As I sit looking at news reports of this tempest in a teapot, I am stuck by the fact that progressives are yet again on the defensive. How can the left play defense all the time as the Democratic Party controls the central government totally?

I think we all should use this ACORN flap to call for eliminating all government give-aways to these type groups; especially the "faith-based charities".

Democracy fails when it becomes only various special interest groups trying to loot the public and enrich themselves. If we had put a stop to this years ago, perhaps the nasty, horrible special interest groups like the Wall Street Banksters would not have gotten their Trillions.

Just maybe.

This fellow who wrote that does not get the idea that no regulations on anybody would decrease the power of corporations.

The big guys love regulations. The regulations are written by the large corporations to enhance their power.

As an example, take a look at an article on Salon.com about the wonders of medicine in India where medicine is regulated far less than here.

On Salon! link@sig

By the way; what does regulations have to do with Glenn's fine post of the day anyway?

Open Office is free and works well. I have never found an excel spreadsheet or Word document that it would not open. The database part of it is much, much easier to use than anything I have used in the MS world.

It is the free and open source result of the huge Sun Micro Systems gift of "Star Office" to the world. You get it at openoffice.org

The trick is to be sure and save your documents in Microsoft format if you are going to send them to Microsoft office people. This works great for a co-worker's girl who got a Mac Book but could not afford all the software needed for college. So, she uses OpenOffice to do all her work and the professors do not notice any difference at all.

If you have trouble, e-mail me. If have been known to teach children how to use it. (not calling you a child!)

Well, looks like the public will be tortured along with the folks sent to Obama's secret prisons in faraway lands. This will amount to around a fifteen percent hike in income tax (or taken by inflation/borrowing)

The funny thing is that the info comes through the Freedom of Information Act.

Cap and Trade will cap your income and trade your freedoms. For what? A subject for a Greenwald expose perhaps. The idea would be transparency. If it took a Freedom of Information Act suit to get the damn Treasury to release a study ---> how does anyone believe the "people" run this democracy?

Yes, I use it all the time. Firefox is an example of FOSS(*) and runs on all the major platforms.

As an aside, I like OpenOffice for my normal work as it is always much more up-to-date than MS Office.

Carry on ...

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(*) FOSS means free and open source software. We poor must use software like this, but it turns out that FOSS is often the better software anyway.

Good. Glad to hear you have put it behind you.

I'll catch you some other thread as I must do my reading now. Nothing like von Mises to sooth one after reading another of Glenn's exposes on American stupidity. (if we could sell it, we could pay off the national debt)

For Horace Sakes!

Would you stop with the "I voted for Bush and am so sorry stuff".

Bush ran as the anti-intervention candidate, if not the anti-war man. He campaigned on no nation building and a more humble foreign policy. So you got fooled. Big deal, can we not just move on?

Many believe that voting itself is immoral, and I have read well thought out essays by the political science crowd on that point. So maybe you should apologize for voting at all, and not who you voted for. :)

Your vote did not matter anyway. As someone famous once said, it matters not who votes but who counts the votes. (probably a bankster)

I know, I know--don't blow a gasket--I engage in lots of pointless activities like giving pocket change to homeless people knowing full well they might blow it on booze or drugs. I'm not only misguided but stupid and evil.

That makes you far more human to me than any of the other piffle that you have written. My best friend and I have been doing that for years. I am never afraid of the homeless and I will give a buck or two (I don't have much more than they do) even knowing that they might go get some cheap wine.

Bill said to me once, "what if that bottle of wine is all the joy that poor bastard is ever going to have? -- who are we to judge".

Individual humans helping others without judgment any way that they can do so. Hell, you might become a Taoist yet. (Horace forgive me for mentioning that other spiritual path)

Old anarchist say:

The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.

The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.

The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore the Master says:

I let go of the law,
and people become honest.

I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.

I let go of religion,
and people become serene.

I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.(*)

Iran has not invaded another nation since the 1700s while we have invaded the whole world. If we would let others the hell alone perhaps all would be better off.

Good post today, much food for thought.

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(*) I don't think he meant the kind you can smoke, but a little of that stuff in DC might help a lot.