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  • $397 million  as of January 4th
  • $418 million as of January 11th
  • $440 million as of January 18th
  • $461 million as of January 25th.
















It probably won’t happen.













I apologize to all. i too was lulled by press reports that led me to think we could coast two months without resolving the fiscal cliff. I just read data otherwise. I did not know that the debt ceiling fell on December 31. I have been lulled into thinking it wasn’t until February that it became due.

That is because the press assumed that since we got through two months of stopgaps last time, we can do it again.

There is the possibility that we can. But what scares me are the scenarios which portend we will not.

The debt ceiling crises is like a cancer. The United States of America is the patient. We know that at some point the cancer will be so advanced it will be untreatable; after which it will become too pervasive and it will win. We could walk into the cancer center right now, and say “let’s get this started”, and know that we will come out ok. Although we don’t know for sure, the predictions are that our point of no return is at the end of February. If we are wrong, and the cancer unbeknownst to us is too rampant, it will win.

Our huge problem is that we need a consensus to get ourselves into the cancer treatment center. And one party whose vote is required, will not vote yes, because they believe only in medicine proscribed by witch doctors. They will not consider to committing the patient for medical treatment, until a witch doctor has been brought in from deepest Africa to perform his rituals…. That one small contingent believes in mystical witchcraft so much, they refuse to allow medical treatment.

Of course when the line of death approaches and all others remain adamant that saving the country is more important than proving the existence of witchcraft, we assume they will give in….

The real question is whether or not we can get them to commit before it becomes too late….

If not, the Tea Party contingent of the Republican Party of the United States of America, will have signed our nations death warrant.

I know a lot of people raise hell over every crisis in order to promote their argument. I’m always the cool headed one. Simply put, we are now in a minefield because all markets are maxed out, because leverage is off the scale, because the treasury can’t help, so that if the markets were to fall because of the threat of a credit downgrade, there will be no bottom. The financial system as we know it, will be no more….

Today’s Tea Party in the House of Representatives is the metaphorical equivalent of putting 4th Graders in control of our nuclear arsenal… There is still a good possibility that they will act rationally and all will go ok; nothing catastrophic will happen.. But should they not, the results will not be a little minor blip….



They would like you to think so…







You know that answer.







It is:








In a perfect world, that is….


National Heroes…..


We, The People…..


LLC corporations….




In a perfect world….



In a perfect world…..



There’s a lot that can be done…


Unfortunately, our Congress is owned by Corporate America….



In a perfect world…



WE can still dream….


Here’s to a perfect world?






It was all the horse…..



We may be small, but we ARE tough!

There is no better time for a federally elected legislator, than the State of the Union address… It’s the one time they taste the luster of government’s pageantry.

Delaware’s newest senator’s “date for the evening” was Arkansas’ newest senator, Senator Boozman (R). Mr. Coons was dressed for the occasion in what looked like a forest green jacket, and a red tie… Christmas in January.

Although this was Mr. Coons first time, officially at a State of the Union, his Republican “date” had been there 6 times before as a Congressman.

They spent barely a half hour getting to know each other, before heading down the aisle together…. Unfortunately, Senator Boozman mispredicted. Too many congressional delegate, way more than normal, had shown up to hear the nation’s executive, leaving too few seats for the two of them.

Mr. Boozman graciously gave his seat to Mr. Coons, and settled for standing against the back wall for most of the speech.

Senator Boozman particularly liked the new bi-partisan seating arrangements and the muted hostility, different from the years before.

“I actually got to listen to the speech,” he was overheard saying. “It was great, not having to jump up and down every few minutes like a Jack-in-the-box.”

(It is this commentator’s opinion, for that one fact alone, this is probably one of the best State of the Union experiences he’s witnessed over the past 16 years.)

One Black, One White, One Orange
photo courtesy of (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Congratulations are in order to the Dutch company ING for successfully being the first corporation, since last January’s Supreme Court decision, Citizens United vrs. FEC, to get their corporate advertising as a backdrop to the President’s State of the Union.Speech…..

One black, one white, one Orange.


Can you imagine the innocent picking a dangling hair off an others sweater is not as innocent as it looks?

Soon all diplomacy will be across a giant screen as typified in Star Trek, to prevent the spread of DNA information. Why do we need DNA?

To make lookalike clones which we can insert in their place, … of course.

Today there was a lot of discussion over the Democrats chances in future elections… Someone this morning on the Al Mascitti show, likened it to the Colts-Jets playoff game….

For a while, it looked like the Colts were outclassed… But somehow they regrouped and came back, passed the Jets, and never looked back….

The fear is that the Democrats instead will act like the Vikings… First poised to win, then create enough turnovers to allow a squeaker of a loss…. again.

The difference between the two scenarios, is attitude. The Colts, executed beautifully, and got things done… The Vikings didn’t.

Everyone agrees the election is the Democrats to lose. There is not a Republican out there who is a decent candidate… Some will run, but if they win, it is because the Democrats did not fight hard enough to stop them….

Here is why a Republican can’t win. Voters remember.

Republican policy caused our economic woes today. Republican policy took money from the middle class, and slid it upwards to the upper crust. Republican policy, rewarded the removal of our jobs overseas… Republican policy, made profits more important than people. Republican policy, moved our government from the Democrats pay as you go plan, to having our grandchildren go pay for our excesses. Republican policy allowed for deregulated derivatives. Republican policy allowed for AIG to pretend to insure investments, but instead spend the money on themselves… Republican policy, added the prescription plan to Medicare, without finding any way to pay for it… After we are dead, the bill comes due for our children and grandchildren.

Republicans will say that life was good during the Bush years… Hell, my life would be great too if I could spend whatever I wanted and have my children pay the bills…. But unlike Republicans, I know that is unrealistic… I know that sooner or later the bills come due.

We are fortunate that when they came due, a Democrat was in charge. We are fortunate that Democrats control both houses… We are unfortunate, however, that since the Republicans collapsed the hedging house of cards they built with our money, the money required to fix it must come from somewhere… We have none here now; we have to borrow it from our future. Today, Republicans want to cut all services which have no benefit to the wealthy, to pay for the excesses they spent on themselves when they controlled both houses..

When reminded of this, voters will remember… The Clinton Days are a fond distant memory… Back then we had peace, we had international respect, we had prosperity, and all of us were making far more money than we ever were before…

Nothing has changed: Democrats build. Republican tear down.

So we don’t need to be panicky over the news of one week. Yeah, some mistakes were made, but being panicky, as the Vikings found out, creates more… Better to say… “ho, hum… we can do this; it’s business as usual…” and continue to make life better for those who do vote, such as stimulate their economy, cut their health care costs, lower their energy costs, give them a job, lower their credit card charges, remover their bank fees, make it cheaper and easier to get their loan, drop their gasoline into the dollar range…. Those priorities are what they need to focus on….

They are our government. They can just do it. They don’t need anyone’s permission…. We elected Democrats to undo the Republican’s mess and make our lives more like the good years of the 90’s. They need to do it…. They don’t need to ask Republicans for permission.

Because their days are numbered. Republicans don’t have a chance in hell… You can have the best well dressed candidate, who says the right things, who proclaims themselves to be one of the people, and all it takes to deflate their balloon, if for one single person to stand up at a town meeting, and say… ” Sir/ Madame: The policies you are advocating cost my mother in law half of her savings… She has half of what she would have had if your party hadn’t tinkered with a thing...”

Suddenly everyone realizes… “hey, I lost half my savings too….”

Republicans are dead in the water…. The only way they have a remote chance in hell of winning is if we’re panicky, and they’re not… My prediction is that with all the evidence on our side, and everyone (who didn’t listen to me) still wheeling from a loss of 50% of their retirement plan… it will be the Republicans who are panicky, and not everyone else…….

We just have to calm down and let that prediction come true on its own…..