This is what we've come to

"We've had a pretty good economic run for patricians as we outsource our best jobs to China and India....Congress can help me by reducing taxes for my rich buddies and the oil industry, and by driving the middle class and the government further into debt and penury...Congress can also help fund my theft of oil from Iraq in our illegal war there, which also helps push up the profits and stock value of Halliburton and Exxon Mobil."

- Bush, in a satirical spoof quote

What he really said, which isn't much different.

"This economy's pretty good. There are some -- there's definitely some storm clouds and concerns. But the underpinning is good."

- Bush, lying through his teeth, or to just the millions of Americans who don't own oil companies

The dollar has lost over 25% to most major foreign currencies, even 15% to the Mexican peso, and our rate of exchange is awful. We're over $9 trillion in debt, a quarter million people may lose their homes, health insurance is unafforable, Chinese products poison our kids and kill our pets, we're in a war without end that costs tens of millions a day. But everything is rosy if you ask George Bush.

He's wrong. And we're going to keep finding out how wrong he is about the economy as he is everything else he speaks of.

I heard about a tent city in Washington State on Weekend America today. Eighty people live there, some who give blood to make money, others have jobs but can't afford housing.

I also read about another tent city in the Inland Empire of California, currently home to 200 people. Some of these folks are homeless, others used to rent until pushed out by those losing their homes who have pushed rental prices higher. Basically, your standard conservative Trickle Down theory at work. The rich get poorer, the middle gets poor, and the poor get shafted.

In New Orleans, rebuilding has destroyed a tent city near City Hall. And now "progress" is going to tear some public housing and create less places for the poor to live. Not that, by most indications, the buildings didn't need torn down, but like anywhere else in the country, somebody wants to lay down condos, not homes for the working class or the poor. This week, many were gassed, clubbed, and arrested as they voiced their opposition to the plan.

These are horror stories, man. This is the stuff my grandparents told me about the last time the government stopped giving a damn about working people are geared the economy to squeeze every last dollar in order to line their own pockets.

So yeah, our so-called rosy economy is making more homeless, not to mention destroying our collectives dreams of a better tomorrow; and Bush is probably starting fiddle lessons.

This is not how America should be, but we've been told to believe otherwise.