Rotting from the head down

This is it. Gannon-gate. Low-level operatives breaking laws while their high-level sponsors wink. link

Reid, Clinton Detail Prevention First Amendment

While DeLay spins, the adults in congress are actually doing some good work.

Dead Wrong

What do you do when you launch a pre-emptive war based on intelligence that was dead wrong?

Perhaps there will be a future war-crimes tribunal that brings the current leaders of this country to justice.

Neurologist Cranford Owns Scarborough

Joe attempts a contest. Finds himself to be totally outmatched when faced with someone who actually knows what he is talking about.

Illegal Muscle

Line from Andrew Lloyd Webber's EVITA: "We have ways of making you vote for us, or at least of making you abstain!"

Bush (hswib) League Employment Agency

Do you ever wonder what our system would be like if people got jobs based on skill and merit instead of cronyism?

Pig, Meet Lipstick

The progress of "democracy" in Afghanistan.

DeLay Down

WSJ begins to waffle.

The Guckert/Gannon History.

Kossacks Susan Gardner and Todd Johnston lay out the Guckert-Gannon timeline. It's kind of like Cinderella, only sleazier.

Bush (hswib) League Expertise

Brad DeLong points out how clueless the Bush (hswib) Social Security expert really is. And the NYT is indicted for just lapping up the cluelessness.

The Creationist Strategy

One of the reasons fundamentalists are such masters of playing the victim card is because they are so intent on mounting attacks themselves. With the ascendance of the Enlightenment that is the true fountain of the principles on which our form of government is based, the tyranny of religion was exiled to the isolated cultish communities of faith here and there while the religious mainstream learned to accommodate life in a civil, pluralistic society. In this mode the factually uninformed religious beliefs of a large portion of our populace were fairly harmless because they were separated from the organs of power.

But today it has become a new ballgame. The zealots have now been able to sieze power and they are actively disassembling the high standard of objective reality in the public discourse. When good science must take a knee to bad theology our country has a deep problem. And that is what is happening all across the nation. These people are barbarians and the ideals of America are in real danger from them.

Feud may be as much over money as principle

Why hasn't a case like the Schiavo one come up before? Thankfully because few parents are willing to use their dying child as a pawn in a fight over money! Why is it that underneath every right-wing stand on principle we find a puddle of slime?

Spinning Trustees

Brad DeLong explains why this year's Trustee's Report is so bogus. The executive branch continues to generate more crap than a feedlot.

The White House lies about Latinos and Social Security

Tell me it isn't so, William.

Overcoming the Reagan Legacy

It should have been the rule of Fram, "pay a little now, or a lot later." Mental Health Service Costs Offset By Savings In Other Public Sectors.

Penn State researchers have found that reduced expenditures for inpatient hospitalization, the juvenile justice system, the child welfare system and the special education system offset the costs of the improved mental health services delivered to youth through the system of care approach now being tried in communities in every state in the U.S.

Big Hopes For Tiny, New Hydrogen Storage Material

A little something from the lab across the street.

The pleasures of no accountability

Via Kos. Republican hypocrisy demonstration Lisa and Jacob

Khartoum

Mount up. The next warfront

Tort Reform, Snort Reform

A truly frivolous enterprise.

Republican Vaudeville

Gawd! What a country! The best show in town.

American Electric Utilities Planning New Nuclear Reactors

The Finns are leading the way but American utilities are coming round.

Apologies

I apologize to potential commenters who have been unable to post lately due to Blogger performance issues. They seem to be doing better now that they have doubled their server bank. But I don't think performance is completely up to snuff just yet. Please persevere.

What a show!

Read all of Digby's post:

"''These politicians,'' Shorty hissed, her hands trembling with emotion. ``They're just playing a game. It's not about her anymore, it's about them getting what they want. It's about them wanting to look good in front of the people who are pro-life. I'm against abortion, too, but I believe each person has their own right to decide. You know in your heart what is right for you and you have to live with any decision you make.''"

Despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, all this hoopla is about the dispute between Chaivo's husband and parents. If they had been in agreement either way it would be a done deal. Constitutional scholars are quite concerned about the precedent this case sets on federal review of the decisions of state courts it cases of this kind. Right now the right is happy with the feds sticking their noses into state jurisdictions because the current federal courts lean their way. But watch out for the hypocritical screaming that will ensue when the courts start leaning the other way. All we'll hear is states rights, states rights, states rights. That's moral values for you.

A Positive Program for Social Security

In contrast to the one-note Johnnies on the right, there are a number of good ideas for Social Security out there. Here's one.

Where's the outrage?

I wonder how much trouble Jeff is going to bring onto his head for this? Criticizing our Dear Leader and his enablers for being two-faced about torture, the inhumanity!

The Bush administration and the military insist that any abuse of detainees is a violation of policy and that abusers are being punished. If so, why does it refuse to allow a genuinely independent commission to investigate without fear or favor? Why do Republican leaders on Capitol Hill refuse to launch a proper congressional investigation? And why do my fellow conservatives -- those who support the war for all the right reasons -- continue to keep silent about a scandal that should have them up in arms?

Delay And Company

Tumulty of TIME magazine has an article on the stink accumulating around Tom DeLay.

Darfur

This article not only gives insight to what is happening on the ground in Darfur but also has some good, workable suggestions on what can be done about it.

What people don't know won't hurt us

Steven Aftergood on the Bush (hswib) overview-obstructing methods:

"The information blackout may serve the short-term interests of the present administration, which is allergic to criticism or even to probing questions. But it is a disservice to the country. Worst of all, the Bush administration's information policies are conditioning Americans to lower their expectations of government accountability and to doubt their own ability to challenge their political leaders.

Information is the oxygen of democracy. Day by day, the Bush administration is cutting off the supply."

A Fair and Simple Tax System for our Future

I think the Center for American Progress has a set of proposed tax reforms that make a great deal of sense. It includes the closing of major loopholes, a simplified 3-tier structure, all income taxed the same, a revision of the payroll tax, and a genuine incentive for savings that works for everyone not just the rich.

Update: Kevin's take.

Put your gas tank where your mouth is

BP and ConocoPhillips have committed to do no drilling in ANWR. ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco on the other hand are ripe for a nice principled boycott.

Recycling

Lessee. We've got Condoleeza Rice, John Bolton, Wolfowitz, and now Karen Hughes all with new jobs. The Bush (hswib) administration doesn't seem to be willing to stray beyond the boundaries of the ranch much these days. And oh yes, all those retread judicial nominations. Looks like a drought of ideas and talent. No surprise. It's been that way from day 1.

Reid threatens partial Senate shutdown

Harry Reid is truly a man for these times.

War Movies

Phil Carter whines about the PR damage that is being done or has the potential to be done with footage shot by soldiers. It ain't pretty stuff. He wants the Pentagon to somehow put a stop to the practice (as if it could). But I think he has gone completely the wrong track. The amateur videos show what we have asked our troops to do in our name and whatever heat that comes from that we have fairly earned. Grow up, Phil. War is Hell. And the uglier the better. We don't ever need to be sugarcoating the consequences of making war. Otherwise we can never hope to be able to make mature decisions about it.

A Dog's Day

Say Goodnight, Tom: "But, alas, alas, Tom DeLay is not a dog. He is the Republican Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, very nearly a human being. And, like the last roach after the apocalypse, he will cling to his political life, assisted by those who cower in his shadow, until he has polluted the entire house with his stench."

Eyes Wide Open

Boots and Shoes

Dollar Hiccups

At some point the Great Unravelling will become the Great Slide to Oblivion. Perhaps that point comes when buyers of dollars decide that diversification is the way to go.

Power to the Powerful

Is Amerika headed towards becoming a tin-pot dictatorship? The Slaughter Report details how real deliberative debate is being eliminated by those currently in power. The guiding principle seems to be "Do whatever is possible to consolidate a single-party grip on the legislative process." At what point does this begin to endanger our constitution?

Sam Rosenfeld has more.

The Debt-Peonage Society

The latest Paul Krugman column. The current administration (hswib) is hell-bent to make major alterations to American society. But it seems their zealotry is only surmounted by the destructiveness of their ideas.

Widespread Arctic Warming Crosses Critical Ecological Thresholds

The preponderance of evidence continues to accumulate that global warming is real. Not only that but now it seems the earth may have crossed a threshold that will produced accelerated consequences. While some dither about a Social Security problem that is decades away, the unchecked alteration of our climate right now is being blissfully ignored.

Democrats need to Get It

LiberalOasis shows clearly that the Democrats are trying to provide what people really want and Republicans are not. This has been clearly exhibited in the debate about phasing out Social Security. And it holds true on many issues across the board. If we are faithful to our better rhetoric we can win because the people are already with us. We lose them when we begin to get soft on the genuine principles that define us.

"And the opportunity is ripe, during this Social Security battle, to make it crystal clear to the public which party wants their government to work for them, and which party wants the government to not work at all."

Galactica

Perhaps the days of the Cylons are not that far away. Once we can fabricate molecular-scaled circuits from DNA, what's next?