Free is your rant, not Obama's proposal.

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President Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) discuss government contracts reform at the White House. (Photo: Gerald Herbert / AP)

If President Barack Obama's response to the economic crisis is imperfect, as he acknowledges, and if the Congressional Democrats leave much to be desired as well, then Americans can at least be thankful that the nation's fate has not been consigned to the frozen minds on the other side of the aisle. Things are bad, and seem very likely to get worse - but the Republicans seem determined to plunge us into a real depression, gambling that catastrophe would return them to power.

The leaders of the Republican party simply ignore flashing red warnings from the unemployment offices, whose reports now indicate that joblessness in this recession will soon surpass the worst of the 1981-82 slump. They complain about "earmarks," a miniscule portion of the budget, and they suggest policies that would either have no effect at all or make matters much worse, even according to many of their own most venerated economists.

From those Republican politicians often deemed most thoughtful, such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, comes a droning chorus for tax cuts on capital gains. This is the conservative panacea in good times and bad, but it is of little relevance to the problems of the moment. Investors are not fleeing the markets because they worry about enormous returns that will be subject to punitive taxation; they are abandoning stocks and real estate because those assets are deflating like punctured balloons. Until there is a real prospect of capital gains, cutting taxes on them will scarcely affect investment and jobs.

Descending the intellectual scale brings us to the House minority leader, John Boehner. He responded to the frightening February data on job losses "more than 650,000 laid off in a single month" to demand a "freeze in government spending" and a presidential veto of the $400 billion continuing budget resolution.

While Mr. Boehner said he understood that the mass firings meant worsening economic conditions, he seems more worried about "wasteful pork-barrel projects," a problem that concerned him not at all when his party ran Congress. To him, an unemployment rate surging past 8 percent is a signal that the government should impose a spending freeze "until the end of this fiscal year." A spending freeze, of course, is precisely the opposite of the policies pursued by the Republicans during the last recession, when their own political butts were on the line.

So is Mr. Boehner suddenly crazy? Is he just economically illiterate? Or is he convinced, like the would-be revolutionaries of the Depression era, that the worse our general situation becomes, the better for his party? All three could be true at once, but his motivation matters less than his ideas, which would be ruinous to everyone if enacted.

What makes someone like Mr. Boehner important and potentially dangerous is not that anyone takes his stupid advice seriously, but that he and his caucus can block or stall policies that might rescue us from the worst consequences of the bust.

The fundamental issue not only in America but in the world economy is a crisis of demand. As the Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz has explained - most recently at a panel in New York City sponsored by The Nation magazine and the Nation Institute - average wages have fallen for more than three decades. Among the results of that invidious pattern was rising indebtedness, as banks extended usurious credit to working families struggling to maintain their living standards. Years of rising inequality has upset the equilibrium that resulted in rapid and sustained economic growth for most of the postwar period in this country, and created a prosperous, well-educated and optimistic middle-class society.

Back when America worked well, the gaps between the top and bottom of the income scale were far smaller, the public sector was more robust, the labor movement protected living standards and the rewards of work were more fairly distributed. There is only one way to stop the downward slide and begin to restore that proven pattern of economic dynamism with a wage-led recovery.

Public spending, even unto additional trillions, is the only instrument available to prevent a global depression, assuming that we have not already forfeited that chance. The stimulus bill and the Obama budget are only first steps. We will need another strong shot of stimulus before the summer-not a spending freeze-and we can only pray that the president and the Congressional Democrats will have the guts to push the Republicans out of the way.

people can take anything out of context and do with it what they want; it still doesn't make it a McCain/Palin issue.

Hubby was telling me last night that China's economy is now tanking because ours is. Factory workers over there were showing up for work only to find their business had closed because of lack of orders from the U.S. India may be next. You never know. I don't see it happening with MT but like I said, you just don't know. Did you see their work days? 6 days a week and something like 12 or 14 hours a day?

I hear lip service from Nobama/Maobama about cutting taxes to bring our businesses back but don't see him acting on it. He's a one-termer. Carter got us in a heap of trouble which Reagan (I know union employees aren't fond of him) had to get us out of. All Nobama is doing is having construction/building jobs sprout up here and there. And where does the money come from to pay for his multi-trillion dollar spending? You got it - us. Those jobs will eventually fizzle out, our country will be poorer and those people will once again be unemployed..

Dems coined the phrase Voodoo Economics for Reagan's Trickle Down Economics. Whether or not you liked the man, he did a world of good for this country. He did cut capital gains taxes and cut taxes for the rich. Trickle down 101: You cut taxes for the rich, they can afford to hire more employees, more often than not, at better wages. Unemployment is down. People go out and spend more money because they are employed and can afford to. During Reagan's terms in office, he cut taxes immensely yet the government took in more money. People would much rather spend their money the way they want than have the government take it and spend it.

Folks, we work for our government. Our government should be working for us. We should not live in fear of the IRS. I attended a TEA party on April 15 and will attend more such events. We should have a government for the people, of the people and by the people. The protest was very peaceful and guess what? Not a bit of litter was left to be found when it ended, like the disgrace that was left after the inauguration in Washington, DC.

We are getting so far away from a constitutional government, it's not funny. Actually, my opinion is that we are currently a socialist government. You know the next step after socialism? Communism.

I read the most recent list of who they consider a terrorist. Hoarding food? Um, yep. Better buy it now in case a depression hits. Glad I have a breadmaker. Wouldn't want to have to spend $50 on a loaf of bread. Buying lots of ammo? Sure, but then again, we do competition shooting. Guns? Yeah, we have our share, but variety is the spice of life (Hubby bought me a Macarov but I didn't care for the way it operated (too hard to load the mag), especially after the slide came back and sliced my thumb open 5 times, bad lacerations - my fault, was handling it wrong, so I got a Glock). My husband is an Iraqi war vet. That makes us both domestic terrorists. Yet neither one of us even has the heart to even discipline our dogs. We're both very gentle people. Of course if someone broke into our home, we would defened ourselves.

I'm sorry for the rant but I just don't see Nobama caring much about outsourcing. I really really really hope I am wrong and what he is doing for our country is the right thing but I truly resent being labeled a domestic terrorist because I see us headed for a depression and am stocking up on food, and my husband happened to be in the military during the Gulf war.

My word can you ever rant. But you don't seem so great at sticking to facts. I read the posts you paraphrased and do not agree with your synopsis. She did not say you were a cliche, among other things....she said you were using a cliche. Superior intellect? Huh? Where'd you get that? She stated she liked western history. Just because someone likes to read doesn't mean they are boasting that they are superior. How silly!!!

* I don't know what *9/11 perps* you are talking about, but I don't think anyone has gone free.*

BAGHDAD, Iraq � About 24 top former officials in Saddam Hussein's regime, including a biological weapons expert known as Dr. Germ, have been released from jail, while a militant group released a video Monday of the purported killing of an American hostage.

The first results of Thursday's parliamentary election were released, with officials saying the Shiite religious bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, got about 58 percent of the votes from 89 percent of ballot boxes counted in Baghdad province.

Across Iraq, meanwhile, demonstrations broke out to protest a government decision to raise the price of gasoline, heating and cooking fuel, and the oil minister threatened to resign over the development.

An Iraqi lawyer said the 24 or 25 officials from Saddam's government were released from jail without charges, and some have already left the country.

The release was an American-Iraqi decision and in line with an Iraqi government ruling made in December 2004, but hasn't been enforced until after the elections in an attempt to ease the political pressure in Iraq, said the lawyer, Badee Izzat Aref.

Among them were Rihab Taha, a British-educated biological weapons expert, who was known as Dr. Germ for her role in making bio-weapons in the 1980s, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as Mrs. Anthrax, a former top Baath Party official and biotech researcher, Aref said.

Because of security reasons, some of them want to leave the country, he said. He declined to elaborate, but noted some have already left Iraq today.

Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, would say only that eight individuals formerly designated as high-value detainees were released Saturday after a board process found they were no longer a security threat and no charges would be filed against them.

Neither the U.S. military or Iraqi officials would disclose any of the names, but a legal official in Baghdad said Taha and Ammash were among those released.

The official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said those released also included Hossam Mohammed Amin, head of the weapons inspections directorate, and Aseel Tabra, an Iraqi Olympic Committee official under Odai Saddam Hussein, the former leader's son.

The video from the extremist group The Islamic Army of Iraq was posted on a Web site and showed a man purportedly being shot in the back of the head. Last week, the group had claimed it had killed civilian contractor Ronald Allen Schulz, a native of North Dakota.

The video did not show the victim's face, however, and it was impossible to identify him. The victim was kneeling with his back to the camera, with his hands tied behind his back and blindfolded with an Arab headdress when he was purportedly shot. The video also showed Schulz's identity card.

A separate video, shown on a split screen, showed images of Schulz alive. The group had aired that video when he was first taken hostage earlier this month.

Schulz has been identified by the extremist group as a security consultant for the Iraqi Housing Ministry, although family and neighbors from his current home in Alaska, say he is an industrial electrician who has worked on contracts around the world.

Schulz served in the Marine Corps from 1984 to 1991. He moved to Alaska six years ago, and friends and family say he is divorced.

The German government, meanwhile, said kidnappers had freed a German aid worker and archaeologist taken hostage with her driver in northern Iraq more than three weeks ago. Susanne Osthoff, 43, was reported in good condition at the German Embassy in Baghdad. It was unclear whether Osthoff's Iraqi driver had also been freed.

The military said a U.S. Marine was killed by small arms fire Sunday in the town of Ramadi, in central Iraq. The death brought to 2,156 the number of U.S. service members killed since the start of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In other violence Monday, a suicide car bomb exploded outside a children's hospital in western Baghdad, killing at least two people and wounding 11, including seven police, officials said. Police believe the bomb had targeted a convoy carrying a police colonel, who was among the injured.

In western Baghdad, gunmen attacked the convoy of Deputy Baghdad Gov. Ziad Tariq, killing three civilians and wounding three of his bodyguards, police said. Tariq was not injured.

Iraqi soldiers on Monday began Operation Moonlight, which the U.S. military described as the first large-scale operation planned and executed by soldiers of the Iraqi 1st Brigade. The mission's aim is to disrupt insurgent activity along the Euphrates River near the border with Syria.

There are five Iraqi Army companies and one U.S. Marine company taking part in the operation, said Marine Capt. Jeffrey S. Pool.

With 89 percent of the ballot boxes counted in Baghdad province � Iraq's largest district � preliminary results showed the United Iraqi Alliance received 1,403,901 votes, or about 58 percent, while the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance party got 451,782 votes, and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi National List with 327,174 votes, the electoral commission said.

The commission did not say how many people voted in Baghdad province or provide further details. Baghdad is Iraq's biggest electoral district with 2,161 candidates running for 59 of the 275 seats in Iraq's parliament.

Results from southern Basra province, also mixed but predominantly Shiite, saw the clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance significantly ahead, winning 612,206 votes with 98 percent of ballot boxes counted. The list headed by Allawi, a secular Shiite, was in second with 87,134 votes, while the Sunni accordance party trailed with 36,997 votes.

In a speech Sunday, President Bush praised the vote and warned against a pullout of U.S. forces. He said the election would not end violence but means that America has an ally of growing strength in the fight against terror. He also warned that a U.S. troop pullout would signal to the world that America cannot be trusted to keep its word.

The fuel prices were raised Sunday � some as much as nine times � to curb a growing black market, Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said.

A gallon of imported and super gasoline in Iraq was raised to about 68 cents, but Iraqis were upset by the fivefold increase. The price of locally produced gas was raised to about 48 cents per gallon, a sevenfold increase.

In Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, police fired into the air to disperse the hundreds of protesters who had gathered in front of the provincial government headquarters. The demonstrators, however, didn't leave, and scuffles broke out with police.

Drivers blocked roads and set tires on fire near fuel stations in the southern city of Basra, and hundreds demonstrated outside the governor's headquarters to protest the increases.

Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum said when the Cabinet raised prices, it also decided that the extra money would be used to support more than 2 million low-income families. Some aid money was supposed to reach the families before the increases, but that didn't happen, he said.

Dr. Ibrahim will submit his resignation to the Iraqi government if the situation continues as is, he said, referring to himself. We should take in consideration the living conditions and the economic situation of the citizens.

Iraq's oil minister has previously said that cheap domestic fuel prices had encouraged smuggling to other countries. Iraq's government has continued Saddam's practice of heavily subsidizing fuel prices.

Do you really think the government will give us worse insurance than the for-profit insurers are doing now? Really???

I'm sick of paying something for nothing - after all the deductibles, out of pocket charges, copays and disallowed claims - that's pretty much what we get. I'd rather take the money I pay in premiums to a greedy corporation who will refuse to pay a cent when the time comes I need them - and pay it in taxes for a free healtchare plan. At least everybody would be in the same boat, with no nasty surprises.

healthcare for myself. I want free or more affordable cost healthcare for American children. My children are already covered. My husband has worked for the same company for over 12 years, and he has decent insurance. You are impossible to argue with because you refuse to admit that we can afford $333 MILLION PER DAY FOR A WAR IN IRAQ, AND WE CAN AFFORD $19 MILLION PER DAY FOR CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE. How are your taxes going to be raised to 70% of your income for the health care? Have they been raised that high for the war? NO, so your argument is not valid.

I discovered this web site a couple weeks ago and have been finding it rather humerous. It's has a liberal slant, but seems to hang more on government watch. Enjoy!