I Shall Return.
Sorry folks, but I'm going on a break. This site won't be updated for awhile, but feel free to enjoy it as it is.
-Brian

US may veto Peacekeeping
Damn it! Our anti-interventionist is at it again! If we don't stay in the Balkans than no one else will, we are not living up to our responsibilities as a hyper power. All this over the International War Crime Tribunal! There is a difference between being a unilateralist because you want to do the right thing (like invading Iraq) and just being belligerent. We should be members of the World Court and if they go after Americans (which is unlikely because the court does have safeguards) then we withdraw, we shouldn't have refused to join in anticipation of that problem. And now we're going to shirk away from peacekeeping to protest the International War Crimes Tribunal? Damn it, we need a solid hawkish democrat in the White House

Corporate Crime
CEOs make a Break for It (humor)
Flavors of Fraud A delicious article by Paul Krugman
Generally Accepted Accounting Abuses
The Gang that Couldn't Loot Straight
Its now painfully clear that Enron style abuses are all to common. Meanwhile the Bush administration is intent of weakening the SEC with his appointee. I'm not sure if he understands this or not, but if investors think the stock market is being run by crooks there will be no investments and no investment equals no economic recovery. These recent cases of corporate crime (and the corresponding pressure from the business community not toughen regulations) highlight John Kenneth Galbraith's point (which he made in regards to Hoover) that what's good for big business is not what's good for the economy.

The FEC Castrates Campaign Finance Reform
Crystal Clear
Rescuing Campaign Finance Reform
Oh man, looks like will have to wait longer for cleaner elections, since the FEC basically has reopened the soft money loophole, which Mcain-Feingold was meant to close. Now, thanks to 4 idiots on the FEC and their clever interpretation of the law influence peddlers won't face so many annoying barriers to undermining the public interest with campaign contributions.

A Brief History of Yassir Arafat
David Brooks examines the life of Yassir Arafat. Conclusion: A bad leader completely dedicated to his cause.

Understate
More criticism of Bush's disengaged, anti-interventionist and ineffective foreign policy, this time with regards to Indian and Pakistan.

Roadmap to Nowhere
This article points out the shortfalls of the Bush Peace Plan, mainly Bush' reluctance for a strogner US role in the mideast. Its provides refreshing contrast with all the boot licking being done by conservatives in the press over Bush's Plan.

Court to Schools: Go to Hell
The Bare Minimum
Blaming the Victim
The Court has decided that an 8th grade education is just fine for those people who go to school in New York City. The complete callousness of the court is evident in Justice Lerner's opinon where he writes that, "Society needs workers in all levels of jobs," Alfred , "the majority of which may very well be low level." It seems that Court believes that all humans beings are not entitled to an equal opportunity, I'm sure George Wallace would agree.

Supreme Court Supports Invading Students' Privacy
Supreme Court Approves School Drug Testing
Urine Trouble
Not content with proving its incompetence with the Gore Vs. Bush ruling, the Rehnquist Court decides to add another black mark to its record. Its decision is idiotic, because drug testing for extracurricular activity will only deter extracurriculars and not drugs use. But it seems that this cour will approve of any measure, so long as it invades our privacy.

Department of '04 and So Much More
The Darkest Horse
Invisible Man
As for as policy goes Howard Dean (governor of Vermont) is an the ball. Balanced budgets, health care (Vermont's uninsured rate is 8% thanks to his programs), gay rights (Vermont is the only state with Civil Unions), I can't think of a thing I disagree with on. His national progams makes just as much sense and its great that he has the courage to call for the repeal of the Bush tax cut, something no other democratic presidential candidate has had the courage to say as clearly and decisively as Mr. Dean. Both article completely overlook his foreign policy, which is unfortunate, because that is an important part of being president.
It doesn't seem like this guy has a chance in hell though, he's only raised 140K so far (in my congressional district the Republican candidate raised about ten times as much as that) and hs PAC only has one person (His chief of staff) who has to work part time. Hopefully, he'll force the other candidates to pick up his posistion on healthcare and the tax cut.

Japanese SST
Japan seems eager to make the same mistake as Britain and France and waste a ton of money a white elephant project for national pride.

The 9th Circuit thumbs its nose at the Supremes with its pledge ruling.Pledge Ruled Unconstitutional
White House and Congress Condem Decision
Everyone really ought to mellow out about this. Generally people take themselves way to seriously with regards to Church and State Seperation issues. The Atheists seem to freak out every time the word "God" is present. Man atheists bother me a bit, there is a an air of victimhood that many atheists have ("He mentioned a supreme being, religion was mentioned, therefore its being forced on me...oh my, this is so terrible, everyone is so mean to me, I'm oppressed, oh, oh, etc.") and of course elitism ("Religion is a crutch for the feebleminded"). This isn't to say atheism (I've actually found it tempting) itself is bad, just a number of individuals who believe in it. However, nothing irritates me more than those self-righteous jerks who think that the whole world would be OK if all children were coerced into a little christian prayer and trace all the evil in the world to the boogie man of "secularism". In the particular case though, it is the the seculars who are enganging in hysterics. What's even worse is that their hysterics are providing ammo for the right, to be fired when the Seperation of Church and State really are threatend.

UP IS DOWN!The Reality Thing
Stop Him Before He Lies Again
Updates on Bush's war with truth and sound policy.

Pope Hopefuls
The Washington Monthly says the next Pope might not be a conservative, I hope their right, but I'm not optimistic.

When Right-wing Fembots Attack
Salon gives Ann Coulter a much deserved thrashing. I can't tolerate that woman's reddiwhipped-made-for-tv politics, she's a disgrace even by the standards of the right (and for those who doubt me, check some of these Coulter Quotes).

Another Reason I Don't like Europe
Fired for being Israeli
EU moves for sanctions
Euros are organizing boycotts against Israeli, which is truly disgusting because their also funding the PA. It seems they think its OK to support a cause who's main strategy is to kill as many innocent civilians as possible, but when Israel tries to defend itself, that's unacceptable!

Usually its the other way around...Germans terrorized by Frogs

The Mideast
The Palestinian H-Bomb: Terror's Winning Strategy
The article is a history and analysis of suicide bombing. Its very thorough and very interesting, but the author's policy recommendations
don't seem to be that effective.
The Culture of Martyrdom
In this Atlantic article David Brooks examines the impact of suicide bombing on Plaestinian Society. He also suggests
physical seperation with a security wall would be the best way to deal with problem.
Bush to Propose Palestinian State
Damn, he's only encouraging them. I smell the work of Powell.
Israel's New Strategy: Seize Palestinian Land
Sounds like a plan. But when are the security fences coming? Probably not until Israel gets a labor PM, because Sharon is in love with
the settlements (or at least loves the votes of the settlers and other right wing nuts) and refuses to get rid of them. As long as there are settlements, I Israel won't be secure.

Attack Iraq?
|Bomb Saddam: The Neocons & Iraq|
Point-Counterpoint on Invading Iraq
The hawks are 100% right on the need to go to war with Iraq. In fact I'm mad we didn't remove him in 1991. Saddam Hussien has gassed the Kurds, Invaded another country and is trying to get the Atom Bomb. The Realists have made a fetish out of stability and claim that removing Saddam would be destabalizing, but with a record like his, Iraq does not scream stability (or sanity). The case for regime change (through invasion) is clear and the sooner this is done the better, because once Saddam gets the Bomb we'll be unable to do so.

What happens when a bunch of self-righteous fools in sandals form a political party? You get the Greens
|ABC: Nader Meets w/GOP|
|Prospect: Greens vs. Liberals|

How I despise Ralph Nader (he did some good thinks once, but that was a long time ago) and his poor excuse for a political party. The Green Party is an arrogant gang of spoilers, the whole purpose of the party is to ruin the Democrats. I'm not sure if the Nader get this or not (or if he's too in love with himself to care), but the Democrats are the only engine of political change in this country. By weakening the Democrats the Greens only succeed in strengthening the Republicans. If the Greens were really serious about politcal change they would work inside the Democratic Party, lobbying for liberal legislation and creating challenges in the Primaries. At this point your average Green party Nader-worshipper will claim there is no difference between the two parties and say one of their reddi-whipped witty phrases ("Its the DemRep party" or "The Evil of two lessers"). However, the Left is very wrong in this analysis. There is a huge difference between the two parties (or at least a difference that's big enough to matter). Under Clinton we saw the first rise in real wages in a generation, the lowest poverty in decades and lowest black and hispanic unemployment rates in history! That the greens would scoff at such achievements and try to destroy the party, the men and the policies that helpe create them only show that the Greens are more concerned with maintaining their impotent righteous indignation than with actually improving the the lives of the downtrodden.

The Economist weighs in on the brewing war between India and Pakistan

A not very reassuring message from Musharraf. He says there won't be a nuclear war, but has refused to pledge not use nuclear weapons first....terrifying...very terrifying...

Getting Angry 7 Days a Week
Want to get angry? Then go to click here. Its an article by an ignorant pissant, Stephen Hayes, about how media consolidation is beneficial. Hayestalks about how he watched a show on Home Remodeling, Food from around the world and a History Channel Documentary and concludes that the consolidation of the TV companies has not harmed "variety" and "quality" in the market place of ideas. This is of course absolute garbage and does not deserve to be printed (of course the half-bright neadthrathals of weekly standard obviously think otherwise). Hayes ignored the decline in the quality and variety of television (as well as print) journalism where these things really matter. CBS dumped its investigative report on the tabaco companies, NBC (owned by GE) never mentions the PCBs at the bottom of the Hudson and all of the TV networks dutifully ignored Sentaor Torecilli's (D)(NJ) common sense proposal (something rather unusual for Torecilli, who's prinicipal achievement has been taking bribes & getting away with it) to have TV stations sell ad time at a reduced rate to political candidates, a proposal that would address the source of our campaign finance corruption: extremely expensive ads (which are also causeed by the fact that there is almost no politcal coverage on the Nightly News). In short the moron neo-con author of this Weekly Standard piece either has a brain filled with sawdust or is a liar who turns out garbage to pander to his audience of brain dead right wingers.