Democracy for Vancouver

The boss is going in for some minor, but unplanned, surgery on Monday, so my desk runneth over. In the meantime:

• The ACLU wants us to tell our Senators and Congresspersons to RESTORE pre-Bush FISA, but with teeth:

Please, call your representative right now. Tell him or her to only pass a FISA modernization bill that has individualized warrants for people in the United States and NOT to provide telecom companies with immunity for breaking the law.

• According to our international banker:

President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson yesterday reaffirmed the US strong dollar policy. Markets ignored their remarks…

At least international bankers know who’s full of shit.

U.S. retailers’ sales rose a bigger-than-expected 0.6% in September on strong demand for cars and gasoline, the Commerce Department said. A lot of Joes on the street were not affected by the slumping housing market.
…
“People were expecting that perhaps the economy was on the brink of recession, but you can’t have a recession if consumers are continuing to spend, and by all means they seem to be continuing to spend,” said Chris Rupkey, senior financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York.

Demand for cars and gasoline are driven by the fact that gas is $84 fucking dollars a barrel, guys, so people are dumping their SUVs for Priuses: hence, the car sales. And it’s not that “Joe” still has a lot of walking-around money to blow on chicks and cars, it’s that he has to spend $3+ freaking dollars a gallon just so he can get to work every day! Gasoline is not a discretionary spending item.

And, in the “I’m no Atrios, but this can’t be good” department:

China chalked up a trade surplus of $23.91 billion in September, the fourth largest on record. The surplus was down from $25.0 billion in August but up from $15.3 billion in September 2006. Foreign exchange reserves rose by $110 billion to a massive $1.434 trillion.

Even with the dollar in the toilet, the Chinese continue to eat our lunch.

Have a good weekend, everyone. Get out in the sun while you still can!

PS> Go Al! (Though that may be the worst picture of Al Gore I have ever seen. Maybe he’s trying to get Carter to stop bugging him about ‘08.)