With each new economic poll, more and more Americans express real concern about the economy and their declining ability to meet their financial obligations with fast-escalating food, fuel, housing, and medical costs when their paychecks haven’t shown any significant lift throughout most of the Bush Administration.

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.

Sadly, the only April Fool’s joke here is that I’ve yet to see a Senate or House inquiry into price-gouging and corporate welfare for energy companies EVER change a damned thing at the pumps or the heating/power bills.

Even if I were a Republican (oops… hands started to shake at that thought, sorry), I would be asking two HUGE questions after watching the media the last few months:

- How is it John McCain can spew the most ridiculous, bombastic, often hateful and WRONG claptrap while the media spends all its time discussing blacks, women, and Hispanics like each is a single separate personality and mindset?
- How is it that the media can spend so little time on anything of real value re: Clinton and Barack Obama while hitting us endlessly with questions about race, religion, lies-turned-into-truth and other issues that aren’t paramount to voters who want help with ending the war, restarting the economy, keeping their homes, and finding a way to afford groceries, fuel, and medical care?

Oh wait, here’s a third question:

Why should we believe a mainstream media on any of this WHEN they told us for months that Hillary Clinton couldn’t lose and McCain couldn’t win when they now flip it to suggest Hillary can’t get nominated and McCain can’t lose?

CNN is reporting - in the wake of much talk that Bush’s popularity had finally bottomed out as people stopped paying attention to him - that President Bush has hit a new all-time low in both presidential polling as a whole and his own numbers specifically. The 31% approval for Bush CNN just reported is the lowest in Bush history for the cable news network’s polling.

Gee, I’m sure these new lows have nothing to do with the reminder of the lies he took us to war in Iraq with five years ago, Bush’s “let the mortgage CEOs eat cake while starving homeowners heat their houses with burned default delinquency notes”, or his latest claims that all in Iraq is hunky-dory.

As you may have noticed the last few days, Bush’s rhetoric last month where he announced the government would sit back and not involve themselves in “individual contracts” private between mortgage brokers and mortgage holders so Americans “can pull themselves up by their own boot straps, like I never had to do even once in my life”, says Bush WILL rush in to bail out the billionaire CEOs and other financial institutions hurt themselves by the mortgage industry collapse.

So if you’re losing your home, tough. But the Bushies still need your tax dollars to bail out the people foreclosing upon you. Get out! Personally, I can’t see why anyone who either owns a home or wishes someday he or she may be able to do so would vote for McCain. Those who own the banks who own those houses, however, probably would vote Mac.

Gee, 100-200 MORE banks are expected to go belly-up soon. Makes you want to maintain that really great Republican “compassionate conservative” financial wizardry that the Bushies brought us with as many as 1 in 10 American homes now in foreclosure, default, or in serious danger of going into default right now which doesn’t count the tens of thousands of homes already seized.

Yet Bush is threatening to veto any effort by Congress to put a moratorium on foreclosure actions. As Keith Olbermann put it Wednesday night, Bush’s kind, compassionate message to scared American home owners is, “Screw you!” Doesn’t matter that the foreclosure crisis is very likely, many economists say, to result in a full-scale U.S. economic depression (recession’s much nastier stepmother).

(But, hey, at least the banks are willing to WORK with Michael Jackson whose California “Neverland” estate is due to be sold at sheriff’s auction in mid-March. Whew! Wouldn’t want him to curtail those half million dollar afternoon shopping sprees! What? His buddy, the Sultan of Brunei can’t bail him out as often as the Saudis have bailed out President George W. Bush long before he hit office?)

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.

With the recession more a reality everyday, one must wonder who can justify more Republican rule over the economy.

Let me go beat my sarcasm into submission while you read this from Think Progress:

A new study by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism found that President Bush and his top officials issued 935 false statements about the threat from Iraq in the two years following 9/11. Bush “led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq’s links to al Qaeda.”

A new Iraqi law said to “return former Baathists to public life,” could actually “set off a new purge of ex-Baathists, the opposite of U.S. hopes for the legislation,” according to “Iraqi lawmakers, U.S. officials and former Baathists.” At least 7,000 Baathists who have been allowed back into the government in recent years may lose their current positions under the new law.

In “private,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke “has expressed growing pessimism about the economy,” reportedly saying that “the first six months of this year will be “bad.” He also suggested that “there is better than a 50-50 chance for a recession” and believes the ensuing recovery will be “weak.”

“Many of the poorest people in the United States are still struggling to recover from the effects of a recession that ended six years ago, making them very vulnerable as the country stands on the brink of a new downturn.” In 2006, “12.3 percent of Americans were living in poverty, compared with 11.7 percent in 2001, the year of the last recession.”

The House has postponed votes on “criminal contempt citations against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers” in order to foster “bipartisan unity” while working on an economic stimulus package.

Questions About Terrorism? Invite “Ask Al Qaeda” To Your Next Social Organization Brunch!

Oddly enough, this is not entirely a joke though “Breakfast with the Bin Ladens” may not be quite as popular as “Have Hot Chocolate With Santa.” On the plus side, however, Osama does speak English better than President Bush and can pronounce nuclear correctly..(Though, to be fair, most three-year-olds speak and enunciate far better than our “MBA president”; where MBA stands for “mommy’s biggest asshole.”)

But I digress when I want to share with you news so very twisted in its own way, you’d think it came out of Bush’s Department of Homeland (In)Security: Namely, al Qaeda has apparently opened up its own customer service department on the Internets (all of them). There, al Qaeda operatives (so they say) are available to answer questions you may have about those 72 virgins they get for lethal missions, how to make a suicide bomb vest that is both functional and stylish, as well as how all six feet-four inches of Osama (with a beard almost as long) manages to terrorize below the radar abd remain unapprehended some six-and-a-half years after Bush declared, “he can run but he can’t hide” and that he would personally catch OBL “dead or alive.” (That Mission isn’t Accomplished either, Mr. President.)

Interestingly enough, the pediatrician al-Zawahri who is Osama’s second in command made himself available for a (live?) online interview. Isn’t it encouraging to learn that a radical terrorist network and its leaders manage to be far more available and accountable to its recruits than the entire Bush Administration has been to the American people for seven years now? But then, some would say that the Bushies actually represent the largest terrorist network in the entire world.

Yes, indeed, it’s the Bizarro World out there and Bush is the leader of the biggest Bizarro faction of them all!

Forget Dinner: You Can’t Afford It!

While the Bushies spin the economy as being much better than reported – while Fed chair Ben Bernanke meets “in secret” (the favorite Bushie way!) to cut the interest rate in a move many decry as fraught with more dangers than leaving it alone – more than 3 out of every 4 people taking the CNN poll (“Are we in a recession now?”) say yes! Of more than 125,000 people who’ve cast votes so far, 75% disagree with the Bush drivel.

See What Happens When You Forget To Take Your Anti-Psychotic Meds With Breakfast

Senator John McCain, if seeming to offer Repuglicrat Sen. JoeMentum a job as his vice president did not supply enough evidence his mental health is MIA on its fast track to being declared DOA, proves he’s off his meds with THIS quote: (shudder!):

“Don’t turn the pharmaceutical companies into the big bad guys.”

As opposed to… uh… what, Mac? Are they disciples of Christ, beauty pageant contestants, Sunday School teachers, smiters of Harry Potter magic, and benevolent leprechauns all rolled into one of the most powerful lobbyist organizations in the entire world?

You feeling OK? Or are you just auditioning for your new gig as a PhRMA lobbyist once Diebold steals the 2008 presidential win from you and Arizona (finally) kicks you to the curb?

“Let Me Have a Pastrami on Toasted Pumpernickel; Hold The Cole Slaw And Give Me Some Progressive- and Fairness.”

Pass the mustard and napkins and prepare to smile, The very same America that’s been fighting in the Bush years to relegate evolution to “crazy theory” status and to wage war on science, critical thinking, AND its own working class citizens sits poised to knock our (figurative) socks O-F-F. It’s high time, too, though not even British Colombia’s super pot and/or “chronic” deserves the credit for this encouraging about-face.
In a major CNN poll first reported yesterday (on the late Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday), more Americans than ever before acknowledge the United States is “ready” for a black president. Specifically, this “readiness” was opined by:

(more…)

The TV talking heads sure seem in a hurry to narrow down the presidential nominee field which seems almost totally exclusive to Democrats, while a few of the piss-poor-showing Republicans, included among them those with big bucks, do not appear to be subjected to the same rush despite their poorer showings.

Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report discusses the big question(s) before 2008 Dem presidential candidate (and John Kerry’s VP choice in the 2004 race), John Edwards, regarding whether it’s time for him to pack it in or continue on toward the Dem convention this summer which is what Edwards has said he will do.

As I’ve said, I’m undecided at this time. However, Edwards (along with Dennis Kucinich) comes closer to my “ideal” candidate than do Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who, IMHO, are too willing to make concessions I don’t like, don’t believe are good for the country in its current shape (which isn’t all that good). To me, both represent the DLC approach to Democrats which I find too much like middle ground Republicanism to help Democrats as a whole. If the Republicans don’t want to elect moderate Republicans, why should Dems do it for them?

Interestingly enough, I did NOT support Edwards in 2004 though I came to support the Kerry-Edwards’ ticket simply because Edwards was on it and I saw a progressive-ism growing in him that seemed utterly absent from Kerry. The Edwards running today is a much-changed man, I believe, from 2004 and I do NOT believe this is an act. John Edwards’ approach on universal health care, the working class, and so many other issues.

Right now, his campaign isn’t doing super great. But what’s strange is that he’s got at least half the delegates of Obama and Clinton WHILE, where Republicans like Thompson and Giuliani barely have a handful of delegates BETWEEN them, pundits aren’t shouting to push Fred and Rudy off the campaign trail as they are with Edwards. Why? What’s the difference? Could it be that Edwards is simply not “corporate money” enough for the DLC crowd while among Repugs, Rudy and Fred will definitely sell their souls?

What’s your take?

Gee, what do the Europeans know that Bush doesn’t? (Besides American and world history, how to speak English, that tax cuts to billionaires don’t cure everything, etc.)

Just as about every intelligent voice in the U.S. already says, Europe knows that Bush’s latest round of tax cuts for the wealthiest, which did nothing to spur the economy after 9-11 and beyond, Bush wants will NOT do anything to stop the Bush economy’s record-breaking race to yet crippling economic recession. European economic pessimism today, in fact, is hurting investors and futures markets, to name but a few. At the same time, Fed chief Ben Bernanke is expected to cut interest rates yet again which sounds great until you listen to a number of other analysts that predict unchecked inflation and other issues arising from the Bush Administration always-does-the-wrong-thing handling of the economy will bring far more DIRE times rather than relief.

Consider, too, that Bush’s latest horrible plan comes right on the heels of introducing “owner foreclosure help” that would allow Countrywide (the nation’s largest mortgage bank) to keep from filing bankruptcy and give its buyer (Bank of America), a quarter billion in additional tax write-offs every year for a long time while (magically) doing just about NOTHING for middle class (and lesser) homeowners about to lose their homes.

As Bush has said a number of times, he doesn’t understand poor people.

Or:

* smart people
* reasonable people
* people who tell the truth (Bush has never been in the same zip code with the truth in his life)
* people who really ARE patriotic vs. just his lackeys

The list could go on forever, y’know.