November 29, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


THE TANKING GOP ECONOMY

Republican propagandists tell us we have a strong economy. Those of us in the real world know differently. The economy is good for the economic elite and not good at all for everyone else. This should once again be a lesson that the economy always tanks when Republicans are in control. They transfer wealth to the already wealthy, direct way too much money to defense, and neglect our basic infrastructure. They hold down wages and export jobs to other countries. This article shows that consumer confidence, home prices, and purchases of durable goods are all down. The article is at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15938901/:

Three pillars of the economy — consumer confidence, orders for manufactured goods and home prices — showed surprising cracks on Tuesday, flashing signals that growth may slow more heading into the important holiday shopping season.

The New York-based Conference Board said its widely watched consumer confidence index fell to 102.9 in November from a revised reading of 105.1 in October. November’s figure was the lowest since August’s 100.2 and well below economists’ expectations of a 106 reading.

That news arrived on the heels of a government report on durable goods that showed orders for big-ticket manufactured goods plunged 8.3 percent in October — the largest drop in more than six years.

STOP THE CLICHES

Iraq has become a never-ending horror, and George W. Bush continues to mouth platitudes about staying until the mission is complete. What, exactly, is the mission now? We don't belong in Iraq. We never belonged there. Bush has caused the unnecessary deaths of thousands, including members of our own military, and the longer we stay the more unnecessary deaths there are. Even Bush's National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, has written a memo that shows grave doubts about the ability of the current Iraqi (puppet) government to resolve the conflict. This column by Maureen Dowd is at www.welcome-to-pottersville. blogspot.com:

President Bush is still playing games, trying to link the need to stay in Iraq with Al Qaeda. “No question it’s tough,” Mr. Bush said at a news conference. “There’s a lot of sectarian violence taking place, fomented, in my opinion, because of the attacks by Al Qaeda, causing people to seek reprisal.”

Never mind that W. dropped the ball on Osama, and that his own commanders have estimated that Al Qaeda forces represent only a fraction of the foe in Iraq. Al Qaeda wasn’t even in Iraq until the Bush invasion.

The administration still won’t admit the obvious, that our soldiers are stuck in the middle of a civil war and that it’s going to take more than Dick Cheney powwowing with the Saudis to get us out of it. Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, gingerly talks of “a new phase” in the conflict.

But reality does break through at moments. As Mr. Bush and Mr. Hadley head to Jordan to try to tell Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki not to go all wobbly, a stunning secret memo from Mr. Hadley has surfaced, expressing severe skepticism about whether our latest puppet can cut it.