Thieves in the Temple.

blast it, that damn liberal's invoking Animal Farm again!

Well, talk about bad timing: Colombian President Uribe's cousin, who arguably made the President who he is today, has just been arrested for association with right-wing paramilitaries, including the one who've been gunning down labor leaders and forcibly displacing Afro-Colombians. All of which makes Democrats (even more) antsy about passing a new "free" "trade" agreement with Colombia. Mr. Bush will yap about how the Columbia FTA is a matter of "national security." But his braying doesn't matter; all that matters is our voice, and our action.

Meanwhile, closer to home, the Senate blocked a vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, as expected, and Republicans whined about all the lawsuits that'll result, as expected. And then Senator McCain suggested (after missing the vote) that women shouldn't rely on government to do its job, but should just get "the education and training." Well, gosh, Johnny Mac, what if they already have "the education and training," and still get shafted, as Lilly Ledbetter did? The "liberal" media, which has carpet-bombed Mr. Obama for speculating on how folks get "bitter" during bad economic times, will probably make all sort of excuses for Mr. McCain's statement. But no, women are not meant to be Boxer from Animal Farm, saying I will work harder to every intractable problem requiring a community solution. Many times, we ought to be making corporations work harder. CREDO has the action alert.

pennywise, et cetera.

FAIR summarizes the goodies from that New York Times exposé of Pentagon propagandizing. Said goodies include the following: that CBS tolerated plenty of pro-war propagandizing from its analysts, but got sanctimonious about firing anti-war analyst (and retired general) John Baptiste; that when news organizations hire military folks as "analysts," they have a built-in excuse to exclude anti-war voices; and that news organizations didn't properly check analysts' ties to military contractors that made money off the war. One ABC spokesman said that "(w)e make it clear to" the analysts that "we expect them to keep us closely apprised” of potential conflicts of interest. Because finding those conflicts of interests beforehand, and acting upon them, wouldn't be, like, doing journalism or anything. FAIR provides contact information for several putative decision-makers at ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox News. That should make for some real message force multiplying.

Once again we ask Burger King to pay just one more penny per pound for tomatoes and ensure that Florida's impoverished tomato pickers -- who work long hours at low wages with no overtime and face physical abuse and wage fraud -- get that penny in increased wages. The other fast food corporations do it, yet Burger King still refuses, like we were asking them to grow all their tomatoes organically or ensure their tomato pickers earn a living wage or something. Uh-oh, I'm getting ideas. The other idea I'm getting is "no more Whoppers until Burger King gets it."

push it along.

I think we've pretty much passed the point where Mr. Bush can permit a terrorist attack on the U.S. merely to prove that he really, really, really needed those big telecoms to receive immunity for their participation in his warrantless wiretapping program in order to protect the country. But October lies ahead, and by then few will remember -- and the "liberal" media certainly won't remind us -- that Mr. Bush could have had his basket warrants from Congress if he hadn't been inflexible on big telecom immunity. And by then, Tha Bush Mobb might be after bigger game.

Back in 2004, I speculated privately to friends that Tha Bush Mobb probably wouldn't permit a terrorist attack in October because they could win the election without one. And certainly John McCain will be as likely to win in 2008 as Mr. Bush was in 2004. But this election may not be very much about helping out John McCain, but about keeping Tha Bush Mobb out of jail and/or international war crimes tribunals. A terrorist attack on the U.S. close enough to the election, followed by a summary declaration of martial law (n.b. that the last two Congresses have expanded the President's martial law powers), sure would help Tha Bush Mobb in these aims. And they may already have the interment camps.

All together now: I don't say these things to depress you. I say these things to prepare you for the worst, and I also say these things so that, if Tha Bush Mobb is really planning something this dastardly, they'll know we're on to them. I can't say it hasn't worked so far, though, surely, I can claim very little credit for that.

set the controls for the heart of the sun.

The Senate prepares to vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (named for the woman whose suit for pay discrimination led the Supreme Court to virtually eviscerate the right to sue for pay discrimination), and, as you might expect, there's a good shot Republicans will filibuster the bill. Would it kill those damn Republicans, really, to permit a little justice to happen? Would it kill Mr. Bush, who's promised to veto the bill, to do the same? Let Republicans explain why they oppose good Americans suing for pay discrimination while these same Republicans permit employers free rein to conceal it. (Surely you've worked for companies that had rules prohibiting discussion of pay with co-workers?) Meanwhile, the rest of us will play offense.

The New York Times recently found that the Pentagon hired military experts to infiltrate the media with pro-war propaganda. This information would have been more useful to the citizenry earlier in Tha Bush Yearz, but the article finds that ex-Secretary Rumsfeld recruited a group of military high-ups and taught them talking points to take to the major news channels, and such a finding is a bit different from just knowing they're doing it without knowing exactly how. Once you know exactly how it's done, for one thing, you can set about making sure it doesn't happen again and that the folks who did it the first time get punished (since spreading "covert propaganda" is, in fact, illegal). FreePress helps you on your way to reaching that eminent aim.

If you're planning to head to the polls today in Pennsylvania, remember that the Election Protection Hotline's number is 1.866.OUR.VOTE. The hotline number will help you answer questions about polling place locations, and will help protect you if you're a victim of intimidation and/or deception. Don't presume, just because you're voting Democrat, that you won't face any shenanigans. Remember all those Native Americans who somehow "failed to cast a vote for President" in New Mexico in 2004? Well, that happened under a Democratic Governor. And you can't put nothin' past nobody these days.

penny rants for the day of April 20, 2008.

The latest jeremiad from America's Last Conservative, Paul Craig Roberts, kinda sneaks up on you. It follows the usual Bush Mobb says/truth rebuts pattern until the final seven paragraphs, when Mr. Roberts describes exactly how American hegemony might completely fall apart in the wake of an American strike against Iran. His scenario requires that four countries act in concert, which is a bit tough, but even if Iran sank both the Eisenhower and the Stennis in the Persian Gulf that would be humiliation enough to a nation used to thinking of itself as the world's number one. That couldn't be Tha Bush Mobb's secret plan, could it -- to subject American hegemony to so many humiliations that Americans will cling to Republican hegemony domestically? I'd think people would catch on to Republican complicity in that humiliation. But I don't know.

Citizens for Tax Justice has the goods when you have to argue with your Republican uncle that "revenues rise when the capital gains tax gets cut." As you might expect, they don't -- they did in 2003, but 2003 alone doesn't constitute a trend, except perhaps in the minds of those who get most childish at tax time. It's a shame we can't argue with Charles Gibson about it, since he insisted the same thing during that hot-and-steaming ABC debate the other night, and (and this point gets lost) Messrs. Obama and Clinton apparently weren't prepared to call him on his rubbish.

Rasmussen reports that 60% favor Mr. McCain's proposal to suspend the gasoline tax for a few months. I'm not a big fan of the gas tax, and I'm sure there's bipartisan support for the idea (which was Sen. Menendez's idea as recently as 2006), but I have to wonder whether the media's misreporting of a 20-cent cut as a 20-percent cut, a mistake that in the old days got reporters fired, had anything to do with that figure. I also wonder how many of those 60 percentage points include folks who believe the gas tax is more onerous than it is, who believe any tax is an offense to their sensibilities, who believe George W. Bush's tax cuts actually helped them. We don't have to settle for uninformed democracy, do we?

Maybe I'm not the best political oracle, but between Wednesday night's "debate" and the continuing annoyance of "news items" like this, I'm starting to think the "liberal" media may have screwed with the wrong guy. Remember 2004, when just about every day was a bad day for Mr. Bush? I used to talk to Bush supporters then, obviously because I was a masochist, and nothing that imbecile ever did shook their faith in him -- in fact, criticisms of Mr. Bush just made them cling to him harder. I think Mr. Obama's supporters might have a similar circle-the-wagons mentality, and since Mr. Obama hasn't left nearly as much wreckage in his wake as Mr. Bush has, they'll feel a lot less conflicted about their man than Mr. Bush's supporters no doubt do. Consider, also, that Mr. Obama has gained a bit on Mrs. Clinton in Pennsylvania in the most recent Rasmussen and Zogby polls. And he's picked up more high-profile endorsements the last few days, like Robert Reich and ex-Democratic Senators Nunn and Boren. The Republicans' suppress-the-vote operation is going to have to pretty good to stop this fellow -- better than it has been, I'd think.

there's a ghost in my house.

Unhappy with recent Congressional efforts to deal with the housing crisis? Consumers Union to the rescue! This contact tool helps you express your support for practical reforms that would help us get out of this mess -- like encouraging lenders to restructure loans so folks can avoid foreclosure, or ending lending practices that slam good folks with high-cost loans, or preventing lenders from giving out loans to folks who can't afford them. Simple stuff, really -- unless you're blind with greed.

The Climate Security Act (S. 2191), a Joe Lieberman/John Warner production, could cut total emissions 30 percent by 2025, but Mr. Bush has less ambitious goals in mind, like stopping the growth of emissions by 2025. This comes on the heels of his bold plan to stop the growth of emissions "relative to economic growth" by 18 percent by 2012. Cutting emissions "relative to economic growth" would be useful if the planet were growing as fast as the economy, and cutting the growth of emissions is, of course, not the same thing as cutting emissions. Anyway, Union of Concerned Scientists helps you demand improvements to the Climate Security Act. Specifically, they'll help you demand bigger emissions reductions, fewer free emission allowances for polluters, and an absence of additional subsidies for coal or nuclear power, which get enough love from the federal government. All worth doing, unless you're bold like George W. Bush.

Council for a Livable World helps you write a letter to the editors of your local paper advocating a sane approach to dealing with Iran. Like, you know, diplomacy and such, in which Iran is more interested than Tha Bush Mobb would like you to think, since they don't want a civil war on their border any more than anyone else. Used to be even the most right-leaning President regularly talked with the Soviet Union in order to reduce the nuclear threat, but that's not bold enough for George W. Bush. Hasn't Mr. Bush heard that the more friends you have, the longer you live? I guess his only friend is money. And that won't be enough during the hour of the wolf.

Finally, you know what ABC did Wednesday night during their "Presidential" "debate." FreePress has this contact tool aimed at ABC News President David Westin. ABC News's phone number (provided by FAIR) is 212.456.7777, and their email address is netaudr at abc dot com. And I'd be on the lookout for the next ABC station whose license is up for renewal (my local ABC station just had its license renewed, gosh darnit), because that pile of hot-and-steaming they served up Wednesday night sure didn't serve any local community anywhere.

sowing seeds.

"I'm aware our national security team met on this issue," Mr. Bush said to ABC News Friday night, in re the issue of CIA "enhanced interrogation" techniques, "and I approved." What does futureBush say? "Well, I said I approved of the meeting, not of the techniques, you know, ha ha ha snort?" Clever little futureBush! But Mr. Bush and his Mobb may have violated the War Crimes Act and the federal Anti-Torture Act -- not to mention the Geneva Conventions, which are-so U.S. law because the U.S. Senate ratified them -- and he won't wiggle free of those charges except through his vaunted thuggishness. Call for an independent prosecutor here.

The Contracting and Tax Accountability Act passed the House this week; now it's got to get through the Senate, and it might not. If it doesn't, though, the Fair Share provision in the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act would essentially do the same thing -- that is, close loopholes permitting defense contractors to avoid paying taxes. And it might be harder for a Jefferson B. Sessions to claim that he opposed something called the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act because his fat cat buddies told him to. Well, harder, but not impossible -- these contractors tend to claim that their tax avoidance is a national security issue, of course. Anyway, USPIRG has the contact tool. You'll make a phone call rather than send an email, since the vote's today.

Public Citizen provides a contact tool calling for an end to the filibuster on the D.C. Voting Rights Act, which would give the District of Columbia a voting Representative in the House. The bill would also give Utah, traditionally a Republican stronghold, an additional seat in the House. Word on the street, though, is that said additional seat might not be a sure Republican seat, as at least one prominent and popular Utah Democrat waits to see where she might be moving in advance of the next pertinent election. But if the Republicans can't hold on to a seat in freakin' Utah, which (for example) hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1970, then that's their problem.

Finally, the Nader campaign has trumpeted a Zogby poll giving Nader/Gonzalez 5 percentage points in a series of hypothetical national matchups. However, a later Zogby poll puts Mr. Nader at 3 percent and former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr at 2 percent in similar matchups, suggesting that Mr. Nader's hold on the Libertarian vote is more tenuous than he thinks. But I still think Mr. Nader can get conservatives to vote for him, because the conservative/liberal divide isn't nearly as wide as the right-winger/sentient entity divide. (N.B., Nader-haters: per the later Zogby poll, Mr. Obama wins the general election matchup against McCain/Nader/Barr, and Mrs. Clinton doesn't. Which supports what I've said all along: if Democrats want to win, they ought to put up someone who vaguely resembles a winning candidate. And if they actually adopted any part of the program of the man who's more liberal than they are, instead of smearing him as a "spoiler," that'd help, too.)

UPDATE. Inexplicably I subtracted 6 from 1976 and got 1972; the last Democrat to win a Senate election in Utah was, in fact, three-termer Frank Moss in 1970. Mr. Moss lost his re-election bid to the Orrin Hatch Blues Explosion in 1976. Error corrected above.

return of the predictor!

The Quakers provide a toll-free number, 1.800.473.6711, so that you may call your Congressfolk and urge them to boost the economy by helping those in need -- specifically by extending unemployment insurance, providing nutrition and home energy assistance, and giving aid to states so they don't cut their own services. The Coalition for Human Needs provides a short pdf demonstrating what a good stimulus plan would look like; you may want to refer to it during your phone call. What Congress normally does, of course, is help large businesses while claiming to help small businesses. The various foreclosure bills coming out of Congress demonstrate, with little exception, this pro-business, anti-citizen bent. But it's our government, and we need to bend back.

The FCC has voted to compel TV stations to disclose basic information about how they serve the public. Which is, you may recall, why they exist, and which is, you may recall, why we can protest their license renewal every few years or so. Don't know what brilliant rhetorical tactic big media will deploy in its attempt to stop this maneuvre -- it duplicates government efforts, it's a solution in search of a problem, it will keep me from gilding the plumbing on my tenth house, something like that -- but I predict big media's feeble complaints will not withstand the onslaught of public comments that stopbigmedia.com helps you leave with the FCC.

CREDO provides another pro-net neutrality petition. It's not just about Comcast blocking BitTorrent traffic, you may recall -- it's also about Verizon blocking pro-choice text messages, and it's also about AT&T "accidentally" blocking anti-Bush lyrics during a Pearl Jam streamcast. And organizations like the Christian Coalition know damn well it could very easily be about blocking their content, too, which is why they (and their allies like former Senator Lott and Rep. Pickering) are on the right side of this issue. Let the big telecoms grandstand about the right to manage their networks. Their rights aren't better than our rights.

swords and knives.

So the "surge" gained 30,000 soldiers' worth of additional security in Iraq, providing an opening for a "political" solution. Thing is, the "political" solution was never for the Iraqis, it was for the Republicans, and behold! The "liberal" media hardly covered the war this past winter, and (despite that Green Zone-bombing moment the other day) John McCain might be our next President. General Petraeus told Congress yesterday there'd be a "45-day period of consolidation and evaluation" starting in July before pulling out any troops, which sounds like more stalling to me. So here's a petition calling for Congress to cut off Iraq war funding. Signing it will not put the troops in harm's way, since the petition explicitly states that the withdrawal of the troops should be funded. I mean, duh. Besides, Mr. Bush has already done a pretty terrific job of putting our troops in harm's way.

Public Citizen provides a contact tool supporting the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act (S. 223). S. 223 would compel Senate candidates to file campaign finance forms electronically (as House candidates already do), and would also make campaign finance information (i.e., donors' names and how much they give) available online. But there's danger! Senator Ensign has attached a "poison-pill" amendment requiring nonprofits to name their members and donors whenever they file ethics complaints against senators. Sounds like a pre-emptive threat against nonprofits, doesn't it? Pre-emption is popular on Capitol Hill these days, you know. But I say pre-empt the threat from Senator Ensign by calling your Senator and making him/her aware that you know what's happening.

Meanwhile, the Fair Share Act (H.R. 5602/S. 2775) aims to prevent defense contractors from using foreign shell companies to avoid paying federal taxes (and, not incidentally, employee benefits). One of the most notorious of these companies, of course, is the Halliburton spinoff Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR), which has, apparently, hired most of its American workers in Iraq through two Cayman Islands-based companies. So let the Republicans stand alongside their corporate crooks if they like. I suspect good Americans will do differently.

my plus-one for today.

I've just received word from FreePress that comments on FCC rules concerning low-power FM (LPFM) stations are due at midnight tonight. The FCC is considering either a) opening up unused airwaves to low-power stations or b) reserving those airwaves for use as "translators" by big telecoms trying to extend their reach. Possibly the big telecoms argue that they need translators in order to compete with emerging technologies. I argue that big telecoms don't need less competition, they need more -- and, ideally, they need it from more owners, and smaller owners, and more diverse owners. All the adversity will help those big telecoms build more character! FreePress helps you leave your comments.

the way we live now.

Tha Bush Mobb Department of Energy presses on with its plan to build more unneeded nukes -- this, though even recent Republican Congresses have opposed such plans. You may be wondering why the Department of Energy works on nukes -- shouldn't it be working on, like, energy? You can thank President Reagan (who changed the Department's mission) for that -- and, by extension, President Carter, for being a bad enough President to give the Reagan Revolution an opening. CREDO helps you leave a public comment. Deadline for comments is April 10.

Fair Economy's new tax cut calculator is up. It works the same as previous ones, and tells you how much money Tha Bush Mobb tax cuts are saving you -- so that, if you don't have a mountain of bills like most people, you can give those savings to charities or worthwhile political causes. Alternately, you can donate it to the Bureau of the Public Debt (scroll to the bottom of the page) and help pay off some of that debt Mr. Bush has run up. This is the lonely road I walk, and I'm very fortunate to walk it.

Finally, for your edification, here are a trio of readings about the coming economic armageddon: Citizens for Tax Justice finds that the Foreclosure Prevention Act helps big businesses out and not, er, good folks actually facing foreclosures; Progressive States describes how the federal government aims to eclipse state efforts to pop the predatory lending bubble; and Mike Whitney explains how the Paulson plan will actually give Congress less oversight over financial markets. Remember, knowledge is power -- though knowledge plus a federal government that acts on behalf of its real owners (the American people) and not its usurpers (the corporations) would be more power.

I'll give Michael Mukasey something to cry about!

Word on the street is, Mr. Bush wants to talk with Congress about another compromise on warrantless wiretapping. I'll bet this "compromise" includes a) basket warrants or b) big telecom immunity -- or both. This news comes hot on the heels of Mr. not-Gonzales's tearful lie that 9.11 could have been prevented by warrantless wiretapping -- which we know is a lie because, for the ten thousandth time, the FISA law allows the President to begin wiretapping 72 hours before he/she gets the warrant. And because Tha Bush Mobb's warrantless wiretapping program began before 9.11 and therefore did not prevent 9.11. And because Tha Bush Mobb received several urgent warnings from FBI agents in the field (and, er, that Presidential Daily Briefing of August 6) and failed to act upon them. Anyway, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's phone number is 202.225.3130. You know what to tell him: never compromise with George W. Bush. Even if he, you know, says he can't guarantee he can keep America safe. That would sound a lot like a threat to me. I do not believe such a threat would be protected by the First Amendment.

The Nancy Pelosi-led Congress has managed to cut out most of the backward garbage spewed forth by the Republican Congresses that preceded hers -- so whither the SAVE Act, which would require every U.S. employer to use "electronic employment verification" to cross-check all current and potential employees' citizenship status against government databases? I'm guessing the bill intends to find illegal immigrants, but using this bill to do that would be like using a sledgehammer to kill an ant, and then missing the ant. And the Social Security Administration estimates that its database has almost 13 million errors involving U.S. citizens. If you're a U.S. citizen and you're the victim of a database error, you could lose your job, and never be able to appeal that loss. Sounds like a lot of Bush Mobb political enemies might fall victim to a "database error." And if our next President is named Obama or Clinton, their political enemies ought to worry, too. Tell your Rep to oppose this madness.

Union of Concerned Scientists provides a contact tool with which you may help pressure General Motors to build more hybrid cars. Its two new hybrid SUVs (the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon hybrids) blow most of their added fuel economy by having larger engines than the non-hybrid Tahoes and Yukons. Also, building more hybrids will not cost jobs. CEOs hold every change for the better hostage to the idea of "lost jobs" -- just like they hold workers' benefits hostage to "uncertain economies." If they were as creative as they are rich, we'd have a much better world. (By the way: if your drinking buddy is making the case that Priuses are actually worse for the environment than Hummers, here's some ammo.)

The EPA did something right for once: they've recommended a Clean Water Act veto of the Yazoo Pumps project in Mississippi, which would build the world's largest hydraulic pumping plant in a place were almost no one lives. I should say "almost no one but a bunch of big agribusiness concerns," which would use the pump to make more money. Did I mention that the project would lay waste to nine times the wetlands that normally get laid to waste in an entire year across the country by private developers? Well, Mr. Bush probably already has some sneaky statistical lie at the ready to justify that monstrosity. Here's the contact tool.

Of course, today is the 40th anniversary of Rev. King's death. Remember to take a moment of silence in his honor.

so it shall be.

CREDO provides a petition asking Secretary of Defense not-Don Rumsfeld to end the stop-loss program, by which DoD keeps soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq after their terms of enlistment end. Many proponents of stop-loss no doubt claim that the government needs such an option to deal with unforeseen problems in the conduct of war. I respond that this government refused to foresee any of the quite foreseeable problems in the conduct of this war, and when a government abuses its power so grossly, we must take that power from it. I might also respond that many proponents of stop-loss are, generally, folks who are not fighting this war and who never have fought any other war. But that might be piling on.

Pennsylvania voters, take note: over three-quarters of Pennsylvania's counties use electronic vote-eating machines which leave no paper trail. If you're a Pennsylvania voter, Common Cause can help you contact Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes urging him to correct this matter. Mr. Cortes has a job not dissimilar to Mr. Blackwell's job in Ohio in 2004, when he was also Ohio co-chair of the Bush/Cheney re-election (sic) campaign. Hopefully Mr. Cortes will be conscious, if nothing else, of how spectacularly Mr. Blackwell's career flamed out after that.

The Contracting and Tax Accounting Act will come up in the House soon; the Act would bar private contractors who don't pay their federal taxes (and, according to the GAO, these contractors are delinquent to the tune of $7.5 billion) from receiving any further government contracts. Let's see the Republicans spin this into a "tax increase." Oh, wait -- with the "liberal" media's help, almost any Republican monstrosity can be accomplished. We draw the line here. And tomorrow, we'll draw the line again, and again and again, until they learn to stop crossing.

I was about to say, if Tha Bush Mobb came up with the plan to give the Fed more regulatory power, then it must be a bad idea. But I wanted to get a bit more guidance from those more learned than I before saying something so brash. After reading Danny Schechter's March 31 report, I came to the following conclusion: if Tha Bush Mobb came up with the plan to give the Fed more regulatory power, then it must be a bad idea. You don't need to be an economist to see that, nor do you even need to be among the living: President Wilson, after signing the law creating the Federal Reserve in 1913, said, "I have unwittingly ruined my country...all our activities are in the hands of a few men." I thought we had an America so that we could avoid being "in the hands of a few men."