DEAR REPUBLICANS: ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?

Yesterday, The New York Times broke the news along with other news sources: the United States lost its AAA credit rating with Standard & Poor's for the first time in history.

Can anyone who watched the idiocy of last week over raising the debt-ceiling say that they're surprised?

Can anyone who watched the ultra-conservative, Tea Party-fanaticism-driven, Republican members of the House put not only their Speaker but the rest of the country over a barrel say that they didn't expect this?

Can anyone at all say they're surprised that the rest of the world watched the game of chicken over the debt-ceiling last week and got a little nervous about our willingness to pay our debts, let alone our ability?

If anyone can say that, I'm sorry, but they're nuts. I'm not surprised at all. And, all I can say to the fruitcake politicians who took part in furthering the debacle, including but not limited to the members of the House of Representatives who staged a symbolic vote blocking Senator Reid's plan before it was even finished, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?

To ramp up the stupidity of the situation, the Administration and the Treasury department have argued with S & P that there was a $2 trillion mathematical error in S & P's calculations. Except, the math isn't the point. The downgrade of the U.S.'s credit rating is a vote of no confidence, on the heels of the political three-ring circus of last week. You know, just like the vote of no confidence that the Republicans have proposed to hold the next time the debt-ceiling needs raised.

I will say that I disagree with China standing up, waggling their fingers at us, and telling us we're addicted to debt. This, when most of the world knows that if Chinese workers were paid anything close to a living wage, the country's corporate world wouldn't be booming half as well as it is right now.

That aside, I think this downgrade and the response from the U.S. on all fronts is telling of just how much politicians have put the blinders on when it comes to how cleanly they're sinking the country and just how their actions look to the rest of the world.

--Statler, moderator