The POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy: Very Poor
In early July, I welcomed readers to the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, presidential candidate Barack Obama, and Senate majority leader Harry Reid aren’t merely talking the economy down; they’re taking it down. …
Businesses and investors are responding to their total lack of seriousness by battening down the hatches and preparing for the worst. …
These three and their party appear not to care one whit about the damage ever-higher energy prices and the prospect of punitive taxes are doing, right now, to both the economy and the stock market. They have set and reached a new low in legislative negligence.
One quarter into the POR Economy, I regret to inform readers that I greatly underestimated the damage these three would do and how quickly they would do it.
It appears that after decent second-quarter growth of 2.8%, the economy will turn in a performance that might — emphasis might — be positive. If so, it will be thanks to export growth.
Three factors, all courtesy of the POR triumvirate, have led us to this point. As noted, I saw two of them coming: energy foolishness and tax increases.
The oil-averse stubbornness of the POR Economy’s architects has ranged from the offensive to the ridiculous. Pelosi infamously asked protesters, “Can we drill your brains?” Reid, who apparently moonlights as a epidemiologist, dolefully informed us that fossil fuels are making us sick. Obama erroneously told us that we can solve our energy problems with tune-ups and tire inflation. Thankfully, because of public pressure in an election year, the offshore drilling ban has expired. But Democrats have made it clear that reinstituting the ban is a “top priority” for next year — never mind the trillions in royalties that could fill federal and state coffers.
“That’s a pretty good trick, considering that over a third of Americans pay no federal income tax already.”
A “tax cut” is not the same as “income tax cut.” Discuss.
Obama is gonna be rubber stamping everything Reid and Pelosi put in front of him.
It’s going to be a very, very long time before we see prosperity again, if ever.
Sadly, we may be faced with having to endure POR for at least two years, and the damage they will do may be catastrophic.
HT to ITM;
Dear O and M and All ITM readers.
Morning – Are you currently shaking your head wondering what is going on in
> the UK and US financial markets?
>
> Here is a wee story that illustrates it beautifully.
>
> ‘Once upon a time, in a village, 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, the
> villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy
> at $20 for a monkey. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they
> started catching monkeys again.
>
> Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to
> their farms. The offer increased to $25 each, and the supply of monkeys
> became so small that it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch
> it!
>
> The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he
> had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on
> behalf of him.
>
> In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. ‘Look at all
> these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them
> to you at $35, 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, only monkeys everywhere!
>
Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.’
>
> Have a lovely day
Kind regards
Hameed Abid | 10.16.08 – 11:12 am | #
The best explanation of the stock market I have EVER seen. My Econ101 Prof would have hurt his self over this one!
It also pretty much describes the latest wall street scam.
RE: Understand, America dies the day Ohhhhh……BAMA takes office. America IS the Constitution. The Constitution is built on the concept of ‘checks and balances’. With a Demonrat in the Oval Office, Demonrats running Congress, the Courts will be packed as soon as possible (ASAP). The Media will be put down and there will be nothing to prevent the USA from going the way of the Weimar Republic.
That is real change, change you can count on.
A LOT of foolish people are thinking that if this experiment with Marxism doesn’t work out, they can always vote the tyrant out. Tyrants DON’T get voted out, they leave by dying. Either natural or induced, there is no other way.
Ohhhhh…..BAAMA is a young man, so his removal will be induced and the collateral damage will be tremendous.
Worse then that, as the Romans found out about 1600 years ago, removing that first tyrant just opens the way for the second one.
So let’s see- an economic crisis over 15 years in the making, due mainly to investment banks taking advantage of rules and regulations being aboloished is….let me guess:
The DEMOCRATS’ fault?!
Right, the Republicans have control of all three branches of government for most of the past 8 years and they dump is into an unnecessary and hugely expensive war in Iraq, our federal defecit SKYROCKETS under their president, deregulation allows investment banks who are (surprise!) all about making money in the short term to pull another S&L crisis..and it’s the fault of the DEMOCRATS?!
Idiots. You deserve your Dubyah Presidential Library. Each and every one of you who voted for Bush the 2nd term are partly responsible for the decline of the US. How much does a particular party need to try to completely destroy our future before you decide not to back them 100%?
6. Daniel
Yes Daniel. It definitely is the Democrats who think it’s wise to loan money to people that can’t pay it back. It’s the democrats that compelled bankers to do it. It’s the Democrats who stopped multiple efforts to reform.
And it’s the GOP’s fault insofar as their enabling it by compromising on principle and allowing the Dems to have their way.
Like to know where we’re headed? Read “Atlas Shrugged” (pub 1957) by Ayn Rand.
Like to know how we got here? Check out AmericanThinker article September 28:
http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html
America!! Beware of the REPO gang of 3. Reid,Pelosi and Obummer!They will repo all your wages and spread it around!!
O B A M A . . . P E L O S I . . . R E I D
T H R E E . W E . D O N ‘ T . N E E D
Watch this video and you’ll see that things can only get worse:
Sheila Jackson Lee threatens to “subsidize everything” …
scroll to minute 7:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTI9r4pUYh4
Keep the faith
Sara
http://www.sarahforamerica.org
We the people voted these morons in it is time to vote them out. Obama is the puppet of Ayers, Reed, Pelosi, Soros etc. He was a puppet in the debates pull his string and he says 95% get tax cuts, four more years of George Bush etc. Now give illegal aliens licenses, destroy the Constitution, trash the military and socialism. If you don’t vote for McCain any don’t reelect Pelosi it is your own fault. Obama may have school smarts but McCain has street smarts no contest.
I meant if you reelect Pelosi it is your own fault. Dodd and Frank belong in jail and where are hearings on those Bozos who ran Freddie and Fannie onto the abyss p
RE: @ 7:
Haven’t heard it explained any better….Thanks!
Wow, Blumer doesn’t even bother to write an article. He just remixes a few hoary Hannityisms, leavened with the “expert research” into well-known, publicly-available info on the ACORN suit that only the high-powered brainiacs at Rusty Shackleford’s Instapundit-wannabee blog.
Watching Republicans try to tie the subprime mess to the Community Reivestment Act and paint Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as the CAUSES rather than the BAG-HOLDERS for poorly-regulated banks and Wall Street investment firms is really kind of amusing.
Oh, and screw Ayn Rand. Her books are the “Dilbert” cartoons of moral/political philosophy.
That is to say “…that only the high-powered brainiacs at Rusty Shackleford’s Instapundit-wannabee blog could have unearthed and explained for people who don’t have Google.”
Scary ass people, the whole lot of you. You can’t see the nose on your face, much less the people who have screwed up the country for the past 8 years. You think Reagan was the hero when he and his CIA trained the man who attacked us on 9/11, not to mention being the guy who “palled around” with terrorists like Saddam and who traded weapons to our then-sworn enemy, Iran. Great guy- you’re right.
You blame a barely majority Democratic party who have been almost completely ineffectual due to a president AND vice-president who are willing to overreach their power and you obviously don’t learn from your mistakes. You’ve been spied on by your own government, you only support the troops when they agree with you and you now hate 60% of your own countrymen. And you call yourselves patriots. HA!
Luckily, the vast majority of the country knows who have screwed them for the past decade.
“where are hearings on those Bozos who ran Freddie and Fannie onto the abyss”
I seriously doubt the McCain camp wants a real inquiry into Fannie and Freddie, given the closeness of his campaign advisor to the events. But again, all you need is a shaky grasp on reality, a loudmouth right-winger radio clown and some email and autodial spam and you get 20% of the country still believing that those who have been in power for eight years have NOTHING to do with the problem.
The MSM could have video proof that Cheney is a serial rapist and dog killer and you’d still think the Bush administration craps roses. Almost EVERYONE who has left their administration has come out talking about how absolutely terrible and Stalin-like their administration is, and yet you still back it.
The great thing is that you’ll be losing all of your power in the next few weeks and I seriously doubt the American people will be hearing from you again for a long, long while. I’m sure you’ll still have Rush and the voices in your head to keep you company.
By the way, why is it that the VERY conservative economic advisors of the country were ALWAYS right, except when the vast majority finally admit that deregulation is largely responsible for the crsis we’re currently in? It’s amazing how quickly you change your loyalty when it suits you.
Oh and wasn’t McCain the one you all hated when Shrubya was running for King? First he was way too much like a Democrat and now when we’ve got a credit crisis largely propegated by rules his economic advisor pushed through, he’s the only choice America’s got? The man who actually said HIMSELF that he voted with Bush 95% of the time is going to save us from the crisis that happened while Bush had all three branches of government? Really?!
– …the vast majority finally admit that deregulation is largely responsible…
This is like the B.S. “consensus” on global warming, right? Sorry, doesn’t play anymore. The only reason anyone thinks anything OTHER than the Dems’ CRA-style policies are responsible for today’s woes is because they get their information solely from one source: the Democrats’ propaganda arm – the mainstream media.
And it’s funny that anyone would whine about McCain voting with Bush 95% of the time, since Bush has been correct about 95% of the time – certainly with respect to cutting taxes, growing the economy, increasing federal tax receipts, Iraq, Saddam, increasing FM/FM oversight, domestic drilling for oil independence, etc.
Give it a rest, “Daniel”. The Useful Idiot Show is boring.
“This is like the B.S. “consensus” on global warming, right?”
Yes, in fact. Exactly like that. Maybe you’re unfamiliar with the meaning of the word, so here you go:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/consensus
1. majority of opinion: The consensus of the group was that they should meet twice a month.
2. general agreement or concord; harmony.
Seeing as how the VAST majority of financial experts who aren’t being paid to state an “opinion” are saying it was deregulation, I’d say that fits the bill.
And as far global warming, wow…if you’re still not at least admitting that the VAST number of experts in just about every applicable field agree that the Earth IS warming (including Bush’s own paid ones) and that humans are at least contributing, there’s really no hope to ever get anything through your thick skull.
“certainly with respect to cutting taxes, growing the economy, increasing federal tax receipts, Iraq, Saddam, increasing FM/FM oversight, domestic drilling for oil independence, etc.”
Taxes:
Dipshit, cutting the taxes (on the rich) was a short term COVER FOR THE PROBLEM. Sure, if you give all the rich people more money, they’ll spend it- but it doesn’t fix the actual problem. And since trickle-down econommics obviously doesn’t work, it might be time to stop pretending that it does.
The economic stimulus checks the Dems signed off on made people happy for a little while, but did it fix the underlying problems? NO.
Iraq:
Wrong again. The CIA, along with just about every expert, has said that invading Iraq has made us LESS SAFE. And of course it has- they didn’t attack us. But hey, let’s pay off warlords in Afghanistan instead of fixing THAT problem.
Saddam:
So let’s see- you were for Saddam when he worked with Reagan and Cheney but you were against him a couple of years later? Convenient.
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has said that he had nothing to do with 9/11 so you might want to stop lying now.
So called “domestic drilling for oil independence”:
Gotta love the Drill Baby Drill mentality. It illustrates beautifully why Republicans have ANY power whatsoever- because of absurd short-term memory by the people and short-sightedness. It’s maddening to anyone with an attention span and a thought of their own.
If we could COMPLETELY eliminate our use of oil (for car, anyways) altogether and actually PRODUCE energy, wouldn’t it be better than making 15% of it here and STILL importing from the Middle East?
Nah..let’s buy foreign!
And that’s not even talking about the 12 year delay if you drilled today. But I’m sure our oil thirst would NEVER increase by then, right?
Fucking hypocrits. We could be a world leader again and show the rest of the world that we will never buy anything from a country with civil rights violations and come up with solutions, but instead we’re going to pretend that buying a little less oil will fix everything.
Is there a single person on here with a brain cell in their heads? Anyone willing to step up and actually talk outside of the talking points?
If you want scary and want to be France if you are lucky in four years elect Obama case closed.
The other way tyrants leave office is as exiles fleeing assassination. They see riots and think things are too hot so they skip the country in fear for their lives.
Who had double digit chances to take Bin Laden out and didn’t pull the trigger because he was too busy playing with his own trigger? Who followed up on Carter extorting the banks to give loans to deadbeats. It was Mr Bill. Who was playing with his trigger not even knowing what proper use it is for and let Fannie and Freddie go broke? Barney Fife I mean Frank. Who opened his mouth caused a run on Indy Mac and put it out of business? Chukie Schumer? Who was a friend of Mozillo got special loan rate and should be in jail? Chris Dud I mean Dodd . I could write a book on Obama’s associations and deeds. What do they have in common? D E M O C R A T. Get it you dumb dopes who won’t vote for Mc Cain? Doubt it.
Gee, there’s an awful lot of Kool-Aid drinking here today.
It’s very clear that todays’ Democrats do not have the best interest of the country in their hearts. Each and every one of them needs to be voted out of office. Americans can stop this madness forced upon us: we are the government. We have the power, let’s use it by voting for those who will stop meddling with capitalism and let the system work.
Daniel – you are stunningly ignorant.
Mortgage crisis and its origins – http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=308185654524278
US oil supplies – http://www.ibdeditorials.com/FeaturedCategories.aspx?sid=1812
Global Warming – http://www.ibdeditorials.com/FeaturedCategories.aspx?sid=1802
If trickle down economics doesn’t work then please enlighten us all on how trickle “up” will.
Is the idea to steal money from taxpaying citizens, give it to non-taxpaying citizens and hope the recipients of someone else’s wealth turns around and uses it to buy goods and services from the taxpaying citizen?
Eric, I suspect Daniel (the useful idiot) will not accept anything from IBD as justification. Maybe this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvG-s_Ssb0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&feature=related
..who you gonna believe, Daniel, your sakc-of-crap Democrat buddies or your lyin’ eyes?
Eric @ 25:
The Dimocrats seek to create a rubber-stamp constituency of government-dependent “victims”, and they will only succeed when there are more…….
1. Acorn-registered illegal aliens & convicted felons
2. Non-taxpaying, non-productive welfare recipients
3. Useful idiots
4. Inattentive fools
…….than there are of us. This election will tell.
Poll finds Americans reject redistribution of wealth as suggested by Barack Hussein Obama
PRINCETON, NJ — When given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today’s consumer, Americans overwhelmingly — by 84% to 13% — prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.
http://www.nextgenerationcorp.com/NextGenBlog/?p=68
I must agree that Pelosi, Reid and the Democrats will be blamed for the current financial meltdown. God knows the GOP and the conservative lemmings lack the moral or ethical courage to accept any blame for any failings of the Bush administration. How can middle class GOP conservatives contimue voting for a party and ethos that has done much to destroy America’s middle class? Is this group so blinded by the hate spread by Rush, Ann Coulter and their fellow travelers that they are unable to see the destruction caused by nearly 30 years of conservative GOP leadership? Guess so, they continue voting for those that are destroying their lives and the futures of their children. The national debt has doubled in 8 years!! A debtor has no future!! A debtor nation can’t long defend itself from its enemies!! Continue voting for the GOP haters and the GOP will continue doing much more damage than Oasama ever has or could. Your vote for the conservative GOP is a sword in the heart of America.
“Global Warming – http://www.ibdeditorials.com/FeaturedCategories.aspx?sid=1802”
Hi Eric. Let me tell about something that you may be unaware of. There are these things called “scientific journals” where scientists publish the results of their research. This is where you want to go to learn about a scientific issue. Try an ISI Web of Knowledge search, your library certainly has a subscription. Or try google scholar, less exhaustive, but still a good source for scientific inquiries.
Editorials are not a good way to learn science. Good luck in your education!
Steve Johnson,
Yes sir, we are indeed ticked off by the GOP’s fiscal recklessness. But As long as the Dems promise to spend more and tax more than Republicans, your argument goes nowhere. You see the cure cannot be worse than the original problem for conservatives to recognize it as a good value. Conservatives are funny that way. We only like change for the better. Change to make things worse seems kinda stupid to us.
Remember the Monday a few short weeks ago where Nancy Pelosi had promised to “deliver” the (then) $700B bailout?
Then, the bill failed and the stock market immediately plunged 777 points?
It failed because Reid and Pelosi wanted it to fail — they had enough Democratic votes to pass it, but they told some of their members explicitly that they didn’t have to vote for it.
They didn’t care if the stock market crashed, in fact THEY WANTED IT TO CRASH….blame it on George Bush…besides, their candidate Senator Obama was SHORT the market and economy. Every time things went wrong on the economy, Obama went up in the polls.
By the time they got around to passing it on Thursday, it had gained an additional $150B of garbage spending. I’m not sure we wouldn’t be that much worse off with NO bailout bill.
They demonstrated their political power and gave everyone a taste of what’s to come if Obama wins. They also demonstrated who is going to call the shots in any Obama administration. ‘Here, sign this.”
Obama is a multimillionaire and he says he wants to pay more in taxes. Great, last time I checked, people can give away as much of their money as they like. So, somebody should tell Barack to put HIS money where his mouth is and give use HIS money! Seriously, before the election, give away the millions. Then, I think we should hit up all those other elites that have gotten rich as public servants to fork it over:
Nancy Pelosi, I think she has something like over 50 million. I want her money so…I should have hers, right? Buffet and Soroes have billions and have made a lot of money with the hedge funds (thanks Democrats) so hell, let’s take theirs too. There is some redistribution and it is coming from people that truly want to give us their money, right?
I like it but would take it a step further by limiting their gross yearly income to $251K so they are subject to the higher tax bracket as well.
P-O-R must be counting on Red America acting like a compliant jail house b***ch when it comes to taxes. If P-O-R are really counting on that, they’re counting wrong.
What is the Three-Headed Monster going to do if tens of millions of otherwise productive Americans decide to find every legal (and even illegal) way to hide their money? Turn the IRS into an “Obamastapo?” Yeah, that’ll really go over well with us bitter Bible- and gun-clingers, won’t it? The IRS already knows it’s hated, and a scenario involving FBI and IRS agents going after Joe Biden’s “unpatriotic Americans” could get very ugly, very violent, very quick.
Yup, P-O-R’s legacy to America could easily end up being…a “Sopranos Economy”: cash-under-the-table, barter, and “in-the-front, out-the
-back.”
Hey Boris, as an Electrical and Aerospace Engineer I can tell you that there are a huge amount of supposed scientists that have prostituted their souls to the Global warming religion. Be it because they are ideological fools, are after the huge loads of government cash for those wanting to do research (which should always say it is there or their funds disappear), or both. In the mean time the most important source of energy in the solar system, and the one with the most impact on our planet’s climate bar none: is constantly ignored by these retards. There is an important lesson for everyone here: science is not immune to politics or other dastardly influences. With the sun going dormant and the climate changes we are seeing now because of that, these hucksters will soon be selling global cooling and another ice age like they where doing in the 1970s.
Daniel, just to point out a huge flaw in your argument: you do know democrats have controlled Congress for the last 2 years right? Please tell me when the economy suddenly took a nose dive and other things started going badly. I bet even you can find the correlation. I would not be surprised that we eventually find out democrats caused this economic crisis to come to a header so they could profit from it at the ballot box. You can blame this crisis on the idiots that told banks (Congress which passes laws for those of you that seem to be uneducated about how our government works) they HAD to lend money to people that would obviously never be able to repay it so they could buy homes and then not to worry because government would pay for it if these people defaulted. I am starting to suspect that the democrats knew that when it all fell apart they could milk it and expand their control over the financial industry, and lo and behold, that is exactly what they ended up doing. Blame republicans all you want, but you are doing so without the facts to back you up.
So, we’re gonna replace crony capitalism with crony socialism? Looks like change without hope to me.
If the American public votes in these monsters, the American public will have the economic conditions it deserves.
Looks like Stevie and a few others need an education.Talk about part of the problem.
Danny Boy has some SERIOUS anger management issues.
This is for Daniel. The person who needs some education about what makes America work.
How Taxes Work — or, ‘How to Pay for Beer’
Another one from the mailbag:
“Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers,’ he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.’ Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
‘I only got a dollar out of the $20′ declared the sixth man. Then he pointed at the tenth man, ‘but he got $10!’
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’
‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’
‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him.
But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works.
The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.
In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
-David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. Professor of Economics University of Georgia
The difference between Conservative and Liberal economics:
- For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
- For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
I am guessing Daniel falls into the last category.
“Right, the Republicans have control of all three branches of government for most of the past 8 years”
Factually inaccurate, sir. The Republicans held a majority in Congress, which is NOT the same as Controlling congress. A party needs 60 Senators to ‘control’ the Senate. This is not a secret, you just need to look it up.
“and they dump is into an unnecessary and hugely expensive war in Iraq,”
“us”? anyway, that is your opinion. My opinion is that Iraq was the single most important part (campaign, theater, front, etc) in the WoT. Iyt offers the West the opportunity to avoid a century of guerrilla warfare.
Here is a hint. ANYONE that calls Iraq a war doesn’t know what they are talking about.
The War on Terror is a GLOBAL WAR, just like WW1, 2 and the Cold War (WW3). A better name for the Global War on Terror would be WW4. The USA and it’s allies are fighting in many places. ALL those campaigns share common protagonists and a common theme, which is what makes them part of the same war.
You lefties think that if you call each one a separate war, you can deal with them one at a time.
If they were you could. When the troops come home from Iraq and the war doesn’t end, will you then fact the facts?
“Opportunity in war is usually of greater value than bravery….Terrain is often of more value than bravery….Bravery is of more value than numbers.”
-Flavius Vegetius Renatus
The America haters are out in full force, is it a full moon?
The lack of logic and knowledge displayed by the Daniel types shows how far the MSM, our liberalized/socialized/dumbed down schools and TV have brainwashed our youth. Ayers with Obama and other socialist supporters have been quietly working under the radar to destroy the education of our children. Then to add insult to injury we see Obamas Corporation for National and Community Service on his webiste, this is a classic socialist/Marxist plan for the goverment to mold, control and reeducate the miindless or blindly enthused to follow a leader (any leader). It is on his website: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/service/
This is what is said on this page:
Corporation for National and Community Service
“The Problem
Americans Not Asked to Serve After 9/11: President Bush squandered an opportunity to mobilize the American people following 9/11 when he asked Americans only to go shopping.
Insufficient Federal Support for Service: While more than 500,000 people have served in AmeriCorps, the program turns away tens of thousands of applicants a year because of limited funding.
Need for More R&D in Nonprofit Sector: Research and development in the nonprofit sector is limited and there is a disconnect between charitable foundations that can fund innovation and the organizations on the ground that can test new concepts and bring them to scale”.
Obama wants a military sized private army under direction of Prez. People what more do we need to know. Does any of this remind you of other regimes from the past century? Have you seen the video of these service youth marching into a classroom praying to Obama that it is because of him they will be teachers, auto mechanics, etc ?
I saw jackboots, hitler youth, brownshirts in color just not b&w from the 30′s in Germany, Italy, Japan. China or Russia.
It all on Youtube.
No Obama Not Now Not Ever
Certainly there is enough blame to go around from greedy high-risk low income borrowers on Main Street to greedy bankers and Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FM/FM) to even Alan Greenspan himself, but Democrat fingerprints are even more prevalent on the recent financial market meltdown. If Democrats continue in their partisan demafoggery, they should keep this fact in mind: For every finger the Democrats point, there are three more that point right back at them.
From the Democratic Congress’ passage of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act during Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s watch to Democrat Bill Clinton’s 1995 push to “reform” the CRA by allowing more access to sub-prime loans by high-risk, low-income borrowers to the same administration’s first deregulation of the home mortgage industry in 1999 to congressional Democrats blocking any meaningful reform after the Bush Administration’s earlier warnings of an impending sub-prime loan crisis in 2001, 2003 and 2004 to John McCain’s and nineteen other Republican Senators warning Congress in a 2006 letter that is now available to the public, Democrats undermined virtually every effort to reign in the GSEs and make them more accountable.
Here’s one example of Democrats’ documented complicity in our present economic and financial state. On September 11, 2003, the New York Times (no right-wing rag here) reported: “The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago. Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry. The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress …”
So how did Congressional Democrats respond to this “regulatory overhaul”? Barney Frank, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, led the counterattack for the Democrats when he claimed, “These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
Intimidated by this coded warning that further regulating “affordable housing” would feed charges of racism against Republicans supporting such reform measures, Congress ultimately abdicated its oversight responsibility by not reigning in Fannie Mae and Freddie.
And it didn’t end there. For the next five years Democrats like Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Melvin Watt, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and many other influential Democrats would ignore the warning signs and abdicate their oversight responsibility by looking the other way while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued buying up $1.4 trillion worth of bundled high-risk, sub-prime loans. This action in turn provided lending institutions with further incentives and capital to give low-income, high-risk borrowers home mortgages which were often beyond their means to repay.
And that’s the dirty little secret the left-leaning national media has been careful to avoid since this was an election year, that in large part, and over a period of fifteen years, it was the Democrat’s stubborn opposition to GSE reform which would put an end to high-risk loans being given to low to moderate income borrowers. This dynamic far exceeded any negative impact that limited deregulation under both the Clinton Administration and Bush Administration may have caused.
Re-electing Democrats to Congress who opposed reforming home lending practices would be like putting the foxes in charge of the hen house. Independent voters and non-partisan Democrats who have lost a substantial portion of their portfolio due to the market downturn should think long and hard before pulling that lever for a party that would monopolize even more power in Washington and whose “progressive” policies have already caused financial problems and might cause yet another market crash compounding the one we are already in.
Chuck great story except Senator Government and House Leader Government and President Government want to spend and print trillions of dollars. If we redistribute wealth as Obama wants I will already paying welfare to lie income people and will donate np more money to any charity.
By the way, why is it that the VERY conservative economic advisors of the country were ALWAYS right, except when the vast majority finally admit that deregulation is largely responsible for the crsis we’re currently in? It’s amazing how quickly you change your loyalty when it suits you.
Can you please cite chapter and verse of the “deregulation” you are complaining about? Because I’ve got a few ideas about specific regulations, pertaining to Fannie and Freddie and mark to market accounting, that I would be are larger culprits in the financial crisis than any “deregulation” you can cite.
Typical liberal idiot, patting himself on the back for using the right buzzwords.
Can you please cite chapter and verse of the “deregulation” you are complaining about? Because I’ve got a few ideas about specific regulations, pertaining to Fannie and Freddie and mark to market accounting, that I would be are larger culprits in the financial crisis than any “deregulation” you can cite.
Certainly
1. Mark to Market accounting simply is a requirement that most businesses have been operating under for some time. A fair valuation of assets according to what the market will pay. The free Market. If not for Mark to market, banks who have heretofore shown a stunning absence of ethics would inflate assets higher and higher to maintain capital levels required by the Regulators. They need to have a fair warning system that bank will fail instead of a panic when people can’t access their money any longer.
The right has sung the praises of the free market for so long, why the objection to marking assets to the value that the free market assigns?
2. Credit Default Swaps: The unregulated mess which is causing the meltdown, not some home owners defaulting on mortgages. While foreclosures are up substantially and values are coming down, the reason AIG has taken 123 Billion ( Not including executive retreats) is becuase they sold these moronic “weapons of financial destruction”.
It would be the same as if someone said , let’s bet against the guy who mentions poor people and mark to market doesn’t know anything about the credit crisis for 20 Million and 50 traders make the same bet. That means whoever collects those premiums would be on the hook for a billion when I prove how wrong you are. Get the picture?
That’s 55 Trillion worth of bets made by email, instant messenger and telephone. Being the unregulated free market that is the dream of all conservatives, it quickly grew as multiple of the total debt outstanding by 4x.
That means if one mortgage goes bad and 100 people bet against it. Suddenly say a a 500G mortgage becomes a 50 million liability becuase it has has to be paid to 100 people who own swaps which is really insurance but they called it swaps so it wouldn’t be regulated.
That in turn allowed Jake’s Hedge fund and Lawn mower supply house to buy and sell swaps in the secondary market. When the game of musical chairs stopped the banks found their swaps were as worthless as the companies that held them. To make matters worse they also had their trading desk sell swaps too.
Would you buy insurance from a company that spent the premiums and had no capital base to pay your claim? No one could possibly be that stupid except the nation’s banks.
That’s why we are in a financial meltdown. The mark to market rule is a early warning system for the govt for when a bank is about to fail.
It’s a crime to lie on loan documents. It’s a crime now to lie on financial documents. The mark to market rule insures compliance for banks that chased the rate insensitive and wrote pulse mortgages ( do they have a pulse) once they realized they didn’t have to hold the mortgage and the fees paid on sub-prime were higher by a factor of 8x that on prime mortgages.
Pure unadulterated easy money greed. While I don’t agree with the bail out becuase I think they are spending trillions to kick the can down the road a few months, I do agree that the banks repeated the same performance of 1929 when they used depositors money to make bets on overvalued stocks in a major stock bubble. Bankers are not the smartest business men around in general. So we should pay homage to the bankers that have stuck to their knitting and are doing fine.
FYI The term is called reverse redlining. Once all the credit worthy had refied their loans two or three times, Wall Street and the banks were desperate and that’s when they lit it up by chasing people with enticing payments lower than rent with promises of a refi and large increases in valuation.
No one “forced ” those bankers to do anything. Yes the poor should have know they were getting screwed. But then again banks were always held to the highest standards becuase they were considered safe places for people to save money.
Where’s your money these days?
Most of the comments and the diary here show a stunning absence of knowledge not to mention discrete racism.
Banks have learned first hand that profits are an account concept and cash flow or liquidity is an operating term which means no matter what accounting system your on, eventually you have to answer Jesus.
Great post Hankmeister I would be happy to point three fingers at the Dumbocrats and you can guess which fingers two of the three would be no pinkies or thumbs.
“If not for Mark to market, banks who have heretofore shown a stunning absence of ethics would inflate assets higher and higher to maintain capital levels required by the Regulators.”
Factually inaccurate. I won’t call it a lie, since you could be posting erroneous information out of ignorance instead of malice. Here is a little data for you;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_to_market
Mark-to-market only became available for accounting purposes AFTER the distinction between types of banks was relaxed. As the article states, it is a valid technique for balancing accounts in a futures market. It has no place outside of that. Before Mark-to-market was used, I think cash basis was used. I haven’t had anything to do with Fannie since the mid 70′s so my memory isn’t real solid on that. I only did one audit there as an Android (AKA, Arthur Anderson temp. Ink was still wet on my sheepskin) they could have changed several times between then and now.
“They need to have a fair warning system that bank will fail instead of a panic when people can’t access their money any longer.” Once again, clueless. The banks don’t get anymore warning then they give you. The tellers give out money until their drawer is empty. Then the manager goes to the vault for more. He sees that he is getting short so he calls the feds for a reload. The feds say, sorry, we have nothing to reload. That is when the bank knows. About 2 minutes later he is locking the doors. That is when you know.
Lets pretend the banks had 24 hours notice. Lets say they made a public announcement. You think anything would change? Clueless. You just want to know before everybody else so you can be the first in line. Clueless.
Here is what you do. Buy ammo.
If you have a weapon and plenty of rounds you can always get money and food.
If that seems a little rough to you, well, you wanted change you can count on.
There it is! Welcome to Obamaland. Exit your vehicle with your hands over your head and empty.
Re: Daniel No.20
I am in the evil oil & gas business. I have a degree in accounting and work in the oil & gas business in Midland, Texas from 1978 – 1988. I went through the boon and bust of the business in that period. Guess what? I was telling people that the real estate boom in the current period was not going to last!
It did not!
If the Federal goverment would get out of the way of the people in the business and let them drill and produce the oil & gas in the United States of American , then WE THE PEOPLE would have a chance to play on a level playing field with the rest of the world.
DBurn – You left out a couple important details.
Mark-to-Market is flawed, because it is figured instantaneously. Whenever a derivative was bought or sold, they were all revised in value… up or down. It allowed for massive revaluations. In a boom market, they showed greater value, so the banks had plenty of “capitalization” showing. Technically, they weren’t undercapitalized, so they could keep borrowing more money from the Fed at rates below inflation rate.
However, in a bust cycle, all those deivatives got revalued downward in a hurry. Suddenly, the banks are grossly undercapitalized, but they were on the hook for derivatives they had traded. Suddenly, they were upside-down, and collapsed. If Mark-to-market had been made rolling, the rollercoaster would’ve been mild. Dem regulation.
As to the bad loans, those were made possible by President Clinton in ’95. The FHA standards were cast aside in order to make the loans to the deadbeats. No doc loans were made possible. All the takers… um, underprivileged, in society jumped aboard and exploited the system, with no intention of ever repaying the loans.
No prob for the banks, because they sold them to FM/FM, which happily bought them up. Vast Dem collusion to socialize housing. That’s why the Dems blocked any reform. It was a massive giveaway to their constituents, the poor/minorities.
Yes, it WAS all the Dems’ fault! The Pubs were guilty only of not fighting hard enough to stop it. Too few understood enough to know or care. Who could blame them? Very few in the country understood enough.
There’s just one problem with the idea that drilling leases will fill the national coffers with piles of royalty money — the Bush administration isn’t collecting it.
From http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/washington/07royalty.html
“An eight-month investigation by the Interior Department’s chief watchdog has found pervasive problems in the government’s program for ensuring that companies pay the royalties they owe on billions of dollars of oil and gas pumped on federal land and in coastal waters…
…The report comes as lawmakers in both parties have been attacking the Interior Department for failing to correct blunders that department officials now concede could cost the government as much as $10 billion over the next five years.
It also reinforces complaints by critics, from auditors within the agency to lawmakers in both parties, who have said that enforcement has become superficial, prone to errors and overly deferential to oil companies.”
Note the year this “scathing report” was completed — 2006. It shows that the problem already existed in the time Congress was controlled by Republicans.
Jimmy Carter started it, Bill Clinton amplified it, and Barnie Franks, Chris Dodd, Maxine Waters, and P O R amped it through the roof!
Democrats out to destroy the world’s economy could not have done it more thoroughly. Now they want everything, the whole ball of wax.
Sure, may as well slit our own throats.
Go ahead folks, keep blaming the Dems.
Meanwhile, the GOP will keep skyrocketing the debt, starting wars, torturing citizens and foreigners, kidnapping people, and imprisoning them outside the system where justice is impossible. Lets not forget 3000 civilians died on their watch, and no one was punished for it.
The GOP gives billions to big business, 700 billion just a few weeks ago, and that’s just a drop in the bucket of the total cost that ‘Trickle down economics’ has cost the American people. And what do we have to show for it? Just massive debt, recession, and and deficient spending.
But go ahead and keep blaming the dems while the GOP robs us blind, and kills us at a whim.
“In the mean time the most important source of energy in the solar system, and the one with the most impact on our planet’s climate bar none: is constantly ignored by these retards.”
If you’d actually read the IPCC report you’d realize the sun is not ignored. Remember, you can’t understand what you haven’t read. Good luck!
Boris says: “If you’d actually read the IPCC report you’d realize the sun is not ignored. Remember, you can’t understand what you haven’t read. Good luck!”
For your information Boris, I have read the IPCC report. It is a damn joke replete with lies, omissions or fabrication of facts, and completely driven by a political agenda. I would never use it as proof for any argument I would be making other than to stress how real science was corrupted by a political agenda. Why the hell would you take any claim about what the weather will be in 50 years from people that can not accurately predict weather out for more than 7 days?
The biased computer models these people used so they could minimize the solar impact to force across their politically motivated results/agenda was so blatant that one might as well claim they are ignoring it. Please tell me why they never release these computer models for peer review? What are they afraid of? I will tell you: they are afraid anyone that takes even a cursory look at that heap of dung would declare the whole thing a worthless politically motivated exercise. As an engineer it is clear to me that when some shady organization like the UN tees up a drastic and global disaster, then tells us that the only solution is to give them total control of the planet so they can enact a wealth redistribution scheme to counter it, instead of applying actual engineering solutions, that we are dealing with a scam. In science you have proof or you don’t. And so far the alarmist have had zero credible proof, other than their purported consensus by people with minimal, if any, background in climate science.
Now that I have debunked your infantile attempt at attacking the messenger or the messenger’s intelligence instead of addressing the actual message, what stupid comeback are you going to use to attack my facts with? The sole purpose of the climate change movement has been to frighten the people into allowing them to form a global collectivist government. What a scam.
The Democrats have already harmed the economy and will continue to do it. It will be almost impossible for the market to recover if we have a Marxist like Obama as U.S. president? Who in their right mind would invest on anything that the Marxist in power can expropriate?
Just look what has happened to the economies of countries run by Marxists (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua). Obama’s campaign strategies, promises and slogans (CHANGE and YES WE CAN, etc.) are almost identical to those of other Marxists (Odinga of Kenya, Chávez of Venezuela, Morales of Bolivia, and Correa or Venezuela). And so are the attacks of his followers to anyone trying to show the TRUTH regarding his nefarious links. Mr. Corsi, the author of OBAMANATION who is exposing Obama’s ties to Odinga, has received death threats and his address had been published on Obama’s websites.
Venezuelans, Bolivians and Ecuadorians already found out that CHANGE means fewer and fewer rights and more poverty for the people, as well as much greater corruption under “socialismo del siglo XXI” (Marxism). They have also found out that YES WE CAN means Marxists like Ayers, Obama, Odinga, Castro and Chávez CAN fool people.
When they first realized the similarities between Obama and the Marxists they have escaped from, many Latin Americans thought that people in the U.S. could not be fooled as many Latin Americans had. However, it seems many people in the U.S. are as clueless as the poorest and most ignorant people in Venezuela, Ecuador or Bolivia.
With Obama-Pelosi-Reid will be completely in the hands of Marxists. Obama is a Marxist himself and Pelosi-Reid are manipulated like puppets by Chavez and Chavez’s Russian and Islamic friends.
Learn how Pelosi has been working with Chávez’s Piedad Cordoba and how much damage she has already done in Latin America: Obama-Pelosi-Reid http://frontpage.americandaughter.com/?tag=nancy-pelosi
The economic thread of Obama-Pelosi-Reid is horrendous, but the thread to freedom and democracy is even greater.
If you are not brainwashed or brain-dead, help save your country and the world from Marxism!
Welcome to….
“Trickle up Welfare”
All national banks are regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the O.C.C). The mess we are in is entirely the fault of the government.
Who created the O.C.C? Congress. Who sets the regulatory parameters? Congress. Who has the oversight authority? Congress. What party has been de jure in charge of Congress for the last two years? Democrats. What party has been in de facto control of Congress the previous six years? Democrat.
The Democrats being their usual prevaricating themselves conveniently forget they are the responsible party. Congress is the board of directors to the President’s CEO. And just like a corporate board of directors, Congress ratifies all of the major decisions taken by the CEO. Congress like the board can if necessary remove the top management. They Democrats created these institutions, were responsible for oversight of these institutions, ran interference for the institutions and the regulated parties and now have the moral degeneracy to assert the absolute responsibility to the Republicans for their absolute failure to govern responsibly. But then again what can one expect from the traditional party of treason?
Honestly I think in spite of all of the best efforts of the of the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party, the MSM, McCain will squeak by the finish line as the winner. The Congress however will most likely be a very depressing affair. McCain if he is elected will have to get it in to his head that the Democrats in Congress are not now, never have been or will ever be his or America’s friend. He will have to veto time and again all manner of socialist/Marxist garbage pass by Congress. If overridden, he will have to reassert his/the President’s authority to impound funding for those schemes and if need be order the agencies not spend the funds or implement the policies. Naturally this will cause the Democrats to try to impeach and remove him from office and indeed they might even succeed. No matter. Even if that were to occur McCain would have rendered an invaluable service. And then the Marxist would have to deal with with Palin. If not and the Messiah wins, the God helps us all. The disaster will be stupendous. The only silver lining will be the counter reaction that will sweep all of the excess and more in to the trash can of history.
It is rather amusing that Joe The Plumber asked The One the one question the press has not asked Obama for two years. Isn’t interesting the press can uncover more information about a private citizen in two days than they have about The One in two years?
DBurn,
I see others have tried to set you straight on “mark to market”. Even the regulators are walking back from that one, realizing that in illiquid markets and situations creating distressed sellers (there’s no question that the economy, and housing market, have slowed considerably since 2006, putting major stress on mortgage-backed securities, but without mark to market, that stress could be borne by all but the most risk-seeking banks), the regulation is a recipe for disaster.
That’s 55 Trillion worth of bets made by email, instant messenger and telephone. Being the unregulated free market that is the dream of all conservatives, it quickly grew as multiple of the total debt outstanding by 4x.
Another ignorant comment. That 55 trillion figure doesn’t distinguish between notional value and value at risk now does it? But, why make that distinction when the 55 trillion number is so much more dramatic? The value at risk is almost certainly a fraction of the notional value, just as it is in every market. For example, if I put down $1 million on a swap, but have a trading strategy that stops my losses at $100K, the notional value of my swap is 10X the value at risk. If you think that isn’t how trading desks work these things, you’re definitely ill-informed.
But, hey, what the hell do facts matter when there’s an election to be won?
Sure – dems are partly to blame, but you’re telling me that hedge funds, aggressive trading practices, short selling, etc. had nothing to do with this? I understand the ideology behind the idea of a self-regulating market, but it’s exactly that – an ideology. If the market could actually self-regulate, we wouldn’t need any regulation – people would do the honorable thing, people wouldn’t take advantage of others, and greed would disappear. I’ll blame the liberals, but I’m blaming everybody. Besides – a problem this huge takes more than three democratic congresspeople to screw up.
So let me see if I understand this: 8 years of Glorious Leader, 14 years of Republican Congressional rule, 2 years of Democrat Congressional rule, and the market is responding to what the Democrats MIGHT do? Brilliant. Really, just brilliant. Wasn’t there some way to blame Clinton? But at least you did manage to misinterpret Obama’s position.
When W was elected we had peace and prosperity. Falling poverty, stable inflation, budget surpluses for four straight years. Rising wages for all, even those at the bottom. Eight years later and we’ve got two land wars in Asia, both wars of choice. We’ve got rising poverty, rising unemployment, falling stocks, rising inflation, exploding deficits. Anybody who looks at the record has to conclude that W has blown it, not the Democrats.
It was Reagan who asked, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” When we ask, “Are you better off today than you were eight years ago?” we know the answer for all but a tiny minority is: “NO!”
“Why the hell would you take any claim about what the weather will be in 50 years from people that can not accurately predict weather out for more than 7 days?”
Save me your lectures when it’s clear you have no idea about the difference between forced and unforced variability.
“Please tell me why they never release these computer models for peer review?”
Huh? You can download NASA GISS ModelE right now if you want to:
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/modelE/
There are dozens more that you can download if you want. As for peer review you are similarly misinformed. The peer reviewed literature is filled with model intercomparison papers, Google Scholar gives 20,000 hits for “climate model intercomparison.” And that’s just one small aspect of model documentation and validation available a few mouse clicks from where you are right now.
Great job “debunking” me, now go download modelE (you know, one of those models you claim “they” are hiding) and prove it’s all a scam. The Earth is waiting and you may be the last honest scientist left.
I’m confused how loaning money to minorities for some homes, not just minorities (but since we’re on the racist tangent), is the pitfall and complete collapse of the loan-swapping industry? Minorities didn’t account for $62 trillion dollars in speculative loan swapping and repackaging deals.
You’re right, I blame people like Bill Clinton, but the Republican controlled congress of the last 15 years and the dual presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush created this fiasco with the unrelenting deregulation rush pushing through our economies.
The Democrats in congress inherited this mess.
Jesus you people need to take some government and civics classes to figure out how the government works. The author of this rag included.
Bishop reminds Catholics to remember Judgment Day in the voting booth
Bishop Robert Herman
St. Louis, Oct 18, 2008 / 08:03 am (CNA).- Bishop Robert J. Herman, the administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, has written a column reminding Catholics that their vote will be a decision weighed on the Day of Judgment. He urged Catholics not to treat the unborn as the neglectful rich man treated Lazarus in the biblical parable.
“Judgment Day is on its way,” the bishop wrote in the St. Louis Review. “We cannot stop it. We don’t know when it will come, but just as surely as the sun rises daily, the Son of Man will come when we least expect.”
“For many, this coming election may very well be judgment day, for this election will measure us,” he continued, referencing Christ’s words of judgment in Matthew 10:32-33:
“Everyone who acknowledges Me before others, I will acknowledge before My heavenly Father. But whoever denies Me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
Bishop Herman asked the faithful to consider what kind of witness they give to God when they enter the voting booth on Election Day.
“The decision I make in the voting booth will reflect my value system. If I value the good of the economy and my current lifestyle more than I do the right to life itself, then I am in trouble,” the bishop wrote.
He cited Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici, which said outcry on human rights is “false and illusory” if the right to life is not defended to the maximum.
“The right of our children to be protected from destruction is greater than my right to a thriving economy,” Bishop Herman continued.
“My desire for a good economy cannot justify my voting to remove all current restrictions on abortion. My desire to end the war in Iraq cannot justify my voting to remove all current restrictions on abortion.”
Bishop Herman looked to the spiritual dimension as well.
“Those 47 million children our nation destroyed are still living. We have destroyed their bodies, but their souls are still alive. When our Lord comes again, they may very well be there to judge us. Even worse, Jesus tells us that whatever we do to the least of our brethren, we do to Him. We would truly shudder if we heard the words, ‘I was in my mother’s womb but you took my life!’
“It is quite possible that we might see these children, but, depending upon the choices we have made, we may very well be separated from them by a great chasm which cannot be crossed, much as the rich man who ignored Lazarus, the poor man, during his lifetime here on earth but was separated from him after death.”
Bishop Herman said the “deepest problem” with many Catholics is that they have become accustomed to rationalizing away a “life of sinful actions” headed in the wrong direction.
“My goal is not to engage you in some political party way but to engage you with our Savior and His teachings. We need to constantly challenge our accustomed behaviors in the light of the Gospel,” he wrote.
He said the issues of the coming election could help people learn about the teachings of the Catholic Church and to use the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
“When we do this, both we and the heavens will be filled with joy!” he asserted.
“Judgment Day is on its way,” he repeated, encouraging people to pray the family Rosary daily between now and Election Day.
In a previous column for the St. Louis Review, Bishop Herman urged Catholics not to put politics ahead of the Fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”
“Save our children!” he wrote. “More than anything else, this election is about saving our children or killing our children. This life issue is the overriding issue facing each of us in this coming election. All other issues, including the economy, have to take second place to the issue of life.”
This is the straw that will break Obama’s back ABORTION. Many church goers do not know Obama is the most radical pro abortion politician in the us. When they find out. He better get a parachute because he will free fall. He has no respect for unborn babies.
Mitch, it was not lending money to minorities that created the problem. It was Congress mandating (no not 2 guys going out) that banks give loans to unqualified people that would obviously not be able to pay the loan back and assuring the bankers that tax payers would bail them out if things went wrong that caused this disaster. But nice attempt to make this about race just like Barney Franks, Chris Dodd, and other democrats, including Obama, did to make sure those that wanted regulation that would stop this behavior would be cowed into doing nothing. And now these very democrats that opposed the regulation claim it was because of republican deregualtion and greedy Wall Street, and not their own greed and attempts to block regulation, that we ended with the crisis. And the media gives them a pass because they want to help Obama win. So now republicans and the American people get to take the blame and pay for what the democrats did.
Has anyone examined the effect of political party on historical economic performance?
Take, for example unemployment rate & recession periods:
We can also see that 6 of the 7 recessions began during a republican period. If another occurs in can 2008 that will make 7 out of 8.
Democratic averaged a decrease in unemployment rate of 0.79% per year while Republicans averaged an increase in unemployment rate of 0.58% per year.
AC – Sure. And all American wars, before the last 2, started with Democrats in office.
I understand the ideology behind the idea of a self-regulating market, but it’s exactly that – an ideology. If the market could actually self-regulate, we wouldn’t need any regulation – people would do the honorable thing, people wouldn’t take advantage of others, and greed would disappear.
Apparently, you don’t understand the self-regulating market. It isn’t about “honor”, “not taking advantage” and lack of “greed” at all, it’s about whether or not people pursuing their own self-interest benefits society as a whole, specifically as it pertains to that society’s standard of living in a material sense. It’s an empirical question that is resolved by looking at the respective economies of, say, Hong Kong and Zimbabwe. Where would you rather live? Where is the market more important in orienting the activities of people day-to-day?
“Greed” is a constant in human life, much as Gordon Gekko said. The only people who aren’t “greedy” are people who are dead. If your ideal society is a society without “greed”, I suggest you are most likely to find it at your local cemetary.
Do people learn nothing from the study of history or does it just seem that way to me?
I have no doubt Obama and his henchmen will finish tanking our economy. And no, I didn’t vote for Bush, but I will be voting for McCain.
I’m a pretty crunchy-granola, eco-friendly girl, but I am not convinced (nor are scientists) about global warming being our fault. The world was warm and steamy for the dinosaurs. Frozen and icy at other times. It’s what the weather does. It cycles. I don’t think we’re killing the earth. We might, however, be capable of killing ourselves with our pollution. That’s a possibility.
A person can totally be right in the criticism of Republican over spending.
Trying to absolve Democrats from overspending is simply foolish.
Trying to say that Democrats will be, or ever have been, more fiscally responsible is where Teh Crazy takes over.
“Greed” is a constant in human life, much as Gordon Gekko said. The only people who aren’t “greedy” are people who are dead. If your ideal society is a society without “greed”, I suggest you are most likely to find it at your local cemetary.
To go one further. Anyone who claims they aren’t greedy is most likely lieing to you.
momof3:
The science is in – humans are partially responsible for global warming. Having a contrary opinion is willful deception. You and I can agree about tax policy or abortion rights, but please – if it’s science, it’s not something you can dispute as “opinion”. You can look at areas of the earth’s atmosphere that are deteriorating over urban, polluted areas and see it for yourself. It’s so simple that even you can understand it.
Dear “Someone75:”
Was it entirely necessary for you to insert that last sentence, “It’s so simple that even you can understand it,” into your reply to “momof3:” ??
I detected nothing more than a statement of her honest opinion. Your closing line is snide and insulting. How do you justify it from the text of her post.
And, by the way, things such as “flogeston” were once accepted science as well. Perhaps you remember.
20. Daniel: “The MSM could have video proof that Cheney is a serial rapist and dog killer and you’d still think the Bush administration craps roses. Almost EVERYONE who has left their administration has come out talking about how absolutely terrible and Stalin-like their administration is, and yet you still back it.
The great thing is that you’ll be losing all of your power in the next few weeks and I seriously doubt the American people will be hearing from you again for a long, long while. I’m sure you’ll still have Rush and the voices in your head to keep you company.”
Daniel, this is why I cannot support liberals / Democrats, all of your posts are talking point from move on, Daily Kos, etc. And if anyone does not agree with you, why not curse them and call them brainless and idiots.
Your use of profanity takes away from any point you make, and lowers your ability to make a point. Very well done, you have made the case better than all the other posters as to why the USA will be worse off with liberals in charge.
and by the way, since you are so sure of yourself, why not proudly place your full name on the posts, you should get all the credit.
comments on global warming. anything that lives produces emissions and generates heat – which adds to the planet’s systems. Natural processes inside the earth produce heat and emissions. Solar energy provides life giving heat to our planet. The question implied is does mankind have a right to be here? the implication of the eco-alarmists is that we do not have a right to live if it impacts anything else. the “fact” of human produced global warming seems to be one of political factions seeking to gain control or money, governments, and organizations. Otherwise if the problem is of the nature they say it is, why did Al Gore buy a 100 foot houseboat with several jet skis on the back with the millions he is making from his “I Truth” agenda?
I believe we should be good stewards and not be wasteful and there is plenty to do and change, but promoting the idea that unless trillions are spent in the next 5 to 10 years, the planet will die???
in the last 100 years, the science consensus has been reported to be ice age, heat age, ice age, heat age, over and over again. In 1975 the world was doomed to ice age, in 1981, unprecedented heat was predicted. the heat wave of the mid 1990s foretold of the impending flooding of florida and NYC, now the current cooling trend has been called more proof of climate change that humans are causing.
seems to be a lot of loose change that does not have a lot of meaning or relevance apart from political agendas.
I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat but a true Independent who believes in facts and really believes in learning the lessons of our history.
So here is a simple fact for America -
1) During Ronald Reagan’s Presidency of 2 terms, between 1981-1989, we were at our economic best in a quarter of a century. We made the right choice in these 8 years as a country.
2) During George H. W. Bush Sr.’s Presidency of 1 term, between 1989-1993, we were at our economic worst in a quarter of a century. We made a huge mistake as a country but corrected it by keeping him in office for only 1 term.
3) During Bill Clinton’s Presidency of 2 terms, between 1993-2001, we were again at our economic best in a quarter of a century, even better than Reagan’s era. We made the right choice again in these 8 years as a country, despite his personal scandals.
4) Now, during George W. Bush Jr.’s Presidency of 2 terms, between 2001-this coming January 20, 2009; we have been at our economic worst in a quarter of a century, even worst than Bush Sr.’s era. We really made a huge mistake as a country on this one by not realizing that the apple really doesn’t fall very far from the tree. Yet we chose this apple again the second time around.
Now, really let this simple fact sink in America and take your time to think carefully this time around about how you want the direction of this country to go.
We made history with Reagan. We then made a mistake with Bush Sr. but corrected history by allowing him to only serve 1 term. We then made history again with Clinton, despite his personal scandals. Now, we have made 2 mistakes with Bush Jr. by allowing him to serve not once, but twice. So my last question to America is, guess which candidate shares the interests of both, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr.? I will let America answer this one. We are much, much smarter as a country to want to make history rather than make mistakes and to suffer yet again from our own mistakes by not using objectivity as our first and foremost agenda.
What people don’t understand is why some of us are so against the current Republican ticket, but we have an obligation to fight against history of ever being repeated again. Many of us out here are not fighting for the Democratic campaign but are fighting against an ideology.
1) An ideology that completely mirrors the ideology of this past 8 years.
2) An ideology that recognizes the few while completely disregarding the masses.
3) An ideology that believes in taking military action against Iraq, an incident that is completely unrelated to 9/11, without solidifying our claims beforehand. In the present, we have found no evidence of weapons of mass destructions or a tie to Osama Bin Laden. The devastation of this war has cost us over 4,000 of our brave troops and counting, over 1/2 trillion dollars of taxpayer’s money and counting, and over 1 million Iraqi lives unrelated to the terrorists or insurgency.
Cost of the Iraq War — http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home
4) An ideology that still believes that the Iraq War is the right war on terrorism when the Afghanistan War should had been the right war on terrorism, where Osama Bin Laden actually was until he slipped into the mountains and into Pakistan’s territory now. The Iraq War also diverted our attention away from the Afghanistan War. We now have extended our resources in two separate places and have heightened our risk to our troops, our expenses, and creating another dilemma that will take quite some time to finalize. The Iraq War will not go away overnight and it is now our obligation to see it all the way through for God knows how many more years. This has also been the most unpopular war in the eyes of the world’s communities.
5) An ideology that believes that we are at our safest state since 9/11, when a recent terrorist plot was still trying to enter Great Britain’s airports with liquid explosives heading directly to us, but thankfully the plot was foiled. While in Afghanistan, the terrorists are regrouping and strengthening and we have recently suffered another high casualty to our troops yet again within this past month. We currently have the least amount of alliances in the world’s communities due to this unpopular Iraq War. True national securities are the ties that bind us to our world’s communities and the ties that bind them to us.
6) An ideology that vetted one of the most inexperience VP ticket in history, from foreign policies to national defense. If God forbids that anything happens to this President if elected and is stricken with illness, this VP will be running the country. For a more compelling look at Sarah Palin’s VP readiness, please look at these links below —
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loUHRv3ipLE
http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/election_2008/2008/09/30/palin_gaffes/
7) An ideology that believes in “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” while we are facing the highest mortgage foreclosure crisis, high unemployment rate, and the largest collapse of our financial infrastructures since The Great Depression of 1929.
This is an ideology that many of us in America are against. Whether this ideology is in the Republican or Democratic ticket is not the main issue but the fact is that America does not want to fall into another 4 more years of devastation. We cannot afford this anymore.
What I would like to know is, where do people go
to get reparations from Wall Street and Washington? After all, Wall Street is complicit
in the mess by valuing its Maserati’s more than its clients, and Washington is complicit in misrepresenting rickety financial securities as well as threatening litigation against banks who do not dole out loans to bad credit risks.
Old Squid:
I get hammered all the time with baseless attacks. If I’m condescending, it’s merely to respond in-kind to the treatment I receive here. Besides – Momof3 exposed her astonishing ignorance and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to point that out. Global warming is not a matter of “opinion.”
As to your flimsy argument that just because somethings were incorrectly understood as “science”, nothing known as “science” can be absolutely true, try this: Remember last year when a bunch of people thought global warming was a myth? Wow did they look dumb.
Barack Obama is a 20 year follower of the Marxist Black Liberation ideology of Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity church.
THE PERFECT STORM FOR A DEPRESSION …
A far left Media …
A far left President …
A far left Congress …
A far left Senate …
A far left Supreme Court …
eliminates all the checks and
balances that our democracy is based upon.
A vote for Obama is a vote for voter fraud,
a corrupt media, and the road to Socialism.
God Help Us !!
Yes, and getting poorer every day, because the only way this is capitalism is if you spell it S-O-C-I-A-L-I-S-M (for corporations). You can read that as, “crony capitalism” is you want.
What we have is a corrupt corporate state, run by corrupt companies who are merely using our Bailout tax dollars to pay for executive bonuses, junkets, and to buy each other out — while throwing scraps to the poor surfs getting stuck with the bill. It’s got to stop–and that means getting rid of those who voted “yes.”
It’s time to just start over. Throw them all out, Dems and Republicans alike. There isn’t an ounce of difference between them anymore anyway. Could the Libertarians or Greens really do any worse than this?
We can start by voting “no” against incumbants who voted “yes” for the Bailout. Don’t know who they are? Check out Constituent Response’s Bailout Vote Map at constituentresponse.com .