Office of the Independent Blogger

The fine art of pork-barrel spending is not only alive and well in today’s Washington but also being taken to great new heights by the Senators from Mississippi. Essentially, they want seven hundred million dollars to move a few train tracks a couple of miles north. It’s the largest earmark in history, and that about says it all.

In other financial Congressional news, Arlen Specter is threatening to cut funding for the NSA’s wiretapping program. Maybe Specter should take the initiative on pork-barrel spending and tell his fellow Senators that he’ll introduce expulsion motions against those who support such extravagent pork as the one mentioned earlier?

I’m surprised no one in the Congress has ever asked to expel a Congressman for spending. Such an attempt wouldn’t succeed, but it would bring attention to the issue from the public and it would lead to embarrassment for those like Ted Stevens and Trent Lott. I’m going to write my Senators and recommend this, as the fear of the public has to be instilled into the Credit Card Congress before they bankrupt us all.

Briefly, there are a few news pieces that merit a looksie. Karl Rove has been called before the Patrick Fitzgerald Valerie Plame Scooter Libby Grand Jury (mouthful!) for the fifth time, and it very well might be the first step in the prosecution of Karl Rove. Patrick Fitzgerald is the type of man who dogs his opponents in hot pursuit until the bitter end, and even when you think he’s not after you, he is. Karl Rove should be very afraid.

George Bush appears to be pursuing a Socialist agenda. Can you believe it? As one step toward lowering gas prices, he’s calling on Congress to repeal tax credits to big oil. I thought tax “credits” were the answer to everything? What about those poor business leaders in the oil industry — how will they afford their humvees? Maybe Bush doesn’t care, seeing as he’s pursuing Socialism, after all! But that’s not all — to counter his new leftward tilt, the President is threatening to veto a spending bill for Iraq and New Orleans. I guess he figures that Iraq and the Gulf Coast can fend for themselves?

Of course, his threatened veto isn’t something to take seriously. Bush has been threatening to veto spending bills from the beginning, and he signs them in the end, sticking true to his Communist core. Maybe Tony Snow will be able to help him clear up his mixed messages, but I doubt it. The only answer to the President’s rose-colored view on red-letter spending is to give him a pair of glasses that work. Or a calculator with which he can sort out his “fuzzy-math” budgets.

Barring that, the only other solution is clear: to give the job to Phil Gramm! Dear Bush, no.

The Temperance Movement has a new member, and some of its previously private supporters are now making waves.

Eight Major Generals of the Military have called for Donald Rumsfeld to resign with a new man joining the chorus today, and apparently there are more waiting in the wings to speak out. Couple that with the Congressional Leadership warning Bush about Rumsfeld, and there’s a hefty opposition to Rummy. George Bush’s response to the staggering strength of the Temperance Movement is out, and it’s as follow: “I don’t do leadership based on opinion polls. I do it with my faith in God.” Yes, the President did say that today, and it’s a tad humorous, certainly when you put it into the current context. You see, I don’t know if anyone’s explained it to him, but Donald Rumsfeld isn’t God, George. Fire him.

As everyone knows, strength is something that can be found in numbers, but not always. Hundred million dollar lawsuits don’t bring strength to Maury Povich much like thirty two percent approval ratings don’t help the average President, but George Bush isn’t the average President. Charges of incompetence and lack of evidence serve as spinach to Bush’s popeye, bubba, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Some people believe that lobbyists are causing the problems in Washington, while others think that it’s the every-two-years election cycle for House members. Katherine Harris displays another thing that might be causing trouble, and that’s having sex on the mind. And in Harris’ case, it isn’t just intimacy on her mind, but sleeping with the press. I thought that’s what Democrats — and John McCain — did, resulting in a liberal media?

Not only was Harris cozying up to just any reporter, it was a College kid, too. Incidents like this give hope to boys like me that one day, Katherine Harris might want to take my questions. Harris is an example of leadership and shows that being a House member can be fun! How nice it must be to curl up with someone on the House floor and canoodle — very romantic.

I am aware that this post is heavier with sexual entendres than Harris’ face is with makeup, but that’s okay. When you’re dealing with a carnal Congress that loves screwing people over, it’s all right to be explicit. Besides, I’m only making a point as to the nature of the Republicans we’re dealing with — people who pretend to be puritans but cuddle on the floor of the House. How do Republicans get away with this? By promising to outlaw sex toys in South Carolina. Maybe that’s Karl Rove’s next platform to run on?

Or maybe it’s because we’ve got people with goals such as those listed above that our country’s wallowing in so many problems?

The President sat at his desk, cursing his decision to run for President and damning the Electoral College. Perhaps he’d been drinking, but on today it didn’t appear likely. The President’s suit was crisp, his hair combed, his eyes wide, awake — and disillusioned. One day, when Bess Truman was upset with him, Harry wrote her a letter proclaiming that he longed for her, particularly after “doing a million things I don’t want to do every day,” and George W. Bush found himself knowing exactly what Truman meant by that on this particular afternoon.

His problem, today, was petty. His friends wanted to enjoy themselves at his expense, and asked him to charge their games to his credit card. George had never been able to decline — how could he say no to Tom and Dennis? — but now he was feeling wrong. How would his children feel if they knew what he was up to? How would his wife feel if she opened the most recent Congressional Record and read about the debts amassed? The guilt ate at him, but he couldn’t tell his friends what they didn’t want to hear. Or that was the popular consensus.

A part of him wished that the Democrats could be in control of the Congress. At least then he could turn his enemies down and not have to confront his friends. He had finally understood what his friends were feeling decades ago when they had to confront him about his alcohol problems. One night, after the millionth attempt at intervention, as he lay alone in the closet, his head resting on a soiled sock and his hair matted with dried liquor, the President told the bottle, “I wish I knew how to quit you.”

Now he was back to those days, except that the liquor was replaced by big spending and Congress was his dealer.

The President stood up and turned behind him, opening the curtains behind his desk to see the world outside, but all he saw were the no-longer-friendly faces of Secret Service Agents patrolling the lawn. They used to be his friends, but nobody stays your friend in Washington for long, he thought. Pretty soon, being President gets old and all you want to do is go home. George Bush longed for his Ranch, but now he knew that the time had come to do what he had to do.

He reached into his desk and took out the phone, his fingers tracing the old dial of the phone as he penciled in the number of Dennis Hastert. After a few rings the gravelly voice of Dennis Hastert came on the line, the first word spoken being “hello,” and Bush knew the time had come. “Dennis,” he said, “I wish I knew how to quit you. I wish I knew how to quit spending with you. But I’ve got to try. I’ve got to. So I’ve got to let you know. Next time you send me a bill — let me finish! Next time you — I said let me finish — send me a bill that has a bunch of costs I don’t want to pay, I’m not gonna pay them.”

Dennis Hastert, who was also sitting at his desk in the Speaker’s chamber that Tip O’Neill and Henry Clay had previously sat in, found his indignation rising. “Listen, George. You don’t know how to quit me, and your threatened veto is a brokeback. You won’t veto because you don’t know how to quit.” The phone went dead, and George Bush cried without letting the phone go. When Hastert was right he was right, but Bush would have to be strong. He resolved to be strong. He had to be strong for the Love of Richard Nixon, he thought to himself, before renegging on his own personal vow. “How many budgets did Nixon balance?” he asked himself.

As his thoughts turned to Republican Presidents past, none of whom having felt compelled to balance a budget in their terms, he remembered that he had to quit his Treasury Secretary, too. Conservative Republicans insisted on it, and he was in their doghouse enough as it was! He took the phone he had used to tell Hastert who the boss was — or to be told who the boss was? — and dialed Treasury. Getting a “This phone number is not in service message,” he buzzed Josh Bolten and asked him to dial for him. Bolten did it easily, without a problem, and Bush felt his resentment rise but gave a polite thanks. “Next time don’t dial T-R-E-Z-U-R-E,” Bolten said. “If you need help, call…err, buzz me.”

The President called the Secretary of the Treasury and received a hello. He opened his mouth to ask his resignation, but the words didn’t come. John Snow wondered if he’d just been prank called when Bush finally spoke words that nobody expected. “Dennis wants me to spend more money on him, but I don’t think I can. You make the money, right?” he babbled. “You could quit making money if I asked you too, right, and then I could say, ‘Hey, I’m brokeback, don’t ask me for money’?” John Snow told him that he could, theoretically, but didn’t want to go down that road. “It would be disastrous, Mr. President. You should just learn how to quit the Congress’ spending.” “It’s my spending too, John,” the President said, before bidding his Secretary farewell and hanging up.

The President realized that, for the millionth time in 2006 alone, he’d forgotten to ask for Snow’s resignation. “The Beltway’s wondering why I haven’t fired Snow, but the truth is that I don’t know how to quit him. I just can’t. The beltway will have to understand that I just don’t know how.” He remembered that he got Cheney to fire Paul O’Neill, and then wondered whether he should go down that road with Hastert.

Sitting back, thinking about the many ways to quit his problems, the President cursed the Senate for shelving immigration reform, and he thought about that little bastard who told him he should be ashamed of himself yesterday. He looked to his desk, his windows, his portraits of 42 and 41, before muttering softly, “I wish I knew how to quit you.”

As Slate so bitingly puts it, We’ve finally found the Leaker!

What everyone with half a brain outside of the Beltway has been talking about for the last several years has been “confirmed” inside the Beltway by Patrick Fitzgerald Court Documents saying that George Bush okayed leaks of classified information to reports regarding Iraq as a way to counter-attack critics of the War. If not direct proof that Bush ordered the outing of Plame it is evidence that Bush set the wheel in motion down the slippery slope by authorizing his attack dogs (and Cheney’s) to maul critics of the War using classified information. The Trial of Scooter Libby is just going to get uglier from here, that’s for sure. Karma can swing to and from you like a pendulum, and the truth always comes out. When it does, the pendulum lowers and so does the blade, and it’s all over for you.

Calvin Coolidge made a name for himself by letting his policies doing the talking and not saying much else. When Jimmy Carter admitted to having had “lust in” his “heart” on several occasions during his marriage, his wife’s answer was a curt, “Jimmy talks too much.” George W. Bush does, too, but in this case, he’s been caught running his mouth on something far more serious. Bush declared in 2004 that despite the War on Terror “wiretaps need Court orders”, and after his NSA program proved that to be false, the Emperor was proven to have no clothes. Bush famously declared on the Today Show that nobody could’ve anticipated that the levees would break, before it was shown that he clearly knew. Now his clothes are off with Scooter Libby, and they’re in for an adventure with Patrick Fitzgerald at the Courthouse.

It’s amazing that a Conservative Republican President doesn’t know how to keep cool like Coolidge and keep his mouth shut.

In other Bush news, he’s nominated a replacement for Mike Brown, and it’s the current acting head. Apparently he couldn’t find anyone in the Ranching Industry to replace the Horse-Breeding Brown, so he decided to go with what he had. Can’t you just imagine the questions he’ll be getting at his Confirmation hearings — “Excuse me, sir, do hurricanes mean more to you than your clothes? How much more?”

While I wonder if it occurred to Bush to offer the job to James Lee Witt, the Clinton FEMA Director who everyone has praise for, I think Paulison is a solid choice to replace Brown. At least he has experience irrelevant to breeding horses.

French people are known for two things, their cheese and their peaceful society, but I’ve never cared for either. Kraft Singles have always had a soft spot between my broad loaves while I hold a fondness for America that can’t be replaced. France has been up in flames with riots for a long time several times over the last year, and they’re rioting again over legislation that makes it easier to fire a bad worker. France is on fire, and they continue “negotiating” with those rioting in their streets. A teacher who happens to be a friend of mine once told me that the French were just going through the going pains of an emergent middle class of minorities like Americans did in the 1960s, but if that’s true, I do hope they hit puberty soon.

It’ll be nice to have an ally with a little testosterone, you know?

The French need a Richard Nixon-type leader, minus the Criminal Element. Think of Jacques Chirac as Lyndon Johnson, with good strong ideas but who is crippled by his own weaknesses, and then think of Richard Nixon and how, despite his hard line Rhetoric, he helped instill the Great Society into our Society and refined the better programs of Johnson. Nixon administered Johnson’s policies fairly well while strengthening the nation’s standing in the world (while weakening the leadership’s standing at home, I admit, although that was autonomous of his foreign policy successes) and that’s what France needs.

Imagine my amusement this morning to be browsing around the Internet and stumble across Robert Novak’s Inside Report, latest column, where he calls Tom DeLay “the congressional embodiment of the conservative movement.” That’s fine by me, and I’m sure voters will respond favorably to the Culture of Corruption. For Democrats, this is going to be the November to Remember. And for Republicans, it’ll be the Year to Forget.

One person who won’t ever be forgotten is Caspar Weinberger, the former Secretary of Defense who died last week, and he takes the Secrets of Iran Contra with him. But if James Pinkerton has his way, Weinberger will be known as the “greatest” Secretary of Defense we’ve ever had. Pinkerton’s entitled to his view, but for my money, his article’s more interesting for his honest criticism of Rumsfeld in the ending, where he states that “there was a disgraceful lack of military preparation for Iraq, and the war hasn’t been handled well since, either. Still, it was nice of Rumsfeld to show up and eulogize Weinberger on Tuesday - even if Rumsfeld’s presence at the funeral highlighted the stark contrast between the performance of the two Defense secretaries.” Who can disagree with that?

Pinkerton’s point — that a Defense secretary’s job is to prepare for war, and that Weinberger did it well — is spot on in the former and can be argued for the latter. In regard to Weinberger’s role in planning for War, he’s right that Weinberger saw the need for Peace Through Security, or as the Romans put it, “If you wish for peace, prepare for war.” Donald Rumsfeld would do well to take that advice, although he should probably watch The Fog of War. Before he sees the lessons of Weinberger or the Fog of War, Rumsfeld should see a Resignation letter and see to signing it. The great question Bush will be asking himself in ten years, aside from Where did my political capital go?, is Why oh why did I keep Rumsfeld on for so long?

He screwed up the War Effort and even failed to “Transform” the military, his stated goal at the start of his tenure. Why keep him? Probably for the same reason that George keeps Condi Rice. And when I find that reason, I’ll share it with you because I’m sure it’ll be good.

In Slate, an argument is made for doing nothing about illegal immigration and passing no reform. It’s interesting, although I think it’s off the mark a bit.

You can’t crack down on illegal immigration and liberalize it at the same time. The kind of split-the-difference compromise that is likely to result from a House-Senate-White House negotiation will surely be futile and wasteful. You can already see the outlines of another domestic policy disaster emerging: Bush will sign a law that threatens toughness but declines to apply it, that costs billions to administer but fails to reduce illegal immigration, and that creates massive new bureaucratic and legal headaches for everyone. This would be in keeping with past efforts, such as the big 1986 immigration reform bill, which promised serious sanctions against employers of illegals, has never been enforced, and has produced results the opposite of those intended. As a bold alternative, why not pass no immigration bill at all?

As I stated earlier, I think it’s likely that no bill will be passed because the Congress won’t be able to reconcile their differences. Their marriage can’t be saved on Immigration, and they’d do well to realize that. I spoke to a very Conservative friend of mine this morning and he asked me how I felt about immigration. I said I thought Bush had it right, and he said, “I think so too. You have to treat these people with dignity and respect. It’s not their fault they were born in a corrupt country with a crooked government and are looking for a better life.” I couldn’t have said it better myself, and I have tried.

It’s a shame that this is an election year, otherwise a reasonable compromise could be had and the travesty going on today could be avoided. But if the Republicans want to go from campaigning against immigrants to shooting them and thus sealing their own demise, then by all means they should.

In Illinois, we’re having a Governor’s election and incumbent Rod Blagojevich is leading challenger Judy Barr Topinka, who Conservatives are unhappy with and probably wouldn’t have made it without a four way Party split in the Primary. And they don’t think she can win, either. Or most of them don’t. George Will today asks, Can Topinka Turn Illinois Red? and the answer is, No. Illinois doesn’t vote Republican unless someone like Michael Dukakis is our candidate, and even then he only narrowly loses. This is a state that likes to vote Democrat for President and mixes it up in local elections. It’s not likely to change anytime soon.

Besides, Topinka is outmatched financially and doesn’t generate passion from either side of the aisle. Topinka’s an odd character, almost universally heralded as a “nice” woman but who says things like this:

She was nominated with just 38 percent of the vote, but thinks Republican factions will be fused by the heat of their dislike of Blagojevich, who, she says merrily, might be the fifth governor indicted since 1964. He is, she says, the person referred to as “Public Official A'’ in one or more of five ongoing investigations by Illinois’ Inspector Javert — Patrick Fitzgerald, the Chicago-based federal prosecutor who also is the pursuer of Scooter Libby. Topinka merrily says “there is no loyalty in (Blagojevich’s) administration whatsoever.'’ His “own staff rats him out'’ and “some of his staff have been wired.'’

Topinka speaks about her opponent with a Chicago vigor: He is “slick'’ and “has little weasel eyes.'’ He also has big liberal spending plans for the state (e.g., universal preschool) and for the private sector (a $7.50 minimum wage, $2.35 above the federal minimum). Although Blagojevich, 49, in his clear-sighted youth voted twice for Ronald Reagan, he has become a standard-issue contemporary Democrat whose base is the public employees unions. His creative accounting includes counting as current revenues some savings he forecasts in future pensions.

Topinka’s ready for fight, clearly, but it’ll be in vain. Illinois Governor is going to be a Democrat for the next four years, and that’s all there is to it. I think the same can be said for Pennsylvania, where Ed Rendell is fighting off Lynn Swann, and Bob Casey duels with Rick Santorum. Everywhere you look, from New Jersey to Colorado, Democrats are waging a War for the Nation’s Governorships. The year’s Gubernatorial elections might just be more important than the Congressional battles because there’s no way to gauge the importance of Governors in deciding who wins what state. Having a Democrat in Pennsylvania, Colorado, even Montana, will be a boost for whoever wins the Nomination.

It’s not just with State races that we have Republicans running scared, it’s everywhere. The GOP is running, and that’s always a good thing to see, especially this early in the morning.

It seems to me that Democrats are interested in saving Individual Americans money, while Republicans are interested in saving the Government money. Republicans would counter my charge by saying that by spending government dollars we are directly spending the dollars of individual Americans, while Democrats would counter that Republicans haven’t spent money responsibly since Gerald Ford was President of the United States. That’s twenty nine years, assuming that I do math in my head better than Republicans do budgets in reality.

A pet cause of the Republican Party is the reform of our Tax Codes, as they cite ours as being unwieldy, bureaucratic, and a general shame. They call the tax code crazy, and desperately wish that Bush had made “The Tax Samba” the tune to which he danced the year 2006 away. Instead they’re stuck debating immigration and beating each other over the face over whether or not to beat illegal immigrants over the face. Last year, I was as sure as I am today that the Democrats are bound to pick up a good deal of seats in Congress this year, but I was also worried because, I figured, If the Republicans are Smart, they can Save Themselves. You see, I thought they could pull themselves out of the Social Security hole they dug themselves by making the Tax Code the subject of this year’s Great Debate.

Instead, of course, they decided to wage war and cross the line from campaigning against immigrants to shooting them, and now they’re paying for it. But some on the Right — the intelligent members of the Republican Party — realize that the time to reform taxes to the Right’s liking, and the debate they should be having, regards taxes and comes now.

Just how burdensome is the current U.S. tax system? Consider the facts: the Office of Management and Budget estimates Americans will spend 6.4 billion hours and $265 billion this year alone complying with the obligations of a tax code that now contains more than 66,000 pages of rules and regulations. More than 6 in 10 Americans now hire someone to help prepare their returns every year.

A part of me wonders how much of those fees and money are coming not from the Average Joe trying to pay his taxes but from corporations attempting to, you know, evade their responsibilities as Americans through high-powered Attorneys and legal mumbo jumbo. As to the amount of money being spent, there are a wide variety of places which offer free tax advice. You don’t need to spend $265 billion to pay your taxes. Unless you’re Oprah Winfrey.

In the last eleven years the number of pages of rules and regulations issued by the Internal Revenue Service has shot up 60.9% and the number of pages contained in a standard Form 1040 instruction book has ballooned to 142 from 84. Even the most recent round of tax cuts passed by the House under President Bush have added to the complexity of the tax code with various sunset provisions and phase outs. The truth is that most Americans show up dutifully each April to comply with their obligation to pay taxes without having a clue what that obligation is or how it changes from year to year.

In January 2005, President Bush tried to add some momentum to the movement for tax reform by establishing an advisory panel to study and recommend options for making the tax code “simpler, fairer, and more conducive to economic growth.” The panel’s final report, issued on November 1 of last year, was a serious disappointment, dismissing the idea of a value-added tax or a national sales tax and making no mention of a flat tax.

Instead, it recommended two plans offering some simplifications to the current system like reducing the current number of tax brackets from six to four (or three) and doing away with the Alternative Minimum Tax. Any simplification would be a positive, of course, but on a scale of one to ten with zero being no tax reform and ten being the most innovative reform imaginable, the panel’s recommendations seem to rank about a three.

While I’m sure it’s a fascinating piece of literature, I’ve never pushed the tax code upon my table and read it word for word, but the lines I’ve italicized are indicative, to me, of a tad bit of a shady argument by Republicans. They cite the length of the Tax Code as a reason for it to be flawed, but what does that have to do with anything, and how much of that length involves sunset provisions and other necessary legalities that apply solely to the government and not the taxpayer? It’s like saying “Truman [by David McCullough] is a thousand pages long” because the book contains that many. It very well does, but quite a few of them are acknowledgements and documentation of his sourcing — not the actual text that applies to the typical reader.

The recommendation’s pushed by the Bush Tax Commission are valid, I believe, and certainly would lead to improvement of our tax code. When it comes to evaluating legislation, I look at it from two objectives: is it necessary, and is it feasible? From that aspect of thought I tend to think there to be no reason to rip down our current tax code because it works well enough. If we can alter it so as to decrease the amount of headaches and increase the money in people’s pockets then by all means we should, but not to the point that the Far Right on taxes would like us to.

When we’re talking about doing the Tax Code Samba, I’m a Conservative guy and say no. I just don’t like to dance, you see. I don’t like to change things willie nillie. I come from the school of thought that you don’t burn down your house because you’d like a new room to relax and think in. I figure that, instead, you tear down your son’s bedroom (who happens to have gone off to College) and then build the den you’ve always wanted.

Tom DeLay is not a quitter, bubba, and he isn’t a crook, either. He just got Hammered and decided that it’s time to go home. With no regrets. And he’s “at peace” with his decision to resign. It appears that the Republicans are “at peace” with his resignation, too, and why wouldn’t they be? The Albatross is gone and the Congress moves on without DeLay. Now if only they could get rid of Barbara Cubin and they’d be guaranteed Victory in the House!

One might pity Tom DeLay if they took time to ponder his downfall, but then one laughs at the delicious irony inherent in his downfall. Tom DeLay was, for one minute, at the top of the world, and the next he’s lower than one of the cockroaches he used to exterminate. DeLay spent his life before politics killing rats, roaches and dung beatles, and spent his time in politics killing decent Democratic proposals and trying to exterminate Democratic politicians. The irony is that Tom DeLay left his poison gas running a tad too long and poisoned himself, and now he’s dead by his own doing.

It is his own doing, isn’t it? In his quest to kill the Left he employed every dirty trick he could muster, and now it’s all caught up to him. Is it Karma? Perhaps it’s God’s will. To me, Tom DeLay was a victim of his own lethal toxins, although I do give the wily rascal credit for holding on this long. I think I know how he used to feel after finally killing a persistent, never-say-die cockroach.

Sometimes, I think the Office of the Independent Blogger should be the “Office of the Incessant Bother” because of the amount of articles that I preface with, “It bothers me…” Sadly, I’m afraid I have to do it today, with this article, entitled “Immigrant Issues are Personal for Bush.” Oh? The hell they are.

First, I’d recommend that you read the article. What George Bush did for an immigrant family a long time ago is a very decent, nice thing on his part, and the article shows Bush’s compassion toward immigrants. Absolutely — but let’s not confuse “Having friends who are immigrants” and “Liking Mexican people” with “Immigration is Personal.” Maybe I’m just being anal, but I don’t like the way that article’s headlined. It’s like saying, “I have a personal connection to poverty because I knew a guy who was poor and I bought him a sandwich at Potbelly’s.”

Aside from that qualm, as I said, it’s a good article. It’s the headline that bothers me, because it sets a false tone and gives a false impression and trumps up a false message.

On the subject of messages, everyone should be familiar with the story of James Hansen, the Scientist from NASA who faced suppression from the Bush Administration for communicating his evaluation of Global Warming with the world. Last night, he was on Sixty Minutes and spoke of the reality of this situation. Robert Novak, in response, wrote a column and threatened to leak his wife’s employment status in the press.

Actually, the digs at Novak aside, the column raises interesting points:

“The forcings that drive long-term climate change are not known with an accuracy sufficient to define future climate change,” Hansen wrote in 1998. He later admitted devising “extreme scenarios” about global warming to get the attention of “decision-makers.”

As the fiercely contested presidential election of 2004 neared its end, an obviously unmuzzled Hansen declared publicly he was muzzled. Speaking at the University of Iowa on Oct. 26 that year, he declared: “In my more than three decades in government, I have never seen anything approaching the degree to which information flow from scientists to the public has been screened and controlled as it is now.” At that same event, Hansen said he was voting for Kerry. In short, if you want the truth about environmental peril, you better get rid of Bush.

There’s a proper balance between proper political agitation and worries and using your position as a scientist to push your own political views. I think Hansen has breached this line, myself, much like Bob Novak breached his position as an independent guardian of truth when he started sleeping with the Right Wing.

And leaking the identity of CIA agents.

Speaking of Novak’s lack of integrity, let’s add that to his lack of sophisticated judgement. The man who considered storming off of CNN cursing up a storm writes that the departure of Andrew Card means Karl Rove is “Supreme” in the White House He’s probably right, of course, but he’s wrong to be as cheerful about it as he is.

Rove’s use to Bush is just about done for the future, and we’d all be better suited if he decided to step aside, moving to the Republican National Committee and helping Republicans pull their nasty stunts on Democrats, instead of using his position in the White House to hound fellow Republicans and destroy the Legislative process.

As I said, Novak thinks it’s good to see Karl Rove in power at the White House. As to why, I’m not exactly sure. I guess it must be nice to have someone “on the inside” feeding you information about people’s wives.

Rove and Novak are incessant bothers, as I said. So is the ever-rising cost of health care. There’s a good article on it in the New York Times today, right here, and I’ll write later of my thoughts once I’ve had the time to reflect upon it.

Today’s one of those days where nothing enormous happens and a variety of little things go on.

As a matter of policy and politics, I don’t consider the FCC the Second Coming of Fascism, although I don’t particularly care for their work, either. The FCC is a selective organization that doesn’t ultimately do much except when the masses begin to cry foul because someone said something to offend their sensibilities. My own view on this is that we’re a free country, and that means that no one has a right to never be offended. Neal Boortz is a nutcase, and perfectly representative of why I dislike the FCC.

Neal Boortz is perfectly capable of being offensive on the radio, but given that he’s a Conservative, there isn’t much the FCC will do to him, and for that they should be ashamed, because if someone said that Condi Rice looks like a “ghetto slut” or, hell, a dominant lesbian, the FCC would be on them faster than it takes to replay the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction.” Or maybe I’m wrong, and the tone in politics has gotten so bad that it’s acceptable banter to call a Congresswoman a “ghetto slut.” I know it’s how I respectfully refer to people over the dinner table!

Politics breeds some strange comments, doesn’t it? Strange people. Strange scenarios. Strange circumstances. So does money, and nothing in the last few weeks has struck me as more odd than this story.

America’s newest town is rising up in the midst of a dusty tomato field in southwest Florida. And if the Catholics building it have their way, this ultraconservative community with a 65-foot crucifix at its center will be the closest thing to heaven on Earth. They envision a town that adheres to strict religious values, a place void of adult bookstores, strip clubs, massage parlors and abortion clinics. At one time they had planned to prohibit the sale of contraceptives at drugstores and bar X-rated channels from cable television. But the law got in the way.

The town, to be anchored by a new Roman Catholic university, is mostly the vision of Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, a devout Catholic who is pouring $400 million of his personal fortune into the project. Insisting that he is doing God’s will, Monaghan, who is well-known in conservative political and religious circles, has staked his reputation on the controversial project, the latest of his many philanthropic ventures designed to spread conservative Christian values around the world.

I’m absolutely sure that it was God’s will that this man become rich from pizza sales and then build a small town devoted to God — his task from Heaven was to fatten humanity with fat, and then fatten their brains with God. Now I know that might sound silly to all you who don’t believe in God, or understand where you find such instructions, it is true that the Bible never commands one to sell pizza and get rich off of it, then use your funds to make a village for God. But you can reasonably infer that from the King James edition of the Bible. Seriously.

Yesterday in the National Journal, there was an article entitled “Why Murray’s Big Idea Won’t Work,” but upon reading it, I thought the article should’ve been titled, “Murray’s Plan Needs to be Seriously Tweaked.” It raises the most solid points in it about the plan’s solvency, and I think they have to be addressed. I never said the plan was perfect, just that I thought it to be innovative and a model for future reforms — I’m sure that may seem like a copout, but it isn’t. I stand by the program and I like it very much. I’m just not blind, and I understand that a few things have to be taken into account. But, however, as it stands, I think Murray to be a brilliant theorist. An honest one, too, since his work exposes itself to proper, literal rebuttal, unlike other Social theories. I’m looking at you, Libertarian Municipalism.

Venezuelan Leader Hugo Chavez apparently has some influence with some E-Voting machines. So now the Republicans are worried about them. Fair enough. I, personally, despise E-Voting and have no problem with the way things have been for ages. The 2000 Election, as infuriating as it was, angers me more for the Supreme Court’s Treasonous Role than because of Pregnant Chads. Although the thought of pregnant Chads is a tad unsettling!

All right guys, listen up. It’s time to get serious. I have a friend, and he’s looking for help running his business. He inherited this agency, and he’s looking for someone to manage it. I thought I’d help him out and pass the word along because he’s having trouble finding help. All I know is that he’d better be smart and not hire an illegal immigrant to do it, even if they’d be willing to work for less money. Bill Frist wouldn’t like that very much. But if you’ve got no significant experience in anything other than horse breeding, you’ll likely have a better chance.

I don’t mean to drop names, but last night I was speaking to a certain Senator from Tennessee, and he told me that he considered this a problem. He doesn’t like the trend of divorce in America, and he hates that people are now meeting online, because it just means new marriages and more divorces. To defend the Sanctity of Marriage, he told me that he might introduce legislation this week banning online relationships and websites such as eHarmony.com

And gay marriages.

Actually, I’ve always wanted to ask Senator Frist if he has a Gay Marriage. I asked a Conservative teacher of mine that (he happens to be a very good friend, actually) and he got really silly and goofy and tripped all over himself trying to avoid admitting to a gay marriage. It’s funny how shy people get over words sometimes. Don’t we all want gay marriages and civil unions?