He wasn’t his smug self as usual and he looked like he hadn’t slept in a week.

We, as a nation, are tired as well.

I haven’t read all 100 pages of the bill which should hit the House today and the Senate on Wednesday but I have hit the highlights of it.

As just your average Joe, I can’t understand how we got into this mess although the signs were all there. In Hoots, we’ve already been hit. Cooperative farming plans have been discussed, issues of unemployment have been a reality and I keep mentioning Martin Manufacturing (which is owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. Yes I called him. He didn’t call back. I wasn’t surprised.) Everything, no matter where you live in this world, is connected. A town in the county of Hoots which was one of the largest suppliers of clay in the world is barely keeping it’s head above water.

Times are tough.

And, I’m no economist. I know if I have $10, I don’t need to spend $12. Call me crazy.

Oh, and electricity/gas rates are up. I talked to the local police chief a few weeks ago and his officers are adjusting to what he called “Crimes of Necessity.” This is all new to us.

Several people I know here have lost some dough-re-mi in the markets this past couple of weeks. Nest eggs that would protect them as they got older. T. Boone Pickens personally lost $300 million as well, but he’s not going to have to rethink his retirement, his kid’s college education and that hard-earned savings were lost. It’s relative as well. I’m not picking on Pickens, but you know what I’m saying.

They (the big they) say there will be oversights on this bill with two different committees but I want more. I want assurances that the CEOs who lived greedily will not benefit from outrageous bonuses. I want transparency on this.

I had a conversation about 9/11 with some folks the other day as I’m wont to do. Remember when the terrorist attacks happened and the cable newsers talked about how Osama Bin Laden wanted to bring down the financial systems in our country? Curious, but our nation’s leaders were hot and heavy about Saddam Hussien.

I have no opinion on this other than it was the topic of a conversation. Something folks were talking about in a rural community about how recent history and their futures are intertwined.

Today will go on like any other day. I will go to work, covering two press conferences today. I will do my regular duties. I will chit-chat with people at the office. We will mention the Wall Street bill, I have no doubt.

And we will wait, because, as much as I hate to admit it, we have no damn choice.

I found it unnerving. I didn’t like the way he was talking at us, as opposed to talking with us.

A walk through the past with our president, George Bush.

It’s that time again to caption a picture of Bush. After a whirlwind and not necessarily pleasant week for your favorite Newscoma, I got nothing.

What say you?

Photo credit

I have no idea.

I’m not that clever but the picture is hilarity at its best.

Josh Brolin is going to play George Bush in the new Oliver Stone film.

He’s got the grimace down, I’ll give him that.

George Bush is on Deal or No Deal. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain got their wrestling on.

Ahh, the joys of American Politics and how it seeps into pop culture.

I don’t know who is going to win today. I assume Clinton will but not by the landslide predicted a couple of months ago.

And the story that sits on the backburner as candidates run like hyenas toward a wounded gazelle is that it’s okay for felons to join the military but not gay people.

Felons.

Under pressure to meet combat needs, the Army and Marine Corps brought in significantly more recruits with felony convictions last year than in 2006, including some with manslaughter and sex crime convictions.

Data released by a congressional committee shows the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines with felonies rose from 208 to 350.

Notice the words “sex crime convictions?”

I am constantly perplexed by our government.

This is something. Not sure what, but it’s something.

Barney can come and live with me. He and Mabel will get along just fine.

This doesn’t make sense.

Yeah, this is all I have tonight.