Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

--repost from end of last thread--
Rezdog,

You talking about Pine Ridge higher up reminded me that I keep meaning to ask you if you are familiar with the artist Terri Saul. She's a Native American painter based in Berkeley whose father was a Choctaw chief and an amazing painter in his own right.

Check out her website. I'm steering you to the bicycle drawings, which are my absolute favorites -- but the whole website is worth exploring. Jamie, I have a feeling you'd enjoy it too.

http://www.terrisaul.com/Drawings.html

you want bicycle drawings? here's my fav:
http://cheesegod.com/archive/peebush.jpg

Craig I do believe, maybe naive on my part, that the congress voted on the rescue ~ bailout because they thought it was in the best interest of the country, whether that will be true is yet to be proved. Your thread today leaves me with the impression that you believe Congress acted to help out their big money buds in NYC, something many of the far right have spouting for two weeks now. Are you listening to the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush?

"Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.
The truly disgusting thing about Sarah Palin isn't that she's totally unqualified, or a religious zealot, or married to a secessionist, or unable to educate her own daughter about sex, or a fake conservative who raised taxes and horked up earmark millions every chance she got. No, the most disgusting thing about her is what she says about us: that you can ram us in the ass for eight solid years, and we'll not only thank you for your trouble, we'll sign you up for eight more years, if only you promise to stroke us in the right spot for a few hours around election time." -- Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23318320/mad_dog_palin

above......excerpts from Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone

Brian,

I side with Craig to the extent that this simply did not need to be as rushed as it was.

A clear cut statement that there would be a bail out with details to be declared in a week probably would have quieted the uproar and gotten the money moving again. It took a long time to get in this mess, and I can't for the life of me understand why it had to be this hysterical rush to bill passage.

As it stands now, just the hiring of people to administer the program is going to take weeks at least and might not even be up and running until after the innauguration.
.

Money Trumps Everything!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hkjkTe5kZE

I think Bloomberg is wrong to try to change term limits.
The next president should appoint him secy of the treasury

sturg, you are, as usual, eloquent. Plus she has that same absofu*kinglutely mean assed set of her mouth after she makes a nasty comment that my mother had, and my mom could be a bitchonwheels when she was mean.

Sturgeon
Re: your 12:26 post.
The same could be said of Obama. I never thought I would live to see the day that the people would cheer over a plastic Jesus symbol, Obama . Obama is inexperienced, corrupt, narcissist. Every despot in the world is just waiting for him to get in office.. How can we let someone so vile even near the whitehouse. The thought Michelle Obama in the whitehouse spouting her hatred is disgusting. Bet you within a week Rev Wright is sleeping in the whitehouse. Lots of luck America, you are going to need it.

Going to move out of the country once Obama is elected Julie?

Money trumps everything---without a doubt!

This just happened to slip by over the weekend:

As of Friday, AIG had already drawn down $61 billion of the $85 billion emergency bridge loan received from the Federal Reserve 2 weeks ago.

$53 to $54 billion went to shore up AIG's troubled structured-finance unit & its securities lending buisness

Another big block has been used to support AIG's daily operations.

And as per AIG's chief executive--In addition to the $85 billion, AIG would be able to participate in the $700 billion bailout programs.

"AIG uses $61 billion of Federal Loan"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/business/04insure.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=AIG%20%20%2461%20billion&st=cse&oref=slogin

Pogo.....that was Matt Taibbi....I merely pasted it....but thanks for the "as usual"......lol

Pennsylvania: Morning Call Tracking Poll

Obama 50%, McCain 40%

http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/10/pennsylvania_morning_call_trac.html

julie, the choices are not good - but you'd let the plastic beer distributor into the WH? Your standards are pretty low.

Well, duty calls - later.

sturg - I just assumed it was your words. I should read a little more carefully, but the "as usual" still applies. LOL

btw, taking LP to see Mountain and Joe Satriani Sat. Thinks that should be inspriational for the little shredder?

matt taibbi on McCain and Obama in the same article above:

It is worth noting that the same criticisms of Palin also hold true for two other candidates in this race, John McCain and Barack Obama. As politicians, both men are more narrative than substance, with McCain rising to prominence on the back of his bio as a suffering war hero and Obama mostly playing the part of the long-lost, future-embracing liberal dreamboat not seen on the national stage since Bobby Kennedy died. If your stomach turns to read how Palin's Kawasaki 704 glasses are flying off the shelves in Middle America, you have to accept that Middle America probably feels the same way when it hears that Donatella Versace dedicated her collection to Obama during Milan Fashion Week. Or sees the throwing-panties-onstage-"I love you, Obama!" ritual at the Democratic nominee's town-hall appearances.

So, sure, Barack Obama might be every bit as much a slick piece of imageering as Sarah Palin. The difference is in what the image represents. The Obama image represents tolerance, intelligence, education, patience with the notion of compromise and negotiation, and a willingness to stare ugly facts right in the face, all qualities we're actually going to need in government if we're going to get out of this huge mess we're in.

Hey Coreen

IMO the bailout was a distraction from all the bad news and an excuse not to do anything else...because it will be "awhile before the bailout starts working." That's a pile since the purpose of rushing it was to restore confidence. Pretty much the market said they have no faith in Shrubian economics.
So annoying.

If the conservatives persist in their stupid CRA claim, it's no wonder they have no idea what to do, they have no idea what caused the problem

http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/04/that-future-you-sold-said-the-devil-im-here-to-collect/

I believe what many people have missed in this whole "bail-out/rescue/recovery" plan is that the mechanisms were already in place to spend exactly the same amount of money, but with no chance of recovering nearly as much as was paid out. Prior to this legislation, the FDIC would have declared an institution insolvent, taken over the assets, and held an auction to recover at least part of their investment.

This is exactly what happened in the case of Washington Mutual. On Monday of that week, the FDIC put the word out that WaMu was insolvent and they were in the process of taking over the bank. They declared the bank insolvent at the opening of business on Wednesday and held an auction for its assets on Wednesday afternoon. As a result, the FDIC (actually you and me) got pennies on the dollar for those assets.

The new legislation simply allows the Treasury Secretary to plan for the orderly reallocation of assets with some potential for the full recovery of those assets. In other words, by having funds available on the front end (the $700 billion everyone talks about), the Secretary can use those funds as loans to other institutions to purchase the assets of a troubled bank. In return for loaning out the money, the US Treasury has the opportunity to recoup that money with interest.

Bottom line: The legislation simply helps the Treasury orderly reallocate assets they would have spent anyway. Instead of putting out fires (with the resulting fire sale prices) through the FDIC, the Treasury can now do some advanced planning, and has the possibility of building some stability into the market through an orderly series of transactions (and possibly making a small profit).

The Wamu take over cost the tax payers nothing. The IndyMac take over is another example, that has cost the tax payer relatively little and has offered distressed homeowners direct assistane immediately something not available in the current plan.

There was no opportunity to discuss better ways of addressing the problems. Several people came up with better ideas including Warren Buffet but the rush was on.
It was a mistake. It won't even do the the paltry job of elevating market confidence so the talking heads can talk about it's success.

Why couldn't you say this last week, Craig?

How bout "Hey, you guys are gonna get screwed!" rather than "Hey, you guys just got screwed!"?

What has irritated me most through the last few weeks is that politicians of both stripes has spent an enormous amount of time and effort blaming each other, the "greedy Wall Street bankers," and anyone else they could think of for what transpired.

Instead of finger-pointing, they would have been serving their constituencies much more effectively by explaining the need to keep order in the markets, and how giving the Treasury Secretary the power to keep that order would be much better for all of us.

The reason Wall Street forced this plan on Congress was that the market understood the necessity of planning instead of the chaos that would have ensued if the FDIC handled each failure on a case-by-case basis. The market does not like surprises, and by building some central government planning into the process, the market gets some level of security it needs to operate in an orderly fashion.

I guess I am just a small government person after all.
I think the failures should have been dealt with on a case by case basis.

The Fed already had the tools and there is less opportunity for Hanky Panky. As a tax payer I'll take my chances with the current system.

Wamu and others could have sold themselves earlier but were greedy liars.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/10/money-trumps-party-on-capitol.html#comment-154961

Please

"Lots of luck America, you are going to need it."

julie, what is this "you" business?

"Money Trumps Party on Capitol Hill" ......

That's all about to change Craig. Jon Stewart predicted that :
Dog shit will be money, and park benches will be apartments.

KGC >>I think the failures should have been dealt with on a case by case basis.

If you study financial market failures, you'll find that this is the primary cause is bank runs, etc. People try to get out of their own institution because they see it happening elsewhere. It's a domino effect. Given the level of deregulation in the market at this time, the Treasury Secretary had no choice but to watch it unfold. Should he have been sounding warning signals earlier? Should re-regulation have happened earlier? In hindsight, probably so.

KGC >>Wamu and others could have sold themselves earlier but were greedy liars

You're correct, they could have sold earlier for at least $8 per share earlier this summer. Of course, they could have sold the company at $45 per share last year if they could have found a buyrer...

However, calling people "greedy liars" serves no real purpose. If you held any Washington Mutual shares, either directly or indirectly through any retirement plans, EFTs or mutual funds you may own, you yourself become one of those greedy liars. Given the number of people who actually own shares in these companies through various means., it's senseless to keep pointing fingers at "the other guy," when we're pointing fingers at ourselves at the same time...

KGC >>The Wamu take over cost the tax payers nothing.

You're correct. The takeover didn't cost people anything directly, but the reduction in value of the assets costs millions of people a lot through reductions in retirement plans, etc. I admit I wasn't clear in my meaning there...

Craig---exactly

Money trumps, repost of last thread is a pretty good fit for today's thread.

-I may be wrong but I think there are 3 principal functions of the government'

1- Military/ security and safety of it's citizens
2-Financial security
3-Maintenance of highways,bridges, roads etc.

During the last eight years under the republicans they have failed, fallen way short.They can ( and very often do) confuse the citizenry, but they can't expunge what is very apparent now.

What is sad is thast they just take turns f---ing things up one way or the other, it will never end. GREED GREED and more GREED.

Sturg You and quite a few others have been saying the same thing as RollingStone article---maybe a little diff, but the same, I hope coming from a diff source gets some to calm down a little.

KGC YES as Euro Tom likes to say
perception people react to them and so do the markets? gas prices are up and down all the time. Above all is your observation that nothing starts to work as soon as it applied, Yes the news that some remedy was in the works, and would be announced in a weeks time, would have given the public the confidence needed, the pork attached to this now is why I repost what I wrote yesterday.

I do feel bad especially for the institutional investors such as ASFME which held a number of shares of WAMU. I feel bad for my community because here WAMU was a large employer and a good community member.

Wamu suffered a loss of depositor confidence in the last few weeks. However it was deserved. After all they are the ones who excluded all mortgage defaults and foreclosure costs when they figured their annual bonuses.

I'm not saying nothing should have been done. I think it was a rush job and not a particularly good solution.

I think we do need to assign blame and understand what happened.

Fareed Zakarias just asked a fun question.

"Who was the most unqualified person to ever SERVE as Vice President?"

I think I'll go with Hannibal Hamlin

"McCain is sensitive about his physical appearance, especially his height. The candidate is only five-feet-nine, making him the shortest party nominee since Michael Dukakis. On the night he was elected senator in 1986, McCain exploded after discovering that the stage setup for his victory speech was too low; television viewers saw his head bobbing at the bottom of the screen, his chin frequently cropped from view. Enraged, McCain tracked down the young Republican who had set up the podium, prodding the volunteer in the chest while screaming that he was an "incompetent little shit." Jon Hinz, the director of the Arizona GOP, separated the senator from the young man, promising to get him a milk crate to stand on for his next public appearance.

During his 1992 campaign, at the end of a long day, McCain's wife, Cindy, mussed his receding hair and needled him playfully that he was "getting a little thin up there." McCain reportedly blew his top, cutting his wife down with the kind of language that had gotten him hauled into court as a high schooler: "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." Even though the incident was witnessed by three reporters, the McCain campaign denies it took place."

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick/print

"Family Values"

Phillies are coming for your stupid Dodgers... The City of Freedom will crush the city of phonies and facades... and fascism, apparently.

Most of what you write here Craig I agree totally. It is a sad commentary on the gridlock and recriminations in Washington.

I found the last sentence just spot on:

"When it's about chasing money and the people who control it, Congress can get things done. No matter how much good it did for the economy, this episode offered another example for how Money is the real majority party in Washington."

And it shows that the "bailout" is about that, more money for the Wall Street greed machine and the common people are more or less left to fend for themselves. Not saying the bailout wasn't necessary, now it's even getting worse again in Europe with Germany's largest bank, and a disaster looming in Iceland, but there is not enough relief for the middle and lower classes to save their homes, businesses and the like. The economy is broken, and simply adding to the national debt isn't going to work in my humble opinion.

As for world reaction as to how this situation was allowed to happen, basically... "all roads lead to the White House" . Have we ever witnessed a more morally corrupt and incompetent Administration in our history? I am not a historian, but from what I read, this is really one for the History books.

KGC >>I think we do need to assign blame and understand what happened.

Understanding what happened is certainly necessary. Correcting it is essential. Pointing out some scapegoats and assigning blame, though it might feel good, is pointless because 1) what happened is in the past and cannot be changed, 2) if you choose to single out one scapegoat, you need to find all of them (that would include all your local bankers who have done the same thing but on a smaller scale), and and 3) it's hard to assign blame in a system failure. How far back to you go? At what level do you stop? Is it possible to find the singular event that triggered all the subsequent events?

That's all for me for now. Got to go put groceries in the pantry....

"Obama is inexperienced, corrupt, narcissist. Every despot in the world is just waiting for him to get in office.. How can we let someone so vile even near the whitehouse. The thought Michelle Obama in the whitehouse spouting her hatred is disgusting. Bet you within a week Rev Wright is sleeping in the whitehouse."

Posted by: Julie Young | October 5, 2008 12:54 PM

This post is simply absurd. It is a simply a drive-by rage post that is filled with emotion and no substance.

I would need evidence of Barack Obama being "corrupt"
I would need evidence of "every despot in the world is just waiting for him to get into office"
I would need evidence that Michelle Obama plans to use her time in the White House to "spout her hate"...
And I cannot see any evidence that would remotely suggest that Rev. Wright will be a welcomed guest or tenant at the White House.

Well hopefully one bit of good news out of this is an end of even discussing the privatizing of social security benefits allowing them to be invested on the stock market, simply so the Wall Street Money Junkies can profit more from working people's hard earned security contributions.

jamie, thanks for the info in last thread. guess i was concerned whether mr. scaife was involved in some way. his pitt trib-rev had a nasty editorial out today, reminded me of those witchhunts against big dawg and it got me to wondering what he's been up to sub rosa.

I am already voting. Thurston County in Washington State asked me if I wanted an Eballot sent by email in a word document and I said "sure, I'll give it a try". All I am waiting for is information on the District Court Judges and Public Utilities District.

Interesting thing that if I sign a waiver of vote confidentiality, I am allowed to fax my signed ballot to the Elections Department.

Hi Katherine,

As far as the bailout/rescue necessity--it is my understanding that essentially large entities, such as mutual funds, hedge funds, etc--were in effect "running" on the precarious banks--wiring out large amounts into treasuries (no longer is there a requirement that a bank run is physically people standing in line to get their money)---which is why Paulson announced the need to immediately agree to the bailout/rescue--to stop the institutional transfers & to shore up confidence.

It remains to be seen whether confidence will start to rebound.

As far as responsibility for the current state of the financial markets----it is equally shared--- fannie/freddie's goal of increasing homeownership which resulted in "creative" measures to evaluate the more risky loans; lenders qualifying borrowers with no standards for ability to re-pay; deregulation & lack of oversight that permitted the investment banks to create the mortgage backed securities scheme to increase profits; & politicians (both sides) who did
nothing(after all they all have benefited over the years)--all combined to create the crisis.

And you are absolutely right---greed played a significant role with all the players. It always has & always will.

Don't know why I typed Hamlin. I was thinking of Rufus King

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1834600_1834604_1834578,00.html

NYT today---article about Fannie Mae as it unraveled.

"Pressured to take more risk, Fannie reached a tipping point"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/business/05fannie.html?hp

There are some other articles in NYT in the same section (The Reckoning) that outlines other causes in the buildup to the meltdown.

I think SNL's next Sarah Palin skit needs to be a adapted version of the classic "Reagan behind closed doors is actually brilliant, sharp and totally in command." Remember that one?

Except with the Palin behind closed doors gag, you could have Tina Fey lose the accent and idiom, turn into a fast-talking DC type, pour herself a double martini, cuss out her campaign manager on the phone -- and then, in the coup de gras, actually REMOVE the hair and glasses as a single unit from her head and hang it on a wall hook. Like it was some sort of a standard-issue Sarah Palin Helmet or something. And then Fey would do the rest of the skit completely bald.

Coreen

Thanks for the NYTimes links. I think it is relatively easy to figure out what and why it happened. I also don't think it goes back very far. It is unwinding it to make the corrections that is complicated.

If some clown is going to walk about away with millions I think he should be made to feel embarrassed about taking the money. I know they will take it but I'd be happy with some humiliation.

Hey Lardo,

"ask you if you are familiar with the artist Terri Saul."

I'm not familiar with her or her work although the bike series is cool and very unusual.
I do recall the name because of her grandfather. He ran with a pretty renown bunch, many around Oklahoma. . . Norman to be exact, the University of course.

I lived there for a good time and got to know many of the artsy Indian crowd real well. Not because I am talented like that but because they carouse, drink and party alot, which was my forte. In fact I owned a joint that was the local watering hole for many Indians.

I once had a decent Ind art collection as many bar owners end up with over time, So I was up on who's who in that world and CT Saul was in good company as an artist.

BTW, my ex got away with the art and all I ended up with was a good collection of their bad paper they floated with me over the time. Signed and numbered. LOL

"And then Fey would do the rest of the skit completely bald."

lol lard, and then, a la julie andrews victor/victoria, as a female impersonator.

Good afternoon everyone! All of you with children/friends in college or are traveling/commuting people -- be sure to check out this website on absentee voting: http://beabsentee.org/

Cheers!
~ Alicia

"This is not a man (Obama) who sees America like you and I see America," S Palin

Ideological differences; I guess that's what she means. :p~~~~

For those of you who like to use the Bill Maher show as an example of democracy........Did any of you LISTEN to Christiane Amanpour who, if she isn't , should be, the most respected journalist in the business today and Alec Baldwin who said it was both the democrats and republicans who were to blame for this economic disaster. Shandling is very intuitive but covers it up very well. We can't pass 700 billion but give us 840 or 850 and we can get it done, that's for all you Pelosi supporters................................................................

EuroTom; 2:21 pm .............. " I would need proof", keep watching the NY Times, and maybe be as fair to Palin. I am not a republican, but from the kind of twisted meaness I've seen on this blog about this woman, I'm not sure that being a democrat is any better. Maybe the dems have reverted to what they were in the movie,"The Gangs of New York"........................................................................

Rita

"Joe McCain, speaking at an event in support of his brother, called two Democratic-leaning areas in Northern Virginia "communist country,"

Alicia, Hows life in a commie world?

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2008/10/joe_mccain_jokes_inner_suburbs.html

Rita,

The reason Baldwin and Amanpour were making sense about world politics and the position of the US is because of George Bush and now John McCain and those completely unaware of global conditions such as Palin.

If we seem mean to her, it is only out of abject fear that anyone that unqualified would get near the White House.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/10/money-trumps-party-on-capitol.html#comment-155006

I'm scared of people who think they are part of that "You and I".

Rita, I agree they are all about hate! They don't really support anyone they just want to hate someone. If it's not a politician, they turn their hate onto a commenter.

"They don't really support anyone they just want to hate someone."

I agree with this sentiment. I've seldom, even from rabid right wing, seen as much vitriol. Bush-redux. I don 't know what it means for this country, but it can't bode well. Clowns to the left, clowns to the right. Clowns are in charge.

Rita

C, Ampour is the best that there is man or woman, She has done excellent work covering any world conflict, last year she did a special that I taped twice just in case i lost one, for CNN Gods Warriors, it covered Christians, Muslims, and Jewish attitudes towards one another, and each of it's history, There is another very good journalist on cnn ------Verga or something near to this that is also outstanding, she was covering Kenya during a skirmish between the gov. and others, with bullets flying all around her, I think she is also from Kenya.

I didn't know S Palin made movies too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XypVcv77WBU

Jamie: Congratulations to Joe Torre and the Dodgers! Your team showed up to play, mine didn't.

The Phillies/Dodgers match-up should be very entertaining.

Frankly, I've grown very tired of the American people electing dumb asses they "want to have a beer with."

I don't want to have a beer with the President and I don't think it should be a requirement.

What should be a requirement is that the Chief Executive of the United States should be intelligent! If that makes me an elitist then so be it. This is a very dangerous time for our country and the world. We've done the dumb ass thing for the past eight years and it hasn't worked out too well. Time for a President that has a brain in his head and is willing to use it.

IMHO, McCain is at least a six-pack short of a case in that regard. The only thing going for him is that he isn't quite as stupid as Bush.

Patsi...great to see you posting again. You were missed.

S - ?:
-------
KCBlf (1) => - K O

HCBlf (1) => - Y D

CCBlf (1) => - K O / -Y D

HCBsf (2) => - Y S

C ( Com : A/B/C/K/I )

Ever since last Thursday night, this has been sticking in my craw...so I'm just going to spit it out:

Sarah Palin may have been "successful" in the sense that her tactics in the debate saved her from major embarrassment. (Even though most sensible Americans saw right through them and called it a loss for her)

However, for the punditocracy (including Craig in this space) to simply treat her behavior as a mere "tactic" that worked constituted a major journalistic failure. And for Gwen Ifill to let her get away with it and not hold her feet to the fire was a disgrace.

By saying she didn't care what Biden said and didn't care what the moderator said, Palin was showing nothing less than open contempt for:

--Biden and Ifill
--the audience in the theater
--the format itself
--the organizers of the debate
--the American public, which she so dearly professes to love and which tuned in and thought it was going to see a debate.

Why? Because the millions of people who tuned in would not have done so had it been simply a campaign rally. And yes, most politicians subtly do what she did so clumsily all the time in debates. But she was brazen (and craven) enough to openly flaunt her contempt and wear it as some sort of badge.

She is a person of no integrity in my book. This behavior indicates clearly that her character is flawed.

And for journalists just to sort of chuckle about it and move on is a major abdication of their responsibility.

Why hasn't anyone just come out and written this directly?

Know how to tell the difference between Republicans and Democrats in Congress?

Democrats are the spineless, money-hungry, greedy, shifty, egotistical, self-serving hypocrites who will do anything to be elected every two years.

Republicans are the self-serving, egotistical, shifty, greedy, money-hungry, spineless hypocrites who will do anything to be elected every 2 years.

El Rey de Nada,
So the difference is: republicans = 2 and democrats = two

Glad you cleared that up.

Back from the weekend. The only thing relating to politics is that I saw more people who had signs in their yards for McCain than I did Obama. This was in Southeastern Michigan and Northwestern Ohio. Oh, and I did see 1 sign for Ron Paul. Anyway, Go Dodgers!

Here is the LINK to the SNL VIDEO THAT NANCY PELOSI AND THE DEMOC"RATS" AND THEIR ALLIES IN THE MEDIA DON'T WANT YOU TO SEE

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/c-span-bailout/727521/

VJ Machiavelli
http://www.vjmachiavelli.com

"We must face the fact that the US government’s primary mission is to protect the wealthy and insure capital expansion worldwide. The US military—spending more than the rest of the militaries of the world combined—is the muscle behind this protect-capital-at-all-costs agenda, and will be used against the American people if deemed necessary to support the mission."

http://www.projectcensored.org/articles/story/an-election-without-meaning/

Hey VJ. . I thought that segment was tha bomb..

btw.. Bosox just scored 3 on an bases loaded Ellsbury single.lol

Rezdog aka Big Democrat

LOL, thanks for the bike pic, Craig.

I'm hunting for the names of the porkers who porked up the 'bailout' bill. Wooden arrows? Run tax in Puerto rico? A tax break to Exxon Valdez plaintiffs?

Come ON!

Business as usual.

blah

And how about that Bush stimulus package we all got to HELP!

blah

tt

Pork link:

http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=1429&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS

tt

"In a sharp reversal in tactics, Sarah Palin read a newspaper yesterday, and the McCain campaign is arguing that this should lay to rest any doubts about her qualifications for the
vice presidency." B Osterag

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-ostertag/news-flash-palin-reads-a_b_132060.html

Hey Rez you should get in on the fantasy cabinet picks.

NEW THREAD

Hey tt when you find those names please post them. I know more than one person who was asking that very question tonight.

Animal Control, you get an A+ in copy editing. Your screen name suggests you once may have worked in the House cafeteria.

Do I sense a feeling of protectiveness on your part for one of these pack of thieves over the others?

Yes, money sure talks Sen Schumer has taken more that 12.6 Million dollars from the "MONEY CROWD" since he was elected 1998 by his "BRAIN" Hank Morris who is under investigation for how he earned 26 Million Dollars in finder fees. It seems they both have made out well.

VJ Machiavelli
http://www.vjmachiavelli.blogspot.com