Saturday Evening News

Some of my Opera tabs have been open for a week. It's time to read the backlog and clear it out.

So Much for Being Liberators
Iraq under Saddam was more or less the best Arab country to live in, if you were a woman. You had rights, could go out in the street on your own, be a professional, own property, etc. You didn't have 'democracy', but what that really means, especially in modern Iraq, isn't so much a system of rights as murderous anarchy.

The big trend in women's rights in Iraq today? Their families burning them to death.

Great job on the liberation there, El Presidente.

Source: The Guardian

Mortgaging the Future, No Pun Intended
A large recap sort of article on the Bush administration and the price we'll all be paying for the next half-century or so on their financial mismanagement.

Basically they indict him for wasting a 2 trillion dollar surplus, the War in Iraq, the soaring cost of oil due to insecurity in oil producing regions, the glut of worthless spending to his cronies, and the like. It's nothing really new, but a nice summary.

Source: Vanity Fair

Sixty Minutes of Toes
60 Minutes may be doing a big expose on former Governor Spiegelman, who basically got put in prison for being a Democrat. Supposedly he was bribed, but the same guy who did the bribery also claimed to bribe a bunch of republicans, who were never investigated or indicted, and then was given a very lenient sentence for testifying against the Governor, then released early under very suspicious circumstances, and so forth, while the judge has obstructed his appeals and put endless delays in front of his attorneys.

All in all, a very fishy situation.

Source: Tuscaloosa News Blog

Bush Labor Regulation Board Rules Unions Aren't Business-Related
See, businesses can now screen out any emails that relate to unions from company work servers. They can of course continue to browbeat their own employees with anti-union propaganda, like they have at every single job I've ever held.

Sigh.

Source: Raw Story

That's it for now. I need some sleep.