The governor of CA has a plan, rather than layoff state workers, he plans to cut their pay to minimum wage. (The state controller didn't pay attention to him, and wrote the paychecks when they were due). The McCain plan sounds eerily similar. TO begin one has to accept the role of government as the employer of last resort.

CA is now almost two months without a budget. However if you layoff state workers, and pay them unemployment benefits, you have a lose-lose situation. Business doesn't get done, private contractors are shut out, and the workers draw benefits, which puts a further drag on the economy.

Better to give them an AHDUR! GID BAGCK TA WUHRK! US history is replete with examples of this, when Unions and collective bargaining breaks down. Back to work orders have been used to force all sorts of private employees back on the job, but they have never been forced to take a humiliating pay cut at the same time. If the paycut approximates the package benefits, would voters support this kind of indentured servitude?

As an aside the Bush Immigrant Worker Program, the old Brasero program, forced the worker to reapply for a visa, if they wanted to change employers. Gotcha! Of course Americans went through this in WWII, the government controlled who you worked for, and hey, this war in Iraq is at least as big as that one, and is still going on, much to the benefit of the people who would abuse the laws to compromise your freedoms.

The precendents need only a bit of tweaking to make it fit the economy of the 2000's, for John McCain and his rich Republican pals. Rather than pay you unemployment, while you do nothing, we pay you unemployment and you stay on the job. Is that the McCain plan too?

Heady call on Cleveland King, but really, aren't the Vikes the cream of the division? Even on the road. Jags are hurting, and aren't expectations a bit too high? Titans run against Jags so so run Defense?

Here's one rule for you and your coin flipping kids, when you have two C teams (Detroit and Atlanta) take the home dog.

Al Davis has to be older than John McCain. Does he even know the Broncos are in town?

Finally, last time the Panthers came out west it was brutal. Chargers play well at home. Shawn two Torn Ligaments Merriman can still draw the double team, we hope.

Chargers receivers underrated. Antonio the next Deion Sanders, Cromartie that is. Rivers throws fewer interceptions, Chargers lead league in interceptions.

Rivers isn't distracted, trash talking the fans. Chargers win big.

If the Democrats are to blame for anything, it's that they didn't stop the Republicans.

I understand the North American currency is dead, but what a beautiful plan it was. Those holding worthless US dollars (China) would be forced to redeem them by a certain date, and we would set the terms. Firesale prices no doubt. It was a once in a lifetime chance to see what the dollar was really worth. It was a chance for Paulson and company to get that paper off the books, and orphan those treasury bonds. We would promise to pay the interest, (nothing much really), lock up the principle. After that the Fed could go ahead and set prime at real rates. It was like a lot of other backdoor deals Bush had in mind, like selling the port authority to Dubai, for military access to the south shore of Hormuz.

When the rumors were ripe that China would dump their bonds, Treasury printed several trillion real dollars, to pay the bearers in cash. It was a superb bluff, and evidently it worked. Printing cash is actually less inflationary than posting new credit, cash takes longer to work through the system. The Chinese have now issued domestic bonds, backed with their US treasury holdings, as I understand it.

The government in Bejing had their reasons for taking Treasuries, it really has nothing to do with free market principles, or the exchange would have stopped a long time ago. Margins at most Chinese factories are zilch. Who knows who it would have worked out in a free market, maybe a lot better. But Treasury is only the clearing house for the currency, they have nothing to do with the demand for goods, the trade agreements, and so forth. A wiser government would have seen the trouble coming and put the brakes on.

Did Andrew say that this entire boondoggle stablized the US economy?