Major Political Changes in the USA

[DudeAsInCool]

I predicted well over a year ago that the housing market was going to crash...in a similar fashion to the dotcom crash in the late 90s. Let's home the damage doesn't spread too far...

Shaky Markets Prompt Rumors of Who’s in Trouble

The global stock and bond markets these days seem to be playing a giant game of hide and seek.

In this version, played on a global field, investors are scrambling to discover which banks, hedge funds or public companies are holding potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in bad loans and subprime-related mortgage securities that are imploding.

Yesterday France’s largest bank, BNP Paribas, stopped withdrawals from three of its asset-backed securities funds, saying it could no longer value them accurately because of problems in the subprime market in the United States.

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[DudeAsInCool]

George Bush's Approval Ratings

[DudeAsInCool]

The NYTimes reports that the embattled US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned:

WACO, Tex., Aug. 27 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, announced his resignation in Washington today, declaring that he had “lived the American dream” by being able to lead the Justice Department.

Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation for months, submitted it to President Bush by telephone on Friday, a senior administration official said. There had been rumblings over the weekend that Mr. Gonzales’s departure was imminent, although the White House sought to quell the rumors.

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[DudeAsInCool]

CNet reporst that a Federal Judge's rulling is a blow to the Bush administration's 'Patriot Act':

A key portion of the Patriot Act is unconstitutional and violates Americans' free speech rights, a federal judge said Thursday in a case that could represent a bitter setback for the Bush administration's attempts to expand its surveillance powers.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the section of the Patriot Act that permits the FBI to send Internet service providers secret demands, called national security letters, for customer information violates the First Amendment and unreasonably curbs the authority of the judiciary.

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[DudeAsInCool]

Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have unveiled their Health Care plans, with Edwards promising to lift funding for the "the president, Congress and all political appointees in mid 2009, if a universal health care plan for all Americans has not been passed by then." President Bush has said he would like to see a Universal Health Care program in place before he leaves office!!!! So, it looks like something is underway at last.

[DudeAsInCool]

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:

- 29 have been accused of spousal abuse

- 7 have been arrested for fraud

- 19 have been accused of writing bad checks

- 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

- 3 have done time for assault

- 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

- 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges

- 8 have been arrested for shoplifting

- 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits

- 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

Can you guess which organization this is?

Give up yet?

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group that cranks out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

Source

[DudeAsInCool]

In his new book, The Big Con, Jonathan Chait examines how the United States has been taken over by right wing zealots:

"I have this problem. Whenever I try to explain what's happening in American politics-I mean, what's really happening-I wind up sounding a bit like an unhinged conspiracy theorist. But honestly, I'm not. My politics are actually quite moderate. (Most real lefties, in fact, think I'm a Washington establishment sellout.) So please give let me a chance to explain myself when I tell you the following: American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few of them possibly insane. (Stay with me.)"

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...and now the rest of us are going to have to take America back!

[DudeAsInCool]

I pledge allegiance

to the flag

of the United Corporations of America

and to the hegemony

for which it stands

one empire

under Profit

with liberties for just us

that's all.

© 2007 yakyakyak

[DudeAsInCool]

'Unwelcoming' US sees sharp fall in visitors since 9/11

The number of foreign visitors to the United States has plummeted since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington because foreigners don't feel welcome, tourism professionals said Thursday.

"Since September 11, 2001, the United States has experienced a 17 percent decline in overseas travel, costing America 94 billion dollars in lost visitor spending, nearly 200,000 jobs and 16 billion dollars in lost tax revenue," the Discover America advocacy campaign said in a statement.

Chairman Stevan Porter lamented the "extraordinary decline" in the number of overseas visitors to the United States, while the advocacy group's executive director, Geoff Freeman, blamed the slump on the shabby welcome many foreigners feel they get in the United States.

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[DudeAsInCool]

Here is an interesting interview with George Bush by a hard hitting Irish reporter. It pretty much sums up George Bush's philosophies and why we are in the mess we are in. Count how many times he says ..."Let me finish..." - he acts as if he's being constantly interrupted, which is not the case.

[DudeAsInCool]

Former Presidential nominee and Senator, George McGovern, has called for Bush and Cheney's impeachment, in an editorial in the Washington Post

CNN Jack Cafferty notess the editorial and asks "Why Won't Congress Impeach Them?", and then follows up with typical angry quotes from the viewers:

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The people in the United States want change...

[DudeAsInCool]

Bush: Iraq War Has 'Nothing To Do With' Bad Economy

CURRY: You don’t agree with that? It has nothing do with the economy, the war -- spending on the war?

BUSH: I don’t think so. I think actually the spending in the war might help with jobs…because we’re buying equipment, and people are working.

[DudeAsInCool]

Wall Street Under Fire

Regulators are trying to punish Wall Street for mortgage finance practices that expanded home ownership and spread risk among a host of new players _ but also may have duped borrowers and investors who supplied cash to fuel a housing boom that's turned bust.

A handful of state securities regulators and a couple foreclosure-blighted cities have fired the opening shots with lawsuits trying to prove that investment banks and big lenders are guilty of more than just bad business decisions and failing to foresee looming mortgage troubles. Some regulators say greed and fraud underlie much of the subprime mortgage mess that has spread across the broader housing market, triggering a spike in foreclosures.

Aside from the civil cases, the FBI is looking at possible criminal action, focusing on what Wall Street firms knew about the risks of mortgage securities backed by subprime loans, and whether they hid risks from investors.

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[DudeAsInCool]

The UK Guardian takes a look at how Wall Street duped the American public:

..."Bear Stearns marks the moment when the global financial crisis went critical. Up until last Friday, it had been possible - just about - to believe that the worst was over and that things were about to get better. That pretence was stripped away when JP Morgan, at the behest of the Federal Reserve, stepped in when the hedge funds pulled the plug on the fifth-biggest US investment bank.

It is now clear that no end is in sight to the turmoil, and the reason for tha is that the Fed and the US treasury are no closer to solving the underlyin problem than they were eight months ago. The crisis will only end whe house prices stop falling and banks stop racking up huge losses on their loans Doing that, however, will require the US government to intervene directly in th real estate market to end the wave of foreclosures. Ideologically, it is ill-equipped to take that step and, as a result, property prices will fall and th financial meltdown will go on and on

Ultimately, though, action will be taken because there will be political pressure for it. Indeed, it is somewhat surprising that there is not already rioting in the streets, given the gigantic fraud perpetrated by the financial elite at the expense of ordinary Americans."

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[DudeAsInCool]

And it's gonna get worse

Are We Heading Into A Depression

When economist Robert Parks predicted early last week that there was more than a 60 percent probability the current financial meltdown in the United States would lead to the "Bush depression," his phone began ringing like crazy with calls from the media.

Only last fall, most economists were forecasting a modest slowdown. Now, a good majority of them see a slump big enough to qualify as a recession.

But a depression?

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[DudeAsInCool]

As the housing market fails, speculators make billions! Disgusting.

Hedge fund managers get billion-dollar paydays

Hedge fund managers, those masters of a secretive, sometimes volatile financial universe, are making money on a scale that once seemed unimaginable, even in Wall Street's rarefied realms.

One manager, John Paulson, made $3.7 billion last year. He reaped that bounty, probably the richest in Wall Street history, by betting against certain mortgages and complex financial products that held them.

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[DudeAsInCool]

American Comic John S. Hall Defines the Bush International Policy in his routine "America Kicks Ass"

[DudeAsInCool]

Source: The Daily Kos

So we didn't do anything about our national debt. We didn't do anything about our use of gas and oil. We didn't improve our nation's infrastructure. We didn't do anything about education. Or when we did we allowed our leaders to fob off something monstrously deceptive and false as a solution.

When History is done with these people it's going to describe them as the ruin of a generation. My generation. My kids' generation. Anybody who has had to grow up between 1980 and 2008 will remember those days with bitterness, because people with even a flickering bit of intelligence could see that we had problems to solve. And that we had a time limit on how long we had to solve them. And instead of solving them we were told we could have our cake, and eat it too. By people who should have known better, if they were decent people at all. Which they weren't. Instead they frittered away our national treasure on shinies and nonsense and had a hell of a party. As I and my children are cleaning up this party, we'll be taking names. And making notes. And sending some bills.

But the party is over. It's staggering out the door now, to be dragged across the lawn (I'm taking some of the guests by their arms and letting their faces trowel through the wet sod -- it's the least they deserve) and into the waiting police cars to be booked to the drunk tank. And we've got some new management at the place. Someone I trust because he's straight with me about what his motivation is. Right now, right now we don't have time to get really ugly with the departing guests. It's just not worth the effort it would take to hold them down and rake my knuckles across their faces for the two to four hours running that it would require to make a good, solid reckoning of the night's damage.

But word is going to go out on these jokers. People will know what to look for. If their kids come around again, some day, we're going to let them know how severely not welcome they are. Bank on it.

Until then, I've got my Reagan toilet bowl decoration, and I'm pissing hard into it.

[riseofthevalk]

Oh boy - I bet if I said one little thing in this thread I'd be banned, hunted down and shot. :P

[DudeAsInCool]

Oh boy - I bet if I said one little thing in this thread I'd be banned, hunted down and shot. :P

Feel free to speak your mind. No one here will hold your political pov against you. And don't worry, Redneck will back you up... he's to the right of Attila the Hun :)

[riseofthevalk]

I'm not so afraid anymore...

[riseofthevalk]

Now let me say - I believe if Obama wins the Presidency, we'll come close to an economic collapse within his first two years. :\

Edited May 13, 2008 by riseofthevalk

[DudeAsInCool]

Now let me say - I believe if Obama wins the Presidency, we'll come close to an economic collapse within his first two years. :\

And on what do you base this assumption, when 8 years of the Bush presidency has done exactly that. How could anyone be any worse?

[riseofthevalk]

(Note: in no way am I defending the majority Bush's policies other than Iraq and maybe a few others)

But for Obama -

His positions contradict one another. He wants to make gas cheaper yet his ideas for doing so would only make them higher. He wants to strengthen our Army yet he wants to cap gun registration which would lead to a slow in the Arms Industry - in turn doing the opposite and weakening our Armed Forces. Not to mention he wants to cap oil profits. With the demand so high, cutting the amount of money the companies make(and for no other reason than 'its not fair :'(') will only force them to make the prices HIGHER. Now on top of all of that, attempting to socialize health care (and a plethora of other areas) could only be envisioned through taxing people more. A number of states already introducing new taxes(California is considering putting a new tax on everything). With the fragile finances of the average citizen as is, any one of these routes that Obama wants to take is reason enough to believe we'll have an even harder time under him.

Now I'd be lying if I said I LOVED Mccain. I think at best he'll be a fair President but I really don't think he's our ideal savior either. I would actually prefer Mr. Mitt Romney as the Republican candidate. He's the only person who is willing to not have the Government interfere with economy. This country has enough coal to power itself for a very long time but the Congress won't allow the companies to convert coal to oil. Why? Eighty five percent of our off shore areas are off limits to the oil companies for drilling. Why? We could be completely energy independent in ten - fifteen years but the Congress is keeping handcuffs on the Captains of Industry.

Edited May 13, 2008 by riseofthevalk

[DudeAsInCool]

(Note: in no way am I defending the majority Bush's policies other than Iraq and maybe a few others)

But for Obama -

His positions contradict one another. He wants to make gas cheaper yet his ideas for doing so would only make them higher. He wants to strengthen our Army yet he wants to cap gun registration which would lead to a slow in the Arms Industry - in turn doing the opposite and weakening our Armed Forces. Not to mention he wants to cap oil profits. With the demand so high, cutting the amount of money the companies make(and for no other reason than 'its not fair :'(') will only force them to make the prices HIGHER. Now on top of all of that, attempting to socialize health care (and a plethora of other areas) could only be envisioned through taxing people more. A number of states already introducing new taxes(California is considering putting a new tax on everything). With the fragile finances of the average citizen as is, any one of these routes that Obama wants to take is reason enough to believe we'll have an even harder time under him.

Now I'd be lying if I said I LOVED Mccain. I think at best he'll be a fair President but I really don't think he's our ideal savior either. I would actually prefer Mr. Mitt Romney as the Republican candidate. He's the only person who is willing to not have the Government interfere with economy. This country has enough coal to power itself for a very long time but the Congress won't allow the companies to convert coal to oil. Why? Eighty five percent of our off shore areas are off limits to the oil companies for drilling. Why? We could be completely energy independent in ten - fifteen years but the Congress is keeping handcuffs on the Captains of Industry.

If you want to go in that direction, I'd take Ron Paul