I've noticed right-wingers love to throw around the word "hypocrisy." Today's featured letter in The Fresno Bee used the word "hypocrisy" to describe critics of Fearless Leader in not preventing 9-11 and then criticizing him for starting the war in Iraq. The Bee's correspondent seems to think the war in Iraq was all about fighting the war against terrorism. How many times do we have to say it? Saddam Hussein didn't have connections to al-Quida. Saddam Hussein wasn't connected to the attack that occurred on 9-11.

In fact, the obsession with Iraq from the beginning of the Bush administration diverted time and resources from dealing with the terrorism threat posed by al-Quida. Almost within hours of the attack on 9-11, Bush was pressing counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke to find some shred of evidence linking Iraq to the attack, so Bush would be justified in launching an attack. This was despite the fact the administration knew, even then, that the attack was orchestrated by al-Quida. But as Donald Rumsfeld said, Afghanistan didn't offer the tempting targets that existed in Iraq.

The news out of Iraq today is very disturbing. In Falluja four American contractors were shot and killed. Their vehicles were set on fire. Their bodies were dragged through the downtown streets and hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River. Five American marines were also slaughtered in a separate attack. The Bush administration has truly put us into a box. We started an unnecessary war, we have failed to stomp out al-Quida, and we've provided the perfect recruiting tool for terrorists all over the world. But we're supposed to believe that Mr. Bush is standing stalwart and true in the fight against global terrorism.

Condi Rice will appear under oath before the 9-11 commission after all. What happened to all those claims of executive privilege, those hoary tributes to "precedent"? It couldn't be the political heat was getting too intense, could it? Of course, this is contingent on Fearless Leader and the Puppet Master not having to testify in public.

Paul Krugman, the excellent New York Times columnist, has a good piece about the hypocrisy of the Bush administration going full bore after its critics, such as Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neill, citing national security and all the rest, but ignoring the scandal of Valerie Plame being outed as a CIA operative. There is a pattern here of course. The administration goes after its critics. Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame's husband, dared say that the administration lied about Iraq trying to buy enriched uranium from Niger. National security be damned! He made the administration look bad.

Lynne Cheney, shrewish wife of the Puppet Master, authored a lesbian romance novel that is scheduled to be re-released by Penguin Books. Let's stigmatize gays, let's use gays as a wedge issue, let's incite hate crimes against gays, but, hey, there's a buck to be made here.

Robert Scheer, columnist for The Los Angeles Times, talks about the Bush administration's cozy relationship with Pakistan. This is the same Pakistan that was a sponsor of the Taliban in Afghanistan, a haven for al-Quida, and now a major source of nuclear weapons technology for North Korea. We go to war for non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but are bosom buddies with the people supplying weapons of mass destruction to North Korea. Go figure.

Lookee here. John Kerry quoted the Bible and the Bushies were outraged! Kerry dared quote a passage that suggests "compassionate conservatism" is a fraud and not in accordance with what the Bible says. It's amusing that the Bush crowd thinks they have a monopoly on the Bible too.

Condi Rice is bobbing and weaving and refusing to testify under oath before the 9-11 commission. She dares cite "principle" as the justification for refusing to testify. This is coming from an administration that has a major credibility problem when it comes to principle. I think the primary principle of the administration might be the old Leo Dorocher maxim, "Nice guys finish last."

A man close to the Bushies, and a member of the 9-11 commission, named Philip Zelikow, has been quoted as suggesting the Iraq war was launched to protect Israel. The story is linked at commondreams.org. Well, well, another reason for the war that wasn't presented to the American people.

Another disturbing environmental story is linked at commondreams.org about "dead zones" in the oceans. Dead zones are oxygen-deprived areas where fish and plants can't live. According to the story, the dead zones are being created by the use of nitrogen-laced fertilizers that run off into the ocean. The nitrogen causes an explosion in the growth of algae. When the algae dies and sinks to the ocean bottom it decomposes and uses up the oxygen in the water. We humans are destroying our little planet, and we'd better start doing something to stop it.

The New York Times has a wonderful feature called First Chapters. First Chapters features excerpts from a variety of both fiction and non-fiction books. Today I was checking out the excerpt from Richard Clarke's book.

Mr. Clarke talks about how the Bush administration was obsessed with attacking Iraq almost immediately after September 11. He talks about an encounter with George W. Bush in which Bush is practically demanding that Clarke find anything, any shred, of evidence connecting Iraq to the September 11 attack. As has been reported, he talks about how Donald Rumsfeld wanted to attack Iraq because "there were no good targets" in Afghanistan. Most eloquently, I thought, he talks about the loss of his friend John O'Neill in the attack on the World Trade Center.

O'Neill had left the government months before because of his frustration that the government was ignoring potential terrorist attacks. He took a job as head of security at the World Trade Center.

In the wacko letter of the day in The Fresno Bee the pontificator was upset that "liberals" have suggested George W. Bush is paranoid about terrorism. The writer was pleased at an editorial cartoon depicting foreign leaders who oppose Bush as being akin to terrorists themselves. He went on to suggest a parallel between Winston Churchill warning about the dangers of Adolf Hitler and Bush's preoccupation with Saddam Hussein. Bad comparisons all.

I don't think Bush is paranoid about terrorism. I think he has used fear of terrorism to advance a cynical and ruthless agenda that neoconservatives have wanted all along. They want to control oil, a dwindling and precious commodity. The control of oil and other precious resources is to world control what nuclear weapons was back in the Cold War. Now the weapon is economic.

Churchill saw Adolf Hitler clearly from the beginning, that Hitler was a charismatic, ruthless leader who could lead a great industrial power that had already engaged in one world war and had the capacity to do so again.

Saddam Hussein never had the resources to conquer the world. He failed miserably in a far lesser encounter during the Gulf War. Iraq had been under severe sanctions for years. Iraq's ability to successfully engage in a war with anybody, much less a super power like the United States, didn't exist for all practical purposes. That was proven by how easily the United States conquered Iraq in the latest war. And it should be clear by now that you can't fight terrorism with conventional warfare. Terrorists who use suicide bombers, who turn ordinarily benign objects like box cutters and airplanes into weapons, who recognize no national boundaries, and have a religious agenda, not a political one, are not subject to the discipline of a political device like war.

It's almost surreal that the Bush administration acts like there's no way they could have known that al-Quida planned an attack on the United States and that the use of airplanes in an attack was a strong probability. Warnings were everywhere. Harley Sorenson has a good column from the sfgate.com website talking about how Attorney General John Ashcroft quit flying commercially on July 26, 2001, because the warnings were there.

Republicans are trying to spin George W. Bush's "joke" about looking for weapons of mass destruction as just a bit of harmless frivolity. With thousands dead and Iraq in chaos I don't find it particularly funny. I haven't searched the historical record, but I doubt that any other presidents have "joked" about matters with such life and death consequences. Did FDR joke about World War II, or Harry Truman about Korea, JFK or LBJ about Vietnam, or even Nixon? Did even the first President Bush talk lightly about the Gulf War? Did Bill Clinton quip about the war in Kosovo? I do remember Ronald Reagan "joking" when he thought he was off mike about the missiles being launched against the Soviet Union. So there's your Reagan-Bush Jr. connection.

Today, March 27, buzzflash.com has a really good interview with David Cay Johnston, a New York Times journalist, who has written a book about our rigged tax system. Mr. Johnston makes the interesting point that in ancient Athens tyranny existed when there was what we would call a flat tax. Once the tax system became more progressive, based on the ability to pay, democracy triumphed. He also points out that taxes have been a necessary component of civilization all through human history (so much for Ayn Rand and her ilk). On the issue of wages Mr. Johnston states, "America is the only nation in the modern world that is driving down wages."

I'm not an Alan Autry fan. Autry, a former actor, is the mayor of Fresno and about as conservative as you would expect in this area. But there was an interview published in The Los Angeles Times where Autry is extremely critical of our Governor Groper. He was a supporter of Arnie back during the election, but has seen Arnie pull a doublecross or two since getting into the governor's office.

Another good item in The Los Angeles Times was a commentary by Peter Singer about George Bush's mercurial ethics. Mr Bush claims to be a good Christian, for example, but has no problems with sending U.S. forces into Afghanistan and Iraq to kill and maim thousands.

Somewhat along the same lines, Molly Ivins has a column about Mr. Bush's about-faces on various legislative issues. As Governor of Texas, Mr. Bush vehemently opposed a patients bill of rights, but took credit for it when it was passed. He has continued this pattern as president.

At commondreams.org there is a story about medically unfit soldiers being sent to Iraq. The military has been so stretched that men who shouldn't be anywhere close to combat are getting sent to the front.

Perhaps the most disturbing item of the day is a commentary by Jeremy Rifkin posted at commondreams.org about an economic "perfect storm" brewing for the United States and the world. It all hinges on our dependency on oil and the increasing price of that commodity. Mr Rifkin argues that the U.S. is between a rock and a hard place. To keep the OPEC countries from increasing oil prices, we need to make the dollar stronger. Making the dollar stronger, however, will put a serious damper on the domestic economic recovery. Looming over all of this is the staggering debt created by the Bush administration.

The 9-11 Commission and its hearings roll on. Today Richard Clarke, the subject of vitriolic White House attacks the past few days, testified before the commission and verified what many of us have felt all along: the Bush administration was derelict in its duty in preventing the attack on September 11. There are still numerous questions about what Bush knew, when he knew it, and why there was no major effort made to stop the attacks. I would also be curious about events after September 11, such as members of the bin Laden family being flown out of the United States.

In the charming style of so many conservatives, a right-winger attacked the group Peace Fresno today. The attack was the old "America haters" line. Why is the concept that you can disagree with the government and still love the country seem so alien to conservatives? They certainly had no problem with pillorying President Clinton over eight years. Liberals weren't questioning their patriotism.

The "under God" controversy has reached the Supreme Court. About a year and a half ago the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that the words "under God" violated the constitutional separation of church and state. Piety was raised to a crescendo. I believe it's obvious that the words "under God" are a government endorsement of religion. If you read the Constitution, there is no doubt it's a secular document and meant for a secular government. We have never been, and I hope we will never be, a theocracy.

The Bushies have maintained that raising taxes on those making $200,000 a year will hurt small businesses. Not true, it seems. In a story linked at buzzflash.com it's revealed that most small businesses make far less than $200,000 a year. There was an earlier story about how the Bush people would like to classify billionaires making income from renting a ski chalet as "small businessmen." All that concern for rich people and none for people who struggle paycheck to paycheck. That's the compassion of Bush's compassionate conservatism.

The Letter of the Day in The Fresno Bee came, I'm almost certain, from a libertarian. The scribe said he was "amused" at the letters from both the right and the left, and he advocated a third party solution. He also talked about the evils of "entitlements," all of which sounds very libertarian. As crazy as the far right is, libertarians probably do them one better.

The Ayn Rand school of thought would have us believe that the best society has no government at all. Everything would be privatized. I can see it now, having to pay to use a road every time you walk or drive, having to pay the fire department for putting out the fire burning down your house, paying the cop to come out an investigate the burglary or prevent the murder, everybody "home schooling" kids, whether qualified or not. I don't know of any society in human history that has functioned under the libertarian utopia, but it's easy to be pious and judgmental when you know your system will never be tried.

The September 11 hearings began today, with various parties predictably trying to cover their backsides. Donald Rumsfeld was his usual annoying, psychopathic self. I can't believe the jargon that comes from these guys. In the Nixon days the phrase "that point in time" gained popularity. Rumsfeld was throwing around the word "stovepipe."

The attacks on Richard Clarke have been coming hot and heavy from the right. They are, as he has said in various interviews, throwing up flak rather than answering the central points of his charges. They accuse him of being "disgruntled" or wanting to sell books or "being out of the loop." But Mr. Clarke hasn't been alone in the things he's stated. With this administration's history of lying and then smearing whistleblowers, we should take note.

To show how much significance the Bush administration placed on counterterrorism, it's illuminating that funding for counterterrorism was cut by almost two-thirds just days after the 9-11 attacks. We had to pay for those tax cuts for the rich somehow, didn't we?

This post may appear in triplicate because I'm experiencing technical difficulties. I misstated the name of the security firm hired by the Bush-Cheney campaign. It should have been Vance International, not Vanguard International.

In a previous post I misstated the name of a security firm hired by the Bush-Cheney campaign. It should have been Vance International, not Vanguard International. My apologies for the error.

In the interest of accuracy, I need to make a correction for a previous post. I stated that "Vanguard" International had been hired as a security firm by the Bush-Cheney campaign. It was in fact Vance International. My apologies for the error.

In the wake of the Richard Clarke interview last night on "60 Minutes" the Bush administration is acting like fishermen trying to bail out a boat leaking so badly it will quickly sink. Clarke, a former terrorism adviser, has stated that the Bush administration was focused on Iraq from the very beginning and paid too little attention to the real threat that existed in al-Quida.

We knew that al-Quida was willing and capable of executing attacks because of previous attacks in Africa and on the U.S.S. Cole. We knew that horrific attacks were possible on our own soil from the Oklahoma City bombing. Although Oklahoma City was the work of a domestic terrorist, it should have roused the attention of a new administration about the possibility of being attacked by foreign terrorists.

Instead of dealing with al-Quida, Mr. Bush took the longest presidential vacation in history on his "ranch" in Crawford, Texas, in August of 2001. After the attack on September 11, the Bush administration still didn't focus on al-Quida. The emphasis was on Iraq, even though nothing suggested Iraq was involved in the attack.

Former President Carter, who deserves enormous respect, has attacked both Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for lying about the reasons for a war against Iraq. Thousands are dead, thousands are maimed, and terrorists are stronger than ever thanks to George W. Bush and his administration.

The theme of the day is punks. The New York Times has a story about members of the punk subculture that supports Bush. Most punks, who are by definition anti-establishment, tend to be more on the left side of the political spectrum. But along comes a punk like the main character of the story, one Nick Rizzuto, who sports the slogan "Vote Bush" on his left arm and expounds on the virtues of capitalism, the death penalty, the war, and the outstanding qualities of George W. Bush. When you think about it punks and Republicans do have a certain symmetry. Chains, banging in mosh pits, violent song lyrics, piercings, and swastikas seem very Republican to me.

Along the same lines, we have the story in The Daily Kos about how the Bush campaign has hired a security firm called Vanguard International. Vanguard is well known for participating in violence during labor disputes and has a strong similarity to the Pinkerton Detective Agency of old. It was standard practice for companies to hire goons to beat up labor protesters and organizers. According to the item in The Daily Kos, the Bush-Cheney campaign has so far paid Vanguard $750,000.

Close to home there was an anti-war protest in Fresno yesterday and the lovable Freeper contingent of our community harassed a peace activist named Ken Hudson. They even managed to get Mr. Hudson arrested. The story linked at americanpolitics.com has photos of Mr. Hudson, other protesters, and the proud member of the Fresno Police Department who made the arrest.

Time magazine has an item about how employees of the Homeland Security Department have been told to look for favorable photo op opportunities for George W. Bush. They want to pose Mr. Bush in settings that emphasize how the administration is protecting us from those dreaded terrorists. The fact this is illegal is evidently of little concern.

Maureen Dowd talks about Antonin "Fat Tony" Scalia and his obvious conflict of interest in not recusing himself in a case involving Dick Cheney. It's okay, Mr. Scalia says, to take a trip with the Vice President, to get the perk of flying on the Vice President's plane, and then hearing the Vice President's case before the Supreme Court. We're obviously just nitpicking RoboIntellect when we dare to question his ethics.

There was a great line in a letter to the editor in The Los Angeles Times. The writer noted that Dick Cheney recently popped out of his hole, saw his shadow, and now we have four more years of war.

It's interesting that the right-wing reaction to the vote in Spain is that Spaniards are now "appeasers" for throwing out Bush supporter Aznar. The fact is that Aznar never represented the will of the people, who opposed the Iraq war all along. And it should be reiterated that Iraq has not been linked to al-Quida. Supporting the war against Iraq wasn't supporting a war against terrorism.

An item at almartinraw.com should be front page news but, as usual, isn't being picked up by the mainstream press. A retired Navy Lt Commander and 28-year veteran of the Department of Defense has alleged that the CIA tried to "plant" WMD's in Iraq. The story is linked at makethemaccountable.com and discusses the very serious charges by Lt. Commander Nelda Rogers.

It seems that the Bush campaign store has been selling merchandise made in Burma, although Bush signed an order banning the sale of such merchandise. Burma, now known as Myanmar, is a military dictatorship with some of the worst human rights abuses in the world. People there earn seven cents an hour for producing the kind of merchandise sold in the Bush store.

I didn't really need official confirmation, but I just found another strong indicator of how this is right wing country. There is a website called www.fundrace.org that shows campaign donors and to whom they donated. In my zip code the donations were overwhelmingly to Bush. There were a couple for Howard Dean, which means not everyone here is a fascist.

Richard Clarke, a former White House anti-terrorism adviser, says that Bush wanted to bomb Iraq within days after the 9-11 attack. Bush wanted to attack Iraq even though the administration knew al-Quida was responsible and no evidence linked Saddam Hussein's regime to al-Quida.

Molly Ivins wrote in a column that George W. Bush has received $440,000 and the Republican Party has received $3.6 million from the corporations that have outsourced the most jobs from the United States. Outsourcing and contributions to Republicans go hand in hand.

Back to Iraq for a moment. Roger Cressey, an anti-terrorism adviser, said in the early days of the Bush administration al-Quida was not even a blip on the radar screen. This was despite the attack on the U.S.S. Cole just months before, known to be perpetrated by al-Quida. The Bush administration sat on its hands, doing nothing to deal with terrorists who were known to have intentions of attacking the United States.

The guy I call Mr. Anti-Choice made his periodic appearance in The Fresno Bee today. His object of ire today was gay marriage. Mr. Anti-Choice doesn't want women to have control of their own bodies and he equates gay marriage to incest and polygamy. I don't see the similarities myself. A relationship between two consenting adults isn't polygamous and, unless they're blood related, it's definitely not incestuous. Mr. A.C. also made the claim that homsexuality has always been condemned by "civilized" societies. Really? How about the ancient Greeks? They didn't seem to have a problem.

It seems that in Crawford, Texas, Bush's home town and site of his "ranch," you can get arrested for just wearing an anti-Bush button. Mr. Bush likes to stand tall and proclaim his love for freedom, but that love doesn't extend to his home town apparently.

In a remarkable bit of audacity and hypocrisy Justice Antonin Scalia is refusing to recuse himself in a case involving his buddy Dick Cheney. Scalia makes the claim that judges would always be having to recuse themselves because friendships in Washington make it impossible not to hear such cases. If this were a liberal justice spending time with a liberal politician, can you imagine the howls on right-wing hate radio?

The president of Poland has stated that he was "misled" about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Let's not beat around the bush (no pun intended), Mr. President. You were lied to.

We sure are winning the war on terror, aren't we? A few days ago there was a massive terrorist attack in Madrid, which helped influence the outcome of the election and throw out a Bush ally. Today there was a horrific bombing of the Mount Lebanon Hotel in Baghdad, and so far there are twenty-seven reported dead. We will no doubt get the usual platitudes from Mr. Bush and minions, but no explanation, no apology for sowing the seeds that have created these attacks.

Make no mistake; the terrorists themselves are the primary culprits, the criminals, who have taken innocent life. But the Bush administration pursued an unnecessary war in Iraq. Thousands have died or been maimed. You can blame "bad intelligence" if you want. I believe this war was something Bush and company really wanted. I don't think they have a high regard for life. Profits and hegemony were there to be grabbed.

Bank of America, which has merged with Fleet Bank, announced there will be 13,000 layoffs. That's 13,000 more to add to the gargantuan total of jobs lost in this administration. But we'll hear about the "growing" economy and "prosperity" and how raising taxes on the wealthy will destroy job creation. We might reasonably ask: what job creation?

According to a new Gallup poll, 60% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. That makes me wonder about the other 40%. What could they possibly see as right about our current course? It's like saying the Titanic was right to take a course that crashed into an iceberg. Give a listen to talk show host Thom Hartmann, who has many keen insights about how the radical right is destroying the American middle class.

We sure are winning the war on terror, aren't we? A few days ago there was a massive terrorist attack in Madrid, which helped influence the outcome of the election and throw out a Bush ally. Today there was a massive bombing of the Mount Lebanon Hotel in Baghdad, and so far there are twenty-seven reported dead. We will no doubt get the usual platitudes from Mr. Bush and minions, but no explanation, no apology for sowing the seeds that have created these attacks.

Make no mistake; the terrorists themselves are the primary culprits, the criminals, who have taken innocent life. But the Bush administration pursued an unnecessary war in Iraq. Thousands have died or been maimed. You can blame "bad intelligence" if you want. I believe this war was something Bush and company really wanted. I don't think they have a high regard for life. Profits and hegemony were there to be grabbed.

Bank of America, which has just merged with Fleet Bank, just announced there will be 13,000 layoffs. That's 13,000 more to add to the gargantuan total of jobs lost in this administration. But we'll hear about the "growing" economy and "prosperity" and how raising taxes on the wealth will destroy job creation. We might reasonably ask: what job creation?

According to a new Gallup poll, 60% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. That makes me wonder about the other 40%. What could they possibly see as right about our current course? It's like saying the Titanic was right to take a course that crashed into an iceberg. Give a listen to talk show host Thom Hartmann, who has many keen insights about how the radical right is destroying the American middle class.

A post at democraticunderground.com concerns vandalism of a Sikh temple in Fresno. It's interesting that the link came from the L. A. Times. The vandals undoubtedly think anyone who wears a turban is an Arab and either a terrorist or a terrorist sympathizer. I've seen Sikhs around town from time to time and I've often thought it takes a certain courage to wear their native dress in a time when bigotry is like a tinder box ready to flare up.

A story in The Washington Post today shows how much the world now hates and fears the United States because of the Bush administration. Bush is incredibly unpopular in France and Germany and even in Britain, our closest ally, Bush is largely despised. The newly-elected Spanish Prime Minister has openly said he hopes Bush is defeated this November.

Good Morning America had a feature about Howard Stern's "jihad" against the Bush administration. Stern has been advising his listeners to vote against Bush. Stern was a strong supporter of the Iraq war and other Bush policies, so it's not a good sign for Mr. Bush that Stern has made an about face.

The mass murder story is continuing and will continue for some time. I am not much of a crime junkie personally. I grieve for the victims and their families and I know that any "justice" for the murderer will never be enough. The innocent victims are gone forever regardless of what happens to the murderer.

Sometimes when you read the letters to the Fresno Bee you can't help but think of the movie "Dumb and Dumber." Today we had a spectacular case of conservative idiocy on display. The author was ticked off at a proposal to allow fourteen to seventeen year olds to vote. He used that old tried and true phrase "commie pinko" to describe supporters of this idea. I thought Communists were opposed to democratic things like voting, but that subtlety was probably lost on this moron. He went on about how the fourteen to seventeen contingent would vote for "giveaway" programs. Why don't we hear about conservative giveaway programs to corporations and to the rich?

I have reservations about lowering the voting age. I'm not sure fourteen to seventeen year olds are mature enough or informed enough to vote. But that same criticism can be leveled at many adults too, particularly those who vote Republican. The people who voted for Arnold the Groper didn't show any more maturity than a teenager. They were just as swayed by his alleged star power.

There is a good piece in today's Washington Post about no correlation existing between tax cuts and job creation. In fact, when taxes have been higher there have typically been more jobs. The typical Republican mantra of tax cut, tax cut, tax cut benefits mostly those who have most of the wealth. Those of us in the working class who buy into this sham are like the citizens of Troy who welcomed the Trojan Horse inside their gates. They were participating in their own slaughter.

News about Fresno's worst mass murder in history continues to get more bizarre. Police have suggested that the accused murderer may have had a polygamist relationship with several women and may have had an incestuous relationship with one or more daughters. He apparently fathered his own grandchildren. Police chief Jerry Dyer has described the accused suspect, Marcus Wesson, as articulate and intelligent.

Fresno actor-turned-mayor Alan Autry was interviewed on a local television station yesterday. Obviously distraught, Mr. Autry mentioned how God had been removed from our lives. Excuse me. It appears this mass murder may be directly related to belief in God or gods. There is no evidence that failure to believe in God had anything to do with these crimes. When you think of David Koresh or Jim Jones you think of a belief in God, twisted as it may be.

Maureen Dowd has another good column in The New York Times in which she tells George W. Bush to look in the mirror. Mr. Bush doesn't want to assume responsibility for anything in his administration. The 9-11 attack, the lousy economy, world hatred of the United States, the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, none of it is the Bush administration's fault. I believe almost all of it is directly attributable to the crass and arrogant polices of this administration.

David Broder has a good column in The Washington Post talking about Congressman Barney Frank and ideas about the "jobless recovery" we're experiencing. The very wealthy can now get wealthy without creating jobs. Government policies on trade and taxes have made it possible for the very wealthy to increase their wealth by pursuing methods that hurt our society as a whole. For instance, "outsourcing" of jobs to cheaper labor markets makes the rich richer, but hurts our domestic economy and our own people.

There are hints that the Bush administration may be pursuing a selective military draft. The primary targets now appear to be IT professionals and linguists. If the Bush administration again claims power in November, we can probably count on a draft. The military is stretched now to the breaking point and the idea of a selective military draft is probably just the beginning.

Yesterday Fresno experienced its worst mass murder in history when a man apparently killed nine people. Seven of the victims were children and at least the majority of them were the man's children. So far the police haven't determined or released to the public the cause of death. Murder is not so abstract when it occurs in your own back yard.

Is there a correlation between the political orientation of an area and the incidents of dysfunction? I think there is. Extreme violence seems to occur far more often in areas that lean politically right. Conservatives are reactionary in that they believe in an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, that war is better than negotiation, and any sign of weakness if fatal. The worst incidents of violence in this country have usually had a link to right-wing political ideology. Tim McVeigh is the classic example. Abortion clinics have been bombed by right-wing zealots. Lynchings of African Americans were committed by people who wanted the old ways of slavery and subjugation. Violence against women is often committed by those who want woman to "know their place."

A story linked at commondreams.org reveals how the Bush administration may still be busily trying to overthrow Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezeuela. Mr. Chavez was deposed once before.

One of the issues Mr. Bush will hammer in the election campaign is national security. But it is apparent that he and his administration have weakened our national security when you consider how much of the world now hates us. The Bush administration, acting like a playground bully, has stomped across the globe, arrogantly, callously, and maliciously destroying the rights and lives of millions. It has made us all targets.

Yesterday Fresno had its worst mass murder case in history. From all appearances, a man killed nine people, two adults and seven children. He was the father of at least most of the children. So far the cause of the deaths either hasn't been determined or released to the public. There are suggestions the murders may be cult related. Murder seems an abstract thing until it occurs in your own back yard.

I have thought about the correlation between violence, lousy living standards, and the political orientation of an area. You rarely hear of horrific murders in areas dominated by liberals. The mass murders in this country are usually committed by conservatives like Timothy McVeigh. I haven't done the research, but I believe you would find incidents of domestic violence, hate crimes, teenage pregnancies, rapes, suicides, and al the other dysfunctions in human society occur predominantly in areas dominated by right-wing political ideology. Violence is the basic and core credo of right-wing conservatism. War is the answer, not negotiation, guns are the answer, not dealing with the conditions that cause crime and violence. One of the worst things in the world, according to the conservative world view, is to be considered weak.

In a story linked at commondreams.org it appears the Bush administration is still busy like little beavers in toppling other governments. Hugo Chavez, president of Venezeula, believes the Bushies are planning to try to oust him.

A op-ed piece in The Boston Globe points out how Mr. Bush has alienated much of the world. Many in the world hate the United States because of the arrogance, brutality, and dishonesty of Mr. Bush. This is a national security issue. It makes the United States more of a target to more and more people who view us as the bad bully on the playground.

We passed the stage of Absolute Outrage even before George W. Bush was sworn in as president on January 20, 2001. Mr. Bush arrived at the position because of an obviously partisan and corrupt decision by the United States Supreme Court.

But things haven't gotten better. That rape of democracy seems like ancient history now because we keep learning of new outrages every day. At Yahoo News there is a story revealing that Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld and some FBI officials kept "souvenirs" of the September 11 attack on the United States. According to the report, Mr. Rumsfeld kept a piece of the airplane that crashed into the Pentagon. How sick and macabre can you be? I'm beginning to think this administration is made up of Body Snatchers.

In a story linked at commondreams.org we learn that Richard S. Foster, chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has stated he would be fired if he revealed the true cost of the Bush administration prescription drug benefit Medicare program. Several conservative GOP members of Congress were balking on supporting the bill because they felt it was too expensive. The report indicates that the administration knew the costs were bogus months before the bill was debated on the floor of Congress. This was the bill where the GOP leadership violated the rules and allowed extra time for the vote. Considerable arm-twisting and possible bribery were also involved.


Another item concerns an alleged Iraqi spy who is the cousin of White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. You can't really blame Mr Card if his cousin is a spy, of course, but I just wonder how this would play if this occurred in a Clinton or Gore administration.

We Americans frequently have our eyes glaze over when the discussion turns to foreign affairs. There are all those faraway places that we don't where to find on a map and all those strange names we can't pronounce. But there is a new book about the House of Saud and its connection to the Bush family that should engage our attention.

The book is House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger being serialized in salon.com. Among the most troubling themes of the book is that Saudi Arabian ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz was an al-Quida go-between and may have had foreknowledge of the attacks that occurred on September 11. We know that fifteen of the September 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, so there is already a strong connection to the Saudis.

The book discusses how many prominent Saudis, including members of the bin Laden family, were flown out of the United States in the days immediately following September 11. This was at a time when there was a lockdown on civilian air travel, so authority for the Saudis to fly from the United States had to come from the highest levels of the United States government

In what is being called "Khan-gate" we have to deal once again with hard-to-pronounce names and faraway places. The protagonist of this story is one A. Q. Khan, called the father of the Pakistani nuclear weapons program. Mr. Khan, over the past several years, has been busily exporting nuclear technology all over the world. The Bush administration has virtually ignored this nuclear proliferation. But Mr. Bush will present himself as a defender of America and try to portray Senator Kerry as weak on defense.

Another threat that the Bush administration has not addressed is genetically modified food. You know about GMO's. Those are the tomatoes with a fish gene or a potato with a built-in pesticide. A few years ago there was a scare when StarLink corn contaminated corn meant for human consumption. StarLink corn, another GMO, has not been approved for human consumption. We're seeing our food supply contaminated by so-called Franken Foods and all with the approval of the Bush crowd.

The Clinton administration seems like a galaxy far, far away now. Remember how in those halcyon days the Republicans and right-wingers foamed at the mouth over White House coffees and sleepovers? It seems that George and Laura Bush have had a few sleepovers of their own, mostly from big donors. The Bushes have hosted their guests both at the White House and at Camp David. Where is all that Republican outrage now?

The Hubble telescope has provided us with our most distant look at the universe yet. But Mr. Bush wants to sacrifice the Hubble to pay for his fantasy trip to Mars. This is a crime against science. I would love to see a manned mission to Mars, but there are more pressing priorities here on Terra right now. In the meantime, we could still have the Hubble for far less than any manned mission would cost. Of course, major contractors benefit from missions to Mars, whether they succeed or not, and the money just isn't there if we keep the Hubble.

With the Martha Stewart convictions and the scandals at big corporations like Enron, Global Crossing, and others you have to wonder about the steadiness of capitalism. Big shareholders, the insiders, hold all the cards. Most Americans own very little or no stock anyway, of course. We're too busy paying the credit card bills, the rent, the rising gas prices, and so on. But even if you had a few bucks to plop into the stock market you can't be sure you're getting the straight scoop about a company's finances now. Without trust, investing is more of a gamble than moseying down to your local casino.

It's with some amusement and some nausea that I see an ad for Bush at the top of this published blog. "Compassionate conservative" indeed. If ever there was an oxymoron, it's that phrase.

Lots of interesting stuff in the media today. Paul Krugman had a good column in The New York Times talking about the wishful thinking of the Bush job projections. A chart provided in Krugman's column shows how far off the mark the projections have been. You would think--and hope--people would finally realize you can't believe any economic projections emanating from this administration.

Jon Carroll in sfgate.com has a good column about attempts by the Bush administration to make war on science, particularly in teaching evolutionary theory. I come from a background where evolution was a truly evil doctrine. The religion I belonged to believed the human race was about 6,000 years old. They got around the ages of the earth and the universe by saying that the biblical "days" weren't defined in the Bible. They could be millions or billions of years old, according to that rationale. I have come to realize that the overwhelming evidence supports the theory of evolution unless you want to subscribe to a belief in miracles that changed physical laws at convenient times in our history. I have yet to see a miracle, so I side with science.

In a news clip I saw of George W. Bush he was reading some quip written by one of his speech writers about Senator Kerry. It went something like, "My opponent has strong beliefs for a little while." The strategy of the Bush campaign is to paint Senator Kerry as indecisive in contrast with Fearless Leader, who provides bold and decisive leadership. The truth is somewhat different. Fearless Leader has consistently flip-flopped on a number of issues ranging from global warming, to commissions on 9-11 and the Iraq intelligence debacle. Combine that with a trail of broken promises and it's difficult to see how anyone can trust this man.

Since Mr. Bush likes to paint himself as a Christian, I was thinking of the issue of religion and government. In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers stated clearly that the government would make no law regarding an establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof. Thomas Jefferson outlined the doctrine of separation of Church and State. Right-wingers like to claim that the phrase about church and state separation doesn't appear in the Constitution. But it's clear from reading the work of the Founding Fathers that the wall of separation was clearly intended. The Constitution itself states that there will be no religious test for public office.

Now we have Mr. Bush and the Christian Right doing their level best to turn our government into their version of a Theocracy. It reminds me of the campaign of John F. Kennedy in 1960. There were major concerns among some people that Kennedy's Catholicism would interfere with his duties as President. Kennedy stated clearly that if he ever faced a conflict, he would resign the presidency.

While I do not advocate religious bigotry, I think it's appropriate to ask candidates about their religious beliefs and how those beliefs would affect their performance in public office. I have great concerns about candidates who believe in the Rapture or Armageddon or some other life-ending event on earth. Would such a candidate start a nuclear war, for instance, in fulfillment of some prophecy? Would such a candidate pursue aggressive military actions in the Middle East because that is the setting for much of the Bible and the Koran? I do not believe that a candidate who can in fact create an apocalyptic event--who believes he's fulfilling some mandate of God --should occupy the Oval Office.

The Bush administration in many ways is illusory. The latest example is the campaign ad trumpeting Mr. Bush's "leadership" after September 11 The ad showed firefighters at Ground Zero. It turns out the firefighters weren't even real. It's fitting somehow, because Mr. Bush's "leadership" was also an illusion.

Karl Rove is the satanic mastermind behind much of the Bush administration's policies. It seems that Mr. Rove is an admirer of William McKinley and McKinley's mastermind, Mark Hanna. Back in McKinley's and Hanna's day the policy was also to reward the rich, devastate the environment, and cede as much power as possible to big companies such as railroad and mining interests. After McKinley was assassinated, along came the progressive, muckraking Theodore Roosevelt. Let's hope that this despicable administration will also be followed by a progressive administration that will deal with the "malefactors of great wealth."

It is, as they say in the media business, a slow news day. The Bush administration is talking about handing over power to the Iraqis in June. What it will really be is a puppet U.S. regime that gets power, but it will be touted as a major advancement for democracy.

George W. Bush stands firmly in favor of tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. He always likes to use the phrase "the American people," but he's really talking about the very, very rich.

The rest of us don't count for much in the universe of Mr. Bush. It has been reported that the arrogant little rich boy, while at Harvard, derided the poor as being poor because of being lazy. That's easy to say when you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth and have never had to really work a day in your life. I get a little weary of being lectured on the value of hard work, thrift, virtue, etc., by people who have never had to struggle, who don't have to get up early to go to a miserable dead-end job, who don't have to juggle kids, school, housework, paying bills, and all the rest. They can take their lectures and shove it.

Jimmy Breslin has a great column about Bush using images of 9-11 in his campaign ads. Breslin calls it "molesting the dead." Today's crop of conservatives do seem to have a bit of necrophilia in them. They love bombs, missiles, torture, napalm, Stealth bombers, nuclear weapons, and any other instruments of mass death.

I'm actually seeing a fairly large number of letters critical of George W. Bush in The Fresno Bee lately. It's amazing. Someone today made the excellent point that today's conservatives seem to have a major problem with our Constitution. They're always wanting to amend it for some reason, whether it's to ban flag burning or to prohibit same sex marriage. The tradition of our country until recently has been to expand freedom, not to restrict it.

There's no doubt that the exercise of freedom is going to offend someone somewhere. You especially realize that when you look at political speech and at artistic expression. Sometimes I don't like what I see or hear, but I want the freedom to express myself even if that might offend someone. So it's a two way street.

George W. Bush was once quoted as saying, "Sometimes there's too much freedom." Mr. Bush was offended by a parody website, but just think of how chilling that statement is from a political leader. Bush's people are now trying to prevent critical television ads produced by moveon.org from airing on television stations. They're using the excuse that the ads are "illegal" use of soft money. I don't claim to know all the legalities involved, but once again it appears "there's too much freedom."

Martha Stewart got convicted on four counts today for what is essentially insider trading. Martha's crime is penny ante compared to the insider trading George W. Bush did at Harken Energy several years ago, so you have to wonder why Mr. Bush isn't up on charges.

I am glad to hear that telephone records from Air Force One are being subpoenaed in the Valerie Plame case. Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA operative, was "outed" by columnist Robert Novak in an apparent act of revenge by the Bush administration against her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson dared to suggest the administration lied about Iraq purchasing enriched uranium from Niger.

Mr. Bush made another campaign swing through California the past couple of days, making grandiose claims about the benefits of his tax cuts for fat cats. In the meantime, a report said that only 21,000 jobs were created in the U.S. economy last month. If this is success, then heaven help us. When we're all one teeming unemployed mass in the streets that will be the Republican idea of utopia, I suppose.

If you're in the desert or anywhere else there are great circling carrion birds, think of the Bush administration. The first ads out of the box for Bush's campaign feature footage of firefighters at Ground Zero. It is beyond cynical, it is beyond obscene, that this administration has built its entire filthy policy on the deaths of 3,000 innocent people at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. It is beyond comprehension when you realize that September 11 should have been prevented. The administration had an abundance of intelligence that a major attack was going to occur. Even as the planes were being hijacked, the administration failed to respond. We know the rest.

Bush shill Karen Hughes rode her broom in for an appearance on Good Morning America. Ms. Hughes said Democrats are basing their entire campaign against Bush on anger. I would suggest there is plenty to be angry about. Anger is a rational response to the venality, lying, incompetence, and sheer audacity of this administration in raping the environment, raping the Constitution, and destroying the lives of Americans and others around the world.

Professional sports are certainly not the most pressing issue facing us, but sports are a major part of American culture. The issue of steroid use by professional athletes has become a major topic on sports talk radio, primarily because the hero of sports talk personalities, George W. Bush, mentioned steroid use in his State of the Union Address.

It's interesting how right-wing rhetoric even permeates sports talk radio, which you would think would be largely free of politics. On the Tony Bruno Show, broadcast on the Fox Sports Network, there have been constant mockings of Governor Howard Dean and his "scream" during a pep talk to his supporters after the Iowa caucuses. But Mr. Bruno was offended that there might be any talk of politics at the Academy Awards by Sean Penn or other opponents of the Bush administration.

Jim Rome has also made great use of the "scream" audio, although I will give Mr. Rome credit for criticizing Bush for failing to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Another Fox personality named Mike Lamb, who is from the Fresno/Clovis area, interviewed Marvin Miller, former head of the Baseball Players Association, today about the issue of steroids. Mr. Lamb was apparently terribly offended that Marvin Miller referred to Attorney General John Ashcroft as a "dangerous man." Mr. Lamb might want to take a look at things like the PATRIOT ACT, detaining terrorism suspects without due process, operation TIPS, and the Carnivore system that compiles data on Americans without their knowledge, consent, or any evidence of wrongdoing. After the interview Mr. Lamb got a number of callers angry at Marvin Miller and none of them seemed to recognize that Mr. Miller may have had some valid points.

News of more horrific bombings in Iraq and now in Pakistan. Iraq appears to be headed for civil war. So much for the hearts and flowers promised by the Bush administration.

Now Haiti is in chaos and it appears that President Aristide was forced out of the country by the administration. Haiti serves stratetic purposes for the United States, particularly if moves are going to be made against Castro's Cuba. And any anti-Castro activitiy appeals to the hard right-wing base of Cuban exiles in south Florida, which Bush desperately wants to win in the 2004 election (whether by hook or by crook).

It appears that Senator John Kerry has secured enough delegates to be the Democratic nominee against Bush this November. Kerry has a good liberal voting record in the Senate. The big money behind the Bush campaign will try to use that as a negative issue. In truth, Kerry is not as liberal as I would like, but I will certainly support him in this election. It is essential for this country and the rest of the world that George W. Bush and his administration be defeated in this election.