The American Spectator

Pat Spooner| 7.10.09 @ 6:53AM

Let's face it, Obama and his team of advisors are light weights. I just watched an interview with Warren Buffett who was featured during the campaign as a "Key" member of the One's economic team and Mr. Buffett stated that he seldom talks with the One or any of Obama's staff. As we all can see they are very good at using people whom the American public looks up to as props - but the proof is in the pudding and its not very good!

Darin| 7.10.09 @ 7:33AM

By their own admission, they have no clue what to do about the recession. How about this? Instead of government bureaucrats deciding who does/doesn't get the money, how about giving it to the people who actually earn it? I'd propose a "tax holiday" of 6 months. No income tax, no social security tax, no medicare tax, no federal taxes on pay at all. State and local taxes would likely need to remain as these are used by state and local governments.

The winners are those who actually pay taxes. There are no losers. People who don't pay taxes would get nothing because they don't pay taxes. And don't give me any "that's not fair" whining because it wouldn't be far is non-tax-payers got anything out of this. Such is not fair to those who pay taxes.

The "lost" revenue would be covered by the bill. Since a good portion of the first "stimulus" bill hasn't been spent yet, there's no reason why it can't be allocated to cover the "tax holiday" bill. That gets funds into the economy now and not next year (which has curious timing coinciding with mid-term elections).

Why won't this happen? Two reasons.

First, Congress and Obama want to keep the first "stimulus" bill spending to coincide with upcoming elections. This can and will be used as campaign rhetoric.

Second, providing a "tax holiday" clearly shows people just how large a portion of their pay goes to the federal government. Once the genie is out of that bottle, people will wonder why they are forced to give up so much. The resulting debates will get ugly from there as Congress has to really justify the forced confiscation of so much earned income.

Robert Rosencrans| 7.10.09 @ 8:43AM

The elitist in the White House and his group of hanger ons remind me of someone who is invited free to a buffet, then goes on to eat everything in sight.

A perfect example of this is the first lady, Michelle Obama. Not only is she proud of America at this point, she knows how to spend.
While she continues to diss corporate America, Michelle Obama lives in the White House like a queen.

The Obama administration is still so embarrassed about the costs associated with a recent lavish trip to Europe on the public dime, they won't release the figures on the costs.

In essence, the Obamas are atypical limousine liberals, condemning the tenets of capitalism they so favor themselves.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/your_tax_dollars_at_work_suppo.html

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Supporting Michelle Obama in the Manner
Ralph Alter
The figures are in. As required by Congress since 1995, salaries paid to staffers employed in the West Wing of the White House must be publicly reported. Most of you won't be pleased to learn that your tax dollars are paying $1,448,500 annually to provide the First Lady, Michelle Obama, with the staff she feels she needs to execute her duties as FLOTUS.

For purposes of comparison, please consult Dan Froomkin's 2004 White House Staff List-By Salary published in the Washington Post on June 13, 2004. Tallying Laura Bush's staff from the list provided by Froomkin totals $561,325 in annual salaries for the former First Lady's staff.

This number does not include White House maintenance or kitchen staff or the occasional pizza night with Barack and Michelle flying in the chef from a St. Louis restaurant to kick back and share some deep dish with 140 of their close personal friends. Nor does it include date nights in Chicago.

And it certainly doesn't include Michelle's European vacation with her daughters. In fact, CNS reports that

"the White House will not reveal the cost to taxpayers of the European vacation that first lady Michelle Obama and the president's two daughters, Malia and Sasha, took last month."

Despite deploying multiple aircraft, a huge staff and a motorcade of 20 vehicles including support staff on tours of London and Paris and la-di-da, apparently the White House feels there is some sort of executive privilege involved in withholding the cost of the First Family's extravagances from the citizens who foot the bill for them.

Perhaps they thought we wouldn't notice?

"It was supposed to be a secret trip, but the motorcade gave it away." (ibid)

TOM I| 7.10.09 @ 9:31AM

REMEMBER: Shortly after the stimulus was signed into law, after using the word "crisis" eighteen thousand times, Obama said to a group of CEOs at a business roundtable in Washington in March 2009: "They're not as bad as we think they are now." [See Daily News article by Kenneth Bazinet "President Obama: Economic crisis not as dire as it seems."] I do not believe we've had a president who lies more than Obama does. This should be headline news given Biden's 180 degree opposite take now.

Michael Tomlinson| 7.10.09 @ 9:41AM

Simple fact when Republicans controlled the White House and Congress unemployment was historically low at 6% or lower, the economy was growing at 3-5% annually, taxes were low, in comparison to Democrats Federal spending and the deficit were low, more Americans owned their homes, had health care, with plenty of food to eat and the country was safe and defending our democratic values here and around the world.

Now that Democrats control the White House and Congress the economy is in the crapper, unemployment is the highest in history, taxes are going up, Federal spending and the deficit are spiraling out of control, the nation’s health care system is under attack endangering the health of millions of Americans, homelessness is epidemic, more Americans go to bed hungry every night than in the Great Depression and the nation is unsafe with a President eager to defend tyrants and burgeoning dictatorships.

I guess this is the audacious change Obama and Democrats in Congress promised and people voted for – I hope they’re happy and feeling the full effects of their vote.

Marcell| 7.10.09 @ 9:44AM

Biden said, "We misread how bad the economy was." But, he should have said We misread how bad BU$H's economy was.

The reality is that the Democrats are trying the fix an economy that your leaders broke.

Marcell| 7.10.09 @ 9:48AM

Obama's poll numbers drop
by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor July 9, 2009 07:29 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMuQZTgciNE

Is President Obama's honeymoon with the American public nearing an end?

A second poll out this week shows a noticeable drop in public confidence in the president, six months into his term. The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released today put his overall job approval rating at 61 percent -- and on a steady decline from 76 percent in February.

As telling, 70 percent of respondents believe Obama is "a strong and decisive leader," down from 80 percent in February; 56 percent think he generally agrees with them on issues they care about, down from 63 percent five months ago; and only 53 percent said he has a "clear plan" for solving the nation's problems, down from 64 percent.

While 79 percent approve of Obama personally, a smaller subset -- 58 percent -- approve both him personally and his job performance, and 19 percent like him personally but not his job performance.

The poll, conducted June 26-28, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. A poll in the bellwether state of Ohio also found decreasing confidence in Obama and his economic proposals.

Obama's decline largely tracks the economy, which remains mired in recession. New numbers out today showed that laid-off workers are having trouble finding jobs -- continuing claims for unemployment benefits jumped by 159,000 last week, reaching 6.88 million, the highest in records dating from 1967.

As dissatisfaction grows with the $787 billion economic stimulus plan and Obama is on his foreign trip, the White House is dispatching Vice President Joe Biden today to Cincinnati, Ohio, and Saratoga County, New York, to cheerlead for the stimulus.

Biden spoke in front of the American Can Building, an abandoned factory being turned into a mixed-use development with stimulus money, and announced approval of Cincinnati's plan to use a $3.5 million federal grant to revive neighborhoods and fix up affordable housing and public facilities.

Overall, $4.4 billion in stimulus money has been targeted for Ohio, including $2 billion for education, $1 billion for health care, and $445 million for transportation.

“Roads plus teachers plus cops plus jobs equals a community — and that equals paychecks and prosperity,” Biden said. “In other words, it equals a better future right here in Southwest Ohio.”

Later, at Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park, N.Y., Biden announced that the Labor Department has authorized $275 million in additional jobless benefits for New York, making it easier for unemployed workers seeking part-time work and those unemployed for family reasons to be eligible for benefits

So far, New York is in line to get $16 billion, including $2 billion for education and $700 million for transportation.

“I see it everywhere we go: communities being rebuilt, factories being reopened, workers rehired — teachers in their classrooms, cops on the streets, families better able to live a quality life,” Biden said. “With the Recovery Act, Saratoga County and America are reclaiming our proud past — and, while we’re at it, creating a better future.”

Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 Republican in the House, kept up the critique of the stimulus and adamantly opposed the idea of a second stimulus package.

"Clearly, we’re at the point now about five months after the passage of the spending bill that the administration is realizing that it’s not working," he said on Fox News Channel, one of a series of TV interviews he did today. "That frankly the stimulative effects that were intended have not come to fruition. And in fact, promises were made that we wouldn’t go over 8.5% unemployment. We know millions of people are losing their jobs. We’re inching toward 10% unemployment. So now’s not the time to start saying, ‘Hey, we need more of the same,’ because we know it didn’t work."

UPDATE: Late today, the Republican National Committee posted a hard-hitting web video called the stimulus "failed" and repeatedly slamming Obama.

The video shows Obama putting his feet up on the desk as the narrator talks about rising unemployment and deficits, and continually loops excerpts from an interview where Obama says he would have done nothing differently on the stimulus.

Howard| 7.10.09 @ 9:58AM

So if most of the $787,000,000,000 of the first bill will not take place until after 2010, does that mean a $500,000,000,000 stimulus bill will start after 2011? Stimulate what? and why?

Dustoff| 7.10.09 @ 10:02AM

Marcell| 7.10.09 @ 9:44AM
Biden said, "We misread how bad the economy was." But, he should have said We misread how bad BU$H's economy was.

The reality is that the Democrats are trying the fix an economy that your leaders broke.
++++++++++++++++++++

Really?? So explain why everything started to go down after the dem's took control in 2006.

Pete| 7.10.09 @ 10:09AM

One word for Obama, UNCLE

Tim Williams| 7.10.09 @ 10:38AM

"[K]eep in mind the stimulus package was the first thing we did, and we did it a couple of weeks after inauguration," Obama explained during a news conference last month. "At that point nobody understood what the depths of this recession were going to look like. If you recall, it was only significantly later that we suddenly get a report that the economy had tanked."

===========

It seems we are also being asked to believe that nobody in the administration read a newspaper before inauguration day, but they were somehow forced by an economic situation of which they were almost entirely unaware to take rapid, ill-considered and radical action which, in retrospect, was ineffective.

Clearly, the answer is to double down.

Michael Tomlinson| 7.10.09 @ 10:40AM

Obviously Marcell your as ignorant as Biden and Obama. The economy turned sour when Democrats took over Congress and collapsed the day after Obama was elected.

On November 6, 2008 the Commerce Department announced real GDP went down 0.3% for the 3d quarter of 2008 (it had been up 1% in the 1st quarter and 2.8% in the 2d quarter). So when did things really go "south?" The 4th quarter when it looked like Obama would win and was elected.

For the first time in modern history the stock market tanked after a Presidential election -- it lost 12% of its value in 2 days after Obama won. It dropped 300 points the day of his inaguration another first and has not recovered its Bush era health and vitality nor will it as long as the Democrat Obamanation exists.

In November 2008 under Bush unemployment was 6.5% now under Obama and the Democrat Congress it is 9.5% and headed up with predictions it will stay in double digits till some time in 2010, but like the "green shoots" of economic recovery that is wishful thinking as long as Obama and Democrats hold the reigns of power.

In the area of foreign policy things are worse as our NATO allies turn against us and Obama seeks to ensure the supremacy of tyrants in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

China will be the big winner of 4 years of Obama. Of course, maybe after unemployment skyrockets to around 15% and the GDP and wages continue their decline even the brain dead Obama disciples will want proof he's a native born American and not a Kenyan fraud.

Marcell| 7.10.09 @ 10:45AM

The housing market slumps didn’t began in 2007 when the Dems were officially in conrol of the house & Senate. You people also act as if the oil men (The Bu$h Crime Family) didn’t run up the price of gas to line their pockets. If it cost more to deliver the goods to the market the price of the good will also cost more.

US Housing Market Crash to result in the Second Great Depression
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=when+the+the+housing+market+begin+to+crash&page=1&qsrc=0&ab=0&u=http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article383.html

This week’s data on the sagging real estate market leaves no doubt that the housing bubble is quickly crashing to earth and that hard times are on the way. “The slump in home prices from the end of 2005 to the end of 2006 was the biggest year over year drop since the National Association of Realtors started keeping track in 1982.” (New York Times) The Commerce Dept announced that the construction of new homes fell in January by a whopping 14.3%. Prices fell in half of the nation’s major markets and “existing home sales declined in 40 states”. Arizona, Florida, California, and Virginia have seen precipitous drops in sales.

Bush Calls For Probe Of Rising Gas Prices
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=Why+Are+Gas+Prices+Rising&page=1&qsrc=6&ab=8&u=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/25/AR2006042501900.html

President to Also Divert Oil Reserves, Ease Pollution Rules
By Jim VandeHei and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 26, 2006; Page A01
With gas prices expected to hover at record highs through summer, President Bush yesterday called for price-fixing investigations and several measures aimed at holding down the fast-rising costs of driving.

ds80| 7.10.09 @ 10:55AM

Keep on smokin', Marcell, and enjoy the KoolAid.

"your leaders" ? Are you posting from N. Korea?

US economy: Humpty Dumpty
Obama & Biden trying to centrally 'manage' the US economy: Tweedle-Dum & Tweedle-Dee

... got scrambled eggs?

Michael Tomlinson| 7.10.09 @ 11:01AM

Marcell if Democrats like Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank hadn't been protecting Franklin Delano Raines (a close Obama friend), Jamie Gorelick, Rahm Emmanuel and other Democrats corruption at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac they'd have listened to President Bush and Republicans and regulated those quasi government institutions and there wouldn't have been a drop in the housing market. But to protect their rich Democrat friends Democrats in Congress did and still are shielding the guilty from justice.

When one gets to the bottom of the problem in today's economy there is ultimately a corrupt Democrat at that bottom.

janet| 7.10.09 @ 11:08AM

Blaming Bush for everything is really old news. He is certainly not without fault, especially since he was at the helm when the Fed's monetary policiy shifts happened, however, not assigning any responsibility to Obama for making things worse, is intellectually dishonest. His spending and taxation as a remedy to cure economic ails has not and will not ever work. If he truly wants to generate job growth -- other then government and union payrolls -- he would enact policies which the business and private sector will respond to favorably. The private sector is the engine that will provide economic growth. Duh, it's the economy stupid.

Marcell | 7.10.09 @ 11:11AM

Survey Shows Support for Obama Economic Plans

NEW YORK, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- A study conducted by Foreclosure1.com of its
users shows support for Obama's economic proposals, particularly those geared
towards homeowners. When President Obama took office in January 2009, one of
his first actions was to begin assembling an economic stimulus plan that would
help revive the U.S. economy. The bill passed, although its $787 billion price
tag caused some controversy, particularly among Republicans.
The stimulus package includes an $8,000 tax credit for individuals buying
their first home, tax cuts spread out weekly on paychecks for individuals and
families, an increase in the child tax credit, unemployment benefit
extensions, and other measures aimed at providing immediate relief to those
most affected by the economic downturn.
Even before the stimulus passed, Obama had passed measures to assist
homeowners in danger of losing their homes through foreclosure. The measure
rewarded lenders who reduced interest rates or refinanced mortgages to assist
troubled homeowners.
While these measures have been controversial in some circles, a survey
conducted between May 1 and June 1, 2009 of Foreclosure1.com users found most
people support Obama's efforts. More than 1,000 people from all over the
United States and across both genders participated in the survey.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents supported Obama's economic proposals - more
than double the number of people who did not support the measures he has been
taking to improve the financial situation of the country. More than half (55%)
supported his effects to help homeowners who were at risk of losing their
homes compared to just 27% who did not support these efforts. In fact, Obama's
efforts seem to have reduced concern about mortgages for most respondents.
When asked to identify the most important economic issue facing the country,
only 16% named the mortgage crisis. In contrast, 35% said unemployment, 22%
said inflation, and 13% said taxes.
More information: http://www.Foreclosure1.com.
This release was issued on behalf of the above organization by Send2Press(R),
a unit of Neotrope(R). http://www.Send2Press.com

Marcell| 7.10.09 @ 11:20AM

You don't want to bring a broken dagger to a verbal gun fight.

" Come on Repugs, BRING IT ON or hush!!"

... "Losers."

=)

Duh| 7.10.09 @ 11:27AM

It was the private sector begging for bailouts/ handouts.

Mattled| 7.10.09 @ 11:31AM

It's getting tiring of the trolls here and elsewhere, when they can't refute history, videos on C-SPAN (Barney Frank and Mad Maxine), actual numbers, they start citing liberal in-the-tank CNN Poll numbers, Media Mutters or they just resort to name calling.

*Yawn*.

Go back to Puffington Host along with the other lunatics.

It's been asked again and again---why the anger?

60 fools in the Senate
A** Watcher Obama in the White House
Most of the House

What else do you want, 40 acres and a mule (or an a** in liberals case)?

Mattled| 7.10.09 @ 11:46AM

I see President Alinsky "bounced" back in the polls.

He's at -7 instead of -8. Wow, what an uptick.

It takes a very special talent; a combination of a racist preacher mentor, an America hating wife, major lines of cocaine and a Peter Tosh-based foreign policy to lose more than ONE THIRD OF THE COUNTRY IN SIX MONTHS!!

How the heck do you squander a +28 lead to minus 8, now a minus 7?

I think he's really talented---I'm sure with TARP 3 he'll be at Minus 15 in no time.

51-48----half the country is already lost for the guy. The only problem with following Alinsky word for word, is ol' Saul never wrote what to do once you got there.

L. Ross| 7.10.09 @ 12:06PM

Marcel:

First off, since you seem to enjoy name calling, what a faggy french name. Glad I got that off my chest.

Second, dipshit, the housing market did collapse in 2007. I know, because I was selling a house in 2007 and every month is lost another $10,000 in value (I was reassigned by the military and lost my ass in a forced move). Actually, the peak in the housing market was oh, let's see, about the summer of 2006. Look at the historical data. Oh that's right, I'm willing to bet you do not and have never owned a house, so everything you know about the housing market you learn from Katie Couric.

Also, don't be such a lazy piece of shit. Write out an orignal thought. This cut and paste shit offends me. If you think someone else has something worthwhile to say, put the link in here, but don't make me wear out my scroll wheel getting past some drivel you pasted verbatim from another site.

Ass!

Tim| 7.10.09 @ 12:09PM

I don't know why anyone would be surprised
at political folks wanting it both ways??

I'm Shocked I'm Shocked, that politicians are speaking out of both sides of their mouth!

Golly Geez...that's a knee slapper.

Marcell | 7.10.09 @ 12:10PM

Hi Mattled

Now compare that to the politician conservatives are championing, Sarah Palin, who jumped ship on her State.

Right now Obama is still in the game while Palin is muddling on the sideline in a fishing boat.

She is a pit bull with lipstick ... "NOT!!"

As for you whiners, " Stop whining about trolls, & get off your tushes & compete phony capitalist; you are acting like verbal cowards."

Boom!!

"Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream, a vision."

By Muhammad Ali

JerseyJ| 7.10.09 @ 12:16PM

Marcel, a verbal gun fighter quotes "NEW YORK, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- A study conducted by Foreclosure1.com of its
users"

Did you really just quote a public relations press release made by a foreclosure website about an online survey of it's users?

That has got to be THE saddest thing I've ever witnessed. You have my deepest sympathies.

Mattled| 7.10.09 @ 12:17PM

Little Mindcell,

Who gives a s**t about Palin?

You do, that's who.

You guys just lost a major pinata and will miss her dearly. You tried to paint every Conservative as a "Palin"---good luck with that. Didn't work and now your plan was foiled.

So, go to Starbucks and get a frappacino---and this time for Christ's sake leave a tip would you? We all know how cheap liberals are (Syracuse Univ Study 2007).

Then put on your "Yes We Can" t-shirt, get "We Are The World" going in honor of your fallen idol, M. Jackson, grab a bran muffin and put it on your B-Obama Plate you got for $1.99 off Amazon (Because they were' net selling at 25.99. or 15.99 or even 6.99) and at least pretend you're happy.

Michael Tomlinson| 7.10.09 @ 12:36PM

Obama disciples may find these facts inconvenient, but they’re true and even his propagandists in the MSM have to report them (though they do their best to bury them or put a positive spin on them).

In May of 2009 1 in every 398 homes was in foreclosure – a historic high.

USA Today reported in March of 2009 during the Obama honeymoon, “Foreclosures 46% higher in March than a year ago . . .”

On Tuesday, May 26, 2009 Obama propagandists were forced to report, “Rising unemployment in the US is starting to create more foreclosure problems among middle income families with analysts warning that its effects are expected to ripple out across the whole nation.”

ABC News affiliates on June 8, 2009 reported “The Mortgage Bankers Association has released its first quarter numbers for 2009 national foreclosure rates, showing the highest mortgage delinquency rate since 1972 . . .”

“More than one million homes have already been targeted for foreclosure in 2009, with the rate only expected to increase, according to data released this week by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) . . . The Center predicts the rate will accelerate in the remaining seven months of the year, for a total of 2.4 million foreclosures begun in 2009. The Center predicts that 2009 foreclosures will reduce property values on approximately 70 million homes by over half a billion dollars. It projects that by 2012, those figures will total 9 million foreclosures, reducing the value of 92 million properties by a total of $1.9 trillion. The CRL report comes at the same time that the credit monitoring firm TransUnion is reporting that over five percent of all U.S. mortgages were at least 60 days past due in the first quarter of 2009, the ninth quarter in a row that mortgage delinquencies have risen. The highest delinquency rates were in Nevada and Florida, each above 11 percent. TransUnion predicts that national mortgage delinquency rates will reach seven percent by the end of the year, and could go as high as 18 percent in Florida."

While the left continues to bash Bush and Palin (both old news) and Obama vacations and travels around the world to avoid dealing with the mess he's creating things are getting bleaker and bleaker for homeowners and those wanting to work.

Under Obama more Americans are unemployed, homeless and hungry than in any previous Presidency. This is the change American’s got for voting for Obama and Democrats.

Georgia in the South| 7.10.09 @ 12:37PM

Why the left is still angry:

"I asked William Anderson, a friend who is a medical doctor, and a lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard. "They are angry, but I think they are also scared, and I think it's because they have a sense that their triumph is a precarious one," Anderson told me. Democrats won in 2008 in some part because of the cycles of American politics; Republicans were exhausted and it was the other party's turn. Now, having won, they are unsure of how long victory will last.
"They see that they have a very small window of opportunity to do all the things they want," Anderson continued. "They see the window of opportunity as small because they know in their deepest hearts that the vast majority of the American people wouldn't go for all of the things they want to do." So they are frantic to do as much as possible before the opposition coalesces. And the tea parties might be the beginning of that coalescence".

Washington Examiner, April 21, 2009

I think it's just in their nature----you have to be constantly angry and defensive--- to defend the indefensible.

Dean Vander Linde| 7.10.09 @ 12:37PM

A study recently released by two University of Michigan economists shows how truly sick the Great Lakes state is. They estimate the loss of 300,000 jobs this year alone in Michigan, bringing the 10-year job loss total to a staggering 950,000! They also forecast unemployment rising to nearly 16 percent next year. This is in a state with a Democratic governor, Democratic mayors in most of the major cities, and very liberal Democrats in our congressional delegation.

Big J| 7.10.09 @ 12:44PM

My recommendation: give up on trying to argue logic with the likes of Marcell. They have no need for facts, just placing blame at the feet of those they hate.

I believe the ultimate point of this article is a relevant one. Obama tells us "you see black, but it's really white". "The economy is the worst we have seen since the great depression", and in the next breath "We didn't know how bad it really was (Bush's fault)". "I have no interest in the day to day operations of GM", right after firing the CEO and assisting in the appointment of the new board of directors.

Hopefully, most of the electorate is starting to see through his doublespeak. Hopefully, this will be settled at the ballot box. That's my hope for change - at the moment, it's keeping me from going insane.

Let the Marcells of the world continue on in their fantasy land. They may wake up, and might actually join forces with us (don't hold your breath, though). Until then, I wouldn't give them the time of day. I tried yesterday, to no avail.

Mattled| 7.10.09 @ 12:51PM

There's a great video out showing how in 2003 creating 597,000 jobs was ---bad---because the projection was 603,000.

Now, the loss of 550,000 jobs is GOOD news because it was supposed to be over 600,000.

There is absolutely no logic in this and the news organizations are so in the tank, it's disgusting.

I saw the business babe on CNN two weeks ago saying how Consumer Confidence was way up in June----while reading in the WSJ that morning that it was in fact, down.

They just make things up now. My spouse always tries to get me to watch "other" news (and for the record, sometimes Fox News gets boring) and I say what for?

Obama=Everything Great
Bush=Everything Bad

There! That's the news!

FeralCat| 7.10.09 @ 1:16PM

However, to believe them, one would have to accept that the state of the economy is simultaneously both better than expected and worse than expected.

Alice (laughing): "There's no use trying, one can't believe impossible things."

The Queen: "I daresay you haven't had much practice. When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Michael Tomlinson| 7.10.09 @ 1:22PM

Bravo Mattled!! Try NOT watching the news. (I admit I watch FOX Business and cheer when the deluded market is down and reflecting reality).

I've only seen CNN or some other Democrat propaganda machine when a TV happened to be tuned to it in a public place. In our house we block out all the traditional Democrat "news shows."

If more conservatives would stop watching, listening to and buying liberal "news crap" those purveyors of leftist group think would be in worse shape financially than they are now.

There are plenty of reasonable sites, shows and publications to keep you informed -- TAS being one of them.

Big J| 7.10.09 @ 1:26PM

"And the white knight is talking backwards, and the red queen's off with his head..."

Thanks for that, FeralCat - a very appropriate train of thought for the circumstance that we find ourselves in.

Now that I mention it, maybe "I did just take some kind of mushroom, and my mind is moving slow".

That would be a little easier to swallow than this whole thing being reality.

Dagny Taggert| 7.10.09 @ 1:27PM

"You people also act as if the oil men (The Bu$h Crime Family) didn’t run up the price of gas to line their pockets."

Marcel you are an absolute dumba$$. IF you TRULY believe what you wrote here, how do you account for the run-up in crude prices from $34 in February to $72 in June?

Joe B| 7.10.09 @ 1:57PM

The Obama economy:
Better for pubic employees.
Worse for everyone else.

Black Saint| 7.10.09 @ 3:42PM

The only thing Obama has going for him is his mouth. No accomplishments in life so it is may be preordain he talks out of both sides of his mouth at once. But that does did bother the Obama cult followers!

Marcell | 7.10.09 @ 4:08PM

I give you repugnants credit for trying to spin a web that makes Obama responsible for the Conservatives & Bu$h's mess, but we all know that Bu$h wasn't President long enough to be considered part of the problems that allowed Sept. 11th to come to fruition by the 12 highjackers.

Or are we idiots for not saying that it happened under Bu$h's watch, so he should be held accountable for not keeping our nation safe in the short amount of time he was in office?

Hank Rearden| 7.10.09 @ 4:26PM

Lets just remember for a minute that the stimulus package had nothing to do with stimulating the economy. The whole scheme does not reflect any school of economic thought be it supply side or or Keynesian theory. There is only one way to stimulate the economy and that is to let it grow by unshackling it, but with this group of pretenders it is not likely to every happen. Their too steeped in their orthodoxy of crushing capitalism to ever allow that to happen. We're all in for a bumpy ride; hopefully he'll be a lame duck by 2010.

Mark Buehner| 7.10.09 @ 4:31PM

Odd argument that everyone was projecting the economy to not be as bad as it is, and the only difference is Obama's actions. Some defense. Doesn't take a PHD to suspect that doing nothing might have been preferable.

Marcell| 7.10.09 @ 4:31PM

Hi Dagny Taggert

I wonder if you saw Cheney's interview by Tony Snow on Faux News Sunday back in 1999 when he said that $2 for a gallon of gas was a reasonable price. A few months later Snow asked Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson the same question & she agree with Cheney.

The price of gas was $1.19 a gallon in my California city in the day that Bu$h was sworn into office. On average, California & NY has the highest price of gas in the nation.

The reality is that the American oil company’s profits weren’t that great when the price per barrel of oil as low as they were, & you suckers helped them rake us threw the coils with your Joe the Plumber logic.

Define Joe the Plumber logic: A man complaining about the taxes when he benefited from the very tax rates he hated.

Damian| 7.10.09 @ 4:48PM

Marcell, there is no way gas was $1.19 in California when Bush was elected. The national average was about $2 a gallon in 2001. Also, gas prices increased at about 50% when Clinton was president. The largest increase when Bush was president was about 52%, so there numbers are nearly identical.

Jake| 7.10.09 @ 4:52PM

Marcell, I'm just wondering. Since the price of a gallon of gas ran up earlier this summer reaching over $3 per gallon in many areas does that mean Obama and his rich friends at Goldman Sachs are putting $ in their pockets? It would seem the answer is yes. Folks like you are so shallow in your thinking it is frightening.

Mattled| 7.10.09 @ 4:54PM

Barney Frank on C-SPAN claiming nothing is wrong in housing market, i.e. Fan and Fred.
On TV saying Fred and Fan are Fab (July 2008).
Maxine Waters on C-SPAN defending Franklin Raines "honor" (while he made off with a cool 10 mil).
Bush officials investigate and want to reign in Fred and Fan 3X.
McCain introduces legislation to reign in Fred and Fan 2005.
Jamie "The Wall" Gorelick makes off with a cool 6 mil.
ACORN strong arms banks into making loans to people who claim welfare as income.
ACORN intimidates bank executives inside the banks and at home.

I see:

IT's BUSH's FAULT!!

Mattled| 7.10.09 @ 5:04PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs&eurl=http://www.patriotroad.com/casus_belli/detail/cspan_democrats_ran_interference_for_fannie_mae_freddie_mac/&feature=player_embedded

Go ahead, put your hands over your eyes and say "You can't see me".

Truth sucks when it's not on your side, eh Little Mindcell?

ben| 7.10.09 @ 6:09PM

Marcel
The housing boom is what led to the current crisis. Anyone who has looked at the evidence knows that this was caused by the government regulation that occurred under Clinton. The CRA forced banks (so heavily regulated that they have to get permission from the gov't to use the bathroom) to count welfare, unemployment and child support as income, to eliminate down payment requirements and for Fannie and Fredie to hold half of their paper in sub-prime and low income loans by 2000. Look at where the housing bust hit the hardest - coastal California ( a democrap stronghold for decades). California restricted developement of land to appease the greenies which drove land prices up. Homes prices remained relatively neutral but the increaes in land forced many people to not be able to afford a new home. San Diego home prices lost 27%, LA 28% and San Francisco 31% - while cities elsewhere like Dallas lost only 3%. Dallas has no restrictions on developement, if people want a house they just build one, in coastal Cali that is near impossible.
You dems like to look at the surface and claim that the bursting of the bubble is all Bush's fault because he was in charge at the time. If we look back over history you can see that every bubble bursts. It is not the fault of the man in charge when it bursts but the fault of those who created the bubble. I've heard ignoramouses like you claim that people were betting on the bubble bursting which caused a loss of confidence and led to the burst. The facts are clear - every bubble bursts. Those that bet against it were betting on a sure thing. As the bubble grew and got more unstable the inevitability of the bursting became more likely. Bush warned against this in 2003 and again in 2005. In 03 the dems killed Bush's proposals with a fillibuster, in 05 it couldn't get out of committee on a straight party line vote.
Every single problem afflicting our country has been the result of democrap "solutions". Take GM for example. We hear all the time that they folded because they were building unprofitable cars nobody wanted. Why would a business build an unprofitable product no one wanted to buy? That could only lead to failure - which it did. In the 70s we had the oil embargo resulting in the Carter gov't creating CAFE standards to increse mpg. Car companies made their cars lighter to achieve these standards resulting in cars that were less safe. Studies have shown that approx 4,000 deaths occured every year because of CAFE. This led to lawmakers forcing us to buy insurance to cover the costs these unsafe cars were incurring the states. It also led to the gov't creation of safety standards which made the cars heavier, more expensive and less efficient. To achieve the fleet mileage standards American car companies had to make the cars the gov't wanted in order to make the cars the consumer wanted. Now gov't wants to increase CAFE standards which can only lead to the same problems we are facing now.
Gov't causes the problems and then you dems claim we need gov't to fix the problems it caused - insane. Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over agin but expecting different results. - you dems are insane.
To be a democrat is to not learn from experience, to ignore the effects of ones actions, to abhor fact, reasoning and logic, and to create the messes and victims simply for the appearance to champion and clean up after. You created these messes - all of them and now you claim that we need you to fix them - it's a self fulfilling prophecy designed to accumulate power.
Marcel Marceau, why don't you go back to pretending you can't speak and are locked inside an imaginary box.

PS- Palin resigned because she promised not to waste one single dollar of taxpayer money. The frivolous unsubstantiated ethics lawsuits (Palin is 14 for 14 fighting them) she's had to fight have wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars. These complaints are done striclty for the purpose of destroying her - how cruel and petty can someone be to want to destroy someone simply because they disagree with them - tolerance my ass. Her allegiances are to her constituants and her family. She left office because people like you stole the AK people's money and government simply for your own petty and cruel amusement. She left because her values and principals forced her to. She resigned because she cares for her family and the people she serves - something no selfish, cruel democrap like you can comprehend.

Peter| 7.10.09 @ 6:32PM

It's common for this administration to do and say two opposite things in close conjunction or even simultaneously. In so many ways it is a Gilda Radner administration, regularly responding with: "Never mind."

Obama ran for office claiming that the Bush antiterrorism policies, from renditions to indefinite incarceration without trial, from domestic surveillance to military tribunals--all was not only wrong but a fundamental violation of our constitution. Never mind.

Up until a few months ago cap and trade was unacceptable if the trading permits would be given away, which Obama said would be the biggest corporate gift from government in history. Now he says he accepts that 85% of the permits will be given away. Never mind.

Health care benefits could never be taxed because that would represent the biggest tax increase on the middle class in history. Now it is acceptable if Congress includes that in its health care "reform" package. Never mind.

In Iran, as its citizens protested a stolen election and were beaten and murdered on the streets Obama didn't want to "meddle" in the affairs of the "Islamic Republic of Iran." In Honduras a coup that by all undisputed accounts was carried out by the legal authority of congress and the courts was immediately condemned by the administration while it demanded that the disposed president be reinstated. Never mind.

This is an administration that lives by hyprocrisy and mendacity and is supported by an increasingly corrupt and out of touch congress. I feel its days are numbered because its actions are so blatant the public will grow wise to its antics even if the mainstream media mostly ignores it.

Robert Rosencrans| 7.10.09 @ 7:15PM

Timothy Geithner is morphing into a straw man for the mavens on Wall Street. The latest proposal from the Treasury which makes Geithner the federal equivalent of Al Capone is a program called PPIP (Public-Private Investment Program.)

The program has been originated with little scrutiny by the press and legislative branch, however, it's getting a hell of a pounding in the blogosphere.

The program allows banks to put forth FDIC insured loans, i.e. taxpayer funds, so that investors in the form of other banks or investment houses can purchase billions in toxic assets in one fully insured move.

The scheme unfolds in several ways for the bank. If banks receive higher bids for the assets then they are worth, the bank stock can go up, be sold and used to shore up the assets of the banks, or investors who are behind the scenes can use the inside information to cash in on those stock moves. The taxpayers would be holding and financing the entire round of risk and will most likely be left holding the bag when the assets deflate, and they will deflate.

Banks can take their assets and chop them down into divisible loan portfolios and sell the risk off with virtually nothing at risk. As the assets are sold and resold the situation looks like Son of Subprime, all with the taxpayers getting the shaft.

I wonder if this will be the final losing move of Tim Geithner and the Obama White House. When the public realizes how they were screwed after this unfolds, I predict a tidy end to Democratic control of Congress and the end of Barack Obama.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_15/b4126020226641_page_2.htm
Perhaps the most intricate maneuvers will likely stem from "layering" the government's many programs of the last six months. Starting with some of the capital infusion received last fall from the Treasury, a bank could invest in a private partnership that buys toxic assets using a loan guaranteed by the FDIC. Those assets could then be chopped up and sold as securities to other investors—who put together the financing for the deal by availing themselves of another program of low-risk loans from the Federal Reserve. Thus the original bank's capital at risk in this web of deals would be almost nil. "[This] is going right back to the practices that got us into this problem—except using government leverage," Young says. "It might lead to an even wilder party than we saw before."

How much leverage could investors or banks pile up? "As much as you can get away with, of course," says the bank analyst at one investment management firm. He thinks the recent outcry over bonuses at American International Group (AIG) may promote some self-restraint. "You're going to get caned in public these days, rather than getting caned in private," the analyst says. "There's not much appetite for that."

One government planner counters that if each program's safeguards are good, layering "shouldn't be a problem." Final rules are expected in the next several weeks. Banks and investors, meanwhile, will keep trying to get the most out of Washington.

If this scheme sounds eerily like the housing programs that took the economy off track to begin with you are right. Only in this instance the taxpayers will end up spending double or triple the value of assets so that banking insiders can cash in and make millions.

Marcell| 7.10.09 @ 7:38PM

I know your conservative gods want to blame Fannie Mae for the housing crisis but the reality is that the housing crisis was caused by greedy sub-prime lenders; it was your so called free market running amuck.

Please put these links into your search engine.

Greenspan on the housing crisis
http://atlantis2.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3265944n

CNBC presents the definitive report of the defining story of our time. CNBC correspondent David Faber investigates the origins of the global economic crisis.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/59026/cnbc-originals-house-of-cards

Here are some excerpts:

The Buyers / House of Cards
Cynthia Simons craved a better life for her family and wanted to leave the crime-ridden area of Compton, Ca. She thought her prayers were answered by a mortgage broker from her church who found the family a house in a safe neighborhood.

The Lenders / House of Cards
Lou Pacific worked for Quick Loan Funding. The company targeted people who couldn't afford a down payment and had poor credit…so-called "sub-prime borrowers." With no shortage of eager borrowers, business was booming and Quick Loan made millions of dollars.

The Investors / House of Cards
In a rare interview, CNBC's David Faber speaks with one of the few savvy investors who bet against the mortgage-backed security fever – Dallas's Kyle Bass - whose hedge fund soared 600% in just eighteen months.

The Federal Reserve / House of Cards
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan defends decisions he made that critics say laid the groundwork for the crisis. Greenspan also admits that he was puzzled by the more complex mortgage-backed securities on the market.

Marcell| 7.10.09 @ 7:44PM

Your repugnant gods are giving you the false impression that you can benefit from being a part of the problem, but my friends & I will make sure you fail.

Plus, your love for Palin will eventually sink your ship filled with fools gold.

A side issue | 7.10.09 @ 8:05PM

You right-wingers are so filled with hate towards the person with the info you need that you are about to lose the health care debate.

"What a waste of millions of dollars."

****************

Obama: health care doable but 'hard'
By: Mike Allen
July 10, 2009 09:05 AM EST

President Barack Obama said Friday as he left an international summit in L’Aquila, Italy, that he believes a health care bill will pass Congress this year, but said “special interests who profit from the existing system” are actively “scaring people.”

“I’m confident that we’re going to get it done,” the president said at a news conference before he headed from the G-8 to an audience with Pope Benedict. “I think it’s going to get done. It is going to be hard, though. … As dissatisfied as Americans may be with the health care system, as concerned as they are about the prospects that they may lose their coverage or their premiums may keep on rising, they’re also afraid of the unknown.

“And we have a long history in America of scaring people that they’re going to lose their doctor, they’re going to lose their health care plans; they’re going to be stuck with some bureaucratic government system that’s not responsive to their needs. And overcoming that fear — fear that is often actively promoted by special interests who profit from the existing system — is a challenge.”

Some Democrats have said Obama needs to increase his personal involvement in the fight. Obama said he has "jumped in with both feet.”

“Our team is working with members of Congress on this issue, and it is my highest legislative priority over the next month,” We are closer to achieving health care reform ... than at any time in recent history. That doesn’t make it easy — it’s hard. And we are having a whole series of constant negotiations. This is not simply a Democratic versus Republican issue. This is a House versus Senate issue. This is different committees that have different priorities. My job is to make sure that I’ve set some clear parameters in terms of what I want to achieve.”

Obama has said he wants the House and Senate to pass their versions of the bill by the August break, so the bills can be unified in the fall.

The reporter, Roger Runningen of Bloomberg news, followed up: “Is it pretty much a do or die by the August recess?”

The president replied with a growing smile: “I never believe anything is do or die. But I really want to get it done by the August recess.”

© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC

Liberal Reader| 7.10.09 @ 8:12PM

The U.S. economy is very big and very dynamic. Describing it accurately could, in fact, sound self-contradictory.

There are good signs and there are bad. We're starting to come out of the worst recession in decades.

Did you think someone would just flick a switch and everything would magically get better?

You guys need to grow up.

ds80| 7.10.09 @ 9:41PM

Liberal Reader: "We're starting to come out of the worst recession in decades."

Not by a long shot. We'll be in this recession-depression-recession for decades. And then the inflation-hyperinflation will hit. The economy at present is being driven by sheer perception and expectation only - manipulated by the crony capitalism of the Big Finance oligarchy.

No doubt about it: history will disparage Obama just like Herbert Hoover. And he'll deserve it.

Tootsie| 7.10.09 @ 10:34PM

Marcell the Mime and Liberal Reader are Jeremiah, the Axelrod Astroturf troll. Hi, Jeremiah, what's up, Stinker?

Obummer & Co. are saying privately that we'll have 11% unemployment by the end of this year. If that's true (and they're probably low-balling it), Obummer & Co. are done. Just stick a fork in 'em--you'll see.

What losers. One year and they're toast; incompetent fascist liberals. Hahaha!

Troll Trapper| 7.10.09 @ 10:37PM

ds80--with all of Obummer's scandals and corruption, Harding is the better comparison.

Obama the bowing a$$ watcher. Snark.

Patriot| 7.10.09 @ 10:38PM

Look at the THREE STOOGES at the top of the page. Who is Curly?

The Crazy Old Coot| 7.11.09 @ 12:02AM

Marcell| 7.10.09 @ 9:44AM
Biden said, "We misread how bad the economy was." But, he should have said We misread how bad BU$H's economy was.

----------------------
"It wasn't us it was the other guy"....Blah...Blah....Blah...Aren't these people supposed to be intelligent? They said unemployment was supposed to reach 8% if we didn't spend (that should read throw away) $787 Billion of tax-payer money....Now the anointed one and his people are saying it will reach double-digits and this is after we threw $787 Billion down the toilet. That's a minimum of a +25% margin of error ...that ain't a rounding error in a spreadsheet.

The fact is the economy went into the crapper because idiotic morons bought houses they couldn't afford with money they didn't have (106% financing, they couldn't even come up with money for some sort of down-payment or closing costs!)...and when Franklin Raines (then-CEO of Fannie Mae) was called in front of Congress a good 18-24 months before the catastrophe started Maxine Waters called it the "lynching of Frank Raines" and Barney Frank said there was nothing wrong at Fannie Mae and one of the biggest idiotic moronic companies caught up in this mess was Citigroup, which is regulated by the Federal Reserve. The President of the NY Fed at the time Citigroup was making this idiotic investments, loans, etc. was Tim Geithner and now he's the Sec. of the Treasury and one of the ...that's just plain stupid.

...Now of course the argument Marcell and those of his ilk will come back with is....the big mean nasty banks took advantage of people who didn't know what they were signing......completely ignoring the concept of personal responsibility and the fact that if one wants the right to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars, one has the responsibility to not sign the loan document if he doesn't understand it......of course the banks didn't need to make these stupid loans with stupid terms....come on, a negatively amortizing loan for a $600,000 purchase price with no money down to a person making $30K a year?, what kind of stupid nonsense is that?....but just because someone is stupid enough to make the offer doesn't mean someone should take it. I'm not going to drink a glass of hemlock just because a guy is willing to give it me below his cost on the slim chance it won't kill me....of course if the idiot banks weren't making these idiot loans The Anointed One would have been out there with the rest his Community Organizer pals suing the banks for violating the CRA and other equal opportunity lending laws because lower income people with no money for a down payment couldn't get approved for a loan to purchase a $600,000 home.

Of course, the next argument Marcel come back with is the banks made these loans and now they're getting "free" money from TARP and how they aren't helping these idiots stay in their homes...I can't defend TARP, I think it was one big cluster f&%^ and the banks that made these idiot loans should have been allowed to go scrap heap of history; however, it isn't free money. Banks are paying hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends to the Treasury each quarter in dividends. Yet, just because the banks made these stupid loans that got us into this mess, it doesn't mean you throw good (read tax-payer) money after bad by continuing to make loans to people who can't afford pay them back or who have an inability to live within their means and if the idiot can't make his mortgage payment, bring out the sheriff, foreclose and sell it to someone who can afford it.

At what point will the current Adminstration have to start taking responsibility for things? It's been in power for six months now. The economy hasn't gotten better despite $787 Billion...and a regime run by a mad man in pajamas is launching missiles almost everyday.....

HSR0601| 7.11.09 @ 1:08AM

In regard to the stimulus investment, my understanding is as follows:

1. The current surging fuel cost (World oil prices doubled during the last 6 months) is overwhelming the market rally.
And the pending clean energy bill might serve as a second stimulus package world-wide boosting private investments.

2. People are so worried about losing their job, coverage, denial of treatment, which seems to increase bank deposit latetly. That means stimulus funding mainly goes toward bank deposit for a rainy day increasing jobless rate. It proves again that a healthy society yields better productivity, prosperity.
It is time to 'Change' the notion of the public health as a fundamental human right and install 'a safety system for all' like all of the other industrialized nations, I think.

3. The stimulus funding begins to mobilize just 11%, meanwhile, the auto industry has undergone its restructuring with the massive job-related impact.

4. The pandemic swine flu has been hurting the global economy seriously.

Thank You !

Rebecca Anne| 7.11.09 @ 1:43AM

Obama's incompetent--he doesn't know his a$$ from a hole in the ground, and he's ogling some little girl's butt in Milan while Sarkozy smirks. Great to be an American right now, ain't it?

Liberal Reader| 7.11.09 @ 8:47AM

The recovery will be worthless if it's jobless. Everything is about employment.

The reason tax cuts will NOT work in this environment is that people -- acting rationally -- will SAVE them, not spend them. Especially the wealthy.

We need SPENDING. That's what it means to be in a recession. A recession is a time when you say, "We need SPENDING."

This is the simple definition. It's not a debatable point, as conservatives seem to think.

The only entity that can spend in this climate is the government.

And deficits, in real world terms, only matter after a certain point, and we're not there yet. What matters -- to you and everyone to whom you are related -- is a recovery that creates high paying jobs.

Homosexuals In Republican PTY| 7.11.09 @ 9:37AM

The Axis of Corporate Evil

In what appears to be an attempted corporate takeover of America, the same names keep coming up time and again.

The Crime Cindicate| 7.11.09 @ 9:45AM

How will President George W. Bush personally make millions (if not billions) from the War on Terror and Iraq? The old fashioned way. He'll inherit it.
Meet The Carlyle Group
Former World Leaders and Washington Insiders Making Billions in the War on Terrorism

Bush Carlucci Baker Darman Ramos Major

Former
US President and
Vice President
Former Director
of the CIA Former Secretary of Defense and
Deputy Director
of the CIA
More on Carlucci Former
Secretary of State
and Sec. of Treasury White House
Budget Advisor
Bush / Clinton
Administrations Former President of the Philippines Former British
Prime Minister
Carlyle
Senior Advisor
Retired 10/03 Shareholder Carlyle
Chairman Emeritus
Retired 3/05 Carlyle
Senior Counselor
Retired 2005
More on Baker Carlyle
Managing Director Carlyle Asia
Advisory Board
Retired 2/04 Carlyle Europe Chairman
Retired 2005

Updates:

James Baker Defending Saudis against 9-11 Families' Lawsuit
MSNBC Government of Abu Dhabi Buys $1.3 Billion Carlyle Share
Financial Times
James Baker appointed envoy in charge of restructuring Iraq's debt
CNN Carlyle Groups in Talks to Sell 10% Stake to Chinese Government
London Times
EXPOSED: The Carlyle Group
48 minute Real Player video ~ watch now

Crimes @the higest levels| 7.11.09 @ 9:55AM

Suppressed Details of Criminal Insider Trading Lead Directly into the CIA’s Highest Ranks
CIA Executive Director “Buzzy” Krongard managed firm that handled “PUT” options on United Airline Stock
by Michael C. Ruppert

Update: Krongard on Blackwater Advisory Board

FTW - October 9, 2001 – Although uniformly ignored by the mainstream U.S. media, there is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions in financial markets indicated specific (criminal) foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the case of at least one of these trades -- which has left a $2.5 million prize unclaimed -- the firm used to place the “put options” on United Airlines stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three Executive Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Until 1997 A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard had been Chairman of the investment bank A.B. Brown. A.B. Brown was acquired by Banker’s Trust in 1997. Krongard then became, as part of the merger, Vice Chairman of Banker’s Trust-AB Brown, one of 20 major U.S. banks named by Senator Carl Levin this year as being connected to money laundering. Krongard’s last position at Banker’s Trust (BT) was to oversee “private client relations.” In this capacity he had direct hands-on relations with some of the wealthiest people in the world in a kind of specialized banking operation that has been identified by the U.S. Senate and other investigators as being closely connected to the laundering of drug money.

Krongard joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director George Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush in March of this year. BT was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. The combined firm is the single largest bank in Europe. And, as we shall see, Deutsche Bank played several key roles in events connected to the September 11 attacks.
THE SCOPE OF KNOWN INSIDER TRADING

Before looking further into these relationships it is necessary to look at the insider trading information that is being ignored by Reuters, The New York Times and other mass media. It is well documented that the CIA has long monitored such trades – in real time – as potential warnings of terrorist attacks and other economic moves contrary to U.S. interests. Previous stories in FTW have specifically highlighted the use of Promis software to monitor such trades.

It is necessary to understand only two key financial terms to understand the significance of these trades, “selling short” and “put options”.

“Selling Short” is the borrowing of stock, selling it at current market prices, but not being required to actually produce the stock for some time. If the stock falls precipitously after the short contract is entered, the seller can then fulfill the contract by buying the stock after the price has fallen and complete the contract at the pre-crash price. These contracts often have a window of as long as four months.

“Put Options,” are contracts giving the buyer the option to sell stocks at a later date. Purchased at nominal prices of, for example, $1.00 per share, they are sold in blocks of 100 shares. If exercised, they give the holder the option of selling selected stocks at a future date at a price set when the contract is issued. Thus, for an investment of $10,000 it might be possible to tie up 10,000 shares of United or American Airlines at $100 per share, and the seller of the option is then obligated to buy them if the option is executed. If the stock has fallen to $50 when the contract matures, the holder of the option can purchase the shares for $50 and immediately sell them for $100 – regardless of where the market then stands. A call option is the reverse of a put option, which is, in effect, a derivatives bet that the stock price will go up.

A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism, entitled “Black Tuesday: The World’s Largest Insider Trading Scam?” documented the following trades connected to the September 11 attacks:

- Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call options… Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with advance knowledge of the imminent attacks, these “insiders” would have profited by almost $5 million.

- On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there was no news at that point to justify this imbalance;… Again, assuming that 4,000 of these options trades represent “insiders,” they would represent a gain of about $4 million.

- [The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times higher than normal.]

- No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday.

- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought in the three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an average of 27 contracts per day before September 6. Morgan Stanley’s share price fell from $48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that 2,000 of these options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the approaching attacks, their purchasers could have profited by at least $1.2 million. Merrill Lynch & Co., with headquarters near the Twin Towers, saw 12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four trading days before the attacks; the previous average volume in those shares had been 252 contracts per day [a 1200% increase!]. When trading resumed, Merrill’s shares fell from $46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000 option contracts were bought by “insiders,” their profit would have been about $5.5 million.

- European regulators are examining trades in Germany’s Munich Re, Switzerland’s Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. [FTW Note: AXA also owns more than 25% of American Airlines stock making the attacks a “double whammy” for them.]

On September 29, 2001 – in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by the major media – the San Francisco Chronicle reported, “Investors have yet to collect more than $2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data.
“The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors – whose identities and nationalities have not been made public – had advance knowledge of the strikes.” They don’t dare show up now. The suspension of trading for four days after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out quickly and claim the prize before investigators started looking.

“… October series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay of $2,070; investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares, for 90 cents each. [This represents 230,000 shares]. Those options are now selling at more than $12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called “put” options outstanding [valued at $2.77 million and representing 231,300 shares] according to the Options Clearinghouse Corp.”

“…The source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these options…” This was the operation managed by Krongard until as recently as 1998.

As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of insider trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks.

CIA, THE BANKS AND THE BROKERS

Understanding the interrelationships between CIA and the banking and brokerage world is critical to grasping the already frightening implications of the above revelations. Let’s look at the history of CIA, Wall Street and the big banks by looking at some of the key players in CIA’s history.

Clark Clifford – The National Security Act of 1947 was written by Clark Clifford, a Democratic Party powerhouse, former Secretary of Defense, and one-time advisor to President Harry Truman. In the 1980s, as Chairman of First American Bancshares, Clifford was instrumental in getting the corrupt CIA drug bank BCCI a license to operate on American shores. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and banker.

John Foster and Allen Dulles – These two brothers “designed” the CIA for Clifford. Both were active in intelligence operations during WW II. Allen Dulles was the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland where he met frequently with Nazi leaders and looked after U.S. investments in Germany. John Foster went on to become Secretary of State under Dwight Eisenhower and Allen went on to serve as CIA Director under Eisenhower and was later fired by JFK. Their professions: partners in the most powerful - to this day - Wall Street law firm of Sullivan, Cromwell.

Reaganite Republican| 7.11.09 @ 12:05PM

Obama’s “stimulus” is a train-wreck- these jobs figures are far worse than the ones the White House warned us about if we DIDN’T pass the bill- so it was passed, and then unemployment soars anyway?

He said it would top-out at 8%, we give him a trillion dollars, and he and Joey Pluggs now tell us they "underestimated" as it pushes 10%?
-oh please

Instead of creating jobs, interest rates were bumped up, the dollar slid… and it didn’t help anybody get any work. Much of this is due to the fact that Obama’s agenda has mortified almost every machine of job-and-growth creation in the country.

The One couldn’t deliver the type of “temporary, targeted, and timely” bill that he promised repeatedly, and regardless of his image in the press, Obama simply lacks the the political stature to control Pelosi and Reid… who hit the trough hard, while bickering like siblings.

And the lack of GOP co-conspirators exposed Obama politically… this legislation now looks to be a HUGE gamble. And when all this pork-n-welfare fails to generate any real economic gains, the Democrats will face a bloodbath in 2010.

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com

Liberal Reader| 7.11.09 @ 12:29PM

Reaganite Republican --

Granted, the economic issues at stake are very complex, but you need to get a few things straight.

First, employment is a lagging indicator. That means it's an indicator that lags. I'm not sure how to simplify these notion any more. Suffice it to say, NO ONE conservative, liberal, or in between who knows what they're talking about honestly believes employment should have improved by now. They're just throwing that out to enrage the hoi polloi.

Second, the Fed cannot cut interest rates anymore. That's the whole freaking problem.

Usually during recession the Fed lowers interest rates to prompt spending. Sometimes these decreases stimulate the economy.

This time, such remedies have done NOTHING. Interest rates cannot be cut anymore. The fact that they're inching up just suggests that the credit markets are starting to improve.

Liberal Reader| 7.11.09 @ 12:34PM

One final thing, Reaganite.

Reagan was a thinker who was interested in ideas. The right wing talk radio hosts that clearly provide you with all of your information and opinions moronically simplify everything.

Every opinion you utter above I've heard repeated five times this week by Hannity and others.

First, try to get some variety in your diet of news and views. You can't be as obtuse as you sound.

Second, try to wrap your mind around the possibility that while you might disagree with Obama and his economic policies, they're might be a chance that they will help matters. Perhaps they won't, but you can't be as arrogant as you sound. Just admitting doubt and the possibility that one is wrong makes one's arguments more persuasive (something right wing disc jockeys have never figured out).

catladyjan| 7.11.09 @ 1:44PM

Obama is a pathological liar and a fraud. Still waiting to see that birth certificate.

Liberal Reader| 7.11.09 @ 2:15PM

Catladyjan --

It's fun out here on the lunatic fringe, but really: get a life.

Obama's birth certificate has been produced, and you fall into a small percentage of Americans that refuse to acknowledge it -- slightly smaller, probably, than that group of Americans who claim to have been abducted and probed, usually sexually, by aliens. And while there is probably considerable overlap in these two small demographics, I consider the latter far more credible than the former.

aware| 7.11.09 @ 3:06PM

Liberal Reader....keep thinking this is a "recession" and that government can spend us to recovery. This is how a bunch of smart guys made the depression great. The State can create "money" but it cannot create wealth anymore than it can "create" peace.

I'm sure you have no idea how rotten and corrupt this farce economy is and how it got that way thanks to the central bank and state interference.

As far as government spending goes, you and nobody else has ever seen more of that than now! This year the Federal deficit alone will be more than the entire Federal budget of 2002. Do you understand the implications and what this means ?

Just as you said about interest rates no longer being an option, what do you think it means that we are now having to buy our OWN debt? It means that we need more money than anybody is willing to lend us, so this is another "option" that is about to play out. Then what?

Right now the printing press is pumping out dollars to do all this spending you advocate but those pieces of paper are really little promises to collect the money from you in the future. The more spending now the more collecting later. The exact mentality of many people in the bubble before the bust, they didn't think about the payments either. Now they are having their homes and cars taken away.

Some people just can't understand what broke is until the marshals are kicking them to the curb. There will be no recovery because too many of us, like you, think the State, which lead the charge into the valley of death, is the only one to lead us out. With what they are doing the best you can hope for is a 20 yr. stagnation/deflation just like Japan. But it's the worst that could happen that you should worry about.

Big J| 7.11.09 @ 4:21PM

Make sure I have this straight, Liberal Dreamer:

Your earlier post indicated that the only way out of this recession is spending (government spending, at that).

Do you not realize that your comment makes as much sense as the following (quoting Hillary Clinton, earlier this year):

"When you find yourself in a hole, sometimes you just have to dig your way out of it."

Anyone who has EVER been on the business end of a shovel sees the folly of this statement.

Do you really think that, or are you just getting your talking points from left-wing news outlets?

You seem fairly intelligent, judging by your posts (albeit somewhat confused), so I have surmised that you are parroting left-leaning sources.

I would recommend finding some non-partisan sources for your information. It would expand your believability exponentially.

Big J

P.S. I am sure you will focus on the last sentence of my post, as opposed to the actual point ("I get my information from such-and-such, etc.). That's Okey-Dokey. We are all used to that here at AmSpec.

Flower Power| 7.11.09 @ 6:07PM

Regardless of your vapid prose, Liberal Reader/Jeremiah; 11--15% unemployment is a deal breaker. It will crush Obama's BS agenda.

Thank God.

Liberal Reader| 7.11.09 @ 6:26PM

Big J ---

A recession is a time when people are spending enough.

Are we OK so far?

Now, given a flaw in capitalist systems, when enough people -- acting rationally, out of self-interest -- decide to SAVE rather than SPEND, it's very difficult to turn things around. After all, people are acting in their own best interest.

Under those conditions, government SPENDING (also known as "stimulus") is a handsome way to improve the economy.

Essentially, the government takes the pain of recessionary conditions and distributes it over time.

Something like 20% of the wealth in this country was destroyed in the last year. That's not from taxes or under-regulation or anything else: it's sheer recessionary wealth destruction.

The fact is, that's going to hurt everyone. Either we try to absorb the pain all at once, or we spread it out over five or six years.

Only -- that's not all. If we try to take the hit all at once, there's a danger that more system-wide failures could make recovery impossible.

In these conditions, deficits really don't matter at all.

You can't solve budgetary problems when your economy is stagnant or worse. You can only solve budgetary problems by a growing your way out of it.

There is NO dynamism in the public sector. NONE. No one is spending, and the richer you are, the more you are SAVING.

This is bad. We've gone from a 0.3% savings rate to a 7% savings rate in like nine months.

Government spending is the ONLY option.

Believe me, with elections coming, if people in Congress thought we could get out of this with tax cuts, there'd be tax cuts. The reason tax cuts won't do anything is that people would do what they did with Bush's stimulus: they'd save it or pay off credit cards.

It's the situation we're in. Obama is not perfect; he might be too ambitious; he might want to slow down a little. But overall I he's got a terrible situation with which to work, and I think his plan in general is going in the right direction.

Liberal Reader| 7.11.09 @ 6:27PM

typo --

My first sentence should read in a recession people are NOT spending enough.....

Political criminals| 7.11.09 @ 6:28PM

It's weird that people don't understand it's not an Obama, or a Republican thing, its about what is happening to America and what the future will bring.

If American politics is just a huge mafia/Jewish crime gang, the solution is not Right or left of politics. But the real interest in the country as a whole.

Political fraud| 7.11.09 @ 6:34PM

guardian.co.uk Business Web News
Sport
Comment
Culture
Business
Money
Life & style
Travel
Environment
Blogs
Video
Community
Jobs
Business
Securities and Exchange Commission
Six charged in US with 'boiler room' fraudBuzz up!
Digg it
Andrew Clark in New York The Guardian, Thursday 9 July 2009 Article history
Sky Capital's Ross Mandell is escorted by FBI agents after surrendering in New York. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Six former executives at Sky Capital, a stockbroker once listed on London's Alternative Investment Market, were charged by US authorities yesterday with fiddling investors out of $140m (£87.2m) by operating a so-called "boiler room" fraud in which shareholders' funds were used to bankroll lavish boardroom lifestyles including corporate jets, luxury hotels and adult entertainment.

The US department of justice filed criminal indictments against Sky's founder, Ross Mandell, the firm's former president, Stephen Shea, and four registered brokers at the company.

Regulators say the men used high-pressure tactics to sell largely worthless shares, enriching themselves and paying victims of previous scams.

"Boiler room tactics like those used by Sky Capital and its brokers undercut the level of honesty and fair play we seek to maintain in the securities markets," said James Clarkson, acting director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's New York office. "This firm and these brokers went to great lengths to repeatedly lie to investors, pressuring them into buying stock without telling them it would be nearly impossible to sell those shares."

Charges were laid three years after the FBI raided the offices of Sky, which is based on Wall Street. The company's shares were delisted by AIM in 2006.

According to prosecutors, Sky's senior executives manipulated the secondary market in the company's shares by making false promises and material omissions in fundraisings. They aggressively dissuaded investors from selling and enforced a "no net sales" policy whereby brokers were ordered not to accept any sell orders without a matching buy order.

If convicted, the men face up to 25 years in prison and fines of as much as $5m (£3.1m). US prosecutors acknowledged the assistance of Britain's Financial Services Authority in carrying out a transatlantic inquiry.

Mandell, 52, has a colourful past – he was briefly suspended from securities dealing in 1995 following a past investigation into irregularities and he has acknowledged fighting cocaine and alcohol addictions.

Big J| 7.11.09 @ 7:50PM

"Under those conditions, government SPENDING (also known as "stimulus") is a handsome way to improve the economy."

"Essentially, the government takes the pain of recessionary conditions and distributes it over time."

"In these conditions, deficits really don't matter at all. "

"Believe me, with elections coming, if people in Congress thought we could get out of this with tax cuts, there'd be tax cuts."

I thought I would re-post some of your statements, because obviously you didn't utilize any sort of "preview" option. Figured I would make you read them again, with hope that you might actually THINK about what you were actually saying, before you say it. Probably wishful thinking.

Hey, Liberal. At least you don't hide behind some cutesy "web name". You lay it out right up front: "I am a Liberal Reader. I believe in 'redistribution', 'government spending is the ONLY answer to our problems', 'If Congress thought...'" I have to stop you there, man: if congress thought about actually reading any bill they vote on these days, we would ALL be in better shape.

Anyway, back to your world: "In these conditions, deficits really don't matter."

That statement really take the proverbial cake.

If that were the case, why don't we just print about 15 trillion, disperse it amongst all Americans, and just be done with it?

HUH?

You are not nearly as intelligent as you type yourself out to be.

I think I might have given you too much credit.

I'm waiting for the buyer's remorse that's going to hit you. It hasn't hit yet, but it will.

Patriot| 7.11.09 @ 9:03PM

Liberal Reader should be Progressive Reader--a statist to the core.

Just keep your eye on the prize; skyrocketing unemployment will doom Obama's presidency.

Liberal Reader| 7.12.09 @ 12:55AM

Big J --

It's easy to confuse long term with short term economic concerns.

This recession is unusually deep and its inertia is going to be very difficult to overcome.

The SHORT TERM requirements demand massive government spending. Like I said, NO ONE is spending in the private sector. There is no dynamic sector in the economy making new high paying jobs. The wealthy are SAVING their money, not investing. Tax cuts would only add to the savings rate (good in the long term, terrible in the short).

In the long term, of course, deficits do matter, and no, printing 15 trillion dollars would not help anything. But we'll NEVER pay off the deficit without an economic recovery. As of now, all tendencies are DEflationary, not INflationary, by the way.

Again, employment is a LAGGING indicator. It usually doesn't begin to show up for a year to 18 months after recovery begins. It's just how it works.

I know this isn't what you hear on Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, so it must just seem like crazy fantasy to you. But I think if you were to run it by anyone who knew anything about economics, they'd tell you I was on to something.

Liberal Reader| 7.12.09 @ 1:02AM

As for my use of the word "distribution" --

The government redistributes wealth all the time. If you have kids and they go to school, that's the government redistributing wealth. Do you like big red fire engines? That's government redistributing wealth. The nuclear arsenal is a redistribution of wealth.

Government spending during a recession was approved by Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes. It's a normal, accepted practice.

When no one else is spending, the government can.

And YES, what that does is take the current recessionary "pain" -- the unemployment, the breaking budgets, the squalor in the streets -- and chop it up into little doses that are more manageable. It spreads out the pain.

Do we do that because we're a bunch of pussies?

Well, no. But I'm glad you asked.

We do that because recessions activate the worst tendencies in markets. The lay term is the "bust," as in "boom and bust." People cling to money rather than spending it, and that causes lay offs and bankruptcies, which in term lead to further lay offs and misery.

WARREN BUFFET said this week that the stimulus was too SMALL.

If you know more about capitalism that Warren Buffet, I have just one question: what are you doing screwing around on a website for when you could be out making a billion dollars?

Big J| 7.12.09 @ 8:59AM

Lib -

I don't agree that building up nuclear arsenals falls into the category of "redistribution". I would call it.....

Providing for the common defense, or something like that.

Same goes for those big red fire engines.

As for schools, well, I firmly believe that is kind of a civic duty. We don't have children, but we pay school taxes. I don't have a big problem with that, because one day, those children are going to be adults and I might need to hire 1 or 2 or 20 of them. I would prefer they had a decent education. While the government has not done a good job running the school system (mostly because of total lack of competition, in my opinion), I prefer it to no education at all.

I believe that Warren Buffet is a brilliant business man. He has made a lot of money. I strongly disagree with him on this issue, as well as his support for Obama (although in recent interviews, he has expressed some displeasure with Obama's policies).

The complete farce that is the "stimulus package" is that about 25% or so is aimed at "stimulating". The rest is pork-barrel spending - a Christmas wish list that Democrats have been writing for years.

The truly disgusting part of the whole thing was the vehement opposition by the voters. But congress passed it anyway. Much like they did with the cap-and-trade bill. You see, congress has forgotten that they work for us, not the other way around. Many of their and the presidents actions of late are completely outside the boundaries placed by the Constitution.

That said, I stamp the stimulus bill a complete FAILURE. Any logical person would come to the same conclusion.

In my version of America, the government isn't the alpha and omega. By reading some of our founder's opinions on the subject, I think they felt the same. In fact, the huge, bloated government that ours has become was the biggest fear they had.

By the way, profanity isn't very becoming. There is always a replacement that is not quite as vulgar. Sometimes that replacement is not the first word to come to mind, but try taking a deep breath, count to ten, and I bet you come up with something.

Liberal Reader| 7.12.09 @ 9:31AM

Big J --

The "Two Santas" memo, written in the early seventies, laid out a strategy for Republicans that included spending on defense as a means of economic stimulation (in combination with relentless tax cuts that would run up deficits on purpose). It works so well because it can always be written up as "providing for the common defense," but don't fool yourself: the largest defense budget in the world redistributes wealth.

Now, as for the stimulus being a "failure," ask yourself: Do you honestly believe the an economic stimulus package could have been devised that would have pulled us out of recession in fewer than six months?

It's impossible.

There was a great deal of pork in the stimulus, but "pork" is just government spending. Stimulus MEANS spending.

But you're right, in a sense. The spending under way (and that's only 7% of the package) is being used to prop up state budgets. But that is probably preventing a worse economic slow down from happening.

Anyway you look at it, it is not "logical" to assume that an economic stimulus package that hasn't even really yet get up and running is a failure. I wish it were coming faster; I wish we were more ambitiously rebuilding the nation's pathetically undermined infrastructure more quickly. But then again, these are tax dollars being spent, and the lag is caused in part by making sure they're spent well.

As for the president's actions being "outside the boundaries placed by the Constitution," I guess I don't know what you're talking about.

The government is spending money appropriated by Congress. The stimulus bill is not structurally different from the Louisiana Purchase, and we do not live in a small agrarian country. We are the world's largest economy; we have the world's mightiest army. Jefferson would NOT approve. But the country is a super power and the government has a role to play in its organization.

The Constitution has changed. It's been amended. Amendments are as Constitutional as anything Madison wrote in the original document. So I guess I just don't buy it when Republican leave office, having spent like drunken sailors when the economy was STRONG, and start talking like they think the government should be the size it was in 1791.

Big J| 7.12.09 @ 10:30AM

"But then again, these are tax dollars being spent, and the lag is caused in part by making sure they're spent well."

Bwaaaaa Haaaaaa Haaaaaa! Stop it, I'm going to ruin my keyboard!

You really could have saved a lot of typing. That statement tells me everything I need to know about you.

Liberal Reader| 7.12.09 @ 11:42AM

Big J --

You have successfully imbibed the populist cynicism that suffices for people today call "conservatism."

But remember: everyone in the House, and a third of the Senate, comes up for re-election next year.

We live in a democracy. If people think that money wasn't well spent, they'll vote those in office out. That's how it works.

But as much as it may dismay you to hear it, there are actually people in government who want to do good things -- things that work.

It's a weird irony of history that the radical rejection of public institutions that took place in the 60's migrated from the left to the right. At first, it was an illegal alien: now it owns the house. It's not a jot more wise or more prudent or more sensible or more productive or more interesting than it was in 1968. Now, instead of trashing college libraries and throwing rocks at policemen, it sits back and tunes into Rush Limbaugh three hours a day, and thinks how stupid and incompetent and arrogant those people are who do things like make laws.

Laws! How dare they? We want to play. We want to stay out all night long. We want what we want and we want it now. We want to turn the country into a gigantic simulacrum of Las Vegas. We won't be happy until the whole country is a vast shopping mall filled with cheap plastic shit manufactured by slaves in China! We won't rest until the world is transformed into a casino / whorehouse / prison.

Liberal Reader| 7.12.09 @ 12:01PM

From this liberal's perspective, the Democrats in Congress could be doing a much better job. These bills they're passing are windy, baggy monsters -- to steal a phrase.

As I say above, I approve of government spending, and I don't think tax cuts would be stimulative, because people would save them or pay off existing debt. (Again, this is the kind of rational behavior that good in the long term but terrible for the recovery.)

We need:

Massive spending on INFRASTRUCTURE. I don't know how old you are, or how much you travel around the country, but things have gotten downright squalid. Our public space -- the foundation of American Civilization -- is deteriorating at an alarming pace. We've not really been responsible for infrastructure in three decades, and it's taking its toll on our economy and -- I would add -- our self-respect.

We need massive spending on ENERGY. The grid, as well as production. We need to stop clinging to the technology of the early-nineteenth century.

We need massive -- massive -- spending on education. Nothing could be less true than the idea that we spend too much on education. We need to attract and keep good teachers, which is impossible with what we pay them now.

We need spending on security. Bush failed to upgrade port and airport security -- which is astonishing and almost viciously absurd, given the thread to terrorism.

Finally, we spend twice as much as a percentage of GDP on healthcare as France and get worse results. This is ludicrous. The CEOs of Wal Mart, GM, and dozens of other corporations now know what everyone else knows: unless everyone is insured, medical costs will strangle the economy. I don't think single-payer is the way to go, but something got to be done, and it will require government spending.

Credo.

Big J| 7.12.09 @ 12:07PM

Sure are angry, aren't ya there Lib? An affliction on your side I have often pondered, but never understood.

Still didn't take my advice on the profanity, I see.

Tsk, Tsk.

By the way, we live in a republic, not a democracy. There's a difference. Look it up.

Also, have you looked around the excuse for Congress that we have lately? They ARE arrogant, and I dare say incompetent. Some think that Washington D.C. tourists stink. A lot of them think they know WAY better than the poor slops that elected them. Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!

And while it doesn't dismay me that there are some folks there that actually DO want to do good things, they are in the minority. The majority of the inhabitants of Washington D.C. want as much power, money and control as they can possibly snatch. That's the truth. Whether you care to see it or not is irrelevant.

I hope for your sake that you face facts at some point. Really, I hope for all of our sakes. Elections have consequences, and unfortunately, you are thrusting those consequences on the rest of us.

Wow! That last paragraph (rant) was really something to behold. Don't know where that came from, but whatever.

I'm out. Your senseless drivel has become very boring.

Marcell| 7.12.09 @ 12:51PM

I was watching Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace interviewing Rep.Eric Cantor (R) & he showed the stimulus money that was allocated to his district:

$52 M K-12 Education
$14 M Resurfacing I-295
$9.1 M Sewer Rehabilitation
$1.8 M Traffic Mgmt System
$1.4 M Road Safety

Then he asked him was he willing to give up that money?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what his response to that question was.

I wish the teleprompter would give a a press breifing

aware| 7.12.09 @ 12:52PM

Big J....it is futile. While Liberal Reader is obviously well versed in statist propaganda he has no grasp on elemental economics or constitutionalism. He seems to think that government has a pool of money that is independent of owners in the real world. Its no use telling him that this wealth has to be removed from the economy in the form of taxation and then, as usual, handed out to favored recipients. Like taking water from the deep end of the pool and pouring into the shallow end to make it deeper. Like that isn't stupid enough, then the experts stand around speculating on why the shallow end is STILL shallow! If he's not, Liberal Reader should be working for government, he'd fit like a glove.

You must accept the premise that the State knows how to spend my money better than I do for any of his points to be true. I think he has been studying at the feet of the high priest of true voodoo economics, Dr. Klugman when he would be infinitely better off reading Hazlett's Economics in One Lesson. I would say the problem with "modern" economics is they always start with the model and then try to force reality to fit it!

L R sneers at savers, practically branding them traitors, without realizing that without savers in China this whole spending spree AND his prescription of "government stimulus" would be impossible, cause there sure isn't any money of our own to use. If somebody doesn't save there is nothing to "invest". The problem with spending like there's no tomorrow is that there is a tomorrow.

In short, the Klugmanites are advocating the exact same mentality that got us into this as the way out, i.e. spend all your money now and when that runs out borrow. Typical statist rationale take what causes the problem and do a lot more of it. With the debt so acquired money will now be used to pay interest on this debt which means you won't have that to spend on your favorite world saving government programs. Borrowing is spending the future now so that when the future arrives you won't have money to spend then. It will be spent on interest, which I'd point out will soon be 15% of the entire Federal budget and in 10 years will approach 50%. Why some can't see this has a breaking point is exasperating, especially those in power.

Liberal Reader...read about the depression of 1920-1921. You have not heard of it because it was over completely in 16 months with no government interference and then the Roaring 20s. The decline was worse than 1929 but it didn't lead to the 15 year Great Depression. What do you think the reason is? Here's a clue, in one government did nothing and in the other government did EVERYTHING.

I also love the "progressive" mantra of "fair" which they use like a club. They should consider that in a true free market the banksters would now be begging on the streets as reward for their stupid greed. Same goes for investors and especially the central banksters. But thanks to the State these miscreants instead now have their coffers refilled to the brim and the rest of us will suffer for their crimes, even if we've never even seen a "derivative". Of course this is the very purpose of the central bank and its cloven-hoofed minions. How anyone can expect things to get better with this bloated corruption(Federal Reserve) squatting at the center of the web is a mystery to me.

I won't even start with the attitude of if it is voted on and passed it must be constitutional. This is the prevalent attitude now and explains why this stinks to High Heaven, why we are losing liberties at break-neck speed, and why we are now the biggest debtor in the entire history of the world. With this as the prevailing view how can we think we are still a great nation? Or that tomorrow will be brighter.

Piss takers| 7.12.09 @ 1:03PM

catladyjan| 7.11.09 @ 1:44PM
Obama is a pathological liar and a fraud. Still waiting to see that birth certificate.
_______________________________

Why didn't you ask to see George Bush Birth cirtificate? because he was white.

Where do you think Obama's mother came from?

Time to move on, what can you do for your country? except complain about Obama?

I bet you are one of those, trailer park trash, or drug dealer worried that if people don't have jobs they can't pay for a fix.

Why not write in and say you want Obama to scrap taxes. Don't send kids to school, close down all roads and public services. No TAX NO SERVICES DUMB ASS. How about putting all public service workers out of work TOO, IDIOT.

Marcell| 7.12.09 @ 1:06PM

I wish the teleprompter would give a press briefing to inform the press that he was planning on reallocating the stimulus money from Republican districts to Democratic districts as a joke.

Make sure that it is clear that the Republicans don’t believe their districts don’t need government stimulus, & that is why he is doing it.

Then allow a few hours to pass in order to get the bang out of the joke, & to show how full of $%^& the Repubs are.

A great joke like that would boost up his numbers in the polls , because all of his supporters will be entertained & inspired to help make you Rupugs look more foolish.

It will never happen.

=)

Me Too| 7.12.09 @ 2:51PM

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

"When it comes to the economy, the Obama administration has declared that it is both night and day at the same time. "

Not a problem.

Patriot| 7.12.09 @ 5:19PM

Jeremiah/Lib Reader is going batsh!t crazy trying to explain and defend OBAMA'S 11--15% SKYROCKETING UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS!! Too friggin' funny for words.

Like Obama said, "The Stimulus is working just like it's supposed to." Or perhaps it's like crazy Biden said, "The economy was much worse than we thought." Incompetent clowns.

Like I said before: KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE: OBAMA'S SKYROCKETING UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS WILL DOOM HIS PRESIDENCY!!

ROTFLMAO, Jeremiah!

JimE| 7.12.09 @ 6:16PM

It's quite obvious Liberal Reader and Marcell are two useful idiots on the public dole. Both are little more than retarded drones.

Marcell| 7.12.09 @ 9:05PM

Hi JimE

You & your conservative friends can say what you want, but I do know that as of today, the conservative attack that took place on Friday to nothing today.

Marcell| 7.12.09 @ 9:07PM

You & your conservative friends can say what you want, but I do know that as of today, the conservative attack that took place on Friday has fizzled down to nothing today.

Patriot| 7.12.09 @ 9:25PM

What Conservative attack? We haven't started yet, moron. Obama's 11+% and skyrocketing unemployment numbers are doing our work for us.

Just watch and see.

Should I post this twice, Marcell/Jeremiah/Lib Reader?

LOL =)| 7.13.09 @ 1:43AM

Patriot, stop fooling yourself.

Rep.Eric Cantor (R) got

$52 M K-12 Education
$14 M Resurfacing I-295
$9.1 M Sewer Rehabilitation
$1.8 M Traffic Mgmt System
$1.4 M Road Safety

to his district to help clean up the mess he & his repugnant peers helped Bu$h create, because they chose to listened to people like your repugnant gods who think like Limbaugh & Sean Insanity, & their phony Reagan propaganda / b.s.

Even if unemployment went up to 12%, the reality will still be that Obama inherited this economy.

Dean| 7.13.09 @ 5:00AM

I keep hearing about How bad the Economy was ynder W. The last year that he was in office the Democrats controlled the congress. My point is how many people remember how bad the economy was when Jimmy was screwing up this country I do. I don't remember Ronald Reagan coming in and pointing fingers he just fixed it. I don't care what W did Obama is not fixing any thing he say he is, but all I have to look forward to is higher taxes and paying for somebody else's house or car.

aware| 7.13.09 @ 6:54AM

“The wealth of the country, its capital, its credit, must be saved from the predatory poor as well as the predatory rich, but above all from the predatory politician.”

"Shall we abandon everything to centralized authority, going the way of every lost and ruined government in the history of the world, or meet our personal duty by personal labor through the organs of local self-government, not yet wholly atrophied by disuse. . . ? Shall we permit the continued increase of public expenditure and public debt until capital and credit have suffered in the same conflict that overthrew prosperous and happy nations in the past, or insist upon a return to honest and practical economy?"

"What people don't remember is that Hitlerism was about more than just militarism, nationalism, and consolidation of identity politics. It also involved a substantial shift in German domestic politics away from free enterprise, or what remained of it under Weimar, toward collectivist economic planning. Nazism was not only nationalism run amok. It was also socialism of a particular variety."

Something to consider.

ledgerhedger| 7.13.09 @ 12:24PM

They are right. it is better for the unions and blue states and worse for the red

Patriot| 7.15.09 @ 2:47PM

Marcell/Jeremiah--nice try, but Obama's 15+% unemployment will be all his!! You liberals are so gone!

Ed Hardy Wallets| 7.24.09 @ 2:20AM

i like

cheap handbags| 7.25.09 @ 7:10PM

We only sell the top grade replica cheap handbags, some of them are genuine leather handbags, yet the price is far lower than the authentic designers want you to pay. We lead you to a genuine pool of bags : collections in wide range: handbags, shoulder bags, clutches, tote bags, purses and wallets, the hottest brands you can find like replica  Louis Vuitton handbags, Replica marc jacobs handags, Replica Prada handbags, Coach,Replica Chloe handbags,Burberry, Dior,replica  Chanel handbags, Chloe,Replica gucci handbags, Dolce & Gabbana,Replica Balenciaga handbags . Crafted to the highest standard, from the finest materials in the industry, we guarantee the toppest  Replica Hermes handbags   at low price you'll find anywhere.

george| 7.29.09 @ 2:33AM

LV Bequia Leather handbag , commonly referred to as

Louis Vuitton Bequia, or sometimes shortened to

Louis Vuitton Classic China Run handbags has become one of the most

Louis Vuitton Classic China Run luxury brands.

outlet louis vuittongood

lv outletl like

louis vuitton outletsgood

louis vuitton outlet storesnice

s| 8.20.09 @ 2:30AM

Cheap Jordan,Cheap Jordan shoes,Retro Jordan,Air Yeezy Shoes,Supra shoes,Kanye West ShoesJordan shoes,New Jordans,Air Yeezy,Air Force Ones,Nike Dunks,Retro Jordan, Cheap Jordan Shoes,Nike Dunk High,True Religion Jeans,New Air Force OnesAir Yeezy Shoe,Supra Shoes,Retro Jordan,Creative Recreation,Nike DunksNike Air YeezyTrue Religion,Air Jordan Shoes,Air Shox,Air Max,Dunk Shoes.Air Jordan,Cheap Jordans,Jordan Shoes,Cheap Air Jordans,Air Jordan Shoes

dropshippngwatch| 9.2.09 @ 6:20AM

Replica Watch
Replica Watches
Fake Watch
Sales Replica Watches
Fake Watches
Fake Watch
Replica Watch
Replica Watches
Fake Watch
replica Rolex watches
Replica Breitling Watches
Replica Burberry Watches
Replica Bvlgari Watches
Replica Cartier Watches
Replica Chanel Watches
Replica Chopard Watches
Replica Christian Dior Watches
Replica Concord Watches
Replica Corum Watches
http://www.dropshippingwatch.com

fjkds| 10.16.09 @ 1:17AM

shanghai massage
turntable bearings