Ohio seems to have slid further into the 21st century crevice of corruption than most states. You have the questionable 2004 election. You have Governor Taft convicted of a crime related to unreported gifts and outings. You have the "coingate" scandal where state workers' compensation funds were practically handed over to a big Republican fundraiser for "investment" in rare coins that seem to have disappeared. You have Congressman Bob Ney front and center in the Abramoff scandal. You have Howard Dean announcing that Ohio is "the center of Republican corruption scandals."
It ain't limited to the political arena, either. Witness a report from the Toledo Blade about fraud in connection with a nuclear plant.
"Six, you're becoming incredibly paranoid!", someone said to me recently.
"Oh, how do you figure?"
"Well, everything you say is, well, Hitler this, Germany that, that Bush is....."
"Logic.", I state coldly. "As Neils Bohr said, follow the clues, the theory, then, writes itself!".........
So Karl "am I indicted yet" Rove spoke to members of the Republican National Committee today, and continued to be Karl Rove. Just to keep the universe from rupturing, Ken Mehlman also continued to be Ken Mehlman, but lets make this Rove's day.
Two things he said really struck me as the epitome of what's wrong with Rove specifically, and the current crop of Republicans generally:
"Republicans have a post-9/11 view of the world. And Democrats have a pre-9/11 view of the world."
"We need to learn from our successes, and from the failures of others."
Now that the final tallies have been published for the December elections in Iraq, it's time to review the results, the way they've been portrayed, what they mean for trying to form an Iraqi permanent government, and what it means for the U.S.
Interesting, no? Seems our fascist goons also want to know what me and you are surfing for these days...
Huffpo contributor Bob Cesca goes off the deep end with this mad piece...
Since we know are inextricably linked to China in both debt and trade, it pays to pay attention to economic news from China.
This past weekend, China's central bank announced that the nation's foreign currency reserves had increased to a record $819.9 billion, with almost $50 billion of that having accrued during the fourth quarter of 2005.
As Watching the Watchers wrote back in November, the President's "Iraq Plan" unveiled then really didn't give a realistic description of Iraqi insurgents.
Now, an article in the UK's The Guardian, based on an assessment of the US's own Agency for International Development (USAid) paints a far grimmer picture of Iraq in general, and the insurgency in particular.
Monday was Dr King's birthday. You wouldn't know it with some....or do we?
The Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) just released their data on wages and prices for December, 2005, with comparisons of December to the prior month, and all of 2005 with prior years.
Not particularly good news.
