"Few ever discuss the role of diluted shareholder responsibility through mutual fund ownership. 401(k)s and the like are a beautiful stealth model; they bring us ordinary citizens into the stock market, but deflect our own ability to be participating shareholders, voting our meager shares with or against directors and executives and mergers and, to your point, international outsourcing practices. So via our own jobs' benefits programs we buy into mutual funds that trade in shares of the very companies we work for and whose products and services we buy. But when those companies choose to eliminate our jobs or move them overseas, and the stock market responds favorably, we see our portfolios increase, an oasis of comfort in a sea of imminent unemployment. Two insane examples of this are state of California bus drivers who bought into CALPERS investments, which included stakes in the company the state outsourced bus contracts to when the state eliminated its own positions; and schoolteachers in Florida, who now own through the state pension program the majority shareholder of Edison Schools (a for-profit operator of public schools). It will be interesting to see how Edison does in Florida?.That this is important is evidenced by the attention paid to the recent market timing scandals, and the fights for greater investor access to fund manager voting records. Still, though, ask your neighborly mutual fund shareholder if they understand those issues, let alone the outsourcing issue. I'm afraid that no amount of campaign rhetoric could make up for the degree to which unwitting employees/citizens are indirectly allowing themselves to be screwed. Not that that's not true on many other dimensions in our society, and elsewhere, and in the past."

I was totally unprepared for what hit me immediately after the conclusion of this opening session. Two of America’s leading academics rushed the stage — one a renowned economics professor and the other the president of a top university — and loudly proclaimed that the traditional macro of saving shortages and current-account deficits is a scam. America was not in any danger whatsoever, they argued vociferously. The imbalances that I worried about are simply the logical and entirely rational manifestations of a New Economy.

Spending has increased twice as fast under President Bush as it did under President Clinton. From 2001 to 2003 total spending grew by 16 percent. Certainly the terror attacks of 9/11 placed additional demands on spending for homeland security, a strong defense, and rebuilding New York. However, this accounts for less than half of the new spending that has occurred since 9/11.

The Russia-based researcher, Naum Volziger, who specializes in flooding and tidal waves, told a Moscow Times reporter, "It would take the Jews – there were 600,000 of them – four hours to cross the seven-kilometer reef that runs from one coast to another. Then, in half an hour, the waters would come back."

Karl Rove: We'll have him say that the Kay Report showed that we were right in claiming that Saddam Hussein possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

Karen Hughes: Ummm... No.

Karl Rove: No?

Karen Hughes: No. We'd make him look like an idiot.

Karl Rove: How about if we have him say, "the Kay Report has identified Iraq's program to build Iraq's weapons of mass destruction"?

Richard Cheney: I'm afraid not.

Karl Rove: No?

Richard Cheney: He'll look like an idiot. The Kay Report did not identify weapons of mass destruction programs.

Karl Rove: Say it anyway. No one will challenge it. It will get by.

Dan Bartlett: In a normal year it would, but...

Karl Rove: But?

Dan Bartlett: Remember last year's State of the Union? The Niger uranium disaster? Usually we can fool the press with no problem. But this time they're lying in wait for us. We dare not have him say anything in the SOTU address that is false.

Karl Rove: Nothing?

Dan Bartlett: Nothing.

Karl Rove: So we can't have him say "weapons of mass destruction"?

Karen Hughes: Nope.

Karl Rove: And we can't have him say "weapons of mass destruction programs"?

Richard Cheney: Nope.

Karl Rove: How about if we have him say "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities"?

Richard Cheney: Works for me.

Rex Reed: "Sam! I just saw your picture! What a surprise! All that dreck--and right in the middle of it, a great Method performance by Michael Moriarity!"

Arkoff: "The dreck was my idea."

MILLER (page 1): There will be those who ask, “What is this about, The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat?” I can hear the liberal Washington crowd right now. Gold Medalists in the Sneering Olympics, hissing, “In the first place, Miller’s no Democrat.”

MILLER (continuing directly): On the other hand, there are some die-hard Republicans back in Georgia who will break out their choicest cuss words and swear, “He’s no conservative.” And you can bet that some old drinking buddies from many years ago will slap their knees and hoot, “What conscience?”