SAR #10239

The status quo demonstrably does not work.

Quagmires Are US:  Word is seeping into the MSM that al Qaeda in Yemen is the new big threat, bigger than that bunch holed up in Pakistan. They are such boogeymen that a city of 80,000 was evacuated so the Yemeni military (with US Special Ops “advice”) could lay siege to the place. Y-Qaeda is said to have as many as 500 fighters – enough to guarantee tens of thousands of US troops will be there soon.

Thought Experiment:  What would the US be like if we lived within our means?  What would your life be like without a credit card?  Ah.  Deficit spending is always bad?

Let Me Count the Ways Gays:  Ken Mehlman, former Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign manager and current candidate for chairman of the Republican Party, has acknowledged he is gay.  As are the Republican National Committee’s number two political advisor and their Chief Financial Officer. Various MSM sources knew of Mehlman's orientation at the time, but acceded to GOP pressure to keep it quiet.  You know, those liberal media folks that hated Bush.

Question For Bill Gross:  If the government should nationalize the mortgage industry and set lending standards, why shouldn't it do the same for auto loans, credit cards and the rest?  And citing your personal financial stake in mortgage bonds but not other credit operations will not be a convincing argument.

Colonel Jessup:  Ben Bernanke’s Fed has assured a US appellate court that the American public is too weak, innocent and tender to be told the truth about what banks had to be rescued with how much money.  It would, to quote the Fed, “let the cat out of the bag.”  Yes, and that was the general idea.

Miss Manners: Dear W. House.  It is very compassionate of you to accept Mr. Simpson's apology for being an ass.  But it was not you he insulted, and the person he did insult doesn't accept his apology and doesn't want you to accept it for her.  She wants him fired, canned, dismissed, banished to the wilderness.  And when he's gone, she'll probably write you a very nice note.

Revealed:  When the self-anointed experts say that revolution is not possible in America, ask yourself what the parents will do when their children are hungry and have no food, sick and have no medicine, cold and have no shelter?  That future is closer than you think.

Social Security: Stop all the posturing about Social Security for a moment and answer me this:  How much money will it take your mother to live decently – food, clothing, shelter and healthcare – once she's a widow at age 74?  And – assuming you are not willing to kick mom to the side of the road and party on - where is she going to get it?  Yes, eventually it will cost as much as 6% of the nation's GDP.  So?  Isn't she worth it?

Point of View:  Ireland's populace quietly accepted their half-bowl of gruel, sat in the unheated corner and were rewarded by seeing their government debt costs rise.  The Greeks got all excited and took to the streets and burned a few cars and then ate some dolma and washed it down with ouzo and have been rewarded by getting lower interest rates than the Irish.  So, which form of democratic participation in the affairs of state seems to work better?

Examples:  More than half the $1.4 trillion of commercial-real-estate debt due by 2015 is for properties that are underwater now and likely to sink further.  Or would if the debtors weren't smart businessmen and simply walking away.  But the 1 in 10 households with a mortgage who are already behind in their payments are told that CRE is different and they shouldn't get any bright ideas. Do as we say, the residential mortgage folks say, not as we do.