Mark my words

Put down the date: June 12, 2008.

It's the day I predict that the American people are going to have the largest and most public celebration ever for this quadrennial event--including dancing in the streets (it will be on the news that evening) next January 20, 2009, to celebrate President George Walker Bush taking leave of office.


It's one of the few good things that will come from these last 8 years--and his tenure.

I lied or I was wrong or something...

I can't quit with the important stuff. I'm not going to rant and rave but I can try to disseminate good, solid, important information. So here goes.

Did you see this?

The Three Trillion Dollar War

by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes

When the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Americans were told Iraqi oil would cover the costs of the war and rebuilding. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld scoffed at estimates of $100 billion.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Harvard University professor Linda Bilmes raised a stir in 2006 by estimating the real cost of the war to be $1 trillion. That estimate has been tripled and the title of their new book is "The Three Trillion Dollar War."

See the author's answers to questions at:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/qna/forum/three_trillion_dollar_war/index.html

Also, on a related topic, if you aren't familiar with Joe Galloway, he's a columnist/reporter for McClatchy Newspapers and seems to write some good, thought-provoking stuff. You can find him here:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/galloway/

McCain: sayin' the right thing

Okay, first things first.

Let me make it very clear that I am not a "McCain man". I am absolutely not, in any way for John McCain or for him for the Presidency of the United States in the year 2008. I never voted for him and never will. I did wish it were him instead of the current knucklehead we ended up with, precisely because I didn't think he'd be as bad for us as I thought W would be--and, apparently, I was more than just a little correct in that. I don't think he would have attacked another, foreign sovereign nation, which is so clearly, unalterably against international law. Also, he probably wouldn't have screwed us all up the way this, again, knucklehead has.

All that said, I will say that John McCain said the absolute right thing this week when he said he would not bail out any banks, construction firms or home buyers with government money. He said they made their mistakes and they'd have to live with them.

And you know? He's right.

The banks made lousy--possibly illegal--loans to home buyers and a whole bunch of greedy nincompoops signed off on what were just incredibly stupid home loans because they either believed they could afford them or they were told they could afford them, or both.

We shouldn't now bail them out and we shouldn't have to.

Senator McCain probably only said this to pander to the Conservatives in the party, I'm thinking, and he's only trying to simply prove how Conservative he REALLY is but, hey, he said it and, let me say it again, he was right.

Now, two things have or will have come out of this. First, because everyone's jumping all over him--mostly Democrats--he'll never say it again, which is too bad because--let me repeat--HE WAS RIGHT. Second, the Democrats have jumped all over this saying he's "Mr. Do-nothing" when it comes to the economy, which is nonsense and very close to a lie.

It's wrong and wrong-headed.

Look around. We have a pile of debt as a nation, and it's just getting bigger. Millions, billions and trillions larger. We can't afford to keep bailing out people who do the wrong thing anyway, in business. We just can't. We don't have the money anymore. We don't have that capability. And if we did, we still shouldn't. If your brother always got drunk and blew his paycheck and didn't take care of his family but gambled his money away, instead, would you forever throw money at his problems? No, you wouldn't. And you shouldn't, even if you could and the same applies here.

Now, connected to this bigger picture is the likelihood of a coming recession. Yes, I said the word: recession. (At the beginning of these things--which always come around, folks, I have news for you--people always freak out and only refer to it as "the 'R' word", like a) we've never done this before and b) it's the end of the world.)

I have news for you--we've lived through recessions before and we will again. And again. And again.

And we have to. It's called the business cycle, ladies and gentlemen, and they are a fact of life. They are a fact of the business world. If you don't have busts, you can't have booms. If you get very descriptive of them, you start sounding like Peter Sellers playing Chauncey in the movie "Being There", where you say things about there being a Winter, and then Spring comes along, with new growth.

BUT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS. And it's what needs to happen.

So when everyone starts talking about pumping money into the economy because, God forbid, we can't have a recession, I want to scream.

Let me say it again: WE NEED RECESSIONS. We need downturns so we clear out the crap. We need downturns so we later have upturns.

And for Hillary and Barack and any politician to say we have to pump money into the economy, I say bunk. More crap. We do not. We decidedly do not.

WE DON'T HAVE THE MONEY. We don't have the funds to keep pumping in. IT ISN'T THERE.

And secondly, WE NEED DOWNTURNS. Throwing money at this recession is a mistake.

I'm not saying "tough" when someone loses their job, no. Actually, what I'm saying is that people inevitably lose their jobs. They'll need to go out with their skills and get a new job, yes, either with what skill set they have or they'll have to get some more training. (News flash: we need LOTS more computer people! And nurses! and teachers! Maybe train there).

So, when I hear politicians pandering that there needs to be more money sent out or given to some group, I just want to say "No! Enough!". And someone needs to. Senator McCain did and he's being vilified for it and it's wrong. He's right.

I hope he has the conservative guts to stick with what he said.

I bet he doesn't.