Handy worksheet to take to the caucus.
Name your top 3 election issues:
Name your preferred candidate:
Now, ignoring speeches, explain what your candidate has actually accomplished that makes you think they will address your issues sucessfully:
Paul Krugman: Addicted to Bush
Paul Krugman pens an article titled Addicted to Bush.
Having been rendered deaf, dumb & blind two years ago in a tragic microwave burrito accident, he alleges the GOP is the addict.
Forget all those administration references to ‘the last 8 years’, ‘the previous administration’, ‘inherited economy’. Forget that the liberal media mentions Bush more often than Rain Man mentions ‘Judge Wapner’. Forget that “Something Something Something, George Bush” is now a legitimate congressional answer to any reporters question. Forget what your eyes see. Forget what your ears hear. Forget everything and allow me just concede to Kruggers so I can give you the following.
Too Big to Bail
Today’s #youlie is ‘Wall Street Financial reform will put an end to billion dollar bailouts’. The truth is it will eventually make them trillion dollar bailouts.
A bailout reimburses stakeholders in excess of actual value
As part of a major overhaul package the latest Senate Financial Reform bill includes language to setup a $50 billion government regulated insurance fund that Wall Street Banks would pay into, thus creating a system to cover the excessive costs of liquidating a company that goes under. While some would argue that this is not a bailout as it results in the death of the failed company, it remains a bailout in that it reimburses stakeholders for their failed investments in excess of the actual post failure value of those investments. In short, the fund isolates investors from the risk of investing in the financial companies it is intended to regulate, a key driver in creating the economic recession we now find ourselves in.
To say ‘Wall St Reform will prevent future bailouts’ is like saying the FDIC prevents bailouts, 50 this year and counting.
While the FDIC and other funds may be a good idea, it is patently untrue to say any fund prevents bailouts, rather it institutionalizes them. Furthermore, if these funds are a good idea for managing systemic risk, shouldn’t all of the “faildustries” pay into them? What about the automakers, specifically GM who received one bailout to prevent them from declaring bankruptcy and another after they did just that? What about the airlines, who routinely declare bankruptcy, but get too big to fail protections? And what about the good companies? Many banks have already paid back their TARP funds most of whom never asked for them in the first place. Additionally, Ford never took bailout funds, and American is the only legacy airline to have never declared bankruptcy. I don’t know the answers here, but I do know this is the conversation we should be having, not speeches or sound bites on preventing bailouts.
Bailouts have become too big to fail.
True the FDIC, like the proposed reform, is industry funded, but in that sense so is Social Security, Medicare, state unemployment Insurance. Specifically, the FDIC’s 1987 “Sense of Congress” may not be an ironclad legal authorization, but there is no doubt who gets stiffed with the check when any of these funds are overdrawn by systemic risk. Good Ol’ Uncle Sam, and remember, you both share the same wallet.
When that happens, you’re no longer bailing out irresponsible companies, you’re bailing out an irresponsible bailout system.
A Grain of Salt
I am not going to use this post to mock the absurdity of liberals declaring the war on drugs to be a costly, immoral & futile effort while advocating using the full powers of the federal government to wage war on a table condiment. I shall not mention that currently the President is coming down harder with unilateral sanctions on Pringles while Persia continues its illegal nuclear weapons program, provides military support to insurgents killing our troops, and continues to imprison political dissidents and students. I will be blind to the fact that SALT, while a four letter word, is not JOBS and therefore is not something the administration should be wasting time with while unemployment is still above the stimulus package promise of 8%. Nor will I list the litany of liberal issues that the president promised would be on his agenda like closing Gitmo, repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and removing warrentless wiretaps from the Patriot act.
No in this post, I thought I’d provide a simple collection of great videos to accompany Obama’s new crisis.
No not everyone is happy about this at all Mr President.
Won’t you allow a poor boy to have his Salty?
What? Using video of one condescending egotistical pompous elitist to mock another is RACISM? Oh right, black people all look the same to Media Matters. Nevermind, I’ll just use the approved media model of “ask the black commentator” to illustrate my point here.
There. Now Why would the President have the need to attack salt unless, of course! The Russians, its a preemptive strike!
Wait that’s not about food at all. Never mind I can’t figure this out. TourettesGuy close me out here. (Nanny Laws now require I tell you “Tourettes Guy” = “WARNING LANGUAGE!!! NSFW!!!”)
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
- Xenocrates (396-314 B.C.).
I do not know a lot about mine safety. To be honest, I don’t know about a lot of things. That rarely stops me from running my mouth, using professional experiences, references, quotations and subject matter I do know to extrapolate and analyze the things I do not. Sometimes I make quick judgment calls based on nothing more than simple logic and gut instinct. While I’m often right there are times I’m wrong. Me and my opinions, we exist largely in a vacuum on the national scene, being only as far reaching as family, a few coworkers, friends and you fine people. When I’m right, wrong, misguided or misinformed mostly I’m the only one who notices. In short I’m no journalist.
To reiterate, I do not know a lot about mine safety and I am not a journalist. Therefore when the tragedy that occurred this week in West Virginia, I was not on TV trying to fill my 24 hours of programming while boosting my ratings in a tough economy and diverse news market by sensationalizing stories with “factoids”. I was not on TV pointing out safety infractions not mentioning what the regulatory standards actually were or what classification the infraction was, or even if the deficiency was a true violation or only a supplemental feature. I was not on TV, NOT asking if any of these deficiencies would have prevented the explosion that led to this tragedy or could ONLY have helped increase the survival odds provided miners were in the correct areas at the time of the explosion.
Once again, I do not know a lot about mine safety and I am not a journalist. However, that is not why I was not on TV asking questions I have no business asking. I was not on TV because I generally do not make a habit of being a completely and totally disrespectful to people who not only have done nothing to deserve it but are clinging to hope for missing loved ones.
I can not underscore the dickishness of a journalist standing over a lifeguard and questioning his attentiveness, his training, his equipment, and even his compensation WHILE that lifeguard is performing CPR on a victim. I do not know a lot about mine safety and I am not a journalist, but I can not underscore the dickishness of doing the same to a company. When a mine disaster occurs, it is the company who is in charge of coordinating the rescue operation. It is the company who sends its men in to search for their fallen comrades, putting their own lives at risk in a toxic, explosive, structurally unstable environment. It is the company who coordinates the family support operations, providing support to not only the families of the victims, but the now frantic families of rescue teams. Standing over and questioning this company while rescue efforts were still in effect was disrespectful to the rescue workers, and the families of these fallen men.
Now.
Now, you talking heads in your fine pressed suits and your well light, air conditioned (and very likely coal powered) TV studios, NOW you may commence your dickishness.
Census Hip-Hopcracy
This week in yawn:
Atlanta rapper Chris “Ludacris” Bridges has teamed up with theU.S. Census.
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In a statement, Ludacris explained why he’s gotten on board with the Census, a partnership meant to encourage people to fill out their forms. Census data help direct federal dollars to various communities.
“I look at our communities now and I see many empty lots, closed clinics, dilapidated schools and an overall breakdown of social services for the poor and elderly,” he said. “Today is a day for change.”
He plans appearances in a number of cities including Dallas, New Orleans, Orlando, New York and Washington as well as Atlanta, where he’ll be pounding the pavement on April 9.
“I plan to knock on doors in various neighborhoods around this country to try and dispel any myths about the Census,” Ludacris said. “It’s important that we all stand up and be counted so we can help create potential financial opportunities for our dying communities.”
http://blogs.ajc.com/the-buzz/2010/03/28/ludacris-could-be-coming-to-your-door/?cxntlid=sldr
Now Luda seems like a man who enjoys his privacy in addition to his second amendment rights, so I must wonder how he would act if a temp worker acting under the authority of the United States Federal government started asking questions like he was on an interactive episode of MTV Cribs.
Is there a block on the form for ”Get up out my face, you couldn’t relate, wait to take place at a similar pace so shake, shake it”?
Making Love out of nothing at all…
Question: How did the Nobel Committee choose Obama?
They overdid the Air Supply….
and ended up Making Love out of nothing at all.
The committee broke the first rule of awards, they chose to award the man not the reason. By doing this they then had to invent a reason and pretend that reason was better than all the other nominees accomplishments. When you don’t have much to work with you have to start using words like *empathy* and *potential*.
If the World wants to love Obama I’m ok with that, Love doesn’t need an explanation, it doesn’t need an award either.
Caption Contest Barack Obama
Its not PhotoShop I swear:Yahoo News
Given the other news of the day I thought a caption contest is in order. Prize is yuks.
- Media “No he’s not too inexperinced to be President”
- Obama “We don’t need missile defense, lookie what I found”
- Obama “40,000 Troops for Afghanistan? Just give our boys these things”
- Obama “I am ready to debate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad”
- Obama “Darfur? Sorry I’m busy”
- Putin: “Leader of the free world? Serriously?”
- Obama “My Health Care plan will reduce the cost of tonsillectomies.”
- Obama “Does Glenn Beck know who he’s messing with?”
The one thing you need to know about the president’s healthcare speech
In case you missed the President’s address on health care, this is the one thing you need to know.
All of the people who won’t have to use the same government run system we’ll all be forced into, stood up and clapped.
Hansel and Gretel
Assuming I could ever get published in USATODAY, this would be my response to Pelosi’s USATODAY Op-ed
For the first time since 1978 Democrats hold an all powerful 60 seat majority in the Senate, and the highest number of seats in the House since 1993, yet Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid seem completely incapable of moving any bill from the halls of Congress to the President’s desk without dropping a trail of nasty little insult breadcrumbs to mark their path back home. Worse yet, those insults aren’t the traditional political barbs directed at the Republican opposition, but vile and tainted smears hurled at private individuals expressing simple basic concerns over domestic policy issues.
According to the liberal media machine, somehow in barely two weeks the GOP has gone from being an inept leaderless party to a full blown puppet master, bankrolled by the big insurance companies, crisscrossing the nation, infiltrating local meetings with out of town, swastika carrying, racist, well-dressed, un-American, tea bagging redneck, mobsters, for the purpose of terrorizing congressmen, inciting violence and shouting down debate with outlandish demands like “Read the Bill” or asking members of congress to use the same medical program they would bind their constituencies to use.
Worse yet all this boogy man talk is completely meangingless. Democrats have the numbers, if their health care bill was as good as they say it is they could easily pass it without a single Republican vote.
It is a strange day when a woman who is third in line for the presidency can call for ‘civil dialogue’ and in the same statement can call opponents un-American. Meanwhile over at the Whitehouse, Truth Czar, Linda Douglass is asking individuals to send in fishy emails, websites, and even casual conversations. If redneck tea baggers were already clinging to guns and religion, I’m pretty sure they’re not going to relax any time soon.
Democrats in Congress, if you want to save any part of your agenda, its time for you to elect a new leadership. The decision is yours, just don’t blame me when Hansel and Gretel eat your house and shove your grandmother in the oven.
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Moe Lane
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
