SAR #10060

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.
Frederick Douglass

Now It Can Be Told:  Officials in the Obama Administration say the US will soon launch a massive public relations offensive against Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province.  I think they meant 'in', not 'against', but the difference is sometimes hard to tell.

American Exceptionalism:  It is ridiculous to even consider the possibility that America is not the center of the Universe.  It is preordained that the 4% of the world's population that lives in the United States live far better than everyone else – except a few other loyal members of the empire. Joe Biden said so, and few remember Andrew Marvel's “You".

Dour:  “The U.S. appears to be breaking down on all levels, probably taking the rest of the modern world with it.”

Promises, Promises:  To those who believe – along with the coal industry and the current administration – that carbon dioxide can be safely hidden away for thousands of years, I invite your attention to the tritium that has been leaking, unnoticed and unreported, from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant for years.

Mething Around:  Atmospheric levels of the powerful greenhouse gas methane have risen significantly for the last three years, heightening concerns that a major global-warming feedback loop is forming.

Day Jobs:  Turns out that most of the financial analysts and commentators who play 'experts' on TV are lobbyists working for the very banks that caused the mess and got the taxpayer's money.  I for one am shocked, shocked that it is just 'most', and not 'all'.  And of course AIG is now using taxpayer funds to hire lobbyists to get more of our money

Hard Sell:  The data indicates that last January was the warmest January on record.  The November-January quarter was the warmest on record.  The 2000-09 decade was the warmest since 1850, and 8 out of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000.  Now excuse me, but I've got to shovel out the driveway.

Next Question:  Obama signed an extension of the Patriot Act.  Hope? Change?

Time and Time Again:  Those who say the US has never defaulted forget it fled the gold standard and has inflated the value out of the dollar with relentless enthusiasm.  Those who say the US never will default do not understand what happens when gross government debt exceeds 100% of the nation's GDP or foolishly believe that it can't happen here.  It has and it will.

Roller Coaster:  The North Sea can continue as a viable producer of petroleum for the next 30 years.  If, that is, prices are above $200 a barrel. And if we had some ham we could have ham and eggs if we had some eggs.

Rerun: The current bear market has many parallels with the Thirties, and many politicians seem intent on repeating the mistakes that prolonged the suffering then. So what is the next step in the current drama?  Another sudden downward jog in the financial markets, accompanied by a similar decline in the economy would be a good guess.

Sums:  About $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate debt has to be refinanced over the next three years.  About half of that - $750 billion - will be underwater by early next year.  Remember that businesses routinely walk away from their bad investments.  Most of these mortgages are held by local and regional banks that originated them – not Wall Street.

The Daily Petard:  Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) commenting on the expiration of unemployment benefits for millions of Americans:  “Tough Shit.”