Life in these United States

MANIFESTO

For decades the fulsomely optimistic Reader's Digest has featured a column entitled "Life in These United States," a cloying collection of feel good stories about the wonderful citizenry of the republic.

I would submit the following, which, to my mind, really demonstrate what life in these United States is currently like.

First, as everyone certainly knows by now, US fatalities in Iraq hit 4,000 today. While GI George insists that ultimately they won't have died in vain, he also stated (through the congenitally impaired Dana Perino) that he (who so yearns to have fought in the current conflict)

definitely feels the loss. He gets a report about every single soldier who passes away, and he always pauses a moment to think about them and to offer a prayer for their loved ones and their family and friends.

Apparently that's all the cannon fodder is worth to Feckless Leader—a moment. Lord knows he'd never lower himself to attend any of their funerals.

And here's another tidbit regarding LITUS:

According to Merrill Lynch, at the end of 2007, "36 percent of consumers’ disposable income went to food, energy and medical care, a bigger chunk of income than at any time since records were first kept in 1960."

Health-care costs are "whacking away" at the wages of working class Americans. Premiums for family health coverage have increased 78 percent since 2001. "Even though workers are producing more, inflation-adjusted median family income has dipped 2.6 percent — or nearly $1,000 annually since 2000."

So spare me Pollyanna Perino and her ilk. Too many Americans are losing their spending power—and their lives—to the Washington plutocrats.