Money Makes Politics Dirty

Have I said this before? Money makes politics dirty. Say it with me: Money makes politics dirty.
We don't tolerate this kind of behavior on playgrounds. Why do we tolerate it in Congress and the White House?

As long as the White House -and the President- can be bought, we're in trouble. We need to get money out of politics, entirely. How would you start? I'd start by publicly funding elections, to the exclusion of private money. Put limits on ad-time, and require that all candidates get equal time (yeah, I said "all candidates," meaning even the kooks; maybe that would get the networks to think a little bit about the way they cover campaigns. Here's a hint to all in the mainstream media: NOT ALL CAMPAIGNING IS NEWS).

"Oh god, this shit is real..." Real, and really scary.

Good essay from Harper's:
Why we can no longer afford George W. Bush.

The new math

We should know how to what?

Nigeria is about to pop. Remember what I said about South America? (I've been prognosticating about a reversal in South American politics for some time now, and I see the elections of people like Brazil's Lula, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivia's Evo Morales, and Chile's Michele Bachelet as significant moves in that regard. These are radical leftists, folks (with the possible exception of Bachelet, who only seems radical in comparison to her predecessors, those guys who kidnapped and killed her father, a General, back in the day), taking power back to the people. I've been following Hugo Chavez most closely (here here here here and here), but Evo Morales may be even cooler. He was a coca farmer, but is now the first indigenous Andean to take power there, and has halved his own salary and declared that no cabinet minister can take home more than he does, as well as preceding his swearing-in with an indigenous religious ceremony. That being said, Michele Bachelet is another very interesting case- the first woman president of Chile, a single mother in a country which only legalized divorce last year, the daughter of an assassinated General of Chile, and once a political prisoner, herself; she's made her cabinet up of at least 50% women, as promised. Keep watching- it could get even livelier: Peru has an election coming up, with self-exiled ex-Pres Fujimori vowing to return this year...wow).

Hey everybody, watch this: 6 = 21. Cool, huh?! It's the new math.

wasn't he that saxophone player guy...

Just ran across this, and think it deserves a wider audience:

Transcript from CNN's Lou Dobbs 2/13/06:

Tonight, the United States is about to allow a United
Arab Emirates company to take operational control of
many of this nation's major seaports. The Bush
administration has OK'd a deal that would allow a
company based on The Emirates it take charge of the
ports. Many of them, most of them, vital to this
nation's security. Bill Tucker reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dubai
Ports World is set to take control of operations in
ports in the United States. Those ports? New Orleans,
Miami, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and New
Jersey. The deal involving a company from the Middle
East is raising security concerns.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: How do we know
what checks they take on their employees? do they do
background checks? If a terrorist organization should
decide to infiltrate this new company, headquartered
in the United Arab Emirates, what would stop them.

TUCKER: The UAE was home to two of the 9/11 hijackers.
The Port Authority of New York/New Jersey says it will
review its lease agreements with P & O before
automatically granting the lease the of The Newark
Terminal to Dubai Ports World.

Defenders of the deal note that Dubai Ports World
operates ports all over the globe and that safe,
smooth, port operation are very much in its business's
interests. Security will remain in the control of
local and federal law enforcement authorities, but --
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Ports are
essentially on the front line in the war on terror and
on homeland security. And so allowing a foreign firm
to operate a port is sort of like allowing a foreign
firm to operate a U.S. military air field in a
traditional conflict.

TUCKER: In other words, the United States should
proceed cautiously. The Committee on Foreign
investment in the United States, the same group which
gave the green light to the takeover of UNOCAL by the
Chinese National Overseas Oil Company has reviewed the
deal of P & O and Dubai Ports World and given it its
blessing.

When called for comment, a spokesman would only say --
no comment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Now coincidences happened but they're rare. So for
that reason, we thought it was worth noting that the
man nominated by President Bush to run the Maritime
Administration is the director of operations of Europe
and Latin American for Dubai Ports World, Lou. His
name is David Sanborn.

DOBBS: And this coincidence and this program looks to
at coincidences intensely, particularly like this and
particularly with an administration that not for the
first time has interesting coincidences reverberating
throughout it. What do they say about this
coincidence?

TUCKER: They don't have any comment about it. We
weren't able to reach David Sanborn today.

DOBBS: Well, we hope that David would talk to us. We
would hope that anyone in the administration would
like it talk to us about this coincidence. And it
would be fascinating to understand why the same
government that thinks there's no problem, this
administration, with turning over ownership to foreign
corporation and companies of our air carriers sees no
problems with having the United Arab Emirates, a
company based there, take over our vital seaports.
It's remarkable. Excellent job of report, Bill Tucker.
Thank you, sir.

My questions: Who is this David Sanborn, and who is George doing favors for now?