Grab the ankles

>>"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act
are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be
reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency" [Sec. 8].

They call it section 8 'cuz it's CRAAAA-ZEEEEEEE!!!

check

Republican's be gone from ma azz!

we are definitely going to need more cow bell.

But we'll never know, will we? If a disaster doesn't occur in the near future, that doesn't mean one was avoided.

And if a disaster does occur in the near future, the betting window is still open on the timeframe.

Bubble and Bail

Kevin Phillips | May 5, 2008

-------------

Excerpts:

As of spring 2008, we're probably just a third of the way through the unfolding debacle in the housing, credit, and financial markets. In political and regulatory terms, the ultimate problems and remedies have only begun to define themselves.

We're not just looking at an ordinary recession. Since the 1970s, the United States has redefined itself from a manufacturing nation to a financial economy built on debt, leverage, and a considerable ratio of speculation. Both political parties have been complicit in this, and the downturn now beginning will be unusual and potentially tragic.

My concern is that the U.S. economy truly faces its most serious difficulty since World War II or the Depression, and the established wisdom of Democratic and Republican gurus alike has little handle on the dilemma's causation or probable time frame.

Over the last quarter-century, under Republican and Democratic administrations alike, the two major tools of this transformation were debt and the socialization of risk (but not of profit). The second, of course, abetted the first.

When reckless expansion of consumer, corporate, or financial debt would go sour, the government served up a bailout to help the financial sector come back, fatter and cockier than ever.

To suggest "bubble and bail" as a description of U.S. economic policy over the past quarter-century is inelegant but by no means inaccurate.

---
[Key question]

The next president will also need to confront the role of banks:

If the important mega-banks are too big or too interconnected with the rest of the financial sector to be allowed to fail, then why are they allowed to indulge in every form of speculation and anti-social behavior, from counseling Enron on tax evasion to gouging on credit-card interest and fees?

----------

Link:

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=bubble_and_bail

>>"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act
are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be
reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency" [Sec. 8].

what if he just decides to write himself a big check? maybe writes some for his friends who gave him the checkbook?

God I hate the totalitarian tilt of this...

why, it's downright elitist ! (in the worst possible meaning)

that's all it is Chubbs

An imposing character, Paulson is still nicknamed "the Hammer" following his success as a college American football player. He also retains his love of the outdoors, telling an interviewer with Fortune magazine that his wife Wendy allowed him to let racoons run loose in their house. They also kept flying squirrels, mice, turtles and a tarantula before promotion at Goldman Sachs forced a move from Illinois to a high-rise in Manhattan. -
* Business
* Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

* Jill Treanor
* The Guardian,

h/t MMR (I think) for the Hammer gif.

Paulson, McCain propose ways to fix financial crisis mess WASHINGTON — Proposals to create a new entity to clean up the nation's financial crisis — much like the government did in the late 1980s to clean up the savings and loan mess — rocked the stock market and the presidential campaign trail Thursday. - By Tom Raum
The Associated Press
Friday, September 19, 2008
-

>> his wife Wendy allowed him to let racoons run loose in their house.

sounds like he has great judgment...what could possibly go wrong with wild raccoons running around the house?

this is the guy I want in absolute control of the treasury...right...

A Bipartisan Lovefest With Bankers

Robert Scheer

--------

Excerpts:

This is a time to condemn the bankers, not to embrace them. They are the scoundrels who got us into the biggest economic mess since the Great Depression, lining their own pockets while destroying the life savings of those who trusted them.

Yet both of our leading presidential candidates are scrambling to enlist not only the big-dollar contributions but, more frighteningly, the "expertise" of the very folks who advocated the financial industry deregulations at the heart of this meltdown.

[Gramm & Rubin]

The most egregious of Gramm's legislative favors to the financiers took the form of legislation named in part after him--the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which became law only after then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin prevailed upon President Clinton to sign the bill.

The bill's immediate major effect was to legitimize the long-sought merger between Citibank and insurance giant Travelers. Rubin's critical support for the bill was rewarded with an appointment, within days of its passage, to a top job at Citibank (later Citigroup) paying more than $15 million a year.

That is the same Rubin with whom Democratic candidate Barack Obama met, along with other influential advisers...to figure out what to do about the sorry state of our economy.

But what in the world did he expect to learn from Rubin? And why did he appoint Rubin's protégé, Jason Furman, who ran the Rubin-funded Hamilton Project, to be the Obama campaign's economic director?

-----

After all, Goldman Sachs, where Rubin spent twenty-five years of his business career before entering the Clinton Administration, has been one of the prime corporate villains in the financial shenanigans that led to the subprime mortgage scandal.

-----------

Link:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080804/scheer2

I hate Obama coming down on the wrong side of this.

I suppose he doesn't want to be accused of being on the wrong side of the issue.

mother-fucking DLC bastards are ruining Obama.

on another note...ever notice how the trolls take saturday off lately?

A Christian Scientist, Paulson has compared himself to the biblical figure Job after being criticised for his reaction to the crisis that has gripped the financial markets he once lorded it over.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/09/freddiemacandfanniemae.su...

to think half a century ago the country was fearful of a Catholic being president...

What if that is the way they are keeping the media squashed? With trolls, Chubby. The paid talking heads on TV do it. Is that a Republican version of a jobs program?

if a Christian Scientist get bit by a raccoon, would he get a rabies shot?

What I like about the two party system is that in the end you get just about the same outcome.

>>What if that is the way they are keeping the media squashed?

Give that man a Kewpie doll!!!

Border Patrol checkpoint stops vehicles bound for Hood Canal Bridge, rounds up illegal aliens

http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=55&ArticleID=...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington fielded several calls about last Friday's first-ever U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Jefferson County.

With the federal agency acknowledging it plans to step up the frequency of checkpoints on the Olympic Peninsula, ACLU communications director Doug Honig said Tuesday his organization is interested in hearing from people about how the patrol is conducting and practicing the checkpoints, since other police officers in Washington can't do random stops without a reason to believe a crime has been committed.

"Their authority does extend beyond the border, but we don't think they should be using that authority to do random stops of people who are traveling inland when there's no reason to suspect the people they stop have done anything wrong. That's not the way our country normally operates," Honig said.

Border Patrol spokesman Mike Bermudez, a supervisory agent at Blaine Sector headquarters' public affairs office, said that with increased funding and manpower, the checkpoint stops to search for illegal aliens have been expanded on the Olympic Peninsula. He declined to say how or when they might happen. A similar checkpoint was conducted Aug. 25 along U.S. Highway 101 near Forks in Clallam County.

Bermudez, who has worked at the Anacortes checkpoint, said federal regulations define a "reasonable distance" from the border as 100 air miles. In addition to cars, the border patrol also can check any vessel on the water, aircraft, railroad or other modes of transportation.

"No person or vehicle is exempt from inspection procedures at checkpoints. The only exception shall be in case of emergency, where health, safety or exigent circumstances exist," Bermudez said.

Friday's checkpoint on State Route 104, which stopped traffic near the Hood Canal Bridge, netted eight people: One man arrested had an outstanding felony warrant and was taken to the Port Angeles Police Station. Three others arrested in a car were from Mexico. Four people were in a van that drove past the checkpoint. An estimated seven people got out of that van and fled on foot. The four who were apprehended were from Guatemala and were taken to the Border Patrol station in Port Angeles. As of Aug. 26, the three people who fled into the woods from the van had not been apprehended.

Bermudez said Tuesday he did not know details about the people apprehended other that what countries they were from, and he did not know anything about reports that two people had left a 2-month-old baby with friends in Bremerton.

Bermudez said there are three things that could happen with those detained for being illegal aliens: They could request to see an immigration judge, they could request asylum, or they could request to voluntarily return to their country of origin or be deported.

"We had some successful activity," Bermudez said late Friday.

This won't be the last such highway checkpoint in Jefferson County.

"These checkpoints will be occurring on regular basis," Bermudez said.

Obama’s Chicago Boys

By Naomi Klein

----------

Excerpts:

Now is the time to worry about Obama's Chicago Boys and their commitment to fending off serious attempts at regulation.

[Here are two interesting quotes from Obama - ]

Barack Obama waited just three days after Hillary Clinton pulled out of the race to declare, on CNBC,

"Look. I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market."

-------

Our "current economic crisis," Obama recently said, did not come from nowhere.

It is "the logical conclusion of a tired and misguided philosophy that has dominated Washington for far too long."

True enough. But before Obama can purge Washington of the scourge of Friedmanism, he has some ideological housecleaning of his own to do.

----------
What will Obama decide to do? Who is Obama listening to now from his team and outside advisors?

Read about Obama's "Chicago boys" in the article.

--------

Link:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080630/klein

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Michelle Malkin?

________________________________

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” –Helen Keller

>>Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Michelle Malkin?

no...do tell.

What did she do this time?

She has convicted this kid of being the Palin email hacker. I happen to know his dad. Since his dad is a Democratic state legislator, Malkin is sure it's a conspiracy. She's a racist, paranoid, self-loathing bitch and if she's wrong I hope they sue her so bad she has to send her kids to public schools from now on.

I don't know if the kid did it or not, but if he did his father has nothing to do with it.

________________________________

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” –Helen Keller

>>Malkin is sure it's a conspiracy.

yep. Michelle is carrying all the GOP water she can...

how can an attractive woman be so downright ugly?

Obama Vs McDole

To me she looks like slime. Quite literally, slime.

________________________________

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” –Helen Keller

Falling over now. Nite nite

________________________________

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” –Helen Keller

We have a long standing strategic vision which is becoming a reality thanks to years of hard work by many Treasury professionals to become an all-electronic Treasury Department. To put the scale of this in perspective, Treasury manages a daily cash flow of nearly $60 billion, and every year we collect more than 3.1 trillion and disburse nearly one billion payments worth 1.6 trillion.

David H. McCormick, under secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department

http://www.brookings.edu/events/2008/~/media/Files/events/2008/0916_cons...

Event Summary
The way consumers pay for products and services is dramatically changing, with cash and checks now accounting for less than half of all transactions and falling fast. What payment technologies lie ahead and how will they change the way our economy works?

On September 16, Brookings’s Initiative on Business and Public Policy brought together some of America’s leading experts on the evolution of electronic payments, including David H. McCormick, under secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department, and American Express CEO Ken Chenault.

http://www.brookings.edu/events/2008/0916_consumer.aspx

Submitted by toniD on Sat, 09/20/2008 - 12:56pm.
If you find anything more on Rubin, please post.

__________________

How Much Change Does Robert Rubin Believe In?

August 2008 Steve Weissman

-----------

Excerpts:

Dubbed by Clinton the "greatest secretary of the Treasury since Alexander Hamilton," Rubin left the administration and joined Citigroup, the nation's largest financial conglomerate, whose very existence was made legal by the deregulation measures he had convinced Clinton to accept.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Citigroup has so far paid Rubin more than $100 million to serve as chairman of its executive committee, and leaves him free to serve as a key economic adviser to Barack Obama.

Even more telling, Rubin's protégé, Jason Furman, now heads Obama's paid economic staff and is expected to join Obama in the White House should he win in November.

Would a President Obama follow in Bill Clinton's footsteps, listening more to Rubin & Co. than to Robert Reich, labor union leaders and the growing number of economic populists in Congress?


If Obama does lean toward Rubinomics, I do not expect a whole lot of change I can believe in.

-----

In comparison...

This past March, Obama made a major economic address at New York's Cooper Union, where he urged immediate relief for homeowners hit by the housing crisis and a $30 billion stimulus package to jumpstart the economy.

As important, though rarely mentioned since, he also called for a new regulatory framework to prevent future abuses and crises in the financial system.

--------

Link:

http://www.truthout.org/article/how-much-change-does-robert-rubin-believ...

I worked in government relations for Fannie Mae for more than 20 years, leading the group for most of those years. When I see photographs of Sen. McCain's staff, it looks to me like the team of lobbyists who used to report to me. Senator McCain's attack on Senator Obama is a cheap shot, and hypocritical. - Politico Staff

Be safe, but have fun.

The Audacity of Insiders

June 2008
---------

Excerpts:

It's not news that Obama relies on established players for advice and helpful connections. But if he wins in November, and then follows their ideo-logical prescriptions, his presidency will be in trouble.

The economy is deteriorating dramatically. The housing crisis threatens many thousands of families with ruin, and exploding gas prices and healthcare costs have brought immense pain not just to the poor but to millions of working- and middle-class Americans.

The economy will not recover if the next President simply repeats Rubinomics.

-------

Hard times may give Obama the chance to become a reform President who really does rearrange power on behalf of the people.

But he'll need pressure from the millions of grassroots activists he inspired in the nomination battle to overcome the intimidating power of Wall Street and the energy and insurance lobbies.

The best way to support Obama is not by remaining silent and giving him a pass. Citizens who believe in a more fair and just America should keep the pressure on in various ways, reminding him of his compelling challenge to the "trickle-down, on-your-own philosophy that says there's nothing government can do about the problems we face."

--------

Link:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080707/editors

I say the Audacity of Hope, cause I really have hope for this guy.

I am sure you have heard this but McCain owns 9 Houses and a private jet, however, our Man is the elitist. Twisted I tell ya, twisted.

BBS, with some better posts

Born-Again Rubinomics

By William Greider

-------

Excerpts:

Rubin has launched the Hamilton Project, a policy group of like-minded economists and financiers who are developing ameliorative measures to aid the threatened workforce and, he hopes, to create a broader political constituency that will defend the trading system against popular backlash.

A strategy paper Rubin co-wrote defines the core problem: "Prosperity has neither trickled down nor rippled outward. Between 1973 and 2003, real GDP per capita in the United States increased 73 percent, while real median hourly compensation rose only 13 percent."

-----

To my surprise, Rubin next recalls the work of John Kenneth Galbraith and his famous concept of "countervailing powers."

Market-based capitalism, Rubin explains, is kept stable, broadly prosperous and equitable because its excesses are checked by labor unions, government and other institutions with countervailing power.

[Helped Wanted: "Countervailing Powers" Needed!]

"If you have a big company negotiate with its workers and the workers aren't organized, it isn't real negotiations," he says, adding, "If one side has no negotiating power, that isn't really a market-based system. It's an imposition of one on the other."

----------

Lengthy background article about Rubin:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060731/greider

Free Democracy

The conclusion of the writer from the Nation:

"My hunch is that Rubin won't succeed any more than the original Progressives in reconciling the competing forces (the New Deal eventually did). The tumult most likely will grow louder and possibly violent before reformers gain the political power to accomplish their serious goals. Meanwhile, if popular anger does erupt here and around the world, there won't be much space left for "nice guys" seeking a reasonable discussion."

I'm afraid that there will be a tumult. That's where this financial crisis is inevitably headed. Taking it to the streets so to speak.

The direction of this draft that was submitted by Paulson and Co put too much power into the hands of the Treasury Secretary which Jonathan Alter already calls President Paulson.

And since we are close to the end of the Bush regime, will Paulson become the Treasury Secretary of the next president by default of this new position and power if he is granted this position by congress?

There are so many questions and fears opening up since the pronouncement of this "Financial Crisis". And the rush to approve anything now, without regulations and oversight is crazy. I am hoping the Dems won't cave again and allow this to happen.

What's cooking, Chef Bob?

p.s. Good luck with your plans.

May this year be the best ever to this date and may the coming years be good and kind to you.

nightmare on Main St.

Larisa Alexandrovna

In 2000, the long fought for and long admired democracy of the United States of America began a slow and steady decline toward fascism - a Bush family tradition - with the installment of a president - a man the citizens overwhelmingly rejected (although the funny math told a still believed myth) - by a few corrupt judges on the US Supreme Court. That coup is now nearly complete and checkmate is all but unavoidable.

Let me first point you to the Bush administration's so-called Wall Street bailout bill, here, so that you can see for yourself that this treachery is being conducted in the light of day. Fascism is finally and formally out of the right-wing closet even if the F word is not yet openly being used (although it should be, and often).

Now, if you do not yet understand that the Wall Street crisis is a man-made disaster done through intentional deregulation and corruption, I have a bridge in Alaska to sell to you (or Sara Palin does anyway). This manufactured crisis is now to be remedied, if the fiscal fascists get their way, with the total transfer of Congressional powers (the few that still remain) to the Executive Branch and the total transfer of public funds into corporate (via government as intermediary) hands.........

Free Democracy

WASILLA, Alaska -- Every morning she's at home here, Sarah Palin wakes up to a postcard view from her lakeside home. Out the windows of her two-story wood-framed house stretch the serene, birch-lined waters of Lake Lucille. Ducks go gliding by the red-and-white Piper Cub floatplane docked outside. With the snow-frosted Chugach and Talkeetna mountains looming in the distance, the scene seems to define the Alaska that Palin celebrates: rugged, majestic, unspoiled.

And, yet, the lake Sarah Palin lives on is dead.

"Lake Lucille is basically a dead lake -- it can't support a fish population," said Michelle Church, a Mat-Su Valley borough assembly member and environmentalist. "It's a runway for floatplanes."

Palin recently told the New Yorker magazine that Alaskans "have such a love, a respect for our environment, for our lands, for our wildlife, for our clean water and our clean air. We know what we've got up here and we want to protect that, so we're gonna make sure that our developments up here do not adversely affect that environment at all. I don't want development if there's going to be that threat to harming our environment."

But as mayor of her hometown, say many local critics, Palin showed no such stewardship.

"Sarah's legacy as mayor was big-box stores and runaway growth," said Patty Stoll, a retired Wasilla schoolteacher who once worked in the same school with Palin's parents, Chuck and Sally Heath. "The truth is, Wasilla is just plain ugly, it's not a pleasant place to live. It's not thought out. And that's a shame.

"Sarah fouled her own nest, and I can't understand why. I hate to think it was simply greed or ambition."

Among the environmental casualties of Wasilla's frenzied development was Palin's own front yard, Lake Lucille. The lake was listed as "impaired" in 1994 by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and it still carries that grim label. State environmental officials say that leaching sewer lines and fertilizer runoff caused an explosion of plant growth in the lake, which sucked the oxygen out of the water and led to periodic fish kills.

"Sarah," a recent biography of Palin by Kaylene Johnson, features a photo of a beaming Palin, sitting in a rowboat on Lake Lucille clutching a fishing rod. But, according to local fishermen, the Republican vice-presidential candidate would have to be very lucky to reel in something edible.

The Alaska Fish and Game Department dutifully stocks the lake with coho salmon and rainbow trout each year -- but the fish don't last long.

Fishing on the lake "was tough," reported Alaska fishing guide Carlyle Telford on his Web site when he tried his luck on Lake Lucille last year, "because the vegetation is decaying and floating. When you retrieve every cast, the fly comes back with crud on it."

In a recent phone conversation, Telford said he hasn't returned to Lake Lucille since then. "I think the lake's pretty dead," he said. "That's why I haven't been back.".......

Aside from the ease of use of Kirix Strata demonstrated in conjunction with Benford's Law, I was impressed with a few other things. First, I hadn't been paying attention to Kirix because I've been
chat busy with other things - and I didn't even know that they had a blog. Next, the whole demonstration of Benford's Law is probably the best true piece of marketing I have
chatseen - not because it will make you want to buy the software, but because it demonstrates Kirix Strata with some real data in a context that gives Kirix Strata a voice. I'm not
sohbet a fan of most methods of marketing, but this may well educate a few people in some cool math while showing a bit of Strata's muscle without it ripping it's shirt off. sohbetThe video uses data from the Census Bureau, the muhabbetWikipedia and Digg.com itself.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday.

The images support the view of international refugee organizations and Iraq experts that a major population shift was a key factor in the decline in sectarian violence, particularly in the Iraqi capital, the epicenter of the bloodletting in which hundreds of thousands were killed.

Minority Sunni Arabs were driven out of many neighborhoods by Shi'ite militants enraged by the bombing of the Samarra mosque in February 2006. The bombing, blamed on the Sunni militant group al Qaeda, sparked a wave of sectarian violence.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080919/sc_nm/iraq_lights_dc

Pentagon Reassigns Controversial Guantanamo Legal Adviser As War Court Czar

As legal adviser at Guantanamo Bay, Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann has been one of the most aggressive advocates for the Bush administration’s military commissions. In fact, three separate judges have barred him from acting as an impartial legal adviser at the trial of detainees. Judge Stephen Henley said that Hartmann had “compromised the objectivity necessary to dispassionately and fairly evaluate the evidence and prepare the post-trial evaluation.” In the case of Salim Hamdan, a military judge ruled that Hartmann had “exerted improper influence on the case.”

The Pentagon has now quietly removed Hartmann. But as the Miami Herald notes, instead of being fired, Hartmann has essentially become a “war court czar in charge of logistics.” Pentagon acting general counsel, Daniel Dell’Orto, released a statement yesterday, nowhere mentioning Hartmann’s inappropriate advocacy activities:

Gen. Hartmann has driven the commissions process forward since his arrival in July 2007. In no small part because of his efforts and his dedication, the commissions are an active, operational legal system. Due to the dramatic increase in the number of military commission cases, the more than doubling of personnel, and the various policy, logistics and systems issues that arise regularly and frequently in the commissions, it is necessary to establish a more comprehensive executive support structure.

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Hartmann said that in his new job, he would be making sure that war on terror prosecutions move along briskly. “I want those courtrooms to be as filled up as they can possibly be — six days a week,” he said.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in December 2007, Hartmann repeatedly refused to call the hypothetical waterboarding of an American pilot by the Iranian military torture. Shortly thereafter, Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Williams, a JAG officer with the U.S. Naval Reserve, resigned, saying that Hartmann’s testimony was the “last straw” and “sold all the soldiers and sailors at risk of capture and subsequent torture down the river.”

In August, deputy prison camp commander, Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Zanetti testified that Hartmann was “abusive, bullying and unprofessional” and employed a “spray and pray” strategy to stage tribunals at Camp Justice.

http://thinkprogress.org/

The Kicker reports that “the Associated Press retracted two government-issued photographs last night after a photographer in Texas alerted the agency that the photos in question appeared to be doctored.” The photos depicted two U.S. soldiers, Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson and Sgt. Wesley R. Durbin, who both died in Iraq on September 14. Between the two photos, only the name, rank, and face of each soldier changes:

http://thinkprogress.org/

The Kicker reports that “the Associated Press retracted two government-issued photographs last night after a photographer in Texas alerted the agency that the photos in question appeared to be doctored.” The photos depicted two U.S. soldiers, Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson and Sgt. Wesley R. Durbin, who both died in Iraq on September 14. Between the two photos, only the name, rank, and face of each soldier changes:

http://thinkprogress.org/

From the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States military has come under intense criticism and scrutiny for the deaths of civilians. This week, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff made trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan to "acknowledge" the deaths of innocent civilians in attacks in those countries.

http://www.truthout.org/article/when-refusing-kill-has-a-higher-sentence...

We're Paying the Price Today for Decades of Relentless Dam Building

Decades ago, three new dams were started every day. But the debts of temporary prosperity are all coming due and payable today.

Between 1950 and 1970, three new dam projects were started every single day in the world. Today, primarily in China, Turkey, Brazil, Japan and India, one new dam project begins daily with an average completion date of four years. Fifteen hundred dams are currently under construction worldwide.

http://www.truthout.org/article/we-pay-price-decades-relentless-dam-buil...

The late Carl Sagan was among precious few visionary humans who shared the extraordinary ability to differentiate between deep thought and deep nonsense and recognized the persistence of a satisfying delusion to perpetuate the latter. Dr. Sagan wrote, "We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world. We give little thought to the machinery that generates the sunlight that makes life possible, to the gravity that glues us to an earth that otherwise sends us spinning off into space or to the atoms of which we are made and on whose stability we fundamentally depend."

The pulp from the Hemp Plant can be used as fuel. It can be burned as is or processed into charcoal, methanol, methane, or gasoline.

http://nojailforpot.com/

scary stuff. today the border is a fuzzy zone out to 100 miles away. where will the zone end tomorrow?

probable cause? we don't need no stinkin probable cause.

from real time:

short selling - thats where a trader borrows a stock at a high price, believing that the price is going to fall, sells it and then buys it back at a lower price for a profit. and to think that smoking pot is illegal.

Vice President Dick Cheney's Incredible and Deadly Lie:

Vice President Dick Cheney's Incredible and Deadly Lie: By Deceiving a Congressional Leader, Cheney Sent Us to War on False Pretenses And Violated the Separation of Powers - as Well as the Criminal Law
By JOHN W. DEAN | FindLaw.com

This week, I agreed to deliver a "Constitution Day" talk on a college campus. My talk was not partisan. Yet the subject matter I selected was prompted by the most incredible - not to mention the most deadly - lie Dick Cheney has yet told, which was reported earlier this week.

Last year, Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman and Jo Baker, now of the New York Times, did an extensive series for the Post on Cheney. Now, Gellman has done some more digging, and published the result in a book he released this week: Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. The book reveals a lie told to a high-ranking fellow Republican, and the difference that lie made. In this column, I'll explain how Cheney defied the separation of powers, and go back to the founding history to show why actions like his matter so profoundly.
Cheney's Bold Face Lie To Congress

According to Gellman (and to paraphrase from the Post story on his finding), in the run-up to the war in Iraq, the White House was worried about the stance of Republican Majority Leader Richard Armey of Texas, who had deep concerns about going to war with Saddam Hussein. According to the Post, Armey met with Cheney for a highly classified, one-on-on briefing, in Room H-208, Cheney's luxurious hideaway office on the House side of the Capitol.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/36135

how is you today?
Or is it to early to say.

i haven't done the requisite reading but i've heard on more than one talk show that hemp could easily replace corn as a source of fuel, that it creates more fuel for less cost and is not the burden to grow that corn is. unfortuneately, societys war on drugs would have to go away.

so here we have a gift from god in the form of a plant that would provide us with energy and we turn our backs on it, for what reason?

Iran will stop any attacker before he can "pull the trigger" and sanctions intended to isolate the Islamic Republic have not worked, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a military parade on Sunday.

The United States and its allies are seeking to step up U.N. sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear plans, which the West sees as a bid to build nuclear arms. Iran denies this.

There has been persistent speculation Washington or Israel might launch strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, as neither country has ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to end the row.

"If anybody dares to breach the boundaries of the Iranian nation, the Iranian nation's holy land and Iran's legal interests, our armed forces ... will break his hand before he can pull the trigger," Ahmadinejad said.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

doing okay. just feeling really angry over this 700 billion dollar bailout and that the bush crime family will get their way one more time, in the process totally crippling what could have been the greatest presidency in fifty years.

STUPIDITY

i think its more complex than abject stupidity. its that we still suffer under the puritan ethic. the notion that life should have suffering in it so that you have a reason to seek eternal salvation.

so if drugs be they alcohol, pot,or whatever or maybe its sex, brings you pleasure, they are wrong in that scheme of things.

now that's stupid.

i see baghdad bob or is it tehran tom is spewing their wisdom again

I hear ya0000000000000000000

^^^^^ my cat- Frankie agree's

• They hate us for our torture: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5842271

fundamental. there is no need to transfer the 700 billion dollars tommorrow, this week, or even this year, let alone give the fascists that power.

the underlying mechanism that seized up is a loss of faith. i think that by indicating that we are going to spend taxpayers money in some form to fix the problem is the signal that you can have faith in the system again.

i think we should make all these bastards on wall street sweat like there's no tomorrow. if we can jail people for thought crimes (conspiracy) then there's no reason we can't jail people for real crimes (like excessive compensation which is merely another form of fraud)

now is the time to fix the problems. put regulations back on the books. fire the neocon regulators and put honest people in those positions. break up these mega corporations into much smaller entities that can afford to fail.

maybe the singular best use of money right now is to help people make their mortgage payments on their principal dwelling. if you were a speculator and bought a house as an investment and don't want to make the payments, too bad, not all investments make money.

right on brother!
I could NOT of put it any better.
You have a way with words. :)

more days left - of the biggest idiot in office

Bloomberg argues that Saturday's bombing of the Marriott in Islamabad will likely put pressure on US/ Pakistani relations. The bombing was a clear signal from militants that the Pakistani government must back away from its American alliance.

Newly elected president Ali Asaf Zardari gave an address to the parliament in which he called for the uprooting of terrorism and the prevention of cross-border raids on Pakistan by Pakistani militants. He also demanded, however, that Pakistani sovereignty be respected, veiled reference to US military incursions into his country.

Zardari also called for ascaling back of the president's powers,and for more fiscal and administrative semi-autonomy for Pakistan's provinces. (A few opposition party parliamentarians are disappointed that he did not just decree the abolition of the martial law amendments to the constitution, which boost his own power. Likewise they had wanted to hear him say something about the restoration of the justices and judges who had been arbitrarily dismissed by military dictator Pervez Musharraf when he was in power last year.

Hasan Askari-Rizvi argues that the Bush administration's odd mixture of unilateralism and insistence on alliances 'of the willing' produces a key contradiction that is destabilizing Pakistan.

Dawn asks if the real target of the bombing was Zardari's presidential mansion.

http://www.juancole.com/

and many happy returns!

I hear ya dan
new
Submitted by smcgee43 on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 7:57am.

I hear
==
ya... == one big word - blog stretcher - thank you!

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

as we all know, the markets came close to a death spiral this week.

it would appear that the promise of the government stepping in and using taxpayer money to buy worthless assets has added some calm to the situation.

i am writing you today to ask that you not vote yes on approving the bush plan in its current form. as structured it would transfer 700 billion dollars to the treasury thru an increase in the debt ceiling and allow the secretary of the treasury to spend that money as he sees fit without recourse or checks and balances.

of course, the president has asked you to not think, just agree, like he did with the patriot act, he has had a secret briefing designed to scare the daylights out of you, just like he did with the phony terror threat before getting his way on wiretapping. now is the time to say "enough".

what really happened on the markets is that people were losing faith in the system. this led the individuals who manage money markets to go to cash so they could handle redemptions. this selling in turn put the pressure on the market. as a trader, i know exactly what short selling is, and its disgraceful that the administration would blame the problems on wall street on it, when the real blame lies with 30 years of disastorous conservative fiscal policy.

but i digress, i don't believe the solution should be crafted in haste. the most important part is re-establishing peoples faith. now is the time, while the money still belongs to the taxpayers, to reform wall street, to put back the regulations that kept this country on sound footing since the depression, to purge the regulators who look the other way, and to reform the excessive compensation packages, which after all are simply a form of fraud committed against the public and the shareholders. once you sign the money over, all chances of reform are lost.

there is a good chance that we will finally have a change in administrations with the election of obama. don't cripple his administration before its even elected.

thank you for taking the time to listen.

Did you spread this thing with the spaceless ooooo? I am reading backwards so it may be something else.

Oh, I see it was the cat. I guess that makes it OK.

is just a special way of wishing kevin a happy birthday

have a good one.

But this blog seems real upset that President Bush saved our stock market and the day!

Not exactly what you were expecting, was it.

Of course the Obama fans are heartbroken.

I was impressed by the way McCain was so quick to fix the financial mess.

Are we still waiting for Obama to respond.

Isn't everything already decided?

Isn't that the same way Obama addressed Georgia?

Agreeing with McCain and Bush after the fact?

EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.
___
bluerootsradio

But in the wrong places.

McCain has a 14 vote lead on the electoral map - McCain +14

Trouble is the Obama over-polls by about 6 points.

Raise you hand if you thought a Republican could win the White House this year.

Happy Birthday Kevin!

What happened to your free market?

It's gone..

wait! a transfusion of taxpayer dollars..

There it is again, back from the dead!

Zombie Capitalism!

Socialism saves your ass again!

Wait, what's that?

W wants to give another crony Absolute Power!

wants 700 Billion MORE of our dollars..

And demanding ZERO oversight!?

This guy can't stop Spending!

Republican Big Government..

We knew it All Along..

Just up from my second nap of the night.

The news is as you would think this AM. All the newsers parroting the idea of pushing this plan through fast.

Sunday Talking Heads: September 21, 2008
By: Elliott Sunday September 21, 2008 4:30 am 3
diggs
digg it

swirlin' the drain
Treasury Secretary HENRY PAULSON is all over the teeVee screen this morning on the economic crisis and the President's bailout plan for Wall Street. We're the oyster cracker on the stew, and we're gonna be Sinkin' Soon. norah jones

Washington Journal: 7:30 am - Kevin Hassett, John McCain for President, Senior Economic Adviser. 8:00 am - Gene Sperling, Barack Obama for President, Economic Adviser. 8:30 am - Newspaper Articles & Viewer. 9:00 am - Scott Taylor, Georgetown University, African Studies Professor. 9:30 am - Newspaper Articles & Viewer. email questions for guests to journal@c-span.org

ABC's This Week: Treasury Secretary HENRY PAULSON. Then Sen. Chris Dodd (D-MA) and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) on Congress' role fixing the financial meltdown. Roundtable: ABC News' Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts, George Will, Donna Brazile. contact George

CBS' Face The Nation: Treasury Secretary HENRY PAULSON. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) with Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL). contact Bob Schieffer

Read the rest of this entry »

http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/21/sunday-talking-heads-september-21-2008...

Please explain in detail, MCV, exactly what McCain's plan is to save the economy. From what I have read and heard, his response was to blame Obama. Also, have you read his recent quote about health care? He wants to save it in the same masterful way we have grown the financial system. He wants to reduce regulations to provide the opportunities for more "products", just like the wonderful "products" they came up with in the mortgage market.

PS. I admitted I was wrong about Carter(Iran hostage rescue) the other night but you were already gone. It was Friday night and after a few coctails I was too quick shooting off my mouth without checking. I must have heard him talking about not going through with the second attempt.

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

Since you love giant government with no oversight and fancy yourself the clever one. Howabout coming up with a name for this new "Act", your mentors have produced?

I haven't heard that it has one yet and I really think you'd be perfect for this job considering your affection for their policies and unflagging willingness to polish every turd they hand you.

We all loved the "Patriot Act". And of course, the "Clean Skies Initiative" was a wonderfully appropriate title.

What would you call this?

did you think that George Will was positive toward Obama?

Who would have thunk it?

on the Cubs

Charlie Haden has made a Bluegrass album!

We need to throw the lot of the thieves out of the houses, the white house , house of representatives and senate. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same result. These liars and common ordinary bank robbers - should be jailed because of flight risk- and brought to trial- not released until they first give back all of the truckloads of money they walked off with. I don't care if they are off shore, swiss banked or under their 10000.00 mattresses in their 10000 luxury homes and yachts. Do we just sit here and let this happen? Where is everybody? I suggest we all stop working and head down to Washington and sit in front of our - that is- our houses until these freeloaders are evicted and moved to the place that all war criminals and common bank robbers go. And yes the nasty CEO scrooges that took over businesses so that they'd be shut down and consolidated into one fascist company, need to hand back their golden parachutes, so that we can pay off they debts they so viciously trainloaded into the offshore banks. Well if the world demands that those banana republics pile up all their loot and send it back to their rightful owners, do you think they would say no? There is a giant elephant farting in the living room and don't know about you but I can't breathe.

More and More Surreal: Paulson Can Buy Non-American, Non-Mortgage Assets
By: Ian Welsh Saturday September 20, 2008 9:00 pm 33

Or to put it more simply, he can buy any damn thing he wants with this money, with no oversight at all. It's not clear to my why Hank hasn't insisted on being made Emperor of the New American Empire in name, he's asked for everything else.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/20/more-and-more-surreal-paulson-can-buy-...

Happy Birthday Kevin

Many Happy Returns!

T

the Fungible Asset Trust?

toniD on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 9:57am. - It's McCain's plan that he's pushing.

Gallup daily tracking:
Obama 50%, McCain 44%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Wednesday through Friday finds Barack Obama maintaining his lead over John McCain among registered voters, by a 50% to 44% margin.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/110551/Gallup-Daily-Obama-50-McCain-44.aspx

Markets were 500 trades
from crashing on Thursday

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The market was 500 trades away from Armageddon on Thursday, traders inside two large custodial banks say. Had the Treasury and Fed not quickly stepped into the fray that morning with a quick $105 billion injection of liquidity, the Dow could have collapsed

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09212008/business/almost_armageddon_130110.h...

McCain health-care article fuels
new clash over economy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The article, which appeared under Sen. McCain's name, included a favorable reference to banking deregulation that, in light of this week's near-meltdown in the financial industry. In it, McCain touts his plans for increasing competition in health care through deregulation on the same lines as the banking industry,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/20/AR200809...

Obama says McCain would gamble with Social Security funds

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Democrat Barack Obama accused Republican presidential rival John McCain on Saturday of wanting to gamble with the retirement savings and health care of Americans by subjecting them to the uncertainty of open markets.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1951642820080921

Re "But this blog seems real upset that President Bush saved our stock market and the day!

Not exactly what you were expecting, was it.

Of course the Obama fans are heartbroken".

The above blast that I wrote is for you and your ilk - don't get too excited- It's really for the nice people here and if it offends you- I don't care
You are the stink on the fart of the elephant in the livingroom

Go find your own blog

Im not feeding- I'm just saying

»

bluerootsradio

We were lucky to have Republicans in office to fix this mess..

=======================================

Responding to the Bush administration announcement, McCain senior adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin issued a statement and said McCain was "pleased to see the executive branch and Congress" take steps.

In his Wisconsin remarks, McCain outlined a five-point plan for restoring trust in the markets and attacked Obama for links to troubled institutions such as mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were bailed out by the government last week.

McCain's plan includes creation of "an early intervention program" to help lenders avoid bankruptcy. He also proposed actions to enforce greater transparency by financial firms; streamline the regulatory agencies that oversee banks, investments firms and mortgage companies; tighten laws against predatory lending and other corporate abuses; and develop consistent guidelines for taxpayer bailouts of troubled firms.

McCain pushes ‘proactive’ plan

The centerpiece of McCain’s plan is a Mortgage and Financial Institutions Trust, a new entity whose purpose, he said, is “to keep people in their homes and safeguard the life savings of all Americans by protecting our financial system and capital markets.”

The trust would work with private-sector interests and regulators to spot weak institutions. An “early intervention program” then would aim to help those firms avoid bankruptcy and bailouts.

“This will get the Treasury and other financial regulatory authorities in a proactive position instead of reacting in a crisis mode to one situation after another,” McCain said.

The new trust would be part of the Treasury Department and managed by a board consisting of the Treasury secretary, the Fed chairman, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and two public members.

McCain also had other ideas: make it easier for consumers to see financial companies’ data, streamline the regulatory system and have it protect consumers more aggressively, and tighten the rules on bailouts.

“In cases where failing companies seek taxpayer bailouts,” the Arizona Republican senator said, “the Treasury Department will follow consistent policies in deciding whether to guarantee loans. It must have well-developed remedies for a financial crisis.”

O'Bama is supposed to be at a big outdoor rally (20K) in Charlotte today at 1 PM Eastern.

If anyone sees that it is getting covered on the 'tubes', please let us know.

1 day ago: Munich's mayor Christian Ude opens the first beer barrel with the traditional cry "O�zapft is!" (It's tapped!) to start the Oktoberfest beer festival on September 20, 2008 at the "Theresienwiese" in Munich, southern Germany.
http://www.daylife.com/photo/0ekA4S0aJNgrQ

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

I don't know what I enjoy most?

The tender way that they insert the pump hose into my ass at the gas station, or being screwed by Mr. Potter without oversite or review.

It's a wonderful life. Which is your favorite endearing memory that you will take away from the Bush Years?

were in agreement on what to do with palin. Don't attack her on her family or inexperience. Rather that she is more like bush than even mccain is. I think Naomi called her 'bush in drag'. Add the hunting thing and you get a cheney lagniappe.

King Henry

what a bunch of hooey, but then its the ny post. perhaps more telling is the 1st comment. can you believe someone can even make crap like this up:

For Todd Stallion and his ilk, keep in mind that linked to Drudge or not, Drudge is usually first and right with info and now used by major networks for scouring information. It DOES take a while for the chicks to come home to roost and obstructionist Democrats in Congress blocking well meaning reform by Republicans earlier in the Bush Administration and the hidden damage done by EIGHT years of Clinton and cronies manipulation is finally coming to fruition......The MIS management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the BONE headed demands by Sen. Schumer and his gang to force banks to give high risk borrowers home loans are major factors in this meltdown. Just a few hints at what life will be like in the Socialist Republic of The United States under President Obama.

===

another point that was missed about crashing to 8300 is from 10600 is that the market has circuit breakers that halt trading:

Circuit Breakers
The securities and futures markets have circuit breakers that provide for brief, coordinated, cross-market trading halts during a severe market decline as measured by a single day decrease in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). There are three circuit breaker thresholds—10%, 20%, and 30%—set by the markets at point levels that are calculated at the beginning of each quarter. The formulas for these thresholds are set forth in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Rule 80B.

For example, on April 1, 2007, the average value for the DJIA for the preceding month (March 2007) was used to calculate point levels (rounded to the nearest 50 points). This resulted in the Level One (10%) circuit breaker set at 1,250 points, Level Two (20%) circuit breaker set at 2,450 points, and the Level Three (30%) circuit breaker set at 3,700 points.

the circuit breakers won't halt price declines, when the market re opens it may do so at a much lower level, the idea is to give people time to figure out whats going on and possibly take corrective action.

Trust Me

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

The article you site above, MCV, sounds nice but it does not match his 26 year history of wanting more deregulation. Afterall, Phil F*cking Gramm is his principle financial advisor and he started alot of this (re Gramm/Bil?y 1999) I know the Dems are not totally innocent but, come on, the Repubs have been in control for the last decade (and did everything they could to monkey wrench Clinton's last term). McCain had been in Congress for 26 years and was the dirtiest of those involved in Keating 5. Now he says that Obama who has only been in the Senate for 4 years is the one at fault (while he tries to claim at the same time that he doesn't have enough experience)

Oh, and I believe Obama sponsored legislation in 2006 calling for more transparancy of Freddie and Fannie. I'm not checking again so I may get myself in trouble, but I know he didn't just start making such proposals NOW.

ZEEK....

i ain't got a camera, but I will be there today........

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
McLame/Barbie'08
Thanks, but No Thanks

How do you say "fuck you" in Yiddish?
Trust me.

slacker
Submitted by 60th Street on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 12:53am.
check
---------
Referring to you as a slacker was a cheap shot in search of a laugh. I enjoy reading your writing even when it is little more than a humorous attack on moronic statements.

I try (and often fail) to avoid responding to idiocy which explains why I am thrilled to have my frustrated anger turn to gleeful laughter when you launch a ripsnorter.

I tend to use you or The Rajah or Sunny J or toniD (and several others) as foils for a joke because I know that you can take it as nothing more meaningful than a joke. It is difficult enough to be understood in text. There is no point in taking a chance with the thin-skinned folks.

you just need to spit when mcv posts

I work in an elementary school and get most upset with the kids who don't WANT to learn.

Every penny taken out of your paychecks since the SS debate is now gone.

Gone! Lost! Spent!

There is no Social Security Saving.

There is only Social Security Spending.

If your money was in the Stock Market you would NOT have earned a penny.

But the principle would still be there to work for you on another day.

Risk?

There is no risk in SS now.

It's a sure thing, no gamble to it.

A 100% loss of everything you put in.

Guaranteed!

Republitards don't have to be this stupid.

Really.

who is Mike Rogers going to give his award to?

is too slow down. don't let the bush crime family pull a fast one on us and steal another 700 billion dollars.

once the money is out of our hands we have lost the ability to change the system.

Actually, I didn't find it a cheap shot at all, and I laughed..I know it was all in good fun and my minimal response was meant as a an acknowlegement of my slackeryness...I enjoy your work and that's part of why I enjoy this blog so much. There's simply no other blog like it.

cheers!

..for which there is no cure.

Ignorance can be treated with small, yet increasing, dosages of knowledge.

OK troll, open your pie hole and take the fucking medicine!

___
bluerootsradio

I didn't realize it changed. Nice! Thanks!

Don't attack her on her family or inexperience
Submitted by zeek on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 10:15am.
--------

Zeek,

I say the family is fair game. After all, she is running on her perfect, Christian, all American Family.

Did you see this from the Canadian Broadcasting Co.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-oRIxw8y-0

I hate to be the one to break it to you guys, but the Congress cannot pass a law making ANYTHING exempt from Judicial review or Executive oversight. These are three separate and co-equal branches of government.

Most sweeping changes since Great Depression
Proposal will give the Federal Reserve new regulatory power
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23853415/
updated 5:32 a.m. MT, Mon., March. 31, 2008

“Despite the fact that there will be a temptation to view this through a lens of what is happening now in credit markets, this has been a process that has been going on for a year,” said David Nason, Treasury’s assistant secretary for domestic finance. “These are very complex issues that require a serious amount of debate.”

Treasury began work on the review in early 2007. It came in response to complaints from the financial services industry that U.S. businesses were losing their edge in global competition because of over-regulation by Washington.

The yearlong review produced a plan calling for the greatest changes in financial regulation since many of the current oversight institutions were created in the 1930s.

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

http://internationaldayofpeace.org/

The International Day of Peace ("Peace Day") provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. It was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly. The first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982.

Just watched HANK PAULSON on Face the Bob! What's with the hand movements? Is he trying to levitate something?

We are SO DOOMED.

REPOST:
Today's special event:
On September 21, 1780, Benedict Arnold gave plans to West Point to the British. His courier was intercepted and his treason was discovered. Arnold escaped, and his name is now synonymous with "traitor."

I start with this blog everyday and use Sam's links first. In this global information explosion you have to decide where to spend your time and resources, which means deciding first whose advise you trust. I'm not number smart and while I read and reread, I often listen first to those I trust have "good hearts". Thanks ToniD, Fernando, MB, CB(s) et al for being so smart, hard working and caring (about all of us). MCV is either being paid or is lonely. I guess I try to debate him because he reminds me of some non-thinking people I work with (you think all teachers are smart, some are real linear thinkers ((what do you call those horse eye shields?))and of course I can't get into politics at work.)

I really enjoy all your posts and am glad you are an integral part of this wonderful blog.

Happe Talk

and the Patriot Act never happened either, right?

the most important thing about dealing with the financial crisis
Submitted by dan on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 10:35am.
is too slow down. don't let the bush crime family pull a fast one on us and steal another 700 billion dollars.
---------
I agree.

And to belabor a point that I have tried to make: I don't know if a devastating market crisis was hours or days away. If it was and nothing was done, the posters on this blog would be screaming about the lack of action.

It is possible that the announcement by the Fed of its intention to do something huge has had the same effect on calming the markets as actually doing some huge would (will) do, so the announcement might have bought enough time to fine-tune the remedy.

It might be analogous to Clinton's announcement to tap the U.S. oil stockpile; the mere announcement of intent was sufficient to lower the global oil price.

I have another concern that is rarely mentioned. Just as reform of the ballot process lost its urgency as time moved us further away from the last election clusterfuck, I worry that a thoughtful effort to revamp the regulation of the market process will lose its urgency as time moves us further away from the current crisis (assuming that the crisis quells rather than deepens in the coming weeks).

Barclays to buy Lehman and "save jobs"
Chris in Paris · 9/21/2008 02:54:00 AM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It!

Oh thank goodness, because saving jobs at Lehmman is what's most important. I'm all tingly because Barclays will "save" jobs and provide severance pay to those who are sacked. Whew. If only the money lost could be "saved" so easily. If only the trickle down job losses across the US and the world could be "saved" so easily. Barclays, Lehman and everyone else on Wall Street can go Cheney themselves. Give us back our money, our job losses, our lost retirement plans and then we'll start to give a damn about what happens to the gamblers on Wall Street.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26800562/

Is it acceptable for failed CEOs Prince, Mozilo, Cayne and O'Neal to keep their millions?
Chris in Paris · 9/21/2008 02:10:00 AM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It!

The failed CEO's of Citi, Countrywide, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch all walked away from sinking ships with tens and hundreds of dollars. It was all built upon bad business that eventually humbled or completely ruined their respective companies. The US taxpayers have been forced to cover their billions in corporate losses but besides a few embarrassing sessions in front of Congress, they're all just fine. As Nouriel Roubini has said, it's a system of "privatized profits and socialized losses." None of those former CEOs feel an ounce of pain for the economic ruin that is taking down the US economy and eventually the world economy. They are sitting on a gold mine that never should have happened. Even without the gamble, they all could have lived a comfortable retirement but now they are living beyond our wildest dreams.

When is Congress going to step in and re-visit this situation? Forget about blowing hot air for the TV, legal action is necessary. Why should they be able to walk away so easily and pain free? Don't even give me the old "they had a contract" nonsense because lots of contracts exist and plenty of them are revisited in court. The extraordinary acts of nationalizations, bailouts, debt purchases, etc have put us into new ground. Failing to take action will be a failure on behalf of the American public. Surely Congress will bring some accountability to this once in a lifetime event, no? Much like 9/11 when nobody was ever held responsible, I get the feeling we're looking at the same here. What does this say about us as a country that we so easily dismiss such obvious failures?

http://www.americablog.com/2008/09/is-it-acceptable-for-failed-ceos-prin...

Truthiness Stages a Comeback

NOT until 2004 could the 9/11 commission at last reveal the title of the intelligence briefing President Bush ignored on Aug. 6, 2001, in Crawford: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” No wonder John McCain called for a new “9/11 commission” to “get to the bottom” of 9/14, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off another kind of blood bath in Lower Manhattan. Put a slo-mo Beltway panel in charge, and Election Day will be ancient history before we get to the bottom of just how little he and the president did to defend America against a devastating new threat on their watch.
NOT until 2004 could the 9/11 commission at last reveal the title of the intelligence briefing President Bush ignored on Aug. 6, 2001, in Crawford: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” No wonder John McCain called for a new “9/11 commission” to “get to the bottom” of 9/14, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off another kind of blood bath in Lower Manhattan. Put a slo-mo Beltway panel in charge, and Election Day will be ancient history before we get to the bottom of just how little he and the president did to defend America against a devasIt was ugly for the McCains. He had received more than $100,000 in Keating campaign contributions, and both McCains had repeatedly hopped on Keating’s corporate jet. Cindy McCain and her beer-magnate father had invested nearly $360,000 in a Keating shopping center a year before her husband joined four senators in inappropriate meetings with regulators charged with S.&L. oversight.

After Congressional hearings, McCain was reprimanded for “poor judgment.” He had committed no crime and had not intervened to protect Keating from ruin. Yet he, like many deregulators in his party, was guilty of bankrupt policy-making before disaster struck. He was among the sponsors of a House resolution calling for the delay of regulations intended to deter risky investments just like those that brought down Lincoln and its ilk.

Ever since, McCain has publicly thrashed himself for his mistakes back then — and boasted of the lessons he learned. He embraced campaign finance reform to rebrand himself as a “maverick.” But whatever lessons he learned are now forgotten.

For all his fiery calls last week for a Wall Street crackdown, McCain opposed the very regulations that might have helped avert the current catastrophe. In 1999, he supported a law co-authored by Gramm (and ultimately signed by Bill Clinton) that revoked the New Deal reforms intended to prevent commercial banks, insurance companies and investment banks from mingling their businesses. Equally laughable is the McCain-Palin ticket’s born-again outrage over the greed of Wall Street C.E.O.’s. When McCain’s chief financial surrogate, Fiorina, was fired as Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive after a 50 percent drop in shareholders’ value and 20,000 pink slips, she took home a package worth $42 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21rich.html?hp

To suggest "bubble and bail" as a description of U.S. economic policy over the past quarter-century is inelegant but by no means inaccurate.

--

I disagree with this - I think bubble and bail is not only accurate but very elegant way of putting it

Ben Bernanke -- ‘Helicopter Ben,’
Crisis illustrates power of the unelected
By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC
updated 3:22 p.m. MT, Mon., March. 17, 2008

Supplying a note of dissenting populism was famed investor Jimmy Rogers who put it bluntly in an interview with Bloomberg News Monday, calling it “outrageous that the Federal Reserve is just throwing the dollar out of the window…. They are driving the dollar down. They are printing money as fast as they can.”

He added, acerbically, “This man Bernanke was never elected by anybody. I don’t know where he gets the audacity to spend $230 billion of our money to bail out a few friends on Wall Street. This is totally outrageous…. Who gave him the authority to do that, to destroy the dollar ….? And nobody ever voted for the man.”

Who voted for Bernanke?

That is not quite true. In January of 2006 the Senate did vote unanimously by voice vote to hand the Fed chairman’s job to Bernanke.
...
Bunning foresaw trouble in 2005

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., a member of both the Banking and Finance committees, said “I oppose Dr. Bernanke because he says he will continue the policies of Chairman Greenspan. That does not sit well with me.”

Bunning blamed Greenspan for allowing “creation of a fat market bubble that ultimately popped. Then there was a housing bubble. It led to an unbalanced economic recovery fueled by cash raised from soaring home prices. This resulted in record household debt and negative consumer savings rates.”

Bunning also denounced “the endless bailouts of Chairman Greenspan. There was the 1997 Fed bailout of the Asian crisis. There was the Long Term Capital Management bailout in 1998. We had a financial crisis and the Fed got involved with Mexico and all this led to a huge trade and Federal budget deficits.”

He concluded gloomily, “Chairman Greenspan leaves knowing that his mess will fall to his apprentice, Ben Bernanke. I hope there is no damaging recession or financial crisis looming. If so, I hope Ben Bernanke does not live up to his nickname of ‘Helicopter Ben,’ and throw the U.S. mint's printing presses into overdrive.”

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

Dark days for macho men
By Adam Thomson

Night has fallen on Mexico City, it is getting chilly and raindrops are starting to trickle down the windowpane of room 407 of the Hospital Angeles where Alejandro Juarez is visiting Jorge, his boyfriend. - Financial Times

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act
are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be
reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency"

ain't this what happens in Russia? Ain't this the same group of anti-communist zealots who changed their name from anti-communists to neocons - different name same shit - when the soviet union broke up in the late 80s?

but we're the village idiots and we're not supposed to notice

I've never agreed with George Will before. Hell has frozen over.

Submitted by Sandy on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 10:54am.
...((what do you call those horse eye shields?))...
------
Blinders. They would more accurately be called peripheral vision restricters, but that's a mouth-full.

And you are gutsy for using double parentheses. When I am tempted, I worry that I am "asiding" and "digressing" so far afield that the reader would need a map to follow my thoughts.

if paulson is so confident this is a good thing why say that this will not be subject to review and accountability?

also, isn't this faintly reminiscent of dick cheney heading the vice presidential vetting committee for gbush and appointing himself vicepresident? So the way that paulson devised to take us out of the crisis is to appoint himself the only decider with no checks and balances, just a hefty and "unbalanced" checkbook

Wall St. has proven they can't "git 'er done". I say pump that $700 billion to anyone making $150k or less.

I'll show you economic growth.

Wall Street: That pump don't work cuz the vandals liquidated it with borrowed money borrowed from someone who didn't have it in the first place.

___
bluerootsradio

The Rethuglicans will once again be Election Fraud ing this Fall,
don't let your name be purged from the voter roll for your location.

• standing for voters
• Voters Unite

You've seen this before, worth a repost :)

bluerootsradio

George Michael was showing his crack in the mens room -mail online

that the Federal Reserve should have more power

5 months ago: WASHINGTON - MARCH 31: US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson speaks about financial issues during a news conference at the Treasury Department, March 31, 20007 in Washington DC. Paulson spoke about reforms to the way financial markets are regulated by the government and suggested that the Federal Reserve should have more power and that a body should be created to monitor mortgage companies.
http://www.daylife.com/photo/0fJsfrb13HaTP

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

wild raccoons loose in the house, chubby, and do not forget the tarantulas, yes exactlyperfect person to be in charge of the treasury

and what's up with these treasury figures and they wendy wives? Phil Gramm also has one of these, is this a qualification to apply for the job now?

Submitted by Fernando on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 11:03am.
I've never agreed with George Will before. Hell has frozen over.
----
If you read Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball by George Will, you will find a way to appreciate him.

(And, yes, he's a pompous Conservative jerk, too.)

i am the federal reserve.... so typical republican

government is bad but we do want to be the government, dictators are bad but not as long as i am the dictator....

on ABC with George Streptococcus finally acts credible. They tore into McCain's ass so bad they made the Vietnamese torture camp look like a day at Disneyland.

The long term gossip is that Phil Gramm doesn't like women. McCain seems to have a lot of those kind of men hanging around (Sam would play his shut the closet door sound effect).

About the (()), CB- My emotions spin faster than my poor old fingers can type. I've been a long time lurker here and just getting brave enough to post. If I keep making so many typographical and factual mistakes I may have to beat my head into the monitor -like the emotocon ((Shut up, Sandy))

..did they rip his rectum? Facts man, gimme some facts?

On the economy?
On lying?
On picking Palin?

Please be brief, my attention span is shorter that the amount of time McPoopyPants vetted Palin.

___
bluerootsradio

"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice."

MLK

Excerpt:

Past racial injustice is not the only stage upon which the stadium debate is set. The involvement of Lehman Brothers, a 155-year-old investment company that recently pledged tens of millions of dollars to fund the stadium proposal, is bringing present-day inequality into play.
The company is already a defendant in a class-action reparations lawsuit filed by descendent's of slaves against businesses that profited from slavery. Lehman Brothers has also made millions of dollars from two industries that currently disproportionately harm people of color: private prisons and predatory lending.

Excerpt:

A coalition of UT student groups is asking the Austin-based UT System to sever its business ties to Lehman Brothers, alleging the underwriter is the largest financial backer of private prison companies. The group says UT's association with private prisons contributes to the incarceration of immigrants.

con't

http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2003/11/10/daily46.html

------------

I would like to say good riddance, Lehman. But the British have saved the day. I must admit however, in spite of Lehman's history, I don't want to see more Americans lose their jobs.

Yeah, I feelz yer pain! :) By the way, MV is a troll that I know originally as War Dog, or WaDo, for short..

It's difficult to take him seriously because he's a desert of imagination and ideas and, like a desert, his ideological foundation is an ever-shifting landscape of featureless dunes that all convey the same things: hopelessness, emptiness, monotony.

I enjoy confronting him, though, because I think it's important to hold the mirror up to Republicans and not let them try and bat it away with empty corkscrew rhetoric. Their policies have not only failed miserably, but the Outcomes are the complete opposites of the rhetoric. There's a pathology there and, since I believe in thinking globally and acting locally, I begin with calling idiot trolls on thier lies and hypocrisies.

Republicans have become the party of enormous government, ludicrous spending and waste, Socialism beyond the wildest imaginings of any Leftist, and have failed to achieve military dominance against even the paltriest of ragtag terrorist and insurgent militias.

Yet, WaDo, like the rest of the 30%ers that support Bush/McCain, can only focus on one thing: his ego, or whatever is left of it. Who knows what cast of demons the guy has floating around up in his bean. Ultimately, the simple fact is that, like his party, he has sold out his country. As I'm sure some of the more senior members of this blog can tell you, WaDo amounts to nothing more than a blood-soaked turd polisher for the most inept, corrupt and criminal political party this country has ever seen. He's proud of that title though and I'm happy to keep him in his place.

Submitted by mire on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 11:15am.
wild raccoons loose in the house, chubby, and do not forget the tarantulas, yes exactly perfect person to be in charge of the treasury...
-----
I laughed when I read that his wife "let" wild raccoons run in the house.

I have some experience with wild raccoons. One does not "let" them do anything. They do whatever the hell they want to do.

To date, no one has recorded a raccoon laughing but I'm convinced that they guffaw until their sides hurt.

McCain Owns 13 Cars; Obama Owns One

When you have seven homes, that's a lot of garages to fill. After the fuss over the number of residences owned by the two presidential...
McCain's personal ride, a 2004 Cadillac CTS, is no gas sipper, but it should make Detroit happy because it's made by General Motors. "I've bought American literally all my life and I'm proud," McCain said in the interview with Detroit's WXYZ-TV. But the rest of his fleet is not all-American. There's a 2005 Volkswagen convertible in the garage along with a 2001 Honda sedan. Otherwise, there's a 2007 half-ton Ford pickup truck, which might come in handy on the Sedona ranch; a vintage 1960 Willys Jeep; a 2008 Jeep Wrangler; a 2000 Lincoln; and a 2001 GMC SUV. The McCains also own three 2000 NEV Gem electric vehicles, which are bubble-shaped cars popular in retirement communities.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160091

I've heard him make some very progressive statements about fixing salaries there. I think he is a Cubs fan so he's already thrown reason out the window. Cubs mania is a hereditary disease in my family and our budget is about to take a serious hit. My money smart, frugal hubby will go to any lengths it see the Cubs in the World Series (and run-up). What the heck, it's only once a century.

Submitted by Sandy on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 11:23am.
----

Oh Sandy, I think you're right! I think there is something deep, deep, double triple deep, in the dark closet.

it was bad. The whole panel took a chuck of that ass. They called him angry and brought up age. They called his "financially strong" line a watershed event like as in when you realize your partner has alzheimers.

MCCAIN OWNS 13 CARS!

Happe Talk

Comment by a woman I spoke with while canvasing in rural Nevada yesterday. After an afternoon of going door to door Obama had more support in this red state, 3 to 2! (culled list)

"The Lord will sent me the right President"
Submitted by gbasin on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 11:37am.
-----
The Lord's a busy Supreme Being. Busy, busy, busy. Work, work, work.

No rest for the wic--uh, sorry. Wrong bromide.

called McCain an angry man. After seeing the calm of Obama, McCain looked even angrier.

When you are angry, the problems never get solved because your energy is keeping you angry and not looking to solve the problem. Plus you tend to blame people that are only part of the problem instead of looking for the root of the problem.

Donaldson was right. McCain is an angry man and there are many reasons for his anger. I can't believe that he isn't angry that he can't draw a crowd without Sarah! He's shown to have a misogynistic past and I can see inner seething at the idea of Sarah's popularity as opposed to his. And since I don't think Sarah was his choice, but forced on him....

McCain also sees the polls slipping away from him and that adds to his anger. And the financial meltdown brings him back to Keating Five days where he has to take a stand that is totally against what he thinks because people are remembering that fiasco.

His anger is also effecting his mind to the extent that he is forgetful and making gaffs.

I don't want this man in office. I don't think he should even be a Senator.

We need change he can't offer.

McCains also own three 2000 NEV Gem electric vehicles, which are bubble-shaped cars popular in retirement communities.

"From the Edge of the Blade" tells the story about the 2006 popular uprising in Oaxaca, as put by some of the teachers, activists, workers, students, human rights workers, tortured and imprisoned.

On June 14th 2006, when police forces attacked thousands of striking teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, the annual strike turned into a widespread popular rebellion, demanding the governors' resignation. A broad social movement of teachers, social organizations, unions, students, activists, and indigenous communities took over the city in an effort to change the devastating conditions imposed on them by international trade agreements and corrupt politicians.

To watch a preview, or for more information, go to http://www.trickleupfilms.org

Spiritual Emergencies

Today's Polls, 9/19
Let's not equivocate too much here. Over the course of the past several days, there has been a rather dramatic shift in this election toward Barack Obama. Our trendline estimate, which is engineered to be fairly conservative, registers the swing as equaling roughly 4 points over the course of the past week.

Changes of this velocity are unusual outside of the convention periods and the debates, especially in close elections. It took John McCain about 60 days and tens of millions of advertising dollars to whittle Obama's lead down from roughly 5 points at its peak in early June, to the 1-point lead that Obama held heading into the conventions. Obama has swing the numbers that much in barely a week.

Of course, we never really were entirely outside of gravitational field of the conventions, and probably at least half of this bounceback for Obama is merely the more-or-less inevitable consequence of McCain's convention bounce ending. But the fact is that Obama is in a stronger position now than he was immediately before the conventions. We now have him winning the election 71.5 percent of the time, which is about as high as that number has been all year.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

Happe Talk

How appropriate...

If you are into inaction, Obama is your man.

Financial crisis must be what they had in Georgia.

i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so i told you so

basically says the McCain/Paulson bailout is worse than doing nothing.

my spiritual philosophy in a nutshell:

transform all emotional poisons into compassion and kindness.

Happe Talk

If you missed the Saturday Night Live opening skit last night, the video is below the article at this link:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/09/snl_swipes_at_mccain_aga...

Just Say No To Negativity...

Have you studied with Stan? Amazing stuff, some friends worked with him at Esalen quite a while ago and were blowing away, Ha Ha, (Holotropic Breathwork")

is on CNN now. He's so funny.

Listen Up Phil Gramm!!!

Yahoo / AFP

GENEVA (AFP) - The Swiss people's trust in the country's banking giant UBS has been eroding following the subprime crisis, a survey commissioned by Swiss tabloid newspaper SonntagsBlick indicated Sunday.

Only 35 percent of Swiss people surveyed on September 19 said they still trusted UBS, compared to 41 percent of those polled in early February.

Some 60 percent now said they did not trust the bank, while in February, the corresponding figure was 48 percent.

The survey contrasted with the level of confidence in Swiss banking overall, as three in four people said they still trusted Switzerland's banks in general.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080921/bs_afp/switzerlandusbankingcompanyu...

Phil Gramm's UBS Problem- - -If the Texas senator and McCain adviser was supposed to keep the Swiss bank out of trouble, he's made a mess of it.
By Daniel Gross
Posted Monday, July 7, 2008, at 5:58 PM ET

Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm has emerged as the key behind-the-scenes economics/Wall Street guy for John McCain and is being touted as the treasury secretary in waiting. Since 2002, Gramm has been an executive with the U.S. operations of UBS, the giant Swiss Bank. An unintentionally hilarious interview with Gramm on the Wall Street Journal editorial page last week asserted that Gramm has "been a key instigator of some of the biggest money-making UBS deals of recent years." The interview was noteworthy not just for first-class butt-kissing, but for deliberately gliding over the avalanche of disasters in the past year that has turned UBS from a respected Swiss titan of discretion and risk management into a laughing stock. As this one-year chart shows, UBS's stock lost nearly 70 percent of its value and now stands at levels not seen since 2002, when Gramm signed up.
Read more about Wall Street's ongoing crisis.

http://www.slate.com/id/2194933/

like real time and thom hartmann accept the reality that conservatives have nothing to contribute to the national conversation and simply stop including them in the lineup.

seriously, last week on real time it was john fund, this week it was andrew sullivan. what value did they bring to the show? zero, zilch, nada.

as for hartmann, he's just wasting his time thinking he can persuade some conservative idiot with his intellectual super powers.

Since things are totaly topsy turvy ask these guys to help.

Contact Your Senator Today!
Contact Your Senator Today!

It's time to contact your senator. Here is contact information for Senators of the 110th Congress.

Phone or Email your Senators today. Tell them in your own words

* Urge your senator to Filibuster any bailout legislation.
* Emphatically state you do not want a bailout of any kind for anyone.
* No Dictatorial power for Paulson or Bernanke
* Taxpayers should not have to bail out banks making bad loans
* Tell them that "The Fed" and Paulson are systemic risk".

Email AND Phone Senators Shelby, Bunning, Kyle, Hagel

Whether Senator Shelby is your Senator or not, flood him with calls and emails asking for a filibuster and to stop the insanity. Senators Shelby, Bunning, and Kyle might be sympathetic to the cause, based on past statements. I am taking a stab at Hagel.

Please email and phone the following. Specifically ask for a filibuster and tell them to vote no to any bailout.

Shelby, Richard C.- (R - AL)
110 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5744
E-mail: senator@shelby.senate.gov

Bunning, Jim- (R - KY)
316 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4343
Web Form: http://bunning.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactFor...

Kyl, Jon- (R - AZ)
730 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4521
Web Form: kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Hagel, Chuck (R - NE)
248 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4224
Web Form: hagel.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home

Please email and phone both of your senators as well.

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

has gone from Socialist to Communist in 60 minutes.

The Right is now the Neue Left.

on a box of Fruit Loops than McCain's economic plan... Just now on Late Edition.

Among the videos, you’ll find vintage performances by John Coltrane and Billie Holiday, readings by Jack Kerouac, an interview with Eugène Ionesco, clips of Nirvana rehearsing in a garage, Vladimir Nabokov talking about Lolita, Jackson Pollock dripping paint outside his home, and Marlon Brando doing a screen test for Rebel Without a Cause.

Their point was it makes her sympathetic and distracts from attending to real issues of policy.

The campaign should lay off it but the Enquirer and comedians will keep her family issues up front.

I am beginning to think that she intends to put more cracks in the glass ceiling with that voice of hers alone.

i was looking for that

and on this bail-out fest, am i the only one on this blog to think that the right thing to do would be to do nothing, nothing at all? let these casino players fail, let the free market do its work (and this from one that thinks the free market mantra is hogwash) but in this case i'm all for it, you live by the freemarket you should be allowed to die by the free market

yes there's gonna be some unfair suffering, but don't you think after all the turmoil we might be able to have a serious debate on what should come next, what kind of financial system to re-engineer to prevent this sort of stuff?

i hear a lot of "this bailout steps are necessary but let's do them right, so and so..." but i think that no bailout would be best

does that put me in with the ron paulites and a few old-school republicans? i just haven't heard that from any democrat nor more generally from any of the pols i like, not even bernie sanders, though he is the only one in congress really making a lot of sense on what do AFTER the bailout

lame...

Lummis (R-Wyo.) proposes income taxes for everyone

Source: Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Cynthia Lummis wants all Americans to be more invested in their government by paying at least some income tax, and more invested in retirement by saving money instead of counting on Social Security.

Tens of millions of American households -- perhaps nearly half of them -- do not pay federal income tax because they do not make enough money to qualify, according to Lummis, the Republican running for Wyoming's seat in the U.S. House.

"Every American has, receives, benefits from the protections of the U.S. Constitution and I believe everyone should pay a little bit, even if it's $50 a year," she said Thursday.

... Gary Trauner, Lummis's Democratic proponent (sic -- should be opponent), criticized Lummis's proposal to extend income taxes to people who aren't currently paying them.

"One in every five kids in this country is born and raised in poverty," Trauner said. "A large number of those people are living below the poverty line, and she wants to raise taxes on the people who can least afford it in this country?"

http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/09/21/news/wyoming/54ef...

i guess i should have done a little more blog reading before asking am i the only one on this blog

jamesbennet, yes, yes, we oppose ay bailout whatsover!

While he was a jerk at the beginning of the show he morphed into an Obama supporter big time by the middle of the show as I recall.

Geez, you have to wonder how he gets out of bed in the morning with all the liberals kicking his ass for being Conservative and I can't imagine the hate mail he gets from his homophobic Conservative brothers. Hmmm, prolly gets some invites to some secret rendezvous too from some other Conservative brothers as well.

___
bluerootsradio

Treasury Seeks Asset-Buying Power Unchecked by Courts

Source: Bloomberg

The Bush administration sought unchecked power from Congress to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from financial companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the markets.

Through his plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson aims to avert a credit freeze that would bring the financial system and the world's largest economy to a standstill. The bill would prevent courts from reviewing actions taken under its authority.

``He's asking for a huge amount of power,'' said Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University. ``He's saying, `Trust me, I'm going to do it right if you give me absolute control.' This is not a monarchy.'' ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080921/pl_bloomberg/acvomk3fiuqq

Paulson Plan May Spark Showdown Between Democrats, Republicans
Sun Sep 21, 12:06 AM ET

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional Democrats want to use the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue plan for U.S. financial companies to curb executive pay, spur the economy with infrastructure spending and help people avoid foreclosures, setting the stage for a possible fight with Republicans and the Bush administration.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080921/pl_bloomberg/almxrjdtt2ty;_yl...

repetition is a good thing

Any pressure to rush through something this important is ill conceived.

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

>>We all loved the "Patriot Act". And of course, the "Clean Skies Initiative" was a wonderfully appropriate title.

>>What would you call this?

I can't speak for War dog, but if it was up to me, it'd be called, the `Fuck Americans First Act'

Fafa for short.

Paulson says foreign banks can use U.S. rescue plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Sunday that foreign banks will be able to unload bad financial assets under a $700 billion U.S. proposal aimed at restoring order during a devastating financial crisis.

"Yes, and they should. Because ... if a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution," Paulson said on ABC television's "This Week with George Stephanopolous."

Paulson was appearing on the Sunday television talk show circuit to fill in some of the details of the U.S. government plan for a sweeping bailout to mop up hundreds of billions of dollars in toxic mortgage debt.

The moves capped a week in which financial markets faced their most serious confluence of crises since the Great Depression in the 1930s and threatened national economies and the worldwide banking system. (Reporting by Mark Felsenthal)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080921/bs_nm/financial_bailout_paulson_dc_3

Submitted by toned on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 11:AM.
Donaldson was right. McCain is an angry man and there are many reasons for his anger. I can't believe that he isn't angry that he can't draw a crowd without Sarah!

------------

Oh no, no, no ToniD! Scarah can't draw a real crowd either. Did you notice where her last appearances were? They were Grand Rapids, Missouri, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. What do they have in common? The same as all of their stops. They have Assemblies Of God Mega Churches. This is why they don't show up if McCain is alone. What you are witnessing is the Assembles of God Churches, in other words, right wing nutballery, providing a crowd for a presidential campaign.

The next appearance McCain & Scarah make, check this link, to the Assemblies of God. Then put in the city. Now you've got it, Blog Mistress, ToniD.

http://www.usachurches.org/christian/searchbydenom.php?category_link=pen...

The whole, painful, episode crested with Will leveling an even harsher blow.

"John McCain showed his personality this week," said the writer and pundit, "and made some of us fearful."
- HUFFPO

Thursday, April 03, 2008
Fed Uncertainty Principle

Fed's Actions Blatantly Illegal

John Hussman has this to say in his weekly column Why is Bear Stearns Trading at $6 Instead of $2?

The Federal Reserve decided last week to overstep its legal boundaries – going beyond providing liquidity to the banking system and attempting to ensure the solvency of a non-bank entity. Specifically, the Fed agreed to provide a $30 billion “non-recourse loan” to J.P. Morgan, secured only by the worst tranche of Bear Stearns' mortgage debt. But the bank – J.P. Morgan – was in no financial trouble. Instead, it was effectively offered a subsidy by the Fed at public expense. Rick Santelli of CNBC is exactly right. If this is how the U.S. government is going to operate in a democratic, free-market society, “we might as well put a hammer and sickle on the flag.”

The Fed did not act to save a bank, but to enrich one. Congress has the power to appropriate resources for such a deal by the representative will of the people – the Fed does not, even under Depression era banking laws. The “loan” falls outside of Section 13-3 of the Federal Reserve Act, because it is not in fact a loan to either Bear Stearns or J.P. Morgan. Bear Stearns is no longer a business entity under this agreement. And if the fiction that this is a “loan” to J.P. Morgan was true, J.P. Morgan would be obligated to pay it back, period. The only point at which the value of the "collateral" would become an issue would be in the event that J.P. Morgan itself was to fail. No, this is not a loan. It is a put option granted by the Fed to J.P. Morgan on a basket of toxic securities. And it is not legal.

Not only was the action illegal, the vote itself was illegal. The Fed needs 5 members to vote on such actions and only 4 members were present. Fed Governor Mishkin was missing in action. Was he opposed to this illegal hijacking? There was an excellent discussion of this idea in the comments section of the California Housing Forecast.

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

The whole world will have to change!

We've started over before, in the 30's and built a better nation. And the whole world, then, was also depressed.

The coruption and greed was world wide, so let each participant suffer for this.

Republicans In Patriotic Offense For Finance

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

I'm not arguing who shows up, I'm arguing the reason McCain is angry.

Lighten up!

The idea of the mega churches as audience is also a reason for McCain's anger because he could not get them to support him before "Scarah".

The point I was making was McCain's anger!

Paulson resists calls for added help in bailout

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is resisting a Democratic push to add additional help for households to the $700 billion bailout bill.

Paulson said Sunday that because financial markets remain under severe stress there is an urgent need for Congress to act quickly without adding other measures that could slow down passage.

''We need this to be clean and to be quick,'' Paulson said in an interview on ABC's ''This Week.''

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Financial-Meltdown.html

Where's Sarah? I got no blips on my Sadar...

Oh wait, I know where she is! At The Beehive, in good ol' Applebee's America. Right up Outcome Alley, doggie!

"If you want to understand why Sarah Palin has made such a powerful connection with American voters, don't listen to the political professionals. Listen to the voice of the Beehive.

Authenticity and community are the most important gut values contemporary voters look for, the men write. That would explain much of Barack Obama's popularity. There wasn't much difference between his policy program and Hillary Clinton's, but Mr. Obama triumphed because masses of Democratic voters believed he truly was someone different. In a year when 80 percent of the voting population thinks the country is headed in the wrong direction, that's powerful stuff."

You just can't make this stuff up! Unless, of course, you're Republican.

>>I worry that I am "asiding" and "digressing" so far afield that the reader would need a map to follow my thoughts.

keep it under your hat, but I'm in negotiations with the Google Earth people to provide exactly this service, in real time, for those who would like to `get' what I'm trying to say, but haven't had traumatic head injuries of their own.

Changing from Capitalism to Socialism is the liberal dream.

Imagine if you had free health care.

Imagine if you had free food.

Imagine if you had free housing.

Imagine if everything was free.

Wow that would be great.

The could even do away with money.

We wouldn't need a government or military.

We could get rid of religion.

No need for work.

No need for competition.

We would all be winners!

Then we could show the rest of world how to do it too!

Campaign cash cows are put out to pasture

This fall, many members of Congress will see a major source of campaign contributions disappear, possibly never to return.

Political action committees affiliated with mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are now banned from engaging in lobbying activities, including making donations. They were ordered to cease when the Bush administration engineered a government takeover of the quasi-governmental companies and put them under a conservatorship in an effort to help reverse a housing and credit crisis.

Whether the PACS come back in some form is likely to depend on the next Congress, says Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who, as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, says he will be open minded about it. ...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/sep/21/campaign-cash-cows-are-put-o...

will show some of Obama's campaign stop in Charlotte soon.

I know several people asked about this this AM.

Now that we are going to bail out foreign banks, George Bush is going to have to decide what kind of Socialist he is. Last week he was a Stalinist/Bukharinist “Socialism in One Country” type - now he is a Trotskyist “World Socialism” kind of guy. What a flip-flopper!!

Palin, who portrays herself as a fiscal conservative, racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt as mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla — that amounts to $3,000 per resident. - Oliver

Submitted by toniD on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 12:45pm.
-----

If I came across as angry, please accept my apology ToniD, I was actually laughing when I wrote it. You've gotta admit it's pretty funny that McCain thought the Fundies would show up for him.

Submitted by mire on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 12:21pm.
...i'm all for it, you live by the freemarket you should be allowed to die by the free market

yes there's gonna be some unfair suffering, but don't you think after all the turmoil we might be able to have a serious debate on what should come next...
-----
I don't know if rapid action was necessary at this time. I also don't know what kind of remedy is best.

I do know that a serious market collapse would cause many more people to suffer who don't deserve to suffer than it would punish among the guilty.

We aren't simply talking 401-K's here, mire, if a serious market collapse were to occur. We are talking about jobs that ordinary citizens have and need to feed themselves.

If it went global, we aren't simply talking about Americans only. Starvation is a component of a global market collapse.

The domino effect could easily begin and, if it did, there would be no way to stop it.

I don't have the knowledge or guts to Monday-morning-quarterback this one from the sidelines.

Attorney General Pulls the Immunity Trigger, But Denies 'Dragnet' Surveillance

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Saturday denied that the Bush administration -- in conjunction with the nation's telecommunication companies -- devised a "dragnet" electronic surveillance program that funneled Americans' communications to the National Security Agency without court warrants.

But the attorney general also insisted that defending his claim in court would harm national security.

"Specific information demonstrating that the alleged dragnet has not occurred cannot be disclosed on the public record without causing exceptional harm to national security," Mukasey wrote in a federal court filing in San Francisco. "However, because there was no such alleged content-dragnet, no provider participated in that alleged activity."

It was the first time Mukasey, as the nation's top law enforcement official, or the government provided an emphatic and wholesale denial of allegations contained in lawsuits accusing the Bush administration of widescale domestic spying in the years following the 2001 terror attacks.

Despite the denial, contained in a court filing (.pdf) made public Saturday, Mukasey asked a federal judge to grant immunity to the nation's telecommunications companies accused of assisting with the alleged surveillance dragnet. It is the first time the government has invoked the immunity legislation Congress approved July 9, which was signed by President Bush the next day.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/mukasey-denies.html

Dick Cheney can't toss records, says court

...
Saturday, a judge from the U.S. District Court in D.C. rejected that idea, giving a first-round victory to a group of historians and others at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), who had sued him in court, concerned about their eventual access to the records.

In her ruling, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly cast doubt on the vice president's argument, given that the Presidential Records Act was specifically amended to prevent former President Richard Nixon from destroying any of the tapes or documents that led to his resignation.

And here's the kicker: Any violation by the preliminary injunction is punishable by immediate contempt -- including the power to jail the offender.
...

Wish I had cable.

It looks like it may come up on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-campaign-coverage.

There was a Maron v. Seder type false start a few minutes ago.

Submitted by McCainVoter on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 12:52pm.
------
Even after all of these years I continue to be stunned by the simplistic and shallow reasoning exhibited by War Dog.

If his brain were a swimming pool, it would be of the wading variety. Inflatable. Stored in the garage for most of the year.

Ah Zeek, cable is a waste of money. You aren't missing anything- you can't find on the Web.

click on image

Nancy Pfotenhauer from the McCain campaign. She irritates me to no end with that fake smile and evil eyed "zombie" look.

She's on with Schuster on MSNBC right now.

--They can't constitutionally do that.
Submitted by Lord Balto on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 10:44am.

I hate to be the one to break it to you guys, but the Congress cannot pass a law making ANYTHING exempt from Judicial review or Executive oversight. These are three separate and co-equal branches of government.--

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext90/const11h.htm

Sounds like some McCain voters are really hoping their ticket is really a Manchurian Candidate?!?

No one works so we'd all be winners?

What kinda nonsense is that? Even Marx and Stalin's uber-leftist communist ideas made everyone work.

Everyone.

...For the good of the 'state' or at least state-run or supported businesses.

Sound familiar? How does everyone like having an extra $2500 to $7500 dumped on top of their debt loads?

Almost feels like you're just working to pay off somebody else's debts...

>>but haven't had traumatic head injuries of their own.

I've received way too many reader's complaints about my tendencies to start talking about the issues of the day and end up talking about comic strips from the 60s...

Along the way I'll reflect on my fantasy sports teams, the relative merits of Pizza versus Nachos, an angry tirade or two about the length of lines at the Costco pharmacy, assorted reminiscences of the 70s, several sarcastic outbursts about the criminality and incompetence of the Bush administration, cataloging the attributes of every pet I've ever met and other subjects to be announced at a later date.

Surprisingly, I do not always hit these subjects by in the logical, linear order the list suggests.

But, you already knew that, hence the deal with the Google Earth folks.

You can't make people do anything.

Would you work if everything is free?

I don't think so.

it's the 'secret sauce'

china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china china

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 1:19pm.
-----
The Google Rajah P.O.V. Earth Cam seems to be stuck on a plate of cold pizza.

VP Debate Rules Dumbed Down
The rules for the upcoming vice-presidential debate have been altered at the McCain campaign's insistence, in an apparent attempt to make things easier on Sarah Palin. Instead of a more open-ended format that will allow the candidates to interact on the issues -- as will be the case in the presidential debates -- the VP debate will consist of much more formulaic question and answer rounds, allowing Palin to repeat stock answers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/us/politics/21debate.html?_r=1&partner...

Your lack of knowledge of history is awful.

Are you serious?

One can make people do stuff all the time.

For example, I'm making you act like an asshole. You'll keep it up, just watch.

Stalin and his kind found work for everyone, even if the job was only digging graves for the people who 'couldn't find work'...

Not to mention McCain, who apparently wasn't 'made' to turn on his own country some 40 years ago?

by saying the government will stand behind the markets we have done all that is really necessary to keep things going.

the transfer of our cash to wall street and foreign entities is merely more theft on a grand scale by the conservatives. that they want us to do and do it now so nobody gets hurt is all you need to know. just like in a heist. get in, get out fast before anybody knows what hit them.

just showed up on the charlotte video

why did they cave in on this? palin is not fit for office. why give her a fighting chance?

is that on tv somewhere?

...

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

McCain Camp Steps Up Palin's Foreign Policy Meetings
Sarah Palin will be meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger this week, in addition to her already-scheduled meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai - because of our problem in Afghanistan

Uribe - because McCain wants the free trade pact passed

Kissinger - To promote the right wing, neocon view of the world.

She's already talked to the Predient of Georgia.

But forget the rest of the world right now because she needs to know just these few.

Obama is on now.

will never relinquish power willingly.

Would you say Stalin's plan or Castro's economic plan was most successful?

Making people work?

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-campaign-coverage

>>If his (Wardog's) brain were a swimming pool, it would be of the wading variety. Inflatable. Stored in the garage for most of the year.

you forgot how the kiddie pool is full of holes and covered with a layer of crust from plasmas best not thought about.

right now, but I've got the speech now from the link I posted earlier. Just an M v. S startup

as an old repub

i approve Obama.

getting more calls

from my old repub buds

coming to the same conclusions.

hearing "we been suckered" fairly often.

ABC pundits slam McCain's handling of financial crisis

How did McCain look during the financial meltdown on Wall Street this week?

Not good, said the pundits on ABC’s This Week, who criticized the Republican presidential candidate’s response to the worst economic crisis in years as inept and confused.

Much of the disapproval centered on what the guests claimed was a lack of presidential poise and leadership as McCain faced a $700 billion proposal from the Bush administration to bail out Wall Street.

"I suppose the McCain campaign's hope is that when there's a big crisis, people will go for age and experience," George Will said. "The question is who in this crisis looked more presidential, calm and unflustered. It wasn't John McCain, who, as usual, substituting vehemence for coherence said let's fire somebody and picked one of the most experienced and conservative people in the administration."

Cokie Roberts compared McCain's optimism about the American economy – he said the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" days before the financial fallout -- to former Republican President Herbert Hoover.

Hoover also praised the economy after bank failures and job layoffs, saying "the fundamental business of the country… is on a sound and prosperous basis."

The Great Depression followed soon after.

"He’s a Republican and whenever Republicans get into this kind of mess… the specter of Herbert Hoover comes out to haunt them," Roberts said.

Sam Donaldson cited McCain’s past voting record as contradictory to his current claims of tough regulation and wondered if the senator was "getting his talking points confused."

"I think the question of McCain’s age is back on the table," Donaldson said.

Polls have shown more voters trust Sen. Barack Obama with the economy, though others show McCain on top when voters were asked which candidate could better handle a crisis.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j422UZ1PVKXp0gH6HCwaY4pg5n7gD93B6UQ80

But a Democratic pollster said Obama’s position could improve if the economic crisis worsens.

"Obama is in a position to improve his poll numbers, given the confidence in his handling of the economy," said Tom Eldon of Schroth, Eldon & Associates.

This video is from ABC's This Week, broadcast September 21, 2008.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/ABC_pundits_slam_McCains_handling_of_0921....

>>I hate to be the one to break it to you guys, but the Congress cannot pass a law making ANYTHING exempt from Judicial review or Executive oversight. These are three separate and co-equal branches of government.--

illegal?

I'd say treasonous.

msnbc cut obama off as soon as he stop talking about the economic crisis.

we can rebuild charlotte

the fires of populism are starting to burn brighter.

"Congress cannot pass a law making ANYTHING exempt from Judicial review or Executive oversight."

i thought you guys were paying attention...

"W" is making a power grab.

he's been stripping congress's powers systematically.

this is more of the same.

they'll kill Obama if he's elected.

you know that right? they can't allow him to inherit those powers.

hope i'm wrong. don't think so though.

They were expecting 20K but that cam angle is pretty tight. It was a stage built in the street from what I understand. They killed the feed pretty fast.

However, it did last just long enough to make me miss faux noose Sunday.

oh, i understand your concerns.....

would have liked a crowd 'pan' myself.

we got a long way to go before his ass is sitting in the oval office.

this whole 50 year scam was to strip goverment from the people.

But if it's true what Balto wrote..
it never hurts to point it out, SJ...
I don't think anyone is under the illusion that the Government can get away with anything they want to...against Congress, and Against the People...

I agree, dan, and those fires are striking fear in the hearts of conservatives all over the country.

This is a golden opportunity for working people...Democrats have the stinking carcass of the CONservative failed economy to hold up to the country right now and they can fracture the Republican congress by shining a harsh light on the oligarch kowtow that the Bush bail out proposal really is. This is the nail in the coffin of his pathetic legacy.

Republican congresspeople are not going to get behind golden parachutes and zero oversight because there's no way to sell that to the people. You can't spin the free market anymore. It just died and the United States has just completely Socialized its economy.

So Biden is ok?

Not Obama!

top of the day to ya.

was discussing this with my old CIA buddie recently.

he figgers this bassic effort to subjagate humanity goes back 4000 years or so.

>>I don't think anyone is under the illusion that the Government can get away with anything they want to...against Congress, and Against the People...

another problem is the precedence it sets. if things are legally challenged the FIRST time around, it is much harder to stop the next time.

this precedes cave men.

he hates it when i 'one up' him.

wish i'd been a fly on the wall for that convo!!
About the "financial crisis:" truth is, both "parties" are very much in bed with the corporations. That's a problem.

always has, since we crawled out of the slime.

compassion takes energy.

i think it's a worthy expenditure.

So Lehman collapsed but "key players" to get $2.5 BILLION in bonuses
Chris in Paris · 9/21/2008 01:31:00 PM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It!

This is yet another example of why we should let all of these bastards rot on the vine and go penniless, without any direct or indirect help. Not until the taxpayers get their profit from stepping up to save Wall Street. I don't care if $2.5 BILLION is a fraction of what they would have received had the miracle of miracles (their pyramid scheme worked) succeeded. Again, there is no reason why we should trust Wall Street insider and former Goldman Sachs executive Hank Paulson. No reason at all. What this latest story does is show us that no, bailouts somehow always end up reinforcing bad behavior. As Noriel Roubini says, it's a matter of "privatizing profits and socializing losses."

Wall Street invested hundreds of millions over years, lobbying Republicans and Washington for a supposed "free market" economy. They got what they wanted, so let them live with the goddamn results of it. None of them ought to profit one penny - not one - from this mess. If anyone deserves to profit, it ought to be the American public, who is getting shafted here. Before one more damned penny is given out to Wall Street, let the US get it's money and then some. Let them all live on government wages for a while before they start shopping at Tiffany again. They've already been paid more than enough.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/09/key-lehman-employees-to-get-25-bi...

This is a power grab with no teeth, Jim

watch how quickly it is going to unravel

the signs were clear:

Paulson was stammering his way through every interview this morning and he just cannot spin this

Conservative round tables shredding the republican presidential candidate less than two months before an election after his worst week yet

not even Boehner had any conviction behind his words and I don;t see other republicans standing up behind the Bush proposal like they always do...

Bush is toast...

i saved his ass long ago.

always an interesting yak when he stops in to chat.

>>So Lehman collapsed but "key players" to get $2.5 BILLION in bonuses

Funny how these "key players" aren't called elitist...

You really should just find something else to do, you're just embarassing yourself and smearing your shit on the tiles isn't helping.

Time to let the grown ups talk, okay buddy. I mean it. Go to your room.

In Mutual Aid (and elsewhere) Kropotkin analysed the libertarian aspects of previous societies and noted those that successfully implemented (to some degree) anarchist organisation or aspects of anarchism. He recognised this tendency of actual examples of anarchistic ideas to predate the creation of the "official" anarchist movement and argued that:

"From the remotest, stone-age antiquity, men [and women] have realised the evils that resulted from letting some of them acquire personal authority. . . Consequently they developed in the primitive clan, the village community, the medieval guild . . . and finally in the free medieval city, such institutions as enabled them to resist the encroachments upon their life and fortunes both of those strangers who conquered them, and those clansmen of their own who endeavoured to establish their personal authority." [Anarchism, pp. 158-9]

love ya.

hope yer right.

all the power freaks

and greedheads are full steam ahead.

they control the media

they control the vote counting

and they control the supreme court.

I Like what I'm hearing, and it's not too far off from what I want to see come back to us from this mess. Time to hammer the blogs and phones!

"So if you are a member of Congress, you just might be in a position to demand from Wall Street certain conditions in return for the blank check.

Wall Streeters may not like these conditions. Well, you should tell them that the public doesn't like the idea of bailing out Wall Street. So if Wall Street doesn't accept these conditions, it doesn't get the blank check."

Robert Reich, via TPM

he has been for a while (what 30% approval?)..but the complicity of m$m has helped buoy him and save his face. Congress should have acted to impeach him and Cheney. Now they and the whold gang will be scot free and if you haven't heard, probably safely seculed on those acres in Paraguay.

"Would you say Stalin's plan or Castro's economic plan was most successful?"

What?

Who said it was successful? (McCainVoter?)

You're either trying to change the subject, or you're a 'Commie'.

Or both?

Man, your real colors are showing through.

No way!

larisa rocks
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/welcome-to-the-final-s...

President Bush on March 17, 2008 clarifying the size and weight of the fish that defines his best moment in office.

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

--Culinary Arts With Chef Bob
Submitted by Star Vox on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 5:09am.--

Yeah, but they're desperate, SJ...no doubt about it..can you not smell the FEAR? Watch Paulson talk for five minutes...

They brought all of this on themselves, though..

Their unregulated market completely imploded and now they're facing not only more regulation than they've ever known, but castration via a taxpayer money bomb and a populist surge.

ie. We'll bail you out, but you have to surrender your keys to the kingdom and to the country clubs! Oh, and your balls, while yer at it!

LAWL!

There's no Secret Service in Paraguay..

I'm just sayin'...

they had "fuld" the ceo from lehman come out dressed only in a barrel. all he could do is express his dismay that if he had waited 4 days to declare bankruptcy that he would have been bailed out.

granted this has no semblance to reality, as the actual asshole gets to retire to connecticut to live in a 60 million dollar mansion with 500 million in the bank to keep himself comfortable for the rest of his life, but still you gotta wonder who he pissed off that the old boys wouldn't come in and bail him out like they have for everyone else.

so if what Balto says is true, about the reviewing part, then Obama will tell. How is congross supposed to decide if they can't question anything? Why bother reading it? How many pages is the whole thing?

"Do be do be dooo."

--Frank Sinatra

i was so pissed this morning i couldn't see straight so the last thing i needed to do was turn the tv on.

glad to see its unraveling. just because bush doesn't get his way doesn't mean we are all toast. it may be rough going for a while but real americans have pulled thru worst, at least thats what my parents and grandparents, may they rest in peace, tell me about the 30's.

Did you know as an occupation chefs have one of the highest rates of substance abuse problems?

just wondering..

i believe the proper unit of measure is called a patriotact, where one patriotact is the number of pages in the original law designed to take away, i mean protect our freedoms.

must be that nitrogen powered whipped cream...

remember that cooking show featuring this guy from the bayou, i think his name was justin something. anyways, he would spend an hour cooking and consuming a gallon of white wine....

...

I used to hang out with a really cool guy who was a chef...that is one sweaty job...

everything seems to point to March 2008

Tuesday, July 8, 2008
THE FINAL GLOBALIZATION OF THE U.S. BANKING SYSTEM
By Joan Veon

We live in a globalized world—a world without barriers or borders, which means every aspect of our economic structure has to change. A private corporation, we call the Federal Reserve, controls the majority of our monetary system. To understand the new set of powers being advanced by the U.S. Treasury Department to the Federal Reserve, we first must recognize that the Federal Reserve Act passed in 1913 never gave them (the Feds) total power over our economy.

To appreciate the importance of what is currently taking place, we must first realize that as a private corporation, the Federal Reserve is not required to make public who sits on their board of Directors nor who or what banks and corporations hold stock in their private company. Additionally, they are not required to publish an annual report, and I am told, they pay no taxes. So why is it that the American people cannot forgive themselves the interest on their debt? It is because it is owed to a private corporation!
...
When the Blueprint was published at the end of March the stock market recovered for a week or two, but now there is a new and constant stream of market hype with some hysteria to ensure that all of its proposals are implemented as soon as possible. On July 10, history will take place when the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson (who’s roots are in Wall Street) and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sit on the SAME panel to testify before Congress. At that time they will provide enough data to secure the Blueprint’s immediate passage. Until Congress assures these financial tyrants of its passage, the stock market will continue to drop as a warning to their all encompassing power; then miraculously the stock market will have one of its largest rallies to commemorate victory. As an international reporter, this is a pattern I have observed time and time again since 1994.
...
To give you a sense of the immense transfer of wealth that is taking place, understand that the U.S. insurers hold $6T in assets, the U.S. banking sector holds $12.6T, and the U.S. securities sector holds $12.4T, for a total of $31T in assets. Are you seeing what they see? Dollar signs and control—control of our financial future, control of where we can live, and control of how we will live. In Medieval times this was called feudalism.

Moreover, the Feds are to be given authority over the U.S. Payment and Settlement System thereby controlling the settlement process for securities, which is the three-day waiting period for the processing of payment, proper paper documentation and titling of the shares.

It is further stated that the Fed be given the role of Market Stability Regulator. This is highly unprecedented. By doing so, the Fed will have total control over what happens in the market; not just the amount of liquidity they funnel in and channel out. The Blueprint states the Fed should be given responsibility to: gather appropriate information, disclose information, collaborate with other regulators [international] on rule writing and take corrective actions when necessary in the “interest of overall financial market stability”. “This new role would replace its traditional role as a supervisor of certain banks and all bank holding companies. The Fed’s responsibilities would be broad, important and difficult to undertake.”

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

well said dan - - they didn't even bother to read it - or have nayone else read it (I was talking about the Patriot Act, but it could apply to the Constitution, too)

>>granted this has no semblance to reality, as the actual asshole gets to retire to connecticut to live in a 60 million dollar mansion

that's when I turned the tube off.

I was disappointed with the actor who played McCain...didn't look like him...didn't act like him...didn't sound like him...the material was OK, but the actor seemed to go out of his way to make McCain look better than he really is.

>>must be that nitrogen powered whipped cream...

LOL...that and the long hours...most get off after midnight and there is a bar on site.

Most painters don't have it so easy.

believe it or not, Alice, three...three pages

>>or have nayone else read it

If I had written this Crank would be on my ass about being a naysayer, a naybob of negativity.

( but since I didn't make the typo, I'm free to crack wise ;) )

Newsflash: Fox Guards Henhouse

Shit Eating

Obama's people are making the right noises, but there's a difference between being on record as being kinda-maybe against and actually, you know, opposing. From Late Edition:

GOOLSBEE: There is more information on the back of a box of Froot Loops than on what they've presented.

Basically, you'd have to be insane to give Paulson a $700 billion blank check with no strings attached. The fact that this is what Paulson has asked Congress to do is enough reason to tell him to fuck off and come up with something better, with him utterly out of the loop.

The Dems sucked as a minority party, and they suck harder as the majority.

-Atrios 14:40

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_09_21_archive.html#7988228822104091146

Deep Thought

The Blue Dog Democrats, self-described fiscal conservatives, have been more responsible for adding to the debt than anyone.

-Atrios 12:58

well, duh..they are a disgrace.

Yes, There Are Deeply Angry Democratic Members of Congress
by: Matt Stoller

This email is from a lawmaker and it should give you a flavor for what's going on right now in Congress.

Paulsen and congressional Republicans, or the few that will actually vote for this (most will be unwilling to take responsibility for the consequences of their policies), have said that there can't be any "add ons," or addition provisions. Fuck that. I don't really want to trigger a world wide depression (that's not hyperbole, that's a distinct possibility), but I'm not voting for a blank check for $700 billion for those mother fuckers.
Nancy said she wanted to include the second "stimulus" package that the Bush Administration and congressional Republicans have blocked. I don't want to trade a $700 billion dollar giveaway to the most unsympathetic human beings on the planet for a few fucking bridges. I want reforms of the industry, and I want it to be as punitive as possible.

Henry Waxman has suggested corporate government reforms, including CEO compensation, as the price for this. Some members have publicly suggested allowing modification of mortgages in bankruptcy, and the House Judiciary Committee staff is also very interested in that. That's a real possibility.

We may strip out all the gives to industry in the predatory mortgage lending bill that the House passed last November, which hasn't budged in the Senate, and include that in the bill. There are other ideas on the table but they are going to be tough to work out before next week.

I also find myself drawn to provisions that would serve no useful purpose except to insult the industry, like requiring the CEOs, CFOs and the chair of the board of any entity that sells mortgage related securities to the Treasury Department to certify that they have completed an approved course in credit counseling. That is now required of consumers filing bankruptcy to make sure they feel properly humiliated for being head over heels in debt, although most lost control of their finances because of a serious illness in the family. That would just be petty and childish, and completely in character for me.

I'm open to other ideas, and I am looking for volunteers who want to hold the sons of bitches so I can beat the crap out of them.

Matt Stoller ::

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8374

Observation

I think everyone who reads this blog who's American, first thing on Monday morning, needs to call their Representatives and Senators and say: No. Blank. Checks. For. Crooks.

Be as polite as you can be and don't use bad words. Personally, this injunction may limit the duration of my calls to under a thirtieth of a second, or shorter.

TO CLARIFY. Look, right now the choice is, Bush's Plan, or Something Else. Kill Bush's Plan now, worry about Something Else later.

-Thers 02:09

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_09_21_archive.html#6657433867278874680

my old cook friend Bob Lyman used to embarass me every time we went into a supermarket.

he'd open up the cooler and suck all the NO2 out of two or three whipped cream cans.

one of the Florence Safeway ladies busted him one time doing that.

he lied his brains out in a weird babble denieing it.

she looked at me and we both burst out laughing.

his entire face, shirt and glasses were covered by whip cream sprizzles...

she told me to haul him out of the store and removed all of the cans as we retreated...

when he died he had what was left cremated and in his will asked that his ashes be distributed to his friends.

he wanted us all to have

"A cup of Bob"

I thought you said they could make folks work?

I just want to stay home and play.

I just wanna be a socialist not a communist.

But first we gotta get rid of these pesky capitalists!

great idea!!!

There's been a lot of blame from the right on the homeowners who took loans for homes they could not afford.

The truth is: When they were approved for their `adjustable rate' loans and mortgages the DID qualify for them and could afford the payments.

by and large, they were led to believethat should the rate adjust, it would be downward...

when their loans were sold to other banks, the rates went UP.

that's when they could not afford the payments.

We would not be in this mess if that sort of shell-game wasn't legal.

Barack Obama holds a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina Sunday. (Mike Roselli/CNN)

He's heavily targeting the state that has voted Republican in several presidential elections. During his remarks, he said the $700 billion financial market bailout has a “sobering price tag," and accused the Bush administration of running the economy into the ground. He also got tough on John McCain:

“While I certainly don’t fault Senate McCain for all of the problems we’re facing right now but I do fault the economic philosophy he’s followed during his 26 years in Washington,” he said, adding “If your car is in a ditch, you don’t want a driver who thinks that we should take the same path that’s got us in the ditch.”

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/21/scenes-from-the-trail-ob...

Next vacation I go on, it will be to Socialist Europe.

I hear everything is free there!

not only that, but their economies aren't melting down!

The old system worked well for two hundred years.

The poor people rented.

They lived in apartments or rented houses.

The rich people bought the investment property and then rented it to the folk who didn't have any money to buy a house.

Ownership isn't for everyone.

Some folks are just renters.

Things will get back to normal soon.

exactly chubby

Or Mexico.

Sandy is movin to Mexico.

She is gonna get a maid and buy some property.

I wouldn't mind livin on the beach.

"I just wanna be a socialist..."

-Submitted by McCainVoter on Sun, 09/21/2008 - 3:15pm.

Corporate socialists used to be sneaky and sly...