They now report that cash for clunkers was not enough in July to boost retail sales. They were still down by a tenth of a percentage point, and would have been down point six were it not for the clunkers program. Meanwhile in Germany and France they are doing much better because those peoples haven’t felt this recession because they don’t fire people there but put them in four hour days and the government pays them as though they had worked eight. Thom Hartman was talking so much about sociopathic CEO’s. He says three percent of the population is sociopathic, but only a small percent of these qualifies to be a C E O. This is why they get paid so much, because it’s hard to find men as wanton and greedy as they are. But now President Obama has cut a deal with the insurance and drug companies on this health care plan, but somehow I bet the story will get buried in the media. The President met with these people and they agreed to cut drug prices two percent from the asking price, and in return they get everything they want, which means no public health care. The thing is that multiple times during the campaign last year candidate Obama said that if any party so much as attempted to cut a secret deal with the drug companies, it would be broadcast on the internet for all to witness. Of course Obama is only following in the shoes of his good buddy, George Bush, who came up with "Medi-Care Part D", in which you have the "right" to opt out of Medi-Care for a private insurance plan, where you'll be charged a whole lot more money. That's a sweetheard deal for the insurance companies, huh? But now our President doesn’t care. You know what they say, “Money doesn’t talk; it swears”. It’s the liberals that should now be out protesting and complaining about the Presidential back room deal with the insurance companies and drug companies. The Veterans Administration routinely is allowed 40% off. In Canadian health care, discounts will range anywhere from 35% to 55%. But we, the US tax payers are now told the maximum savings we’ll get is two percent. This bill, like the Bush drug plan, will cost the US tax payer major bucks, and we will get nothing for it. Actually another issue that should be addressed is forking out so much health care for illegal immigrants. If we pruned these from the system, maybe it would work. But the illegal aliens seem to have some all pervaisive lobby that no matter what the cost, covering them is a first priority, even they already get first priority in emergency rooms.

Now apparently Terry Sanford is saying that he intends to and has done a lot of time travel and that his next news conference will be in 1892. Perhaps he can say Hello to Commander Data’s head, from Star Trek, while’s back there. But now he has an excuse for why he's gone for weeks at a time. You've heard, haven't you that women drinking and driving is up 37% while for men the figure is down 7% Men are more blatent about it. They tell the little woman, "Honey, I'm going out to get drunk". Whereas women integrate their activities, so that they go to pick up the kids from hockey practice, and by the way, she's drunk now.

Extrordenary rendition is still going on in the Obama administration. Only now they are dropping the word “extrordenary”. But there was a rendition in early April of this year of a Lebonese business man on some contracting irregularities. He seems he was set up in a bribe “sting” operation. The US says they have no resources to go after the big time business swindlers, but they had the resources to go after this guy because he followed the Mideast practice of paying a bribe, which is kind of expected, like a tip is in this country. The man was strip searched and subjected to hypothermia, and then shipped off to Virginia for justice. That’s a better fate than those in the past have had.

Now Windows is cutting corners. They are getting rid of Movie Maker and Office Photo in Windows 7. Whose lousy idea was that? These are long-standing applications we've come to expect. Apparently Vista was too fancy with excessive visual appeal, so they are going to tone it down in Windows 7.

Actually I did see a doctor twice prior to 1997. I made use of Dad’s eye doctor in Fullerton both in late March of 1989 and also in February of 1994.

The government is now telling us that the recession is “bottoming out” but in the same breath they tell us that it could be two & a half years before the average person on the street notices the difference, with corporations actually hiring. Much of this 45% the stock market has gained is because of job cutting and product and services cutbacks, all in the name of increased “efficiency”. Productivity is way up now, but this is small consolation for the average worker. The deficit is projected to be 1.2 Trillion and this “only” translates to every man, woman, and child in America owing the government four thousand dollars. You know the President could sponsor a national “pay your bills” day and wipe out the deficit with a single sweep. If the average household earns $69,000 a year few would be affected by any tax hikes over $250,000 a year, and yet everyone is concerned by this, as though they were personally affected. It would be actually more difficult for the average family to “make it right” with Gene Scott, who demands as the bare minimum a tenth of your income. He’s big on talking about “tithes” plural, and “offerings” plural. If everyone just pretended they were tithing to Gene Scott, we could wipe out this deficit with money to spare. On the Stephanie Miller show they said that paying money to churches is “taxation without representation”, and who can argue with that? Do you on your most giddy day believe for a minute Gene Scott (post mortem) is going to invite you or I in to the processes of his church government? The thing with this economy is that we are so far away from “light at the end of the tunnel” it isn’t even funny. We won’t begin to see any real improvement, going on the November 1982 model of things, until the Dow Jones Industrials tops fourteen thousand, or some five hundred points from right now, and there is no hint we are getting that far any time soon. We have, if we believe the experts, now had six & a fraction quarters each with a lower GDP than the previous one. As such it’s logically harder and harder to come up with an even worse number than the already depressed previous numbers.

This Lockerbee, Scotland bombing bothers me. In December 1988 Pam Am flight 103 was bombed out of the sky and fell to earth at Lockerbee, Scottland killing all 256 passengers aboard. The lone guy convicted for this Libya terrorist bombing was given a life sentence. I don’t know why on earth he wasn’t given the death penalty and executed but that’s the way British law works. But now these Brits want him released on “compassionate” grounds because he has prostate cancer that’s advanced and incurable. So he wants to go home to the motherland, Libya. I say “No”. He showed no compassion on the 256 people he killed. That’s a lot more than Susan Atkins killed. I see no earthly reason why he should receive the slightest compassion from any government. They say there is some Libya oil connection involved and the Brits are now cozying up to Quadafi, and as such, they don’t want to offend him. I say screw that. The relatives of the victims are still grieving. Their pain isn’t going away.

Dick Chaney is coming out with a “Tell All” book. Of course if there is anything really new in this book, it's probably the manifestation of some mental delusion or out and out fantasy. People are looking for a glimpse in the mind of Darth Vader. The question is, who will believe any of it. Chaney’s chief beef about Bush is that he “went soft tword the end of his term” and that he was too “shackled by public opinion and criticism”. Chaney tried to the end to secure a pardon for Scudder Libby, but failed.