Memorial Day: Did you know it did not originate with the Indy 500?

It's another Memorial Day weekend -- the pools are opening for the summer season, grills are on sale at Lowe's, and we all get a day off from work today.

Yes, it's yet another opportunity for Americans to take something solemn and serious, and turn it into a mindless party.

Indeed, try to wrap your head around this: with our economy in a shambles in large part because we are fighting 2 impossible wars, and with thousands of our soldiers dead because of those wars, our government has sent us an "economic stimulus" check  -- which merchants nationwide are encouraging us to spend this weekend on things we really don't need.

So not only will we ignore the meaning of this national holiday, we'll do so in comfort and frivolity -- with a party!

If you've read this blog much at all, you know I'm an anti-war, peace lovin' librul. But I do respect and honor those who have had to stand and fight. So please join me today, and stop for just a moment to remember those who have gone before us. There is a nice history of Memorial Day over at Wikipedia. Please don't let the crass commercialism that is our national mood take over this day, which has truly honorable and solemn origins:

According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic race track in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who had died while captive. The freed slaves reinterred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to individual graves, fenced in the graveyard & built an entry arch declaring it a Union graveyard - a very daring thing to do in the South shortly after North's victory. On May 30, 1887? the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they'd picked from the countryside & decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the 1st Decoration Day. A parade with thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers was followed by patriotic singing and a picnic.

The official birthplace of Memorial Day is Waterloo, New York. The village was credited with being the birthplace because it observed the day on May 5, 1866, and each year thereafter, and because it is likely that the friendship of General John Murray, a distinguished citizen of Waterloo, and General John A. Logan, who led the call for the day to be observed each year and helped spread the event nationwide, was a key factor in its growth.

General Logan had been impressed by the way the South honored their dead with a special day and decided the Union needed a similar day. Reportedly, Logan said that it was most fitting; that the ancients, especially the Greeks, had honored their dead, particularly their heroes, by chaplets of laurel and flowers, and that he intended to issue an order designating a day for decorating the grave of every soldier in the land, and if he could he would have made it a holiday.

Read the rest of the Wikipedia entry here.

The American economy: Who's steering this thing, anyway?

With our economy in a downward spiral, you might think our Harvard MBA president would be the one to take charge and turn this thing around. (Oh, did you forget he has a Harvard MBA? If I went to Harvard, I would be asking for my money back right about now.) But instead of dealing with our economic crisis at home, President Bush is busying himself with issues such as fighting for Ukraine to gain membership into NATO. Uh, 'k.

Meanwhile, Fed Chairman Bernanke is left to sell the Administration's "plan" and defend the decision to assist a large brokerage firm while telling homeowners in similar crisis that they are on their own. To be fair, he did try to help homeowners by telling them again about the government hotline number. But, -- just like in December -- he gave out the wrong number. So maybe it's best if he just stays out of this whole thing.

Hello? Harvard University Admissions Office?

It is truly unfortunate that we have such an imbecile in office, when we are crying out for a leader. Many people are losing their homes due to no fault of their own, for example single women homeowners have been hit hard, and even renters are losing their homes. But we also are a nation of people who think we can have it all. Last night I did a doubletake when I saw a story on ABC News about a couple that successfully fought the bank's foreclosure on their home. Now I don't know all the details about this family or about the housing market in New York. But I do know that they made a combined income of $30,000 and they bought a $335,000 house.

You do the math.

The mortgage company did things that were illegal. They told the couple they could get a fixed loan, and then at signing changed the terms into a balloon rate. What bank thinks a family making $30,000 a year will be able to pay off a $335,000 house at 14% interest rate? That's a house payment of almost $4,000 a month! That is more than this couple makes a month! It's despicable that the bank did this.

But what was this couple, and all the rest just like them, thinking? I'm sure they loved the house, and the neighborhood. I'm sure it was hard to find something they could afford. But what has happened to us when we buy things that we just simply cannot afford? The Baltimore Sun ran a story last month entitled Affluent are also losing their homes. Am I the only one who thinks: "Then maybe they're not so affluent?" This is where we need leadership from the top, someone to look at the balance of the nation's economy and the welfare of the people. Someone who can honestly say to the housing industry: You know what? You need to start building houses that people can afford.

But our leader is in Romania, fighting a lost battle to get Ukraine into NATO. Where's a Harvard MBA when you need one? Oh, here he is:

He probably wants you to spend your rebate on heating oil, anyway

From Grist Magazine:

President Bush will sign an economic stimulus bill Wednesday, meaning you may have a check winging your way after tax time. Not included in the bill: funding for clean-energy credits and green jobs, which were dropped from the Senate version after narrowly failing to get enough votes. Undeterred, Democrats in the House of Representatives may introduce separate legislation this week that would extend clean-energy tax credits and slap taxes on big energy companies.

Well, it costs a lot of money to run a war

And the world markets are paying the price. The news from overseas is not good this morning:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures sank on Tuesday as fear of a recession gripped investors, suggesting Wall Street will join a global equities plunge that could usher in a bear market.

Weaker-than-expected earnings from Bank of America and Wachovia Corp, the second- and fourth-largest U.S. banks, respectively, added to the grim mood on Wall Street. Shares of Bank of America fell 5.3 percent, and Wachovia slid 3.4 percent in trading before the opening bell.

The sell-off in futures follows sharp losses in global equities on worries a deteriorating U.S. economy would drag other regions down with it.

European stocks posted their biggest percentage drop since the September 11, 2001 attacks on Monday when U.S. financial markets were closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

And from this morning's Washington Post:

Last week, the Bush Administration unveiled its proposed fiscal stimulus package. The announcement was designed to instill confidence in the economy, but investors responded by sending shares down to their worst weekly performance since mid-2002.

"People are really scared about the depth and the potential side effects of this recession from the U.S. The data is really bad," [Stephen Green, senior economist with Standard Chartered Bank] said.

The markets fell as fears spread that massive losses on loans made to U.S. home buyers would cascade through the world financial system. Some of the firms that play important, but usually invisible, roles in the global financial architecture are turning out to be exposed to the downturn in the housing market in such a way that their ability to function is threatened.

The companies that insure bond investors against defaults are having to make massive payouts. One, ACA Financial, owes $60 billion that it cannot afford to pay and has been taken over by the Maryland insurance regulator. Its credit rating has been lowered.

Fasten your seat belts. it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Republican Congresswoman: "Work harder, not smarter!"

It's no wonder that the American people feel jaded and cynical when it comes to politicians' promises. I mean, just take the new Republican proposal to jump start the economy, called the Middle Class Job Protection Act, which does nothing for the middle class. From ThinkProgress:

Today, Rep. Eric Cantor (VA), the chief deputy Republican whip in the House, unveiled his proposal to stimulate the economy. His legislation — the so-called Middle Class Job Protection Act — does nothing for the middle class. Instead, it reduces the corporate tax rate by 28 percent.

At a press conference today unveiling the stimulus proposal, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) justified the conservative plan to give tax breaks to corporations — instead of working Americans — by arguing that people actually like working long hours:

I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota. We’re the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs.

Bachmann’s version of the American Dream is apparently working two full-time jobs and struggling to get by.

Next I suppose we'll be hearing how much better behaved our children were when they had jobs, too.

Those were the days!

The rich get richer and ... well you know the rest

If it feels like you can't ever get ahead, while the rich of this country seem to be lighting their cigars with $100 bills, you're not alone:

The gains in after-tax income from 2003 to 2005 for the bottom 40% of the country was less than 3%. For the top 1% of the country, it was 43.5%.

From the New York Times:

“A lot of people justifiably feel they are working harder and smarter, they are baking a bigger and better pie, and yet their slice is not growing much at all,” Mr. Bernstein [economist at the Economic Policy Institute] said. “It is meaningless to middle- and low-income families to say we have a great economy because their economy looks so much different than folks at the top of the scale because this is an economy that is working, but not working for everyone.”

At every income level Americans had more income, after adjusting for inflation in 2005 than in 2003, but the increases ranged from almost imperceptible for the poor to modest for the middle class and largest for those at the top.

Merry freakin' Christmas.

'Tis the season!

Sub-prime mortgage crisis' got nothin' on us!

If you took out one of those adjustable rate mortgages, or if you're swimming in credit card debt, it could be a lot worse. Actually, it already is: the national debt is growing at a rate of about $1 million per minute. So in the time it took you to come to this blog and read this paragraph, the national debt has probably gone up another million. And each day, it adds up another $1.4 billion. Yes, billion, with a "b."

And you thought your financial problems were bad!

According to the Associated Press,

the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion.

And like homeowners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages, the government faces the prospect of seeing this debt — now at relatively low interest rates — rolling over to higher rates, multiplying the financial pain.

So long as somebody is willing to keep loaning the U.S. government money, the debt is largely out of sight, out of mind.

The national debt — the total accumulation of annual budget deficits — is up from $5.7 trillion when President Bush took office in January 2001 and it will top $10 trillion sometime right before or right after he leaves in January 2009.

That's $10,000,000,000,000.00, or one digit more than an odometer-style "national debt clock" near New York's Times Square can handle. When the privately owned automated clock was activated in 1989, the national debt was $2.7 trillion.

As depressing as this is, it gets worse. You see, just like those credit card companies that keep sending me offers for more cards so I can pay off my other credit cards, there are lenders out here ready to help the U.S. with its irresponsible spending:

Foreign governments and investors now hold some $2.23 trillion — or about 44 percent — of all publicly held U.S. debt. That's up 9.5 percent from a year earlier.

Japan is first with $586 billion, followed by China ($400 billion) and Britain ($244 billion). Saudi Arabia and other oil-exporting countries account for $123 billion, according to the Treasury.

"Borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars from China and OPEC puts not only our future economy, but also our national security, at risk. It is critical that we ensure that countries that control our debt do not control our future," said Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, a Republican budget hawk.

In the words of the Talking Heads, "you may ask yourself-Well ... How did I get here?"

Good question. It wasn't like this when George W. Bush took office:

Not long ago, it actually looked like the national debt could be paid off — in full. In the late 1990s, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office projected a surplus of a $5.6 trillion over ten years — and calculated the debt would be paid off as early as 2006.

Buy Nothing Day is Coming – No Purchase Necessary

I'll be visiting with family over the Thanksgiving holiday, as I'm sure most of you will be doing with your family and friends. One tradition I am proud to say that my family has never participated in is the Friday after Thanksgiving shopping orgy known as "Black Friday." Still, I invite you to join me in observing the International Buy Nothing Day.

That's right. Simply take a deep breath and refuse to be a part of this overindulgence. There are a lot of other activities you can do instead of shop (besides the obvious: why aren't you spending time with your loved ones on this rare day off?):

Some suggestions from the International Buy Nothing Day website:

Credit card cut up
Volunteers stand in a shopping mall with a pair of scissors and a sign offering a simple service: to put an end to extortionate interest rates and mounting debt with one considerate cut. Be careful though: in some first-world countries, carrying scissors in public can get you arrested as a "terrorist".

Whirl–mart
This activity has the advantage of being most likely to piss off security personnel. You and nine of your closest friends silently drive your shopping carts around in a long, inexplicable conga line without ever actually buying anything.

Big Blog Roundup, Cowgirls and Cowboys

I'm trying to get back to work today, so am sending you off into the blogosphere to check out some interesting stories I've come across.

From Crooks and Liars:

Paycheck to Paycheck in Bush's America:

The AP has a dispiriting story about the economic pressures facing American families who live paycheck to paycheck. (thanks to reader R.K.)

The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting harder. What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have a healthy dinner.

From Americablog, Iraq war veteran John Bruhns writes

The National Guard is overextended and broken along with the rest of our Army. We are in the midst of a total national security nightmare- courtesy of George W. Bush.

This president has not once called upon Americans to serve their country. He just tells us to go shopping while he touts the all volunteer Army.

Instead of breaking our military Bush should go to each college campus and rally the “Young Republicans” to join the fight. Then Bush should go on national television and call on all the true believers of his war in Iraq to put their blood and money in the game. Finally, just for shiggles, Bush should call his goofy pal Bill Kristol and ask him to encourage Matthew Continetti to join the Army or Marine Corps. I would love to see him get a taste of the war he so ardently supports.

Read more here.

From ThinkProgress:

Conservatives boo the American public
During a GOP presidential debate last night, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) said, “I think the American people — if we as a party realize this and understand it — seventy-some percent of the people in America want the war over with. They’re sick and tired of it. And they want our troops to come home.” Paul was immediately drowned out by a chorus of boos from the audience.

Watch the video here.


ThinkProgress also has this, which I hope will not be viewed by climate change-doubters in the audience as more false information being spouted by "socialists," in this case the National Weather Service:

Climate change dulls fall foliage

Forested hillsides in New England are usually “riotous with reds, oranges and yellows” at this time of the season. But many trees are now “going straight from the dull green of late summer to the rust-brown of late fall with barely a stop at a brighter hue.” According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in Burlington, VT, have “run above the 30-year averages in every September and October for the past four years, save for October 2004, when they were 0.2 degrees below average.”

Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago?

Remember when the politicians used to ask that question? I haven't heard anyone in the Bush Administration ask it lately. That's because, as the the New York Times reports today, we're much worse off.

Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion, new government data shows.

While incomes have been on the rise since 2002, the average income in 2005 was $55,238, still nearly 1 percent less than the $55,714 in 2000, after adjusting for inflation, analysis of new tax statistics show.

The combined income of all Americans in 2005 was slightly larger than it was in 2000, but because more people were dividing up the national income pie, the average remained smaller. Total adjusted gross income in 2005 was $7.43 trillion, up 3.1 percent from 2000 and 5.8 percent from 2004.

Total income listed on tax returns grew every year after World War II, with a single one-year exception, until 2001, making the five-year period of lower average incomes and four years of lower total incomes a new experience for the majority of Americans born since 1945.

The White House said the fact that average incomes were smaller five years after the Internet bubble burst “should not surprise anyone.”

Read the rest of this depressing story here.