1. Complete collapse of the housing market. 2008 will certainly be remembered as the year the housing bubble went pop.  The median home price peaked in 2006 at about $250,000.  The median home price is now around $180,000.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were officially taken over by the government with no hope of being broken up anytime soon.
2. Wall Street Follows Housing Over a Cliff. In a related store, in 2008 we found out that Wall Street was as foolishly optimistic as that kid whose parents wrapped clothes in an Xbox box.  With no adults manning the shop, no one thought to look into all those subprime loan derivatives.   The failure of Lehman Brothers, and the death of the last five remaining large investment banks was the earthquake in 2008.  The Tsunami is on its way.
3. Bailout Mania. Congress realizes that they have skewed the housing market, encouraged risky behavior and destroyed several financial companies by providing easy access to money, by removing accountability and by introducing market distortions.  Congress immediately moves to fix the problem by providing more free money, completely eliminating accountability and further distorting markets.  At some point, a politician somewhere will read Ayn Rand.
4. Barack Obama Elected President. An unknown junior Senator from Illinois, who happened to be African American, was elected president by the largest popular margin ina generation.  The election will be remembered for a long time, even beyond the racially-motivated “historic” headlines.  Senator Obama spent record amounts in the primary and general elections, and was the first person to not use federal funds since Richard Nixon.  Hillary Clinton’s bid to be the first female presidential nominee, and Sarah Palin’s selection as the first female GOP vice presidential candidate will also be remembered for years to come.  So, too, will the media’s abdication of its investigative responsibilities.
5. Global Warming Begins to Collapse. In time, 2008 will be recognized as the last time anyone took Al Gore seriously.  2008 will be the coldest year in the United States in over a decade, and record cold and snow have plagued the rest of the world.  Although deranged lunatics will continue to shout from their daddy’s Escalades and their Hollywood mansions, 2008 will be the year that skeptics were finally given a voice.
6. Gasoline Prices. 2008 will be remembered for its dramatic jump in the price of gasoline, rising to over $4 per gallon in the United States.  The impact, however, will be felt for years as Americans begin to reduce their consumption of gasoline and thereby their dependence on foreign oil.  By December, the price of a barrel of crude oil had fallen nearly $100, a decline of over 70% from it’s summer time high.  Low prices for crude oil minimize the influence of OPEC nations and Russia.
7. Iraq turns a corner. The Surge shows dividends as Iraq is able to reconcile its political differences and unite its factions against foreign and domestic insurgencies.   In time, although the war was mishandled for too long, the decision to invade Iraq and the consequences of a free nation in the Middle East will be seen as the high point of the Bush administration.
8. NASA discovers water on Mars. After countless complicated experiments are conceived and tested, the little Phoenix lander scrapes the surface of Mars, and, a few millimeters below the red dust, it finds ice.  In time, this will be seen as an enormously significant find for human exploration of the planet.
9. Russia on the Offensive. Russia invaded Georgia and rattled its sword in the Western hemisphere, meeting with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and Cuban dictator Raul Castro.  These events signal a growing hostility towards the West.
10. Nobody’s Perfect, Nothing’s Impossible. After a 10-6 record in the regular season and nearly firing their head coach the year before, the New York Giants make an improbable run to the Superbowl, winning a record 10 straight games on the road.  They face the undefeated New England Patriots, the first team to ever win 18 games in a season and only the second team in history to make it to the Superbowl undefeated.  The Giants were expected to be sacrificial lambs to the Patriot’s crowning victory.  But, as they say, on any given Sunday, anything can happen.  The impossible odds.  The impossible catch.  The heartpounding final seconds.  This is why we watch sports.  These are the games we tell our grandchildren about.

Honorable Mention:
Fidel Castro resigns
The Large Hadron Collider fires up (and doesn’t destroy the Earth)
USS Lake Erie fires a missile that destroys a damaged sattelite in space
Banazir Bhutto is assassinated
Beijing hosts the Summer Olympics
Bill Gates leaves Microsoft

Young American GI’s have once again reshaped the face of the world for the better.

In the past seven years, the world has become a very different place. America no long plays victim on the world stage. Nor should it. The wave of sympathy and compassion that embraced us seven years ago is gone. We have spent that capital, along with our blood and treasure, making the world a safer place. Since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq there have been no attacks on U.S. soil, and only two terrorist attacks in Europe. We have taken the fight to our enemies and the results are clear.

Thousands more men and women have given their lives willingly to save those they don’t know. In the words of the dearly departed Tony Snow, “love can propel a man to run into a burning building to save a complete stranger; but a man motivated by hate cannot save even himself.” Because of the sacrifice of brave men and women, Americans, Brits, French, Spaniards, Poles, and not least of them, Iraqis, the Middle East now has an exemplar of democracy and a secular levee against the tide of Islamic fascism. Young American GI’s have once again reshaped the face of the world for the better.

Terror may never completely die, but it is on the run.

The United States and its allies will continue their struggle against Islamic fascism. It is a long fight against a determined enemy. The alternative for us is not a fragile peace, but certain death. As the threat of attacks at home fades, however, so do the raw emotions of that day. The sinking fear has been replaced with a clear sense of awareness, but recessed in our minds; behind our families and work; behind worries about taxes, health care and bailing out failed bureaucracies.

Terror may never completely die, but it is on the run. It hides in remote regions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It shouts impotently from the safety of cassette tapes and grainy videos. It squanders its youth and rage in clean, quiet cells in Cuba. It dies futily alone in the streets of Iraqi villages and the rugged trails of Afghanistan. As the allies who liberated the world from European fascism and soviet communism, we have a duty to see terrorism find its place on the ashheap of history. Let’s Roll.

Although the Obama campaign is now retreating from the dangerously naive policy set forth by Obama himself, the fact remains that Obama is open to meeting with Iran, without precondition. Preconditions, of course, are those “barriers to diplomacy,” such as “Before we meet with you, you have to stop killing U.S. soldiers and innocent civilians in Iraq,” or “Stop building your nuclear plants, or we won’t meet with you.” Obama now says that how would, of course, have “preparations” before meeting with a man who has called our ally a “rotting corpse” and promised its annihilation.

The term “preparation” is a wonderfully naive term. It makes it sound as if Obama has such a childish view of the world that he thinks McCain is criticizing him for not planning an itinerary. “Of course we’re going to have preparations. We’ve booked the flight, we have a suite of hotel rooms, and I even brought a pen and a notepad, so I can take dictation copious notes from my dear friend Mahmoud.”

In a speech on Sunday, however, Obama betrayed the depth of his naiveté.

(You should watch the video, as Obama’s “come on” demeanor speaks volumes of his attitude). Three things jumped out of his speech:

1. Negotiations brought down the Berlin wall. This is a fundamental misstatement of history. President Reagan’s unflinching anti-Communism, aggressive expansion of our military capabilities and his refusal to talk with Soviet hardliners like Chernenko lead to the internal and external reforms. And, not to be too dramatic, but Reagan’s demand to Gorbachev that he “tear down this wall”, was not made over an ornate conference table in a quiet Swiss hotel. It was made in front of the damn wall to a cheering crowd of Germans.
2. “Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union did.” This is absurd. During the Cold War, the USSR could annihilate the United States and its allies, and vice versa. This stalemate, known as mutually assured destruction, only works with rational people. The Soviets were horribly brutal, but they were not about to cause the extinction of mankind to prove a point. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, has never been successfully accused of being a rational person. While it is true that the Iranian military poses no serious threat to the United States military, the Enola Gay, similarly posed little or no threat to the Hiroshima police force. It was the nuclear device it carried that did all that damage. Obama’s idiotic assertion that these “tiny” countries “don’t pose a serious threat to us” begs the question, how many Israeli, European or U.S. cities would have to be sacrificed in nuclear holocausts before Obama realized that one man with a bomb is a serious threat to us?
3. “Iran spends 1/100th of what we spend on their military. If they ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they would’nt stand a chance.”I have to admit, this took me all of three minutes to debunk, most of which was spent looking for my calculator. According to publicly available data on the CIA website, Iran’s military expenditure in 2008 will be (2.5% of GDP) $21.3 billion (not sure if this includes their “peaceful nuclear program”). The U.S. military expenditure in 2008 (including fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and deployments on every continent) will be (4.05% of GDP) $561.3 billion. No matter how you cut it, Iran spends way more than 1/100th of what America spends on their military. In real dollars, Iran spends 1/25th of what the U.S. does on it’s military (four times what Obama implies). In terms of percentage of GDP, Iran spends more than half of what the U.S. spends. Per capita, Iran spends 1/6th what the United States spends. Anyway you look at the numbers 1/100th isn’t even close.

Obama has proven himself, again and again, to be naive on foreign policy (even suggesting we invade an ally and nuclear power, Pakistan). Although he seems to be backing off of his ridiculous policy now, who will be the voice of reason when, God forbid, President Obama’s ridiculous and dangerous ideas are not reigned in by an opposing nominee?

Very nice job. We should get a string of conservative celebrities (they do exist) to do the voice over per the Obama ad.

“I recognize that my body can no longer keep pace with my spirit.  But, my comrades, there is hope.  My old friend, Che, has found a new vessel.  It is this reincarnated Che who will lead the region back into the prosperity of true communism.  I call upon all Cubans and all true believers everywhere to pledge their support to Barrack Obama, the new Che!”

“First of all, it’s an opinion question.  Since when did the United States require citizens to have a specific opinion on anything.  In fact, one of the most fundamental rights we enjoy is the ability to disagree publicly and openly with our government,” noted University of Vermontshire Professor of History Dr. Dusty Bookes.

But more than the question, the answer has raised issues about CIS and the federal government’s view of the world.  Of the three choices: the right to vote, the right to bear arms and the right to free speech, CIS mandates that it is the right to vote that is most important to US citizens.  “The right to vote is berry nice, but we also have this in Cuba, and it’s not so effective.  I would much rather have had the right not to be tortured and have my wife raped because I say that Castro is not so nice,” notes recent Cuban immigrant Fidel Betonmé.

Joseph Kildemov, who immigrated from the Soviet Union 25 years ago agrees.  “We have right to vote in Russia, but is not so useful when only one party.  Plus, no one actually count votes.  Would be better if had right to bear arms to protect family from Stalin’s goons.  Or Kruschev’s goons.  Or Gorbachev’s.  Or even Putin’s.  With him, right to free press should come with antidote.“