Friday, August 29, 2008
History Was Made In America Tonight!
Here is Barack Obama's acceptance speech made before the Democratic National Convention. History was made tonight. It is time to end 8 years of the GOPlunderers' reign of disaster.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
McCain Leads the Grand Ole Plunderers (GOP)
How can John McCain tell the public that he is capable of fixing the economy by making the Bush tax shift permanent or effectively slicing and dicing the federal budget? McCain had voted with Bush on nearly every bill for the last 8 years. Just this last year, he voted with Bush 95% of the time. What is McCain's answer to his disappearing maverick act?
Bush, McCain and the Grand Ole Plunderers (GOP) have destroyed our economy and not helped it. Most of us are worse off now than we were 8 years ago; and, we can thank McCain for his role in it. As McCain gives his Plunderer-in-Chief his full embrace, his Boy Chief tells America that the economic fundamentals are good, yet 1 in 3 homeowners who purchased homes since 2003 now owe more than what their property is worth. This amounts to around 80 million homes.
(Read: "The Battered American Consumer: Even the Middle Class is Feeling Economic Pain", Kathleen Connell, Christian Science Monitor, on Alternet.org, 8-20-08).
Did Obama forget to tell McCain that when the Boy Chief took office our economy was robust? The American worker was benefiting from the growing GDP. But today, the average American worker has experienced a decline in their real wages. Did McCain forget that he supported his Boy Chief as he burned and plundered the U.S. budget surplus, while simultaneously doubling the national debt to nearly $10 trillion; and making this nation less safe and more vulnerable as he chose to use his "Political Capital" on wars and creating a new form of fascism with a sprinkle of kleptocracy? This is McCain's and his fellow G.O.Plunderer's legacy.
Did Obama forget that McCain's politics is commanded by lobbyists, who have been embedded inside no-bid government contracts and have infiltrated federal agencies and departments with their private sector partisan stooges? And then, there is the fact that he and his campaign advisor and lobbyist pal were deeply involved in the mess that occurred with the breakaway Republic of Georgia. Did Saashasvili actually believe that McCain, Boy Bush, or the GOP would morph into his Ironman saving him from the big bad Russian army? McCain's foreign policy agenda appears more like the Boy Chief's than that of a maverick who stands up to his party-line leaders.
McCain's foreign policy doctrine seems to be based on a hegemanical, Viagra-induced erection for wars and the threat of war. He has been in support of a policy that would financially drain the swamp through wars and by involvement in "client-contractor" style government relationships, i.e. Georgia and Ukraine.
Did McCain forget that bin-Laden said that he would take America down economically, which McCain has allowed, and has appeared to have embraced, as well? Nice going, Maverick! McCain embraced it because he stood with Bush on nearly all votes as a Senator. And, he followed the Phil Gramm doctrine to not regulate the financial markets, as did Bush Boy.
Now, Russia could burn down the House (and Senate) by flexing their retaliatory muscle just by dumping their dollar holdings, and their toxic assets, part of which they still hold but have not swapped for fresh Bada Bing Bernanke dollars. And then there is the $100-150 billion worth of bonds they bought off of Fannie and Freddie to keep them floating even though there was a hole in their tube.
Bada Bing Bernanke and Hank "the Paulie" Paulson swapped any greasy, slimy pieces of U.S. toxic assets, which have been basically worthless forms of "ha-ha" collateral from anyone foolish enough to buy them, even the Russians, for freshly printed dollars. Now, the Russians hold dollars they can use to threaten us just by tossing them out onto the world market creating deflationary havoc for our currency. The Russians would only sacrifice the full value of those dollars for revenge upon our Boy President and the U.S. economy. (Bada Bing.) Do we need more deflationary problems with our dollar?
This is the McCain and Bush legacy. They have destroyed our economy. So off to Minneapolis to claim victory!
(Read: "Reality Bites Again", Jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com)
The McCain-Bush Legacy has crippled the availability of credit because the banks have less capital to risk/lend, as seen with Merrill Lynch, which basically gave away $30 billion of their mortgage-backed securities for 5 cents on the dollar after their arranged sale juggling act. The Fed holds around $400+billion of such fire sale junk assets and are closing in on the half-way buy back point. Also, FDIC has only $37 billion available to them for depositor insurance-based bailouts! Will they be asking for more? And, how soon?
McShame has performed his senatorial duties with reckless abandon as he gave the Boy Chief a wink and a nod for 8 years. Now that is what a Mav-wreck would do! Our very own McShame has allowed countries and nation states from around the world, which are our questionable friends when the dirt starts uh flyin', such as those in the Middle East, Russia, etc, to be our "bankers" as they bought our assets in order to keep us supplied, not unlike a dealer to a junkie, with cash in order to allow us to financially implode. The dollar may lose its glitter and sheen as the world's reserve currency thanks to the G.O. Plunderer's mismanagement of government.
(Read: "The Incredible Shrinking Dollar?", Mike Whitney, Counterpunch.org, 8-20-08)
It seems that Bush Boy's Big Tent maybe falling down upon us as we ask the question, "Is there really enough gold in Fort Knox?" The value of gold and silver paper claims may not be backed by any actual gold or silver. Such precious metals are supposed to be sitting in the vaults of our biggest banks, and elsewhere, if paper claims are to be issued or "leased" to secondary dealer investors. It is believed not to be the case.
Why is the value of gold (and silver) falling, in the commodities markets, when the U.S. Mint had to suspend the production of gold bullion and ounces if commodities markets wants you to think that there is a drop in demand? Is there a game being played here?
If a small dealer is afraid to take on a gold purchase "leasing" risk, then the larger bank
(a holder of gold bullion) offers a subsidized lease with a negative interest rate, which means they are paid to take on the gold (or silver) lease deal. This arrangement deflates the metal's value. This ends up looking like a futures derivative scam, not unlike the mortgage-backed securities scam. Does it all sound familar? Yet, people all around the globe want to buy real gold and silver in spite of the street/COMEX price. There is a demand, and the people cannot get the real thing. Production is suspended because the U.S. Mint cannot get the stuff to mint! In addition, many central banks are trying to purchase more gold to cover themselves.
It is all about covering short selling on these metals. We are seeing a precious metal paper manipulation in order to make money shorting their covers before betting on the longs. The Fed and banks want to collapse the price, yet people, and central banks all around the world, want to own the real deal anyway.
Are the big banks trying to unwind what might be billions of dollars in mortgage related asset losses by forcing a collapse in metals and commodities, while holding billions in short sells, which would make billions for them as they leveraging out their previous losses?
No matter what the talking heads are saying there is a demand for gold and silver in spite of a supply crunch. People are selling off their paper assets, going into cash, and trying to buy gold and silver ounces and bullions. Gold maybe a commodity, but it is still a world valued currency.
Before the U.S. Mint suspended production, it could not source enough gold product, all the while, they were minting "2.5 times as many gold coins, this year, and almost 4 times as many silver bullion coins, this year, compared to last year." This disconnect between street price and derivative price would not be happening if the banks holding gold bullion were selling claims based upon vaulting of the actual physical precious metal.
The 1987 President's Executive Order on Working Markets gave the Fed and Treasury the power to manipulate the markets secretly with full legal authority.
Will such gambling kill more banks? Will depositors pull their cash and stick it away where they know they can get at it? If this happens, will the price of gold and silver double?
(Read: "The Disconnect Between Supply and Demand in Gold and Silver", James Conrad, Seekingalpha.com, 8-20-08)
This is the mess McCain has brought us. His former financial advisor, the New Menace, Phil Gramm, is the grand-daddy of these scams and helped McCain formulate his economic policy. Cindy McCain, Johnny Boy's sugar-momma, has set him up with so much wealth that he has no clue what he is sittin' on. So what does he care about the rest of America? He is the new leader of the Grand Ole Plunderers.
Thanks for reading, Jerry
POSTSCRIPT:
This chart is a must read. It details borrowing over decades.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The Oil Battlefields of the World
(to return to this posting after viewing link, hit the back arrow.)
The Russian war with the break-away Soviet Republic of Georgia is a struggle for the control of oil, among other ethnic, and geopolitical factors. No doubt, oil dominance is critical to Russia. Georgia has oil and access to the Black Sea and to the Caspian Sea through Azerbaijan. Between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf is Iran. In other words, Georgia has the potential to supply oil to markets and bypass an entanglement with the Russians. Putin does not like that. He wants a piece of the action. This Tony Soprano has tanks and bombs.
The U.S. is in a struggle for control of oil, as well. The Russians, Chinese, and U.S. are all competing to control oil and oil prices. Gas as well. Oil prices effect economies and the price of currencies.
John McCain wants to be dependent on oil because he is indebted to his oil benefactors and the kleptocrats chairman of the board, Dick Cheney. JohnBoy wants to drill off-shore California and everywhere else even though the environmental effects could be disastrous, especially in the California waters. Do we need another Katrina-like disaster?
The amount of oil gotten from the proposed drilling would make little difference in the price because in 10 years, the demand will likely have declined due to price and inflationary pressures put upon most Americans. We are currently experiencing a decline in demand and usage. The extraction of oil from tar sands and shale continues to be expensive. And then, there are numerous dormant wells leased by oil companies. It is reported that the oil drilled from new wells off our shores might only represent 1% of total daily outputs.
Obama plays the middle when he should not be doing so. He is trying to appeal to the nuclear, oil and alternative energy supporters all at the same time. Standing in the middle of the pond makes it harder to run to shore.
Obama needs to stand firmly close to those standing on the shore of the alternative energy crowd. This is what is needed now.
He needs to tell America, "Do we want to engage in more oil wars? If not, vote for me! I will put into place an Urgency Alternative Energy Policy to build, across this nation, an alternative energy power grid and use oil for our non-energy needs. We can use our own oil and purchase oil from our real partners. We can put forth a major oil recycling plan and create enough biofuels for what is needed."
We need to move toward efficiency with our transportation needs. If a person needs to purchase a new or newer vehicle, tax breaks to those who decide on battery vehicles should be given out. Subsidies to all who want to install solar panels, and such should be given out, too.
Mr. Obama needs to push away from the sleeping JohnBoy and tell America how alternative energy will create jobs and opportunities for the nation. He needs to say how solar and wind can be built immediately to energize many of our communities reducing the need for non-renewal fuels almost overnight. Also, geothermal can be used in many areas of our country.
Do we want to get into struggles with the Russian and/or Chinese leaderships over oil? We have spent over $1 trillion in our oil war in Iraq. What a waste of life, time, political capital and money.
By declaring energy independence we then can walk away from governments we should not support and help make more wealthy, especially the plutocrats, authoritarians and dictators.
Solar panels do work. They can supply homes and businesses energy, while providing energy back into the overall grid, as well. I saw a bed and breakfast with several sleeping rooms, hot tub, a/c, kitchen, workshop and lighting pay only $2.00 per month for electricity because they had a solar panel on their roof. In Denmark, if one drives a hybrid or electric vehicle, and it is plugged into the alternative energy grid at night, the batteries in the car act as storage selling back electricity to the electric supplier.
What if Prime Minister Putin decided to retaliate against the United States over our involvement with the government of the break-away Republic of Georgia?
George Bush is hated by the Russians. They see him as fool and liar, therefore, Putin could easily create a significant recession, if not a depression, without ever firing a shot across the bow. All he would have to do would be to "sell all $50 billion of its Fannie Mae mortgage-backed bonds, all of its U.S. dollar-backed assets, and accept only rubles and euros in the future sale of Russian oil and natural gas." If this scenario were to happen, "watch as the dollar crashes and the Dow Jones goes into a death-spiral." (Bush's War in Georgia; Will it be the Flyswatter or the Blunderbuss?" by Mike Whitney, Global Research, 8-11-08. You can check our link postings and find Mike Whitney right there.)
Listening to McCain's tough talk over this Russian/Georgian violent confrontation is not what we need to engage in.
Mr. Sleeping Dog McCain said, as he pounded his chest, since swaggering has been unattainable, "Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgia territory." So, JohnBoy, what is next if Russia does not abide by your command? And then, there is Mr. Obama's statement, "Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full-scale war." The McCain campers say this is "weak"? How about presidential and tactful. The McCain campers would rather burn down the forest in hopes to get a better view of the other side.
One of McCain's neo-con camp counselors, Randy Scheunemann, a paid lobbyist to the Republic of Georgia, and JohnBoy's foreign policy talking head, surely has his biases. It is likely that McCain does not truly know the actual facts surrounding the cause of this confrontation, but we know it involves oil, and violence. The blogs and media are full of speculation over the facts. Mr. Whitney wrote that Georgian peacekeepers "Bushwacked" their fellow Russian peacekeepers, triggering the battle of wills, while destroying lives and treasure.
We do not need to get involved in military battles over oil when the world is full of very precise and dangerous weapons. JohnBoy has told the American people while on the campaign trail making clear that "There will be more wars, my friends." I gotta give ya some Straight Talk, My Friends, it is time to get off the oil battlefields of the world.
Thanks for reading. Jerry
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Political Royalist McCain
John McCain says he won't raises taxes, yet at a different forum, he stated he would consider raising payroll taxes to fund Social Security. How quickly he forgot his comments when he criticized Obama by exclaiming, "The worst thing you can do is raise people's payroll taxes, my God!"
So, what will it be Your Royal Highnasty? Senator McCain is not very bright; and then again, as David Henninger, of the Wall Street Journal asked in a recent article, "Is John McCain Stupid?"
David Michael Green, the writer of Regressiveantidote.com went one further in his lastest column by calling Lord McCain a scumbag. Dems fightin' words, but I have to agree to get in the ring with Green on this one.
The reason for Mr. Green's name calling is because Lord McCain has disgustingly and shamefully stooped to the level of a cockroach by saying that Obama "would be willing to lose a war in order to win a campaign." This is exactly what Bush had done in 2000 and 2004. Forging a fictious letter to Saddam by the Iraqi Director of Intelligence, Takir Jalil Habbush al-Takriti, (allegedly coming from Douglas Feith's Defense department office, and then, handed off to George Tenet), as was exposed in Ron Suskind's most recent book "The Way of the World".
This letter falsely incriminated a connection between the 9/11 terrorist, Mohammed Atta to Iraq in order to gin up a reason to go to war. No doubt, George Tenet would not respond to any order unless it came from within the highest levels of the boy King Bush White House.
Lord McCain is a "counterparty" to all of this by sleeping with the murderers. Foot soldier McCain is a scumbag because he was the toe-licking lap dog of the kingpin scripters of the Project for a New American Century, the manifesto to democratizing the Middle East through the toppling of Saddam Hussein. In 1998, Lord McCain, a true Congressional Royalist, especially now that he is married to the Anheuser-Busch heiress, Cindy Hensley, co-sponsored
the Iraq Liberation Act-drafted by the PNAC-which decreed "regime change" in Iraq. ("John McCain's Chilling Project for America", by Elliot Cohen, Global Research, 6-15-08, Truthdig.com).
McCain signed onto Bush's war, therefore, was a co-conspirator in a losing war, which he
has delusionally claimed he could win, in order to run as a the neo-con candidate for president.
McCain, as do the other neo-con regressive cockroaches, such a Arnold Schwartzenneger (but one cannot leave out the capitulating Demo-cons, either), who want to raise state budget revenues through increasing sales taxes to make up for problematic state budgets. They are willing to further sucker-punch working America who spend everything they make on their day-to-day living. The average American is in debt $117,000, and has only $2-300 in savings. These governmental cowards are afraid to increase the tax burden on the richest Americans, who don't spend everything they earn on day-to-day living expenses.
Our Congress and State governments borrow from the rich to pay for the operations of the government, instead of raise the tax burden on the rich, who have shifted the tax burden to working America through income and sales levies that fall the most hardest upon the average American consumer. Government sells bonds often bought by the wealthy, and those dollars are then used to operate the federal, state and local governments. Those high rollers playing deep within the FIRE sector (finance, insurance, and real estate) often take their "returns in the form of capital gains rather than as profits, trading through financial hedge funds whose revenue is taxed at only half the rate of normal income."... "The wealthiest 1% take their returns in the form of bonuses, not wages, and enjoy a cut-off point of only $102,000 for FICA, Social Security, and Medicare wage withholding. When Wall-Street Journal editorials assert that the richest 1% earn "only" a small portion of taxable income, all this really means is that a shrinking portion of their returns are deemed subject to the income tax." ("State, Local, and Private Pensions-The Next Big Bail Out", By Michael Hudson, 7-31-08, Counterpunch.org). (Also, Mr. Hudson has his own website. Check our link column for it.)
McCain will not change this picture. He will keep the Bush tax cuts in place and protect those high rollers in the FIRE sector and do less for labor and industry, who pay the largest percentage of their income in taxes. We can be sure of that. He wants to keep taxes low for his wealthy corporate royalist pals. Obama appears to want to offer something else.
The parallel between McCain and Bush continues to be even more uncanny. Bush's brother, Neil, was involved in the Silverado Savings and Loan scandal back in 1988, which cost the taxpayers $1.6 billion. Now we have learned that McCain's son, Andrew, has been on the boards of two failing banks: Silver State Bancorp of Henderson, and Silver State Bank, also of Henderson, Nevada, which just watched him jump over the deck rail, resigning from his directorships, before the banks begin to sink. Silver State Bank lost $62.7 million just in the second quarter.
Andrew McCain is 45 years old, and has served as director of Choice Bank since 2006. In addition, he is vice president and CFO of Hensley and Company, one of the largest beer distributors in the U.S. Andrew's stepmommy is Cindy Hensley, the heiress to Anheuser-Busch fortune. From one beer lover to another!
And, guess who Choice Bank merged with on April 4, 2008? Correct! Silver State Bank. That must surely be an OOPS if I ever saw one. If you are a depositor in any bank that Andrew McCain touches, be sure to withdraw your money!
It appears that Andrew McCain has been Silver Spoon fed his personal wealth as a result of his stepmommy and his daddy's name. He has not earned his way in life through his own hard work and self-reliance. Andrew McCain is a clone of Neil Bush. John is a clone of George. Are we not tired of the nation's political royalists, yet? It is time to tell Lord McCain that he will not be our next King.
Thanks for reading, Jerry
Video-cast correction:
I had said that Penny Pritzker, Obama's financial chairman, is a Hilton Hotel heiress. The correction is she is a Hyatt Hotel heiress. She was involved with Merrill Lynch back in the late 1990's when they first designed a way to securitize sub-prime mortgages, which has now led to our financial meltdown.
Tidbit:
This link goes a site where you can read how two Fox News reporters were told to lie when presenting a story about how Monsanto's bovine growth hormone had gotten into a significant amount of our milk supply. These two reporters sued Fox over unrightful termination and initially won their case with damages. Fox appealed to the Appellate Court of Florida's Second District and those fascist neo-con judges ruled on behalf of Fox.
What this means is that the courts have decided that it is perfectly legal, and justified for the media, who are using the public airwaves, to rightfully lie to the public over what is called "News". The neo-con fascist regime propaganda machine, theoretically regulated by Colin Powell's son, Michael, at the FCC, is able to cover-up, distort, fabricate and outright lie to the nation when they deem it necessary to protect their financial, and political interests. WOW!
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