HIS FRAUDULENCY'S "INSIDE OF THE INSIDE" IS NOT VERY HAPPY, METHINKS, WITH THE LATEST NUMBERS showing where wholesale inflation may be on the rampage, and with a venegance.

Witness where just-released, scientifically-calculated estimates show producer-price inflation to be @ an annualised rate of 7.5%, perhaps the worst since October 1981 (some ten years after the United States closed the "gold window" as essentially ended the last links to a gold standard vis-a-vis the dollar, it turns out).

As if that weren't enough, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for February fell to 75.0, way down on a revised January reading of 87.3--exactly five years, it turns out, since said index fell to 64.8, its worst ever level.

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IN A RELATED VEIN, PERHAPS, IT APPEARS AS IF MINNESOTA GOVERNOR PAWLENTY HAS BECOME HIS OWN WORST CRYBABY with the Legislature overriding his own veto of essentially-needed transportation funding in the form of gas tax increases and authorisation of sales taxes to fund transportation initiatives.

Even if Governor Pawlenty's playing his Club For Growth-influenced bromide and platitude of "protecting families" from high taxes, let alone morals and decency, he needs to see Reality for once.

He needs to realise that the serious deterioration of roads and infrastructure across Our Beloved Minnesota cannot simply be repaired by all manner of "band-aid" quick fixes forever "just to protect families" based on his low taxes=jobs=socioeconomic stability argument--itself nothing less than lily-gilding discredited "supply-side" socioeconomic thought.

Not to mention dropping further hints of Governor Pawlenty's being an unconscious psychopath whose ability to discharge the powers and duties of his office may be seriously affected.

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THE GOP'S SUPER-SECRETIVE "DIRTY TRICKS" SQUADS, AS TRAINED BY THE "CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY," must probably be looking for ways to have whoever succeeds His Fraudulency (so long as the GOP has sure victory, which they hope to achieve "by whatever means necessary," no matter how corrupt or depraved) emulate the depraved excesses of outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin as discussed in the following BBC report:

Russian freedom of speech is "shrinking alarmingly" under President Vladimir Putin, says Amnesty International.

The murders of outspoken journalists go unsolved, independent media outlets have been shut and police have attacked opposition protesters, said the report.

It also said "arbitrary" laws were curbing the right to express opinion and silencing NGOs deemed to be a threat by the authorities.

The report comes ahead of Russian's presidential elections on 2 March.

The director of Amnesty International UK, Kate Allen, said: "The space for freedom of speech is shrinking alarmingly in Russia and it's now imperative that the Russian authorities reverse this trend."

She said dissent could be a matter of life or death in the case of outspoken journalists like Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in Moscow two years ago.

The 52-page Freedom Limited report warned any opposition demonstrations could suffer heavy clampdowns in the coming days, as Amnesty said had happened in the run-up to past elections.

First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, whom President Putin has named his favoured successor, is expected to be elected in this Sunday's poll.

Which begs the question of what sort of patsies and platitudes would be resorted to to excuse such arbitrary measures of fear and intimidation on the GOP's part and parcel--measures, methinks, based on forgeries and crude stereotypes of the poor, homosexuals and other National Minorities.

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AND HOW SURE ARE WE THAT the photo showing Democratic Presidential wannabe Barak Obama wearing traditional African tribal dress currently making the rounds in Certain Weird and Unwholesome Circles isn't really a Photoshop-generated forgery solely to discredit the Obama campaign and its intending supporters?

(Let alone the possibility that the photo may have been the byproduct of racist and white-supremacist types.)

Speaking of which, the Southern Poverty Law Centre's Hatewatch blog notes where racists and white-supremacists are getting all the more nervous of the prospect of Obama's winning the Democratic nomination (note where certain necessary deletions have been made, for those of you who may accuse me of Bowdlerism):

With the selection of Barack Obama as the first black Democratic nominee for president seeming more possible by the day, racists and white supremacists are posting increasingly ugly and even threatening remarks on the Internet.

"OBAMA WILL DIE, KKK FOREVER," concludes a Feb. 15 post by "Rodney" to a blog run by a person identified only as Strider333. Above that signoff, Rodney wrote: "The KKK or someone WILL assassinate Obama! If we get a [N4BSK] President all you [N4BSK]'s [sic] will think you've won and that the WHITE people will have to bow to you[.] [N4BSK] THAT."

On traditional white supremacist and neo-Nazi sites, there are lengthy discussion threads about what would happen if Obama were elected president. Dozens of those posts are derogatory and employ all kinds of racist slurs. Others speculate that such an Obama victory would kick off a race war between whites and blacks. And some even raise the possibility that he could be assassinated. But talk like that is rare and extremely careful—probable evidence that the "white nationalists" who inhabit these sites are deeply concerned that their comments are being monitored by law enforcement for any criminal threat relating to the presidential race. In fact, Obama reportedly received federal Secret Service protection unusually early in the campaign season because of concerns about a racially motivated attack.

The most heated anti-Obama talk appears to be on Internet sites that allow people to post messages anonymously. One such site, JD Underground, is a list ostensibly devoted to lawyers, although further details were not available. It has carried a particularly venomous thread, entitled "[N4BSK] President," that has stretched from January into this month.

"I'm hoping someone will do his public duty of putting a bullet through Obama's head," said a poster identified as "Kill Da [N4BSK]." Another poster suggests "bring[ing] back lynchings" and concludes with a warning: "LOOK OUT [N4BSK]. THE KLAN IS GETTING BIGGER!!!!!!" And a third, using the screen name "amerikkkan," says only, "The deep south is making plans."

WHEN THE PLACES RATED ALMANAC FIRST CAME OUT SOME 25 YEARS BACK, such took note of where Eau Claire, Wisconsin had the highest number of bars and taverns per capita than any other metropolitan area in the United States.

And it turns out that Eau Claire may just so happen to have a few imaginative-sounding bar and tavern names, as per a check @ Switchboard.com:

• Amber Inn Bar & Grill
• Bottle & Barrel Bar
• Bull Pen Bar & Grill
• Do Dodge Inn
• Elbow Room Bar
• Five O'Clock Club
• House of Rock
• Mousetrap Bar
• Nasty Habit
• Pioneer Tavern
• She Nannigan's
• The Stone's Throw
• The Finish Line
• The Grand Illusion
• The Welcome Matt

Just remember, folks: "Moderation is always in good taste." 

Dear Governor Pawlenty:

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

AS LONGTIME CUBAN COMMUNIST LEADER FIDEL CASTRO EXPECTED ALL THIS TIME, the Cuban National Assembly "rubberstamped," essentially confirming, Fidel's previously-announced intentions to transfer power to his older brother Raul with immediate effect.

Which, as some Cuba watchers in the conservative camp and along Miami's Calle Ocho are quick to suggest, amounts to replacing one psychopath with another in the corridors of power just to carry forward the same psychopathic agenda epitomised by Havana's closest thing to a bumper sticker slogan: "Socialism or death!"

Not to mention wondering if the psychopathia is the byproduct of inbreeding.

Which makes Cuba only the second Communist regime (after North Korea's "Great Leader" Kim Il Sung transferring power to son and "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il following the former's death from heart attack in 1994) in which nepotism prevails among the highest echelons of power and authority in service to an inherently failed socioeconomic and political agenda.

In Cuba's case, excusing an enforced anti-American paranoia based along nationalistic lines which, "if and when necessary," can involve fanaticism and violence. Looks like incentive enough for the GOP's "Great Within" to cook up an October Surprise in the form of a shock invasion of Cuba (televised exclusively by Fox News) leading to the installation of what amounts to a corporatist state having its own sick travesty of a "reality TV show" for "winning of hearts and minds" among the Lower Classes towards accepting free-market capitalism as Great White Father.

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IF "PING-PONG DIPLOMACY" HELPED CRACK THE ICE IN WASHINGTON-BEIJING RELATIONS back in the late 1971/early 1972 period, eventually leading to then-President Nixon's historic visit to China, perhaps "philharmonic diplomacy" could crack the ice in such between Washington and Pyongyang.

Demonstrating that "music is the universal language," the New York Philharmonic Orchestra has announced that it will be performing in the North Korean capital before a distinguished audience (in particular "Great Leader" Kim Jong Il, himself a psychopath in fatigues), with the same being telecast live on North Korean state television.

But then again, with all the power cuts and deliberate poverty in the name of its brand of Communism known as juche ("self-reliance"), whether there will be anybody watching north of the Demilitarised Zone anyway.

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FOR THOSE OF YOU WANTING PROOF OF JUST HOW DELIBERATELY BACKWARD NORTH KOREA IS BEING KEPT, study one of those night-vision maps of the Asia-Pacific region, with particular emphasis upon the Korean peninsula.

Note especially well where South Korea (especially its major cities of Seoul and Pusan) shows nighttime lighting brilliantly in contrast to just north of the DMZ--nothing less than total darkness.

Remaining so until just past the Yalu River into China.

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SO MUCH FOR THE COAL INDUSTRY'S "WINNING OF HEARTS AND MINDS" ATTEMPTS to push coal-based power stations as "clean" energy (as well-documented by Think Progress, with particular regards to sponsorship of recent Presidential-candidate debates on the vidiot's box and a notorious "dirty tricks" campaign in Kansas):

What would prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from conducting studies into adding value for money to the lock-and-dam systems on the Upper Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio rivers by retrofitting such facilities with hydroelectric generating capacity, in the process tapping into what may be the biggest and richest source of "green" electricity?

A source, no doubt, sure to make Hydro-Quebec, perhaps North America's leader in "green" electricity, envious and then some....

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AND TALK ABOUT THE GOP'S PSYOPS MASHEEN PUSHING FEAR AND LOYALTY-RELATED QUESTIONS as weapons of choice in Indecision 2008 (per what The Carpetbagger Report documents here, here and here, if you want documentation):

How do we know that the GOP isn't on especially friendly terms with the so-called "Church of Scientology" when it comes to "dirty tricks" for electoral purposes being perfected (especially so use of the "Fair Game" tactic to silence or intimidate real or suspected critics and opponents)?

And to what extent are Scientologist tactics, strategems and tricks being deployed as part of GOP campaign strategems?

And how are the GOP's leaders trying to cover their tracks of connexions with a Notorious and Evil Cult such as the "Church of Scientology" has been identified as being?

Have they no sense of Decency, Sirs, @ long last?

Have they left no sense of Decency? 

SHAKESPEARE MAY HAVE NOTHING ON QUITE A FEW OF THE MORE INTERESTING BAR NAMES to be found in and around LaCrosse, Wisconsin, as per the YellowBook directory for the LaCrosse/Winona district.

The which include the likes of these:

• After Dark
• Alumni Inn
• Amber Inn
• The Arterial Tavern
• Barrel Inn
• Breakaway
• The Bucket
• Bucky's Burger Barn
• Casino (famous for "Lousy Service," according to a sign I recall)
• Cheapshots
• Class of '68
• Crocker's Bar
• Crow Bar
• Detox Bar & Grill
• Dewey's Sidestreet Saloon
• Elbow Room Bar
• The Green Door
• Hansen's Hold 'em Up Grill & Bar
• The Helm
• The Hideaway
• The Hideout
• Hooch's Bar & Grill
• Hotel Tap
• Hummer's Pub
• Hunter's Last Chance
• Ike's Jabber Jaws
• Kellogg's Keg
• The Likelee Spot
• Market Bar
• Moon's Bar
• My Place
• My Second Home
• New Danceland
• Nighthawks Tap
• Old Style Inn
• Pete's Inn
• Rainbow's End
• The Recovery Room
• Rockin' Inn
• Rollin' Inn
• Sand Bar
• Ski's Bar
• Smitty's Overtime Inn
• Sports Nut Bar
• Stinger's
• Sylver's Bar
• Tell Bar & Grill
• The Vibe
• The Zone
• This Old House
• Welcome Bar
• Who's On Third
• Wise Guy's Tap
• Wonder Bar
• Zoo Bar

(Come to think of it, I ought to look up a few more whimsical-sounding tavern names as might be worth sharing....)

Just remember this: "Moderation is always in good taste."

SOME OF YOU REGULAR READERS MAY HAVE BEEN UNABLE FROM TIME TO TIME TODAY to access The Exaggerator because, as it turns out, traffic to recent postings of this blog has wound up overloading the servers @ BlogDrive, who hosts this weblog.

For that, I apologise.

And with that in mind, I would like to issue an appeal to you readers:

In the interest of accomodating heavier traffic loads without triggering problems in the bandwidth department, I have decided to upgrade my account so that more bandwidth (and, hence, more traffic) can be accomodated for month by month.

But then again, bloggers can't live on traffic alone.

Which explains why I have to include online shopping and the Virtual Tip Jar here--i.e., to cover the costs of blogging beyond what I'm able to afford with my disability benefit and my being otherwise unable to find honest work. That, and a distrust on my part of "work-from-home" scams only exploiting my sort and their lot.

So, I would welcome and appreciate it if you would please contribute to the cause, as it were, every time you visit. How much you choose to contribute doesn't matter, so long as it helps this blog.

Be it as a donation to the Virtual Tip Jar, as in online shopping (for which I can get commission on your purchases) or in joining affiliate programmes (again, I get commission on the sales you generate on your weblog), such support would go a long way.  

And would be greatly appreciated.

(However, I should caution that any contributions you make through the Virtual Tip Jar are NOT tax-deductible.)

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AND ONE THING MORE: If you're able to see this posting, readers, please let me know--either by e-mail or in the comments section. I want to know if this upgrade is actually working.