SAR #8234

We have spent our future.

Lottery: Fannie and Freddie will slip quietly beneath the waves __________ (next year) (next month) (next week) (tommorow) (what time is it?)

Globalization Rules! Just as "it's confined to sub-prime" turned out to be untrue, the idea that the global economy is somehow divorced from the US economy is turning out to be implausible. "Developing markets" are not going to save themselves, much less the rest of the world.

Best Of Three : Noticing that the Bush Administration has less than six months to go, the US Court of Appeals for DC has decided, 2 to 1, that the EPA's two year attempt to keep states and cities from monitoring air pollution is illegal. Like retiring generals, too little, too late.

Metric Conversion: Australian climate change expert Will Steffen says that scientific panels have seriously underestimated the speed at which the climate is changing and how quickly arctic ice is melting. He expects a four meter rise in sea levels before 2100. For the metrically challenged, that is about 13 feet. A lot of Florida is only 2 or 3 meters above sea level.

Demand Destruction? U.S. crude oil imports averaged nearly 11.0 million barrels per day last week, up 1.3 million barrels per day from the previous week. Over the last four weeks, crude oil imports have averaged over 10.2 million barrels per day, 93 thousand barrels per day above the same four-week period last year.

Perspective: Automobile accidents claim more than 40,000 lives every year. Yawn.

Missile Excess System: Q: Why is the US putting the Star Wars ballistic missile defense system (that doesn't work) in Poland to defend against ICBMs from Iran and North Korea (neither of which have anything close to an ICBM) which would never come anywhere near the Baltic Sea? A: (1) There are big US corporations that did not get much of the spoils from Iraq and (2) Some fools will still lend the US money to waste on war toys.

Secret Diplomacy Europe depends on Russia to heat their homes. That's rule one in their foreign policy decisions. They may share values with the US; they share pipelines with Russia.

Busy As A: The EPA refuses to release the pre-approval studies on Bayer's new class of pesticides conducted 5 years ago. Since then, honeybee deaths - 'colony collapse disorder' - have become a major threat to pollination in the US. Under Bush's new rules - science doesn't matter - it is hard to understand why the bee-huggers are going through the motions.

Don't Tell The Children: When will the US citizenry awaken to the fact that US foreign policy is made by neoconservatives whose allegiance is to Israel? (a) never (b) citizens? (c) when it makes the nightly news (d) when money talks (e) after.

Exceptional: Insurance is the only branch of the financial industry that has avoided the credit collapse problems stemming from the mortgage mess. Well, except AIG. Like the single-issue monoline insurers, AIG got caught being greedy on some no-risk CDO deals. AIG is the largest insurer in the US. Exception proves the rule.

Fact Is: America is losing its greatness not because of the atrocities we commit against our enemies, but because of the atrocities we commit against ourselves.

Porn O'Graph: Climbing foreclosure mountain .