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September 2008
Bailout Bombs in the House
Voters don't like the bailout. They've told their representatives, and their representatives actually listened. Funny the difference an election year can make. If this had happened last year, they would have rubber-stamped this and moved on. Now the Simpering Simian has to come up with a plan that helps people, not the big financial institutions.
29 Sep 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 12:55:17
Bailout Boondoggle
This proposed bailout looks like yet another power grab scheme for the Simpering Simian. The broadening role of the Treasury department. The lack of over site. The lack of court review. It all adds up to a financial Patriot Act. At least Congress is giving it a little more scrutiny than they did in 2001.
What perplexes me is how this bailout goes counter to the whole "pure free market" system that the neo-cons have been championing for the past eight years. They deregulated the markets for these big companies. They allowed them to merge into even bigger companies. The even made it so that these big companies could shelter a big portion of their earnings from taxes. All in the name of a "pure free market".
So why is it a good idea now to bail these companies out? They put themselves in this position. If they had been a little more flexible with their borrowers, there might not be so many defaults. No one seems to be pointing out that little fact. Greed drove these companies to the state that they are in now. I say let them sink to the bottom as the free market system dictates.
The only problem with that idea is that these companies were allowed to grow so big, that their collapse brings too many down with them. A bailout may be the only way to keep the economy from spiraling into a recession more severe than the Great Depression of the 20th century. So if taxpayers are going to be called on to dig these behemoths out of their own graves, then the rules need to change.
Congress can start by re-instituting regulations that McCain and his cohorts threw out a few years ago. Next they can stiffen the antitrust laws to ensure that financial institutions can't just keep swallowing up their competition to the point that they become the only game in town whose failure could destroy the economy(see Bear Sterns, AIG, et al). Finally, they need to stop thinking from the top-down here.
These institutions got into trouble because borrowers began defaulting at unheard of rates. As I mentioned, if they had been a little more flexible with their borrowers, then there would have been far fewer defaults. So why not fix that problem by offering assistance to borrowers? After all, if people could pay back their loans in the first place, none of this would be necessary now.
24 Sep 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 11:41:57
Let's Veto Ahnold
The State Legislature has finally passed a budget and all Ahnold can do is threaten to veto it. What an ass!. Maybe the recall is not so bad an idea after all.
16 Sep 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 11:43:30
7 Years
After seven years, bin Laden is still at large. Al Qaeda is stronger than ever. There's no end in site in Iraq or Afghanistan. The economy is practically in free-fall. And all the oldest man to EVER run for president can offer is more of the same. This is what is at stake in the election this year. It's not about a woman becoming VP. It's about setting things right. The GOP had eight years to do so and blew it. Let someone else give it a shot.
11 Sep 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 11:43:35
Total Recall, Again?
It looks like Ahnold is facing a recall move by the prison guard union. I don't expect this to get any further than other attempts. Besides, what's the point? He'll be out of office for good in a couple of years anyway.
08 Sep 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 17:03:25
Palin Pregnancy Debacle
So how does the oldest man to EVER run for president's running mate advocate for abstinence only teachings, when that philosophy obviously failed to keep her daughter from becoming another statistic of teen pregnancy? The answer is she can't.
Palin is such a bad choice for the oldest man to EVER run for president, she may go down as the last female GOP running mate for a long time. Without casting aspersions on her parenting skills, one has to ask; if she can't manage her family, how is she supposed to manage the office of vice president? How will she manage the country if the oldest man to EVER run for president dies? She has an infant with special needs and a daughter who will soon be teenage bride and mother!!!
What about the investigations on politically motivated firings? The current administration is still dealing with the attorney general's illegal political vetting process under Gonzalez. Now it looks like the GOP is going to continue more of the same with their candidate's running mate, who wanted someone fired, and when she didn't get what she wanted, fired the director who refused her demand.
The choice of Palin was a desperate move. If the McCain camp had waited until she was fully vetted, instead of trying to steal some thunder away from Obama last Friday, they might have been able to manage these revelations a little better, or even avoided them completely by selecting someone else. Now they're stuck. They can't dump her without looking like disorganized idiots, and keeping her may just be political suicide.
02 Sep 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 11:08:48
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