SHIP OF STATE: RUDDERLESS

While the democrats seek proof from the voters they deserve to take back the House based on their risk-averse agenda-less campaign Nancy Pelosi rumored to have already picked out a new office for her freshly ordained Speakership dismissed the recent inquiries into whether she was planning to impeach Mr. Bush as a first order of priorities-- Harry Reid Senate leader of the demies disappeared from the campaign recently seeking some cover from his own real estate windfall scandal but hardly anyone noticed the milktoast leader of the phantom opposition was MIA-- Campaign distorted nuance and the increased negative quality of this election cycle's political advertising top the chatter classes priorities--

Truly missing in action is not the grovelling obeisance to politics as usual but the ability of political antennae to register how marrow deep the dissatisfaction of the body politic truly goes and how intense the anger roils just below the surface-- Not the petty Red vs Blue conceptual contrivance but the serious angst that compels the public (numbering way more than the elitist political echelon find comfort admitting) into believing our Nation and its future is being or has already been derailled-- Such somber realizations already inflicted on many sectors of the working and middle-classes found an ally last week in the GAO's top dog David M. Walker who publicly and loudly revealed that the economic ship of state has charted a disastrous course, and will founder on the reefs of ruin if nothing is done to remedy the bleak situation: "The best we're going to get in the next couple of years is to slow the bleeding," says Walker--

What Walker doesn't say is that most candidates don't appreciate the danger and don't even begin to comprehend the economics behind the gloom-- Most see their job once elected as bringing home the bacon the ledger of economic health be damned-- Nobody is elected really to right the ship of state--Re-election occurs through accountability deficit disorder-- Now there's a disease in need for a cure and hey maybe we can get some federal funding to allay our research costs-- The complicit media seem less informed than the candidates but then again their main role is beneficiary...to pocket the cash corporate and other donors conduct through the candidates in the form campaign contributions -- Each election cycle is like Christmas season for national retailers-- If the candidate proves himself a capable fundraiser he attains sacred cow status in the netherworld of television media-- Win-Win for everyone involved-- The media enriches itself, the donors buy their own legislation which enable acquisition of more wealth(money) and the candidate wins access to K-Street and the high stakes perks accorded to them from lobbyist largesse-- The media then paints the elected candidate as a statesman which enhances his future fundraising prowess-- All he has to really deliver his home district is a big slab of bacon made from the collaborative consensus of broken budgets-- The last thing the media will demand is accountability-- The voters seem dutifully and willfully duped but who cares if the district's children then wind up with the bill--

Not only are the children going to get stuck with the bill for the deficit closer to $700 billion than the $350(odd) billion advertised there's not going to be enough quality jobs for them to even think of paying off their less than frugal parent's debt-- Add this item to the economic confidence-- The rate of teenage employment has plunged. In the 1990s over 50% of those 16-19 year olds had jobs while only 40% do now-- Only the largest drop on record-- Reasons for the drop the article states is a bit of a mystery-- Industries that trend toward youth employment have shown growth lately but the jobs that used to employ their parents have been outsourced overseas in dramatically higher numbers ostensibly due to cost cutting and not as the fantasy hogs would have it...innovation-- So now children are competing against their parents for the same low paying services jobs-- The future ain't what it used to be--