Good Morning, Is everyone sleeping in? Well, so is Angela the cat….Maybe I’ll just go back to bed.

some of us are here

Good Morning…what a terrible story about that young bride. Heartbreaking.

Mornin’

Scarborough is at his Mecca this AM.

And moving right along…Obama speaking on Wall St today:

“We’ve got to pass financial regulatory reform,” Obama said. “And this is an example of where folks say, well, should the Obama administration be taking on too much? The fact of the matter is that if we don’t pass financial regulatory reform, then banks are going to go back to the same things that they were doing before.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..02412.html

Exactly, exactly what he said he was going to do. First, stabilize system. Check.

Second, begin fundamental reforms to prevent from happening again. Kick-off.

So here we have a President with his hand on the rudder turning the ship around. It’s now up to us to start rowing so hard it won’t get off course again. As with all these big issues, we must get more motivated and active as ever to make sure the pendulum keeps swinging hard. We can get to single-payer next. We can get financial regulation that’ll make Repubs long for the days of the timid Glass-Steagall.

We’ve got to get much more of the mushy middle voters to realize what’s a stake, and get behind these efforts. It’s up to us to organize this. Let’s roll.

Health care like the rest of the world, what a challenge; ‘In rural Rwanda, the simple and time-tested idea of medical house calls is not only improving the health of the community, but stimulating its economy as well.’

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/537/index.html

So here we have a President with his hand on the rudder turning the ship around. It’s now up to us to start rowing so hard it won’t get off course again.

The trolls throwing stuff into the works to blow up the machinery would be good to give a lifeboat and wave off, as well.

Mornin’, BT, pups.

RevBev, what story?

The stimulus money won’t do any good if state governments simply use it to cover budget shortfalls. They can claim it saved a bunch of bureaucrats’ jobs but it sure doesn’t put people back to work. We can borrow trillions from China to fight our fuckin’ wars but putting Americans back to work is too expensive. So is health care.

•The Bush recession continues.

sorry, once obama signed off on bush’s bank give away and made the democrats do it while bush was in office it became his recession

this depression could have been over by now if obama did NOT give the thieves more of our money and instead created jobs with it

I am not going to give obama a pass simply because he inherited a problem, he gets critisism for maintaining those same policies that casued the problem

so I’m in the whoorl pool at the gym where all but one person was an obama voter

to a man every single one of these people was pissed off with obama

I am the only progressive among them, most are at best on the concervativet side of the democratic party

obama isn’t just loosing progressives, he’s losing everyone

and then with the democrats chiming in against obama the republican had a field day, this is going to get worse and worse not better and better

I think obama can’t win second term unless he pulls something big out of the hat

Frankly I would have preferred if Snowe wrote the bill alone in an empty room, it could hardly turn out worse without Conrad, Grassley, Enzi around.

Good morning, all.

BT, thanks for the “compare and contrast” link. I was at the September 2007 antiwar protest and was very upset that it was so large and got so little coverage. All the attention Saturday on the teabaggers really mad me mad. Yep, we gots a librul press.

Young student killed at Yale…probably by a co-worker.

OT: VMA, just like a Wilson interruptus,

I meant this for SD. Sorry.

obama has not figured out that there MUST be regulations on everything he does, he can’t simply hand money out, that money is not going to go where it needs to go it’s going to go in pockets

he needs programs funded by cash he doesn’t need cash

for instance, giving money to the banks expecting them to use it for what the economy needed was rediculous, instead he needed to say, “here are funds, you can use these funds for loans at a mark up I say, if you don’t want to make the loan fine but you can’t have the money for anything else”

but no

House visits by doctors is typical in both France and Italy.

Five years into protesting the war we had become used to none of the protests being covered in the corporate media. Sad commentary when YouTube is the venue of necessity for the opposition. We’re doing radical cheerleading this Friday evening at BayWalk. No, I won’t be dressed in a pink and black cheerleading outfit. On the sidelines for this one.

Scarborough is at his Mecca this AM.

And because of that, I’m not even giving them my usual 5 minutes of viewing time.

Once they announced where they were, with America’s Crazy, Racist, Hitler-Apologizing Uncle in tow (sporting whatever his version of a “woody” is these days) I immediately changed the channel.

Oh, yeah I saw that. Might have found her in a wall in the basement of the building. Some sick people out there.

the worst thing for the anti war movement was a democrat who was not going to end the war, had mccain been in office the anti war movement would be 100 times stronger, maybe more even

Where are they? And Who is the uncle?

Obama was net +8 over the previous week in the latest DKos poll.

Spitzer was talking about this on CBS. He says there is all the regs needed; what is needed is the will to push getting it done

had mccain been in office the anti war movement would be 100 times stronger

While I agree with your sentiment re: the anti war movement, I doubt we’d be in a better place overall with Mr. Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran in control of the military.

They’re at the reagan library.

At the Reagan Library with Pat Buchanan on set.

Bank bailouts were started by Paulson and company before Obama took office. Asking them to lend, imo, was to try to cover up the huge amounts the banks had to pay out to keep their banking investors from going belly up, which would have put us straight into a depression. I certainly didn’t and don’t like the idea but I don’t think we had a lot of choice. Today, it’s a different story. We’re losing in excess of 250K jobs a month. These folks can’t wait for money to trickle down to them.

The problem is much greater. The G20 are about to install a global banking system/world currency run by a few central banks – the fed which is not democratic by any means. The BIC in Basel is at the heart of this monstrosity.

The Fed is out of control (never was) and is not a true US central bank. It is a private gig which prints our money – now created out of thin air – fiat currency.

The only money that Uncle Sam makes is coins… a tiny fraction of money in circulation.

Morning all, I think that Baucus plan that he released last week is going to lead to a mini boom in the dry cleaning business. Cleaning the drool out of the suits and ties of all of the insurance execs and lobbyists is going to go on lead to a lot of work.

Before the Holiday recess?
Is that all the time these people know? Before the summer recess, before the holiday recess, before this recess, before that recess.
Do they EVER work for the people in this country?

Ronnies ghost is in Hell a little further South…they will all meet him someday

The banks too big to fail are propped up because they are like a cancer on the host of our society. We need to take over these banks and run them without the insane usury that banking is.

Thanks….what is the draw of Pat? Like bringing in Rove all the time. Or the sycophant Bartlett.

Our economy isn’t based on currency, it’s based on credit. Are you in favour of returning to a currency based strictly on precious metals?

they work the country clubs,fishing events…and cocktail weenie circuit..raising biG BUX for ….all of the former,AND A CUSHY RETIREMENT

very kewl to see you here. welcome. hope it’s a regular stop for you

He says there is all the regs needed; what is needed is the will to push getting it done

I work in financial services, and he’s exactly right.

The SEC had all the oversight ability they needed but looked the other way.

Fixing all of this is easy, starting with:

1) Reduce leverage from 40 to 1 down to something sensible like 10 to 1, which worked fine under Glass-Stegall.

2) Put all credit default swaps and commodity futures contracts on exchanges for everyone to see.

3) Limit trading in commodity futures to entities that will take physical delivery of the product if necessary.

Thanks….what is the draw of Pat?

Please, when you find the answer, let me know.

Madoff said so….he winked and laughed all the way to the bank for 20 yrs

Good start. SEC is admitting they missed Madoff. Seems they missed a bunch more Ponzi schemers as well. Can’t restrict the free flow of capital, doncha know.

3) Limit trading in commodity futures to entities that will take physical delivery of the product if necessary.

Seeing oil rising again, this is urgent. The run-up in price of gas/transportation ws the clinker in the economy, upset any balanced family budget and led to accumulation of debt, origin of calamity

Having an in house Nazi allows Scars ridiculous ideas to appear slightly more sane.

iagree 100% with this assessment,including ripoff insurance premiums rising by double digits….2 necessities in Americanlife unfortunately

I got an idea, lets give the commodity traders at CITI and Goldman $100 million dollar bonuses for screwing up prices. /s

No of course not. But I am saying that our money is not controlled by the USA it is controlled by the private banks which make up the FED.

Frankly I would have preferred if Snowe wrote the bill alone in an empty room

Why is it I don’t remember a single occasion over the previous 8 years of a Democratic senator holding up any of the horrific legislation passed by the Cheney administration?

And why does Obama’s handlers let her roll around like a loose cannon on deck without a hearty STFU sent in her direction?

As in “STFU Olympia, or we’ll go with 51 votes.”

somebody please tell me,why there is NO RAGE from the Left………..ijust dont get it

obviously
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
they all agree

Bank bailouts were started by Paulson and company before Obama took office

if you remember congress was going to be voting against the bush’s bank gifts, obama had them vote for it

that and fisa convinced me this is a blue dog we have running as a democrat

Obviously on the macro level societies have to deal with growing populations, declining resources and how to use a monetary system for exchange. Money is created out of thin air when a line of credit or a loan is made. If too much is made it deflates the value of the fiat money, if too little it inflates the value of money. When the economy tanks, assets depreciate and they are bought up and when the cycle then peaks these assets appreciate. This roller coaster is driven by central bankers. Big money eaters are war and banks are all for war.

That’s right. Violate Godwin’s Law and all.

Insurance premiums have been dropped tho, and gas along with everything that is transported – are necessities. but yes, another insupportable increase that has drained our real economy dry.

foothillsmike, that’s the financial industries’ idea of ‘earning’ – they have no concept of value of labor.

ps…..the LIBERAL NPR….radio this morning espousing Gooper talking points on Healthcare………when willl the classical music come on before i stomp poor radio

that’s because of health care, if he gets that done well then he has a far better chance at re-election, if he doesn’t get it done I don’t think he wins

he needs some huge feather as far as I can tell

Some interesting perspectives on this, and how to protect yourself, found here:

http://www.danielamerman.com

What is your solution to the problems with/at the Fed?

i agree gas prices,milk prices KILLED the economy…………RIP

If more of the banks went under, the USA would have to take them over or we would be in a totally stalled economy deep in the tank.

He bought the BS that throwing money at the banks would induce them to get lending going which is how the economy works – credit as SD points out. But they didn’t start loaning. They bough up weak banks and consolidated into larger banks making them even harder to allow to fail.

The next step is to take over these banks which are insolvent – they still have huge losses – toxic assets they are hiding because they are not using mark to market accounting. They are using make believe numbers for their assets/securities. and getting away with it.

Breaking up these behemoths would mean figuring out who owns the bad assets, and who takes the loss when the mark to market valuation is used. They don’t want to take the curtain away from OZ.

We have not made any progress in the real economy, but Wall street is now feeling comfortable trading their make believe securities and this creates the illusion of normalcy and money is being made in the casino again as the betting is on.

What a farce.

found 6 kitties homes this weekend….didnt take pics…..3 sets of twins…………….aw

SD, I don’t know. I do think that the FED needs to be a true central bank for starters. It is presently made up of regional banks.

Methinks you give Obama too much power in his role as Senator. Paulson’s 3 page no accountability plan was what the Senate rebelled against, not a bailout in general. I think his FISA vote was a stab in the back but I don’t think he led the charge to pass it.

Awww, is right. I’ve been thinking maybe I’ll come back as a cat: sit around and look beautiful, sleep, someone brings the food, holds and adores you…not bad.

Guess I better start part of my day….later.

When claims were made against AIGs CDSs why didn’t they claim that it was a preexisting condition and cancel the ins.

Must get on with stuff to get done, just looking for a good photoshop of a Trojan Horse with Olympia S’s face.

thanks for the good tho’ts

LOL. Because some individuals (corporations) are more equal than others (the rest of us).

I agree and also agree with your 56. There’s no way I can see that we’ll get away from a credit based economy, as much as I’d like to see us do so. Working folks don’t make enough dust not to borrow for simple things like a washer and dryer. Some would say hang yer clothes out but a lot of folks live in places controlled by homeowner associations and a simple thing like hanging out clothes is verboten. All in the name of maintaining property values.

Calling darkblack. Calling darkblack.

I don’t think the senate understand the financial system or the true scope of the mess we are in. Obviously no one as the SEC was watching Wall Street or they were told to lay off and let them do all the new financial instruments to create more wealth for the financial sector.

The myth was and probably still is, in the senate, What’s good for wall street will be good for Main street. This is completely false.

What’s bad do Wall Street is a disaster for Main Street. The is completely true.

The myth was and probably still is, in the senate, What’s good for wall street will be good for Main street. This is completely false.
————————
it was always considered inverse

If the democrats had half a brain or any cajoles that would “go it alone” right now and let Snowe/Collins/anyone else who fancies themselves a moderate take ownership of the teabagging millions that marched on Washington, get some backbones, the landscape is YOURS dem’s if you would only grasp what is going on

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Irak: 4343

US KIA Afghanistan: 829

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

Credit is OK, if it is sold a reasonable rates and the selling of it is regulated so that it doesn’t turn into a rapacious greedy monster that it has become.

The credit card concept was OK, but it became abused. The excuse for the abuse was that they were no recourse loans and were high risk so they were entitled to high ROIs and fees. Completely unregulated they abused the plastic money system. They provided credit to too many who did not deserve it and assumed that they would make out with the higher interest and fees charged to everyone. They were right and they had congress sit on their hands.

The congress bought the myth that home ownership means consumer spending and that makes jobs and also corporations money – it’s just a bubble. But it was one that sold well because the homeowner saw their home not as a place to live but as an growing asset and one to borrow against – yet another strategy for more income for Wall Street, and corporations who sell home “stuff”.

Debt can only be supported by income and cash flow. When the bubble burst it began the chain reaction ripppling through all the real estate related industries – construction, home products, cars, restaurants, and then to other segments as disposable income evaporated replaced by oppressive unserviceable debt the result of CREDIT. All sectors of the economy are being pulled into the debt /credit sprial.

If we are not growing and inflating, we are dying and in a death spiral. That IS a credit based economy.

If the left stooped to the same tactics as the right, Maddow or Olbermann would give a blackboard lecture demonstrating that Kay Bailey Hutchison’s hatred of czars proves that she is a Bolshevik. Then members of the House and Senate would start saying they didn’t think she was a Commie, but couldn’t prove otherwise, and they had seen her wearing a linen suit, which probably meant nothing, but then again, who knows? If she is one, that must mean Rick Perry is a Trotskyite, since he’s in the same party, but they despise each other. Godamighty, they want the Republic of Texas to be a soviet socialist one!

Sounds about right to me;surely that will fix the TX education system.

The credit card concept was OK, but it became abused.

Boy, was that ever an understatement!

Once it became commonplace to pay for every day purchases (gas, lunch, etc.) with credit cards instead of cash it was game over, because most people never pay the balances monthly (and the companies knew this would be the case) so your $30 tank of gas became $60 when paid over 5 years with interest.

Layer on top of that constant bombardment by advertising that suggested you deserve that vacation, new clothes, new car every 2-3 years and the recipe for disaster was set.

In hindsight, credit should only be used for emergencies, purchase of a home and/or an automobile.

Most everything else can and should wait until you can pay cash for it.

Senator Feinsteins limited definition of the public option is worth discussing further. Maybe it’s the Senate that doesn’t get the real point behind it.

“

The key to the public option and the reason people want the public option is to keep costs down. There is more than one way to skin that cat.”

If the public option was only about lowering costs we’d have 1000% agreement and whacko groups like the Right wing PAC, Conservatives for Patients Rights(CPR), wouldn’t spend millions on a national ad campaign whose sole purpose is to dump “the public option”.

Krugman has the whole package:

“One purpose of the public option is to save money. Experience with Medicare suggests that a government-run plan would have lower costs…it would introduce more competition and keep premiums down..and importantly, the public option offered a way to reconcile differing views among Democrats.”

But here’s the real zinger, in my book:

“…some who want a public option might be willing to forgo it if they had confidence in the overall health care strategy.”

Rock the vote.org hits it even harder when they point to the word “quality:
“The public option would operate alongside private insurance companies, making the market more competitive and driving quality up and costs down.”

And here’s why I support the public option, above all else:

“… even if you have insurance, there are lots of ways insurance companies can deny you coverage or stop your coverage. We call this “screwing you.” Not anymore under reform proposals…”

.
I’ll believe in a public option when I get a card for one. I expect to die of something treatable before then.

So I’m just going to sit here and listen to songs your Daddy didn’t sing you. Unless he was Hawaiian.
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