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I’m giving the Google ads a try (sidebar on the right). We’ll see if they actually produce any revenue or not, but looking at the first batch that popped up, specifically the ad for Mike Huckabee, I’d have to say their algorithms could probably use a little refining.

So they’ll be reminded of them every time they look in the mirror:

Conservatism failed in the 1890s, again in the 1920s, again in the 1980s, and again at the beginning of the 21st century … Conservatives failed because conservatism is a failed ideology. The greatest periods of American history all rejected conservatism in favor of the ideals our nation was founded on.

(From the Times’ letters page.)

The Real News, a year-old attempt to create a TV channel funded by viewer donations, has been doing some fantastic reporting on politics internationally and here. And I don’t just say that because I want to work for them.

Below is their new segment on Rep. Robert Wexler’s push to hold impeachment hearings for Cheney. Their site has a ton more great stuff, including pieces on Afghanistan, Canada knuckling under to the U.S. on torture, and the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

An explanation of the rationale behind the Real News is here. Just because there’s no journalism like this on CBS or ABC or Fox doesn’t mean—in a world with the internet and satellite TV—there’s no way it can be done and reach an audience. But it does mean we have to pay for it. (If you’re so moved, you can donate to the Real News here.)

And…if you haven’t already, it’s still well worth your time to sign the Wexler Wants Hearings petition. Wexler’s efforts actually are getting the congressional leadership’s attention.

This seems like a good moment to remember this section of The Price of Loyalty by Ron Suskind:

As the meeting in Mr. Cheney’s office progressed, it became clear that the vice president was ready to weigh in on what the president should do to bolster the economy, and his standing with voters worried about the economy, as the second half of his term began. A package of tax proposals, led by a 50% cut in the individual tax on dividends, had been all but buried since Mr. O’Neill took his stand against it in early September…

After the midterms, though, Mr. O’Neill could sense a change inside the White House…Now Mr. Cheney mentioned them again, how altering the double taxation of dividends would provide some economic stimulus. Mr. O’Neill jumped in, arguing sharply that the government “is moving toward a fiscal crisis” and then pointing out “what rising deficits will mean to our economic and fiscal soundness.” Mr. Cheney cut him off. “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter,” he said.

Mr. O’Neill was speechless, hardly believing that Mr. Cheney — whom he and Mr. Greenspan had known since Dick was a kid — would say such a thing. Mr. Cheney moved to fill the void. “We won the midterms. This is our due.” Mr. O’Neill left Mr. Cheney’s office in a state of mild shock.

Without the Bush administration’s giant tax cuts for the richest people in America, the government would have more room to maneuver now. The options that remain today are less palatable.

Another important effect of the tax cuts is that a fraction of them will be used by recipients to support political resistance to any constructive actions to deal with our current problems. So it really was a win-win-win.

Like a lot of people who lived in New York under Giuliani, I was always astonished that his campaign didn’t melt down a lot sooner, like in the first week or two. A piece in the Times this morning revisits the good times:

In August 1997, James Schillaci, a rough-hewn chauffeur from the Bronx, dialed Mayor Giuliani’s radio program on WABC-AM to complain about a red-light sting run by the police near the Bronx Zoo. When the call yielded no results, Mr. Schillaci turned to The Daily News, which then ran a photo of the red light and this front page headline: “GOTCHA!”

That morning, police officers appeared on Mr. Schillaci’s doorstep. What are you going to do, Mr. Schillaci asked, arrest me? He was joking, but the officers were not.

They slapped on handcuffs and took him to court on a 13-year-old traffic warrant. A judge threw out the charge. A police spokeswoman later read Mr. Schillaci’s decades-old criminal rap sheet to a reporter for The Daily News, a move of questionable legality because the state restricts how such information is released. She said, falsely, that he had been convicted of sodomy.

Then Mr. Giuliani took up the cudgel.

“Mr. Schillaci was posing as an altruistic whistle-blower,” the mayor told reporters at the time. “Maybe he’s dishonest enough to lie about police officers.”

Mr. Schillaci suffered an emotional breakdown, was briefly hospitalized and later received a $290,000 legal settlement from the city. “It really damaged me,” said Mr. Schillaci, now 60, massaging his face with thick hands. “I thought I was doing something good for once, my civic duty and all. Then he steps on me.”

Mr. Giuliani was a pugilist in a city of political brawlers. But far more than his predecessors, historians and politicians say, his toughness edged toward ruthlessnessand became a defining aspect of his mayoralty. One result: New York City spent at least $7 million in settling civil rights lawsuits and paying retaliatory damages during the Giuliani years.

… related: a page I did for the Voice when Giuliani declared war on an art museum in Brooklyn in 1999.