Morning Joe 5/9/2011 -- More war and government spending

On Morning Joe, sans Joe and Mika, who were out because of Joe's father's funeral, there were several interesting discussions, starting with the growing dissatisfaction with Pakistan as a result of recent revelations re: bin Laden's location and the suspicion that Pakistan military and government officials aided bin Laden. There was a clip of John Kerry and other influential politicos who appear to suggest that an expansion of the war effort has to cover a greater focus on Pakistan. Afghanistan has been relegated to hopeless, it appears, and if the target is al Qaeda, then Afghanistan is just a clean up mission. In order to keep the War on Terror going, internationalists on the Left and Right have to put more money and effort into Pakistan. God forbid we call it a day and bring the troops home -- no, the "treasure trove" of information will justify war for another couple of decades at least, and more loss of civil liberties at home as we discover that trains are not safe, and something bad can happen any minute. Be afraid, be really afraid, and don't worry -- one day we can back to normal, just not now.

Another discussion had Jim "Madcow" Cramer declaring the US recovery is taking off because of the fourth straight month of job growth which has been a hundred thousand short of breaking even with attrition each month. I threw in the attrition bit, because Cramer ignored it, and later admitted when questioned that high unemployment might be permanent. Also, when questioned about QE2, Kramer admitted that the Fed will likely have to continue buying bonds to pump money into the economy to keep this sugar high "recovery" going. There was no talk about what happens when the Fed is no longer able to keep the sugar high going, or the insufficiency of the sugar high to even create a current situation in which 20% unemployment is not a reality, but Wall Street is doing real well, so, whatev.

The third discussion was with Ray LaHood regarding light rail "investment", and LaHood is confident that the American people are clamoring for trains -- however, they obviously aren't clamoring for trains to the extent private sector entrepreneurs are willing to invest, which means it's a money losing proposition and will be subsidized by government. LaHood refused to answer any questions except the ones for which he had prepared answers. It was a good marketing segment for Obama Investments, Inc. All in all, the Morning Joe gang advanced progressivism and had a few laughs -- it was a good morning.