What's Hot

Well, I’m back. Had a great time on my lil’ sojourn out west, but still lamented the fact that being a tourist reduced me almost completely to the role of passive consumer. Anyway, I guess it’s comforting to know that you can go away for a week and return to find a world even more screwed up than when you left…

I’m not going to bother rehashing much of what’s transpired over the past week, but here are a few of the stories that caught my eye:

*Those millionaires in the Bush Administration are starting to feel some heat with revelations of past uh-ohs in their own business practices. The crackpot press has opened up a few can of worms, even though most of the recent revelations about Bush and his pals are old news: ie, Bush's own sordid financial history (specifically with Harken), Cheney’s Halliburton shenanigans (don’t forget this spat of lying, either), and Tom White’s Enron dealings.

*Creeping fascism rolls on with the newly established TIPS program. The Sunday Morning Herald of Australia reports that with its establishment the “US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police” – an estimated 1 in 24 Americans.

*Iraq still bubbles under the surface. The line changes so quickly (a massive attack? scaled down invasion? Perhaps it’s all just a smokescreen…) on our impending attack and Iraq’s “threat to civilization” that it almost makes this whole prelude to war comical. Unfortunately, that would only be the case if we weren’t more than likely to start a major regional war which will kill who-knows-how-many people, for no convincing reason. So, now we have Richard Pearle warning that there is “powerful” evidence “that Iraq is coordinating with Al Qaida on plans to attack the United States.” Geesh, haven’t we heard this before?

Other stuff’s going on, for sure, but this seems to be what’s hot...