Here in the land of spin, I've heard all kinds of approbation r.e. France and the French refusal to "admit reality" by knuckling under to Chirac's new law removing job protections from young workers.
The NY Times has been relentlessly critical of the French who are protesting. The Concord (NH) Monitor headlined: "The French in denial," and stated that:
To anyone who cares about Europe's future, the French demonstrations and street riots protesting the government's new labor law must be profoundly disturbing.....Hardly anyone wants to surrender the benefits and protections of today's generous welfare state, but the fierce attachment to these costly and self-defeating programs prevents Europe from preparing for a future that, though it may be deplored, is inevitable.
But they didn't tell you that France--supposedly the Socialistic demon from hell, addicted to pampering, lengthy vacations, and lifelong job security, and unable to compete with real go-getters like the U.S.......somehow manages to be more productive than we are.
So Tom Delay announces his intent to resign from Congress. Effective at some undetermined time before mid-June.
In many ways, he's been saying good-by for some time, starting with when he got indicted in Texas, and continuing through his loss of House support that forced him to step down as House majority leader. You could make an argument that anyone that unethical and that vicious has probably been saying good-by since the day he arrived, because those traits will eventually do you in.
What we won't know for some time is whether this is good-by to DeLay or good-by to what DeLay represents.
I've mentioned before my suspicions that part time and temporary employment growth is what's behind the statistics that the government tries to pass off as "good news" about employment.
It turns out that, at least as far as part time employment goes, someone has been collecting rough but worldwide statistics for a 10-year period.
CNN lists the most profitable coporations on the Fortune 500 for 2005. Twenty-five of them had more than $5 billion in profits:
From a state that has given us Ronald Reagan, Duke Cunningham, and Arnold as stalwart examples of Republicanism, I guess we should have pretty low expectations of the new crop.
I know this won't shock you the way it might have a few years ago: a study of the IRS and audits has found that in 2005, people reporting less than $25,000 in income were six times more likely to be called into the IRS for a personal audit than those reporting income of more than $200,000.
Proving that zealots dedicated to an abstraction known as "free markets" learn nothing that doesn't fit within their zealotry, the Bush administration is now running into severe criticism of a $6 million no-bid contract given by the National Nuclear Security Administration to Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong based company, to scan U.S. bound cargo going through the Bahamas.
Most people underestimate the degree to which the Bushster is succeeding at changing the country in the direction that he and his corporate supporters have long desired. For example, on March 17, a federal District Court ruled against the Bush administration's claim--via its appointees at EPA--that the EPA could water down the Clean Air Act's requirements that older power plants must meet the Act's emission standards if they upgraded their plants rather than retiring them from service as they wore out.
But in 21st century "Bush's America" good news is never more than a prelude to more bad news, and the Bush admin certainly didn't disappoint, according to a news release today from the National Resources Defense Council:
Fresh from the Orange County Register, on April Fool's Day, no less: O.C. voters were duped into GOP registration--Petitioners lie, cajole and commit forgery while duping more than 100 O.C. residents into joining the Republican Party
These are strange times. Very strange times. The daily headlines are often enough to provoke uncontrolled laughter, vomiting, or both. The oddest statements can lurk beneath innocuous headlines. Reality's getting hard to find.
Here's a small selection of the above:
