One of our readers recommends this piece at Garling Gauge in reference to my post about the House of Representatives (almost exclusively Democrats voted nay) and its vote to reject the latest blank check George Bush demands to wage more war in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Thank you, reader!)

I think such a refusal is not only politically viable, I think it’s K-I-S-S and would have the support of the vast majority of the American people (since even former Bush supporters notice that for all of Bush’s previous claims to need the money for the GIs, our GIs and vets aren’t getting jack poop).

Has John McCain become a puppet who just spouts or does he REALLY not know that - until Bush II - Ronald Reagan drove the debt to triple with his fat cat and corporate welfare spending at the same time he laid waste to programs for lower income, disabled, disadvantaged Americans.

I was in college - working four jobs and carrying an extremely heavy courseload so I could dual major and raising my little brother - when Reagan killed some of the state and federal funding. So I could have enough money for my little brother to eat so long as I didn’t finish my senior year. Instead, I took yet another job and can’t remember a damned thing about my last year of college; too exhausted to be present.

As I sat battling the entire long weekend with pesky hardware problems among two different PC systems in addition to household leaks following some record snowfall all while experiencing the joy of feeling my glands swell and my nose turn raw while I also reviewed my tax returns, I couldn’t help but think that if misery loves company, I’ve got a multitude of new pals.

Sure, some Americans are having a decent time of it, but that percentage is literally dropping more everyday. Even among those who identify themselves as mostly maintaining their current living standard in one of the roughest prolonged financial “repressions” in the last century, many agree that not only is the U.S. in trouble economically, but our mental state is suffering, too.

In the last decade, we’ve seen one big change after another; most of them pretty awful. For example, we’re now seeing our first generations in recent American history where working adults are NOT making more than their parents did; where there is grave concern that what little “universal” health care we currently enjoy - Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for poorer kids - is failing badly.

Not since the Great Depression of the late 1920s-1930s have so many Americans:

Considering so much of this picture has become grim under the Republicans’ watch, how can ANYONE even consider voting for a McCain or a Huckabee in November? As a Democrat, I’m not sure my candidate can bring about enough of a change as quickly as our country needs but I’ll take that concern over choosing one of the GOP disasters.

I stumbled onto the American Spectator and was struck by Andrew Neuman’s column titled  Where Corn Counts.  Neuman targets his column to the “Movement Conservatives”, whom he identifies as those responsible for the ”dominant narrative of ideas and events issuing forth from the constellation of talk radio hosts, columnists, and think tanks that the mainstream media put under the heading of ‘Conservative.’”  Neuman contends that if the Republican party were to actually follow the guidance of these leaders that they would find themselves with the Greens and Libertarians, fighting over 3% of the electorate every election. 

I agree with the gist of Neuman’s point actually, but I’m afraid that in arguing the one issue which he seizes upon to make his point that he sadly misses the boat.   Neuman takes issue with the Movement Conservatives who brook no support for bio fuel research and production.  (more…)

Another example of one of the many, many reasons we need to remove ourselves from Iraq:

A defense contractor hired to repair combat equipment routinely failed to do the job right and then charged the government millions of dollars for the extra work needed to get the gear ready for battle in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a newly released audit.

Overall, the contractor’s employees at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait worked about 188,000 additional hours to fix Humvees, heavy transporters and fighting vehicles that allegedly were mended but flunked a military inspection, the Government Accountability Office said.

The GAO estimates the Army paid $4.2 million for the additional labor. Under the terms of the $581 million contract, the company is to be paid for all maintenance hours worked. That includes “labor hours associated with maintenance performed after the Army rejects equipment that fails to meet Army maintenance standards,” said the GAO, which is the investigative arm of Congress.

The contractor is not named in the GAO audit. The contract number is, however. The Federal Procurement Data System, a Web site that tracks government contracts, shows ITT Federal Services International of Colorado Springs, Colo., as the company performing the work.
…
The Army attributes the shoddy performance to flaws with the contractor’s quality control systems and its reliance on the military to point out what was wrong with the gear, according to the GAO. But auditors said the Army did a poor job of monitoring the company’s performance. That’s partly due to a shortage of qualified contracting personnel.

So the Army is doing a piss-poor job monitoring the company who is doing a piss-poor job and eating up millions of our dollars all the while. Aren’t there some kids who could use health care - or maybe just even a warm meal - somewhere? In this country?

If you want to hear some of the economic experts discuss the dire state of our economy, catch Democracy Now’s broadcast today (starts about halfway in, after the YouTube debate talk).

Nice to know we’re being bought by the rich of the Middle East and the elite of the Arab world. Funny how much this group wants to scare you about Muslims while standing by and smiling while the richest of them buy up America, one working class home, local bank, and CitiCorp at a time.

We all know American homes have never been in more jeopardy (a tad ironic, considering all this crew does is talk about the safety and sanctity of the homeland). What fewer of us realize, however, is that some of the same people who helped build the misery of sub-prime home loans (and remember, many of those in foreclosure now are NOT sub-prime loans which is even scarier) are the same people who have advised the Bushies on the economy and how to proceed.

NOW these people come out and say we should do something. NOW, after tens of millions of homes have been lost, and whole areas of the country are doubling up on recession because they have lost so many taxpayers and consumers in their communities. Of course, nothing will be done. Not by the Bushies and I don’t know if a Democratic winner in 2008 can help much there either. The point was NOT to let it get this bad in the first place, and for seven years, the Bushies deliberately fucked the economy and touted the very people who helped create a huge subset of foreclosed working Americans.

At the same time, economists are beginning to say en masse that the mortgage crisis alone COULD take down the rest of the American economy. Even the Bushies should wonder about that. I mean, can we attack Iran on a credit card? A subprime credit card perhaps?

As Democrats were unable to get enough of votes to counter Bush’s usual “give me what I want and give it to me now or I’ll veto your ass” regarding more Iraq war funding, the media again today snipped and sneared at the Democrats for “their failure.”

Yet, as we’ve pointed out too many times, the most simple of majorities, which the Dems have in both the House and Senate, is NOT the smackdown majority the Repugs held for so long during the Bush Empire. As long as Republicans - and “fake” Dem, Joe Lieberman - keep being sure that they can ride the fence to satisfy their most right-leaning constituents back home while also giving mealy-mouthed attention to the increasing volume of red staters who want out of Bush’s constant wars, the Dems will remain unable to stop Bush and all the damage he causes.

Once again with this vote, even occasionally sane Republicans started shouting loony rhetoric about how a failure to give Bush yet more unlimited funds to pay Blackwater and Bechtel and company amounts to “telling our troops they are losers.”

The money Bush wants isn’t FOR our troops. It’s for his war of empire. We all lose this one.

Remember the surplus Bill Clinton left us with?

No?

Ah, that’s because of the 7 years of Bush who can veto health care for kids but demands tax breaks for Dick Cheney and friends.

Oh, and you likely owe at least $32K grand per person in your household for the “war that will pay for itself, guaranteed! cakewalk” called Iraq”. Sorry, no checks. Only blood and sweat and your hopes and dreams are tender we accept, please.

No, not his ass. Not literally, anyway. From the wholesome folks at WaPo:

President Bush suffered the first veto override of his seven-year-old presidency Thursday as the Senate enacted a $23 billion water resources bill despite his protest that it was filled with unnecessary projects.

The 79-14 vote included 34 Republicans who defied the president. Enactment was a foregone conclusion, but it still marked a milestone for a president who spent his first six years with a much friendlier Congress controlled by his Republican Party.
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The bill funds hundreds of Army Corps of Engineers projects, such as dams, sewage plants and beach restoration, that are important to local communities and their representatives. It also includes money for the hurricane-hit Gulf Coast and for Florida Everglades restoration efforts.

Mmmm…delicious. Now, if someone could just get O.J. Simpson off the damned television, this just might turn out to be a phenomenal day.

Everytime he opens his mouth about Iran, the crude oil price per barrel skyrockets and his “economic” genius has created what is arguably a much worse set of financial circumstances for many Americans than what happened during in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and the coming of the great depression. 439 days more is an AWFULLY long time.

From The New York Times:

Stock markets plummeted and the dollar sank to as investors grew skittish over rising oil prices and the prospect of a substantial U.S. economic slowdown.

In a historic first, the House has decisively overridden President Bush’s veto of a water projects spending bill.  The Senate is expected to follow suit, and this will be the first time that a veto by President Bush has been overridden by Congress. 

The opening salvos in the coming budget wars came with the passage of SCHIP, which the President vetoed, which veto Congress could not override.   The President claims SCHIP and the water projects bill are fiscally irresponsible due to increased spending. 

I think the President is looking into the fog of history and trying to repeat what he sees through the mists.  Bill Clinton forced a budget showdown with the Gingrich led Republican Congress and won that battle.   Bush would love nothing more than to shut down the Government in the name of fiscal conservatism because he is convinced he will win the showdown.  Indeed, history normally shows that presumption to be true, and the weakened backbones displayed by the Congress hardly serves to inspire confidence in their ability to effectively face Bush down.   But there is one major difference at play here which may wind up throwing a wrench into President Bush’s scheme to repeat history and win a budget showdown. (more…)