Gold at $1,000/oz., oil at over $100/bbl, and Iraq is heating up again. The FBI is all over the place, along with the NSA, even the Carlyle Group got hit by mortgage woes. I read about a solar installation going up in the southwest, with equipment supplied by a Spanish company. Say what? We are importing solar gear from Spain?

We're in decline, folks, and something like 98% of posts here are on the Democratic primary. I imagine there were some hotly-contested senatorial battles in Rome, while Caesar was approaching.

The Fed's desperate cash infusion lasted a day or so, but the Dow is still having trouble keeping above 12,000. Let's remember what we have been through since 2001:  at that time oil was $20-something and the Dow was around 11,000. At least one of those numbers has made progress upward.

Also at that time, the better part of ten thousand Americans were still alive, as well as something on the order of 100K (or much more) Iraqis, but 9/11 and war took care of them. New Orleans was living on borrowed time, but was at least living.

Can we remember who is responsible? It is not Hillary, or Barack.

Intrade has Obama strong, the delegate numbers are fatal, and l'affaire Ferraro is metastasizing. What is missing at Intrade is any betting on when Clinton will bow out. I presume that is equivalent to a 100% certainty that she will go down fighting, draining much blood and money from the Democratic Party.

Anyone care to make a prediction? When Keith Olberman pounds her with his I-tell-you-three-times cadences, turning repeatedly into the camera in order to speak directly to Hillary, it's gotta hurt. What choices does she have?

A more forceful rejection of Ferraro would be nice, but can it do more than smooth her forced landing? Not that a gentler failure would be bad, but if she acts as if she will lose anyway, why even do that?

I begin to worry that Intrade's missing bets on her withdrawal timing are telling us something.

High dudgeon and voluminous spleen over Clinton and Obama, and meanwhile it now takes $109 to buy a barrel of crude, the US financial system is nearly terminal, and the best we can do against White House usurpations is to file suit.

Count me disappointed. The only thing I can say in favor of my party is the other one is worse. That gets my vote, but not my approval. How can I approve of a party that can't even decide how to decide?