In the shitter

I just saw the new property value for our place for the 08 tax year.  The value of it dropped approximately 60k in the last year.  That’s a quite a hit.  Luckily we aren’t looking to sell anytime soon.

The world itself is in such disarray.  One needs to go no further than to read today’s headlines:

 Bernanke: Financial markets under heavy stress

GM to cut jobs, raise liquidity by $15 billion

Retail sales weak, producer prices strong

Iran to powers: No more ‘condescending’ atom talks

Multiple bombings kill 40 in northern Iraq

The move Bush pulled yesterday removing the ban on offshore oil drilling was such blatant political posturing bullshit it makes me sick.  In a nutshell it is his way of side stepping any responsibility for the quagmire we are in and pointing the finger at a democratic controlled congress. “Look it’s not me, it’s them!!!”  McCain followed along like a good lap dog, reversing his anti-off shore drilling in the span of less than three weeks?  GASP, a flip flopper!

As usual, moves like this are targeted at the uninformed, the intellectual midgets or the brainless lemmings.  The truth is any offshore drilling would take a prolonged period of time until the additional oil would be brought to market.  Secondly, the amount of oil this would provide would be next to negligible in being of any use to bring down oil prices.  We consume way too much.  We already have thousands of intentionally capped off wells to manipulate supply.  Big oil also refuses to build additional refineries as to keep a continuous strain on the supply chain.  Of course the biggest problem is the US population in general.  We make up 4% of the world population but manage to consume 25% of the world energy supply.  Bush doesn’t want to address the real issues.  His contribution to solving the problems is simply signing a piece of paper that says “It ain’t my fault….”  Stupid ass hat.