When you rob from Peter to pay Paul you will ALWAYS get Paul's vote.
Hat tip: American Thinker
No problem here? No connection to the economic downfall? Do you seriously think that it will not get worse? How much evidence does it take for one to understand exactly what Barack Obama is all about?
Forget the relevance to Obama's middle name being Hussein, it should be Acorn, and from little acorns come some mighty big trees, and these trees are going to continue to shade out a lot of American productive growth.
When you rob from Peter to pay Paul you will ALWAYS get Paul's vote.
It is getting ugly out there. There are attacks and counter-attacks of removing lawn signs. First the McCains and lately the Obamas. Not good.
ReplyDeleteThe advocates for Paul will tell us that Peter has not been paying his fair share, for years and years, while Paul has paid the price in blood, sweat and tears.
ReplyDelete1913 was a very bad year for the Republic, one from which it may never recover.
Betcha they did not think so at the time, but those unitended consequences of that years' progress just keep adding up and piling on. If one supposes the consequences really were unintended.
The resulting distortions seem quite evidently clear, in hindsight. just as the consequences of the solutions to today's crisis of financial mismanagment loom large.
WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and veteran of the civil rights movement, says the negative tone of the Republican presidential campaign reminds him of the hateful atmosphere that segregationist Gov. George Wallace fostered in Alabama in the 1960s.
ReplyDeleteRepublican candidate John McCain on Saturday called Lewis' remarks "shocking and beyond the pale."
The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator doesn't believe McCain or his policy criticism is at all comparable to Wallace and his segregationist policies.
In a statement issued Saturday, Lewis said McCain and running mate Sarah Palin were "sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse." He noted that Wallace also ran for president.
"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights," said Lewis, who is black. "Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama."
Which is what habu tells US is in our future. Leaving us to wonder about Cause and Effect, chickens and eggs.
In August, while appearing at a forum on faith, McCain was asked to name three "wise people" he would listen to. He cited Lewis as well as Gen. David Petreaus, head of U.S. troops in Iraq, and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a top adviser to his campaign.
ReplyDeleteSo much for Maverick McCain's ability to judge character.
same goes for Warren Buffet.
ReplyDeleteExactly, amigo.
ReplyDeleteThis is typical of McCain, just so typical, it comes as no surprise or shock.
He resides far from his myth, as becomes more evident to those of you just learning about Maverick, now.
26 years of experience as a constituent adds up. This behaviour and attitude on his part, it is nothing new.
The smartest move for the Treasury and fed on Tuesday morning would be to buy bank stocks on the open market. They can use the political cover of saying they are shoring up IRAs. They could put the shares in the Social Security trust fund. The short sellers would have to join the buying spree.
ReplyDeleteThe government could then do a combination of injecting new money into the banks, while continue to buy on the open market. This would prevent the dilution of existing stockholders while recapitalizing the banks. This would increase confidence and help slow or stop the panic selling.
As a practical matter they have the power to do it now, and it would be an immediate game changer.
ReplyDeleteSo, now that the Executive has a cash balance of over $700 billion USD to save the markets, they are changing the "Plan".
ReplyDeleteMoving from buying the distressed "assets", those bad loans and mortgages, to having President Obama buy the banks, directly.
Health care, the debates rage for decades until it becomes a National Security issue.
But to Federalize the financial services industry, just a week to pass, little debate and a "Plan" in flux.
Nationalizing the banks, decided over cigars and cognac, in the salons of DC and NYCity.
They seem to be buying, in the back room, not on the market.
ReplyDeleteThey appear to be developing a new Class of investment, duece. Nothing so crass as to use the existing market, to save it.
But, yes, they could buy existing shares off the Street. That they do not, telling a tale of its' own.
it is outrageous that they are diluting the people who trusted the system. Talk about insider trading. Martha Stewart comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteAll the while, letting the crisis drag on, without decisive action. Ms Pelosi's couple of day delay, of seemingly less consequence as these days of financial despair drag on.
ReplyDeleteNow empowered, Team43 stands like a deer caught in the headlights.
Dazed and confused as the collision approaches.
Or with steely self-discipline.
Like Crockett, Bowie and Travis.
They've also diluted those that did not trust the system.
ReplyDeleteReal Estate owners, those not having bought into NINJA schemes.
Main Streeters staying as far from Wall Street as they could.
Hourly wage earners, in factories that had stayed comeptitive with China, but now are forced to close.
The results are as important as the cause, unless it was not an "accidental meltdown" of a flawed design.
If it was not a "bug" but a feature.
sent.
ReplyDeleteMcCain and Palin have run a civil campaign.
ReplyDeleteBut I do think we are on the verge of a breakdown in our national life.
Rat may hate McCains's guts, but it isn't McCain that will be coming for his guns, but the communitiy organizers.
Steyn thinks Talk Radio and the Internet are gonna be targets.
ReplyDeleteFairness, ya know.
---
Idaho gets earliest snow since records began in 1898...
We want some snowman pics, LaBobSled.
I think the markets are fearful of an Obama victory, and are scared. At this point, it seems beyond a subprime crisis, to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm sittin' here shivering right now, Doug, while you are basking in Hawaii.
ReplyDeleteAnd I never turn the furnace on till November.
We had a tough one last year.
That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.
brrrrrrrrr
If they are coming, bob, they'll be coming, regardless.
ReplyDeleteMy knowing McCain, it gave me an insight to predicting his behavioural course. 26 years of experience put me ahead on that curve.
The reach of the EB, great as it is, did not put my dissent in front of enough voters to create a "No Leaners" projection of
Obama/Biden 353, McCain/Palin 185
Electoral College Votes.
I was trying to get my amigos up to speed, on who John McCain is.
The man, not the myth
Which bears no support of Obama, truth be known.
Igloo.
ReplyDeleteRemember the good old days?
ReplyDelete---
"The idea for the 747SP came from a joint request between Pan Am and Iran Air who were looking for a high capacity airliner that capable of covering Pan Am's New York-Middle Eastern routes and Iran Air's planned Tehran-New York Route which, when launched at the time, was the longest nonstop commercial flight in the world. The plane was first was first offered to customers in 1974 and the first airframe was delivered in 1976.
A shorter derivative of the 747-100, the SP was developed to target two market requirements. "
---
Good old Iran Air and the Tehran-New York Route!
I do not think the average American has considered the seriousness of this "community organization" concept and simply has no idea as to how much control and support that there is for left wing causes in the black community.
ReplyDeleteThe American public was stunned when a black jury found OJ Simpson innocent. The apologists in the left leaning media tried to marginalize the jury. If you listen to black talk radio, it is obvious that black main stream is politically collectivist and believes in socialism from cradle to grave and an expanding vision of entitlement.
Anyone who steps up to criticize is branded racist. The term racist is the DDT of political discourse.
Obama is a radical socialist's dream. He seems reasonable in word, but look at the deed. The man is way out of the American mainstream and it is unfortunate that we have such a poor performing opponent.
Sarah Palin is not going to take anyones guns away.
ReplyDeleteCan you IMAGINE 5 (FIVE) G's in a 747? Shit!
ReplyDelete---
"On February 19, 1985, China Airlines Flight 006, a 747SP-09 (N4522V) with 274 passengers and crew onboard on a flight from Chiang Kai-shek Airport to Los Angeles International Airport suffered an inflight failure on the no.4 engine.
While the flight crew attempted to restore power the aircraft rolled to the right and started a steep descent from the cruising altitude of 41,000 feet, accelerating to 4.8 G and 5.1 G on two occasions.
The captain managed to stabilize the aircraft at 9,500 feet and the aircraft diverted to San Francisco International Airport which was 550 km (343.8 mls) away.
Two passengers were injured and the aircraft suffered major structural damage."
i agree deuce. 'Community organizer' is going to be a hated phrase in my lifetime.
ReplyDeleteThe stream has shifted, duece.
ReplyDeleteHappens up in the Tonto Basin quite abit, the stream cuts a new channel, but stays within the banks
Obama may be carried along, in the Mainstream, all the way to the lake.
Rather than bring us together, like a guy like Thomas Sowell would have a real chance to do, this guy may well succeed in tearing the country apart.
ReplyDeleteIf he wasn't in the Mainstream
ReplyDeleteObama/Biden 353, McCain/Palin 185
wouldn't be the case
Good image, Rat.
ReplyDeleteI hope it 'stays within the bank'.
Are you going to give up your guns, Rat, when the new Obama Supreme Court orders you to do, or bury them out back, like me?
ReplyDeleteIs Bob Barr going to defend your 2nd Amendment Rights?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWho knows what Bob Barr would do, bob. I don't have a clue, nor much worry of impossible scenarios.
ReplyDeleteGonna leave 'em in closet, right where they are now.
Hard to get to 'wm when you need 'em, buried in the ground.
That's where we find the cost of freedom.
Obama and fellow travellers
ReplyDeleteI think DR hit a very interesting point.
ReplyDeleteThanks to the social engineering of the left, we now find ourselves stampeded into giving the Treasury Secretary unprecedented powers. Given the way we have already been brought to the doorstep of bankruptcy, the thought of Obama, Pelosi and Reed calling the shots really makes me wonder where this is going. Unfortunately, McCain has not given any comfort.
The danger to our Republic comes when the mob gets the keys to the treasury.
The keys to the treasury... We been robbed!
I'll be blunt.
ReplyDeleteI don't think black folks have any cause for complaint in our society now.
I think it is a bunch of crap, all this talk of racism, when the laws actually favor the blacks.
I know what goes on at the University of Idaho. There is no racism there. Except affirmative action, which might be ok, up to a point. But the point is fast receding.
Are you going to pay 'reparations' with a smily face, Rat, when you had nothing to do with the affair?
Gonna leave 'em in closet, right where they are now.
ReplyDeleteAnd may the Lord of All Light Bless You!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh, I just think we best get out there and vote for John and Sarah, whatever their faults.
ReplyDeleteThere's still an outside chance that Obama can be stopped but only if the true nature of his past associations can be broadly revealed to the American public. So far, aided by a constitutionally negligent MSM, Obama has been able obfuscate this past.
ReplyDeleteIt has been pointed out numerous times that since 2000, the Dr Dean/Move-On leftists have taken control of the Democrat party. Of course, many in the D party laughed at the idea but it will be very interesting to watch the parade in and out of the White House.
Deuce is right about Urban Talk Radio. Talk about the lunatic fringe!
It is disheartening and alarming to listen to the dysfunction.
Republican Means Slavery
ReplyDeleteOf course, this is just total nonsense, the Republican Party having been the party that freed the slaves.
Our country is heading down the toilet of meaninglessness.
This has come to my mind. There is a place down there at Troy, Oregon, which is nothing, called The Troy Resort. They were asking three millions dollars for it. On the back of an envelope, I figured out it wasn't worth three hundred thousand, with the income you could create. I'm not really certain it's worth thirty thousand dollars, when you figure what taxes you got to pay.
ReplyDeleteThree million dollars?
Our society seems to have lost any good sense.
It is a nice place to sit for an afternoon however.
If you have the gas to get there.
Sarah Palin As A Kid
ReplyDelete- Why Iceland is Melting -
ReplyDeleteIts three largest banks, Kaupthing, Landsbanki, and Glitnir quintupled in size since 2004, and Bloomberg estimates they now hold assets worth 12 times Iceland's gross domestic product.
To put that in the perspective of our own struggling economy, that's the same as if the combined assets of Citigroup, Bank of America, and J.P. Morgan Chase totaled some $160 trillion. Instead, they total around $7.4 trillion.
What's happened now that the global credit crunch has hit Iceland's lenders is that its banks can't cover their debts, and the country's economic structure is not equipped to repay them either. Its population is a mere 320,000—just a touch bigger in size than Cincinnati, Ohio.
"What we have learned from this whole exercise is that it is not wise for a small country to try to take a leading role in international banking," Geir Haarde, Iceland's prime minister, told reporters yesterday. "We are too small to sustain a banking system that has become too big."
Re:
ReplyDeletethe parade in and out of the Obama White House.
Reverend Wright has already notified the one that he will be calling 1300 Pennsylvania Ave.
The Acorn lady got a first 100 days commitment from the candidate.
Lindsey Graham is on Face the Nation talking about the coming government mandate which will require banks to renegotiate loans to market value.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the money going to come from to do this? You know the banks will not be asked to make that sacrifice.
Soak the rich!
1300 + 300 = 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
ReplyDeleteStanford recently had an ad-hoc panel with finance and law school faculty . Here’s the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/teach-inSept.html
---
““Surely there is a more direct way to address the problem,” Singleton said.
One way would be to invest in the banking sector, essentially offsetting the “liquidity discount” now in the market.
He said government should get an equity stake in that case “on the part of the American taxpayers” and not “give away that liquidity discount.”
- Leo @ BC
Bobal: This has come to my mind. There is a place down there at Troy, Oregon, which is nothing, called The Troy Resort. They were asking three millions dollars for it.
ReplyDeleteThat's a bit too much, an account of all the competition from the other major hotel in Troy, the swank Troy Shilo Inn.
HA
Corsair - Hornet - Miramar Airshow -
ReplyDeleteIf you were old enough, T, you'd remember the days when MOST small bridges looked like that!
ReplyDeleteWhile CRA spurred Acorn's growth, the "living wage" is the group's most successful local issue. In the early '90s, advocates persuaded Baltimore to require city government contractors to pay salaries substantially above the federal minimum wage; the campaign caught the attention of Acorn just when the Gingrich Congress was coming into power with a conservative agenda. Stymied in Washington, Acorn decided instead it would work city by city, starting in the most liberal places, to enact local wage legislation. Partnering with Wayne State University's publicly funded labor studies program, Acorn set up a national living-wage center to help coordinate campaigns. Some 125 municipalities have since passed living-wage legislation.
ReplyDeleteThe movement is not always what it appears to be. Though Acorn touts living-wage laws as a way to lift the working poor into the middle class, the vast body of academic work on wage laws shows that they end up hurting the poor by forcing businesses to eliminate some low-wage jobs. Acorn's own leadership understands this principle perfectly. When California regulators sued Acorn for not paying its own workers the minimum wage, Acorn argued that this would endanger its mission—because it would have to hire fewer workers.
2164th said...
ReplyDeleteThe smartest move for the Treasury and fed on Tuesday morning would be to buy bank stocks on the open market. They can use the political cover of saying they are shoring up IRAs. They could put the shares in the Social Security trust fund. The short sellers would have to join the buying spree.
The government could then do a combination of injecting new money into the banks, while continue to buy on the open market. This would prevent the dilution of existing stockholders while recapitalizing the banks. This would increase confidence and help slow or stop the panic selling.
Sun Oct 12, 07:29:00 AM EDT
Lindsey Graham is on Face the Nation talking about the coming government mandate which will require banks to renegotiate loans to market value.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the money going to come from to do this? You know the banks will not be asked to make that sacrifice.
Soak the rich!"
The US government paid stealth reparations. It made a transfer of wealth which is now coming due. Who is paying, everyone who owns property or investments. The deal is done, payment is due. Do not make the payment and the price will get higher. Why cannot the American people get it through their heads as to what has happened here.
Affirmative action in lending has cost this country and the world trillions. It is anyone's guess how many. Now they are prepared to give unlimited power to the architects of the deal.
In a normal world every acorn office should be under assault. They and their patrons did much more financial damage than 911.
ReplyDeleteWMFD: Weapons of Mass Financial Destruction.
You were had baby, scammed by the process, the laws, the racial shakedown, the financial wizards on Wall Street, the lawyers who protected them and all the politicians that did not do the job for which they were paid.
Deuce,
ReplyDeleteSo how do you restore accountability?
Get Government out of Business!
ReplyDelete(talk about tilting @windmills, when the political wind blows in a socialist supermajority!)
ReplyDeleteThe American public has been psychologically beaten into submission through the preposterous lie that one generation owes another something for nothing. The schools teach inclusion and diversity by the underlying proposition that a white European based nation is evil and rotten to the core, only to be saved by including the discriminated and under-achieved.
ReplyDeleteA nation built on Judeo-Christian word and values is not good enough. New values had to be established.
The core values of the US needed to be changed to a higher noble standard confected by the self loathing Left.
Pay up and shut up.
Like sheep they line us up for the sheering. they got the wool, now they are going for meat and bones.
WMFD
How do you play three card monty and win? You can't.
ReplyDeleteunless of course you deal.
ReplyDeleteOnly those who Fucked it up can fix it, Deuce.
ReplyDelete...it's in the cards.
(Pelosi told me so after a seance w/her Tarot Card Reader)
11. Begin simply. Ask yes and no questions at first -- one rap for no, two raps for yes, for example.
ReplyDeleteCommunicate directly.
If a spirit chooses to speak through the medium, you may ask any kind of question.
Maintain control.
If the séance seems to be getting out of hand, end the séance by breaking the circle of hands, extinguishing the candles and turning on the lights.
End the séance.
When you're done with your questioning, thank the spirit for joining you and tell them to go in peace.
Break the circle of hands and extinguish the candles.
Want to win it back over one weekend?
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you how. Make a Ten million American march on Washington. Scare the living shit out of them. Converge on them instead of waving a styrofoam
"were number one" carry a styrofoam pitchfork just to let them know you are paying attention.
make a special trip down K street. let them know you care.
Deuce,
ReplyDeleteI don't play three card monty. But I do think that multi party proportional representative democracy would go a long way to address many of the problems.
Deuce,
ReplyDeleteOnce you've read Sol Stern @ City Journal, you'll see that your conservative Education Agenda has been left in the dirt by the educational revolution brought to us by Ayers/Obama!
Mat, if you had smaller representative entities such that LA, NYC, Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago, represented their own turf and di not drag the rest of the state with them, it would be a game changer.
ReplyDeleteThose five cities game the system.
ReplyDeleteFor your next trip to Ohio, LaBob!
ReplyDelete...I've got a great photo of my Grandfather's Drugstore in Toledo.
...If I can find it.
The electoral college should have 2 votes per county, across the land!
ReplyDeleteFat Chance.
Those five cities game the system.
ReplyDelete==
But that's the thing, Deuce. Representative democracy decentralizes power.
That should read:
ReplyDelete..proportionally representative democracy..
(very important)
==
The republican electoral college system is a bust.
Hockingvalleyrailway
ReplyDeleteLook at one thing Obama is promising and consider the implications:
ReplyDeleteIf he makes good on his promise to send a check to 95% of the US public, he further shifts the dependent class into a super majority that gets benefits for which they do not pay.
No skin in the game.
The system was rigged when employers were coerced to withholding payroll taxes. They should have told the government to do their own dirty work. They did not. It was a fatal mistake.
Get people to send in their own taxes and see how that works out.
Ever get delayed at an airport and receive a food voucher? Almost every person on the plane will spend it to the dime, hungry or not.
The taking will never stop. Takers stop when you stop giving.
You cannot fix a problem if you can't mouth the words. Our rulers and masters have spent less time and thought to try and come up with a financial fix than you would in deciding which lawn mower to buy.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot fix a problem if you can't mouth the words.
ReplyDelete==
I think "fix" was in a long time ago. All you have to do is look when Goldman Sucks was shorting stocks, and then ask yourself why.
...not to mention whatever Soros and affiliated America Haters around the Globe did.
ReplyDelete...with our money which paid for their Oil.
Any junior level bank officer, above the pay grade of teller, would have known that you should not do what the American Financial system did.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot lend money to people who have no chance of paying it back regardless of motivation. The people who concocted this mess have no sense of honor. Those that suffer from it should not be constrained in their response.
..the "fix" was in a long time ago..
ReplyDeleteMat , excellent point. I wonder how many securities they traded concurrent with their shorting activities?
ReplyDeleteDeuce, that's something that prosecutors should look into. Personally, I would not even bother. I'd just have these fscks against the wall and be done with it.
ReplyDeleteIn his very first comment DR puts his finger on a situtation that is agreed to ny such noted writers as Joseph Ellis His Excellency , the late Pulitzer Prize Winner,James Flexner, Washinton, the Indispensible Man and Pilitzer Prize Winning Author, David McCullough, 1776 .
ReplyDeleteThe august personages all agreed in their variious writins that the vociferous groups such as The Sons of Liberty were never found on the battlefields but rather in the salons and taverns.
It was waht McCoullough called the Rabble in Arms that did the fighting and the dying.
Many without shoes because the Continential Congress would not supply then. Many without clothes for the same reason. And yet with his back to the wall in 1775 and enlistments due to expire on Jan 1 Washington crossed the Delaware and took the Hessian garrison at Trenton in 45 minuts with very few casualties.
It's the Rabble in Arms that gets the job done.
Our history is very illuminating with regard to almost every aspect of what took place. Aside from a very few I usually read people's popular legends of what went on to establish this nation, but rarely do I read informed opinion.
How many of you know anything about how the FED was established, in total secrecy on Jekyl Island, Ga. by private banker? Today it is still a non traded stock company controlled by relatively few families. A sample:
CHAPTER ONE Jekyll Island [SECRETS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE By Eustace Mullins]
"The matter of a uniform discount rate was discussed and settled at Jekyll Island."--Paul M. Warburg1
On the night of November 22, 1910, a group of newspaper reporters stood disconsolately in the railway station at Hoboken, New Jersey. They had just watched a delegation of the nation’s leading financiers leave the station on a secret mission. It would be years before they discovered what that mission was, and even then they would not understand that the history of the United States underwent a drastic change after that night in Hoboken.
The delegation had left in a sealed railway car, with blinds drawn, for an undisclosed destination. They were led by Senator Nelson Aldrich, head of the National Monetary Commission. President Theodore Roosevelt had signed into law the bill creating the National Monetary Commission in 1908, after the tragic Panic of 1907 had resulted in a public outcry that the nation’s monetary system be stabilized. Aldrich had led the members of the Commission on a two-year tour of Europe, spending some three hundred thousand dollars of public money. He had not yet made a report on the results of this trip, nor had he offered any plan for banking reform.
Accompanying Senator Aldrich at the Hoboken station were his private secretary, Shelton; A. Piatt Andrew, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Special Assistant of the National Monetary Commission; Frank Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York, Henry P. Davison, senior partner of J.P. Morgan Company, and generally regarded as Morgan’s personal emissary; and Charles D. Norton, president of the Morgan-dominated First National Bank of New York. Joining the group just before the train left the station were Benjamin Strong, also known as a lieutenant of J.P. Morgan; and Paul Warburg, a recent immigrant from Germany who had joined the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb
http://www.whale.to/b/mullins5.html
2164th: If he makes good on his promise to send a check to 95% of the US public, he further shifts the dependent class into a super majority that gets benefits for which they do not pay.
ReplyDeleteRobert Mugabe did the same thing when he nationalized the white farms in Zimbabwe. Reality intervened.
Deuce, thank you for your kind comments. I have greatly enjoyed commenting at the EB (I gotta admit Trish gave me a few moments with the whole dog/cat vomit thing:)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Rascism is a disease that will spread out of control, quickly, if not checked at the first occurrence. I can not have my grandchildren walk into the room and see me contributing on a site that has "Sambo" with an Alfalfa Avatar. I don't care to give up that much respect, nor do I want to set that bad an example.
I greatly admire Habu's intellect, and recognize his value as a prolific poster, and incisive analyst. I, mostly, look forward to what he has to contribute. Be that as it may, however, as the old joke goes, "There's some things a rat just won't do;" and, being associated with race-tinged rants is, in my case, one of them.
I very much hope that Habu will tone it back a bit. I would be immensely saddened to "lose" the Bar. It has become a, probably, too-major part of my life.
Okay, I think the plunge-protection is coming from Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East. It just makes sense. They have the money, and a LOT to lose.
Watch the Dollar tuesday morning. It went out fri night at about $1.339. If it strengthens strongly early to, say, $1.330, or $1.329 that might be a signal that the Cavalry is on the way. Just don't bet the kids college fund on it;)
However, Barack Obama is NOT the answer.
ReplyDeleteAn alternative explanation of the rescue plan:
Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and
announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out
to the forest, and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish,
they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.
The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This
renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching
monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even further and they
were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their
farms and forgot about monkey catching.
The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys
became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much
less catch one.
The man no w announced that he would buy monkeys for $50! However,
since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would
now buy on his behalf.
While the man was away the assistant told the villagers. 'Look at
all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought. I will
sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city,
you can sell them to him for $50 each.'
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the
monkeys. They never saw the man nor his assistant again and once
again there were monkeys everywhere.
Now you have a general understanding of how the government bailout works.
Welcome back Rufus, I'd hate to see you go.
ReplyDeleteNow check this out. It is a new report from Reuters about a new economic plan:
ReplyDelete:WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain is considering rolling out a new comprehensive economic package to tackle the U.S. financial crisis, one of his closest supporters said on Sunday.
"I think it goes along the lines that now is the time to lower tax rates for investors, capital gains tax, dividend tax rates, to make sure that we can get the economy jump-started," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
McCain, 72, was in the Washington area and off the campaign trail on Sunday, prepared for his debate on Wednesday against Democratic rival Barack Obama.
That debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, will be the last of three face-offs between the two candidates before the November 4 election and will give McCain one more chance to reverse his recent slide in the polls.
Obama, 47, opened a 6-point lead over McCain in a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Sunday. Other polls, too, show the Democratic senator from Illinois pulling away, and s some give him a lead in double digits...."
Notice the article though it important to further identify McCain and Obama by age. No mention of Lindsey Graham's age. For purposes of further edification why did they stop there? Surely they could offer some additional information.
Miss T., that's the Wenaha comin' in there to the Grand Ronde. There is a trail that goes up it, which has now been closed to motor bikes.
ReplyDeletePretty good fishing if you know what you are doing, and want to walk a ways.
Shilo Inn = what I call The Troy Resort.
ReplyDeleteOnly thing in town, now.
In fact, it is the town.
Used to be there was a horse outfit in town, you could rent yourself a horse, ride up the Wenaha.
They put a little liquor bar in, back in the back, where the pool table used to be.
That old steel bridge across the Grand Ronde is closed now, Miss T.
ReplyDeleteThey built another one downstream, some miles.
There used to be a school in the meadow across the old steel bridge.
Believe it or not, one of my aunts,(I had quite a few) taught at Flora, back in the old days.
We must have seen 100 mule deer, hanging around in groups, here and there, plus the bighorns, on our last trip to Troy.
Bobal, I never been through Troy, but it makes Imbler look like a megopolis. I stayed there for a weekend when I was about 11 or 12 because my Navy dad knew some white guys. It's white bread central out there. We even went to Hot Lake and Union. To get there we went up Cabbage Patch hill out of Pendelton, and the image of the flats down there after you climb up the face of the Rocky Mountain front, like an infinite chessboard at sunset, that stayed with me for a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to add that Union, Oregon is exactly the sort of place you'd find Tom Sawyer. You know what I mean, bobal. But it's probably all Starbucked out by now.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty, down that way. Makes for a good drive, from here. It's where we were when St. Helens blew her top.
ReplyDeleteAll of a sudden, big black cloud coming in, like nothing I'd ever seen before.
There used to be more people around Troy than now. The Shilo is the whole place now. And, it's closed a good part of the time.
It's been for sale, off and on, over the years. Just a short time ago, seeing the ad in the paper here, I called the realtor about it.
$3 million.
Not a chance, with my bank account.
They can't be making any money.
Maybe there will be a foreclosure sale one of these days.
Rufus,
ReplyDeleteGlad you're back. However it is only fair to let you and others know that when I write I say what I mean and mean what I say.
If that means I revert to using the word Negro, who if you cared to study one of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement, Bayard Rustin, said he had no problem with it, then you are going to be disappointed. And on the strength of the use of one word you are capable of charging an individual with being a racists then I would suggest you recalibrate your sensitivities.
As for race in this country, to talk about it does not make one a racists. The current black leadership can get away with all manner of white guilt ploys, white devil epithets ,kill whitey rants and most of the MSM won't report it, thus encouraging it.
When this country, basically the black community can elevate the leadership they have to the positions they occupy then we are in deep trouble. How does a community elevate to spokesman for them a person such as Al Sharpton who made his bones on the totally bogus case of Twanna Brawley. Or elevate a person like Mr. Wright (I refuse to call him Pastor or minister for that is an insult to all who hold those responsibilities dear). I could create a list of every black leader and not come up with more than two who have a shred of decency, honor, or other virtues normally associated with honest leadership….most are blackmailing thugs feeding off of the extortion of white corporate America.
So stand by for one of two things to happen. 2164 will bar me to placate you or there will, from time to time, be discussion about blacks, Negros, African Americans in this country.
Harry Truman said "if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen"
Well this black /white conversation has been going on in this country since before the Revolutionary War. Why you believe it should be out of bounds, or call someone a racists because they use the word Negro is not a reasonable position to take. It is the perfect PC position to take but I resist genuflecting to the PC gods.
I’m just guessing here but I would make the guess that there are millions of Americans who are very happy your ban on speaking about things racial never became fashionable:
I believe they were called Abolitionists and had they been defeated you could own a slave today. So talk does have it’s place and racial conversations have there place, lest we choose to simply accept the dictates of those in power without any recourse at all.
One of Ernest Hemingway's sons, can't recall which one, had a spread up on top somewhere. I think he was the father of the girl that married the French restaurant owner, then divorced, then finally killed herself someway, the Hemingway way. Margot, I believe.
ReplyDeleteThen some years later he died a natural death, his fancy pickup truck for sale in the paper here.
Habu, using the word "negro," and posting an avatar of Buckwheat with the moniker "Sambo" are two entirely different things. As I said, I respect your intellect; but, I will not demean my family by hanging around a crowd that dwells on topics that are "hurtful" to entire groups of innocent people.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope we can reach an accomodation.
Castro, whose own record on racism in not so good, and whose record on gays is absolutely atrocious, and who ranks as one of the worst human rights violators ever, weighs in-----
ReplyDeleteCastro: Racism in US keeps many away from Obama
Oct 11, 11:37 PM (ET)
HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro says a "profound racism" in the United States will stop millions from voting for Barack Obama in next month's presidential election.
The ailing, 82-year-old former Cuban president says it is "a miracle that the Democratic candidate hasn't suffered the same luck as (assassinated leaders) Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and others who harbored dreams of equality and justice."
Castro's written comments were published by state media Saturday. In them, he insists a "profound racism" exists in the U.S. and that millions of whites "cannot reconcile themselves to the idea that a black person ... could occupy the White House, which is called just that: white."
Castro also described Republican presidential candidate John McCain as "bellicose."
Ruf, I hope you don't leave because of something someone else has said.
ReplyDeleteWe're only responsible for our own words.
It wouldn't be the same place without you.
Rufus,
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I do not post here often. I don't know what the count is in the past year but if it went past 10 on the meter I'd be damn surprise (not counting the last week.
Just wanted to clear that up. A blog that can't handle anything but PC or groupthink isn't really the place for me and I have discovered that most blogs are that way.
They don't look upon outside the group opinions as a cause to reflect but rather as an invader climbing onto an anthill. Group attack, group victory......knowledge gained; very little; feeling of safety and comfort with the groupthink reinforced.
And heaven forfend one should doubt the thesis du jour of the blog owner (usually never hear though) then stand by because the ants won't have a chance to eat you, you'll just disappear in to the ether and the collective group brain can go back to it's standby mode.
It doesn’t always come down that way, nothing is always except change, but there are usually enough blog sycophants that the effect is the same. A nice homogenized, collective opinion of like thinking, group, cocooned in their world.
I'm with you, Rufus. But I have the nagging suspicion that Habu is black.
ReplyDeleteBob,
ReplyDeleteDid you see my post of that Nuclear Cost Estimates article on last night's thread?
Habu, that Sambo thing was some funny shit. It's not like we're trying to pass the muster of the Daily Kos folks here or something. But here's how you beat the rap of being racist, you post an avatar of a black dude making fun of Buckwheat. Get it? Then they can't getcha.
ReplyDeleteThere is no legal racism in the United States.
ReplyDeleteAs has been said before, the fact that blacks are voting about 95% for Obama is a kind of racism itself.
I'm voting against Obama for many reasons, none of which have to do with the color of his skin.
Some of which do have to do with the people he has associated with over the years.
People that advocate stuff I don't think are good for the country.
Many of these people he has hung around with are white.
Rufus,
ReplyDeleteSambo, buckwheat,negro ....all part of oultural heritage which we can acknowledge or we can pretend never existed.
Our Gang is now not PC, Amos N Andy with Kingfish the same, but Dr. Huxtable was fully acepted at a time when there weren't one in ten thousand Huxtable families.
And when Bill Cosby told his black friends that they needed to take responsibility for their own actions he was castigated as an Uncle Tom and worse. He hasn't been the only one.
Rufus, as far as I know you live in Mississippi and have other consideration that cause you to have an extra sensitivity to this issue, for I know Mississippi isn't tolerant of much. But I believe it would be enlightened to admit our heritage, accept it since it can't be eradicated unless we burn books and film and don't let the samll stuff rattle you so much.
Bobal: There used to be more people around Troy than now. The Shilo is the whole place now. And, it's closed a good part of the time.
ReplyDeleteIf we get a Bush Depression there's gonna be a lot more Troys, like Troy, Michigan for starters. It's kind of sad, like that National Geographic story about North Dakota that sent me into a depression, until oil prices jumped through the roof. Now it's boom times back there.
Mətušélaḥ,
ReplyDeleteGosh, I've been accused of a good many things on this blog but being black is another first.
No I'm fully a cracker, although born in Orange, California.
Nope, I'm just your average white racist.
OT: Lots of detail here on Obama's dabbling in Kenya politics
ReplyDeleteThe reason this is significant is not just for what it says about obama now but what it suggests about what will happen after this election.
That is in Kenya Odinga who is from the same tribe as Obama--was favored to win the election. Obama campaigned for him and supports him to this day. However, after it came out that odinga had promised the minority moslems in the country that he would institute sharia law--Odinga lost the election. Its not hard to see why he would lose the election. but now he claims that the election was stolen. there has been almost a year of bloody violence since the elections last december. odinga has used that violence as a lever against his rival now in office.
so the way this story goes is--what does it say about obama that he would put tribal loyalty above everything else in his support of odinga.
the second thing this story suggests is what happens when obama loses his own presidential bid.
I did, Mat. And I'll try to go back and look at it closer. Though not too closely, lest you have the numbers on me :)
ReplyDeleteGood points, Charles.
ReplyDeleteI'm fully convinced Obama is a very dangerous guy.
Makes me long for Hillary and Company.
And that's hard to say.
One final thing.
ReplyDeleteThis is your antpile. I wouldn't ,2164 wouldn't, Sambi wouldn't want to see you quit three time in two days.
So, not to be noble , or attempt to elicit any emotional, "Shane Come Backs" I'll just be out of here. I said so yesterday and I should have kept my word.
Nope, I'm just your average white racist.
ReplyDelete==
You write black. :)
I did, Mat. And I'll try to go back and look at it closer. Though not too closely, lest you have the numbers on me :)
ReplyDelete==
Oh, I do.
I have no doubt about that. :)
I'll tell you how. Make a Ten million American march on Washington. Scare the living shit out of them. Converge on them...
ReplyDeleteDo it before January 20. After that rat's federals will be turning you back 200 miles from DC.
Detour. Nothing to see. Go home.
Maybe, I'm Black. You ever think about that?
ReplyDeleteMaybe, I'm Black. You ever think about that?
ReplyDelete==
You're not black. And neither was Pushkin.
Bobal, I posted your Boise Idaho snowstorm link over at Wattsupwiththat last night; and they made it a thread Today.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't get a H/T, though. (I don't think they much like me over there. I keep defending ethanol. Oh, well.
Rufus, if there's no $50 floor for oil then your peaker buddies are wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt's a complicated scenario, T. I did say early on the there would be violent price swings at "peak."
ReplyDeleteYou may want to notice one thing. The market peaked a year, ago. Oil began it's "startling" ascension One Year, Ago.
Lower Oil prices will bring demand back. Higher demand will lead to higher prices. Higher prices will take us back into recession, and lower demand. ad infinitum - ad nauseum
The "Hillbilly" Pushkin. Kinda hard to tell, though, where the Pushkin begin, and the hillbilly leave off.
ReplyDeleteI figure about 99% hillbilly - 1% Pushkin.
ReplyDeleteMat might be black. There are black Jewish people down around Zimbabwe somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI've got him pegged for Swedish, myself :)
I've got him pegged for Swedish, myself :)
ReplyDelete==
But my skullcap horns are so tiny. :)
Rufus, a little snow this time of year really doesn't impress this oldtimer.
ReplyDeleteWe had snow on the Fourth of July at Coeur d'Alene Lake one year, I kid you not.
-----
When I was schoolin' in Seattle, I always got a big kick out of how the metroexuals there couldn't drive when they had a half inch of snow.
No technique.
Front wheel drive cars have made things easier, though.
:)
ReplyDeleteMat's Hat
or Hat's Mat.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think that when our federal justice system, the attorneys general, which I think are still more or less honest, more or less, when they start to get corrupted, that's when we are in a lot of trouble. I think a good sign of this would be when they start to go after only one political party.
ReplyDeleteWhich isn't the case, yet, as far as I can see.
Though they are doggone slow in going after that democrat from Harlem, who writes the tax laws, and then breaks them, and hires a 'forensic accountant' to make his case.
The hat sat on Mat while we had a chitchat and watched the cat chase a rat, and that was that.
ReplyDeleteBut what I can't figure out is whether that snowfall on the Fourth of July was the ending of last winter, or the beginning of next winter.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a Pushkin inspired opera, Bob. (Waiting for Doug's fat lady groaner)
ReplyDeleteTain't over, till the fat lady groans--in ecstacy!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'm a groaner
ReplyDeleteAnd a goner
And I want it
A little longer...
Ridley Scott Confirms He's Making Brave New World
ReplyDeleteI got a sweater once for Christmas...
ReplyDeleteI really wanted a screamer, or a shouter.
rufus said...
ReplyDeleteMaybe, I'm Black. You ever think about that ?
Well, since you told us several years ago that you were white I took you at your word.
Now with the emphasis on the word black and the italics on that , while you haven't said you're black outright, you're doing a Slick Willie on us by implying that may be the case.
If you are black then you lied to us years ago. If you're not you're using a very tired rhetorical device on us today.
No, your "special" circumstance and sensitivity has it's fons et origo in another source.
But let me once again be clear. If you were black that would not alter what I have said. Why should it?
Succinctly I do not like the American Black culture as it is currently constituted or lead. They are rascist, most are non productive in the economy, and the "go ape shit" when a Jeremiah Wright G-damns our country and slams white people..ditto with Farrakhan who calls us white devils and wants us eliminated. These are the people THEY have chosen to follow and support with great zeal and affection.
So I don't need any instruction on where the black commmunity stands vis a vis whites in this country. And I'm certainly not going to curry favor with them since I know all about Smiling Faces.
Dedicated to B. Hussein Obama
http://tinyurl.com/4yqxrb
ACORN Report Gives Republicans New Line of Attack
ReplyDeleteWhen you are systematically subverting the entire electoral process, you got problems.
Ash might ever agree.
Kewl
ReplyDeleteGravity powered lamp generates as much light as 40 Watt bulb
.
.
http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/31615
.
.
Ash might even agree.
ReplyDeleteVery Kewl
ReplyDeleteAir-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 at Sub-$18,000, Could Hit 1000-Mile Range
.
.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4251491.html?series=19
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.
most are non productive in the economy,
ReplyDeleteSee, this is what I mean. Most would be a number greater than 50%. Either that is an untrue rant, or black unemployment is Greater than 50% (unless, your definition of non-productive extends into the ranks of the employed.)
Why can't you just let it be that decent people don't want to be subjected to this type of thing?
most are non productive in the economy,
ReplyDelete==
So? Most of the economy is nonproductive. 70% is borrow and spend.
Look up the stats. Some states are states that receive more tax dollars than they contribute.
ReplyDeleteThe black culture is the equivalent. They receive in forms of money or social programs more than they produce to support those programs, much less any of the other aspects of the economy. The truth is hard to choke down.
One more thing. You need another word in your vocabulary. Not every point I happen to mention is a rant.
rant :verb: talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner
You're doing your prose a horrible injustice.
workout time
ReplyDelete"I think "fix" was in a long time ago. All you have to do is look when Goldman Sucks was shorting stocks, and then ask yourself why."
ReplyDelete...must be C-4 blaming the Jooos again.
Dumbass neglects to mention that NONE of this would have happened w/o Carter, Bubba, Gorelick, Dodd, Raines, Franks, Bush, Rove, and Obama, esq.
Oh, wait!
...it's Mat!
"Now it's boom times back there."
ReplyDelete---
More Oil Millionaires per capita than Texas!
Charles---
ReplyDeleteObama’s African Hubris
Former Clinton aides currently working for Obama were the “mutual acquaintances” who directed Dick Morris to Kenya to advise the Odinga campaign in November of 2007, shortly after Odinga visited with Obama in America. Morris was an extremely divisive factor in the Kenyan elections, as a foreigner, a white man, and the creator of an antagonistic “have vs. have nots” campaign platform for Odinga’s ODM. He also suggested the current campaign of civil disobedience to protest the election result, including a “Million Person March”, a la Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
When things got out of hand following the election, Obama called Odinga repeatedly, but Mwai Kibaki, the leader of the Government would not return his calls as he perceives Obama to be biased toward his Luo relative Odinga in the conflict. Obama is featured prominently in ODM campaign posters, slogans, and songs in Kenya, and the plaintive phrase “A Luo will become President in America before a Luo will become President in Kenya” is often heard.
"Mr. Wright (I refuse to call him Pastor or minister for that is an insult to all who hold those responsibilities dear). "
ReplyDelete---
How 'bout
"MoFo Racist Wright"?
...makes me sick to my stomach to hear people from Hugh Hewitt, Carol Platt Lebow, (?) (who went to colleg w/him) McCain, Bush, etc etc, Dennis Miller, etc etc Refer to Obama being a NICE GUY when they would NEVER be caught dead saying that about a white guy that sent his young girls to KKK Meetings!
What's up w/THAT Shit?
"I could create a list of every black leader and not come up with more than two who have a shred of decency, honor, or other virtues normally associated with honest leadership"
ReplyDelete---
But a list of Conservative Blacks would be filled w/men and women of virtue, decency, and honor.
Pendelton, isn't that colder than Happy Camp?
ReplyDelete(memory fades)
"Pretty good fishing if you know what you are doing, and want to walk a ways."
ReplyDelete---
If you cheat and use Salmon Eggs or something, can you get by w/o knowing what you're doing?
LaBob, 84, discussed fishing w/Ms T, 32.
ReplyDelete" Rascism is a disease that will spread out of control, quickly, if not checked at the first occurrence."
ReplyDelete---
Minority Racism is IGNORED or DENIED by almost every public figure on the right, not to mention ENCOURAGED by those on the Left.
...and as Habu points out, on the disappointingly Hive Mentality Blogs.
ReplyDelete"President Theodore Roosevelt had signed into law the bill creating the National Monetary Commission in 1908"
ReplyDeleteCool!
John McCain's Hero!
"Mat, if you had smaller representative entities such that LA, NYC, Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago, represented their own turf and di not drag the rest of the state with them, it would be a game changer."
ReplyDelete---
Which is why Patriots like Todd Palin sometimes want to secede.
...only to have 'Rat say he's as bad as Ayers!
Go Figure!
Doug,
ReplyDeleteChickens & Eggs. Only we know what came first. And it wasn't black racism. You go to Africa and people treat you as one of their own. They are genuinely warm hearted kind people. I wish I could say the same for the white racists of Europe.
"Three million dollars? "
ReplyDelete---
It'd be worth it if we could persuade you to trade your Real Estate Empire for it, and the EB could become a REAL BAR and meeting place, not a virtual one!
Whatever used to be used to be Mat:
ReplyDeleteFact is NOW Minority Racism is accepted, White Racism (properly) Trashed.
...don't see why that's hard to see and understand.
Black Muslims ain't loving in Africa or the USA!
ReplyDeleteIt's not hard to understand, Doug. But these are the "cultural law of physics". Action, reaction.
ReplyDelete"Deuce is right about Urban Talk Radio. Talk about the lunatic fringe!"
ReplyDelete---
Where can that be found?
(I listen on internet exclusively, can't get AM where I live)
Whatever, what is, is, and Minority Racism should not be accepted.
ReplyDelete...it ISN'T accepted by conservative blacks, from Starling to Sowell.
ReplyDeleteIslam was/is a reaction to Rome. Both are evil, but we know what came first. We have to understand these interaction, and learn how to short them.
ReplyDeleteinteractions
ReplyDeleteProportional representative democracy would give Blacks a genuine voice. Same for Whites and Latinos. Right now what you have is a system that fscks everybody.
ReplyDeleteI've never fished bait there Doug, but seen some doing it, around the pools.
ReplyDeleteWhich are mostly fished out for a couple miles up from Troy, as expected.
Or at least were, last I tried. It might be different now, gas prices high, people not fishing as much.
Pools are good, if not fished heavily.
But, there are what I think of as 'mini-pools' behind the larger rocks. And where the water meanders this way and that. Fish are lazy, like us. Find that piece of water that is slow flowing, you'll do ok.
They can be right out in the rapids, but they will have found a little spot there, behind a rock, or a downed tree, where they can rest.
Hike in a ways, that's best.
84? :)
I'm a newborn compared to that. But I'm not saying how new:)
Take a look at Miss T's picture of the Wenaha Here you'll see the patch of white water to the lower left. They won't be in that white water. Look closely, you'll see there is a slight backeddy a few feet or so downstream of it.
ReplyDeleteTry that.
Over by the rock face, by the trees, where the water is deeper, you might try that to.
Insufficiently Sensitive:
ReplyDeleteWhat a hole those Chartered Accountants have left in their report! Not a word of mention of Fannie, Freddie or the CRA and its mandatory lending to high-risk ‘buyers’.
Even Wikipedia (not your average conservative organization) has the following:
Additionally, there is debate among economists regarding the effect of the Community Reinvestment Act, with detractors claiming it encourages lending to uncreditworthy consumers[75][76][77][78] and defenders claiming a thirty year history of lending without increased risk.[79][80][81][82] Detractors also claim that amendments to the CRA in the mid-1990s, raised the amount of home loans to otherwise unqualified low-income borrowers and also allowed for the first time the securitization of CRA-regulated loans containing subprime mortgages.[83][84]
A September 30, 1999 New York Times article stated, “… the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans… The action… will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough… Fannie Mae… has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people… borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough… Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk… the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble… prompting a government rescue… the move is intended in part to increase the number of… home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings…” [93]
They even name names:
Gerald P. O’Driscoll, former vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, stated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had become classic examples of crony capitalism. Government backing let Fannie and Freddie dominate the mortgage-underwriting. “The politicians created the mortgage giants, which then returned some of the profits to the pols - sometimes directly, as campaign funds; sometimes as “contributions” to favored constituents.”[95]
On April 18, 2006, home loan giant Freddie Mac was fined $3.8 million, by far the largest amount ever assessed by the Federal Election Commission, as a result of illegal campaign contributions. Much of the illegal fund raising benefited members of the United States House Committee on Financial Services, a panel whose decisions can affect Freddie Mac,[96] but also benefitted Republican politicians in general.[97]
Some lawmakers received favorable treatment from financial institutions involved in the subprime industry. (See Countrywide financial political loan scandal). In June 2008 Conde Nast Portfolio reported that numerous Washington, DC politicians over recent years had received mortgage financing at noncompetitive rates at Countrywide Financial because the corporation considered for the officeholders under a program called “FOA’s”–”Friends of Angelo”. Angelo being Countrywide’s Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo.[98] On 18 June 2008, a Congressional ethics panel started examining allegations that chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad (D-ND) received preferential loans by troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.[99] Two former CEO of Fannie Mae Franklin Raines and James A. Johnson also received preferential loans from the troubled mortgage lender. Fannie Mae was the biggest buyer of Countrywide’s mortgages.[100]
So the Australians have a good ear for the interconnections of mortgage securities, but are tone deaf (deliberately?) to the political driving forces for the catastrophe.
"But, there are what I think of as 'mini-pools' behind the larger rocks. And where the water meanders this way and that. Fish are lazy, like us. Find that piece of water that is slow flowing, you'll do ok."
ReplyDelete---
I think even I figured that out on our stream.
Being the unsportmanlike lazy ass that I am, tho, always used bait!
Dance the fly in the backeddy a few times, try to hold it right there, if nothing shows after a few times, move on.
ReplyDeleteI loved fly fishing. Though I'm not 84, it is getting harder.
Get yourself non slick shoes, and a ski pole.
"Proportional representative democracy would give Blacks a genuine voice. "
ReplyDelete---
Right now they OVERWHELMINGLY vote for Black Crooks and the Party that fucks their kids through the NEA, and taking Catholic Schools and the like out of the picture.
Ignorance is our most expensive legacy.
One thing about the Wenaha, it always smells great there. I quess all rivers do, but the Wenaha has a real rich vegetable smell. Lovely.
ReplyDelete"Get yourself non slick shoes, and a ski pole."
ReplyDeleteI usually walked on the bottom to avoid slipping off the Rocks!
...course that was in CA, not Idehoe!
Right now they OVERWHELMINGLY vote for Black Crooks and the Party that fucks their kids through the NEA, and taking Catholic Schools and the like out of the picture.
ReplyDelete==
That's the only choice given to them. Multi party proportional representative democracy would break that monopoly.
Our little Valley had amazing smells, from the Chapparal in summer to the Fruit Trees in Spring, to the Bay trees below the moist smelling Springs, to the wood burning fires...
ReplyDelete...why the fuck did I leave?
Human Nature intervened.
It is NOT the only choice!
ReplyDeleteThey could have voted for an honest family values black guy in Ohio last time, but by voting Democrat, a crook replaced him.
The only viable hope is to educate them with real information.
ReplyDeleteTurning a blind eye to racism and dysfunction just makes matters worse.
Doug: LaBob, 84, discussed fishing w/Ms T, 32.
ReplyDeleteThanks Doug, a lady will never contradict a man who underestimates people's ages.
"Islam was/is a reaction to Rome. Both are evil, but we know what came first. We have to understand these interaction, and learn how to short them."
ReplyDelete---
What does Rome have to do w/it when both Iran and Egypt were once much more secular?
Makes more sense to blame Churchill than Rome, if we're gonna waste time on the guilt game.
Doug,
ReplyDeleteSome people feel all Democrats are crooks, some feel all Republicans are crooks. Proportional representative democracy allows for less partisan politics. There's always a third a forth a fifth a sixth choice, etc.
Wisdom gleaned from Bob Hope.
ReplyDelete...but it's pie in the sky, Mat, ain't gonna happen, so information is the only viable hope.
ReplyDelete...and the guilt game is worse than a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteThe Wenaha has Rainbows, big Rainbows called Steelhead, and some Dolly Varden too.
ReplyDeleteThe Grand Ronde and it's tributaries like the Wenaha used to be great for steelhead, until the dams cut it back. But they're still there.
The Snake has sturgeon, heavily protected now, and since the Grand Ronde flows into it I think it has sturgeon in the big pools too.
I remember some of the old photos on the Snake, huge sturgeon, caught with a massive hook, with a chicken on the end.
What does Rome have to do w/it when both Iran and Egypt were once much more secular?
ReplyDelete==
Empires require empires to defeat them. Again, people are presented with a binary choice. We need to move away from binary choices.
but it's pie in the sky, Mat, ain't gonna happen
ReplyDelete==
That's what the said regards many a thing. If you will it, it will happen.
I'd disagree with Mat on that Rome/Islam business, in a way.
ReplyDeleteWhen Islam came along, most of that southern Mediterranean was Christian, and got rolled over pretty easily.
The Islamers stopped looting one another, and, since you got to make a living, started looting everybody else, spreading to the north.
But, things are complex. The plaque played a part too, weakening the cities.
He knows all about Plaque, LaBob, he's a Dentist.
ReplyDeleteThe darned plaque brought in by the rats.
ReplyDeleteAh, jeez
Mətušélaḥ,
ReplyDeleteIt is apparent from your comments that you have read very little about the Constitution, why it was developed in the manner it was, who discussed what and why.
Had you ever done so you would never have asked the questions you asked.
Your questions appear to be so benign and egalitarian. They are not. I would suggest about a year of heavy reading on the philosophy behind the establishment of this country. If you do so you will have a much greater understanding of how the Constitution was developed.
Good luck.
But I spelt VollyDarden right.
ReplyDeleteI thot Rainbows were lake bound and Steelhead roamed the open waters?
ReplyDelete(forgot more than I remember)
When Islam came along, most of that southern Mediterranean was Christian, and got rolled over pretty easily.
ReplyDelete==
Christianity didn't conquer Rome, Rome conquered Christianity. Most subjects of Rome hated Rome.
Habu:
ReplyDeleteAt BC, C-4's been prattling about improving things by changing the Constitution!
Talk about the Wrong time to do that!!!
Deuce:
ReplyDeleteWhat does WMFD stand for?
Wimmera Machinery Field Days (Australia)
I'm 199, who wants the sacred 200?
ReplyDeleteA steelhead is a rainbow that has taken a trip to the ocean.
ReplyDeleteThey have a heck of a navigation system, returning to where they were hatched.
It is apparent from your comments that you have read very little about the Constitution
ReplyDelete==
It's irrelevant. I don't care for outdated laws scribed on stone tablets, and I don't care for outdated laws scribed on paper. What's flawed and outdated should be fixed and modernized.