Supreme Court Inc.

An interesting article on the pro-business slant of the current Supreme Court: Supreme Court Inc.

Oil Price increases caused by DoE?

Interesting presentation to the US Senate Homeland Security Committee claiming that oil price rises starting in August 2007 were caused by -- the US Department of Energy (!) Seems they are re-filling the strategic reserves: http://hsgac.senate.gov/_files/STMTVERLEGERPhilip0.pdf

Keeping Iraq in the Dark

There was a good New York Times article on the ongoing effort to get power restored in Iraq. It seems the situation is even more bizarre than your might think. Check out: Keeping Iraq in the Dark by Glenn Zorpette. There was a longer and more technical article by the same author in IEEE Spectrum: Re-engineering Iraq

Iraq contractor indicted in cash smuggling case

A small local story that didn't get much attention. One wonders how much US currency is floating around Iraq and what is happening to it. This guy seems like a small operator. You have to wonder what the big boys are doing: Iraq contractor indicted in cash smuggling case

Land of the Free

While the numbers has been disturbing for at least two decades, the US prison population reached a new landmark recently: 1% of the adult population. And it's still growing. It has become a strange sort of business in some communities where prisons are big employers. One local in a small Texas town was quoted as saying "We lock up half the people and pay the other half to watch them": U.S. Imprisons One in 100 Adults, Report Finds

The Conscience of a Liberal

I've been enjoying Paul Krugman's The Conscience of a Liberal blog. Since Krugman is an academic, it tends to be more factual data than opinion, which is fine by me.

Web Site That Posts Leaked Material Ordered Shut

A test of the First Ammendment in the Internet Age: Web Site That Posts Leaked Material Ordered Shut