The Texas Department of Public Safety is not helping its reputation with this latest news of document and records destruction. The DPS has apparently destroyed all of its records
of its actions in trying to hunt down Democratic lawmakers who broke the Texas House quorum last week by absconding to Ardmore, Okla.

This is an incredible story. The DPS would seem to have ripped a page straight out of the Enron/Arthur Andersen playbook here. The only question is whether the agency did it on its own, as is being claimed, or were there behind-the-scenes political machinations involved? I suspect the latter and I want to know whether Tom Delay or Tom Craddick’s fingerprints are on this mess. I don’t like the fact that are state funded law enforcement agency was turned into a politcal tool by the Texas Republican Party last week and it outrageous that someone thinks they can just sweep it all away by pulling off some cheap Nixonian coverup operation now.

Josh Marshall has a good column this week in The Hill about Tom Delay’s involvement in trying to sic federal agents on the Killer D’s who screwed up his political powerplay last week.

There is a new book out that purports to list the Top 500 Country songs called "Heartaches By The Number" by David Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren. It looks to be very entertaining and interesting with the authors contributing essays for each of their chosen songs. But what caught my attention is that the book gives a nod to Bing Crosby for his influence on Country music:

"One of the looming presences in the book is Bing Crosby, rarely identified with country but actually one of the genre's most important practitioners.
"He's one of the heroes of the book," Cantwell says. "He was a huge influence on any number of country singers, and he also listened to country music. ... He played a big part in popularizing country songs." Crosby is represented by two tunes -- "Pistol Packin' Mama" (his version of the Al Dexter hit, which reshaped the song considerably) and "Don't Fence Me In" (written by, of all people, the urbane Cole Porter)"

Always good to see Bing getting some long overdue credit now and then. As with Bob Hope, this year is also the 100th anniversary of his birth, but I doubt there will be any TV specials to commemorate that fact, unfortunately.





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So who serves as the “Voice of the Left” today (see post below)? When liberal commentators started to fade off of the TV screens during the 1990s it was largely attributed to the simple give and take of political power shifting. While the Democrats remained in power through President Clinton, the right wing commentators would take the forefront in the media to harp at and criticize the administration. But now that Bush has been in office for more than two years, the liberal commentators have not come back. In fact, the number of conservative commentators just continues to multiply. Fox News has become the leading cable news channel by offering a steady stream of Republican propaganda and right-wing commentary without even the pretense of trying to be fair or balanced. CNN has abandoned most commentary shows in an effort to avoid being labled “liberal.” Even, the old workhorse “Crossfire” has been cut back and stuck in a poorly watched time slot so as to attract as little notice as possible. I haven’t watched the show in a while, but I believe it is currently one of the only shows where you can hear an unapologetic liberal voice -- James Carville or Paul Begala -- balanced of course by two or three conservative voices. And over at MSNBC, the lone liberal commentator Phil Donohue saw his show canned in favor of a slew of new shows for right-wing talkers including Dan Savage and Joe Scarborough.
The best chance for hearing a liberal perspective on TV these days resides with PBS (which Newt Gingrich and the Republican’s in Congress failed to shut down a few years ago) especially with Bill Moyers’ NOW program. But like CNN, PBS and its radio counterpart NPR have felt pressure to “balance” every liberal voice with a conservative one - something that the other networks and radio shows fail to do in reverse.
For people looking for a left perspective today one is practically forced to turn to the Internet where you can track a few liberal columnists at major newspapers like Paul Krugman and Frank Rich at the New York Times, E.J. Dionne at the Washington Post, Robert Scheer at the Los Angeles Times and Molly Ivins at the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Another powerful voice from the left is Michael Kinsley, the former editor of the online Slate Magazine, whose columns appear regularly in Slate and the WashPo.
Next, one must turn to the blogosphere to find leading voices from the left. Joshua Marshall has become very influential with his Talking Points blog as has Eric Alertman’s Altercation hosted by MSNBC.com. Then there is the anonymous Atrios who runs the Eschaton blog. Also, look for Joe Conason’s regular journal entries at the online Salon magazine.
It is a pretty thin list today, especially when compared to the number of folks lining up to pontificate the right-wing perspective over the corporate-controlled airwaves.
One problem for the left today is the continuing scourge that is Ralph Nader and the Green Party which drove a split through the Democratic Party and handed the presidency to George W. Bush during the 2000 election. A number of left leaders became caught up in the Nader charade including Michael Moore, Jim Hightower and to some extent even Molly Ivins. Today, some though not all of these people have returned to their senses. But it still remains to be seen whether the left can rally around a Democratic candidate be it Howard Dean, John Kerry or someone else.

The Faint, Fading Voice of the Left
Tuesday May 20, 8:41 am ET
By Thane Peterson

Here's a quiz for you: Name the best-known and most influential conservative commentators in America? Rush Limbaugh? George F. Will? Bill O'Reilly? Now, quick, who are their liberal counterparts?

If you can't think of any, you're not alone. Conservatives love to rant that liberals dominate the news media. Trouble is, it's just not true. In fact, I'd argue that the biggest problem with America's public discourse today is that the left is barely represented at all on mainstream TV and radio talk shows and in major newspapers and magazines.
Read the rest here.

I'm a little disturbed by some of the reports I've read of the overzealous efforts of law enforcement officials in trying to track down the Democratic lawmakers who broke the legislative quorum this week. Perhaps most disturbing is a report from the Fort Worth Star Telegram about Rebublicans using part of our new Homeland Defense Anti-Terrorist operations to track down Rep. Pete Laney's Piper airplane. We are spending billions to set up this new Homeland Defense operation and Texas Republicans are using them like their personal stormtroopers to enforce their political dictates.
Then there has been the shameful and excessive use of DPS troopers and Texas Rangers to harass the lawmakers families. One report has a trooper entering a lawmakers home after his daughter left the door open.. Another trooper staked out the hospital where a lawmaker's newborn twins are being treated in intensive care.
Quite frankly these law enforcement officials should get out of this political fight and go back to hunting down real bad guys like we pay them to do. I fully support my lawmakers decision to break the quorum. My interests are not being represented by the group that is left behind in Austin right now and they should not have the power to sick law officers on their political counterparts. It's disgraceful and deeply disturbing.
I understand that some Republicans are upset because they have a majority and feel that therefore they should be able to push through whatever legislation they please, but that is not how our government was set up to work. Our government only works when we are willing to compromise and so far House Speaker Tom Craddick has made it clear that compromise is the furthest thing from his mind.

I loved the response today of New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid when asked by Gov. Rick Perry to track down the missing Texas House Democrats:

"I don't think they are in Santa Fe now. Nevertheless, I have put out an all-points bulletin for law enforcement to be on the look out for politicians in favor of health care for the needy and against tax cuts for the wealthy."

And here is the response of Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry:

"Our position is that, without a warrant signed by a judge, we have no authority. Even under those circumstances, we are hesitant to get pulled into a Texas political battle. If we're going to do battle with Texas, we prefer that it be on the football field," Mr. Henry said through his spokesman.

HaHaHa

Hooray for the Killer Bees!
59 of the 62 Democrats in the Texas House have left the state in a bid to break the quorum and kill legislation that the new Republican majority has been cramming through the Lege in a one-sided, partisan fashion. Here are the latest details.
I'm glad to see that the Texas Democrats are finally showing some backbone! We are going to be bombarded for the rest of the week by Republican namecalling, but these lawmakers should be applauded for standing up for their constituents. Republicans are complaining that they never used these extreme tactics when they were in the minority, but what they don't admit is that they still managed to get much of what they wanted while the House was controlled by Democrats. When the Republicans took over earlier this year they made many of the same mistakes as their counterparts at the federal level did 8 years ago under Newt Gingrich. Rather than working with the minority party to reach a bi-partisan consensus on major legislation the way Democrats did for years - they have plowed ahead in a power-hungry bid to get everything they want all at once without compromise. Republicans never opted for the Killer Bee tactic because they were never driven to it the way Democrats have been this year. Conservative Democrats like former House Speaker Pete Laney always gave the Republicans plenty of leeway to keep them happy over the years. Now, the fact that Pete Laney is among the missing is very instructive in how harsh and partisan the House has become under Tom Craddick.

It looks like Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has passed up Forrest Gump to take the No. 7 spot on the All-Time Domestic Box Office list.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-Va., says much of what needs to be said about Bush's campaign speech aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln the other day....

" I was deeply troubled by both the content and the context of President Bush's remarks to the American people last week marking the end of the combat phase of the war in Iraq.  As I watched the President's fighter jet swoop down onto the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, I could not help but contrast the reported simple dignity of President Lincoln at Gettysburg with the flamboyant showmanship of President Bush aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. 

"President Bush's address to the American people announcing combat victory in Iraq deserved to be marked with solemnity, not extravagance; with gratitude to God, not self-congratulatory gestures.  American blood has been shed on foreign soil in defense of the President's policies.  This is not some made-for-TV backdrop for a campaign commercial.  This is real life, and real lives have been lost.  To me, it is an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq for the President to exploit the trappings of war for the momentary spectacle of a speech. I do not begrudge his salute to America's warriors aboard the carrier Lincoln, for they have performed bravely and skillfully, as have their countrymen still in Iraq, but I do question the motives of a deskbound President who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech.
War is not theater, and victory is not a campaign slogan. I join with the President and all Americans in expressing heartfelt thanks and gratitude to our men and women in uniform for their service to our country, and for the sacrifices that they have made on our behalf.  But on this point I differ with the President: I believe that our military forces deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and not used as stage props to embellish a presidential speech."

The entire Iraq war, I'm afraid, was part of Bush's 2004 re-election strategy.



 

Time to catch up on a few movie reviews....
First up is “Evelyn,” the film that Pierce Brosnan made while he was waiting to do his latest James Bond caper. It is a shame that the film did not recieve more attention than it did because it is really excellent with an outstanding cast. It is directed by Bruce Beresford, the Oscar-winning director of “Driving Miss Daisy” and the supporting cast includes Steven Rea, Julianne Marguiles and Aidan Quinn. It is nice to see Brosnan going out of his way to show off his acting ability rather than resting on his laurels with his cushy Bond gig. In the film, we get to see Brosnan portray a working-class Irishman in the 1950s who struggles to keep his family together after his wife abandons him and the Church steps in and removes his children. Brosnan’s acting ability is most striking when you see him contrasted against Rea who plays an upperclass barrister who steps in to help him battle the legal bureacracy. It is a wonderful film.

Next up is “The Transporter,” a Hong-Kong style action movie featuring British newcomer Jason Stratham as the latest incarnation of Jean Claude Van Dam. It is a fun movie with a lot of potential that is unfortunately spoiled by the sloppy and cliched ending. The film has a fun car chase sequence at the beginning and several good fight scenes. But even more promising is that Stratham’s character is interesting in the beginning. You want to know more about who he is and how he got to this point. Although the film does not deliver on these points, the very fact that you care in the beginning is a testament to the way Stratham projects a quietly dignified demeanor to his character. Hopefully he will be presented with better material in the future.

“Maid in Manhattan” and “Two Weeks Notice” are both typical Hollywood fare and decent rentals. Maid is actually better than I expected with a good performance from Ralph Feines. Two Weeks is mostly enjoyable because of Hugh Grant’s whimsical performance.

And so another right-wing scold has been revealed to be a hypocrite. This time it is the nation's "Morality Czar" William Bennett, author of "The Book of Virtues," "The Moral Compass," and "The Death of Outrage," and many others, who we now know is a huge gambling addict thanks to this expose in The Washington Monthly.
As the article details, Bennett has lost more than $8 million during the past 10 years playing the high-dollar slot machines in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Now we finally know what he has been doing with all the money he makes going around the country giving lectures at $50,000 a pop scolding "liberals" for their supposed failure to live up to his high moral standards. He takes all the money he makes and blows it all in "Sin City."

One big problem I have with this is the current proliferation of gambling, especially among Republican anti-tax lawmakers, as a way for state and local governments to make up budget shortfalls during the current Bush recession. Rather than raising government revenue through means that are legitimate and fair, they continue to push for expansions of casinos, slot machines, race tracks, lotteries and so forth.

So gambling isn't really all that bad, Bennett's conservative apologists argue. After all, they argue, it's his own money and he isn't hurting anyone else. It should be something between himself, his wife and his accountant, or so the argument goes. Of course, the same argument could be made on behalf of Bill Clinton and his sexual derilections, but that never stopped these same conservatives - Bill Bennett chief among them - from demanding Clinton's scalp on a stick.
The list of right-wing hypocrites continues to grow.... Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Baker, Newt Gingrich, Henry Hyde, Dan Burton, Bob Livingstone, and on, and on....

My wife and I have been caring for three baby bunnies for the past week ever since a neighbor accidently disturbed their nest with his lawn mower. The little guys seemed too young to be on their own, but after just a week of bottle feeding and giving them handfuls of grass, clover and dandelions twice a day they look like they are ready to go back on their own. I bought a wire critter cage but one of the bunnies that we now call Houdini manages to slip out whenever he wants. We will probably let them go this weekend.

Found a new CD at the library the other day which is causing me to hum and whistle its catchy tunes all day long. I'm talking about none other than "Silly Songs With Larry," the new collection from the VeggieTales show.
I've been a big fan of Veggie Tales since my sister began purchasing the tapes several years ago for my nieces and nephew. The computer animated vegetables that populate the show and sing the songs are a combination of The Muppet Show and Sesame Street with a little Wierd Al Yankovic thrown in for good measure.
I especially like the Song of the Cebu and I Love My Lips. Great stuff. The Cheeseburger song sounds so much like a Wierd Al tune I could have sworn he wrote it, but not so. They should at least credit him as an influence on that particular song.
The good news is they are coming out with more music soon. Check it out at BigIdea.com - Music.

State lawmakers have approved competing budgets for the 2004-2005 biennium that would deny government assistance and medical care to hundreds of thousands of children and low-income adults.
Here are the figures from the Center for Public Policy Priorities (a radical group that thinks public policy priorities should be about helping people in need):

"The Senate Finance budget in 2005 would eliminate Medicaid or CHIP coverage completely for over 211,000 persons; cut benefits (e.g., Medicaid drug coverage; HIV drugs; community care for aged, disabled, mentally ill, and mentally retarded persons) for more than 398,000 Texans, and reduce projected enrollment growth in children’s Medicaid by over 298,000. "

Our lawmakers are willing to put up with these draconian cutbacks all because they refuse to even consider raising taxes to cover shortfalls in government revenue.

I don't resent paying taxes like many people do. I just resent the way the government chooses to spend most of it. The Pentagon budget is above $400 billion a year and continuing to rise 10 percent every year. If we funded education like we fund our military - as if that would ever happen - well it just boggles the mind to think about it, but if we did I bet that our students wouldn't be constantly falling behind other nations when it comes to basic math and science skills.

Meanwhile, here in Texas, our legislators have voted to toss out our "Robin Hood" school funding system without having anything ready to replace it with. But our Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is ready with a plan that would, he says, cut property taxes in half and make up the difference by jacking up sales taxes and expanding them to cover everything from child care to media advertising. Good news for those wealthy enough to own substantial amounts of property, but if you are renting and apartment don't expect your rent to go down anytime soon.

I have a new program on my computer - an iMac - called iTunes that allows me to load up CDs onto my hard drive to listen to at my convenience. This is great because now I don't have to leave CDs lying around my desk at work all the time just to have something to tune out the rest of the noise. But the first question was which CDs to load up, assuming I have a limited amount of space on the hard drive.
I started with my Bing Crosby records, of course, and my Bix Biederbecke music. Then I added all of my Ken Burns Jazz and Smithsonian Jazz compilations. Next came all of my Bob Dylan, Beatles, Elvis Presley and Rolling Stones CDs. By that point I had used up nearly 3 Gigs of space but I still had about 4 Gigs to spare.
So I continued adding music, picking and choosing: Bruce Springsteen GH (greatest hits) and Born in the USA; Neil Young - Decade; Buddy Holly GH; The Beach Boys GH Vols. 1 & 2; The Bee Gees GH; Simon & Garfunkel GH; David Bowie GH; Led Zepplin I; Boston; The Band GH; The Who GH; The Doors (only have first album on CD right now); Peter Frampton Live; ELO GH; and Stevie Wonder GH.

Now I'm up to 4.3 gigabytes, with 2.9 gigs left available. I wonder how much free space I really need after all?

Someone has finally gone to the trouble of mapping out the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (VRWC).
It's all quite simple, isn't it.

Millions of low-income Americans face the loss of health insurance or sharp cuts in benefits, like coverage for prescription drugs and dental care, under proposals now moving through state legislatures around the country. -- New York Times April, 28, 2003.

Sounds like a domestic crisis brewing here with our faltering economy slowly stripping away the basics of a modest, First-World nation. And that is not even mentioning the crisis in education funding. Here in Texas the Lege is cutting millions from the budget for purchasing school textbooks. Universities are announcing layoffs to deal with 10-12 percent cutbacks in state funding. All of this because our Republican-led government does not believe in raising taxes to pay for anything - not healthcare, not education, not veterans benefits, not even to pay for our own wars.
Raising taxes, as best I can tell, is now considered to be immoral, unpatriotic and very possibly against the law. But never mind that. The federal government could bail the states out of a lot of their problems with current revenue projections - but instead the Bush administration is planning to cut taxes by $728 billion - or $500 billion - or $300 billion, whatever they can get away with.
Remember the last Bush tax cut more than a year ago that was supposed to jumpstart the economy? Oh, well, of course, it just wasn't big enough to do the job.
Columnist Paul Krugman recently pointed out that the Bush administration is touting its $500 billion tax cut proposal as a way to create jobs - 1.4 million is the figure they are throwing around! Only problem is that comes to $500,000 per job, when the average job pays just $40,000 a year. And that is assuming of course that cutting all those taxes will create those jobs rather than creating a huge budget deficit that will drive interest rates sky high and drag the economy down further.

On a related note, here is a link to a study that shows that Democratic administrations have been better for the stock market than Republicans dating back to 1928.

In his State of the Union address in January, President Bush alleged that Iraq was concealing the following Weapons of Mass Destruction:
       500 tons of chemical weapons
       25,000 litres of Anthrax
       38,000 litres of botulim toxin

       To date, we have found:
       0 tons of chemical weapons
       0 litres of Anthrax and
0 litres of botulim toxin

I feel so much safer now.







       

Still no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) found in Iraq and no trace of Saddam either. The Arab media has been speculating that the fall of Baghdad happened so quickly because a secret deal was struck between the Bush administration and the ruling Baath Party and brokered by Saudi Arabia. The collapse was so sudden and the Iraqi leaders vanished in such a coordinated fashion that it makes you wonder whether something wasn't up, whether or not it was done with U.S. involvement.

We supposedly went into Iraq to deal with the WMDs, but once the fighting got started the propaganda quickly changed to "liberating" the Iraqi people. Now that we've won, that seems to be all that matters to most people. It all bears a striking resemblance to a quote credited to Adolph Hitler in William Shirer's book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."

"I shall give a propagandist reason for starting the war. Nevermind whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked afterward whether he told the truth or not. In starting and waging a war it is not right that matters, but victory."

Now that the war is essentially over, many of its proponents have been scolding those of us who opposed it for not being compassionate enough to want to bring freedom and liberation to the Iraqi people. But while we like to say we promote democracy in other nations, the truth of the matter is we just want a government that takes our side and does what we tell it to do. Whether that means a democracy, a theocracy or a dictatorship does not matter.

The Dixie Chicks latest album "Home" is back at No. 1 on the Country sales charts and their upcoming U.S. tour is sold out most everywhere, all in spite of this so-called "boycott" of the band by conservatives.
This is all good. I'm sure there will still be organized protests at some of the concerts, but that will just highlight the intolerance and vindictiveness of the protesters. I understood the initial outcry over Natalie Maines' remarks about being embarrassed that Bush is from Texas, but she apologized and that should have been that. It's unfortunate that some folks can be so obstinately unforgiving.
But that aside, the boycott was bound to fall flat mostly because the Dixie Chicks are just too good to be ignored. Maines' is an incredible singer who makes most other country performers today sound bland by comparison.

Why is it that so many far-right wingnuts prefer to vent their anger and frustration at women anyway? First there was Jane Fonda, and then it was Barbara Streistand and Hillary Clinton, and now its Natalie Maines and the Dixie Chicks. Is it because they have a tendency to want to bully folks who are less likely to fight back? Maybe that is why the rightwing is venting so much of its wrath against France - when Germany, China, Russia, and just about every other nation on the planet was equally critical of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Bush recently snubbed Canada by canceling a trip there and then entertained the president of Australia at the same time. But Bush is going to have a difficult time playing those petty games for long because there just aren't that many countries he can count in his "good" list.

The more I read about the looting of the museum and archive library in Baghdad the more disheartening it is. Most disturbing now are the reports that our civilian leaders were repeatedly forewarned about the possibility of looting and destruction of these historical treasures and still they chose to do nothing to protect it. I don't blame our military forces who were simply following their orders and doing their best to keep from being blown away by snipers and suicide bombers. But it would not have taken much to secure the museum the same way that the Bush folks had the Oil Ministry building secured.
I remember reading about the tragic torching of the ancient Greek library in Alexandria many thousands of years ago and of all the original works by Plato, Aristotle and others that were lost forever. I remember being disgusted by the ignorance of the invading armies that destroyed these priceless treasures. Of course, I never thought that such a tragedy would be repeated today.

There was one piece of good news I saw today in the Wall Street Journal - a report that some of the museum's most valuable artifacts had been hidden away in vaults for safekeeping before the bombing started. But the did not expect the rampant looting that occurred, and the damage that was done cannot be overstated. Some comentators have referred to it as a lobotomy of our worldwide cultural heritage.

But then the Bush administration's overriding concern has always been about how to secure money, oil and power and keep it for the privileged few. We are currently undergoing our own "looting" right here in the U.S. with the Bush adminstration trying to give away millions of acres of nationally protected parklands to oil, timber and mining interests and the slashing of federal and state programs for the poor and elderly to pay for massive tax cuts for the rich.

Some good news today! Republican Sen. Pete Fitzgerald of Illinois announced that he is not going to seek re-election in 2004. That should give Democrats a clear shot at another seat and put them a step closer to reclaiming control of the upper body of Congress. Fitzgerald, who is independently wealthy, said he was dissuaded by the amount of money he would need to raise for the race. No doubt he saw the writing on the wall and realized that few people would be willing to invest a great deal in a losing proposition. Illinois has been trending more Democratic lately and Fitzgerald was already at the top of the hit list.

Al Franken has a new book coming out this summer titled "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," which he describes as "a fair and balanced look at the right," I can't wait.
Some other books on my wish list include:

"What Liberal Media?" by Eric Alterman;
"The Clinton Wars" by Sidney Blumenthal;
"Big Lies: The Right Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth" by Joe Conason;
"Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency" by Jake Tapper.

The Bush administration has just accused Syria of developing "Weapons of Mass Destruction." In Bushspeak that means "prepare to be liberated." We still haven't found those elusive WMDs in Iraq, but it no longer matters. American's now support pre-emptive invasions of other countries by more than 70 percent as long as we can whup up on them real good and declare victory in less than a month. So Iraq wasn't really as big of a threat as we were led to believe, we can still feel good about ourselves for liberating the people from a horrible dictator.
Now that Saddam Hussein has vanished (just like Osama Bin Laden) we have to have a new enemy to focus on so everyone repeat after me --- "Bashar Assad the Demon of Damascus" Hey, that is kind of catchy. Pretty soon more than half the people in the U.S. will be convinced that the very survival of our way of life depends on our taking out Assad.

I see from this article in the Wall Street Journal today that the Bush team has figured out how it will pay for the war in Iraq:

"The U.S. has diverted more than a half billion dollars from relief efforts for famines, epidemics and civil wars around the world to prepare for the aftermath of the war in Iraq, delaying aid to displaced Sudanese and homeless Afghans, among others."

So that's how you pay for a war while cutting taxes at the same time! Brilliant!!

The article goes on to say that the White House is planning to repay most of the money from other accounts in the State Department's foreign aid budget. (Yeah, right!) But adds that Bush is already planning to dip into other foreign aid accounts to free more than $100 million in additional funds for Iraq relief efforts.

All of this shuffling of aid dollars has left places such as the Ivory Coast, which has been wracked by a brutal civil war, unable to protect children from a measles outbreak, the article states. An appeal by the United Nations Children's Fund for $5.7 million to vaccinate 8 million children in the Ivory Coast has so far raised only enough to supply 400,000 vaccinations. Donor nations have been withholding funding for other regions to preserve their ability to fund Iraq relief.

"The U.S., the world's largest supplier of foreign aid, also has diverted the largest amount to Iraq. Since the Bush administration didn't request - and (the Republican) Congress didn't approve - any money for the war in this year's regular budget, the State Department 'scrubbed' $556.4 million from disaster and development accounts for Africa, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere."

Idiots!!

While we are on this subject, here is a blistering critique of U.S. foreign policy (or the lack thereof) under Bush by Jeffrey Sachs, a professor of economics at Columbia University.

Many people woke up this morning happy in the belief that the war in Iraq is essentially over. I hope that it is and perhaps the worst is over, but the nasty aftermath is possibly just beginning. Since the big statue of Saddam was pulled down in the center of Baghdad, there have been more military casualties in a firefight near a mosque, another suicide bombing that injured at least four soldiers and the assassination of a pro-Western Shiite cleric who had just returned from exhile.
The stock market welcomed the news of the fall of Saddam's empire by plummeting another 100 points. Does this bode ill for the big bull market that the administration is counting on to rejuvenate the economy after the war is over?
Michael Kinsley (my favorite columnist) has another excellent article today titled Unsettled - Victory in the war is not victory in the argument about the war. A sentiment with which I fully agree.

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today comparing George W.'s presidency at this stage with that of his father.
At this point in Bush the Elder's presidency his job approval was at 81 percent.
George W. is at 66 percent.

George the Elder could take credit for the creation of 1.3 million jobs at that point in his presidency.
George W. has so far presided over the loss of 2 million jobs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 28.5 percent during the first 26 months of Bush the Elder.
The Dow is down 22.6 percent so far under George W.'s stewardship.

George the Elder saw an increase of 2 million Americans without health insurance.
George W. has seen an increase of 1.4 million Americans without health insurance.

Oh, and they had both claimed big victories in Middle Eastern war campaigns.
I can't help but think that Bush Jr. is in a pretty poor position at this point to ever get elected. Good thing he still has the Supreme Court on his side. Maybe they will just cancel the elections altogether.

The NYTimes is reporting that 11 journalists have been killed so far in 21 days of war. Also, there have been about 90 U.S. military casualties to date. During the first Gulf War there were no journalists among the casualties. Is this an indication that the glut of media coverage that we have come to expect today is forcing more journalists to continuously stick their necks out in order to get the story first and constantly up the ante with more and better graphic coverage? Perhaps this is the inevitable result of the "reality TV" fad right now where we expect to see all aspects of the war live as it happens. And unfortunately, this has not sated our appetite for more and more "reality" no matter how bloody and horrifying, not anymore than the Roman's lust for blood was sated by the gladiator fights in the coliseums.

Even with as much news coverage as we are getting, it is still almost impossible to know for sure what is really happening at any given moment. Is Saddam Hussein dead now? Didn't they report that he was dead several weeks ago? And if he wasn't killed by the latest bombing, who was? Was our intelligence wrong again? Who is feeding us this information and why? Pretty disturbing to think that there is someone over there who has the power to direct our bombers to let loose with 2,000 pound bunker busters on 12-minutes notice at their whim. Are they taking out rival factions or getting pay back on their enemies by manipulating our desire to get Saddam?

Then there are the supposed chemical weapons discovered yesterday. Or were they just old cannisters of pesticides? Whatever was in the containers, it reportedly was not "weaponized" so does that still mean it would be illegal under the U.N. inspections program? And what happens if we never do find any "weapons of mass destruction"? Won't that make it that much harder to win back the trust and support of the rest of the world opposed to this pre-emptive military action?

From the New York Times Magazine this week:

"At times, deficits are necessary to stimulate economic growth, and their dampening impact on private investment is occasionally exaggerated. But because of the Bush administration's policies and a weak economy, deficits are now approaching unmanageable levels, as they did in the 1980's. In fact, the federal government's fiscal health has deteriorated at a pace so stunning that few have yet caught up with the facts.

"Here are some of those facts. Even without a war, the budget deficit would have exceeded $300 billion this year -- just three years after the budget experienced a surplus of nearly $240 billion. (This was in the midst of a four-year run of substantial surpluses.) But with war costs escalating and revenues falling as a result of the flat economy, this year's deficit could rise to $400 billion. In fiscal year 2004, it is likely to be higher.

"The president has asked Congress for $75 billion to finance war-related costs, but many think a more realistic estimate of the combined costs of war and reconstruction will be closer to $200 billion. More alarming is the decline of government revenues over the long run. Instead of generating $5 trillion to $6 trillion in surpluses over 10 years from rising tax revenues on growing incomes, the government will now probably come up nearly $2 trillion short through 2013. That recession and slower growth have shrunk tax revenues is predictable enough. But the sinking stock market has taken more of a toll than expected: there are no more outsize capital gains to tax. These yielded fat revenues in the late 1990's, when stocks were soaring, exaggerating the fiscal health of the nation. Now the train is running in reverse.

"Finally, the Bush tax cuts have made long-term financial prospects significantly worse. Occasionally, tax cuts make sense. But the $1.4 trillion tax-cut package passed in 2001 would have been more productive if it had been temporary and applicable to more taxpayers. Instead, it was skewed to the rich (who are prone to save rather than spend) and will be permanent -- far from disappearing should the economy improve, the tax cut will grow larger. The administration proposed a second major tax cut in early January, estimated to cost $726 billion over 10 years, and it appears to be even less effective as a near-term stimulus: more than half of the total results from the elimination of taxes on dividends, an idea raised at Bush's economic summit in Waco, Tex., last August by a stockbroker, Charles Schwab. In addition, the Bush administration followed up this tax plan with a new budget that would extend the 2001 cuts three years past their expiration, costing another $600 billion.

"The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calculates that reductions in mandatory programs for the elderly, veterans and the poor would come to $265 billion over 10 years. Another $210 billion would be lopped off of discretionary programs. The total of $475 billion is about equal to the tax reduction the president is requesting for the top 1 percent of earners in America."

OK, I'm back! Did you miss me?!? Pardon the extended absence but I took a few days off for a trip to California to visit friends and family and then was swamped with work for the next several days upon my return. I have to say that California was a nice place to visit, but I'm not sure I could afford to live there. Good grief! We looked at some houses that were selling for $1.5 million that weren't much bigger than where I'm living now. You could buy a monstrosity with a huge ranch thrown in for that much green stuff here in these parts. But I guess it is like they always say.... location, location, location. And by that they must mean beachfront property.

It was surprisingly easy to travel on the airlines what with a war going on and the terror alert up at the burnt orange level (but not maroon yet). Going through LAX I assumed we would all be strip searched and forced to provide blood and urine samples, but it was not much different than any other flight I've been on. Got to fly a jumbo jet for the first time. I'd never been on a plane where you get on and see a staircase going up to a second floor.

Unfortunately, the war is still going on. Today I was shocked to find out that the first U.S. journalist to die over there was Washington Post columnist Michael Kelly, also editor of The Altlantic monthly. I guess you never expect a celebrity journalist to be the first to go. Apparently, he was killed in some bizarre humvee accident of which the details are still sketchy. I am sad to see Kelly go, although I was no fan of his writing. His columns were always very conservative and bitter attacks on first Clinton and later Gore. I guess I have to admire his determination in getting out in the field to cover this war which he so stridently pushed for in his columns. I've known and know lots of people whose political views I strongly disagree with but who are nevertheless wonderful, upstanding and decent human beings. From the little I've read about Kelly since his death I get the feeling that he fell into that category.

Today the Senate voted to slash Bush's $726 billion tax cut in half. That means we are halfway back to some fiscal sanity. A $350 billion tax cut is still outrageous when we are in the middle of a war and are already in debt up to our ears.

The Academy Awards were more unpredictable than I had imagined and thus more entertaining. I am still upset that The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers took just two measly technical awards - Visual Effects and Sound Editing - but at least that was better than Gangs of New York which was completely shut out after receiving 10 nominations. I guess Peter Jackson will just have to console himself for now with his $335 million domestic box office take.
I was getting just a bit tired of hearing the theme music to ‘Chicago’ being played over and over, but the film topped out at six awards which - while respectable- is far short of a complete sweep. The film, which I still have not seen, took just one acting award for Catherine Zeta-Jones for best supporting actress. The big surprise turned out to be the Holocaust drama The Pianist which took three really big awards - adapted screenplay, best actor and best director. I’m not sure what to think about the directing award going to Roman Polanski the fugitive child molester who is living in exile in France. But I am happy for Best Actor Adrien Brody after first being upset when his name was called. I was pulling for Michael Caine or Daniel Day-Lewis, but after hearing Brody’s poignant and touching acceptance speech I was somewhat mollified.
I expected Nicole Kidman and her prosthetic nose to win Best Actress - the only award for The Hours. And Chris Cooper’s best supporting actor win was also expected, although I would have preferred to see Paul Newman or Christopher Walken win. Walken’s excellent performance in ‘Catch Me If You Can’ was the only one I have seen so far.
I thought that Steve Martin did an excellent job hosting under the strained circumstances. I was actually afraid that they would just do away with the host altogether like they did at the Grammys this year. But Martin was able to be funny and entertaining without offending the tender sensibilities of a nation in war-mode.
I was happy to see the Japanese animated film ‘Spirited Away’ win in that category and I hope to actually see the film some day too. The American offerings this year just weren’t up to the same level if ‘Ice Age’ is any indication - haven’t seen the others yet. I was also glad to see Eminem win Best Song for Lose Yourself from Eight Mile even though it meant that U2 did not win and Bono was not allowed to make an anti-war statement on the stage.
Documentary film maker Michael Moore’s anti-Bush speech was to have been expected. He clearly deserved to win this year for “Bowling For Columbine” and there was no way he was going to accept the award without saying something that would rattle peoples’ cages. I thought what he had to say was clever - contrasting non-fiction film making with ‘fictitious election results’ in Florida and ‘fictitious reasons for going to war in Iraq.’ We still have found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (and fortunately none have been used against our troops). So if it turns out that Iraq wasn’t really an immediate threat to our national security, then what? Oh, well? He was a bad man and needed to be toppled anyway? At what cost? We are still finding out, unfortunately.
But back to Moore’s rant - even though what he said was clever, if he truly intended to win people over to his side I don’t think that standing up on stage and shouting “Shame on you, Mr. Bush!” was the way to go about it. But of course, Moore has never been very good at actually achieving the results that he espouses. After all, his support for Ralph Nader in the last election just helped to pull down Al Gore and hand the keys to the White House to runner-up George W.

The complete list of Oscar winners is here.

The behavior of the stock market never ceases to disgust me. Typically, you can count on the stock market to react favorably whenever big companies announce mass layoffs or shut down factories to move jobs overseas. Last week when Bush finally announced the long-anticipated start to his war against Iraq, the markets reacted boisterously with back-to-back-to-back rallies for the highest one week gain in years. The more bombs that burst around Baghdad, the higher stock prices would go. But now, after a weekend with more than a few setbacks and U.S. and British casualties climbing upward, the stock market has plunged nearly 300 points. It didn't take long for Wall Street to lose its enthusiasm for the war. Did they really expect it to all be over in a matter of days?
There is a good op-ed piece in the NYTimes today explaining why the war won't help our dreary economy.

It is almost scary how accurate this satirical news story from The Onion ( 1/18/01) has turned out: Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."
Bush swore to do "everything in [his] power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.
During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.
"You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration," said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. "Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?"

Sales of Dixie Chicks albums have not suffered too much despite boycott attempts after lead singer and Lubbock native Natalie Maines dissed President Bush during the group's current European tour.

"Although radio airplay subsided about 20 percent, Home's sales remained strong relative to other current releases. Overall, the album finished the week ended Sunday by selling 124,000 copies, down 21,000 copies from the prior week, according to SoundScan data. However, when compared to the other top-selling albums, the Chicks fared pretty well. Home experienced about a 15 percent drop-off, while the top 5 holdovers from the previous week's charts averaged nearly a 26 percent decline.
With Home holding up better than its competition, the Grammy-winning disc actually climbed two spots to number four and remained number one on the country sales chart. (Of course, the fairly stable sales stats could be attributed to those fire-loving yokels stocking up on Home for the next burning.) "

While I think that Maine's comment was ill advised (She said she was embarrassed that George Bush is from Texas), I also think the whole issue is being blown far out of proportion by our nation's right-wing propaganda machine -- talk radio yakkers, Faux News, etc. There were a lot of other ways she could have made her point without fanning so much controversy, but that's what happens every once in a while to people who have microphones stuck in the faces everyday as part of their job without the benefit of professional handlers to tell them what to say and how to say it. At least Maines issued a sincere apology and I think that should be the end of it. Unfortunately, forgiveness is not one of the strong points of the right wingers here in the U.S. And many on the far-right love nothing better than the opportunity to work themselves up in a fit of self-righteouss indignation.

My jaw dropped the other night when Bush spoke about the "broad coalition" that is supporting his war in Iraq. Now the State Dept. has come out with a list of 30 countries that they say are backing the war effort:

Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan. The State Department listed Japan as available for "post-conflict" support.

Of course, the only ones backing up their stated support with actual troop deployments is the UK along with a "token 2,000 troops" from Australia. It is kind of a stretch to include Turkey on the list as well, since they are not allowing U.S. troops to use bases in that country and is also sending its own troops into the Northern Iraq/Kurdish territory in in spite of repeated U.S. requests that they stay out.

The real story, however, is how world opinion of the U.S. has fallen sharply in recent months. The NYTimes is reporting today that opinion polls by the Pew Charitable Trust show "a serious disconnect" between Americans and their traditional allies. While 59 percent of Americans say they support a war against Iraq, only 39 percent of Britons and 13 percent of the Spanish favor military actions. Gee, aren't those our two biggest allies and they don't seem to have anywhere close to majority support of their home populations. The survey also showed that favorable opinions of the U.S. have fallen sharply in many countries including Germany where just 25 percent had a favorable opinion of the U.S. compared to 61 percent last June. In France, the numbers have fallen from 63 percent a year ago to 31 percent today, and in Italy it fell from 70 percent a year ago to 34 percent today. Wow! Just imagine what they will think if things don't go exactly as planned during the next several days.

From the resignation speech of Robin Cook, who stepped down as leader of the House of Commons in the UK to protest the Iraq situation.

"The threshold for war should always be high. None of us can predict the death toll of civilians in the forthcoming bombardment of Iraq. But the US warning of a bombing campaign that will "shock and awe" makes it likely that casualties will be numbered at the very least in the thousands. Iraq's military strength is now less than half its size at the time of the last Gulf war. Ironically, it is only because Iraq's military forces are so weak that we can even contemplate invasion. And some claim his forces are so weak, so demoralised and so badly equipped that the war will be over in days.

We cannot base our military strategy on the basis that Saddam is weak and at the same time justify pre-emptive action on the claim that he is a seri ous threat. Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of that term - namely, a credible device capable of being delivered against strategic city targets. It probably does still have biological toxins and battlefield chemical munitions. But it has had them since the 1980s when the US sold Saddam the anthrax agents and the then British government built his chemical and munitions factories.

Why is it now so urgent that we should take military action to disarm a military capacity that has been there for 20 years and which we helped to create? And why is it necessary to resort to war this week while Saddam's ambition to complete his weapons programme is frustrated by the presence of UN inspectors?"

On the one hand, Saddam is so weak that we are predicting a quick and easy military victory. On the other hand, we are being told that Saddam is an imminent threat to U.S. security and therefore we must embark on a pre-emptive attack with or without the support of international allies.

Last night in his speech, Bush spoke of a "broad coalition" that will use military force to disarm Saddam. But that coalition includes just two nations - the U.S. and Great Britain - Spain is not even providing any troops, just diplomatic cover such that it is. Bush went on to criticize France for its opposition to the war, but Cook makes it clear that France is not alone in its opposition.

"In recent days France has been at the receiving end of the most vitriolic criticism. However, it is not France alone that wants more time for inspections. Germany is opposed to us. Russia is opposed to us. Indeed at no time have we signed up even the minimum majority to carry a second resolution. We delude ourselves about the degree of international hostility to military action if we imagine that it is all the fault of President Chirac.
The harsh reality is that Britain is being asked to embark on a war without agreement in any of the international bodies of which we are a leading member. Not Nato. Not the EU. And now not the security council. To end up in such diplomatic isolation is a serious reverse. Only a year ago we and the US were part of a coalition against terrorism which was wider and more diverse than I would previously have thought possible. History will be astonished at the diplomatic miscalculations that led so quickly to the disintegration of that powerful coalition. "

I think that "diplomatic miscalculations" is putting it rather mildly.

The United States has ordered the U.N. inspectors to leave Iraq. It is the first clear signal that the diplomatic charade that the Bush administration has been trying to orchestrate is over and the war is set to begin. It now occurs to me that the rightness or wrongness of this war will now be judged on two factors -- the number of U.S. casualties (Iraqi casulaties are irrelevant) and whether or not the U.S. economy will bounce back after it is all over. The stock market already shot up 200 points today in eager anticipation of a quick war. I can only hope that the war does go well, that Iraq's army scatters at the first hint of confrontation and that Saddam either flees or is quickly dispatched. But even if that is the case, the aftermath is still likely to be an ugly, drawn-out and expensive affair.
I have never been convinced that this war is necessary. Perhaps if Bush were capable of defending his position in a one-on-one interview with an aggresive reporter the way that Britain's Tony Blair does here, then I would feel a little better. But I can't even imagine a U.S. TV reporter being that tough and/or knowlegeable in any case, so maybe it is not entirely Bush's fault.

Consumer confidence has plunged to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to a Reuters report. That means it hasn't been this bad since, well, since the last time there was a President Bush in the White House.
War fears continue to drive gasoline prices higher. Unemployment continues to hover at the highest level in more than a decade. The Economic Policy Institute has reported that we are experiencing "the longest continuous stretch of job decline since 1944-46." Since March 2001, the economy has lost 2.5 million private-sector jobs.
Let's face it. Bush has been in office for more than two years, over half his term, and there are no bright spots to point to on the domestic front. The driving obsession of this administration for the past six months - at least since it became clear that Bush's tax cuts were not having the desired effect on the economy - has been in prosecuting an unprovoked conflict in Iraq. As a diversionay tactic it has worked like a charm. It largely responsible for the Republican victories in the November election fueled by "rally round the flag" sentiments. But the question that remains is what effect will the war have on the economy? I'm sure Bush's folks are hoping - betting the farm - that a quick victory in Iraq will be followed by a rebound in U.S. consumer confidence which will then drive the economy back into the black just in time for Bush's re-election campaign in 2004. Then, with a fresh mandate (who knows, maybe he will even win the election this time) and possibly a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and continued control of the House, the Republicans can finally push through their entire agenda on tax cuts, education vouchers, repealing Roe vs. Wade, filling up the federal courts with movement conservatives, elimination of environmental regulations preventing oil drilling and logging efforts, etc. A rightwinger's paradise.
Unfortunately, when this whole loopy fantasy comes crashing down, it's not going to be the wealthy Bush supporters who suffer the most. The vast majority of the Bush team never served in the military, and their children are not serving there now. They did not attend public schools and neither do their children. They live in a different world where you make a fortune by investing big piles of other people's money and then looking for ways to keep from paying taxes on it.

Looks like there will be no diplomatic cover for Bush's war in Iraq after all. Two days ago the White House was insisting that it was just one vote away from securing majority support on the U.N. Security Council. But that prediction has held up about as well as the administration's guarantee that its big surplus-eliminating tax cut last year would jump-start the economy. Guninea has said it will abstain and Chile has said it will vote no. But Bush is going to go forward anyway thrusting our nation into an unprecedented pre-emptive attack on another nation in defiance of the United Nations. Even Bush Sr. has come out in opposition to this foolish course of action!

Meanwhile, Bush's supporters here in the U.S., in a fit of pique, are busy tossing out their French toast and blacklisting the Dixie Chicks on country radio.

In order for Bush to win U.N. support for his pre-emptive war on Iraq, he must gain the support of eight other countries on the 15-member U.N. Security Council and avoid a veto by any of the five permanent members (U.S.; Great Britain; France; Russia; China). This is all but impossible as France and Russia have both made it clear they will veto a move to go to war at this time. Since Bush intends to go to war either way, he is simply trying to garner majority support from the Council to use as diplomatic cover when he ignores the veto. As best I can tell, the only thing that would halt Bush from going forward with the war now would be for Saddam to personally hand over the keys to the Iraqi oil fields to Dick Cheney.

It will be interesting to see if Bush can arm-twist enough of the little countries to get his 9-vote majority. Here is how the field looks right now:

Countries in favor of war:

United States
Great Britain
Spain
Bulgaria


Countries opposed:

France
Russia
China
Germany
Syria

The so-called Undecideds:

Mexico
Chile
Pakistan
Cameroon
Guinea
Angola

 I thought this was pretty funny from some Canadian comic:
       
       “On behalf of Canadians everywhere I’d like to offer an apology to the United States of America. We haven’t been getting along very well recently and for that, I am truly sorry. I’m sorry we called George Bush a moron. He is a moron but, it wasn’t nice of us to point it out. If it’s any consolation, the fact that he’s a moron shouldn’t reflect poorly on the people of America. After all it’s not like you actually elected him. I’m sorry about our waffling on Iraq. I mean, when you’re going up against a crazed dictator, you wanna have your friends by your side. I realize it took more than two years before you guys pitched in against Hitler, but that was different. Everyone knew he had weapons."

The last comment raises a good point about the World War II analogies that keep getting tossed around by war proponents today. Comparisons of Saddam Hussein to Hitler are ridiculous on their face, but they are made in such a way as to demonstrate the urgent need to go to war right away. Isn't it ironic then that back when Hitler was around in the days before Pearl Harbor -- attacking his neighbors, persecuting Jews and other minorities, using weapons of mass destruction -- it was the same types of folks who are so eager to go to war today (mostly Republicans and conservatives) who fought tooth and nail to keep us out of the war in Europe. The Republicans back then were even critical of FDR for his efforts to lend economic assistance to our European allies under assault from the Nazi's. So it took two years for us to get involved and only after we were provoked by the Japanese. And that is not counting the years that Hitler was building up his power base, just the time when he was being openly aggresive.

Check out the Adventures of Hercubush!

There was a most disturbing story that trickled out last Friday about the Iraq situation and it has received very little attention since then. It seems that a "key piece of evidence linking Iraq to a nuclear weapons program" was forged, according to The Washington Post. The New York Times and the L.A. Times reported similar stories.
Apparently, documents that Colin Powell used to show that Iraq officials were shopping for unanium in Africa two years ago had been fabricated. U.S. officials said they were duped. "We fell for it," said one unnamed U.S. official in the story. The U.N. spokeman said they do not blame the U.S. or Britain for the forgeries, but the story does not address who else might have been responsible or why.
That seems like a pretty serious question to me. If there is someone out there forging documents in an effort to help start a war in Iraq wouldn't it be prudent to find out who and why? And have they planted other false evidence. The U.S. media always laughs and dismisses the Iraqi government whenever they call charges against them "lies" but now we have proof for the first time that they were right. This doesn't mean that Saddam is suddenly a good guy or anything, but perhaps he is not as intent on obtaining nuclear technology as some interested parties would have us believe. I would really like to know more about these forged documents before we plunge into a bloody confrontation.

On a lighter note, I saw on one web site a suggestion for what we should name this war once it gets started:
Dubya Dubya III.

Every day now for the past five years I have been subjecting myself to the comic strip "Alley Oop". Why, I am not sure because it has to be one of the stupidest comic strips ever written. Maybe it was better years ago when the original authors were still alive, but the current yahoos that write the strip have no logical consistency whatsoever, and still I can't resist reading it everyday.
Alley Oop is about a caveman who has become the willing accomplice of a group of current day time travelers led by a Dr. Wonmung. The Doc has lately lost what little brains he ever had because he apparently
does not know how to repair his damaged time machine that he built. So a few months back he turned to the want ads to find someone who could fix it for him - and who shows up but one of his nephews from the future traveling back in a future time machine. Now if Wonmung was unable to keep his own time machine operational, how did his descendants advance the process and even have the technology in the future? Can't they see the fallacy here? Apparently not. Oh well, tomorrow Oop will probably do something so utterly stupid that I will forget about the other problems in the storyline.

I don't know if Gov. Howard Dean will be in the race long enough for me to vote for him, but for now I have to say he is my favorite for the Democratic Presidential nomination. In this speech at Drake University Dean outlines a position on the Iraq situation that is the best I have seen so far.
I'm still concerned that Dean won't be able to raise enough money to be a viable contender and I will probably end up supporting Sen. John Kerry as the practical alternative. But while we are this far out from the primaries, I can let my idealistic side outweigh my practical side.
The New Republic talks about Dean's surprising strength in Iowa.

"Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" passed the $330 million mark in domestic gross this weekend passing up "Forrest Gump" for the No. 7 spot on the All-Time list (not adjusted for inflation). I doubt that it will catch up to "Jurassic Park" with $353 million before it wraps up its theatrical run shortly after the Academy Awards show on March 23.
Here is the complete list.

Bush's top intelligence officer at the Pentagon and the No. 3 man at the CIA have met with Michael Drosnin, author of "The Bible Code," to discuss the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, according to today's Wall Street Journal. Drosnin claims that his "Bible code" can reveal Bin Laden's hideout in the Middle East and the Bush officials agreed to meet with him after he "pestered" them with faxes and phone calls.
Is it really that easy for any wingnut to get an audience with the top brass at the Pentagon these days? Was this just another case of the Bush folks pandering to the far-right religious nuts? Or are they really this desperate that they are willing to believe anything? The "Bible Code" is essentially some guy taking the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, running all the letters together like a big jumbo crossword puzzle and then searching for specific word combinations (forward or backward) by skipping every 'nth" letter. For a more thorough explanation and debunking of the Bible Code go here.

It reminds me of when I was a reporter in a small town in Connecticut covering a bunch of local officials struggling with a water shortage. Up until that point, they had relied on well water for the whole town but the wells were starting to run dry and they were desperately looking for anyway to stave off the big water companies from coming in and hooking everyone up to city water. Without the water company they could enforce a minimum one acre per residence rule on all new home building because that is how much room you needed to separate a well and a septic system. That way they kept out the multi-unit housing (apartments and condos) which would lead to (gasp!) poor people moving into town and filling the local schools with kids that would eventually require local property taxes to go up.... and so on.
Anyway, they couldn't find any fresh water sources and they were getting so desperate that they turned to a water diviner for help. You know, the people who walk around with a forked stick and claim that it can point the way to fresh water sources. The person they hired actually used a couple of bent coathangers. I thought that was pretty silly at the time and had a lot of fun writing about it. But now we have something similar going on at the top levels of our government. What's next? Astrologers in the White House!?! Oh, wait. I forgot. Ron and Nancy Reagan already did that.

I'm still miffed about the Veterans Committee for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Doesn't it seem unfair to have all the living members of the Hall get to decide who else can join their ranks? Wouldn't they have a selfish motive to keep as many people out as possible on the grounds that the higher they can raise the bar and the fewer people who can get in will make those who are already there look that much better?

On another note, there are now 9 announced Democratic presidential candidates. I wonder what the record is? The latest entry is U.S. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida. I predict he will be treated as a Top Tier contender because of his Senator status, at least initially. Here is the complete list to date in the order that I think they shake out:

U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts
U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri
U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut
U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina
Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont
U.S. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio
Rev. Al Sharpton
Former U.S. Sen. Carole Mosely-Braun of Illinois

And they say that U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado are waiting in the wings.

The Baseball Hall of Fame's newly reformatted Veteran's Committee has failed to elect a single person to the Hall of Fame this year. No one was deemed worthy enough, not Gil Hodges, or Ron Santo, or Joe Torre, or Marvin Miller, or Tony Oliva, or Roger Maris.
That should not be a surprise to anyone except for the morons who run the Hall of Fame. They took what had been a 15-member committee and expanded it to more than 80 people. Then they gave everyone a ballot with 100 names on it and a strict rule that only people receiving 75 percent support can win election to the Hall. Well, Surprise!! No one will meet that standard - ever - (at least not without a lot of hype and a major marketing campaign) and the Veterans Committee is effectively defunct from here on out. Maybe that is what these holy guardians of the baseball temple wanted. They were apparently upset that the old Veterans Committee had been inducting too many people whom they did not deem worthy enough. So they charged the group with "cronyism" and came up with the new format.
Now that we can no longer count on the Veterans Committee to correct the more egregious ommissions of the Baseball Writers Association, is there any hope left? I'm not sure, but as long as they continue this charade along with their refusal to allow the All-Time Hits Leader Pete Rose on the ballot, the Hall of Fame will be plauged with controversy rather than accolades.

Judge Jim Bob Darnell of Lubbock has found a new use for all that duct tape left over from last week's terror alert scare.

I picked up a great CD at the library the other day... Bing Crosby-Radio Days. It was a compilation of songs from Bing's radio show in the 1940s and had him performing a bunch of songs I had not heard before as well as singing with a wide array of guests such as Peggy Lee, Bob Hope, Burle Ives, Judy Garland, Maurice Chevalier, Dennis Day and Nat King Cole. I sure wish I could find more of this stuff.
I'm still reading the Bing Crosby biography "A Pocketful of Dreams" by Gary Giddins. I got on this Bing kick after hearing him on the Ken Burns Jazz CDs that I got last year. You might have missed him if you weren't paying attention. He is certainly not featured and barely even mentioned in the Ken Burns series. But one song they include in the collection by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra "Ain't No Sweet Man Worth the Salt of Your Tears" has a vocal section by The Ryhthm Boys, which included Bing in his earliest incarnation. That little bit of singing in the midst of what was mostly an instrumental piece was enough to set me off on a quest for Bing Crosby music.
Fortunately for me and my pocketbook, I found a four-disc compilation of the Best of Bing Crosby at the library and recorded it. Now Bing is right up there in my pantheon of greatest singers along with Elvis, Bob Dylan and The Beatles.

"In the last 30 days British Prime Minister Tony Blair has held two formal press conferences during which he answered about 56 war-related questions. Bush’s same tally for that time period? Zero."
One admirable thing about the British parlimentary system is how it forces the PM to go before the House of Commons and make his case on a regular basis while answering questions (or dodging) from the opposition.

I think this laughable color-coded mess of a terror alert system is just the latest scheme by Bush's henchmen to keep our minds off of his disasterous handling of the economy.

Such brilliant and masterful handling of our foreign policy! Bush's mad rush to war is forcing us to resort to arm-twisting and bribery to get crucial allies like Turkey in line. Now Turkey is demanding we pay them $32 billion for use of their space to set up our advance war operations.
Meanwhile, we are watching financially strapped state governments back here in the U.S. toss poor children out of the Medicaid programs.

Turkey is demanding something more than our "word" that we will come through with the payment as well, and who can blame them. We already renegged on a promise to build a nuclear power plant in N.Korea and that is one of the reasons the NKs are going back on their end of the bargain and restarting their nuclear weapons program.

Let's see... Bold foreign policy moves to take our minds off of the domestic disasters... but then what do you do when the foreign policy initiatives start to run afoul? Orange Alert! Quick! Everybody run out and buy duct tape and plastic sheeting!

And then toss out Michael Jackson to the ravenous TV networks during sweeps week and Voila! No one cares anymore.

President Bush is quoted today saying that the worldwide anti-war protests of the past weekend will not dissuade him on his plans for Iraq. He dismissed the millions of people who attended rallies around the globe by comparing them to a "focus group." Of course, the president is not going to let a "focus group" dictate how he will set U.S. foreign policy, and it is even commendable for a president to go against the tide of opinion to do what is right. But is waging war on Iraq really the right thing to do?

The last time we waged war in Iraq, it was relatively bloodless for our side. I'm one of the few people who actually knew someone who died during that conflict. The reason the battle was so bloodless is become for the most part we sat back and lobbed bombs and missiles at the enemy. When it was time to move in with the ground troops and engage in the house-to-house, type of urban warfare that would have been necessary to totally dislodge Saddam from power (something that would have sent the U.S. bodycount climbing dramatically), that is when Bush Sr. decided to declare victory and go home.
Now Bush Jr. is ready to pick up where his Dad left off and go forward with Part II. Saddam is weaker today than he was back in 1990, but that hasn't deterred the administration and the conservative media propagandists from hyping him into a monstrous beast of Hitlerian proportions. This is the part that most disturbs me. If the administration so desired, they could hype Mohamar Quadaffi in Libya as a threat to rival Saddam. But that does not suit their current purposes, so we hear nothing about him. Past administrations have hyped Fidel Castro as a threat to our well being, all to no avail.
I think the pattern that Bush Jr. is looking at for this conflict is not so much the first Persian Gulf War, as his Dad's incursion into Panama to capture Manuel Noriega. That would be quite a trophy to bring back. A quick raid by U.S. Special Forces surrounding Saddam's palace and blasting him with rock-n-roll music until he surrenders and we haul him back and put him in a jail cell somewhere in Florida. If only it was that simple.

Here is a quote from another president named George (Washington, that is.) Written in 1796, Washington warned future presidents against the dangers of ill-considered foreign entanglements.

"The nation which indulges toward another by habitual hatred, or habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. The nation, prompted by ill will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy."

The folks behind Blogger.com have just been bought out by Google. Read about it here.

Oh goody. The Washington Post today has this to say about the future of Reality TV:

"But there's no sign that reality is going away soon. ABC last week launched "Are You Hot?," a show in which men and women compete solely on the basis of sex appeal. It has scheduled 10 more reality series through the summer. NBC is planning to carry "Around the World in 80 Dates," in which a contestant has romantic escapades with partners from other countries. CBS is readying "Cupid," a series similar to "The Bachelor."

Fox, meanwhile, has bought "Spellbound," a reality show in which three attractive young women are hypnotized to believe that an unattractive man is their perfect mate (the show is produced by Elisabeth Murdoch, the daughter of Rupert Murdoch, who heads Fox's parent company). And Fox will replace "Joe Millionaire" next month with "Married by America," a series in which viewers vote to match-marry contestants.

In all, as many as a dozen reality series of one kind or another could be on the networks' schedules next fall."

Hypnotism!?! Do they really think people are that stupid? I may have to sell my TV due to lack of use...

This probably would have happened even if Spiderman had tanked at the Box Office, but the fact that it made more than $400 million domestically didn't help matters. According to the Wall Street Journal today, Hollywood is on a big-time superheroes kick with the release this weekend of Daredevil being just the tip of the iceberg. Coming later this summer is X-Men 2 followed by The Hulk. And then next year we will get Spiderman 2, The Punisher and Iron Fist, followed by Blade III and Iron Man in 2005. By that time, of course, we will probably also have Daredevil 2 and a spinoff movie for Jennifer Garner's Electra character (both already in the works). Plus there are rumored movie scripts and projects in development for Ghost Rider, the Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer and Sub-Mariner. And that doesn't even take into account the inevitable rebirth of the Superman and Batman franchises.
So what is left to do? Surely they will do movies for Capatin America, Green Lantern, Aqua-Man and The Flash. Superhero movies are bound to become as prolific in our generation as Westerns were during the previous generations.

Most of the time these days the national news just makes me angry and depressed and it seems the only response is to write angry and depressing posts about the state of the nation. But I found a web log today where this guy Adam Felber responds to the awful news with biting satire and humor. So that is my recommendation for today. Check him out at Fanatical Apathy.

The Oscar nominations are out and I guess I can't complain too much since The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers did get a Best Picture nod. But I'm still going to complain anyway.
Here are the Best Picture nominees:

Chicago
The Hours
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Gangs of New York
The Pianist

All the nominees are here 75th Annual Academy Awards

First, I'm upset about the snub to Peter Jackson in the Best Director category. They always make a point of not nominating one of the Best Pic directors each year and this time they skipped over Jackson after nominating him last year for Fellowship of the Ring. In his place, we have Pedro Almodar, the Spanish director of "Talk To Her," the highly praised Spanish-language film which did not get nominated in the Foreign Language category because the Academy only allows each country to submit one film each year and Spain chose a different picture. So apparently the Academy intelligentsia decided to "show" Spain how wrong they were by giving Almodar the director slot. And I guess they figure to make it up to Jackson next year by giving him the gold statue for "Return of the King."

I still want to go see Chicago and Gangs of New York. The other two, The Hours and The Pianist, will probably be rentals sometime down the road. I'll be interested to see if I think Gangs really deserves the Best Pic nod in place of say, Catch Me If You Can or Minority Report., the two Spielberg offerings this year.

I can't say too much about the acting categories since I haven't seen most of the films. I never really thought that Andy Serkis would get nominated for his groundbreaking performance as Gollum. Maybe next year. I notice that Golden Globe winner Richard Gere was shut out by the Academy for his performance in Chicago. Instead, it seems every other major character in that movie got a nomination, even Queen Latifah. I was also sad to see that Houston-native Dennis Quaid did not get the acting nomination that was expected for Far From Heaven. I liked Christopher Walken in Catch Me If You Can and I'm also a big fan of Paul Newman (Road To Perdition).

On the music side, Lord of the Rings was passed over for Musical Score, but at least Catch Me If You Can score by John Williams was nominated. I really loved the music in that movie with its jazzy, 1950s-60s era feel. On the Best Song category, we can also rejoice that Madonna did not get a nomination for her James Bond theme song. Instead, we have Eminem (the only one of the group that I've actually heard, and like) and U2 for music in Gangs of New York. But where did this "Wild Thornberries" song nomination come from? OK, I guess because it is a Paul Simon tune, but it should have gone to Lord of the Rings for "Gollum's Song."

The Academy wised up this year and nominated Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine in the Documentary category. In the past, they have passed over films like Moore's "Roger and Me" and the anti-death penalty film "A Thin Blue Line" in favor of obscure pictures made by Academy friends and family members - a mini-scandal that now seems to have been corrected.

The only one of the animated nominees I have seen is "Ice Age" which I did not like. "Spirited Away" is supposedly the critical favorite while the inclusion of the critically panned "Treasure Planet" can only be a testament to Disney's marketing prowess.

One final happy note is the inclusion of "About A Boy" in the Best Screenplay category.

Got to see "Catch Me If You Can" this past weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. Tom Hanks plays an FBI agent in the financial crimes section who becomes obsessed with catching a teenage mimic who has been cashing bad checks and passing himself off as everything from an airline pilot to a hospital administrator. The movie makes you side with Leonardo DiCaprio's character right from the beginning by drawing you into his shattered world at the point where his parents are breaking up. It takes longer, however, to feel empathy for the Tom Hanks character who comes across first like the police official in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables chasing after some poor guy who stole a crust of break to feed his starving family. Of course, DiCaprio's character is stealing a bit more than just bread. By the time the movie is well underway, he is driving around in Porsches and pretending to be like James Bond in Goldfinger.

The Oscar nominations will be announced tomorrow morning and I am hoping that The Two Towers will get a Best Picture nod, but I am worried it may get passed over this year. We shall see. My best guess on the Oscar best picture nods is Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, Lord of the Rings - Two Towers, About Schmidt.

This small item is worth noting from today's New York Times:

"Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who now chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has hired a coal lobbyist to oversee clean air legislation."

Breathe in that fresh air while you still can. After having lived for several years in Connecticut and watching the smog roll in from New York City on a warm summer day, I gained a better appreciation for clean air laws.

Another interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today. That's the nice thing about the WSJ, the editorial page may be full of right-wing propaganda, but the news section is solid. Today's article on Page A4 talks about how the pharmaceutical firms got a big thank you from the Republicans in Congress after helping them take over the Senate during the mid-term elections with $50 million in campaign donations. In return, they got the U.S. to block an effort by the World Trade Organization to allow poor nations to have access to less costly generic drugs to tackle acute health problems.
At the insistence of mostly Republican lawmakers indebted to their pharmaceutical contributors, the U.S. Trade delegation stood alone among the 144 members of the WTO to block the proposal that would have distributed generic copies of patented drugs to less-developed nations. Now untold thousands of people in these desperate nations will continue to die as a result of easily treatable diseases, all thanks to Mr. Compassionate Conservative and his so-called Pro-Life Party.

On the same page is a story about the Bush administration threatening to veto the budget bill if lawmakers insist on slipping in a $3.1 billion disaster relief package for drought-stricken farmers. It's hard to feel sorry for the farmers I knew up in the Texas panhandle, all of whom vote straight-party Republican every chance they get. But they should know that it is much more important that Bush get his tax cut for the rich, before worrying about things like health care, education and disaster relief.

Oh, and the New York Times today had this on its front page: "Hiring in Nation Hits Worst Slump in Nearly 20 Years". So Bush Jr. is looking to best his father on several fronts. He has already proposed a budget with bigger deficits than his father, now he is overseeing the worst employment decline in years.

"The economy has lost more than 2 million jobs, a drop of 1.5 percent, since the most recent recession began in March 2001."

The decline was only 1.3 percent during Bush Sr. Congratulations!!!

Got to see The Bourne Identity last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. James Bond is great and all, and I still need to see the latest Bond flick, but this is what future Bond pictures should strive to be like. A hero who relies on his skills and instincts to survive, rather than charm and fancy gadgets. I'm looking forward to the next movie in the series The Bourne Supremacy which is now in the script stage according to several movie web sites.
In other movie news, The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers has earned $316 million domestically so far, passing up Fellowship of the Ring for the No. 9 spot on the All-Time list. It should pass up the first Harry Potter film later this week.

Things were jumping around here today as news that Toyota has selected San Antonio for its next automotive plant finally was confirmed. It could very well reshape the southern portion of the city which has been in need of a healthy dose of economic development. The $800 million plant will employ about 2,000 people and have an annual payroll upwards of $80 million.

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent story on Bush's 2004 budget proposal today. They note that Bush Jr. is looking to top his Daddy's record deficits with his own record-breaking bid for $307 billion worth of red ink. The WSJ is remarkably blunt in its analysis of the Bush plan noting several areas where he is using slight of hand to make it look like he is increasing spending on popular programs when in reality he is not.

They note that Bush proposes a new "bioshield" initiative to blunt germ attacks, but then does not provide enough funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to keep up with inflation.
He touts $200 million in new spending to boost low-income home ownership, while at the same time eliminating $574 million in funds for refurbishing public housing units. Ah, I see! By letting the public housing projects deteriorate he will force the low-income tenants to move out and buy their own homes. A brilliant plan!
Bush proposes spending $450 million next year to fight AIDS in Africa, but would eliminate that same amount from other aid programs for poor nations.
Here is the key portion of the WSJ story:

"The budger crunch results partly from the bursting of the stock-market bubble, the recession and the increased need for homeland defense following Sept. 11. But it's also partly of the administration's own making. At the outset of his term, Mr. Bush engineered tax cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years. He refused to scale back that ambition as the budget picture darkened. He has, instead, proposed still more cuts, arguing that the best way to return the government to surplus is to spur economic growth - and thus higher tax collections - through tax cuts."

Ah, yes. Supply side economics, or "Voodoo economics" as Bush Sr. once termed it. That was how we ended up with the $4 trillion debt under Reagan. We finally managed to get back to budget surpluses under Clinton. How? The WSJ addresses that too...

"Mr. Bush's father and President Clinton were forced into similarly austere situations following Ronald Reagan's tax cuts. To restrain deficits, the first President Bush agreed to tax increases in exchange for handcuffs on federal speding. Mr. Clinton, too, raised taxes as one of his first acts.
The tax boosts, spending curbs and a booming economy combined to create the biggest surpluses in American history."

So there you have it. Today's history lesson. If you cut taxes and spend more than you have you end up with huge deficits and the economy suffers. If you raise taxes and eliminate the deficits, the economy turns around. It is called being fiscally responsible. Something that conservatives used to stand for.

But Bush is proving to be far more right-wing than his father and possibly even more so than Reagan or Nixon. His budget slashes funds for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Oh, and it does not account for the cost of a war in Iraq or the cost of an extended military occupation of that country during the aftermath.

It's funny how even in today's hectic world you can still shut everything out for a day. On Saturday we kept the TV and radio off and just did odd jobs around the house while listening to CDs. I washed both cars and waxed my truck and remember thinking it was a little odd that my next door neighbor had decided to put his American flag out. Why on Feb. 1? But then I did not give it any more thought. That night we went to the symphony and the first inkling that something was up came after the intermission when the conducter said that a selection by Bach - Air from Suite No. 3 in D Major - was being dedicated to the crew of the Spaceshuttle Columbia. I thought that was odd, but maybe they knew somebody on the flight or had some other connection. It wasn't until the next morning when I picked up the Sunday papers that I finally learned of the terrible tragedy.
It wasn't like that 17 years ago when the Spaceshuttle Challenger blew up. At that time I was a junior in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M with a TV in my dorm room (a junior privilege). I remember just standing in my room with some of my buddies staring at the TV and watching the shuttle blow up again and again. It is disconcerting reading the names of the Challenger crew again - they had all become so familiar back then. Now we have seven new names to learn. I still have not turned on the TV. I know I will see it all soon enough.

The San Antonio Symphony was a nice treat. First we heard the full orchestra play Brahms Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a. It was very good, but not very familiar and there were a few slow movements where I almost nodded off. But afterward they introduced a young trumpet prodigy (age 24) from Russia named Sergei Nakariakov and he accompanied the orchestra on Hummel's Concerto in E-flat major for trumpet and orchestra, the Bach piece and Arban's Variations on The Carnival of Venice. I have to say, I have been listening to a lot of jazz trumpet lately so I was not sure what I would think of the classical variety, but the kid really had his chops (as the hipsters in the jazz clubs would say). They made a point of having him be the only trumpet playing during the pieces just so you knew that all of those notes were coming out of just one horn. It was a bit like listening to an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo.
The orchestra finished the set with Haydn's Symphony No. 104 in D major "London".