yeah lets privatise social security the george bush way. that way no one will have a shirt.
instead let's do something positive. every one find an obama phone bank and do what's right for this country.
Please don't use the term "retard." It's a derogatory word that once was used to describe people who are mentally retarded. It's like using the N-word.
Sat, 10/11/2008 - 20:18 — Impeach Bush and Cheney (not verified)
We would not be in this mess if all we had was 30% idiots. Unfortunately, it is a much higher percentage. Remember, Bush won TWICE. And think about all the idiots that think Obama is a terrorist, a Muslim, an Arab, Rev. Wrights' dummy, tax-er of the middle-class, peace-nik, liberal, and someone that wants to teach 5 yr. olds sex. It boggles the mind at the ignorance of Americans where books, newspapers, and the media are readily available and cheap.
There is the group that won't vote because they won't get off their butts, the ignorant that won't study the candidates or causes, and those crazies that can't decide. So, I say America has at least 51% idiots.
217,767,000 were eligible to vote.
167,802,660 registered to vote (77% of eligible voters).
122,293,548 voted (56% of eligible voters; 73% of registered voters).
62,040,610 voted for Bush/Cheney: 28% of eligible voters.
59,028,439 voted for Kerry/Edwards: 27% of eligible voters.
95,473,452 eligible voters did not vote: 44% of eligible voters.
What does one do with 95,473,452 non-citizens in a citizen-based democracy? Increase the time spent on civics in high school? Offer to drive them to the polling booth? Embarrass them? Shun them? Jesus H. Christ, what will we tell our grandchildren??
Sun, 10/12/2008 - 00:39 — grizmusic in philly (not verified)
gee, I wonder what the chances are that an election comes out so close(51%-49%). What's that? The last two elections have been 51-49? What's that? Almost all elections worldwide have been split 51-49 since 2000? Look's like some folks have figured out how to steal an election. There is no way this vote could be split 50-50, yet look at the polls. People aren't really this stupid. It's just what they want you to think, so they can steal the elections without you rioting in the streets. I'll still vote democratic, but I don't think it matters much. Imagine if the repubs had their way and social security was privatized and put into the stock market. The greatest robbery in the history of the world was just perpetrated and people still think the game ain't fixed. Wake up america, the assholes just pulled off an 8 year scam job. WE are losers.
Bush didn't win either election. The elections were electronically stolen. It's going to happen again, if Obama doesn't walk into election day with at least a 10% lead. That's what all the Republican disenfranchisement campaigns are about...get rid of as many millions of probable Democratic voters as possible in order to reduce Obama's lead to the point that the voting machine companies will have plausibly credible cover from under which they can steal the election. You'll know it's going to go down when on election night coverage all the MSM propagandist keep repeating the same scripted mantra,"You know, this thing is just too close to call.".
Sat, 10/11/2008 - 19:46 — uncle joe mccarthy (not verified)
just a few hours after pulling the abortion card and talking about how obama will not defend those that are the most defenseless, palin used daughters willow and piper as human shields to protect her from the booing philly crowds at the flyers game
this woman not only has no shame, she has no motherly instinct
hope im still around in 20 years to read the palin children's tell alls
As happy as the "boos" for Palin made me, I felt sorry for her little girls. I hope they understand that the boos were not for them but for their Caribou Barbie mom.
hopefully all you will hear is that
mama palin went to prison in 2009
and stayed there for many many years.
fucking bitch liar like bush, cheney and
the whole gop.
In my dream I heard McDummy say: "I'm going to a party at house #6 Shara,take over,OK?" "OK John,but I still don't know what all of these red buttons are."
and i thought about sending an email, again (had a delightful conversation the other day, btw, with ":p"), but decided it might benefit more people using this open thread...
I agree. This social situation has been brewing since the start of the cold war and is quite possibly not an accident. There is a lot of evidence to support the idea that this "F*ck you, buddy" attitude that seems to be at the core of much of American culture is actually the result of a very sad and twisted attempt at social engineering based on Game Theory.
There was an excellent BBC documentary put out not long ago detailing this whole notion of engineering "peace" this way called "The Trap". The filmmakers make a very interesting and compelling case.
Sun, 10/12/2008 - 04:21 — Guitar Man (not verified)
Obviously, "me first" is a reality.
But, that doesn't mean "only me".
Our country is made up of a lot of people who do care, and not only about themselves.
What it needs is good leadership, someone to bring people together.
I hear people all the time saying stuff like "Democrat or Republican, their all crooked".
Look at the choice we have in this election. What side is trying to win by "divide and conquer"?
I hear a lot about how Ronald Reagan was such a great president. My ass, that was the beginning of this "me first, and only me" mentality that has culminated in this financial breakdown so many years later.
Yes, I'm "blaming" what is happening on Reagan and the Republican policies that were pursued since.
Look at the history (sorry, I don't have the numbers, but you get the idea).
Reagan: Fiscal Conservative, budget defecit
Bush Sr.:Fiscal Conservative, budget defecit
Clinton: Tax and Spend Liberal, 400B budget surplus
Bush Jr: Fiscal Conservative (moron), largest budget defecit ever
Look at what Democrats have fought for, they truly are the side of compassion and for helping those who need deserve help.
Are there those who abuse the system? Of course, but it doesn't mean we have to turn a blind eye.
I do care about this country, and not just myself and my family.
That's why I'll vote for Obama, and I'm proud to do so.
OK, troll, Social Security is NOT bankrupt, and in a worst case scenario won't be until the 2040s. By then, hopefully, we'll have seen the light and changed the upper limit on which we tax from $90,000 to $120,000, which will solve the problem.
Prove that every penny we pay for FICA isn't spent immediately. Prove there are any reserves in the Social Security fund. Prove that the money previously in this fund was not bilked by current and previous administrations and congressional action. Prove that we are NOT defaulting on our debt.
Sat, 10/11/2008 - 20:15 — all hail the hypno toad (not verified)
Not really sure if it's bankrupt or not, but I do remember hearing that there was a lot of intra-government borrowing from it so surely it must be close to it if not already at that point. So it does need some fixing, mostly make it illegal for the gov to borrow from it and raise the caps.
Raise the limit??? How about eliminate the limit? I am one of the priviledged ones who actually benefits from the limit and I have NEVER understood it.
How about we don't even start collecting for the first $60K and then collect for every dollar earned above that?
Can someone explain where the limits came from and how they make ANY sense???
Actually, it's not anything remotely close to approaching bankrupt. The bankrupcty myths, which were intended to create a shock doctrine scare that would lead to "privatization", are the result of projecting obligations infinitely into the future while not accounting for any continuing income. And even with that dishonest slight of hand, the people who perpetrated this bit of disinformation couldn't engineer SS going insolvent until 2043. SS isn't going to go broke, because the American People will never let it go broke.
It has been said that the bailouts are leading to socalism, but I think that the trend is more towards corporatism, or the second stage of Italian economic fascism. We have the government taking significant but not yet controlling positions in major sectors of the economy. With billions of taxpayer dollars at risk, it is not too unlikely to think that the legal system is now going to start including the government's interest in any actions that affect (partially) state owned corporations.
For instance, when the US government starts buying significant amounts of stocks in Goldman (watch for it, the guy in charge of the bailout is a former Goldman exec) there is now a state interest in quashing shareholder lawsuits -- especially if those lawsuits are deemed to threaten the safety of Goldman Sachs and thus by implication the entire global economy. It would take a pretty right wing judge to follow that reasoning, but guess what we have been appointing for the last eight years. The argument would be that "in ordinary times this lawsuit may have merit, but the merits must now be weighed against the competing ($800 billion) interest of the people. If this lawsuit were to procede it would cause immediate and irrepairable harm not only to the company, but to the taxpayers interest and the economy at large."
This seems "reasonable" -- why allow a few disgruntled shareholders (who are probably fat cat predators anyway) to take an action that could cause the fall of Goldman, the loss of billions, and the collapse of the economic world as we know it?
It is a very small step from there to banning union actions. Why allow a small bunch of workers (who are probably communists and terrorists anyway) to interfere with this important company that the taxpayers have invested in when economic times are so hard?
Of course, to make this all work we will need to bring representatives of government together with business to ensure the well-being of the large corporations that we the people now have a very large stake in (which is interestingly enough going to be a non-voting stake according to the Treasury.) It only makes sense that the government economic policies be coordinated with the needs of the investment banks and other corporations that we are so desperately trying to prop up. With these three conditions, you have full-blown corporatism.
It is very interesting how this has all happened, almost at the point of a gun in a way. I suspect that some of the chaos was deliberate -- carefully timed for the end of a political season so that (in the most generous assumptions) Republican fat cats could lap at the cream that a paniced nation would throw at them. (Did I mention that Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs have a contentious history and that Paulson is a former CEO of Goldman?) In the least generous assumption, the plan was to remake the financial system. I can assure you that the people behind this are not socialists.
In either case, I suspect that events have gotten out of the control of the instigators -- which doesn't mean that they will not try to take advantage of them.
The tin foil nutball in me considers the possibility that the global crash is a form of pigman bailout - for those select pigmen who, privy to the knowledge that this is exactly what the fed intended, prepositioned massively short. A $7 trillion global wealth transfer over the course of a couple days as the top sucks from the bottom to save itself?
I think it is possible that this was entirely generated for financial gain.
However, an argument against this assumption is that the people who shorted the financial system were making bets that would be covered by entities (generally hedge funds) that didn't have the money to pay them in the event of a large collapse. People who were just shorting the stock market took it in the shorts when the government outlawed short selling against financial instutitions (which to me marked the end of U.S. capitalism as we know it.) I would assume that someone with the power to trigger this disaster would be aware of the weakness in the CDS structure.
By the way, the reason that we know that they didn't have the money to pay them is that the CDS market is (estimated!) to have more money at risk in payout than exists in the global financial system! It is hard to believe, but anybody could make a "bet" that Lehman Brothers would fail and generate a "credit event." It seemed so likely, that many people jumped into the game. It was "you pay me $250,000/quarter and I will pay you $16 billion if this bond defaults." That was a great "money for nothing" for the hedge funds, I suppose they knew that when the hammer fell they could just sail away on their yachts.
Perhaps the people behind this didn't stop to consider if the hedge fund that they were betting against had $16 billion per customer to pay out.
By the way, everybody is patting themselves on the back for how well the CDS auction went for Lehman debt, but if you look into the details it is pretty scary. (You also notice that Goldman is the largest holder, interesting...) According to the creditfixings.com webiste (which is the crappiest website I have ever seen for a multi-trillion dollar industry) they sold $772M of this junk and still have almost $5 billion outstanding. This stuff is selling at $.09 on the dollar so the market's valuation of these mortgages is pretty darned low -- and they still are not getting sellers!
(In other words, in two weeks we have gone from people taking insanely low prices for high risk to not wanting to buy risk at all.)
Now I am no financial expert and may be misinterpreting all of this stuff. My only claim to fame in my family is that I dumped Smith Barney as my brokers two years ago when they insisted in putting me into AIG -- and then when I pulled out of the market they put me into Fannie May and Freddie Mac. I went into the money markets (oh yeah, that was safe) and have stayed there since.
I should add that the original bill (I have not read the final version) allowed Paulson to "(designate) financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them." Now I have no idea what the legal concept behind "financial agents of the government" was supposed to mean, but based on past behavior of this administration it probably meant that their actions would have soverign immunity.
A more sinister (but still colorable) interpration would be that these institutions now no longer have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders or even their customers, and thus are total instruments of the government. Obama Supporter? "So sorry, that account has been frozen for review."
The actions of the Bush Cabal and their cronies and the profits they made, based on policies that they themselves enacted, or proffered and fostered, both legally and illegally — this rises to the level of sedition, insofar as they knew what they were doing.
And what is sedition? To willfully and maliciously act in a fashion as to sap, suborn or otherwise undermine the United States of America, its lawful authority, thereunto as duly constituted government, or its national security.
Is not economics the ultimate national security of the country? This is the key in the case for sedition against the Bush Cabal.
I have been saying the same thing when ever someone has said to me these bailout programs are socialist. Not surprisingly the socialist meme seems to have started in right wing radio la-la land and then got ratified by the mainstream corporate media. Even on the most basic level, it isn't socialism. The government is propping up corporations and is getting no (or as it turns out possibly minimal) ownership rights. Throw in the military, which purportedly spreads democracy and defends American Exceptionalism, and this is fascism at its most basic form. Yikes!
Not to disdain, I'm up for reading any and all "crackpot theories." You may be entirely right. I smell rats everywhere. In every great transfer of money, goes a great shift power. The economy is just one tool used to change the political landscape. I don't trust anyone right now. Least of all, those in charge.
I wish I knew more about so much, and especially the economy. I'm at the mercy of the teevee people, whom we all know lie.
The way I see it, we're all gonna die. NO, that is not a McCain campaign slogan, but a simple fact. I figure I'll make it through to the end of my natural days, so the other part of me says, forget about it. I am powerless.
What I have noticed, and am suspicous of, is this G-20 meeting, amongst others, and no news comes from them, just "we will save the day", but so far, they are clueless and have no ideas either.
My bet is, the Asian markets will continue to fall tomorrow morning, and then Europe, and...
Ideologues, like the neocons, have grand schemes. They'll gamble it all, betting they are right. If not, they still leave the casino with $billions$, and flee.
When I get really depressed, I think to myself that billions of years from now the Sun is going to go nova and incenerate the Earth.
Somehow that makes me feel better. In the brief time that I have I hope to be aware and interested enough to enjoy the scenery as it passes by.
The markets will stabilize this week, but they are a complete sideshow and reflect fear, greed, and panic more than anything else. Nobody is going to short financial stocks -- yes it is legal again -- when the government is stepping in to buy them. However, long term this means that restarting the markets is going to be difficult. If the house fixes the odds, no sane person will make a bet. Markets rely upon buyers AND sellers.
The real problem is the credit markets. I do not know what the credit markets will do; if they don't recover shortly it is going to be extremely ugly before the end of the year. I would have a bit of actual cash on hand just in case VISA stops working (they rely on short term loans, or to be precise the bank that backs your card relies on those loans.)
I expect to see really high interest rates along with hyperinflation shortly, but I don't really have any good reason for that. My wife keeps asking what we should do and I can't think of anything. My peacable dad's advice is to 'buy guns' but I am a terrible shot.
God alone knows what will happen if we pump $700 billion into financial stocks and the companies still go bust. I wouldn't be selling life insurance for the Bush clan if that happens.
Another parinoid thought is that this is the Republican's "Sherman" strategy. If you can't hold the territoy, destroy it!
Sorry, bucko, but your argument is too strong. This is, of course, pure Mussolinian fascism. Check out Singapore or South Korea if you want to see how the future looks. Highly conformist, high controlled, clean, predicatible and intolerant of any dissent. Great place for mindless consumers.
I live in South Korea. Once a friend saw me looking at pictures of Bush on the net-- highly "stylized ones"-- like he was a vampire drinking blood and oil, kinda stuff. He was aghast. He said you can't say anything bad, at least not like that, about the governement here. Everyone has a personal ID# which must be entered into websites. They know exactly where to find you. And they believe everything they hear on the teevee (controlled by the gov't.) That's a story for another day, but it is scary.
Sorry, bucko, but your argument is too strong. This is, of course, pure Mussolinian fascism. Check out Singapore or South Korea if you want to see how the future looks. Highly conformist, high controlled, clean, predicatible and intolerant of any dissent. Great place for mindless consumers.
This was just launched yesterday to let as many people as possible show Obama support; we knew too many people who wanted specific affinity group posters but couldn't find them. Popular since we launched have been "Joe Six Pack for Obama", "Teachers for Obama", and, unexpectedly, "Trekkies for Obama". A chicken in every pot, an Obama poster for every man, woman, and child.
It's kind of a laughable thing now. Way back when, the term "trekkie" was considered a slur by true "trekkers." As time progressed, more people who were devotees of Star Trek began using "trekkie" so much so that it's become a moot point. Being on the Star Trek fringe, I found the whole thing amusing.
Here are some words and phrases I'd like to buy the rights to, then put on a rocketship set to self-destruct, just for symbolic emphasis:
Joe Six-Pack
Hockey Mom
Soccer Mom
Small Town Values
Good Christian
Pro-Life
Wall Street / Main Street
and the movie Hard Ball, because that's just embarrassing for mankind as a whole
2004 Election Statistics
Sat, 10/11/2008 - 21:27 — MountainMan23
In the 2004 US Presidential elections
217,767,000 were eligible to vote.
167,802,660 registered to vote (77% of eligible voters).
122,293,548 voted (56% of eligible voters; 73% of registered voters).
62,040,610 voted for Bush/Cheney: 28% of eligible voters.
59,028,439 voted for Kerry/Edwards: 27% of eligible voters.
95,473,452 eligible voters did not vote: 44% of eligible voters.
============================================================
What percentage of those were purged, caged and disenfranchised from voting?
What we can't know at this point was how many of those Republican votes were electronically created out of thin air by the voting machine companies, or how many Democratic votes disappeared in the same fashion.
I've watched my little 401K nest egg drop 20% already. Thought I had this all figured out...enough to hold me over until I retire. Well....now I'm staying awake at night wondering who wants to hire a 61 yr old retired school teacher for a few years? Not a happy ending to this tragic administration.
I curse everyone of these stupid congressmen for promoting derregulation..and then letting the greedy SOB's rob us blind. Dumb asses.
why all these college educated economics people around the world couldn't see what I, a community college dropout, could see. It was so fucking easy to see. I just don't get it.
Here are my suggestions for personalized McCain posters:
Racists For McCain
Flatliners For McCain
Flat Worlders For McCain
Dead Registered Voters For McCain
Illiterates For McCain
Deep Pockets For McCain
War Lovers For McCain
Torturers For McCain
Hate Mongers For McCain
Voter Roll Purgers For McCain
Smear Tacticians For McCain
Unruly Mob For McCain
Secessionists For McCain
McCarthyites For McCain
Ostriches For McCain
She charged $640 for per-diem and airplane costs to go tell the Wasilla church that she would "do her part to implement God's will from the pulpit."
As mayor, she spent a lot of time organizing a "day of prayer" at City Hall.
She fought to keep the hospital from performing abortions. "Palin's former church and other evangelical denominations were instrumental in ousting members of Valley Hospital's board who supported abortion rights — including the governor's mother-in-law, Faye Palin." She then joined the board herself to make sure that it remained anti-abortion.
When Alaska cut $700,000 from the faith based budget, Palin fought to restore it.
"Medicare and Social Security, which together have an unfunded liability – that is, promised benefits exceeding expected revenues – of more than $100 trillion."
Sat, 10/11/2008 - 22:12 — Tom Guzzi (not verified)
Glenn Beck and that spineless coward of a sow Jonah GOldberg have been calling FDR a facist& commie for over a year now. I guess CNN thinks its okay to call one of our finest american presidents a Hitler.
All I can say is thank God for FDR's forsight and leadership. Not only for DEFEATING HITLER, but also for WHATS LEFT of the new deal.
These people need to be returned to the mindless void from whence they came.......
of someone who seems to lack curiousity to find out the truth. gayle is the type of person easy deception
is effective. the mccain campaign at least some supporters/surrogates know this nonsense will be effective
with some people. i would have been interested in hearing how being 'arab' would be so scary. that's why
mccain grabbed that microphone. it's sad but i must say i'm sick of it.
of someone who seems to lack curiousity to find out the truth. gayle is the type of person easy deception
is effective. the mccain campaign at least some supporters/surrogates know this nonsense will be effective
with some people. i would have been interested in hearing how being 'arab' would be so scary. that's why
mccain grabbed that microphone. it's sad but i must say i'm sick of it.
Absolutely. I feel so sorry that this decent person (probably in most respects) is so filled with fear and disinformation that it makes her appear to be foolish and hateful. I would't even call her ignorant (if I was so judgmental) because she thinks that she is empowered by real knowledge-- but it's all lies.
If you want to know the truth, then learn the history of money. No fiat currency in history has survived, NOT ONE. The dollar is doomed. It always comes back to gold and silver, always. This has been confirmed over and over for thousands of years.
She's not such a crackpot. I think she explained her perceptions of her own skewed reality quite well.
I think that the award of Lunatic of the Week ought to go to McCain and Palin's inept fear and hate-mongering campaign for intentionally inducing/producing media sideshows such as Gayle.
There are no black faces high in the McCain hierarchy to object to these tactics. There hasn’t been a single black Republican governor, senator or House member in six years. This is a campaign where Palin can repeatedly declare that Alaska is “a microcosm of America” without anyone even wondering how that might be so for a state whose tiny black and Hispanic populations are each roughly one-third the national average. There are indeed so few people of color at McCain events that a black senior writer from The Tallahassee Democrat was mistakenly ejected by the Secret Service from a campaign rally in Panama City in August, even though he was standing with other reporters and showed his credentials. His only apparent infraction was to look glaringly out of place.
..to argue that the race issue (huh??) will have an insignificant place in Decision '08, but the fact that McCain's camp actively chose to play the race card will remain a despicably prime example of dirty politics which will remain a permanent blight on the cancerous face of the GOP for eternity.
Republicans are just incredibly disgusting. The entire party ought to be legally dissolved, even before the election.
PLEASE,..as a favor to BB, If any of you live in New York City, would you do me a favor please. On Monday morning at 9:30 AM when the Stock Market Opens, go down to Wall Street and get me some pictures of Fat Cats Leaping from their golden towers.
If I'm losing MY Retirement Fund it might be more bearable if i see a few of them jumping out of windows.
Don't think anyone will witness that BB. The fat cats are not leaping but filling their wallets and happily going on their merry way, with the taxpayers of every nation picking up the tab. Even Canuckistan is shovelling taxpayer money at the banks for no reason at all.
Everyone should read When I'm 64 by Teresa Ghilarducci. She traces the death of pensions and the ponsy scheme of the 401k: which was designed as a tax dodge for rich executives (and passed by congress only b/c it was offered generally); which shifted the onus of saving onto the individual (who with less discretionary income can't contribute enough to begin with); which encourage buying high and selling low; which shaves off fees (think lost in term of compound interest); which probably has offerings that benefit the company; which contribute to the stock bubble; yadda yadda yadda. The book is pretty dense, but also Ghilarducci had a great interview on Fresh Air which should be required listening. (Terri Gross should be cloned before we lose her! lol)
Some thugs in beautiful Vancouver B.C. beat to death a singing idol/peace guy from Afghanistan a few years back, proving that these horrible kinds of incidents can really occur anywhere :(
After Palin did the, Hillary made the 18 millions cracks in the ceiling and I'm going to break through it. I thought Hillary would of tagged her on that.
Hillary needs to get out there and smack that Trooper Gate report finding across her Palin's face. Back and forth until Palin is forced to hold a press conference to talk about it.
I am so glad we did not nominate Hillary now. It is easy to see now. She is only out for herself. She is just cheering for Obama to stumble so she can run again in 2012.
Did anyone see the Al Franken debate? I thought he could have done better, but all in all not too bad. I was wondering if anyone caught the part where Franken said I guess I'm just a Maverick, and someone else (I think it was the Independent candidate) said "Don't wink".
Everybody laughed. I thought this gave the perfect example that all these people think Sarah Palin is nothing but a joke.
Enjoyed that very much. The last bit where the spectator says something about a "Terrible start for the season" makes the whole video especially worthwhile :D
(h/t Aimee)
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Yet another "Honest McCain Campaign Poster":
http://gopnot4me.blogspot.com/2008/10/honest-...
Your blog is fab and it's a community service. I'm just busy busting on McCain's rallies like a big jerk... Anyway - have a happy day!
http://mojopo.blogspot.com/2008/10/mccain-imp...
McCain Finally Figures Out How to Defuse His Angry Mobs
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=3921
Having all that fun, and they get paid too?
Hilarious.
yeah lets privatise social security the george bush way. that way no one will have a shirt.
instead let's do something positive. every one find an obama phone bank and do what's right for this country.
believe it or not, there are still wingnuts calling for privatization
i now know that 30 percent of this country is full retard
Please don't use the term "retard." It's a derogatory word that once was used to describe people who are mentally retarded. It's like using the N-word.
Yes, Fucktard is more apropos.
We would not be in this mess if all we had was 30% idiots. Unfortunately, it is a much higher percentage. Remember, Bush won TWICE. And think about all the idiots that think Obama is a terrorist, a Muslim, an Arab, Rev. Wrights' dummy, tax-er of the middle-class, peace-nik, liberal, and someone that wants to teach 5 yr. olds sex. It boggles the mind at the ignorance of Americans where books, newspapers, and the media are readily available and cheap.
There is the group that won't vote because they won't get off their butts, the ignorant that won't study the candidates or causes, and those crazies that can't decide. So, I say America has at least 51% idiots.
In the 2004 US Presidential elections
217,767,000 were eligible to vote.
167,802,660 registered to vote (77% of eligible voters).
122,293,548 voted (56% of eligible voters; 73% of registered voters).
62,040,610 voted for Bush/Cheney: 28% of eligible voters.
59,028,439 voted for Kerry/Edwards: 27% of eligible voters.
95,473,452 eligible voters did not vote: 44% of eligible voters.
What does one do with 95,473,452 non-citizens in a citizen-based democracy? Increase the time spent on civics in high school? Offer to drive them to the polling booth? Embarrass them? Shun them? Jesus H. Christ, what will we tell our grandchildren??
"I know he has no clothes, stop staring! Do you have your entrenching tool?"
gee, I wonder what the chances are that an election comes out so close(51%-49%). What's that? The last two elections have been 51-49? What's that? Almost all elections worldwide have been split 51-49 since 2000? Look's like some folks have figured out how to steal an election. There is no way this vote could be split 50-50, yet look at the polls. People aren't really this stupid. It's just what they want you to think, so they can steal the elections without you rioting in the streets. I'll still vote democratic, but I don't think it matters much. Imagine if the repubs had their way and social security was privatized and put into the stock market. The greatest robbery in the history of the world was just perpetrated and people still think the game ain't fixed. Wake up america, the assholes just pulled off an 8 year scam job. WE are losers.
Bush didn't win either election. The elections were electronically stolen. It's going to happen again, if Obama doesn't walk into election day with at least a 10% lead. That's what all the Republican disenfranchisement campaigns are about...get rid of as many millions of probable Democratic voters as possible in order to reduce Obama's lead to the point that the voting machine companies will have plausibly credible cover from under which they can steal the election. You'll know it's going to go down when on election night coverage all the MSM propagandist keep repeating the same scripted mantra,"You know, this thing is just too close to call.".
just a few hours after pulling the abortion card and talking about how obama will not defend those that are the most defenseless, palin used daughters willow and piper as human shields to protect her from the booing philly crowds at the flyers game
this woman not only has no shame, she has no motherly instinct
hope im still around in 20 years to read the palin children's tell alls
After this last week, I don't know how anyone thinking person could vote for these two. I know, Iknow, repugs aren't thinkers.
I've been wondering how any thinking person could vote for Bush twice let alone these two.
As happy as the "boos" for Palin made me, I felt sorry for her little girls. I hope they understand that the boos were not for them but for their Caribou Barbie mom.
hopefully all you will hear is that
mama palin went to prison in 2009
and stayed there for many many years.
fucking bitch liar like bush, cheney and
the whole gop.
In my dream I heard McDummy say: "I'm going to a party at house #6 Shara,take over,OK?" "OK John,but I still don't know what all of these red buttons are."
oh good... open thread to list some posting gripes:
1. why do i have to log in each time i open C&L and try to post? well, post with the format buttons and such...
2. why do i have to update the display mode EACH TIME i return to the page? after a visit to a linked site, say... or a refresh...
3. ... i thought i had more...
later...
I'll vouch for the site monitors here - if you're having problems, they'll get it sorted out. They got me back up and running when I had problems.
Because there's no free lunch and life isn't as easy as the Marketers have led people to believe it is.
That should be obvious by now.
and i thought about sending an email, again (had a delightful conversation the other day, btw, with ":p"), but decided it might benefit more people using this open thread...
Could it actually be that people have had enough economic problems to finally get them to ignore smears? Welln most Americans , I suppose...
This cartoon should show the Social Security couple sitting under a house of cards with larger cards.
After all, Social Security is bankrupt and our idiot government cannot print enough money to finance the interest payments on our debt.
Basically the whole illusion that people really give a shit about each other in this country is finished.
I agree. This social situation has been brewing since the start of the cold war and is quite possibly not an accident. There is a lot of evidence to support the idea that this "F*ck you, buddy" attitude that seems to be at the core of much of American culture is actually the result of a very sad and twisted attempt at social engineering based on Game Theory.
There was an excellent BBC documentary put out not long ago detailing this whole notion of engineering "peace" this way called "The Trap". The filmmakers make a very interesting and compelling case.
Here is the first part:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=40422...
Obviously, "me first" is a reality.
But, that doesn't mean "only me".
Our country is made up of a lot of people who do care, and not only about themselves.
What it needs is good leadership, someone to bring people together.
I hear people all the time saying stuff like "Democrat or Republican, their all crooked".
Look at the choice we have in this election. What side is trying to win by "divide and conquer"?
I hear a lot about how Ronald Reagan was such a great president. My ass, that was the beginning of this "me first, and only me" mentality that has culminated in this financial breakdown so many years later.
Yes, I'm "blaming" what is happening on Reagan and the Republican policies that were pursued since.
Look at the history (sorry, I don't have the numbers, but you get the idea).
Reagan: Fiscal Conservative, budget defecit
Bush Sr.:Fiscal Conservative, budget defecit
Clinton: Tax and Spend Liberal, 400B budget surplus
Bush Jr: Fiscal Conservative (moron), largest budget defecit ever
Look at what Democrats have fought for, they truly are the side of compassion and for helping those who need deserve help.
Are there those who abuse the system? Of course, but it doesn't mean we have to turn a blind eye.
I do care about this country, and not just myself and my family.
That's why I'll vote for Obama, and I'm proud to do so.
Peace.
OK, troll, Social Security is NOT bankrupt, and in a worst case scenario won't be until the 2040s. By then, hopefully, we'll have seen the light and changed the upper limit on which we tax from $90,000 to $120,000, which will solve the problem.
I'm a troll because you're an idiot?
Prove I'm wrong.
Prove that every penny we pay for FICA isn't spent immediately. Prove there are any reserves in the Social Security fund. Prove that the money previously in this fund was not bilked by current and previous administrations and congressional action. Prove that we are NOT defaulting on our debt.
Good luck, moron.
Lighten up, Francis.
Not really sure if it's bankrupt or not, but I do remember hearing that there was a lot of intra-government borrowing from it so surely it must be close to it if not already at that point. So it does need some fixing, mostly make it illegal for the gov to borrow from it and raise the caps.
Raise the limit??? How about eliminate the limit? I am one of the priviledged ones who actually benefits from the limit and I have NEVER understood it.
How about we don't even start collecting for the first $60K and then collect for every dollar earned above that?
Can someone explain where the limits came from and how they make ANY sense???
Actually, it's not anything remotely close to approaching bankrupt. The bankrupcty myths, which were intended to create a shock doctrine scare that would lead to "privatization", are the result of projecting obligations infinitely into the future while not accounting for any continuing income. And even with that dishonest slight of hand, the people who perpetrated this bit of disinformation couldn't engineer SS going insolvent until 2043. SS isn't going to go broke, because the American People will never let it go broke.
It has been said that the bailouts are leading to socalism, but I think that the trend is more towards corporatism, or the second stage of Italian economic fascism. We have the government taking significant but not yet controlling positions in major sectors of the economy. With billions of taxpayer dollars at risk, it is not too unlikely to think that the legal system is now going to start including the government's interest in any actions that affect (partially) state owned corporations.
For instance, when the US government starts buying significant amounts of stocks in Goldman (watch for it, the guy in charge of the bailout is a former Goldman exec) there is now a state interest in quashing shareholder lawsuits -- especially if those lawsuits are deemed to threaten the safety of Goldman Sachs and thus by implication the entire global economy. It would take a pretty right wing judge to follow that reasoning, but guess what we have been appointing for the last eight years. The argument would be that "in ordinary times this lawsuit may have merit, but the merits must now be weighed against the competing ($800 billion) interest of the people. If this lawsuit were to procede it would cause immediate and irrepairable harm not only to the company, but to the taxpayers interest and the economy at large."
This seems "reasonable" -- why allow a few disgruntled shareholders (who are probably fat cat predators anyway) to take an action that could cause the fall of Goldman, the loss of billions, and the collapse of the economic world as we know it?
It is a very small step from there to banning union actions. Why allow a small bunch of workers (who are probably communists and terrorists anyway) to interfere with this important company that the taxpayers have invested in when economic times are so hard?
Of course, to make this all work we will need to bring representatives of government together with business to ensure the well-being of the large corporations that we the people now have a very large stake in (which is interestingly enough going to be a non-voting stake according to the Treasury.) It only makes sense that the government economic policies be coordinated with the needs of the investment banks and other corporations that we are so desperately trying to prop up. With these three conditions, you have full-blown corporatism.
It is very interesting how this has all happened, almost at the point of a gun in a way. I suspect that some of the chaos was deliberate -- carefully timed for the end of a political season so that (in the most generous assumptions) Republican fat cats could lap at the cream that a paniced nation would throw at them. (Did I mention that Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs have a contentious history and that Paulson is a former CEO of Goldman?) In the least generous assumption, the plan was to remake the financial system. I can assure you that the people behind this are not socialists.
In either case, I suspect that events have gotten out of the control of the instigators -- which doesn't mean that they will not try to take advantage of them.
Somebody talk me down from this position, please!
The tin foil nutball in me considers the possibility that the global crash is a form of pigman bailout - for those select pigmen who, privy to the knowledge that this is exactly what the fed intended, prepositioned massively short. A $7 trillion global wealth transfer over the course of a couple days as the top sucks from the bottom to save itself?
I think it is possible that this was entirely generated for financial gain.
However, an argument against this assumption is that the people who shorted the financial system were making bets that would be covered by entities (generally hedge funds) that didn't have the money to pay them in the event of a large collapse. People who were just shorting the stock market took it in the shorts when the government outlawed short selling against financial instutitions (which to me marked the end of U.S. capitalism as we know it.) I would assume that someone with the power to trigger this disaster would be aware of the weakness in the CDS structure.
By the way, the reason that we know that they didn't have the money to pay them is that the CDS market is (estimated!) to have more money at risk in payout than exists in the global financial system! It is hard to believe, but anybody could make a "bet" that Lehman Brothers would fail and generate a "credit event." It seemed so likely, that many people jumped into the game. It was "you pay me $250,000/quarter and I will pay you $16 billion if this bond defaults." That was a great "money for nothing" for the hedge funds, I suppose they knew that when the hammer fell they could just sail away on their yachts.
Perhaps the people behind this didn't stop to consider if the hedge fund that they were betting against had $16 billion per customer to pay out.
By the way, everybody is patting themselves on the back for how well the CDS auction went for Lehman debt, but if you look into the details it is pretty scary. (You also notice that Goldman is the largest holder, interesting...) According to the creditfixings.com webiste (which is the crappiest website I have ever seen for a multi-trillion dollar industry) they sold $772M of this junk and still have almost $5 billion outstanding. This stuff is selling at $.09 on the dollar so the market's valuation of these mortgages is pretty darned low -- and they still are not getting sellers!
(In other words, in two weeks we have gone from people taking insanely low prices for high risk to not wanting to buy risk at all.)
Now I am no financial expert and may be misinterpreting all of this stuff. My only claim to fame in my family is that I dumped Smith Barney as my brokers two years ago when they insisted in putting me into AIG -- and then when I pulled out of the market they put me into Fannie May and Freddie Mac. I went into the money markets (oh yeah, that was safe) and have stayed there since.
I should add that the original bill (I have not read the final version) allowed Paulson to "(designate) financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them." Now I have no idea what the legal concept behind "financial agents of the government" was supposed to mean, but based on past behavior of this administration it probably meant that their actions would have soverign immunity.
A more sinister (but still colorable) interpration would be that these institutions now no longer have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders or even their customers, and thus are total instruments of the government. Obama Supporter? "So sorry, that account has been frozen for review."
The actions of the Bush Cabal and their cronies and the profits they made, based on policies that they themselves enacted, or proffered and fostered, both legally and illegally — this rises to the level of sedition, insofar as they knew what they were doing.
And what is sedition? To willfully and maliciously act in a fashion as to sap, suborn or otherwise undermine the United States of America, its lawful authority, thereunto as duly constituted government, or its national security.
Is not economics the ultimate national security of the country? This is the key in the case for sedition against the Bush Cabal.
I have been saying the same thing when ever someone has said to me these bailout programs are socialist. Not surprisingly the socialist meme seems to have started in right wing radio la-la land and then got ratified by the mainstream corporate media. Even on the most basic level, it isn't socialism. The government is propping up corporations and is getting no (or as it turns out possibly minimal) ownership rights. Throw in the military, which purportedly spreads democracy and defends American Exceptionalism, and this is fascism at its most basic form. Yikes!
Not to disdain, I'm up for reading any and all "crackpot theories." You may be entirely right. I smell rats everywhere. In every great transfer of money, goes a great shift power. The economy is just one tool used to change the political landscape. I don't trust anyone right now. Least of all, those in charge.
I wish I knew more about so much, and especially the economy. I'm at the mercy of the teevee people, whom we all know lie.
The way I see it, we're all gonna die. NO, that is not a McCain campaign slogan, but a simple fact. I figure I'll make it through to the end of my natural days, so the other part of me says, forget about it. I am powerless.
What I have noticed, and am suspicous of, is this G-20 meeting, amongst others, and no news comes from them, just "we will save the day", but so far, they are clueless and have no ideas either.
My bet is, the Asian markets will continue to fall tomorrow morning, and then Europe, and...
Ideologues, like the neocons, have grand schemes. They'll gamble it all, betting they are right. If not, they still leave the casino with $billions$, and flee.
When I get really depressed, I think to myself that billions of years from now the Sun is going to go nova and incenerate the Earth.
Somehow that makes me feel better. In the brief time that I have I hope to be aware and interested enough to enjoy the scenery as it passes by.
The markets will stabilize this week, but they are a complete sideshow and reflect fear, greed, and panic more than anything else. Nobody is going to short financial stocks -- yes it is legal again -- when the government is stepping in to buy them. However, long term this means that restarting the markets is going to be difficult. If the house fixes the odds, no sane person will make a bet. Markets rely upon buyers AND sellers.
The real problem is the credit markets. I do not know what the credit markets will do; if they don't recover shortly it is going to be extremely ugly before the end of the year. I would have a bit of actual cash on hand just in case VISA stops working (they rely on short term loans, or to be precise the bank that backs your card relies on those loans.)
I expect to see really high interest rates along with hyperinflation shortly, but I don't really have any good reason for that. My wife keeps asking what we should do and I can't think of anything. My peacable dad's advice is to 'buy guns' but I am a terrible shot.
God alone knows what will happen if we pump $700 billion into financial stocks and the companies still go bust. I wouldn't be selling life insurance for the Bush clan if that happens.
Another parinoid thought is that this is the Republican's "Sherman" strategy. If you can't hold the territoy, destroy it!
Sorry, bucko, but your argument is too strong. This is, of course, pure Mussolinian fascism. Check out Singapore or South Korea if you want to see how the future looks. Highly conformist, high controlled, clean, predicatible and intolerant of any dissent. Great place for mindless consumers.
I live in South Korea. Once a friend saw me looking at pictures of Bush on the net-- highly "stylized ones"-- like he was a vampire drinking blood and oil, kinda stuff. He was aghast. He said you can't say anything bad, at least not like that, about the governement here. Everyone has a personal ID# which must be entered into websites. They know exactly where to find you. And they believe everything they hear on the teevee (controlled by the gov't.) That's a story for another day, but it is scary.
(Posted to the wrong place below - sorry!0
Sorry, bucko, but your argument is too strong. This is, of course, pure Mussolinian fascism. Check out Singapore or South Korea if you want to see how the future looks. Highly conformist, high controlled, clean, predicatible and intolerant of any dissent. Great place for mindless consumers.
Can't talk you down, because you are probably right. This whole thing is too pat and too convenient. It's been engineered.
Just wanted to let people know that we've set up a site for generating personalized Obama posters.
http://blankforobama.com
This was just launched yesterday to let as many people as possible show Obama support; we knew too many people who wanted specific affinity group posters but couldn't find them. Popular since we launched have been "Joe Six Pack for Obama", "Teachers for Obama", and, unexpectedly, "Trekkies for Obama". A chicken in every pot, an Obama poster for every man, woman, and child.
Thanks!
-Blank For Obama (.com)
*Ahem* that should be "Trekkers for Obama" not "Trekkies for Obama."
My inner geek thanks you.
Oh. Rats! The Trekkies for Obama inspired me.
It's kind of a laughable thing now. Way back when, the term "trekkie" was considered a slur by true "trekkers." As time progressed, more people who were devotees of Star Trek began using "trekkie" so much so that it's become a moot point. Being on the Star Trek fringe, I found the whole thing amusing.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/177.html
Best of luck to you, blank for Obama!
If I have some cash maybe I'll get
This one's for That One ,08
Here is how they get the money of the public all the time:
1. at market tops they will say "the world is flush with cash". Joe buys!
2. At bottoms: "..system on edge of collapse". Joe sells!
Now, facts and truth about "..system on edge of collapse" at article below. Make sure you read about the market bottom as well.
http://marketwarnings.blogspot.com/2008/10/fi...
Here are some words and phrases I'd like to buy the rights to, then put on a rocketship set to self-destruct, just for symbolic emphasis:
Joe Six-Pack
Hockey Mom
Soccer Mom
Small Town Values
Good Christian
Pro-Life
Wall Street / Main Street
and the movie Hard Ball, because that's just embarrassing for mankind as a whole
I heard a new one that deserves note (from Bill Maher's show): Evangelical Dominatrix (for people against masturbating.) Hey hey.
They're referring to Sarah Palin, of course. It was a guy from The Simpsons.
2004 Election Statistics
Sat, 10/11/2008 - 21:27 — MountainMan23
In the 2004 US Presidential elections
217,767,000 were eligible to vote.
167,802,660 registered to vote (77% of eligible voters).
122,293,548 voted (56% of eligible voters; 73% of registered voters).
62,040,610 voted for Bush/Cheney: 28% of eligible voters.
59,028,439 voted for Kerry/Edwards: 27% of eligible voters.
95,473,452 eligible voters did not vote: 44% of eligible voters.
============================================================
What percentage of those were purged, caged and disenfranchised from voting?
What we can't know at this point was how many of those Republican votes were electronically created out of thin air by the voting machine companies, or how many Democratic votes disappeared in the same fashion.
What I find disgusting about that is, 62,040,610 people (of the planet's 6,000,000,000), were allowed to bring on world destruction.
(I love how you can fix/edit posts now.)
I've watched my little 401K nest egg drop 20% already. Thought I had this all figured out...enough to hold me over until I retire. Well....now I'm staying awake at night wondering who wants to hire a 61 yr old retired school teacher for a few years? Not a happy ending to this tragic administration.
I curse everyone of these stupid congressmen for promoting derregulation..and then letting the greedy SOB's rob us blind. Dumb asses.
why all these college educated economics people around the world couldn't see what I, a community college dropout, could see. It was so fucking easy to see. I just don't get it.
Here are my suggestions for personalized McCain posters:
Racists For McCain
Flatliners For McCain
Flat Worlders For McCain
Dead Registered Voters For McCain
Illiterates For McCain
Deep Pockets For McCain
War Lovers For McCain
Torturers For McCain
Hate Mongers For McCain
Voter Roll Purgers For McCain
Smear Tacticians For McCain
Unruly Mob For McCain
Secessionists For McCain
McCarthyites For McCain
Ostriches For McCain
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27134586/
She charged $640 for per-diem and airplane costs to go tell the Wasilla church that she would "do her part to implement God's will from the pulpit."
As mayor, she spent a lot of time organizing a "day of prayer" at City Hall.
She fought to keep the hospital from performing abortions. "Palin's former church and other evangelical denominations were instrumental in ousting members of Valley Hospital's board who supported abortion rights — including the governor's mother-in-law, Faye Palin." She then joined the board herself to make sure that it remained anti-abortion.
When Alaska cut $700,000 from the faith based budget, Palin fought to restore it.
I'm paraphrasing an article from Antiwar.com:
"Medicare and Social Security, which together have an unfunded liability – that is, promised benefits exceeding expected revenues – of more than $100 trillion."
Here's an interesting essay on our current crisis.
Glenn Beck and that spineless coward of a sow Jonah GOldberg have been calling FDR a facist& commie for over a year now. I guess CNN thinks its okay to call one of our finest american presidents a Hitler.
All I can say is thank God for FDR's forsight and leadership. Not only for DEFEATING HITLER, but also for WHATS LEFT of the new deal.
These people need to be returned to the mindless void from whence they came.......
http://mediamatters.org/items/200802250008
Global warming hits Cali in October(again). John Lewis tells it like it is.
Follow up interview with poor old lady that thinks Obama is an Arab! Sad on so many levels
of someone who seems to lack curiousity to find out the truth. gayle is the type of person easy deception
is effective. the mccain campaign at least some supporters/surrogates know this nonsense will be effective
with some people. i would have been interested in hearing how being 'arab' would be so scary. that's why
mccain grabbed that microphone. it's sad but i must say i'm sick of it.
of someone who seems to lack curiousity to find out the truth. gayle is the type of person easy deception
is effective. the mccain campaign at least some supporters/surrogates know this nonsense will be effective
with some people. i would have been interested in hearing how being 'arab' would be so scary. that's why
mccain grabbed that microphone. it's sad but i must say i'm sick of it.
.
Kind of reminds me of 1936 Germany...
... You know, where the Good Germans turned in their neighbor because they have a little "JEW" in them.
.
Absolutely. I feel so sorry that this decent person (probably in most respects) is so filled with fear and disinformation that it makes her appear to be foolish and hateful. I would't even call her ignorant (if I was so judgmental) because she thinks that she is empowered by real knowledge-- but it's all lies.
Thanks for posting this link, roschelle
I can never understand how people say these things. I feel pity for her...and for anyone else who believes the same thing.
If you want to know the truth, then learn the history of money. No fiat currency in history has survived, NOT ONE. The dollar is doomed. It always comes back to gold and silver, always. This has been confirmed over and over for thousands of years.
Matthew Shepard remembered.
When the kooky old woman said Obama was an Arab, McCain said "No, ma'am. He's a decent family man..."
Is McCain saying if a person is an Arab, they're not a decent person?
.
Sort of...
... More like, "Thank gawd he's not an Arab-American because THEN, as all Good Americans know, they're not even a decent breed."
.
Perpetual Bailout...Or Perish - PF035
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYQyTIDHonw
WTF is wrong with you?
Gayle Quinnell
Thank you for showing us the lighter side of the republican party.
She's not such a crackpot. I think she explained her perceptions of her own skewed reality quite well.
I think that the award of Lunatic of the Week ought to go to McCain and Palin's inept fear and hate-mongering campaign for intentionally inducing/producing media sideshows such as Gayle.
US nuns come home to discover 'terrorist' status
Spying on Activists Discussed at Forum
The time is coming when being labeled a terrorist or enemy of the state will constitute a kind of moral victory.
Neighbors recall slain homeless man as kind, thoughtful and friendly
Shrines have been set up at the spot where 'John' lived, and a vigil is planned in memory of the man who was burned to death in what L.A. police chief William Bratton called a 'heinous' crime.
An excellent piece in the NYTimes.
There are no black faces high in the McCain hierarchy to object to these tactics. There hasn’t been a single black Republican governor, senator or House member in six years. This is a campaign where Palin can repeatedly declare that Alaska is “a microcosm of America” without anyone even wondering how that might be so for a state whose tiny black and Hispanic populations are each roughly one-third the national average. There are indeed so few people of color at McCain events that a black senior writer from The Tallahassee Democrat was mistakenly ejected by the Secret Service from a campaign rally in Panama City in August, even though he was standing with other reporters and showed his credentials. His only apparent infraction was to look glaringly out of place.
Good article.
..to argue that the race issue (huh??) will have an insignificant place in Decision '08, but the fact that McCain's camp actively chose to play the race card will remain a despicably prime example of dirty politics which will remain a permanent blight on the cancerous face of the GOP for eternity.
Republicans are just incredibly disgusting. The entire party ought to be legally dissolved, even before the election.
A bad economy means it's a lower
priority.
PLEASE,..as a favor to BB, If any of you live in New York City, would you do me a favor please. On Monday morning at 9:30 AM when the Stock Market Opens, go down to Wall Street and get me some pictures of Fat Cats Leaping from their golden towers.
If I'm losing MY Retirement Fund it might be more bearable if i see a few of them jumping out of windows.
☻☻☻☻President OBAMA☻☻☻☻ ..... Get Used To It!!
Don't think anyone will witness that BB. The fat cats are not leaping but filling their wallets and happily going on their merry way, with the taxpayers of every nation picking up the tab. Even Canuckistan is shovelling taxpayer money at the banks for no reason at all.
Everyone should read When I'm 64 by Teresa Ghilarducci. She traces the death of pensions and the ponsy scheme of the 401k: which was designed as a tax dodge for rich executives (and passed by congress only b/c it was offered generally); which shifted the onus of saving onto the individual (who with less discretionary income can't contribute enough to begin with); which encourage buying high and selling low; which shaves off fees (think lost in term of compound interest); which probably has offerings that benefit the company; which contribute to the stock bubble; yadda yadda yadda. The book is pretty dense, but also Ghilarducci had a great interview on Fresh Air which should be required listening. (Terri Gross should be cloned before we lose her! lol)
From this morning's local news:
James "Kracker" Kelly and his brother Travis (sounds like a bad country song...) beat a local disabled black man, ostensibly, for being black:
http://www.wftv.com/news/17695573/detail.html
Can't wait to get out of this bassackwards town...
Some thugs in beautiful Vancouver B.C. beat to death a singing idol/peace guy from Afghanistan a few years back, proving that these horrible kinds of incidents can really occur anywhere :(
http://tinyurl.com/48n9xp
Where in the hell is Hillary?
After Palin did the, Hillary made the 18 millions cracks in the ceiling and I'm going to break through it. I thought Hillary would of tagged her on that.
Hillary needs to get out there and smack that Trooper Gate report finding across her Palin's face. Back and forth until Palin is forced to hold a press conference to talk about it.
I am so glad we did not nominate Hillary now. It is easy to see now. She is only out for herself. She is just cheering for Obama to stumble so she can run again in 2012.
Did anyone see the Al Franken debate? I thought he could have done better, but all in all not too bad. I was wondering if anyone caught the part where Franken said I guess I'm just a Maverick, and someone else (I think it was the Independent candidate) said "Don't wink".
Everybody laughed. I thought this gave the perfect example that all these people think Sarah Palin is nothing but a joke.
Here's a better video of the Bible Spice and her human shields getting booed at the Flyers game from seat view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXNetpeu_mk
I guess she should stick to those McCain klan rallies.
Enjoyed that very much. The last bit where the spectator says something about a "Terrible start for the season" makes the whole video especially worthwhile :D