"Mine's bigger than yours!" CEOs' raises are over 16 times bigger than yours. The September 2002 issue of Mutual Funds magazine reports that, since 1990, CEO pay is up 535% while worker pay has risen only 32%. The argument that CEOs deserve more because they are involved in wealth creation (by supposedly increasing shareholder value) evidently does not apply: in the same period, the S&P 500 index rose just 297%. With their disproportionately enormous compensation packages, comfortable entrenchment in the halls of government, and complete lack of ethics, the lizards of the CEO class are simultaneously the new American aristocracy and Mafia, extorting whatever they can from their employees, their shareholders, their customers, national treasuries worldwide, and hapless taxpayers.

{ 10:59 AM }

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George W. Bush and vacation politics: Redefining "clueless." This administration's learning disabilities are becoming increasingly evident with its defense of the president's second annual monthlong vacation. W has grown to be recognized as a card-carrying member of the crony capitalist gang which includes such yet-to-be-indicted criminals as chief Bush campaign contributor (and Enron employee 401(k) annihilator) Ken Lay, as well as W's own boss Dick Cheney. Instead of addressing the perception that he is clueless and irresponsible (as we pointed out on 7/11/02, August is the anniversary month of ominous intelligence warnings), W reinforces it. The stupidity, or audacity, of this administration boggles the mind.

{ 12:42 PM }

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Mandatory sentences for corporate criminals! A presidential blow job, immoral and indiscreet, does not harm the lives of tens of thousands of people as the Enron-Harken-Halliburton mob has managed to. Now is the time to shift the focus of criminal justice in this country away from harmless first-time drug offenders whose mandatory sentences are clogging up our prisons. Instead, let's make lots of room for the Kenny Boys and our huge new class of CEO-criminals. Justice will never be reasonable in this country as long as we have a Department of Justice so lame and incompetent that it's terrified of breasts. If it scares you, put a burka on it! Welcome to Washingstan, where power, greed and religion suck each other's dicks.

{ 4:10 PM }

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