The original mission, to de-throne Saddam, was completed quickly and efficiently.

Mission accomplished!

But you'd think that a bunch of people who were smart enough to rise to the level of our Country's leaders would be wise enough to think..... "What next?"

Apparently, they never thought that far ahead. Still haven't.

It'll be depressing for all those dead soldiers' families to know that their sons/daughters/mothers/fathers/sisters/brothers died in non-combat conditions and are therefore by default can't be war heroes. Since the mission was already "accomplished" and all. Guess they have to give back all them posthumous medals.

The whole I-wreck thing is such a joke. We need to pull the hell out of that pit and put those troops to use DEFENDING AMERICA (see the immigration thread for additional information). Give them a mission that MATTERS and that they can excel at and be proud of and more importantly serve their country in a way that makes a difference to AMERICANS.

Yes. Bush is, IMO, arguably the worst president in history.

This Congress is also going to go down in history as one of the worst. To think that any politician, or group of politicians, could have an approval rating even lower than Bush is pretty amazing.

Shows how fuched we are. Seems noteworthy, when discussing our govt.

About $2 IIRC. It's up about 87% since then.
EDIT, Dueller tells us it was $1.44 five years ago, I don't remember it being that cheap but I'll take his word on that. If his number is right, that means an increase of 260%.
How much was a barrel of crude oil 5 years ago?
About $30 IIRC. that's an increase of around 373%.

Our friends in OPEC and making quite a bit of money. Same with our friend to the north, Canada where we get the majority of our imported crude oil from.

Five years ago? How about 9 years ago? I remember buying gas for 93 CENTS per gallon in 1999 (or so)!

Actually, I seem to remember there was a short period ther efor a while when I could get gas as low as 87 cents. I remember thinking it was crazy low at the time.

As a Senior in college in 1976, I passed on a mildly wrecked '72 Vette because I drove 25 miles each way to school and gas was 55 cents. I thought that was crazy high. Geesh!

Link from EIA showing chart back to 1990 for regular gas prices in US

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/ftparea/wogirs/xls/pswrgvwall.xls#'Data 1'!A1

Click" Data 1" for regular, etc

Our houses, mine included, going up 100% in a few years was not a good thing. I'd rather it not have happened. It's not real, we are all going to pay for it, and we would have been better off with normal appreciation, instead of a speculative bubble which is now popping and threatening to help destroy our economy.

There's a complaint for ya.

+1

I watched my home value shoot up 150K and back down 130K over the last 6 years and I laughed the whole time. I never cashed in on it leveraging my home or buying bigger. Instead I paid off my mortgage.

It was a false market being driven by stupid low interest rates, poor lending practices and stupid people.

Now its all crashing and this entire country is about to cave in. Our Dollar is weaker than ever, fuel prices are skyrocketing and keep going up every time the fed lowers our interest rates because we all know lower interest rates = happy americans = strong economy as everyone goes into debt.

Just wait a bit, as Carter is going to get his rating down to 90% if he keeps goign the way he is...

Not even close in my case(s). Just modest, traditional, reasonable increases in value.

Paid .99 for gas in what had to be '02. Remember it very clearly as we had just bought a used '01 Jeep Grand Cherokee and were a bit nervous about fuel cost.

Man is that some bad logic. I know i've been a bit off center at times with my logic but that is just baaaaaaad.

Tell me how do i access all the money i made on my house to help pay for increased gas and food costs? Without paying it back of course. Because if i have to pay it back i haven't really 'made' it have i.

I haven't been celebrating the increase in housing cost. Haven't seen too many people here celebrating it now that i think of it.

Buying power (not borrowing power mind you) has not been going up. It's been going down. At least for me.

Your principal residence (which is what you are referring to) is NOT the same thing as a 2nd home or rental property. When you sell your principal residence you will need to replace it which, to stay in the same size/quality home will cost you the same. And here's a real nice thought; not only have you not 'made' anything you have actually LOST $$. Your realtor fee for the sale will be higher. Your r/e taxes will be higher. Your home insurance will be higher. What's more, even if you were talking about second homes and rental properties you STILL have managed only to keep up with the market for that particular asset.

Got-ya. Yeah I agree it is hard to get the value out of your primary home. Impossible no, but difficult and unpleasant yes. You could sell and rent, but that isn't the best thing in the world and I realize that.

Given your (and I agree) rational if house prices fall 50% you wouldn't care because if you sold your house for 50% less you would be buying one for 50% less anyway. The unrealized gains or losses in your primary home mean nothing to you, and should mean nothing to anyone else. Essentially all we have seen is rapid inflation in home values and no real value added.

I agree with you.

At the same time though people here, and everywhere claim real estate is THE BEST investment. The post I linked you to mentions someone in Seattle making 300K on their home in 5 years saying, "not a bad return." That income is tax free too isn't it?

Anyway we are way off the topic. We won the war 5 years ago Bush said so.

Well the sell and rent idea is not necessarily a bad one. Wayne got me thinking about the concept and IF you believe things will come much lower than what they are it MIGHT be a smart move.

I remember hearing a few mos. ago that the only president with worse ratings near the end of his term was Harry Truman. I find it kind of ironic how he is now so lionized by Dems, given the fact that we lost about 13x as many soldiers in Korea as we have so far in Iraq and we're still in Korea almost 60 yrs. later. When people point to the latest polls and say they reflect Bush's eventual place in history, I'm stunned by the shortsightedness. Kinda reminds me of when Zhou Enlai (during Nixon's visit to China) was asked about his views on the French Revolution and replied it was really too soon to tell.