Should need no further explanation.
{ 0 comments }
From the monthly archives:
September 2008
You might think the headline above, “US Housing Market Crash to result in the Second Great Depression”, is very timely.
But it’s actually from an article published over a year and a half ago. An article that, like so many other information sources at the time, accurately predicted the mess we find ourselves in now.
Here is a piece of that prediction from February 2007:
Congress is now looking into the shabby lending practices that shoehorned millions of people into homes that they clearly cannot afford. But their efforts will have no affect on the loans that are already in place. $1 trillion in ARMs (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) are due to reset in 2007 which guarantees that millions of over-leveraged homeowners will default on their mortgages putting pressure on the banks and sending the economy into a tailspin. We are at the beginning of a major shake-up and there’s going to be a lot more blood on the tracks before things settle down.
Well shit. That sucks. We’ve certainly passed that point and right now it doesn’t sound like anyone knows what the hell is going on.
And I certainly don’t feel any better watching the Democrats and Republicans in congress acting like “two people who just threw each other off a 30th floor balcony”** – blaming each other as they fall screaming and squish mid-sentence.
So I’m left sitting here wondering if I should invest in the market now while stock prices have dropped or if I should be stocking up on canned food, ammunition and fuel for my generator.
** balcony quote completely ripped off from a conversation I had earlier this evening.
{ 0 comments }
Former Lucas County Commissioner and Tom Noe conduit Maggie Thurber gets taken to the woodshed by Brian Rothenberg at ProgressOhio. I guess Maggie has been shilling for the payday lending industry, an issue ProgressOhio has been taking the lead on (Vote YES on Issue 5, btw).
Brian asks some really important questions (and gives some rhetorical answers):
1. Was it wrong to help Noe launder money? YES
2. Should the mess in Washington teach us the dangers of loosely regulated capital? YES
3. Is greed one of the seven deadly sins? YES
4. How should we vote on Issue 5? YES
5. Are the payday lenders paying Maggie to blog in their favor? Nothing would surprise me
Maybe Maggie can answer them on her blog…when she’s not busy shilling for her payday masters. Given what we know about Noe and Thurber, should we trust Maggie when it comes to matters of money and politics? I think I’ll take a pass.
{ 1 comment }
Anthony Fossaceca at BlueOhioan crawls deep in the recesses of Sarah Palin’s brain to try to understand why she can’t recall more than one Supreme Court case (you guessed it: Roe v. Wade) even though a recent one impacted her state profoundly. Part of me thinks Anthony is helping with her debate prep here. LOL.
What is going on with this person? I can’t tell if she’s scared, dumb, lucky, sly, clever, dim, or charming.
{ 1 comment }
Today, September 30th is the first day of early voting for the November 4th election. A reader called to remind me of this. He also reminded me that you have until October 6th to register to vote. So between now and October 6th those who are not registered can do BOTH at the same time. Something that is driving the voter suppression Republicans batshit crazy.
The Obama campaign has a good resource at www.voteforchange.com (Be sure to use your legal name. I tripped it up by using Eric instead of my real first name). You can also call 877-OH-EARLY. Or you can text OH-EARLY to 62262.
Secretary of State Brunner has a great resource site at www.avoidtheline.org
I encourage everyone to go vote early so you can focus on volunteering from now until election day.
Update: This Google tool is killer. maps.google.com/vote
{ 2 comments }
I know this story is old, but I just saw the fox news interview with Daxx Dalton- the 11 year old whose dad made him wear a crappy, home-made, anti-obama shirt to school and I thought it deserved a quick post.
I can just imagine the enlightened conversation that fills the Dalton household:
Dad: Hey son, why don’t you wear this old white t-shirt covered with right-wing propaganda to school?
Son: Sure dad, as long as I can wear my skull shirt when we get interviewed on fox news.
Dad: Absolutely! Maybe I’ll drop by the walmart and pick up a new camo hunting shirt for the interview too. I was going to get my haircut, but fuck it. I lost my comb months ago so why bother.
Son: Only commie liberals comb their hair, dad. And fags.
Dad: And them god damn metro sexuals! They make me SO MAD! Anyway- have a good day at school. And don’t crash your four-wheeler on the way home again.
Best line of the interview, from the father: “I’m a conservative. I don’t react emotionally.”
{ 4 comments }
So McCain was with Palin when she was becoming a gaffe machine? His contributions are not much better:
His mannerisms while she is talking at first are absolutely priceless…and telling!
Thing is, it gets worse:
Of concern to McCain’s campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin’s interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.
The Palin aide, after first noting how “infuriating” it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.
After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.
There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.
{ 1 comment }
Things have gotten so bad maybe McCain should suspend his campaign until November 4.
{ 0 comments }
Remember when John McCain blasted Barack Obama for raising money in California? Went something like this:
“He talked about siding with the people just before he flew off for a fundraiser in Hollywood with Barbra Streisand and his celebrity friends,” McCain told a crowd in Ohio. “Let me tell you, my friends, there’s no place I’d rather be than right here with the working men and women of Ohio.”
Guess what. John McCain says one thing to the good hard working people of Ohio in public, but then in private he jets off to – of all places – Los Angeles, California! To do what? Raise money from NOT elites who have bundled more than $250,000 each! You smell that? That’s hypocrisy cooking, my friends!
The McCain-Palin Victory California Leadership team is sponsoring the October 1 event at the Century Plaza Hyatt Regency in L.A. Supporters who bundle at least $250,000 receive entrance to a host committee dinner and private reception; others can attend the general reception for $1,000 per person (or $2,500 per person for a limited edition “McCain-Palin CA” lapel pin).
I wonder if they $2,500 lapel pin will be made with Czech Republic rhinestones?
{ 1 comment }
Dear Senators Obama, Biden, Reid, Byrd, Durbin, Dodd, Brown, and Representatives Pelosi, Hoyer, Frank, Wilson, Kaptur*, Kucinich*, Sutton*, Ryan, Space:
With today’s failure of HR 3997 to pass, largely due to the unwillingness of Republicans to support a bipartisan compromise bill, our financial economy continues to stare in the face of a total collapse. Action is urgent, and the American people agree.
My father used to tell me when I was a boy that “every problem is an opportunity to excel.” The unwillingness of the GOP to agree to a compromise – a courtesy they undoubtedly would have not extended had roles been reversed – presents us with a tremendous opportunity to force strong progressive reforms through Congress. We’ve suffered with decades of the GOP ramming through their ideas with no consideration for Democratic positions. Their failure to agree to a compromise on this incredibly important bill underlines the fact that the GOP is not interested in bipartisanship.
It’s time to play hardball. It’s time to excel.
I suggest we draft a strongly progressive bill, emphasizing shoring up Main Street instead of Wall Street, providing a cash infusion to prevent a market collapse, and writing in the regulations necessary to prevent a similar crisis from occurring in the future. Address the concerns of the more liberal Democrats who voted against this bill (three of which are from Ohio’s delegation, and are copied on this letter), and RAM IT THROUGH on a party-line vote in the House.
The fact of the matter is, if the situation is as dire as we all believe, there will be enough Republicans in the Senate to pass a cloture vote and eventually pass the bill. And then it’s up to the President to veto the bill, which I doubt he will unless he wishes to end the Republican Party as we know it.
The time for bold, aggressive action is NOW. Your leadership can mean the difference between the logical conclusions of right-wing economic thought coming to fruition and crushing the middle and lower classes in a massive depression, or the dawn of a great age of progressiveness in the United States.
It’s time to show Republicans what “Country First” really means, and get a progressive bill passed that addresses this crisis.
[* - voted against HR 3997, presumably (given their voting histories) because it wasn't "pro-Main Street" enough]
[This letter will be sent to the people it's addressed to, as soon as the government servers come back online and I can get the correct contact information.]
{ 2 comments }
Those Republicans cheering this might want to think twice about what just happened. Your Presidential candidate – who supported the plan and said he’d vote for it – just finished the dramatic move of “suspending” his campaign to come to Washington to make it appear as if he brokered a deal.
There is no deal. McCain can’t even lead his own party. This will be viewed as utter failure.
Secondly, while some are noting anecdotal evidence of 10-1 calls into congressional offices against this bill, the American people as a whole either did not know what to think or narrowly supported it. This is a big change from Friday to Sunday. Why? People were with their families and the reality of the situation began to freak them out a bit. Expect this support to only grow as today’s stock market losses will only cause more freakouts and calls for stability and the government to step in.
Serious miscalculation to applaud this in the wingnut blogosphere.
If you think I was off base in my earlier commentary as to why the Republicans felt they had to make the sacrificial move of voting this down, just listen to Issa:
Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican, said he was “resolute†in his opposition to the measure because it would betray party principles and amount to “a coffin on top of Ronald Reagan’s coffin.â€
{ 1 comment }
