Today’s News in an Instant

Consumer Confidence Down More Than Expected:
The Consumer Confidence Index dropped from January to February. The CCI is an index designed to measure how consumers feel the economy is doing. I’m not going to provide the data (if you’re interested, use your computer and Google the data yourself), but I will tell you that consumers are a schizophrenic bunch. We’re slightly optimistic about how things are, but less so than last month, which doesn’t make sense, considering that January was when we had to start paying down that Christmas credit card debt. We think things are okay now, but are downright pessimistic about the next six months or so. This tells me that most people who took the CCI survey have a job now, but expect to be in the unemployment line by August.

Bush Job Approval Rating falls to an All-Time Low:
It seems that people are catching on… George W. Bush is doing a crappy job. According to the latest CBS News Poll, the President’s approval rating dropped eight points in a month, down to 34 percent. This means that approximately one in three people still don’t understand how poorly our Commander in Chief is performing. Of course, when I say “our,” I really mean “your,” because I certainly didn’t vote for him. (For anyone thinking of flaming me or sending me hate mail, save your breath. I’m not a tree-hugging liberal either.)

Connecticut Approves Venezuelan Heating Oil:
The state of Connecticut has given their social services department authorization to supply low-income residents with discounted oil from Venezuela, whose energy aid program has really rankled pissed off the Bush administration. Let’s see here… The Bush family is an oil family. Oil prices are at an all-time high, and when someone offers to help out the poor folks, the President gets offended. Could it be that the President’s profits are more important than his constituents? Yeah, yeah, I know that Hugo Chavez is pro-Castro, and a huge critic of the Bush administration. But guess who looks like the idiot in this situation. You guessed it, the same guy with the abysmal approval ratings.

White House Rejects Special Counsel:
The White House rejected a call by more than a dozen Dumbocrats for a special counsel to investigate the Bush administration's eavesdropping program. Ummmm…. Duh…. What did they expect? “Well, if you guys think we might have broken the law, then I guess we’ll investigate ourselves. And don’t worry; we will leave no aspect uninvestigated. In fact, let’s just save our country some time and money. I’m a criminal, I broke the law. You can just censure me now, because God knows you won’t do anything worse than that, or I’ll tell your mom what you did.”

Dubai Ports Agrees to a 45-Day Security Review of its Contract:
But guess who’s doing most of the security review… Yep, the White House. In other words, the company agreed to “allow” an administration which has already approved this purchase to re-review things. And our idiots in the House and Senate appear to be okay with this. “We were really pissed that they didn’t include us in the original decision,” an anonymous Congressman said at an unspecified time, “but now that we know, we’re going to be okay with them looking at things again – or not – and telling us that it’s still okay. The big issue is whether or not we get the kickbacks and campaign contributions.”