Drusus (K. Christian McGuire) writes: "When Communism invades a comminuty, it destroys free enterpirse by monoplizing goods, services, and employment. It destroys free enterprise by creating a monopoly which provides food, clothing and other goods once supplied by privately owned small businesses. The people in turn are forced to work for that monopoly at a wage at or near poverty. Their choices are limited to the cheaply made goods provided by other communist manufacturers through their employer. These products are purchased by their low wage earnings thereby giving the people no chance to succeed. The only ones who profit are the few lucky leaders who apply a miniscule fraction of their earnings to their propaganda machine which encourages people that submitting to their system is the Patriotic thing to do. Wait, did I say Communism? I meant WalMart. WalMart - Always low wages. Always. Don't let our Troops die for WalMart. Free Enterprise depends on you Boycotting WalMart".

How Many Closets Are There In The White House? Can you imagine what would've happened to President Clinton if the Secret Service records indicated that a male prostitute had checked in to the White House, and hadn't checked out at the end of the day on several occasions? The other day, Raw Story reported the results of a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Rep. Slaughter and Rep. Conyers. The report indicated that discredited journalist and prostitute Jeff Gannon had unusual access to the White House, making 200 appearances in just two years. In and of itself, the fact that a pseudo-journalist had such access to the president is alarming, but just how much access did Gannon have? Raw Story notes several anomalies about his visits: Guckert made more than two dozen excursions to the White House when there were no scheduled briefings. On many of these days, the Press Office held press gaggles aboard Air Force One—which raises questions about what Guckert was doing at the White House. On other days, the president held photo opportunities. On at least fourteen occasions, Secret Service records show either the entry or exit time missing. Generally, the existing entry or exit times correlate with press conferences; on most of these days, the records show that Guckert checked in but was never processed out. Read It Here: This isn't the first time a male prostitute scandal has engulfed the White House. Read It: And who can forget Neil Bush, the president's brother? In 2003, transcripts of his divorce trial reveal his preference for Asian hookers: The Bush divorce, completed in April after 23 years of marriage, was prompted in part by Bush's relationship with another woman. He admitted in the deposition that he previously had sex with several other women while on trips to Thailand and Hong Kong at least five years ago. The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and had sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them. "Mr. Bush, you have to admit it's a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her," Brown said. "It was very unusual," Bush said. Read It:

Sam on Fillibusters For the last week, Sam of 917 Press has been covering the senatorial showdown over judicial nominees...Great stuff from a fine man...

Yes, Merle, Good Times Are Over For Good Yesterday, Rick Holmes wrote about the 80's energy crisis in the Watertown paper: Back in the '70s and '80s, the automakers said all American drivers wanted was muscle cars. Their business model counted on millions of people feeling the need to buy a new car every year, an appetite they encouraged deliberately by changing styles - though not performance - with each model year, and unintentionally by building cars that started to fall apart after a year. "I wish a Ford or a Chevy would still last 10 years like they should," Merle Haggard sang back in the '80s. "Are the good times really over for good?" Americans soon figured out that Hondas and Toyotas lasted 10 years and then some. They didn't have a lot of chrome and their styles didn't advertise the model year, but they got 25 or 30 miles to the gallon. They had to - they were designed for Japanese customers who were paying $3 to $4 for a gallon of gas. Detroit's first response to the invasion of cheap, dependable, fuel-efficient cars was to lobby Washington for help. They begged for limits on imports and resisted higher fuel-efficiency standards. Read It: Gee, that sounds familiar...I'm sure glad Detroit has learned from its mistakes, and now builds economic cars rather than cheaply-constructed gas guzzlers. The difference between the eighties and the present day is that the price at the pump won't be going down. Don't take my word for it--after all, I'm just a chicken-little environmentalist--listen instead to the petroleum geologists from the oil companies. The one thing that international bankers don't want to hear is that the second Great Depression may be round the corner. But last week, a group of ultra-conservative Swiss financiers asked a retired English petroleum geologist living in Ireland to tell them about the beginning of the end of the oil age. They called Colin Campbell, who helped to found the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre because he is an industry man through and through, has no financial agenda and has spent most of a lifetime on the front line of oil exploration on three continents. He was chief geologist for Amoco, a vice-president of Fina, and has worked for BP, Texaco, Shell, ChevronTexaco and Exxon in a dozen different countries. "Don't worry about oil running out; it won't for very many years," the Oxford PhD told the bankers in a message that he will repeat to businessmen, academics and investment analysts at a conference in Edinburgh next week. "The issue is the long downward slope that opens on the other side of peak production. Oil and gas dominate our lives, and their decline will change the world in radical and unpredictable ways," he says. Read The Guardian Article:

John Bolton's Nemesis My old friend Aaron Knight, Executive VP of Citizens for Global Solutions is the Anti-Bolton. For years now, he's fought for "a future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve problems facing humanity that no nations can solve alone", as the organization's mission statement declares. John Bolton, on the other hand, believes in premptive war, unilateral solutions, subterfuge, and deceit. Consider the following clip from CGS: Watch It Here: You might think that a belief in the efficacy of diplomacy would be a prerequisite for being a diplomat...Not in George Bush's America. Considering that Condi is the head of state, and Wolfowitz is the head of the World Bank, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that a government that rose to power with a distinctly anti-government message can do nothing but destroy the institutions it claims to lead. How much more proof do you need that these people have nothing constructive to offer? How much further do we need to go into debt? How many more soldiers and civilians need to die needlessly? If you'd like to see Aaron's vision become a reality, please visit Citizens for Global Solutions and get involved.

Bolton Vs. Bolton It's clear to anyone following American politics that John Bolton is to diplomacy what Michael Bolton is to music. My friends over at The Poor Man provide us with a helpful comparison/contrast chart to illustrate the point...

Good News From Iraq! Sean Hannity of Fox News interviewed Condi Rice yesterday, painting a pretty picture of the war. Let's talk about, you know, earlier this week, there had been so much good news coming out of Iraq. The insurgency, especially after the elections, had almost dropped off the map. There was talk earlier this week also of the possibility our troops can come home much earlier. Things look pretty good from the plush chairs in the news studio, but how does Peter Cockburn see it from Mosul? At least 17 Iraqis were killed during the day and two US soldiers were reported dead after a series of attacks. Ironically, one reason why Washington can persuade the outside world that its venture in Iraq is finally coming right is that it is too dangerous for reporters to travel outside Baghdad or stray far from their hotels in the capital. The threat to all foreigners was underlined last week when an American contractor was snatched by kidnappers. When I was travelling in the northern city of Mosul this week, my guards ­ Kurdish members of the Iraqi National Guard ­ said it was too dangerous for them to travel with me in uniform in official vehicles. They donned Arab gowns, hid their weapons and drove through the city in a civilian car. Read It: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=630712

The Growing Gap Between The Rich and The Economically Illiterate PBU16 For the longest time, I've laboured under the false conviction that I had an obligation to be concerned about the well-being of those less fortunate than myself. Perhaps I was brainwashed by Christianity. Consider the message behind Acts 4:32-37 for example: The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need. It's practically the communist manifesto. A layman's reading of the text above led me to conclude that sharing and caring for others was an important "culture of life" value. Little did I know that I was simply economically illiterate. David Morris of the Institute for Local Self Reliance writes... IN 1998, WITH much fanfare, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis formally launched its "Economic Literacy" initiative. As President Gary Stern explained: "Economic literacy is crucial because it is a measure of whether people understand the forces that significantly affect the quality of their lives." The initiative includes student essay contests. This year, the Minneapolis Fed invited high school juniors and seniors to tackle this question: "What role, if any, should the government play in addressing income inequality?" To guide the students, the bank issued a primer. "One often hears the phrase, 'The rich get richer and the poor get poorer,'" the primer begins, and then refutes the adage because "income inequality is widening [while] ... poverty rates steadily decreased." The primer concedes that some people believe inequality weakens society's bonds but wants the students to know that there are "possible external benefits of income inequality ... In fact, some contend that ... income inequality provides incentives for those who are at low- to middle-income levels to work hard, attain more education and advance to better-paying jobs." The Minneapolis Fed received nearly 250 essays from high school juniors and seniors from 39 schools in six states. The overall winning essay is titled, "Income Inequality: Not a Government Issue." The winning essayist writes, "the average CEO is paid over 400 times as much as the average worker" but explains, "Without these top earners to aspire to, the productivity of the American economy would collapse." Read It: It's a good thing Kenneth Lay is out there to aspire me to make more and more money, or I probably would've spent the rest of my life aspiring to nothing more than food, shelter, and affection, and a modicum of self-esteem. Just think what might have been!

Basic Fairness and Third-World Debt Relief A show of hands: How many people think Paul Wolfowitz, as head of the World Bank, will fulfill Bush's "Unshakable committment to alleviating 3rd World Debt"? Imagine this scenario: You're quietly sitting around your home in 1993, enjoying an episode of that year's newest comedy hit, Seinfeld. While George confesses that he's not the "master of his domain", an armed gunman breaks down your door, kills your wife, and announces he's taking control of your household. For the next five years, he runs up your credit cards, spends your children's college fund, and trashes your house. You call the police, who refuse to interfere with a "domestic dispute", and the banks respond to your pleas for help by giving your tormentor a higher credit limit in exchange for your family's heirloom jewelry and the produce from your garden, which you are forced to tend by your family dictator. Fortunately, your despot dies from a heart attack after engaging in a three-way with prostitutes from Sheboygan, but now you're saddled with debt, your children are starving, and your assets have been liquidated. In such a situation, wouldn't basic fairness compel us to forgive the debt of this household, allow them to declare bankruptcy, and excuse the debts accrued during this tyrranical reign? This is, in a nutshell, what has happened in Nigeria and elsewhere throughout the developing world. America, the World Bank, and Europe all turned a blind eye to despots like Sani Abacha and Mobutu. It's time to stop holding the innocents accountable for the behavior of the tyrants we've supported.

Obfuscation on Nomination NPR presents a great synopsis of the Judicial nominiation battle. Republicans would have you believe that the votes that reach the floor are the only pertinent measure of obstructionism. Nothing could be further from the truth. You won't hear them discuss how many nominees they bottled up in committee in the 90's. With respect to judicial nominations, the most effective tactic in opposition has been to bottle them up in committee. In the later years of the Clinton presidency, the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was controlled by Republicans, did not hold hearings for as many as 60 of his nominees, according to Democrats. They argue that this refusal to even consider President Clinton's nominees was just as effective in blocking them as a filibuster Read It:

Fools That Follow Who is the bigger fool, the fool, or the fool that follows a fool? For over a year, I've been calling attention to the fundamental dishonesty of Powerline, the so-called bloggers of the year. From the Swift Boat Veterans to their smears against Mark Dayton, Powerline has shown a complete disregard for the truth. Once again, Hinderaker and his well-heeled colleagues have lobbed false accusations into the blogosphere, hoping that something would stick. This week, Powerline called the Schiavo talking points memo a fake, and the fools that constitute their readership took the bait. A few days later, an aide for Florida Senator Mel Martinez admitted writing the memo. You would think that this would lead to a Mea Culpa on the part of Powerline, but that would be projection. Their core belief in the infallibility of their own judgement is unshakable. David Brock's dissection of the whole affair reveals the web of lies centered on Powerline: Read It: You can't blame Powerline too much; they're simple-minded provincial opportunists who have discovered the way to become influential in George Bush's America. Like Condi, Colin, Wolfowitz, Pearle, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bolton, etc., ineptitude and deceit are the keys to the kingdom. I fully expect at least one of them to receive an ambassadorship in the years to come.

Basic Fairness and Third-World Debt Relief A show of hands: How many people think Paul Wolfowitz, as head of the World Bank, will fulfill Bush's "Unshakable committment to alleviating 3rd World Debt"? Imagine this scenario: You're quietly sitting around your home in 1993, enjoying an episode of that year's newest comedy hit, Seinfeld. While George confesses that he's not the "master of his domain", an armed gunman breaks down your door, kills your wife, and announces he's taking control of your household. For the next five years, he runs up your credit cards, spends your children's college fund, and trashes your house. You call the police, who refuse to interfere with a "domestic dispute", and the banks respond to your pleas for help by giving your tormentor a higher credit limit in exchange for your family's heirloom jewelry and the produce from your garden, which you are forced to tend by your family dictator. Fortunately, your despot dies from a heart attack after engaging in a three-way with prostitutes from Sheboygan, but now you're saddled with debt, your children are starving, and your assets have been liquidated. In such a situation, wouldn't basic fairness compel us to forgive the debt of this household, allow them to declare bankruptcy, and excuse the debts accrued during this tyrranical reign? This is, in a nutshell, what has happened in Nigeria and elsewhere throughout the developing world. America, the World Bank, and Europe all turned a blind eye to despots like Sani Abacha and Mobutu. It's time to stop holding the innocents accountable for the behavior of the tyrants we've supported.

Today's News Headlines: Pope, pope, pope. Jackson. Pope, pope, pope. Schiavo. Pope, pope, pope. Popeity popeity pope.

Best Blog: Extended Erudite Commentary No need to nominate anybody else. Prolific author Lawrence Velvel, dean of The Massachussets School of Law, has become the internet's anti-rendition standard-bearer. I find his blog nothing short of inspirational. Read Velvel on National Affairs: