This year I’m going to try to do my own taxes rather than paying an accountant to do them for me. Anyone have any recommendations for software or sites that make it as simple as possible? I have my returns from past years for guidance, but just grabbing a book and the IRS forms seems risky. (If it helps, I itemize.)

I had never heard of the Cheetoh factor, but it is the best analogy for the ongoing amendments to President Bush’s ongoing descriptions of Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction-related program activities” that I’ve encountered.

Dick Cheney should be a huge problem for George W Bush’s electability, being that he lies every time he gives an interview. Not little lies, either, huge lies.

Sometimes the quid pro quo in business dealings is more than obvious. I wonder what the consequences will be for Halliburton’s ongoing business in this flap? Something tells me this will pass by without a ripple.

Rogers Cadenhead sent along a link to this article, which talks about how Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided the home and office of an Ottawa journalist to find out information about a source who had leaked information in the Maher Arar case to the press.

While many people don’t get the threat that George W Bush poses to this country, George Soros does. He explains his concerns in an interview with Josh Marshall.

One case I haven’t mentioned at all here is that of Maher Arar. A reader sent me an email about Arar’s case yesterday, and while I’ve known about it for a really long time, I’ve never seen fit to mention it at all. Honestly, I think it’s because my outrage meter has been nearly disabled by being saturated with amazing misdeeds on a daily basis, and because I assumed everybody already knew about it. That said, Arar’s case is still special. Arar is a naturalized Canadian citizen who was born in Syria. Arar was returning from a vacation in Tunisia to his home in Canada, and had the misfortune to have to change planes in America. Airport officials for some reason suspected him of being a terrorist, so they deported him. Not to his home in Canada, or to Tunisia, but to Syria, where he was tortured by Syrian intelligence on our behalf. I’ve been complaining about this practice since October, 2001, and it sure seems like Arar’s case is about as close as you can get to a reductio ad absurdum illustration of why it is utterly sickening. Maher Arar has gotten exhaustive treatment at Obsidian Wings.

Will this come to pass? I fear so, unless something radical changes in the near future. When you combine it with this article talking about how Republicans are on the cusp of siezing control of the federal government long term, you begin to realize what a long dark night just about everyone in this country could be facing. One thing Americans may soon learn is that voting on issues relating to anything other than real people’s relationship to big business and war is a luxury that most people in the world can’t afford.

One of the most frustrating things to me is that it seems so screamingly obvious to me that Bush has to go, that he’s not just a bad politician but that he is an absolute danger to the things that make America the great country that it is, and yet probably half of the people in this country see him as a good leader. What do they see that I don’t see? Don’t the huge structural changes in our country’s fiscal position totally scare the crap out of them? Aren’t they alarmed by the fact that he seeks to justify his destructive and undermining foreign policy by keeping us in constant fear? Doesn’t it bother them that Bush runs around talking about the resurgent economy when the employment situation totally sucks, we’re down millions of jobs from when he began, and wages are completely stagnant? Indeed, one of the biggest problems I face when explaining to people why Bush is just so darn bad is that I honestly don’t know where to begin. How could I and so many other people be so far apart on this? It baffles me.

I’ve been absorbing the saturation coverage of the Iowa caucuses this morning. One thing I can say about the result is that the outcome made me happy. If Dean ends up with the nomination, he’s going to have to fight for it. I think that’s a good thing. John Edwards did far better than people would have suspected a week ago, and I think that’s a good thing as well. I honestly don’t have any insight into what caused the Kerry and Edwards resurgence, but lots of other people seem to think they do. I’m also sad to say that I’m glad that Dick Gephardt is out of the race, and is now for all intents and purposes out of politics. He certainly spent many years serving his party, but I don’t think his leadership in Congress has done much for the Democratic party.

Russell Beattie is making me really regret signing a two year contract with Cingular Wireless. He’s getting all sorts of advanced services and I can’t even get my stupid GPRS to work.