Effor.com

According to a FoxNews story, the U.S. military says it has found caches of newly made Iranian weapons in Iraq, leading senior officials to conclude Tehran is continuing to funnel armaments into Iraq despite its pledges to the contrary

Excuse me, but that’s like blaming Mexico for the US allowing illegal immigrants. 

We’ve supposedly been in control of Iraq since the famous “mission accomplished” speech back in 2003.  Anyone remember that?

Does anyone remember that the Bush administration used 9/11 as an excuse to invade Iraq - which had nothing to do with 9/11?  Does anyone remember that Iraq was going to give all of its’ “weapons of mass destruction” to Al Qaeda - but then it turned out that there were no “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq?

Back to the point of this rant - if we’re in control in Iraq, why is the administration allowing Iran to “funnel armaments into Iraq” anyway?  Are we in control of the country or not?  You can’t have it both ways.

gk

It turns out that the WMD’s Bush was looking for in Iraq were right here all along.  Here’s a CNN story on someone in South Carolina who (allegedly) was planning to blow up his school with fertilizer. 

Hmm….  If we can actually charge him with something, I wonder why Bush claims he needs all these search and seizure wiretapping powers that aren’t allowed by the Constitution?

Hey George, where’s Bin Laden?  Remember him?  The guy who actually had something to do with 9/11?  You seem to have gotten sidetracked in your family feud with Saddam….

gk

Ok, so the headline is fake.  Sue me.  But I guarantee that there is nothing that would make King George happier. 

Unfortunately, after 5 years and 4000 American lives lost in Iraq, we can’t even find any spoiled camel piss.   Hillary is bitching that she was suckered into voting for the war, while refusing to admit that she made a mistake.  Cheney basically says “tough shit - they volunteered.”

Meanwhile, Bin Laden (anyone remember him?) is still out walking around, dragging a dialysis machine behind him while sending messages saying that we suck.  He’s never even been to Iraq, but that doesn’t seem to matter.  GW had to settle a family feud with Saddam, so we invaded Iraq.

Just think about how far along - and how much public support Bush would have today - we’d be in Afghanistan if Bush wouldn’t have lied about Iraq.  Think about how many freedoms we’ve lost because of Bush’s paranoia.  Anyone remember when you could fly somewhere faster than driving?  Ahh, the good old days….

Those were the days when you could go through security without undressing - when you had more than one security agent actually working at a time while 6 others stood around and did absolutely nothing like the average hour long security line today.

I don’t really have a point here, reading Cheney’s interview just me ticked off and I needed to vent.  I really need to take the time to revisit just how bad a job Bush has done, but it won’t be tonight.

gk

I said most of this last week, but Paul Farrell probably says it better in this articleposted on MarketWatch tonight. 

I also talked about Warren Buffett a bit last week when he posted his annual letter to shareholders, but Mr. Farrell quotes both Buffett and PIMCO bond guru Bill Gross when he says “Buffett and Gross warn: $516 trillion bubble is a disaster waiting to happen“.

There are a lot of people saying that this is all overblown, that the Fed will handle it, that all we need is trust, etc.  But the more I learn about what’s going on, the more I’m convinced we’re in for a big crash.  Bigger than 2000, worse than Carter’s bungling in the late 70’s, worse than Johnson’s Great Society that wasted trillions of dollars.

Please read the article.  Earlier tonight I said that we’d be facing huge losses if just 10% of the mortgages defaulted.  According to this, I was way too optimistic.  Farrell says “There’s nothing intrinsically scary about derivatives, except when the bad 2% blow up.” Unfortunately, that “bad 2%” did blow up a few months afterwards, even as Bernanke and Paulson were assuring America that the subprime mess was “contained.”

Bottom line: Little things leverage a heck of a big wallop. It only takes a little spark from a “bad 2% deal” to ignite this $516 trillion weapon of mass destruction. Think of this entire unregulated derivatives market like an unsecured, unpredictable nuclear bomb in a Pakistan stockpile. It’s only a matter of time. “

AP is reporting that  “The Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday the proportion of all mortgages that slipped into foreclosure set a record, 0.83 percent, from October through December. The previous high, 0.78 percent, came in the July-through-September period.”

We’re almost at 1%.  Watch what the foreclosure rate goes to over the next few months as all the ARM’s given out in 2005 start to reset.   Buffett’s view that “…derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.”  will probably be proven right. 

gk