Let’s get on government fees and charges for a while. Did you know that a $5 motor vehicle excise tax can balloon to $125 like, say if you have the bill in your house and your house burns to the ground and you don’t have it any more and so you don’t get around to paying it right away. Isn’t that special? We’ll be back with more on fees and charges in Massachusetts.

Shoot, then exit? The president has gone on the attack in Afghanistan to prove… what? That he didn’t get Osama Bin-Ladin during this term in office? That he is a failed president who still has a couple of months in his term in which to complete the harm he has already accomplished? That he can add still more to the economic and political damage before he goes? That he can reinforce the sad reputation  of America as bully and terrorist in the rest of the world? Someone shoud stop this man before he turns the last 100 days into an international event to remember.

Leader of the Free World. Top Republican Banana. Not at his party’s national convention? Out playing in the rainstorm that wasn’t? Managing the crisis that didn’t happen? Has W finally figured it out? WE DON”T LIKE HIM. Even his Republicans don’t like him.  We don’t like what he has done with his little oil war. We got dead Americans. We are suffering from his failed economy. We’ve got cold Americans who cannot afford to heat their homes. Maybe the runway was just too short for Air Force 1?  Or maybe W has finally got it. He stayed away from his party’s convention. That’s a good start. W should resign in disgrace. DO IT NOW. Go Home, George. We don’t need you. John McCain might not be right about much, but he’s at least right about that.

Did we start this presidential campaign seasons with some pretty obvious choices?  A black guy, a white woman,  a man with a $400 haircut and a bevy of white guys with thinning hair? So how come we wind up with Joe Biden, another white guy with thinning hair?  How does it always come out the same in the end?

If you want the job, be prepared to tell whatever lie they want to hear? And we, the educated electorate, continue to buy into this? Maybe we deserve what we get in the end.

Exxon Mobil’s record $11.7 billion earnings — the largest quarterly profit ever for an American company. Royal Dutch Shell reported quarterly profit of $11.6 billion. Iraq is putting $79 billion in the bank from oil profits this year while America is spending $34 billion on reconstruction over there. The Iraqui deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank is so large that the United States has been obliged to make $435.6 million in interest payments to Iraq through the end of last year. Are we getting screwed yet? Is anyone in Congress thinking? Why should we let Iraq and Big Oil drain the life out of our economy and leave us freezing in the dark? At least drain the bank account and give the money to fuel assistance programs. At best, let the Iraquis row their own boat.

Don’t pretend to be a financial expert. Just read the news. This is a moment in history and it comes with both risk and opportunity. For financial traders on Wall Street, there is risk. What happens if my investments falter? How much will I lose? How can I protect myself? For the rest of us, there is simple common sense and good neighborliness. How can we work together? How can I help you?

To the company that would add another fee or surcharge to preserve profits?  Cut it out. You don’t need it and we cannot afford it. To that person who can offer a helping hand? Good for you. We are in this together.

OK, so tomatoes from someplace or other made 1,000 people sick with Salmonella. Where? Not sure, but what’s a big Mac or a taco without them? And now? In their continuing search for food demons, the pointy finger of suspicion is turning to — are you ready? — Jalapenos. What? Jalepenos?  Really? What’s next, Popsicles?

At last count, the Democratic national convention was running about $11 million short of the $40.6 million needed to stage the event. Candidates and their staffs eat, travel and party like rich people while normal Americans stay at home and worry about keeping warm next winter.  The campaign for the White House has consumed is consuming and will consume huge quantities of money. Question: So when, exactly, did politics get to be all about spending money instead of solving problems and running the country?

Stumble around and find a website. I found one the other day claiming the benefits of exercise. Follow these steps to 100 pushups… etc. Not a bad idea probably but then I noticed they site also sells logowear, t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, caps and buttons. That’s OK too. But whoever built the site decided to stamp “Made in the USA on the products. Well, on three of the products. In all, the web site has 26 items for sale. Three stamped “Made in the USA. Now that IS sad, don’t you think?

Desperation showing so soon,  Senator John McCain has put a veteran of President Bush’s 2004 campaign in charge of day-to-day operations.  A guy named  Steve Schmidt — who worked closely with Karl Rove — is now runnoing things at Mr. McCain’s headquarters, the New York Times reports. The move of Mr. Schmidt is the latest sign of increasing influence of veterans of Mr. Rove’s shop in the McCain operation.

They were winners eight years ago. And we are the losers. These are the guys behind the guys who brought us gasoline and oil prices, who let Big Oil pocket billions are our expense and who gave us a devalued dollar and a war in Iraq.  That’s some track record. And they want to keep it going?