http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/thirteen.asp

To get an accurate idea of the current size of the national debt, imagine 1,000 such cubes.

500 of them have been added by the Bush administration during the past 8 years.

60 would represent the direct cost-to-date of the War in Iraq.

The fundamentals are as follows:

The nation is now over ten trillion dollars in debt. We doubled it in 8 years. Much of this debt is owed to our economic competitors. This is a number so large most cannot even conceive of what it means.

We’re adding to that debt faster than any time in our history. Current policy could add another trillion in a single year.

We’re dependent on early 20th Century energy technology, and on foreign sources for 70% of the obsolete fuel we need the most. We have no control over the supply or price.

By and large, our work force is deep in personal debt. We’ve encouraged them to live on credit and discouraged them from accumulating personal savings by artifically suppressing interest rates. Meanwhile, the solvency of the Social Security retirement system has been placed in serious doubt by the uncontrolled growth of public debt.

In a world becoming increasingly dependent on technology, one out of every three new members of our work force isn’t even graduating from high school. By the standards or the rest of the industrialized world, we’ve become a nation of dummies.

We’ve allowed our domestic manufacturing base to decline. We’ve actually created incentives for corporations to move U.S. manufacturing overseas. We’ve allowed our most advanced technological innovations to be exported–even critical defense technologies.

Our infrastructure is literally falling apart. Our roads, highways, bridges, dams, water treatment facilities, etc; all have been long neglected. As of 2003, nearly 1/3 of all bridges in the U.S. were structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

Any political leader claiming that the economic fundamentals are sound simply doesn’t have a solid grasp of the situation.

They’ve presumed too damn much. Their presumption that they should also own and control the nation is one presumption too many.

CDOs are “Collateralized Debt Obl;igations” which are pools of underlying loans and other forms of corporate debt that Wall St. bundled and sold to investors. These deals often incorporated significant leverage which is exacerbating the losses. This is where the next “multiple hundred billion dolalr losses” will come not only for the Wall St. investment banks but also the investors (banks, insurance companies, money managers).

Hope this helps!!

HOWEVER, my gut tells me BO is going to win this thing – that it might not even be close (electoral vote wise). I believe the popular vote will be close, but that doesn’t win elections.

Why did he only visit his “beloved Grandmother” for one hour when he was there “on vacation” for an entire week?

If she had been such an integral person in his life and he loved her so much, why wouldn’t he at least bring his wife with him to say goodbye and his children – if he’s making the trip anyway?

When my parents cross over – would I bar my husband and my children from saying their goodbyes or would I want to include them as part of the family structure?

This is Michelle Obama’s ‘virtual’ mother-in-law – who DOESN’T go to your mother-in-law’s deathbed to pay your last respects and give them your love?

Once again, I say that the way Obama has had his half sister keep her under lock and key during his entire campaign (primaries and general) and kept the Grandmother sequestered from any questions from the Press – IT’S BEYOND CREEPY.

Once again…no speculation…no antennae waving or alarm bells going off by our “intrepid” U.S. Media?