I've been saying it all along: you can play with the numbers but you can't change the facts and the people know it!
Take a look at the latest polls on how the Republicans policies make Americans feel. (Stock tip of the day: Buy stock in Pharmaceuticals, War Profiteering Businesses, and Oil Companies)
Grab the Prozac... 
How's this for a headline: Doubts about children's future and concerns about wars weigh heavily.
*Nearly two-thirds don't believe life for their children's generation will be better than it has been for them, and nearly 60 percent are doubtful the Iraq war will come to a successful conclusion.
*Only 27 percent think the country is headed in the right direction, while just 34 percent approve of the president's handling of Iraq.
*Fifty-eight percent say they are less confident the Iraq war will come to a successful conclusion.
*Among those who believe that the nation is headed on the wrong track, a whopping 81 percent say it's part of a longer-term decline and that things won't get better for a while.
*Just 12 percent think the problems are short-term blips. (Those are your hardcore Republican/Neocons here!)
*And 65 percent say they feel less confident that life for their children's generation will be better than it was for them. In December 2001, the last time this question was asked, respondents — by a 49-42 percent margin — said they were confident life would be better for their children.
There's even more reason to have lots of pessimism. Once again hat tip to Bonddad!
"College Graduates' Wages Drop 5.2% Since 2000"
Wage stagnation, long the bane of blue-collar workers, is now hitting people with bachelor's degrees for the first time in 30 years. Earnings for workers with four-year degrees fell 5.2 percent between 2000 and 2004 when adjusted for inflation, according to White House economists.
It is a setback for workers, and it may explain why surveys show that many Americans think President Bush has not managed the economy well.
Not since the 1970s have workers with bachelor's degrees seen a prolonged slump. These workers did well during the last period of growth, with average wages rising 12 percent from 1995 to 2000, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Excuse me while I go grab my bottle of Zoloft...
According to the National Bureau of Economic Analysis, this expansion started in November 2001 when according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic the average hourly pay of non-supervisory workers was $14.70. This figure was $16.62 in May of 2006 for an increase of 13.06%. Over the same period, the inflation gage according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics increased from 177.4 to 202.5, or an increase of 14.15%. Therefore, wages for non-supervisory employees have decreased a little over 1% since this expansion began.
However, the unemployment rate dropped below 5% in December 2005, signaling "full employment". Has the decrease in labor supply increased wages? No. In December 2005 the average hourly wage of non-supervisory employees was $16.35. In May that number was $16.62 for an increase of 1.65%. Over the same period, the overall inflation measure increased from 196.8 to 202.5 or an increase of 2.89%. Therefore, since the economy hit "full employment" wages have decreased 1.25%.
Two sources confirm this information. The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances 2001-2004 and the Census Bureau's median wage statistics. The Census Bureau documents that national median income has dropped from $45,000 in 2000 to a little under $44,500 in 2004.
Still can't numb myself to the pain-- time for the Wellbutrin too. 
I'm joining the many home owners who have their mortgage company and realtor on speed dial now too. From the Wall Street Journal:
Surviving a Real-Estate Slowdown
Wall Street Journal
“To get a lay of the land, we tracked down Kenneth Heebner, who since 1994 has managed the $1.2 billion CGM Realty Fund. It has the best 10-year record of all real-estate-focused mutual funds....Heebner:A significant decline in prices is coming. A huge buildup of inventories is taking place, and then we're going to see a major [retrenchment] in hot markets in California, Arizona, Florida and up the East Coast. These markets could fall 50% from their peaks.
And this too: (Trazodone in hand now too!) 
Retailers are already reporting rapidly-softening sales, as higher interest rates and dropping property values are shutting down the real estate ATM that has been the only thing fueling the economy for the past five years.
Something like $1.7 trillion dollars in ARMs will reset over the next year, and many homeowners who thought to refinance their way out of higher rates are finding that they can't do it--either because their homes are now worth less than they paid, or because a new mortgage is no cheaper than the old. Many of these have been living on razor-thin margins paying their bills, which is one reason why mortgage rates are skyrocketing.
With all that economic news, I'm afraid I have no choice...I'm taking the few dollars I have left and investing. Decisions, decisions, decisions...should I invest in antidepressants, war-mongering businesses, or oil?
Shucks...with this news, any of them is a sure thing!
Authors note: I am in no way advocating any reader taking any antidepressants without the approval of their own physician and following the advice of their physician. See a doctor if you are experiencing depression. (And this author was not taking those medicines or advocating their usage!)
From Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2006/7/26/213343/239/14#c14
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
I don't buy into that. It doesn't at all take into account population growth nor the issue of outsourcing; however, I am impressed that they did have the integrity to adjust for inflation.
--Mike
Gosh, and the outsourcing to slave labor overseas 'improves' the situation? Your side would never want those stats included or it'd look even worse.
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
Actually that helps my side, because it validates abolition of minimum wage.
--Mike
So go volunteer to work for less than minimum wage. Curious...do you live at home with mommy and daddy? Do you support yourself? How much is rent? How much is health care? What do you intend to eat? How will you pay for electricity and water? How will you pay for clothes? Do you have children to support? And do you drive to work? How will you pay for gas?
Figure it out embryo....mimimum wage earners earn approx 11k per yeareven working 40 hours per week. The Federal Poverty line is 16K per year. With the cost of inflation, gas prices going up, food prices going up, and employers not even providing health care, HOW does the exportation of 'slave labor overseas" HELP your side when families here are starving at home?
If anything, it only proves the point that your side is greedy and lives off other peoples' poverty and pain.
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
But do you know what perpetuates that inflation? Minimum wage. Because companies are forced to shell out more to employ people, they either don't employ as many people or drive up the cost of product. When the cost of product goes up, people cry for a raise in minimum wage. If we abolished minimum wage, there would be no reason why these companies would ship these jobs overseas.
--Mike
That's what they'd like you to believe. But it's not true. Companies must provide for the overhead and their employees; however, the factors that drive up costs are things like utilities and maintenance.
Then there are other factors like fuel and gas. Do you realize that the oil barans made another huge profit this quarter? They're not paying people more. They're charging us more and they're charging truckers more. Now the truckers need to pay for their expenses so they have to raise prices on their fees--or do you expect them to work for free too? Then the stores and factories increase their prices so that they can make a profit too.
So the people at the top--the oil barons-in their greed and not paying anyone more money either have caused an economic cycle of inflation.
These factors had nothing to do with minimum wage. And that is why your theory is a fallacy.
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
Then why, pray tell, do companies feel the need to send jobs overseas or to hire illegal immigrants? Somehow, I don't think it's because they cost less in utilities and maintenence.
The oil barons make a huge profit every quarter. Remember, those profits also come from airplanes and ships. They're charging more because people can (barely) afford more because inflation is catching up with the minimum wage. Inflation is a result of more money saturating the economy, so to say that their driving up prices is causing inflation is false, it's the fact that people have more money, making it worth less.
--Mike
Mike,
Exxon profits another whopping quarter.
Chevron oil...highest profits this quarter than in its 127 year history.
Your scapegoating the middle wage earners when it's the people rolling in the dough who just want to keep all the toys in the sandbox for themselves instead of 'sharing the wealth."
That is what is driving inflation. Not the payroll. It's the price of oil, fuel, shipping, etc...and when CEO's are earning RECORD profits while the rest of the world is told to take a pay cut, there's something wrong with that picture.
Greed was one of those seven deadly sins...remember that?
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
I'm missing the connection between oil company profit and inflation. If CEOs keep the money to themselves, it should cause deflation (because they're taking money out of the American economy--supply & demand, less money there is, the more it is worth). I'm not scapegoating anyone. We need to have tax cuts for the poor. If we eliminate minimum wage, maybe even have a minimum tax bracket (so that those earning less than a certain amount are exempt from income tax). We need to get corporate influence out of the government. The problem there is that many government operations (trains, busses, etc.) run on things that the oil companies supply. A quick way to fix that is to leave more to private enterprise. Just because the government has a monopoly on something, doesn't mean that it isn't a monopoly.
--Mike
Mike,
There's a lot of things that you're not taking into account. ONE--the war and the money spent on the war is the ONLY thing preventing us from having a full-fledged depression.
TWO--The fact that rich are getting richer has nothing to do with inflation or deflation when 99% of Americans don't earn that kind of money. So they have little effect on the overall inflation/deflation. It's the middle-class and the poor who run the economy.
Three--the housing market has prevented a depression; however, as I posted, that bubble is bursting as we speak. We have more houses on the market for more than 6 months than since GHB was in office. You're too young to know how rotten things were under GWB and Reagon. But we're seeing the reimergence of those times now: people losing homes, jobs, living on the streets, begging, digging in the trash for food, crime on the upswing etc...
You're tax idea isn't going to work. Rich don't want to pay taxes. It's exactly why they've tried to tie in the minimum wage increase with the repealing of the Paris Hilton-estate tax.
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
Did you call Bush senior GHB?
--Mike
Well...not to his face! ;)
(I have another name for him if I meet him in person.)
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
Oops..good catch. I used the wrong initials.
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
You never answered the question Embryo.. How are you planning on living on 11k per year when the federal level of poverty line is 16k.
So these poor people are told to take a pay cut in your opinion. What sacrifice are you insisting the CEO's and Oil Barons make?
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
The Federal poverty line determines at what point you can collect welfare. The CEOs should get a tax hike. I may have some conservative economic ideals, but supply-side economics is just plain stupid.
--Mike
Yes, if you make more than 16k per year you don't qualify for aid. If you make less, you qualify but you then get called "lazy, unworthy, slobs" by people who don't understand that you are working 40 hours per week but businesses aren't willing to pay you what you're worth.
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
Exxon Mobil 2Q profit hits more than $10B
Soaring energy prices catapulted Exxon Mobil to a second-quarter profit of more than $10 billion and promise to ignite industrywide growth — and public outrage — all year
The oil and gas industry's prolific profits come as motorists in the U.S. pay an average of $3-a-gallon at the pump and as Washington lawmakers consider opening to drilling areas of the Gulf of Mexico currently off-limits — both of which have generated political backlash
Rep. Markey Comments
Rep. Edward Markey, D-MA, said that American consumers have been "tipped upside down and have (had) their savings shaken out of their pockets at the gas pump."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060728/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_oil_6
Can't blame workers for windfall profits here!
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***
From April to June, Exxon earned $114 million a day — $80,000 a minute. Or look at it this way: In 30 seconds, the Exxon Mobil Corp. makes about what an average American family earns in an entire year.
"They're clearly getting rich at the expense of their customers," said Mark Wolfe of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. "This is a good that's essential. You need it to get to work. You need it to heat your home."
The profits of Exxon, BP, Shell and Chevron are up an average of 39 percent since last year — that's 2½ times the average profit gain (14.9 percent) of the nation's biggest companies.
The question now is how big oil will spend its windfall.
Today Exxon said it would spend $7 billion buying back its own stock, enriching shareholders. Last quarter it spent $6 billion buying back stock. Only $4 billion went to exploring for new sources of oil.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?id=2245149
***The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.
Dan Quayle former Republican VP of George Bush Sr***