• The Way We War: or From Here To Absurdity: "What do they know that we, in our country don't know and don't want to know? They live in countries where their media don't have an interest in propping up this pantload whose main accomplishment in life up until December 2000 was to lose other people's money and otherwise just occupy space. They live in countries who are affected by the punitive and destructive policies of the United States since January 2001." From now on, I will always associate Smirk with "pantload" . . . "Where's Pantload?" "Oh, he's off trying to suppress another White House leak, siccing the FBI on some group or other.

      • Lawmakers Seek Probe of Leaked Sept. 11 Intercepts: "That puts the lawmakers, who are looking into FBI intelligence failures related to Sept. 11, in the position of being investigated by the FBI about the leaks." If Pantload can't get Poppy to fix something for him, he jist gits some of his secret police to keep the truth from gittin' out. The Dick is also concerned. If they can freely intimidate members of congress, where does that leave the rest of us?

      • WHAT WENT WRONG ON 9/11?: "Lorna Brett, director of media relations for the Nolan Law Group, Chicago, which represents families of the terror victims, wants an independent commission to study 9/11. 'We have a commission for everything else. Look at how much we spent on Whitewater,' she exclaimed. 'I think it is patriotic to ask why and demand answers.'" Ashcroft doesn't agree, the Dick doesn't agree, and, of course, Pantload doesn't agree.

      • Air Force officer disciplined for saying Bush allowed September 11 attacks: "While many people believe that the Bush administration viewed September 11 as a priceless opportunity to implement an ultra-reactionary program of militarism and repression, Butler is different. His military assignment brought him into contact with at least one of the alleged hijackers . . . . On September 15, Newsweek reported: 'U.S. military sources have given the FBI information that suggests five of the alleged hijackers of the planes used in Tuesday's terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s.'" Pantload knew. We know he knew. He will punish those who try to prove he knew.

      • Head of Sept. 11 Probe Allegedly Obstructed Danforth's Waco Inquiry: "According to a December 2000 internal FBI memo, Kelley 'continued to thwart and obstruct' the Waco investigation to the point that Danforth was forced to send a team to search FBI headquarters for documents Kelley refused to turn over. 'This non-cooperative spirit was at the specific direction of [deputy general counsel] Kelley,' the memo states." Handpicked by Pantload, no doubt. What is needed is an Office of Homeland Ombudsman to protect the country from the administration, spooks and Homeland Security.

      • The Spooky, Corporate Roots of Homeland Security Pre-911: "The Institute for Homeland Security, itself, was formally established in April 2001, following a month of buzz, assisted by its ties with the military and the intelligence community." Bush Knew.

      • Why is the US media blacking out documentary on war crimes in Afghanistan?: "Calling for an inquiry, prominent human rights lawyer Andrew McEntee commented it was 'clear there is prima facie evidence of serious war crimes committed not just under international law, but also under the laws of the United States itself.'" Meanwhile, the world waits breathlessly for Pantload to release his long awaited Middle East peace plan. I first heard about it two weeks ago. Anyway, in the interim, Pantload's good buddy, Sharon, is working his magic.

      • Israelis murder 3 children, woman at market in broad daylight: "The army said the soldiers ''fired two tank shells in order to deter the crowd from approaching.' Heavy machine gun fire also could be heard during the incident." BBC TV, Friday night, showed the tank pull into the market and start shooting without warning. It would be like a national guard tank rolling into a Safeway parking lot and start dropping shoppers walking to and from their cars. War crime? Of course. Repercussions? None.

      • Arafat Ready to Accept Clinton Peace Plan: "Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is prepared to accept a Mideast peace plan put forward by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton in December 2000, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Friday." Sorry, Mr. Arafat, you're going to have to live with the current White House cretin, just like the rest of us. If we can't get a break, neither can you. The Supreme Court has ruled.

      • The evil Dick Cheney: "There is a wide trail of lies told by Cheney. There is the Iraqi connection, the Enron ties, the India deal, the so on and so on. Cheney also lied about not living in Texas as late as November 2000 in apparent violation of the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution." If Bush, Inc, lies were a toxic gas, we'd all be dead. They probably are, and we will be.

      • The Dick Sees 'Gathering Danger' in Iraq as US Prepares for Premptive Attack: "Iraqi President Saddam Hussein represents a 'gathering danger'' to the United States, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Thursday, while warning that Washington will act preemptively against threats of terrorism. 'We are greatly concerned about any possible linkup between terrorists and regimes that have or seek weapons of mass destruction,' said Cheney. 'In the case of Saddam Hussein, we've got a dictator who is clearly pursuing and already possesses some of these weapons,' he said." This story could also go, "Bush represents a 'gathering danger' to Iraq, Saddam Hussein said on Thursday, while being warned that Washington will act preemptively against unsubstantiated threats of terrorism." Really, the US has announced a policy shift and will use weapons of mass destruction against anyone it feels like destroying and will do so preemptively, if Pantload deems it necessary. That, of course, is terrorism. Is the US for or against itself? Is the nation suffering from schizophrenia? Argh!

      • "Jaw, jaw," said Winston Churchill, "is better than war, war.": "Let's see, we already have our military in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Georgia and the Philippines. We are also deeply into Colombia as part of the Drug War and have fairly regular deployment by special ops in Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Yemen." Weren't media pantloads comparing the functionally illiterate Pantload to Churchill early on? He's closer to Hitler on Prozac. Maybe he gets away with it, because the nation is on Prozac.

      • Global Eye -- Southern Cross: "The whole saucy crew have been on a sustained propaganda offensive for weeks, methodically preparing the public to accept the wholly un-American notion of aggressive war. Those droopy invertebrates known as Congressional Democrats are already on board, so it's body bags for Baghdad any day now. Collateral damage, here we come!" Chris Floyd also makes a case for Brazil rising to the Axis of Evil hit list soon.

      • Funnyman Ed Asner now in a serious line of work: "'The American people are becoming vegetables,' [Asner] said, 'conditioned to prefer manure to matter.'" Problem solved. The people love Pantload, because he gives them what they want . . . bullshit.

      • America's dark heart: "A letter or a phone call has proved too great a task. Your voices of dissent have remained tucked in some closet. The rule of law means nothing to you. You allow a fascist regime to ram the United States Constitution into the trashcan of history. You should be ashamed. You do not deserve to be a free people and you are getting your desire." For Pantload or against him? Sad to say, the polls indicate the majority are for him. A deserved plague on a deserving nation? I've heard it said that democracy must be earned every day. Huzzah! There are those trying to save the nation:

      • The Sons and Daughters of Liberty: 'All of Us Are in Danger': "In the spirit of the Sons of Liberty, on February 4 of this year, some 300 citizens of Northampton, Massachusetts, held a town meeting to organize ways to — as they put it — protect the residents of the town from the Bush-Ashcroft USA Patriot Act. On that night, the Northampton Bill of Rights Defense Committee began a new American Revolution. Similar committees are organizing around the country." Just following Thomas Jefferson's guidance in the Declaration of Independence: "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

      • Northampton Bill of Rights Defense Committee's Website: "We support repeal of parts of the USA PATRIOT Act and Executive Orders that infringe on Constitutional rights. This web site documents and supports local efforts to restore civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution, which have been threatened by the Act and Orders." "No matter how far you travel the wrong road, turn back."

      • Study Says: Policymakers brush aside accountability, history, reality, and liberty: "On Sept. 11 of last year, President Bush declared, 'Freedom has been attacked, but freedom will be defended.' However, a new Cato Institute report shows that Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft have supported measures that are antithetical to freedom, such as secretive subpoenas, secretive arrests, secretive trials, and secretive deportations." Pantload and company are the terrorists . . . pass it on.

      • Freedom of Information Under Attack: "More broadly, within six months of the September 11 attacks, in no fewer than 300 separate instances, federal, state and local officials have restricted access to government records by executive order or proposed new laws to sharply curtail their availability, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures." The "I've Got a Secret" resident will go down, in Roosevelt's parlance, in infamy. But he doesn't care . . . no conscience. Anyone who lies 24/7 doesn't give a rat's ass.

      • The Hollow President: "An old saying comes to mind: 'He who is unaware of his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge.' Bush would be less dangerous with his enormous power if he were conscious that he is woefully unfit for it. Such humble self- awareness can be a saving grace. It tends to retard rash judgments and decisions. A humble man never mistakes himself for a messiah." And to make him and the situation abominable, is the fact that he was selected. His smirkish demeanor indicates he believes he's an elected dictator. The country is a joke. The coming 4th of July should be a day of mourning.

      • Pantload Sets Fast Pace At Fitness Race: "'It's important for those of us in the White House to live how we talk,' Bush said. 'If we're going to say we're going to live a healthy life, let's do it. If we say we care about a neighbor in need, if we want to love a neighbor like we'd like to be loved ourselves, let's show it through our actions.'" I guess that doesn't apply to telling the truth, keeping promises, adhering to treaties, being open. Mike Tyson is very fit, but he is no more fit to be president than Pantload.

      • Pantload at bay: "It mattered little, since most of his nation was likewise in slumber - but the rebuff spoke volumes to columnists and Washington DC observers about the clueless, crassly selfish quality of a President and a presidency which are suddenly lurching, rather than governing, at the apex of American power." Is it the apex of American power, or the apex of American ignorance and arrogance?

      • Pantload Smirks at Environmental Health Risks: "As troubling as the EPA reports were, even more unsettling was the administration's odd reaction to them. President Bush was almost flippantly unconcerned, dismissing his own EPA's report as 'something put out by the bureaucracy.' His sanguine attitude was intended to allay the panic being displayed by his conservative supporters who have spent the last 30 years denying that global warming exists, but it was also profoundly disingenuous." Compassionately conservative. See Pantload's fitness comments (above) about walking the talk. Love your neighbor, but deny her clean air to breath.

      • FBI Says Major Crime Increases under Pantload: "Major crime increased in the United States last year for the first time in a decade, including a 3.1 percent increase in murders, a law enforcement official said Saturday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity about contents of an annual report to be released Monday by the FBI 's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, said it will show jumps in robberies, burglaries and car thefts." Everything is different now.

      • Small Steps on Aid . . . Very small: "Now the prospect of a G-8 summit next week in Canada is provoking another small flurry of activity". . . ."Yesterday it followed up with an announcement that President Bush would visit Africa next year, and that a small education program to fund teacher training, girls' scholarships and textbooks would get an extra 0 million over a five-year period." Another smoke and mirrors political moment.

      • Concern About Africa is Misleading: "Later this month, the world's most powerful political group, the G8, has vowed to put Africa at the top of its agenda. What's next -- the David Letterman Show? After decades of neglect, suddenly Africans are in the spotlight. Now, if they could just get something to eat over there …" But few Africans will make it to the G8 summit in Calgary:

      • Calgary Lockdown for G8: "Starting Sunday, June 23, downtown Calgary will be locked up tight, during the day as well as after dark. Calgary police will patrol the streets, while the military patrol Kananaskis. RCMP will escort Internationally Protected Persons (mainly heads of state) wherever they go, including to a 0,000 Gala reception and dinner downtown, Tuesday." . . . . "Although almost all the speakers from abroad have gotten clearance, only two out of sixty invited conference delegates from Africa and the Indian subcontinent have been able to obtain visas to enter Canada." Calgary, an oil town, is bending over for the full thrust of globalization's goodwill. Enjoy. If any province secedes from Canada, it will be Alberta. Then, they can really experience a good time, but not as good as Africa's.

      • New Bush AIDS Plan Outrages Activists: "But critics immediately charged that the initiative was not only too little too late, but also too narrowly targeted. The package is also potentially skewed towards helping the very same companies that feted the president at Wednesday night's mega-fundraiser -- which was sponsored among others by GlaxoSmithKline CEO Jean Paul Garnier." Jist a little bidness . . . on the side . . . Enron style . . . Bush, Inc, style.

      • Enron execs looted company prior to bankruptcy: "Thomas White, the current army secretary in the Bush administration who was a top executive in the company's energy-services sector, received million." Pantload's buddies, Kenny and Tom, did good.

      • THE PANTLOAD ADMINISTRATION: Corporate Connections: "Of course, everyone knows that the U.S. oil industry has a secure foothold in the White House. But when he handed out cabinet posts and picked his top advisors, Bush left no industry out in the cold." As Jim Hightower suggested, politicians, like Nascar drivers, should wear their corporate sponsors' patches on their suits.

      • Halliburton's Home Court Gives Workers the Shaft: "Under then-CEO Dick Cheney, Halliburton sought to strip workers of their right to try work disputes in court. In November 1997, Halliburton simply notified its workers that anyone who showed up for work in the New Year was thereby tacitly 'waiving all rights to trial by jury.'" 1997, a taste of things to come under the Dick/Smirk New World Order . . . workers get the shaft, corporations get the gold.

      • Pantload Sycophant, Walt Disney Co., Does the Smirk Slide: "Shares of Walt Disney Co. dropped to a seven-month low on Thursday after Merrill Lynch cut its earnings outlook for the entertainment giant, citing troubles at its TV and film units." Live by the Pantload, die by the Pantload.

      • Pantload plan to tighten accounting oversight falls short: "Federal regulators endorsed a Bush administration plan to tighten oversight of the accounting industry Thursday. But the Senate's Democratic leader called it 'a toothless tiger' that won't reassure investors shaken by Enron's collapse." The Friday markets responded to Pantload's plan: Dow down 177.9 , Nasdaq down 23.79, S&P down 17.15. When a major player in the Enron scam proposes the remedy, what do you think will happen?

      • Let Them Eat Bullshit: "The speed of fiscal decline is remarkable. A year ago, the Bush administration claimed it could live within the current official ceiling for government debt of .95 trillion until 2008. Now the Treasury Department desperately needs Congress to raise that ceiling by June 28th. . . .The nastiest surprise has been a dramatic drop in government income." Surprise, surprise . . . the real dirty bomb. The fascists have backed themselves into a corner. Another staged event and the economy will sink irretrievably into the slough of despond, taking the Smirksters with it. Is the Little Cowboy still pimping for more tax cuts for the wealthy? At some point, he's going to have to do a Poppy . . . raise taxes. My guess? Middle class , if there still is one, and down will be given that patriotic burden.

      • House Moves Towards Tax Break Extension for the Wealthy: "The bill, which would add .1 billion to the 10-year cost of the tax cut, would face an uncertain future in the Democratic-led Senate even though many Democrats support it." Pantload isn't the only stupid person in Washington, but he's the leader of stupid people in Washington (and the nation). "Sir, we're running out of money. How will we pay for all of your new military and police state programs?" "I don't care! I wanna have tax cuts, I wanna have tax cuts!"

      • An economy singed: "The results are clear. For the first time since the 1920s, stockmarkets have been falling during the first few months of an economic recovery. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen in ten of the past 13 weeks, and is now down to the levels of early 1999. And the mighty dollar, long a symbol of America's miraculous economy, continues to slide. Since January, it has fallen by 10% against the euro and by 8% against the yen." The real terror? Greedy bastards holding hands in the White House, Congress, corporate boardrooms, the Pentagon. Bush, Inc, stands atop the dung heap. More bullshit to follow.

      • SPINNING AROUND CORPORATE WORLD: "Meanwhile, let's visit The Original Pancake House, which recently distributed special flyers saying 'Bring Mom in for Mother's Day.' To sweeten the pitch, a coupon was included: '.00 OFF our Famous Dutch Baby Pancakes.' In the small print, however, the coupon read: 'Not valid on Mother's Day.'" Combine these kind of people with Bush, Inc, kind of people and you have honor and dignitude.

      • FBI Warns on Fuel Tanks: "Another official, also speaking on grounds of anonymity, said the warning was not based on a specific threat, but on interviews with captured al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who indicated such a plot had been discussed. The interviews with detainees did not reveal a target city or time, this official said." I wonder, the detainees, if that part of the tale is true, must sit around and think of fear stories to pass along. "Ahmed, let's see if they buy this one . . . they went for the scuba diver threat." To feel safe, fear everything? Of course, sooner or later, they're going to have to make one of these alarms come true . . . just before discussion of the latest police state legislation?

      • FBI Calling Off Vegas Threat Probe: "'The results of the investigation to date do not substantiate these allegations and the FBI has determined that this information is not credible,' Ellen Knowlton, special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office, said in a statement." To prevent premature evacuation, maybe the threats should be checked out before hand. Like right away? What were the people in Las Vegas to do about this alarm anyway? They were going to be there regardless.

      • Unhappy Americans, Gay Afghans: "The Bushes aren't concerned about their political legacy. Unlike other presidents, they don't give a rat's ass about their political legacy. They're just concerned with accomplishing a certain agenda - in their own words, 'the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter, and righter hands.'" I've wondered about the legacy issue. Most people, when they get older, consider their legacy. Not the Bushes. The reason, I believe, is that like all psychopaths, they have no consciences. It explains why non-stop lying is easy for them. The Smirk Residential Library will be a warehouse locked in perpetuity. Then, of course, stupid people don't worry much about how their actions affect others.

      • The Incredible Shrinking President: "I'm sure W's speech is less burdened by obscenity than that of the Navy vet and seasoned poker player [Nixon], but this is the purity of the born-again imbecile. W. has the vocabulary of a 12-year old, though most 12-year olds have an infinitely stronger grasp of world affairs." Why, for the umpteenth time, does anyone think he's doing a good job? Are there that many stupid people out there? Well, some are so benighted as to spin Smirk a philosophical air:

      • Bush the Scholar And Politics 101: "The point, as The Financial Times noted, is that the Bush White House feels free to indulge in 'the most far-fetched spin' to burnish the President's image. There are surely many passages in Aristotle and Cicero that seem immediately relevant (such as the Greek's warning against 'empty vanity' in the work cited, or the Roman's denunciation of the Enron-like merchant, 'shifty, deep, artful, treacherous, malevolent,' in an essay on business)." The boy who doesn't bother to read intelligence briefings and EPA reports is reading Aristotle and Cicero?

      • Disasters waiting to happen: "Long-term projections from big insurers, such as CGNU, suggest that the upward curve of economic damage from global warming will overtake gross world product by 2065, effectively bankrupting the global economy. Serious destabilization is likely well before that date." Any sane, intelligent l leader would be actively working to address this issue, not actively working to exacerbate it. The Smirk legacy? Death and destruction. And if he's such a Christian, why doesn't he care about the effects of his actions? His being a Christian is bullshit too.

      • Resistance makes the difference: "Let us agree, for the purposes of this column, that the United States government — as presently propelled by one George W. Bush — represents, along with its patrons, an extraordinary and even unprecedented threat to the lives of countless people in an extraordinary number of places around the planet. And, moreover, to the very existence of countless other plant and animal species everywhere on the planet — even in the places humans don't go. If you disagree with that statement, you need read no further. This article is not for you." "Resist Bush, Inc!" is a necessity, not an option.

      • How All the President's Men Buried Coleen Rowley: "The daily news cycle is a hungry beast with a short memory, so maybe it should come as no surprise that the revelations of Minneapolis FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley came and went so quickly. Still, you've got to credit W and company. The administration has dispatched her story with impressive speed and political acumen." With the media and both parties against democracy, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, it will take a steady, non-violent, drumbeat of protest against a police state. Even though the media is bought and paid for, they are publishing more and more editorial comments questioning Bush, Inc. The seeds of doubt are germinating.

      • The Welcoming Committee" meets the G7 in Halifax: "The success sprang from the clear links made by the committee between G7-led global corporatization and local problems. Like Nova Scotia's abysmal record of the highest university tuition rates in the country and the lowest minimum wage." An apparently effective protest . . . resistance.

      • 100m more must survive on a day: "More than 100m people in the world's poorest countries will be dragged below the basic subsistence level of a dollar a day by 2015 as they become ensnared in globalization's poverty trap, the UN warned yesterday." I wonder what effect the billion dollars a day being wasted to perpetuate Operation Enduring Handjob would have on relieving world starvation?

      • Enemy wanted . . . desperately: ". . . Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan (USN, ret.), former CIA Director Stansfield Turner, and other military experts cannot figure out why the administration proposes to spend over 1 billion dollars per day on the Pentagon. This is enough money to make countless dreams come true at home and abroad. Our rich nation has the potential to do so much good in the world." But Bush, Inc, is committed to doing so much harm.

      • War on terror little to do with terror: "The U.S., Canada, Britain and their assorted friends didn't invade Afghanistan to help women. They invaded to demolish what was at the time called the 'terrorist infrastructure' behind the attack on the World Trade Center. And in this, they seem to have failed spectacularly." Bush, Inc, wants al-Qaida . . . to be free and operative. "They're here, they're there, they're everywhere; those damned elusive men of terra." Consequently, we need a police state:

      • Court Jousters: "In the rather near future, all citizens will be registered in a national database that includes criminal records, welfare payments, delinquent loans, credit card debt, and so on. Committees of local vigilantes are on the way to being sanctioned as legitimate militias assigned to root out terrorists, just as the Ku Klux Klan was after the Civil War." Making the US a Freedom Free Zone.

      • Indicators of a Free Society: "In a free society, police agencies respond to evidence of planned and actual criminal activity: Police officers in a free society keep the peace; they do not investigate citizens and activities unless there is some reason to investigate. In a free society, police do not investigate citizens' attitudes toward the central government, only their action. Citizen dissent is lawful in a free society and police agencies do not investigate citizens' attitudes toward the criminal justice apparatus." How are we doing? Check this out:

      • The I-Said-So Test: "Mr. Hamdi is probably an American citizen, captured in Afghanistan and currently held without charge at a military base in Norfolk. He is not a sympathetic character, but that should not obscure the extraordinary power President Bush is claiming for himself in Mr. Hamdi's case: the right to detain without trial American citizens forever with no meaningful judicial review." We're not doing very well. And of course, this won't make it any better:

      • Dems Help GOP Pack Judiciary with Fascist Judges: "Senate Republicans were more certain that a deal was in hand, so much so that some aides and Senators privately confirmed the deal's basic framework: 14 pending judicial nominations would be quickly confirmed . . . ." In any other industrialized country, a centrist Democrat would be a right wing radical.

      • England Halts 'Big Brother' Regs: "The government says monitoring e-mail and the Internet is vital to catch modern criminals. But pressure groups were aghast at the long arm of the law being allowed to stretch further." While the US continues to sleep, people in other countries are waking up.

      • Strong and free? Then act that way: be immoral: "If Ottawa doesn't endorse these initiatives, it risks economic retaliation from an angry Washington. Because Sept. 11 created 'a new situation and new threats,' Canada's policies cannot risk being perceived as anti-American or based on 'morality'. . . Mr. Granatstein dismisses resistance to National Missile Defence as mere 'morality' that 'would only anger the Bush administration.'" Isn't he then saying that Canada's policies should be perceived as pro-American and immoral, because Bush, Inc, would be angry if Canada got uppity and took a moral stance? He's right. Canada and Mexico are in a tough spot, not unlike the former Soviet satellite republics.

      • GOP gets Kickbacks from Drug Firms: "Pharmaceutical companies are among 21 donors paying 0,000 each for red-carpet treatment at tonight's GOP fundraising gala starring President Bush, two days after Republicans unveiled a prescription drug plan the industry is backing, according to GOP officials." Bush, Inc., always on the take. And it's still into the arms and drugs trade (where's Ollie?):

      • Mystery deepens over diverted AK-47s: "The guns significantly boosted the AUC's ability to wage war against Colombia's leftist guerrillas and protect the cocaine and heroin industries at a time when the Bush administration is trying to increase and broaden military assistance to Bogota." Meanwhile, the little people, are enjoying the Dubya/Kenny Boy screwing.

      • Laid-off workers lash out at Lay: "'A lot of people worked hard to build up this company,' said Debbie Perrotta, who was a senior administrative assistant. 'And they left everybody out with nothing.'. . . 'I hope they throw them all in jail.'" "All," would have to include Smirk, the Dick, and gang.

      • Restoring the imperial presidency: "At that time Rumsfeld and Cheney were persuading Ford to veto one of the most important Watergate-inspired reforms, an enhanced Freedom of Information Act, designed to guarantee public and media scrutiny of the FBI and other agencies. FOIA, the two aides warned, would take too much power from the executive branch. Ford indeed vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode the veto and the FOIA became the law of the land — at least until last October, when Attorney General John Ashcroft fulfilled Cheney and Rumsfeld's three-decade-old wish by pledging to fight any FOIA request that comes over the transom." So much corruption, so little accountability.

      • Dispersed al-Qaida poses even bigger terror threat, US says: "The routing of Taliban and al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan has only succeeded in deepening the terrorist threat to the west, senior US government officials believe. . . . The war disrupted Osama bin Laden's network but spread the threat around the world, according to a classified report. . . . 'What we're seeing now is a radical international jihad that will be a potent force for many years to come.'" And,

      • Al-qaida Proof Elusive In Kashmir: "The question of where al-Qaida operatives might be regrouping in the wake of the concerted U.S. military campaign against them in Afghanistan is sending tremors of unease through the entire region." True to form, Bush, Inc, actions have had a destabilizing effect upon the world. Instead of containing al-Qaida, the group has been decentralized even further by the ruse war for oil in Afghanistan. And even there, the handpicked CIA/oil man, Karzai, is having continuing problems.

      • Loya jirga dispute prompts mass walk-out: "'I think this loya jirga is not about changing the system. This change has been resisted through intimidation, pressure, bribery and persuasion.'" And,

      • 'We Were Better Off Under the Russians': "A gathering of Muslim clerics across the border in Quetta, Pakistan, last week condemned the U.S. and called for retribution. The raid — a necessary one by U.S. calculations — has been added by Afghans to the other, larger accidents during the American campaign: the bombing of a wedding party in December in Paktia, the slaughter of 21 friendly Afghan troops in Uruzgan in January, and the killing of three Afghan soldiers near Gardez the day after the Band Taimore prisoners were freed." What passes for democracy in the US is a hard sell for a ravaged people. But you've always got the grimacing von Rumsfeld to make root beer out of lemons:

      • Rumsfeld Discusses Al-qaida Search: "The eight-month war in Afghanistan has dispersed members of the al-Qaida terrorist network, 'which is much better than having them training and planning' in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said." He doesn't tell the troops why it's better, because it isn't. Well, it's probably better to have al-Qaida some distance from the pipeline.

      • Harper's Weekly Review shines some light on Rumsfeld: "Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, told American sailors in Bahrain that Saddam Hussein is a 'world-class liar' who already has chemical weapons and could soon have nuclear and biological weapons, too." However, since von Rumsfeld is no amateur liar himself, what can we make of his statement? Perhaps there should be annual awards for the world's premier political liar.

      • Ministers try to calm volatile markets: "However, with confidence knocked by Enronitis, threats of renewed terror attacks on the US and continuing military tension between India and Pakistan, analysts believe the finance ministers' warm words will not be enough to calm nerves." Last year, in a Harper's Index, it said, 15 of the last 16 Republican presidents presided over a recession in his first term. With Smirk, there will be a depression.

      • US dollar's "virtuous circle" may be turning vicious: "Calculations are already being made as to the impact of a rapid fall. According to Morgan Stanley chief economist Stephen Roach, a 'hard landing' of the US dollar, defined as a 20 percent loss of value by the end of the year, would have a 'devastating impact on US financial markets' as foreign investors sought to move out of dollar-denominated assets and US investors likewise sought non-dollar assets." The destroyed economy is going to provide for the Smirksters exit.

      • No end to the Enron era: "The excuse is, well, federal regulatory agencies are on the job now and they'll never again be as wimpy and useless as they were last year. Cue the rolling eyes. The same regulators appointed by the same corporations-can-do-no-wrong Republican administration will be overseeing accounting and investing practices for the foreseeable future, which should not be reassuring news for investors and workers." No end to fascism in the foreseeable future is not reassuring news for investors and workers either.

      • Top Enron Employees Reaped 4 Million in the Year Leading Up to Bankruptcy Filing: "In the year before Enron Corp. filed for bankruptcy, former chairman Kenneth Lay amassed 2.7 million in payments and stock - more than 11,000 times the maximum amount the company's laid-off workers will likely get in severance." I hear the woman who started the major Colorado forest fire could get up to 19 years in prison and a 0,000 fine. What she did was wrong and needs to be addressed legally. But when you see what Lay and the other Enron execs are getting away with as a result of premeditated wrongdoing, there's a major disconnect.

      • Tyco: US conglomerate falls amid revelations of greed and corruption: "Its booming earnings reports and escalating stock value for much of the past decade were not the products of growing productive capacity, but were instead achieved through accounting tricks and outright fraud." The same thing is happening with the US budget. Bush, Inc, is Enron, Tyco, whatever.

      • Bigger than Enron but smaller than Bush, Inc: "Since the Great Depression, gradually what has happened is that those laws have been eaten away--by corporate executives, by Wall Street, by interests--at the expense of investors," says Sarah Teslik, executive director of the Council of Institutional Investors. 'The watchdogs now work for executives, accountants, and Wall Street. They don't work to protect shareholders.'" It's those foxes in the henhouse.

      • Bush makes another surgical strike on the Constitution: "The framers wrote the Constitution, particularly the 5th and 6th Amendments, to prevent such occurrences. Was Chicago under martial law last week? Had law and order broken down? Were the courts closed? No. As such, there is no way around the fact that something deeply offensive to our constitutional system of government happened in Chicago on June 10." That was a week ago, however, and it's already forgotten by the mainstream propagandists. Sadly, it is also forgotten by the many. Is our children learning? Has our adults learned? Is leaving children behind and keeping adults dumbed down a fascist strategery? It's working. Bush is stupid.

      • "On Monday, for instance, he was on cracking form", announcing in halting English — you'd think he'd be fluent by now — that a dangerous terrorist had been detained and 'is now off the streets, where he should be.'" Being stupid is common, as is being stupid and mean spirited, but being stupid, mean spirited, and resident? That's dangerous.

      • Witness: Bush Broadens Anti-Hussein Order: CIA Gets More Tools to Murder Iraqi Leader: "Another well-placed source said of the covert plan, 'It is not a silver bullet, but hopes are high and we could get lucky.'" If one mob leader threatens to murder another mob leader, doesn't that encourage the threatened one to strike the other first? Doesn't this policy place a bigger target on US political leaders, including corporate heads? Doesn't it make the world a less safe place for Americans in general? Assassination as a policy may be acceptable for Bush, Inc., but is it acceptable for a democracy? Maybe if there is one again, it won't be.

      • Assassination is a dubious game, but fun: "If his bodyguards offer resistance, which is likely, and the Iraqi president is cut down by gunfire, the CIA can conveniently claim that they acted in self-defence." As stated above, any country could use this justification when killing, or attempting to kill a declared enemy. "Live by the sword, die by the sword," really fits here.

      • Bush, Saudi Leader Talk Ahead of U.S. Peace Vision: "'It was part of the ongoing consultations on the Middle East the president has held with world leaders over the past few weeks,' McClellan said. "The president has a good relationship with the crown prince and respects his views.'" Still, one can't help but wonder why the Saudis are in the "for us" category when their behaviors are in the "against us" category.

      • Saudi Arabia confirms three men held in alleged plot against U.S. and Brit warships are Saudi: "A Saudi diplomat has reportedly confirmed for the first time that three men detained in Morocco for allegedly planning attacks on U.S. and British warships are natives of the kingdom." So, most of the alleged 9-11 hijackers were Saudis, these guys are Saudis, there has been no link to Iraq and 9-11, Bush cozily discusses his "vision" with the crown prince, and continues to beat the war drum against Iraq. It doesn't work for me, but I guess it does for Smirk due to close family ties with the Saudis, including the bin Laden family. Is Osama's family still connected to the Carlyle Group along with Poppy? I can't remember.

      • Lawyers: Lindh Can't Get Fair Trial: "Lawyers for John Walker Lindh, seeking dismissal of his indictment, argue that the American-born Taliban fighter cannot receive a fair trial anywhere in America - and especially not 10 miles from the Pentagon where 189 people died Sept. 11." And,

      • The Lindh E-Mails: The Justice Department's own lawyers have raised questions about the government's case against Lindh: "INTERNAL E-MAIL, obtained by NEWSWEEK, show that two Justice Dept. lawyers concluded that FBI plans to interrogate Lindh without the presence of a lawyer would violate the department's ethical guidelines and 'is not authorized by law.' When Justice lawyers later learned the interview had taken place anyway, they worried it might not be usable in court." The dirty hands and mind of Ashcroft at work.

      • US Tries Again to Evade Reach of New Global Court: "'We put down a marker,' Negroponte told a group of reporters. 'We want to make clear that when we participate in peacekeeping missions, we intend to seek some kind of exception to the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction.'" Too bad the defendants at Nuremberg didn't have a Negroponte in their corner.

      • US Supreme Court steps up attack on America: "This faction on the Court is a cabal that makes it up as it goes along, starting not from legal arguments, precedent and constitutional jurisprudence, for which it has thinly veiled contempt, but rather from a desired political result, using sophistry and rhetorical tricks to rationalize its decisions." Bugliosi was right . . . impeachment is in order.

      • Ridge Touts New Security Agency: "Ridge said the FBI and CIA should remain separate from the new agency and the department should be 'a customer of these agencies, not their master.'" Of course, another layer of a huge bureaucracy always improves the flow of information. The FBI, CIA, (NSA?) will keep their bloated budgets, will have Homeland Security to insulate them further from accountability, and no one will really know what's going on. Except, we know it won't be good.

      • Lawmakers: Sept. 11 Inquiry Too Slow: "Its final report is not expected until next year, after the new Homeland Security Department has been set up to deal with the problems the inquiry is supposed to identify. Congressional leaders from both parties hope to create the department by the Sept. 11 anniversary." Form over substance. How long did it take to thoroughly examine Clinton's penis? And no one was killed? The economy wasn't destroyed. The Constitution was still intact.

      • Ridge To Unveil Homeland Dept. Plan: "About a quarter-inch thick, the legislation was completed in a rush over the weekend by White House aides eager to meet a stepped-up timetable for creating the Department of Homeland Security, a senior Bush adviser said." What's the rush with this bullshit legislation? The Patriot Act was a big rush. And now this egregious restructuring to expand the police state. Read the fine print, debate it for months, then reject it. That's the ticket. If anything's going to be expedited, how about finding out why Bush, Inc., allowed 9-11 to proceed. That' a mite more important.

      • The Mossad and 9/11: "The complex and often uneasy relationship between Israel's Mossad and the U.S. intelligence community is emerging as a prime reason for the catastrophic failure of the CIA and FBI to act on advance warnings of an impending attack on America." Bring on the independent counsel.

      • Fascist State Representative charged with indecent exposure: "A Tennessee lawmaker has been arrested for indecent exposure. Investigators say the state representative exposed himself several times to a group of kids outside a hotel swimming pool." And,

      • Fascists returning donations to woman: "An 82-year-old Fort Wayne woman with dementia is getting back more than ,000 in donations she made - but doesn't remember - to the College Republican National Committee, Republican Strategy Headquarters and affiliated groups." Fascist family values at work in Amerika.

      • Ashcroft Claims Colorado Fire Suspect Is Al Qaida Operative: "'She fits the profile of a dangerous terrorist and Barton sounds like a Muslim name,' Ashcroft said about the part-time forest technician and mother of two. Ashcroft wants Barton interrogated and brought before a military tribunal. 'The people of Colorado and the rest of nation as well should be thankful that I am diligently taking action against those who are evil,'. . ." I believe it.

      • Four Dead in Ohio for Offending Bush!: "An annual right of passage turned to sorrow yesterday at the commencement of Ohio State University when four students were shot and killed by members of the Ohio National Guard." I guess some people found this satire offensive. Chances are, they didn't get it, and it got them scairt. "Oh. gawd, Martha, the students is disrespectin' the Prezdent. I hope the wonderful man wasn't offended! At least four of those communists know now not to be unpatriotic. Gimme my gun jist in case there's trouble in these parts. Oh, it was jist a joke? . . . I knew that."

      • US artists don't feel right about eternal war: "A group of leading American writers, actors and academics have signed a statement strongly criticizing their government's policies since September 11. It is an indication of a growing feeling that the administration is promoting its own agenda on the back of the attacks." Belafonte is one of them.

      • Belafonte has a hammer: "I don't know what America has really learned. We are too quick to do what's expedient on behalf of our culture of greed and hedonism. We're quite prepared to go to conditions of tyranny in order to sustain that culture, and we do it in the name of democracy, when nothing could be more undemocratic. We do it in the name of saving the values of our society, when the way we behave corrupts those values. We do it in the name of God in whom we believe, when in fact we have corrupted our own vision of the Christian journey." Notice that many of the anti-fascists are elderly? They've been there, seen that.

      • Hellraiser 2.0 (a thee-in-one essay): "So as Bush begins his upgrade of Truman's travesty, it's worth remembering what Senator Arthur Vandenburg said when he saw Harry's plan for a permanent war machine combining global military reach with unprecedented political repression at home: 'You're going to have to scare the hell out of the American people to get all that.'" Maybe it's time to muster up some gumption and get some courage. False Note Excerpt: [Link same as above] "That's not quite as good a headline, is it? 'Chicago Man With Alleged Ties to Al-Qaeda Arrested Last Month While Re-Entering the Country With 'No Actual Plan' to Commit Terrorism, Officials Say.' Doesn't really sing, does it?" Not as much as indemnifying a person without any evidence. That's a real foot stomper. Clarification Excerpt: [same link] "Guckenheimer has since qualified this disturbing revelation . . . . He now says the soldiers were ordered to kill only those women and children who showed unspecified manifestations of 'hostile intent.'" "Step away from the infant, Ma'am, and you won't get hurt" . . . wink.

      • "US had role in Taliban prisoner deaths": "US SOLDIERS took part in the torture of Taliban prisoners and may have had a role in the 'disappearance' of around 3,000 men in Mazar-i-Sharif in north-west Afghanistan, according to a new documentary. Massacre at Mazar, by Scots film producer Jamie Doran, was shown on Wednesday in the Reichstag, the German parliament building in Berlin and the European parliament in Strasbourg." Well, you've got the guy who casually presided over the execution of 150+ Texas prisoners as the unelected Commander-in-Chief, a gaggle of leftover Iran Contra conspirators; I guess the new and improved G.I. Joe will differ from our perception of the old model. Everything is different now. In case you don't have a taste for torturing and disappearing people in foreign lands, there's work to be done against people in the in the homeland:

      • GEORGE W. KAFKA: "America may well be a safer place because Jose Padilla has been 'disappeared,' in the lexicon of Latin American death squads. But the manner in which this American has been stripped of his citizenship rights-to a lawyer, to a speedy trial, to apply for bail-is reminiscent of such totalitarian states as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. What the Bushies are doing to Padilla is an outrage-and it could happen to any of us." Could? Will, unless we wake up. Orwell was an optimist.

      • Bush Operatives Insist Upon a Culture of Servitude at Ohio State Commencement: "Bush was invited to speak at the Ohio State commencement by representatives of the graduating class. But immediately before class members filed into the giant football stadium, an announcer instructed the crowd that all the university's speakers deserve to be treated with respect and that anyone demonstrating or heckling would be subject to expulsion and arrest. The announcer urged that Bush be greeted with a 'thunderous' ovation." A major Moment of Bullshit. Is this America or a joke . . . and who's laughing?

      • Bush Urges 'Culture Of Service': "'You will determine whether we become a culture of selfishness and look inward - or whether we will embrace a culture of service and look outward,' the president said." Think not only of what you can do to our country, think what you can do to Iraq:

      • Bush Considers Options for Killing Iraqis: "President Bush is methodically laying the foundation to overthrow Iraq's Saddam Hussein, perhaps with military action, and he may feel compelled to strike without warning . . . .Aides say Bush's resolve has not been weakened by the Mideast crisis, tension in southeast Asia or qualms of U.S. allies. . . . Behind closed doors at the White House, the president reacted with dismay to reports that U.S. military leaders were lobbying against an Iraqi invasion anytime soon . . . . 'I don't know what they're talking about,' two senior U.S. officials quoted the president as saying. They interpreted the remark to mean Bush is seriously considering military action despite opposition. . . . Bush himself told supporters this week: 'When we see evil - I know it may hurt some people's feelings, it may not be what they call diplomatically correct - but I'm calling evil for what it is. Evil is evil, and we will fight it with all our might.'" AWOL Boy has discovered cajones by proxy. Now if only he could acquire a heart and mind in the same way.

      • U.S. Wants Iraq Diplomat Out of UN to Justify Invasion: "The United States on Friday called for the expulsion of an Iraqi U.N. diplomat for 'activities incompatible with his diplomatic status,' a U.S. official said. Such language is diplomatic code for spying." Another Smirk code for lying. Something has to be done to deflect attention from his rampant malfeasance. I'm thinking it will backfire. If there's unrest among the military, doesn't that indicate there just might be a problem?

      • Cracks show in Bush's White House: "Something has gone awry in George Bush's White House. The administration's once impermeable self-confidence is beginning to show cracks. A string of blunders has revealed that it is increasingly unsure of itself." True to form, Bush, Inc., will go the way of other businesses Smirk has had a hand in. Unfortunately, the country will be left in ruins; however, as with Enron, the executives will make off with their plunder. Without Arthur Andersen, I guess they'll blame Clinton.

      • Congressional agency debunks charges of vandalism by Clinton White House, but the hunt will continue: "'Vandalism-Gate' has become the latest anti-Clinton scandal to be exposed as a Republican-inspired fraud. The Paula Jones sexual harassment suit was thrown out of court. After eight years of investigations, at a cost of more than million, the Independent Counsel's office was unable to document any crimes in connection with the Whitewater real estate deal or subsequent scandals, from 'Travel-Gate' to 'File-Gate.'" It would take a competent independent counsel about one week to have sufficient evidence to remove Smirk from office.

      • Cheney's silence says plenty: "Cheney knew that the leaks could rupture and rock Bush's boat. Cheney is the only member of the Bush flotilla with big enough cajones to lie out of only one side of his mouth and get away with it. Besides, if the strategy doesn't work, which it didn't, Cheney is the only one who can be retired to an undisclosed location without raising suspicion." Retirement with a lot of Halliburton and energy kick-back cash. Oh, if the Dick has cajones, they're computerized implants.

      • Connecting the Stains (Cont.): "BRITAIN'S spy chiefs warned the Prime Minister less than two months before September 11 that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group was in 'the final stages' of preparing a terrorist attack in the West, it was disclosed yesterday. The heads of MI6, MI5 and GCHQ, the signals eavesdropping centre, suggested that while the most likely targets were American or Israeli, there could be British casualties. Their warning was included in a report sent to Tony Blair and other senior Cabinet Ministers on July 16. . . .The contents of the July 16 warning would have been passed to the Americans, Whitehall sources confirmed." That's why the air force planes weren't in the air . . . nobody had a clue. Who could know? Wilkins Resigns As Va. Speaker:

      • Harassment Scandal Caused GOP Uproar: House Speaker S. Vance Wilkins Jr. resigned his legislative leadership post today, crushed by the criticism of Virginia Republicans desperate to end a widening sex scandal they said could tarnish the state party for years to come. Family values.

      • Reagan's Boyhood Home Made a Shrine: "Ronald Reagan's boyhood home was designated a national historic site Friday, while the street he walked along as a child was dedicated to the former president." Last year, if you remember, Bush, Inc., was going to name a California landfill as a historic site. Same difference.

      • Israel begins fencing off Palestinian areas: "When they are finished, Y Ze'evi's labourers - mainly Israeli Arabs - will have flattened nearly six miles of land and will have installed an electric fence of the same length. It will separate Jenin, whose refugee camp was devastated during April's Israeli military incursions, from its Jewish neighbours." Is this the Palestinian state the Smirkster has a vision of? Looks like something Sharon and Dubya would dream up during their comfy chats.

      • India To Stop Dialogue With Pakistan: "India's interior minister on Sunday ruled out dialogue with Pakistan as attacks by suspected Islamic militant flared up in Kashmir, killing 12 people in 24 hours." Time to send von Rumsfeld back to India to keep those tensions reduced. Maybe the solution will be to evacuate the released al-Qaeda to another country . . . maybe Venezuela.

      • Coup-making in Venezuela: the Bush and oil factors: "According to an article in Proceso by Aram Ruben Aharonian (7), private investigations revealed that one of the moves of the 48-hour coup leaders was 'the privatization of PDVSA, turning it over to a U.S. company linked to President George Bush and the Spanish company Repsol; plus the sale of CITGO, the U.S. subsidiary of PDVSA, to Gustavo Cisneros and his partners in the north: as well as an end to the Venezuelan government's exclusive subsoil rights.'" The several thousand released "terrorists" could be airlifted from Pakistan to Venezuela to provide Bush, Inc., with a reason for an invasion. Next stop could be the Sudan or Somalia, does Somalia have oil? Maybe Alberta. E-mail from Alberta re: G8 summit "They are planning on locking downtown Calgary up from June 25 to 28, even though the G-8 Summit is being held in Kananaskis [about 50 to 60 away] . Oil companies are giving their employees the week off, the city is banning protests from public areas. Even our Tai Chi class is being cancelled. Talk about paranoia. Picking Alberta as a site for the G-8 was brilliant. We are so conservative and geographically isolated that the chance of support for the voices against globalization is nil. Couple that with a huge police presence that is supported by the majority of Calgarians. I'll be astonished if there is any semblance of active opposition." Hmmm, Alberta sounds like Bush country; it will probably request the right to secede from Canada.

      • Alberta takes a page from Bush., Inc., and squelches dissent: "Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier has stated that public spaces in the city couldn't be used for political purposes, a decision that clearly defies the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms." Fascism without borders. Still, as in the US, there are those who dream of democracy in Canada.

      • Come Hellyer or High Water: "Paul Hellyer likes to wait until the end of a speech before he tells 'The Story of the Two Nuns.' This is after he has recommended doing away with the Free Trade Agreement, renegotiating NAFTA and rejecting a customs union with the United States." Given a parliamentary system, Canada, even though the odds are great, has the opportunity to develop a party that could threaten corporate domination of Canadian politics. In the US we have two choices, Plutocracy and Plutocracy Lite.

      • World markets continue to slide under Bush, Inc., incompetence: The immediate trigger for the market swoon came in yesterday's surprisingly weak retail report from America for May. Retail sales fell 0.9% for the month, the US commerce department reported, as consumers ran out of steam. Sales at department stores and clothing retailers were all down, as were car sales. The projected trillion surplus is gone, replaced with a 0 billion debt. In order to cover the debt he has created, Smirk continues to seek tax cuts for the wealthy. Since fewer non-rich people have jobs, there will be reduced tax revenues. Do the math.

      • Let them eat lies!: "That is why famine does not occur in democratic countries. Unfortunately, there are a great many countries in the world which do not yet have democratic systems." Uh oh!

      • Dark heart of the Bush, Inc., dream: "It's the most polluted state in the planet's most powerful country. Ed Vulliamy goes into George Bush's backyard to reveal how big oil got in bed with big politics and the price paid by the little people." The little people . . . the people Smirk trusts . . . to remain asleep.

      • The Missing Trillions and Other Government Scams: "If you look at the trillion debt, about trillion of it represents straight out and out fraud. When people ask where did the money go, I say look at the net worth statistics of the top 1% of the people of the United States from the year 1975 to the year 2000." . . . . "The reason I think it's being done [fear mongering, etc.] on purpose is to misdirect public attention away from the economy. It appears that the mainstream media is cooperating with the administration to gradually reduce the amount of economic news - particularly about how bad the economy really is." I had forgotten the 1992 mantra, "It's the economy, Stupid!" Since Stupid is in the White House, Smirk, like his stupid father, also forgot. When all is said and done, this is the abuse that may awaken the torpid public. It's one thing to destroy the Constitution, bury civil liberty, lie non-stop, bomb innocent civilians, but it's another to mess with people's incomes.

      • Senate Votes to Boost Debt Limit: "Senators approved the measure by 68-29, heeding Bush administration warnings that failure to raise the .95 trillion borrowing cap by June 28 would cause a first-ever federal default. It would be the first debt limit increase since 1997, when annual deficits gave way to surpluses." Everything is different now.

      • US investment struggle hits FTSE 100 : "Because stock markets are considered an indicator of future economic activity, the lack of confidence among investors is an ill omen for the real economy. Going back to the Great Depression stock markets usually rise during the first five months of recovery. This time, the markets have gone into reverse, and this has got market analysts worried." If you want to catch some major Moments of Bullshit, watch a financial news show for an hour--well dressed talking heads giving CPR to a corpse.

      • Congress And Enron: Why The Bang Turned Into A Whimper: "Some of them [Wall Street folk] responded by threatening to turn off the campaign contribution spigot unless reformers on the Hill cooled their jets. The Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee Tom Davis confirmed the donor uprising: 'They were very free with their complaints.' As one House GOP staffer admitted: 'We're getting questions about why the NRCC is calling us up for money while the other guys are investigating us.'" Plutocracy - 2000, Democracy - 0 . . . the real World Cup.

      • FBI catches up with former ImClone chief: "The US attorney's office for the southern district of New York has charged Mr Waksal on two counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, six counts of insider trading and one perjury charge. The complaint claims he tipped off two unnamed people." Question, why is this guy immediately charged when Ken Lay and company are skating? Waksal must not be a Smirk soulmate.

      • Still Life in Prison Stripes: A CEO's Not So Artful Dodge: "Why? That's the question on everyone's lips in the wake of the indictment of Tyco's former superstar CEO, Dennis Kozlowski, on charges of evading million in sales taxes on paintings he bought." There are some bigger "Why's." As I said above, why do these comparatively small fry get nailed, but guys like Bush's close friend and supporter, Ken Lay, get to blame it on their accountants? Then, of course, there are the really big fish, like the Dick, who get to ruin the country:

      • Why no Whitewater treatment over Halliburton?: "The Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating Halliburton - the company formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney - for accounting irregularities. What took so long?" They'll get around to the Dick about the same time they get around to his secret energy deals affecting public health:

      • Epa To Relax Utility Pollution Rules : "Whitman said her agency's review, urged more than a year ago by the White House energy tax force, 'clearly established that some aspects of the NSR program have deterred companies from implementing projects that would increase energy efficiency and decrease air pollution.'" Isn't the energy tax force the secret group that the Dick is defying Congress over? You know, a group of industry insiders and Bush, Inc. supporters who came up with a plan to increase environmental pollution with all its attendant damage? I think so. I guess when you're selected and not elected, screwing people goes with the job. Once again, why do the smaller fish get charged and jailed for a few million here and there, while criminals like the Dick and friends get away with billions?

      • The Propaganda Preparation for 9/11: "There is no going back now. An infrastructure is being laid out - one that will, finally, provide a dissident-proof totalitarian oligarchy composed of like-minded elites served by an under-class kept under constant surveillance. The edifice of this regime is being constructed, brick by brick, with the mortar of the Office of Homeland Security (to centralize and coordinate an effective police state), the Freedom Corps (to indoctrinate the most idealist - and therefore activist - elements of the populace toward service to the state), and the Patriot Act (to provide the legal basis for subverting long-held rights under the screen of national security)." This is very long, very thorough, and very important to read through carefully. It left me quipless. You may want to skim it for now and dig into it later.

      • Trade Center Widows Lobby for Independent Inquiry: "'I want a real investigation. I don't want lip service,' she said. 'I'm angry, and I'm not going away.' At a gathering across from the Capitol under a broiling sun, speaker after speaker described their cause as nonpolitical and a matter of grave national concern. Mindy Kleinberg, of East Brunswick, a mother of three who lost her husband, Alan, on Sept. 11, said she still had many questions: Why were fighter jets not dispatched to intercept the hijacked planes? How were the terrorists able to train at American flight schools? How can future attacks be prevented?" If this be frivolity, make the most of it.

      • John Ashcroft: Minister of Fear: "The way the attorney general detonated the 'dirty bomber' case this week completes his metamorphosis from a common press hog to a genuine fear monger." When bought and paid for CBS is saying this about a Smirk man, it's a good sign. And let's not forget, Ashcroft is merely doing his duty. Similarly, Margaret Wente, who writes pro-Smirk puff pieces in Canada that rival Peggy Noonan for down on your knees fawning and adoration, also notices the stench: Wagging the dog:

      • So there's this punk from Chicago . . .: "Forgive me for sounding skeptical. But I think my dog just got wagged. The Homeland Security crowd badly needed a little bit of good news. What a happy coincidence that they foiled a dirty-bomb attack on Washington." My friend who sent this to me said, "Maybe the worm is turning."

      • UK anti-terrorist officials alarmed at US tactics: "One official described a blanket warning by Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, last month about possible attacks on apartment blocks in the US as being so vague as to be meaningless. Another British official put it down to 'back-covering'." So many backs to cover . . . so many reasons for coverage. Doesn't this also make the Dick a fear monger? Rhetorical question.

      • British security sources raise doubts over US claims about 'dirty bomber': "British and European security officials are highly skeptical of American claims that the alleged 'dirty bomb' plotter, Abdullah al-Muhajir, was preparing to unleash a radioactive attack." Lack of evidence is no longer an issue in Amerika. I guess its OK to shout "Fire!" in crowded theaters too.

      • U.S. Wants to Question Bomb Suspect: "'We're not interested in trying him at the moment,' said Rumsfeld, traveling in Qatar. 'We're not interested in punishing him at the moment. We're interested in finding out what in the world he knows.'" Has von Rumsfeld been reading Kafka? "He may rot in jail, be tortured, or simply forgotten. It's no matter. What is law but a quaint word having many meanings?" What else would we expect from someone accustomed to licking the boots of right wing presidents, elected or otherwise, for decades? Another step towards presidential dictatorship:

      • Bush orders US citizen held indefinitely by military: "The federal government has seized a US citizen and locked him up for an unlimited period of time on the say-so of the president, without the sanction of any court and in defiance of such elementary legal principles as the presumption of innocence and the right of habeas corpus." Terror, thy name is Smirk. Citizens and aliens can be imprisoned forever by a non-elected frat boy. Democracy with a twist, or a twisted democracy?

      • U.S. Circumvents Courts With Enemy Combatant Tag: "'There should be a strong presumption that anyone arrested in the United States, far from any battlefield, be granted the full legal protections of the criminal justice system-including the right to counsel and not to be held without charges. Simply accusing someone of working with al-Qaeda does not justify throwing him into a navy brig.'" The Little Cowboy and his henchmen don't need no stinkin' justification! See Patriot Act. Hello? Is anybody getting this down?:

      • The U.S. Constitution — now fully waivable: "The AP story genuinely devoted more lines to Padilla's traffic violations in the '90s than to John Ashcroft's assaults on 213 years of American jurisprudence." Let's not forget that untold hundreds, thousands are getting the Bush/Ashcroft/von Rumsfeld treatment, for example:

      • Suspect Held 8 Months Without Seeing Judge: "Last week, authorities transferred Almarabh from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to a Buffalo courtroom, where he was arraigned on charges stemming from an attempt to illegally enter the country last June. If he pleads guilty, Almarabh faces a sentence shorter than the term he has already spent in jail, according to the U.S. attorney for New York's Western District." I guess the people who were calling the US a banana republic were right.

      • Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Expires: "Not gravediggers' shovels, but those of construction workers and Pentagon officials will mark the passing of the treaty at a ceremony Saturday in Delta Junction, Alaska, breaking ground on a test site for the administration's billion national missile defense system. The ABM Treaty had banned such construction." Another treaty comes to an end, thank the Lord. Now it's Star Wars time! But wait, some obstructionists are wondering if this goes against the Constitution:

      • Ohio Lawmaker to file suit to stop withdrawal from ABM treaty: "The Ohio lawmaker said the suit will also seek a decision on whether the Constitution permits the president to withdraw from the treaty without the consent of Congress. He said 29 other Democrats and an independent who usually votes with the Democrats would join as plaintiffs." Don't be alarmed . . . the Constitution is but an outdated, pre-New World Order Document. Star Wars will prevail! The spine transplants are too little, too late.

      • Court to rule on Bush's ABM plans: "But yesterday afternoon 30 Democrats in the House of Representatives and one independent congressman announced a lawsuit naming Mr Bush, Colin Powell, the secretary of state, and the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, accusing them of violating the constitution by not consulting Congress before deciding to withdraw." Consulting Congress? The Little Cowboy doesn't consult Congress. By the way, how many suits are pending against this administration for messin' with the law?

      • Afghan council delayed as U.S. persuades former king to renounce candidacy: "Monday's scheduled opening of Afghanistan's grand council to choose new leaders was postponed a day as U.S. diplomats worked behind the scenes to persuade the country's popular former King Mohammad Zaher Shah to rule out any role in a new government." Let us think, who does Bush, Inc., want to have as the Afghan resident? Could it be Karzai? Ka-ching! CIA man, oil man. Drug man? Stay tuned.

      • Disillusioned delegates walk out of loya jirga: "The Reuters news agency reports that 60 to 70 delegates - out of a total of 1,550 - walked out of the loya jirga saying they were angry about the lack of a free vote on matters such as the identity of their next president." Now they know what it's like to be a US voter. Doesn't matter who you want; Bush, Inc., will decide. Get used to it. Afghanistan:

      • Loya Jirga Off To Shaky Start: "Delegates, regardless of their political affiliations, expressed consternation at U.S. intrusiveness in undermining the popular former king. 'It has created the perception among Afghans that the U.S. is preempting the loya jirga's choice,' said Zia-Zarifi." And the winner is:

      • Loya jirga elects Hamid Karzai: "Many delegates believe the US and other powerbrokers have cut deals - including the withdrawals by the former monarch Mohammed Zahir Shah and ex-president Burhanuddin Rabbani from contention for head of state - that were circumventing the loya jirga process." Another coup for the CIA, Bush, Inc., and its oil partners. As night follows day.

      • Bush and Powell in public split over Israel: "US moves to launch a Middle East peace initiative were in chaos last night after a split between the president, George Bush, and the secretary of state, Colin Powell, burst into the open." Good, more problems with the goosestep syncopation. Is the house of lies starting to implode? Perhaps the two didn't understand Poppy's instructions. Maybe it's a ploy. Maybe Bush, Inc., is spinning by the seats of its pants and don't have a clue what the f--k it's doing:

      • Al-Qaida active close to Indian border, says Rumsfeld: "The US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that there were 'indications' that fugitive al-Qaida fighters were now operating in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, close to the porous border with India." [Don't know what an "indication" is, because he says:] "'I don't have any hard evidence of how many or where,' . . . ." Fair enough, taking a cue from his boss, he speaks without thinking, groping for information that might keep alive the neverending war on terra. But then, he has to do the two-step:

      • US plays down claims of al-Qaida in Kashmir: "'The facts are that I do not have evidence and the United States does not have evidence of al-Qaida in Kashmir,' Mr Rumsfeld told reporters after talks with Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf." He might have added, "But we do know they are somewhere in Pakistan, because we allowed several thousand to escape there last fall."

      • U.s. Drug Czar Warns Canada On Plan: "A Canadian Senate committee has expressed initial support for decriminalizing marijuana, with its final report due in August following public hearings. A preliminary report released in May said no scientific evidence exists that marijuana use leads to harder drugs, or that it is more dangerous to society than alcohol." But the White House resident abused drugs for years, and did it harm him? On second thought, another example would be better.

      • .4m for environmentalists framed by FBI: "'This was the moment of truth,' a tearful Mr Cheney told the Guardian last night. 'It shows that even in the post-September 11 era, the FBI can be taken to task for violating the civil rights of Americans.'" When will Bush, Inc., be taken to task for violating the civil rights of Americans?

      • BUSH LIES: "It's our patriotic duty as Americans to believe what the President tells us. Even if it's a bald-faced lie." A spoof, but it's apparently the view of those who value security under fascism over freedom under democracy.

      • Bush Developing Military Policy Of Striking First: New Doctrine Addresses Terrorism: "The Bush administration is developing a new strategic doctrine that moves away from the Cold War pillars of containment and deterrence toward a policy that supports preemptive attacks against terrorists and hostile states with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons." The Bush doctrine is basically a primer for world terror and totalitarianism. Let's suppose the following were true, which is quite a caveat, considering the source, Ashcroft, a man, masquerading as the Attorney General, who defies the law in the name of God:

• U.s. Arrests Alleged Terrorist: "The U.S. government has arrested an alleged al Qaida terrorist who plotted to build and detonate a radiological 'dirty' bomb, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday." We must acknowledge there are those who'd love to nuke the US. And there will be more as a result of Smirk's really foreign policy. Given his new strike first, ask questions later ideation, would the US bomb Pakistan? But the suspect is a US citizen. And Pakistan is an ally, for now, in the eternal war against terra. How would this new doctrine be applied and who would make the call? Isn't that a terror? Yet, the bigger terror awaits us. When the fear and war mongering fail to have an effect, what desperate measures will be taken by a cornered administration?

• Toppling a Totalitarian Regime in America What Can be Done?: "As July 4, 2002 approaches, Americans can no longer afford to practice armchair democracy and checkbook citizenship. If the public does not rise out of its feeble and hypnotic state, it puts the lives of its children and grandchildren at the disposal of utilitarian political, corporate and military leaders who view flesh and blood as human capital, easily usable and disposable in the march for the accumulation of wealth, power and resources." I remember a Turkish proverb on a calendar some years ago, "No matter how far you go down the wrong road -- turn back." It had best happen soon. Just yesterday, I wrote a friend about my concerns, and he responded, "Welcome to the 1930s." Which makes the next item resonate:

• Is The BushAdmin The Fourth Reich?: "On February 28th, 1933 President Hindenburg and Chancellor Hitler invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which allowed the suspension of civil liberties in time of national emergency. This Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State abrogated the following constitutional protections: 1. Free expression of opinion 2. Freedom of the press 3. Right of assembly and association 4. Right to privacy of postal and electronic communications 5. Protection against unlawful searches and seizures 6. Individual property rights 7. States' right of self-government A supplemental decree was also added to create the SA and SS federal police agencies. Sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it?" Bush, Inc., has not fully realized its vision; however, with the compliance of the corporate media, the mire's the limit.

• Bush plan's underground architects: In silence and stealth, group drafted huge security overhaul: "On Thursday, Bush surprised Washington with a proposal that would combine such agencies as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Customs Service, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency β€” even the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory β€” into the third-largest unit of the federal government, behind the Pentagon. Congressional leaders learned of the plan only hours before the public did. Same with members of the Cabinet." Remember, the Smirksters sprung the Patriot Act on Congress, not providing time to read the proposed Act before the right wing engineered a premature vote.

• Bush Warns of 'Catastrophic Power' in Terror War: "'We will oppose the new totalitarians with all of our power,' Bush said on Monday. 'We will hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice. We believe we fight an enemy that is barbaric and evil.'" While turning the US into a totalitarian state, the Smirkster attempts to create fear of external totalitarians. So, does this mean the war on terra is now going to become the war on totalitarians? And if he is going to hunt them down one by one, blah, blah, blah, why did he direct his secret police to let these alleged barbarians and evil-doers go last fall?

• Washington Behind Indo-Pakistan Conflict: How American Special Forces organized the evacuation of Al Qaeda and Pakistan ISI Forces to Kashmir(archive based upon Hersh New Yorker article, January 21, 2002): "In interviews, however, American intelligence officials and high-ranking military officers said that Pakistanis were indeed flown to safety, in a series of nighttime airlifts that were approved by the Bush Administration. The Americans also said that what was supposed to be a limited evacuation apparently slipped out of control, and, as an unintended consequence, an unknown number of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters managed to join in the exodus. 'Dirt got through the screen,' a senior intelligence official told me. Last week, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld did not respond to a request for comment." And:

• The Pakistan-India Conflict is being funded and fomented by the same faces that brought you the War on Terrorism: "It's common knowledge in intelligence circles that the Inter Services Intelligence Agency (Pakistan's secret service) runs the entire country in the shadow of dictator General Pervez Musharraf. In turn, the CIA co-ordinates the activities of the ISI." Now, if the above is true, then, this item becomes quite interesting:

• U.S.: 'Dirty bomb' plot foiled: "With the arrest of a former Chicago street gang member in a suspected al-Qaeda plot to explode a radioactive 'dirty bomb' in the USA, Pakistani authorities have apprehended others who might have been involved, U.S. and Pakistani officials said early today." This fellow has been detained, in the Ashcroft secret police mode, for a month. But what interests me is that the "Pakistani authorities" not only worked with the CIA to enable "terrorists" to escape from containment in Afghanistan, they are now helping the Bush administration generate fear in the US to deflect investigations into Bush, Inc., wrongdoing. And the dirty bomb scam is just another fear generating hoax:

• Bush: 'Full-Scale Manhunt' For Terrorists: "But CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports some U.S. officials now admit they're not sure what Padilla's plans were when he returned to the U.S. last month. And any plot, including possibly exploding a radiation bomb in Washington D.C., was in the 'initial planning stages.'" Why would there be another hoax threat at this time? Well there's the secret plan to create a more pervasive police state being cooked up, and there was this news that really came in under the radar" White House Faces Disclosure Suit:

• Group Says Government Had Braced for Anthrax Attacks: "Larry Klayman, chairman of Judicial Watch, said administration officials said last fall that some White House staff members had begun taking the antibiotic Cipro on Sept. 11, weeks before the anthrax attacks were made public." When did Smirk know, and when did he know it? Remember when the anthrax scare first hit, Smirk confidently announced he didn't have anthrax? Now we know why. Guess Daschle and Leahy weren't so lucky as to know what was coming . . . towards them . . . from the White House? Could be, couldn't it? Wouldn't that be sort of like attempted murder? Well, I guess to would actually be murder if you included those who died. How is that investigation going anyway? Or maybe we shouldn't pay attention to items like this:

• MI6 gave US two years' warning of bin Laden's [alleged] flying bomb plot: "Britain's intelligence agency, MI6, warned the United States about al-Qaeda plans to crash hijacked planes into buildings two years before the September 11 terrorist attacks." Connect the dots? Connect the dots? Just tracking the lies is more than a full time job! When Bush, Inc., isn't waging war on the homeland via homeland security, it is ensuring that the world's poor are also under siege:

• US accused of sinking deal on development: "'The US came with more than 200 delegates and tried to water down or rewrite agreements already made and to avoid all binding commitments,' said Oxfam International. 'The grouping of poor countries was hopelessly fragmented.'" Under Smirk, the US has become commitment averse, except for commitments to war, tax cuts for the wealthy, destruction of the Constitution, and 24/7 lying. Miscellaneous Mischief Commentary / Michael Rookeley:

• Extremist nominees reflect Bush's arrogance: "The current slew of nominees to the courts of appeals require the most careful scrutiny. These are lifetime appointments, and, given the extremely small number of cases that actually are heard by the Supreme Court, these are the courts of last resort for most Americans. For President Bush, these nominees, if confirmed by the Senate, will represent his most lasting legacy." And, unlike citizens of most other developed countries, Americans have no appeal for justice outside of their own judicial system. So, the fewer fascist jurists, the better.

• Missile Data to Be Kept Secret: "The Bush administration will now keep secret key information on its missile defense program, a blow to opponents who have relied on such data to challenge the technology as error-prone and not ready for deployment." Makes sense. The Star Wars wet dream will continue to be an extravagant boondoggle, and the people who pay for it, taxpayers, won't know its faults until it's too late. In an open market, Bush, Inc., would be bankrupt.

• Secrets of the service: "But a U.S. News investigation shows that, at a time when the stakes for the Secret Service are higher than ever, the agency is rife with problems and resistant to oversight and correction." Why are "the stakes higher than ever" for the Secret Service? Bush is so popular, no one would want to harm him, unlike Clinton who actually mingled with the voters who weren't segregated into unseen First Amendment Zones. And the Dick spends 90% of his time in hiding.

• Top 11 hidden features of Dubya's new Homeland Security Agency: "5. Anybody who works with Anthrax is above suspicion...trust us, we really don't want to piss these guys off." Unfortunately, this is more true than funny.

      • Bush administration cites September 11 "failures" to attack democratic rights: "All the evidence points not to some mysterious failure to 'connect the dots' or an overweening concern for civil liberties on the part of an organization notorious for its contempt for constitutional safeguards, but rather a politically motivated decision not to expose suspected terrorists and to allow them, instead, to proceed with their plans." Which they did, are, and will continue to do.
      • Fighting: "We've done our part. We've published all of the evidence we could find that Bush was at a minimum grossly negligent in allowing the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to take place. It is up to the Congress to sort through it all now." But will they? Closed door hearings, wuzzy dems, an asleep public . . . don't bet on it.
      • Blunders prompt US security shake-up: "In a clear attempt to shift attention from what had gone wrong to what was being put right, the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, emphasised the importance of the cabinet shake-up, describing it as the most dramatic government restructuring since 1947, when the CIA was created." And, later in life, Harry Truman acknowledged he regretted having created the CIA. You can start regretting this new fascist move now. The Smirksters will stop at nothing to gain and to keep power. Nothing.
      • Bush's new Department of Homeland Defense: the scaffolding of a police state: "The sudden announcement by President George W. Bush that he will seek the creation of a huge new federal Department of Homeland Defense, to control most federal domestic policing and security programs, must be understood on two levels. In its timing, it is a transparent attempt to distract public attention from the revelations of advance warnings to the government about the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. In its substance, the proposal represents an acceleration of the moves towards presidential dictatorship that have characterized every step taken by the Bush administration since September 11." Dictator: "ruler with absolute authority and supreme government jurisdiction." Most Americams are armed, and the Declaration of Independence cites the possibility that tyrants may need to be removed by force. And there are true patriots in the military who know ther country is run by criminals. Interesting times.
      • CBS refuses to show Schwab ad deriding Wall Street practices: "The network won't show a Charles Schwab commercial poking fun at an industry sore spot -- allegations that commission-driven brokers sometimes recommend stocks known to be poor investments. Analysts said CBS's decision illustrates the power of Wall Street's financial clout at a time when revenue-starved media outlets are reluctant to alienate major advertisers." You won't find the truth in the American media . . . it's a dead issue. Think about it. CBS would rather its viewers lose money in a corrupt market than they lose money by promoting the truth in an ad. Amerika!
      • Dan Rather was Right: "Dan Rather was right. He accuses the news media of not being aggressive enough to penetrate the fog of vagueness obscuring the information coming from the White House. Rather argues that the reluctance of the White House press corps to fight for substantive answers from the Bush administration has, in effect, turned some of the country's top reporters into mere stenographers repeating Bushite spin." Money is changing hands.
      • What took so long?: "Dick Cheney's record at Halliburton is one of the most under-covered stories of the past three years. When you consider all the time and ink spent on Whitewater, the neglect of the Cheney-Halliburton story is unfathomable." Not when you have the media in your pocket.
      • Cheney's Money Has Roots in Evil: "What's strange, though, is that George Bush's own vice president, Dick Cheney, apparently didn't see either Iraq or Saddam as a big problem when he was making billions for Halliburton Inc. and millions for himself only a few years ago." Evil comes and goes . . . as need be.
      • Global Eye -- Croker Sack Blues: "Now these two armchair warriors, Bush and Cheney, ensconced safely behind the greatest phalanx of personal protection ever seen in history, are sending out a new generation of young people to kill and die. Like their predecessors in the Vietnam War, they are twisting the faith and idealism of patriotic young soldiers and turning them into instruments of murder." (Scroll down) Murder, Inc. "What's more, Bush said this new military bellicosity will be accompanied by aggressive diplomacy aimed at forcing other nations to adopt American values -- that is, the Enron-style 'crony capitalism' foisted on the United States by a corrupt elite and their political bagmen. Bush called this pustulant system -- now suppurating before our eyes, as corporation after corporation, including Cheney's own Halliburton, are caught cooking their books -- 'the single surviving model of human progress.'" Are you for Bush, Inc., or against it?
      • Amnesty says US leads in human rights violations following September 11: "Kahn explains, 'the readiness of governments to trade human rights in the interest of security is nothing new,' but the difference today is that this is not done by 'autocratic regimes but established democracies in the name of public security.' Heading the list of culprits is the US itself, with Britain also earning dishonourable mention." Smirk knew what he was doing when he skirted the International Court of Justice.
      • Is It OK To Hate Bush? In which the president's carefully orchestrated dumb-guy shtick proves hollow and dubious: "And there it is. Ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is patriotism. We don't want to believe the Bush administration could've done something to prevent the horrors of 9/11, can't imagine Bush would use the tragedy to bolster his re-election hopes while simultaneously pummeling Afghanistan into docility in the name of oil pipelines and his friends in the military-industrial complex. Increasing piles of evidence be damned. It's just too painful." Imagine the pain of having him around until 2004.
      • Perot revelations dominate hearing: "A panel of furious California state senators voiced anger and disbelief Wednesday after revelations that information technology firm Perot Systems may have instructed energy traders on how best to exploit flaws in the state's electricity trading system." Ever get the feeling the US is grounded upon a reef of pervasive corruption? If true, Smirk is the right man for the job. A functionally illiterate, corrupt, Texas cracker.
      • Is Andy Card an Idiot?: "One theme of the Esquire piece is that Hughes is the only person who knows how to dumb down policy choices sufficiently for President Bush to understand them. With Hughes gone, who will chew the president's food? Apparently this question has Card in a near-panic: 'The whole balance of the place, the balance of what has worked up to now for George Bush, is gone, simply gone,'" Smirker-boy is nearly 60 going 0n 6. But he's leadin' the country . . . yuk, yuk.
      • Amtrak Head Says Service May Stop: "Amtrak's new president is warning the cash-strapped passenger railroad will shut down all service next month unless it gets a 0 million loan in the next three weeks." Global warming may exist after all, but there's nothing we can do to stop it. All we can do is rely on fossil fuels and drive big-ass SUVs.
      • Answers Needed Now: "For starters, America needs to know who's in charge of reaching closure on the accounting scams and the complete breakdown of corporate governance. But Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt seems incapable of putting together a much-needed reform plan. Will executive compensation gained from fraudulent or inappropriate activities be given back? That's hard to answer, because Mr. Pitt no longer talks about it." Bush, Inc., is even making korporate 'Mercia nervous
      • Markets face decade in doldrums: "The FTSE 100 index tracking the share prices of Britain's leading companies will stay below 6,000 points for a decade. This is the prediction of Schroders, Britain's largest independent fund manager." In the US, the markets are artificially supported. When the collapse comes, the depressions will be years long. But rest easy, the rich benefit from downturns. Their wealth goes further.
      • View: The FBI -- Fumbling bunch of idiots: Compare that to the self-serving incompetents at the bureau, now occupied full time with trying to cover their nether anatomy. Although they've never seen two dots they could connect, they are being given expanded powers, among them the freedom to go on 'fishing expeditions.' No evidence whatsoever will be required to initiate a criminal probe. The spooks never get it right. Bigger budgets and more manpower will mean more damage.
      • Police to spy on all emails: Plans being drawn up by Europol, the police and intelligence arm of the European Union, propose that telephone and internet firms retain millions of pieces of data - including details of visits to internet chat rooms, and of calls made on mobile phones and text messages. Recognizing the potential benefits of Washington's new tone, Europe embraces fascism.