I was once reminded by another blogger that the famous book 1984 “was not a manual.” Really? The council of the U.K. City of Oxford has determined to record all conversations in taxi cabs. The U.K. already has eavesdropping cameras just about everywhere as it is… but that wasn’t, you know, enough. [Maybe the UK is just upset about Brazil passing it as the 6th largest economy… or something…]

The Pentagon has investigated itself, and concluded that the controversial Bush/Rumsfeld era program whereby former military officials were shilled provided with information that they could present on cable and other news programming was… wait for it… perfectly appropriate. Some of the “controversy” concerned the fact that some analysts were dropped like hot potatoes if they said things critical of the Pentagon… they weren’t, you know, “team players.” And of course, in some cases, the Bush Administration just went all out and created fake news broadcasts. Good times. Interestingly, with respect to the Pentagon program, anyway, it seemed there was virtually...

. Because December 23rd only comes once a year.

Usually, I devote the “profiles in political coverage” tag to “my party” doing things that I oppose (such as implementing totalitarianism in the name of “national security”). In the present case, I’ll note, for a change, the somewhat unusual occasion of “their party” caving under immense political pressure, in this case, the House Republicans agreeing to a compromise two-month extension of the “payroll tax holiday.” The Republicans, of course, are supposed to be the party of reduced taxation; this little wing-ding, however, demonstrated that the Republicans have no problem adding to the tax burden on labor— they only want income...

Given the circumstances (how insanely secretive North Korea is… and, indeed, just insane ) I’ll just say “it is being widely reported” that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is dead at age 69. It seems we’re packing our notable end of the year deaths in quickly … what with Vaclav Havel, and Christopher Hitchens, and now… Kim Jong Il. And we’ve got just about two weeks left! Well then. “Dear Leader” Kim, inheriting absolute dictatorial power from his father, “Great Leader” Kim Il Sung, now passes autocratic power on to his 20-something third, and youngest son, Kim Jong Un,...

Our jumping point will be a loss for all humanity (observed by me here): former Czech President, playwright, poet, author and “dissident” leader Vaclav Havel has passed away at age 75. Havel, of course, wrote extensively of the lies associated with communist propaganda, and ultimately proceeded to lead the so-called “Velvet Revolution,” which is credited with non-violently ending communist rule in Czechoslovakia and ushering in (as it were) democratic rule in both Czechoslovakia and its successor countries (Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the latter of which he served as its first president). In some sense, as a professional story-teller, particularly...

Former Czech President and playwright and leader of the so-called “Velvet Revolution”Vaclav Havel has passed away at 75. His country, Czechoslovakia, was bigger than its two current-day off-spring (the Czech Republic and Slovakia), but, of course, was a Soviet satellite, and the subject of a Soviet invasion in 1968, in response to the “Prague Spring,” which, rhetorically at least, was the inspiration for the ongoing “Arab Spring” and its world-wide counterparts.

That would be the passage by the Senate, and seeming inevitable signing into law, of a Defense Dept. authorization bill that pretty much codifies the body of “law” (including executive practice as rubber-stamped by a collaborating judiciary) pertaining to detention of terrorism suspects that has all but eviscerated the Bill of Rights. [Shorter U.S. government: GTMO for you if we feel like it, bitchez.] Obviously, the President, back when he was Candidate Obama, promised to do the mirror opposite of everything in this bill. Of course, now he’s pretty much pledged to sign this codification of everything he ran against–...

Well, in these troubled times, we can take some solace in a successful government program– indeed, one so successful, that it is achieving a new record of success. Unfortunately, that program is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or “SNAP,” better known as “food stamps,” which now serves a record 46 million Americans. At this point, I think it’s fair to say that neither political party has a particular clue as to how to restore much of anything in this economy, other than a continuation, if not an acceleration, of the status quo. Alas, the status quo has led to environmental...

Another day, another central banking gimmick (in this case, a proposal to puportedly ease central bank borrowing in U.S. dollars) and another central bank-induced goosing of markets, in this case, nearly a 500 point rise in the DJIA. Supposedly, this will “ease” the European banking crisis. Or, more likely, simply kick the inexorable financial disaster… to some time next year. And of course, when Europe goes… don’t think we’ll be unaffected. But hey… this is what governments, and central banks, and Wall Street banks, all of whom work for the same team… the Wall Street banks… do. While the reality...