Racine really doesn't want or need to become a travel destination spot for parties that feature open exchanges of drugs and that's clearly what was going on here.

The protestations by the organizers that they don't condone the use of drugs belongs with the detritus of pills, baby pacifiers and other drug paraphernalia that was left on the dance floor.

Loud music and light shows -- call them raves if you want -- can probably find a spot here. But not illegal drugs.

And for the handful of "innocents" swept up in the raid, well, they'll get a chance to tell their compelling story to a judge.

If the Racine City Council was running Green Bay, 63,284 people would have been ticketed at the Monday night Packer game because of 70-some people getting drunk, rowdy and urinating in the men's room sinks.

Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend--all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."

We ought to tell every other Muslim living in this nation that if you say one word, you're gone.

Attempts at imposed equality destroy individuality. Individuality allows for specialization, the division of labor and economic progress. When it is hampered, so are these outgrowths. The critic may vociferously object: "Krugman is only calling for equality of income, not equality in all areas of life!" Our response is that the two are inextricably related.

In short, blogging has become a way for everyone to express themselves on any subject they happen to be interested in or no subject at all. And someone thinks that's a bad thing? Sounds like someone who wants freedom of expression only for themselves and the few people who agree with them.

Republican Congress was elected because of the pro-life vote, and they need to heed that vote. We know the abortion issue was the number two issue that prompted voter turnout in Minnesota, the number three issue in Missouri, and we know 76 percent of self-identified religious conservatives in Georgia voted for Saxby Chambliss. In no small part, the favorable outcome of this election for Republicans is a consequence of motivated pro-life voters who turned out to the polls.

When looking at the flyer for the "drug party" as David Steinkraus put it in his article "Police corral hundreds at rave party" (Nov. 4, 2002) you will see that it states that all people entering the building will be searched and that no drugs or weapons will be allowed in the building and no alcohol for people under the age of 21. When I got there I did not see any drug usage or sale and was fine with that. It was all about having a fun time for most of us. Three or four people bring drugs and ruin it for the rest of us.

"It was a rave, a type of party known for a mix of music and recreational drugs such as Ecstasy, police said."

Raves are known for this sure, but anyone who has actually been to one knows that it isn't as bad as made out to be. Bars are known to cause drunk drivers. Anyone going to get busted for that? Probably not. Most people (not all as that would be a lie) aren't there for drugs. I'm sure a few people were doing it, but why hand out tickets for everyone there? As you can see our tax dollars are well spent keeping kids from doing anything on a Saturday night that might be remotely fun.

I don't do drugs and I don't see why dancing at a party where someone is would be a crime. Everyone there was issued tickets for $968 for "disorderly conduct, unruly house controlled substances." I don't see how my conduct was unruly. When they police told us to sit, I sat; when they told us to move, I moved. How is that unruly? I was there to dance and that is all I did. I paid $15 to get in and now I will have to pay $968 to leave the place? Explain how that is fair. I for one will be showing up in court with the hundreds of others at that party and it will most likely cost you more in tax dollars to do that than they will make in tickets. And for what? Just to keep kids on the street where they don't get caught. If Racine would have posted police inside the place I would doubt that any of this would have happened. Help us have a good time and stay off the streets instead or punishing us for finding something to do on a Saturday night.

But, in a rare victory of the practical over the principled, I now say keep him. Pay for him. Give him a raise and a daily show. The tragedy of Bill Moyers is that very few people watch him these days. And nothing would be more helpful to the "right-wingers" Moyers so despises than to give him a bigger platform.

For lost in Moyers's tirade is this simple fact: some 53 percent of Americans voted for the Republicans that worry him so. In races throughout the country last week, Americans voted against Democrats far more reasonable than Bill Moyers will ever be. And in even higher percentages, Americans approve of President Bush. So let Moyers attack the judgment of the voters who help pay his salary.

"The government has more authority when it's controlling the purse strings than when it's deciding what people can do with private funds and private property," said Eugene Volokh, a conservative constitutional expert at UCLA Law School.


Still, Volokh predicts the government will lose as the court again grapples with the balance between protecting children and preserving free speech. The court has been very protective of First Amendment rights.

Way back in the 1950's when I first tasted politics and journalism, Republicans briefly controlled the White House and Congress. With the exception of Joseph McCarthy and his vicious ilk, they were a reasonable lot, presided over by that giant war hero, Dwight Eisenhower, who was conservative by temperament and moderate in the use of power.

That brand of Republican is gone. And for the first time in the memory of anyone alive, the entire federal government--the Congress, the Executive, the Judiciary--is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate.

That mandate includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to give up control over their own lives.

It includes using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich.

It includes giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment and control the regulatory agencies meant to hold them accountable.

And it includes secrecy on a scale you cannot imagine. Above all, it means judges with a political agenda appointed for life. If you liked the Supreme Court that put George W. Bush in the White House, you will swoon over what's coming.

And if you like God in government, get ready for the Rapture. These folks don't even mind you referring to the GOP as the party of God. Why else would the new House Majority Leader say that the Almighty is using him to promote 'a Biblical worldview' in American politics?

So it is a heady time in Washington--a heady time for piety, profits, and military power, all joined at the hip by ideology and money.

Don't forget the money. It came pouring into this election, to both parties, from corporate America and others who expect the payback. Republicans outraised democrats by $184 million dollars. And came up with the big prize--monopoly control of the American government, and the power of the state to turn their ideology into the law of the land. Quite a bargain at any price.

That's it for this week.

The cold war was an aberration. Note how quickly the Europeans turned on America once 400 hostile divisions were no longer on their borders. They make up a big continent with a big population that deserves pride and power commensurate with their economy and population; so it is time for both of us to recognize that, bring the troops home or redeploy them in more friendly eastern European countries, and as friends let them develop their own military identity. Keeping 200,000 troops abroad to protect a rich continent is unhealthy for all parties involved. We are a different people, and to preserve our common heritage and friendship, we must recognize those divergences and thus it would be safer in the long run to let them defend themselves and not seek such shrillness in lieu of power and independence.

[I]n Minnesota, Vice President Dick Cheney called Tim Pawlenty, the Republican majority leader in the Statehouse, just 90 minutes before he was set to announce his bid for the Senate and asked him to stand down so that [Norm] Coleman could move in.

In training her guns on free trade and big multinationals, Ms Klein is attacking the best means for reducing poverty and, for that matter, extending justice and a political voice to the world's poorest people. When companies, properly regulated and acting within the law, pursue profits, they end up increasing prosperity. This is not a theory but an easily observable fact. The result, unintended though it may be, is social good. Ms Klein denies all this at every turn?and the tragedy is that her denials have an effect.

Ms Klein's harshest critics must allow that, for an angry adolescent, she writes rather well. It takes journalistic skill of a high order to write page after page of engaging blather, so totally devoid of substance. What a pity she has turned her talents as a writer to a cause that can only harm the people she claims to care most about. But perhaps it is just a phase.

With power comes responsibility. When the presidential election of 2004 rolls around, the voters are going to want to know what George W. Bush and the Republicans have actually accomplished with the power they were given. There will be no excuses that the Democrats obstructed the president's agenda or held up his judicial nominees.

We do not need liberal judges or conservative judges. We need judges who follow the laws and the constitution. And we need to get such judges confirmed by the Senate, without ideological litmus tests based on abortion or any other political issue. This is one of those islands that cannot be by-passed if we want to preserve the right of Americans to govern themselves.