Krugman

is an absolute must-read today. "Let's say the obvious. By making Iraq a playground for right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for friends and family, and a source of lucrative contracts for corporate donors, the administration did terrorist recruiters a very big favor. "

Abriendo Caminos

This is part of Bush's outreach to Latinos. A website called "Opening Paths" has a sign-up page. As the WaPo reports, This webpage contains a sign-up sheet.

Signing up promises Spanish-speaking folks that President Bush and the GOP will "send you weekly news about the topics that most interest you." The sign-up page asks the usual stuff -- name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. You are to check which of many listed topics -- immigration, health, Social Security, corporate responsibility, crime prevention and so on -- are of most interest. Then it asks what you are. There are four options: war veteran or retired military; teacher or educator; senior citizen; or farmer or rancher. That's it. Nothing for lawyers, doctors, engineers or corporate executives to check. Not even a box for "otro?"

Enron: red-handed

Tapes reveal what we all already knew. That Bush & Cheney's second-favorite energy conglomerate, Enron, deliberately manipulated the energy market artificially to create an energy crisis in California in 2000. Despicable. Coincidentally, some of these conspirators are heard to be hoping for a Bush win in 2000. What a surprise. "It'd be great. I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy," says one Enron worker.

Haven't been posting much

Spring is here, and my thoughts have wandered pretty far from politics. Honestly, this country is, in my opinion, in the midst of a pretty bad period, and it seems to me as if no one cares. Let's take a journey of the mind. It's 1998, and Bill Clinton is President. - Gas prices are routinely at $2.13/gal for regular. - We are engaged in an urban guerrilla war that we chose to fight as an aggressor. - Over 800 US servicemen and women have died in that war. - Although the war itself went swimmingly well, the postwar occupation has been a tactical disaster. It was poorly planned and executed with a blind, arrogant bravado. -- We have successfully alienated a great portion of the local population with our incompetence. - The deficit has returned with a vengeance. - There is a prison scandal in the occupied nation, which has brought great shame on the US. - The government justifies its shameful prison scandal by arguing that at least it isn't as bad as it was under Saddam; thus lowering the bar of decency and humanity to "better than a murderous dictator". I could go on, but why bother? Could you imagine the cacophonous clammer from the right if any one of those items had happened under Clinton? Amazingly, many on the right blame the whole thing on Clinton and the Democrats anyway, so their credibility is in the toilet. In any event, New York is pretty solidly in Kerry's corner, so all that's really left to do is raise some money and get out the vote. That doesn't really matter until the fall, the way I see it, so I think I can take a well-deserved break from campaign matters until then. I'll post when time and news permits.

How charming

This from the infamous Lucianne Goldberg she of Lewinsky/Tripp infamy, and a woman who is best compared with Ursula the Sea Witch from Disney's Little Mermaid: Under a photograph of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), she adds this quote: "Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged." -President Abraham Lincoln Just another example of the rise of blatant fascism in the "conservative" movement. I prefer this quote: "Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience…Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring" -- Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal, 1950