Obama's Bringing them Home... Sorta

Well, living up to his campaign promis, Obama is bringing troops home....in 19 months and...not all of them. From The Post

"His plan calls for withdrawing most of the 142,000 service members now in Iraq by the end of August next year, leaving 35,000 to 50,000 in place until Dec. 31, 2011, when all U.S. forces must be out of Iraq in accordance with a status-of-forces agreement negotiated last year between the Iraqi government and the Bush administration. Obama said Friday he intends to honor that agreement."

Well, it is not quite what we needed but it is what we got.

Economy Tanking

I hate to have to write about this b/c I would like to stick with politics, however, I have been reading and hearing how BAD our economy is getting. The Post report our GDP shrank by 6.2% last quarter. The highest rate in a quater century. 

"The new government figures out this morning show the U.S. economy shrank by a larger-than-expected annualized rate of 6.2 percent during the final three months of 2008, the worst showing in about 25 years."

Other depressing news

"Nearly every segment of the economy contracted sharply during the fourth quarter, the data show. Consumer spending fell 4.3 percent, compared with 3.8 percent in the third quarter. Investment in office buildings, shopping centers and other nonresidential structures sank 5.9 percent, compared with an increase of 9.7 percent in the previous quarter. Real exports of goods and services plummeted 23.6 percent, compared with an increase of 3 percent in the third quarter."

I also heard on NPR that our GDP is now equal to the amount of money we owe in debt. Meaning if our GDP is 1 trillion, we also are, as individuals, 1 trillion in debt. While this seems a bit amazing experts have seen before. Just one other time in history has this happened. In 1929, just before the depression. 

I don't want to sound gloomy but the bottom has not been reached. I am hoping it is reached sometime this year. 

Jindal's (GOP) Response to Obama's Address

Jindal's speech fell well short of President Obama yesterday. He has been getting panned by everyone b/c of his speech style in comparison to Obama's. To be honest it is not fair to compare the two. Obama is one of the better speakers of our time.

One other thing stuck out about Jindal's response. He basically stuck to OLD repub talking points of small government. I really don't think the GOP has a clue what is happening in the world today. The ONLY thing that can stave off a depression is government.

Here is a video of David Brooks letting the GOP know how bad they are doing.

Coleman Going Down The Tubes

With the GOP raising tons of cash to help pay Colemans legal fees (to keep Franken out of the senate), it would seem that Coleman might be able to pull something off but at the end of the day he doesn't need money. He needs votes and he's still behind by some 225+ votes.

Over the past couple of weeks, it has become obvious that Coleman's chances are dwindling. Now, judges are keeping out votes Coleman wants in and adding votes he doesn't want in. 

The point here is: Coleman has no chance. He knows it because he got a new job. And he is only keeping Franken out of the Senate and wasting Minnesota tax payer money with this assinine suit. 

If there ever was a fork that needed to be stuck in someone it is Coleman.

Obama's Joint Congress Address

We all know he can speak but he is getting better. Last night's address reminds us all we finally have an intelligent thoughtful president. Here is the transcript.

There were great lines throughout the speech. Here is my favorite. 

"We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."