week, before taxes -- "lucky duckies."

CalPundit administers a right proper Fisking to this inane piece of trash, but I've got an even simpler question: Would the person who wrote that editorial be willing to switch places with one of the "lucky duckies" making $12,000 a year? Hands, please? Anyone? Bueller?

Yeah, I thought not.

2002-11-26T15:21:00.000-05:00

I could put a punny headline on this item, but the Washington Post has already used them all.

As I pointed out back in August, although outgoing U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., was one of the less rational members of Congress, he had, strangely enough, been a fairly strong defender of privacy, particularly online privacy. Looks like I wasn't the only one who noticed: The American Civil Liberties Union has hired Barr to lobby Congress on privacy issues when that body convenes in January.

2002-11-26T14:43:00.000-05:00

My apologies ...

.. to Silfray Hraka, a blog I usually get to at least daily. I've overlooked it the past few days, and I have been upbraided for my unrighteousness by having to spend close to 30 minutes slogging through what I missed, most of which is too good not to share, including:

A blessedly unambivalent reaming of FCC Commissioner Colin Powell, not only for being a corporate slut but also for being a beneficiary of Bush II's unabashed effort to give a government job to anyone who ever helped either George: "What's it like, Mike, being coddled by the Left because of your color and by the Right because of your Daddy? Nice work if you can get it, I suppose. Not that you would enjoy such an enviable position if you had been anyone else's son. I gotta hand it to you, though. It's a much better class of welfare than what the rest of Black America gets.

A blessedly unambivalent reaming of FCC Commissioner Michael Copp for suggesting that in light of the recent "Victoria's Secret" TV special -- basically, an infomercial for revealing lingerie, but nothing worse than that -- the commission should revisit the Indecency Standard ... on account of the FCC got 300 e-mails of complaint. Wow. Three hundred. I get more spam than that in a day.

And, last but definitely not least, an updating of H.L. Mencken's "A Puritan is ... " by substituting the phrase "A Muslim is ... " Caution: If political incorrectness offends you, go no further. Me, I choose to interpret the rant as giving voice to an inchoate rage that many Americans felt on 9/11 and continue to feel today, particularly in light of such homicidal lunacy as this. A sample:

You can whine about the crusades as much as you want, but the fact is when people think of Christianity, they don't think about suicide bombers and terrorists.

You can whine about the Occupation as much as you want, but the fact is when people think of Judaism, they don't think about suicide bombers and terrorists.

You can whine about Kashmir as much as you want, but the fact is when people think of Hinduism, they don't think about suicide bombers and terrorists.

When people think of Islam, they think about suicide bombers and terrorists. They think about death. Islam isn't the Religion of Peace, it's the religion of Rest in Peace.

And unless you speak up, loudly, and often, unless you risk your life in defense of your religion against those who have made it the Religion of Death, then your brothers in the Ummah will die.

Because we're going to kill them.

I don't buy into this entirely, but I believe there is a great deal of truth to it -- truth that is ignored either out of political correctness, on the left, or diplomatic convenience on the right (i.e., we need Saudi oil and Saudi bases, so we don't make much of the fact that the House of Saud is bankrolling terrorism). That needs to stop. Now.

2002-11-26T14:10:00.000-05:00

And on a related subject ...

Who are our friends? Who are our enemies? And are we treating these respective groups as they should be treated?

Those are the Big Questions within an excellent column by David Frum at National Review Online. The column is ostensibly about media bias ... particularly as regards framing of issues by the New York Times and the Washington Post. But it goes on to raise the Big Questions explicitly, thereby implicitly showing that these papers engage in the most dangerous kind of moral equivalence.

2002-11-25T11:38:00.000-05:00

Well, HERE'S a surprise ...

... only if you haven't been reading the House of Bile recently: It seems that, intentionally or not, a Saudi princess has been funding al-Qaeda.

2002-11-25T11:01:00.000-05:00

Who the fuck asked him?

Stalin's grandson says Stalin would never have allowed Georgia to join NATO.

2002-11-22T15:41:00.000-05:00

Corporate welfare, ruined lives

If you're curious about what your tax dollars just bought what with passage of the new Homeland Security Act and all, you might want to check out the Financial Times, which has the poop.

Then you might want to check out the Rittenhouse Review, with whose opinions I seldom agree. On this issue, it speaks for me. Eloquently.

2002-11-22T15:12:00.000-05:00

The devil won't let 'em do it

A law professor at Boston University, Randy Barnett, has some surprisingly lucid advice for Republicans who might want to avoid alienating Libertarians (or small-l libertarians, many of whom are swing voters) who might otherwise be inclined to vote for them. Among his suggestions:

"Oppose intrusions into privacy as vociferously as you would if it had been proposed by the Clinton administration. ... Republicans lose credibility ... when they go mute on this issue."
"Oppose intrusions upon the Bill of Rights more consistently in Congress."
"Nominate more libertarian-conservative judges like Clarence Thomas to the courts who care about protecting individual liberty, not just traditionalist-conservative judges like Robert Bork who care most about the 'liberty' of the majority to enshrine its preferences into law." (Barnett makes clear that these words are Bork's, not his. Also, I think I could find a better example than Clarence Thomas.)
"Care about federalism in the Congress ... more consistent[ly]."

"Back off Prohibition."

This is all sound advice. But ask yourself: How many of these tips could the party act upon without alienating the people who run it?

And, even more interestingly: What are the ramifications of that fact?

2002-11-22T13:45:00.000-05:00

Don't Piss on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining Dept.

Bad enough that the Bush administration is trying to let power plants and refineries expand without adding new pollution-control equipment (I say "trying" because several Northeastern states plan to sue immediately); the EPA actually released a statement saying in part that doing so would "encourage emissions reductions."

2002-11-22T13:17:00.000-05:00

At least our religious activists don't riot in the streets ...

There's a scene in the 1975 movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail,"* one of the most important movies in your humble correspondent's formative youth, in which a man describes something he's eating as being "good enough for Jehovah," whereupon he is immediately set upon by his fellows, who attempt to kill him for being a blasphemer.

Now, life is imitating art in Nigeria, where at least 105 people have been killed and more than 500 injured after riots prompted by a newspaper article suggesting that the prophet Muhammad would have approved of the Miss World beauty pageant (OUCH! Excuse me, scholarship contest), being held in Nigeria in December. Although the paper is based in a different city, Lagos, from the one where the rioting is taking place, its offices have been burned even though it has apologized three times.

As you might expect in a religion with a strong medievalist element, a Muslim religious council has declared a "serious religious emergency" -- not because innocent people are being killed for no good reason, as you might think of a religion that proclaims itself in favor of peace, but because of the newspaper article.

UPDATE: TBogg has another, and altogether more amusing, take on this.

*Argh. It wasn't " ... & the Holy Grail," of course; it was "Life of Brian," from 1979. Thanks to the anonymous commenter who brought my mistake to my attention.

2002-11-22T12:25:00.000-05:00

One way to solve the problem ...

Scrappleface is primarily a satire blog, but one recent post appears to me to have merit as a serious policy proposal.

2002-11-22T10:43:00.000-05:00

And Plan B would be ... ?

Jeanne D'Arc raises an interesting question: "Don't you hate it when you think you've found just the guy to lead a mutiny in the Iraqi army and replace Saddam Hussein, and he turns out to be a war criminal? Major bummer."

2002-11-21T13:17:00.000-05:00

Flipflop

It's no longer surprising that Republicans use a position to beat hell out of their opponents, then flipflop. The only surprise now is the unseemly haste with which some are doing it.

The latest example is Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who, if you'll recall, accused his Democratic challenger, Bill McBride, during the campaign of plotting to raise taxes to support a state constitutional amendment mandating reduced class size. So ... guess who's plotting to raise taxes now? OK, granted, it's Bush's proxy, incoming Senate President Jim King, and not Bush himself. Still, think King would've laid this on the table without Bush's explicit OK?

Me neither.

2002-11-21T11:05:00.000-05:00

Massive malpractice judgments drive up medical costs -- NOT

It is an article of faith among conservatives that big jury awards in malpractice cases are a big factor in the increasing cost of health care. But, like many such articles of faith, it's just not true:

"Not only has there been no 'explosion' in medical malpractice payouts at any time during the last 30 years, but payments (in constant dollars) have been extremely stable and virtually flat since the mid-1980s."

This study points out that malpractice rates have risen at about the same rate as overall medical inflation during this period and that the market performance of insurance companies' investments tend to affect rates much more than payouts.

Remember this the next time someone suggests that you ought not be able to sue, or that your damages ought to be capped at some arbitrary, and arbitrarily low, level. Ask yourself: If payouts aren't the real problem, then why are such limits being sought? Who benefits? Answer: the insurance companies, who, not coincidentally, have been big givers to Republican candidates.

2002-11-20T14:12:00.000-05:00

Oops! Turns out we were just kidding!

At the urging of the Bush administration's solicitor general, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. ruled 9-4 Tuesday that the government does not have to give World War II and Korean War servicemen the lifetime free medical care it had promised in return for 20-year enlistments. A three-judge panel of the same court earlier had ruled that the government was required to pay.

"We ... can do no more than hope Congress will make good on the promises recruiters made in good faith to plaintiffs ... " the majority wrote. The technical legal term for this ruling is bullshit, as the minority made clear: "If Congress can appropriate billions for this aspect of national defense and not know how it is accounted for, then God save the Republic. Of course Congress knew; of course the service secretaries authorized promises in return for service; of course these military officers served until retirement in reliance, and of course there is a moral obligation to these men."

As the relative of Korean War combat vets (albeit ones not covered by the agreement), I'm appalled.

But as a voter who knew full well George W. Bush's capacity for saying one thing in campaign mode and doing quite the opposite after inauguration, I am hardly surprised ... particularly since we also know full well his feelings about the military.

2002-11-20T10:58:00.000-05:00

Shocked, shocked, I am ...

Stop the presses, but it turns out that utilities were manipulating California energy prices all along AND that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has had documents proving it for more than a year AND that FERC failed to turn those documents over to the state's Public Utilities Commission until very, very recently.

Oh, and as if the suffering ratepayers of that state weren't having enough fun, the primary company, Williams, implicated in those documents claims -- with less than complete credibility -- that the state had had this information all along. It also argues -- and this is where we head from tragedy to farce -- that the documents shouldn't be made public right now because doing so could affect ongoing "dialogue" with FERC.

Uh-huh.

"It's like they're saying: 'I robbed the bank and got the money. Now let's put this behind us and move forward,' " San Francisco Chronicle columnist Rob Lazarus quotes Carl Wood, a member of the state Public Utilities Commission, as saying.

I say no, not only do we not move forward, we don't let Williams, or any other publicly held company implicated, pay a dime in shareholder dividends OR executive benefits until the individuals responsible are identified, indicted, convicted and punished AND the ratepayers are compensated to the tune of treble damages, as befits what is clearly organized crime. THEN, if Williams is a California corporation, the secretary of state should simply dissolve its charter, liquidate the corporation and distribute its assets to the ratepayers in the form of rebates.

Otherwise, it's only going to happen again.

2002-11-20T10:17:00.000-05:00

Runaway federal spending corralled -- decades ago

I'd never heard of CalPundit, a/k/a Kevin Drum, until this morning (and thanks to Atrios for the link), but right this second he's definitely on the short list for inclusion in "Blogs that Do Not Cause My Own Bile to Rise" because he has gracefully executed one of my favorite performances: debunking neoconservative conventional wisdom with hard numbers.

The conventional wisdom in this case is that federal spending has been "out of control," i.e., growing steadily, pretty much since World War II. The facts, as documented (and elegantly charted) by Drum using figures from the Office of Management and Budget Web site, show just the opposite:

"Other" expenditures [i.e., discretionary spending, which excludes defense, Social Security, Medicare and interest on the national debt], which is what most people think about when they talk about "runaway" government spending, have actually been on a gentle downward slope ever since the Korean War ended. This decline accelerated in 1983. ... Neither Democrats nor Republicans have increased discretionary outlays in the past half century, so there's plenty of room for increased spending if we decide we have worthy programs we want to spend our money on. "Runaway government" is a myth. ... Right now, discretionary non-defense spending is less than 7% of GDP, which is ... not exactly a sign of a government careening out of control.

Now I'm not a huge fan of big government (more on which anon), but on the off-chance that the Thief in Chief starts blowing off an initiative with broad popular support just because, in his daddy's words, we "have more will than wallet," here's a 10-foot clue stick with which to bring his crack-addled head up to speed.

2002-11-19T16:38:00.000-05:00

I can't say anything nice ...

... except about these two football coaches, about whom I can say without reservation that they do not suck.

2002-11-19T16:14:00.000-05:00

Submit, you whores!!

Because of her 2-year-old daughter, if we are to believe her, syndicated colyumnist Michelle ("If I weren't a politically conservative minority, I'd be a Jersey City secretary!") Malkin recently vented her spleen (is that even legal in North Carolina??) about Christina Aguilera, alleging that, inter alia, 1) America's young women are all sluts, 2) It's all the feminists' fault and 3) Ah, hell, I don't even remember if there was a third point.

G. Beato of Soundbitten.com administers a delightful Fiskeing to "Mistress Malkin," as he calls her. Indeed, it's one of the best of the many, many examples of Fiskeing I've ever seen.

2002-11-19T11:46:00.000-05:00

Freedom of choice

Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun-Times seems to be implying a new political slogan for the GOP: "Vote for us! We're better for women than the Taliban are!"

2002-11-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

A charge to keep ... or charges prevented?

The next time you or anyone you know is tempted to think that the Oval Office is occupied by a man of integrity and courage, wander over here, where can be found proof -- not just assertions, not just accusations, but proof -- that the Thief in Chief also was a deserter.

Ponder the fact that although the documentation was readily available, the best the major news outlets could do before the election -- or after, for that matter -- was a timid little "was he or wasn't he?" bit of reporting. Then try to tell me again that the national news media are liberal.

2002-11-18T13:50:00.000-05:00

Oh, NOW he tells us ...

I've said before -- although perhaps not on this blog -- that the people who voted for Ralph Nader two years ago in the belief that "there's not a dime's worth of difference" were both stupid and ignorant.

Now, at least one such person has recanted: Ronnie Dugan, who writes in The Nation:

I have played a role in supporting Nader. I presented him to the Green Party conventions that nominated him in Los Angeles in 1996 and in Denver in 2000. Although I knew that supporting him risked helping elect Republican Presidents in both of those elections, we who supported him and began to forge a third-party politics were acting within our democratic and idealistic rights, believing that the short-run damage to good causes that we were risking was outweighed ethically by the long-run damage to democracy and social justice that the capture of the Democratic Party by major corporations has caused and, if not stopped, will continue to cause. We were taking a calculated risk, but we underestimated what we were risking. The Bush presidency is worse than we could plausibly have imagined, and the run-up to 2004 is not just another election, it is a crisis that leaves us no more time or room to maneuver.

2002-11-18T11:10:00.000-05:00

Dubya Reality Check

Seems that Resident Bush met last week with the chief of the Washington, D.C., police department and told him, "Mr. Mayor, you're doing a great job for the city of Washington, D.C. I feel safe living here. And so does my family."

Well, hell, if I had the United States Secret Service guarding me with the same level of intensity as it guards the nation's chief executive (or thief executive, depending upon your view of the 2000 presidential election), I'd feel safe, too. However, D.C. residents, particularly those in the Southeast quadrant, don't have it quite that nice.

Fucking moron.

2002-11-15T16:38:00.000-05:00

But kiddy-diddling will still be OK

Seems the Vatican has banned smoking.

2002-11-15T15:50:00.000-05:00

Priorities in Order Dept.

Seems the war on homosexuality has taken precedence over the war on terrorism.

I recall a scene in "The West Wing" in which the (black) chairman of the Joint Chiefs recalls how the military resisted integrating its units because doing so would be "detrimental to unit order and discipline."

"You know what?" he says. "They were right. It did. And the unit got over it."

If the military wanted to integrate gays, it could do so tomorrow the same way it finally integrated racially: Adopt, and vigorously enforce, a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination and harassment.

The fact that it apparently does not want to means that high-ranking military leaders would rather indulge personal prejudice than allow their country to make best use of the skills its citizens -- who, remember, volunteered for military service -- are offering.

Isn't that the sort of thing we're supposed to be fighting against?

2002-11-15T11:09:00.000-05:00

And Speaking of the Department of Health [ahem] and Human Services ...

The Bush administration likes to snark that the "fox-in-the-henhouse" metaphor so often applied to it by the media amounts to nothing more than liberal carping. Then, of course, one of its members opens his big, fat mouth.

The most recent example (as this posting goes to blog) is HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, who, in a Tuesday speech to the Grocery Manufacturers of America's board of directors, urged members to "go on the offensive" against people who blame their industry for the country's fatness epidemic.

Now, uncharacteristically for me, I'd like to be fair and point out that most adults are perfectly capable of making good choices about healthy, nutritious foods, but that many of them just don't. (Me, for example.)

But there are two caveats to this fact: 1) The food industry markets some of its less healthy products very aggressively to people who are not adults, and 2) the food industry has some alternative ingredients available, such as good-tasting alternatives to the trans-fats that are now considered so dangerous, but chooses not to use them. For example, remember McDonald's' "McLean" sandwich? There's a good case to be made that it failed because of a marketing error: It was marketed as "healthy" when people don't go to McDonald's for healthy food. There's a case to be made that Mickey D's could simply switch to healthier ingredients, and blind taste tests suggests that no one would be the wiser.

Now, a lot of media critics like to say that the media overplay political differences and suggest that one side or the other of an issue is evil, when the truth is that both sides agree on an end and simply disagree over means. That might be true in a few cases, but applying that scenario to this case appears awfully hard. The HHS Secretary's job is not to serve as national nanny, of course, but it does involve a bit of care for public health.

Unfortunately, Thompson's remarks make it look as if he's beholden to an industry over which he has at least bully-pulpit, if not regulatory, influence. It's perfectly legal. But it's a damn shame.

2002-11-13T14:33:00.000-05:00

Why Nepotism Is Bad, No. 2,468:

The Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general is facing scrutiny for allegedly politicizing her nonpartisan office, forcing out longtime career civil servants and mishandling a government-issue gun.

Complaints about the performance of Inspector General Janet Rehnquist, daughter of Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, have attracted attention from other inspectors general and from Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, soon to be the powerful Finance Committee's chairman.

The panel has asked the General Accounting Office to investigate why 19 nonpolitical employees in her office -- including five of six deputies -- have retired, quit or been transferred since Ms. Rehnquist took over 15 months ago. People familiar with the office say most left at her insistence or in dismay at the presidential appointee's volatile management style.

"They're cleaning out people that were doing their job of exposing things," Mr. Grassley says.

You know it's bad when even the Republicans are talking about investigating you.

2002-11-13T14:11:00.000-05:00

Our Thief-in-Chief ...

... would never manufacture a diversion, would he?

2002-11-13T12:07:00.000-05:00

Can someone explain to me ...

Why at least two of the people mentioned in this article aren't in jail this morning?

(UPDATE: A friend writes, "Because criminals already run the state?")

Gwen Margolis, an incoming Democratic state senator from Northeast Miami-Dade, raised campaign contributions for the new Republican Senate president -- money that he used to help defeat Margolis' fellow Democrats seeking Senate seats.

Margolis readily admitted that she was trying to buy influence with Senate President Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican, saying that raising money for King might help her land a prized committee chairmanship or win budget projects for her Senate district.

''It helps put me in a better position as far as committee priorities and leadership priorities,'' Margolis said. ``I'll do whatever has to be done to take care of my district.''

I think Hesiod puts it best: "How about resign? Your district would be better represented by an actual prostitute."

2002-11-13T11:49:00.000-05:00

Another pot heard from ...

Aw, gee. It seems that the Saudis have glommed to the fact that a lot of Americans consider them as responsible as Iraq for the predations of al-Qaeda, if not more so. And, figuring that the best defense is a good offense, they're accusing America of such heart-rending atrocities as failing to grant visas to Saudis seeking advanced medical treatment at U.S. facilities.

Now, never mind the heretical notion that we're an autonomous country and will grant, or deny, visas to whoever the hell we want. The underlying problem here is one endemic throughout the Arab world: No one in a leadership position wants to do anything but blow shit up. No one wants to create, research, discover, learn, cure. They've sold themselves a line of bullshit about Israel and have embraced a culture of death to buy that same line.

Fortunately, Amish Tech Support is on the case. I particularly like this part:

"If you continue to preach that Jews are the sons of monkeys and dogs, well, that just only goes to show how amazing out educational system is here. We can actually train the sons of monkeys and dogs to perform complex surgery, the art of anesthesiology, and the bold steps of chemical engineering and drug testing. What have you accomplished with your supposedly full-fledged, non-monkey/non-dog citizens? Gotta keep coming here to get treated for the big stuff, it looks like."

Word.

2002-11-12T23:09:00.000-05:00

Uh-oh ...

Someone's fuckin' with The Fish. And Ralph most definitely do not play dat shit.

2002-11-12T12:19:00.000-05:00

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

"Election 2002 does not give the Bush-Cheney administration a mandate to load the federal judiciary with right wing judges. The voters, after all, had the economy and the war on their minds - not the federal courts. But if you doubt it's about to happen, just sit tight and wait."

So says John Dean, a man who knows a little about fucking over the voters, in an interesting article here. Short version: If you give a damn about the Constitution, it's going to be long, cold winter.

2002-11-09T11:47:00.000-05:00

Wrath of God

Man, this site rules. Ever wanted to call down the wrath of God? Now you can.

2002-11-08T14:48:00.000-05:00

Good point

I've got both friends and family in Georgia, although I don't get there much. But I'm now going to make a point of getting there sometime soon, and when I do, I'm going to do as William Burton is doing and stand on the other side of the line and piss on Georgia. I have no time or patience for a state that sends a lying pissant like Saxby Chambliss to the United States Senate over Max Cleland, who served his country honorably and at immense personal cost.

2002-11-07T15:00:00.000-05:00

Opportunity society

Snoop: Just had a great idea. Going to start a business which does IPOs for faith-based initiatives.
Ralph: Business should be good, at least for the next two years. You handle the underwriting, I'll take care of the PR, we'll make a shitload of money and retire to our mountain redoubt with the helicopter pads and gun emplacements.
Snoop: Roger.
Ralph: Also, I think we should consider a sideline in weapons and/or one of the extraction industries.
Snoop: We could simply form a disinformation consluting practice. This essential government function could be more effeciantly carried out in the private sector.
Snoop: You know, we're joking, but someone is doing these things now, will make a lot of money, and if the evil doers stay in power, will someday be branded "Patriots" for their efforts.
Ralph: "consluting." I like it and it's appropriate. But we probably need to spell it with 2 T's.
Snoop: my bad
Ralph: No, no, I think we just invented a new name for a new industry. Let's roll with that.
Snoop: I'll get the trademark application rolling
Ralph: Outstanding. I'll alert the media.

2002-11-06T12:14:00.000-05:00

The wrong street

Bad as I think Tuesday's electoral results were for the nation domestically -- and I think they were so bad they could even make Dubya a one-term president -- one good thing could come of them in a very important arena: the war on terrorism.

A lot of people -- not only some Americans, but also leaders of some of our putative allies, such as France -- have expressed concern about how "the Arab street" might react if we invade Iraq or otherwise continue to take the war on terrorism to the terrorists.

What they should have been worrying about is the American street. Because when Americans decide they really, really want something, they have the means to get it, which is something Europeans and Middle Easterners generally still haven't figured out about us even though they've been watching it happen for two and a quarter centuries.

Maybe after they see us bitch-slap the UN, set up a constitutional republic in Iraq and, oh, by the way, visit death from the skies upon more terrorists, they'll start to feel the loving tap of the clue stick.

2002-11-06T10:27:00.000-05:00

No, it isn't ...

The Washington Post's Richard Cohen can be remarkably silly sometimes, and there's some silly stuff in this column, too. But there's also one dead-bang correct observation that goes a long way toward explaining why people are so turned off by politics and government:

The thinking in Washington and elsewhere is that these [negative] ads are disconnected from politics as practiced the rest of the year or from government in general. That, though, is not the case. The same people who get elected on lies, exaggerations, half-truths, negative attacks and the like are hardly likely to slip into a new ethical mode once they start to govern. If they have sold out during the campaign -- signed off on some scurrilous ad -- we can hardly be surprised if they sell out while in office. Virginity is not retroactive.

Combine that with the fact that way too many people -- journalists among them, unfortunately -- can't be bothered to determine who's actually telling the truth and who's making this shit up as he goes along and so figure "fuck 'em all," and you've got the recipe for a disconnected electorate ripe for the plundering.

And after Tuesday, you've got even more people in charge who have made a career of plunder.

2002-11-05T21:06:00.000-05:00

About fuckin' time ...

BULLETIN

WASHINGTON (AP) … Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt resigned under
fire Tuesday night. ``The chairman tendered his resignation to the president,'' Christi
Harlan, SEC spokeswoman said.

2002-11-05T19:40:00.000-05:00

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH ...

Conservatives like to criticize liberals for being pious. But there are few conservatives more pious, in a not-necessarily-strictly-religious sense, than Peggy Noonan, who seems to think, against all available evidence, that her speechwriting gig in the Reagan White House imbued her with common sense, wide perspective and an additional 40 or so IQ points.

Her most recent assault on the public square from the shadows of the prayer closet came in this column for the Wall Street Journal, in which she purports to channel the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, reprimanding his fellow Dems for turning his funeral into a political rally (and booing a few Republicans in the process). She all but asks, "Have you no decency?" which is kind of remarkable coming from a denizen of the party whose idea of decency is stealing the fucking White House in a Supreme Court-led coup.

Now, as both of my regular readers know, my normal response to this level of idiocy is spewing bile. That's my trademark, that's my brand, that's the tactic that has made me what I am today. But a pitcher can throw 105 mph all he wants, if he doesn't come up with at least one pitch other than a fastball, he'll have a short career. Which is why I stand in utter, flabbergasted awe of the genius who crafted this response. I am not worthy to occupy the same Internet as this creative giant. For that matter, neither are you.

2002-11-05T18:27:00.000-05:00

And as we slog through the last tedious hour or so before East Coast polls close and the good/bad news starts trickling in, I've stumbled across this delightful little time-waster: The Bible of the Damned. (Caution: 18 and older only).

2002-11-05T18:09:00.000-05:00

It may come as a surprise to many conservatives, but one of the most eloquent defenders of a broad offensive against world terrorism is none other than National Public Radio's Scott Simon. A speech he gave shortly after the 9/11 attacks neatly summarizes his feelings, which do not appear to have changed in the interim:

I'm glad to see reporting now that asks, "Why do they hate us?" We need to
hear the complaints of those who experience U.S. foreign policy, sometimes at
the blunt end. But I would not want our increasing erudition to distract us
from the answer that applies to those who are now physically attacking the
United States: they hate us because they are psychotics. They should be taken
no more seriously as political theorists than Charles Manson or Timothy
McVeigh.

Amen.

2002-11-01T15:56:00.000-05:00

Boy, I bet that's gonna be painful ...

OK, now that the chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitt, has been put in the awkward position -- about as awkward as having your head up your own ass -- of asking his own agency to investigate how he decided to chose ex-FBI head William Webster, someone with what the New York Times' Paul Krugman calls an "impressive but irrelevant" background, to police the accounting industry, is anyone still unconvinced that the foxes are guarding the fucking henhouse in Washington?

Krugman has even come up with a name for this phenomenon: the Pitt Principle: "The famous Peter Principle said that managers fail because they rise to their level of incompetence. The Pitt Principle tells us that sometimes incompetence is exactly what the people in charge want."

In other words, Pitt did his master's bidding because his master didn't really want to crack down on the accounting industry, which has aided, abetted and otherwise facilitated fraud at Enron, WorldCom and other large corporations. It only wanted to look like it was doing so.

Not coincidentally, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which is run by people not so beholden to the Bushies, filed a $548 million fraud and negligence suit today against accounting giant Ernst & Yount today, accusing the firm of misstating the assets of Chicago's Superior Bank in 2001, then delaying reporting of the error so as not to endanger the firm's pending $11 billion sale of its consulting arm.

Superior was the largest S&L failure in nearly a decade, costing the FDIC -- which is to say, taxpayers like you and me -- $750 million. My only complaint about the lawsuit is that the FDIC isn't seeking that total in damages, tripled under RICO because of the fraud involved, and that it isn't suing the officers and directors of Ernst & Young individually.

Folks, not all Republicans are bad, but this group in the White House is going to rob us blind unless you stop them.

2002-10-28T10:42:00.000-05:00

They're not buying

Remember Howard Berman's bill to allow corporate hacking of private users' computers? It was debated a few days ago at Oxford. The RIAA even had a rep there to debate the pro side. Apparently she wasn't all that impressive; spectators voted better than 3-1 against the proposition.

2002-10-25T15:34:00.000-04:00

Also, the irrepressible Stacy, proprietrix of Blogatelle, offers this bit of fantasized dialogue between the sniper suspects and their interrogators as created by her husband, whose props for this proposed scene include a car battery, cables and alligator clips:

Interrogator: Let's see what we can learn from Mr. Testicle.
Interrogatee: Aiiee!!
Interrogator: Look, it's dancing.
Interrogatee: Aiiee!!!!!!!!!!
Interrogator: Hey, you can see through it!

"He's a sick, sick man," she concludes, "and he's all mine."

Stacy, we thank you for sharing him with us.

2002-10-25T15:16:00.000-04:00

This, kids, is why newspapers will never go out of business ...

If you're like many Americans, you've been following the saga of the D.C.-area sniper on one of the cable news networks, which means you have been treated to hours' worth of speculation on who the sniper(s) might be, what his/her/their motivation might be and so on.

And if you'd bet your 401(k) on their knowledge, ability and talent, you'd be spending your golden years picking rags and selling tin cans for scrap.

"No one ... " Newsday's Verne Gay writes, "got even the broadest outlines of the story right."

Indeed, there was never any particular reason to think they would. And yet it got so bad that on Monday night, Lou Dobbs of CNN's "Moneyline" opened his show by criticizing the "mostly useless blather" on the cable networks, including his own.

Now that these charlatans have been exposed, is anyone apologizing? As if.

2002-10-25T10:36:00.000-04:00

Reason No. 462 Why I Don't Particularly Miss High School ...

Once upon a time there was a high-school newspaper columnist who sought to warn his fellow students about the dangers of stereotyped thinking. He sarcastically listed some examples of such thinking, including this opening line: "What's the difference between the football team and the band? Nothing, they both play bad."

For his troubles, he was called out of the audience during a school pep rally and asked to take part in a skit, during which two football players slammed him to the floor, leaving him sore and scarred by a 6-inch floor burn.

Astonishingly, the school principal has refused to issue a public apology.

Let's be clear on what went on here: Two football players, egged on by their assistant coach (that is to say, an agent of the school system, i.e., the government), physically attacked a student because of something he wrote ... something they had completely misunderstood, to boot. I'm not a lawyer and don't play one in Blogworld, but it looks to me like what we've got here includes, but might not be limited to, criminal assault and conspiracy to deny a student his First Amendment rights.

And public schools wonder why everyone hates them.

The assistant coach, to his credit, wrote an apology to the student within minutes of the incident and offered to resign. The principal refused the offer and has refused to offer a public apology, although he apparently doesn't dispute the facts.

If I were the superintendent of that system, I'd suspend the assistant coach and fire the principal, who clearly knows zip, zilch, nada about the Bill of Rights, instruction on which it is part of his job to oversee. I'd order up remedial civics for the whole fucking football team. And just for good measure, I'd probably bitch-slap the principal, too ... and not with a metaphoric 10-foot clue stick, either.

2002-10-24T14:50:00.000-04:00

Someone somewhere recently published an article suggesting that SpongeBob SquarePants is gay. That's all I know, but a friend said mentioning this should boost the number of referrals the site gets from Google, so here goes. :-)

2002-10-23T17:01:00.000-04:00

Number 1 with a bullet and power-packed

(strains of AC/DC's "Back in Black" fill your computer ... )

OK, so I've been offline awhile. And you know what? It was quiet. That, and without two hands on a keyboard all the time, I was able to drink a good merlot without having to use a freakin' straw. So let's move on.

Speaking of moving, I have finally moved myself to start adding links, as you'll see at left, and the honor of being my first linkee goes to Da Fish, to whom I give major props, a good shout-out and the long, loud chanting of complicated encomia.

2002-10-11T15:34:00.000-04:00

I've got one question, and it's not a happy one.

In light of the most recent shooting, if the copycat killings have not already started, when will they?

Flying four jets into buildings or the ground didn't paralyze us as a nation. Stunned? Sure. Enraged? You bet. Paralyzed? Nah. We didn't need Resident Bush to tell us to go on about our routines.

But one determined person -- or, as Fish might say, one fuckwit -- has been able to disrupt routines and terrorize people throughout one of the country's larger metro areas. Using, I also should point out, a readily available weapon with very commonly used ammunition (among other things, the military's standard-issue M-16 rifle shoots .223-caliber rounds). And I don't necessarily subscribe to the theory that the shooter has military training: I know from experience that a good 8x scope can turn a 12-year-old with 20/200 vision into Annie Oakley From Hell within a couple of hundred yards or so.

So how many such Oakleys would it take to do so in the whole country? As many as there were terrorists on the 9/11 jetliners?

Even fewer?

2002-10-09T10:08:00.000-04:00

Ever wonder why Democrats don't ever win? Because they don't even play.

Here you've got Congresscreature Dick Armey violating his oath of office by using a military appropriations bill (a military appropriations bill -- and this guy chaired Armed Services!!) to pursue a petty personal vendetta against the Dallas Morning News. And all the Democrats can bring themselves to say is "Tsk, tsk."

This is an open-and-shut impeachment case, no blow jobs involved at all.