The lesson of the Depression was that if ordinary workers lacked jobs and adequate incomes, the economy would crash because too few people could afford to buy what businesses hoped to sell. This was demand-side economics and it laid heavy stress on spreading incomes and job opportunities broadly.

The supply-siders insisted that supply created its own demand. In plain English, this meant we should think less about labor and more about capital -- specifically, investors who created the means to produce the goods. If the New Dealers glorified the role of the worker, the supply-siders glorified the entrepreneur.

Just as Ford, GM and the UAW once drove up wages for workers who were nowhere near auto factories, so Wal-Mart drives down wages for workers who never set foot there. Controlling as it does so much of the low-end retail market, Wal-Mart has, with great success, pressured suppliers to cut their labor costs. No other American company has done as much to destroy what's left of the U.S. clothing and textile industry or been so loyal a friend to the dankest sweatshops of the developing world. And unless American unions can find the political leverage to block Wal-Mart's expansion into non-southern metropolitan areas, the company poses a huge threat to the million or so unionized clerks who work at the nation's major supermarket chains.

What's required? It's obvious we need more troops in Iraq. Since the administration played down the cost of the occupation before hostilities started, that may be hard to sell to the American people now. As we don't want to bear the whole burden of this enterprise ourselves, we desperately need much more help from allies. We'll soon learn how much crow the administration is willing to eat to make that happen.

And we need to spend a lot more money to put Iraqis to work, to fix Iraq's oil facilities and to repair its electric power system. Will the administration and its neoconservative allies ever admit that their big government policies abroad are inconsistent with their tax cuts for the rich at home?

Now that we have invaded Iraq, we cannot afford to let the place go to pieces. The administration can hold fast to its arrogance. Or it can acknowledge its mistakes and chart a new course.

"I enjoy watching FOX NEWS and I think every country should have their own Al-Jazeera."
- Jon Stewart

In fact, William Shatner calls the "Star Trek" outlook "somewhat dire."

When asked if he felt the film series was finished, Shatner replied, "I would say so, yes -- at least for the present.

"I think that Patrick (Stewart) doesn't want to do it anymore," he said. "The other cast of 'Star Trek' . . . they have run their race and have made many films -- good ones, I think -- so there's another phase, but we don't know what it is."

But all is not lost for devoted followers of the Federation.

The series still has its hardcore fan base, especially those at conventions. Trekkers are notoriously loyal to the series and to most anyone associated with the series, Shatner said.

"I find that the conventions are like a built-in audience and I treat them like stand-up comedy and work on new material," he said. "It's great fun and you can't fail because they love you."

And while he wouldn't discuss specifics, Shatner said he has an idea for a new "Star Trek" series.

"In fact, I'm trying to interest the powers -- and that has many levels to it -- for me to conceive another 'Star Trek' manifestation," he said. "It would be a concept for a series."

"If your workplace is safe; if your children go to school rather than being forced into labor; if you are paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a 40-hour week and you are allowed to join a union to protect your rights -- you can thank liberals. If your food is not poisoned and your water is drinkable -- you can thank liberals. If your parents are eligible for Medicare and Social Security, so they can grow old in dignity without bankrupting your family -- you can thank liberals. If our rivers are getting cleaner and our air isn't black with pollution; if our wilderness is protected and our countryside is still green -- you can thank liberals. If people of all races can share the same public facilities; if everyone has the right to vote; if couples fall in love and marry regardless of race; if we have finally begun to transcend a segregated society -- you can thank liberals. Progressive innovations like those and so many others were achieved by long, difficult struggles against entrenched power. What defined conservatism, and conservatives, was their opposition to every one of those advances. The country we know and love today was built by those victories for liberalism -- with the support of the American people. "

" One of the leading Democratic candidates for President is making a foray into the heart of Gephardt Country.

Local supporters of the Howard Dean campaign will be at the Bevo Mill tonight for a phone-conference fundraiser with the former Vermont Governor on the line.

Is this a big deal?

'He's coming into Gephardt's turf, not physically, but by phone,' says St. Louis University Political Science Professor Ken Warren. 'That's somewhat embarassing for Gephardt.'

Warren says Gephardt is not doing as well as expected by now, and the political fact of life is he's lagging at number three in the Democratic pack behind Dean and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.
'Dean doesn't have any chance of winning Missouri,' Warren says. 'But still, he will be able to raise some money here.'"

As people do better, they start voting like Republicans -- unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing.
-- Karl Rove, W.'s chief political strategist

Spc. Kristopher Haney, who serves with West in Germany, told The Seattle Times the family was informed that Longstreth died of a gunshot wound to the head. Investigators believe it was an accident and that no other soldiers were involved, Haney added.

PROTOCOL ON PROHIBITIONS OR RESTRICTIONS ON THE USE OF INCENDIARY WEAPONS (PROTOCOL III)

Article 1

Definitions

For the purpose of this Protocol:

1. "Incendiary weapon" means any weapon or munition which is primarily
designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons
through the action of flame, heat, or a combination thereof, produced by
a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target.

(a) Incendiary weapons can take the form of, for example, flame
throwers, fougasses, shells, rockets, grenades, mines, bombs and other
containers of incendiary substances.

(b) Incendiary weapons do not include:

(i) Munitions which may have incidental incendiary effects, such
as illuminants, tracers, smoke or signalling systems;

(ii) Munitions designed to combine penetration, blast or
fragmentation effects with an additional incendiary effect,
such as armour-piercing projectiles, fragmentation shells,
explosive bombs and similar combined-effects munitions in
which the incendiary effect is not specifically designed to
cause burn injury to persons, but to be used against military
objectives, such as armoured vehicles, aircraft and
installations or facilities.

2. "Concentration of civilians" means any concentration of civilians, be
it permanent or temporary, such as in inhabited parts of cities, or
inhabited towns or villages, or as in camps or columns of refugees or
evacuees, or groups of nomads.

3. "Military objective" means, so far as objects are concerned, any
object which by its nature, location, purpose or use makes an effective
contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction
capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time,
offers a definite military advantage.

4. "Civilian objects" are all objects which are not military objectives
as defined in paragraph 3.

5. "Feasible precautions" are those precautions which are practicable or
practically possible taking into account all circumstances ruling at the
time, including humanitarian and military considerations.

Article 2

Protection of civilians and civilian objects

1.It is prohibited in all circumstances to make the civilian population
as such, individual civilians or civilian objects the object of attack by
incendiary weapons.

2. It is prohibited in all circumstances to make any military objective
located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by
air-delivered incendiary weapons.

3. It is further prohibited to make any military objective located within
a concentration of civilians the object of attack by means of incendiary
weapons other than air-delivered incendiary weapons, except when such
military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of
civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting
the incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in
any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to
civilians and damage to civilian objects.

4. It is prohibited to make forests or other kinds of plant cover the
object of attack by incendiary weapons except when such natural elements
are used to cover, conceal or camouflage combatants or other military
objectives, or are themselves military objectives.

American pilots dropped the controversial incendiary agent napalm on Iraqi troops during the advance on Baghdad. The attacks caused massive fireballs that obliterated several Iraqi positions.

The Pentagon denied using napalm at the time, but Marine pilots and their commanders have confirmed that they used an upgraded version of the weapon against dug-in positions. They said napalm, which has a distinctive smell, was used because of its psychological effect on an enemy.

A 1980 UN convention banned the use against civilian targets of napalm, a terrifying mixture of jet fuel and polystyrene that sticks to skin as it burns. The US, which did not sign the treaty, is one of the few countries that makes use of the weapon. It was employed notoriously against both civilian and military targets in the Vietnam war.

The upgraded weapon, which uses kerosene rather than petrol, was used in March and April, when dozens of napalm bombs were dropped near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris river, south of Baghdad.

"We napalmed both those [bridge] approaches," said Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11. "Unfortunately there were people there ... you could see them in the [cockpit] video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It's no great way to die. The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect."

A former Intel software engineer admitted Wednesday that he and five other men were prepared to take up arms and die as martyrs if necessary to defend the former Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Maher "Mike" Hawash's surprise plea deal with federal prosecutors requires him to testify against his alleged co-conspirators in exchange for a seven- to 10-year prison sentence. Experts say Hawash's cooperation strengthens the government's case against the remaining six defendants.

Noticeably absent from Wednesday's hearing were the throngs of friends and supporters who publicly protested on Hawash's behalf at previous hearings.

Hawash pleaded guilty to one count: conspiring to contribute services to the Taliban. The charge relates to his participation in an October 2001 trip in which he and five other men flew from Portland to China in an unsuccessful attempt to reach the Afghan battlefield. A seventh defendant never left the country.

If the 21st century is to be well started, we need a national agenda that is worked out in concert with the people, a healing agenda that is built on a true national consensus. Millions of Americans got the impression that George W. Bush wanted to be a "healer, not a divider", a president devoted first and foremost to "honor and integrity." Yet far from uniting the people, the president's ideologically narrow agenda has seriously divided America. His most partisan supporters have launched a kind of 'civil cold war' against those with whom they disagree.

And as for honor and integrity, let me say this: we know what that was all about, but hear me well, not as a candidate for any office, but as an American citizen who loves my country:

For eight years, the Clinton-Gore Administration gave this nation honest budget numbers; an economic plan with integrity that rescued the nation from debt and stagnation; honest advocacy for the environment; real compassion for the poor; a strengthening of our military -- as recently proven -- and a foreign policy whose purposes were elevated, candidly presented and courageously pursued, in the face of scorched-earth tactics by the opposition. That is also a form of honor and integrity, and not every administration in recent memory has displayed it.

So I would say to those who have found the issue of honor and integrity so useful as a political tool, that the people are also looking for these virtues in the execution of public policy on their behalf, and will judge whether they are present or absent.

"We need to recognize a government that would deny a gay man a bridal registry is a fascist one."
- Margaret Cho

Despite all the new laws, rules, lawsuits and headlines over the last year, earnings reports continue to overstate corporate income.

Despite all the new laws, rules, lawsuits and headlines over the last year, earnings reports continue to overstate corporate income.

Kellogg Canada next week will launch the All-Bran Two-Week Challenge, a national marketing effort featuring actor William Shatner.

The campaign is intended to encourage Canadians to take charge of their health by increasing their daily fiber intake with just a half cup per day of All-Bran Original.