SAR #10344

Maybe we're simply not equipped to deal with these things.

Proverb:  Two wrongs do not make a right.  If raising taxes is wrong and increasing the budget is wrong, then most assuredly the December Compromise is wrong.

Size of the Whole:  The IMF/EU bailout will cost every Irish worker 20 euro a week. Those without a job will see their unemployment checks cut by 6 euros. Ireland's austerity budget calls for about 50 billion euros, it has to pay the IMF/EU another 45 billion euros, and its income is only 31 billion euros.  And everyone is overjoyed that a crisis has been kicked down the road averted.

Goal! Obama has brought bipartisanship to Washington; both Republicans and Democrats are going to filibuster his December Compromise.

No Shame:  While various politicians want to drag Julian Assange into court – or maybe straight to Guantanamo – for letting the public know what their betters have been up to, the US State Dept. has announced it will host next year's “World Press Freedom Day”, at a secure location yet to be determined.

Cautionary Tale:  Not here, not now, not yet.

Buy Partisanship:  The December Compromise, designed to lower taxes for the rich and give subsistence money to the unemployed, will renew the government's subsidy for ethanol and renew the $1-a-gallon subsidy for biodiesel that expired in 2009 – retroactively.  Hard to hear the deficit shrinking for all the cries of Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie.

Now It Can Be Told: The American Family Association has revealed that WikiLeaks is a gay conspiracy which proves that gays shouldn't be allowed to serve in the military.

Cramming:  Consumer credit surged higher in October at the fastest monthly rate in two years.  The $3.4 billion annualized increase had nothing to do with credit card use and everything to do with students taking out more loans they will never repay and the the auto industry lowering its credit standards in order to move more cars that will eventually be repossessed.  Ah, growth.

Getting to the Point:  Lots of commentators are pointing out that the December Compromise does not include a renewal of the Build America Bonds program.  Of course not.  While Obama is bragging about how 20 years from now something, something...  the GOP will bankrupt  the states, break the unions, force the states to terminate pensions and sell off the roads, bridges and furniture to their friends.

Civics Lesson:  Rep John Cook of the Texas State Republican Executive Committee wants to get rid of Joe Straus – the current Texas House Speaker – because Rep. Straus is Jewish and “we want a true Christian conservative” as Speaker.

The View:  RealyTrac sees the US housing debacle lasting at least three more years, with rising mortgage rates, increasing foreclosures and ever more distressed houses on the market weighing down the economy until 2014.  About a million houses were seized by banks in 2010, a record that will last only until next year.

Ups 'n Downs:  UPS is installing metal detectors at the entrances to its retail outlets, along with x-ray scanners for your unwrapped items.  No prepackaging, please.  Two forms of identification – with front and profile photographs - of both the shipper and the intended recipient will also be required.  There will be a slight increase in shipping fees to cover the cost of verifying that you are not on Homeland Security's Do Not Ship list.  Merry Christmas.

Psst! Pass It On:  Under the headline “North America: The new energy kingdom”  The Globe and Mail quoted the American Petroleum Institute as reporting that the US produced more crude oil in October 2010 than ever before.  The Globe was only repeating an earlier errant report in the Oil & Gas Journal article. The problem is that API never made such a silly claim.  Actually, factually, October 2010's production was 5,567,000 bpd and the all time high was October 1970 at 10,013,000- some 40 years ago.

Porn O'Graph:  In this case correlation probably is causation.