Things I’d Like to Post About Today ….. (052908, Morning)

….. But I Don’t Have Any Time For:

• A Wall Street Journal editorial yesterday noted that countries like Mexico (!) and Indonesia are taking steps to reduce tariffs on imports and cut subsidies, while our Congress moves in the opposite, economy-stifling direction.
• Last week, California Congresswoman Maxine Waters told the truth, for once — “And, guess what this liberal will be all about? This liberal will be about socializing… uh, will be about, basically taking over and the government running all of your companies.” Video is at Gateway Pundit. Priceless: The length of the pause, and her facial expressions, while Waters figures out what she’ll say next. By the way, do you think anyone besides Fox ran this video? Allah at Hot Air says that no other TV outlet touched it.
• This CNN “it’s worse than it looks” piece profiles a Pittsburgh couple with five kids, three grown, “struggling to stay in the same place.” The husband is a software engineer. The story doesn’t say whether the wife works, even part-time. If she doesn’t, there’s no indication in the report that they’ve even considered it. Why is that (I acknowledge that there can be lots of good reasons)? Did the reporter even ask?
• That same CNN piece has this inane comment from a different person at the end — “That’s the scariest part. Is my grocery bill going to double again? What will we do?” Pal, if your grocery billed has doubled, it must be that you’re not pushing yourself away from the kitchen table. This Associated Press report says that food inflation in general was 4% last year, and cites increases on specific items ranging from 7% to 13%.
• Which reminds me — The AP report I just referred to is a classic “look at the headline, but please don’t read me” story. The headline, “Sales of Spam rise as consumers trim food costs,” is supposed to make readers think that millions of people can’t afford anything better. When you read the detail, you see that Spam sales are up, not because of hard times, but because the company embarked on its first national advertising campaign for the product, and has created “new products like individually packaged ‘Spam Singles’ slices.”
• Which further reminds me — The Business & Media Institute found that business reporting today is “so outlandishly negative that coverage of the Bear Stearns buyout was vastly worse than reporting of the 1929 stock market crash.”