New music video from our friend joeyess and the menagerie, Twisted Sermons.

Inspired by Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-walmARt) who managed to get fifty colleagues to help her water down the estate tax by using the excuse of saving .02% of family farms and small businesses from the tax man, I have compiled a list of ideas for helping rich & powerful people survive the rigors of the inevitable class war that’s coming their way. Your suggestions welcome!

The media missed the real message of Obama’s Prague speech – and the message is a good one.

“Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something.” So said President Obama, addressing the North Korean test of a long range missile. Nice sentiments, but when the Obama Department of Justice avoids enforcing the laws against warrantless wiretapping and torture, that’s all they are — sentiments.

In my 2007 book Follow the Money, I asked the question: “What if the global war on terror had, at least in part, been the public face used to conceal millions—perhaps even billions—of dollars in corrupt appropriations being siphoned into top-secret contracts?”

When thinking about the “Duke” Cunningham affair and the subsequent dismissal of San Diego U.S.

Nudge, by Richard Thaler (today’s guest) and Cass Sunstein, is an exposition of the set of ideas its authors call “Libertarian Paternalism.” At first blush this might seem as oxymoronic a combination as “dry water,” and it is a major part of the project of the book to show why it is not.

Simon Johnson shows just how little the elite world reads its own writing. As chief economist of the IMF, he made some useful observations about global imbalances and how excessive complacency led to the present crisis, but in his current incarnation, he is busy engaging in revisionist economic history.

They’ve got blood on their hands today. Period.

South Korean courts protect their citizens against the outrageous conduct of investment bankers and other cheats. Too bad no one is standing up for our citizens.

We’ll turn to the oldest human story of all, the Epic of Gilgamesh, to understand what links the evangelical right to free market extremists. Until we understand them, we can’t beat them.