Disqus - Latest Comments for bushtool

Re: happy bailout day!

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:15:32 -0000

And our congressman has a crystal ball:

If (we) do not act millions of people will lose their jobs, their retirement savings, their businesses and farms will disappear and a financial catastrophe will ensue. We’ve been put in a terrible situation. While this bill is far from perfect, it will help prevent the current economic crisis from getting worse.

I just borrowed $10,000 at a fixed rate of 3.99% from Citicorp on a credit card. Guess the credit crunch doesn't apply to Citicorp or at least not until they start handing out the billions.

But Brian Baird knows the future and the future is catastrophic! But not anymore, Congress has rescued us!

Brian, now that everything has been fixed by Congress, please tell me who is going to win the Super Bowl!

Re: go, pete!

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:48:38 -0000

Hooray for this, now will anyone in Congress get this out there and "sold" as an alternative to a bailout?

Re: more required reading

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:00:39 -0000

Here is the PDF of the bill that failed yesterday but will be passed in large part imo by Friday.

Should be called the Bush Crime Family Theft Act of 2008.

Re: Hahahaha - Good One!

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:59:43 -0000

Here are a couple experts that see this quite differently than "most experts".

Below is Hartmann's Air America show on the crisis:

[audio:http://www.democracyforvanc...]</embed>

Re: Hahahaha - Good One!

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:20:11 -0000

Very good point Pat!

Representative Baird would say that the bankruptcy legislation was necessary because people were abusing the law and thereby the creditors (banks et al) were getting screwed.

In the case of the current financial crisis, Baird says:

Without decisive action, most experts believe credit markets will freeze. The result will be that families won’t be able to take out basic home and car loans, small businesses won’t be able to make their payrolls, parents will struggle to send their children to college, and credit card interest rates will soar.

First I'd like to know who "most experts" are and whether they have a biased self-interest in bailing out these financial institutions.

Secondly few are recommending that our government do nothing and risk a massive crisis. The objection is how it is being done. Just like creditors that take over management of a business when it goes bankrupt, the government should takeover these institutions and oversee their operation until the crisis is over. If taxpayer funds are needed, that decision should be made on a case by case basis.

Thirdly this debacle is just one of many many instances of corruption and failure on the part of our government to carry out its responsibilities. Our elected officials (most of them) need to pay a price for this gross mismanagement of their responsibilities by losing their jobs.

Re: rejected, for all the wrong reasons

admin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:12:11 -0000

Hartmann was right on the money this morning on the bailout. The Feds should nationalize all the financial institutions, cut CEO pay to reasonable levels, oversee the organizations until the market stabilizes and renegotiate mortgages to 30 years with a fixed interest rate.

But instead we are probably going to learn this lesson the hard way.

At least the House is taking a while before they cave.

PS: What Hartmann did not address though is that the Federal government has been corrupted too. So who is going to regulate the regulators? No matter, Congress doesn't have the backbone to do any of this and we know for sure who Bush works for and it taint us.

Re: Guess This is Better Than Car Graffiti

admin — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:47:53 -0000

That is where this sign was yesterday. Didn't want to possibly impugn Costco by mentioning them because of its proximity to their location but it is not on their property and so they are not responsible in any way.

Re: … and she’s psychic, too!

admin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:30:03 -0000

Palin-Couric

Jack Cafferty on part of the Palin-Couric interview below:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/wa...

Re: can someone please tell me why this wouldn’t work?

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:30:19 -0000

Just a few of my thoughts of why doing the restructuring as you have stated is unacceptable to the big banks and investment houses.

1. The banks and investment houses want to unload the "bad paper". They do not want to do the work of renegotiating the loans. It is a hassle because it takes time requiring many employee hours, it is complicated, many disputes are bound to arise, etc.

2. As I understand things today, the mortgage loans over the past few years were broken up into little pieces and repackaged as securities so renegotiating the loans causes a major accounting headache. If you ever had to compute the basis for a 30 year old mutual fund with automatic monthly investments, prior divestitures and automatic dividend reinvestments you would understand.

3. It appears quite likely we are entering a period of high (if not runaway) inflation due to massive fiscal irresponsibility on the part of our government and the unregulated oligopolies that have come into existence since regulation became a dirty word and the selfish bastards in charge started messing everything up. In an inflationary environment, no one wants to hold fixed income investments because as inflation increases, the value of the investment decreases. So even if the mortgage paper could be renegotiated, unless it was done with floating interest rates (which would be detrimental to the borrowers), no one wants to own such investments in a spiraling inflation environment.

4. The huge, bloated financial entities involved want to shift the interest rate risk off their books so that they can go find another way to make some short term profits at the long term expense of others.

5. The bailout imo is not so much about the mortgage paper that is declining in value as it is the effect the current environment has on the equity value of the firms involved. If you are holding a bunch of investments that look like they will be declining in value well into the future, that has a major depressing effect on the stock value of the enterprise. This is because the stock market is always discounting the future, meaning the stock values of the banks today already reflect the decline in value of the bank's assets that is going to happen over the course of the next 5 years or so.

6. Since it is the decline in stock value that is the real "emergency", and the only way to fix this without waiting many years with stagnant stock values is to have a major infusion of cash in exchange for the problem mortgage paper. Another way of saying this is the banks and investment houses are trying to turn a long term problem into a short term problem and thereby quickly regain the equity values of their firms.

7. One of the things that differentiates this boom and bust from the boom and bust of the tech stocks is the government guarantees depositor accounts to $100,000. So if the banks actually default, the taxpayers are going to be on the hook for these monies. In addition if the investment houses start defaulting on their uninsured money market accounts, this will undoubtedly cause a liquidity crisis so severe that most people would not get most of their money and the ensuing panic could be catastrophic.

So the real emergency is that the banks and investment houses have become very poor prospects for equity investors. And with stock options, stock bonus plans, 401k plans, golden parachutes and what not, that makes for a very unhappy upper management group.

Like a parent with a problem child, I think the only way out of this is for the government to step in and bailout these misbehaving children to the extent it is necessary to prevent a panic. The government should then stop enabling the misbehavior, ground the children for a very long time and make sure reforms are instituted that prevents this from ever happening again. Rather than buy up their bad assets, they should oversee the bank or investment house operations (much like a temporary regulatory takeover) and do what is necessary to prevent any financial panic. In other words do exactly what you are suggesting in your post above.

But when the people in charge of our government are "unfit parents" and act in ways no better than the children they are supposed to be "regulating", the outcome is bound to be one where everyone suffers.

And the voters of America should fire ALL the politicians that allowed the disaster to happen and institute reforms that will prevent ever having a system again whereby the foxes guard the henhouses like we have today.

Re: throwing money at the problem

admin — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:39:38 -0000

Missy you have more hope than I can muster.

Comment over on Cenk Uygur's Huffpo post today sums it up for me:

hopeless277

It's a done deal and Pelosi is IN ON THE CRIME. Just like she was for illegal wiretapping and torture. We have no one defending the American public in Washington DC. NO ONE!!! They are all tied to lobbyists and corporations. They are defacto employees of these corporations. Dems and Repubs. Neither party can be trusted with ANYTHING now. They have all proven to be criminals and fools. As one blogger said, it's torch and pitchfork time in America. We must rally at the castle and destroy the monsters that are the Democratic and Republican political parties.

Re: too big to fail does not mean too big to fuck us up royally

admin — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:30:59 -0000

I notice this morning there is some talk about limiting executive compensation as part of the bailout plan. Limiting upper management compensation would be even better than denying deductibility but legally it seems that would only be possible for public companies.

There is already a provision, section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code that limits deductibility of officer compensation in excess of $1 million per year. However there is a performance based exception whereby a couple of outside directors can basically approve exceeding the $1 million cap. It has been my experience that upper management generally has the board of directors eating out of their hand so to speak so this exception imo serves to basically nullify the tax provision.

Re: Palinology

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:14:23 -0000

Shor worsh Bama done piked Britney fur vise preznit.

britney spears for president

httpvh://hk.youtube.com/wat...

Re: too big to fail does not mean too big to fuck us up royally

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:46:51 -0000

Bernie Sanders just stated on Hartmann that they are going to make sure the people that benefited from the insolvency of the banking system are going to have to pay it back.

And I have a pig that flies.

Re: too big to fail does not mean too big to fuck us up royally

admin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:00:09 -0000

We need to reinstate the separation of banks and insurance companies, enforce anti-trust laws in finance and in media (so we can finally hear what’s truly going on), and limit the number of corporate boards any one person can serve on anytime.

And I would add denying the income tax deductibility of officer compensation in excess of some formula. The best method would probably be based on average wages of the company for large employers.

How come we never hear our candidates or elected representatives discussing implementing these reforms? Could it be that advocating such actions would be damaging to their electibility? If so, how do we overcome that?

Just thinking out loud.

Re: why can’t this just be happening to bush voters?

admin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:28:43 -0000

Here is his typically moronic pablum. Do not see how this is going to instill confidence in the markets.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/wa...

Re: how is the bush admin worse than the great depression?

admin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:04:17 -0000

We are doomed. I have been saying ever since Clinton trashed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 we were doomed.

I don't understand why our leaders don't seem to understand that most regulations have a very good purpose. If you remove the regulation, there will be dire consequences.

It is like we have forgotten that the people and events that came before us have great lessons to teach us.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana

Re: What’s the Difference between a Pit Bull and a Palin?

admin — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:16:08 -0000

What's the Difference Between Palin and Muslim Fundamentalists? Lipstick

Re: la belle dame sans merci

admin — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:17:23 -0000

Or the last 8 years will have just been the world’s longest movie trailer to the most depressing disaster film of all time.

Great quote.

Can only watch this bunk in snippets myself. Let's hope that most women do not want to support a leader who wants creationism taught in schools, sex education banned from schools and no choice over their reproductive choices.

And let's also hope that most men do not want to support a leader who wants creationism taught in schools, sex education banned from schools and no choice over their reproductive choices.

McCain is going to play the paternal wise man while Palin plays attack dog.

It seems that the scum like this always floats to the top. It is as if you have to be an asshole in order to get people to notice you enough to bother to vote for you.

Nice people finish last in politics. Ask anyone.

Re: Welcome to the RNC, Here are Your Handcuffs

admin — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:57:14 -0000

Update from UFPJ:

Subject: [SPAM - Keyword] - Update on Police Presence at RNC! - Found word(s) check out in the HTML body

We are sending you this message because the situation in St. Paul is very grave and we're concerned that the real story is not being told by the mainstream media.

Over the past few days, the heavily armed and extremely large police presence in St. Paul has intimidated, harrassed and provoked people; and, in a number of instances, the police have escalated situations when they used excessive force. They have used pepper spray, including spraying at least one person just inches from her face as she was held down on the ground by several police officers. They have freely swung their extra long night sticks, pushed people around, rode horses and bicycles up against peacefully gathered groups, and surrounded people simply walking down the streets. On Tuesday evening, they used tear gas on a small group of protesters in downtown St. Paul.

The massive police presence and the uncalled-for actions by the police on the streets has not been the only problem. The police raided a convergence center and several locations where people are staying over the weekend and they have stopped and searched vehicles for no clear reason. http://www.counterpunch.org...

On Tuesday afternoon, they literally pulled the plug and turned off the electricity at a permitted outdoor concert. The timing of this led to a situation where hundreds of understandably angry people ended up joining a march being led by the Poor Peoples Campaign for Economic Human Rights, a march that organizers were insisting be nonviolent. In other words, the police set up a dynamic that could have turned ugly, but the skill of the organizers kept things calm and focused.

All of this - and much more - needs to be understood in the context of the overwhelming presence of police. Police from all around the Twin Cities have been put to work, and they have also brought in police units from around Minnesota and from as far away as Philadelphia, PA. The National Guard and state troopers are in the mix, to say nothing of the Secret Service, Homeland Security and who knows who else from the federal government!

We are very concerned about what this all means about the right to protest, the right to assemble, and the right to have one's dissenting voice heard. We are worried about what it means about the growing militarization of our nation and the ongoing assault on the Constitution. We shudder to think about how the influx of new weapons and armed vehicles and everything else will be used in the neighborhoods of St. Paul and Denver: both communities each received $50 million from Homeland Security to purchase the equipment and pay for the policing during the conventions.

There are still two more days of the Republican Convention in St. Paul -- two more days of protest and possibilities of police mis-conduct, over-reaction, and excessive use of force.

We urge you to call the Mayor of St. Paul right now! Let him know that people around the country know what's happening! Urge him to stand up for the Constitution and to take action to end the militarization of the downtown areas of his city! Urge him to reign in the police and help bring civility to the streets of St. Paul!

Mayor Chris Coleman: 651-266-8510

And call your local media outlets to demand that they tell the real story of what's happening in St. Paul this week.

Peace,

Leslie Cagan, UFPJ National Coordinator

Get Together (song)

Re: Butler Interview: Why I Won’t Vote for John McCain

admin — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:30:34 -0000

httpvh://www.youtube.com/wa...

Re: No Pets Left Behind

admin — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:39:44 -0000

From HSUS.

Re: judgment day

admin — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:55:08 -0000

There is an article over at The Nation about how the Council for National Policy vetted Palin.

It is no surprise given the membership of this organization. It is all "Bushhuggers".

McCain just must get elected if the (made up) legacy and the illegal coverup of all the crimes of the Bush crime family are to be preserved in tact imo. So McCain has the RNC, Bush, Cheney and the US government at his disposal, at least the covert portion thereof.

Makes it a tough road for poor (relatively speaking) Obama. This race is a classic case of the people versus the powerful.

Why half of the voters can't figure out what is going on is beyond my comprehension. But then if you remember that most of us are easily led to slaughter and are sleepwalking through life, it all makes sense.

Re: yes we are

admin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:08:56 -0000

My spouse and I have already been contacted to deploy to Shreveport for the animal rescue operation.

Let's hope the bullet gets dodged this time

Re: all i can do now is pity her

admin — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:42:20 -0000

I know from attending the 2004 convention that what is reported by the news media is completely different than what is actually happening at the convention. Generally speaking, we do not have news "reporters" anymore, we have news "creators".

After attending the convention, I'd go back to watch the coverage by CNN at my hotel and wonder what convention those reporters were actually attending, because it wasn't the one I had just left.

The media wants it to be all about Hillary and her hurt fans rather than about Obama because that creates controversy and helps McCain.

Steve Stuart's comment about the Hillary thing being overblown in the same Columbian article I am sure is very accurate.

Wish that Bill and Hillary would disappear from politics completely but that is not in the cards unfortunately. I think the thing to do if you really dislike Obama and really adore Hillary is to not vote like half the country does anyway. To vote for McCain is really self-destructive.

Re: Abraham, Martin, John and Bobby

admin — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:20:17 -0000

Hey Paul,

Don't know enough about Delavar to make a decision (although I have heard some negative rumblings). I may leave my boxes empty (undervote) that race in November.

There is a new website and forum, http://www.wethevoters.org/we-the-voters-forum/ that is intended for just such discussion as this. We are starting up a non-partisan effort to build a coalition of voters that will make a difference going forward.

If you want any forum groups or topics more specifically for your area in the gorge, please let me know here or over there.

You can post to topics as a guest and if you register you can start your own topics.

Or people can chime in here about the Baird - Delavar race also of course.