So...

[Smoke]

What do we think of Politics these days?

Hows that for off the subject?

[fish]

I think it is all pretty amusing, except for the realization that one of them is going to get elected.

So you see, I don't like either of them, and can take either side.

I spend time going from Kos to Move On to Rush to Hannity. I get factoids that I then go other places to confirm or discredit. I have concluded that the Dems are running the most dishonest campaign I have ever seen.

The Dems have nominated a man who brings nothing but his mixed race. Just what we need - an affirmative action token person of color.

The Repubs have nominated a man who was either an incompetent or unlucky jet jockey. I mean he lost at least four aircraft, the last one landing him in a POW camp. Just what we need - incompetent or unlucky.

The bail out is an almost complete fraud. Remember the redline debate ? So our Gov, Rs&Ds alike, pressured lenders to give loans to people who could never afford to pay them back. That paper was sold and resold to speculators. And then the bubble burst.

Why in God's name do we have to move their private losses to the public sector, and also keep people in houses they never should have bought in the first place ?

Oh, and the sky is not falling. Look at the conditions that gave rise to the great depression. They do not exist today. The prime example is that there is no dust bowl today.

The American economy is fundamentally sound.

It would be funny, but they are out to change the fundamentals of the American system.

Heaven help us if they succeed.

fish

[Smoke]

Best personal quote yet...from Jack Cafferty on CNN..."I would crawl through a barbed wire fence naked to get in front of a tv Thursday night"

[fish]

Yup,

and if Joe Biden had been involved in a TV spectacle like this in 1929, FDR would have changed channels to watch.

[Smoke]

LOL

I hate Bush but I almost want to go and see the new movie "W" when it comes out.

[Smoke]

So I don't understand what Mental Health has to do with a wall street bailout...150B more for it. What would happen if I just stop paying taxes because the people that are in charge of distributing MY MONEY really haven't got a clue.....are we as americans just that stupid?

[fish]

So I’m walking down the street.

Two guys come up to me and say:

“Give us your money”

I say: “What is this, a robbery?’

They say: “No, we’re having an election ! All in favor of you giving us your money raise a hand.”

Each guy raises one hand.

I say: “I’m not giving you my money.”

They take out guns. “We got guns. You got to vote, you lost, and you’re giving us your money or else.”

I say: “Who are you guys ?”

“Oh, I call myself the Republicans,” says one, “and he’s called the Democrats.”

Smoke, they're stealing our money and wasting it. There is no greater sin.

Latest example. First they force banks to lend money to undeserving trash, white and black. Then, to keep the banks from going bad they create agencies to buy and sell the paper, which is really almost worthless, but which is riding the surface of a bubble, and then, when the bubble bursts, they force to us to give our money pay for the now huge mess and, coincidentally keep people in houses they can't pay for and never deserved in the first place.

Oh, by the way, have you seen the number that comes out if you divide the bail out funds by the number of houses in foreclosure.

It's about a godzillion dollars per house.

All of this is tied to well intentioned social programs which defy human nature and which will fail.

And they, our politicians, know it, damn them.

They are destroying the USA, but I'll be dead before it is all over, thank God.

fish

by the way, after it got popular, the dems forced you tube to take down the video of the 04 efforts of the R's to get oversight on Frannie and Freddie, and the closing of that door by the D's, the same D's who now are blaming the R's.
But you can see some of it here. hotair.com/archives/2008/09/29/video-democrats-insist-nothing-wrong-at-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-in-2004/

[Smoke]

Ok Fish...explain AIG to me.......I don't get it, we give them 80 B and they blow it and then they want more....we aren't heading to a depression...we are heading towards a revolt!

[fish]

Well, Smoke, AIG is more of the same.

The bail out has no provision that compels the banks and institutions that get the money to lend it out.

So give AIG a loan to encourage the lending institutions to lend AIG money, but they don't.

"They" passed the bail out because of the liquidity problem. No loans were being made, even between lending institutions. Fear extended all the way down to small business that depends on lending liquidity to meet operating expenses such as payroll, etc.

They passed the bail out without any provision to compel the institutions that get the money to put the money back into the stream. i.e. to make it really liquid.

Insanity all round.

As for more on AIG, when that paragon of vitrue, Spitzer, forced Hank Greenberg out, a lot of folks thought that AIG's days were numbered in any case.

Greenberg was AIG.

Interesting article on another subject.

article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2JlODdmNmFiMDE3MDdlZjVkZWJiN2M0NDg1ZTMwZmE=

[Smoke]

I just find the whole thing very disheartening. I'm a small business trying to do all the right things and I wonder sometimes if it really all matters. I purposly do things un~corporate like for a reason...I can then sleep at night but there is so much greed out there. It's a shame people don't remember where they came from.

[fish]

Smoke, you have hit upon it.

The system should be designed to deal with fundamental human nature.

Fundamental human nature is greedy.

In a properly functioning capitalist system, greed is accounted for.

In a socialist system, it is not.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need", and I am going to stop working, and start taking.

Prime example "social security" a system that was put in place to protect the truely needy aged, has become an unsustainable universal pension fund. An entitlement.

And our new "Bail Out" is nothing less than central planning.

Central planning = soviet union

Like you, I was discouraged. Now I am afraid.

fish

[fish]

All,

re: the election

To paraphrase Menckin, and others,

No one ever lost money betting on the stupidity of the American people.

God help us.

fish