My nephew just pointed out to me an article about a huge scandal at the agency in the Department of the Interior responsible for collecting oil royalties. This scandal makes Teapot Dome look like an afternoon tea. Here are a few key items from the LA Times Article:



Among the allegations:







These are just three of many allegations regarding the agency in charge of awarding oil drilling contracts and collecting royalties from the oil companies. This should be a national scandal, but I would not even know it from reading blogs and watching the MSM. Why are we hearing about this instead of about lipstick on a pig?

More information about the scandal can be found at the LA Times website.

There are some on this thread arguing that we cannot trust the Republicans enough to reach out to them, or that we should do to them what they did to us. When I read this, I am reminded of the quote from Gandhi: "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind."

The last great change in our country, the Civil Rights movement, was not by hatred of the opposition, who deserved hatred, but by peacefully resisting them. Quiet dignity and compassion for the opposition, even as they hate and revile us, is much more effective.

After 7 years of the Bush administration, we are all sick to death of the posturing, hatred, and bigotry of the Republican party. I have often fallen short of my own ideals, and let my temper get the better of me. But Nance is right - we need to reach out to those of good will in the opposition, and enlist their help in rebuilding our democracy. Engaging in the same type of divisive politics the Republicans have used for so many years will change nothing. Taking the high road could put us on the right track for decades to come. Our work will be just beginning when a Democrat takes the oath of office in January 2009. We need all the hands we can get to help us with it.

 
On September 20th, I still was not in the mood for Comedy. I'm sorry I missed it then, but it has more impact now.

I still have tears in my eyes as I type this. I too remember the time when the company was united, when we were - for oh so brief a time - judging people by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin. Perhaps the greatest crime of Bush, Cheney, and the neocons is perverting that sense of national unity, that sense of national purpose.

Nearly six years later, we are sitting midst the rubble of the American republic. Bush and company and their sycophants such as Gibson, have managed to do what the terrorists could not do - destroy American democracy. As wrong as it is, I sometimes can't help but fantasize that the Erinyes, the Furies themselves, would rise from the bowels of the earth to drag them down to Hades - that the bolts of Zeus would rain down on them from the heavens.

But that is just fantasy. In a little less than a year and a half, Bush will leave office unscathed and uncaring. Someone else will take the oath of office, and begin the hard and thankless task of cleaning up after him. But all of those who were killed and maimed in his war of choice will remain so, the damage he did will remain for decades. Thinking about this, and thinking about the chance we had but threw away, I join Jon Stewart, years too late, in weeping.

We have to criticize his supporters. We have to make the case that it wasn't just Bush, it was also the arrogant lying b*st*rds in Congress.

Is 'composite' the new Republican euphemism for 'lie'?

I don't know if this is the Progressive view, but the ads against Proposition 87 are funded by the oil industry, especially Exxon-Mobil. As far as I am concerned, if Exxon-Mobil is against it, I'm for it.

These wingnuts will be signing the 'Minuteman' book at the Thousand Oaks Borders bookstore, on September 25th at 7:00 PM. This would be a nice time to get out a warm Democratic Underground 'welcome' to these two right wingers. The Borders bookstore is on Thousand Oaks boulevard between Moorpark road and Lynn road.