nkennedy--and the more I thought about Wayne Morse, the more the comparison seems lame. Specter could be another Lieberman, I guess. Like one isn't enough.

...if it's in mine it's prudent, farsighted economic development. Please.

They're popular to bash, but you need to have a poor understanding of place value (i.e. where the decimal points go) to think that wasteful *domestic* spending is the source of our woes (or that, if they they were eliminated, they could substitute for a non-regressive tax policy).

Now earmarks overseas, for Blackwater, for whomever we're paying off to keep Iraq down to a simmer, for defense contractors and mercenaries of all sorts, THOSE are of a magnitude to cause serious concern. And if McCain wants to make a difference, rather than just grumble, he'd take point on investigating and eliminating those.

because Pelican Staters don't have a problem with a hypocritical sleazeball as long as he apologizes to Jesus on TV, wife at his side, and then continues to spout the far right nonsense they elected him to spout. Due to the electoral landscape of La., the far right white vote, which is always monolithic, can reliably swamp moderate/liberal whites and blacks, who are often divided, and in any case are far less organized and well heeled.

White La. Democrats will field one or more candidates who will spend most of their time insisting that they're just as pro-gun and anti-spending as any Republican, and African-American Democrats will either stay at home, thus letting Vitter coast to an easy win, or field a candidate who will run a candidate who will split the Democratic vote. The state's Democratic party is dysfunctional due to the legacy of race and racism; that's why we have a congressional delegation made up of seven Republicans and two (Blue Dog) Democrats, when Louisiana has 716,971 registered Republicans and 1,504,227 registered Democrats.

How and why was Citibank, originally allowed to become a *multinational* corporation? Did no one see that this would eliminate any effective governmental oversight of such a beast?

Oh. Right. I get it now.

The following from Wikipedia* is revealing:

National City [the ancestor of Citibank] became the first U.S. national bank to open an overseas banking office when its branch in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was opened in 1914. Many of Citi's present international offices are older; offices in London, Shanghai, Calcutta and elsewhere were opened in 1901 and 1902 by the International Banking Corporation (IBC), a company chartered to conduct banking business outside the U.S., at that time an activity forbidden to U.S. national banks. In 1918, IBC became a wholly owned subsidiary and was subsequently merged into the bank. By 1919 the bank had become the first U.S. bank to have $ 1 billion in assets.

It's amazing to a non-financier, non-economist that such corporations have operated essentially as pirates on the high seas for as long as they have. I become a little less naive every day.

(*) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citibank. Accessed 03-09-09.

that badly fell down on its job of providing the oversight and asking the questions that the former Fourth Estate used to think it was its job to ask. So CNBC was Stewart's surrogate for every TV network that has claimed to be providing "fair, balance," vigorous reporting, but has just been enabling the powerful and power-mad for the last 8 to 20 years. The economic stories that CNBC knew had to be brewing, but failed to break, are just one example of the media's nonfeasance: on regulatory failure in general, on the run-up and occupation of Iraq, on the politicization of the DOJ, on torture, on extraordinary rendition...and on and on.

The fact that we got an Edward R. Murrow moment last night is cause for celebration. The fact that it came from a comedian (albeit a darned good one), and not one of our highly credentialed news journalists, says something pretty obvious about the the putrescence of what use to be called "the press," and thus about the state of our society, which prides itself on a constitution whose force in law is deeply bound up in the existence of a healthy, vigorous, adversarial free press.

Imagine if Milton Berle, or Lucille Ball, had had to be the one to do a show on Joe McCarthy...

The One World Government, for those of you who missed the last meeting, will now be led by David Schwimmer, not David Rockefeller. Please adjust your blueprints for world domination accordingly.

A NATO (or EU) fleet surrounding the Channel Islands might loosen some lips, and produce some compliance...unlike the Caymans, Jersey and Guernsey are part of the UK--so no matter whatever medieval loopholes the international banks are using to stash their money there, UK and EU law should prevail.

Of course, my first response to to one of Mr. Conason's articles is often righteous indignation and a desire to smash something (or someone). Shrewd, skillful means, with threats of force as a last resort only, will be needed to reclaim the billions stolen from the world's citizens by these banks. As he points out, we need those funds to rebuild a tattered world. And meanwhile let's focus as well on the legislators and executives who have been complicit in creating these havens for stolen booty.

Swiss banks--they're not just in Switzerland, and they're not just for military dictators. Who knew?

under "Ideology/Single Issue." Hi, mom!

The issue was restoring the rule of law and competent, equitable government. We'll see.

[God] Love 'em. "[God], how I hate them."

as he actually is, he would still need to serve four or more terms as president to return the level of "partisanship," which seems to mean whatever Red Queen Rove says it does, to reverse the partisanship (defined as marginalization of the minority party) of the GWB years. The point is that the GOP has shrunk itself into a little extremist niche, so any rational behavior by Obama or the Democrats in Congress will, ipso facto, be "partisan."