2 thoughts -

1) April consumer credit is way up, the highest since Nov, and a total surprise to everyone who should know. Nov is right before Christmas, so that is naturally a high spot. What happens in April?

OMG!!! IT”S TAX TIME.

So, I think what happened is not that Americans were still all rosy about the future and borrowing like mad to buy more stuff they don’t need, I think they were paying their TAX bills.

I could be wrong. But April is a funny time to buy more stuff, and a totally unfunny time to have to pay the taxman.

2) I forget the other thought. My drive is more than 5 minutes. I have no other excuse except advancing age.

Oh, ok, I remember now. The Haditha massacre hits the front page today. NPR had a clip from the marine sgt who lead the patrol that killed the 24 people. In the clip he speaks of kicking in the door and clearing a room in one of the homes, a home from where he “believed” his team was taking fire.

He “believed”.

He will likely spend the rest of his life in jail.

There is a parallel here. President Bush “believed” that Saddam had WMD’s. So he kicked in the door (shock and awe), sort of like that marine in Haditha, and blew away more than a half million Iraqis, displaced millions more, killed several thousand Americans, spent a half trillion $, and he is going to get a presidential library at SMU.

Something just isn’t right.

Not like you all didn’t know that already.

Jake