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FindLaw: Syria signs deal with US oil company despite sanctions

(AP) - DAMASCUS, Syria-Syria signed a US$127 million deal with an American oil company Monday despite U.S. sanctions on the country, the official Syrian news agency reported Tuesday.

The state-owned Syrian Oil Company signed a 25-year contract with the U.S. Marathon Oil Company Monday for oil and gas exploration in central Syria, the agency said. The agreement is renewable every 5 years.

In May 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush banned all U.S. exports to Syria except for food and medicine, in accordance with the Syria Accountability Act - a law passed a year earlier that calls for sanctions against Syria for its alleged support of terrorism. The ban does not cover oil companies, however, and there are several U.S. oil companies operating in Syria.

Text Message, MySpace Roots of Student Protests by Sasha Khokha

Day to Day, March 29, 2006   Thousands of students walked out of classrooms across the nation on Tuesday to protest proposed changes to immigration law seen by many as a crackdown on illegal immigrants. In California's Central Valley, protests are coordinated among remote agricultural towns by text messaging and MySpace chat rooms. Sasha Khokha of member station KQED examines the grass-roots protest organization and what the students are protesting against.

NYT Editorial: Decoding Mr. Bush' s Denials

It's obvious that the Bush administration misled Americans about pre-war intelligence on Iraq. We need to know how that happened and why.

His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

John 8:1-11

1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.
2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
4 they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Many of the Bush supporters I spoke to were educated, well-informed people. They watched the news and took pleasure in debating politics. And yet they clung to views about important matters of fact that were demonstrably wrong. Steven Kull, the public opinion expert at the University of Maryland who authored the study from which these numbers are drawn, acknowledges that although one reason they "cling so tightly to beliefs that have been so visibly refuted...is that they continue to hear the Bush administration confirming these beliefs," the prevalence, and persistence, of these misperceptions is "probably not due to a simple failure to pay attention to the news." Rather, Kull writes, "Bush supporters cling to these beliefs because they are necessary for their support for the decision to go to war with Iraq": "Asked whether the US should have gone to war with Iraq if US intelligence had concluded that Iraq was not making WMD or providing support to al Qaeda, 58 percent of Bush supporters said the US should not have, and 61 percent assume that in this case the president would not have. To support the president and to accept that he took the US to war based on mistaken assumptions is difficult to bear, especially in light of the continuing costs in terms of lives and money. Apparently, to avoid this cognitive dissonance, Bush supporters suppress awareness of unsettling information."

Dear Friends,

I never forward mass emails, but this one comes directly from me. It's important. And I need your help. Please send an email to ABC and 20/20 by clicking the link at the bottom and forward this along to anyone who can help.

As most of you know, a few years ago my writing partner, John Wierick, and I wrote the screenplay for the movie "The Matthew Shepard Story". The film documented the life and tragic death of Matthew Shepard, who was tied to a fence and beaten to death in one of the most savage anti-gay hate crimes in recent history. It also told the story of Matthew's parents, Judy and Dennis, and their astounding act of mercy: a decision to put aside their emotions, and convince Prosecutor Cal Rerucha to forego the death penalty for Aaron McKinney, one of the two men responsible for their son's brutal murder.

In exchange, the Shepards were given one small consolation, proposed by the defense attorneys in the case. In exchange for his life, McKinney would agree to a plea bargain similar to that of the other killer, Russell Henderson. The deal would keep McKinney in jail for the rest of his life, with no possibility of parole or appeal. More importantly, like Henderson had already done, McKinney would agree to a permanent gag order, which would prevent him from talking to the press. For the Shepards, it meant the closest thing to an end to the most horrific event of their lives. They would never have to hear from their son's killers again, or worry about them doing the same thing to someone else.

Unfortunately, recently, McKinney and Henderson have mounted a new effort to overturn the terms of their plea bargains-- terms that were proposed by their own lawyers and accepted by the Shepards at a time when it seemed there was no question that McKinney was heading for a death sentence. And disturbingly, it seems that ABC's 20/20 is planning to help them achieve their goal.

On November 26, the Friday after Thanksgiving, 20/20 will air a segment featuring an interview with Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson-- in direct violation of their agreement with the Shepards and the terms of their plea bargain. For the Shepards, it means Thanksgiving will be spent once again reliving their son's murder. For the killers, it means political capital in their quest to reverse the terms of their plea bargain

In their interview, McKinney and Henderson attempt to rewrite history. They claim that the murder was not a hate crime but a robbery linked to crystal meth addiction. In doing so, they attempt to recast themselves as victims. Desperate addicts who lost control of a terrible situation. Don't believe it.

Here are the facts. Matthew's murder was a hate crime. In his original defense, McKinney and his lawyers even argued as much, claiming that when he saw Matthew, McKinney experienced a state of "gay panic" during which he could not be held accountable for his actions. Now, suddenly they ask us to believe that homophobia had no role in the murder at all.

As if this weren't enough-- after beating Matthew at least 20 times with a pistol, shattering his skull in 6 places, and leaving him tied to a fence (where he hung, still alive, for 18 hours in the freezing cold, before he was finally discovered and taken to the hospital where he died)-- the two went on two commit ANOTHER hate crime that same night, in which they beat an Hispanic youth so violently he ended up in the emergency room.

Despite their eagerness to violate a court order to help two convicted murderers rewrite history, 20/20 has shown little interest in the other side of the story. While Aaron McKinney was signing gloating autographs from prison, Judy Shepard was teaching tolerance in schools, fighting for hate crimes legislation in Congress, and talking honestly about her son's life with parents throughout the country. Yet 20/20 did not even interview her for the segment.

Aaron McKinney should be grateful to Judy and Dennis Shepard. Were it not for their compassion he would almost certainly be on death row today. But he and Russell Henderson have shown no more compassion to Judy and Dennis than they showed to their son. McKinney and Henderon's interview is an insult to Judy and Dennis' Shepards' act of mercy, and a dishonor to Matthew's memory. And if they proceed with their plans to air it, 20/20 will be equally culpable.

Fortunately, we can still stop them:

Please join me in sending e-mails to audience relations at ABC at netaudr@abc.com and to the producers of 20/20 at 2020@abc.com urging them not to air the McKinney interview. You can also call ABC at 818-460-7477 to let them know how you feel.
You can copy this message into your e-mail if you like:

"I stand with Judy and Dennis Shepard, urging you to recognize the agreement embraced by Aaron McKinney and his lawyers at the time of his sentencing, which, in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty, prohibited Mr. McKinney from talking to any news media organizations regarding the criminal case against him. Please do not air the McKinney/Henderson segment or any part of it, scheduled for November 26th, 2004. Sincerely, (Your name)."

Please forward this e-mail to as many people as you can. The more pressure brought to bear on this issue, the better.

Thank you,

Jacob Krueger
Writer - "The Matthew Shepard Story"

For more info about Matthew Shepard click this link:

http://www.matthewshepard.org/

...the real leverage on what's shown and what's not is from the advertisers. These appear to be:

Capital One
webinfo@capitalone.com
Customer Relations 1-800-955-7070

S.C. Johnson (Oust Air freshener)
http://www.scjbrands.com/contact/
1.800.494.4855

Colgate-Palmolive
Allison_Klimerman@colpal.com
1-800-468-6502

Pizza Hut
1-800-948-8488
http://www.pizzahut.com/contact/feedback_type.asp

Phillip Morris - pmusa.com
1-800-343-0975
http://pmusa.com/contact_us/contact_us_by_email.asp?action=init

Hanes
http://www.hanes.com/contactus.jsp
1-800-994-4348)

Outback Steakhouse
http://www.outbacksteakhouse.com/contactus/contactus.asp?Category=CATEGORY19
Stephanie Amberg at 813-282-1225

Oral B - a Gillette company
1-800-566-7252
http://gillette.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/gillette.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

Burlington Coat Factory
http://www.coat.com/contact/webform1.shtml

Pepperedge Farms - Campbells
http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/contact.asp

Nexium - Astra Zenica
purplepill.com
800-4-nexium

The idea that states are the real issue and terrorists and their organizations are of secondary concern has been present throughout the Bush presidency. Although the 9/11 commission wrote its report in a spare, non-judgmental tone to preserve bipartisan unity, its description of the long, aimless road the administration took to the first meeting of its national security Cabinet on the issue of al-Qaida on Sept. 4, 2001, speaks volumes. By contrast, the first "principals" meeting on the issue of regime change in Iraq took place in January 2001, shortly after Bush's inauguration.

After 9/11, senior officials such as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, simply refused to believe the assessment of the intelligence community that Iraq had no hand in the attack and that al-Qaida operated independently of state support. In the Pentagon's conduct of operations in Afghanistan, the overwhelming focus was on unseating the Taliban, the effective state power, while less attention was paid to pursuing al-Qaida, which had just killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil. Thus we had the debacle at Tora Bora, where our subcontractors, the militias of Afghan warlords, allowed Osama Bin Laden to escape.

Similarly, the relentless focus on Saddam Hussein has led to the removal from Afghanistan of key intelligence and special operations assets, including much of the elite commando unit Task Force 5. This, like the case of the pulled punch against Zarqawi, suggests that the Bush team continued to believe that states were the key threats in the post-9/11 world; terrorist groups could easily be swept up after the rogue nations had been dispatched. The much vaunted doctrine of pre-emption was employed against Iraq—a state that was effectively deterred from attacking the United States—while undeterrable terrorists were left to their own devices.

The great jurist Learned Hand once said that "Liberty is never being too sure you're right." Somehow, recently though, we have replaced our usual and healthy doubt with an arrogance and belligerence that resembles more the ancient and now fallen empires of our history books than a modern compassionate democracy, that is, the country I recognize and love.

We've begun to start wars instead of finishing them; begun to depend on censorship and intimidation, and to infringe on the most basic liberties that have heroically defined and described our trajectory as a nation of free people. We have begun to reduce the complexity of modern life into facile judgments of good and evil, and now, in the case of Abu Ghraib and other embarrassments and incompetence, find ourselves brought up short when we see that we have, too, sometimes, in moments, become what we despise.

We find ourselves in the midst of a new, subtler, perhaps more dangerous, civil war, where the real threat is fundamentalism wherever it raises its intolerant head. The casualties this time will be our sense of common heritage, our sense of humor, our sense of balance and cohesion.

We must all join a new Union Army, an army dedicated to the preservation of this country’s great ideals, a vanguard against this new separatism and disunion, a vanguard against those who, in the name of our great democracy, have managed to diminish it.

I want John Kerry at the head of that army. The old insult that he is a "Massachusetts liberal" doesn’t work. The United States is a liberal invention; the idea of sacrificing one's life for freedom, the idea of emancipation, these are liberal inventions born in John Kerry's state, our neighbor. Let us conserve them.

After three necessarily tumultuous and transformative years, this is a time for consolidation, for discipline and for repairing America's moral and practical authority. Furthermore, as Mr Bush has often said, there is a need in life for accountability. He has refused to impose it himself, and so voters should, in our view, impose it on him, given a viable alternative. John Kerry, for all the doubts about him, would be in a better position to carry on with America's great tasks.

Ashton Kutcher says he won't get punk'd again.

"I got punked," Kutcher said of his vote for President Bush in 2000 and a reference to his MTV show "Punk'd." "I thought he was like me, a good old boy ... I know how to admit when I'm wrong, and man, am I wrong."

...

Kutcher discussed most issues, including Bush not admitting to mistakes, the Iraqi war, health care and jobs. He used his Eastern Iowa roots to discuss middle class frustrations, including his grandmother who can't afford her house and high pharmaceutical costs, his uncle who was sent to Iraq, his sister who lost her job because of cuts to education and himself, a former UI student who once donated plasma to help pay for college.

[Clinton] also poked fun at an ad being run in Florida and other swing states by Bush supporters that shows wolves coming out of a forrest, comparing them to terrorists ready to pounce if they sense weakness in their prey.

A Kerry presidency, the ad suggests, would create such weakness. The ad is playing regularly in Florida.

"It's a little harder now that they gave the wolves all that ammunition," quipped Clinton, alluding to the 340 tons of ammo that apparently were spirited away in Iraq after the invasion.

Why I believe in our president by Thomas F. Schaller, Executive Editor 10.26.04

I believe in President George W. Bush. I've always believed him.

I believe the president invaded Iraq to secure liberty and democracy for the Iraqi people. I believe he had compelling evidence that Iraq was a significant threat to America and the world, and presented that evidence in a complete and balanced manner. Like 42 percent of Americans – and 62 percent of Republicans – I believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11 attacks.

I believe we have enough troops on the ground in Iraq to ensure stability. I believe the rising American fatality rates, the rising casualty rates, and the rising American share of those coalition fatalities and casualties testify to the undeniable progress we're making there. I believe it is inappropriate and traitorous, however, for the media to broadcast pictures of American flag-draped caskets returning from Iraq.

I believed then-candidate Bush when he said during the 2000 campaign that America should not nation-build, and believe him now when he says our nation was divinely chosen for this task. I believe, as the president claims, that "free societies are peaceful societies," but that the political and civil rights in oppressive, undemocratic countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are exempt from this standard. I believe Iraqis view Americans as liberators, and that once this swift, cheap war concludes the world will be more stable, our allies more cooperative, and our enemies fewer and less threatening.

I believe the best response against an Islamic fundamentalist network operating from a South Asian cave which used boxcutters to attack us is to invade a secular Arab dictator living in 11 palaces in a Middle Eastern country whose (supposed) weapon of choice was nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. I further believe that the best way to accomplish that mission was to land on air aircraft carrier in military garb and stand in front of a banner declaring it so.

I believe the president when he says he would have moved "heaven and earth" had he any "inkling" that terrorists were planning to attack America with hijacked airplanes. I believe the security briefing the president read five weeks before the attacks – which was entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside United States," and specifically mentioned hijacked airplanes and New York City as a target – was an inkling-free, "historical" document. I believe we should re-double our investments in a missile defense system, which could have prevented the 9/11 attacks and will prevent future attacks like it from occurring.

I believe the president was right to oppose the formation of the 9/11 Commission, to change his mind but then oppose fully funding it, to change his mind but then oppose granting its request for an extension, to change his mind but refuse to testify for more than an hour, to change his mind but then testify alongside Vice President Dick Cheney so long as transcripts and note-taking were prohibited. I believe the investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shows it was the fault of a handful of misguided underlings who simply misunderstood a memo signed by the Secretary of Defense which authorized the use of dogs to interrogate prisoners.

Domestically, I believe income tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are the solution to budget surpluses or deficits, high or low inflation, stable or unstable interest rates, expanding or shrinking trade deficits, widening or narrowing wealth gaps, increasing or decreasing poverty rates, rising or falling unemployment, prosperity or recession, wartime or peace. I believe record-setting budget deficits, record-setting trade deficits, and a burgeoning national debt are examples of the president's fiscally-conservative economic leadership.

I believe that a president who insists that hard-working Americans deserve tax breaks should continue to stand fast against cutting payroll taxes – the direct tax on hard work. Clearly, I do not believe that payroll taxes coupled with income taxes on work constitute "double taxation," but the dividend tax on assets does. I believe those who complain that one third of American children live in poverty, or that the wealthiest nation on the planet should feel sheepish about having 45 million uninsured citizens, deserve California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ridicule as "economic girlie men."

I believe the best way to improve local-run schools is to spend billions of dollars on a massive, federal testing program to tell us our schools are failing. I do not believe, however, that requiring local school districts to meet new, federal standards without resources is an example of an "unfunded mandate." I believe the president's education initiative will leave no child behind, much as his "clear skies" and "healthy forests" initiatives will make skies clearer and forests healthier.

Finally, I believe a white man of privilege who was accepted to Yale University despite a middling performance in prep school; was accepted to Harvard Business School despite a middling performance at Yale; was admitted to the Texas Air National Guard despite no flight background and an entrance exam score in the bottom quartile; was given funds by Osama bin Laden's father to start a failed oil company; and was chosen to serve as Texas governor and 43rd President of the United States despite a lifelong record of mediocrity, is a man with the moral authority to criticize affirmative action as a policy that gives opportunities to the undeserving.

Make no mistake: I believe that President Bush, just as he promised he would, has restored honor and integrity to the White House and united us as Americans.

New York Times: Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq

The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year.

...

American weapons experts say their immediate concern is that the explosives could be used in major bombing attacks against American or Iraqi forces: the explosives, mainly HMX and RDX, could produce bombs strong enough to shatter airplanes or tear apart buildings.

The bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 used less than a pound of the same type of material, and larger amounts were apparently used in the bombing of a housing complex in November 2003 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the blasts in a Moscow apartment complex in September 1999 that killed nearly 300 people.

The explosives could also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon, which was why international nuclear inspectors had kept a watch on the material, and even sealed and locked some of it. The other components of an atom bomb - the design and the radioactive fuel - are more difficult to obtain.

...

The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly warned about the danger of these explosives before the war, and after the invasion it specifically told United States officials about the need to keep the explosives secured, European diplomats said in interviews last week. Administration officials say they cannot explain why the explosives were not safeguarded, beyond the fact that the occupation force was overwhelmed by the amount of munitions they found throughout the country.

Slate: I Want My GOTV - Who has the better organization in Ohio, Bush or Kerry? By Chris Suellentrop

[Dave] Beckwith [a Bush-Cheney spokesman in Ohio] admits that the Democrats have registered more new voters than the Republicans, but he says that their work was done by "mercenaries"—and they have "people signed up by crack addicts"—while his side employs volunteers, or "liberty-loving free men." Beckwith then drifts into a reverie about the Battle of San Jacinto and explains how Sam Houston knew that "conscripts" and the forces of "despotism" couldn't defeat free men. The enemy was saying, "Me no Alamo," Beckwith says with a laugh. (At another moment in the interview, Beckwith observes of the Kerry-Edwards campaign offices, "I think they're on Gay Street, which is interesting, because we're on Rich Street.")

At the Bush-Cheney headquarters, I mention to Paduchik, Bush's Ohio campaign manager, how the media overestimated the effectiveness of Dean's Perfect Storm. Paduchik says the evidence of Bush's organization in Ohio is the size of his crowds, because the campaign distributes its tickets through its volunteers. When you see 22,000 people in Troy, Ohio, or 50,000 people in Westchester, Ohio, you know you're looking at "a real organization," he says. "It's not because we had tickets you could download from the Internet. It's not because we had put them on car windows, or had people pick them up at a 7-Eleven, like the other side does."

On the way out, I'm reminded that all this work on both sides isn't necessarily a sign of confidence. As we walk to the door, Beckwith points to an empty portion of the Bush-Cheney offices. That's where the staff for Sen. George Voinovich works, he says. "These cocksuckers are up 30 points and they're never in here."

Q: How about Apocalypse Now? Was that what it was like going up river, on those boats?

A: That's exactly how it was, man. Sitting in that river, waiting for someone to shoot you -- but the later part of the movie, after the point where they get to the bridge, then everything becomes a little psychedelic. That got a little distant from me.

From Activism Grew a Liberal Voice in Senate

Her work often stretches into the night, a relentless series of 12-hour days that led Boxer to decide a few years ago that her second term would be it. She was in her 60s, had spent 20 years of weekdays apart from her husband, an Oakland lawyer, and that was more than enough.

But terrorism and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay changed her mind.

Boxer was in the Capitol building as the first jetliner crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. She remembers standing next to Sen. John F. Kerry watching news reports when the second plane hit, and the confusion began to turn into understanding. "That's terrorism," Kerry said, pointing at the television.

They watched the Pentagon burn across the Potomac River and didn't learn until later that a fourth plane that had nose-dived into a Pennsylvania field might have been heading for the Capitol.

Still, Boxer planned to retire.

Six months after the attacks, dismayed by "the condition of the country economically, the budget, the shorting of education funding, the need to do more on homeland security," Boxer and some colleagues took to the Senate floor to urge the Bush administration to change course.

"The next day, Tom DeLay attacked us for daring to speak out in any way critical of the administration," Boxer said. "I tell you, when that happened, it hit me in a way I can't describe. But I began to fear for what could happen if people like DeLay and others were challenged, because they could take this precious country based on freedom of speech and free debate and all the things we believe in, and it could really turn into another place."

The grandmother's desire to retire burned away. Boxer told her surprised family and staff to start preparing for a reelection campaign. The fighter was ready for another round.

"I stayed in it," Boxer said, "because I really believe still in all the things I believed in when I got involved in the old days."

This is a far cry from the party of Lincoln that proudly and correctly stood on principle to outlaw slavery. It is a far cry from the party of great and principled statesmen like Mel Thomson, Norris Cotton, Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower and Teddy Roosevelt. What a contrast between those great Republicans and current party leaders, who refuse to speak out against this despicable action by pathetic political hacks.

"I think a light has gone off for people who've spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do." Bartlett, a 53-year-old columnist and self-described libertarian Republican who has lately been a champion for traditional Republicans concerned about Bush's governance, went on to say: "This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them. . . .

"This is why he dispenses with people who confront him with inconvenient facts," Bartlett went on to say. "He truly believes he's on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence." Bartlett paused, then said, "But you can't run the world on faith."

The [tax] bill is crenellated with more loopholes than a medieval castle. Film studios, cruise-ship operators and even accountants benefit. Tobacco farmers are to be paid about $10 billion to give up quotas and price supports that Congress bestowed on them decades ago. Multinational companies, many of which keep profits overseas to avoid paying taxes on them at home, will be rewarded with a one-year amnesty, during which time their foreign profits can be brought home at a tax rate of just 5.25%, a fraction of the normal rate.

The bill reserves its biggest tax break for manufacturing. The sector, as defined by the Bureau of Labour Statistics, has shed 2.8m jobs over the past four years. The lay-offs are often disastrous for the workers involved, but they need not damage the economy as a whole, at least over the medium term. Few economists still believe that manufacturing is "special" or that "de-industrialisation" is quite as ghastly as it sounds. Indeed, the decline of manufacturing employment is often the result of welcome gains in productivity and inexorable shifts in comparative advantage.

But the principle of comparative advantage counts for rather less in Congress than the principle of electoral advantage. Eager to win votes in hard-hit manufacturing states, lawmakers will cut the corporate-tax rate for manufacturing from 35% to 32%, phased in over the rest of the decade. Suddenly, everyone wants to be a manufacturer. Oil refiners, software engineers and architects lobbied to be counted as such. Making movies is manufacturing, the bill says, but making pornographic movies is not (that, one can only presume, counts as a service). Even farmers are now manufacturers. Cornbelt or rustbelt, smokestacks or haystacks, it's all the same to Congress when it's in a giving mood.