Less than shocking. Maybe I'm just naturally suspicious, but I doubt that I was the only person who found it unnerving to learn from all the coverage of the Big Blackout that Texas is on a different power grid than the rest of the country.

And I'm sure a lot of people are beginning to wonder about the truth of statements like former energy secretary Bill Richardson's: "We're the world's greatest superpower, but we have a Third World electricity grid."

UPDATE: A good overview of the problem appears in the Washington Post.

{ 9:12 AM }

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"How bad does it have to get?" The question is being asked not only by patients, but US doctors:

"How bad does it have to get?," asks Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of Harvard Medical School. "How many patients have to die from lack of health insurance? How many seniors have to choose between medicine and food before our legislators enact national health insurance?"

It's clear we're approaching systemic crisis in the way Americans receive and pay for medical care.

In the face of this crisis, what is our vacationing president's highest priority? "Good tort reform."

{ 9:53 AM }

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Subsidizing waste. Besides the Bush tax cut program's intentional giveaways to the most wealthy, its incentives for waste and stupidity are a criminal side effect.

Kiplinger's, the personal finance magazine, spells out how US taxpayers are unwittingly buying gas hog SUVs for the least conscientious among us:

Call it a loophole you could drive a truck through. Although tax write-offs for most business vehicles have long been limited in an attempt to prevent taxpayers from subsidizing luxurious rides, the squeeze doesn't apply to "light trucks" -- including SUVs that weigh 6,001 pounds or more loaded (many do) -- or cars that tip the scales at 6,000 pounds empty (good luck finding one). Buy a heavyweight for your business and you can "expense" it, meaning you deduct at least part of the cost right away rather than being constrained by limited depreciation write-offs over a number of years.

The amount eligible for expensing was supposed to be $25,000 in 2003. But the new tax law bumped up the limit to $100,000. So if you buy a $71,000 Range Rover this year for a business, you can expense the entire cost. In the top, 35% bracket, that basically means Uncle Sam picks up $24,850 of the tab.

But if you buy a piece of working-class crap, the magic of Bush-expensing doesn't work as well for you. It has to be an expensive guzzler to get the fullest financial benefit: "Besides the Hummer and Range Rover, SUVs that make the list include the BMW X5, Chevrolet Suburban, Lincoln Aviator, Mercedes-Benz M-Class, Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg."

Meanwhile, jobless rates and the costs of medical care and college tuition skyrocket — because Republican policymakers don't regard funding the quality of Americans' lives quite as highly as funding a businessman's Hummer.

{ 9:22 AM }

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Savage Society. If you're a perverted fan of Dan Savage (and who isn't?), get over to Ginger Mayerson and Laurel Sutton's interview with him and his testicular observations in The Journal of The Lincoln Heights Literary Society:

GM: Who would you like to see get the Democratic nomination and why is that?

DS: I'm for Howard Dean - because he's got balls, and he's not afraid of the right-wing attack machine. He knows that you can't play nice with the right, so you might as well go for it and play mean.

Sounds about right to me.

{ 9:00 AM }

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Ashcroft's Rolling Fascism Revue. No time for defending the Fatherland, John's busy defending his insane legislation (Washington Post):

Faced with growing public questioning of his department's anti-terrorism policies, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft plans to kick off a cross-country tour next week focused on defending the USA Patriot Act and other legislation as vital tools in the fight against terrorism.

Justice Department officials said the series of appearances at more than a dozen stops from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City will be aimed at countering criticism from civil liberties groups and some lawmakers that authorities have gone too far in wielding anti-terrorism powers granted by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

[...]

But Ashcroft's travel plans underscore growing concerns within the Bush administration at increasing criticism from Congress, opposition from cities and counties across the United States and attacks from Democratic presidential candidates.

More than 140 cities and counties, in addition to state legislatures in Alaska, Hawaii and Vermont, have approved resolutions condemning the Patriot Act and, in a few cases, refusing to enforce it. Justice officials were also blindsided last month by the House, which voted 309 to 118 to cut off funding for part of the law that allows the government to conduct "sneak and peek" searches of private property. The act comes up for review by Congress in 2005.

[...]

Justice officials said yesterday that Ashcroft's itinerary has not been finalized, but would begin with a policy-focused speech in Washington on Aug. 19, followed by planned appearances in cities including Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Salt Lake City.

These four sound like relatively compliant cities as far as controlling or avoiding the more unruly elements of the thinking public. I wonder why San Francisco, Chicago, or the 9-11 capital itself — New York City — weren't selected as tour stops. No fan base, I suppose.

While the real terrorists tend to their long-range plans, Ashcroft turns his attention to more pressing matters of national security, showing his facility for prioritizing his do-list by indicting porn purveyors.

{ 10:44 AM }

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We can't find Saddam's WMDs — but we found Halliburton's. Another headslapper from those Halliburton hooligans (Wall Street Journal, sub. req'd):

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)--Jurors in a federal weapons case can hear about Halliburton Corp.'s (HAL) ties to a Canadian anti-terrorist consultant who faces trial next week, but they can't hear about Vice President Dick Cheney.

Federal Judge John Conway ruled Monday that Cheney, who headed Halliburton in the 1990s, was irrelevant to the impending trial of David Hudak.

Hudak faces 50 years in prison if convicted of stockpiling 2,400 missile warheads, providing military training to troops from the United Arab Emirates and several other charges.

He goes on trial Aug. 19, a year after the warheads were found at his Roswell-based High Energy Access Tools Inc., or HEAT -a counterterrorism consulting and training company. Authorities allege he did not register the material with federal authorities as required.

Hudak was arrested last August with co-defendant Michael Payne, who pleaded guilty last month in exchange for a recommendation of leniency.

Hudak has been in federal custody for one year.

He contends Halliburton, a Houston-based oilfield-services and construction company, initiated the sale of the missile tips, billing them as demolition devices rather than warheads. Halliburton, through a spokeswoman, has confirmed selling demolition devices, but not warheads.

The devices were bought "as demolition charges, stored as demolition charges and used as demolition charges," defense attorney Robert Gorence told the court.

The devices were used to demolish unwanted buildings and for similar activities, the defense has said.

Cheney did not come aboard as CEO at Halliburton until a year after the 1994 purchase of the explosives.

But Gorence said in court documents that Cheney's presence at Halliburton underscored Hudak's belief that the company would operate legally.

A key issue in the case is what Hudak intended to do with the explosives, Gorence said.

But prosecutor Greg Wormuth said the explosives are warheads regardless of what Hudak intended.

Online, the headline for this story is "Judge Says Cheney Irrelevant To N Mexico Fedl Weapon Case," which somehow misses the mark by at least an ocean.

Incidentally, High Energy Access Tools Inc., or HEAT, is the lamest, forced-acronym podunk name for a crypto-military commercial enterprise I've heard all day. Hudak must be a total shithead, just like his masters.

UPDATE: Nice to know that HEAT is conveniently headquartered at a post office box in Casper, Wyoming. It has a vague website and a sister company called Hydro Cut, "the leader in tactical breaching equipment and training for law enforcement, military, corrections and government agencies." The latter website features an animated United We Stand US flag and lists its headquarters as a post office box in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

{ 4:38 PM }

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Fair and balanced.

{ 4:17 PM }

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Napalm and other atrocities attributable to American actions in Iraq are greeted here in the US with media silence. At least xymphora is watching (start with this post and scroll down):

The situation in Iraq has gotten so bad that I am having trouble keeping the American atrocities separate in my mind. I find myself reading about some new massacre, and mistakenly thinking it is a report of an old massacre, only to realize that it is in fact a brand spanking new massacre with similarities to the old massacres. The Americans have been in Iraq so long now they are resorting to repeating their outrages:

'Jittery' American soldiers shot and killed six Iraqis who were attempting to get home before the 11 p. m. curfew in Baghdad. Anwaar Kawaz, who lost her husband and three of her four children, said:

"We kept shouting, 'We're a family! Don't shoot!' But no one listened. They kept shooting. They killed us. There was no signal. Nothing at all. We didn't see anything but armored cars. Our headlights were on. He (her husband) didn't have time to put his foot on the brake. They kept shooting. He was shot in the forehead. I was still sitting next to him. I got out of the car to get help. I was shouting, 'Help me! Help me!' No one came."

Her husband didn't die for at least an hour, but no one tried to help. In fact, the father and two daughters would have survived if they had been taken immediately to the hospital, but the Americans refused to let anyone take them (this is very Israeli, and is starting to become an American trend). The daughter bled to death on the street.

Links to all sources at xymphora.

{ 3:48 PM }

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Leave no CEO behind. Dubya's tax cuts will have an obscenely stimulating effect on a very few household incomes — not including yours (Wall Street Journal, sub. req'd):

The federal tax cut, which slashed the tax rate on dividends and prompted many companies to increase their payouts, is proving to be a boon for some corporate executives who are reaping millions in after-tax gains.

All shareholders benefit from higher dividends and lower taxes. But for senior executives holding sizable stakes in their companies, the rewards have been especially lucrative.

At Wall Street securities firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which raised its dividend by 108%, Chief Executive Henry Paulson will get a $2 million after-tax boost in dividend income each year. Charles Schwab, chairman of discount-brokerage firm Charles Schwab Corp., picks up an additional $5.4 million, Leslie Wexner of retailer Limited Brands Inc. will get $9.3 million extra and Microsoft Corp.'s Bill Gates, whose company announced its first, though modest, dividend earlier this year, gets an $80.3 million after-tax increase.

"You're using the extreme example but any assessment of who owns the most stocks would have to say this dividend cut will tend to benefit the wealthiest taxpayer group the most," says Mark Luscombe, chief analyst for the federal and state tax group at tax-information provider CCH Inc.

The Bush administration maintains its reputation for giving the most to those who need it least. The extra $80 million Bill Gates will get (that's just for this year — wait until you see what Gates gets in 2008 when the dividend tax rate goes all the way down to zero percent) comes directly from the US Treasury, the joint assets of 291 million American citizens. So when your town's police force is reduced, and Head Start is cut, and veterans' benefits are eliminated, remember who is to blame.

{ 12:00 PM }

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