Jan

25

Today I saw an op-ed piece in the NY Times by a guy named Harold Ford Jr. The title was “Democrats, Get Down to Business.” My first thought was another right wing numb-nuts talking trash. This is how disgusted I have become with the Republican party. But, I gave myself a good talking to and read the piece. It had some good talking points in it. It had the type of dialogue we needed long ago.

(Word to Democrats. Pull your heads out and get that bill passed. Your majority and political future depends on this legislation.)

I also saw Mark McKinnon on Rachel Maddow. I really like that guy. He was McCain’s campaign advisor. I have always liked him and the way he communicates and many of his positions. It is nice to see him back on the public scene. If Republicans were wise they will bring more like him to the forefront.

Also, I find the media to largely be a bunch of dinks that are reading the wrong tea leaves. Especially regarding the election of the new Senator from Mass. Maybe more on this later.

 

 

Jan

22

Their bonus pool is only 16.2 billion dollars. Yes, only a paltry $16,200,000,000 dollars for the year. We need you to sing Fergie, Bono, Ms. Crow. We need to raise some cash for these poor souls.

We have become numb to numbers to the point that they have no meaning to us any more, so let me put this in perspective for you. According to yahoo (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GS) they have 35,500 employees. That bonus pool works out to $456,338 dollars per employee. Given old Lloyd and his top cronies will be getting a few hundred million of that it is safe to say that the mailroom and the admin pool will be getting stiffed.

To further put this in perspective, with the median household income around $55,000 this bonus pool represents 294,545 families in America. The 10 billion we gave these ziff-bags in TARP money could have been used to put 285,000 Americans to work at a decent wage for a year.

What exactly does Goldman Sachs do to contribute to America?

Well, they do make a contribution to our economy. For one they took risky, reckless real estate loans, packaged them up and sold them as securities, and then had balls so big they also bought hedges against the manure they sold.

Not only did they make money selling this crap to institutional investors dumb enough to buy them, they also make billions (with a B) when our economy almost went over the cliff. In fact, some of the TARP money we gave to AIG went to payoff these vile scumbags.

This is capitalism? This is so far beyond Antionette telling the poor “to eat cake” it is not even funny. Each day I dig a little deeper into the cess-pool that corporations have become the more I realize that socialism is alive and well. Socialism for the the rich that is.

Where art thou Robin Hood? 

 

Jan

20

In 7 of the 8 years Bush was in office we received a tax cut. Since I do want to spark civil unrest I will not even tell you what people with incomes over 100,000 got out of the deal (much more than the numbers you see below).

My source for this information is 100% solid. I used the IRS Tax Tables to determine this information. If you think I am snowing you, Google and look for yourself. They are readily available on the net.

If you were married with a total income of $25,000 your average tax break over his 8 years was $2.80 a month.

If you were married with a total income of $50,000 your average tax break over his 8 years was $7.55 (1.1%) a month. 

If you were married with a total income of $95,000 your average tax break over his 8 years was $39.55 (2.8%) a month. 

Share with me how those numbers increased the quality of your life? As I said, these are not B.S. numbers, they are straight out of the tax tables you and I use to file our taxes.

So, what did this cost us? [This is where Macro and Micro are worlds apart]

The Bush tax cuts will cost the American Public $2.48 trillion over the 2001-2010 period. This includes the revenue loss of $2.11 trillion that results directly from the Bush tax cuts as well as the $379 billion in additional interest payments on the national debt. The tax cuts were DEBT FINANCED! China I believe covered most of the costs.

 

Jan

20

Americans First

January 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment

I am not buying the sudden movement against the Government. It is false as it is aimed at the Obama administration. I will agree that government spending is out of control and needs to be dealt with (though now is NOT the time).

-Debt at Obama Inaguration: 10.6 trillion

-Budget Deficits incurred during Reagans 8 years: 1.34 trillion dollars

-Budget Deficits incurred during G. H. Bush’s 4 years: 933 billion

-Budget Deficits incurred during Clinton’s 8 years: 320 billion

-Budget Deficits incurred during G. W. Bush’s first 6 years: 1.63 trillion

(note: those deficit figures are real dollars. They have not been adjusted for inflation using the CPI)

Clinton has three years of surplusses and turned over what was a budget surplus for Bush’s first year in office. I liked Clinton as a president, I liked his fiscal policy.

For the record I liked Reagan and Bush 1, though I did not like that they ran deficits. In Reagans case, I could cut him some slack his first term as he inherited an economy that was in pretty rough shape. By the way, unemployment during Reagans first fours years was 7.62, 9.71, 9.60, 7.51% respectively.

So folks, lets cut through the bullshit right here and right now. Which party has put us in the most debt? Again, he inherited quite an economic mess, though nothing on the scale of what President Obama inherited.

I you are really for our government balancing the budget and paying down the debt start with the facts. Your partisan nonsense is so transparent it is laughable! The Republican jokers talking about fiscal responsibility are the same idiots that put us into this debt to begin with. All of a sudden they have fiscal religion. Give me a break.

Direct your anger where it belongs. Bankers and mortgage lenders that ran financial institutions like casinos. Show anger against investment banks like Goldman Sachs that bought risky mortgage paper, packaged and sold them as securities and if that was not enough, then took out financial instraments (termed hedges) that bet against these investments and made them insane amounts of money when they tanked. Much of those profits came from our bailout.

You want to be pissed off, be pissed off at your neighbors that racked up unsustainable credit card debt and mortgaged their houses to the hilt. They are grand contributors to this mess.

You want to pissed off, be pissed off at big business that was losing money and giving themselves huge bonuses. How in the hell is that capitalism?

Be pissed off at the media circus that reports the news these days like it is a reality television show. Be pissed off at the numbskulls lying to you about what is actually in the health care bill. 

One more thing.

Now, how many of you don’t want a healthcare bill that will protect you for being dropped if you have a pre-existing condition. A bill that would allow you to keep your adult children on your private plan until they are 26 (you of course have to pay for the increased premiums). A plan that does not change a single thing for those of you that are already covered under private insurance other than adding those two items I just mentioned.

You can be a Republican, you can be a Democratic. You can have an opinion on pretty much anything you want. But, you need to cut the bullshit and start being Americans and showing your President some respect. And, back your position up with facts, not spin. There is nothing I hate more than spin and people trying to bullshit me.

Why anyone would want that damn job is beyond me.

 

 

 

Jan

19

I forget who John Stewart of the “Daily Show” asked but the question went something like this…

“What I don’t understand is why Democrats need sixty votes to pass legislation and Republicans only need fifty-one?”

This is a good question. When the Republicans controlled the Congress they seemed to get legislation passed and never once had a majority of sixty. Whether you agree with what is being passed is not the point. Republicans do not seem to need sixty votes, but Democrats do. Maybe a Democrat could share the reason why this is with us.

In a time when we need change, we have the Democrats who have the ball but have started running in the wrong direction. We have the other party being nothing but obstructionist. I would have no problem with their dissent if they actually had some alternative solutions to the problems we are facing. They have brought nothing to the table. Nothing. I have spent a considerable amount of my time trying to figure out what they are offering. They are offering nothing. They are essentially dead-wood.

I am more dismayed by the American public at large. The reward for obstructionism is putting this party back in office? I hear the American public is tired of partisanship. I have not seen that with respect to healthcare. I saw one side looking for input and overtly getting told the goal of the minority was to kill healthcare. It is hard to work and play well with others that have no desire to play with you.

Did they do it with thoughtful debate and discourse. No. They did it with “death panels” , and shouting matches at forums that were meant to be about constructive dialog. Have we really become a nation where innuendo and 30-second sound bites is all we need to form an opinion.

 I am baffled. Truly baffled.

If the Democrats really think they need sixty votes to get anything done I would suggest we just vote them all out.

 

Jan

18

Martin Luther King is still on my list of the top ten people I would love to break bread with. He is one of the most eloquent speakers I have heard in my lifetime. He was also the best example I can think of, of a man who applied his convictions and principles in the face of a problem so large and threatening on a personal level that it would have been easy to let someone else take up the battle. He gave his life for his cause.

What he did for African-Americans (just Americans in my book) is something we cannot ever measure. He is truly among one of the great Americans in our nations history.

But, from this white guys perspective it took us from the end of the civil war in 1865, until 1964, 100 years to get civil rights legislation. In 2010 we are still far from a country that to quote Dr. King, “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

We are a long way from this ideal.

I do not want to minimize the issue of race. I do not want to minimize the fact that Barack Obama is our first African-American President. I do want to say that white, black, green, male, female… in his first year he has done a remarkable job. REMARKABLE.

When you examine the bag of shit he inherited, it is just unprecedented, even going back to what FDR walked into. He has assembled a great team, and has kept us from a second great depression. If you examine his record in the first year alone he has already accomplished what most Presidents take a full term to do.

I am glad he is my President. I have every confidence he is going to lead us out of this mess. He will do so despite the obstructionist attitude of the other party. He will do so irrespective of whether the makeup of his Congress changes. He will lead us out of this mess because he is a natural born leader. He is a man like Dr. King of great character. Great character may not be able to transcend bigotry and ignorance, but great character will always transcend race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.

ALWAYS!

 

 

 

Jan

15

The devastation in Haiti is mind-boggling. David Brooks the other day reminded us in an NY Times op-ed piece that the quake in 1989 in the Bay Area killed 63. As of today they have buried 40,000, with esitmates of another 100,000 more potential deaths. The earthquake in Haiti was also 7.0.

A stark contrast of a poor nation and a wealthy one.

Give if you can. We need to do more than come to their immediate relief. We need to help Haiti to help themselves. We need to do this on a long term basis. It has been wonderful to see the outpouring of support and donations from so many of our Celebrities. The news media is doing a great job of keeping this story in the forefront. To all of you that have given, no matter the amount, may you be richly blessed.

Praise for the Obama administration in ramping up USAID. It is something that has been a long time coming.

If you can, donate through the net …

American Red Cross 

Or Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999

Or donate by calling 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish)

 

 

 

Jan

13

We did not think twice in coming to the aid of Haiti. Our collective thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti.

A poor country that has even less now.

Help a neighbor when they are down.

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Jan

6

We recently purchased a new car. Our credit is good. I had no doubt walking in that we would be approved and we were. If your credit is good you can borrow money.

Banks have begun lending to people and businesses that are a good credit risk. This is a good thing. People in debt are paying off their debts. This is a very good thing. Savings rates which were actually zero have dramatically gone up in the past 14 months. This is actually a good thing as banks are allowed to loan money based upon a multiplier (this is called leverage) based upon the deposits they have on  hand.  Manufacturing is up which is a good thing.

They call all this capitalism, something we have failed to practice in the last decade. 

On the flip-side. Most the banks have paid the government TARP money back. They have done this based upon these 0 interest rate loans that they invested back into the stock market that is now up. Unfortunately they still are holding many of these stocks. If the market takes another dip, guess what? We are back in the same boat.

The behavior of wall street is still reckless. We still have a mortgage crisis in both the commercial and residential sectors. This is not so good. We need to kick some ass and take names on this front.

We are still fighting and paying for two wars, this is not good.

Government deficits are out of control with no end in sight. To add to this we are between a rock and hard place in the respect that to get out of this mess for the next few years we need to keep spending more than we have. This is not good.

The biggest challenge we face is medicare and medicade expenditures. This is why healthcare reform is so damn important. The Democrats less the blue-dogs holding the party hostage actually have the 51 votes in Congress to pass real reform that will help us reign in costs in both the short term and for the future. Unfortunately the Democrats are too stupid to use reconciliation. They say doing so would take to long. Hmmmmmm, you mean like the Republicans did to you to get through tax cuts during the Bush administration when we were running two wars. They seemed to be able to do it pretty quick. For those of you with short memories Dick “Lucifer” Cheney cast the deciding vote to break the 50-50 deadlock. Hmmmmm, Tea-party people where was your outrage back then on this?

To be fair here are the republicans that voted no.

Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine,
Gordon Smith of Oregon,
Mike DeWine of Ohio and
Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

Voting no on a tax cut in the midst of running two wars, low unemployment, and huge federal deficits is beyond insane. These five did the right thing. Three are out of office now. That was their reward. Only the Maine Senators remain. Obviously Maine has their head screwed on straight. Maybe when we stop voting people out of office for doing the hard but right thing more of our elected officials will be inclined to do the right thing.

Anyone that tells you that they are going to increase spending and lower taxes and it will all balance out is an idiot. Anyone that thinks that makes sense is an idiot. Maybe it is time that we stop listening to idiots.

Out #1 immediate priority is to drop unemployment back to pre meltdown levels. This will require more deficit spending but is needed. On the day we accomplish this the next priority is to have a tax increase that affects every American making more than the poverty level.

Yes, a tax increase!

We also need to cut federal spending and to take the excess and pay down our debt owned to foreign nations. The only way we are going to pull this off is to give the president line item veto like Clinton had. He was able to have 4 years of budget surpluses. It worked back then it will work again. He was the last president since Eisenhower that had budget surpluses.

It is time to pull our heads out and quit living on fantasy island. I am completely aligned with the tea-party on this one. But this includes all Americans and all of our elected officials irrespective of political party.

Once we pull our collective heads out many of you could go out to your vehicles and scrape off the bumper sticker that says “We are spending are children inheritance.”

Spending tomorrows money today screws future generations. It is not funny. It is selfish. It is immoral. Knock it off.

Jan

6

I have been thinking about the recent attempted attack on a US airliner quite a bit. I have not really been able to put the right words together to solidify my thoughts. Mr. Friedman did it for me.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/opinion/06friedman.html

Here are a few excerpts that struck a chord with me.

In speaking of the terrorists father…
“He went to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria and warned us that text messages from his son revealed that he was in Yemen and had become a fervent, and possibly dangerous, radical.”

Not to mention that man put his life at risk in doing so. Would he have been willing to do this if we were still torturing people?

…and… he wrote

“We can’t let our country become just The United States of Fighting Terrorism and nothing more. We are the people of July 4th — not Sept. 11th.”

— keep looking »

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