It is difficult to feel good this 4th of July given the mess the Bush/McCain Republicans have led this nation into. This year alone 438,000 people who lost their jobs. We are well into the Bush's SECOND recession (first president ever to preside over two recessions) with almost no recovery between them. We are officially in a bear market. Food prices are rising worldwide. Oil is at record highs suggesting Americans will have a very, very tough winter. The deficit is WAY above where it has ever been before and no end in sight. And I am not even going into the inept, idiotic and completely useless Bush/McCain Iraq war.

Why oh why does this man irritate me so?  Now don't get me wrong, John Stossel is probably a nice man.  But for a man who can garner audiences, he is "dangerous" (well not really, but the guy's on TV and he is on the ra-ra free market Right's side promulgating this crap) with his half ass grasp on our economy.   Recently, on MyDD's evil twin, he wrote up a piece on how the economy really isn't doing bad.  That it was all media hype.

The first half of today's show was about patriotism, and it was juicy. The second was about Barack Obama's shift to the center and John McCain's Campaign Shake up.

A substantive discussion amongst the panelists about what patriotism means. Bob Scheer expounds on George Washington's farewell speech; Tony Blankley talks about how the theme plays out politically; Matt Miller shares thoughts by Peter Beinart of Time Magazine that the right says "America's great," the left says, "Here's what would make America great;" and Arianna Huffington mentions the USA Today poll that says 2/3 of Americans think that protesting is patriotic. Are Obama's moves toward swing voters going to win him votes or just the animosity of his base? And will John McCain's campaign recover its footing with new guy, Steve Schmidt, at the helm.

EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG. PART I.
As the volume becomes amplified on our quickly-worsening economic realities, it should come as little surprise to many reading this blog that most of what we read, see and hear about the economy, labor/unemployment, the cost of living,  inflation, the national debt, etc., etc., is just plain false.

Please read this previous sentence again.

(More about this in a few moments.)

As I've written before, John McCain has this amusing little habit of denying his own words. It's as if he's not aware that we have these devices nowadays that record sound and images and still other devices that replay them. Whether it be his "100 years in Iraq" comment or his "it's not too important when the troops come home" line, when called on it, he simply chooses to pretend he never said anything of the kind, crying "Out of context!" like a child trying to avoid punishment for something everyone knows he did.

McCain's latest "I didn't say what I said" moment -- this one on the subject of his self-professed lack of economic expertise -- came this morning on Good Morning America:

"Good Morning America's" Robin Roberts...asked McCain why he went abroad when the No. 1 issue for voters was the U.S. economy.

"You have admitted that you're not exactly an expert when it comes to the economy," Roberts began.

"I have not. I have not. I actually have not," McCain interrupted. "I said that I am stronger on national security issues because of all the time I spent in the military. Very strong on the economy. I understand it. I have a lot more experience than my opponent."

In response, The DNC has released this excellent compilation video of all the times McCain has let us know just how NOT an expert on the economy he is.

Man this guy's pathetic.

Everyone's witnessing, first-hand (everytime they go to the supermarket or fill their gas tank), about what's in store for us as far as the economy's concerned in upcoming weeks and months, between now and Election Day, and beyond.

I talk with friends and business associates about the state of the economy all the time, as I'm sure many of you do, as well.

Apparently, what hits home the most, when I bring this up--aside from everyone getting nailed with higher consumer prices--is when I tell them to take a look around in their communities. I ask them: "What would happen to their towns, their friends, their jobs, and their friends' jobs if the following companies no longer existed?"

Some interesting stuff happening in the manufacturing sector.  The US Dollar, despite the President's claim today that he wants a strong currency, continues to drop.  Rising material costs, be it ore or petroleum, has had some unintended consequences.  We noted here last week, that many businesses are starting to take a second look at the US given the rise in transportation costs.

The quickly-approaching light at the end of our tunnel this election cycle is a turbocharged, nuclear-powered locomotive, the likes of which we've never seen. It will arrive at our station well BEFORE we cast our votes in November.

In fact, if you read below the fold, it's already arrived...today.

Unbeknownst to the majority of U.S. society, due to a total lack of responsible reporting of the facts by the MSM, it is now self-evident to this diarist that the sky really is falling.