What, you didn't think we could keep spending like this with no repercussions, did you? Silly Americans.

Remember when you're at the gas station and grocery store this weekend to consider the hundreds and hundreds of billions we've wasted in Iraq. Remember to consider why we as a nation put two free spending oil men with military industrial complex connections into the White House. And remember to think about our $53 trillion debt, and who we owe it to.

And then take another look at the prices you're paying. And the price our country paid. And take a look around at the kids. You know, the ones who end up getting stuck with your bill, the ones who'll hate you one day.

And maybe then it'll all come together for you.

Here's a good piece in the IHT for your consideration by Bernie Sanders, the Independent Senator from Vermont. Add him to the HP short list of politicians who are allowed to stay in DC. We need more "Independents" in the Senate. Don't forget that it took both corrupt political parties to get us into this mess, and keep us there for so long.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1956

A budget U.S. taxpayers can't afford

Today, Bush's military budget is $515 billion, more than half of all discretionary spending. This is in addition to the $200 billion a year being spent on the war in Iraq, and another $16 billion spent on nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, as military spending explodes, the middle class in America is shrinking, poverty is increasing and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider. While we now spend $94 billion more on defense than three years ago, poverty and hunger are increasing, 47 million Americans lack health insurance, and an entire generation of young people wonders how to afford college.

The view from the UK: We went to war based on bad intelligence, now the US cut interest rates based on bad jobs data. Can't say I disagree...

The credibility of the United States of America continues to plummet.

When, oh when, will we no longer be run by corrupt and incompetent monkeys, justifying decisions on suspect or sexed-up data?

The big question now is will Bernanke and the US Fed fix their bad-data mistake (and raise rates at the end of the month), or will they be like Bush, who insists on compounding his bad-intelligence f*ck-ups?

UK Telegraph: Fed based rate cut on false jobs data

The 12 members of the Federal Reserve may be rethinking their 0.5pc interest rate cut last month after key jobs data that their decision was partly based on was revised.

August's non-farm payroll numbers were changed by the US Labor Department to show 89,000 jobs were created, rather than 4,000 lost as it first predicted.

The predicted fall, the first decline in four years, forced global markets sharply lower and was seen as one of the major reasons why the Fed, led by chairman Ben Bernanke, cut rates, in order to stimulate economic growth.

It's your fault Americans. You made your mistakes. You supported corrupt incompetent idiots. And now, "we must reclaim our dignity and our honor"

"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."

-Ronald Reagan, 1980

Donate to Ron Paul here.

It's time for America to pull its head out of its ass.


This administration stands indicted for incompetence and mendacity. That it still commands the loyalty of even a quarter of our fellow citizens is testament to the persistence of willful ignorance. Against all the facts assembled in this indictment, that the administration's operatives can still make claims on strength, security, and determination is chutzpah on stilts.

That the media still treat these operatives and spokespersons, and indeed the president himself, seriously is witness to their desire for "access" and "sources" rather than their commitment to the truth.

America is today under the steady gaze of billions of the world's citizens and even more under the examining lens of history. Nothing is more difficult than to admit that we made a tragic mistake in selecting our leaders. But that is the first step toward redemption. Absolute rejection of those who lay claim to ownership of security is the next.

We are too old to behave as adolescents any longer. That includes particularly our president. America must grow up. We must redeem ourselves in the name of those who lost their lives unnecessarily six years ago. We must reclaim our dignity and our honor from those who have neither.