It is becoming more evident each day that George Bush is a madman bent on throwing the world into chaos.

Fine.

But the Democratic Congress was elected to stop him.  It's a democracy, stupid!

Where are these elected representatives?

How supine, how lordotic can our country permit its elected representatives to be before we lose our national identity and our nation?

I, for one, no longer hold George Bush responsible for a single thing taking place in the world.  The Democratic Congress can stop him.  If they don't, it is their cowardice, not Bush's insanity that destroys us.

If you're sincerely worried about too many people getting jobs, we respectfully suggest you lighten up a bit.

--Alan Abelson in Barron's

The received wisdom is that the market swooned on Friday because the participants decided that there was a sufficient amount of good economic news to permit the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates where they are.

Interest rates are the price of money.  So this translates into the Federal Reserve keeping the supply of money where it is.

In addition, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is famous for his focus on and determination to prevent deflation.

So, we can summarize.  Deflation is out of the question because:

A) Bernanke will never let it happen, and

B) It is only a matter of time before the Fed opens the monetary spigot

And nothing else matters:

The fact that the real estate market is imploding.

The fact that China holds a trillion dollars of our debt.

The fact that we are embroiled in a war for oil costing a billion dollars a day.

Allow me to close by asking the, perhaps theoretical, question: do the Chinese care about United States interest rates?

Why should they?

First, they directly affect income on the dollar-denominated debt they hold. Second, US interest rates control the value of the dollars they hold. So, even if Mr. Bernanke is tempted to cut US interest rates, his hand may be stayed by the Middle Kingdom. When you're in debt up to your eyeballs, you sometimes have to kowtow [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowtow] to your creditors.

Oil down.  Euro down.

Deflation is such a theoretical concept.  It should be called "Saving".

You save when you think prices are going down.  And, gosh almighty, they go down!

To prove me wrong, you have to point to an area where prices, in dollars, are going up.

Housing?  The stock market?  Try harder.

A key question: when US consumers get a taste of the benefits of not having to spend as much money on oil this winter, are they going to blow it all at the mall?   Not so much.

[We're still sinking on Friday. Guess people don't want to be long over the weekend. The theory that this is all an interest rate scare because of good economic news will certainly be put to the test. Hope it's right!]

I personally believe that 2007 is going to make 1929 look like a tea party, but that is irrelevant.

What is relevant is that if the economy craters in 2007, it IS BUSH'S FAULT.

We've had 6 years of pure Republican, doctrinaire control of the economy: the Administration, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve (Greenspan toadied to Bush like no Chairman before him has toadied to a President).

Tax cuts we couldn't afford, spending to subsidize the rich that we couldn't afford, interest rates that blew a hole in our equity markets, and a billion dollars a day to fight a losing war.

IF THE ECONOMY CRATERS IN 2007, IT IS BUSH'S FAULT.

The Republican Party is the party of impeachment.

Impeachment.

They impeached Bill Clinton for fellatio.  Technically for lying about fellatio, but considering that if they could have proven he lied about a parking ticket, they couldn't have impeached him, we have to admit it was an impeachment for fellatio.

The party of impeachment.

Hearings, my friends, won't cut it.

On the other hand, the Bush Administration is already over.  Yes, he will kill as many people as he can, because that is all he knows how to do, before the he leaves the White House.  But his Administration is over, and he knows it.

He wants headlines.  He wants them really badly.  The reason for the delay in the "IRAQ DECISION" is that he realizes he doesn't have that many more headlines left.

Give him the best headline of all: "BUSH IMPEACHED".

Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney now.  Yes, I admit that neither of them has lied about fellatio in the White House.  We will have to lower the bar.

But 3,000 dead American servicemen and women deserve to have their memories honored by the impeachment of the individuals who sent them to their graves unnecessarily.

Readers of my previous post will note that I have said that the Decider doesn't have any options except to follow the proposal of The Iraq Study Group by engaging Iran and Syria in a dialogue.

Not so.

Thinking about it, I find that there must be a growing belief the Decider's bird brain that he must use

The Nuclear Option

What would it entail?  Well, rest assured that Iran's nuclear facilities are in the middle of population centers.  So, it would entail perhaps a Hiroshima and a Nagasaki.

Benefits:

1) the Decider gets to think for a few moments that he will go down in history as the Leader Who Won the War on Terror

2) Israel gets to believe that the sin of half-way measures committed in their bombing of Beirut has been expiated

3) "moderate" Sunni governments such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan get to breathe easier with the knowledge that the threat of Iran has been eliminated

Risks:

1) 1), 2), and 3) above are bullshit.

2) Pakistan's nuclear weapons fall into the hands of Al Qaeda (no friend to "moderate" Sunni governments)

3) Iran's power is in no way diminished, unless you want to call the deaths of a million civilians as a dimishment of power

4) Oil becomes unobtainable in the Middle East as the government in Saudi Arabia falls, etc.

The Bush administration is also working on a way to form a coalition of Sunni Arab nations and a moderate Shiite government in Iraq, along with the United States and Europe, to stand against "Iran, Syria and the terrorists," another senior administration official said Tuesday.

from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/world/ middleeast/13saudi.html?ei=5094&en=9 b8923e7095544b1&hp=&ex=116607240 0&partner=homepage&pagewanted=pr int

Where to start?

In the first place, if Israel and Saudi Arabia wanted a moderate Shiite government anywhere on earth, they should have put a ton more troops into southern Lebanon to defeat Hezbollah.  With the passing of that "opportunity", I would say that the whole concept of a moderate Shiite government anywhere on earth has gone by the boards.  Bombing Beirut will probably go down in history as the worst mistake made by a national government in the 21st century.

In the second, where will the troops come from to invade Iran?  The United States?  Israel?  Saudi Arabia?  Britain?  Pakistan?  Sure, Iran can be bombed, but bombing Iran would destabilize Pakistan...wouldn't it?

In the third, the Decider has been presented by the Iraq Study Group with the only remotely conceivable way out of the mess he has created: dialogue with Iran and Syria.  He doesn't have any "options", but he persists in believing that he does.  As long as that goes on, the United States sinks further and further into the morass.

The American People?  Kind of forgotten in all this talk about Saudi Arabi, Israel, Iran, George Bush, etc. etc.  Well, the American People would do themselves a tremendous favor by a double impeachment.  The quickest way out of this is to impeach Bush and then Cheney.  Unprecedented, but called for.  Incredible, but necessary.  Unlikely, but worth praying for.