In July, the European Parliament will vote on a proposal entitled the "Computer Implemented Inventions Directive". Unless a clear majority of all MEPs - 367 of them - vote against the proposal, software patents will become law in Europe.

So it looks like this... Microsoft is PacMan, gobbling up the software patent dots, one by one. Paying off its lawsuits, one by one. Bribing its antagonists, one by one. Enough software patents, enough dropped anti-trust cases, enough settlements, and it'll be able to stand up to IBM, and maybe even castrate Linux.

It hit me a few days ago. We all know that politicians are a little corrupt. But the vision of Bush swaggering like a little mobster, the poison put out by the Republican machine, the utter inability of the Dems to defend against these attacks...

It's not just the most dirty campaign ever seen. What we're seeing is a full-blown attack on US civil society by a group of men who resemble nothing as much a well-organized criminal gang.