Do you mind if I use your very highly detailed list of Clinton anti-Terror policies every time some fright winger declares that "democrats dont' care about national security"?

That, and you're my personal hero of today's blog.

You're welcome. And thanks.

There's more. There's always more.

I'd be surprised, too, to discover that Bush has an 'intellect', since everything he says is either asinine or another example of compulsive lying. I'd be really surprised.

Most people just aren't going to find anything charming about a gold-plated self-important twit with a massive inferiority complex and an equally massive sense of entitlement. It's just not going to happen. If the guy worked in your office you'd want to get another job.

Face facts. The MIC power meisters picked Bush for his name and because he can be led by the nose by the corporatist powers behind the throne, like Cheney, who prefer to let Dubya take the heat for administration failures and rapacity while they keep the low profile and handle the profiteering.

The right-wing propaganda machine could get Dubya's dog selected president, but even they can't make Dubya look good no matter how many billions they spend. But they do try.

"Bush's appeal is, after all, to the stupid. They, too, are inflexible - they also know that maintaining one's stupidity can become a kind of strength, provided you never change your mind."

- Norman Mailer, New York Review of Books

Anybody who thinks things are going to turn out okay is indulging in wishful thinking.

For the last few years consumer spending has been maintained by reducing saving, selling off home equity, and increasing debt. In the last few years the economy has in large part been driven by a housing boom - speculation on residential real estate, meaning construction and finance. Saving has been reduced until, nationally, it's now negative. Homeowners have cashed in about as much of the equity on their houses as they're going to, and new mortgage costs are very high. The housing boom is over, so where's the new money going to come from now?

To maintain spending levels US consumers put their wives to work in the 1970s, started selling off their home equity in the 1990s, and are now going into debt, because middle-class income is not keeping up with increasing costs and high expectations. In constant dollars, average worker pay peaked over thirty years ago and hasn't been as high since: so say BEA statistics.

People don't realize how much the economy is kept going on debt because it's never talked about any more. Consumer debt is maxing out, and assets like home equity are way down. The national debt has skyrocketed under Bush, and we're still paying for Reagan's deficits. The feds are still paying for things they bought twenty years ago and finally threw out ten years ago, until now a quarter of the federal budget goes for interest on the debt. And it's still getting worse:

"Senate Panel Okays $850 Billion Debt Increase"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091207T.shtml

The trade deficit gets higher every year, and we pay for it by selling off productive assets, compromising the national ability to work its debt off in the future. In short, the US economy is keeping itself alive by cannibalizing itself.

I strongly recommend Paul Craig Roberts' article on Counterpunch today for a fuller explanation on how bad the fundamentals are:

"American Economy: R.I.P."

http://counterpunch.org

Is anybody seeing any GOOD news? Today's headlines:

Economy will hover near recession, forecast says

Home sales forecast more dire

Housing slump starting to pinch the economy

Health care inflation slows but beats wage growth

Greenspan blamed for double bubbles

CFOs' Optimism Plummets to Six-Year Low

UCLA economists suggest that economy will not recover until 2009

Power prices set to surge

Home sales hit 15-year low in Southern California

Housing takes bigger bite out of income

Workers paying more for coverage

Moody’s Sees Surges in Junk Default Rate

Massive Motown foreclosure auction

http://www.prudentbear.com/

This is all very unsustainable. Sooner or later the bottom must fall out.

When it happens, and it will happen, it's not just going to be ugly. It's going to be weird ugly.

Democrats always lose elections because they root for recessions

Neither of which is true, which can only mean you're a lying neocon propagandist. We get a few of you guys around here sometimes.

The bad news is that this guy could actually get confirmed. What a disaster that would be. Pretty sick, huh?

Decent people should complain about this loudly. Besides, Dubya needs to be put in his place, and this might finally be the time to do it.

Dubya needs to start picking replacements who are more fair-minded as less corporatist and totalitarian, people who aren't just going to lie for him.

Cheney: "Suckers!"

Fred Kagan regards soldiers as disposable, and exist only for the purpose of dying for the greater glory of the almighty Bush and the profits of offense, er, defense industries.

Bush has promised to leave the lot of them in Iraq to die unless he gets all the funding he wants for his military adventurism, no strings attached. Some of us have pointed out that Bush has been holding 160,000 Americans hostage in Iraq, and that he's been getting away with murder and blackmail for years.

When they say "support the troops", what they mean is "support military imperialism or the troops get it." They could actually care less about the troops.

Pretty good scam, huh? What's amazing is that millions of Americans really are gullible enough to fall for it, over and over again.

Cheney: "Suckers!"

Dubya: "I haven't lost. I still have soldiers left."

Face facts, folks. Most people look better with their clothes on. Given the prevalence of obesity this is particularly true of Americans.

On the other hand, there are a few people out there who should be prohibited from wearing clothes. You know who you are.