To get ‘the change we need’ Obama will still have to play politics the old fashioned way. So far it looks like he knows how.

What’s that thing about ‘nose in spite of face’?

70+% of the country give Obama a favorable rating.

The last two elections have given a referendum against republican ideals.

Yet, they dig themselves into a deeper hole by obstructing for no particular reason, and doing so WITHOUT a better plan. We’ve seen this before when Clinton was elected. We’ve also seen their other side when Bush was elected.

It’s either their way or the highway, and they’ll do everything in their power to make sure democrats get credit for NOTHING.

“You’re playing golf today, and you’re going to like it!”

“Spalding, you’ll get nothing and like it!”

Cry me a river.
You liberals are the biggest bunch of whiny pussies I’ve ever seen. We’re gonna win back congress, then we’re gonna kick your messiah out of the white house. I can’t wait to see how miserably your porkulus bill fails the American Economy……

Note: I realize one of the obvious comments to my post below will be to ask/say, why do you read what this magazine has to say then?

With that being said, the political hypocrisy and relativistic mindset of the individuals that write for this magazine is astounding. One, these same writers have been bashing Bush for years about government spending, yet with the stroke of a pen Obama will hitch your great grandkids to debt of close to $1 trillion, or more than the Iraq/Afghan Wars combined. No problems from these writers, even though apprx. 70% of the spending is absolute pork resulting from the hated lobbyist. Two, is it possible that perhaps the house republicans didn’t vote for this bill because it has nothing to do with stimulus and everything to do with growing government. The bi-partison aspect of the voting was against it (11 dems voted with the republicans). Yet, when the dems opposed something like tax cuts proposed by Bush and a Republican congress, the writers of this mag hailed them as brave and defiant.

If you are going to “report” information, at least be fair and report it the same way for both sides. You, RS, will not do that though because you know the truth will hurt your relativistic political ideals. It is really sad…really sad.

Muddy: Your president started this mess, and stole 700 billion more trying to ‘fix’ it.

Muddy: Ironically enough, you’re the one bitching and moaning while calling liberals bitches and moaners.

By the way, regarding all the spending in the last 8 years by BushLeague: What does he have to show for it? How is this country any better?

LIBERAL = MY LIFE SUCKS SO I MUST BLAME EVERYONE BUT MYSELF AND SMEAR A GOOD MAN LIKE PRESIDENT BUSH. Bravo Mr. Bush for never stooping to the level of the libs, bravo. Not even the mighty whine of the left can bring a good man down. I love reading the pathetic moans from the left about water-boarding and every other thing they bitch about. What a bunch of losers…..

elrushbobaby wrote:

“LIBERAL = MY LIFE SUCKS SO I MUST BLAME EVERYONE BUT MYSELF AND SMEAR A GOOD MAN LIKE PRESIDENT BUSH.”

ROFL…

this is exactly what conservatives are doing right now: Blaming everyone but themselfs for loosing this election.

They refuse to make the connection between small government and the current crisis.

A certain level of civilized life has a certain prizetag, no matter what. The only choice we have is to either tax consistantly, or to not tax at all but then spend our way out of catastropic failure.

point of order – liberals are bitches, conservatives are boners.

Jed Clampett

I really liked the comment by the CEO of Honeywell (I believe) after the conference between the leaders of industry and the president the other day… something like, ‘this president is definitely not timid’. Would have liked to have been a fly on the wall in those meetings.

I liked Jon Stewart’s idea the other day in talking to Gwen Ifill. If this is costing $2500 per American, why not give them the money? It will be put in the banks and the banks will have capitol to work with, it will be spent and thereby stimulate the economy, and will be used for necessities of the people instead of handing it over to banks that are going to hoard it or use it to increase their monopolies.

Peace

ALOHA, you are a moron like all the rest of the frequent posters here.

Your assumption that “[a] certain level of civilized life” is something that must be funded via the federal government is the greatest fallacy of our time. It almost seems that you and your kind take it for granted that government could be the instrument responsible for civilization. There are a great many people, albeit a dwindling minority, who will never believe that institutions matter more than individuals. This moronic bickering over whether Republican or Democrat / Conservative or Liberal values precipitated the global financial crisis is a joke. The fact is that all political leadership in this country has a fetish for government. Likewise, all political leadership is oriented towards a government-based solution. Allow me to fill you in on a dirty little secret no one wants to talk about – government didn’t get us into this mess. Dumb decisions based on greed got us into it; government just went along for the ride. These dumb decisions were made by BOTH corporations and individual consumers. Our culture is eternally validating through its economic system the false notion that material things are equivalent to happiness. This false notion drives incalculable stupid decisions at every level. Now that the market has caught up with these dumb decisions, government feels compelled to respond, to assert itself as a savior. This is a monumental mistake. Dumb greedy decisions need to be punished courtesy of the market. Perhaps the rest of use might have to do without some of the luxuries we’ve grown accustomed to for a little while, but in the end, without intervention, we would a helluva lot stronger. Unfortunately the government responds to whiners; the government loves whiners; whiners cast votes; whiners get other whiners to cast votes. Whiners, though, are too busy whining to actually get something done, to create the kind of value that actually will improve conditions. The folks that are not inclined to whine, fewer and fewer every day, will never ascribe to this silly notion that government will be the one to make things right.

G Urbus…:

You DO realize that you’re ‘bitchin’ and ‘moanin’ about the liberals bitching and moaning, right?

Opinions vary pal. But, I also know that the only ones that are really going to suffer from this economic meltdown are the ones that were exploited – low-incomers. Sure, they made a bad decision. But, they didn’t okay the loans. Whoever okayed those loans was ALSO as much at fault, yet, nothing’s going to happen to them. Meanwhile, the guy that bought the house, just got kicked out and has to rent an apartment. Yet, the loan shark, er, lender, gets a million dollar bonus.

Complain all you want that liberals complain too much (ironic, isn’t it?), but don’t forget the fact that punishment is DEFINITELY not equal. Until that happens, you’re going to continue to hear moans and groans from the left. Deal with it. Also deal with the fact that most of America DOES INDEED blame these problems on the republicans/conservatives. Right or wrong, that’s the consensus.

Red/blue, lib/conservative, whine/no whine; it doesn’t matter. Only one thing drives the economy and the world. GREED. You either have it or you don’t.

Stewart’s was the best solution yet. Real stimulus. Did you see that ‘you got to be kidding’ look flash over Ifill’s face? Priceless.

Jed Clampett

Greed doesn’t drive the world, it drives desperate individuals without the necessary talent and intelligence to be prosperous within the limits of the law. Greed destroys the environment and the community because it cares about nothing but itself; and once it looses all it’s assets, it takes it’s own life along with it’s family members in despair.

It is hard work and imagination that drives the economy and the world, tolerance and plurality of culture, religion, art, science and fashion. The things that make us feel good also help to drive us to accomplish the impossible and make the possible commonplace.

But you are welcome to put your theories to work, may brave people fed up with stupidity expose your crimes and help put you where you can’t harm others with your selfishness.

Peace, it brings prosperity and happiness for all.

Shoot me before I eat my gun. Put me where the sun don’t shine.

g urbus wrote: “Dumb greedy decisions need to be punished courtesy of the market”

wake up, dude. The market won´t punish the ones guilty of “greed”. Allready stinking rich folks will not end up starving on the street. But the average hard working American will.

Concerning the ideology of Individualism: This makes sense in states with 3 people living on 100 square miles. No law, no government needed. Obviously.

But in places like NYC with 15000 people on a square mile government makes sense. Because crowd effects take over.

Small government is like putting 100 chimps in a tiny prison cell and expecting them to behave anyway.

Jed Clampett

mahalo

Pace

Perhaps big government is equivalent to putting 100 chimps in a small cage and giving one a loaded gun.

Having spent most of my life in Philly, NYC, and Boston, I have come to believe that many of the structural socioeconomic problems that are endemic to the northeast stem from bad government. Political corruption is rampant in the northeast and the evolving urban landscape manifests this social disease.

Concerning “market punishment”. It looks like the previous poster was misunderstood. I took the meaning to be that bad decisions would be punished by the market, not bad people. This is right on the mark as far as I can tell. The reliability of modeling of cash flows from mortgage backed securities will never be viewed the same, as a result, banks are less likely to leverage these securities to fund investment in the same way they did before. Similarly banks have already begun to change lending criteria. These positive changes should not be underestimated. Previous strategies simply turned out not to be profitable. That’s the way things are supposed to work.

The fascination with punishing people that is bandied about here is childish and speaks to some latent desire to see it or receive it. Sure the relative minority of people in finance who committed fraud and other sec. crimes should be brought to justice, but they are few and far between compared to the majority of people in financial services who were merely parties to a series of bad decisions that were aimed at making money. They are now collecting unemployment, looking for work, maybe even posting to blogs to vent frustration.

Anyway, I agree, the current obsession over government as the answer to all of our problems is absurd. People need to make things happen for themselves instead of complaining to some fat-cat politician who probably gets his dik sucked every week by an escort courtesy of the taxpayers.

These pathetic programs will be a complete disaster. How is funding ACORN going to get me a job in Michigan? How is funding abortion clinics going to put food on my table? How are scientific studies of the environment going to pay my bills? The idiocy is scary…the lemming mentality of the hoards who voted for this clown and his puppet masters even more so. God bless the Republicans for voting no on the worst bill in the history of the galaxy. Ya, it could backfire on the republicans…but sadly enough for this country…it won’t…I/you will pay for the democrats earmarking and pork for the rest of my life and my children’s lives. Oh, as a side note, get ready for the Draft youngsters of the new Amerika because the only way this country will ever recover is by the dems starting the war of wars. It’s always been so…Dems were there at the start of World War II and Dems were there for Vietnam. This country was not attacked during the Bush years…my money says that will change. All the celebrities will have to change their tune two years from now when this country has gone completely to hell. Live well while you can…

Daddeyo: “This country was not attacked during the Bush years”

Did you, seriously, just say that?

“Perhaps big government is equivalent to putting 100 chimps in a small cage and giving one a loaded gun.”

nice one;-)

but that doesn´t change my point:

In highly populated areas people need rules.

And somebody has to enforce them.

This applies to governors and escorts, too.

And one of the rules should be to account for every dime spend.

So far Obama seems to be on the right track.

There sure are a lot of dimes to be accounted for – 8 Trillion dimes to be exact. Not to mention he hired a Treasury Boss who has had trouble keeping track of his own stack of dimes.

Sure, the Democrats like to tax and spend and they dearly love their ‘programs’ but there is some accountability as to where your money has gone. However, when the Republicans take your money it is simply gone. Sayonara.

The $800 Billion will vanish into thin air before anyone has a chance to make an entry in the ledger books. If we’re talking about accountability, why aren’t we talking about project future cash flows from this investment, or is it just a simple gimme. I want to know what kind of return we can expect to see. Then we can talk about accountability. I don’t care if it’s GOP or DEMs, we the people deserve to be offered some measuring stick to evaluate the success of the government spending programs when they come to the tune of $800 Billion.

Please note that there is NEVER (I hope) a space between Dirty & Dennis when the ‘real’ one posts. The two are inseparable.

Absolute accountability. Apparently it’s ‘only’ $650 billion that might vanish now. The other $250 billion is a ‘long term paydown’ that stands the chance of vanishing some time in the future.