Greetings:

I have never witnessed such an abuse of power in my life!

The political agenda of the Republican Party, in attempting to manipulate facts and impede the paths of justice inherent within our democratic institutions, will not succeed!

Within the cover story of a war against terrorism rests one enormous single truth.

The Republican Party is caught red-handed and directly responsible in shifting massive amounts of US tax dollars into the private coffers that fund the political agenda of the Republican Party, its financial backers, and those who profit from war.

Under cover of war, a successful revolving door of subversion is the entrance to the Bush Administration, Iran/Contra style.

International and domestic piracy is the agenda of neo-conservative Republicans now in office.

The neo-conservative agents within the Republican Party are known by name. They are the authors of "The Project for a New American Century", they are the Presidential cabinet of advisors.

This Administration is a threat to the safety and survival of society around

A coalition of power companies has launched a multi-million dollar campaign to convince members of Congress to support the Bush administration's misnamed "Clear Skies" air pollution bill. Through the Edison Electric Institute, hundreds of companies are pushing their employees, retirees and shareholders to send faxes to Congress, meet with members of Congress, and write to local newspapers. Even worse, these faxes falsely claim that the dirty air bill is good for the environment and public health!

The truth is that the Bush administration's "Clear Skies" air pollution plan will weaken public health protections, leading to more smog, soot and mercury pollution from old electric power plants than under current law.

Please take a moment to e-mail your members of Congress today and tell them that we need real solutions to the over 30,000 premature deaths and 160,000 asthma attacks that power plant pollution causes. Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.

Remember "Groundhog Day," with Bill Murray? He played a TV weatherman, doomed to live the same day, Groundhog Day, over and over again. As this odd summer slowly winds down, I feel a bit like Murray. I've been here before.

             Take the tunnel in Iraq, already filled with military and intelligence analysts by the hundreds reporting that there's light somewhere up ahead. Here, for example, is Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and on his better days, nobody's fool.

             On Washington's carousel, Cordesman is a prominent fixture. The Center is the prime Republican think tank on K Street, where an elevator ride can confront you with museum pieces stretching all the way back to Reagan's first National Security Council adviser, Richard Allen. Cordesman has held down big jobs in the Defense and Energy departments, has served as Senator John McCain's national security assistant and strides confidently before the cameras whenever ABC News summons him for analysis and commentary.

             Last Dec. 3, from all his dignity as the Arleigh Burke Chair at

Dark eyes and vague pronouncements,
a catalogue of mistrust
in his eyes like the cloudy sense
that time moves but life stalls,
that his whole moment
in the long history of existence is
no longer than the lifespan
of some unnamed insect,
he could never remember which, hated
biology and the sciences, though
they kept returning, coming back
into his life, mind, invading
his conscience with pitchforks and shovels and clubs,
angry villagers making their revolt
against the dictatorship
of his expectations, rousing his
mistrust and alienation, rebels roused
from their apathy with a jolt,
and his stare so empty of
any sense that he has anything
worthwhile to keep living for,
but having no stomach for action,
a desire, yes, a readiness to
end it all, but no ability
to really snuff it out, no mind
for guns or blades or pills or gas,
but still waiting, hating,
waiting for something, anything,
to bring the curtain down.

If you run a lootocracy, you have no conception of sufficiency. You set up the rules to grab as much money as you can, as if you've won a supermarket shopping spree. You also concentrate power, the better to arrange the world for your benefit. Unchecked by modesty, satiety, or shame, you take all you can get away with. You loot until someone stops you.

The word lootocracy was originally coined to describe the corrupt cartels that have ruled and plundered countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and some of the former Soviet Republics. But with an amazingly small amount of national debate, George Bush is installing a more global and sophisticated version-one where those on top can do whatever they choose without the slightest constraints. Bush began his presidency by giving the wealthiest five percent of all Americans massive tax breaks of $75 billion a year. He paid for them in part by cutting child abuse prevention, community policing, Americorps, low-income childcare, health care, housing, and even support for military families. This spring he passed another round of cuts, $35 billion a year targeted overwhelmingly to the same lucky lootocrats.