Check out this piece from former Labor Secretary Robert Riech, which reads in part:

Nearly all of the increase in public debt over the last four years — some 1 trillion dollars — has been financed by foreigners, lending us the money. But who wants to lend more and more to a drunken sailor? Foreigners are bailing out of dollars. Even the Chinese and Japanese, who have kept lending so we’ll keep buying their exports, are starting to wise up.

And in fact, the Wall Street Journal just had a big article last week on how Chinese citizens are trying to convert the dollars they once hoarded back into their own currency.

Uh oh.

Which points up one of the fallacies of the tax-cutting principles: that the wealthy who benefit will re-invest in the US economy. In fact, right now the US economy is not the best place to invest. People are putting their money in overseas banks; buying real estate abroad; and generally diversifying their portfolio right out of the US of A…

Timothy Garton Ash, writing from San Francisco yesterday, had this to say, among other things, about liberals after the election:

“I ‘m getting seriously worried about anti-Americanism. Anti-Americanism in America, that is. Here are just a few of the things that I’ve heard travelling through blue, ie liberal, America over the two weeks since George Bush won the election. ‘The truth is, they just are stupid.” (A New Yorker, of people in the red, ie conservative, states.) ‘The snakes.’ ‘Fascism.’ ‘Christian fascism.’ ‘I wanted to make a film about a time when young Americans fought against fascism and not for it.” (A producer, explaining why he commissioned a film about the Spanish civil war.)’

While Garton doesn’t bemoan the liberal self-loathing as ardently as he should have (please! let’s not whine about the election but moblize for 2006), the bigger question is when are we going to see that many faith-voters, along with liberal-Democratic voters, were dupped by Bush this election? Did Bush ever mention same-sex marriage, stem-cell research, abortions, in his post-election speech? I doubt that these will be issues now that Bush has a mandate to turn Iraq into an ashcan for the sake of liberal democratic ideals.

In Tuesday’s Star columnist Thomas Walkom asks whether Bush should be welcomed to Ottawa or banned, citing Canada’s Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act. Would Canada, or any country, risk indiciting an ex-American president for war crimes, especially after Belgium’s weak attempt to that?

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1100517502971

Dawn

I’m not really going to feel a whole lot better about the election until we finally boot G.W. out of office (looking toward 2008 already). Maybe I can just take a nap for the next four years…a really long nap. But, these websites do give me some hope. 49% of America is apologizing in advance for whatever atrocities Bush commits over the next four years. Check out the photo galleries at www.sorryeverybody.com. Apparently, some of the world forgives us.

This is a snip from Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz’s column:

All of which brings us to the question–what happens to Kerry now?

“Our reaction to this is . . . how to put it? Well, here goes: No. Please. Stop.”

This one is also chock-a-block with more good stuff, including a discussion of AG-pick Gonzales.