All Hail Hillary Finally, a presidential candidate who, if elected, will end the war. How much you want to bet that before long, most all candidates, yes, even the R’s, will be running to get on the end the war bandwagon?

Bad Spuds Not even Idaho can escape corporate crooks. John H. Whittier, majority shareholder and former head of Wood River Capital Management has been indicted on charges of engaging in securities fraud that cost investors a cool $88 million, and that ain’t potatoes.

$180 Million A Day By contrast, Exxon and Shell managed to earn a paltry $180 million per day last year. Don’t begrudge them that though, because in a decade or so, these and their sister petrochemical companies will disappear in a cloud of exhaust as gas guzzling countries rush to embrace alternative fuels, and we won’t have to worry about war in the Middle East.

$86,666.66 Per Second No, not more excessive oil looting but the cost of a Super Bowl ad on CBS. Kevin Federline hasn’t been in such high paid company since getting the big Britney boot.

Score Card – Progress Iraq Casey told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he’d done a good job in Iraq. I hope I’m around when they interview the guy who did a bad job. Washington is gearing up for another week of indecision and in-fighting as senators and congressmen try to figure out what’s going on amid the swirl of American and Iraqi misinformation. One thing is clear: those who want the money machine of war to keep on churning will vote to continue the war. One thing is not clear: where are the responsible senators and congressmen who have the guts to end the war now, not in 12 to 18 months, not in six months, NOW! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME. CONTINUING THIS WAR IS THE ONLY DISASTER.

More Gaps at Gap Another CEO has been ousted as The Gap tries to figure out what business to be in. Selling good quality at a fair price with good service usually works. Of course, they first have to decide to whom they want to sell and then buy several hundred millions of dollars in TV ads to let us know if it’s us.

Boston Bombs As everyone in the world now knows, an advertising stunt for Turner Broadcasting, a Time Warner unit, blew up in everyone’s face this past week as panicky Bostonians were sure they had become targets of a terrorist plot. As it turns out, it was nothing more than a couple of creative types having a bad hair day. Red-faced and apologetic, Turner will pick up the $500,000 plus or minus tab that it cost Boston police to defuse the problem. Cheap, considering the millions in free advertising Turner got, and the admiration it no doubt gained from the millions of 18 to 24 year-olds who are the stunt's target market.

HP VII No not another sordid Hewlett-Packard story, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final J.K. Rowling offering in the (fill in adjectives) best selling series due out in July.

The SEC and Pequot This stinks more each time a new page is turned, and it’s beginning to sound like a few very powerful people need to go to jail. Stay tuned to a news source that isn’t beholding to big business for future developments.

Capitalism and Minimum Wages Isn’t it odd that a minimum wage has to be dictated by government? It seems to me that a company that can’t make enough to pay its employees a decent wage ought not to be in business. $7.50, the new minimum wage standard with which our government can’t seem to come to grips, is a $15,000 a year, OK for teenager pocket money, but try raising a family on that paltry sum.

That’s all for this week, my friends. Do what you can to stop the war.!

Score Card – Progress Iraq: -0 Remember the Iraq Study Group Report presented to the world December 6th? Since then, while W fiddles and Baghdad burns, countless Iraqis and Americans have been killed; American oil companies earned another $1.8 billion; 210,000 Iraqis who can afford the price have emigrated.

Iraq 101 – Some Questions When W “wins,” what will the terrorists do? Will they lay down their arms and say, “Good job, well done America, you win.” Will they stop killing each other because they know America “won” fair and square? When W “wins,” where will the terrorists go? Will they remain in Iraq and return to their jobs as janitors and teachers and lawyers? Are Bush and Cheney unwitting or even willing pawns of Saudi Arabia? Did the Saudis convince Bush that Saddam was a threat to Saudi oil? Did Bush go too far by removing the Sunnis from power? Is that why the Saudis, also Sunni Muslims, read the riot act to Cheney last week? Is that why the Saudis told America that they would back the Sunnis if America pulled out? Do McCain and Lieberman and other neocon war hawks seriously believe that Americans are going to support more troops for this war that started as a huge lie and continues as a lie so huge that if Bush were Pinocchio his nose would reach from Washington to Baghdad?

Yanqi, Si; With the cost of the Iraq war at $350 billion and increasing about $100,000 a minute, it seems odd that Homeland Security Department, citing lack of funds, is abandoning its face and fingerprint program for making sure visitors leave the US when they’re supposed to. Isn’t ‘people overstaying their welcome’ how this madness got started?

Meanwhile, Back at OPEC, it’s nice to know our ‘friends’ in the Middle East are reducing production to keep the price of oil from falling. I mean, haven’t they got enough of our money already?

And in case you were worried about the investment banks, Goldman Sachs racked up $35 billion in profits, which means a few $50 million bonuses for the rainmakers. Let’s see, with the Federal Minimum wage @ $5.15 per hour, it will take some poor working stiff 4,667 ½ years to make $50 million. If you make slightly more than the minimum wage, say a paltry quarter million per annum, you will have to work a mere 200 years.

Oh Crap! Peter Boyle, 1935-2006

Corporate/Government Crooks Update 1. Could the Interior Department’s Mineral Management Service be the next Enron-sized scandal? As of now, we have the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, which examines suspected criminal violations by federal employees, and the inspector general with the help of the FBI, looking into ineptitude, conflicts of interest and auditing oil and gas royalty payments. We’re talking billions baby, billions that we the people have to pay because the oil and gas companies, the ones making record profits off our backs, are screwing Uncle Sam, probably with Uncle Sam’s help.

That’s all for this week, my friends. Stay alert; don’t get uh, twisted!