So, We Are Getting Close To The End Of This Series. This One Starts Out With About The Only Good Thing That Religion Ever Backed.
After The Next Installment I Have Found An Excellent Piece From NPR On How Our Economy Tanked. It's A Great Listen, Yet It's An Hour Long As Well.
I Just Found This Video And Watched The Whole Thing. It's 47 minutes long so it's a little hard to take in all at once, so I'm going to post this in a 5 part series.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. In fact, it's hardened my resolve to get off credit as fast as possible. I guess I'm already in the process of it albeit unwillingly, at first. The upside of a recession/depression is that it makes you take long looks at your lifestyle and spending habits.
Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created. It is an entertaining way to get the message out. The Cowichan Citizens Coalition and its "Duncan Initiative" received high praise from those who previewed it. I recommend it as a painless but hard-hitting educational tool and encourage the widest distribution and use by all groups concerned with the present unsustainable monetary system in Canada and the United States.
Subprime mortgages (and all mortgages, really) are a fraction of the current problem. The bailout would have been enough to buy out every subprime mortgage in foreclosure across the country. In fact, it was enough to do that several times over. So why not do that?
The reason is that the purpose of the bailout (at least as Treasury Secretary Paulson sees it) isn't to stop mortgage foreclosures, but to save the banks. And the banks have some self-inflicted problems that make those mortgages an afterthought.
For example, the wonderful credit default swap. In essence, credit default swaps are (or were) nothing but insurance policies for loans. And yet in 2007 the total number of credit default swaps traded far exceeded the value of all loans. In fact, it may have touched $70 trillion dollars, which puts it above the gross domestic product of the entire planet.
How Nice Is It To Have Someone In Office That Understands Technology And Is Not An Anti-Intellectual? It's Refreshing To To Think That We Will Not Have People Proud Of Ignorance In Charge Anymore.
I went to sleep last night
Tired from the fight
I've been fighting for tomorrow
All my life
Yea I woke up this morning
Feeling brand new
'Cause the dreams that I've been dreaming
Have finally came true
It's a new day 5x
It's been a long time coming
Up the mountain kept runnin'
Songs of freedom kept hummin'
Channeling Harriet Tubman
Kennedy, Lincoln, and King
We gotta manifest that dream
It feels like we're swimming upstream
It feels like we're stuck in between
A rock and a hard place,
We've been through the heartaches
And lived through the darkest days
If you and I made it this far,
Well then hey, we can make it all the way
And they said no we can't
And we said yes we can
Remember it's you and me together
I woke up this morning
Feeling alright
I've been fightin' for tomorrow
All my life
Yea, I woke up this morning
Feeling brand new
Cause the dreams that I've been dreaming
Have finally came true
It's a new day 5x
It's been a long time waitin'
Waiting for this moment
Been a long time praying
Praying for this moment
We hope for this moment
And now that we own it
For life I will hold it
And I ain't gonna let it go
It's for fathers, our brothers,
Our friends who fought for freedom
Our sisters, our mothers,
Who died for us to be in this moment
Stop and cherish this moment
Stop and cherish this time
It's time for U-nity
For us and we
That's you and me together
I woke up this morning
Feeling brand new
Cause the dreams that I've been dreaming
Finally came true
Yea, I woke up this morning
Feeling alright
'Cause we weren't fighting for nothing
And the soldiers weren't fighting
For nothing
No, Martin was dreaming for nothing
And Lincoln didn't change it for nothing
And children weren't crying for nothing
It's a new day
It's a new day
A new day
It's a new day
It's a new day!
According to Government Technology, engineers at the University of Washington have developed contact lenses with integrated circuitry. Although the lenses have only been tested on animals, researchers are working on having electronic lenses overlay a display over a person's visual field without impairing sight. Researchers hope that the lenses, once completed, will allow users to zoom in on distant objects and see useful facts. Future applications might allow drivers and pilots to see their direction and speed projected across their view or to surf the Web without a monitor. The circuit components would be powered by integrated solar cells and a wireless radio-frequency receiver.
So Now I Have Nothing To Research Anymore. I Do However Look Forward To All Of The Backbiting Stories Coming Out Of The Republican Party Now.
My Problem With Reading The New Stories Is, How Frighteningly Close We Were To Having A Complete Disaster On Our Hands With A VP Palin.
Don't Know What Countries Are A Part Of NAFTA! Doesn't Know That Africa Is A Continent! Are You Fucking Kidding Me! I've Heard Of Low-Information Voters But Low-Information Candidates Is Too Much!
Country First My Ass, The Assholes That Picked Her Should Be Tried For Treason!
It Boils Down To This; The Republican Party Isn't About "Small Government": It's About Socialism For Corporations And Rich White People.
And As Lincoln Said, "Republicans Are For Both The Man And The Dollar, But In Case Of Conflict The Man Before The Dollar." I Think They Need To Go To Remedial Conservatism Classes.
Gotta Love This Country!!!!!!!!!
P.S. After Watching More Of The Coverage, I Now Realize That I Have The Same Personality And Emotional Make-Up As Obama.
Details If Needed.
Thanks www.DailyKos.com
I'm Sorry Obama's Tax/Economic Plan Is What? Oh Yeah, It's What You Used To Believe In Before You Sold Your Soul To Karl Rove.
That's Right, Abandon All Your Beliefs And Go Against Everything You Stood For Just To Win This Office. After All, Your Only Doing "Not To Make Any Changes But Because It's Been A Long Time Ambition Of Yours."
It's Time To Retire.
I Think He's Freaking Out A Little.
Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.
And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend.
"Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election," said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the "failing march of his predecessor," President Bush.
A Re-post From My DailyKos.com Diary.
Friday I came home to an empty yard. I had a sign for 3 of the Democrats that I was going to vote for this year.
Tod Deveyt
Jay Nixon
Obama/Biden
News Flash From FOX. What a bunch Of No-Talent Hacks!
LA JEUNESSE: Tonight as those candidates debate, an army of internet fact checkers will be trying to separate fact from fiction, acting as judge and jury as to which candidate is telling the truth or a tall tale. While most of these sites are non-partisan, timely and useful, like Factcheck.org and Politifact, remember, they are uh...well, their facts are -- no one is checking the fact checkers. And their facts...unlike science...the facts are not irrefutable. And now to Washington.
Full Story Here
By John Gray Cincinnati, Ohio
Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.
Or Get Ready For A Pap Smear
Just A Word Of Warning. If You Think The Smear Campaign Was Bad Before, Wait Till You See The Final 30 Days.
McCain Is On The Brink Of Launching The Lowest Campaign In History. His Negative Ads Are The Prime Focus Of The Race And He Is Spending All Of His Ad Revenue On Them.
Keep In Mind When Viewing These, He Has No Plan On How To Get Through Any Of This! He Has Plenty Bad To Say About Obama, But Nothing Good To Say To Us.
As We All Keep Reading About Failures In The Markets, I Have Decide To Put Together A List Of Dropouts/Buyouts/Rescues And Failures.
| Failed Lender | Method | New Holder |
|---|---|---|
| Countywide | Mandated Rescue | Bank Of America |
| Freddie Mac | Takeover | Government |
| Fannie Mae | Takeover | Government |
| Merrill Lynch | Sold | Bank Of America |
| Bear Stearns | Bailout/Sale | JP Morgan |
| Lehman Brothers | Bankruptcy | |
| AIG | Bailout | -80% Government Shares |
| WaMu | Takeover/Sale | JP Morgan |
| Overseas | ||
| Bradford & Bingley | Nationalized | Government UK |
| Glitnir HF | Takeover | -75% Government Iceland |
| Hypo Real Estate | Bailout | German Institutions |
| Fortis | Rescue | Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg |
I Would Say That Falls Under The Heading Of Pwnd.
Pwnd = Owned = Handed McCain's Ass To Him On A Platter.
Can You Believe It? 26,000 Show Up To An Obama Rally, IN THE RAIN!!! In Virginia, No Less! For A Predominately Red State The Numbers Show It Still Too Close To Call At This Point.
The Local Media Even Interviewed Some Vets. Guess What. They Like And Respect Obama!
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!
VERMONT -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.
"PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says.
A Letter That I Sent To Both My House Representative And To My Senator. I'm Sure That It Is A Bit Rambling But, I Didn't Have The Time To Really Refine It As This Is An Issue That May Be Pushed Through At A Moments Notice.
I Advise You To Do The Same To Prevent Unfettered Socialism From Getting A Stranglehold On Our Economy.
You May Use Mine If You'd Like, I'd Advise Rereading It And Cutting The Fat.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is Enemy Action."
-- Auric Goldfinger
James Bond's wealthy nemesis may have had an obsession with gold, but he judged, quite correctly, that if people keep putting your plans awry, that was likely their intent.
In 1982, the same year John McCain entered the Senate, a bill was put forward that would substantially deregulate the Savings and Loan industry. The Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act was an initiative of the Reagan administration, and was largely authored by lobbyists for the S&L industry -- including John McCain's warm-up speaker at the convention, Fred Thompson. The official description of the bill was "An act to revitalize the housing industry by strengthening the financial stability of home mortgage lending institutions and ensuring the availability of home mortgage loans." Considering where things stand in 2008, that may sound dubious. It should.
Seven years later, the S&L industry was collapsing. What was the cause? Garn-St. Germain handed the S&Ls a greatly expanded range of capabilities, allowing them to go head to head with full service banks, but it didn't give them the bank's regulations. Left to operate in an anarchistic gray area, S&Ls chased profits, indulged in amazing extravagances, and cranked out enough cheap mortgages to fuel a real estate boom. They also experimented with lots of complex, creative -- and risky -- investments, even though they didn't have the economic models to really determine the worth of the things they were buying. The result was a mountain of bad debts and worthless "assets." Does any of that sound eerily (or nauseatingly) familiar?
My Friend Steve Has A Post About Palin And Her Lack Of Not Only any Actual Scientific Knowledge But Also A Lack Of Critical Thinking. Link To Zarbi's Journal I Get Tired Of Hearing The Continual Stream Of Blatant Lies Coming From The Repuglicans. Seriously, We All Know That Politicians Stretch The Truth And Omit Words From Quotes But It's Getting Outrageous.
The Worst Part Is That Most People Can't Be Bothered To Do A Little Research On Their Own. I Admit That With My Union Ironworker Background In A Strong Union Area That I Was Leaning Towards The Democratic Candidate Anyway But, I Still Feel That It Is My Obligation To Make An Informed Decision Based On My Own Research And Fact Finding.
Oh Yes, The Republican Campaign Does Think The American People Are Blind And Retarded. However, They Are Quick To Forget The Power Of Disenfranchised Computer Geeks.
The internet activist group 'anonymous', famed for its exposure of unethical behavior by the Scientology cult, has now gone after the Alaskan governor and republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
At around midnight last night the group gained access to governor Palin's email account ... and handed over the contents to the government sunshine site Wikileaks.org.
I Just Want To Keep The Meme Of McCain/Palin Being Lairs Active.
NBC Nightly News Fact Checking Palin
The Outside Insider
The Daily Kos
Here is a look at McCain’s back-and-forth on regulation during the last 24 hours:
- Deregulation: McCain issued a statement Monday morning saying that “we cannot tolerate a system that handicaps our markets and our banks.”
- Regulation: McCain’s campaign then put out an ad calling for “tougher rules on Wall Street.”
- Deregulation: This morning, on NBC’s Today Show, McCain said, “Of course, I don’t like excessive and unnecessary government regulation.”
- Regulation: Then, on CBS’s The Early Show, McCain said, “Do I believe in excess government regulation? Yes.”
- Both: On CNBC’s Squawk Box, McCain said, “We don’t want to burden average citizens with over-regulation and government bureaucracy...And I’m proud to be a Teddy Roosevelt Republican, who said, ‘unfettered capitalism leads to corruption,’ and we’ve got to fix this.”
I Cannot Express How Bad This Person Will Be For Our Country. More Of The Same? Not Hardly! It Will Be A Golden Age Of Fascism In The US With No Checks Or Balances.
I'm So Happy She Was "Fully Vetted."
Link To Original
Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes
By JO BECKER, PETER S. GOODMAN AND MICHAEL POWELL
Published: September 13, 2008
WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.
I Am Trying To Get Some Help On This Blog. Please Pardon The Horrendous White Outline Around The Expanded Posts. It Will Be Changed Back To Black As Soon As I Figure Out How To Outline All The Text On The Page In The Same Fashion.
In The Meantime, To Read A Post Just Click The Title Instead Of Expanding It.
It Will Hurt Your Eyes, LOL.
Sorry For The Inconvience.
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It'd Be Nice To Have Your Running Mate On The Same Page Don't You Think?
Since I Have Been Asked A Few Times About My Expandable Posts I Figure It'll Be Good To Blog It For Easier Access.
http://hackosphere.blogspot.com/2006/11/selective-expandable-posts.html
It's A Great Site For A Newcomer Like Me.
This Is The Fade In.
http://hackosphere.blogspot.com/2007/07/special-effects-for-peekaboo-posts.html
Now I'm Just Trying To Figure Out How To Get All Of My Text Legible. Need A Background Color For The Text.
P.S. Diacanu - Feel Free To Add Me, Permission Not Needed. ;)
So I'm Blowing Through Some Friendly Blogs And Come Across An Interesting Conversation, For Lack Of A Better Term.
Another tactic is to embrace the "teach the controversy" concept. For example...
The next time somebody springs the old "Tornado/Junkyard/747" argument on you,(or any of the other 'scientific notation' arguments) don't launch into an elaborate defense designed to explain how evolution is not a random process, etc. etc. Talk about the lottery.
Ask them what has the better chance of being a winner, a powerball ticket with the numbers 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06 or one with the numbers 23, 19, 32, 40, 08, 11. Most likely they will pick the second ticket, unless of course they know you are a sneaky, atheist bastard, then they might pick the first one. Either way, of course they are wrong. Both tickets have an equal chance of winning...the first one just seems improbable because it has the appearance of design.
If they then ask what that has to do with tornados, junkyards, and 747's, say "nothing". "It just goes to show how poorly the human mind is at dealing intuitively with probabilities. If they are still with you, ask them this...
which has the better chance of winning between these two powerball tickets? 21, 22, 23, 06, 07, 08, or 13, 16, 37, 11, 13, 25. Of course they will be suspecting a trick (as they should), but if they grasped the first part---that any given set of numbers is just as probable as any other given set of numbers---they should answer that they have an equal probability of winning. Unless, of course, they are familiar with how powerball works and noticed that the number '13' is used twice. This breaks the "natural laws" of powerball, in other words it just doesn't work that way. So ticket 2 is an impossibility.
Now you explain how evolution is not a random process but is actually guided a set of "natural laws". Ever so gently, point out that that is why the 747 analogy is flawed. While it might be mathematically correct, it doesn't take into account the rules of the game, so it is flawed from the outset.
Why Do I Have To Read About This Second Hand? I Don't Have TV, So I Have An Excuse For Having To Hear About This Crap On The Interweb.
So Basically, Hank Hill's Wife Found A Grape That Has A Rotten Spot On It.
This Is Great. It's A Shame That I Don't Have TV Right Now, Otherwise I Would Have Seen This Before My Last Post.
You Have Got To Be Kidding Me! This Is The Best That McSame Could Come Up With? There Are A Lot Of Good, Decent Republicans Out There Who DO Have The Experience To Lead This Country.
I'm On My Way Home From Work And I Notice That Gas Has Gone Up .25 Since I Went In!
Oil speculators provide the perfect microcosm of what happened to the economy under Bush. Back in 2001, investment banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan got together and created an online exchange called the ICE for trading energy commodities. The ICE ended up buying the British-regulated International Petroleum Exchange; it then opened trading windows in the U.S., allowing Wall Street investment banks to make oil-futures trades on American soil, on their very own commodities exchange, without any federal regulation whatsoever.
"In financial terms, they were playing blackjack at tables where they themselves were the dealers, in casinos they themselves owned," says Warren Gunnels, a senior policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders. "It was crazy." Trading on the ICE had a massive impact on U.S. gasoline prices, and more than one legislator wondered if energy speculators were manipulating the market, as energy traders like Enron had been before.
My Neighbor Works For Walmart And She Has To Travel A Lot. This Past June She Left For A 3 Month Stint In Hawaii, Lucky Bastard, And Had To Leave Her Garden Untended. She Told Us To Help Ourselves To Whatever Happened To Grow In Her 100 Sqft Plot.
I Got Bored With Myspace And Decided To Just Start A Blog. I Intend This To Basically Be A Repository For Everything. I've Got Stuff Spread All Over The Net And Decided To Consolidate It All To here.
We'll See How Long That Lasts.
Oh Yeah, Much To The Chagrin Of My Friends, I've Also Decided To Go Back To My Old Posting Style Of Caps At The Beginning Of Every Word. Those That Hate It Will Continue To Hate It. ;P
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