WHATEVER THE BUSHES AND CHENEYS AND OTHERS WE PUT OVER OURSELVES DO, WE ALLOW

We, that is, with the help of the utterly unfree corporate mass media, handmaiden of the ownership class. I watch a lot of the BBC every day, and a little of a CNN joint venture with an India broadcaster. Every time they mention Guantanamo-- and it's in the news quite a bit lately because of the torture cover-up-- they never forget to mention that the Bush Regime is trying to close it down. Who knew? And I always thought the reason it wasn't closed down is because the congressional Democrats are such pitiful and craven cowards, unwilling to ever act courageously and take on the tyranny. But what do I know?

Well, glad you asked. I found out that the worst national leaders in terms of corruption are all from Third World countries-- Suharto of Indonesia (left, $35 billion stolen), Marcos of the Philippines ($10 billion stolen), and a couple of pikers from The Congo and Nigeria at a mere $5 billion apiece. I wasn't certain that anyone was keeping track and counting but the BBC ran a big story on it this week. Corruption is devastating Africa. There were loads of stories on it. And one of them talked about corruption outside of Africa-- in Asia.

There were pictures-- lurid and exciting-- of a minor official in Kenya accepting $140 in cash to give someone a license to apply for an AIDS fighting grant. But there was not a whisper nor a hint about any no-bid contracts, about Halliburton, Enron, the Carlyle Group, about an electoral system so corrupted by big money donations that only by the most... generous of definitions could someone call the U.S. a democracy. Where would the Bush Family be on that list? More than the Nigerian? Less than Suharto? Will we ever know?

Only if we want to badly enough to tell our representatives to find out. We should start by telling Nancy Pelosi we want to know what Bush and Cheney have stolen-- or why she and her congressional Democrats are covering up for them.