Giving credibility to the same organizations who pushed for the war, is insane.

[SoCalDem]

I am positively enraged at all the AEI, Heritage, CATO, shills who are STILL being proffered as "experts" on how to get OUT of this Iraq-war mess, when these were the SAME idiots who droned on day after day after day after day about how "easy" it would be, and after the aircraft carrier adventure, how wonderful bush looked in his "flight suit costume"..

The news venues who continue to give valuable air-time to these goofballs, should at least remind everyone who FUNDS their little playhouse, and how THEY get paid, and by whom.

They see their little fiefdoms losing influence, and it's got to bug the hell out of them. Until now, they have been merrily pumping out paper after paper, report after report, and having them received with "message from God" status. The are used to being paid well for their musings, and they want the gravy train to continue.

I'd like to see a concerted effort made by Dean, Pelosi, Reid and anyone else to use some of the air-time THEY get, to discredit these people.

Their "opinions" are dangerous, and desperately wrong, and should NOT be used as unchallenged statements of fact.

We are in a time and place where real information is needed. We can do without right wing opinions, spun to resemble fairy tales... and if the media cannot quit them cold-turkey, they should at least be made to identify them for what they are...storytellers.

[truedelphi]

1. I'm afraid that when/if Reid, Pelosi and Dean get

the same amount of air time as the Right Wing SHills, they will have to use that time to defend the bogus charges against them

Was clicking through my 71 cable channels yesterday only to see huge headlne of "The Nanacy Pelosi Shrinking Dollar"

See the economy isn't doing well - and of course didn't even come up for discussion until after the election.

But now that Pelosi has been elected, well, isn't it obvisouly her FAULT? (Never mind that the new Congress won't even convene until after the 1st of January.

Sad state of affairs when the networks can count on a certain portion (29%) who believe whatever the graphics department puts up there.

[Morgana LaFey]

4. Ugh. I've been a little worried that TPTB have some

mechanism by which they can unleash the pent up "demand" (so to speak) for a series of, um, adjustments to the economy that we all know (and have read about) are just waiting for their time to unfold.

Is that possible, all you economic and finance buffs?

[truedelphi]

11. I am lost in terms of really understanding economics

But one thing I have heard said constantly is that the low interest rates that exist now are quite artificial (especially considering the amount of debt the huge national deficit creates)

In fact,just with the rather small one quarter of one per cent raises the interest rate is now seeing - that has already caused problems for some of those who have borrowed extensively to get into housing -
and with adjustable mortgages AS WELL!

The housing market (which with all the realtors, renovators,decorators, tradesmen and women etc) was helping keep the economy up is now flat in most places.

WalMart is having trouble - and that knocked the stock market for a loop one day last week.

However on the bright side - if you are rich, things are still swimmingly wonderful!

Over the years, i have gleaned some basic idea of things economic. You can too!

Just remember Carol's four rules of economics -

1) Buy low -sell high
2) Don't count your eggs before they are hatched
3) Don't put all your eggs in one basket (diversify!)
4) What goes up - no matter what it is! - will always eventually come down (Usually six to eighteen months after you are told it's a sure thing!)

[Morgana LaFey]

13. WalMart

Man, I meant to post about this the other day. Small, somewhat meaningless anecdotal..., but nevertheless.

I happened to stop in to my local WalMart on the Saturday after T'giving, a day the place should've been impossible to get INTO. It wasn't even as busy as most weekdays at other times. It was downright spooky. I thought to myself, "Man, here's trouble if this is for real." Inside I asked the clerk at the checkout corner "Where is everbody," and she said, "The manager said it's because of the weather," which was gorgeous, but chilly of course, perfect weather for SHOPPING.

[truedelphi]

15. That's rather spooky - did they have any sales going on?

So they could compete with the major retailers offering things for free (well, free to the first 50 buyers etc.)

[High Plains]

2. Cato? I thought the libertarians opposed the Iraq war.

I would be interested in seeing where any Cato Institute folks spoke out for it.

AEI, Heritage, hell, even Brookings, yes, but not, Cato, I don't think.

I know there is reflexive hatred of libertarians on this board, but we should probably just criticize them for things they really do.

[Mythsaje]

5. Yeah, that's what I thought too...

I remember a lot of stuff coming out from Cato opposing the war.

[w4rma]

6. CATO is Libertarian, not libertarian. (nt)

[philly_bob]

7. Important question re Cato. Hope to see it answered.

To some extent I follow Cato, and they seem to be well-funded with corporate antiregulation money and to have an economic position just this side of worshipping the free market.

But I don't know their position on Iraq.

Hope somebody puts in the time to dig up the answer.

[SoCalDem]

8. As an organization they claim to have "no stance" on

most issues, but their spokespeople who fan out across the media, are very anti-liberal in just about everything they talk about.

Remember, during the lead up to the war the "approval rate" was much higher than it is today.

A quick glance at any "news" show will almost always have a Heritage/AEI/CATO spokesperson as the "counter" to any liberal/progressive person who is invited to be the daily piñata

[sweetheart]

3. its predictable

The corporatocracy is like a magma flow, and its own leaders of one day, the crusty black
top of the flowing pile is the next rolled over underneath the river of magma like a sunken ship,
the magma never stopping really, just consuming a politician here and there, with wars planned
and executed by project plan, just with better PR and apologists, the new ones who weren't
remembered from yesterday by a timeless media mirage of mammon.

[sendero]

9. Ah yes..

... the same bunch of "stink tanks" (their only motivation is to make odiferous ideas smell tolerable) that we got to hear ad nauseum on NPR back in the "cheerlead for war" times.

NPR finally dumped them, but not fast enough to save their credibility. And yes, I've never heard a single new idea come from any of these outfits, always just a new spin on their absurd points of view.

[H2O Man]

10. Great point.

The media pretends that we are being treated to the insightful positions of those who were opposed from Day One to the Bush-Cheney agenda.

[thingfisher]

12. To many political science majors

need jobs, so they end up in think tanks. You'd think with such remarkably well informed people spending all theri time thinking about the world and how it works could come up with better solutions, wouldn't you?
Personally , I think to much attention is paid to these corporate think tank gurus. Why not let the American voter have a say in how things are done, instead of being asked to support this or that position enunciated by a talking head from a place where the people are all a lot smarter than the voters? But that means that our elected officils would actually have to know and care what the voters want.....

[Peace is Possible]

14. They lied then, and they are lying now. and why wouldn't they?

everyday we stay in Iraq, Halliburton makes more money. They don't give a damn how bad they fuck up as long as they keep looting the treasury.

We must stop congress from enabling them! We must demand they cut off the funding and impeach Bush for his crimes against this country and humanity.