"A pretty brazen act" -- Washington Post In the classic Monty Python film, "The Search for the Holy Grail," an already diminutive swordsman stuns his foe by insisting on fighting on, despite having already lost both arms and legs. It would appear that President Bush, too, has no legs to stand on, having lost the nation's support for his war in Iraq, lost Congress last November, and floundering at sub-Nixonian approval rating levels in the latest Zogby poll.

Via, Lawrence Lessig, Robert Reich's new book, Supercapitalism, makes a point regarding the place of corporations in civil society well worth highlighting: This is a critically important point for people to get -- and one that many good thinking souls don't yet agree with. [...] Corporations are not more efficient governments. They are instead increasingly efficient money making machines. And while there's nothing at all wrong with money making machines -- indeed, wealth and growth depends upon them -- there is something fundamentally wrong with trusting these machines to restrain the drive for profits in the name of doing the right thing. Lessig's whole post is worth a read. However, below the fold is a fuller excerpt from his review.

The Allard amendment that would automatically cut programs in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill should OMB hand down an "ineffective" PART rating was hammered back by the Senate this evening by a vote of 68-21. Thanks to everyone who contacted Senators to urge them to vote against this dangerous policy.