Today's Note from 2 Madmen and a Brand New Madwoman


Wednesday, December 15, 2004



-Noah Greenberg


G(lobal) W(arming) Bush and the Case of the Swelling Deficit
by Robert Scardapane - rjsq@patmedia.net

Dateline: December 15, 2004

More unpleasant economic news. The US trade deficit reached a record level of $55.5 billion dollars (that's $55,500,000,000, a lot of zero's) in October as imports surged. Indeed, this is surprising given that the sharp decline in the dollar's value should have increased exports. But, I wonder if there is much of anything to export?

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, in a speech last month, warned that a large trade deficit could frighten foreign bond investors who fund our budget deficit. A rising trade and budget deficit could rapidly inflate interest rates leading to undesirable results.

Consider the dangers of the large trade deficit:

- Jobs are lost when products are imported.
- Import prices could go up when one nation monopolizes a market.
- Import prices could go up simply because of dollar deflation.
- There is a loss of sovereignty when we are dependent on imports.

I would really love to "Buy American". But, these days, the concept of "Buy American" is a product labeled with a US flag that says "Made In China", "Made in Vietnam", anywhere but "Made in the USA". I wonder if we are going get over our addiction to cheap imports. If not, we are destined to suffer withdrawal pains when import prices swell.

Stupid Quotes of the Day




"There's no big war plan (regarding Iran) on the shelf,"

-an unidentified administration official involved in the planning process (source - The New York Times, Wednesday, December 14, 2004)

How dumb are we? We need to deal with IRAN NOW.




The Bushies got rid of the guy without the nukes, yet we ignore the guys with the REAL  NUKES.



IRAN wants to talk to the US. We are the big dog and they know it. And what is our response?



The United States has never been opposed to discussing things with Iran when something useful can be accomplished," but they had "not done anything to lead one to believe that would serve a useful purpose."

-an unidentified State Department official (source - The New York Times, Wednesday, December 14, 2004)


So, in Bush-World, the neo-con, Corporate Conservative, blow-monkey, dry-drunk chicken-hawks would rather stand by and do nothing while the home of the Ayatollahs and the land of the Oppressed (That's IRAN, in case you weren't paying attention) make their nuclear weapons to share with real, live terrorists.


These guys have really got their priorities all screwed up.


-Noah Greenberg

My Trip to the Mall

A Relating Story by Sue Kavcsak

Noah, you're not the only one who needs underwear!

There was a
5:00pm news story last week on a woman who has been faithfully collecting new underwear as well as bandages and other medical supplies to send to her sister in Iraq.  Her sister is a Medic with an Air Force unit, I believe. 

The reason for the underwear is to replace the ones the soldiers are wearing when they arrive for trauma treatment.  Isn't that pathetic?  Why is it that she can get supplies to her sister in Iraq, but Halliburton and its various entities cannot manage to do this?  It's such a national disgrace.  Our current administration depends on the goodness of the American people to "support our troops" and they aren't willing to do so themselves.  I bet Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld don't have any yellow ribbons on the back of their limos!
Happy Holidays and God Bless Our Troops

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-Noah Greenberg