Enjoy the new theme I created for this blog.
I might make some more tweaks as I go along but I like it.
Free Market My Ass!
The high spending crooks on Wall Street ran a few financial institutions into the ground in the quest for millions of dollars in pay and many houses. Now they’ve come home with their hands out asking the government to bail them out.
The same government these same crooks paid off in the 1980s to remove the safe guards that would have helped prevent the meltdown we saw last week.
Senator John “I’m a deregulator” McCain and his economic advisor, former Senator, and bank lobbyist, Phil Gramm, were at the switch and leading the effort to remove government oversight at the time.
What about the free market these Reagan-era politicians got boners over? You get screwed over than you pay the price – right?
Not in the case of course. When it comes to the Wall Street elites it is all about not being responsible for their criminal actions. Kind of like Daddy bailing you out after a Frat boy bar brawl.
One TRILLION dollars is the bill all of us will have to pay for the unethical and criminal behavior.
In the text of the bill to go before Congress there is not ONE word about holding the crooks or their companies responsible for the failure and need for the buy out. Daddy arrives to bail them out.
As Glenn Greenwald writes:
Second, whatever else is true, the events of the last week are the most momentous events of the Bush era in terms of defining what kind of country we are and how we function — and before this week, the last eight years have been quite momentous, so that is saying a lot. Again, regardless of whether this nationalization/bailout scheme is “necessary” or makes utilitarian sense, it is a crime of the highest order — not a “crime” in the legal sense but in a more meaningful sense.
What is more intrinsically corrupt than allowing people to engage in high-reward/no-risk capitalism — where they reap tens of millions of dollars and more every year while their reckless gambles are paying off only to then have the Government shift their losses to the citizenry at large once their schemes collapse? We’ve retroactively created a win-only system where the wealthiest corporations and their shareholders are free to gamble for as long as they win and then force others who have no upside to pay for their losses. Watching Wall St. erupt with an orgy of celebration on Friday after it became clear the Government (i.e., you) would pay for their disaster was literally nauseating, as the very people who wreaked this havoc are now being rewarded.
Update: Put another way, this authorizes Hank Paulson to transfer $700 billion of taxpayer money to private industry in his sole discretion, and nobody has the right or ability to review or challenge any decision he makes.
The complete (though ever-changing) elite consensus over the financial collapse
Then the same week of the financial meltdown, Mr. Deregulator McCain has an article in a healthcare magazine wanting to do the same thing to health insurance that he and his frat buddies did to the banking industry. McCain has also supported privatizing Social Security – which would have Grandma’s retirement money in the stock market last week if it had happened.
In this video Senator Obama sums everything up:
The Great Columbus Windstorm of 2008
I guess it had to be Karma because of my sick attempt at humor at the expense of Hurricane Ike.
He found out where I lived and put the smack down on me and the entire Central Ohio area on Sunday. We had 75 mph sustained winds for several hours on Sunday afternoon from a combination of the remnants of Ike and his homie – a wicked strong cold front coming from the west.
By dark, thousands of trees were down in the area and half a million people were without power. I posted a picture of the tree that fell in my front yard. The car to the left was just missed by a foot or two. Click on the image to see the full size.
With the so many people being out of power our friendly electric monopoly – American Electric Power – gave us grim news. Some of us wouldn’t have power back for up to 7 days.
To see how random it was, my building was out but the building next door had power as did the apartments across the street. Kroger was closed but the Speedway on 5th avenue was open. Corned Beef Hash is not that good cold. But I did luck out Monday night as the Taco Bell on 5th was open.
I found out that a flickering candle is irritating and causes a headache when trying to read. Also I plan on getting real candles or if they are scented ones they will all be the same scent. It smelled like I was in a cat house with all the different perfumes mixing together.
The picture on the left is the inside of my apartment on Monday night about midnight. The audio portion of the movie “Batman Begins” is pretty good. My MP3 player has FM radio on it so I could listen to the audio from WSYX which is ABC here in town. The only news I could get was the audio from WSYX. Oh and guys at Channel 6, you could deliver more news without having to say “6 on your side” every other sentence. And to all the other news geeks in Columbus – how can I check your website for the complete list of school closings if I don’t have power?????
My emergency flashlight lasted a day and I had to go a nearby laundry to recharge my cell phone.
Other stories on the news had whole neighborhoods getting together. They cleaned up the downed trees, secured damaged houses, and some had huge cook outs as people tried to empty fridges and freezers before the food went bad. On a nearby street, a sign was posted that said “Looters will be shot…” Yes, togetherness was the rule of the day.
Lucky for me my power came back on Tuesday afternoon. It is so nice to see TV again and check my e-mail. Roughing it is fun but not all the time. And I will never make fun of Hurricanes again.
John McCain’s ads are LIES. Here’s the video proof.
Pass this on to protect our election from lies and deceit.
Hurricane dark humor
First of all let me say I hate bad storms and I’m glad I have never and hope to never experience a Hurricane. But during a slow point at work the mind of a co-worker and my dark mind came up with some “funny” bits about Hurricane Ike coming ashore tonight in Texas.
Sometimes you have to try to laugh. The following is meant to be funny:
Why do they always name the storms after people? What if they sold naming rights to the storms? It would be a week or more advertising exposure.
Watch out Texas Hurricane Pontiac Solstice is on its way! – after the storm Pontiac gives away 50 free cars.
We could do sports teams too.
Take cover Dallas, Hurricane New England Patriots will hit you tonight.
How about TV shows?
You watched Hurricane American Idol pummel New Orleans now what it 5 nights a a week on the CW!
Local businesses could have contests.
If your home was destroyed between 5 PM and 6 PM you get a coupon for dinner for 2 at Red Lobster.
The money charged for the naming rights and other marketing parts would be used to pay for the storm recovery.