As many readers have already posted, this "stimulus package" is about two things:

1) Securing Bush's tax cuts for the rich before he leaves office, under the politically palatable cover of a handout to the poor and middle class. The Democrats will most certainly not stand against it - at least not in sufficient numbers. There are campaigns to be run. Who's going to give them that cash?

2) Encouraging the culture of endless consumerism, which we need in the United States about as much as a drunk needs a fifth of rotgut whiskey. It benefits the big corporations that sell us the junk, though.

As we've come to expect in America's late-empire decadent stage, there is no discussion about actually investing in the country through increased spending on infrastructure, education, or healthcare, to name just a few. I guess only when the Brooklyn Bridge itself collapses or when American students' math scores reach the level of Albania's will we realize what we have pissed away.

mrtimpa asked this question a few posts back.

Unfortunately, I think the answer in this case is very simple. Once you strip away all the phony claims to "compassion," the religious right is nothing but a bunch of second-rate fascists. In thrall to authority themselves, they cannot countenance how or why others would reject such authority, and the prospect of this rejection is deeply offensive - and threatening - to them. Gore Vidal, among others, has been articulating this idea for decades.

Since their extremism inspires my own, I'd go as far to say that they're not even Americans - at least in the sense that the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are the ultimate repositories of those values. They're more like a strange throwback to the Inquisition.

To the anonymous poster who's cashing in all the stocks in his/her retirement account: assuming you're redeeming mutual funds to rebalance your 401(k) portfolio, by the time your transactions are made at the end of trading today, all you will have accomplished is to lock in massive losses.

No long-term investors should make any drastic moves based on what the Fed, or the market, does on any particular day. If anything, you should be buying stocks.

Leonard's comments on the Fed cut... er, capitulation... are spot-on. What the Fed has just done is greatly increase the prospect of high inflation, which would be horribly detrimental to the average person's finances. Their actual goal seems to be something other than the welfare of the macro economy.

In addition to the slow growth, the inflation numbers released today came in above consensus expectations.

Bernanke's response to the economic challenges facing the country have been very disappointing. His "panic button" cuts last week seemed to be solely inspired by a desire to prop up financial markets. That's the tail wagging the dog, and no good will come from a Fed Chairman responding to market gyrations - and perhaps to well-placed Wall Street friends - instead of substantive economic data.

Once again, everybody is obsessed with recession talk, while mostly ignoring inflation, which may be more of a risk at this point. Moreover, once unleashed, high inflation is a much more difficult beast to tame than a mere recession.

Reading this post in light of yesterday's about Mukasey's appearance before the Senate, it's obvious that Bush and Co. have much more in common with Vladimir Putin (minus the intelligence and competence) than a milquetoast yes-man piker like Harry Reid ever could.

Has any reporter been brazen enough to ask Dana Perino why the American government has been increasingly shrill in its condemnation of Putin, while ignoring the fact that many of the Russian president's authoritarian tendencies have become increasingly commonplace in our own political culture?

I doubt it, but we can dream, can't we?

Those comments by Ms. Goldfeder are a perfect illustration of why Obama has mounted a credible insurgency. Is Ms. Goldfeder sending her children or grandchildren to fight unending wars in the Middle East? I doubt it. That's for rural white trash and colored kids from the inner city.

This country ought not to be, as right-leaning Jews and certain Christian fundamentalists have tried their best to make it, a hyper-powerful auxiliary of Mossad and Likud.

To anybody who has a brain to think with, our Israel-right-or-wrong policies have been disastrous both for this country and the Middle East. It makes me incredibly depressed that so many of my fellow Democrats persist in this way of thinking.

Raising the top marginal tax rates, cutting defense spending, and using the proceeds to invest in infrastructure, education, and healthcare would be the best solution to any recession.

It's possible, but it would require two things: Americans have to give up their dreams of empire, along with their need for immediate gratification. These are deeply entrenched, and I'm not betting on our giving up either one without some terrible crisis.

I'm also highly skeptical of all the claims that "Americans can't save". Somehow all these masses of people who can't save any money for retirement or their children's education are able to spend it (or be willing to go into debt) on cellphones, cable TV, SUVs, and, until recently, McMansions.

If putting that 10% into their 401(k) means they can't have the latest gadget, many people will forego the retirement savings. They probably believe the government will bail them out later, and as such are living in a fool's paradise.

I don't need their damn $600, and I don't want it. The only debt I have is a mortgage, and I'm already pre-paying that.

I plan to donate my check to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That's basically me extending my middle finger to the Republicans and the Harry Reid Democrats who are selling our constitutional liberties to finance their reelection campaigns.