This is a sad, sad story for Americans, for Iraqis, and for human beings in general.  The U.S. military command in Iraq has begun formally investigating whether five American soldiers raped an Iraqi woman then killed her and her family to keep the crime concealed.

One result of the Iraq invasion has been to enable the Iraqis to move closer to Iran.  With Shiites now the majority political force, and so much of Iraq's resources unusable or undeliverable due to the war, insurgency, counterinsurgency, etc., Iran may become a natural partner for Iraq.

Witness the following from Iran's FARS news service (but keep the real possibility of self-serving platitudes firmly in mind).

In what I hope is a "no comment required" piece, here are some recent news headlines on businesses restating earnings--many related to their "charitable" accounting for employee stock options, yet another field of scandal in 21st century American businesses.

While the inner circle at the White House continues to give out uplifting quotes about our great success in "combating terrorism," more and more Americans feel less and less safe.

Big business executives earn enough money annually to choke the proverbial horse.  It's easy to get mad at them and the foolish corporate Boards that approve these ludicrous payments, but I think we've discovered that these execs actually do need this much money.  If "need" is defined as loosely as our fearless president defines "success," that is.

So many different groups have held the low spot on America's social totem pole that it isn't worth listing them.  And one of the recurring themes about each group, spoken by bigots who wanted to pretend to be reasonable in their bigotry, was the cringing question, "would you want your sister to marry one?"

The web page for the Republican majority on the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works yesterday posted what purports to be a "scientific" debunking of an AP story from the same day.  The AP story detailed the scientific community's support for the soundness of the science in Al Gore's global warming movie.

Isn't that strange?  Why would a Senate Committee web site attack the veracity of an AP report and, by extension, the science in a documentary movie?

Two words: James.  Inhofe.

Stay the course, the president says.  Stay the course, the Vice President growls.  Stay the course, Karl Rove tells every one who can stand to be close enough to him to hear the words.

Here's a free suggestion for every Democratic candidate in the upcoming elections:  Don't run from their propaganda, make them eat those words.

In times past, getting a good "government job" with the feds was considered quite an achievement, one that would usually provide the lucky employee with a long term, even lifetime, job of some satisfaction. Then....

As an American, you have less and less chance of retiring on a solid, reliable, company pension.  Especially if you're younger.  You probably don't have adequate savings to tide you over. You can take some comfort--if you're that kind of petty person--in the fact that thngs look equally bleak for the English.

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