Be Wery Wery Quiet - We're Hunting Intelligence

It's pretty hard to miss the fact that we are in economic peril the likes of which many of us have never seen.

A simple look at that the obvious math makes that reality clear. Health care costs continue to outpace inflation. Continuing jobless claims are up slightly over the same period in 2006 to 2.57 million. Home mortgage foreclosures are skyrocketing while rates continue to climb. Credit is much tighter and oil is presently near its record-high in excess of $80/barrel.

However, the Administration will continue to lead us to believe that everything is ok. "Really, these are just nice showers into which you're going. No, that's all rumor that poison gas is what really comes out. Right this way Mr. Mirkowitz."

In Lee County, Florida, new home building permits are down 900% from the same time last year. Statewide, homeowners insurance and property tax rates are crippling many whom already live here and serving to ward off many who would have considered relocating.

Nationally, fuel prices are hovering near record-highs. In 2002, it cost about $70 to fill my SUV's tank. Today, it's $135. It hasn't been "full" in quite a while. I figure keeping the weight down has to help my fuel economy somewhat. Although, not driving at all would help that much more.

Grocery shopping is almost nightmarish; I bought enough yesterday to get through the week with what meat was already on-hand. $127. The only real luxury was a bottle of wine from SE Australia that was on sale for $5.50 (a real dive from my upper shelf taste). The grocer actually bragged that their nearly $4.00/gallon milk price was a bargain of some sort. Honey is outrageously priced, likely the result of the virus that has decimated the honeybee population, and anything that contains any corn byproduct is guaranteed to be more expensive. Why? Because some genius decided that making ethanol out of corn would help curb the oil/gas issues we face. Brilliant. If there weren't downstream effects of that like higher food prices across the board. Whether it contains corn, byproduct, or ate corn before we eat it, the desire to fuel our cars has fueled the cost surge. Simple supply and demand. To date, the media hasn't published analysis to reflect how we're actually worse off now than if they had left well enough alone. Most of us don't have access to ethanol (E85) anyway. Yet we're all paying the price for this new, albeit less efficient, technology.

China continues to manipulate the value of US currency as a result of their extensive holdings of US securities. At any given moment, that one country could flood the global market and wreak havoc on what remains of the weakened US economic position. Of course, this is on the heels of their lackluster controls that either poison our pets or poison our kids.

Intelligence reports from the UK suggest that the US is drawing up plans to resolve Iran's proxy war with the US via Iraq. Some 2,000 targets have already been identified if reports are to be believed. As though two wars in the region aren't enough, let's add another one that will undoubtedly piss off Venezuela's US-hating leader and potentially launch us into conflict with him and his other buddy, Putin, who seems to have single-handedly dismantled his entire government in the past week. Lovely. Three dictators that claim to have been "elected" and all with reason to spew more venom on the US. Of course, we cannot forget the countless disenfranchised radical Muslims who will use any excuse possible to proclaim jihad on America.

President Bush has long desired a legacy for his two terms in office; it would appear that he has achieved a legacy of ineptitude unlike any other before him. Sadly, at this stage, I sound like a typical Democrat just complaining but not offering solutions. But, I don't even know where to start. So much has run amok for so long, that the only place we may be able to start is from rock bottom. And dare I say that it will only take one more terror strike, one more war, or one more economic shove from China and we'll be living as they do in many third world hell holes.

Want proof, read these from TODAY's news:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070917/britain_northern_rock.html?.v=12

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070917/apfn_dollar.html?.v=2

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070917/oil_prices.html?.v=8

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1661682,00.html

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070917/germany_greenspan_euro.html?.v=1

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/16/wiran116.xml

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1189411419433&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Don't be fooled, folks. There is nothing cast in stone that says the USA is God's favored nation or that we will always be the superpower that we have known. At the rate we're going forty years wandering in the desert being fed manna from Heaven might not be so bad.