Oops!

I guess those tax cuts didn't work after all.*

Yesterday, the BEA reported that U.S. GDP growth for Q1 2007 was a moribund .6% This was a revision downwards from the advance GDP forecast of 1.3% released a month ago. The revision was due to updated information that showed imports were higher than initially estimated. The last time GDP was this low was in Q1 2003, the tail-end of the last recession. (Source: GDP News Release)

*NOTE: I'm not actually claiming the tax cuts didn't work: I'm poking fun at the facile practice of taking a good/bad piece of economic news and crediting it to your favorite/most despised economic stimulus strategy.

Iran Commits Act of War, Part 5674

From ABC News:

NATO officials say they have caught Iran red-handed, shipping heavy arms, C4 explosives and advanced roadside bombs to the Taliban for use against NATO forces, in what the officials say is a dramatic escalation of Iran's proxy war against the United States and Great Britain.

I think a great deal of the problems (certainly not all) we are having in Iraq are because of Iranian support. Now they are escalating on another front (Afganistan). If we are serious about dealing with Islamofacism we have to deal with Iran. They are just a different flavor of the Al Quada crazies. Even worse, Iran will have nukes in 5 years or so.

Greenland Melting

This doesn't quite turn Oak Park into a beachfront community, but I'm begining to understand why NASA Big Cheese Michael Griffin called people “arrogant” for assuming that “this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings.”

If the sea level does rise enough to give me a lake view, I will, thereafter, also support the flat tax.