A bit quieter this week: Libby indictment, and the wider picture, won’t be news for at least another couple of weeks … Bush in Argentina facing protests, to nobody’s surprise … and the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ito - I mean Scalito … umm, Alioto, Hirohito, Kato, whatever … anyway, they aren’t until January …

Actually, the most interesting thing all week (much to my surprise?), is on right now — “The West Wing” … attempting to do a “live debate” … with even an “NBC News Live” logo on the corner of the screen, and a recognizable news guy as moderator … between … Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits … portraying the GOP conservative (Alda as Carol O’Connor?) and the Kerry-like liberal DEM … running for President of the fictitious world of “West Wing” … I fully expect to see bumperstickers tomorrow touting either Santos (Smits) or Vinick (Alda) …

Some days it truly does feel as though I have falled through the looking-glass …

Anyway, back to this week’s issue of PND:

The story I decided to lead with [and not just because the protagonists are (as I now discover) alumni of the same school I went to]: Apparently, the founder of eBay and his wife have made a major donation to Tufts University … targeted for the purpose of offering small start up loans to people in developing countries, to help them get off the ground and become self-supporting. Whether or not it can work, and can end up freeing a lot of folks from their oppressor despots in the process … it sure is a nice thing to consider!

And in other news: Water rights in the Western U.S., Bush in South America, a large charitable donation targeted at Third World economic aid … and the latest poll results showing most Americans don’t trust Bush as far as they could throw him (once again, dog bites man level of “news”).

On commentaries there’s a little more to chew on: I’ve got two submissions, one on healthcare at the mercy of “moralism” and one that congratulates an In These Times columnist for getting it … almost correct. Then there is Jeff Riggenbach with a eulogy and appreciation of that dearly departed (and extremely underrated) icon of feminism, Joan Kennedy Taylor. There is also the usual range of thought, from the likes of Ellen Goodman, Charlie Pierce (spit-take warning: do not consume beverages while reading this one!), Robert Kuttner, Radley Balko, Patrick Basham, Justin Raimondo, Michael Kinsley (!), Dennis Kucinich, Pat Schroeder & Bob Barr, Daniel Schorr, Henry Hazlitt, Sidney
Blumenthal, Jonathan David Morris, Thomas L. Knapp … In short, it’s a veritable “borgaschmord” of considerations of liberty. Enjoy, and see you next week!

As always, the PND website has all this and much more, including constant updates throughout the week, at: