Did Jack Abramoff give money to any Democrats or Democratic causes?  Some time back, irritated by attempts to paint the Abramoff shenanigans as a bipartisan scandal, I offered a small sum ($10) on the Far-Right newsbusters.org site to anyone who could find that Jack Abramoff gave money to any Democrat or any Democratic cause.  I've received some flack from some of the NewsBusters netizens, who claim that I've lost the bet.  I think I won.  Welcher or winner? Here's the facts, you be the judge:

First the the facts on the Abramoff case with regard to Democrats and cash:

From the Toronto Globe and Mail, a pretty scathing arrticle:

Vancouver — Governments in Canada should steer completely clear from adopting or emulating any current drug policies in the United States, an outspoken New York state prosecutor said Tuesday.

“My advice to Canada is stay as completely far away from U.S. drug law policy as possible,” said David Soares, the district attorney for Albany County in the state of New York. “You (Canada) are headed in the right direction.”

In a blunt and scathing condemnation of his state and country's ineffective drug war, Mr. Soares said lawmakers, judges and prosecutors in the U.S. know their system is ineffective.

Let's take a look at what Mr. Limbaugh was really up to.

According to police records of his prescriptions, El Rushbo was dropping about 10 of the highest-strength hydrocodone (e.g., Norco, Oxycontin) tablets available. Each pill that he was taking was 4 times the strength of what's typically prescribed. He was taking more twice the maximum prescribed dosage each day - and this is the heaviest duty stuff available - it's used for the worst pain imaginable.

So, in short, he was taking a dosage that no legitimate physician would ever prescribe.

Here's an interesting list of 83 big corporations that paid no corporate tax in at least one year from 2001 through 2003.  A $250 billion loss to the US coffers over that three-year period.  A lot of these folks paid negative tax - I assume that means the Fed gave them money - nice work if you can get it.

http://www.ctj.org/corpfed04an.pdf 

I was listening to a call-in show while driving, the topic was schools teaching kids about gay marriage.  There's been a bit of controversy about the school system teaching young'ns about homosexuality, and about gay marriage.  I hadn't really thought much about it until yesterday. 

The first few callers were against teaching this stuff to young kids - even to adolescents.  "After all", one reasoned, "they're already confused enough at that age - no need to make things worse".  It amazes me that people still think that homosexuality is a choice - they really think that exposing kids to the concept of gay marriage will transform them into homosexuals?  It would be like trying to turn a cow into a carnivore by showing it pictures of a lion eating a gazelle.

A fantastic new Bush parody song, to the tune of "I am the Walrus".

"Sitting on my own brain - waiting for the end of times... "

The Decider-in-Chief is now claiming government responsibility for inventing the iPod:

"the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod."

Wow!

Thanks to Engadget for bringing this to my attention. 

I was (once again) told what I believe on a fringe-right site.  I decided to tell the Righties what I really believe; here's what I wrote:

"Stop telling me what I believe. My beliefs are not simple - life isn't simple.

You (I'm pretty sure) and I both believe, fundamentally, that the right of the individual comes first, all other things being equal. I'm guessing that you and I also agree that the individual does not have the right to, say, cry "fire" in a crowded theatre - even though we're quashing an individual's free speech in order to appease a group (gasp!).

Thanks to an astute contributor to The Democratic Underground, I was alerted to a great resource from the Brookings  Institute: The Iraq Index - Tracking Variables of Reconstruction & Security in Post-Saddam Iraq.

Are attacks increasing or decreasing?  How about oil production?  50 pages of sad but interesting statistics - recommended reading.