This Just In!

Rest of the nation astonished to learn that Phil Gramm has no morals, no scruples, and no reflection! Film at eleven!
In other news, John McCain is totally a maverick and not a low-rent George W. Bush clone.

Send Your Tax Dollars to Red China!

Spend them at Wal-Mart, the focus of evil in the modern world. Actually, as I think Bill Maher put it, the only way to help the American economy with your tax rebate check would be to spend it on hookers, meth, or Indian Casinos.

John McCain: The Elites' Populist

In what is sure to be a preview of the fall campaign, McCain trots out his long-abandoned "maverick" image to rail against "corporate welfare," and "extravagant salaries and severance deals" of corporate CEOs, when in reality his economic program is as pro-corporatist as anything Dubya ever proposed. And, of course, look for even more trotting out of various talking heads to denounce Obama as an "elitist," because he drinks orange juice. Or can't bowl. Or whatever.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald (after a lengthy defense of his latest book) outlines the sheer brass monkeys of a multi-millionaire like John McCain denouncing Obama (raised in modest circumstances by a single mother) as an "elitist," and, more importanly, why Democrats must fight back vociferously against GOP branding techniques.

Wal-Mart: The Focus of Evil In the Modern World, Part 2

Wal-Mart caves, thanks to, among others, Keith Olbermann.

Wal-Mart, however, and until further notice, still sucks.

UPDATE: Glenn Beck, still a clueless asshole.

Wal-Mart: The Focus of Evil in the Modern World

Welcome to free-market health care solutions! A woman is catastrophically injured and wins a modest judgment in a personal injury case to pay for the lifetime of healthcare she will require. Her former employer WAL-MART THEN SUES HER FOR MORE THAN THE TOTAL JUDGMENT in order to recoup what it paid out in health-care expenses (expenses that were paid through a policy which she herself contributed to during her period of employment). Meanwhile, one of her sons has been killed in Iraq and her husband has been forced to divorce her in order to qualify her for public assistance with her medical bills. The only thing worse than Wal-Mart's despicable (though entirely legal) actions in this case is the cosmic insanity of a health-care system where something like this can occur. And occur to PEOPLE WITH HEALTH INSURANCE.

UPDATE: Great minds think alike. And it's even worse than I originally thought; the poor woman's brain injuries are such that she has virtually no long-term memory. Thus, every single time she asks about her son and is told he is dead, it is as though she is experiencing the wrenching grief for the very first time.

Bush Administration Backs Indians!

No, seriously! And against Big Banks even! There's got to be some angle here I'm missing, some way in which supporting the jursidiction of tribal courts somehow makes torture legal or something...

Modern Free Market Capitalism in Action

Millions of Americans set to lose their homes due to the implosion of the sub-prime lending market?
Merely the unfathomable workings of the Invisible Hand. Any government intervention would be counterproductive and might even encourage the wastrels to future inefficiencies.

A few cowboy multi-multi-millionaires run a billion dollar company into the ground with bad investments and lazy management?
This injustice must not stand! Deploy the financial cavalry!

This has been Modern Free Market Capitalism in Action. Thank you and good night.

Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Bunch of Guys

Texans for Lawsuit "Reform," a Lieninger front group dedicated to slamming the courthouse door in the faces of anyone who dares to sue their corporate overlords, was dissolved by the Secretary of State for failing to keep up with their paperwork. No doubt some unscrupulous liberal activist judge or socialistic rich trial lawyer is behind it.

Fear & Loathing

The FISA bill fight is about two things and two things only: the government having to get a warrant before spying on Americans and providing retroactive immunity to big telecom companies who broke the law. All the rest is just the usual despicable fear-mongering.

Privatized Army Runs Amok

Senior US Military official backs the Iraqi government's story that Blackwater mercenaries fired first and without provocation into a crowd of unarmed civillians.

Another Wheel Falling Off the Cart?

Hot on the heels of reports that Christian Reconstructionists are considering bolting the GOP comes this Wall Street Journal article that indicates Republicans are losing even the support of the business community. Is the party of Lincoln really getting down to just the tin-foil hat crowd? I'm not convinced that tele-Pharisees would really form a Third Party, but truthfully all they have to do is advise their flocks to stay home, or at least refrain from the kind of fervent electoral evangelization they performed in 2004, to fatally wound any GOP nominee in '08. If business is turning lukewarm on the Republicans, that of course doesn't mean they are embracing Democrats, but again, all they need to do is be a little stingier with their wallets to make a big difference, particularly if the Democratic nominee is seen to be at-least partially "business friendly" (i.e., in favor of "Free" Trade; i.e., Hillary Clinton).

UPDATE: Preening narcissist James Dobson emphasizes again that he is more than willing to drag the GOP down to electoral oblivion.

Privitizing War

That rumbling sound you hear is Machiavelli spinning in his grave like a a turbine as the Bush Adminsitration deploys a vast, unaccountable mercenary army in Iraq, a mercenary army with such a foul-smelling reputation even the normally supine Iraqi government wants them gone.

Apples & Oranges (or Bananas)

The Bush Administration will not press charges against officials of Chiquita Brands International for GIVING MONEY TO TERRORISTS. Because, you see, these were right-wing, Columbian terrorists, not Arabs. And the right-wing Colombian government is our ally, unlike crypto-Peronist blowhard Hugo Chavez next door in Venezuela. See? Completely different.

Thanks to Skippy the Bush Kangaroo for the image!

UPDATE: Clarification. Chiquita does have to pay a $25 million fine. Still, what are the odds the Holy Land Foundation will get such a deal?

Why Labor Day Is Important

From the AFL-CIO (the good folks who brought you the weekend) via the Great and Powerful Kos.

Also, you may be shocked and appalled to learn that the Bush Administration hates labor unions more than it loves democracy in Iraq. Who'd have guessed?

TXDOT: Shamelessly Shilling for the Pave Texas Corridor...

...on your nickel. Suckers! See, socialism is only bad when it benefits people; when it benefits giant foreign corporations, that's a whole 'nother story.

Yet More Proof...

...that Capitalists don't really believe in capitalism. Just wait 'till Jonah Goldberg gets ahold of him!

The Mouse That Sued

And speaking of frivolous lawsuits, when a self-described "fifth tier blogger" began a letter-writing campaign to the sponsors of San Francisco talk radio KSFO, informing them of the violent, threatening, racist, eliminationist rhetoric being spewed on the airways, the Enchanted Lawyers of the Magic Kingdom were deployed to smack him with a happy "cease & desist" letter. This type of legal thuggery is known as a SLAP, or strategic lawsuit against the public interest, where giant corporations threaten uppity citizens with financial ruin, even though the threatened lawsuits clearly have no merit. This is a relatively small incident in the grand scheme of things, but it represents a growing threat: the ability of the wealthy and powerful to grind into paste any free speech they find annoying.

Corporations Seeking to Screw Indians...Again

Yes, yes, I know; terribly shocking. Evidently, the mining companies are in a snit because the Navajo won't authorize any new uranium mining until the contamination from all the previous mining is cleaned up. How unreasonable!

"We could worry ourselves to death that one additional cancer in a million will be caused," [Juan] Velasquez [mining company vice president] said. "It sounds stereotypical, but these Indians jump in their car and drive 90 miles per hour down the road. But they won't take the risk on uranium."

Stereotypical? No! Surely not! Incidentally, there, Velasquez, when's the uranium mine going up in YOUR backyard? When was the last time 93 MILLION gallons of radioactively contaminated water was dumped in YOUR water supply? That's what happened in ONE day, July 16, 1979, on the Navajo Reservation.

Authoritarians of a Feather...

Eric's Lyceum has a typically thoughtful piece on Putin and the notion of Law vs. Order. In reading it, I noticed the similarities between Putin's Russia and Bush's America becoming painfully apparent: the fetishizing of authority, the Good Ole Boy Corporate corruption, the downgrading of independent media and the stiffling of dissent, the never-ending "war on terror" as an excuse to erode civil liberties. Of course, Putin is much further along (and is wildly popular in his country), putting me in mind of Lincoln's comment, "When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty - to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."