Confused

Leadership

' "Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

"Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out! ...

No gas or food for you:

Yet Bernanke's Fed signaled Wednesday that, after nine months of interest rate cuts and expansive lending to the financial sector, it isn't eager to reverse course and push rates higher to try to tamp down rising prices.

Why? Because the Fed remains skeptical that high commodity prices will ripple through the economy, leading to broad price hikes and big wage increases. ...

War and Oil

A group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq, American officials say.

The disclosure, coming on the eve of the contracts’ announcement, is the first confirmation of direct involvement by the Bush administration in deals to open Iraq’s oil to commercial development and is likely to stoke criticism.

...

Price of Oil:

OPEC Leader Khelil Says Dollar Will Drive Oil to $170 ...

and if this:

Israel has a year to stop Iran bomb, warns ex-spy ...

happens, $170 will be cheap.

Economy

Dow in 350-point tumble ...

What War?

According to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been “massively scaled back this year.” Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The “CBS Evening News” has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC’s “World News” and 74 minutes on “NBC Nightly News.” (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.) ...

Inaugural Day Stock Report:

Clinton (D) (01/20/1993) - $3,291.45

Bush (R) (01/20/2001) - $10,587.59

Yesterday - $12,063.09

Clinton (D) = 221% increase (27.6% per year)

Bush (R) = 14% increase (1.9% per year)

With inflation ajustments:

Clinton (D) (2.6%) = 25% per year

Bush (R) (2.7%) = -0.8% per year

It's not about oil?:

ExxonMobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq's Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.
...

The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production.

There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract. The Bush administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism. It is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts; there are still American advisers to Iraq's Oil Ministry.

...

Tupac:

"they got money for war, but can't feed the poor."

'"Keep Ya Head Up"

Offshore Oil

The federal Minerals Management Service estimates that 86-billion barrels of oil and 430 cubic feet of natural gas lie in undiscovered reserves off the U.S. coast, though the agency could not say how much of it is now off-limits. ...

That equals 1,000 days of world oil consumption or 4,000 days of US consumption ...

More 4% inflation:

Employer health care costs are poised to rise almost 10 percent in 2008 ...

Iraq

Monday: 3 GIs, 15 Iraqis Killed; 40 Iraqis Wounded ...

Iraq

Wednesday: 2 U.S. Soldiers, 26 Iraqis Killed; 40 Iraqis Wounded ...

Your tax dollar

Watch this video ...

Macho Man

Bush: No regrets over Iraq invasion ...

Accountability

A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.

For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC's Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources.

A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.

The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies. ...

Bad for Business?

McCain says Obama policies are bad for business ...

What about the Bush Economy:

• Stagnant Stock Market
  
• Declining Home Resales
  
• Declining Household Income
  
• More Poverty
  
• Soaring Oil Cost
  
• Soaring Inflation
  
• Record Deficits
  

Debt

There is a ton of debt in the system which will blunt the effects of lower interest rates. I wrote this last week:

Total debt outstanding -- that is personal, corporate and government debt outstanding -- is $31.758 trillion. Total US GDP is $14.196 trillion. That means that there is 2.23 times the amount of debt in the US relative to the total value of the US economy.

Total household debt is $13.960 trillion. That means total household debt as a percentage of GDP is 98.33%. Disposable income at the national level is $10.502 trillion. That means that total household debt is 132.92% of disposable income at the national level.



Simply put, the US is literally drowning in debt. And it's going to take awhile to pay this debt off. ...

2 over 109

Unfortunately for the president, many historians have already reached a conclusion. In an informal survey of scholars this spring, just two out of 109 historians said Bush would be judged a success; a majority deemed him the "worst president ever." ...

Appeasers

Note the supreme hypocrisy of the Republican Party. Bush and McCain are attacking Barack Obama for saying he would meet with Iranian officials. But they are perfectly o.k. with their man in Baghdad, Nuri al-Maliki, doing exactly the same thing. In fact, it may well come out eventually that Bush and Cheney sent private messages to Ahmadinejad via al-Maliki. ...

Iraq

Sunday: 2 US Soldiers, 28 Iraqis Killed; 18 Americans, 58 Iraqis Wounded ...

Army of 'one'?

McCain gets tax-free disability pension ...

McCain misses vote on a new GI Bill ...

39 minutes of class or a 39 minute class!

4% Inflation?

Gas prices have risen more than 10 percent from a month ago and are nearly 29 percent higher than the $3.105 average a year ago, according to AAA.

The 'Real' Threat

"Right now, China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia basically own the United States. Our economy is the real target of terrorists and this is our potential downfall,"
...

Today's kids

The problem is they want to work!

President Bush said something earlier about how the unemployment rate today -- the increase -- was because a whole bunch of teenagers have joined the workforce ...