Attaturk….

From BBC News:

Stocks rebound from Monday fall

Shares in Europe have rebounded from Monday’s heavy losses, after a largely positive session for Asian stocks.

In London the FTSE 100 index was up 2%, in Frankfurt the Dax added 1.8% and in Paris the Cac 40 gained 1.9%.

Asian markets were largely higher, Tokyo’s Nikkei average closed up 1.5%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.4% and Mumbai’s Sensex was up 2.0%.

But Shanghai’s main index fell almost 4% on worries that Beijing will make further efforts to slow the economy.

The main focus for investors on Tuesday is the interest rate meeting at the US Federal Reserve.

Investors are expecting the US policy makers to slash interest rates later.

Some think the benchmark Fed funds rate will be cut by one percentage point, to 2%.

Well said & oh so true!

Good Morning Attaturk!

Never do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are, how much they deserve their seven-figure salaries and how government should keep its hands off the private economy.

Except when it’s time for them to be bailed out. See Krugman’s Blog this morning.

I’ve been looking around, trying to see what the great and the good — or at least those who play such on TV — are starting to say about what should be done. And I was particularly eager to read this piece, by a top guy from Pimco. Pimco is a smart outfit, with a deserved reputation for talking frankly about stuff. So what would Mr. El-Erian say?

I read it; and read it again; and again. It took me the third reading before I got it.

Why is it so incomprehensible? Because what he’s basically saying is, bail out the investors, do nothing for the homeowners […]

Privatize the profits, socialize the risk. American capitalism in its finest hour.

When will Americans learn that corporate welfare costs us more than single-mom-welfare? Oh the brainwashing that has gone on over the years!

Okay, going to work. Great post by the way, Attaturk. ;-)

Elliot
In response to your answer on the last thread about Moral Leaders,
all I can say is Waaaaaaaaaa. :(

good morning everybody – coffee is ready.

Ugh.

man, do they not even realize the very concept of money is socialism?

our fire dept, our police, the roads we drive, the bridges, clean air

there wouldn’t even be property law without socialism

but they don’t want to hear that, the only projects they want to call socialism are those that make them pay their own bills

if the only two people on the planet are you and your wife, you would STILL have socialism

now some social projects are bad, some are good, mostly we should not call any project socialism unless you are not allowed to use that service outside of the social project

for instance, we have to use money and that is socialism in the pejorative sense

universal health care on the other hand is not forced down a person’s throat, if they want to use the private sector they are welcome to it

and the private sector will be LESS expensive if we have a universal health care program then if we don’t

that’s because the industry will be forced to compete against a system that operates efficiently

OT–

Explosion near US Embassy in Sa’na, Yemen:

Filed at 7:27 a.m. ET

SAN’A, Yemen (AP) — An Interior Ministry official says one Yemeni guard has been killed in an explosion near the U.S. embassy in the capital of San’a.

The Tuesday blast has also wounded other local guards and some schoolchildren.

Risk and reward. Bullshit and more bullshit. The subprime scheme was dooming most of the suckers and they knew it. So they get the best of both worlds. Running the con on the public, then getting the public to bail them out.

“Privatize the profits, socialize the risk. American capitalism in its finest hour.”

Why don’t we call it what it is? This is the most naked redistribution of wealth evah. The very thing these whiney-ass tittie babies rail against at the top of their lungs.

Good morning Attaturk, pups!

Atta, you read Athenae’s rant about this at First Draft? It is a a marvelous thing of beauty. You’ll need a smoke when you’re done.

first-draft link

like a million Hitlers on roller skates

Thank you, Attaturk, for providing a venue for me to vent my recent vision of laissez-faire capitalist democracy as a Leviathan of millions of Wile E. Coyotes full of earthquake pills.

After determining that I could have such a vision and still survive, I immediately began wondering whether democracy can survive.

Risk and reward. Bullshit and more bullshit. The subprime scheme was dooming most of the suckers and they knew it. So they get the best of both worlds. Running the con on the public, then getting the public to bail them out.

The Basic BushCo Business Model

My boss, a real estate broker, just refinanced his house for the umpteenth time. He’s lived in this house for 34 years and one would think that with the money he’s made in those years the house would have been paid off about 24 years ago. But nooooooooo, it was more attractive to borrow on the equity for whatever reason(s). He and his wife own about 40 rental properties and they’re in debt up to their eyeballs. They’ve refinanced some properties twice since I’ve been there. I make peanuts and am paying off a student loan (quit my job at 53 and went back to school) but I’m closer to being debt free (3 more years with Sallie Mae) than he’ll ever be. I can only imagine how many people have funded their lifestyle through refinancing their homes. Does. Not. Compute.

i’m really glad dionne wrote this piece – if there’s nothing else i want americans to reconsider it is just this point. that the rich and powerful who have been pretending to be the intellectual elite are fucking up.

here’s krugman answering a question after giving a talk with amy goodman, greg palast and randi rhodes in nyc a couple of years ago. (transcription is mine):

one of the things that really made the New Deal possible was the revelation – See, when you have a government that represents the economic elite that represents the corporations, there is this presumption that these are guys who know what they’re doing. The real problem the reformers had all through the ’20s was that, “well, you know, you’re impractical, you’re idealistic”, even people who had been reformers tended to get sorta sucked into the notion that “well, you know you really have to treat business right and taxation is a bad thing”…

But it turned out that the guys who, because of wealth, had an aura of competence, of knowing what they’re doing, turned out to be absolutely incapable of dealing with crisis when it came. The absolutely incompetency, the hopelessness, the idea that the government needed do something positive for people was just outside their world view and that became apparent.

And this doesn’t sound so good: From the NYTimes:

In early trading Tuesday, Asian markets rose for the first time in four days, led by financial companies.

But nervousness pervaded Wall Street despite efforts by the Fed and the Bush administration to soothe investors and assure them that Washington will do everything in its power to restore order to the financial system.

“There is something mixed up in the market,” said Edward Rombach, an analyst at Thomson Financial. “The market is eating itself up.”

In the case of Lehman Brothers, some investors fear that the firm is vulnerable to the same ills that undid Bear Stearns. Like Bear Stearns, Lehman is small and more reliant on the mortgage business than its rivals. Its defenders, though, say that Lehman is much better positioned to ride out the financial storm.

And even as nerve endings remained frayed, there were a few notable signs of improvement on Wall Street, Mr. Rombach and other specialists noted. Particularly encouraging was the sharp narrowing of the spread between ultra-safe Treasuries and bonds backed by Fannie Mae, the government-chartered buyer of mortgages — a sign that investors are willing to consider riskier investments.

If that move toward a more normal assessment of risk persists, it could help drive down interest rates on home loans in the coming days.

The broad Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, meanwhile, closed down less than 1 percent, recovering much of its losses from early in the day and bucking a strong downdraft from Europe and Asia.

Specialists say their biggest worry now is not whether the economy is already or will soon be in a recession. Far more fundamental and troubling is the health of the financial system that greases the wheels of capitalism.

Good morning, Attaturk, and all-

I can only imagine how many people have funded their lifestyle through refinancing their homes.

Well, everyone in central FL, for a start…

It’s all the Ds’ fault, according to a guest on Kudlow’s show on CNBC last night. That’s because the Ds forced banks to lend money to poor people who couldn’t afford to pay it back. Just thought you’d like to know.

Ho hum another overpaid executive:

Lehman Brothers Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Fuld received compensation valued at $22.1 million in 2007, a year in which the company weathered the subprime mortgage collapse better than its rivals.

Capitalism without losses is like religion without hell, accoording to Cato Institute guest on Washington Journal.

laissez-faire

Someone on the blogs snarkily spelled it “lassie fair”. Ah, sweetness and light….everything will be alright at the end of the story. NOT!

Or kool aid without the sugar?

no hell in my religion.

now show me capitalism without losses please. *g*

Thanks for the heads up on the Hannaford market fiasco Waccamaw.

Thank goodness Congress is on a recess or they would have to do something. I would hate for them to actually have to do anything.

The “privatize profits, socialize losses” model has always been with us. The Wall Street apologists for this model don’t see a problem with its inconsistency and injustice.

Far more fundamental and troubling is the health of the financial system that greases the wheels of capitalism.

Yes, the banking system is predicated on trust. When each bank trusts its brother banks the free flow of money throughout the system is possible. What we are witnessing now is a breakdown in that trust and the concomitant seizing-up of the banking system. Banks don’t want to loan to one another because they don’t trust each other. I think what is happening now is pretty much unprecedented in recent times. And it has to potential to have catastrophic economic consequences if not brought under control. But, it’s hard to see how trust can be restored given the murkiness of the rampant opaque securitization that has been going on of late.

no hell in my religion.

There you go again messing with the metaphors

In Bushland jail is for poor people. If you have a fifth of the adult population in jail, it isn’t really “jail” anymore but “Republican welfare”. Goes along with the corporate bailouts. Which costs us more money and causes more damage to ordinary people? We can’t possibly afford to fund social programs — that would be socialism.

That is one fine rant.

Monica Crowley, concernus trollus, on Imus foreshadowing the rightwing hits on Obama… “ooooh, boogga, boogga, be afeered, be very afeered…he’s not one of ‘us’…he’s gotta ’splain himself….”

God help us!

Well, I guess in our times much has depended on being able to dress up some beautiful dogs and sell them at the fair.

Very funny. Second caller, a D, told Cato guy that he believed in relgion without hell. Cato guy begged off.

Yes, the banking system is predicated on trust.

Jazus even the consumers know not to trust the banks. You’d think the bankers themselves would know better than anybody that they are a bunch of crooks. What is the adage about thieves not trusting each other?

Someone actually said that? Dog, we are well and truly screwed as that lie is repeated for a truth!

nomolos @ 28 -

Guess you saw that story about the hearing where the credit cards company kept the “little” people from testifying by threatening to release every piece of information about them? Sorry, no linky but it’s been within the last week.

Yeah, she’s an amazing writer anyway, but wow!

I’d love to hear it shouted from the rooftops.

sorry nomolos. looks like there more of us.

Okay. The Cato guy just clarified that he was not making a theological statement. I feel better.
And, Selise, there’s no hell in my religion either. At least not in the “afterlife”. I think it’s here and now. If at all.

Guess you saw that story about the hearing where the credit cards company kept the “little” people from testifying by threatening to release every piece of information about them? Sorry, no linky but it’s been within the last week.

Yes I did indeed and I was/am really pissed. At times I just want to scream and pull my hair out in frustration with this damn gummint.

That is a thing of beauty. Thanks.

there’s no hell in my religion either. At least not in the “afterlife”. I think it’s here and now. If at all.

rats, I thought there was a special iron maiden waiting for Karl Rove when he arrives. darn.

Completely OT, but just a cool little story..

‘A dolphin has come to the rescue of two whales which had become stranded on a beach in New Zealand.’
http://www.ananova.com/news/st…..ddiscovery

godless commies, one and all…/s

The Cato guy just clarified that he was not making a theological statement. I feel better.

Is this the same cato as in the Pink Panther?

was it the credit card companies, the congress or bushco that threatened the people who wanted to testify? i want to know who to be pissed off at.

It’s all the Ds’ fault, according to a guest on Kudlow’s show on CNBC last night.

Yeah, right.

Larry Kudlow, self appointed King of the Hamptons’ Tennis Club and Dinner Party set, whose mantra– as stated here yesterday — is privatize profits and socialize losses.

These guests on Washington Journal are talking past each other. It’s not whether govt is good or bad, it’s what kind of govt and what kind of private activity. Every developed economy is mixed, and the successful mixture varies widely. Being dogmatic on one side or the other is not useful. Sigh.

Guess you saw that story about the hearing where the credit cards company kept the “little” people from testifying by threatening to release every piece of information about them? Sorry, no linky but it’s been within the last week.

For those, like me, who missed this, here’s a recent followup:

Testify, but first waive your privacy

Here you go selise…. get REALLY pissed off

Oh, I was speaking for myself.
Now, there very well may be one for KKKarl. :)
(Have you ever read Rude Pundits articles about him?)

Selise, if I remember correctly, the credit card companies demanded it, the Congress members caved, and then the people refused.

So let your anger start with the credit card companies, and the roll down to the Congress.

And being angry at the Bush administration is just SOP.

thanks nomolos. and good call leinie. i’m pissed off enough that there’s plenty to spread around. *g*

Geeze, you’re lucky if you have any hair left!

leinie @ 54 -

So let your anger start with the credit card companies, and the roll down to the Congress.

Yeah, that’s the way I remember it, too. Heading off to read Bilbo’s linky.

shit.
shit. shit. shit.

it’s bad enough to expect the credit card companies to be assholes. and the Rs to back them up.

but i am fucking sick and tired of the Ds being afraid of “procedural battles”.

/rant

sorry, but that article was just over my limit.

shit.
shit. shit. shit.

Ah I see you have read the articles.

Hmmm,
This is an ad in the Stars and Stripes..
http://www.stripes.com/section.asp?section=104

‘There is no organization on earth more focused on creating and developing leaders than the US Military. You have been instilled with the very ideals that are critical to a successful missionary family. Missionary families demonstrate integrity in their actions. They exemplify strength in their convictions.’
http://www.activedutymissionary.org/

Many Americans are a naive. Many Americans are easily manipulated. Many Americans are completely ignorant of history. Others are just plain ignorant. All the ruling elite has to do is whisper the word “socialism” and the masses will scatter like coakroaches exposed to light. Works out quite nicely for the elite because they derive all the benefit to a socialist approach with out any of the accountability. If the American public wasn’t such a collective chump they would demand their fair share.

Yep. Cuz if you’ve got granite countertops and a big screen, you deserve whatever the credit card companies want to dish out.

Cuz it’s just different if you’re getting screwed by the credit card companies but the debt comes from something they *approve* of.

I refer, again, to my link @15. The principle applies here, too. I wish I was as eloquent as Athenae.

The names don’t matter much except they are used to poison thinking.

The main meme in America is wining, creating and preserving personal wealth. This is not something that serves the needs of society as a whole, but each individual.

Accordingly, anything thing makes it harder to acheive the goal of personal wealth is deemed undesirable. So the greedy fight against all taxes, all regulation and refuse to contribute to the commons.

What do these people want? They want police protection for their property against those who would try to take it from them. They want the nation protected as well since defending their land is something that they can’t personally afford. Fire protection? I’d bet most would prefer to have their own and not pay. They certainly don’t want to share the costs of education, health care or any social programs. Their wealth enables them to purchase most of what they need. And so they want a society which supplies them goods and services they deem necessary and that they can well afford to purchase. And nothing more.

Most of these wealthy no longer work. They simply believe that having wealth begets wealth and they call this “investing”. They believe that simply making their wealth available to others is a legitimate business and they should be compensated for this. They justify it by claiming there is risk.

The up and coming “industrialist” business types simply want to extract as much wealth as they can from the work of others. Their meme is to drive down production costs (labor and materials) and push up profits. To assist in their scheme they rally some others who toss in some of their wealth in a share of the profit from the business. Shareholders are only there to grow their own wealth.

The wealth is presumably used for having a lush life. But many of the wealthy have way more than they need for the cushiest life. What then is the reason for the acquisition and protection of so much wealth? I suppose it is simply greed and the lust of power that wealth and privilege expect and addict to.

Many Americans are a naive. Many Americans are easily manipulated. Many Americans are completely ignorant of history. Others are just plain ignorant.

All you need as proof of these words is Pres. McFlightsuit’s 30% approval rating.

That’s tens of millions of people who should be considered dangerous in a voting booth.

Per Reuters:

An aide to Obama, whose speech will be delivered at a historic building across from Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell at 10:15 a.m. EDT (1415 GMT), said the speech will have a strong personal element. Obama worked late into the night on Sunday drafting it.

Of particular concern is the uproar over comments by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who served as the pastor at the Chicago church where the Illinois senator was a member for 20 years.

I didn’t realize that Obama’s speech is this morning, and hour from now.

Great post attaturk, thanks.

The private sector is good at one thing, driving shareholder value. It’s what they do.

By definition they don’t act with anyone elses interests in mind.

topless and singing Wagner

Brünnhilde?

Stop being negative Bush just Defacto Nationalized how many banks with his policies?
Every bank that borrows from the Fed is now partially owned by the government. Unless the economy picks up and the banks pay back their loans with interests (Bush had better be charging some!).
But in this crappy economy created by Bush just how many hedgefunds and business will be able to pay the banks the money they owe?
Bush and Greenspan are both warning About Not Going To Far, but Greenspan said that before the housing bubble and then shut up. I can read the signals Greenspan and Bush want us to Nationalize the Banks sure they say No.
But then they gift wrap all the banks for the next president who thanks to Bush will be facing an economic crisis , a huge debt and nowhere else to turn to for money, thanks to Bush the next President will have no choice unless the economy turns around.
Now Bush and Greenspan will claim that they never meant to Nationalize the banks but the nobody could have foreseen excuse got old after the Iraq war and the housing bubble.

Ok, so what do what to do for a vacation?

‘A once-in-a-lifetime experience:

THE ULTIMATE MISSION TO ISRAEL
Monday, June 16 – Monday, June 23, 2008′

http://israellawcenter.org/template.php?section=MI

The MSM’s coverage of Obama’s pastor and McCain’s “spiritual guides” is really pathetic which some might consider bordering on criminal. Obama is skewered and McCain is given a big wet sloppy kiss below the belt from the sycophants that try and pose as journalists.

alternatively, they could spend their vacation volunteering with jeff halper.

Experience a dynamic and intensive eight day exploration of Israel’s struggle for survival and security in the Middle East today: “a military, humanitarian, historical, judicial, religious, and political reality check.”

Witness apartheid first hand. See how illegal occupation can cow populations. See torture and murder LIVE for just a few sheckels more. Make your visit an experience the whole family can enjoy while kicking women and children.

The wealth is presumably used for having a lush life. But many of the wealthy have way more than they need for the cushiest life. What then is the reason for the acquisition and protection of so much wealth? I suppose it is simply greed and the lust of power that wealth and privilege expect and addict to.

Lets not forget Reverse Social Darwinism or the using of wealth and power to promote inferior offspring and then turn over the wealth and power to them. Serontionus? “the twelve Ceasers” reads like a porn history of the Bush family.

Monica Goodling’s father, a Nam chopper pilot, is one of these missionaries. He is not active duty now.

(picture is a 1920 campaign button for Eugene Debs…proving we did not invent snark)

Each generation believes it invented snark!

Once we got hooked on the holy grail of “Lowest price is everything” we were doomed.

Simply put, it might be better to pay $4 for a t-shirt which let’s my neighbor down the street have a job at the t-shirt factory, than pay $3 for a t-shirt made in China and my neighbor out of a job.

Henry Ford may’ve been a bastard in many ways but he allegedly understood a simple fact. If I don’t pay my workforce a decent wage, how in the hell will I sell my cars?

Good Morning, Attiturk…and all…

Good points, Perris.

KaylnMaine–Yes! I don’t *even* want to hear about all those “welfare queens” who supposedly made all that money. I am sick of hearing how they are to blame for this mess!

Ya why isn’t Tweety and Pumpkin head both Catholics getting on McCain for his Pastor calling Catholics Whores?
I want to see a bunch of Nuns reaction when they hear that on TV!

Simply put, it might be better to pay $4 for a t-shirt which let’s my neighbor down the street have a job at the t-shirt factory, than pay $3 for a t-shirt made in China and my neighbor out of a job.

That would be fine if Big Biz gave a sweet shit about keeping jobs in America. They prefer you pay $4 for that T shirt so they can make even more profit from the shirt made in china.

Pay to watch people be oppressed ?

Tweety and Pumpkin head both Catholics getting on McCain for his Pastor calling Catholics Whores?

But those two ARE whores

But then they gift wrap all the banks for the next president who thanks to Bush will be facing an economic crisis

It gives me no joy to say it but the seeds of this debacle were planted under Clinton’s watch.

Cato economist on Wash Jour just described what we’re going thru’ as a “bump” in the road. Wonder what he would call a “mountain”?

Thanks for the link..I’ve added it to my bookmarks.
I hope everyone knows that I was NOT in anyway, supporting the ‘Ultimate Vacation’. I am NOT a supporter of Israeli policy in Palestine/Middle East/Anywhere, I was just passing on info…

Point taken:) I and I’m sure that Opus Dei Supreme Court Justice Scalia breaks out his whip just at the thought of fixing an election recount for McCain as millions chant that word.

i know…

i’m just a big fan of jeff halper (and ghassan andoni), and will use any excuse to mention either of them. wish our i/p policies could be influenced by the likes of them.

True Newt gave Bill something and Bill gave Newt something in return, bipartisanship is a mistake that we can not afford to make again! Nancy and Harry alone are proof of that!

… a mere market adjustment.

Every time a rightie sez U.S. has higher per capita GDP than France, the other side should say that GDP per hour worked is roughly the same in the two countries. That is, U.S. higher standard of living compes from a higher % of population working, and from workers workng longer hours.

Now there are some who might say that leisure is more valuable than a big screen TV. Or that people vege out in front of TV because they’re too tired to do anything else.

Sometimes its better to not buy jeans at Target cause my last two pairs were ripping in under a year. Which hasn’t happened since I was a teenager! I need to find some Hemp jeans.

There are quality-of-life charts that put Europe way ahead of the U.S.

Oooh, TCU, if you find a good source, share.

Hemp is such a lovely fiber.

More of us work longer hours than the French and the GOP thinks that this is a good thing?

Delta is ready when you are :)

Don’t forget that lack of healthcare leads to self medication (beer) for chronic pain.

Thank you for this, Attaturk! E.J. Dionne is an excellent progressive writer. We should tell him how much we appreciate him.

Scramblin’ on the fly today, so much Republican malfeasance…so little time….

Prairie Today: The Chatterati

Let me correct that. Per this chart the U.S. ranks near the middle of the Euriopean countries and a bit above France: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_index

I like to think of it as, Delta may or may not be ready when you are.

Dang I was hoping somebody here would know! I’m down to one pair of jeans. Good thing I wear shorts most of the winter.

Yep.

Not to mention that real wages as a percentage of GDP have remained fairly stable in the EU but not over here.

Harry and Nancy are not bipartisan. They are capitulaters.

Remember, according to W, working three jobs is “uniquely American.”

Caught a bit of MPR economic talk yesterday about Andrew Mellon’s solution to economic crisis back in the Hooverish years when he was Treas. Sec. Same as Kudlow. Look how well that turned out.

I’ll give you three guesses as to where I live, and the first two don’t count. On the positive side I’ve heard of only one buyer whose property is in foreclosure. Not a subprime, the taxes and insurance put her in the red. That, however, is also true with a lot of people who bought before the rapid rise in prices. Property taxes and insurance rates are major issues in Florida. With a Republican legislature I don’t anticipate anything changing. The Rethugs have controlled Tallahassee for so long they don’t see the wave building up to slam their greedy asses into the wall. Thurman did the right thing by ending the debate about a revote in Florida. But that’s a another discussion.

Dang I was hoping somebody here would know! I’m down to one pair of jeans. Good thing I wear shorts most of the winter.

Many, many companies sell hemp jeans and many other hemp products

A simple search on the googles will get you there.

(Warning: Your search term will be recorded by homeland security and you will be entered in the “druggy” database)

Thanks.

However, I’ll note that index does not address the issue of how much you have to work to get the GDP per capita. And translating different currencies into a common unit is tricky. They do it using “purchasing power parity” exchange rates, which is a made-up number (well, it’s not quite that bad), but probably better than using actual exchange rates.

Why is it I see the entire Team Bushco and their Rethuglicronies as one big Blutarsky shrugging their shoulders sayin’ hey, you effed up, you trusted us.

Give me an H!
Give me a Y!
Give me a P!
Give me an O!
…

Then why does he take such long vacations? (Ever American deserves half the paid vacation that Bush gets a year) could be one of our Presidential campaign slogans!

Since Bush has never had to work, he probably views working three jobs as “romantic”, just like his chickenhawk background makes him see serving in Afghanistan as “romantic”. Republics, you must be so proud.

why stop with that debacle ?

Mornin’ All

What about Crime how is the murder rate factored in and weighed ?

He’s the spoiled son of a wealthy family. As Preznit, he does little work, leaving it to Cheney and others.

’Cause so many republics *don’t* work longer hours? Tho’ that doesn’t explain why so many of the ”little” people still think bushco walks on water; going to my grave without an answer to that one.

Racist Buchanan spewing his bile re the “antiChristian” Reverend Wright.

Obama speech coming up at 10:15 ET on msnbc. Others?

Here’s another one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H…..ment_Index

This one rates France ahead of the U.S. by a little bit.

You could also consider the incarceration rate.

As Preznit, he does little work

Just not true. He has spent over 800 days clearing brush in Crawford just in the last eight years… who knows how much time he spent clearing brush when he was governor. Hey disagree with him all you want, hate him if you wish but let’s be honest the man does work his butt off at clearing brush.

He’s the spoiled son of a wealthy family. As Preznit, he does little work, leaving it to Cheney and others to eff things up because he’s already been there, done that so many times before.

Editorial revision/addition to clarify the record….

Well, if we’re working so hard that all we want to do is drop after work, then we’re too tired to keep up with what’s going on in the world, eh?

Ok, another hmmm?

‘In early August 2007, Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a Shi‘i preacher affiliated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, made headlines with striking comments to a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor. The cleric revealed in an interview with Sam Dagher that “a massive operation” was underway to secure the establishment of a Shi‘i super-province in Iraq, to be named the “South of Baghdad Region,” and projected to encompass all nine majority-Shi‘i governorates south of the Iraqi capital. Saghir claimed that his party had already drafted detailed plans for how such a super-province would be governed — plans of such importance to Iraq and the region that there was “no room for misadventures.”[1] While Saghir did not mention a timeline for this remarkable undertaking, other Supreme Council supporters of the idea were less reticent: “The Shiite federal region will be announced in April 2008,” wrote one enthusiastic proponent.[2]’
http://www.merip.org/mero/mero031008.html

CSPAN 1 said they were covering it. He’ll be speaking at the National Constitution Center, a choice location for this speech, I think.

If we did that and put together our own index what other factors should we look at?

true story,i was on vacation,(last one ive had) in 2000 when the tech bubble popped,i got margin calls for 1 month solid,if i sold i would get hit with enormous fees,so i was counseled to hold on…i did and lost 300,000 dollars…no,nobody bailed me out..horrible lesson

The general point being that, even on economics alone, U.S. is roughly same as other developed countries,* and the alleged superiority is propaganda. Then there are all sorts of other aspects of life that some (but probably not Rs) would consider important.

*And those other developed countries have a wide range of the mixture of private & government, all of which are successful to within the measurement error. There is no clearly superior mix. And as said earlier, it’s not the mix that matters as much as the quality of govt and the quality of private economy. We’re at a low point on both.

TCU @ 92 -

114 was for you. Preview and Reply have gone whacky on this end of the toobz.

But the economy sucks, unhappy busy people are one thing, unhappy unemployed people who used to work for Bear Stearns is another thing they are used to being rich and they were part of Bush’s base.

nevermind about CSPAN 1 the speech won’t be on there

good morning all, rainy here……..

i found a website yesterday,

http://www.newsmeat.com

it is political contributions since 1978 from celebrities, sports people, media, political pundits, business people, billionaires, etc………

you wouldn’t believe it……..you can click on the names and get specific breakdowns of contributions……..

i ended up staying up until 2am digging in there…….

the info on the site is from the FEC……..

whadda eye-opening experience.

some people it’s just a few hundred, others, into the millions.

you can sure see who puts their money where their mouth is.

Wall Street really needs overhauling…nobody should invest a penny ,till they do…just sayin

I don’t think they have thought about it. They simply believe stupid sound bites.

Anyone who critically analyzes W or the R policies could not support them. The policies are based on false premises. And W only spouts sound bites with his phony texas twang.

What exactly could anyone find desirable in what he has done in his life… anything… objectively. Answer: NOTHING. He is the ultimate slacker, born with a a silver spoon in his mouth, pushed to be president because of who his father was.

If we did that and put together our own index what other factors should we look at?

Healthcare costs, education costs, lack of public transportation, genetically altered foods… the list is endless

Haven’t thought about it. Sounds like an exercise in brainstorming.

Was it Aristotle who said something about how some people just are slaves?

What about factors such as:

Life span
literacy
retirement age
infant mortality
% of income spent on healthcare
% of income spent on housing
% of income spent on transport
% of income spent on basic education, higher education

just to name a few other factors concerning the success of the US economy v others

In and out of the conversation, so this may be redundant, but Saturday Strib had an op-ed on the fallacy of GNP…and better metrics.

Check it out here.

Blue Texan’s Upstairs

Me, too, sadlyyes. Not quite to that scale– $4000 lost on Lucent Technologies. And I agreed, stupidly, to the class action lawsuit against them for misleading investors by falsifying data. They “made it up to me” by giving me 1/4th of what I had invested.

Capitalism is the new word of slavery.

Capitalists now have slaves off shore and outta sight.

Abolitionists made it unsightly to keep slaves in plain sight in america

good

i was destitute for 5 years!

“Socialism” as misused in America is an epithet. It is shorthand for whatever “good” someone doesn’t want his or her tax dollars to pay for, typically perceived as the well-being of a social or economic or political competitor. When those tax dollars pay for one’s own social, economic or political well-being, that’s “good government”. Seen in that light, Bush’s Bernanke’s subsidizing the titans of Bearish Stearns – and its purchaser – is community support for similarly situated elites. Typical of a good Bushie, he’s using someone else’s money to pay for it.

The giveaway of Indian lands to settlers, or of federal lands to private railroads in the 19th century? Good for America. Taxing the rich to pay for public water and septic systems, “Socialism!” Using tax dollars to pay Colorado militia to machine gun Ludlow’s striking miners? Essential to the social order. Taxing mine owners to pay for safety inspections, or allowing miners to unionize, “Socialism!”

Healthcare is a universal human right and obvious social good in every developed country except America. Here, it is a function of employment, considered the holy of holies and not fit for the unclean hands of government to interfere with.

Actually, that traditional model of government and business relations has been giving way at the margins for decades. Many businesses would now welcome universal healthcare: it provides a more reliable, lower cost work force at lower direct cost. The principal obstacles are the radical wealthy and their paid pundits, and those industries and their lobbyists whose profits depend on the current, cat’s cradle of a business model that has high school graduates interpreting contracts in order to deny or delay medical care in order to escalate profits. A down the rabbit hole confection desperately in need of rationalization.

Exceptional opinion.
Articulate-Informative-Intelligent.
Thank you.

Attaturk: “BEAUTIFUL”

Awesome!

It’s not whether govt is good or bad, it’s what kind of govt and what kind of private activity. Every developed economy is mixed, and the successful mixture varies widely. Being dogmatic on one side or the other is not useful.

Republicans are fond of saying the Constitution isn’t a suicide pact.

Neither should the Capitalistic system be. Idealism is great. Ideology is great. Extremism can be ruinous.

Business which wants a bailout are just doing what businesses do, makin’ money. That doesn’t mean, that in the name of saving everyone that our government should sacrifice the rest of us. Government shouldn’t become our guillotine to save someone else from the noose they made for themselves.

Government can indeed save the system, by letting it work and intervening only in rare instances where it’s necessary to save the system or to save all of us from the excessive downs that sometimes occur.

These days, as the Bear Stearns bailout shows, we also have to beware that government doesn’t always have infinite resources to save the whole system. As the Republicans have been arguing for a smaller government they, more than anyone really, should realize a smaller government can’t bail out the entire world.

Not to mention that real wages as a percentage of GDP have remained fairly stable in the EU but not over here.
reply

Is that a result of purely government enforcement or is there a corporate culture which freely chooses to do that?