Please tell me who you think is more responsible for molestation of children, Michael Jackson or the Pope.  Let's assume, just for the moment -- everybody deserves their day in court -- that all the worst accusations against Michael Jackson are true.

Then let us consider what we know the Pope did in regard to Cardinal Bernard Law, who at this very moment may be lobbying for his choice for the next pope.

Law is largely responsible for $90 million in settlements the Catholic Church has had to pay for his conscience-less behavior.  He has avoided indictment because of inadequate Massachusetts law according to a Boston Globe article ( see http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/stories2/062002_law.htm ).  And the Pope rewarded Law with a sinecure in the Vatican when it got too hot for him in the USA.

The political space over the next four years is going to be different from anything we have ever experienced.  Things are going to get ugly, probably uglier than we can imagine.  Bush ruled as though he had a mandate when he lost the popular vote.  Now that he has won a majority, the echo machine is going to sell the people that he was reelected in a landslide.  And he is backed up by a Congress that is worse than ever.  (I am agnostic about whether the votes in the election were counted approximately correctly; but I felt going into it that we had to win by a big margin, or the gang would steal it.)

I believe Bush when he says that his administration's major goals are "reforming"  tax law and social security.  I believe that this amounts to a plan to steal from the people on a massive scale, and that this theft is what the Republican gang most has in mind.  The hard-won victories of FDR's time are in danger of practical extinction.