Finished the book Bad Money by Kevin Phillips. Somewhat informative, but he rehashes what is evident now about the state of the American economy today. We have let the administration, or rather Congress has done nothing to pressure the administration to rein in the financial sector. As long as the people with the money are making money things are fine. In their eyes at least this is true, even if the revenue is on paper that has been shuffled like a deck of cards. What we really needed was someone in congress with the balls to say shit akin to what's in this book years ago. But, as long as the big time money-makers are making money, so are the members of Congress, and that has to be good for America.

So, that finished, I started The Secret History of the American Empire by John Perkins. This is the same guy that put out Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. This is a guy that has been spending his life defending his past involvement with third world countries. The last book didn't do the job, so he wants to do more 'exposing', which is his way of telling the world things that are pretty much common knowledge. I'm not done with the book, but it seems to be more of the same. He mentions several times in this book that he was kept from telling his secrets for a long time because of some agreement he made. To hear him tell it, he hates what he did, but his hands were tied and he had to keep his silence. After all, he had a family to think of. I'll talk more about the book when I actually finish it.

Chris Matthews had some right wing dittohead on the other day, and it was amusing to watch the guy try to shout his way out of a predicament.



What Chris Matthews said about talking points is very true. People are expected to shut up when confronted with them, and the overbearing idiot figured the word 'appeaser' was enough to send anyone to the corner, afraid of being labeled unpatriotic. Maddow was looking to ridicule the idiot, but Matthews brings some sense to the table when he suggested that dissonance is the real patriotic duty of Americans.