I haven’t even commented on this. Even I am left speechless, at least momentarily.

From, you will pardon the banal hyperbole, a must-read column by Bob Herbert:

And then there’s Ward Connerly, a black man who spends his days dancing passionately to the tune of the anti-affirmative-action zealots. Some of the folks in that crowd are less than progressive when it comes to race relations, and it looks as if Mr. Connerly, who heads the ironically named American Civil Rights Coalition, has decided to shimmy with the worst of their beliefs. In a television interview last week he argued that segregation of the races was not necessarily racist.

That is extremely strange.

“Supporting segregation need not be racist,” said Mr. Connerly. “One can believe in segregation and believe in equality of the races.”

That is the exact argument that the rabidly racist segregationists made in the era that Trent Lott has looked back upon so fondly. It was destroyed by the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

Herbert goes on to discuss Senator Conrad Burns, one of the 51 Senate Republicans who may be called upon to decide Trent Lott’s future:

Back in 1994, while campaigning for a second term, Mr. Burns dropped by a local newspaper, The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, and told an editor an anecdote about one of his constituents, a rancher who wanted to know what life was like in Washington, D.C.

The senator said the rancher asked him, “Conrad, how can you live back there with all those niggers?”

Senator Burns said he told the rancher it was “a hell of a challenge.”

There’s more. Go read the column.

* * *

At this point, it seems pretty clear that Lott is on his way out. But once that’s done, it seems that there are a few more boils to be lanced here: Don Nickles, John Ashcroft, and Conrad Burns, for starters.

It is a myth that the Lott story was driven by the right wing — nobody was on this harder than Atrios, with Josh Marshall running a close second. To their credit, the righty bloggers did pick it up — but what I want to know is, will they keep the pressure on the rest of these guys? Or will it turn out that their outrage, while certainly genuine, was proportionately related to the amount of embarassment being caused?

In other words, will the right now be willing to overlook equally egregious comments and actions, and voting records, as long as no one’s raising a fuss about them? Because that’s kind of been the whole problem all along, hasn’t it?

From yesterday’s Independent:

Iraq’s 11,000-page report to the UN Security Council lists 150 foreign companies, including some from America, Britain, Germany and France, that supported Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction programme, a German newspaper said yesterday.

Berlin’s left-wing Die Tageszeitung newspaper said it had seen a copy of the original Iraqi dossier which was vetted for sensitive information by US officials before being handed to the five permanent Security Council members two weeks ago. An edited version was passed to the remaining 10 members of the Security Council last night.

British officials said the list of companies appeared to be accurate. Eighty German firms and 24 US companies are reported to have supplied Iraq with equipment and know-how for its weapons programmes from 1975 onwards and in some cases support for Baghdad’s conventional arms programme had continued until last year.

It is not known who leaked the report, but it could have come from Iraq. Baghdad is keen to embarrass the US and its allies by showing the close involvement of US, German, British and French firms in helping Iraq develop its weapons of mass destruction when the country was a bulwark against the much feared spread of Iranian revolutionary fervour to the Arab world.

More.

Here’s an index page featuring more of Tissue San’s friends.

And here’s a home page with some Flash animation.

This Modern World — your one-stop internet portal for commentary, news scoops, and the latest in inexplicable Japanese advertising icons.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iranian and other Middle East citizens were in southern California jails on Wednesday after coming forward to comply with a new rule to register with immigration authorities only to wind up handcuffed and behind bars.

Shocked and frustrated Islamic and immigrant groups estimate that more than 500 people have been arrested in Los Angeles, neighboring Orange County and San Diego in the past three days under a new nationwide anti-terrorism program. Some unconfirmed reports put the figure as high as 1,000.

The arrests sparked a demonstration by hundreds of Iranians outside a Los Angeles immigration office. The protesters carried banners saying “What’s next? Concentration camps?” and “What happened to liberty and justice?.”

A spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said no numbers of people arrested would be made public. A Justice Department spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Story here. As usual, Atrios is on top of this.

Update: several readers have alerted me to the entirely different spin in the Associated Press version of this story, which is headlined “Thousands Protest New Immigration Policy.”

This would be a fun videotape to watch:

A videotape of a January 1997 going-away party for former Enron President Rich Kinder features nearly half an hour of absurd skits, songs and testimonials by company executives and prominent Houstonians, the Houston Chronicle reported in its Monday editions.

The collection is all meant in good fun, but some of the comments are ironic in the current climate of corporate scandal.

In one skit, former Administrative Executive Peggy Menchaca played the part of Kinder as he received a budget report from then-President Jeff Skilling, who played himself, and Financial Planning Executive Tod Lindholm.

When the pretend Kinder expressed doubt that Skilling could pull off 600 percent revenue growth for the coming year, Skilling revealed how it could be done.

“We’re going to move from mark-to-market accounting to something I call HFV, or hypothetical future value accounting,” Skilling joked as he read from a script. “If we do that, we can add a kazillion dollars to the bottom line.”

— snip —

President George W. Bush, who then was governor of Texas, also took part in the skit, as did his father.

At the party, the younger Bush pleaded with Kinder: “Don’t leave Texas. You’re too good a man.”

The governor’s father also offered a send-off to Kinder, thanking him for helping his son reach the governor’s mansion.

“You have been fantastic to the Bush family,” the elder Bush said. “I don’t think anybody did more than you did to support George.”

Federal investigators told News2Houston Tuesday that they want to take a closer look at the tape.

More. Thanks to Steve McDonald for the tip.

…we must be asking the wrong question.

No. Sorry. Let me start over.

So many people think that Dick Armey is the man they’re looking for at Tom Paine, they’ve had to post a clarification:

Lots of readers have contacted us to say, “Rep. Dick Armey admitted doing it!” We know that. It’s easy for Dick Armey to say he did it — he’s a lame duck with no accountability. And indeed, Armey, as House Majority Leader, did ALLOW it to happen. But what TomPaine.com is looking for is THE PERSON WHO *ASKED* ARMEY to ALLOW it to happen. THAT is the person we want to finger.

I knew that. Heck, if it were that easy, I’d be $10,000 richer.