that flushing sound you hear...

... Is the sound of the US and global economies going down the toilet. More lay-offs in the US. Even more stunning to me was the announcement out of Tokyo that Japan's factory production was down 9.6%. That is a massive drop - and as much as anything, reflects the weakness in Japan's top export market, the US.

More numbers here, none good.

And yet the Republicans still are calling for the tried and failed policy of tax cuts to stimulate the economy. It's beyond that. Tax cuts trickle in thru the year, so their complaint that government spending won't take effect immediately applies to their preferred policy too.

But that doesn't matter because it would help the Republican Party's base - the Wall Street fat cats that got $20 billion in bonuses. Same that they got in 2004, when business was good. So it isn't rewarding performance, is it? Of course, they will say - with straight faces - that they need to pay those bonuses to keep people from leaving.

Why try so hard to retain people that have collectively brought Wall Street to the brink of collapse? Maybe it's time they fired everybody and started over. There are lots of unemployed who'd be glad to give it a shot.