Good article. Eerie...I think I've posted some of the same thoughts regarding America worded almost the same way. The 'junta', etc. We look so, so bad in the eyes of the world, and it's just because the U.N. wants control of the oil resources in Iraq. Sure the Bushes and Cheney are oil people, but that's part of the big deception...the world can understand GREED on the part of the U.S. leaders, but this oil isn't going to the U.S. It's going to the U.N. And then the Central Asian oil will be shipped to China so their industry can grow. It won't mean squat to the price of gasoline in America. This is a military action meant to strengthen the U.N., and the U.S. 'oil men' are just being offered up as the simplistic explanation.

And Le Carre is right about diversions. There is a 'shock of the week' to take our minds off our appointed president (in the world's leading 'democracy'), to take our minds off the ENORMOUS corporate scandals going unpunished, destruction of the wall separating church and state, etc. And...above all...September 11. A thousand smoking guns are on the ground, but no one will pursue them more than one news cycle. Hitler burned the Reichstag to unify the people behind him, and the same thing happened here. Only, the evidence is all around Sept. 11. It was too big an operation...too many loose ends.

And Carol C. is right about the parties playing off against each other in order to advance things. But now, I think they're starting to abandon that pretense. The national leaders actually think the game is over. They think they won't have to worry about re-elections anymore and they'll be the overlords of their little states, so why go through the motions anymore? I mean, when conservatives have Federalized schools, religion and local law in the past 2 years, what's left for the Democrats to do? They're not even TRYING to pretend there's a difference between their totalitarian agendas anymore.

Oh, and on the music...The Bad Livers. Austin-based group. Three guys...banjo, washtub base and mandolin the times I've seen them. Their CDs are...different. Folksy in a hallucinatory sort of way. Remind me of a group called the Horseflies, but not as polished as the Horseflies, in my opinion, but it's incredible music. Thrash banjo I think the liner notes call it...and lots of studio filtering and tweaking...a real different experience. The Bad Livers.