Sunday, September 14, 2008

Time To Pass The Baton At BendBubble2

First I have to re-post a great cartoon from over on Dunc's blog:


That about sums it up, right there. Lib's in a festering ball of rage over Palin. BAM! McPain just barely taps the knee to get the reflex-action going.

I throw out a little McPain love, and the Lib-Musketeers of BB2 (Brucey, Dunc, and a variety of hbm's) come out guns blazing.

Duncan McGeary said...

Yeah, but I'm not thinking it's funny.

There are some pretty sick minds here.

I'm with HBM.

"...the troll stink in here is overpowering. Hasta manana, maybe."

Oy. Played like a fiddle. By Buster, no less.

hbm said...

Gotta go -- the troll stink in here is overpowering. Hasta manana, maybe.

And brucey-kins has posted a vast litany of Bush-hatin' goodness:

bruce said...

It's hard to run on your record of the last eight years, six of which you controlled Congress and the Executive. And the last two years you stopped anything you didn't agree with by making the Senate unable to stop filibusters.

When your signature foreign achievement is a multi-trillion dollar quagmire in Iraq, and your signature national achievement is Medicare Part D, with it's prohibition on bargaining over drug prices with the drug companies and a donut hole big enough to sink a blue-hairs Buick halfway through the year, all you can do is run on lies and innuendo, hoping people believe that you will run things differently the next time.


Even when you have the exact same guys behind the scenes. And as long as a significant percentage of Americans watch Faux News, they actually have a chance.

The Homer Simpson channel, run by Reagan/Bush Sr comunications advisor Roger Ailes, will fight for the Repubs right to the bitter end.

Oy.

What's funny/sad is I have so many bionic-liberal friends (this is Bend, CA after all), who don't even identify with the Democratic Party anymore, because they are moving left at such a rapid speed, that even the Dem's sound like corporate suckups, spewing Nazi bile.

Repugs? Well, they insist they don't even know what the Repug Party is about anymore. White Noise. Some sort of Phantom. Menace.

Diane: Ahhh... this is probably going to be seem a little strange. We hear better on this channel. Don't ask me why. Well... ah... I guess I will call her. Carol Anne. Ah... i t's mommy, sweetheart. Ah, we want to talk to you. Please answer me baby. Please answer me. Please talk to me, bunny.

Marty: Look at the dog.

Diane: Are you with us now? Can you... can you say hello to daddy?

Carol Anne: Hello, daddy.

Steve: Hello, sweetpea.

Diane: It's mommy, sweetheart.

Carol Anne: Hello, mommy.

Diane: Hello, baby. Can you see me? Can you see mommy?

Carol Anne: Mommy? Where are you? Where are you?

Diane: We're home, baby. We're home. Can you find me? Can you find a way to us, baby?

Carol Anne: Mommy, where are you? I can't find you. I can't. I'm afraid of the Light, mommy. I'm afraid of the Light.

This is a standard conversation with my liberal friends. Like talking to a possessed appliance, or something. No one understands it. Even I don't at times.

This is the Achilles Heal of The Lib's, and they don't get it.

The Neo-CON-VICTS are UNAPOLOGETICALLY engaged in RePugnant behavior that would make a fucking billygoat puke, AS USUAL. But they are still engaging MIDDLE AMERIKKKA, that vast bulge of sister-fucking hillbillies, called The Bible Belt.

But the Lib's have gone off on some idealistic race to The Left, to see who can distance themselves from G-Dub's the fastest, and in the most sweeping, radical way they can.

Quoth The Ravin':

Willie Horton Revisited

Written by H. Bruce Miller

Saturday, 13 September 2008

The Fall Slime Season is in full swing. If you doubt it, check out the two new TV ads just put out by Gordon Smith. In a tactic reminiscent of George H.W. Bush’s Willie Horton ad in the 1988 presidential campaign, the Republican senator’s ads try to portray Smith’s opponent, Jeff Merkley, as coddling child rapists.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

NOOOOOOOOO! AHHHHHHHH!

Willy Week: Smith's Food Plant Hires Illegal Workers
Written by H. Bruce Miller

Thursday, 11 September 2008

Although details are sketchy, Willamette Week is reporting that Gordon Smith’s frozen food plant near Pendleton has been employing illegal immigrants for years.

I repeat:

hbm said...

Gotta go -- the troll stink in here is overpowering. Hasta manana, maybe.

Now, see the problem with this DUMBFUCK STRATEGY is that Lib's are leaving the ELECTION WIDE OPEN TO McPAIN.

The Lib's think this is about BEING RIGHT. The RePUG's know better. It's about WINNING.

The Dem's are moving left, LEFT OF EVERYTHING & EVERYBODY, in an attempt to distance themselves from Gee-Dub, possibly the worst President of the United States, if you don't count Hitler, Satan or Jeebus.

GeeDub's may actually be the reason The Pug's are re-elected.

Imagine a beach, walled off at both ends. And the beachgoers are dispersed absolutely evenly across the beach. This beach has only 2 snack vendors. The vendors are identical in every way, price, products, everything. Pure commodities. There is only one determining factor about which vendor to choose: The distance away from the vendor.

Traditional American Politics resembles this situation quite closely, and it should be no surprise that what is ultimately achieved is a sort of Unstable Equilibrium, where the vendors move towards center, jockeying for position by millimeters in the center of the beach, despite the fact that there is a vast underserved population on the periphery of the beach.

American voters resemble this situation, except they fall more along a bell curve, with right & left wing freaks on the edge, and the Big Fat-Ass Sister Fucking Tubby Middle. For better or worse, this group actually puts people in office.

And the vendors gravitate towards this center EVERY FOUR YEARS. Like clockwork.

But this year, we're going to have CHANGE! Oh yes. Change. So, Oh-Uni decides to make a stand, and move away from The Middle, and goes LEFT... just a little.

And just because he's a little closer to some people wayyyyyyyyyyyy out on the left edge of the beach, and because the other guy has been linked to salmonella, he gains a pretty good flock of new customers in a short time. Some from too far left to frequent either vendor in a long time, they just went without.

Now the other guy sees this, and does nothing. His business was not so great to begin with, and it's still OK, but he feels worse cuz it seems like the other guy just got a bonanza for doing nothing.

So then the other guy goes left a little more. And he gets some more.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

And so it goes with the LEFTY vendor quite a ways from Center & doing pretty well for himself.

But then the guy in the middle decides to move left, because there are some people who are between him & LEFTY that he can EASILY pick up. LEFTY has gone quite a ways left and left a BIG FUCKING GAP IN THE MIDDLE.

So RIGHTY moves LEFT. And he picks up customers. Quite a few, in fact. He was going to MIRROR LEFTY's move, and go RIGHT at first, but then he thought about it: Why cater to those wayyyyyyyy out to the right? Fuck them. Move left. In fact, move left with impunity. Follow LEFTY!

This is a clusterfuck for the Dem's: They HAVE TO appear to be the George Bush Anti-Christ's. Again, Worst AmeriKKKan President since Idi Amin.

But this GAP is what McPAIN & EVERY FUCKING RePug with half a fucking brain is moving into. There isn't a RePug TV spot that doesn't disavow ass-fucking Geo-Dub's EVERY FUCKING DAY for the past 8 years, despite the fact that Lib's & RePug's alike have sucked at the Bush Mega-Cock. Yeah, you fuckers voted into Law the Iraq War just as much as any Newt Gingrich Nazi dumbshit.

Look at the TV: Gordon Smith is running ads 24/7 about how he is GeeDub Hater. Why? Why is he "abandoning" the folks on the beach wayyyyyyyy off to the right?

Because he can. The Lib's, many, like my friend, so far left, they are dry humping the leftist wall, and can't hear ANYTHING over the humpage. These people are not even going to VOTE DEM! They are going to either vote Cynthia McKinney, who is right there with them, humping the wall. Or, they'll fall back to Old Reliable and vote Nader for the 45th election in a row.

And there appear to be many of these Left Wall-Huggers, which is why the Oh-Uni-Bomber started moving left to begin with. They would HOP OFF THE WALL & VOTE DEM if we JUST MOVED FAR ENOUGH LEFT, GAT DAMMIT!

And so like Howard Dean, they start marching that way. Now, the Oh-Bomber has kept a fucking fork in his pocket to stab himself in the leg every time he gains some traction, unlike Dean who got 6-7 Wall Huggers to jump off, and promptly self-destructed.

The Oh-Uni-Bomber has, to date, done it with a deft skill that puts many of his predecessors to shame. He's slick. He's well mannered. He's racially correct, which for a black dude, means he hasn't killed 3 wives, beat 5 kids to death, and contracted the AID's.

So he is smooth. But the fucker is still moving left. A little persistent voice is still telling him: Distance yourself from Gee-Dub & you shalt be welcomed into The Heavenly Gates.

And so he does. Closely followed by the other guy(s). A whole country moving LEFT, it seems.

But, it's really an illusion. The Vast Middle doesn't give a shit about "faggots, queers, niggers, or dykes", and they never will. They will vote the party FARTHEST away from that shit that they can.

And that party is STILL The Re-Capstone-Butt-Pugs. The bell curve isn't moving, but the parties are moving left, because the right has been poisoned by The Powers That Be.

And Oh-Uni-Bomber is almost to The Left Wall, with McPain, Gordo, and a host of other Re-Pluggers running, not walking, as fast as they can behind him, all trying to distance themselves from The BushCo Nightmare.

That WHOLE RIGHT FLANK is going to start walking to the polls (ie beach vendors) this November, and the first thing they'll find is McPAIN. Even a lot of Centerist Dem's will find McPAIN before they get to Oh-Uni-Bomber.

Think about it Libby's. You're handing it to us on a platter.

OK. I've been writing this crazy mixed-up blog for almost 2 years now. There has been some crazy shit happen since BEM handed the reigns off to.... some dude he didn't even know.

Remember, a fresh-faced CACB Shorter, selling at $32, and then covering at $24 or so, with an almost visible sigh of relief, and a bit of braggadocio.
Cracker Ass Cracker Broke, 2 yr chart

Little did he know this thing would implode down to the $6's.

Even recently, there was the Bear Stearns fiasco. Can't show you a chart because it is largely taxpayer owned, and the gub-ment hates charts.

Or Fannie. Or Freddie. Fannie went from $68/sh to 68 cents over the past 12 months. 99% LOSS on the largest holder of mortgages ON EARTH. DOWN 99%.
Fannie Mae, 1 yr.

Here's a BusWeek piece outlining The Nightmare Scenario:

The Nightmare

So we're golden, right? Well, maybe not. In the vicious-circle scenario, Treasury's intervention ends up being a replay of Japan's ill-fated effort to prop up crippled banks in the 1990s. Increasing the availability of credit delays—but does not prevent—the full price decline needed to clear out the daunting overhang of nearly 4.7 million unsold existing homes as of July.

As the lender of last resort, the government throws good money after bad, first on housing and then on airlines, automakers, and other supplicants. All this against an undeniable backdrop of rising federal deficits: The Congressional Budget Office predicted this month that the federal budget deficit would remain above $400 billion annually from 2008 through 2010, up from about $160 billion in 2007.

In the nightmare scenario, the descent into quasi-socialism balloons the national debt and wrecks foreign investors' faith in the economy. That's the vision sketched out by ultra-bears like Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital, a brokerage in Darien, Conn. Schiff is passionate on the topic: "The dollar is going to go through the floor, interest rates are going to spike up, and we're going to have a complete financial meltdown. It's going to be the worst-case scenario."

A different school of pessimists says the housing market actually does need a big adrenaline shot from the government. But they say it's unlikely to get one from either a McCain or an Obama Administration because the risk to taxpayers from a much bigger commitment to housing would be deemed too great. The only real beneficiaries of the takeover are the holders of Fannie and Freddie securities, who are bailed out of their bad investment choices, says Robert I. Kessler, CEO of Kessler Cos., a Denver investment firm. Says Kessler: "It's a great thing for the big banks. I don't see any benefit whatsoever to consumers."

Specifically, the Fan-Fred takeover does nothing to help homeowners who can't refinance a home loan because their property is assessed for less than they owe. It also may not be enough to draw in buyers, who are focused more on the risk of declining home values than on the upside of a slightly lower mortgage rate. "I've sat in open houses, and you just can't get people to make an offer," says Edward Cudahy Spalding, a real estate broker in Fort Lauderdale. "You've got to reinflate values in the housing market. I don't know how you do that."

Without more relief for homeowners and consumers, the housing-led recession is likely to deepen. In this vicious-circle scenario, the housing slump depresses consumer spending, leading to job cuts and thus forcing even more foreclosures and bigger spending reductions—in other words, the mirror image of the virtuous circle. Vulnerable sectors include finance; nonresidential construction, which tends to follow homebuilding downward with a lag; and retail, which has so far lost only a modest number of jobs nationally relative to the size of the sector.

Away from Wall Street, the mood is glum. Douglas S. Bartlett, owner of Bartlett Manufacturing, a maker of printed-circuit boards in Cary, Ill., says competition from China has forced him to cut employment nearly two-thirds since 2000, to 87. He hasn't felt any reprieve from the dollar's recent depreciation against China's currency. Says Bartlett: "Fortunately for us, there's been enough of our competitors going out of business that we're able to pick up their work." In Sacramento, restaurateur Ali Mackani was forced to shut down his fashionable Restaurant 55 Degrees shortly after Labor Day because of slower-than-expected commercial and residential development in the area, which he had been counting on to produce customers.

Today's business failures ripple across the economy, triggering more failures. And when the financial system is crippled by losses, the hoped-for V-shaped recovery can flatten out into a wide-bottomed U, says Dan North, chief economist of Euler Hermes ACI, a North American unit of Germany's Allianz Group (AZ) that insures accounts receivable. North says that because of business failures, the number of insurance claims processed by his company was up 80% in the first six months of 2008 compared with a year earlier.

I actually see this country becoming an also-ran on the Worlds Economic stage. This thing will cripple us.

The title of this piece is, "The Economy: Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios". This alone should make you wonder: Why are these people STILL wondering about a BEST CASE SCENARIO? Has it even happened ONCE?

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac fucking collapsed last week. Lehman will not survive the day. These fuckers are standing on the deck of the Titanic, at a 45 degree angle, and are debating Best Case & Worst Case Scenarios. Yeah. I'm sure this fucking ship will right itself by magic, and we'll end up safe & sound in NYC Harbor if we just think positive.

The Shire went belly up, Thank God. Soon to be followed by Tuscan Buttplugs of AmeriKKKA, and a raft of other imbecilic ideas. Pollock built what is the Quintessential STD-fest in Forum Meadows, which is probably World-renowned for the Biggest Fucking Weeds ever. Here is a picture I took last week:

House in Forum Meadows, obscured by Worlds Largest Weed

Let's not forget Randy Flesh-Eating-Virus Sebastian.
Hi, I'm Randy Sebastian, and my asshole whistles when the wind blows, cuz I've done been fucked by The Bend Oregon Housing Market (The BOHM)! Plus I got the motherfucking Flesh Eating AIDS!

Can't forget Becky Breeze, the Matriarch of Bend Realty Agents. This woman made her first million through 25 years of hard work, persistence, and persevering through the toughest market in the USA. Then she proceeded to lose it all in 18 months due to RE greed-fueled Kool-Aid overdose, administered by her pimp, Umpqua Bank.

We've watch Desert Skeeze crash through the $100/sf barrier. We saw COBA & Costa ethics vanish like a ghosts fart. We'll soon see many more fall, including our proud City itself, which will soon go broke. We can only hope every fucking City Councilor in Bend is ass-fucked by Gayniggers from Outer Space. In jail.
Where Randy Sebastian? I'm gonna tear that White Shit Up!

And not to mention the THOUSANDS of KICK ASS COMMENTS. All culminating in a hell of a onslaught, the likes of which I certainly have not seen anywhere before.
Holy Shit! We hit The K-Burger...

So we've had Good Times. But there have also been some Bad Times. The Audia - McDonald, et al suicides come to mind. Despite what others think about me -- that I'm a blood-thirsty dingo that would love nothing more than to rush into a neo-natal unit & tear the throats of 20 dying babies -- I am actually bothered when Bad Things Happen To People.

And killing yourself is an indication that people are getting a little too Involved in this thing. Yes, it's an RE bubble, and there'll be some Winners & Losers... but KILLING YOURSELF? I mean, come on. Don't fucking kill yourself over this thing. That's just fucking crazy.

Shit there was even THE OUTTING of IHateToBasteYourButterball! AHHH! I've been OUTTED! OH NOOOOO!

OK, joking aside, it's still sort of weird, cuz someone was hoping some BODILY HARM would just happen to befall yours truly. THAT is how serious these local loons are about their RE. They are willing to KILL or DIE for their cause.

I mean, DUNC (yes DUNC) -- a guy I forwarded as MAYOR -- started spewing like a Playa Hate Uh to ME!

Duncan McGeary said...

Yeah, but I'm not thinking it's funny.

There are some pretty sick minds here.

I'm with HBM.

"...the troll stink in here is overpowering. Hasta manana, maybe."

WHAT! He's talking MEXICAN! Oh no! What the hell's he saying? OH SHIT!

And I am starting to read general economic pieces that exceed mine in their dire prognostications:

Bailouts Will Push US into Depression

"We expect a depression in the United States. We expect a depression, very possibly, also in Europe," Hennecke said on "Worldwide Exchange."

Admittedly, this is a fucking dumbass frog, and the sort of Depression France should go through is one caused by a volley of fucking THERMONUCLEAR WARHEADS that we rain down on their ass. Fuckers. I WILL NOT forget Libya.

Anyway, it's been a pretty weird couple of years. The RE Bust when from a DENIERS sort of phenomenon to Story One on the National News every night, as well as the Number 1 political hot potato. For the love of Christ, The Bulletin & KTVZ are actually running negative piece once in awhile. That's a fucking miracle.

Cascade Business News is not. And I do not expect them to. Ever.
Pamla The Incredible Hulce Andrews: Super Retard to The Rescue!

But I think I've said my piece. It's time for someone else to have a go. Besides, as I've said before, I sort of "positioned" myself Delta Negative on this Housing Bust. So I started out this thing with not a lot of work & a whole lot'a bloggin'. But the tables have turned, and I am working more hours than I ever have in my life. And sometimes I hit the keyboard at the Wii hours of a Sunday morning to bust out a post, cuz I'm working like a dog, even on weekends.

But fear not, I'm going to leave BB2 up, alive & kicking. My plan is to do a few more "Open Post" weeks, where I just have a token post entry to break up the comments into more manageable sizes. Thousand fucking comments is a lot to sort through. But pretty soon BB2 will go the way of the doo-doo. Yes Timmy, I said DOO-DOO.

My hope is that someone starts BB3, or the like. It's still a hell of a popular topic. Fuck.... 1,000 comments in a week in a little po-dunk town like Bend, on a topic as narrow as the RE bubble? That shit is begging for an outlet. And the failure of Big Bend Media, despite their acknowledging it, is still grossly inadequate.

I took over this thing from BEM, wayyyyy back in late 2006, back when BEM wrote these word on Dec 17, 2006:

A transitional period

Soon enough this blog will be shut off. Not because I'm less interested in Bend's economy, but because the level of attention I was paying to it was unsustainable.

I guess the same goes for me. I don't want to start neglecting this crazy thing. I've had a hell of a time with it. Shit... I had no idea I could write so much. Or maybe Buster is right; I wrote the same fucking thing 200 different ways. I don't know.

I guess I had a great time responding to BEM & others at his blog. He would start a thread & there would be a hell of an exchange. Well, back in the Dark Ages of blogging in Bend circa 2006, BEM's blog would get 45 comments & we thought we were Kings of the World. It was awesome!

But I think I've taken a lot of what was in my head, we have thrashed the hell outta the topic, and then we moved on. But I think someone else needs to "start the threads" for awhile. At least I hope someone will.

And I guess I should put forth what are principles that worked for me: I started this blog with the idea that there would be ZERO INTERVENTION in the comments. I never deleted a single comment, EVER. I'm really not sure how I'm seeing some of those "Deleted by author" placeholders in the comments. I didn't think that was possible. Maybe you guys see something I don't. I don't even know how to delete my own comments.

Hmmmm, point is, there is another Skywalker... nope wait, there is another blog on roughly the same topic, but for some whacked reason, it's moderators feel the need to collect IP's, and ban people, and, well, basically MEDDLE. I hate that. And as we saw with THE BECKY BREEZE FIASCO, it never works. If you're going to start something, open 'er up. It's going to hurt, cuz folks are going to stick a White Hot Poker up your babies ass. OK, that's just part of the deal.

But if you don't open things up, you'll end up with dogshit. Not to point fingers, I'm just saying. Even encourage "flowery:" comments: I have personally used the terms "smelly fucking cunt", "who's got the trench cunt", and "your cunt smells like a hobo died taking a shit in an open-pit sewer" at least 100X on this blog so as to let the guard down of commenting women, children, and Buster, a well-known Super Cunt.

Think about it: What has been the cornerstone for this blog's "success"? My riveting posts? My Lord, no. No, it's because Buster, brucey, Tim, hbm, et al can actually carry on an open, honest debate without FILTERS. Without bullshit. That Buster calls all of us stinking cunt losers is just a bonus.

Just think. It's going to be real tempting to moderate comments FOR THEIR OWN GOOD. You're thinking it right now, Brucey. Lib reflex. Would you have liked it if I DID THAT? OK? Don't moderate. People will just go to BendBB.

Anyway, I also suppose I don't want to end up like one of those fuckers that hangs on too long and keeps going long past their prime. Like Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, or Rush Limbaugh. I can tell it's time for someone else to take over....

What a long strange trip it's been. And I have had a hell of a time. But it's time to hand the reigns to someone else.

Truckin got my chips cashed in. keep truckin, like the do-dah man
Together, more or less in line, just keep truckin on.

Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on main street.
Chicago, new york, detroit and its all on the same street.
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.

Dallas, got a soft machine; houston, too close to new orleans;
New yorks got the ways and means; but just wont let you be, oh no.

Most of the cast that you meet on the streets speak of true love,
Most of the time theyre sittin and cryin at home.
One of these days they know they better get goin
Out of the door and down on the streets all alone.

Truckin, like the do-dah man. once told me youve got to play your hand
Sometimes your cards aint worth a dime, if you dont layem down,

Sometimes the lights all shinin on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip its been.

What in the world ever became of sweet jane?
She lost her sparkle, you know she isnt the same
Livin on reds, vitamin c, and cocaine,
All a friend can say is aint it a shame?

Truckin, up to buffalo. been thinkin, you got to mellow slow
Takes time, you pick a place to go, and just keep truckin on.

Sittin and starin out of the hotel window.
Got a tip theyre gonna kick the door in again
Id like to get some sleep before I travel,
But if you got a warrant, I guess youre gonna come in.

Busted, down on bourbon street, set up, like a bowlin pin.
Knocked down, it gets to wearin thin. they just wont let you be, oh no.

Youre sick of hangin around and youd like to travel;
Get tired of travelin and you want to settle down.
I guess they cant revoke your soul for tryin,
Get out of the door and light out and look all around.

Sometimes the lights all shinin on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip its been.

Truckin, Im a goin home. whoa whoa baby, back where I belong,
Back home, sit down and patch my bones, and get back truckin on.
Hey now get back truckin home.

Rock on, my brothers.

Feel FREE to use the comments to organize, link & otherwise coordinate BendBubble3, or some such, to your hearts content!

395 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Don't do it. I hate BendBB, it has become a Jack Calibanger Elliot hangout. He asks dumbass questions and people actually respond in their civil manner. It makes me want to puke. It is a banger shack.
Don't hangup on us!

Anonymous said...

Yes, do it.

The next few weeks are an election to succeed the old owner.

This is good.

I vote NOPussys. ABPs (Anybody but the Pussys).
No hbms (ALL 5 of them, but especially that pompussy hb miller who is a washed up journalist.

Buster would be good.
Tim would be good.
Not sure on Quimby.
hank might make it.

And, of course, Anonymous.

Anonymous said...

Why Homer?

Is it the politics? Is it like BEM that its all been said?

Trouble is if we lose you, then we're stuck with the pussy's, which means it will be lib-apology 24/7.

Note, that dunc wants to sit on his ass, and lit OR-PUSSY-EO fix the USA. Ditto for Bend, its that way for ALL Americans, you can't just vote or push a button, too much reliance on the government in the first place.

On the far end of the continuum we have marge, butter, guns, ammo, off-the-grid; fine thats way out there, and you'll survive; but its not a civilization.

On the other end is dunc, stick you nose in a comic, and vote for OR-PUSSY-EO, and the 'container cargo' keeps flowing to the ISL-of-Bend.

hbm said...

I would like to declare my candidacy for the new blogmeister.

Vote for hbm.

Vote for change.

Vote for the most liberal pussy out there.

Anonymous said...

It might make sense to lay low and get past this lib-moron-storm until Nov 5, then all these lib's will have committed suicide.

Even if OR-PUSSY-EO does win, there will be no change, we're broke folks; there is no money. All the DEM's have ever done is re-distribute wealth, now there is none.

The Repug's outright steal the money, and transfer it to offshore accounts. The money is gone.

I concur the LIB's & KUNT's voted for DUMBYA two terms; the DEM's&REPUG's voted for DUMBYA 100%, as long as the RE boom was going; DUMBYA was king, nobody doubted DUMBYA until the RE-BUBBLE imploded.

Now everybody thinks OR-PUSSY-EO is going to bring back the RE-BUBBLE.

Nada its generational, its going to take a generation and amnesia to bring back +50% home ownership.

Anonymous said...

Anybody can start a blog.

I suggest that 'HBM' start a blog called.

BendPussy.blogspot.com

We already have BB3, and a dozen people have signed up to be blog-content submitters. BP is in there. I doubt this 'registered' hbm is the real HBM, HBM already has the SORE, and the SORE has its own blog. Let's NOT let HBM re-write bend history.

The SORE was responsible for the RE-BUBBLE, and BOB-WOODWARD ( HBM's buttplug ) was responsible for PR&MARKETING BEND. This is why HBM is investing in this shit, and wants to take over the blogs in Bend, its a perfect play.

Let's not forget that HBM & COSTA are siamese twins both owned by HOLLERN. For HOLLERN to have BULL(COSTA), and SORE(HBM); he would in effect be able to manage the historical viewpoint of Bend on the entire BendBubble.

It is essential that we don't let TEAM-HOLLERN take over the Bend-Blogs. There MUST be dissent in this shitting little dog-sit eating town.

HBM wants nothing more than status quo, that SORE still handles all the tourist events, and bob-woodward has articles in outside-mag every month about what a great place Bend is to hike,bike,eat, ...

Anonymous said...

What have we learned in past 2-3 weeks.

1.) Dunc is a shit eating idiot, and hypocrit. Who actually believes that OR-PUSSY-EO ( Obama ) will fix the US, and Bend.

2.) BP, the Pussy, BEWERT is NOT the friend of lib's 90% of the shit he posts are just troll shit to get the indy's to yell & scream at his stupid shit. His support for Obama, makes Obama look worse.

3.) HBM, DEM payroll? Like BP definitely DEM-PARTY BEND-CHAP player. What the fuck does he believe? Status quo? Remember he used to have Costa's job at the BULL, that BULL has always sucked DICK, that HBM was instrumental in making the BULL with 'CHANDLER' what it is-is. That COSTA largely was handed the BULL by HBM, and that COSTA largely runs the BULL, exactly like HBM. Then HBM comes over to the SORE, and manages it like left-wing version of the BULL.

Trouble was the BULL was always HBM, Chandler only cared about making money. HBM had his politics, and wine buddy's ( Bob Woodward ) who he helped make mayor.

Most of the people who profited from the BEND-BUBBLE were all HBM's wine&CHEEEEZ buddy's; This is all his club. He flows well with old mayors, BULL partys, SORE partys; all of Bend.

Then there is DUNC, selling comic books, and other stupid shit to bored tourists. Like a turtle comes out of his shell, every four years during election season.

Then there is the pussy, he's only been here a year, came here to run the town from MORMRON. Sometimes he's subtle, other times he's abstract, but he's always full of shit 24/7, unless he's reporting a city-council meeting verbatim.

Anonymous said...

The basic issue is that HOMER has worked his ass off for TWO YEARS. Posting every sunday.

Nobody else is going to do that.

Buster ain't going to do that, and neither is marge. TT ain't going to, and neither is quim, or lava, or hank, ...

Sure BP, or Dunc, or HBM(?) would love to post daily hell, both of them already post daily. Trouble is its always DUMB fucking shit, never hard hitting journalism?

You think that HBM is ever going to talk about BOSS-HOGG-HOLLERN?? NEVER HAS NEVER WILL, remember HOLLERN gave the BULL their land, and HBM was around for that. HBM is owned by the HOGG.

The PUSSY's here love the past 2-3 weeks, the bloggers all talking about OREO, and nothing else. That's how its going to be, except that once in awhile dunc is going to tell us he changed his underwear, and ordered some more comics.

HBM will tell us that Merkle went potty, and the Smith makes frozen food.

BP will tell us that the Obama is JFK.

Time to fucking PUKE.

BP already has a password to use BB3, he can post if he wishes.

Again I still say that HOMER take time off until after election season, and then come back to BB2, and post say every other week.

At least HOMER is neutral on the dumb pussy shit.

hbm said...

3.) HBM, DEM payroll? Like BP definitely DEM-PARTY BEND-CHAP player. What the fuck does he believe? Status quo? Remember he used to have Costa's job at the BULL, that BULL has always sucked DICK, that HBM was instrumental in making the BULL with 'CHANDLER' what it is-is. That COSTA largely was handed the BULL by HBM, and that COSTA largely runs the BULL, exactly like HBM. Then HBM comes over to the SORE, and manages it like left-wing version of the BULL.

Trouble was the BULL was always HBM, Chandler only cared about making money. HBM had his politics, and wine buddy's ( Bob Woodward ) who he helped make mayor.

Most of the people who profited from the BEND-BUBBLE were all HBM's wine&CHEEEEZ buddy's; This is all his club. He flows well with old mayors, BULL partys, SORE partys; all of Bend.



What a bunch of crock.

I don't have time to refute all your lies.

People know me and what I stand for.

Fucking Republican trolls.

I am out enjoying the great day today... see you later, maybe.

Anonymous said...

What a bunch of crock.

I don't have time to refute all your lies.

People know me and what I stand for.

*

PURE PUSSY RESPONSE.

Sure this isn't BP, 'Your full of shit, I don't have time to respond, bye'.


Think about this, these three pussys are our ONLY public dunc,bp,hbm; yet they're all the same, all owned by the same person. Note that BP,dunc,HBM, never say bad shit about HOLLERN ever? Note that BP's blog has NEVER done a story on HOLLERN? Note that HBM's SORE has NEVER talked about the boss-hogg that runs Bend? Note that Dunc NEVER talks about HOLLERN?

There's a pattern here CUNTS.

HBM's friends are the very people who over marketed and over sold Bend. That caused the RE bubble.

LavaBear said...

Livin on reds, vitamin c, and cocaine,
All a friend can say is aint it a shame?


Ain't it a shame. Keep your powder dry Butter. Come back now and again and let us know you are still alive. Fuckin cunt.

Anonymous said...

Buster, you have a point on Wright and AIDS, but what the fuck do you expect Obama to say about it--in any sort of believable manner?

It's like Kucinich talking about a neocon conspiracy to bring down the Twin Towers and save the new owner a billion in asbestos abatement while creating a reason for a new war...

It would get ridiculed.

*

Pussy, OR-PUSSY-EO sat there for 20+ years and listened and never left. This US-CIA-AIDS stuff is from the 1960's.

DUNC, you say that all the 'evidence' is right-wing, yet WRIGHT has lectured and written about it for years. Are you saying that Wright is a RIGHT-WING nut case??

Google "litton bionetics' and see what Wright has been talking about for 20+ years.

The issue is, and perhaps DUNC is too stupid to know, that WRIGHT&FARRAKAHN went to Libya together to get the facts direct from Kadaffi.

You know that in the black world Farrakahn is conservative? Right dunc? Then why in the fuck are Wright&Farrakahn partners? and why was OR-PUSSY-EO in the team for 20+ years, OBAMA has said that WRIGHT is his #1 mentor, and all of the ideas for 'audacity of hope' came from Wright.

Dunc says ignore that which comes from the right! But everything that OBAMA says and does comes from the RIGHT.

tim said...

Obviously, BB3 is the answer. Butter was a fun read, but we can go on from here just by someone posting, at minimum, a "Here's this week." Could just be Marge posting a couple stats.

The politics is boring to me because I'm only interested in strategy and tactics and other people seem interested in other aspects. I can't wait until December.

tim said...

I think Buster is correct that Wright will end up being a key in the election. It'll happen in October, I think.

It'll be a close election and crap will come out from all sides all over the place.

Anonymous said...

Your premise is that the Democrats have moved far to the left of center, but that premise is demonstrably false. Look at any poll you choose and you'll see that the Democratic positions are more in line with mainstream American opinion on virtually every major issue -- the economy, health care, abortion, Iraq, energy policy, Social Security -- than the Republican positions. It's the Republicans, not the Democrats, who are way out of the mainstream on the issues.

So why, in spite of all that, and in spite of the disastrous record of Gee Dumbya, is Obama currently trailing McCain in the polls? Because the Republicans are consummate masters of "identity politics," which means making elections about symbols and personalities -- "Which guy is like me? Who would I like to have a beer with?" -- instead of issues.

Paul Krugman the other day wrote about how good Republicans are at harnessing resentment -- resentment of working-class voters against people who are better educated, more sophisticated and make more money than they do. Republicans play off voters' suspicion that such people look down on working folks. The theme is that if you have a college degree (or, even worse, a post-graduate degree) and don't drive a pickup, watch NASCAR and drink Bud or Coors instead of pinot noir you're an "eilitist" and not a "real American."

One irony here is that working Americans don't resent the REALLY rich because they almost never come in contact with them and don't understand what REAL elitism looks like. The world of the McCains and Bushes (and, for that matter, the Kennedys and Kerrys) is so far removed from the world of working people that it might as well be on another planet. Instead, working-class resentment is targeted at the upper-middle or lower-upper class -- professional folks with college degrees and six-figure family incomes -- because this is the stratum of society that the working class rubs up against.

Anonymous said...

That COSTA largely was handed the BULL by HBM, and that COSTA largely runs the BULL, exactly like HBM. Then HBM comes over to the SORE, and manages it like left-wing version of the BULL.

This is full of so many different kinds of shit I hardly know where to begin.

Okay, first off: I didn't "run" the Bull. I was only the managing editor. Greg Cushman ran the business side as publisher and Bob Chandler had overall control as editor and chairman of the board of WesCom.

Second: I didn't "hand over" The Bull to Costa. I left The Bull in 1992, while Chandler was still alive. A guy named Steve Bagwell was hired as my replacement as managing editor. Then when Chandler died his daughter Betsy became chairman of the board, Greg Cushman quit, Gordon Black became publisher, fired Bagwell and brought in his little toady John Costa from Boise to replace him.

Third: The Sore had been in existence for several years when I came on board as a freelance columnist and later news editor. Aarn Switzer ran it then and still does. I stopped being news editor several years ago and my relationship with the paper now is very limited. I definitely don't "manage" the paper in any way.

And I think I'm going to get out of here for a while because it's a beautiful day and there are too many anonymous hate-filled wackos hanging around here. Hasta la vista.

Bewert said...

WSJ Weekend has an article about how the Repubs win because of their knowledge and usage of "culture". Dems think culture is art and music, while middle america thinks its religion, family, etc.

But I'm from the midwest, my sister (the one who sent me th link to the McCain war video) still lives there, and they've got a personally signed Matt Kenseth hood from one of his wrecked cars on their living room wall. The whole house are NASCAR nuts, cheap beer, funny smelling smoke, lower middle class americans.

And they hate McCain/Palin. They especially hate the lies.

Even my conservative to the core, loved Nixon and Reagan, Dad. He just shakes his head when today's republicans come up.

Too much BS. They are all just sick and tired of it. I went back for a long weekend in August for a wedding, and that was the prevailing sentiment.

And McCain/Palin are just keeping on the Lying Game.

It'll get interesting when the real shit comes out in the last two or three weeks.

tim said...

Obama should be able to win this one if the KOS guys are relatively quiet. McCain's age is a problem. His best time was 8 years ago.

Even if Obama wins this, though, that doesn't necessarily translate into a strong connection between Americans and Democrats. A lot depends on how his term goes.

I think Pelosi is damaged goods by now, if Obama gets in, it'd probably be good to move someone else into the speaker role.

Anonymous said...

Adios Paul-Doh. I have enjoyed your stuff since BEM had his blog. I guess the debate is over about Bend real estate. Thanks for the laughs and good info you posted. I wonder what happened to life is good? That jack ass was as wrong as wrong could be about Bend real estate. Oh well, good luck to you... I'm going Elk hunting. Time to put some meat in the freezer.

tim said...

Finally got around to reading your long-ass post. Brought a tear to my eye. Maybe you really were butter after all.

tim said...

Latest thing I've been hearing from acquaintances:

Bad fallout happening to people whole moved up from one neighborhood to another and decided to keep the older house and rent it out. These are the kind of people who normally wouldn't do this, but who couldn't bear to part with the previous house at the top of the bubble.

Results: One is stuck in Bend in a shitty job because of this. Another is moving back into the old cheaper neighborhood (I'm assuming a default on the new house.) Another is losing money drip drip drip in the old house because the rent isn't near the mortgage.

Funny how you hear these things in clumps. That must be the macroeconomic effects coming down hard on people who all made similar moves at similar times.

Anonymous said...

"Finally got around to reading your long-ass post."

Heh. That is truly funny. I stopped reading that part of this blog months ago.


"Brought a tear to my eye. Maybe you really were butter after all."

Well, that speaks volumes. Of who you are. Sad, but not too sad to be pathetic. Pathos... what is that definition again?


Okay, back to the question of the day:

Q: Who to replace Butter?
A: Butter is a one of a kind. Irreplaceable.

Okay. Let me take a different tack.

Q: Who will step up to do a weekly (weakly?) post, to start a new comments thread?

A: Who indeed...

Okay, speaking as hank, I know he would not want to step up to replacing the irreplaceable Butter. But he might be willing to step up to putting out a weekly broadside against all the:
1) Pussys (who are idiots and need a weekly thrashing)
2) Liberals (who are also idiots and need a weekly thrashing, at least until Nov)
3) Conservatives (who are also idiots and need a weekly thrashing at least until Nov)
4) The establishment municipal political structure within Bend and also the greater Deschutes County (who are idiots and need a weekly thrashing)
5) Mt Bachelor mgmt, employees, and even volunteers (who are sometimes partial idiots and need a weekly thrashing)
6) Other topics as needed

I would not write long winded tear jerkers for Tim to cry about, but would limit myself to a weekly paragraph for your consumption, and to start a new comment thread. For the record, I am neither Rep nor Dem, and I am a native Oregonian. No Cali-banger here.

Anonymous said...

Hank,
# 7 Would be "The cali-banger that hover here that need their dailey thrashing.

tim said...

Hank,

BB3 is set up with a bunch of people as moderators already. All it would take would be one of them to notice on Sunday that a new thread needs to be launched.

A pretty low-maintenance solution, per person.

Anonymous said...

Every person in the group, including the PUSSY himself already has a BB3 password to post blogs, including our marge.

What is it about this sunday thing? I mean everyday is too much, and perhaps once a week is too much, it really comes down to when something important has come to Bend.

Like HOMEE always says, its the comments that count.

Lastly, HOMEE don't fucking delete your blog, I agree you should let it idle for a few months, but don't delete it, it should be save for prosperity. Hell even if you were worried about dim lawyers, they have already made a copy, as google backs this shit up forever, thus its us little people that need to have BB2 for reference.

Anonymous said...

Hank,

All good topics and 100% correct. Send email to bilbobend@gmail.com if you wish to get post privileges for BB3.

***

1) Pussys (who are idiots and need a weekly thrashing)
2) Liberals (who are also idiots and need a weekly thrashing, at least until Nov)
3) Conservatives (who are also idiots and need a weekly thrashing at least until Nov)
4) The establishment municipal political structure within Bend and also the greater Deschutes County (who are idiots and need a weekly thrashing)
5) Mt Bachelor mgmt, employees, and even volunteers (who are sometimes partial idiots and need a weekly thrashing)
6) Other topics as needed

Bewert said...

8) The BULL (especially) and SORE until they tell us the truth.

tim said...

Re Lehman:

"Feds Balk at putting up taxpayer money."

Wow. Has that sentence ever been uttered before?

Anonymous said...

8) The BULL (especially) and SORE until they tell us the truth.

*

PUSSY YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH.

Bewert said...

The city has scaled the detail way back on the budget this month. Not a good sign.

Bewert said...

Re:
PUSSY YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH.

Truth I like. LOUDLY YELLING BS IS SIMPLY IGNORED.

tim said...

Almost everything going to hell in Bend. Nonprofits and arts are getting creamed.

Anonymous said...

I think Buster is correct that Wright will end up being a key in the election. It'll happen in October, I think.
-TT

*

I think you miss my point, I think WRIGHT is the ONLY ONE IN THE USA telling truth. BP says he wants to hear the truth.

Dunc, tells us NOT to read shit written by Pug's, I had a long hike today around Broken-Top, and thinking about Dunc, and this premise. Hell most of his comics are Frank Miller, think Batman, and lots of other shit this guy is right wing nut. Thus given that duncs shop is full of right-wing comics what does that say?

Not much IMHO as I don't care what author is about.

TT thinks that Wright is an issue, I like WRITH cuz he's the ONLY person in the USA telling truth. Dunc says all the Wright stuff is coming from the RIGHT, well perhaps so, if you consider that almost all the stuff posted came from BLACK-MEN.

Pussy's seem to have forgotten that Nation of Islam ( NOI ) Louis Farrakhan have more in common with OUR RIGHT ( LIMBAUGH ) than they do with the LEFT. The fact that Farrakhan & WRIGHT are best bud's is very interesting, this is why WRIGHT had the fastest growing church, cuz they told the truth.

Whats MOST interesting is that its the USA LEFT, like HBM that covers up the WRIGHT assertions of MASS black genocide carried on by USA Inc.

It's an interesting season.

I concur TT, I don't give a fuck who says what, I only care about ideas.

Anonymous said...

Re:
PUSSY YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH.

Truth I like. LOUDLY YELLING BS IS SIMPLY IGNORED.

*

So typical PUSSY, that all cap's are yelling, only a fucking pussy, could think up this shit.

OK pussy, what part of WRIGHT is NOT the truth??

I still like you pussy, cuz at least you haven't came out and told us that we can't read the 'RIGHT'. I like to read both sides. Dunc has told us we can't read the 'right', and HBM has told us we can't read anything but the SORE.

At least the PUSSY seems to have an open mind.

Anonymous said...

Don't do it. I hate BendBB, it has become a Jack Calibanger Elliot hangout.

*

It's up to you marge, to post on bendindenial.blogspot.com, and get us all hot & heavy.

Anonymous said...

Wright is cool. I'm always commenting HL-Mencken here. He often said if we was a millionaire, he would indoctrinate the black-man with Islam, and create a hornets nest of USA, and then sit back and watch what happens. He said that in the 1930's.

If you get off your fucking ass, you'll notice that Farrakhan & Wright are siamese twins. Sort of like NOI ( nation of Islam ) embracing the baby-jeebus with is 'black-liberation'. The OR-BOMB-EO sat through this shit, and was mentored for 20+ years in this shit.

WRIGHT 100% brought OR-BOMB-EO to power. This week Wright was de-frocked by a 37 yr old white bitch, that's looks just like Palin. FYI, in the spring WRight was sent to Texas, then a white women comes out this week who says she fucked 67 yr old Wright. This is a total setup, to take Wright out of the Preacher biz.

There's going to be a lot of pissed off nigger's to quote 'HL Mencken'.

Anonymous said...

Bring it ON PUSSY. What part of WRIGHT is NOT the truth?????

Shall we dump it all again??

Anonymous said...

See its not left vs right, or top vs bottom, or rich vs poor. It's corruption.

In Bend you have the fucking status-quo, that wants more of the fucking same.

The status quo of Bend are fucking National Socialists ( NAZI's ), they call themselves LEFT, but left of what?

Right of What??

Dunc ( Ned Flanders ) is a shit eater, he has proved that the last two weeks.

BP, he doesn't want to use the brain god gave him, and he doesn't have to thanks to his man-wife. HBM will suck COSTA's dick until the day he dies.

All of our Bend 'public' bloggers are status-quo apologists for TEAM-HOLLERN. NAZI apologists.

Anonymous said...

The city has scaled the detail way back on the budget this month. Not a good sign.

*

Not a good sign? No budget for butt-plugs?

Perhaps they're finally realizing there is NO money to spend.

Anonymous said...

TT,

Let's go back to Camille Paglia, you wrote about last week, and we published all five pages of her stuff.

What did they say? SHE said that the LEFT was incapable of MILITARY thought, and that was there downfall.

This is what's interesting, if you go back to ALL of WRIGHTS stuff on USA-CIA-AIDS involvement you'll see that its a 100% US military project, yet the LEFT can't see it, cuz they don't understand the military. Selective BIO weapons was all the rage post 1950's, this is what 'litton bionetics' did. Yet the left ignores the military thinking.

What part of WRIGHT does TT think will cause problems for OR-BOMB-EO?? To me the essence of the issue is OR-OBOMB-EO came to power with the assistance of WRIGHT & FARAKAHN, and if that were really public, that in itself would end his career.

To me what is interesting is that What WRIGHT talks about, USA genocide for 50 years, is real fucking factual shit. This is why WRIGHTS church was #1, this is why OR-BOMB-EO joined in the first place, cuz WRIGHT was telling the truth.

See the pussy's in BEND like HBM,DUNC,BP; they can't handle the truth its 'cognitive dissonance' it disrupts all they believe.

HBM&DUNC are the worst kind of NAZI's in BEND, because they really believe if they HO for HOLLERN their life will be better. BP don't have a fucking clue, he thinks that the DEM party is another man-wife.

Lastly, HOMER says its tough to mention that LIB's will take their own lives if OR-BOMB-EO is not elected, this is simple a fact. Take it or leave.

We really have a name problem here, cuz to me DUNC&HBM aren't lib's, they're NAZI's.

HITLER was a National Socialist and talked hippy-left shit, and the swastika meant 'rest in peace' in chinese, ... happy post 1920's hippy flapper shit.

Camille Paglia says the reason that the 'LEFT' always fails is that they refuse to study military history, DUNC tells us NOT to even read stuff written by the RIGHT. Buster tells you to read everything LEFT & RIGHT.

MARGE is CORRECT, keep some bullets, canned food, and water around for the coming years, and go out and learn to shoot.

Anonymous said...

8) The BULL (especially) and SORE until they tell us the truth.

*

Cold day in HELL. Leave it to the PUSSY to tell us to wait until the BULL&SORE tell the truth.

Truth about what? How many penny's in a dollar? How many Houses in Bend for sale?

The BULL&SORE only write about 911 conspiracy and perpetual motion machines. Is this truth that BP had in mind?

BULL&SORE dont' do truth, never will, never have.

Anonymous said...

So tell us HOMER did they get to you? I mean given that they outed you 2-4 weeks ago, did they finally talk to your employer?

Did CSD visit your kids at school?

It's obvious to me that HOMER shutdown and quick.

Keep it anonymous, and keep it safe.

Bewert said...

Re: I think you miss my point, I think WRIGHT is the ONLY ONE IN THE USA telling truth. BP says he wants to hear the truth.

Buster, I think it is the truth. IIRC Retroviral diseases didn't exist before AIDs, they never came out of the evolution of viruses.

But for Obama to start talking about it before Nov. 4 is electoral suicide. He would be portrayed as a wacko, just like Rev. Wright.

Afterwards, who knows. Maybe he will talk about it. Maybe he will talk about the actions of the Israeli settlers, who just went on a rampage that Olmert referred to as a program. Things that are not allowable in reasonable discussion in the US media.

To me AIDs looks like something we may very well have made up that is now becoming yet another way for drug companies to cash in. But it is currently not an acceptable topic of discussion in the major media. So how can you discuss it without looking like, and being referred to as, having a screw loose.

End of subject.

Bewert said...

Anybody that can record the CC work session tomorrow off Bend Broadband, I would be eternally grateful. We are going on an anniversary trip Mon-Wed and there is a whole lot going on about Cooley/97 at the CC meeting at 5 PM Monday.

Anonymous said...

For the record, I am neither Rep nor Dem, and I am a native Oregonian. No Cali-banger here.

*

Neither Pug or Dem. Neither LIB no CON?

Too many words here. Liberal mean liberty. The HBM/DUNC are'nt about liberty, they're about fascism with a friendly 'LEFT face'.

Apologists for the status quo. DUNC & HBM both think they're 'made' men here in Bend. They publicly protect that status-quo from 'bloggers'.
They publicly protect OR-BOMB-EO from bloggers. What great men these are!!

Liberal means liberty, BP, DUNC, & HBM aren't LEFT or LIBERAL. Their false fronts for TEAM-HOLLERN, NAZI's.

You got a little town called Bend, two papers that are the same, both owned by HOLLERN.

DUNC seems to think if he protects the status quo, he'll slide by the bad times. BP thinks he'll be elected to office. HBM thinks he'll continue to be invited to WHINE & CHEEEZ partys.

Anonymous said...

Buster, I think it is the truth. IIRC Retroviral diseases didn't exist before AIDs, they never came out of the evolution of viruses.

*

Nobody said that shit BP, typical changing the subject.

Back in the 50's 'litton bionetics' put human leukemia into pigs, then they transferred that into chimpanzees in the 60's in Zaire, then it was transferred to humans.

It was meant for the middle-east, but Africans were the test case, and hopped over to Haiti. It failed in the middle east because they're not promiscuous.

What we call 'Aids' today, didn't exist in TERMINOLOGY until the 1980's, but the sexually transmitted variations of leukemia were developed by bio-warfare back in the 1950's.

Anonymous said...

Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male[1] also known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Pelkola Syphilis Study, Public Health Service Syphilis Study or the Tuskegee Experiments was a clinical study, conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, in which 399 (plus 201 control group without syphilis) poor — and mostly illiterate — African American sharecroppers were used as subjects to observe the natural progression of syphilis without medicine.
This study became very notorious because it was conducted without due care to its subjects, and led to major changes in how patients are protected in clinical studies. Individuals enrolled in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study did not give informed consent and were not informed of their diagnosis; instead they were told they had "bad blood" and could receive free medical treatment, rides to the clinic, meals and burial insurance in case of death in return for participating.[2]
In 1932, when the study started, standard treatments for syphilis were toxic, dangerous, and of questionable effectiveness. Part of the original goal of the study was to determine if patients were better off not being treated with these toxic remedies.
By 1947 penicillin had become the standard treatment for syphilis. Prior to this discovery, syphilis frequently led to a chronic, painful and fatal multisystem disease. Rather than treat all syphilitic subjects with penicillin and close the study, or split off a control group for testing penicillin; the Tuskegee scientists withheld penicillin and information about penicillin, purely to continue to study how the disease spreads and kills. Participants were also prevented from accessing syphilis treatment programs that were available to other people in the area. The study continued until 1972, when a leak to the press resulted in its termination.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, cited as "arguably the most infamous biomedical research study in U.S. history",[3] led to the 1979 Belmont Report, the establishment of the National Human Investigation Board, and the requirement for establishment of Institutional Review Boards.

Anonymous said...

Obama Questioned On Rev. Wright’s AIDS Sermon
Sunday, March 16th, 2008

Obama Questioned on Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s AIDS Sermon - Denies Evidence of Genocidal Conspiracy to Save Candidacy

Sandpoint, ID — Barack Obama critics are questioning the candidate’s sudden estrangement from his long-term minister and confidant, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who preached HIV/AIDS is a genocidal conspiracy administered by Anglo-American population controllers primarily targeting non-whites.

The transparency of this racial and political hypocrisy affords Americans a partial view into this closet of skeletons Washington wishes to ignore.

Speaking for the media’s mainstream, ABC News’ Senior National Correspondent, Jake Tapper, wrote (March 14, 2008), “Let’s just say it: some of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s theories and sermons have been, well, shall we say ‘out there.’ Like, for instance, the notion that the U.S. government started the AIDS virus.” (1)

Obama, quickly closing the closet door between him offered, “I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy,” (2)

Right wing opportunist John Hinderaker balked as though the candidate exchanged a pink elephant for an AIDS skeleton. “If a reader had to rely on Obama’s post,” Hinderaker wrote, “he would have no idea what statements” are at issue.

Hinderaker, with Claremont Institute’s conservative policy think tank continued, “What I’d really like to know more about, though, is Wright’s position on the AIDS virus. He writes that ‘We started AIDS;’ what is that supposed to mean?”

Answering his own rhetorical question, Hinderaker claimed, “Factually, it’s incorrect. I believe that AIDS originated in Africa.”

When has believing anything evidenced a fact? Western civilization once believed the world was flat!

But the show must go on.

Hinderaker-the-magician’s slight-of-hand came next so both Obama’s elephant and Washington’s skeleton suddenly disappeared: “It’s possible that the claim that ‘We started AIDS’ is intended as an indictment of the San Francisco bath house culture that did so much to spread the disease,” he wrote, “but I’ve seen no indication that this is what Wright has in mind.”

Stay focused on his hand. “In any event, San Francisco didn’t ‘start’ the virus. I don’t know how to interpret this claim that ‘we’ started the disease as anything other than an endorsement of the fable that the CIA invented AIDS in a laboratory so as to kill off African-Americans.”

“The AIDS virus originated in African chimpanzees,” admits Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz, author of the definitive tomb on this subject, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola—Nature, Accident or Intentional? (Tetrahedron Press, 1998). “Zero candidates have the decency and integrity to discuss how American researchers working under National Cancer Institute contracts, abused chimpanzees from Africa, gay men from Greenwich Village, and Central Africans in Zaire and Uganda between 1972 and 1974. This first hepatitis B vaccine study clearly triggered the global pandemic according to the consensus of irrefutable evidence published in esteemed scientific journals.”

For nearly a decade Dr. Horowitz’s website http://www.originofAIDS.com has freely provided details and documents of these experiments, including his scientific publication in the respected journal of Medical Hypothesis—a peer reviewed periodical based in Britain. “I needed to go out of the United States to publish this scientific evidence,” he laments. “This alone evidences a conspiracy of silence.”

Not only does he argue American agencies, working with pharmaceutical companies, created vaccines tainted with HIV, but they have been suppressing potential cures including oxygenation therapies, chemotherapies using tetrasilver tetroxide (Tetrasil), and the new silver-oxygen hydrosol called OXYSILVER that became Google’s most popular website last week for people searching for natural alternatives to intoxicating vaccines following the government’s admission that inoculations can cause autism. http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2008/03/11.html

Classified government documents, and other incriminating evidence secreted for (allegedly) “national security” reasons by the National Cancer Institute were unearthed by the Harvard-trained public health expert during his three-year independent investigation of this conspiracy theory. Besides combing scientific journals, Dr. Horowitz also interviewed eyewitnesses from Bethesda and Uganda each evidencing related parts of a U.S. government military biological weapons program that develop “synthetic biological agents”—laboratory prepared viruses—identical to HIV by description and function, for the earliest experimental hepatitis B vaccine trials.

More recently, Horowitz produced a feature length documentary showing freely, in its entirety, on Google called In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism. Released by Tetrahedron Films, the company’s website, http://www.inlieswetrust.com, shares files containing many incriminating documents that Washington insiders prefer to neglect.

“Mental midgets and yellow-press journalists like ABC’s Jake Tapper and National Review author Hinderaker ignore the fact that vaccines prepared in African chimpanzees were given to gay men in New York and Central Africans simultaneously between 1972 and 1974 according scientific publications,” Dr. Horowitz said. “That is a scientific fact, political dynamite, vaccine industry nightmare.”

This American origin of AIDS theory was investigated, and rebuked, by the Congress’ investigating arm, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) earlier this decade. Dr. Horowitz was among a handful of experts interviewed by GAO officials during their inquiry into the possibility that HIV, or its precursor, was constructed by biological weapons contractors during a “Special Virus Cancer Program” beginning in the 1960s. Their report entirely neglected Dr. Horowitz’s recorded statements.

Two weeks ago the international AIDS Community, hosted by the UNAIDS Secretariat to the UN Theme Group on AIDS considered censoring Dr. Horowitz’s works, his websites, along with a half dozen of his colleagues’ publications alleging lacking scientific support for their AIDS-origin claims.

In response, Dr. Horowitz sent them a copy of his Medical Hypothesis journal article and wrote, “For all we know, . . . the hepatitis B vaccine produced initially in chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys between 1970 and 1974, not the polio vaccine of the 1950s and later, MIGHT STILL BE FUELING THE AIDS PANDEMIC! Only a grossly-malfeasant blindly-biased sociopath would neglect this probability.”

Barack Obama is not the only one running for president that fulfills this criteria.

Anonymous said...

By 1947 penicillin had become the standard treatment for syphilis. Prior to this discovery, syphilis frequently led to a chronic, painful and fatal multisystem disease. Rather than treat all syphilitic subjects with penicillin and close the study, or split off a control group for testing penicillin; the Tuskegee scientists withheld penicillin and information about penicillin, purely to continue to study how the disease spreads and kills. Participants were also prevented from accessing syphilis treatment programs that were available to other people in the area. The study continued until 1972, when a leak to the press resulted in its termination.

Anonymous said...

Wright married Barack and his wife Michelle. He baptizes Barack’s two daughters and has been Obama’s pastor for more than twenty years. He is even credited in Barack’s book, The Audacity of Hope, and the title actually came from one of Wright’s sermons.

I have tried to gather and compile some of the more inflammatory remarks from Wright below. If I have missed any of his most outrageous rants then please feel free to drop a comment with it below.

All Quotes Attributed to Pastor Jeremiah Wright

“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.”

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” (Sep 2001)

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (2003)

“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01. White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.” (magazine article)

“Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!…We [in the U.S.] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.” (sermon)

“Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary would never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”

“Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain’t! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty.” (sermon)

“The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for over 40 years now. Divestment has now hit the table again as a strategy to wake the business community and wake up Americans concerning the injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism.”

Anonymous said...

BP, I say that WRIGHT is 100% correct, so you name below where he wrong?? Lastly, note all of this is 100% Nation of Islam rhetoric!!!!

*

All Quotes Attributed to Pastor Jeremiah Wright

“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.”

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” (Sep 2001)

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (2003)

“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01. White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.” (magazine article)

“Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!…We [in the U.S.] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.” (sermon)

“Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary would never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”

“Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain’t! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty.” (sermon)

“The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for over 40 years now. Divestment has now hit the table again as a strategy to wake the business community and wake up Americans concerning the injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism.”

Anonymous said...

To me AIDs looks like something we may very well have made up that is now becoming yet another way for drug companies to cash in. But it is currently not an acceptable topic of discussion in the major media. So how can you discuss it without looking like, and being referred to as, having a screw loose.

*

From the man that SOLD the city of BEND CAPSTONE perpetual energy butt-plugs!! Loose screw my ass.

Since when did the BP-PUSSY ever care that somebody might think he was an idiot??

Anonymous said...

Tuskegee is a class example of the US Aids involvement.

For 25 years after it was CLEAR that penicillin could treat syphilis the US government continued to inject it into blackmen until 1972. They would have continued forever, had it not been made public.

The US IMHO has a cure for AIDS, but has no reason to release the cure, as currently 50% of black-men in Africa are HIV positive. In a generation there will be NO BLACK MEN in Africa. Everything is going according to plan.

Anonymous said...

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (2003)

*

Where is WRIGHT NOT telling the truth pussy?

Anonymous said...

“Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!…We [in the U.S.] believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.” (sermon)

*

BP, where is WRIGHT not telling the truth?? Racism is BIGGER than HOMERS baby-jeebus.

Anonymous said...

SUNDAY NIGHT STOCK FUTURES PLUMMETING ON NEWS ... NO BUYER FOR LEHMAN

BofA & MERRILL JOIN

Paulson says no more taxpayer money except for Goldman-Sachs

*

Stocks Set to Plunge amid Wall Street Turmoil
After an astonishing weekend featuring a failed attempt to rescue Lehman Brothers, and BofA's deal to acquire Merrill, stock futures were sharply lower Sunday night

Call it "Twilight of the Gods," Wall Street style.

Amid the year-plus credit crunch that has gripped global financial markets, investors have almost gotten used to dramatic weekend developments: The March rescue of crippled investment firm Bear Stearns, engineered by the Federal Reserve; and the bailout just one week ago of mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). But the drama enveloping a number of Wall Street giants on Sunday was positively Wagnerian in scope, and left global markets poised for a treacherous Monday.

First, market players had to weigh the latest news surrounding efforts to rescue troubled investment firm Lehman Brothers, which appear to have reached a dead end as of Sunday night with Barclays (BCS) stepping away from a potential deal to buy the firm. Then there was the news Sunday that financial giant Bank of America (BAC) was set to corral Wall Street's signature bull: venerable investment firm Merrill Lunch & Co. (MER).

But wait, there's more.

Tottering insurance giant American International Group (AIG), which like Lehman and Merrill has also seen its shares plummet in recent weeks, was expected to announce a dramatic restructuring on Monday, after a warning by Standard & Poor's Friday that it might downgrade the firm's debt. And with expectations of difficult trading conditions in credit markets Monday, the Federal Reserve announce temporary changes to its collateral requirements to ease lending to financial institutions Monday.

And that didn't even take into account the possible impact on energy markets by the weekend landfall of Hurricane Ike on the Texas/Louisiana coast.

Add it all up, and it looked like a tumultuous Monday for global financial markets. As of Sunday night, Dow Jones industrial futures were down 262 points, with gold up almost $22 at $782.90 an ounce, according to Action Economics.

Asia's major markets -- Japan and Honk Kong -- typically the first responders to major weekend financial developments -- were closed for a holiday Sept. 15.

"Failure to find a buyer for Lehman has seen the U.S. dollar sold in Asia early Monday ... the absence of Hong Kong and Tokyo has added to liquidity woes," reports Action Economics. Press reports that the Fed "will widen the securities used in collateral, to add market liquidity, including equities in an attempt to counter the concerns over the impact of a Lehman bankruptcy. This follows increased speculation that the Fed might have cut rates this week, adding pressure to the dollar."

There was a special derivatives trading session Sunday afternoon so that players could cut risk.

There were fevered, weekend-long attempts to reach a buyer for troubled investment firm Lehman Brothers, which ultimately appear to have failed as of late Sunday night. There were indications that the 158-year-old investment bank might be forced to seek bankruptcy protection and liquidate. The company's shares have plunged 95% in the past year over worries that it does not have enough money to cover losses from its massive real estate holdings.

An official of a major financial firm contacted by the Associated Press Sunday said the Treasury Dept. and the Fed were pushing Bank of America to buy Merrill Lynch. On Friday, Merrill's shares fell as investors fretted it might be the next investment bank to come under pressure from its portfolio of risky mortgage-backed securities. The Wall Street Journal reported that Merrill agreed late Sunday to sell itself to BofA for roughly $44 billion.

Anonymous said...

FED SUPPLIES LIQUIDITY, NOT CONFIDENCE



The Fed on Monday said it would begin accepting equities as collateral for emergency loans for the first time and would as it tried to ease the spiralling crisis.



The steps would likely help surviving financial institutions to find cash but may not do much to boost global confidence in the U.S. financial system.



"The mere fact that they are forced to do this and they may still yet do some more indicates the breadth and depth of the trouble that the system is in," said V. Anantha Nageswaran, head of investment research, Asia-Pacific with Bank Julius Baer in Singapore.



U.S. Treasury yields fell sharply in early Asian trade on Monday and Eurodollars surged as concerns about the stability of the U.S. financial system sparked talk of emergency liquidity measures by the Federal Reserve or even a cut in interest rates after it meets on Tuesday.



The yield on the policy-sensitive two-year Treasury note hit a five-month low of 1.96 percent. The 10-year yield was also at the lowest since April, at 3.57 percent compared with 3.72 percent late on Friday.



"It appears that Lehman will file for bankruptcy and the risk of an immediate tsunami is related to the unwind of derivative and swap-related positions worldwide in the dealer, hedge fund, and buyside universe," Bill Gross, the chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco), told Reuters. Pimco oversees more than $812 billion in assets.



Investors may have to adjust their views on the financial sector since the U.S. government refused to back a Lehman deal the way that it did with JPMorgan Chase's purchase of Bear Stearns six months ago. Events seemed to show the private sector will have to sort itself out.



Bank of America is in advanced talks to acquire Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, people briefed on the matter told Reuters.



"Presumably the most important reason to teach Wall Street this lesson is that they will change their behavior, and not take the decisions that are reliant on a public bailout," said Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist with RBS Greenwich in Greenwich, Connecticut. "For many, but not all, this is an impossible lesson to learn in the middle of the worst financial storm since the Great Depression," he said in a note.

Anonymous said...

Financial Russian Roulette


Article Tools Sponsored By
By Paul Krugman
Published: September 14, 2008

Will the U.S. financial system collapse today, or maybe over the next few days? I don’t think so — but I’m nowhere near certain. You see, Lehman Brothers, a major investment bank, is apparently about to go under. And nobody knows what will happen next.
Skip to next paragraph

To understand the problem, you need to know that the old world of banking, in which institutions housed in big marble buildings accepted deposits and lent the money out to long-term clients, has largely vanished, replaced by what is widely called the “shadow banking system.” Depository banks, the guys in the marble buildings, now play only a minor role in channeling funds from savers to borrowers; most of the business of finance is carried out through complex deals arranged by “nondepository” institutions, institutions like the late lamented Bear Stearns — and Lehman.

The new system was supposed to do a better job of spreading and reducing risk. But in the aftermath of the housing bust and the resulting mortgage crisis, it seems apparent that risk wasn’t so much reduced as hidden: all too many investors had no idea how exposed they were.

And as the unknown unknowns have turned into known unknowns, the system has been experiencing postmodern bank runs. These don’t look like the old-fashioned version: with few exceptions, we’re not talking about mobs of distraught depositors pounding on closed bank doors. Instead, we’re talking about frantic phone calls and mouse clicks, as financial players pull credit lines and try to unwind counterparty risk. But the economic effects — a freezing up of credit, a downward spiral in asset values — are the same as those of the great bank runs of the 1930s.

And here’s the thing: The defenses set up to prevent a return of those bank runs, mainly deposit insurance and access to credit lines with the Federal Reserve, only protect the guys in the marble buildings, who aren’t at the heart of the current crisis. That creates the real possibility that 2008 could be 1931 revisited.

Now, policy makers are aware of the risks — before he was given responsibility for saving the world, Ben Bernanke was one of our leading experts on the economics of the Great Depression. So over the past year the Fed and the Treasury have orchestrated a series of ad hoc rescue plans. Special credit lines with unpronounceable acronyms were made available to nondepository institutions. The Fed and the Treasury brokered a deal that protected Bear’s counterparties — those on the other side of its deals — though not its stockholders. And just last week the Treasury seized control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant government-sponsored mortgage lenders.

But the consequences of those rescues are making officials nervous. For one thing, they’re taking big risks with taxpayer money. For example, today much of the Fed’s portfolio is tied up in loans backed by dubious collateral. Also, officials are worried that their rescue efforts will encourage even more risky behavior in the future. After all, it’s starting to look as if the rule is heads you win, tails the taxpayers lose.

Which brings us to Lehman, which has suffered large real-estate-related losses, and faces a crisis of confidence. Like many financial institutions, Lehman has a huge balance sheet — it owes vast sums, and is owed vast sums in return. Trying to liquidate that balance sheet quickly could lead to panic across the financial system. That’s why government officials and private bankers have spent the weekend huddled at the New York Fed, trying to put together a deal that would save Lehman, or at least let it fail more slowly.

But Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, was adamant that he wouldn’t sweeten the deal by putting more public funds on the line. Many people thought he was bluffing. I was all ready to start today’s column, “When life hands you Lehman, make Lehman aid.” But there was no aid, and apparently no deal. Mr. Paulson seems to be betting that the financial system — bolstered, it must be said, by those special credit lines — can handle the shock of a Lehman failure. We’ll find out soon whether he was brave or foolish.

The real answer to the current problem would, of course, have been to take preventive action before we reached this point. Even leaving aside the obvious need to regulate the shadow banking system — if institutions need to be rescued like banks, they should be regulated like banks — why were we so unprepared for this latest shock? When Bear went under, many people talked about the need for a mechanism for “orderly liquidation” of failing investment banks. Well, that was six months ago. Where’s the mechanism?

And so here we are, with Mr. Paulson apparently feeling that playing Russian roulette with the U.S. financial system was his best option. Yikes.

Bewert said...

Buster, I agree with most everything he says. Add CIA-trained torturers around the world to the list.

I wasn't trying to change the subject when I commented on retroviruses--I was simply saying that human versions didn't exist before we (US scientists) invented them. See this summary: http://www.microbiologybytes.com/virology/Retroviruses.html

I am simply disagreeing with Obama talking about it before the election. He would be taken as a nutcase. Riduculed in the mainstream media. Why even try? It's self destructive.

Since he has heard about this stuff for almost 20 years, I hope he brings it up after the election.

End of topic.

Right now, I want him to concentrate on getting out of Iraq and starting a huge national green infrastructure program on the backs of the oil companies and the ultra-rich. I'm sure Warren Buffet would be glad to put his taxes towards such an effort. The hedge fund managers I'm not so sure about.

Anonymous said...

Think BEND RE is fucked, look at Detroit, ...

*

The Great American Automobile Crash

by Fred E. Foldvary, Senior Editor
The automobile industry was once the engine of the American economy. As the biggest or second-biggest purchase by many households, car manufacturing was not only a major employer and contributor to national output, but also a major exporter. But since the 1950s, the US automobile industry has been in gradual decline, and now faces collapse. You can now buy a house in Detroit for a hand-full of dollars, illustrating how land values rise and fall from neighborhood effects. The industry executives are going to Washington to seek a bailout.

Cars are nowadays blamed for pollution, congestion, and urban sprawl, but automobiles have only been the vehicle for these problems, not the cause. The automobile was one of the most liberating inventions in human history. Imagine if a million people had to ride horses into a city -- what a mess that would be. With a car, families enjoy great mobility. The car has enabled people to work and shop rather far from their place of residence. This is a benefit, not a curse. It is not a car’s fault that governments have subsidized the pollution and congestion.

What went wrong? All over the world, governments have done next to nothing about the pollution and congestion of car traffic. This has been a gigantic subsidy to automobile firms, as it makes car driving cheaper, passing the social costs on to the general population. But then if car makers have gotten this subsidy, why have they failed?

Part of the problem was bad decisions by American automobile executives. During the late 1950s, demand was shifting to smaller cars, but the car makers failed to respond, thinking “small cars, small profit.” So the Japanese and other foreign cars gained in market share. More recently, US car firms have lagged behind in producing hybrid and electric cars. But the greater problem has been pension and medical costs.

Greedy unions demanded huge pensions -- a guaranteed annuity when the worker retired. Pensions can be good for a company when they promote worker loyalty and less turnover, when an employee only gets a pension if he stays with the company for many years. But the unions pushed for ever higher pensions even when workers only stayed for a short time. The unions also pushed for early retirement, escalating the pension cost.

Irresponsible executives and boards of directors gave in to union demands to avoid strikes, but the union bosses were also negligent, as they failed to require the car makers to fully fund the pensions. The reckless car chiefs pushed the problem of paying for the pensions into the future, when the current members would be long gone.

Now the future has arrived. The pension costs are a negative legacy from the past. The legacy costs plus ever greater medical insurance expenses make it more costly to produce cars by American-based firms. The cost problem was compounded by higher and higher wages for the members of the unions in the US car industry, who priced themselves out of the market.

The power of a labor union comes from its ability to strike, which depends on its having a labor monopoly. One cannot blamer workers for seeking monopoly power, because they otherwise have little clout in the face of job insecurity. In a pure free market, there would be no job insecurity, since during prosperous times, wages set by supply and demand would be flexibly set at the level that clears the market, where the quantity demanded equals the quantity supplied. But governments skew the market outcomes with taxes and restrictions, making labor more expensive while reducing the take-home pay of a worker. The US income tax is also vicious in shifting labor remuneration from current money wages to untaxed benefits and to pensions.

Now car markers want to take the “auto” out of cars. The word “auto” comes from the Greek word meaning “self” or “one’s own.” A car is mobile by itself; it moves itself rather than having to be pushed or pulled like a train car. The car industry used to be auto-economic, paying for its own expenses plus profits. Now the car industry has been suffering large losses, and seeks aid from the government, in which case the car industry would not longer be self-sufficient.

Now that financial firms such as investment banks and mortgage-buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been rescued by the US government, the car makers say, if they get helped, why not also us? They seek $50 billion and more later in government loans to prevent bankruptcy. The industry still has political clout because it is still important in Michigan and Ohio, states which can swing the coming congressional and presidential elections. The car chiefs are framing this bailout as necessary to help them produce more fuel-efficient cars.

The car executives claim that since these would be loans, it is not a bailout, but they can also borrow money by selling bonds. The bonds would be risky, so by government lending the firms money at a lower cost, essentially without a risk premium, this is indeed a bailout. Is the car industry too big to fail? The problem is that federal loans will not solve the legacy cost problem that gets injected into the cost of cars. The loans just push the problem into the future, just as pension promises not backed by current cash pushed the problem into the future, which has arrived.

There was a bad precedent 25 years ago, when the federal government bailed out the Chrysler Corporation. Now that the whole US automobile industry has failed, declarations of bankruptcy would not be a catastrophe. Other firms would buy the factories, and could start clean with no legacy costs. A bailout would lead to further demands from other industries. It would be best for the American economy to avoid any more bailouts, but also to restructure government policy to stop both the taxes and the subsidies that have distorted the economy.

Government is not allowing prices and profits to do their economic jobs, and further interventions will just make the problem that much worse in the long run.

Anonymous said...

Since he has heard about this stuff for almost 20 years, I hope he brings it up after the election.

*

Now this is why we call you the 'pussy'..


Perhaps this is the HOPE that OR-BOMB-EO keeps referring to??

Bewert said...

Bank of America Said to Buy Merrill for $44 Billion (Update1)

By David Mildenberg and Bradley Keoun

Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. agreed to buy Merrill Lynch & Co. in a deal that values the 94-year-old firm at about $44 billion after its shares plummeted in the past week, two people familiar with the deal said.

The companies' boards approved the merger agreement this evening, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the deliberations were private. Payment will be in Bank of America stock, one of them said. The $29-a-share purchase price, while 70 percent below the stock's January 2006 record, is 70 percent more than the closing price of $17.05 in New York trading on Sept. 12.

Merrill, the third-biggest U.S. securities firm by market value, agreed to the sale after a weekend of talks at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York about the fate of smaller rival Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

By Sunday evening in New York, Lehman was preparing to file for bankruptcy, wounded by a credit crisis that has forced the world's biggest banks to book more than $510 billion of writedowns. Merrill's sale, in the wake of Bear Stearns Cos.' collapse in March, may leave Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley as the only survivors among the five biggest independent investment banks on Wall Street.

``A merger between Merrill and Bank of America is a good idea,'' said Richard Bove, an analyst at Ladenberg Thalmann & Co. in Lutz, Florida. ``If Lehman fails, the next bank to be attacked would be Merrill. They are attempting to forestall that attack by linking with Bank of America.'' ...


Looks like Lehman is being left out in the cold. Consolidation continues, just like in any other failing industry.

I like the fact the the "Masters of the Universe" are shitting their Calvin Klein boxers these days. Can't think of any more deserving folks.

It's troubling, though, that the wall between commercial and investment banks is becoming non-existent through such mergers. That is part of the problem in the first place.

Anonymous said...

DENIAL KILLED BEND, DENIAL IS KILLING THE USA

*

The Japan Lesson:
U.S. Must Own Up
To Its Bank Crisis
By JUSTIN LAHART
September 15, 2008; Page A2

When Japan was mired in economic crisis, the U.S. urged it to take decisive action to deal with its ailing banks. Japan didn't follow the advice and the crisis dragged on for years. Now, it is the U.S. that is mired in crisis and facing the prospect of swallowing the bitter medicine it once proffered.
[Chart]

Japan's stock-market bubble began rapidly deflating in 1990 and its property bubble followed suit shortly afterward. Many borrowers were unable to make payments on their debt and bad loans piled up on bank balance sheets. A long period of lackluster economic growth made a tough situation worse. With the financial system saddled with bad debts, Japan desperately needed its banks to acknowledge the severity of their problems and for some banks to shut their doors. But the banks, unwilling to take steps that might render them insolvent, refused to acknowledge their problems, extending the crisis.

"One of the lessons we took from Japan was the hesitation and refusal to own up to the problem was a disaster," says University of Chicago Graduate School of Business economist Anil Kashyap.

U.S. financial firms, too, have struggled with owning up to the extent of their credit losses, partly because those losses are a moving target. A year ago, Bear Stearns Cos. was reluctant to sell mortgage-related credit at a loss. That decision came back to haunt the firm as declining home prices continued to pummel mortgages, and Bear ended up in a government-backed fire sale to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive John Thain said in a January interview that the firm's troubles were "for the most part behind us" -- but in July the firm agreed to sell more than $30 billion in mortgage-related assets at a large loss.

Still, U.S. financial firms have been much quicker to acknowledge losses than their Japanese counterparts were. While the slicing and dicing of mortgages into tradable securities played a part in the mortgage mess, accounting rules make it difficult for firms to ignore losses on those securities, says Princeton University economist Hyun Song Shin. In contrast, by continuing to extend credit to bad borrowers, Japanese banks were able to put off recognizing the extent of their debt problems.

"The denial strategy is harder to pull off -- it will catch up to you in the accounting," says Mr. Shin. "That's one of the more encouraging and hopeful signs in the U.S."

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant mortgage companies that the U.S. government seized a week ago, operated under rules that made the extent of their woes much more difficult to assess. But Treasury officials took a tougher line getting Fannie and Freddie to own up to their problems than Japan's Ministry of Finance did with ailing Japanese banks. Just as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been intent on not repeating the Fed's Depression-era mistakes, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is intent on not repeating Japan's mistakes in the 1990s, says Brad DeLong, an economic historian at the University of California at Berkeley.

One last problem the current U.S. situation shares with Japan in the 1990s may be a financial sector that is far larger than it should be. "If you have an unsustainable lending boom, then by definition the lending has to shrink," says Adam Posen, a deputy director at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

In Japan, that didn't happen. Rather than failing, troubled banks merged with healthier ones. But even though the combined bank would often end up with branches that were within steps of one another, few bank workers lost their jobs. Mr. Posen worries that concerns about the systemic risk to the financial system will prevent the U.S. from allowing enough firms to shut their doors to make the necessary capacity cuts.

In that regard, the tougher line with Wall Street that U.S. officials took over the weekend is encouraging. Refusing to financially backstop a takeover of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. with government money, as they did for J.P. Morgan's hasty acquisition of Bear Stearns, they showed they were far more willing to let a troubled firm fail than their Japanese counterparts were. Also, many financial firms have already begun cutting operations in a way Japanese banks balked at.

But while the U.S. has been decisive where Japan was not, it is worth remembering there was a reason Japan was hesitant to deal with its problems. Recognizing the financial sector's problems quickly increases the possibility of a run for the exits that could seize up the credit markets, putting the overall economy at greater risk. Quickly shrinking the financial sector could have a social cost, as well, putting tens of thousands of people out of work. Where will they go?

Anonymous said...

Since he has heard about this stuff for almost 20 years, I hope he brings it up after the election.


*

Like TT said today, he'll bring it up after the election alright, cuz this is the reason he'll lose the election.

These people brought him to power, and he ignored them.

Bewert said...

Fuck, Buster, you sound like a lunatic beating this dead horse into the pavement. Give it up until after Jan. 20. Here is a comment from after one of those articles you posted without a link:

What I find interesting is that a politician, or anyone for that matter, should sustain an association with an individual who sustains such incredible falsities as truths. Furthermore, I find it very interesting that Mr. Obama has yet to convincingly state that he does not and never has adhered to these believes. This definately puts a credibility doubt in my mind about Mr. Obama’s “possible mentality approach” to many public issues, such as HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, gay-marriage, abortion, and the likes. What would he seek to do if elected President. At least Mr. Bush created PREPFAR, even though he has stood against funding Stem-Cell Research, but we don’t have to dig around Hillary’s or McCain’s closets to discover philosophical concerns such as these. What’s Mr. Obama’s REAL mentality?

That's the mainstream view. It simply is not worth trying to change it in the middle of a hard fought election. Period. It would be electoral suicide to do so.

And this is my last post on the subject.

There is a guy on DKos who calls himself testvet6678 that you may feel a bit of kinship with. His backstory is here:

The CIA "Family Jewels" story is personal to me. He was one of the GI's that the CIA experimented on at Edgwewood:

As a Private in the Army you do not expect to learn thirty years later you were "used" by the CIA, with the blessing of the Department of Defense and the Army's Chain of Command, in a program that was among other things testing experimental drugs to incapacitate or kill people.

The enlisted soldiers were told they were volunteering for a program that was "completely safe" so safe that in fact the Army would not be doing any type of medical follow up. That we were testing equipment and uniforms for the battlefields of the future. None of the shady parts of the CIA operation were ever explained to the 7120 men from 1955 thru 1975 that volunteered for what was known as "medvols." We were told that by participating that we would be given letters of commendation and the Soldiers Medal that would help those of us that were going to stay on active duty as careerists to receive promotion points and early career advancement. For those that weren't making the Army a career, the fact that we would be paid an additional 60 dollars a month on top of our 200 a month salary plus three day passes every week was the other enticement.

Anonymous said...

recently someone here was hopelessly trying to claim that there was freedom of the press in Russia. this just appeared in the Washington Post (excerpt)


In Wake of Georgian War, Russian Media Feel Heat

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 15, 2008; A14

MOSCOW -- At the height of the crisis over Russia's invasion of Georgia last month, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin summoned the top executives of his nation's most influential newspapers and broadcasters to a private meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The Kremlin controls much of the Russian media, and Putin occasionally meets with friendly groups of senior journalists to answer questions and guide news coverage. On Aug. 29, though, for the first time in five years, he also invited the editor in chief of Echo Moskvy, the only national radio station that routinely broadcasts opposition voices.

For several minutes, according to people who attended the session or were briefed about it, Putin berated the editor in front of his peers, criticizing Echo's coverage of the war with Georgia and reading from a dossier of transcripts to point out what he considered errors.

"I'm not interested in who said these things," one participant quoted Putin telling the editor, Alexei Venediktov. "You are responsible for everything that goes on at the radio station. I don't know who they are, but I know who you are."

The message to the 30 or so media executives at the gathering was clear: With Russia occupying parts of Georgia and locked in perhaps its most serious conflict with the West since the Cold War, they should be especially vigilant against reporting anything that the government might find objectionable.

Four months after Putin handed the presidency to his protégé Dmitry Medvedev, mildly raising expectations that the Kremlin might relax its grip on political life here, the continuing standoff with the West over Georgia has largely ended that talk and brought fears that a turn toward increased repression might be underway instead.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

U.S. stock futures point to opening plunge
Lehman files for bankruptcy protection; Merrill gets buyout
By Steve Goldstein & Kate Gibson

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures on Monday pointed toward a bruising opening after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was forced into bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. reached a deal to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. for $50 billion and American International Group Inc. reportedly asked the Federal Reserve for $40 billion.

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffin' glue...."

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Bet a donut the Merrill/BoA thing does not go through...

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Wow.

WaMu down 20%
LEH down 92% TODAY
AIG down 45%
BoA down 15%

Looks like a washout. Haven't even opened the XLF spiders. S/T bottom today?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

MER is the only green. Opened at $21 on a $29/sh buyout. That there is real confidence.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Timmy, you know what the largest absolute los in market cap (dollars) is?

Seems like AIG is making a run for it. $100/sh @ 2.69BB shares, that's near $269BB at the end of 2000, clear down to $16BB today. And falling, possibly to nothing.

I know AOL/Time Warner was a HUGE loser also. But it's still actually worth about $50BB.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the laughs and the effort!

We had just moved into a house we built when I found your blog. We had to live in it until 2/15/08 to get the tax break. After reading your blog for a couple of weeks, we made the decision to sell. I was telling my wife, "if this fucker is right, we are dead meat".

We unloaded it at the break even point...sweet!

We are not dead meat, back living in the house we bought 12 years ago. Hunkered down and stocking up on amo.

Thanks again...

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Citigroup has lost almost $210BB in market cap in the last 1 1/2 years, which I think is also among the largest losses of all time.

Even Bank of America itself has lost over $100BB of shareholder value.

TWX has lost something close to $250BB over the past few years since the NASDAQ bust.

Yeah, folks.... Bubbles should be welcomed with open arms. Nothing but Good comes from a bubble.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

We unloaded it at the break even point...sweet!

Nice job, not injecting the Kool-Aid intervenously through your fucking nut sack, like most of Bend.

Most WILL NOT ACCEPT break even? Why? This is FUCKING BEND, and they are way the hell too good. They'd rather DIE OR GO FUCKING BROKE & LOSE EVERYTHING than accept break-even.

Break even is for pussy's. DEATH before BREAKEVEN is their rallying cry. My God.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

This thing feels like a S/T bottom....

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Bad fallout happening to people whole moved up from one neighborhood to another and decided to keep the older house and rent it out. These are the kind of people who normally wouldn't do this, but who couldn't bear to part with the previous house at the top of the bubble.

Me too. I hear this and FAR WORSE from friends all over town. They are stuck in the MOLE-ASSES that is Bend RE. Can't fucking stay cuz they can't pay for what they got. Can't fucking leave cuz they can't bring $ to the table.

So they watch the last remnants of 401K's, credit card cash advances, pawned jewelry and sold SUV's just drip, drip, drip...

Anonymous said...

This comment on Paul Krugman's blog today says it as well as I ever could:

Thank you Mr. Krugman for delineating the problem of the "shadow banking system." However, establishing regulation of these institutions is precisely what the Republican party since Reagan has been against. And thus Mr. Krugman is correct in pointing out that we are back in 1931. The Federal government cannot bail out Lehman because it just doesn't have enough money to do so. After Bear Sterns, Freddie and Fannie the well is nearly exhausted. And behind Lehman lies AIG, Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch and the whole proverbial house of cards. The problem simply stated is the unfettered speculation of unregulated capitalism. And so what does McCain-Palin propose after the diaster of Bush-Cheney? Not just more of the same but far, far worse. Palin's ignorance of basic economics is boundless. The money saved by eliminating pork would be a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed. The Bush tax cuts paid for by selling the U.S. to China propelled unprecedented budget deficits with meager economic results. The only person on the horizon with any sort of plan to avert catastrophe is Barack Obama. His vision is global and would have the immediate benefit of restoring a bit of confidence into the economic panic that may soon be sweeping America. Make no mistake, the Great Depression will be a walk in the park compared to the economic devastation engendered by eight years of Bush. "Drill, baby, drill" may sound satisfying but I have one question for the McCain-Palin crowd: Where is the capital for investment going to come from when the entire financial system blows into dust like the proverbial house of cards.

— Howie, Chicago


McCain's campaign manager, in an unusual outburst of candor, said on Faux News a while back that the Republicans want this election to be about "character" instead of issues.

In other words, they want it to be about personalities and symbols.

In other words, they want it to be about bullshit. Which makes sense for them, because they're the greatest bullshit merchants this country has ever seen.

But we can no longer afford to keep electing presidents on the basis of bullshit. The cost is too heavy. We elected one on the basis of bullshit eight years ago and that's why we're so fucked today.

See you in the breadline.

LavaBear said...

I can't believe you signed off from Blogging right as the holy molly shit hits the fan. You sold too soon. Damn.

I think the market rally's from here. Shorts get a little fuckered but they reload and in a few weeks the real whoosh comes.

It's interesting to watch Ken Lewis lie through his teeth on why he paid so much for Merrill. Why the fuck not wait for mid day today and pick it up at $12 a share.

Anonymous said...

This sorta sez it all: http://mandatemedia.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/14/posterart72dpi_3.jpg

Sweet merciful Jeebus, what a fucking nightmare.

Anonymous said...

HOMER,

I went to Deschutes last night and it was Eerie, just local kids. No tourists, I asked the servers and they said no tourists all weekend. They're not coming any more.

Everybody at the bar works in 'food', and yes they said they're all going down, cork, merenda, deep, not a man standing; some majors might feed the subway, and pita-joint, ... downtown, but main-line high end are finished. Sounds like old Hans got out just in time after 30 years.

Everybody see's this winter coming in Bend, the renters are leaving, the 'owners' are walking away. Most interesting is the amount of these people that have their own 'biz' on the east-side. Just watching their shit die, all from colorado or nearby, came to Bend to be an 'affordable aspen' ( thanks hbm/woodward ). Now Bend is an un-affordable 'detroit'. Everybody concurs that skiing here is finished, and thus the notion of Bend being a ski resort town.

Anonymous said...

That's the mainstream view. It simply is not worth trying to change it in the middle of a hard fought election. Period. It would be electoral suicide to do so.

*

Fuck YOU pussy, the left & right are the same, all owned by the same people. DUMBYA said shut up and wait until betray-us issues his report, and the PUSSY says 'shutup and wait until jan-20'.

FUCK YOU pussy, evil only happens when good men remain silent.

Anonymous said...

But we can no longer afford to keep electing presidents on the basis of bullshit. The cost is too heavy. We elected one on the basis of bullshit eight years ago and that's why we're so fucked today.

See you in the breadline.

*

That's why they're shifting to a single party, AIPAC is tired of paying for two party's.

Look back to 1780's in the USA, its always been this way. Hamilton called it 'ruling by interest', he with the most gold, and biggest stick 'rules'.

The people with the most 'skin' in the game will get involved and make shit happen, during the American Revolution with UK, it was less than 5% of the US population. Then as now, most people were too busy 'working'.

Anonymous said...

The fall today really ain't that bad.

The titanic is sinking, but all in slow motion.

More & more parallels like 1990's Japan every day, DENIAL like Marge says, the US is in denial a month ago Australia marked its US paper to market, to date the US accounting refuses to do so, and thus the pain is just pushed out.

Nobody in this country wants to deal with the truth. Just a nation of Lawyers.

Anonymous said...

The next few weeks are an election to succeed the old owner.

This is good.

I vote NOPussys. ABPs (Anybody but the Pussys).
No hbms (ALL 5 of them, but especially that pompussy hb miller who is a washed up journalist.

*

The pussys already have their blogs, dunc has his, BP has his JR, and HBM has the SORE.

Anybody that wants PUSSY can go to those sites 24/7 and get their fix.

Anonymous said...

Its all the Russians Fault. ( Dunc )

*

The Danger is Not Fully Appreciated
by J. R. Nyquist
Weekly Column Published: 09.12.2008
Print

S ince the end of the Second World War two countries have been referred to as “superpowers”: The United States and Soviet Russia. Since the Soviet Union broke apart, America was said to be the “lone superpower.” Moscow’s power had collapsed. Such was the West’s perception in late 1991. Seventeen years later the Cold War rears its ugly head, and many are caught off guard. The defeated Kremlin has put together a new anti-American bloc, including China and Venezuela. This has been long in the making, ignored by a culture of strategic denial in Washington.

Using the presence of U.S. warships in the Black Sea as an excuse, Russia has landed two long-range strategic bombers in Venezuela. The country’s aspiring dictator, President Hugo Chavez, stated bluntly, “If the Russian Navy arrives in the Caribbean or the Atlantic it may certainly dock in Venezuela. We have no problems with that and would warmly welcome it. And if Russian long-range bombers should need to land in Venezuela we would not object to that either. We will also welcome them.”

The main ambition of Hugo Chavez and his socialist bloc allies in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Brazil, is to bring the United States to its knees. Now, at long last, Russia is openly showing its willingness to send forces in support of the emerging anti-U.S. coalition in South America. This shows that the balance of power has not only been upset in Europe, where American allies are paralyzed by their dependence on Russian gas and oil, but has also been upset in Latin America where crypto-Communist regimes have emerged through a cultural process that promotes anti-Americanism.

As they advance, the Russian leaders deny any hostile intentions. They deny that a new Cold War has begun. According to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russia had to launch an incursion into Georgia. “In this situation,” he offered, “were we supposed to just wipe away bloody snot and hang our heads?” Putin further explained that he had “no wish or grounds to encroach on the sovereignty of former Soviet republics.” Of course, this statement is a bald-faced lie. Russian agents long ago infiltrated the political process in Ukraine, for example, and now conspire against Ukrainian President Victor Yuschenko. According to Yushchenko, the Ukrainian prime minister is working with the Kremlin to remove him from office. “A political and constitutional coup d’etat has started in the parliament,” stated Yushchenko. “The Tymoshenko Bloc has accepted union with the Regions Party and the Communists. The basis of this formation is not Ukrainian, I underline not Ukrainian.”
The Kremlin has also interfered in the politics of Moldova, stationing troops in the former Soviet republic, supporting a ridiculous breakaway region (like South Ossetia and Abkhazia) that only serves the purpose of encircling neighboring Ukraine. Despite these obvious imperialist moves, Putin declares that Russia has no imperial ambitions. “We do not have … any of the imperial ambitions that people try to accuse us of,” he told a meeting of officials and experts at the Black Sea resort of Sochi. “Russia was the initiator of the destruction of the Soviet Union. If it wasn’t for Russia, the USSR would still exist…. We do not have any desire or basis for infringing the sovereignty of former Soviet republics.”

To correct the record, the collapse of the Soviet Union was engineered by the KGB. It was initiated by the Kremlin because the neo-Stalinist model was a failure, because the Kremlin wanted to put the West to sleep. The Soviet leaders also wanted cash investment and technology to renew their military capabilities. This is not hard to understand, though the West preferred to credit itself with victory. There was no victory, however. There was merely a transition from open enmity on the part of Moscow to pretended friendship. The Ukrainian people can see this. Victor Yushchenko openly announces it. President Mikhail Saakashvili also understands the process of Russia’s ongoing interference and manipulation within the former Soviet republics. The fact that Georgia broke away from its KGB structures has infuriated the Kremlin, causing it to activate its fighters in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, provoking a conflict that was used to excuse the massive armed incursion of last month.
Putin nonetheless argues his position. “We don’t have any ideological differences, no basis for Cold War. On the contrary,” he protested, “we have a lot of common problems that we can only resolve together.” Perhaps he is referring to international terrorism, which was largely financed and developed into a global power by Moscow. Not only did the KGB invent airline hijacking, but the KGB trained an entire generation of Arab terrorists (including Yasser Arafat).

And then there is the economic game, intended to push capitalism over the brink. It is not that Russia has caused the West’s economic problems. But Russia’s mastery of clandestine instruments provides a tool for pushing the West as it totters on a financial cliff. According to an Associated Press story, titled “Study Links Oil Prices to Investor Manipulation,” a curious coincidence emerges in the data. Analysis shows that a massive “stampede for the exits” in the oil market began on July 15. This date marks a turning point in Russia’s strategic direction, when the Russian president gathered all his country’s diplomats to a meeting in Moscow.

A clever analyst has written to me on the subject of oil price manipulation: “What if the rise in oil was deliberately done in a coordinated attack? Using multiple business fronts, using foreign government monies, using lies about production levels to drive up the price to the bin Laden price of $144 to hurt the U.S. economy and sucker everyone into a long position in oil, then drop the bottom out of oil….”

If you create a trend, the herd follows. This is well known. And the financial herd is no exception. Why was there a “massive stampede for the exits” on July 15? Who triggered it?

Perhaps the United States is under financial attack. We know that the country is being encircled through maneuvers in Latin America. At the same time, the U.S. is being isolated from its European allies, financially hobbled by a combination of its own blunders and poorly understood market manipulations. There is continuity in Russian grand strategy, from the rise of Gorbachev to the incursion into Georgia. Russia’s hidden hand should not be underestimated. The advent of Boris Yeltsin was not a period of democracy and genuine liberalization. It was, instead, a period of deception and false promise.

The strategic danger is not fully appreciated, even now.

Anonymous said...

Housing Bailout Revives Depression-Era Policies

Forget all the pronouncements from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. Their attempts to explain how monetary expansion in the form of a government bailout of Fannie and Freddie will cure the subprime lending crisis is as scientific as a witchdoctor's explanation of how his chants and powders will chase away demons. The government is following the same monetary policies it pursued to such horrific ends during the Great Depression of the 1930s. At that time of falling prices in general, not just housing prices as now, the government passed the Wagner Act, granting special privileges to labor unions which forced major unionized industries to negotiate with them. This had the effect of raising the cost of labor in the face of a general fall in the price level. Like any other overpriced good, the demand for labor shrank dramatically. But rather than rescind the Wagner Act, which was one of the major causes of massive unemployment, British economist John Maynard Keynes convinced governments around the world to inflate their currencies. This had the effect over a very long period of time of causing all other prices to rise, as the market attempted to restore the relationship of the cost of labor to all other prices within the market. Overpriced labor's purchasing power was gradually sapped away. Wages weren't reduced, but all other prices rose, which had the same effect.

That will be the result of the present administration's monetary stimulus efforts. It will not allow housing prices to fall, so that the market can re-establish the proper relationship between the cost of housing and all other goods in the market. That would cause pain in the politically connected businesses that benefited for so many years from the boom in real estate. Instead it will create the conditions for rising prices generally over the next several years. Already this process has started, with energy and food prices leading the way. Austrian school economists know that the price level is not a pond that rises and falls in a uniform manner. Excess money enters the market at certain points, causing prices to rise in certain industries and certain parts of the country. Plus, all other factors affecting an economy are still at work. But over time all prices will be higher than they would have been in an uninhibited market. Then we will have become inured to high priced housing because the prices of everything else will be much higher too.

There are many who believe that this is the proper policy, that the Great Depression was cured by monetary expansion. But this is not the case at all. The monetary expansion merely delayed the recovery for more than a decade. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon advised President Herbert Hoover to refrain from intervening in the natural market correction at the end of the Roaring '20s. He clearly saw that the monetary expansion of the 1920s had created malinvestment that must be liquidated. In an earlier era there would have been little that the government could do to prevent a market correction -which is a good thing! However, in 1929, President Hoover had a tool that no other president had attempted to use - fiat money. The Federal Reserve Bank was only sixteen years old. Its money printing efforts in the 1920s had produced an unsustainable, but politically attractive, boom in certain industries. Now the government got serious about money expansion. It drove interest rates down almost to zero, with no effect whatsoever. The real economy would not recover. There followed from both presidents Hoover and Roosevelt even more market interventions that almost destroyed the economy. Only the need to increase production in order to win World War II caused the government to rescind the worst of its interventionist meddling, which had hamstrung industry and destroyed so many otherwise productive lives.

This is the policy our current administration is following. It may appear to work at first. Do not believe the government's pronouncements of market stability. Do not be reassured by temporary stock market gains - which are priced, of course, in depreciated dollars - or temporary dollar strengthening against other world currencies. There are too many factors affected currency exchange rates to isolate one policy as a cause of strengthening within a few days or weeks. Massive credit expansion creates an illusion of wealth while forestalling the ability of the market to adjust its prices to reflect the desires of market participants. Government policies caused the construction of too much, over-priced housing. Housing prices must fall. This is the cure to the disease. The disease was caused by government credit expansion, which was aimed with full regulatory force at the housing market. The housing glut must be liquidated before the economy can recover.

Anonymous said...

HOLY SHIT: OBAMA is talking about the economy....

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Monday the upheaval on Wall Street was "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression" and blamed it on policies that he said Republican rival John McCain supports.

"This country can't afford another four years of this failed philosophy," Obama said after the shock-wave announcements that financial giant Lehman Brothers was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while titan Merrill Lynch was being bought by Bank of America for about $50 billion.

Obama's statement, issued as he prepared to fly to Colorado to begin a swing through contested Western states, was intended to serve two purposes: to link McCain with the unpopular presidency of George W. Bush and to express sympathy with the anxiety of most Americans who say the economy is issue No. 1 in the election.

"The challenges facing our financial system today are more evidence that too many folks in Washington and on Wall Street weren't minding the store," Obama said in a statement. "Eight years of policies that have shredded consumer protections, loosened oversight and regulation, and encouraged outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans have brought us to the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression."

"I certainly don't fault Sen. McCain for these problems," Obama said, "but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to."

In a presidential race turning increasingly negative, Obama also drew on editorial comments from U.S. newspapers and magazines to accuse McCain of running a dishonest campaign with some of the "sleaziest ads" ever seen.

Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, said McCain was "launching a low blow a day" and went on to say the Republican candidate stands "with George Bush firmly in the corner of the wealthy and well-connected."

Obama's campaign launched a new television commercial that aggressively pushes back against charges by McCain, the GOP presidential nominee. Obama has been under increasing pressure from Democrats to strike back harder at McCain, who has taken a slight lead in national polls. Some leading Republicans faulted both presidential campaigns Sunday for the increasingly negative tone of their advertising.

Former Bush political adviser Karl Rove said McCain and Obama had both shaded the truth in campaign advertising.

"McCain has gone, in some of his ads, similarly gone one step too far in sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent truth test," Rove told "Fox News Sunday."

The Obama campaign has complained especially about an ad that declares Obama supports sex education for kindergartners. He supported legislation that would teach age-appropriate sex education to kindergartners, including information on rejecting advances by sexual predators.

"Both campaigns are making a mistake, and that is they are taking whatever their attacks are and going one step too far," Rove said. "They don't need to attack each other in this way.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Sweet merciful Jeebus, what a fucking nightmare.

Well sure... when you just look at the BAD STUFF, it doesn't seem so great!

I'm trying to stay focused on the positive! Like the time Bush.... went.... well, he.... there was that time him & Cheney... Condi went over.... Monica Lewinsk.... 9/11... We won't get fooled aga...

Bewert said...

Source of the above scare article about Russia working to "encircle" us in Latin America: http://www.jrnyquist.com/

Beyond neocon...

I like the article where he compares Palin to Thatcher. Come back with that in about 20 years...

Anonymous said...

Source of the above scare article about Russia working to "encircle" us in Latin America: http://www.jrnyquist.com/


*

Yes, now we have found the mother source for all Ned Flanders future material.

Anonymous said...

Sweet merciful Jeebus, what a fucking nightmare.

Well sure... when you just look at the BAD STUFF, it doesn't seem so great!

I'm trying to stay focused on the positive! Like the time Bush.... went.... well, he.... there was that time him & Cheney... Condi went over.... Monica Lewinsk.... 9/11... We won't get fooled aga...

*

Yes, but everybody got rich. The SORE grew, the BULL grew. HOLLERN got richer. Life was good during the DUMBYA years!!!!

Everyone became a millionaire. A ton of cash in every pot. The roaring 2,000's!!!

Note that the DEM's & PUG's were 100% for two terms. THE US public voted for DUMBYA a second term. The whole world despises the USA, and knows what it is.

The world is voting with their $$$$.


F&F last week was about foreign investors, today its about foreign investors, fuck the American public.

What is OR-BOMB-EO going to do? Note not a fucking word, just today he's on the attack and blaming Mc$ain, but so fucking what? How's that going to FIX USA&BEND??

SOMEBODY TELL ME HOW OR-BOMB-EO is going to FIX USA&BEND?

We have met the enemy and he is us, he is your neighbor, your realtor, your mtg broker, your lawyer, ... Everybody made a ton of money during the DUMBYA years, that's why he got a second term.

Everybody approved the invasion of IRAQ cuz it was our oil, and we were going to make it cheaper for USA!!!

Sort of reminds me of Germans denouncing Hitler after the fall, yet somebody voted for the bastard and put him in power.

Anonymous said...

I like the article where he compares Palin to Thatcher. Come back with that in about 20 years...

*

Probably some truth. Palin is lucky, right place right time.

OR-BOMB-EO is lucky that people voted for anybody-but-hillary.

Mc$ain after running for prez a millenium, has finally gone ROVIAN, and has a good chance. It's a winning formula, like TT's analogy of chess.

Rove is about winning, not leading, leading to what? How is anybody going to fix the fucking mess(dunc)?

Like BEM said 1/2 year ago on his blog, and I have been saying for 2+ years, first you have to admit there is a problem.

Problem? The entire nation is ran by KROOKS, its a KLEPTOCRACY, there is nobody who cares, look what happened to captain-america, so called guv of NY? Taken out because he enjoyed some of the nicest pussy around. NY Guv couldn't have gotten tougher on CRIM, why was he taken out? Cuz he was getting to close to Wall-Street INSURANCE corruption (AIG), did it matter? They'll still go down.

WHO WILL BUY THE USA for penny's on the DOLLAR and invest in the place?? This is the question. The US like Bend is insolvent, bankrupt, liquidated. Why did nobody BUY lehman, cuz no assets were worth anything.

Today AIG is selling their only assets.

The biggest news today is "The stock market is secure", your brokerage account is OK.

I expect to see a ton of fucking SELLING. Note, the problem ain't the USA public, its the WORLD-INVESTOR.

They need to tell the world how they're going to FIX the USA MESS(DUNC), and NOBODY is giving the USA any confidence, instead its all a big joke about PALIN. Isn't exactly very reassuring to the world.

Anonymous said...

Marge, Is right.

Time to be a MORMRON, time to store 2+ year of food under the house, can-food. Time to store ammo, and guns in a safe place, cuz the cops are going to be looking for them in the obvious places.

Anonymous said...

Beyond neocon...

*

BP its a continuum, if you go far enough to the right, you'll wind up back on the far-left.

Since we're going depression, its important to study history, that's all we can do is peat & repeat. During the depression times, Pug's took the money, and Dem's started War's.

This is why BUSTER call's OBAMA ... OR-BOMB-EO, cuz this is what the nigger(OREO) is going to do, to fix the mess (dunc).

Anonymous said...

BP asks BUSTER, why the fixation on WRIGHT???

BP cuz its intellectually fascinating. One of my favorite books of all time is Malcolm X's autobiography.

If you understand Elijah Mohammad, then you can understand Rev Wright. Wright is the GOD FATHER of OR-BOMB-EO.

The nation-of-Islam ( million man march farakhan, elijah, mal-x ), is the continuing struggle post slavery of the black-man to free himself in the USA. Black-Lib theology going back to the pre-civil war, but with WRIGHT you have mix of NOI(Islam), which is as FAR-RIGHT as you can get. NOI has MORE in common with the ULTRA-RIGHT, than anyone else on the planet. FYI they all think that women should be bare-foot and preg.

So you have this OR-BOMB-EO who leaves HARVARD, and goes to Chicago, and hooks up with the fastest growing most belligerent bunch of niggers(love my people) in town. For 20+ years OR-BOMB-EO is nurtured by WRIGHT.

This past week WRIGHT was taken out by a 37 yr-old white bitch who looks like palin, the bitch claimed the 67 yr-old wright 'raped her', she came forward, this is after TEAM-OBAMA had wright 'transferred' to TEXAS of all fucking places, from Chicago.

Wright has a book coming out very soon, I expect it to be #1.

Essentially Wright is telling the truth about the USA. That is WHY wrights church was #1 for the past +20 years in chicago, the nigger was telling the truth, and people eat the truth up when they're down and out.

BP asked buster, why is this important? Buster asks BP why are capstone butt-plugs important? Oh, I know your the NW factory rep.

Anonymous said...

WRIGHT you have mix of NOI(Islam), which is as FAR-RIGHT as you can get. NOI has MORE in common with the ULTRA-RIGHT, than anyone else on the planet. FYI they all think that women should be bare-foot and preg.

*

NOI and MORMRONISM are two birds of the SAME FUCKING FEATHER.

They both put women in the same hole.

Dunc says "Don't read the right, or reference the Wright". These days in BEND the future leaders are going to be MORMRON. Get over it SMITH is a MORMRON, the MORMRONS run eastern Orygun these days.

You got a NOI/Black-Lib OREO who might be prez, who 100% reflects MORMRON principals. I fucking love it.

"Truth is always stranger than fiction, fiction has to make sense" - mark twain.

Anonymous said...

Source of the above scare article about Russia working to "encircle" us in Latin America: http://www.jrnyquist.com/

Beyond neocon...

*

BP, here's a mission for you, do you think this could be the "McCain Doctrine"????

Hell we need a bogey, and we can't fight he Chinese, they're our investor.

The essential issue today, is that the IRAQ war was largely a proxy war on who gets to SELL OIL to EU. Russia also wants the mideast oil to sell to EU. There will be more wars between the USA & RUSSIA, albeit PROXY.

DUNC, will tell you that you can't read the 'wRIGHT', but I'm telling you BP, that this ULTRA-NEO-CON shit is the real fucking McCOY when it comes to predicting the 'McCain Doctrine'.

Anonymous said...

Well DUNC over on his blog announced that he's never coming over here to BBn world ever again.

Something about mirrors, and confusion.

One less pussy, more room for the other pussy's.

Dunc will be back, he's addicted to this shit, he gets bored with just talking to his RDC clone day in and day out.

Like HBM, why does he come here to talk dirty when he could have a one-way conversation at the SORE 24/7?

Then there is our BP, you never know about BP, one days he's right, the next day left. BP likes to mix shit up.

Homer is starting to look like a beacon of stability.

Yes, HOMER take 2-3 months off, and get your life back together.

PJ-OROURKE has great quote about the ten years he did 'politics' he calls it the darkest years of his life.

Politics is fluid, its meaningless, all you know is thrown away in an instance, there is no loyalty, there is only back-stabbing.

In 2-3 months politics will have been forgotten, the paid HO's that beat the drums for one anothers TEAM, will have found another job.

Anonymous said...

WaMu shares hit hard
CNNMoney.com - 41 minutes ago
By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com senior writer Concerned that Wall Street has done just that, the nation's largest savings-and-loan plummeted 22% in mid-day trading.


*

Talking about the TITANIC, I mean why did this take so fucking long? I was saying 3-4 years ago that WAMU was sitting on 50% non-performing loans, they were writing shit to people without jobs for nuttin down, and now its all resetting, and nobody can pay the MTG? Surprising?

Slow Titanic, who in the FUCK held this fucking stock??

It's all like BEND, PR&MARKETING HO's kept saying the ship will not sink, plenty of life rafts, but what about the stupid shit? Building a TITANIC class ship out of paper???

Bewert said...

NOI=black Taliban=ultraorthodox Jew=Christian fundies. Fundamentalists are all the same, no matter the creed or color. Women in their place, take care of your mates over others.

Palin's governing style fits this well:
[W]hen there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, [Palin] appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency....

The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government. Ms. Palin appointed Mr. Bitney, her former junior high school band-mate, as her legislative director and chose another classmate, Joe Austerman, to manage the economic development office for $82,908 a year. Mr. Austerman had established an Alaska franchise for Mailboxes Etc.


We DO NOT need more of this style of governing. Obama simply can't do worse than this kind of crap. His history is surrounding himself with smart people of all kinds. From Wright to Biden.

Anonymous said...

There's a TON of our material in the SORE this week, for anyone interested.

You can tell by reading this issue, that OUR HBM is certainly the ONLY WRITER for the SORE.

HBM clearly loves our MARGE, as he references her, and mentions total love and admiration.

He even mentions her blogsite!!!

Anonymous said...

BP,

When New Orleans was sinking DUMBYA put his boyfriends in charge?

What do you think politics is about? WHY do pussy foam at the mouth for their candidate.

Remember that ugly bitch lawyer( why do I repeat myself ) that DUMBYA wanted to make supreme court justice? His personal bail-dui lawyer from his Texas days.

You don't think that OR-BOMB-EO isn't going to load the belt-way with his NOI/black-lib buddy's?

People work (HO and/or flatback) for candidates to get jobs and PORK.

Anonymous said...

Obama simply can't do worse than this kind of crap. His history is surrounding himself with smart people of all kinds. From Wright to Biden.

*

That's assuring BP, that OR-BOMB-EO can't do worse than DUMBYA, very assuring.

DUNC tells us that OR-BOMB-EO is going to FIX the USA 'MESS', now that DUNC has pussied out on US, perhaps you can tell us how OR-BOMB-EO is going to FIX the MESS that is USA today.

Anonymous said...

Fringe players, note anytime you want to causes conniptions with HBM, just mention the words "NO BOB".

HBM & Bob Woodward are joined at the HIP by the SORE to promote Bend, and make the world see it as an 'AFFORDABLE ASS-PEN".

Simply mentioning 'NO BOB' can cause heart attack like symptoms to occur with HBM.

Bewert said...

Re: You don't think that OR-BOMB-EO isn't going to load the belt-way with his NOI/black-lib buddy's?

He hasn't done so to this point. He doesn't have lobbiests running his senate office or campaign.

Are people angling for jobs and influence? Of course. Why else would Kristol and Kagan be saying nice things about him.

Will he take their advice? I hope not. His own advisors are much more centrist.

Can he fight AIPAC alone?

No one can.

Anonymous said...

New York Governor Says AIG Can Access $20 Billion (Update1)
Bloomberg - 1 hour ago
By Hugh Son and Andrew Frye Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc., the largest US insurer by assets, has been given special permission to access $20 billion of capital in its subsidiaries to free up liquidity, New York Governor ...

*

This is why they took out the NY-GUV, he would have NEVER let AIG use their INSURANCE-RESERVES as CASH.

I'll be anyone here that AIG is using these reserves for golden-parachutes for exec's.

There was NO REAL money or cash and/or assets to be found at Lehman thus it couldn't be sold.

By law an insurance company MUST have cash on hand to pay the insured on a claim. For the state of NY to let AIG dip into the pool, is the end of USA insurance biz as we know it, now everybody will do it, which means that INSURANCE will mean absolutely NOTHING.

NO YOU CAN SEE WHY THEY TOOK THE NY GUV OUT A FEW MONTHS AGO.

ALL IS GOING ACCORDING TO PLAN.

Once all the RESERVE-CASH @ AIG is gone, then there will be NOTHING, today their 'investments' are worth shit, all they have on their books is RESERVE.

Spitzer tried to save NY, and he lost,

Anonymous said...

He hasn't done so to this point. He doesn't have lobbiests running his senate office or campaign.

*

BP your so funny OR-BOMB-EO isn't prez yet, but I understand your point, in the future he'll do what he's done in the past. Which is nothing.

Anonymous said...

Can he fight AIPAC alone?

No one can - BP

*

BP, your too fucking funny even for BUSTER, BIDEN is 100% owned by AIPAC.

BIDEN is AIPAC.

To suggest that OR-BOMB-EO is taking on AIPAC, when his CHENEY is AIPAC is got to be the MOST crazy thing you have said today.

The fact is OR-BOMB-EO will do national shit, and BIDEN will run the world, just like TEAM-DUMBYA.

This is why I say there is ONLY one party.

The whole Mc$ain package is just pure entertainment.

DUMBYA-BUSH-SHRUB-TWISTED proved one thing, that a VP can run the world. Cheney runs the world. BIDEN will run the world for AIPAC.

Anonymous said...

OR-BOMB-EO will corral all the loose niggers in the USA, and ship them off to Tale-Pakistan to die, and it will be called a 'draft'.

BIDEN will rule all US international.

OR-BOMB-EO will be a domestic figure head to placate the loose white/black niggers.

It's fitting the USA begun as a penal colony, and ends as a penal colony. That its final product to the world is an endless mercenary army for hire.

Anonymous said...

Ok, lets modify this thread. I can see & taste what OR-BOMB-EO/BIDEN-AIPAC will do.

But what would Mc$ain actually do? I mean I just don't see much of anything? Would it be SHRUB-scene-3 as predicted by the PUSSY's??

I just don't see it, cuz BUSH is hated by PUG's.

The USA is broke, I know what the DEM's would do if elected, but what the FUCK would PUG's do???

See essentially folks, I don't think the PUG's want this election, they want to BLAME OR-BOMB-EO for the depression, this is all I can see.

TT can you add a voice of rationality or homer? Trouble is BP only gives party-line,...

BP do you agree the PUG's really don't want this election??

Anonymous said...

OR-BOMB-EO will be a domestic figure head to placate the loose white/black niggers.

It's fitting the USA begun as a penal colony, and ends as a penal colony. That its final product to the world is an endless mercenary army for hire.

*

This is where 'marge' comes in, Marge, would tell you butter, beans, and bullets.

See with OR-BOMB-EO their going to have to 'collect dim guns', house to house searches. This has to be done to 'keep the peace'.

Which of course will lead to MORE anarchy, and theft.

It's not going to be pretty. I think this is why the 'POWERS' that control the USA want a black-man today, becuase its going to have to be a black-face to ship the blacks off to tale-pakistan, and collect the guns from the whites.

Today is much different than the 1930's, then there was no 911. Today the government can argue that people don't need the right to self defense.

That is essentially the difference between OR-BOMB-EO & Mc$ain, is that Mc$ain would protect defense, but OR-BOMB-EO would take away the guns and bibles. That is fairly clear.

All else, what really matters? What really changes, as all is controlled by the same rich frightened people.

Bewert said...

Re: Which is nothing.

Yeah, I guess if you've get all your info from Fox News, you would believe that.

They won't tell you about:
Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act (S. 230)

"Lugar-Obama Nonproliferation Legislation Signed into Law by the President"

Or this: http://fedspending.org/
Authored by Obama and Coburn.

Or you could go to http://thomas.loc.gov/
and in the middle partway down, a Browse Bills by Sponsor function. Check that and you'll see Obama is currently listed on 129 pending actions, while McCain is on 38.

'Nuff said.

Try to get your facts in line before spouting BS.

Anonymous said...

Re: Which is nothing.

Yeah, I guess if you've get all your info from Fox News, you would believe that.

*

BP, I don't OWN a TV, I have told you that a zillion times, and then you fall back to this shit.

Anonymous said...

BP your so funny OR-BOMB-EO isn't prez yet, but I understand your point, in the future he'll do what he's done in the past. Which is nothing.

*

So give us an example of what OR-BOMB-EO has done BP, and don't send me to a fucking 'link'. I want to hear the pussy's lips move, and tell me what OR-BOMB-EO has done, and will do?

Yes, PUSSY tell me in your own words, what OR-BOMB-EO will do? I know what he's done the past week, and that is REFUSE to go on SNL, and the reason?? A TX hurricane that killed a whopping '2'. This is a BIG fucking reason not to go on SNL!!!!!!!!

You told us to SHUT-UP and WAIT for OR-BOMB-EO to be prez, and I'm asking you a hard core OBAMA-BIBLE-THUMPER to tell us what the BABY-OBAMA-JEEBUS has planned for the flock??????????????

NO FUCKING LINKS, TELL US PUSSY.

Anonymous said...

PUSSY READ THIS CAREFULLY! ONE FUCKING BILL! THAT's IT, THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What's good about this is its written by the LEFT, and is from BIDEN!!!!!!

****

Obama sponsored a bill that became law ?

Before he bowed out of the race, Sen. Joe Biden dismissed the legislative accomplishments of three Democratic primary rivals with whom he served. About Barack Obama, he said, “Barack Obama hasn’t passed any."

By that wording, Biden is wrong.

Obama, who was sworn into office in January 2005, spent much of his time in the Senate taking a high-profile position as spokesman for Democrats’ efforts to overhaul congressional ethics standards, including his own bid to make Senate colleagues pay the full charter rate, rather than first-class airfare, for rides in corporate jets. The effort drew the ire of such senior senators as Ted Stevens of Alaska, whose state is so big that corporate planes are often the only way to get around. Senate leaders included that jet travel requirement in a lobbying practices and disclosures bill signed into law in September 2007.

But as a member of the minority party, Obama also worked across the aisle with Republicans to push several measures that became law in 2006.

Working with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Obama won enactment of a law creating a single, searchable database of all federal contracts, grants and loans.

He also partnered with senior Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, the former chairman of the Foreign Relations panel, to sponsor legislation to strengthen international efforts to destroy conventional weapons, though it did not advance out of committee.

Separately, Obama was lead sponsor of a bill to provide relief and promote democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was signed into law in December 2006.

He introduced legislation in 2005 to require federal preparations for an avian flu pandemic, but it didn't advance.

And he weighed in on another “good government” initiative during congressional debate on tougher lobbying disclosure standards, by backing the creation of an independent “Office of Public Integrity” that would investigate congressional ethics cases and receive and monitor financial disclosure reports required from members of Congress, officers and employees of Congress and lobbyists. The bid failed in 2006 due to opposition from members of the Senate Ethics Committee, who said it would politicize the panel. Another attempt to include it in the Democrats' ethics bill failed in early 2007.

Obama’s tendency to focus on nonidelogical issues is pragmatic, because they tend not to have powerful enemies or, if they do, are shielded by solid support in both parties. But some of his initiatives have languished, either because he was a junior member of the Democratic caucus or because they encountered institutional resistance. One would have rewarded troubled school districts with extra federal help in exchange for deep changes.

Though advocacy groups generally gave him positive marks for taking action, Obama’s absence from heated political battles makes it difficult to assess his effectiveness as a legislator. Still, he has passed one bill signed into law, making Biden's statement False.

Anonymous said...

Obama’s tendency to focus on nonidelogical issues is pragmatic, because they tend not to have powerful enemies or, if they do, are shielded by solid support in both parties. But some of his initiatives have languished, either because he was a junior member of the Democratic caucus or because they encountered institutional resistance. One would have rewarded troubled school districts with extra federal help in exchange for deep changes.

*

The above is exactly what the Atlantic Monthly said a month ago, the 'LEFT' will be deeply dissapointed in OR-BOMB-EO. He's a packaged prez candidate, and empty suit designed to piss off nobody, and be everything to everybody.

Anonymous said...

Working with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Obama won enactment of a law creating a single, searchable database of all federal contracts, grants and loans.

He also partnered with senior Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, the former chairman of the Foreign Relations panel, to sponsor legislation to strengthen international efforts to destroy conventional weapons, though it did not advance out of committee.

*

There you have it, FOR ONE FUCKING LAW that OR-BOMB-EO got through, it was CO-AUTHORED by a rePUG!!!!!!!

ENOUGH FUCKING SAID!!!!!!!!!

OR-BOMB-EO & PALIN are the McSAME.

Anonymous said...

BP below is an article from SF LEFT, on how OR-BOMB-EO is losing, and how he can WIN!!! Will he fucking follow orders? I doubt it, like the above article says he came to power by being mcEasy, mcNobody, mcNoOffense, he's McPlain; and Mc$ain is kicking his ass.

***

Democrats are ignoring their own counsel to campaign as if John McCain's running mate is George Bush. While urban sophisticates look in horror at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a kind of reality show run amok, John McCain has gained his first lead in the Real Clear Politics electoral college map. Battleground polls are tightening in dangerous places for Barack Obama, like Minnesota, where the latest poll now has the two men tied.

The more Palin is attacked, the higher her currency rises. Call it the Hillary effect, especially among older, independent women. The Obama campaign is rolling out Joe Biden today to accuse Republicans of going into the gutter. They're getting sucked right into the partisan wars that Republicans are so adept at. Gone is Obama's post-partisan image that undergirded his astonishing rise.

Obama needs a Sister Souljah moment to distinguish himself to independent and weak Republican voters who are agreeing with GOP claims that Obama is a classic liberal Democrat, and sliding right into the familiar ground of the culture wars. Obama has a golden opportunity with the U.S. financial system falling apart at the seams.

Congressional Democrats were and remain the leading defenders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, promising to resist efforts to shrink the companies, now under government control, and sell off their assets. Democrats had plenty of help from Republicans, to be sure, but it was mainly conservatives who have been warning for more than a decade that their public risk/private profit model was a disaster waiting to happen.

If Obama were to use the financial crisis to rise again above partisan orthodoxy, he might shake people out of their party ruts that they are fast falling into. He would have to do so in a way that people understand -- borrowing from the master, Bill Clinton. Obama's unwillingness to take on his own party is his weakness and McCain's strength.

And where is Bill? Maybe he'll do whatever he's asked, as he promised last week. Or maybe he's waiting for Obama's public apology for standing by silently as his surrogates painted the "first black president" as a racist.

The last time a non-Southern Democrat won the White House was in 1960. Obama needs to figure out how to connect with voters he has been unable to reach, and do it fast, because they're making up their minds now.

Anonymous said...

If Obama were to use the financial crisis to rise again above partisan orthodoxy, he might shake people out of their party ruts that they are fast falling into. He would have to do so in a way that people understand -- borrowing from the master, Bill Clinton. Obama's unwillingness to take on his own party is his weakness and McCain's strength.

*

This is the essential truth. Where PUSSY,HBM,&DUNC fall flat.

BUSTER&Tim, want OR-BOMB-EO to take on his pathetic DEM-PARTY, but he'll NOT and this is why he'll lose.

I hate the DEM's & PUG's, but like HBM poster todays shows, the PUG's have been EVIL, and DEM's are being fucking idiots.

OR-BOMB-EO is a PUSSY he's afraid to offend his worthless shit eating party. You can see why, look at DUNC this past week, and bumbling idiot, why offend these people?? They'll not listen to the truth.

I'll tell you folks, if OR-BOMB-EO was running as a PUG, he would win in a nano-second. ROVE would SELL OBAMA tomorrow if the election were tomorrow.

Pug's listen to one another, DEM's tune each other OUT, and this is why they're losers!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I think I will change that to Beans, bullets and BOOZE.

Anonymous said...

Shit MARGE, if you start keeping BOOZE around the house, I'll never leave, is this what you really want?

A real indy woman doesn't need a man around 24/7.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the reserves weren't enough to keep AIG alive, now PAULSON has to reach into GOLDMAN to keep AIG alive. Remember AIG is the MOB, this is the one that counts. Fuck the rest. AIG folds there goes INSURANCE, I wonder where the FUCK BUFFET is right now, being AWFUL FUCKING SILENT.

***

The Wall Street Journal

Sept. 15, 2008

In an effort to prop up giant insurer American International Group, the Federal Reserve on Monday asked Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase to help make $70 billion to $75 billion in loans available to the company, according to people familiar with the situation. AIG shares dropped by more than half in trading Monday

Anonymous said...

yep, hunch confirmed, ...

The Dominoes Continue to Fall
Gold Seek - 1 hour ago
AIG is involved in rescue talks with Warren Buffet and has also sought an emergency $40 bln bridge loan from the Fed. The company has reportedly been

Anonymous said...

The Quest to Save America
Our problems, what's in Danger, and what can be affected.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Warren Buffet's methodology of choosing common stocks involves one of several principles: there will be a point in time when every company must return to a stock value such that it reflects its true intrinsic value.

In a time of managerial testing that demands all energy from all firms in Wall Street, it seems inevitable that the stock value of these companies must reflect their true intrinsic value. The problem is that some of these companies have intrinsic values close to zero - we can see that the market is weeding out these firms as we speak.

Now, every man and woman in America have put in place a new mental guard, aimed at controlling the impulses that put future incomes and comfort at risk; all probably too late. How far can this go? What is next? Who will be affected by this Irrational Exuberance once accommodated by Wall Street?

There may be a simple answer to that question. If we remember possibly the only useful tool in macroeconomics, the circular flow diagram of income and production, we remember that savings and securities investment flows into the financial system. That money then makes its way into firms that will use that flow of capital for investment and expansion. As any reasonable person would conclude, the financial system is the heart of growth in any country.

Let's garnish this network of economic systems with today's problems. Many households defaulted on sub-prime mortgages that are putting mortgage institutions in a hot seat. This develops into an issue for investment banks that traded and sold securities, backed by these junk-bond-like mortgages, to their clients. Now investment banks that heavily invested in these securities are falling apart.

The result is only a declining confidence, which places our financial system at risk. If people don't pump money into the very institutions that serve as trading centers for securities in the private and public sectors, then they will collapse. We are currently seeing Lehman Brothers and possibly Goldman Sachs on life support.

If these companies collapse, everyday Americans will lose their pension funds, mutual funds, and the various forms of security derivatives their future depends on. This collapse will then fall into the commercial banking sector.

The companies that use your money as loans to pay for all sorts of management issues may not be able to pay back - just as Lehman Brothers has filed bankruptcy. This will cause banks to lose your money, and that may create another bank-run, just like the beginning of the Great Depression.

Milton Friedman, along with several other economists, concluded that the Great Depression resulted from a lack of dispatch of liquidity from the Federal Reserve. Ben Bernanke, whom many call a student of the Great Depression, will seek to cure his inherited problem by doing just the opposite - making available to the financial community the dollars necessary to remain alive, as opposed to stable. Depending on whether Bernanke believes our current situation to emulate the Great Depression or the Stagflation era of the 70's, he will decide to keep interest rates low to evade a situation like the former, but will raise interest rates to avoid the latter.

The Great Depression dealt with a banking crisis similar to the one we are dealing with today. If this situation has a closer fit to today, then interest rates will remain low. To be honest, a collapse of the financial system is much worse than Carter's stagflation. With no financial system, and no flow of capital, there will be no growth - just like in the third world.
But expect one thing to happen as a result of this liquidity expansion: inflation and thus prices will continue to rise. To avert this problem, take your savings and exchange those 20% cotton sheets of paper for commodities with stable values.

Anonymous said...

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
(Public, NYSE:BRK.A)

*

The street likes what Warren is doing, his stock BRK.A is up today.

Anonymous said...

Felt like floating the Deschutes today went to REI for some kit to fix my raft, nobody on upper floor ( staff ), I asked what gives at the check-out counter. They said they can't meet payroll, and have let people go.

Sounds like REI doesn't have much time left, if they're not selling enough SHIT to tourists NOW, what the fuck will it be in a few months??

On that note, the new Pastini was packed outside, nothing like $6/meal Italian, remember Bend is the new ASS-PEN.

Anonymous said...

#1 VIDEO: Tina Fey plays Sarah Palin on 'SNL'


Google the above and watch it, great stuff.

Palin is herself, HRC is a riot.

Anonymous said...

GREENSPAN SAYS WORST EVER NOW!

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan offered a woeful outlook of America's economic situation on Sunday, saying the crisis with the country's financial institutions was as dire as he had ever seen in his long career, and predicting that one or more of those institutions would likely collapse in the near future.

"Oh, by far," Greenspan said, when asked if the situation was the worst he had seen in his career. "There's no question that this is in the process of outstripping anything I've seen and it still is not resolved and still has a way to go and, indeed, it will continue to be a corrosive force until the price of homes in the United States stabilizes. That will induce a series of events around the globe which will stabilize the system."

Appearing on ABC's This Week, Greenspan would not definitively say whether the government should come to the rescue of Lehman Brothers, which has been forced to consider a possible sale after its stock shares plunged drastically this past week. Instead he called the situation surrounding the investment bank -- and the bailout that occurred this past spring of Bear Stearns -- as a "once in a half century, probably once in a century type of event."

The circumstances for Lehman may, as Greenspan noted, be different. Bloomberg News reported on Friday: "Rising speculation that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. may fail is generating less concern among investors than when Bear Stearns Cos. imploded in March."

Much of the issue, Greenspan added, was the trouble in the housing market, which he predicted would become stabilized by next year. Pressed by host George Stephanopoulos as to whether another major financial institution -- such as the struggling Washington Mutual, American International Group, or Merrill Lynch -- would fail in the interim, the former Fed chair responded in the affirmative.

"I suspect we will [see one fail]," he said, "but in and of itself that does not need to be a problem. It depends on how it's handled and how the liquidations take place. And, indeed, we shouldn't try to protect every single institution. the ordinary cost of financial change has winners and losers."

In light of these dynamics, Greenspan noted that the government was left with tough decisions: which institutions are "so fundamental to the functioning" of society that they demanded a federal safety net? Earlier in the week, the former fed chairman noted that such choses extended to tax policy as well. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Greenspan argued that the country couldn't afford the tax cuts being proposed by John McCain without an equally massive reduction in spending.

"I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money," he said. "I always have tied tax cuts to spending."

Anonymous said...

PDS

The Left has lost it. The uncontrolled vitriol from the Media, the Obama campaign and Left-wing fruit-cakes from Moveon.org and The Daily Kos is unprecedented in modern campaigns. Such fear has Governor Sarah Palin provoked on the Left that nothing short of her destruction can be tolerated. A column written on September 13, 2008 by Mary Mitchell in the Chicago Sun Times reflects the derangement on the Left that has reached delusional heights.

As has been noted by many conservative writers and talk show hosts, Governor Palin represents the threat of an earth shattering power shift away from the Left, which supports government solutions and a nanny state to a message of self-reliance, empowerment and independent success. Governor Palin represents the American Dream. She comes from humble beginnings and has paid her dues to get where she is without any power brokers or party machines to help her get there and certainly without “Big Brother’s” hand. In fact, Governor Palin has had to fight her own party to get where she is.

Obama on the other hand has been guided and propped up by a wide range of radical Left Wing party bosses dating back to the radical Khalid al-Mansour (ties to Saudi Arabia and other things) terrorist William Ayers, Rezko, Reverend Wright, etc., etc. The boring laundry list of Obama’s disgraceful associates has been blogged about endlessly, yet Barry would be nothing without these miscreants. And don’t forget the help of a friendly media complicit in hiding anything about Obama that might threaten his candidacy. Even with such a slobbering media man-crush, this candidate can barely keep even with McCain.

To date, the worst thing that the Democrat Party (CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS) can come up with against Governor Palin is that she tried to have her former brother in law fired (a police officer) for tasering her nephew, making death threats against her father and drinking on duty. The other unforgivable act was keeping a baby with Downs’s syndrome. By the way Barry, you are running against McCain, not Governor Palin. Quit worrying about Sarah being a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, it tends to remind us that you would be in that office from day one. Not a comforting thought.

In addition to the media deity fest for Obama, we also get enlightening political advice from professional strippers/whores like Pamela Anderson with this gem, “she can suck it.” Evidently Ms. Anderson has expertise in that department as her home movies show. Matt Damon stuttered his way through a criticism of Palin attacking her qualifications because she was a mayor and a Governor of Alaska for just under two years. Has Matt looked at how long Obama has been a Senator? There is a reason most Presidents have been Governors, because they run governments. I guess geniuses like Matt Damon or Joy Behar (of the Left View) believe that 143 days in the Senate where you are 1 out of a 100 and two years of campaigning for President is a reasonable substitute for a record. And don’t forget that Obama was a “community organizer” (look up Saul Alinsky agitator for a description). That should help Obama “stare down Putin” according to Matt Damon.

The fact is, Governor Palin has more executive experience than both Obama and Biden put together. She runs a state budget over 12 billion dollars with over 60,000 employees. Obama claims that running his campaign is executive experience. So now we know that if you don’t have executive experience for President, then it is sufficient to run your own campaign for President to gain executive experience. I guess that makes sense? Governor Palin hammered out an agreement on a new pipeline that had been bogged down by fighting for over 20 years. What can Obama point to as a success in his career, being the only state Senator who opposed the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act?”

Palin’s personal choices in her life are her own. Isn’t that a tenet of the Left, that a woman’s choice is sacred or does it only count if you vacuum out your “choice?” The experience question is a canard and the public knows it. No amount of derision, sneering, condescension or lies from metrosexuals such as Keith Olberman, Matt Damon or any other dimwit will change what most common sense Americans know to be true, that Sarah Palin is a decent and qualified candidate for Vice President.

When the question of which ticket represents security, change, hope and honor, the clear answer is McCain/Palin. Both McCain and Palin represent very different approaches to the White House than previous tickets. McCain often bucks his own party and Palin couldn’t be more of an outsider. Questions of Palin’s readiness will fade after she wins her debate with Biden. The only question is when will Obama dump Biden for medical reasons and put either Gov. Sebelius or Sen. Clinton on the ticket. Don’t be surprised, there is nothing that people obsessed will power will not do to gain it.

Anonymous said...

BP, here is mc$ains cabinet picks, where are the ones for OR-BOMB-EO??

***

McCain Cabinet, V1.0. Here it is then, all wrapped up: a pretty good starting point for John McCain's administration.

Vice President: Sarah Palin

State: James Woolsey

Defense: David Petraeus

Treasury: Christopher Cox

Justice: Rudy Giuliani

Homeland Security: Thad Allen

HHS: Bobby Jindal

Agriculture: Marilyn Musgrave

Interior: Felix P. Camacho

Commerce: Herman Cain

Labor: Jodi Rell

HUD: Carson Ross

Transportation: Mary Fallin

Education: Clint Bolick

Energy: Barbara Cubin

Veterans: Joe Campa

OMB: Mike Pence

Trade: Michael Steele

EPA: James Inhofe

Drug Czar: Carlton Kent

Anonymous said...

A man 24/7 might be nice. I could get some crap work done around here that I don't want to do anymore. Had to pay one today to stain my decks. I have been meanin to git round to it and finally paid my pal to do it. The old back and knees just aren' as young as they used to be.
Sorry I haven't been posting much about RE, there just isn't anything to talk about, other than it's Slooooooooow.

Anonymous said...

OK, now below is the OBAMA cabinet. Now lets enjoy the debate.

***

Stocking an Obama Cabinet

THE ECONOMIST

Not everyone believes in Barack Obama's promise to change Washington. But at least the faces will change. Should he win the White House, Obama will bring in a new team to run the federal government, the Oval Office and the Democratic Party.

Sitting Republicans will be out. So, too, will be many members of the Democratic establishment, long exiled to the Brookings Institution and similar perches to await the return of Hillary Clinton.

Who will run the country if the voters decide, Yes, He Can?

On domestic matters, Obama has assembled a team of sharp academic economists who premise their work on his supposed ability to sell sophisticated policy. Most prominent has been Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago professor whom many expect to head a President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.

Goolsbee's record suggests neither the hostility to globalized capitalism nor the desire for large-scale redistribution that conservatives, spooked by tales of Obama's left-wing record, might fear: Goolsbee is a problem solver who favors such unsexy proposals as altering U.S. tax forms.

He got into trouble this year for telling Canadians not to worry too much about the candidate's anti-NAFTA rhetoric on the campaign trail.

From Harvard, Obama plucked Jeffrey Liebman, who has produced good research on the earned-income tax credit and its role in moving people from welfare to work, and David Cutler, a health economist who wants doctors' pay tied to medical outcomes.

As of last week, though, Obama's newly appointed economics director is Jason Furman, an economist in the Clinton administration. His presence rebuts criticism that Obama's team has too little policymaking experience.

Furman, too, hews to the center, heading Washington's Hamilton Project, co-founded by Bob Rubin, once Clinton's treasury secretary.

Furman is a staunch free-trader who once praised Wal-Mart and has favored lowering corporate taxes. With a Ph.D. from Harvard, he, also, does not lack for academic credentials.

Bill Galston, a senior adviser to Clinton, argues that the campaign, for all its braininess, has so far failed to frame its proposals in a "narrative" about the economy. But the campaign's post-ideological message may fit into a broader theme about Obama's style of politics: that he can unite Americans behind reasoned policy as problems pile up.

Obama's plans for "change" are most concrete in his determination to leave Iraq. Indeed, his early opposition to the war attracted seasoned foreign-policy practitioners who also disapproved of the invasion.

The biggest name among them is Tony Lake, Clinton's national security adviser, who taught the ex-president how to salute and who toiled to bring peace to the Balkans.

Susan Rice, Clinton's assistant secretary of state for African affairs, is a possible national security adviser. The Rwandan genocide deeply affected Rice, who wants more done to end killing in Darfur; her prominence suggests that President Obama might attend more closely to north-south issues.

Before resigning from the campaign for calling Clinton a monster, Samantha Power, an academic who has written about genocide, tried to soften Obama's commitment to pull all troops out of Iraq. She will probably find a place in an Obama administration.

The campaign boasts some former military brass, including Richard Danzig, a secretary of the Navy and possible defense secretary. Obama is also likely to bring in experienced ground commanders such as Wesley Clark. And, despite tales of a deep mutual antipathy between Lake and Richard Holbrooke, it would be foolish to rule the pugnacious Holbrooke out of contention.

But policymaking is harder than writing theories. First, one must get elected. Afterward, one must win battles with Congress and the public. For both, Obama will look to his political team.

Foremost is David Axelrod, the man who made "change" into a campaign theme. His consultancy helped elect two mayors in rough-and-tumble Chicago, and he can deliver a punch: He was once accused of producing an ad making an opponent resemble Hitler.

Even so, he seems a true believer in Obama's hopeful rhetoric. "I find myself getting very emotional about it," he told the Los Angeles Times. All assume he will be Obama's Karl Rove.

Also surrounding Obama are well-connected Chicagoans who supported his Senate run in 2004. Valerie Jarrett, an ex-head of the Chicago Stock Exchange, is the person who can tell the Obamas uncomfortable truths.

Penny Pritzker, the campaign's finance chairwoman and a property billionaire, supposedly joined the campaign after her husband banged their kitchen door, proclaiming, "This is destiny knocking on the door of our nation," (though the couple seem normal in other respects).

A big part of Obama's success, though, is due to the Democratic operators he lured from elsewhere. His campaign manager, David Plouffe, formerly with ex-Rep. Dick Gephardt, is disciplined and parsimonious, overseeing the amassing of the biggest political piggybank ever seen and orchestrating victories in small, organization-intensive caucus states.

Plouffe's chief organizers are Steve Hildebrand and Paul Tewes, who ran Al Gore's successful Iowa caucus bid in 2000. Tewes will soon move to the Democratic National Committee to head its presidential campaign effort and consolidate Obama's control of the party.

Tom Daschle, a former Senate majority leader, could help Obama's team put pressure on Congress without alienating its members, a problem that can dog first-term presidents.

The ambition of Obama's team is exciting, but in office it could be dangerous. In 1993, the Clintons tripped up quickly.

What if Congress doesn't care for the finely tuned policies of Obama's top-notch economists? Or if Obama finds he can't pull out of Iraq as planned? Or if Americans tire of his charisma and he stops attracting adoring crowds?

The lynchpin of his campaign has been a faith, almost messianic, in his personal excellence. If that fades, the whole operation could collapse in frustration and disillusionment.

Anonymous said...

Sorry I haven't been posting much about RE, there just isn't anything to talk about, other than it's Slooooooooow.

*

Everything here is slow. The cheap restaurants are about all that's happening.

I think this is the main reason dunc had his 'brain fart'.

First the taxes hit him, and then the drop-off in biz.

Everyone I'm talking to everywhere I go is talking about laying EVERYONE off.

Anonymous said...

The lynchpin of his campaign has been a faith, almost messianic, in his personal excellence. If that fades, the whole operation could collapse in frustration and disillusionment.


*

So there I took the SEATTLE-PI ( most liberal in US ), and right-wing think tanks on McCain/Obama cabinet. The Pug's are up and running, lean & mean ( very mean ).

Obama really reminds me of 'being there', and that other movie where the guy wins and says 'now what do we do'. How much thought? Obama is about dreams and hope, and the pugs are talking about rolling up their sleeves and cleaning up the bush-shit!

BP, I have asked you for weeks, HOW IS OBAMA going to clean up the BUSH-SHIT? I asked DUNC, How is OBAMA going to FIX BEND?

Whether it be the Seattle-PI, or the Atlantic Monthly bastions of LEFT-intellectual thought, the recurring theme is what if our boy runs out of gas?

The average US citizen knows that his country if FUCKED. The pug's know there is still stuff to steal. The DEM's need to have MORE than MESSIANIC-FAITH, & HOPE!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Obama's plans for "change" are most concrete in his determination to leave Iraq. Indeed, his early opposition to the war attracted seasoned foreign-policy practitioners who also disapproved of the invasion.

*

This is what is really sad, even his OWN people are enable to pin down any kind of change, other than Iraq!!

Fucking mind boggling.

Nothing else is concrete, nothing else is known. We're all supposed to just wait & hope, per the pussy.

Anonymous said...

"How McCain Broke My Heart"

I have never voted for a Republican in a presidential race since I cast my first ballot in 1968. In the following forty years, Gerald Ford and Robert Dole being the sole exceptions, I actively disliked the Republican nominee. Even when I knew my vote was useless, I always got a little tingle of satisfaction in throwing a snowball at the silk top hat of the fat rich guy. I was not going to vote for John McCain. However, when my friends would chortle over his imminent defeat, I felt no joy whatsoever, because I have personally seen John McCain at his best.

It was a snowy evening in December during the Iowa caucus campaign. My brother Don, a college professor visiting from California, who had been chastising us for not taking more advantage of the opportunity that is presented only to Iowa and New Hampshire residents to actually SEE all the candidates personally, discovered that McCain, barely working the state, had scheduled a short stop at the Pipac Center in Cedar Falls to talk with a religious group we had never heard of. He strongly urged that we go. This seemed an excellent idea, but because he had also recently confessed to voting for George Bush in 2004, my wife regarded any of his suggestions as patently stupid, and it was only after we threw in an overly expensive dinner that she relented.

We explained to the door monitors that we were registered Democrats who really admired McCain and would like to meet him. As my wife rolled her eyes in embarrassment, I was pleasantly surprised at their kindness as they welcomed us into what was supposed to be a "closed and private" gathering.

When we entered I quickly understood why we had not been turned away. There were no more than 50 people at the event! His campaign was in such disarray that even free food could not seem to attract a crowd. This conservative audience politely voiced their disagreements about his stands on global warming, immigration, campaign reform, and cooperating with Democrats. If ever there was a time to pander and grovel this was it. But that did not happen!

His responses:

"Sir, you are wrong about global warming. I have been there I have seen it. It is real."

"I made a mistake on immigration. I realize we have to secure the border before we do anything else." He then implored the crowd to show Christian kindness, love, and respect to those "unfortunate people who were only trying to better their lives."

"We have to take big money out of politics. The country needs to work for the people." He knew it was not a popular stand with this crowd, but he talked of how proud he was that he had sided with some Democrats to at least start a process that had halted some of the abuses that had plagued the system.

"When I joined the Gang of 14 to stop one side of the senate from invoking closure on the minority, I was pilloried by my own party. But I knew that what goes around comes around. It is funny that my Republican brothers, now that they have lost their majority, don't think, in retrospect, it was such a bad idea."

It was at that moment that my brother whispered in my ear "this is why I love this guy." "Me too," I replied. And I truly meant it.

After spending some time with the senator I became even more impressed with his soft-spoken kindness. There was absolutely no guile in the man. That is why, as we left the meeting, Don and I were in total agreement that he had NO CHANCE of being nominated. If an Obama precinct captain and renegade Democrat had more respect for the man than the registered Republicans in attendance his situation was hopeless.

Obviously we were very wrong. Using his "maverick" credentials he managed to eke out victories with independent and crossover voters while never getting a majority of registered Republicans until late in the process. This could never have happened under the Democratic proportional system, but I was elated! The Midwest and southern parts of the Democratic Party are far less liberal than the more prominent Pelosi-Schumer left and right coasts, and there is always a toning down of the extremes on almost any issue. Firmly believing this is where Senator Obama's actual tendencies lie, I still intended to vote for him but felt that even if McCain, a person of good will and rational conservative ideals, were to occupy the White House there just might be a real bridge to the middle ground that the vast majority of Americans crave.

That dream died with surprising suddenness. John has now aligned himself with the very elements of his party who have maligned him most cruelly. Liberal Democrats can be vicious and silly, but even The Daily Kos has never had the stomach to unleash the vitriol that the fanatical right has routinely heaped on him throughout his career. His opposition to the fundamentalist takeover of the Republican Party is what made his reputation with the country at large but by choosing Sarah Palin he has now embraced the religious dogma and political posturing that he has always disdained. The very extremists who labeled Chuck Grassley "too liberal" to deserve a delegate spot at the convention have now been handed a back door opportunity, after massive failure at every level, to maintain power. Why would they not be "energized"?

I still love John McCain for what he was, but while voting against him will not be satisfying, it will be easier than I could have contemplated a month ago. He has become the kind face fronting for a darker reality; however, should he win in November, I will do something daily that I strongly suspect some of his "supporters" will not; I will be praying for his good health.

Anonymous said...

From the LA-TIMES (LEFT), nobody can tell the difference between Mc$ane & OR-PUSSY-EO; THEYRE the SAME!!

***

President Bush, Barack Obama, John McCain: The same foreign policy?

And now, some think, the convergence of the Bush, Obama and McCain foreign policies

Some say that U.S. foreign policy under President Bush in his second term has evolved to the point that it looks much like the foreign policy put forward by Barack Obama.

Others argue that Obama has moved closer to John McCain.

Whichever it is, there may be evolving a convergence on the subject of ... convergence.

News media outlets as diverse as the Washington Post, the Weekly Standard and the U.S.-German website Across the Pond are all taking note.

To one degree or another, they found at least a smidgen of commonality in various elements of the Obama-McCain-Bush foreign policies, whether involving their response to the Georgian-Russian war, deadlines (or the "time horizon" in the Bush administration's parlance) for troop withdrawals from Iraq, high-level diplomatic negotiations with Iran and North Korea, or the need, as the Washington Post wrote, "to shift troops and other resources from Iraq to Afghanistan."

Here, in summary, is what they found:

The Washington Post noted "an Obama presidency might look a bit like Bush's second."

On a range of major foreign policy issues over the past year, Bush has pursued strategies and actions very much along the lines of what Sen. Obama has advocated during his presidential race, according to the Illinois Democrat's campaign and many diplomatic and security experts.

The conservative Weekly Standard observed that in the days after the Russian-Georgian clash last month, Obama "began to sound more like ... McCain."

Every so often he would emerge from his vacation digs in Hawaii and ratchet up the rhetoric.

And Across the Pond found that it was Bush who was coming to sound something like Obama:

On Iraq, on meeting with controversial foreign leaders, and most recently, on conducting operations inside Pakistan without its permission to go after Al Qaeda.

--James Gerstenzang

Anonymous said...

The Washington Post noted "an Obama presidency might look a bit like Bush's second."

*

What more needs to be said, and this is why he's called OR-BOMB-EO, an OREO, that BOMB's just like the twisted and retarded Shrub.

Anonymous said...

The following came out in May of 2008, dealing with 'leaks' from the US house on economic collapse in Sep 2008, and civil war in 2009, and gun confiscating.

* Something to think about.

Let’s examine some of the claims being made: On March 18, 2008, a “closed door” session of Congress was held for only the fourth time in history. According to House Rule XVII, clause 9, it is forbidden for members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reveal the discussions held behind those doors. The penalty for leaking such information includes loss of seniority, fines, reprimand, censure or expulsion. According to news sources, one purpose of the meetings was to discuss new surveillance techniques to be used by U.S. Homeland Security. Rumors continue to swirl as to what the other topics of discussion took place in that meeting.

According to the Australia.TO newspaper, as reported in the May 2008 Last Trumpet Newsletter (LTM), several congressmen were so incensed about what was discussed behind those doors that they were compelled to leak the contents of the meeting. Following is what is rumored to have been discussed: Imminent collapse of the U.S. economy by September 2008; imminent collapse of the U.S. Government finances by February 2009; possibility of civil war within the U.S. resulting from the collapse; detainment of “insurgent U.S. citizens” in anticipation of their moving against the government; the potential for violent action taken by citizens against members of Congress due to the collapses; the merger of the U.S. economy with those of Canada and Mexico as a solution to the collapse; the introduction of a new tri-national currency called the “AMERO” as another economic solution.

Needless to say, that’s a lot of information to process. Unfortunately none of it can be verified and it essentially falls under the category of rumor and as such must be treated as suspect. It brings to mind another rumor that had the Internet community abuzz last September regarding the so-called “Bin Laden options trade.” You may recall the rumors that circulated across many Internet sites in Sept. 2007. The rumors concerned an unknown trader(s) placing options bets on the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Eurostoxx50 index that wouldn’t pay off unless a 25%+ crash occurred by options expiration that same month. These high-profile “mystery” trades were used by several independent and mainstream media outlets to conjure up images of another 9/11-type terrorist episode.

The end result was that the stock market rallied sharply shortly after the stories appeared and several indices made new all-time highs in October. The terrorist event that was conjured up by the options trade never came to pass.

Now before you dismiss me as a Pollyanna, let me say that there does ring a certain measure of truth to the rumor concerning an economic collapse. There wouldn’t be as much fear generated over the headlines, nor would they be as widely circulated as they have been, if there wasn’t. The fact that many people even consider these stories as being potentially true is revealing of the mindset of Americans today: they are nervous about the economy, scared over high oil and gas prices and none too happy over the housing price deflation. So we can imagine how easily someone might be swayed by a rumor of this magnitude. More than anything else, the rumors of an imminent financial and economic collapse are symptomatic of a wounded mass psyche.

The next consideration is that even if the substance of the rumor is untrue (to say nothing of the projected timeline), the fact that many are inclined to believe it doesn’t reflect well, nor does it bode well, for the government. When rumors like this one begin to spread, and are believed even in part, it is a vote of no confidence for the government and monetary authorities. While such problems can be remedied with short term solutions, the longer term implications are disturbing and are much harder to remedy.

The Fed may well have dodged the bullet this time but in so doing it has created for itself a new set of difficulties down the road. Those challenges can only be viewed properly through the lens of the long-term Kress cycles. Quoting Machiavelli, “It is in the nature of things that you can never escape one setback without running into another.”

In the here and now, consumers are feeling the weight of high gas and food prices. An article appeared in the May 14 edition of the Washington Post bearing the headline: “Burdened by the weight of inflation, standards of living are challenged.” The article reported the results of a Washington Post/ABC News poll which surveyed households across the socio-economic spectrum.

The poll found that nearly 7 in 10 are concerned with their ability to keep up their lifestyles high. Moreover, those expressing concern are not only from the lower and middle classes but also from upper income levels. The results showed a significant spike in just the last five months when a previous poll was taken. The Post reported that anxiety over the economy is at its highest level since 1981.

The poll found that 40% of respondents are “somewhat worried” about their standard of living, compared to 34% in December 2007. Of those saying they are “very worried”, the number is 28% compared to 17% in December. The combined totals for these worried responses equals 51% in December compared to 68% today.

Among other findings of the poll is that the top five economic worries among consumers are:

1. Inflation
2. Gasoline
3. Healthcare costs
4. Taxes
5. Jobs

The Post also asked respondents to give their reasons why they think oil and gas prices are as high as they are today. The top responses were:

1. Greed/profit motive of the oil companies
2. Iraq war
3. George Bush

With nationwide gas prices hovering precariously close to $4.00/gallon, the poll found that many respondents had already cut back on their driving habits and were more inclined to use public transportation. Of those who haven’t cut back on their driving, the poll asked what the gas price would have to be to make them drive less. The average response was $5.65/gallon.

How have the authorities responded to the problems that Americans are now facing? The Congresses’ response to the economic malaise has been the approval of a “tax relief” bill which provides a few paltry hundreds for the purpose of stimulating the retail economy. But will this measure succeed in winning a vote of confidence from the people?

Let’s turn once again to the wisdom of the one of Machiavelli for the answer. Machiavelli, in his Discourses on Livy, wrote that “no ruler should…wait for dangerous times in order to win over the populace.” He stated further that “in the eyes of the populace, it will not be that ruler who grants them their new benefits, but his enemy, and they will have every reason to fear that once the adversity has passed, their ruler will take back what he was forced to give. Consequently, the populace will not feel bound to him in any way.”

Since the announcement that $600 checks would be mailed to taxpayers in the form of “relief”, we’ve heard nothing but criticism from the taxpayers. The remarks range from, “Bush is borrowing the money from Red China,” to “we’ll have to pay it all back in next year’s taxes,” to “$600 won’t cover my expenses for even a month!”

As Machiavelli informs us in his Discourses, a government “must try to foresee what adversity might befall it, and that a government “which acts otherwise…and then believes that during perilous times it can win back the populace with benefits is deceiving itself. Not only will [it] not win over the populace, but it will bring about its own ruin.”

To this end, an article appearing in the May 14 edition of the Financial Times addressed the evolving monetary policy of the Federal Reserve in dealing with asset “bubbles.” The old-line method employed by former Fed Chief Greenspan was to wait for the bubble to burst, then belatedly attack the problem. Of this unwise policy we have only to consult Machiavelli…or simply look at the results of Greenspan’s many policy blunders in recent years.

In the wake of the latest blunders, the Bernanke-led Fed is examining the role the Fed should play in lancing asset price bubbles before they burst. How successful the Fed will be in implementing its new strategy remains to be seen. With time running out on the 120-year cycle clock, the economic winds are not against their back as was the case in the 1990s.

To that end, beginning sometime around the summer of 2009, we’ll be entering a period that not a single one of us has ever experienced before. The last of the Kress long-term cycles peaks at that time, namely the 10-year cycle. From that point until 2014 there won’t be any yearly cycle of long-term consequence in the ascending phase, a configuration that hasn’t been seen since the 1890s. The 120-year Master Cycle will be in its final “hard down” phase and the government along with the monetary authorities will be confronted with many challenges and obstacles.

It’s very easy, though, to get wrapped up in the fear that anticipating this coming event will bring. Fear is paralyzing and causes us to miss opportunities we might otherwise recognize were we not under its grip. As Jesus said, “Sufficient until the day is the evil thereof.” Let’s not get caught in the trap of constantly fearing the problems of the years to come when we have today to concern ourselves with.

Let’s turn now to the present stock market outlook. In my April 24 commentary entitled, “At last, good news is on the way!”, I pointed out that “beneath the surface of this stock market, things are improving more and more each week. It won’t be long now before eventually those individual stock prices start moving higher in response to the market’s internal improvement.” This statement was a reference to the dramatic improvement in the stock market’s internal momentum indicators, which show the 30-day, 90-day and 120-day internal rate of change for the NYSE broad market. These indicators are in turn reflections of the dominant interim cycles.

Since then the stock market has been in recovery mode with the S&P 400 Mid-cap index (MID) showing the most impressive rally of the major indices. Take a look at the progression of the mid-cap stocks since the March price bottom. The Mid-cap index is now at a high for the year and has completely recovered the damage inflicted by the sell-off in December-January. Besides being a good barometer of the corporate outlook, the MID is also a good leading indicator for the S&P 500.

The stock market continues its upward bias in spite of a lack of broad participation from sidelined investors. The rally up until now has been of the “phantom” variety in the sense that few have participated in it. Billions of dollars in cash remains in low-yielding money market and other “safe haven” funds as the crowd demands more proof of recovery before jumping back into the stock market. This speaks to the paralyzing fear that has many investors in its grip. By looking at the cycles, however, we don’t have to be controlled by fear. Instead, we can put fear aside and take advantage of the opportunities the market hands to us along the way in this once-in-a-lifetime adventure on the road to the 120-year cycle.

Anonymous said...

Following is what is rumored to have been discussed: Imminent collapse of the U.S. economy by September 2008; imminent collapse of the U.S. Government finances by February 2009; possibility of civil war within the U.S. resulting from the collapse; detainment of “insurgent U.S. citizens” in anticipation of their moving against the government; the potential for violent action taken by citizens against members of Congress due to the collapses; the merger of the U.S. economy with those of Canada and Mexico as a solution to the collapse; the introduction of a new tri-national currency called the “AMERO” as another economic solution.

Anonymous said...

With the US empire crumbling, perhaps its time to revisit Gore Vidal, who foresaw all.

*

Gore Vidal Interview
By David Barsamian

Gore Vidal is a gold mine of quips and zingers. And his vast knowledge of literature and history—particularly American—makes for an impressive figure. His razor-sharp tongue lacerates the powerful. He does it with aplomb, saying, “Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” He has a wry sense of noblesse oblige: “There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.”

Now eighty, he lives in the Hollywood hills in a modest mansion with immodest artwork. I felt I was entering a museum of Renaissance art. A stern painting of the Emperor Constantine was looking down upon us as we sat in his majestic living room. A Buddha statue from Thailand stood nearby. But all was not somber. He had a Bush doll with a 9/11 bill sticking out of it on a table behind us.

His aristocratic pedigree is evident not just in his artistic sophistication but also in his locution. In a war of words, few can contend with Vidal.

“I’m a lover of the old republic and I deeply resent the empire our Presidents put in its place,” he declares.

Vidal moved gingerly and was using a cane. A recent knee operation left him less mobile. He says, “The mind is still agile but the knees have grown weak.” We sat in upholstered chairs. On a nearby table I saw the galleys of his second memoir, Point to Point Navigation. It will be out this fall. His earlier one, Palimpsest, came out in 1995.

Prolific does not even begin to describe Vidal’s literary output. He’s the author of scores of novels, plays, screenplays, essays. In 1993, he won the National Book Award for his collection of essays, United States. His recent books (he calls them “pamphlets”)—Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, Dreaming War, and Imperial America—have sold in huge numbers. When I asked him what was the point of his work, he said, “I am chronicling America.” The prose, whether polemical or fictional, is elegant.

Distantly related to Jackie Kennedy, he does not romanticize JFK. “He was one of the most charming men I’ve ever known,” says Vidal. “He was also one of the very worst Presidents.”

He’s been a Democratic candidate for the House from New York and for the Senate from California. Today, he ridicules the Democrats for supineness.

He sees a certain continuity in U.S. foreign policy over the last fifty years. “The management, then and now, truly believes the United States is the master of the Earth and anyone who defies us will be napalmed or blockaded or covertly overthrown,” he says. “We are beyond law, which is not unusual for an empire; unfortunately, we are also beyond common sense.”

I talked with him on a hot afternoon in mid-April.

Q: In 2002, long before Bush’s current travails, you wrote, “Mark my words, he will leave office the most unpopular President in history.” How did you know that then?

Gore Vidal: I know these people. I don’t say that as though I know them personally. I know the types. I was brought up in Washington. When you are brought up in a zoo, you know what’s going on in the monkey house. You see a couple of monkeys loose and one is President and one is Vice President, you know it’s trouble. Monkeys make trouble.

Q: Bush’s ratings have been at personal lows. Cheney has had an 18 percent approval rating.

Vidal: Well, he deserves it.

Q: Yet the wars go on. It’s almost as if the people don’t matter.

Vidal: The people don’t matter to this gang. They pay no attention. They think in totalitarian terms. They’ve got the troops. They’ve got the army. They’ve got Congress. They’ve got the judiciary. Why should they worry? Let the chattering classes chatter. Bush is a thug. I think there is something really wrong with him.

Q: What do you think of the conspiracy theories about September 11?

Vidal: I’m willing to believe practically any mischief on the part of the Bush people. No, I don’t think they did it, as some conspiracy people think. Why? Because it was too intelligently done. This is beyond the competence of Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld. They couldn’t pull off a caper like 9/11. They are too clumsy.

Q: Today the United States is fighting two wars, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, and is now threatening to launch a third one on Iran. What is it going to take to stop the Bush onslaught?

Vidal: Economic collapse. We are too deeply in debt. We can’t service the debt, or so my financial friends tell me, that’s paying the interest on the Treasury bonds, particularly to the foreign countries that have been financing us. I think the Chinese will say the hell with you and pull their money out of the United States. That’s the end of our wars.

Q: You’re a veteran of World War II, the so-called good war. Would you recommend to a young person a career in the armed forces in the United States?

Vidal: No, but I would suggest Canada or New Zealand as a possible place to go until we are rid of our warmongers. We’ve never had a government like this. The United States has done wicked things in the past to other countries but never on such a scale and never in such an existentialist way. It’s as though we are evil. We strike first. We’ll destroy you. This is an eternal war against terrorism. It’s like a war against dandruff. There’s no such thing as a war against terrorism. It’s idiotic. These are slogans. These are lies. It’s advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented and developed.

But our media has collapsed. They’ve questioned no one. One of the reasons Bush and Cheney are so daring is that they know there’s nobody to stop them. Nobody is going to write a story that says this is not a war, only Congress can declare war. And you can only have a war with another country. You can’t have a war with bad temper or a war against paranoids. Nothing makes any sense, and the people are getting very confused. The people are not stupid, but they are totally misinformed.

Q: You’ve called the country “The United States of Amnesia.” Is this something in our genes?

Vidal: No, it’s something in our rulers. They don’t want us to know anything. When you’ve got a press like we have, you no longer have an informed citizenry.

I was involved somewhat with Congressman Con-yers on what happened in Ohio during the last Presidential election.

Conyers is the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and he went up there with a bunch of researchers. They went from district to district, and they found out how the election was stolen. He wrote a report that was published by a small press in Chicago. To help out, I said I’d write a preface for him on how the election was stolen. We were thinking that might help. But The New York Times and The Washington Post were not going to review the book about how we had a second Presidential election stolen. They weren’t going to admit it.

A huge number of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. You have a people that don’t know anything about the rest of the world, and you have leaders who lie to them, lie to them, and lie to them.

It’s so stupid, everything that they say. And the media take on it is just as stupid as theirs, sometimes worse. They at least have motives. They are making money out of the republic or what’s left of it. It’s the stupidity that will really drive me away from this country.

Q: When were the media better?

Vidal: They’ve never been much good. They belong to the people who own them. But they were better, the level was higher. There used to be foreign correspondents in other countries. There’s nobody abroad now. The New York Times gave up being anything except a kind of shadow of The Wall Street Journal. The Washington Post is the court circular. What has the emperor done today? And who will be the under-assistant of the secretary of agriculture? As though these things mattered.

Q: What do you think of the public advertising of one’s faith among political leaders? They make a show of going to church and participating in ceremonies.

Vidal: Personally I find it sickening, and very much against what our Founders had in mind. Remember that the country was mostly founded by Brits, and England’s always gotten credit for having invented hypocrisy. So we are reflecting our British heritage when we hypocritically talk about how religious we are.

Q: Is the U.S. more like Sparta than Athens?

Vidal: We’re not so good as either. We certainly are not warlike. Spartans were based upon military service. We don’t want that. We want to make money, which I always thought was one of the most admirable things about Americans. We didn’t want to go out and conquer other countries. We wanted to corner wheat in the stock market or something sensible like that. So we are very unbelligerent. We were dragged screaming into World War I. Well, we were slightly enthusiastic about that, but we were very innocent farm people in those days. In World War II, we fought to stay out of that war. And every liberal figure in the United States from Norman Thomas on was anti-war. They were isolationists in the old populist tradition. So we never had a chance of being Sparta.

Q: Talk about the role of the opposition party, the Democrats.

Vidal: It isn’t an opposition party. I have been saying for the last thousand years that the United States has only one party—the property party. It’s the party of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican.

Q: What can people do to energize democracy?

Vidal: The tactic would be to go after smaller offices, state by state, school board, sheriff, state legislatures. You can turn them around and that doesn’t take much of anything. Take back everything at the grassroots, starting with state
legislatures. That’s what Madison always said. I’d like to see a revival of state legislatures, in which I am a true Jeffersonian.

Q: Do you see any developments on the horizon that might suggest an alternative?

Vidal: Newton’s Third Law. I hope that law is still working. American laws don’t work, but at least the laws of physics might work. And the Third Law is: There is no action without reaction. There should be a great deal of reaction to the total incompetence of this Administration. It’s going to take two or three generations to recover what we had as of twenty years ago.

Anonymous said...

BP-PUSSY, what part of GORE-VIDAL is NOT TRUE?

TT you can concur that GORE-VIDAL is 100% correct. There is NO opposition party.

Anonymous said...

From the UK, here's a good take, on why nobody in their RIGHT MIND should invest in the USA.

***

The Times
September 16, 2008
Hank Paulson has turned a drama into a crisis
By punishing shareholders, the US Treasury Secretary had made the rescue of other troubled banks almost impossible


It looks as if the prophets of doom may have been right after all. With the demise of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch - and the threatened collapse of the world's largest insurance company, American International Group - we are now unquestionably in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

But does this mean that the “real” economy of non-financial jobs, investment, consumer spending and housing also faces its greatest disaster in 60 years, as Alistair Darling has said?

Probably not. The real economy and the world of finance can easily move in opposite directions. Most of the truly imprudent borrowing and lending of the past few years has occurred within the financial sector, with one bank or hedge fund lending insane amounts of money to another. Much of this debt could, in principle, be wiped away without affecting anybody apart from the financiers who were riding this crazy merry-go-round - and that has been pretty much the story of the past 12 months. Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in Wall Street and the City, but the impact beyond that has been quite modest, except on property values and some of the luxury goods and services previously bought by these millionaires.

The past few days' events, however, have raised two alarming qualifications to this generally reassuring story. The first is that the decoupling between financial and economic conditions that I have been expecting - and which has broadly happened - can only be a matter of degree. The non-financial economy can shrug off a certain amount of bloodletting in the City and Wall Street, but if the turmoil escalates to the point where a country's entire financial structure starts collapsing, the consequences are bound to be dire for non-financial businesses and jobs.
Times Archive, 1929: Wall-Street panic

A Niagara of liquidation fell upon the American Stock Exchange today

* Wall Street collapse: effect on business

* New York banker's death

Background

* Analysis: 'Black Monday' threatens London

* Q&A: Are my savings and investments safe?

* Wall Street meltdown: your two-minute catch-up

This tipping point has not yet been reached in America or Britain. But it suddenly seems perilously close - with stock market prices plunging on Monday to the point where serious questions could be raised for the first time about the viability of key financial institutions such as AIG, Citibank and Bank of America, or of UBS in Switzerland or of Halifax, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays in the UK.

Why are these banks suddenly in such deep trouble? This brings us to the second alarming qualification to my optimism about economic and financial decoupling.

It could be that the divergence between the financial and real economies, instead of resulting in a better-than-expected performance of the real economy, will take the form of a much more catastrophic financial crisis than the economic fundamentals seem to justify. Such a financial catastrophe could then turn what would have been just a modest economic slowdown or mild recession into a genuine disaster.

The risk of such a disastrous divergence between the worlds of finance and economics, with the financial system spinning completely out of control despite an otherwise decent outlook for the US and world economies, is much greater today than two weeks ago. And the reason can be reduced to one name - Henry Paulson, the Secretary of the US Treasury.

By deciding essentially to wipe out shareholders in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and acting even more harshly to the shareholders of Lehman Brothers this weekend, Mr Paulson has sent the clearest possible message to investors around the world: do not buy shares in any bank or insurance company that could, under any conceivable circumstances, run short of capital and need to ask for government help; if this happens, the shareholders will be obliterated and will not be allowed to participate in any potential gains should the bank later recover.

This punitive policy towards the shareholders in Fannie, Freddie and Lehman, who had put more than $20billion of capital into these companies in the hope of keeping them alive, means that no US bank or insurance company can hope to raise any extra capital in the foreseeable future.

This is true of both domestic investors and the Middle Eastern and Asian sovereign wealth funds, whose trillions of dollars of assets were, until a month ago, viewed as an ultimate safety net for the Western financial system.

Both groups have been so badly burnt by Mr Paulson that they are unlikely to support any refinancing by an American bank. And because governments and central bankers elesewhere, particularly in Britain, have loudly praised Mr Paulson's punitive treatment of shareholders, investors would presumably reach similar conclusions about the folly of helping any British bank.

The upshot is that any US or British bank that suffers unexpected losses or is subject to a powerful speculative attack by stock market short-sellers has nowhere to turn. And that in turn means that the total liquidation of a large financial institution in America, Britain or Europe is now seriously conceivable for the first time.

What makes the situation even more alarming is the perversity of the hardline approach taken by the US and British authorities. The investors who were “punished” by the loss of shareholder wealth in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman were not the speculators who encouraged and financed their reckless lending in 2004-06. They were value-orientated investors betting on a long-term recovery in the US economy and whose willingness to invest on the basis of such recovery could have prevented these companies' collapse.

By wiping out these investors - and instead rewarding the speculators who were trying to drive the share prices of these companies down to zero and thereby put them out of business - Mr Paulson has tilted the balance of power in the financial markets to a point where it is impossible to say for certain that any financial institution will survive.

In short, Mr Paulson has created an open season for speculators to attack financial companies around the world. These attacks are likely to continue and grow in ferocity until the point when governments start supporting not just the deposits and bonds, but also the shares of financial institutions whose survival is essential to keeping their economies running.

But surely it is impossible to suggest such a misunderstanding of basic finance from Mr Paulson, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs? Perhaps.

But then it is worth recalling that Andrew Mellon, the US Treasury Secretary under Herbert Hoover in 1929, was also considered the leading financier of his generation, It is also worth recalling that Donald Rumsfeld was supposed to know something about military strategy and President Bush, a former governor of Texas, about emergency flood control.

Anonymous said...

The risk of such a disastrous divergence between the worlds of finance and economics, with the financial system spinning completely out of control despite an otherwise decent outlook for the US and world economies, is much greater today than two weeks ago. And the reason can be reduced to one name - Henry Paulson, the Secretary of the US Treasury.


*

BP here's another question, why is PAULSON doing this? Why bring the US to civil war? Why prevent a NOV08 election? In whose interest is a civil war?

Remember marge, booze, guns, and beans ( canned ).

Anonymous said...

Here's a good one, that sucking sound you hear, is all the foreign money leaving the USA over-night.

Where is it going? Dubai, Shanghai, Singapore. That's the future folks.

*

Barclays chief's predictions on Wall St. banks appear vindicated
By Landon Thomas Jr.
Published: September 14, 2008

LONDON: For many years now Robert Diamond Jr., the president of Barclays Bank, has proclaimed that the days of the stand-alone investment bank were numbered. A former top banker at Morgan Stanley, he left his old firm in 1996 to develop an investment banking business for Barclays in London.

His cocksure demeanor and his contention that the risky lending and borrowing practices of firms like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and even Merrill Lynch would eventually come back to haunt them, won him few friends in the clubby world of Wall Street's elite bankers.

But, after three days of around the clock negotiations at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York trying to find a way to absorb Lehman Brothers investment banking business into Barclays, Diamond and his team of bankers decided early Sunday afternoon that the risk was too great and walked away from a deal.

According to executives briefed on the negotiations, Barclays could not get a commitment from the U.S. government that it would guarantee Lehman's counterparty settlements - a figure that could well exceed $50 billion. According to securities law here, Barclays would have had to get approval from shareholders to offer such a guarantee itself.

A deal can always be revived, but the U.S. Treasury's hard line in not providing financial support for Lehman is an indication that the administration of President George W. Bush is adamant about leaving the future of Lehman to the markets.
Today in Business with Reuters
Markets around the world stumble after Wall Street's weekend trauma
Examing the ripple effect of the Lehman bankruptcy
Federal Reserve takes steps to aid AIG

That Lehman Brothers, a bank founded in 1850 and carrying one of the best names in finance, may fail extends the death spiral of the once mighty Wall Street investment bank. For Diamond the frustration of a deal not done is surely acute, but it may well be tempered by a feeling of vindication that what he has been saying since 1996 has been borne out.

Bear Stearns is no more, Lehman Brothers faces the prospect of liquidation and U.S. government officials and investors now worry that Merrill Lynch - after a 12 percent slide in its shares Friday - could be next.

That Diamond came so close to buying Lehman, adds a fresh twist to what even investment bankers themselves are saying - that the days of swagger and success of the classic Wall Street investment bank are coming to an end. In a new, more regulated financial environment that will continue to see vast sums of money transferred from Wall Street to distant locales like Dubai, Riyadh, Shanghai and Singapore, the traditional strengths of an investment bank - taking risk and raising money - have diminished.

Indeed, the interest in Lehman's asset management business as well as the widely held view that Merrill's wealth management operations and its stake in the money manager BlackRock will keep it afloat underscores today's harshest reality: that with the exception of Goldman Sachs, the investment banking operations for Wall Street carry little of the value and cachet they once had in today's risk-averse and capital-constrained markets.

And, as Diamond would have it, if an investment banking business is to thrive, it is best that it does within the more restrictive confines of a commercial bank - a view that has long been anathema to bankers accustomed to big risks and even bigger pay days. But, with Lehman threatened with liquidation and with the view growing that Merrill and even Morgan Stanley might need to find a larger partner to survive, any brave talk by bankers that they can survive on their own rings increasingly hollow.

"The relevance of the stand-alone investment bank has diminished," Diamond said during an interview in 2004 - a comment that at the time seemed ill-timed as it came just as firms like Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers began their final booming ascent, propelled by leverage, risk taking and an aggressive foray into the U.S. market for mortgages. "They lend as if they had balance sheets," he said dismissively last year.

To be sure, Diamond is not the only commercial bank executive who has been critical of investment banks - Kenneth Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America, and other bank chieftains have openly promoted their own business models. It is also true that the notion that universal banks like Barclays, and UBS of Switzerland, with their large balance sheets and diversified businesses, is inherently superior to the likes of Lehman, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley is not a perfect one.

Citigroup, perhaps the ultimate universal bank, has recorded billions in write-offs during the credit crisis and its reputation as a one-stop financial shop has suffered greatly. Now a new management team is paring the bank down.

Anonymous said...

Personally folks Real Estate is looking safer all the time.

Folks have to have a place to live, and inflation is going to ROAR.

Print more $$$ to keep the titanic afloat will only bring housing up.

Anonymous said...

401k's pensions, city bonds, ... its all gone, so many folks wiped out nobody knows, so many jobs lost all over the world, nobody knows, ...

yet all saw it coming, ...

Anonymous said...

Q: Do you see any developments on the horizon that might suggest an alternative?

Vidal: Newton’s Third Law. I hope that law is still working. American laws don’t work, but at least the laws of physics might work. And the Third Law is: There is no action without reaction. There should be a great deal of reaction to the total incompetence of this Administration. It’s going to take two or three generations to recover what we had as of twenty years ago.

*

Malcolm-X called it a case of chickens coming home to roost.

NO doubt folks, there is going to be an ugly second civil war in the USA.

Quimby said...

Buster, check your email.

Anonymous said...

"That Lehman Brothers, a bank founded in 1850 and carrying one of the best names in finance"

ha! lehman and bear stearns were the two crappiest names in finance. half as good and twice as arrogant as the best firms.

Anonymous said...

"This is what is really sad, even [Obama's] OWN people are enable to pin down any kind of change, other than Iraq!!

Fucking mind boggling.

Nothing else is concrete, nothing else is known. We're all supposed to just wait & hope"
__________________

I know exactly what he means on every issue because I read all about it on his Web site. You can too! If the media don't give you useful information, seek it yourself; it's easy. Don't be so passive.

Anonymous said...

"McCain Cabinet, V1.0. Here it is then, all wrapped up: a pretty good starting point for John McCain's administration.

. . .

Drug Czar: Carlton Kent"

+++

Abstinence Czar: Levi Johnston

tim said...

My own thought is that the Democrats and Republicans are indeed different, but not in useful or interesting ways.

I'd prefer more granular national voting. I'd like to be voting for the Fed chair and Treasury Secretary more than President and Vice President.

Anonymous said...

I know exactly what he means on every issue because I read all about it on his Web site. You can too! If the media don't give you useful information, seek it yourself; it's easy. Don't be so passive.

*

How come they don't ever be specific in their dribble?

Anonymous said...

Over on Dunc's blog he says he'll never do BB3, but last night he told me he would never let anyone else cornhole him, what gives???

Anonymous said...

TT is gore-vidal right or not?? Note the pussy, is most absent from the world. Every monday night at Deschutes I look for a bald guy with no front teeth, where is my pussy???

Q: Talk about the role of the opposition party, the Democrats.

Vidal: It isn’t an opposition party. I have been saying for the last thousand years that the United States has only one party—the property party. It’s the party of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican.

Q: What can people do to energize democracy?

Vidal: The tactic would be to go after smaller offices, state by state, school board, sheriff, state legislatures. You can turn them around and that doesn’t take much of anything. Take back everything at the grassroots, starting with state
legislatures. That’s what Madison always said. I’d like to see a revival of state legislatures, in which I am a true Jeffersonian.

Q: Do you see any developments on the horizon that might suggest an alternative?

Vidal: Newton’s Third Law. I hope that law is still working. American laws don’t work, but at least the laws of physics might work. And the Third Law is: There is no action without reaction. There should be a great deal of reaction to the total incompetence of this Administration. It’s going to take two or three generations to recover what we had as of twenty years ago.

Anonymous said...

annesaker@news.oregonian.com

Will one of you, please contact this anne @ the BIG-ZERO and tell her your 'bilbo' and do here?

Pleeeze.

She's hot and she wants it!!!

Anonymous said...

Q: Talk about the role of the opposition party, the Democrats.

Vidal: It isn’t an opposition party. I have been saying for the last thousand years that the United States has only one party—the property party. It’s the party of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican.

*

Hell yes, look at BEND, you got HBM & DUNC, both fucking NAZI apologists for the BIG-PROPERTY PARTY, aka HOLLERN. Like gore-vidal says they're both right-wing, DEM&PUG!!!!!

TT suggests they're perhaps different, but HOW? Are they both right wing or not?? HELL FUCKING YES, who WILL KILL MORE OR-BOMB-EO or SHRUBBERY??

Anonymous said...

ha! lehman and bear stearns were the two crappiest names in finance. half as good and twice as arrogant as the best firms.


*

What about GOLDMAN?? They're were good enough to let PAULSON run them??

Just like CHENEY running HALLIBURTON, look what good PAULSON & CHENEY have done for their companys.

I did see one thing interesting today, a lot of important people are buying CACB in bulk, do they know something we don't? Or is this a falling knife sucker play?

Anonymous said...

We now have almost a dozen anonymous folks signed up to be bloggers on BB3.

What's good about this is that nobody really knows who is the blog originator. If you wish to be a blogger email bilbobend@gmail.com.

Just create an anonymous gmail account, and send bilbo email.

You too homer if & when you have time, create yourself a new persona, I think you would make a good GOLLUM.

Anonymous said...

"How come they don't ever be specific in their dribble?"

how come you don't ever read the thing before making misinformed comments about it?

Anonymous said...

from the WSJ:

Last week, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, hadn't sought earmarks or special-interest spending from Congress, presenting her as a fiscal conservative. But state records show Gov. Palin has asked U.S. taxpayers to fund $453 million in specific Alaska projects over the past two years.

These projects include more than $130 million in federal funds that would benefit Alaska's fishing industry and an additional $9 million to help Alaska oil companies. She also has sought $4.5 million to upgrade an airport on a Bering Sea island that has a year-round population of less than 100.

. . .

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

A "supposed" Q&A w/ Clear Choice's pres:

Q: Despite a slump in profits recently, Clear Choice is still in growth mode with a new headquarters and recent expansion into Montana.

Yes, this is the reporters (cough, COUGH... COSTA'S) question. Reminds me of the Simpsons, where Lisa reads a prepared question to Mr Burns:

Mr. Burns: your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?

Nice.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Buffett will emerge as the largest financial institution when this thing is done. Pennies on the dollar....

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

AIG rejected investments from buyout firms KKR & Co., TPG Inc. and J.C. Flowers & Co., people familiar with the talks said. Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is no longer talking with AIG about an investment in the insurer, CNBC reported, citing people familiar with the situation it didn't identify.

AIG is just like most of Bend: They'd rather go totally fucking BROKE than sell at MARKET.

Turning down offers cuz their shit don't stink. Good call dumbfucks. Now, you will go bust & get nothing.

Anonymous said...

GS aka PAULSON aka US-TREASURY loses 70% in income, and US-GOV calls it 'SOLID'. This is the one to watch, the moral equivalent of Halliburton. Let's see if CHENEY/PAULSON bail this one out? Stock is holding well, problem is contagion.

***

The Wall Street Journal

Sept. 16, 2008

Goldman Sachs posted a 70% drop in fiscal third-quarter net income on declining client activity and asset valuations as return on equity fell. Amid the "solid" results, Chief Executive Lloyd C. Blankfein said his firm is "well-positioned" to meet clients' needs and "act on the right market opportunities." Shares of Goldman fell 7.3% to $125.75 in recent premarket trading.

Anonymous said...

AIG is just like most of Bend: They'd rather go totally fucking BROKE than sell at MARKET.


*

AIG is BEND, same people, old MOB money.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone look at the big-block shares being bought on CACB? Holding nice. Someone thinks that CACB is a bargain. Anyone want to place bets?

Anonymous said...

'READING' that's the 'pot' calling the kettle 'black'. When have any of the PUSSY here ever read any of the SHEET they post & dump?

NADA never. Like BP's smoking gun on SABAR, that actually said she opposed 'explicit' sex-ed, if the pussy's spent more time reading their cut&paste, then there would be an intellectual challenge.

HOMER feels for DUNC, this weeks blog by HOMER, yet the picture is of DUNC, he's the one that 'lost it', and went insane. BP held up, HBM completely fucking lost it. It's the OR-BOMB-EO folk that will commit suicide, something tells me nobody wil commit suicide if Mc$ain loses.

I like what Gore Vidal say's DEM&PUG are both RIGHT!! Hell yes, dunc&HBM are apologists for BEND-CLUB NAZI always have always will. BP from UTAH is like Colon-POWELL just waiting to see where the wind blows. Dunc&HBM are joined at the hip with TEAM-HOLLERN.

Yet, that ship is sinking like the good ship 'OR-BOMB-EO' its a paper-boat in the ocean.

I'm not saying Mc$ain is a good candidate either, I'm just saying that OR-BOMB-EO is an empty suit. No good people are going to run for PREZ essential except folks like BP that want power for a reason that don't even know. Like DUMBYA he was put up there by daddy's team, and never had a clue or care.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

An AIG Accident Could Dwarf Lehman's
By RANDALL W. FORSYTH
Downgrades could trigger margin calls as insurer seeks a massive cash infusion.

COULD THIS BE THE BIG ONE?

Scarcely a day after the stunning news of the bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers and takeover of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, arguably an even greater threat to global financial stability is being posed by American International Group (ticker: AIG).

The nation's largest insurer by assets was seeking a financial lifeline after its credit rating was lowered by Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors, an event that could force AIG to, in effect, meet a $14 billion margin call on credit-default swaps it has written.

The Federal Reserve was working with JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to arrange a massive loan package of up to $75 billion to stave off a severe liquidity crisis at AIG, according to published reports. But reflecting the parlous situation, its shares plunged 61% Monday while the cost of insuring AIG debt soared to astronomical levels.

"The move highlights the circular dilemma facing financials with capital concerns," writes Bank of America credit analyst Jeffrey Rosenberg. "The lack of capital-raising prompts a downgrade, further worsening the credit risk of the company, further constraining the capital-raising potential."

The downward spiral also extends to the equity side. The sliding stock price makes the cost of raising equity capital and the potential dilution of current shareholders prohibitive, while the inability to raise capital further pressures the stock price.

Anonymous said...

Q: Today the United States is fighting two wars, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, and is now threatening to launch a third one on Iran. What is it going to take to stop the Bush onslaught?

Vidal: Economic collapse. We are too deeply in debt. We can’t service the debt, or so my financial friends tell me, that’s paying the interest on the Treasury bonds, particularly to the foreign countries that have been financing us. I think the Chinese will say the hell with you and pull their money out of the United States. That’s the end of our wars.

Anonymous said...

AIG of course HOMER.

I like to simplify SHIT, so let's talk about INSURANCE.

BP likes to moan about health, but its essentially an insurance problem.

What is insurance?? A MOB, a group of THUGS ( think DUMBYA ), collect a pool of money, and invest it in STUPID worthless assets, and then DENY CLAIMS. This is how INSURANCE is played. Today VIRTUALLY ALL insurance assets are worthless.

Insurance is regulated by the State, yesterday the State of NY let AIG go into their 'reserves' cash that proves you can pay claims, and use it to purchase golden parachutes. So you know the end is near.

They took out MARK SPITZER because he wouldn't allow this.

With the collapse of ALL insurance, people will quit paying premiums, and there is NO money to pay claims. What will the future look like? All auto accidents will go to court, hospitals will deny entry, unless you have cash on hand ( think China today ).

Gore Vidal is right, I'm right, the ENTIRE government is ran by criminals, and its going down and hard.

OR-BOMB-EO climbed the ladder, by coat-tailing a nigger who told the truth ( WRIGHT ), this week WRIGHT had a 'SPITZER' done to him. Today OR-BOMB-EO couldn't see or know the truth if it slaps his OREO ass.

Is it the end of the world if INSURANCE goes down???

Look at it this way, today most money people spend goes to insurance, which is free money, they turned around and 'invested' the money. This is the RACKET, this is how BUFFET got rich. Anybody can start an insurance company, and take the premium and invest it, and deny claims, and get rich. SO ALL GOT RICH. Today the investments are worth pennys on the dollar, the claims KEEP COMING IN!!!!

INSURANCE as WE KNOWN it is a ponzi scheme a racket, and its OVER. SURE BUFFET might have invested 'ok', and sure he might be able to pay some claims, but hell once he has the entire BIZ monopolized nobody is going to be able to afford insurance, hence medical, ...

Anonymous said...

BP asks buster, 'why wright?', 'why gore vidal?',

Cuz BP they're the only men in this country telling the truth.

Anonymous said...

COULD THIS BE THE BIG ONE?

*

The BIG-ONE is 'goldman sachs' owned and controlled by US-TREASURY 'PAULSON'.

AIG will go down, as sure as F&F, this is a given.

The canary in the coal-mine is Goldman-Sachs. This is the one to watch, when this goes down it means that Paulson has lost any tool he might have had, it means that the foreign investor has completely ran from the coal mine, we call USA.

Anonymous said...

AIG is MOB, Bend is MOB. AIG is gambling, and it provides most finance for casinos, watch them fall.

***

Casino operators continue to fall on AIG
Associated Press 09.16.08, 10:12 AM ET


NEW YORK -

Shares of casino operators opened lower for the second-consecutive morning Tuesday as investors awaited word on insurer American International Group Inc.'s fate and the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates.

Concerns about AIG's status have built after several ratings agencies cut their ratings on the company. Lower ratings can add to the amount of money the already cash-strapped company has to set aside.

Investors were also still reeling from Monday, one of the worst days on Wall Street since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, when the markets dealt with Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy news and Merrill Lynch & Co.'s sale to Bank of America Corp.

MGM Mirage's stock slid 93 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $28.90.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. dropped $1.02, or 2.9 percent, to $34.31.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. shed $2.17, or 2.6 percent, to $81.50.

Anonymous said...

But our media has collapsed. They’ve questioned no one. One of the reasons Bush and Cheney are so daring is that they know there’s nobody to stop them. Nobody is going to write a story that says this is not a war, only Congress can declare war. And you can only have a war with another country. You can’t have a war with bad temper or a war against paranoids. Nothing makes any sense, and the people are getting very confused. The people are not stupid, but they are totally misinformed.

Anonymous said...

Buffett will emerge as the largest financial institution when this thing is done. Pennies on the dollar....

*

Then he'll pick & choose the 'risk pools', and all the risky stuff will go to State.

Buffet will only want to hold things where people file no claims on a statistical basis, at some point it all becomes a joke, when anything of reality of a certainty of claim is un-avaiable.

Most of the people today had NO BIZ in insurance, but since Buffet's time of buying Berkshire-Hathaway in the 1960's, he learned the insurance racket, and built and empire.

Insurance is a racket where you 'borrow' money ( premiums ) from people and pay them NO INTEREST, then you turn around and make 25%/yr APR on that money in BEND-RE. The racket played great for 25+ years, today of course those 'investments' are worthless. Then there is the issue of those terrible claims. This is why you'll see BK's, its the last wall to fight the claims.

"COLLECT PREMIUMS, INVEST PREMIUMS, DENY CLAIMS", This is all you need to know about insurance.

Anonymous said...

Q: Despite a slump in profits recently, Clear Choice is still in growth mode with a new headquarters and recent expansion into Montana.

*

Just another insurance racket going down.

Anonymous said...

Watch PAULSON eat his own shit. Watch & enjoy.
*
The Times
September 16, 2008
Last men standing - Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley face questions
Tom Bawden in New York

As the only two independent Wall Street brokerages standing, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will face a barrage of questions at their third quarter announcements this week.

Some experts believe that, in a climate of panic in which clients, trading partners and lenders are becoming increasingly wary of brokerages, it is only a matter of time before the two groups melt down or are snapped up.

Chris Whalen, of Institutional Risk Analytics, which assesses the risks associated with financial groups, said: “If things keep going the way they are going, both Goldman and Morgan Stanley will have to sell. If they don't, they will be attacked by the hedge funds. It doesn't matter that each is a perfectly solvent company - so was Lehman.”

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are bracing themselves for more than an hour's questioning at the conference calls held for analysts when they announce results today and tomorrow, respectively. Before the question-and-answer sessions, each will go through their balance sheets with a microscope, with a particular emphasis on the likelihood of further writedowns on mortgage-related investments. Each is expected to disclose that it took between $1 billion and $2 billion of writedowns in the third quarter. Analysts forecast that Goldman will report a 72 per cent fall in profits for the third quarter, to $1.73 a share, while Morgan Stanley is expected to record a 44 per cent drop in earnings, to about 77 cents a share. Fears that Lehman's collapse foreshadowed even tougher times for Goldman and Morgan dragged down their shares by 6.9 per cent and 8.8 per cent, respectively, in early afternoon trading in New York.
Related Links

* Merrill, Deutsche and Goldman settle dispute

* Goldman Sachs' discount offloads debt

Guy Moszkowski, an analyst at Merrill Lynch, said that Lehman Brothers' “apparent demise and the likely damage to its bondholders indicates significant spread-widening for independent broker-dealers”, such as Goldman, as well as “probably considerably narrower access to funds, even for a premier firm like [Goldman]”.

The Standard & Poor's ratings agency said that it still believed that Goldman had performed better than its peers through sound risk management and prudent executive decisions, “but we also think the crisis of confidence within its industry has failed to separate good performers from bad”.

Michael Werner, an analyst for Sanford Bernstein, said the suggestion that Goldman's or Morgan's independence was untenable was overdone. He said: “Morgan and Goldman are very different from Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. They all had massive exposure to high-risk assets, had taken huge writedowns, with the prospect of plenty more to come. By contrast, Goldman and Morgan Stanley have much less exposure and have managed it well.”

Analysts also say that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are much more diversified than Bear Stearns - which was rescued by JPMorgan Chase in March - and Lehman Brothers. Indeed, although the tough times look set to continue, some analysts believe that the collapse of Lehman could be good for business. David Trone, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton, expects Goldman to be the biggest beneficiary, gaining an extra 5.5 per cent of revenues. He expects Morgan Stanley's revenue to rise by 4 per cent.

Anonymous said...

So what are the GERMANS saying about the USA today??

***

The United States of America in its dying spasms ... what sort of regime will succeed the present US system?


2008-09-16 13:44:20 -


Well, the Empire is in full-scale financial meltdown ... and like the former Soviet Union, a bloated system of command military economics is headed for the ash-can of history.

The only questions remaining are two: How much damage will it do to others in its dying spasms? What sort of regime will succeed the present US system?

Washington DC-based commentarist writes:

The ownership of the USA have seen some of this coming. This is why they decided to permit the neo-liberals, neo-cons or whatever you wish to call these criminals in the Bush regime to advance their adventure in Iraq -- remember?

This war was, we were all assured back in the spring of 2003,
going to be financed from the proceeds of the captured oil. And yes, within the Secure Homeland these crooks needed as well the "reform" of the personal bankruptcy laws -- to hold the mass of the population in debt-peonage. This is why they needed the Patriot Act, with all its "tools" to facilitate the suppression of domestic dissent.

Naturally, these things are all acts of desperation by the proprietors of a dying state. The only comparable event in modern history being after Dr Hjalmar Schacht, president of the Reichsbank went to Hitler in the spring of 1939 to inform the dictator that Germany would be in bankruptcy within the year ... largely due to her excessive expenditure on armaments. The Nazi response was to precipitate World War II, four years before their own planning indicated the Reich would be fully armed and ready for the global conflict. The Fuehrer correctly understood that only a wartime command economy, only wartime powers, could ensure for a few years more the survival of his regime.

Someday, when/if all the now-secret files are opened we will see similar nastinesses revealed within the processes of the late great USA.

No matter the results of the surge or any of the other propaganda gambits, in point of fact, the USA has NOT garnered appreciable public profit from the Iraq war. Perhaps some corporations and individuals, exploiting the near-perfect corruption, which is today's Washington, have done quite well for themselves, but these are for the most part excused from even basic taxation. The US economy, as an whole, has taken a massive hit. In other words, there is NO disguising that Iraq is a tactical defeat, in the sense that the original goals of this war have not been attained, and whatever happens now, cannot be attained.

The partial resurgence of Russia, also indicates the failure of another cherished project of our sociopathic rulers ... and that is their replacement of Moscow as the economic powerhouse and political master in the former Union Republics of Tadjikistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. To say nothing of the essential pipeline nexus, Georgia.

The United States of America has gone a republic too far.

Nor should we fail here and now to mention the success of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras, following Cuba, in at least a partial secession from the Empire.

The threatening credit blizzard is the symptom of the sort of neo-liberal, neo-conservative, imperial group-think characteristic of our best and brightest for two generations now.

What must happen next, sooner now rather than later, is that the vast superstructure of paper debt masking the real US economy must evaporate. Remember how we were all told in the 1980's how the USSR was the second largest economy in the world? Well, when the debts were called, and the command economy collapsed her real economy proved rather smaller than that of Brazil.

So it will be in the USA. At least two generations of crime and malfeasance, even within the terms of their own capitalist ideology, on the part of our corporadoes and their allies among the hereditary elites will reveal a looted nation with an economy only half; a third; a quarter of its purported size. Take your pick: The regime for decades now has been cooking the books. No one can tell with any certainty how deep will be the collapse ... but that it will be very deep, very profound no one can now doubt.

Just as Hannah Arendt and other brilliant scholars of European Fascism were, in past times, able to show us with utter clarity how the rise of Hitler and Mussolini were based upon the economic destruction of the middle classes in their respective countries, so also will historians of the future describe the rapid descent of the USA into its own sort of Fascism: "Wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

The outlines of the successor state to the defunct republic are already clear. The largest single faction of voters are those mobilized by wacko Protestant/Dominionist cults around the need to support the Empire, its uselessly bloated military and its even more uselessly bloated plutocracy.

The collapse of the USSR did NOT do away with the nomenklatura of the Communist Party. No, indeed, these individuals merely used their positions to assume personal ownership of the public properties which they already managed. Something similar will happen within the corpse of the USA. We here will get what we richly deserve: Government by our very own mafiya.

But what is equally certain is that for years to come a profoundly anti-democratic regime will have lost its power to lord it over other peoples and other nations, looting them so as to for a while mask from its own people and all others its essential spiritual and moral as well as merely economic bankruptcy.

This is why this North American writer, perhaps a minority of one, supports without reservation the attempts of the Bolivarians, whatever their mistakes, to break with the Empire. Now is their moment.

The years to come must be fraught with hardship for everyone, every people, every nation. We face the collapse of the traditional world economy, and perhaps even unparallelled ecological disasters. Great sufferings are inevitable ... but we must all bear in memory that East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania all escaped the grasp of the Russian bear at the moment of the dissolution of the USSR ... an horrible shadow was lifted from the heartland of the world.

Now is the like moment for Venezuela and for all of Latin America to seek and secure their own future as independent peoples.
Therein lies yet the gleam of bright hope for humanity.

Anonymous said...

So AIG gets to tap their insurance reserves as a golden parachute. This wouldn't had happened if Spitzer ran NY.

But with the Patriotic Act, and other laws approved by Obama&McCain, the government can now search credit cards. There they found that Spitzer visited a call-girl, and took him out with the Patriot-Act-II.

Everyone knew that the USA was going down Sep 2008, and that by Spring 2009 there would be riots in the streets.

Marge calls for "booze, beans, & bullets", what good is that? She hates Nazi Holocaust pictures, yet this is what reaps when good men let bad men run their town and country.

Anonymous said...

The collapse of the USSR did NOT do away with the nomenklatura of the Communist Party. No, indeed, these individuals merely used their positions to assume personal ownership of the public properties which they already managed. Something similar will happen within the corpse of the USA. We here will get what we richly deserve: Government by our very own mafiya.

*

Praise the Lord, out of the Ashes of Bend, Hollern will be made Mayor for life.

Anonymous said...

We now have over a dozen 'bloggers' signed up for BB3. Like I told 'X' its best to change your google 'display name' to something that doesn't tag back to this world on BB2. Like LOR characters, ...

With a dozen different random bloggers on BB3, we should be able to mix it up, I don't expect much, as blogging, e.g. actually writing an article that went 5,000 words like HOMER did every sunday is a pain in the ass, especially when there is nothing to chat about.

The best would be people like TT&QUIM, to watch the news, and use the BULL&SORE to be blogger-fodder, and that would be our lead, and hopefully we can stay on Bend.

Marge doesn't like the NAZI pic's, but I tried to explain, we're like the 3 chapters in the LOR(lord of the rings ),

bendbubble.blogspot.com is about the happy bend-hobbit times

bendbubble2.blogspot.com is about the greedy times of ORC's & GOBLIN's running Bend,

bendbubble3.blogspot.com is about the demise of Bend, and the dark powers taking over, I simply don't see Frodo getting the ring of power into the inferno, like Marge I see all shit break loose.

The titanic is sinking slowly, but the pain is increasing quickly. The US is broke, a few KATRINA like incidents and this country will wake up and realize that nobody is going to come and fix your mess, like DUNC still thinks that OR-BOMB-EO is going to fix the USA.

Anonymous said...

YOU THINK THE USA is FUCKED??? READ WHAT's HAPPENING IN RUSSIA TODAY!!

***

Falls prompt closure of Russian exchange

MOSCOW, Sept 16 - Russia’s most liquid stock exchange Micex suspended trade on Tuesday after the worst one-day fall in 10 years as Alexei Kudrin, finance minister, reassured markets there was no ”systemic” crisis.

Share trade on Micex was suspended for one hour starting at 4:42 p.m. (1242 GMT) because of steep falls driven by liquidity fears, an exchange official said.

The index was down 16.6 per cent at 890.29 having fallen as low as 889.66 - its biggest percentage loss since the Russian financial crisis of 1998.

Trading was also suspended for one hour in the dollar-denominated RTS index .

State bank shares were down 32.5 per cent when trade was suspended, while state savings bank Sberbank, one of the biggest index components, was down 20.9 per cent.

”There are risks in our system and when there are more shocks from the global crisis, there are more risks in Russia, but they do not have an extraordinary, systemic nature,” Mr Kudrin was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

Traders and investors, their positions already slashed by heavy margin calls, were retreating into cash, market participants said.

”It’s people moving into cash and ... getting worried about who they are dealing with,” a Moscow-based trader at a western bank said.

Analysts and investors are hoping Russia’s relatively unleveraged economy will weather a major shakeout in global banking, but Russia’s stock markets, largely driven by short-term liquidity, have been savaged.

”It is pretty shocking,” said Lars Christensen, chief analyst and head of emerging markets research at Danske Bank.

”This is the result of the nasty cocktail of (the) credit crunch, falling oil prices and geo-political risk. It seems like investors very fast are loosing confidence in the Russian economy (and) it is hard to see any recovery in the markets as long as these three factors are in focus.”

Mr Kudrin declined to comment on the possiblity of state support measures for Russia’s banks.

Bewert said...

Re: BP here's another question, why is PAULSON doing this? Why bring the US to civil war? Why prevent a NOV08 election? In whose interest is a civil war?

The answer, my friends, is blowin' in the wind...

Remember Volcker? The last guy who actually fixed things when they were really fucked up?

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/01/31/volcker-i-endorse-obama/

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is the latest big-name endorsement for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, lending his gravitas in the financial world to a presidential candidate whose biggest hurdle is to convince voters he is experienced enough to be president.

“After 30 years in government, serving under five Presidents of both parties and chairing two non-partisan commissions on the Public Service, I have been reluctant to engage in political campaigns. The time has come to overcome that reluctance,” Mr. Volcker said in a statement today. “However, it is not the current turmoil in markets or the economic uncertainties that have impelled my decision. Rather, it is the breadth and depth of challenges that face our nation at home and abroad. Those challenges demand a new leadership and a fresh approach.”

He concluded: “It is only Barack Obama, in his person, in his ideas, in his ability to understand and to articulate both our needs and our hopes that provide the potential for strong and fresh leadership. That leadership must begin here in America but it can also restore needed confidence in our vision, our strength, and our purposes right around the world.”


Mr. Volcker, a Democrat, was appointed to the Fed chairmanship by Jimmy Carter in 1979 and replaced – with Alan Greenspan – by Ronald Reagan just a couple of months before the 1987 stock market crash. He is widely respected among central bankers, Wall Street and economists for breaking the back of inflation in the 1980s – at the cost of the deepest recession the country has seen since the Great Depression. An economist, he was earlier president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1975 to 1979 and an under secretary of the Treasury from 1969 to 1974.

Since retiring from the Fed, he did a stint as chairman of of Wolfensohn & Co., an investment banking firm founded by the former president of the World Bank, and led investigations of corruption controls at the World Bank and the controversial United Nations’ oil-for-food deal with Saddam Hussein.


That is worth a hundred Toby Keith endorsements.

I can't remember a time when Wall St. has looked like such a smokng ruin. 1930, maybe?

And it's far from over.

The US is fucked for decades to come.

Anonymous said...

He concluded: “It is only Barack Obama, in his person, in his ideas, in his ability to understand and to articulate both our needs and our hopes that provide the potential for strong and fresh leadership. That leadership must begin here in America but it can also restore needed confidence in our vision, our strength, and our purposes right around the world.”

*

Well BP, I got to give you credit, I hope they give you a job in the OR-BOMB-EO DEM team here in the PNW.

YOU ARE RELENTLESS, when it comes to campaign season.

Ok, volcker the guy who brought us 22% interest rates.

Yes, OR-BOMB-EO is going to make things REAL NEAT. I think its already fairly discounted that VOLCKER is going to be on OR_BOMB-EO's team, and I think this why people call OR-BOMB-EO CARTER-II.

Anonymous said...

Remember Volcker? The last guy who actually fixed things when they were really fucked up?

*

Fix things?? The US had typical inflation post vietnam war. The dollar was worthless, the world bet with their feet, and left.

Then Volcker made 22% interest rates, and the world came back and 'invested' in the US. Then it was inflation. Today its LACK of confidence, what worked in the 1978 will NOT work today.

Pussy focus on my QUESTION why does PAULSON want to destroy our economy??

Anonymous said...

It's fairly clear that the PUSSY has a purpose, he showed up from UTAH a year ago to date. He took over the blogger world in Bend.

Then lo & behold, its campaign season and he uses his vast PUSSY kept-man resources 24/7 to plug for team OR-BOMB-EO.

At least we know who owns the pussy.

We love you BP, it could be worse, you could be owned by HOLLERN, like the other pussy's.

Anonymous said...

That is worth a hundred Toby Keith endorsements.

I can't remember a time when Wall St. has looked like such a smokng ruin. 1930, maybe?

And it's far from over.

The US is fucked for decades to come.


*

Yes, and if OBAMA wins, he'll be held accountable, cuz the pug's have made sure the pain will NOT be felt until Jan 20, 2009.

Anonymous said...

Like Gore-Vidal says both DEM&PUG are right-wing.

Volcker is very bit a Nazi as any other team player.

BK the USA, per Paulson, and then let Volcker do 30% interest rates, and the banks borrow at 1% discount, and earn 29% cuz this is what coming, ...

Of course BP calls this a fucking endorsement. What does he care, he has a manwife to feed him.

Anonymous said...

Boy that's awfully DEEP and profound for OR-BOMB-EO to make VOLCKER his TREASURY MAN, 'who would have guessed'???

OR-BOMB-EO was about 'hope' and 'change', yet at the BOTTOM of the BARREL at end of the DAY OR-BOMB-EO is CARTER-II. Real fucking change.

p.s. BP, in that day I loved Carter, no offense. I hated fucking RAYGUN. I still like CARTER, he generally STILL tells the truth.

Anonymous said...

The US is fucked for decades to come.


*

The USA has been going down since the 1970's its greatest day was POST WWII, since then it was protect what we had won in the war.

Like the UK, were just a dying empire. Nothing really new.

You need to read GORE-VIDAL PUSSY, he tells how to fix the 'mess' that DUNC calls the USA.

Like I keep saying, think-global, act local.

Run for local ORFICE pussy, and make a difference.

Like WRIGHT says, switch over to the dark side, and we'll be coming after ya,

Anonymous said...

GREENBERG ON HIS FUCKING KNEES BEGGING PAULSON TO SAVE HIS BABY.

***

Greenberg calls on Fed to help avert AIG collapse
Former chief executive has appealed to the US government to throw a financial lifeline to the struggling insurance giant
Hank Greenberg, former AIG chief executive

Hank Greenberg, former AIG chief executive. Photograph: Chip East/Reuters

The man who built AIG into a global insurance empire has appealed to the US government to save the company, describing it as a "national treasure" which merely needs a temporary helping hand to survive.

Hank Greenberg, who was chief executive of AIG from 1967 until 2005, warned of reverberations around the world if the insurance company fails to pull off a last-minute deal to avert bankruptcy. He spoke out as the Federal Reserve continues efforts to broker a bail-out for the troubled firm. "Given some time, they could raise more funds and sell assets," Greenberg told CNBC television. "That would be in our national interests, let alone the interests of the 100,000 people who work at AIG."

The 83-year-old insurance tycoon, who quit in an accounting scandal three years ago, insisted that AIG is fundamentally sound but has a temporary cashflow crisis. "It's a healthy company financially except for liquidity," said Greenberg. "No organisation around the world has the spread of risk that AIG does. It's a company that opens markets - letting it go down would be a dramatic mistake."

AIG's credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch late on Monday which has triggered contractual obligations requiring it to come up with some $14.5bn in extra collateral to satisfy trading partners.

Analysts believe the company needs $40bn to survive. New York state's insurance regulator has allowed AIG to "borrow" $20bn from the statutory reserves of its insurance subsidiaries and the Fed has been trying to persuade banks, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, to provide an additional bridging loan.

Although AIG's brand is not a household name in Britain, the company is a leader in providing "white labelled" insurance sold under UK brands such as Argos, Comet, Sainsbury's and the AA. It is the shirt sponsor of Manchester United football club.

Bewert said...

Re: He also partnered with senior Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, the former chairman of the Foreign Relations panel, to sponsor legislation to strengthen international efforts to destroy conventional weapons, though it did not advance out of committee.

There you have it, FOR ONE FUCKING LAW that OR-BOMB-EO got through, it was CO-AUTHORED by a rePUG!!!!!!!

Lugar-Obama Nonproliferation Legislation Signed into Law by the President

Obama, Lugar Secure Funding for Implementation of Nonproliferation Law

If you use Thomas to search for all bills that actually became laws sponsored or co-sponsored by Obama, you find 21. During the same period McCain has 23. Not much difference. Most of both of them are simple things like proclaiming an honor on someone or something. Most laws that make it through have sponsors from both sides of the aisle.

I saw those Vidal quotes above, but no link. Where are you quoting from?

Anonymous said...

GREENBERG reminds me of Walter Annenberg, of early years a media tycoon, a Mafia man that ruled the world.

GREENBERG probably has most of his nickels in his baby.

AIPAC is losing a lot of its KEY FUCKING backers this week.

If there is ONE THING that the BUSH-TEAM is doing this week, is letting the LIKUD-AIPAC-MOSSAD business world go down the drain, while protecting the Anglo-American.

Just writing this as an observer, I have no fucking rat in this race.

Watch who they protect, and who they let go into the toilet.

Watch what they do, not what they say.

TEAM BUSH/CHENEY at the 11th hour is cleaning all the fucking skin off the skeletons to the Bones, by 2009, there ain't going to be NOTHING LEFT to STEAL.

Anonymous said...

FED HOLDS RATES, IMAGINE THAT! WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED?
*

The Wall Street Journal

Sept. 16, 2008

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, and in a disappointment to Wall Street, didn't appear to signal that rate cuts are forthcoming anytime soon. Though officials continued to warn about inflation risks, they also signaled that economic concerns have intensified.

In its statement, the Fed said: "Strains in financial markets have increased significantly and labor markets have weakened further. Economic growth appears to have slowed recently, partly reflecting a softening of household spending. Tight credit conditions, the ongoing housing contraction, and some slowing in export growth are likely to weigh on economic growth over the next few quarters."

Anonymous said...

AIG could flog include its majority stake in reinsurer as well as ILFC aircraft leasing business.
The insurer has been hit hard by the housing crisis and credit crunch because its derivatives unit sold guarantees on mortgage-related securities known as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, using credit-default swaps.
As house prices fall and the credit crunch deepens, the market for these CDO exposures is disappearing, forcing AIG to report big write-downs. AIG reported a quarterly net loss of more than $5 billion in August as it wrote down these exposures and suffered impairments on some of its mortgage-related investments. End of Story

*

AIG was a big player in BUYING BEND BUBBLE paper, and enabling the fucking bubble. Thus its only fashionable that they reap what they sowed.

Anonymous said...

PUSSY READ THIS CAREFULLY! ONE FUCKING BILL! THAT's IT, THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What's good about this is its written by the LEFT, and is from BIDEN!!!!!!

The ONE bill that OBAMA got through, was written by a Repug.

****

Obama sponsored a bill that became law ?

Before he bowed out of the race, Sen. Joe Biden dismissed the legislative accomplishments of three Democratic primary rivals with whom he served. About Barack Obama, he said, “Barack Obama hasn’t passed any."

By that wording, Biden is wrong.

Obama, who was sworn into office in January 2005, spent much of his time in the Senate taking a high-profile position as spokesman for Democrats’ efforts to overhaul congressional ethics standards, including his own bid to make Senate colleagues pay the full charter rate, rather than first-class airfare, for rides in corporate jets. The effort drew the ire of such senior senators as Ted Stevens of Alaska, whose state is so big that corporate planes are often the only way to get around. Senate leaders included that jet travel requirement in a lobbying practices and disclosures bill signed into law in September 2007.

But as a member of the minority party, Obama also worked across the aisle with Republicans to push several measures that became law in 2006.

Working with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Obama won enactment of a law creating a single, searchable database of all federal contracts, grants and loans.

He also partnered with senior Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, the former chairman of the Foreign Relations panel, to sponsor legislation to strengthen international efforts to destroy conventional weapons, though it did not advance out of committee.

Separately, Obama was lead sponsor of a bill to provide relief and promote democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was signed into law in December 2006.

He introduced legislation in 2005 to require federal preparations for an avian flu pandemic, but it didn't advance.

And he weighed in on another “good government” initiative during congressional debate on tougher lobbying disclosure standards, by backing the creation of an independent “Office of Public Integrity” that would investigate congressional ethics cases and receive and monitor financial disclosure reports required from members of Congress, officers and employees of Congress and lobbyists. The bid failed in 2006 due to opposition from members of the Senate Ethics Committee, who said it would politicize the panel. Another attempt to include it in the Democrats' ethics bill failed in early 2007.

Obama’s tendency to focus on nonidelogical issues is pragmatic, because they tend not to have powerful enemies or, if they do, are shielded by solid support in both parties. But some of his initiatives have languished, either because he was a junior member of the Democratic caucus or because they encountered institutional resistance. One would have rewarded troubled school districts with extra federal help in exchange for deep changes.

Though advocacy groups generally gave him positive marks for taking action, Obama’s absence from heated political battles makes it difficult to assess his effectiveness as a legislator. Still, he has passed one bill signed into law, making Biden's statement False.

Anonymous said...

Obama’s tendency to focus on nonidelogical issues is pragmatic, because they tend not to have powerful enemies or, if they do, are shielded by solid support in both parties. But some of his initiatives have languished, either because he was a junior member of the Democratic caucus or because they encountered institutional resistance. One would have rewarded troubled school districts with extra federal help in exchange for deep changes.

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All that OBAMA is know for, is kissing ASS and not making enemy's, he'll be a great prez.

Anonymous said...

I saw those Vidal quotes above, but no link. Where are you quoting from?

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Learn to use google PUSSY, and go buy some Gore Vidal books.

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