Snow Job

Today on the way home from work, I heard on NPR that the percentage of middle-income Americans without health care had risen from 28% in 2001 to 40% now. And the Bushies wonder why people don't think the economy, which is benefiting shareholders and the ultra-wealthy, isn't good. More data from the study: One in five Americans is working to pay off medical debt. Many of us, 59 percent, skip medications due to their high cost. Under Republican rule no longer the land of opportunity, the chance of rising from poverty to riches in this country are the lowest in the wealthy world behind most of Europe. Perhaps that explains the direction of migration into our country, no longer from the east but from the south. Explanation: Here, under Republican rule, the poor pay taxes and the rich get off easy while in Europe, the tax system is truely progressive and they still have inheritance taxes to prevent the rich family from getting exponentially richer. 47 percent of the poor stay that way. The Land of Opportunity becomes the land of the big gap, approaching the third world in the concentration of wealth at the top. And they wonder why we think the economy sucks.

Today Bush appointed Tony Snow, a Fox News (sic) commentator, as press secretary. About the only change I see for the country is that Snow will probably be able to polish turds a lot better than Scotty the Mouthpiece. He may even polish them with some vigor. Who knows, Snow may even have a personality. We know he disagrees with some of the Shrub's policies (that he agrees with any makes him questionable as a source of information), at least enough to give Fox News a faint glimmer of fairness and balance. At least the turds called White House Press Briefings will be a lot shinier. No word on the smell.

The Senate rebelled against Bush's war in Iraq by reappropriating nearly $2 billion from the losing effort in the Middle East to the losing effort along our southern border. Bush is incensed, of course we can print enough money to do both! It's only paper.

Yesterday I read an editorial from John (the) Boehner about how the Republicans were restoring ethics to the Congress. This the day after Republicans removed the requirement for lobbyists to report contacts with lawmakers and staffers from the ethics reform bill, although the editorial implies it's still in the package. Today Rove testified again before the grand jury investigating the President's incontinence - his leaks. Delay remains under investigation, Cheney and Bush are running scared from Scooter Libby, Frist is under investigation, Abramoff is singing and Boehner believes he can get away with stripping the ethics bill. Reform, indeed. Reform, Republican style.

Bush's bombastic energy savings plan will save us less than one day's oil consumption if in place for the entire summer. So much for bringing down pump prices.