HOW MANY MORE YEARS OF GOP RULE BEFORE AMERICAN REFUGEES START MOVING ABROAD TO FIND BETTER ECONOMIC FUTURES?

I had dinner with a friend last night who's thinking of emigrating to Spain. He was born in Los Angeles  but, like many young Americans, he's finding the diminishing career opportunities under the Bush Economic Miracle too much of a strain. He was recently in Madrid for a month and was offered  several jobs at much better pay than similar jobs here. The loss of sharp, creative, industrious young people like my friend is a tragedy for America-- and another price we'll be paying for 8 years of catastrophic national mismanagement.

This morning's NY Times reports another net loss of 20,000 jobs last month, the 4th consecutive month of decline. Regime spinners and their allies are trying to paint a rosy picture but "despite the comparatively modest number of jobs lost last month, economists found clear signs of widening distress for millions of American workers... [and serious] economists emphasized that a substantial pullback in consumer spending could yet force American companies to lay off hundreds of thousands of workers in coming months if business prospects do not improve swiftly." The cascading unemployment situation was partially masked by so many workers going to part time employment. "The number of Americans saying they worked part-time last month due to economic reasons-- either because their hours were cut or they couldn't find full-time work-- jumped to 5.22 million from 4.91 million in March, the Labor Department reported today... The 19 percent increase over the last six months in the number of people not working a full day because of slack business conditions is the biggest in six years. Fewer hours and smaller pay increases, just as food and fuel prices surge, may continue to undermine consumer spending."

Even one of the Bush Regime's most notorious rubber stamps-- especially when it comes to the economy-- is trying to change his tune now that he sees everything falling apart. According to a recent reports from newspapers near and far McCain is desperate to distance himself from the disastrous Bush Regime he worked so hard to help empower and enable. He's gone from singing the praises of the Bush Economic Miracle just 3 weeks ago-- that went over well-- to  admitting Americans-- the ones he hears about, not the ones he knows, are "hurting badly'' and "haven't fared well under this administration." He told Al Hunt on Political Capital that "Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago.''

Did you watch the worst president in the history of American doing his song and dance on TV this afternoon? Here's what he said: "Since I've been your president I want to remind you that we've been through a recession, we have been through a terrorist attack, we've been at war, we have had corporate scandals, we have had major natural disasters, yet this economy always recovers. We're a resilient economy because we've got good, capable, smart, hardworking people in America." I hope the DNC can make a some good ads out of that.