p.s. Blaming Democrats for the desire for limitless state power is particularly pathetic during the current regime, when Republicans have been the ones pushing for more and more powers for the administration. Sigh, it seems that some kinds of propaganda defy the need for logical reconciliation with observations.

Why don't we start with F.D.R. and his attempts to turn the U.S. into a planned economy? Pretending that Dems are somehow friends of the Constitution when they were largely the ones responsible for gutting the tenth amendment is historically absurd. That today's Democrats are merely less publicly enthusiastic about the installation of an autocratic president is only a side effect of their being Outs.

Definitely, this is the "for the children" socialized medicine, just as is Medicare "for the old folks" socialized medicine -- both are attempts to get the camel's nose into the tent, one more successful (thus far) than the other. No matter whether the war or socialized medicine gets funded, you'll end up with a program that costs far more than projected.

The Democrats are either (a) timid or (b) secretly agree with the Republicans about Yooist theories of executive power but dare not say so in public.

Unlike a lot of others who imagine this article devoid of content, I must say: just so, at least in parts. I will never in a million years forgive James Kunstler for his homicidal ravings (wishing for the "people of California die for their fucking cars in their fucking cars and over their fucking cars"). You first, Jim.

And though I wouldn't put it on my car, I absolutely detest George W. Bush and his power grabs. That these lunatics have taken over the GOP is the principle reason I left the party.

that hits this country, it seems, will inevitably get some version tailored to "protect the children" as a way to make it politically impossible to vote against. Socialized medicine for the kiddies is no better than all the idiotic attempts to censor the Internet.

for the telcos might be cash. This Raw Story article

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/For_one_company_FISA_wiretaps_carry_1016.html

claims that Comcast is getting paid $1,000 per FISA wiretap. Imagine how much a whole dragnet surveillance might net a telco, even once you scale rates down for doing it in bulk.

Questions not asked: does Senegal have a state-owned oil company? Yes:

http://www.petrosen.sn/

Do they subsidize the price of those products? Yes again:

http://tinyurl.com/2oastc

Behind every shortage, you'll find a subsidy.

Munch, munch, munch.

The letter writer on the first page claiming that Schoenberg was a Nazi spy was propagating a hoax:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa070398.htm

In their minds, it's just a game of Risk, and everything's peachy.

As families default, the owners of the mortgages find themselves holding worthless pieces of paper.

Through the magic of his say-so, Stiglitz gets to declare their houses completely void of value? As I recall, a mortgage has a clause that the lienholder gets to repossess the property in case of default. Now, said mortgage holder may take a severe haircut in the process, but that's far from "worthless".

Retire, please, for the love of God, retire.

Both our dogs came down with cancer, diagnosed within a couple weeks of each other. Our female dog had a soft tissue sarcoma on her rump that grew from golf-ball-sized to grapefruit-sized within four days, and was caught by the groomer/vet. Our male dog started sneezing blood, and was diagnosed with a nasal carcinoma that extended from the sinuses through the cribriform plate into the brain cavity. That was almost a year ago, and they have since been through surgery, radiation, and chemo. The latter two don't really cure anything; veterinary oncology is all about extending and improving the quality of life for the patient, not about eradicating the cancer.

We are fortunate to be in a circumstance where we have not had to worry about the extensive bills this generates, but the endless treatment raises a far more troubling question: is this in the best interest of the dogs? Mostly they've been pretty happy, but there have been days and weeks where their energy levels were so far down we wondered if we had made a very expensive mistake. After a brief remission, the cancer in our boy dog has come back. Though it's slow-growing, it's still causing symptoms from time to time (sneezing blood, a painful lump behind his left eye, and he can't flip his ears like he used to). Have we only delayed the inevitable?

Brought to you by the same morons who botched the Lebanon war-let. Great job!

The people getting screwed these days are those who saved their money in hopes of getting a house, and those who bought their homes around 2005, when the market was still a tree growing to the sky. A lot of those, however, are functionally renters, as they got in with zero down, especially the interest-only tenants.

"Moral hazard" is a phrase you should become more familiar with. I don't have a lot of sympathy for grownups who don't read their mortgage documents.

Is there some way we can get this man's tenure revoked? Seriously.

That is all. Hillary is just plain unelectable. I know she wishes otherwise, I know her supporters wish otherwise, but she is the annoying third grade teacher you had who had an answer for every problem you encountered, whether you needed an answer or not.

and that is all his subsequent writing in this area. He believes in the garbage he perpetrates. If ever there were a reason to get the man ejected from academia, it is that. He should be held accountable, and Berkeley, of ALL places, should be first on the list of places to see fit to do so.

Speaking of whining, Hillary reminds me of Bob Dole in the 1992 election: he thinks he should be president because it's his turn, dammit.