Dubya’s de-evolution

Be honest. You thought it just couldn’t get worse — Dubya running around the country trying to sell his bogus Social Security plan, buying off faux "journalists" to push his agenda, and pretending to actually enjoy travelling abroad to meet with his new best friends. But now he names wild-eyed and obnoxious John Bolton to become US ambassador to the United Nations, and the disgraced and disgraceful Paul Wolfowitz, he of the saliva-coiffed hairdo, to head the World Bank.

We figured even Dubya the Dumb wasn’t so ignorant as to not know Bolton has often made insulting remarks about the activities of the UN. He will be as welcome on 59th Street as Slobodan Milosevic. Actually, maybe even less so.

And Wolfie for the World Bank? Having seen the efforts of the Bank over the years and worked with its employees on numerous development projects, it is inconceivable to believe that this delusional chickenhawk will do anything but frighten those most in need of its help.

The nominations of Bolton and Wolfowitz have just driven another dagger into the heart of America’s relationship with our international allies. "Disgrace the Nation," indeed.

JUST THE FACTS, JACK

We have a good "be there or be square" opportunity for our fearless readers who like to get the truth from their media outlets coming up at the University of Rhode Island on March 30. URI’s information literacy honchos will sponsor "Is That a Fact? Fact Checking In the Media" from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in Room 271 of the Chafee Social Sciences Building on the Kingston campus.

The forum is free and open to the public and, according to the sponsors, "will explore the procedures and policies that news professionals follow when confirming facts surrounding stories that are presented on television, in print, and on the Web." The panel will be full of old P&J buddies and esteemed colleagues such as JARheads Betty-Jo Cugini, vice president of news at Channel 10, and Scott Allen, news editor at turn to10.com; Brian C. Jones, contributing writer at this rag; and Sheila Lennon, features and interactive producer, for projo.com, the Website of the Providence Journal. The professionals will talk about the critical thinking that goes beyond checking the accuracy of sources. Personally, P&J have stuck to our objective that we provide you with more of the truth and less of the facts, and answer the difficult questions on accuracy with a resounding "That proves it!" If it was good enough for Plan 9 from Outer Space, it’s good enough for us.

For more information, contact Jim Kinnie at 874-9240 or jkinnie@uri.edu.

A LONG RUN FOR SHORT

An Upper East Side farewell to Bobby Short, who died at age 80. He was the King of the Café Carlyle in New York, where he became a modern cabaret legend, owning the spotlight at the club for decades.

NOT SO JOCKULAR

Maybe it is fitting that the Boston Red Sox rejuvenated baseball last year while jokingly calling themselves "idiots." Because in the offseason, real idiots like the Yankees’ Jason Giambi, former superstar Mark McGwire, and the hideous, conflicted greed merchant commissioner Bud Selig have contrived to give the sport a good hard kick in the cojones. McGwire’s public appearance in front of Congress was a huge embarrassment, mostly to himself. But Selig’s posturing, face-contorting TV appearances — often with uncombed hair — made him look like a homeless person who had lost his marbles, and had been dressed up and shoved out for the public’s amusement. The sorry thing is, the only joke involved was MLB’s drug policy and the complicity between the baseball hierarchy and the players’ union in allowing it to be a charade for so long.

Get out the asterisks, Bud.

ANOTHER P&J RANT: THE GENIUS OF RI

P&J have to marvel at the genius of our state when it comes to tackling such major issues as education and transportation. It seems to be the same formula for both. About a month back, the Other Paper ran a series of articles (overhyped and deceptive as they were) about the supposedly low percentage of students graduating in four years from our state-run colleges and universities. We say "deceptive" and "supposedly" because, in the body of the story on Rhode Island College, for instance, it was explained that the criteria being used excluded students who transferred from another school.

The fact is there a lot of transfer students at RIC. As was also noted in the story, many in the RIC student body come from working-class roots and are the first in their family to attend college. Does it not seem likely then that some of these students might take a semester or a year off at some point to earn money to meet living and/or tuition costs? We feel that this series was largely calculated and sensationalistic twaddle. It was none too revelatory and the placement of the stories, just below the paper’s masthead, was way over the top.

Yet, the governor’s current budget asks for further increases in tuition. Isn’t that special! So while the BeloJo prints a series of articles wringing its hands over the lack of four-year graduates, the governor’s solution is to increase tuition, which is bound to negatively impact the same (dubious) statistics.

The deal with public transportation in the Biggest Little is being handled in a similar manner. RIPTA is operating in the red. So let’s address the shortfall by cutting service, suspending runs, and raising prices. This is not a formula for success, but a formula for failure.

Cutting routes and service is far more damaging than the price increase. One of the major reasons more people don’t use the buses is because of inconvenience — e.g., waiting too long between buses, routes that require walking miles to hook up with, and lack of service on evenings and weekends.

Because of its size and geographic peculiarities, Vo Dilun is one place where we could actually pull off a first-rate mass transit system. But nooooo! We go on destroying our environment (automobile emissions are the primary cause of most of the damage to our air and water), destroying our culture and communities (think a bit about how the uber-car culture plays into alienation and our lack of contact with our neighbors), and even our health (adventures in daily gridlock must do wonders for our nervous systems).

If we want to change our priorities, we’ll have to do it ourselves against tremendous odds. Things work quite nicely for those who are raking in all the dough. They like for us to be addicted to our cars, our Game Boys, our DVDs, our Internet, our cell phones, and all the other conveniences of modern life that, while making things more efficient and convenient, simultaneously dull our brains.

WORTH YOUR WHILE

At the State House on March 31 at 3:30 p.m., there will be a celebration of the life and legacy of César E. Chávez, the legendary labor leader and peace and justice advocate. Thanks to the holiday, young people do know a little about Martin Luther King, Jr. (although it’s been seriously expurgated so that his truly radical thoughts and actions are not stressed), and they ought to know something about Chávez, an equally inspiring and figure. The event is being presented by the Mexican Association of Rhode Island.

Send unsullied NCAAbrackets and Pulitzer-grade tips to p&j@phx. com.