I want to plug a book coming out soon written by Arianna Huffington titled "Right Is Wrong". In her own words this is what it is about:

"One of the main themes of my new book, Right Is Wrong, is the role the media have played in allowing the lunatic fringe now in control of the Republican Party -- the people who believe in torture but don't believe in evolution -- to hijack our democracy. I document how the real problem comes not from Fox News or the likes of Limbaugh and O'Reilly, but from a mainstream media that has so internalized the Right's framing and messages they have now become a part of its DNA........."

"Next came a double-whammy in Sunday's New York Times. First up was David Barstow's epic revelation of the unseemly complicity between the Pentagon and the mainstream media in delivering the Bush administration's talking points on Iraq via "a kind of Trojan media horse" -- Pentagon-approved, prepped, and financially- enriched "military analysts" dutifully parroting the Bush party line, with nary a raised eyebrow from the TV stations and newspapers offering these highly-decorated sock puppets their prestigious platforms.

It was -- and, indeed, continues to be -- a propagandists' field day. And while the moral bankruptcy of the "military analysts" -- many of whom now admit to promoting "facts" they knew to be untrue -- is astounding, it is more than matched by the bankrupt behavior of the media mavens who enabled the Pentagon disinformation campaign. Barstow paints a picture of TV and newspaper execs turning a blind eye to the conflicts of interest their analysts were drowning in. And now they are going mute: many of the news organizations Barstow contacted for his story -- including CBS, Fox, and NBC -- refused to comment, while others offered up half-hearted mea culpas. "We did not ask ... the follow up questions we should have," said CNN."

A lot of us saw this going on but felt powerless. I am going to read her book with great interest.

Now to the "Fair Tax" proposal.....a wonderful idea or a boon to the rich???? Well, I think they are cooking the books to produce their economic proof. Even the Bush administration, no lovers of taxes they, said through two of its economic agencies that the 23% sales tax proposed would not produce the revenue necessary to keep our country and/or government rolling. This tax was proposed by Neal Boortz, a conservative Atlanta talk radio maven and attorney and John Linder, a Republican Congressman from Georgia.

Let's hear what Allen Buckley, the Libertarian Party's candidate for the U.S. Senate from Georgia has to say: "John Linder said that the Fair Tax includes a 23 percent 'revenue neutral' rate. that assertion is a lie. After two government studies showed the revenue neutral rate to be roughly double the 23 percent tax-inclusive rate (29.9 percent in common terms - a $1 sale would produce a tax of 30 cents), Fair Tax advocates paid a group of professors from Boston University to prove that their rate works. Those professors produced a study showing that 23.82 percent (31.27 percent in common terms) works.

The professors' study had the following assumptions that, when corrected, make the revenue-neutral rate in the ballpark of the government studies: 1) no Fair Tax evasion; 2) the federal government pays itself a Fair Tax; 3) virtually all consumption being taxed, even though business purchases are exempt from the Fair Tax; and 4) purchases by state and local governments taxed, even though such taxation more likely than not would be unconstitutional. The current system is a complex mess that needs to be fixed but installing a 60 percent sales tax would not be a good idea."

Mr Buckley's letter to the paper looks like it was botched by the Letters Editor but the point remains. The FT proponents are playing around with numbers to make their point look good. They are literally guessing in their frantic efforts to reduce overall taxes for the richer folk. To try to switch to a system like that without figures which can be provably accepted by a super majority is madness and would throw us into chaos. I do not have one shred of amicability toward the IRS but this FT as proposed by its adherents does not pass muster.

Stay Tuned....