SAR #8242

The term 'freedom fighter' seems to have fallen out of favor.

Strong: The strongest thing about the GDP numbers released yesterday was their smell. Most of the magical gain came from the ridiculous 1.2% figure used for inflation. Okay, everyone's had a good laugh; now could we have the real number?

Quickly, Quickly: To a 5-year old with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Especially in Denver.

Clarification: For those who have been at an undisclosed location, Moscow's representative to NATO has explained that Russia will view the use of the Western military assistance now being shipped into Georgia in another adventure into South Ossetia or Abkhazia will be viewed "as a declaration of war." In other words, keep your dog on a chain, Dick.

Good Question : If Iraq is a sovereign country, why does it have to negotiate an exit date for US occupation troops. Oh, 'occupation'.

Read the Instructions: Big Oil has scored a major contract to develop a major Iraqi oilfield on a production-sharing basis. The Chinese National Oil Company is paying $3 billion to revive an agreement reached in 1999 with Saddam Hussein's government. The US is spending upwards of $100 billion a year to make this experiment in capitalist democracy possible.

Accumulating Evidence: How many more children will the US kill in Afghanistan and Pakistan before sufficient data is accumulated to suggest that something's wrong with the general idea of assassinating terrorists with cruise missiles?

Before Dawn: "While U.S. home value indexes continued to decline, an encouraging sign has been the significant moderation in the rate of decline," said Freddie's VP Frank Nothaft. Translation: We're still in the handbasket and we're still going to hell, but slower.

Alchemy: Pakistani authorities have discovered a sure-fire way to get rich in the stock market - pass a law that says stocks may only go up. Hope Bernanke and Paulson are taking notes.

Orphan: Prosecutors are trying to reduce super-sleaze Jack Abramoff's jail time from a total of 17 years to a little under four. They claim this is reasonable given the help he gave the Feds in prosecuting the numerous powerful people he had corrupted. So he gets caught bribing people and gets time off for bribing people and then bragging about it to the Feds?

Fairly Un-Balanced: Fox aired just 2 minutes of Gov. Warner's keynote address to the convention, then cut to an ad, then aired a John McCain ad, and discussed Obama's ties to the Weather Underground when he was eight years old.

Default Protection: Wachovia is asking a US court to allow one of its front organizations declare bankruptcy in Bermuda in order to prevent creditors from seizing any Wachovia US assets to repay debts.

Ignorance is Bliss: With gasoline ever more expensive, why are the suburbs continuing to explode over the landscape? Some say it's because 'people actually like to live there'. More likely the cause is to be found in a tax-averse, self-centered and technologically isolated population that simply does not know better. Like abused children from dysfunctional homes, the suburban generations don't know better.

Honest Economist: "The prices are falling because they're too freakin' high." Chris Thornberg, Beacon Economics, Aug 27, 2008.mn;

Porn O'Graph: Real estate - location, location, lower.