It's the incompetence, stupid.

Y'know, watching Hezbollah (Hizbullah) going about its business rebuilding Southern Lebanon ... after watching Haliburton go about our business rebuilding Iraq ... it struck me that something has changed in the good ol' can-do spirit of these United States of America ... and I don't think it has been with the workers.

I think the workers -- also known as, "the people" -- have been working as hard, if not harder, as before ... and with the same ol' "make-do with what you got to get ahead" attitude as before ... even though we -- the people -- have been falling behind.

What is it then? If it ain't "the people"?

Yup, you guessed it ... it's the incompetence of the brilliant idiots at the top -- also known as "our leaders".

We seem to have gotten to a point in our history -- once again -- where our "leaders" have figured out that by lying to us, they can stay in power ... 'cuz staying in power and reaping the bennies (the wealth) that they can suck up into their pockets from the hard work of the people ... is what they are all about. Turning what was once the premier middle-class country into another banana republic is OK with these leaders -- as long as they are the ones at the top.

And you see, after a few generations of sucking up the wealth produced by the hard work of the American people, they have forgotten what hard work is ... and measure the worth of their group's "employees" by the loyalty of these employees ("you're doing a heck of a job, Brownie") rather than by the competence of the employee ... 'cuz you can always get someone to do the work, you just have to stay in control of the wealth produced by the work.

Trouble with this is, that as the generations of inbreeding roll along ... well, sooner or later you get a GW in charge ... well, not REALLY in charge, but he thinks he is and that is dangerous enough ... but it becomes ALL about loyalty and very little about competence, and ... well, look around ... this is what you get.

Our nation is going to hell in the handbasket of men and women who care more about accumulating personal wealth and power than they do about the well-being of our nation. And for many of them now it is not because they know better. All they know as children of children of children of the rich is rewarding loyalty to their power, to perpetuate the control of the wealth produced by the labor of others.

AND it IS biting us in the butt.