SAR #9353

Many Americans still believe the war on terror is real.

Minimum Wage:   At the last minute, in steps the US waving money around to buy a photo op for Obama in Copenhagen. For $100 billion a year, most of which they will be able to steal while pretending to improve their countries, the leaders of the poorer nations are to shut up and go along with the US plan to pretend to lower CO2 emissions.

Their Plan:   As Congress undertakes the necessary court-drama of approving an increase in the national debt limit, Wall Street has a new plan to get money from the taxpayers. Their man in the White House, suddenly discovering a deep concern for the mounting federal deficit, will establishing a committee to study ways of lowering the future deficits. The committee will recommend reducing Medicare and eviscerating Social Security in ways that will funnel money into Wall Street coffers. The recommendations will arrive in November 2010, after the elections, with action slated before year's end so as to let the gang that just lost their seats pass the legislation on their way out of Washington and into waiting consultancies.

Knew It All Along:  “The fundamental problem is clear: Too much wealth in the hands of the few.

Special Dividend:  Moody's warns that the increased taxes and drastic sending cuts necessary for countries to continue to transfer their citizens' wealth to the banks that finance their ever-growing debt may cause “social unrest” in “a leading economy”. Usual prize for identifying at least five “leading economies” with “social unrest and public tensions.” Hint: two of them may start with the letter U.

Another Bailout:  Scientists now predict that the formerly safe and comfortable 2C global temperature rise will eventually lead to a 20 – 30 foot rise in sea level, which would drown a third of Florida, much of Bangladesh, most of the Netherlands; and most southern Manhattan – except for Wall Street, which will continue to be bailed out.

Contest:   Usual prize to the reader who identifies the greatest number of differences between what Obama says and what he does.

“Laid Off”:   What a marvelously innocent term for what is really meant – dropped in the trash. The good news is that only 480,000 were so disposed of last week, an increase of 7,000 on top of last week's 19,000 increase. So we're not getting worse faster, just at the same old rate. But most certainly we're not getting better. Those receiving 'regular' benefits number 5.19 million, those with the 'extra-long' benefits number 4.73 million and those who the Ministry of Truth Department of Labor doesn't count, don't count.

In Time for Christmas:   The US launched two Predator missile strikes in Canada yesterday. Oh, sorry. It was Pakistan, another country the US is not at war with, not Canada. One strike destroyed a car and its two passengers, who may or may not have been speeding. The second strike consisted of five drones launching a total of 10 missiles into a pair of housing compounds. The identity of the wedding parties massacred was not immediately known. US officials confirmed the attacks, saying some of the 40 such attacks this year have killed “top al-Qaida operatives” as well as a large number of women and children, as part of winning the hearts and minds of the peasantry.

Porn O'Graph:   If you added up all the flavors of the countable unemployed (and didn't include those who've used up all their benefits)....