Two GRIM October elevenths

Ned's friends may recall that on October 11, 2002, a craven Congress acceded to the lies and calumny of the criminal Bush Regime and "authorized the use of force" against Iraq, a country that had never attacked the U.S. The betrayal by Congress took place only after a cascade of lies and misinformation from Bush and his stooges, including Dan Senor, Don Rumsfeld (who should be behind bars), Condoleeeeezzzzza Rice (ditto), Colin Powell (who should have resigned if he had a bit of self-respect),  and, most infamously of all, Dick Cheney, who should, along with his sock puppet Bush, have been tried for war crimes years ago.
And on October 11, 2011, a craven, crazed Congress, under the thumb of the GOP neanderthals, refused to pass the Obama Jobs Bill, which, at $477 billion would, according to impartial economists, have added 2% to the country's GDP and generated 2 MILLION jobs, at an interest cost of perhaps $6 billion a year. What a different place this country would have been if neither of these nefarious activities had taken place.
Ned wishes his friends a happy VP debate.

Ned's economics lesson

Ned would like to explain today's economy to his many freinds. We are all familiar with the dreary numbers: high unemployment, concentration of wealth in the hands of the Sneering Plutocracy and the Paris Hilton Crowd, GOP Mindless Midgets in charge of the House, and de facto the Senate. Obama has been unable to move the economy off dead center, mainly because of (1) timidity and (2) GOP knuckledragging, neither of which is likely to go away. But here's the simple explanation to the sluggish eonomy: CORPORATE PROFITS EQUAL 12% OF GDP. Now what's so bad about that? First, corporations are sitting on most of that cash and not investing it, or paying it "out" in dividends, or heaven forbid, paying their employees below the level of Sneering Plutocrats. Second, the money they do spend goes to salaries for Sneering Plutocrats, who can't possibly spend all of their filthy lucre, so it does not go back into the economy. Just recall Mitt Romney's offshore accounts. So, while the middle class stagnates, and the GOP plays its obscene game, the Plutocracy hoards cash like the Dragon of the Nibelung.
Ned hopes his friends have a very nice day.