Democracy on auto pilot

The combination of the back-from-the-dead passage of the Sarbanes- Oxley corporate responsibility bill and the broadcast-ready perp walks of Adelphia's John Rigas and WorldCom's Scott Sullivan may give the public the sense that corporate reform is a done deal.

But nothing could be further from the truth. [read more]

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The Memory Hole

Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty- Four," was a rewrite man. His job was to destroy documents that could undermine the government's pretense of infallibility, and replace them with altered versions.

Lately, Winston Smith has gone to Washington. I'm sure that lots of history is being falsified as you read this — there are several three-letter agencies I don't trust at all — but two cases involving the federal budget caught my eye. [read more]

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Stupid Is, Stupid Does

Yesterday's New York Daily News reported that Harken Energy Corporation--President Bush's now-infamous oil firm -- set up an offshore subsidiary in the Cayman Islands to minimize its taxes. Was this illegal? No. Was this immoral? Some say "no," but many say "yes."

And, unfortunately for Bush, Republicans have been among those saying "yes." [read more]

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Think Like a Bush: Lie Coordination Bureau Needed

As of July 31, the markets have been down for four consecutive months - the first time that's happened in twenty years. The release of this week's economic statistics, particularly the Gross Domestic Product numbers, indicate that the economy was weaker last year and that economic growth in the first half of this year was also weaker than first believed. This points out a growing problem: the increasing unreliability of government economic statistics. These numbers would always be revised from the month before, but now we're seeing revisions of economic data released 18 months ago. The question then is -- why can't the government get it right in the compilation of statistics? Of course, the reason why is the because of the way the Reagan-Bush Regime rejiggered all the economic statistics. [read more]

thanks to Ethel the Blog

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Taking on corporate crime like regular crime
by Ted Rall