From Howard Dean’s speech today:

To defeat George Bush, the Democratic Party and its nominee must stand up strong for our principles, not paper over our differences with the most radical White House in our lifetime. We must directly expose the ways in which George Bush’s policies benefit the privileged and right-wing ideologues.

5. Harness the power of the Internet to enlarge and support our grassroots organization committed to taking back America from special interests that control the right wing leadership of our Congress and the White House.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Just released: Internal Park Service memos on how to mislead the public on the impact of gutting the budget of the Park Service:

The Park Service confirmed the authenticity of the memos and said, while some of the terminology was “unfortunate,” the agency recognizes that superintendents face difficult cost-cutting decisions this summer and wants to avoid politicizing the situation.

It seems a little late for that.

Credit is due to the retired superintendent who released the memos – someone is clearly smarter than the average bear. Seems some in the Park Service, unfortunately, wouldn’t say the same about the American public.

NewAlliance Bancshares update: Looks like the killing to be made on the backs of the New Haven community will exceed a billion bucks.

If they get away with letting lead poisoning go unchecked in DC, where the people drinking the water don’t elect congressmen – or have much money to buy them – it won’t stop there. Fortunately, some in Congress are starting to get the idea.

Josh Marshall notes the coded racism in accusations that the Democrats are “dependent on the Black vote”:

I don’t want to overstate the point. But nestled down deep in this argument is some sort of perhaps unconscious notion that the Dems are just hopelessly sucking wind among real voters and thus have to resort to padding their totals with blacks.

I don’t think it’s a point that could be overstated.

Tens of thousands of Thai workers mobilize to protest Prime Minister Shinawatra’s privatization campaign:

Today workers from the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) members of all State Enterprises Labour Relation Confederation, workers from private sector unions, activists and the general public gathered for the biggest anti-privatisation protest to date in the 16 day old confrontation in Thailand. Protesters gathered in front of the Government House to show the Thaksin government the depth of workers resolve to make their voices heard.

The Thaksin cabinet has made aggressive moves toward privatization of the highly profitable state enterprises including three Electricity enterprises, water, ports, public transport, etc, since early January of this year. This comes after he succeeded in privatizing part of the Airlines, Telecommunication, Postal Service, Airport and Petroleum. This is happening despite the fact he promised the State Enterprises Labour unions three years ago during his campaign for PM that he would not privatize state enterprises. But as has been the case with previous leaders, promises to the poor are easily forgotten.

Paul Rockwell on the unfortunate history of the Democratic dodge-to-the-right as an electoral maneuver:

The centrist theory, so often repeated in media commentary, contradicts the historical record—not only the record of three successive defeats in presidential elections from 1980 to 1988, when the party shifted to the right—but the overall record of Democratic presidents from Roosevelt to Carter. Since 1932 Democratic presidential candidates have achieved five landslide victories, and all five landslides were created through progressive campaigns that identified the Democratic Party with movements for social reform. The four campaigns of Franklin Roosevelt and the landslide victory of Lyndon Johnson in 1964 were grand coalition campaigns. These great crusades did not dwell on the white middle-class. Nor did they fawn over lost Democrats. Instead they reached beyond the party establishment to the unemployed, to the poor, to the new, rising electorate of the times.

With only one telling exception, no Cold War Democratic candidate ever won a decisive majority of the popular vote…The one candidate who did sweep the country was Lyndon Johnson, and he made support for civil rights central to his crusade for the Great Society. The great Democratic victories (Roosevelt and Johnson) were all progressive, highly ideological crusades against poverty and injustice. History does not vindicate the viewpoint of the right-wing Democrats. The centrist theory is wrong, not only in terms of electoral results; it is also wrong in terms of those huge fiascos that brought down three Democratic presidents—Truman, Johnson, and Carter…Every one-term Democratic president made right-wing errors that precipitated his own downfall and betrayed the liberal mandate that held the Democratic Party together. The fall of Truman in 1952, the humiliation of Lyndon Johnson in 1968, the defeat of Carter in 1980—great Democratic traumas—were all direct results of right wing follies in office.

At least as compelling is a look at the history of the modern Republican party – comparing the electoral prospects of, say, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders sets forth how a bad bill becomes a (bad) law:

Step One: Use your bill to raise massive amounts of political cash from friendly corporate interests…

So much for Bush’s stated plans “to act to make sure there are more jobs at home”:

Specifically, the president has deployed Secretary of State Colin Powell to India “to assure Indians that the Bush administration would not try to halt the outsourcing of high-technology jobs to their country.” The admission came despite a new study showing that up to 14 million American jobs could be lost to outsourcing in the coming years. Instead of endorsing congressional action to prevent such a tide of lost jobs,”the White House endorsed Mr. Powell’s comments” that outsourcing is just “a natural effect” that cannot be stemmed.

A UN initiative to stem AIDS deaths in Africa is on the verge of collapse for lack of funding – and where’s the US?

Some countries, particularly the United States, are balking at supporting the project, Aids workers say, partly because the plan intends to use a form of medicine called fixed-dose combination antiretroviral drugs whose use is opposed by large pharmaceutical companies.

It seems clear for whom the conservatives reserve their compassion.