Sunday, October 05, 2008
Welcome to the United Socialist States of America
If you have a copy of the United States Constitution lying around, you can go ahead and run it through the paper shredder or burn it. At this point the paper it was wrote on is worth more than the words. The United States Congress has been ignoring it for several of years with no accountability from the American voter. In doing so we have taken this nation into areas we never had any business being in.In fact we created the greatest financial risk and collapse this country has ever seen by ignoring the principles and wisdoms placed by the founders of the constitution. Politicians in Congress think they are above the constitution. They thought they knew better. They thought they could do better and create a system outside the boundaries of the law. They were wrong! We were wrong for letting them continue to do it without accountability.
For years Congress continued to spend more, create a bigger and more intrusive government, limiting freedom while increasing their power for the social experiment to supply all with an increased standard of living.
The government required banks to offer no money down mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for before unqualified low-income family borrowers with good or bad credit became the norm. After all, everyone in America should own a house regardless if they can actually afford it. This significantly increased the demand for houses inflating the housing market and creating the housing bubble.
As the bubble grew, so did the amount of dangerous subprime loans given. While the economy was on the rise everyone was happy. Then gas prices started to rise. Interest rates rose and paychecks got squeezed. All of a sudden our unqualified borrowers couldn’t make their mortgage payments. Foreclosures skyrocketed, banks quit lending them money and no one was buying houses only selling. The bubble popped as house prices plummeted. All those government-backed mortgages became worthless and banks begin to collapse.
Did Congress and politicians learn their lesson? No, instead they blame it on the free market. It is capitalisms fault, not ours. The premise from most of our politicians on both sides of the aisle of this financial crisis is that some how the free market has failed and the government must come to the rescue. The truth is the crisis we are now in is a result of government intervention in the market.
This is not a failure of the free market. In a free market, bankers would not give loans to people who are not qualified.
We started to here politicians say things like the government must act to protect the financial well being of all from the reckless financial actions of a few.
Someone show me where in the constitution does it say it is the government’s responsibility to protect the financial well being of anybody? I must have missed it in my copy!
I am so disgusted by this bailout! Democrats and Republicans both united to vote for this damn bill. Both presidential candidates voted for it. We can’t get them to unite to win wars, or close our borders, but we can get them to unite to give them the absolute most power they will ever gain over the free market ever!!! Does anyone realize how much control this bill gives the federal government? How much real estate the government will now own?
There is no way you can justify in the constitution the government should be a source of mortgages for homeowners, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were able to control more than 50% of the mortgages in this country before this bailout.
We are in tough times, but they are going to get tougher until the American people hold Congress and politicians accountable to live within the rules of the US Constitution that have served this country so well. We are ignoring the constitution at our own peril and are reaping exactly what we have sown.
Capitalism is pretty much dead. Welcome to the United Socialist States of America! The US Constitution was bought and destroyed for 700 billion dollars!!!
Perhaps it is time to reject the two-party system in this country. It’s time for a revolution! A voter revolution…The Libertarian Party anyone?
Media ignores major Biden foreign policy gaffe.
Yes, it is true Sarah Palin got a few of her facts wrong, misquoted a couple numbers and even gaffed on the name of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan during the Vice Presidential debate Thursday night, but so did Joe Biden.
However, getting a few numbers and facts wrong doesn’t even begin to compare to the biggest gaffe I have ever seen in my life, and it has gone completely ignored by the media.
I honestly could not believe my ears and almost choked on my popcorn when I heard Biden say this:
Gwen, no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden. I would have never, ever joined this ticket were I not absolutely sure Barack Obama shared my passion.
But you asked a question about whether or not this administration's policy had made sense or something to that effect. It has been an abject failure, this administration's policy.
In fairness to Secretary Rice, she's trying to turn it around now in the seventh or eighth year.
Here's what the president said when we said no. He insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, "Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll legitimize them." What happened? Hamas won.
When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, "Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it."
Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.
Is he serious? We…and who kicked Hezbollah out of where??? Obama urged to send NATO to do what??? This is really a serious and important foreign policy gaffe. It is far more serious than anything Sarah Palin has said anytime anywhere!
Perhaps in the alternate universe Joe Biden lives in the U.S. and France may have kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, but back here on Earth it has never happened. Hezbollah has never been kicked out of Lebanon by anyone. Not the US, France, Israel or even the Lebanese.
The fact is Hezbollah has been in Lebanon since the early 1980’s. They have since grown to make up over a third of the population of Lebanon and have an entirely separate governance infrastructure in the southern part of the country. Hezbollah currently controls 62 of 128 seats in the Lebanese Parliament.
Although it would hardly make any more sense, but perhaps Biden was referring to when the Lebanese people kicked the Syrians out of Lebanon with behind the scenes work of France and the U.S. It was the U.S. who convinced King Abdullah to lobby the Syrians to get gone while the going was good while the French worked directly on Baby Assad. The Syrians left after a couple million Lebanese took to the street in a show of love for freedom and defiance to tyranny.
Even then Biden, Barack Obama or anyone on this planet did not push for NATO to “fill the vacuum” Anyone who would have put such a proposal on the table would have been laughed out of the room, but Biden seems to believe not having NATO to “fill the vaccum” led to Hezbollah’s rise to political power in Lebanon.
One has to ask where the hell has Biden been the last 20 years. It was the Taif Accords that were signed in 1989 that gave Hezbollah power in the southern part of the country. Hezbollah’s real rise to political power is directly related to Iran’s 250 million dollar a year funding of their proxy.
Either Biden is completely clueless on foreign policy, or he simply got caught up in a lie that went horribly wrong.
It is almost unbelievable to me that I was unable to find even a mention of this let alone a story from the mainstream media on this incredible gaffe, outlandish misstatement of history and outright lie that he and Obama called for NATO troops in Lebanon after Hezbollah was kicked out. Even if he meant Syria kicked out it’s still a lie. Where was fact check.org? I guess there magnifying glass missed this one. Why am I not surprised.
The headline of the debate should have been; “Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Seems Clueless on Foreign Policy.” Instead Biden gets a pass and Palin is heavily criticized for mispronouncing the name of our commanding general in Afghanistan.
However, getting a few numbers and facts wrong doesn’t even begin to compare to the biggest gaffe I have ever seen in my life, and it has gone completely ignored by the media.
I honestly could not believe my ears and almost choked on my popcorn when I heard Biden say this:
Gwen, no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden. I would have never, ever joined this ticket were I not absolutely sure Barack Obama shared my passion.
But you asked a question about whether or not this administration's policy had made sense or something to that effect. It has been an abject failure, this administration's policy.
In fairness to Secretary Rice, she's trying to turn it around now in the seventh or eighth year.
Here's what the president said when we said no. He insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, "Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll legitimize them." What happened? Hamas won.
When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, "Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it."
Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.
Is he serious? We…and who kicked Hezbollah out of where??? Obama urged to send NATO to do what??? This is really a serious and important foreign policy gaffe. It is far more serious than anything Sarah Palin has said anytime anywhere!
Perhaps in the alternate universe Joe Biden lives in the U.S. and France may have kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, but back here on Earth it has never happened. Hezbollah has never been kicked out of Lebanon by anyone. Not the US, France, Israel or even the Lebanese.
The fact is Hezbollah has been in Lebanon since the early 1980’s. They have since grown to make up over a third of the population of Lebanon and have an entirely separate governance infrastructure in the southern part of the country. Hezbollah currently controls 62 of 128 seats in the Lebanese Parliament.
Although it would hardly make any more sense, but perhaps Biden was referring to when the Lebanese people kicked the Syrians out of Lebanon with behind the scenes work of France and the U.S. It was the U.S. who convinced King Abdullah to lobby the Syrians to get gone while the going was good while the French worked directly on Baby Assad. The Syrians left after a couple million Lebanese took to the street in a show of love for freedom and defiance to tyranny.
Even then Biden, Barack Obama or anyone on this planet did not push for NATO to “fill the vacuum” Anyone who would have put such a proposal on the table would have been laughed out of the room, but Biden seems to believe not having NATO to “fill the vaccum” led to Hezbollah’s rise to political power in Lebanon.
One has to ask where the hell has Biden been the last 20 years. It was the Taif Accords that were signed in 1989 that gave Hezbollah power in the southern part of the country. Hezbollah’s real rise to political power is directly related to Iran’s 250 million dollar a year funding of their proxy.
Either Biden is completely clueless on foreign policy, or he simply got caught up in a lie that went horribly wrong.
It is almost unbelievable to me that I was unable to find even a mention of this let alone a story from the mainstream media on this incredible gaffe, outlandish misstatement of history and outright lie that he and Obama called for NATO troops in Lebanon after Hezbollah was kicked out. Even if he meant Syria kicked out it’s still a lie. Where was fact check.org? I guess there magnifying glass missed this one. Why am I not surprised.
The headline of the debate should have been; “Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Seems Clueless on Foreign Policy.” Instead Biden gets a pass and Palin is heavily criticized for mispronouncing the name of our commanding general in Afghanistan.
Absolutely shameful reporting from the press.
Obama would meet unconditionally with our enemies
Biden also fibbed when he said Barack Obama never said he would meet unconditionally with the Iranian leader. The fact is Obama did say it. It was during a Democrat Primary debate on July 23, 2007. Anderson Cooper was the moderator and it was at the University of South Carolina. If you want to fact check me here is the exact transcript. If you scroll about half way down the page you will find it.
Q: In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since. In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries? Senator Obama.OBAMA: I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them and they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we had the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.
And I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them. We've been talking about Iraq -- one of the first things that I would do in terms of moving a diplomatic effort in the region forward is to send a signal that we need to talk to Iran and Syria because they're going to have responsibilities if Iraq collapses.
They have been acting irresponsibly up until this point. But if we tell them that we are not going to be a permanent occupying force, we are in a position to say that they are going to have to carry some weight, in terms of stabilizing the region.
Biden was well aware of this, because he opposed and criticized Obama for it at the National Press Club in August of 2007 while campaigning against him for the Democratic nomination.
Q: In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since. In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries? Senator Obama.OBAMA: I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them and they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we had the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.
And I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them. We've been talking about Iraq -- one of the first things that I would do in terms of moving a diplomatic effort in the region forward is to send a signal that we need to talk to Iran and Syria because they're going to have responsibilities if Iraq collapses.
They have been acting irresponsibly up until this point. But if we tell them that we are not going to be a permanent occupying force, we are in a position to say that they are going to have to carry some weight, in terms of stabilizing the region.
Biden was well aware of this, because he opposed and criticized Obama for it at the National Press Club in August of 2007 while campaigning against him for the Democratic nomination.
Our Tax System Explained: Bar Stool Economics
This has been around for a while, but still holds true. Everyone says our tax system and economics is complex. Well this professor of economics does a great job breaking it down into laymen terms. Everyone should be able to understand this. Hopefully you will understand the tenth man has left the table in many places. You can only rob someone for so much and so long before they find somewhere else to do business.Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all tencomes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would gosomething like this:
The first four men (The poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with thearrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you are allsuch good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your dailybeer by $20.” Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so thefirst four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could theydivide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that fromeverybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end upbeing paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would befair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceededto work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued todrink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to comparetheir savings.
“I only got a dollar out of the $20,”declared the sixth man. He pointed tothe tenth man,” but he got $10!”
“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!”
“That’s true!!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 backwhen I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. Thesystem exploits the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat downand had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, theydiscovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all ofthem for even half of the bill!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, this is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the mostbenefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
By David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.Professor of Economics University of Georgia
For those of you who understand this concept no explanation needed. For those of you who don’t understand this there is no explanation possible.
Big T's Suggested Reading and Viewing from around the Web
I always like to turn to an expert during a crisis. Here is what economist Thomas Sowell has to say about the bailout. He says politicians that caused the problem thinks they can fix it…hmmm where have I heard that before? Excellent reading as always.
Here we have yet another story involving Association of Community Organizations for Reform (ACORN) and voter registration fraud. I am now understanding what community organizers do!
You know I have heard about ticket scalpers at sporting events and concerts, but political rallies??? The Sarah Palin phenomenon continues to sweep the country! If John McCain wins this thing, it will be because of her.
More than 70 million tuned in to watch the Palin-Biden VP presidential debate. It is the largest viewing of any debate since the Reagan-Carter debate in 1980 that brought the record 80.6 million to the TV set. Do you suppose the majority of viewers tuned in to watch Biden? Me either.
Sarah Palin has even got praise from Hillary Clinton for her debate performance… Hmmm…first Bill praises her and then Hillary. I wonder if Obama feels that knife in his back yet.
In an episode of “The Simpsons” scheduled to air November 2 Homer votes for Obama, but the voting machine refuses to accept his vote and changes it to McCain. Homer is then sucked into the machine and killed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)