Republican Dan Burton votes to allow lobbyists to give elected officials gifts, vacations and fancy meals.

I didn't know much about Dan Burton until I read today's story with this headline:  "House Bans Lobbyist Gifts, Business-Sponsored Travel." Now I know that he's morally obtuse.  Here's the gist of the article: The U.S. House of Representatives, after installing its new Democratic leadership, voted to ban lawmakers from flying…

Continue ReadingRepublican Dan Burton votes to allow lobbyists to give elected officials gifts, vacations and fancy meals.

Challenging the neo-con justification for invading Iraq

I was recently discussing the Iraq war with a political lobbyist friend of mine when he mentioned something I had not previously considered:  neocons and other law-and-order conservatives try to justify the Iraq invasion by saying that even though Saddam didn't have WMDs, he was defying UN-mandated inspections of Iraqi…

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The worst menace to American kids. It’s not Mark Foley.

According to this salon.com post by Bill Maher, the worst menace isn't Mark Foley.  Not by a long shot.  Focus, instead on legions of corporate and government predators.  Though this was written in October 2006, I didn't notice it until today.  As always, Maher doesn't pull any punches: [Foley] was…

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National Science Teacher Association carefully analyzes the color green

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) recently made the strange decision to reject 50,000 free DVDs of Al Gore's global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth. At Huffpo, Laurie David asks whether it: just might - have had anything to do with more than six million dollars the organization has accepted…

Continue ReadingNational Science Teacher Association carefully analyzes the color green

If Americans won’t investigate the Bush administration, Germany will

If the American Congress has no interest in investigating the Bush administration's abuses of power, we can always rely on the Germans to lend a hand. As reported on NPR this morning, and also in Time and elsewhere on the internet, Germany's chief prosecutor is seeking a criminal investigation and…

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