LITTLE BIG HORN

It got really ugly up on the Hill today. The Suit was up in front of a joint committee or some-such mass of mindlessness. The Repubs were out for blood with one inquisitor calling for him to quit whilst another was suggesting that he shouldn't be there in the first place. Our Hero was giving as good as he got until he started on the "blame it all on Bush," mantra that The Leader's handlers have instructed to be the high ground to which all within the administration will fall back on when things are looking bleak. The high ground, as I learned at Ft. Benning is not a bad place to be but when you're alone and there are ten thousand Indians running around down below it's probably not going to make a lot of difference. Nice things were said by the assembled Dems but it was quite clear that there wasn't anybody there that appeared to be ready to take an arrow for the good Secretary. Here I go again making excuses for the guy but he doesn't have a real strong hand to play at this stage. It's been a year since Bush and rightly or wrongly, the impression is that things haven't improved to the point where the past is past; the problems remain and they are now perceived as being those of this administration.

Unemployment is the key, certainly out here in the fly-over zone and when these jerks start talking about jobs saved in non-existent congressional districts, credibility tends to suffer. It's crap and the good folks know it. Lectures given to the United States by finance ministers who in some instances are the first in their family to wear shoes also resonate loudly among that portion of our population who is not into the we-are-just-like-everybody-else-except-we-have-made-more-mistakes-for-which-we-need-to-apologize crowd that seems to inhabit the east and left coasts (as far down as Virginia in the former's case) where, surprisingly, they are reported--if only by Fox news. They are not liked. Nor is the great health care debate in which the folks have a pretty good idea they are about to be screwed but they are not quite sure how. Unless things improve quickly--and I fear they will not--the next sound you hear might well be the big SQUISH as The Suit is pushed under the bus by the Chicago Boys. Too bad, then again it's a rough neighborhood. Such is the view from the heartland.

There are a few, little points of light. People are actually beginning to talk about things that might work without savage assaults from the Mainstream media...like a reduction in the payroll tax. Gee, I wonder what that would do to Al Gore's LOOOOOCK BOOOOOX (is there a more pedantic dope on the face of the earth)? Then again, the Laureate Krugman continues to mue for another stimulus package in the face of all the evidence in the world that the last one was a complete waste of effort except for the political slush funds in states and municipalities in which it landed. So it goes. I'm sort of bummed as the weather has been yuk but I think I'll go out and look for a turkey for next week. Damn things are all over the place and are MEAN! On top of that we have had a regular parade of deer through the back yard recently, where the wife's peonies are beginning their winter nap. She is making menacing and threatening noises. Hey, how bout a "Cash for Cannons" program? She'd be the first one on line for that.