Tacks cuts coming your way, being swallowed up by interest rates and petrol prices... are a very sideways issues of the world's problems... But our comfort comes first, doesn't it? even if other people suffer for it... Gees I shoudda invested in gold last year... but wouldn't that have gone against my principle of not gambling, even with a sure bet?

From the Seattle Times
Tax-cut plan: economic boon or deficit disaster?
By Seattle Times news services

...

Meanwhile, the House is preparing to raise the federal debt limit for the fifth time in four years and the second time this spring, this time to nearly $10 trillion. That's almost double the $5.7 trillion gross federal debt of fiscal 2001, when Bush took office. The Senate hasn't scheduled action on the debt limit, but many economists fear a looming debt crisis that could menace the U.S. economy.

read more at the Seattle Times

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Gus loops-da-loop:
The latest larcenic largess of our Aussie chief Bacon Smoker pales into unilateral pig's trough of relative flat dimension, when compared to the Generously Modified Cash-cow offered in lavish lard cuts in the US Grand Give-away and the enormous round figure of the deepest deficit bum-hole it is creating — soon to be a round 10 TRILLIONS buckaroonees.

But we've got to admit it here, our own Bacon slicer is very very smug smart. He demolished the governmental abattoirs away from providing the real meaty services. So while he provides the smoke and mirrors to the amazed foggied masses, he forces us to buy the porkies, that we pay with glowing dirt from a few big holes dug in the ground, — while the Da Vinci bacon deficit now retches the superb secret figure of half the federal smoke and mirrors "Aussie" values...

If you understand what I'm decoding about, hang on to your seats, if da interest rates start to rise in the US by half a cockroach's bum hair... As the Arab states are saying without laughing, the price of petrol isn't going to come down...

I suppose optimism and pessimism focus on how one looks at the glass: is it empty by two halves or empty because there's nothing in it?

Almost outta gas Gus .....

From the New York Times

Grocers Seek Twice-Monthly Food Stamp Distributions

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 14, 2006
DETROIT, May 13 (AP) — At the beginning of May, the aisles of K&G Food Mart here were flooded with shoppers. But as the month has worn on, the traffic has slowed.

The cycle, familiar to many grocers in poor neighborhoods, has a simple explanation: the start of the month is when people get their food stamps.

A group of small retailers and wholesalers in Michigan is asking for a change in the way the state administers the federal assistance program. The merchants hope that spreading out food stamp distributions can eliminate such swings in customer traffic, which they say make it difficult to keep stores adequately staffed and stocked.

On Monday, the Michigan Food Policy Council is scheduled to vote on the issue as part of its recommendations to Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm on ways to increase the number of stores selling fresh food in low-income areas.

While store owners say their food is always fresh, they acknowledge the selection is better on days that they expect more sales. With business so skewed, they say they have no choice but to adjust their merchandise....
read more at the NYT
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