$1 million a day. That's the cost of the interest payments on the Bush Budget Deficit (BBD), according to the Concord Coalition, as reported by PRI's "Marketplace." Here's more fascinating data points from the Concord Coalition. It is an absolute disaster; one that is far more dire than what we faced following the Reagan administration -- at least Reagan eventually did see the need to raise taxes.

In my lifetime of 40 years, we have had exactly one extended period of peace and prosperity, balanced budgets and wealth creation, and a tide that really did lift all boats. Clinton's eight years. It's fun to plant that fact in the face of republicans and watch them sputter. Of course, they're often insane.

Re: Alice in Wonderland Nation. "Liberal Hollywood" gave us "Wag the Dog" and now, DC 9-11. I didn't see it as I don't get Showtime (and now, never will), but a widow of the World Trade Center attacks did. Here's her review.

According to Kristen Breitweiser, an activist whose husband died in the towers and who has long been attempting to shame the Bush administration into coming clean on what happened before and immediately after the attacks, "The film 'DC 9/11: Time of Crisis,' which premiered Sunday night on Showtime, is a mind-numbingly boring, revisionist, two-hour-long wish list of how 9/11 might have gone if we had real leaders in the current administration. This film is rated half of a fighter jet -- since that is about what we got for our nation's defense on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001."

Here's her full review.

Again, didn't see it, but according to Kristen's review, Rumsfeld looks like a bungler that day (of course, Bush was a bungler that day, but the film doesn't dwell on that, apparently). The Rumsfeld is Out Countdown continues. Oh, but I forgot. Criticize Rumsfeld and the terrorists win!

Worth reading is Michael Ignatieff's piece in last Sunday's Times Magazine. His thesis is that Bush doesn't have a doctrine -- let alone a policy -- for when to intervene and when not. Iraq was a neocon whim, and that's why it's a mess and why the admin's stated reasons for the war and benchmarks for success keep changing. There was no reason -- just naked massing of power in the region. According to Ignatieff, the Iraqis knew this, the fundamentalists knew this, maybe even some in the administration knew this. Trouble is, no one told the American public. It sure isn't about the war on terror, regardless of Bush's ongoing lies.

The ultimate result for Bush's failure to level with the public regarding why we went in, why we're staying, and what it will cost may be an Vietnam-like softening of support for fixing what we've now broken. Another failed state to join Afghanistan and Somalia.

On a related note, Dalia Lithwick, as usual, has cogent analysis of the Patriot Act this week, cutting through the emotion to get at what is significant about its provisions. That's important, because it has had fewer people who have read it -- including no one who voted for it in Congress -- than "Finnegan's Wake."

*****

The trouble with our worthy opponents' theory, is that given Ruth's proclivities, he certainly wouldn't have cursed Frazee for selling him to the Yankees, he would have been thrilled to be going to the Big Town.

I'm not saying anything about the Sox. Boston has been a worthy opponent this year, making the season exciting and fun right down to the wire. But are there storm clouds, or birds or prey, on the horizon? Between the Yanks and the Sox, it's all about the bull pen, and both have been shaky.