HARPIES

Mr. Bush desperately pleads a threadbare case for his Surge supported all around by Neocon sycophants extolling the moderate success achieved in Anbar Province temporarily utilizing Sunni Tribal groups tenuously allied to US troops in an effort to combat Al Qaeda in Iraq-- Still a lethally earnest number, attacks have dropped by nearly 50% to around 26/day in the largely homogeneous Sunni region but Neocon dream-tank pundits and poseurs around the blather-sphere extrapolate much too simplistically from this unique alliance a template of tide-turning success which will rescue the inefficacy of the under-manned Surge countrywide and lead to the wild possibility of miraculous Victory--

To issue such craven nostrums in vain attempt to secure phantom success only prolongs the agony of all those touched by the mad fire of this fiasco-- The positive side-effect to this inchoate spin is to ultimately dodge historical judgement and condemnation for their haughty role in the slaying and criminal dismemberment of Iraq and to do so for as long as possible-- Never mind that such fictive constructs shield only the frightened purveyor and his vanity from the commonly obvious-- It is quite understandable, to say the least, as who amongst the status-competitive elites actually craves going down in history as an irredeemable loser or a pre-meditative war criminal-- The most amiable tactic, and quite often the most futile, to usually surface from the commingling of such fear and perverse pride is the proverbial grasping for nearest available straw-- Desperate in the extreme and void of any honor the incapacity of facing up to and accepting the responsibility for the insensate damage and hellacious suffering they have inflicted upon thousands of innocent people escapes these innocuous ideologues and drives the most bogus of their alternatives..... Salvaging faux reputations-- Hail, Mary, full of grace.......--

In this time of patently visible political debility, Mr. Bush finds himself in the unfortunate and certainly unenviable position of now having to find fortitude enough to fend off the incredibly deranged overtures coming from the bloated and frustrated Vice President, Mr. Cheney, .............. to bomb Iran!!!!-- The urge to change the subject from the ongoing disintegration in Iraq to another venue offering last chance victory options for a moribund political echelon would be sorely tempting especially with the fanatical and omnipresent chortling of apple-polishing AIPAC toadies like Mr. Kristol, Mr. Krauthammer, the Kagan clan and, of course, the mealy mongering Mr. Lieberman all of whose delusional epistles, uttered wildly into the militant mix of despair like Hitchcock-ian mad harpies, only wind up grating hysterically on the exposed nerve of nearly everyone in the extant world--

Bombing Iran may appear like salvation to those whose political tenure, the ineffable lineage of sequentially incompetent failure, offers no legislative ransom but only sullen deadlock-- Bleakly it seeps away with clock-like inevitability while the parade of desertion from its officers offers absolutely no positive prospects for posterity in the tortuous time remaining-- Warned that an aerial attack on Iran may easily backfire on and, worst case scenario, destroy Western Civilization's economy and influence globally but, hey, one sardonic benefit to such a perilous side-effect would be to shut the traps of those idiot shrews mentioned above-- Does Mr. Bush bear backbone enough to buck Mr. Cheney??-- It doesn't appear to be the case attendant the Libby commutation-- Time will tell--

The multiplication of murder and the massive explosions in the northern city of Kirkuk yesterday offers stark antidote to the vague canards of success offered by the White House in recent days-- While 80% of remaining Iraqis lack access to sanitation facilities, insurgents there possess the ability to strike any and everywhere inside the disintegrating country and in the not too distant future insurgents in Pakistan may possess such redundant capability themselves-- The Turks not just idly rattling sabers are gathering good numbers of troops on the northern border-world of Iraq with, perhaps, an eye toward the oil fields, but in terms of real politik, The Turks really cannot afford homage to the Rosy Scenario whore being pimped by Neocon dream-tanks devoid of logistical reality and praying for time-- American aims, most acutely those critical to the survival of Iraq, continue to go unrealized and the Turks, who are not afraid to actually ascertain and act on such intel, exercise their courage in preparation--

Positing fairy tale as fact prevents alternative policy plans from being postulated and possibly implemented but beyond the dubious pretense of smiley-face optimism comes the Grim Reaper and his roster of freshly dead spent to sustain such fictional folly-- The specter of Tet raises a reminder to stew minds besieged by the rumors of catastrophe and the demoralization attendant DC's spin crews-- Reports now circulating suggest General Petraeus is seeking an immediate alternative policy direction away from the failed tactical strategy of Bush's Surge-- Wasting precious time until September is not a viable option on the killing grounds of Iraq-- The pro-Surge pundit-ocracy is apparently busy defending a position no longer applicable asking for time no longer available-- A step and a half behind events, reactive before pro-active, coming in on a wing and a prayer-- Hard landing awaits--

Alluding constantly to future chaos, rampant bloodletting and mindless vengeance that would attend withdrawal of American Troops allows the unconcerned to ignore the degree to which this insidious mayhem and collapse already exists as a direct result of the initial Occupation and an ongoing response to the vagaries of its unplanned operations-- That both the White House and the Congress either cannot perceive this or simply opt to ignore it through rhetorical charades and the omnipresent art of plausible deniability is testimony to the bankrupt venality and self-serving vacuity of posturing US leadership and it bodes ominously for the stability of our imminent future--

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GOLDILOCKS

Throughout most of 2006 as oil prices fluctuated wildly and gasoline prices rose steadily until manipulated downward at the ingress of Autumn in a vain bid to aid repo-men and their bid for re-election, vast majorities in the economic/financial punditry professed a flatulent notion that no matter how high the oil vector went the larger economy would be immune to damaging effects basically of any kind-- Apparently oblivious to the ridiculous canard that simply removing the volatile energy sector (and food) from CPI statistics in a dishonest effort would make the true inflationary impact of high energy prices seem.....well, less inflationary, economists from vaunted Academia and Wall Street sold out to the rosy scenario and began courting Goldilocks-- 'Let us pretend the negative repercussions of such simply don't apply' went the delusional credo-- Innocuous paeans extolling the mindless resilience of spendthrift consumers, who armed with cheap and easy credit continued to reserve space in the debtors dungeon for their own children, peppered the financial blather-sphere with phony optimism and forced denial--

However as 2006 approached its finality the delinquencies of sub-prime mortgage debt began like termites to make their presence felt-- Their numbers were too large to ignore but that didn't stop the Goldilockians from trying-- Chipping away at Wall Street's false paradigm until even the Fed had to finally acknowledge the problems in the sub-prime sectors-- How could so many sub-primers come a cropper at the same time??-- How could so many hit the default button at once??-- Certainly, since energy prices and their integral function in the economic life of nearly everyone on the planet had been surreptitiously extracted from the fundamentals of CPI measurements due to their 'volatility', the rising cost of fuel and heating oil couldn't be the culprits-- An extra $30 to $50 a week in added commuting costs shouldn't have any major effects on the ability of sub-primers to meet their monthly payments even in those areas where mortgage interest rates were reset and monthly payments nearly doubled, say the professionally addled optimists...... proponents of just another Big Lie--

Now as the sub-prime fiasco becomes evident to nearly all, the Denialists diligently create new fictions to obviate concern that the collapsing netherworld of lying deadbeat mortgage holders, who were used by crooked financier sharpies to enrich themselves ultimately at the expense of the entire financial system, will spread to the second tier of mortgage chicanery and thereby further infectious foreclosure eventually leading to a full blown insurgency of contagious bankruptcy-- Mortgage company insiders everywhere have been and continue to dump their own stocks onto a delirious market whose frightened minions continue to be greased by rising oil prices and military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf--

Each new tank of gas diminishes the dollars of every mortgage holder...... even the primers-- It is not as if even the A+ rated credit risks were not counseled by smooth-talking real-estate sweeties into buying bigger castle-taffy than they could actually afford even with their high salaried jobs-- Many millions more may have overbought, after all, rising home prices no sky could ever limit were bound to continue ad infinitum -- pure common sense to herd mentality at every class level-- The Banks were going to make you rich if only you would reach for the sky!!!!!!-- Who could resist such spiel frothing from the mouths of boomer salesmen-- Hell, even dime a dozen Biff Loman bought it--



Rampant foreclosures damage more than just the person losing his, perhaps, misguided dream of home ownership-- If all the foreclosures were congregated in the same neighborhoods perhaps the damage might be palliated or confined-- However lower-middle and average middle class neighborhoods are speckled with houses the troubled 'owners' were driven from by a foreclosure lenders knew would eventually arrive en masse-- These houses deteriorate in upkeep, lawns go to seed and weeds take over-- Graffitti may begin to appear--The unkempt look adds to neighborhood devaluation and prospective house buyers even of foreclosed properties begin to look elsewhere-- Prices fall and so too assessed valuation--

Property taxes on foreclosed units go uncollected and municipal coffers feel the effect immediately-- Education budgets suffer shortfalls as well as street repair crews and every other kind of city maintenance services-- Priority emergency services feel the same pinch and are forced to triage the area in support of those neighborhoods who pay the higher property taxes-- Squatters and even crackheads begin to occupy the foreclosures and before too long the area is enveloped in major blight-- In fact the speed at which this deterioration can take effect would surprise most observers-- Not to worry it can't spread upward goes Wall Street's pablum-- Business investment as well as big ticket orders grew much less than experts expected in February and Fed chief Bernanke feigns the inability to see any connection to the sub-prime troubles, the oil price crises, the vain hope of dumbing down the dollar and faltering consumer demand for credit-- There are no consequences for cheating!!!-- There are no consequences for lying!!--The down cycle has been abolished!!-- We are in a new business paradigm!!!!! ......... hardly!!-- Who said that??__


The CPI fiction will obviously continue as the DC Government literally cannot afford to acknowledge the real cost of living-- The phantasmal solution to foreign oil addiction in the minds of those incapable of reading the true scale of the problem is now for bettor and worse corn-based ethanol-- Speculators have grabbed this tail of sudsidies by the dog and it now seems almost certain the remaining topsoil across the our once vaunted Breadbasket in the midwest will be burned in the gas tanks of suburban SUVs--

The price of corn rockets skyward never mind that it is one of, if not, the most expensive of all grains to raise with regard to energy/oil inputs-- Voracious water and nitrogen feeder as well as a highly skilled soil depleter-- The race is on for new acreage to grow corn and take advantage of the rising in price, now double that of two years past-- Food costs can only follow the upward price trend but not to worry there either, since the CPI doesn't include food in its fictional measurement so the inflationary effect will be minimal.....in faux theory only!!-- The cost of raising the energy-intensive corn, defending it against pests, harvesting it, transporting it to market, then to the ethanol plants and then back to the ethanol stations to be pumped into your SUV tanks guarantee way beyond reasonable doubt that the ethanol outcome to this meandering mega-energy process will be anything but inexpensive-- Corn could become too expensive to process-- As food prices and energy prices rise and housing payment resets rise into falling house prices only an idiot, or maybe a ringleader from a Federal Reserve Circus that considers as part of GDP all the treasure(almost $10billion/month) being pumped down the rathole, Shock and Awe fashioned out of Iraq, would suggest that the 'larger economy', whatever that is, could avoid the hostility of such destructive side-effects--

There is a convergence of negative forces merging toward a financial storm of a magnitude higher than any of DC's leaders can summon the courage to face-- Denial is currently the coin of the realm--Throw the gigantic debt/deficit/trade-imbalance, the extreme paucity of American Savings, and the defeat in Iraq into this mix of rising food and oil prices and falling housing prices and it becomes a rather drastic firestorm-- Who knows what the demies are currently hoping to accomplish by their transparent charades while the repos seem intent on mere political survival(Live to be bribed another day!)-- Neither side has the best interests of our country at heart-- Foreclosures will number in the millions, and living arrangements for most all of us are about to confront a very new paradigm-- Not one major world oil producer increased its oil production while country after country, some with gigantic populations increased their demand for oil-- This formula does NOT compute !!!--

The inexpensive oil that fueled indulgent affluence for almost a century and bred such dreams that single individuals could or even should attain ownership of an entire house, with multiple cars, boats and whatnot is clearly gone-- Can we maintain our mobility and eat it too???--Can you spell trainwreck!!!!?-- ....... G.... O.... L.... D.... I.... L.... O.... C.... K.... S.......... NOT!!!!