You knew it would come to this.

After the collapse of Enron, WorldCom, etc., Congress actually did a little work to tighten up reporting rules for American corporations, particularly in the area of assets and earnings.

These rules must have had some effect, because now the Junior Mob is attempting to offer corporations a way around them:  by using foreign regulatory standards.

Today, at Monticello, the home of the man who wrote our list of grievances against King George and justified our declaration of independence from the British Empire, the man who famously declared that "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants," the current tyrant King George the Imbecile presided over a new citizen swearing-in ceremony.

No spinning was heard from Mr. Jefferson's grave.  There was, however, a small disturbance of which Mr. J would have approved, I feel sure.

Yeah, I'm always a day late on these things, and god knows I'm no Granny Doc, but here goes.

From the front page to the lowliest diary comments, it is impossible not to encounter somebody's grave, disheartened disappointment at something the Democratic nominee did or didn't do in his quest to gain office.

You're shocked.  You're hurt.  You're going to take your $25 and go home.  You're going to give up on the big ticket and concentrate on state races.

Enjoy.  I don't have the option.  My state sucks.

bornadem is right:  We are getting on each others' nerves.  We're bickering and baiting and backbiting.  We're pointing fingers and calling names.

The Purity Trolls are Due on Maple Street.

And you know what?  It's my fault.

Hello, and welcome to today's edition of All Things Bobby Jindal.

The breakingest of breaking news is that the guv's legislative aide  Tommy Williams has resigned.

After diarying the rapid decline of Gov. Bobby Jindal's popularity over his refusal to veto a legislative pay raise and calling attention to the recall petition circulating against the Boy Governor, I'd have thought there was no more to say on the subject.

But the sun has risen on another bright, blessed, schadenfreudelicious day in Louisiana, the Times-Picayune has hit New Orleans porches, chock full of fresh dissing for John McCain's second-or-third-favorite running mate.

Gosh, it seems only three days ago I was talking about how Bobby Jindal's perfect PR aura was starting to slip as constituent ire grows over his failure to oppose the legislature's big pay raise.

Things aren't looking any better at week's end for the Wunderkind Governor and Future of the Republican Party.  Wednesday, state House Speaker Jim Tucker and four other legislators were looking at recall petitions over the pay hike.

Today, it's Bobby's turn.

Despite numerous court decisions, including rulings from the highest court in the land, both recent and not so, AFP (via Yahoo) reports that scheduled hearings for Guantanemo detainees will continue as scheduled.

Well, that didn't take long.  Just a few months after taking office and being lauded as conservatism's new star, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is taking hits from every side, including the right.

His vaunted ethics reforms, which actually made ethics violations harder to prove and don't apply to many of his own appointees, were the first specks of tarnish on the Golden Boy.

Now, conservatives are up in arms over his caving to the legislature on their pay raises.

Listening to a discussion of the Shaheen-Sununu rematch on NPR just now, I was struck by how Sununu's leading talking point was "I was first to oppose President Bush on lots of issues."

And Johnny S. isn't alone.  From the presumptive nominee on down, GOP candidates are stumbling over themselves and each other to get to the "We Support the President" hall.  Just google the phrase GOP candidates distance from bush and read the 268,000 results, if you have a couple of months on your hands.

But you know something?  I think they're screwing up.

GF and I were on the road Friday, far from any wireless server, and from a glance at the "Jesus, You Guys, I Can't Believe This Crap" diaries, I can't say I'm sorry.

Instead of following the antics here, we were motoring in western Virginia and, as is often our wont, we turned off the main track and headed down a randomly-chosen road.  As is often the case, we were rewarded beyond our wildest dreams.

Come on down.

Even though I'm just an hour out of DC today, I didn't make it to St. Albans for Tim Russert's wake as I'd planned.  Instead, GF and I spent the day cooking, cleaning and shopping for my mom.  I think Russert would have approved.

Still, the man was much on my mind today.  As well as another legend of journalism.

We’re in North Carolina right now, visiting with our friend T, likely for the last time.  After a long, adventurous life, T is slowly shutting down.  Her lungs are losing capacity.  Her beloved cigs traded for an oxygen bottle and her fast car for a (still alarmingly fast) powered chair, she is still a force to be reckoned with.

Last night, out to dinner with her daughter B, GF and B caught up on news of friends one or the other had lost touch with.  T and I sit on the other side of the table and talk politics.

I'm on the road right now, so diaries will be short and comments few.  Nonetheless, I wanted to relate a conversation I had with a friend last night.

He's a brilliant man, one of the most widely-read people I've known, on subjects as diverse as the development of language to the history of the blues.  He's also infuriating.

After 2000 and 2004, he tells me, it has become obvious that the will of the people will never be allowed to become realized in America, that the corporate interests are simply running a two-party puppet show to give the masses a sense of empowerment, and that voting is akin to recycling, in that it makes the individual feel better but doesn't make much difference to the vast piles of waste.

Remember Moving Water Industries, Jeb Bush’s old partner that got the exclusive contract to sell pumps for the flood control at the 17th St. Canal in New Orleans?

Come on, you remember.  The defective pumps that were installed without testing?  The pumps that were bought on a bid tailored exclusively for Moving Water, shutting out all other competitors, according to the Corps of Engineers own people?  Those pumps?  That deal?

Watching Kieth just now, I heard him mention Antonin "Nino" Scalia's dissenting opinion from today's ruling in regards habeas corpus rights for detainees.  

The lowlight of Justice Scalia's opinion was the paragraph:

"The game of bait-and-switch that today’s opinion plays upon the Nation’s Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed."

Today at the grocery checkout, the register jockey and bagger were talking about checks.  Okay, it was the checkout.  But the checks they were talking about were the actual checks one used to write at the grocery checkout.

Not a decade ago, before ubiquitous debit cards, it was not unheard of to write out a document promising your ability to pay all debts public and private, sign it with your chop, and not only have it accepted as legal tender, but, at the end of the month, the very same piece of paper would be returned to you by U.S. Mail, to be filed in anticipation of an IRS audit.

Today, just an eyeblink removed, almost no banks will return your canceled checks, merely a summary of your transactions.  Should you wish even an electronic reproduction of the actual document you created to buy groceries, your bank will charge you a fee.

I've been watching Rep. Kucinich read his Articles of Impeachment of President George W. Bush on C-Span and checking into the live blog threads here.

And I'm pretty disgusted.