Archive for the 'Common Sense' Category
The Bush Administration’s proposed $700 billion Wall Street Bail Out proposal is a collosal mistake for the US economy and the American people no matter what restrictions and limitations Congress is able to impose on a power-hungry Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
This “rescue plan” forces taxpayers to reward destructive and negligent business practices and does not address the ruptures in the foundation of the US financial system: deregulation of banks and financial firms, the overturn of the Glass-Steagal Act and a pronounced crony corporate business model which espouses a lack of transparency, limited share-holder input, misleading sales tactics and irresponsible lending.
If Congress actually cared “protecting the taxpayer” then lawmakers would attack the root of the current problem: declining home values and criminal mortgage rates.
Why not use $700 billion dollars to help homeowners keep their homes by purchasing foreclosed homes and offering affordable and reasonable mortgages? It could be a program similar to the Federal Student Loan program which gives millions of Americans the opportunity to pursue a higher education at affordable rates. It doesn’t take a MBA or PHD in economics to figure this out.
A healthy Main Street leads to a healthy Wall Street, but not necessarily the other way around.
In case anyone hasn’t been paying attention, the worst threat Palin poses on a White House ticket is the threat she poses to the environment.
Palin doesn’t believe humans are responsible for global warming, even though her state has a front row seat as the Artic melts away.
Palin wants to drill through Alaskan wilderness for oil even though scientists have long concluded that the presumed oil there is negligible and wouldn’t become available at least ten years after discovery.
Palin has fought successfully against imposing stricter regulations on mining operations which pollute Alaskan streams and destroy the state’s most important international export: salmon. … If you like “wild caught Alaskan Salmon” you had better eat up now before Palin’s policies have you munching on iron ore and smelt.
And oh yeah, Palin is on record refusing to believe the polar bear is endangered.
Palin personifies the forces behind global warming and pollution: beaurocrats with their heads in the sand and pockets full of oil money.
Choosing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate speaks volumes about the real John McCain — a man who places his political ambitions in front of what’s good for the country.
Given McCain’s health and age and Palin’s lack of a resume should be enough of a signal that McCain is not thinking about what’s best for the country in this election. McCain simply wants to go to the Oval Office before he’s thrown in the grave. And he foolishly thinks an inexperienced, unqualified backwoods political player like Palin will be his meal ticket simply because she has t and a.
Don’t get me wrong … Palin is known as a reformer and rightly so. She makes a fine Governor of Alaska. And given time, no doubt Palin will rise to national prominence. But, bringing her to Washington now is like taking the bread out of the oven before it’s done baking.
McCain is making a mockery of the American public with Palin as his running mate. This move is reckless and incompetent and is not befitting a would be leader of the free world. Palin is simply not qualified — yet — to be our president (which is exactly what a vice presidential must be).
John McCain is not the simple POW maverick who’s story we’ve been forced fed over the last 20 plus years. He is proving himself to be a dangerous politico bent on becoming leader of the free world
But what the Republicans need to do is nominate someone else. McCain is not fit to serve. And his nomination is dangerous … dangerous for the country.
Palin is an exciting candidate to many marginalized voters …. and the Republican party should bring her back in eight years.
But for the next four, McCain can not, can NOT become the President of the United States.
Wall Street’s army of old-white-guys-in-suits seems to be living in a different world than the rest of us. If you watch financial news or read financial newspapers, those hedge fund kingpins and stock speculators are trying to get the message out that the bad days are over and that the good days are right around the corner. They’re trying to tell us that recession fears are a bunch of hog-wash.
The irony is that they are spinning this bull at the same time Warren Buffett, arguably the most successful investor of all time, is saying the exact opposite. Buffett believes that not only are we already in a recession, but we should expect things to get worse.
“… My general feeling is that the recession will be longer and deeper than most people think,” says Buffett.
Maybe Buffett is so level headed and insightful because he doesn’t allow himself to be blinded by his billions and instead lives a humble life devoted to his family in Omaha, NE.
But, it doesn’t take an MBA to see the direction our economy has turned. Gas and food prices are rising and resources are becoming more scarce, the value of our homes is declining, friends and family are losing their homes and jobs and defaulting on debts, incomes are stagnating and inflation is raging: the situation ain’t good.
So, why the common sense-defying, Buffett-denying, sunny forecast from Wall Street?
They may indeed be too blinded by their billions to see what is happening on the street.
But, more likely they are so panicked by the numbers they’re seeing that they are rushing to plug the dike the best way they know how: drumming up business. Who can blame them? They believe the best way to stave off this recession is to buy-buy-buy. But, they know it’s a bear market.
So next time you see a Wall Street insider on television telling you the forecast calls for sunshine, look outside and see the storm clouds gathering. The forecast calls for rain.
Americans should be raising their voices in protest at the way both fronts in the “War on Terror” are being conducted. But, more disturbing than Iraq is our quagmire in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s US-anointed President, Hamid Karzai, is highly critical of America’s “handling” of the War in Afghanistan. Innocent Afghans continue to die at the hands of American soldiers. Security is still a joke in the country. The US is still searching rural Afghan villages for Taliban and Al Qaeda members while everyone with an internet connection knows that the Taliban and Al Qaeda regrouped to Pakistan’s Northwest Tribal Regions long ago. Our forces in the country are understaffed and overwhelmed. Tribal warlords and local chieftains barely bother with Kabul, the capital. And Afghanistan is free only in name.
And all of this is not to mention that our own generals are saying that we should expect things to “get worse” in Afghanistan this year.
What is going on here? What could possibly be the reason that the White House stopped looking for Osama bin Laden or hunting down the Taliban and Al Qaeda??? How in the world did we let the Taliban set up shop next door in Pakistan?
Unfortunately, Bush has ensured it so that Afghanistan will remain fertile ground for extremist groups hostile to the United States for at least another decade. Probably another generation.
Afghanistan should have been our number one priority from 9/12 onward. No question.
But, dwelling on the Bush Administration’s criminal flaws can not be our number one concern at the moment.
Now we need to turn as much of our attention as possible back to Afghanistan and get the job done once and for all. Get the job done right.
The country needs to be cleared of all terrorists. It needs security. It needs rebuilding. It needs to learn self-sufficiency. And it needs to be lead down the path towards prosperity. Like an orphan we need to take Afghanistan by the hand and finally treat her like a long lost family member now found.
This isn’t some pie-in-the-sky-polly anna-rant. All of this is possible. All of this can be done.
Our future depends on it.
We cannot forget what happened last time we let Afghanistan fall into ruin. We cannot let it happen again. And at the moment it looks like Afghanistan may be slipping further down that slope. Time to regroup. Time to refocus.
Columnist Anatoly, you get it all wrong.
Race is an issue, but it is not the issue. And if anything, the fact that McCain is an old-rich-white-guy is going to hurt his chances at getting elected more than Obama’s blackness.
Obama has stepped up onto a platform that was born into the public’s conscience when Will Smith started headlining movies. A platform that was conceived during Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches. We have a long history of African-American men and women leading us and teaching us and showing us how to manifest the true American spirit. A history that spans our entire 231 years.
America is ready for a black president.
Oil prices keep on climbing. Up, up and away!
Seems that it’s past time to start retooling our energy policy. We really can’t wait till November. Solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, bicycles and mass transit. It doesn’t a take a rocket scientist to figure out a solution. Only someone with common sense and whose pockets haven’t been lined by ExxonMobil.
That is just the way it is. Free, fair and transparent trade is inevitable. It is our collective destiny.
And free trade is nothing to be frightened of. Free trade should be embraced. And soon enough, NAFTA will join CAFTA and then a future SAFTA. Globalization: that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
It’s time to renovate. And it’s time to innovate. It ain’t no time to be cry babies.
Check out these peacenik grannies:
I’m calling bullshit on all this press about McCain visiting “poor areas“. As if “poor areas” were dead zones on a map where you can’t get a cell phone signal. As if “poor areas” were uncharted regions of Mars thought to be inhabited by savage life forms. As if McCain were fucking diving in to a black hole tethered to one of his wife’s diamond-studded panties. As if we should give McCain a medal of honor for doing his so-called job.
How brave. How noble. How exemplary for this privileged white man to dirty his shoes in “poor areas”.
McCain might as well come out and say: “Let them eat cake.” Or he could just fly over them in one of his private jets. He is so fucking out of touch.
The poor are not aliens. The poor are not foreign. The poor are our friends and neighbors, our brothers and sisters.
And the poor don’t live in one “poor area”. The poor live right next door, down the street, above and below us. Has McCain never taken a stroll around the block in DC (one of the most impoverished cities in America!)??? What a load of horse shit, McCain.
Call me a cynic. Call me jaded. But, I don’t buy for a second that McCain gives a damn about “poor people”. I don’t think that McCain cares or empathizes with those less fortunate. This is nothing but a media blitz in hopes of inaccurately painting McCain a “compassionate” Republican.
Again: bullshit. It’s all politics, baby. If he really cared about the poor he would have taken the silver spoon out of his mouth and done something to ease their burden during his 26 years in public office.