Holy Buck, Fatman!

I would gladly take hair brained yuppies living in my neighborhood rather than her.

While I was gone on my Asian Adventure Vacation, The U.S. Economy simply tanked for lack of a better word. I’m not going to rehash what has happened in the last few months simply because it’s just too depressing. What I will say is this: All your unfettered free market deregulation champions are a BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES. (Yes, Grover, I’m Looking directly at YOU).

I’ve recently learned that in the mind of a rich person lurks a pretty selfish line of thinking. They honestly believe that the root of all the financial problems that have happened are simply because people “made poor choices”. No one should be bailed out if they are stupid enough to get into loans that are over their head. No one should be helped, they did it to themselves! Read the papers! Understand your risk! Know what you can afford! {/sarcasm}

BUT—when you are an investor and you stand to loose millions off of weird financial products that a precious few understand, well…the Government better help out right away! It doesn’t matter that investing is a known risk and if you choose to invest in something that is strange at best, well…it’s like betting at the craps table in Vegas—you could loose everything.

Ever see the disclaimers on investment websites like E-trade and stuff? They clearly state that none of their accounts are FDIC insured like your bank is because—INVEST AT YOUR OWN RISK. Do your homework, make sure that you understand what it is you are investing in before you do it. I know that. I take my time to read. It’s a simple lesson my dad taught me early on—-read read read everything and know what your risk is, even if you percieve it to be minimal–just be informed.

It just BOGGLES MY MIND that all these high powered investors don’t want any sort of regulation, but seem to believe they “deserve” to receive MY TAX DOLLARS to make sure their investment house doesn’t go bankrupt and they get their money’s worth from their investment. It would be like me buying a bunch of scratch off tickets only to realize that I spent thousands on something that I LOST money on! So, I’ll just ask the State for my money back! I won’t see a dime of their investment money. For all I care—they should all loose the shirts off their back, loose their jobs, go into forclosure on their over priced homes, cars and credit cards and go back to be regular joe standing in line at the unemployment office.

Isn’t that what happens to us when we make “Poor Choices?”

UPDATE: See? The Fed can Bill the Treasury! SEE, FOLKS?!?!?  Government handouts are OK when the uber Rich stand to loose a buck.

Because Privacy is sooooo Passe

Secondly, I know that the tools that I’ve just described are necessary to protect us. Why? Because we need to know what people are saying, what they’re planning and what they’re thinking. And the tool that I have just described has been very effective.

From Today’s press conference about the debate in the House ver the FISA bill. Because, you know—This Doesn’t seem to count anymore!

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I’ll NEVER forget that time I worked at a HUGE telecom company and was tasked with a case where a man sued the company in a court of law claiming they were intercepting his private conversations via phones and the internet. I dismissed the case, laughed about it with friends.  It was a helluva eye opener to realize some four years later that the guy wasn’t a mere tin foil hat wearing crazy dude—but he was right.

On January 8, I officially, after much reading and homework, decided to support Senator Barack Obama for President. I looked carefully at each candidates websites, read their solutions to our countries problems and decided that Obama has the best solutions to the mess that BushCo created.

There has been some serious fighting going on among dems over who is better: Hilliary or Barack?
Except all I keep reading all over the damn blogosphere are the same fucking memes: Obama is unqualified and Hillary is a woman and therefore not a strong enough to “handle” the Job.

Both of those arguments are utter Bullshit and really present nothing in way real solutions. If someone wants to state their case on their chosen candidate, please give me some real examples of what they might try to do when they get into the Oval office.

There are a few issues that both Clinton and Obama see eye to eye on: Iraq, education, healthcare. I believe that they both would make some serious headway on these issues and both would be a good choice for the Dem Ticket in November.

It’s when you start to dig further into the nitty gritty of issues effecting the Economy, Intellectual Property, technology and the internet, The Subprime Mortgage mess and extending further benefits to the working families of America, Hillary falls short and Obama runs away with it.

I spend a lot of time reading and writing about issues that have been effecting the economy, specifically, the mess that Atrios refers to as “Big Shitpile”. Big shit pile was allowed to happen because in 1999 a very important regulatory law was repealed to pave the way for banks to own investment houses and own “Collaterized debt obligations” which allowed banks to issue bonds to investors against a mixed pool of assets .  The assets in this case  was a bunch of home loans. Two very attractive things about these CDO’s were the fact that they were meant to minimize risk and –pay attention now—weren’t on the banks books. (can you smell that?!?!?! it smells like Enron!)

Essentially, our home loans were pooled together in a sort of “mutual fund” type packaging and bought and sold on wall street by fat cat investors looking to make a quick buck. They made money based on the probability that we would be able to pay our loans back through either refinancing or selling (flipping?)  the home. Actually living in the home and paying the mortgage off within, say, 30 years or so seemed irrelevant.  What these greedy investors failed to understand was that real estate prices had been driven to unsustainable levels and creative financing would be the downfall of these new investment products. Investors were betting on the fact that you and I could repay our mortgages even after ARMS had reset. They kinda bet wrong. Now, congress critters are scrambling to bail out the homeowner—sort of. What they REALLY want to do is bail out the Banks and shitty investment houses because of their bad bonds, products and assorted other fancy schmancy investment thingy. If the homeowner can continue to pay these overpriced and terrible mortgages, then the the fat cat investors won’t loose their shirts and have to declare bankruptcy. How was all this possible? Well—President Clinton signed the repeal of the Glass Steagal Act in November of 1999. getting rid of this last bit of regulation was the start of all of this. Do I believe that Hillary will be like her husband and continue to be very cozy with Real Estate and Big banks/Investment houses? Yes. It’s right there in her Economic Policy page. Her solutions are the same ones that we’ve been handed in the last few months of this major economic debacle. Nothing new here, please move along.

Obama doesn’t want to just bail the homeowner out. He wants to STOP Subprime predatory lending practices, reform the horrible bankruptcy laws that do not allow people to  get out of these nasty arrangements. His Tax cut to offset payroll taxes will put money back into our pockets almost immediately. It’s what we need right away, not a check a few months from now. His Mortgage plans to add tax credits, streamline the disclosures  and other major reforms will also bolster his plan to invest in American infrastructure, through Technology investment. Technology, after all seems like the new Blue collar.

Hillary does talk about investing in research and development as an investment into the future of American industry. However, she all but neglects the entire tech industry and focuses solely on scientific research. While that is very important to our existing infrastructure, it’s not the only thing that we need. The nod to extend broadband access is fine, but we need more investment and tax breaks to keep tech firms from making decisions to outsource.

Obama understands technology better then any of the candidates. He is the ONLY one that addresses the need to keep the internet free—He advocates Net Neutrality!!! EVERY SINGLE major  blogger should be asking their chosen candidate where they stand on Net Neutrality! Where does Clinton stand? I don’t see it mentioned on her issues page. If someone can tell me where she stands and why it isn’t a major part of her innovation agenda I will stand corrected.

I’ve thought about this for a while. I was pretty pissed about the act of pandering Obama using the ex gay idiot. I realized something, though. There is NO perfect candidate. There is only the one that exemplifies the issues that are most important to the success of my family. To me, Obama represents the best chance of getting something done. No, he’s not going to wave his magic wand of hope and fix all the transgressions of the past 30 years. (we’ve had a rough 30 years of Status Quo) Based on his bipartisan work in the Illinois State Legislator, I think he can bridge the gap created by the current administration, push the religious lunatics back to the fringe where they belong and start to work with people—not against them.

Please visit some other wonderfully written bloggy endorsements of Obama for more great reasons why, Yes, We Can!

So LONG ASSHOLE! Thanks for all the LIES!

Since I profiled the economic proposals of the top three Dems, It’s only fair that I do the same for the red side of the carpet.

Boy is it dismal. Words simply cannot explain the crap that is coming from these fartknockers.

First and foremost, when you click on the “issues” link on each one of their websites, the issue of the Economy is WAY BELOW “Keeping America Safe” rhetoric. What does this tell me? They all believe the biggest issue confronting them is the evil boogie man: terrorism. The Economy has just RECENTLY gained importance and only because a record number of Americans are facing foreclosure which is ultimately destroying their portfolios. That can’t happen, dammit.

It’s virtually impossible for me to highlight anything good about the Republican plans for the US Economy. It’s all the same shit the Bush Administration gave us, just wrapped up in a neato new package!  Free market this, Tax cuts that, ownership society, social security needs to be priviatized—BLAH BLAH BLAH.

What I WILL do is highlight the absurdity of the importance of the issues. believe me, this is fucking hilarious.    It will also demonstrate how detached they really are from the everyday economic issues of the common middle class family.  In order of…well…I don’t like any of them so I’ll order it on who currently has the most delegates. Afterwards, I’ll tell you the order of  issues on the website of the Contending em front runner.  After I reach an economic issue, I will stop listing them.  Recent additions regarding the “Stimulus Plan” are NOT included.

Mittens:

His issues page mentions Jihad, Nuclear and Tyrants right at the top, suggesting that the greatest threats aren’t the fact that most Americans haven’t seen a friken raise in a long time, but some perceived dictators overseas.

In layout order:

Keeping Americans Safe at Home and Abroad

Confronting Radical Jihad

Combating Nuclear Terrorism

Strengthening Latin American Allies and Confronting Tyrants

Winning the Global Economic Competition

Clinton places Strengthening the Middle Class as her number one issue.

McCain:

Okay–Disclaimer here: McCain DOES address the Economy as the first issue in the form of a “Tax Cut Plan” Typical. Tax cuts DO NOT WORK! McCain, by far, may appeal to the moderate dem who is disheartened by the current front runner.

Obama’s list of issues:  Civil Rights, Disabilities, Economy.

HuckleFucklebee:

This is, by far, the most disturbing. Luckily, the Evangelicals who believe he will bring on the second coming are showing that their group doesn’t encompass most of the GOP base. Knock on wood.

The Secure America Plan

Immigration

Faith and Politics

Sanctity of Life

Veterans’ Bill Of Rights

Education And The Arts

Health Care

Taxes/Economy

To be fair, he does address health care and keeps “marriage” after addressing the economy. Still…can he get anymore wacky????

John Edwards:

John Edwards lists the economy first under

Standing Up For Regular Families

So now that I have painstakingly shown you the utter disconnect of the Republican front runners, tell me your thoughts on these fuck knuckles.

Good LORD—No pun intended but Huckabee is one crazy wingnut. Crazy to point that it’s starting to scare the living shit out of me.

This crazy mofo was actually advocating revising the constitution to reflect “God’s Standards”. Uh…Here–Read for yourself:

“I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution,” Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. “But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”

Allllrighty then.

I’m sure my fine readers have figured out that while I don’t profess to any faith, I do not stop anyone from worshipping. I believe that is what the first settlers were escaping when they came over to settle here in the first place. Correct me if I’m wrong, but would Fuckabee be negating the last 450 of US history? Oh, That’s right—Christians like him try to revise American History to fit their dominionist viewpoints.

Fundies like him give my Christian friends a very bad name. Not one of my christian friends have ever tried to forcefully convert me or even tell me I am going to hell because I don’t believe. In fact, we engage in healthy debate about all kinds of ideas from all sorts of faiths.  It’s what I believe America is all about–a healthy exchange of ideas, faiths and experiences that translates into the human experience.

What WOULD happen if Fuckabee got his way? Would I be mandated to join a church? Would Tithing be taken out of paycheck and forwarded to my mandated place of worship? It seems a bit outlandish, but rhetoric like his quote above leads me to believe that he would like to make changes that would essentially demonize people like myself and shame us into joining the mainstream of fundie thought in order to avoid persecution. While drastic changes won’t occur right away, the national discourse will start to sound like this:

It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism. They are wrong.

That was Mitt Romney’s attempt at pandering to the Fundies who kinda find his religion..”Cultish”. In order to even try and bridge that gap, he needed to figure out who they could agree the bad guy was. Those Damn Secularist!  You know, the ones who chose NOT to worship anyone? Yep—that would be me.

I’m pretty sure I live a decent lifestyle. I’m married, raise a child who choses to follow a faith, I follow the law, help my fellow neighbor in need and don’t bother to stop anyone from worshiping whomever they want. Why am I a bad person? why do these fuckwads insist that my choices in life are “wrong”? Why do they wish to force their belief system on me when I am not bothering anyone? HUH?

The constitution doesn’t mean that I have the right to stop anyone from worshiping who they want. It also doesn’t mean that I should be forced to worship something I don’t believe in, either.  Freedom of religion—that means I am free to chose no religion at all. Fuckabee can take his God’s standards bullshit and shove it up his preacher ass.

I’m stuck in a rut and I want to write but I can’t seem to agree on what to write about.

Right now, the political arena is heating up. The Blue side of the Blogosphere can’t seem to agree on who to throw their support behind and the Red Side seems to agree that they all hate Hillary. I think the red side of this plate has all gone batshit insane and decided that Huckabee the Great will lead them to the rapture. Seriously, folks. If the Rapture were to occur, I think the world would be a better place.

With the Presidential race comes the muck raking. Pundits are currently analyzing every single word that spills from Hillary’s mouth and all they seem to come up with is the fact that she is a women. You don’t say! It’s as if these pundit boneheads are  just now figuring this out and they can’t seem to understand how a Woman could possibly lead the country. I mean…she cried! The fact that she has a chance really ruffles their feathers. On the other hand, they have a Black Man who could win. Oh! GASP! a BLACK MAN! while I was trolling for fodder on RedState, I came across a comment that basically stated the commenter was not ready for a woman or a black president and can’t figure out why not. At least the commenter was honest about his or her prejudice instead of hiding it behind racist code words like our agent of satan, Karl Rove. In the highlighted WSJ article, Satan’s right hand man uses the words, “Trash Talking” and “Lazy” to describe Obama.  It has long been known that political speech has been ridden with coded words to appeal to a group of people either blatantly or subconsciously. David Kuo explained in his book “Tempting Faith“  that he often used many coded words and phrases directed at the evangelical community in many speeches delivered by the village idiot we have in office. A few nights ago, Mister Fatman said that he was excited to be a part of the generation that will potentially elect a black man to be President. Not just A Black man, but someone who has demonstrated that he is worthy of the job by his past record. The Bullshit that some say about his “lack of experience” can eat shit. We have a man who has failed at every business venture he’s ever been involved in, currently running our country. No wonder we’re running both a huge trade deficit and budget deficit. Bush can’t Lay off the American people to cut costs. Obama actually succeeded in his community outreach days, while attending Harvard Law and when he was a part of the Illinois State Legislature. If you count the man people Bush fried while Gubbner of Texas, well…Okay. I guess that can be measured as a success. Depends on who you talk to.

In the huh? department—Snow Fell in Baghdad.  Since President CooCoo Bananas and his Sith  Lord Darth Cheney said that they wouldn’t leave until Hell Froze over–I suppose that means they have to leave Iraq now.

Riiight.

Okay. Rut cured.

clinch the Nomination. While I would like Billy boy back in the WH, I just can’t get behind HRC.  I also believe that HRC getting the Nomination will effectively bring out EVERY WINGNUT imaginable and leave us stuck with the horror that is Huckabee. and Nothing—NOTHING could be worse than that fucking crazy bastard nutball.  I honestly believe he will send out
“The Delta Force” to liberate Iran. Think about it…seriously. Uuuuhg.

Well, folks, It’s On.

I’ve been wavering on my official choice for US. Prez for a while. I was all out for Obama and really wanted to throw all my weight behind him until the Mcclurkin bullshit. Obama has gone for the Black homophobic vote and that may have done him well. It didn’t sit too well for me and I was waning on my support for Obama. However, Politicians are all panderers in some way shape or form; i needed to stick with a canidate i can live with.

Obama it is.

I do like Edwards, but seriously—does he have a chance? can he pull it off or will too many people have bad memories of 2004?  I dunno.

This is all subject to change, of course. I will not, however, support Clinton. I just can’t live with her. There are too many things I don’t like.