The morning after--In Scotland

What was supposed to be the most important election in 50 years has become the greatest shambles in Scottish electoral history.

LOOKS LIKE THEY GOT THE DIEBOLD TREATMENT IN SCOTLAND! Be sure to scroll down the comments to see the ones from "Goodfairy". Hilarious stuff.

The rest of the world's major economies no longer depend on America's. Neither do America's own largest corporations.

the Dow did reach a record high last week. But the Commerce Department also reported that economic growth slowed to its weakest pace in four years. How can investors do so well while the real economy is doing so poorly? My supply-side friends don't have an answer, but I do.

It's because of two great decouplings that have occurred in recent years. First, the rest of the worlds' major economies have decoupled from the United States economy. China, India, Japan, and Europe are now such large markets they can grow briskly even as America slows.

Second, America's largest corporations have decoupled from the United States. Their overseas subsidiaries are booming even as their American operations stagnate. General Electric expects more than half its revenue this year to come from outside the United States for the first time. More than half of Boeing's new orders are from overseas. Ford is struggling in America but doing well in Europe.

AP: Senior VA Officials Get Big Bonuses

The VA treats our Vets like crap when they get back home and then they give themselves huge bonuses. Unbelievable!


WASHINGTON (AP) - Months after a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall that put veterans' health care in peril, Veterans Affairs officials involved in the foul-up got hefty bonuses ranging up to $33,000.

The list of bonuses to senior career officials at the Veterans Affairs Department in 2006, obtained by The Associated Press, documents a generous package of more than $3.8 million in payments by a financially strapped agency straining to help care for thousands of injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

43% of Iraqis live in absolute poverty – government report

The survey by the Central Statistical Bureau says that 43 percent of Iraqis suffer from 'absolute poverty’ and another 11 percent of them live in 'abject poverty’.

Both terms are measures aid organizations use to quantify poverty in the world and they refer to people below poverty level.

People in absolute poverty lack the necessary food, clothing or shelter to survive and 43 percent of Iraqis now fall into that category, the survey says.

People in abject poverty lack a minimum income or consumption level necessary to meet basic needs and 11 percent of Iraqis are in that category, according to the survey.

Gravel plan could land Bush 'behind bars'

Go Gravel!

50-foot 'Mission Accomplished?' banner unfurled in front of White House

At an event held in front of the White House grounds today, Americans United for Change and Americans Against Escalation in Iraq unfurled a version of the infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner, with one notable difference: Theirs ended with a question mark.

The "Mission Accomplished?" protest comes in advance of tomorrow's fourth anniversary of the speech President George Bush made on May 1, 2003 on the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare major combat operations in Iraq complete.

Corps asked to explain pump contract

NEW ORLEANS - When the Army Corps of Engineers solicited bids for drainage pumps for New Orleans, it copied the specifications — typos and all — from the catalog of the manufacturer that ultimately won the $32 million contract, a review of documents by The Associated Press found.