Dysfunctional or Highly Effective

Watching the right wing in congress wield its powers to obstruct the health care restructuring that 85% of the public wants reveals the character of the wingers more than ever. Policy that public interest would dictate is anathema to what remains of the GOP. It's rather scary to see what they do want; war, debt, deregulation, repression of workers/salaries.

Today as the minimum wage rises for the first time since the last Democratic White House, it might be a good time to look at who benefits when the public is slammed.

The facts behind the wars that the previous war criminal administration waged have become clear; the war on Iraq had been determined long before 9/11 which was used to precipitate it. Many believe, and state, that it was a war for oil; I think that the outcome indicates it was a broader pattern. Not just the oil companies that the previous maladministration truckled to profited hugely. The war profiteers that include Cheney's Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater and associated military suppliers also had free reign which included being appointed oversight of their own activities. The wars that impoverished this country enriched the perpetrators of it, something a previous profiteer,, progenitor of the worst president in history, had been rebuked for by Congress after WWII.

There were other methods of impoverishing the country, a major one being the deregulation of financial houses that pushed debt so great onto the country that our households have lost an estimated one-third of total assets. Wages' falling - along with soaring prices of oil and transported goods - has required individuals and families to go deeper into debt than ever experienced before. The service jobs that predominated during eight years of winger policies forced multitudes of wage earners to take more than one job to support themselves and their families.

National debt rose to pay for the extravagance of the free market profiteers. National debt brings to mind a vision of the Treasury, whose bonds have been sold to various investors here and abroad. More than just the Treasury is involved in the transaction, though.

The sellers of those Treasury bonds are for the most part the very financial houses that handle other investments, and can be your bank, your financial manager, even your insurance agent. Few have, as I did, bought their bonds directly from the U.S. Treasury, and it offended my banker to find out that I had not gone through him when I did. The profit in each individual transaction is minimal, but in the multitudinous transactions of sales to get into the immense debt constitution some trillions of dollars huge profits accrued.

Once again, policies that made a mockery of the concept of government, that it serves the public, brought huge profits to the moneyed interest that the right wing serves.

While public office holders who take direct bribes from those they serve by betraying public interest are prosecuted, those who serve their own interests by allowing them to profit off of policies harmful to the public usually are ignored.

The highway robbery, that acquiring huge public debt has been. may not ever be prosecuted. Like the war, though, it has accumulated huge profits for those that committed this crime against the public.

In discussion of the wingnut attacks on health care for the public, more than one commenter I've been talking with has expressed amazement that we aren't taking to the streets and running them out of office. Quite probably, if the full truth of their thefts from the public were exposed, there would be even greater anger against the profiteers from war, debt and the health crisis.

I prefer accumulating anger and using it personally to work for a return to government of, by and for the people. In the sixties, I marched around the White House holding a candle, and against the Pentagon - though I went home before the soldiers advanced against civilians there. It's quite likely that I will be marching again, should the wingnuts succeed in robbing this country of its access to health care, along with the return on its productivity and its right to survive on that production.

Assassination and Enemies

The power trip in the recently dislodged maladministration went much farther than its proponents would have expected when it set up a program to do in its enemies list. As TPMuckraker points out, there was not just the mindset of declaring 'enemies', left over from the Nixon criminal gang. There was also a commitment to do away with those enemies here as well as at large through the world.

Since the news broke (sub. req.) at the start of the week that CIA director Leon Panetta had pulled the plug on a secret program to assassinate or capture al Qaeda leaders, we've been raising questions about one key aspect of the story. In particular, what was it about the program that was so shocking that Dick Cheney reportedly ordered it kept secret from Congress, Panetta quashed it as soon as he heard about it, and Congressional Democrats risked being painted as soft on terror by shrieking about being kept in the dark?

We may have gotten a good piece of the answer here: The Washington Post reports today on how the program had been revived and then put on hold several times since 2001. But it also says, referring to the "presidential finding" with which President Bush authorized the program in 2001:

The finding imposed no geographical limitations on the agency's actions, and intelligence officials have said that they were not obliged to notify Congress of each operation envisaged under the directive.

"No geographical limitations" presumably means that operations could potentially be carried out in countries, friendly or unfriendly, that are far from any war zone -- including even the US itself. And it seems likely that they would be carried out without notifying the foreign country in question.

The methods used by the gang in power in the executive branch just past are more those of a takeover by a foreign power than those of a real and valid executive. The remains of that takeover are still present, and still exercising public powers, and will take time to oust entirely.

During some discussions of the DOJ conversion to political purposes, I have to insist that simply replacing prosecutors from the previous maladministration would weaken the case against that practice. When they are removed, it should be for cause, not for political purposes, not as the war criminals acted. When we have the plots against 'enemies' again shown as a basic part of the winger psyche, it is a good lesson in what we should avoid repeating.

The service if public interests is being returned to our government's agencies, and that should be the prime reason for government, once again. Putting down opponents was much too real a threat from the political purposes of the wingnuts in power so recently. That enmity should be avoided by decently functioning members of the government, government that we need. Our government is there to serve the people rather than subjugate them.

Prosecution of the criminals would be the best prevention of their criminal conduct for the future.

Being Wrong Is Hard Work

Adamantly insisting that black is white has become so ingrained with wingers that they are now inventing ways to get around all rational behavior. Instead of seeing the light and voting for what the public wants, the minority is now filibustering by amendment.

In an attempt to get appropriations passed that are overdue because of stalling tactics last term, House officials invented a few ways to prevent delay. It's dull, but the process involves required pre-printed amendments. So instead of the usual maximum thirty, your minority produced more than a hundred. House officials were faced with either letting appropriations last weeks instead of days, or put their foot down. The foot went down, and the wingers insist they're being victimized. Last week, the House wasted several days in a manufactured debate over meaningless amendments that saw some amazing moments.

In one attempt to get the determinedly action-oriented Democrats into debate that wastedyet more time, I watched Rep. Gohmert of TX, (I apologize that my state produces particularly vile wingers), insist that Rep. Miller of CA was ineligible to work on amendments related to DOJ. The best description of this is pretense is at GantDaily, and I gave you the link, but, in case you don't recognize the title, it is a libertarian stew. The reason, in brief, is because he is part of the leadership, that is involved in a far-fetched attempt by the wingers to smear the Democratic party, and the DOJ at one time was involved in an investigation of fundraising by Dems. It's the usual tactic of calling some one a criminal because you've brought an indictment into play.

The Democrats earned a lot of respect from me by adamantly avoiding entering into particularly vicious debate by these tactics. They listened stoically to hours of such attacks, and went on to vote down the filibuster, disguised as amendments.

One of the few posts I found on this debacle was FrontRowWashington at Reuters, and it outlined one telling event.

Republican Representative Mike Pence said it was “an outrageous abuse of the legislative process” for Democrats to cut off debate after 30 minutes during the first amendment. He insisted that it was not about the process but about “runaway federal spending.”

Democrats shot back that Republicans were making it harder to finish the annual spending bills and also complete healthcare and climate change legislation quickly. Republican demands for a recorded vote on even amendments they supported — taking additional time — also angered Democrats.

“We have to pass 12 major appropriations bills in six weeks and still leave enough time on the calendar to deal with healthcare, to deal with climate change, to deal with the military authorization bill and several other crucial issues,” said Democratic Representative David Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

He said Republicans rebuffed Democratic attempts to reach a deal on handling amendments quickly. “We have tried every way we can to involve the minority,” he said. “We recognize a filibuster by amendment when we see it.”

When Pence was asked why seeking a recorded vote on an amendment that both sides supported wasn’t a stall tactic, he grinned and walked away from reporters.

The debate outlined above saw the same wingers who have insisted that black Americans should get over their victim psychology insisting they were the victims of evil power politics that deprived their few remaining voters of a voice.

A trio of Republican congressmen, comprised of California’s David Dreier, Michigan’s Pete Hoekstra and John Culberson of Texas claimed equivalence with oppressed Iranian protestors for democracy, because they Twittered their carping about abuse at the hands of Democrats. This in spite of the President exerting acrobatic efforts at bipartisanship.

This is all leading up to a no-holds-barred fight to prevent the voters from getting health care.

Few who haven't shepherded legislation through the depths of the process will take an interest; that's what the wingers seem to count on. Frustration with this kind of tactic is going to keep a lot of involved liberals from watching, staying up on legislative action, and keeping the pressure on.

As Diane reported earlier, the drug companies are seeing the light - they have overcharged and about to pay for it. They are acting to make up for their years of taking advantage of the public through misuse of powers. The minority party, though, hasn't evolved so far as all that.

That consistently wrong right wing is really hard at work keeping from allowing the public interest - that it has taken a vow to protect - from being served.

Strength and Weakness

To the world's usual misfortune, there is a quaint ethic of strong action that shares with the wild west and unilateral invasion of other countries a belief that using your head is not strength. Today we have another instance of it from its bulwark in Texas, with the usual tragic consequences.

You just know these blithering idiots listen to hate radio, and answer 'Yeah' to the litany, as they careen thru traffic on their way to commit more stupid blunders. We drive with them every time we go down the highway, the two-legged Hummers of the hemisphere.

The Dallas Cowboys had a training camp to turn out great football players, what did they need with building codes? Typically, that strong type went ahead and used an uninspected facility they'd farmed out to other strong guys to build.

The Dallas Cowboys applied last year for a building permit to replace the high-tension fabric roof on the indoor practice facility that collapsed Saturday and injured 12 people. But the team never had city officials inspect any completed work, which is required by Irving's building code.

In city documents released Monday, the team is listed as the general contractor for the reroofing project that was estimated to cost $600,000. Irving does not issue a building permit unless the general contractor is registered with the city. The Cowboys registered as a general contractor on the same day they requested a permit for the roof work.

City officials were aware that work began on the roof last year but never received word from the team that it was complete.

Team officials declined to answer questions about the work Monday.

Officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were in Valley Ranch on Monday investigating what caused the 85-foot-tall facility's high-tension fabric shell and metal structure to fold onto itself and collapse Saturday. The National Weather Service said a microburst of up to 70-mph wind carried by passing thunderstorms struck the facility.

About 70 players, coaches, team support personnel and members of the media were inside. Ambulances transported 10 injured people; two others sought help on their own, officials said.

Scouting assistant Rich Behm was permanently paralyzed from the waist down after he suffered a spine fracture.

Using rational judgment is unpopular with the wingnuts we have voting in the officials that have wreaked havoc with our country's safety in so many ways. What actually has been shown as sorely lacking; that's a return from bombast to a degree of functional regulation and laws, basic to function. The continuing proof that a system of laws and regulations are what protect us from disaster shouldn't have been needed.

The myth that strength of purpose disdains reflection has again led to tragedy.

Darwin Awards are called for all around, ('Honoring those who improve the species...by accidentally removing themselves from it!') though the victims really deserved a rational approach that would have prevented their injuries.

Our walking Hummers are going to have themselves a good laugh over it, after a couple of Buds.

Burr Tells Tammy Duckworth to Cool Her Heels

In its usual class act, the Gang of Nope is holding up the nomination of Iraq Vet and amputee Tammy Duckworth as Public Affairs Director of the Veterans' Administration. If the title of this post made you wince, you are among those who know that through service in Iraq the decorated veteran lost her legs, and has no heels to cool. Duckworth received a Purple Heart on December 3, 2004 and was promoted to Major on December 21, 2004 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she was presented with an Air Medal and Army Commendation Medal.

The VA has been particularly ill served by wingers who continually profess respect for the troops while restraining themselves from any actual support. Now they are delaying putting together staffs to serve the public which they obviously detest.

The appointment of Tammy Duckworth as assistant secretary of U.S. Veterans Affairs stalled Thursday, just before the Senate took a two-week spring recess.

The action was taken by Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the ranking Republican on the Veterans Affairs Committee.

Duckworth, who served in the Iraq war and is a major in the Illinois National Guard, testified before that committee Wednesday. The Hoffman Estates resident was Illinois veterans affairs director under ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The Senate panel was not expected to meet on Friday, according to David Ward, Burr's press secretary.

The delay in Duckworth's appointment has to do with the fact that Burr had received three questionnaires with three different versions of the answers from her, Ward said. He characterized the forms as FBI background information that every nominee must provide.

"We are waiting on one definitive answer from Major Duckworth," he said. "We have no complaint against her, we are waiting on the necessary paperwork."
(snip)
"How dare Sen. Burr needlessly delay the nomination of a war hero like Tammy Duckworth to perform critical duties at the Department of Veterans Affairs," Jon Soltz, chairman of VoteVets.org, said in a statement.

He said the department is overloaded with troops coming home.

Duckworth had planned to be sworn in Friday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she underwent rehabilitation after losing both her legs in 2004 in Iraq when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter she was piloting.

The appointment of Adm. Shinsecki who was fired by the past maladministration for giving realistic estimates of what force would be needed for the Iraq invasion already embarrassed the forces against public interest. This additional provision of real knowledge and experience is just frosting on the cake of their deserved humiliation, and is no doubt causing consternation among those battlers against reality-based services.

Senator Burr holds John Edward's former North Carolina seat subsequent to the 2004 election due to an epochal infusion of PAC money, therefore needs to be prominent in fronting for the most disreputable positions of GOPervs. Owing party effort is a characteristic of the Senators who put holds on such publicly supported moves as this. (His hold is reminiscent of that on access to public papers of previous presidents by Tennessee's secure Senator Bunning.) Now Burr's becomes the public face on harassment of nominees who are needed to rebuild a destroyed executive branch, but who are too estimable for the Nopers to want in place. A presence such as former IL Vet chief Duckworth inspires public trust and esteem that obviously galls the wingnuts.

Of course, the contrast of an honorably serving wounded warrior with gasbags who prefer to slither through using their office to obstruct benefits to those warriors could not be more stark. Hopefully the veterans' groups will not allow this to go unnoticed.

Service to our country has been demanded by the wingers, while they make every attempt to make that service its own reward. They like to bask in glory, while promoting funding not for those who serve, but for those who profit from their service.

Formerly this was known as war profiteering.

Refusal to Submit to Authoritarian Orders

For the first time ever I really wish I were a Nobel Laureate. Of course I deserve it for my brilliant writing, but actually I want to be one of the group that canceled its meeting rather than go on without the Dalai Lama when he was denied a visa.

Thank you, Nobel people who will not be party to the government cowardice that had to be instrumental in making this vile gesture. The Dalai Lama is offensive to no one and no country except to China, and to China only because he symbolizes a country that just won't be supine before their demands. Thanks, Nobel Laureates, for refusing to join this oppression.

A peace conference for Nobel laureates in South Africa has been postponed indefinitely after Pretoria refused the Dalai Lama a visa, organisers say.

This week's meeting in Johannesburg was linked to the 2010 Football World Cup, which the country is hosting.

A storm of controversy erupted over the ban, with the government being accused of bowing to Chinese pressure.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former South African President FW de Klerk pulled out of the meeting in protest.

Despite the controversy surrounding the decision, government spokesman Thabo Masebe confirmed that no visa would be issued "between now and the World Cup".

Saying the move did not amount to a ban, he told the BBC that no other government had forced the decision on South Africa.

The visa had been declined because the Dalai Lama's presence "would not be in the best interests of South Africa at this time", he said.

The government spokesman told Reuters news agency that the presence of the Dalai Lama risked distracting attention from the World Cup.

'Spirit of peace'

The conference, scheduled for Friday, was intended to discuss football's role in fighting racism and xenophobia.

But the chairman of the South Africa 2010 Organising Committee said the conference was being postponed indefinitely.

"The convenors have... decided in the spirit of peace to postpone the South African peace conference to ensure it is held under conducive conditions," Irvin Khoza was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
(snip)
Archbishop Tutu has branded the government's decision as "disgraceful" and accused the government of "shamelessly succumbing to Chinese pressure", a sentiment echoed in the local media.

Chinese officials in Pretoria said Beijing had warned against allowing the Dalai Lama into the country, saying it would harm bilateral relations.

There may be room in international affairs for kowtowing to the Chinese in some areas, but to let that repressive regime taint their own country's record is a huge error on the part of South Africa. A statement that says that China is offended by exercise of another country's freedoms is offensive, and should be treated that way.

Any peace conference that would let its government dictate certain peace organizations are making trouble - by a refusal to be cowed into accepting repression - would not be a peace conference worthy of the movement's heritage.

You have earned the respect of the world. I am hoping the U.S. can join you, Nobel laureates, in earning that respect by leaving the company of violators of the Geneva conventions very soon.

(Call anytime.)

Mud Wrestling Politics

After turning the state legislature on its ear to force redistricting through just a couple of years ago, the TX GoPervs are setting out to dam up the appointments of judges. The love of mudwrestling has gotten the upper hand over any taste for good government, apparently.

With the Democratic party now in control of the legislature and White House, the Party of Nope has taken to making trouble at the expense of getting things done. That's what they like to call nonpartisan. Both senators are from the right wing, and have announced they will fight to keep judgeships from being filled by those who actually won the election.

Two weeks before Barack Obama won the presidency, Texas senators did what they'd done many times before. They invited lawyers to apply for lifetime appointments as federal judges.

Scores of applications poured in. A legal panel handpicked by the Republican senators – said to consist almost entirely of well-connected Republicans, with nary a plaintiff lawyer among them – narrowed the field.

But with Democrats in complete control of the federal government, Texas Democrats say, that process will no longer do. The screening system is on hold, beginning a fight that has already strained relations in Texas' congressional delegation and will test Obama's promises of bipartisanship.

"We've had an election, and the process works differently than if Senator McCain or President Bush was in office," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, who is leading the effort to put Texas Democrats in control of nominations.

The Republican senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, will "have a vote on anyone that is submitted, and I'm sure the White House will make them aware of our recommendations," Doggett added.

The senators say that's not nearly good enough. They've pushed back hard, meeting privately with White House counsel Greg Craig and demanding an ongoing and central role in selecting judges.
(snip)
Cornyn, a Judiciary Committee member who has been at the vanguard of numerous nomination fights, said he wants a "reasonable accommodation" with the White House and will block nominees if Democrats try to circumvent him.

The membership of the committee is, like Darth Cheney's energy advisory group, unknown.

The use of all the obstructions they can come up with has typified the right wing since it lost power in the 2006 election. That the country is badly served has not made a difference to that party. Election makes a difference, as Speaker Pelosi has noted. The difference it makes to the wingers is that they dig in their heels and fight anything that might actually serve the voters.

Bogging down the court system is the price the Texas senators feel the country has to pay for their being given a position of power. Oaths of office to the contrary, the two that swore to serve are determined once again to hold back anything that actually would work in the public interest once again.

Adults are really needed in public office, and these two don't qualify.

Neglecting the Troops

Our troops get lots of praise and attention for their service, and we hope they get just rewards. I haven't been one, so I don't know what their lives are like. I do know I have heard a few times about our troops having to go on public assistance to take care of their families. The pay must not be great. Now I discover that when they have a need and go to their own established assistance organization, their needs are not a big factor in that operation either.

There is, I find, Army Emergency Relief (AER), a charitable operation under the Army's auspices, that gets donations from the troops and interested parties. That AER is supposed to exist for the purpose of helping out in time of need. Mysteriously, there is much more reserved for the AER in savings than ever is given out in aid. An Associated Press report found some really sad facts in investigating the AER and its use by our troops.

As soldiers stream home from Iraq and Afghanistan, the biggest charity inside the U.S. military has been stockpiling tens of millions of dollars meant to help put returning fighters back on their feet, an Associated Press investigation shows.
Between 2003 and 2007 — as many military families dealt with long war deployments and increased numbers of home foreclosures — Army Emergency Relief grew into a $345 million behemoth. During those years, the charity packed away $117 million into its own reserves while spending just $64 million on direct aid, according to an AP analysis of its tax records.

Tax-exempt and legally separate from the military, AER projects a facade of independence but really operates under close Army control. The massive nonprofit — funded predominantly by troops — allows superiors to squeeze soldiers for contributions; forces struggling soldiers to repay loans — sometimes delaying transfers and promotions; and too often violates its own rules by rewarding donors, such as giving free passes from physical training, the AP found.

Founded in 1942, AER eases cash emergencies of active-duty soldiers and retirees and provides college scholarships for their families. Its emergency aid covers mortgage payments and food, car repairs, medical bills, travel to family funerals, and the like.

Instead of giving money away, though, the Army charity lent out 91 percent of its emergency aid during the period 2003-2007. For accounting purposes, the loans, dispensed interest-free, are counted as expenses only when they are not paid back.
(snip)
The Army also exercises its leverage in raising contributions from soldiers. It reaches out only to troops and veterans in annual campaigns organized by Army personnel.

For those on active duty, AER organizes appeals along the chain of command. Low-ranking personnel are typically solicited by a superior who knows them personally.

Spiegel, the AER administrator, said he’s unaware of specific violations but added: ‘‘I spent 29 years in the Army, I know how ... first sergeants operate. Some of them do strong-arm.’’

It's not an economic time when there are a lot of options, and I understand that graduates getting out of schools are getting few offers. As I recently found out, jobs that have been lined up are even falling through as graduation approaches. The military seems like one of the few options many newcomers to employment age have. Making service worthwhile might attract a lot more of those, but that doesn't seem to be an operating principle of the AER.

The effect of its stewardship on the staff of AER appears to have been to make it cherish the money, rather than the troops they're there to serve. The time for a serious overhaul of this kind of uncharitable behavior is now, and should have been sooner. The people who serve this country in our military deserve to get help, not another instance of neglect.

Army Emergency Relief isn't a holding company, and building up a big bank account should never have become its design.

Pillaging as they Depart

The crash and burn nature of its leavetaking may be a large part of the 'legacy' the worst administration ever is amassing. The blows against the environment, the attempts to perpetuate oil companies' gains against this country, and now another slam at workers and salaries, add more dimension to the hostile takeover nature of the occupied White House.

The destruction that it attempts to do to the environment is permanent in a way that economic disaster is not. But the inability to do anything but undermine working Americans shows a deep-seated hatred that is the underlying factor of that economic destruction. Again, the cabal proves that it cannot comprehend the relationship between salaried consumers and the consumer economy.

Try this; without money, workers cannot consume.

Now the departing criminals are throwing out another attempt to undermine salaries and immigration regulation, while enabling business interests to make serfs out of workers.

Farm worker advocates and opponents of illegal immigration are blasting one of President George W. Bush's "midnight regulations" that will make it easier for agricultural employers to hire foreign workers.

They say the changes undermine worker protections, exploit immigrants and set wage levels so low that domestic workers cannot compete with foreign workers for jobs.

The regulation, which makes changes in the U.S. Labor Department's H-2A Temporary Agriculture Worker Program, allows agricultural employers to hire temporary foreign workers if not enough domestic workers are able or willing to fill farm jobs.
(snip)
..... the new regulations weaken worker protections because employers can now claim they have fulfilled the program's requirements instead of having to provide evidence of their compliance before their visa requests are approved.

"These seem typical of the Bush administration policies, where whatever employers want, that's what we're going to give them," said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nonpartisan advocacy group that seeks to reduce illegal immigration.

Mehlman said that by continuously adding foreign workers to their employment rolls and paying them according to the prevailing wage, employers undercut the need for domestic workers by relying on a steady stream of immigrants who can be easily replaced if they complain. Employers' actions also cap wages at such low rates that Americans can't compete for agricultural jobs.

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

That ends in "so we can rob them" for this criminal gang.

The ultimate in fly-by--night types is essential to the makeup of the maladministration. Without a lack decency and competence, the executive branch, as well as the agency heads and other operatives, make the perfect storm to ravage the country of all value and all rewards for honest work.

Soon enough, those resumes showing that a potential employee worked in the almost past administration will be ending up where they belong. Hopefully, the potential employers have big enough trashcans to accommodate anything relating to further employment, for those involved in the theft of American prosperity and good repute.

Eighteen days to go.

Condoms Instead of Abstinence Education

The headline on this post would seem to most rational people to be a given. For Dallas County Commissioners, it is political poison. In the land of Crawlforth there is a vast ignorant party that represents right wingers to whom life is unimportant if it belongs to some one else. They are overrepresented in government bodies in these parts. The results are idiotic. Condoms can't be distributed by Dallas public health workers.

Guess what? AIDs incidence is rising in Dallas County.

The number of Dallas County residents living with HIV and AIDS has steadily increased during the past five years.

But county health workers still are not allowed to distribute condoms in high-risk neighborhoods because of a controversial Commissioners Court policy passed 13 years ago.

At least two court members, however, are hoping to reverse that policy.

"I can't continue to join the ostrich head-in-the-sand group given the numbers," said Commissioner John Wiley Price, a Democrat who raised the issue during a recent meeting.

Dallas County had the highest HIV rate in Texas last year and in 2006, state officials say, although the reported number of new cases has been decreasing.

The number of chlamydia and gonorrhea cases is up, according to county statistics.

Before 1995, county health workers routinely ventured into local communities to hand out condoms and needle sterilization kits to those with the greatest risk of infection. But that year, a narrow majority of commissioners voted to end the practice, saying it encouraged illegal and immoral behavior.

The commissioners also approved regulations requiring county health programs to emphasize abstinence. It gave Dallas County the distinction of having the only public health agency in the state that barred condoms in education and prevention programs.

This isn't funny to anyone outside the televangelical community. It costs lives, and it costs immense amounts in treatment expense which could easily be avoided.

Ending the madness here is a beginning. Of course, the immense amounts of foreign aid that have been diverted into abstinence programs could also be kept from this wastage by the same approach. Actual preventive methods are relatively inexpensive, and are readily available.

The choice is easy, outside of the psychotic realms that despise real science and would rather spout nonsense than act in everyone's best interests. Abstain from idiocy, that's abstinence worth teaching.

Elected officials should not put ideology above the public interest.

Cheneyism

The papers are full of advice to President-elect Obama, and much of it is downright funny. This morning I started reading the following op-ed from an Iranian expert and soon enough I was finding the advice was to let them starve. Darth Cheney is an Iranian expert? you may be asking.

This appalls me, that the writer assumes we would be delighted at the approach that would develop a problem for a whole population as if our advantage were the only factor involved. May I offer this advice to President-elect Obama. The previous occupied White House had an attitude of Eat The Poor. It would very much behoove this country to show that that is not representative of our country.

A bevy of foreign policy experts are pressing President-elect Barack Obama to move quickly on his promise to "engage in aggressive personal diplomacy" with Iran.

He would be better off first taking a long, deep breath and allowing Iran's economic crisis to take its toll on the mullahs before getting down to serious business.

The political landscape has shifted dramatically in Iran in the past few months, handing the United States policy options that it hasn't had since the 1979 revolution. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's populist expenditure policies, coupled with the unprecedented collapse of the oil market, have driven Iran into an economic tailspin. The result is that Iran is more vulnerable to focused economic sanctions than it has been in 30 years.
(snip)
But it's lower oil prices that are really squeezing Tehran. A decline in prices to the $30-$40 range for a year or two would be catastrophic for the regime: Either the poor would have to go without basic necessities, or cronies would have to be heavily taxed.

Well, whoop-ti-doo. Just the ticket. Bring it on. I do not wish to use those and other inane comments, relating to using catastrophe to work our will, as if that were a good thing. The attitude that our national will is the only consideration in international affairs has made us into the most hated nation. It is definitely time for change we can believe in.

The sort of advice that is offered depends on a whole executive branch of evil war criminals, the kind we can celebrate departs in twenty-eight days. Good riddance.

Schadenfreude Again

Seeing the right wing defeat themselves has been enjoyable in many ways. It looks as if a leading light from Texas in the coming administration will be Chet Edwards. He is a Democrat who regained his seat after the dastardly redistricting imbroglio brought to you by the wingers in that 2003 purge.

Rep. Edwards isn't just a senior member who will have influence in this administration, he is a reminder. If the wingers hadn't purged out influential members of congress like Martin Frost, Texas would have much more representation in the government.

Now, with a relatively junior congressional delegation, two senators from the minority party and a White House brain trust likely to be devoid of Texans, the state of the Bushes and LBJ, Rayburn and Cactus Jack, Tom Clark and Tom DeLay faces a political future with "as little clout as in a century," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.

"The days when Texans ran the Congress are over," Jillson said. "And we're not going to have the presidency any time in the near future."

Texas Democrats point the finger of blame at Bush, who is leaving office as the most unpopular president in modern American history, and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, who inspired a redistricting plan that cost several senior Democrats their jobs.

"It comes into clear focus now the price Texans are paying because of the partisan folly of the Tom DeLay-driven, mid-decade redistricting," said Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, the most influential Texas Democrat in Washington. "Instead of Texans being in charge of the powerful Rules, Agriculture and Homeland Security committees, their jobs now belong to New York, Minnesota and Mississippi."

For any of you who may have forgotten, an established practice of redistricting after census was ridden over by ambitious Republican party members who had visions of a permanent majority. They powered the mess through, and pitted Democrats in office against right wing electorates in the 2004 election. For a time, that gave them a majority, but it resulted to my glee in the election of a Democrat to replace Tom DeLay when his misdeeds got so out of hand his party wouldn't stand for him any longer. Redistricting had gone forward in his district on the assumption that he would hold on forever, and a large segment of mixed income, mixed race voters were put into that area. They voted in Democrat Lampson, though in this recent election Lampson was ousted by a Republican.

Under the last eight years, progressive projects did not have support in the nation's capitol. Members of the party in power are likely to redeem that long dearth of support.

"The Bush administration never asked for funding for the Trinity River project, under-funded NASA, did not adequately fund the deepening and widening of Houston's ship channel and spent three years trying to close Waco's VA hospital," he added.

Mr. Edwards will be a key player in such battles, given his place on the House Appropriations Committee. He chairs the subcommittee that funds military construction and veterans programs and is No. 2 on the panel that approves energy and water development projects.

The remains of American ideals that is left in the wake of the war criminals, as Diane delineates this morning in her post, will be hard to take back. The Texans who survived some of its worst battles will be ready to take on that chore. They've taken what the occupied WH and its minions dished out, and came out wiser and better.

The worst elements in our society manage to tear down a lot of the structure we need to survive. There are some of us left, even out here in flyover land. We're going to enjoy building back the shining city on a hill the wingers buried in filth.

That Bad Smell Under the Radar

That grassroots campaign that organized local units to spearhead the GoPerv drive to control of Congress under Newt Gingrich led to deep penetration at the town level by powers of the right wing. I see it here in the operation of our local government, as in the refusal to allow poll watchers to view our recent election returns. In Dallas, some prosecutions are being reviewed, government prosecutions that have focused largely on Democratic office holders and candidates.

The ongoing investigation of the House Judiciary Committee stated in its majority staff report back in April that an extraordinary degree of politicization within the Department of Justice had developed since 2001.

A study published in February 2007 by Professors Donald Shields and John Cragan found that federal prosecutors during the Bush administration have investigated Democratic officeholders far more frequently than their Republican counterparts. The study identified 375 investigations or indictments of candidates and elected officials brought by U.S. attorneys from January 2001 to December 2006. The study's authors found that of the 375 cases they identified, 10 involved independents, 67 involved Republicans, and 298 involved Democrats.

The authors noted that the greatest disparity in investigations or indictments involved local politicians, where Democrats were seven times as likely as Republicans to be subject to criminal investigations. An updated report based on a sample of 820 reported cases and investigations determined that during the Bush administration, 80 percent of federal public corruption investigations have involved Democratic officeholders, and only 14 percent have involved Republican officeholders.

A review of the 375 cases reveals that one of the cases studied was the investigation of former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill. The study concluded that there was a 1 in 10,000 chance that the over-representation of Democrats was by chance, thereby concluding that selective prosecution of local Democrats across the country had taken place. There has been very little, if any, reporting on this dynamic, national story in this newspaper.

The dirty tactics the right wing employs have been responsible for a huge overturn of our constitution, as well as of local functioning governments. The results have been catastrophic.

The Department of Justice has been particularly impacted by politicization at the expense of the Rule of Law. The purpose of the DOJ is to carry out the laws Congress passes. Instead of functioning as it should, the present DOJ - like much of the executive branch - is at loggerheads with its own purpose. The laws have been pushed aside while the executive branch pursues purely political purposes.

That 71 days left looks awfully long, and dangerous to our country.

Good Riddance to That 'Righteous' Hate Crowd

The tenor at their rallies isn't the only ugliness that is going on in the right wing. It's increasingly obvious that the lies haven't worked, the election looks about to actually going to put a qualified, public spirited, president in the White House. The GoPervs couldn't be more frightened.

Mother Jones does a rundown of some of the wilder assertions being run up that flagpole to convince the weakminded they are under attack. It's amazing, but there are still about 20% of the population who still swallow the swill.

Here are a few:

Mohamed Atta's Driver License. An outfit called the National Republican Trust Political Action Committee has sent out an email to potential conservative donors calling Obama "dangerous" and boasting that it has hit on the killer issue that "will nail him." That issue: Obama supports allowing undocumented aliens to obtain driver's licenses. This means, the group says, that the next Mohamed Atta could obtain a valid driver's license--and somehow make use of it in a plot to kill thousands of Americans. "We are days away from our new TV ad exposing Obama's support for driver's licenses for illegals," the email says. Message: Obama doesn't understand the dangers facing the country and will help terrorists conspiring to destroy the United States.
(snip)
Obama Is a Secret Muslim Plotting With an Evil Billionaire. Human Events, a leading conservative magazine, sent out a promotional email the other day for an anti-Obama book co-written by Floyd Brown, a conservative activist infamous for having cooked up the Willie Horton ad during the 1988 presidential election. The email notes that there are "many Islamofascists who are sworn to the destruction of America" who are "actively campaigning for Obama" and that Muslims would demand and receive "special rights" from a President Obama. The email asks, "Being a Black Muslim doesn't disqualify [Obama] from running for President, so why won't he be honest about it?" In other words, yep, he's a covert Muslim. But beyond circulating this canard, the email claims that George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire financier who has supported Democratic and liberal causes, is "planning to sack the US economy, make himself billions richer, and put Obama in the White House marching to his mad tune." Message: A black Muslim in league with an evil Jewish billionaire--you do the math.

Obama Is Fronting for Islamic Jihadists. Writing in The Washington Times this week, former Reagan Pentagon official Frank Gaffney, charges that Obama's campaign has received "between $30 million and $100 million" from the Mideast, Africa and other places [where] Islamists are active." He asserts it "seems likely" that "these funds come not only from Wahhabis, Muslim Brotherhood types and jihadists of other stripes but from non-U.S. citizens." (His evidence? Don't be so picky.)

Of course, anyone with an iota of sense would be embarrassed even to listen to this drivel, but evidently there is still a remnant of willing recipients of these myths that make sensational reading. We hear them occasionally on CSpan, although still the hosts are making the point to deny the worst of the obviously untrue.

In the article, writer David Corn had still some hope for McAyn. He had heard he was being advised to call Obama a Socialist, and thought the candidate was above that. This weekend proved him wrong.

The rock has been turned over by those poll numbers, and the creepy crawlies are all coming out to do whatever damage they can. Thank you all for being the kind of reader that doesn't need, or want, that ugliness. For rational sorts, bringing back the standards of decency will be so beautiful that we don't even need to step on the slimey things being thrown out.

Cab Driver Nuggets

Doing bunches of traveling, as I have and I promise it's over for now, those Flat Earth moments do happen. It made me giggle to realize that now I would have to give in to the impulse to post on my latest cabdrollery.

The drivers to and from DFW have all been Latin Americans for the past four trips, so going to Chile for Habitat made them pretty friendly. I got asked by the last driver, á propos of mentioning the economy, if I didn't think that poor people buying more than they could afford was the main cause of the crisis. You can easily guess I said NO not by a very long shot.

When he asked who did cause it, of course I fingered Alan Greenspan and told the driver as I've told you. Greenspan has even admitted that knowing AAA ratings were being given falsely to toxic mortgage packages, he hadn't stopped it because he had thought the effects would be spread out too much to make any great impact. If nothing else, the occupied White House's standard of 'consumer confidence' has been forever proven not to be adequate backing for our money supply. But I digress.

The driver was just waiting, as I should have guessed, for the opening to tell his own stories. It turns out that he had had a recent encounter with a real estate agent who wanted to sell a big loan. He related the events, which since you're not taking a relatively lengthy ride, I won't include entirely. It boiled down to having a house in pretty bad shape used as a lever to get his sister into a mortgage that was entirely over her head. The line used until the subprime meltdown, that the price would keep going up so she could refinance, has been replaced. This time it is that a fixed rate 30-year mortgage is sublimely secure, and the only sort of arrangement the reputable realtor would offer to her esteemed client. The driver thinks that because she speaks Spanish, the realtor thought she would be trusted. Then he insisted on a tour of the house, and did the math. You've guessed it was trash for treasure by now?

Selling for a finance company rather than for a real estate company has become the norm since subprimes came into prominence, and of course we've learned not so long ago that the agent placing a loan with great profits for the financing company was being offered great bonuses. That doesn't seem to have changed, when it's repossessed properties the salespeople are pushing. It may have become a tougher sell, though, as anyone who's been following this in the news by now has been taught that the customer for a house can count on encountering some one pushing another interest than his/hers.

My driver was nodding away when I mentioned to him that it was his long term agreement, not his satisfaction with a house, that the agent makes her living on. He had another story, too, about his first house buy. The loan he was sold took into account the repairs the house needed, and was more than the purchase price. It took him quite awhile to pay that one off. As he noted, he'd been stupid, and paid for it. Note, he paid it off.

Like most of us, the house buyer who's gotten in over his head is going to do whatever he can to honor the contract, no matter how deceived he was in getting into that contract. That's the underpinning for the subprime breakdown - agents selling the toxic loans grew ever more confident that the victim would make it somehow, anyhow. Like the cretin in chief, they knew that Good Merkins were taking third jobs to get by. When the jobs disappeared and the salaries shrank, the financially abusive just assume you'll get by if it kills you. That's okay with the crooks. Sillies. It was the economy they killed.

Wonder how long before the world forgets that the U.S. sells bad loans to them rated AAA, based on our financial community's belief that the public can eat cake when they don't have bread? My guess, like my driver's, is that hard lessons stay learned - once bitten, twice shy.

Cabbies and their fellow workers aren't to blame for our credit crunch, though I've heard the wingers insist that what went wrong was dastardly Dems cozying up to the poor. Your cabbies and their fellow worker bees, though, are fixing it, a little at a time. Their votes are going to be a large part of the fixing process.

Tips go both ways.

Never Forget

It's the seventh year of the aftermath of September 11th, an event so horrible that you can't imagine using it's memory for anything but improving lives. It was especially horrible for those in the area of the twin towers and the Pentagon. For all of us, there was a horror that we will never shake off entirely. One particular lesson isn't possible, as all our experiences differ.

One memory I have is of the eerie quiet in downtown Dallas, as I stayed in a tall building while most people left, since I wanted to get word from my son in D.C. He had been at National Airport, his flight was canceled and he went home - a route that took him by the Pentagon.

Another memory is from a later date, and one of horror as well. That memory is of Colin Powell testifying at a hearing, that we needed to take the occasion of the hideous attack to go to war with Iraq. His exact words were that this was 'an opportunity' that we should not pass up. I have seen that mindset horribly reinforced ever since that shocking testimony. The occupied White House saw an attack on this country as a booster shot for their military opportunism, and have used it that way ever since. I know that Colin Powell was being honest, and passing on the line he had been fed. The schemers of the Iraq disaster have lied and misinterpreted events in order to twist public opinion their way. It will now be left to the next administration to get out of the mess they've made in the Middle East, and in so many other areas.

Now I watch a campaign show the same cynical attitude toward political aims, that justifies for their minds any twisting of the truth. Public opinion is despised - and the grossest imagery is not beyond them. Accusing Sen. Obama of sexual manipulation of small children is not beyond this group of predators.

The outlandish accusation, combined with other McAyn campaign fabrications, have inspired reactions against their lies.

What happened: A new 30-second TV ad attacks Barack Obama's record on education, saying that Obama backed legislation to teach " 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners." The announcer then says, "Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family."

Why that's wrong: This is a deliberately misleading accusation. It came hours after the Obama campaign released a TV ad critical of McCain's votes on public education. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama did vote for but was not a sponsor of legislation dealing with sex ed for grades K-12.

But the legislation allowed local school boards to teach "age-appropriate" sex education, not comprehensive lessons to kindergartners, and it gave schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators.

Republican Alan Keyes tried to use Obama's vote against him in the 2004 U.S. Senate race. At the time, Obama spoke about wanting to protect young children from abuse. He made clear then that he was not supporting teaching kindergartners about explicit details of sex. (Emphasis added.)

That was from the Kansas City paper, and is not the only media rejection of these lies. Larry Sabato of UVA and Chuck Todd at NBC earned my respect in last night's news cycle for pointing out the McAyn's campaign is showing their need to obscure actual truths, facts that are against them. A drive for votes gives impetus to political operatives, blinding them to facts. The drive for power leads to this use of despicable tactics. It also shows the nature of person behind it, one that has held power against our public interest for far too long.

The McCain ads here include one that represents the Obama campaign as a pack of wolves for digging up the truth about Palin. The innocent victim under attack that ad would like us to imagine is not there. These protesting lambs have deliberately lied, twisted information, and tried to hide the facts from voters. They know they aren't worthy of public trust, and are trying to divert our attention away from that just as their fellow party members led this country into a disastrous, horribly painful war that will besmirch our country's reputation forever.

Never forget.

Times They Are A'Changing Again

In the elections of 2004, there was a total takeover by Democratic candidates, who swept the judiciary of Dallas. Since that time Dallas County has been remarkable for many things, and among those is the high number of convictions that have been overturned on DNA evidence. The return of justice is not a coincidence.

From the past more than seven years in high office, the right wing has shown that it does not like, and will not promote justice. Our nation's Department of Justice has been thoroughly politicized, with Monica Goodlings placed in positions that should have been reserved for responsible public servants. With functionaries who placed only political cronies in what should have been positions of trust, the justice system has been hideously compromised. Some remain on the bench to this day, as Diane has recently pointed out in immigration cases.

It would be encouraging if such transgressions against the rule of law were the impetus for a massive flight out of the Republican party by public officials. Of course, that flight actually is occurring. The motivations are not those of shame at the criminal nature of the party, though. The real motive is electability.

As Texas Republicans gather for their national convention, GOP members back in Dallas are preparing to bolt the party.

Monday, Dallas County Court at Law Judge Mark Greenberg plans to announce at a Democratic Party Labor Day picnic that he's leaving the Republican Party, said people from both parties familiar with his decision. The judge, who next faces re-election in 2010, could not be reached.

At least two other judges are expected to leave the GOP before November.

"They are looking at the numbers and the demographics and realizing that they can't win by running as Republicans," said Darlene Ewing, chairwoman of the Dallas County Democratic Party.

Last week, Dallas County Republicans lost another when county Criminal Court Judge Elizabeth Crowder said she's switching to the Democrats.

It's the latest political shift since the 2004 elections, when Democrats started to make inroads in county offices held firmly by Republicans since the Reagan years.

The depressing truth is that party labels will be meaningless if dishonest public officials just change parties and run for election as if they had any real allegiance to the party that did the right thing. When civil rights legislation drove racists into the Republican party throughout the South, it did the Democratic party a great favor by cleansing its ranks. A reversal of that trend ought to be guarded against as economic disasters and war crimes make the right wing ever less attractive to its members - because of electability.

Is it beyond the realm of the possible to refuse party membership if a review of the candidate's record shows a high incidence of malfeasance? I would be much better inclined toward the Democratic party if it used this occurrence to impose high standards on its candidates, and to refuse membership to those who have proved they do not respect the public interest.

There is a time of opportunity now, one that should be used to keep dishonest and venal people out of public offices. This would be a great way to put the Democratic party on record as absolutely uncompromising, in establishing its own principles.

Can You Spare Them Some Help?

While I am terribly hurt by the jobs situation, and that lack of the opportunity for working people to support themselves and their families in any comfort, there is a problem with begging on the streets. Although I did propose that funding for certain programs in MD should be funded by Repugs begging in the streets, since they were creating the problem, I do see that some begging has gone pro.

At a place I worked near the LBJ Freeway, you could observe vans driving up in the early hours and letting out a contingent equipped with signs, lunches, that whole setup, to beg from the commuter traffic. That is the kind of approach that gives the right wing bases for insisting that anyone can work if he/she wants to, and gives them purchase in the public mind.

The professional panhandler, 'spanger', is the subject of this article by Steven Malanga:

Unlike their predecessors in the '70s and '80s, many of these new beggars aren't helpless victims or even homeless. Rather, they belong to a diverse and swelling community of street people who have made panhandling their calling.

Like most countries, America has always had its share of itinerant travelers, vagabonds and hoboes. But panhandling became a more pervasive and disturbing fact of urban life in the 1970s – a byproduct of the explosion in homelessness that resulted from rising drug use and the closing of state-run mental institutions.

By the crack epidemic's late-'80s peak, New York City in particular was home to a massive panhandling presence. The problem soon turned from irritating to alarming, as incidents of aggressive panhandling leading to violent crime began showing up regularly in the headlines.

The escalation – and other cities faced it, too – shouldn't have been surprising.

"If the neighborhood cannot keep a bothersome panhandler from annoying passers-by ... it is even less likely to call the police to identify a potential mugger or to interfere if a mugging actually takes place," wrote political scientist James Q. Wilson.

New York, fed up with the disorder, began to crack down on panhandling in the early '90s. Its success prompted other cities to follow suit – adopting community courts, forcing beggars to register for licenses (which discouraged them) and passing new anti-panhandling laws. These measures helped spark new development and interest in downtown districts across the country.

But over the last several years, the urban resurgence has proved an irresistible draw to a new generation of spangers.

There are a lot of organizations that will help out the really needy, and there are places like the Red Cross to go for help. It isn't actually necessary to beg on the street, and it's something that needs to be stopped for all of our sakes. We need to strengthen social support systems. That will be a lot easier if we aren't fighting the image of elements that want to prey on our generosity.

See the Fat Lady, the Two-Headed Dog, You, There!

The Pitch is on, to get us voters panicked into giving up not just our freedoms, but any future prospect we might have for economic security. The prospect that economic disaster might give the voters the impetus to kick the crooks out is really, really scary to the financiers who got us into this. There's a new foundation, founded and named by Pete Peterson, of Blackstone, Inc., that is funding a whole seminar to teach you how to sell out. Yes, Blackstone, that is a staple of buying and milking cash cows. Say "Mooo", you're the newest cash cow on the block.

This Friday, the documentary opens in Dallas theatres, followed by a live blog with Peterson and Warren Buffet. You will be invited to give away all your entitlements to buy back the prosperity the high rollers have sold out from under you. The ads are insisting that this is the new "An Inconvenient Truth", for which Al Gore should be royalties, but I'd rather he were getting a lawsuit going, for fraud at the least.

At the website, you get this hard sell:

I.O.U.S.A. boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. As the Baby Boomer generation prepares to retire, will there even be any Social Security benefits left to collect? Burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs, and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions.

Throughout history, the American government has found it nearly impossible to spend only what has been raised through taxes. Wielding candid interviews with both average American taxpayers and government officials, Sundance veteran Patrick Creadon (Wordplay) helps demystify the nation’s financial practices and policies. The film follows U.S. Comptroller General David Walker as he crisscrosses the country explaining America’s unsustainable fiscal policies to its citizens.

Hopefully there will be carnival barkers at the entrance pulling in the rubes with a line like "You look like a pretty smart fella. You I will let in free, just don't tell the boss, okay?"

Entitlements like social security have long been making this crowd drool, and now they've got the country in a fix they can't get out of without making sacrifices, this is the sacrifice the robber baron class wants you to choose. Not something like government regulations and oversight, which have been removed to our great loss. Don't look at that fella behind the curtain.

Do they take us for idiots?

Yes.

As Low As You Can Go

Last night's Bill Moyers' Journal had heart-wrenching coverage of the growing industry that preys on the 25% of U.S. citizens who are living in poverty. The article concentrated on the angle of inveigling people into debt they can't afford by getting them to fill out forms that detail their financial circumstances, then matching what they can eke out with the price of what they're buying.

A major example was given, of a lady needing a car to perform the job she was paid for. After she told the salespeople all of her expenses and income, she was sold a car that cost more than what was left over after all her other bills were paid. Eventually, she had to return the car. In the Journal report, it was explained that most cars sold under this arrangement are returned, but the costs are covered by the amount of interest that the buyers have been socked with. It is this kind of tactic that has seen subprime lending burgeoning in many industries.

MATT FELLOWES:I've estimated in my research that among the bottom 25 percent of households, they're collectively bringing in about 650 billion dollars every year.

So you can imagine why an amount of money that large is attractive to a great variety of businesses, from large financial services companies to new, uh, to entrepreneurs looking for innovations to serve this market.

SILVIA CHASE:That the poor can be lucrative to big business was intriguing enough to the reporter. But Matt Fellowes' evidence for that case was even more so. The Fellowes report noted that wages have been stagnant for years; to compensate the working poor are buying items small and large by taking out loans from companies all too happy to lend them the money at a very high rate.

MATT FELLOWES:Lower income families tend to pay higher prices for nearly every basic necessity from groceries to the price of a car to the price of a mortgage.

MATT FELLOWES:Between 1989 and 2004, they borrowed about 240 percent more debt than they did in1989. So there is this enormous increase in the amount of debt held by low and moderate level income houses.

SILVIA CHASE:BUSINESSWEEK may be considered an unlikely publication to take on a poverty investigation — based in New York City, it is a magazine that, like the corporations it covers, has traditionally viewed the world from the top down. But the think tank report hinted at a story a business magazine could embrace: an industry based on poverty, serving 25 percent of the American population.

Inveigling another person to take on a debt she/he can't afford, for your profit, may seen like the bottomfeeder practice only a caricature like the mythical Fagan would commit. In an ending note, though, the report from Bill Moyers touched on an investigation that is now going on at MotherJones. If you've noticed, there are reports there of people associated with the very organizations that have grown up to defend the needy, that have begun taking a role in selling them new and abusive credit services.

BILL MOYERS: CFSA has been especially active in urban, African American communities — that's a primary target for predatory lenders. On our website at PBS.org, you can link to a startling investigation in the current online issue of MOTHER JONES.

The magazine reports that the CFSA and the subprime credit card company CompuCredit, have co-opted several prominent civil rights organizations to bolster their efforts to fend off stricter regulation. Seals of approval for payday lending have come from CORE — that's the Congress of Racial Equality, the National Conference of Black Mayors and local chapters of the National Urban League.

Even the WASHINGTON POST was caught off guard.

Charles Steele Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, invoked Martin Luther King Jr. as he argued against the proposed Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act. He defended subprime credit card lending.

The POST later had to issue a clarification that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has a partnership with CompuCredit that includes plans to market "SCLC-branded" credit cards. Shameful.

Shameful is definitely the word for betraying the trust you have won from the people you purport to serve.