[ The following is a thought stream that I wanted to get off my mind.  If you're looking for an informative read that's well researched on more productive subjects, I recommend this diary, or this one.  ]

I appreciate Andrea Mitchell having the courage to try to be a somewhat truthful reporter even under the circumstances she finds herself in*.  In what seemed to be her effort to try to maintain (at least to some degree) the respect of the American people and her viewers, she mentioned a reasonable question that some Obama supporters were expressing about the events of the faith forum, or whatever that thing was that Reverend Warren conducted.  It is a shame she is getting in trouble for it.  But really, are we surprised?

This un-diary was prompted by two frightening videos I just saw on Huffington Post.  This first, thankfully offers its own comic relief:

Link, if you can't see the embed.  The second, more frightening, below the fold.

In a paper recently released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, The Impact of the Housing Crash on Family Wealth  (pdf), we find that the real danger of the drop in house prices is not simply that people's houses are worth less now.  The 'psychological factor' was that homeowners whose house prices were inflated and they felt the price could not/would not go down, tended to act as if the price of their house was money in the bank.  In short people acted as if they were wealthier than they actually were.

These bubbles made it extremely difficult for families to plan their savings, since they would have no simple way to distinguish bubble-generated wealth, which would prove ephemeral, from real wealth which could be expected to endure.  As a result, tens of millions of families likely ended up saving less than they would have considered prudent, had they recognized that their wealth was temporarily inflated by bubbles in the stock or housing market.

Some of you may have heard or read from your tin-foil hat sources something about an investment fund called Omega.  Lately the rumors have been swirling and there is a lot of BS (and very little truth) on the tubes about what it is and whether or not it still exists.

Omega was an investment fund whose supposed intention was to flip "trickle up" into actual "trickle down" - but it didn't work. I'll have to give a bit of background to explain.  If you are interested, please follow me below the fold.

According to an article released today by the International Herald Tribune:

PARIS: Uranium-bearing liquid has leaked from a broken underground pipe at a nuclear plant in southeastern France, the national nuclear safety authority said Friday. It was the second leak discovered at a French site this month.

I want to encourage those of you who care to discourage acceleration of  war with Iran to contact your Congresscritters to encourage them to reconsider their vote on H. Res. 362.  H. Res. 362 is an aggressive pre-emptive act which can be perceived as an act of war.

Have a listen to Congressman Ron Paul, making the case that the vote for H. Res. 362 should be reconsidered and recast, below the fold.  He makes the case that the recent Iranian missile tests came after Israel's 'war games' and should therefore should be seen within the context that escalations are ramping up-saber rattling on both sides -- making the outcome of war more likely, and negotiations less likely.  

Ceci n'est pas un diary. I just saw a great video over at TPM, and I want to share it with my fellow dkossers.  [(If I'm not a kossak, does that make me bad?)]

Classic Curve-Ball Express:

So... It turns out it's the economy, silly. (Links to interviews way down below.  I ramble a little remedial catch up.  If you want to go straight to the pro-speak scroll down.)

The economy is a difficult subject to talk about for a multitude of reasons.  Least of which is that I am not an expert, and that it's totally boring.  Also it's a subject I would rather not have to focus on.  If it were up to me, money really would grow on trees.  For those of you who remember the "Juicy Fruit tree" commercials, that was one of my strongest images of abundance growing up --  loads of people happily finding enough joy for everyone on the branches of trees.  Ojala que... if only life were really that way.

Well, people...  Today was a big day in the financial arena.  So, in that light I want to post a few resources to mark the day.  

First I want to start with clarifying something that many know but not all.  And that is the difference between a bear market and bull market.  There are technical definitions, but all you really need to know to understand what is meant is to think of the animals themselves.  

A bull is a gentle giant that you can put a yoke on and capture his power to work for you.  Clearly this is a good thing as a metaphor for the markets.

A bear is unpredictable, destructive, and will eat you if he has the chance.  Clearly this is not a good thing as a metaphor for the markets.  Apparently today, the bear walked into the market.

With all the back and forth about Obama and Clark it seems some of us may have taken our eyes off the ball.  Ranting around in circles about whether General Clark was right or Senator Obama was right keeps us off the point and that is that McCain as president is wrong.

So for my response, I am going to follow up Clark's comments with a reposting of an excellent diary by fellow dkosser, Timothy L Smith, entitled On McCain-Another POW's View.  It's a letter written by Phillip Butler, PhD, Cdr, USN (ret.), entitled Why I Will Not Vote for John McCain .

I am not a reporter, and have not been able to verify the information or identities in this diary. Perhaps someone here has those vetting abilities. I hope that a reporter will follow up and maybe even interview Dr/Cdr Butler. (Update: Let the vetting begin - hat-tip to sc kitty and Truthout.org for giving Phillip Butler the clout he deserves.)

Please check it out.  It's good stuff.

I thought all the crossable lines had already been crossed.  Clearly I was wrong.  It appears, after yesterday's Congressional hearing on the current administration's use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' (aka torture) that there is a vast grey area which could cross us further into outrageous behavior in the war on terror.  

After everything we have seen and heard, the mismanagement and misdirection that has led to to the losses of thousands of lives -- by some estimates more than a million -- and trillions of dollars wasted for a cause that seems at least partially inspired by greed; and the neglect of our country's infrastructure, our food security, our healthcare, etc...  Really too many lines have been crossed already into the wrong side of morality -- for what?  we still don't fully know.  

As some of you may know, Senator Obama has just completed what started as a two week American Economic Tour which he kicked off in Raleigh, N.C.. The theme of the tour was "Change that works for you."  

In the short-term, he [Obama] wants to help the working class and "restore a sense of fairness and balance to our economy," he said.

In the long term he wants to spur the economy through innovation.

An overhaul of energy policy, the health system and schools will be ``the building blocks'' of long-term U.S. competitiveness, Obama said in the interview (following the summit).  [Link below]

The tour culminated today with an Economic Competitiveness Summit at Carnegie Mellon Universtity in Pittsburgh, PA.

These were his opening remarks:

Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke (aka Helicopter Ben) is someone for whom I have tried to reserve my opinions during this time of trial for the economy.  I've been waiting for him to impress me one way or another.  Today he has reached a new high in my opinion.  Today, Chairman Ben Bernanke calls for Health care Reform.  

Among his many well-explained points for why our economic system demands that the healthcare system change, it's economics 101.  (Roughly quoted):

Health care costs are higher than necessary...  Greater cost does not necessarily mean better care.  In many cases the opposite is true.  Cheap effective treatments are not always used, leading to higher costs and less effective, more prolonged care.

My hope keeps growing.  Please see the video.  

I have lately been hearing the woeful cries of the end of free trade.  

The liberalization of global trade has come ``to a screeching halt,'' said Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

I'm guessing not everyone is going to miss the 'free-trade.'

We live in a rapidly changing economic environment.  The changes are in response to structural influences.  The primary structural shift was the expiration of the previous financial treaties in Hong Kong in 1997.  There have been at least the years since then to prepare for this shift.  In my opinion, the moment that China's sovereignty was returned to China, marked the moment that the modern global economy truly began.

Further amateur analysis from somewhere inside the learning curve following the fold...

As early as 1917, and with the enstatement of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, Prohibition became law, and a new kind of crime was born:  Bootlegging, and it's related field of business - smuggling.  Thus the 20th century American Gangster  was born.

Have you been noticing the disturbances with banks lately?  First there was Bear Stearns' Subprime Bath. Then there was the run on Northern Rock,  then there was Soc Gen.  Then of course, it came full circle, and claimed the lifeblood of Bear Stearns, an 85 year banking institution.  (BTW, It turns out the whole Bear Stearns bailout-thingy is a tad bit more complicated than an outsider might guess.)

So, following the dots, we get it that the music stopped and the ponzi game that was 'subprime' came to an end.  Just kind of makes you wonder, What made the music stop?

Disclaimer:  The following is opinionated ramblings and is to be taken to 'the google' before moving forward.  This is not to be considered the expert opinion of anyone, or necessarily even the truth.  Please do not consider it other than opinions.

:: ::

While some people are now aware that there's an international agreement (Basel 2) that is effecting the American economy, most people still don't know what's going on.  That's entirely understandable considering the organizations to be effected most greatly by the agreement are those who own and control our mainstream media (i.e. mega corporations).  

Little by little, the word is getting out that we are not in Kansas any more, because something has gone and rocked the boat.  But we still can't stitch the big picture together. What is really going on?  

In entertainment there is an expression called the 'fourth wall'.  It is the imaginary boundary between the performers and the performance.  In tv-land, it refers to the boundary between the people inside the tv, and the people outside the tv.

Why this boundary is important is manifold.  The primary purpose for the boundary is to create in the viewer suspension of disbelief.  When we suspend our disbelief, that means we do not question the validity of what occurs within the performance.  We accept it as a journey to be led on, rather than something to be analyzed.