In case you needed more reasons to fear Bush's economic plan

How about the abysmal track record of one of the few remaining economists who give it the thumbs up, now appearing at Bush's 'economic conference' (aka Kill Social Security Now For No Rational Reason gathering)?

Bill O'Reilly takes it on the virtual chin

David Brock of Media Matters takes Big Bad Bill to task for being a big spineless hypocrite and coward. But will O'Reilly take the bait....? (The link links to a page that's nice and easily emailable to all yer friends...)

Senate Democrats plan to roll over for Gonzales

It appears that, for whatever political reasons, there will be no serious opposition to the appointment of Alberto Gonzales (lover and defender of torture, indefinite imprisonment of US Citizens, indiscriminate and unreflective use of capital punishment, and secret government) to the position of Attorney General. While everyone seems to agree that anyone (even, as Pat Leahy says, Attila the Hun) would be better than John Ashcroft, it is hard to understand how Gonzales is really substantially better. If anything, the fact that his fingerprints are all over so many of the most troubling aspects of the Bush Administration makes him far more frightening than the almost cartoonishly self-righteous Ashcroft.

The Nat Hentoff article is a good one, and this quote(from late Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas) is particularly apt:

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air—however slight—lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

Brooks on Bush's "Economic Conference"

David Brooks usually drives me up a wall with his frustrating pseudo-analyses that always read like insipid, transparently lame conservative apologia. I figure if the New York Times is going to go through the effort to have token conservatives on their staff, they can actually be strong ones, and by that I don't mean LOUD ones, a la Coulter or Limbaugh (or maybe it's asking too much to have someone who can actually in all honestly intellectually defend current conservatism). Safire, God knows, shot his credibility out of the water years ago, and is now stepping down in any case. And Brooks far too often, on the Times op-ed page, seems to be the conservative version of the liberal role Allan Colmes plays against the gale force of blowhard Sean Hannity on Fox.

So an article like this from Brooks is encouraging to say the least (of course, am I just saying that because he's being somewhat disparaging of politics in general?.... hmmm....)

By the way, if you're wondering what a "loya jirga" is (I did), you can find out here.