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Even if it was this afternoon, what could be done about it?

My best advice - lay low, keep your powder dry, and ride it out. Hey, baseball season starts next week!

I had a feeling Obama was the AntiChrist............................



















This confirms it.

Zwibbs - were you expecting a seizure (and possible collapse) of the world financial system to be a sweet dream?  

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Most of the people crying are the people that voted for someone other than Obama; the President still has a large measure of support from the people, and that level is pretty steady for the moment.

Missiles are being fired? Where? By who?  The Koreans?  Is that really something new?

Did anyone believe that Obama was not in favor of some degree of choice when it comes to abortion? If so, you weren't paying attention.

And is it a good idea to block all funding for birth control unless there is an abstinence-only policy?  Should a group doing public health education be disqualified from all funding if they dare to mention abortion as a possibility?  Reagan put that policy into effect, it was lifted by Clinton, reimposed by Bush, and lifted again by Obama.  Very predictable.  

I won't lose sleep if the budget crunch forces California to release the non-violent drug offenders.  I don't think it is good to lay off teachers or cut assistance to the handicapped, but I also don't think prison is an effective (or cost-effective) way to deal with recreational drug users.

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Isn't it duck season?

Paul98 wrote on Mar 30^th, 2009 at 6:48pm:

Bang!

zwibbs-Scott wrote on Mar 30^th, 2009 at 7:02pm:

you listen to rush to much

zwibbs-Scott wrote on Mar 30^th, 2009 at 7:10pm:


i can identify with that. when i listen to rush he makes a few valid points then he talks about how stupid liberals are. mike malloy does the same thing on the other side. i really think that BOTH sides are going to have to get together and move us all ahead instead of calling one another stupid.

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Don't hold your breath, dude.

zwibbs-Scott wrote on Mar 30^th, 2009 at 7:02pm:


Sure. And it is a no-win situation. A company that messed up should not be giving big bonuses. But how does the government stop it?

Usually, the only way to void a contract is through the courts - bankruptcy, for example, puts all debts and contracts on the table for renegotiation.  But the idea here was to keep AIG out of bankruptcy to keep it from knocking over more dominoes. And the Republicans were screaming about the sanctity of contracts and how overturning them would lead to the collapse of western civilization.

Most of these contracts were from before the Bush Tarp bill, which had nothing in it about limiting bonuses.  And the TARP II bill didn't specifically address it either - there was talk about putting such language in, but no agreement that it would be legal or otherwise a good idea.  Because there are issues when the government goes in and retroactively changes contracts.

Then the bonuses were made public, and people got pissed - very understandable. The scope of the whole crisis is so large, and the details so massive, that nobody understands the whole thing.  But big bonuses from a failing company getting a big bailout is very understandable, and infuriating.

So Congress went about fixing the problem.  Chuck Grassley came up with an elegant solution that would not require government action: the CEO and others getting the bonuses should give the money back, and then commit suicide.  That free market solution didn't get implemented, mostly because the people getting the bonuses were free to tell Grassley to go F@#% himself.  

So Congress came to the idea of a special tax that would only apply to people who work for companies getting government bailouts that make more than $250,000 and got bonuses - this would essentially get the governments money back.  This led Republicans to howl about now the government will take everyone's house and car and the clothes off their back because 90% tax rates are back in style.  No ideas about how to deal with the economic shit, just hysterics in response to any proposal.  

GOP - Got 0 Plan.  

Scott, my friend.  While I must agree with you I'm afraid at this point we are at this point:   There is to much invested at this point to back off and take a look at the direction the President is taking us.  Some know where he would like us to go and are happy with it.  All we can do is hope there is anything left to salvage in 2010.

Jerry