So much for the 'strong dollar' policy
By Steve Benen Friday Nov 09, 2007 8:12am
Realistically, it’s almost impossible to believe that Bush is some kind of Manchurian President, intentionally screwing up and deliberately undermining the United States. But sometimes, it’s hard not to wonder. Dan Froomkin, for example, did a nice job today describing Bush’s disastrous dollar policy.
President Bush doesn’t talk about the dollar much, but when he does, he’s got exactly one thing to say about it: “We have a strong dollar policy.”
It’s becoming increasingly clear, however, that Bush’s “strong dollar policy” is driving the greenback into the ground.
The dollar is hitting record lows this week amidst fears that the mortgage-market meltdown will spread to other parts of the economy and as the Chinese make noise about moving more of their investments into euros. But it is the underlying dynamics of the American economy — continued massive trade deficits and a whopping national debt — that have put the dollar in such a precarious position.
A true strong dollar policy, aimed at increasing the confidence of international investors, would require Bush to do a bunch of things he doesn’t want to do. For instance, he would have to stop borrowing so much money to fund his tax cuts and his wars. He would need to encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, rather than depend on it to keep propping up the domestic economy by decreasing them. That sort of thing.
Instead, Bush just offers the strong-dollar line, without specifics, and moves on.
If Bush were a Manchurian President he’d, well, probably do exactly this.
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fred durst
"Strong Dollar" policy is just like the "Clean Air" and "No Child Left Behind" policies.
now the burning question, is there ANYTHING that he can actually get right? Anything at all? Please someone figure out even one thing that hasn't turned to crap after he touched it.
Black is white. Round is square. Up is down. The U.S. doesn't torture. We have a strong dollar policy.
I remember when during his campagning on 2000 he was ranting about the economic "disaster" of President Clinton. Bush said: "What kind of economics books were they reading". I couldn't stop fucking laughing. A comment like that, uttered by such fucking moron, was the last thing I expected. Six years later, look at the dollar. One dollar = .50 Euro cents. And I thought I've seen it all!
Sometimes it doesn't matter if your country is run by a clueless sociopath who surrounds himself yes-men.
This isn't one of those times.
We all need to remember that the 9 trillion dollar debt is fueled by the Iraq war which is off the books.
He and Laura actually bought a "Strong Dollar Policy" from Mutual of Midland Insurance Company and Head Shop. Therefore, he isn't lying when he says, "We have a . . . "
everything he touches turns to crap.....
This bastard needs to pay!
Doesn't he look like a bored teenager forced to sit at a desk in that picture? He's our PRESIDENT, sitting there flicking boogers in study hall. Everything about him is an embarrassment to America.
Now with a dollar exchange so sorry, America should be flooded with tourist from all over the world, and American exports should be on demand all over the globe. Our trading balance should be a fat surplus. Are you kidding? When I was in Dallas, my was wife came to visit me three times, and every time, she interrogated like a criminial put in isolation in cell like simply because: "What is this French woman doing in America?" Had I had my cellphone off, the poor woman would've spent the night over there or maybe expelled. Nobody wants to visit the U.S, thanks to our glorious "Fuehrer".
Why be surprised that the Shrub has botched the economy I am ever amazed that people buy the dow is so high theory of economics The stock market is a playground for rich people and corporations Go ahead and invest they love your contributions
Bush is too dumb to be a Manchurian candidate. Let's face it: everything he's EVER done has turned to crap.
HE TRADED SAMMY SOSA, FOR GOD'S SAKE!
...and still, impeachment is "off the table". Thanks, Nancy.
diana @ 8:
And yet somehow the imbecile manages to stay in power, emasculate Congress, and operate above the law. I honestly don't know who's worse---the imbecile or We, the sheeple!
Oh, but let's not even CONSIDER Impeachment...despite the lengthy list of misdeeds (to be charitable) of this administration...MY GOD, it doesn't even matter if impeachment is finalized...the investigations are what is needed...AND, we don't need a VP so the idiots in our DEM leadership would just not have to hold any hearings on a nominee that Bush would put forward IF Cheney was removed...do they know NOTHING about how our government works? There MUST be a record for the future of what B/C have done to our nation over these past years and the very people elected to respond to the will of the people are completely disregarding the wishes of a HUGE number of voters...it will cost them, believe me...
Marc @ 2:
Don't forget the Healthy Forests Initiative.
Bush? The Manchurian candidate? That's fucking insult to the North Koreans!
Odd that Democratic presidents tend to be charismatic and/or good-looking, while Republican presidents are some combination of ugly, smirking, supercilious, borderline psychotic, venal, dull, grey, dumb. Bush is all of these, yet roughly 48 percent of voters voted for him. The power of fear and hatred triumphs every time.
this guy does not heed polls, does not listen to his advisor unless they are toadies who only give him what he wants to hear, and he takes the role of "the decider" all too literally. in every way possible, bush is doing to this country what he has done with every other endeavor in his life, that is he's running it into the ground. let me ask his loyal supporters, after he is done ruining this country, what are you going to say then? where you going to live? rest assured he will have enough money. you going to feel like fools for supporting this loser? now's the time to wake up and smell the coffee and quit believing that he is working on your behalf. he doesn't care about black people and he doesn't care about you. examine what he's done and come to your own conclusion, just don't wait any longer. he needs to be impeached along with darth cheney and then incarcerated if not worse.
My Son is visiting this weekend from College and I asked him how do his grades look.
He said that he might get a C in Biology.
I told him that C's are are not good enough.
I said: George Bush was a C student and after 2 stolen elections he is the worse President in our nations history.
GEORGE BUSH: THE WORST NATIONAL DISASTER IN HISTORY!
btw, what's up with bill clinton. saw another picture of him last night standing next to bush jr. and bush sr. smiling up a storm. it wreaked of support for this loser of a president. clinton, i've all but lost all faith in you. i thought you were smarter than that. not only is this guy a loser, he's destroying the country. surely you can see that.
let it never be forgotten or "tabled:" IMPEACH NOW.
When I come to think of the damage Bush has caused to our country, even with one hundred 9/11 attacks types, and we still will be in better shape than we are now. Correct me if just I went overboard!
In Bush's view, the government (he represents) is the enemy and, like some neo-cons believe, should be gutted. Bush has done a remarkable job of handing us over to his corporate masters. Unless there is a strong backlash...a revolutionary backlash...against what has happened, this country is screwed.
garcia @ 18:
garcia @ 18:
.........not to mention the Manchurians in China..........
this picture of the dweeb tells me he desperately needs to take a crap and he doesnt have condi there to give him permision , the horror, ,just be glad your not the c.i.a guy who has to collect his shit to take back to the whitehouse for the house and senate to admire!
He is a puppet.
I might add that Bush's criminal idiocy has also alienated most of the world against us. Our imperial ambitions (based on greed) have blown up in our faces and if the world gets a chance, they are going to take it out on us. Very scarey. Bush is a self-inflicted wound.
Treasonous toerag. Hang him high.
PS = Bob Allen (R-FL Toetapper) GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY.
Florida Today
I see that it is a picture of Pouty McChildish listening to someone at the UN who's opinion he disagrees with. A more transparent, 12 year oldish, petulant, tyrannical legacy loser there is not.
-GSD
I just read the linked article, and it clear that he no idea what going on! The worse part of it is he probably doesn't care.
Very depressing
George Bush is the quintessential reverse barometer.
Radically@26
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1. manchurian candidate
One who has been brainwashed into preforming actions (such as assassination) upon recieving a special code word or phrase. The candidate acts and behaves normally before receiving the trigger, with no knowledge of what he will do, or what he has done while under the influence of mind control.
___________________________________________
But for you, it could also be a nefarious corporation with White House criminal intentions.
____________________________________________________________________________
Thank you anyway for your intellectual input!
The depressing thing is when: the Bush leaves office and a Democrat is elected and the economy goes south the right wing will blame it on the Democrats.
Seems strange but they already done it before i.e. Reagan was the greatest president ever.
Every President has a stong dollar policy, but its obvious that just printing money does nothing but weaken the currency.
garcia @ 33:
Hee Hee, 'mornin bro, and a fine morning it is! ;-)
Seems simple to me - he embodies the combination of wishful thinking (stating your intent is enough to make change happen) with an ideology of private corportations manage the economy better than government. The problem is that our government is a corporation, and that intent is not expressed through words but the choices one makes.
This looks a lot more like a hostile takeover of a corporation, raiding its assets, and waititing for a goldern parachute offer before leaving. He does prove a point, if you want good government you must be the government (i.e. for, of and by the people). However, when one works from a hobbesian paradigm of a war of all against all, it shows up as abscounding with the national wealth and impovershing ones political competitors and potential competitors - which are the rest of the people.
Actually, the main reason is that Bush Co. has steadily increased dollar supply, to devalue the dollar, to close the trade deficit. And, to some extent, it's working. Since the dollar decline really accelerated, the trade deficit first slowed the rate of increase and then started declining.
All the talk about other underlying variables to the dollar's decline is blather spouted by talking heads, republican, democrat, or otherwise.
Note that I'm not saying the dollar devaluation is a good move -- just saying it's not for the reason pundits are all citing. In this sense, the move is classic Bush. He claims to have a "Strong dollar policy" becasue to state the truth -- that he needs a weak dollar policy to close the trade deficit -- would not fly politically.
I play in a bunch of fantasy leagues online and my team name is George Bush's War on America.
Go look at what he's done and some of his bills and then tell me it wasn't deliberate.
Someone mentioned Bush flicking boogers. That is about his mentality as I see it.
He is not only an international terrorist, war criminal and torturer, he is a domestic terrorist as well.
Worst President EVER.
I'll vote for the first candidate who make it clear their first act in office will be to order the arrests of members of this administration and bring them to justice after all the Justice department political appointees are fired. So far all I hear is silence.
It makes no difference whether Bush is Satan, sent here by an evil, malevolent 'god', to stifle this nascent experiment in democracy (which is, after all, antithetical to the authoritarian, fascist, dictatorial rule in 'god's' world), or if he is a demented oaf, a mutant, a brainless, bumbling cyborg programmed to stumble through life as the proverbial bull-in-a-china-shop.
The effect is the same. He's fu*ked-up our nation, fu*ked-up our lives, fu*ked-up the US's relationship and reputation with the rest of the world, and is rapidly rising to take his rightful place among the top three despots of all time, murdering and maiming hundreds of thousands.
Assume we gave him the benefit of the doubt, and said his actions were 'unintentional'.
A rabid Pit Bull (or even a nice, docile Pit Bull), who tears an infant human to pieces, limb by limb, gets the fate it deserves.
We should do no less for the bat-shit-crazy imbecile (or programmed agent of Satan) who sits in the top chair in the White House. And prepare the same for the second banana.
Debbie Wassermann Schultz on Impeachment:
“...when what we should be focusing on are… our efforts on expanding the Democratic majority and electing a Democratic President.”
Let's remind her that soldiers are dying and Cheney is looking to attack Another Country Illegally! Now is not the time to play partisan politcs!
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2007/11/10/democratic-judicial-committee...
Strong dollar? Our neighborhood gas station is now boarded up. The family that ran it for 38 years has been priced out due to high rents. Prices have gone so high that our family is now moving out of state. We're heading for the hills!
he's not our first manchurian president. he's our first john birch society president.
Avenger38
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Nobody wants to visit the U.S, thanks to our glorious “Fuehrer”.
People landing in the US, are treated like terrorist suspects in every airport. Finger prints, pictures taken, luggage search.
If you happens to be dark, well better put up with bullshit or it gets worse.
You need to go out more often, and maybe travel a little! The country is trashed no matter how sweet you try to paint it.
For reasons I don't understand, Bush thinks of himself as a "Savvy, sage economist" (Pardon my hysteric laughing.)
Try again!
Bush: "Right. Well, I, let me, I, I'll try to make a forceful statement right now."
"I'll try to make a forceful statement right now."
Who talks like this?
Is that Bush having a Homer Simpson moment and talking aloud when he thinks he's thinking. Imagine if the guy actually thought like that? i.e. Oh oh. there's that question again - I'll try to make a forceful statement right now. "This government is for a strong dollar".
Too funny... if it all weren't such an intricately woven tragedy.
What really pisses me off is now all those fucking assholes who stumped for Bush because of economic reasons will now despise him the way I did in the days following 9/11, but for the wrong reasons. Like my old boss, or my partner's dad,... oh, they thought he was a retarded monkey boy, but they kept towing this old line like 'I HAVE to vote republican. You don't have a portfolio, you wouldn't understand, little anarchist.'
Here you go, you greedy bastards, now you're getting YOU'RE 9/11, but it's a couple of planes flying into your hedge funds.
Can you say "recession"?
Manchurian president? Now that's something I hadn't thought of. I thought BushCo was perhaps an Al-Queda sleeper cell with a goal of bringing America down as an inside job which they are doing quite nicely. Either way Bin Laden and our enemies are pleased with BushCo's work.
I'm just picturing a scene in which a fed economist is trying to explain monetary theory and macroeconomics to Duh-bya.
"Ehhhh, alright thanks, egghead (can I call ya egghead? cuz I like nicknames), you jes fix that dollar right up, willya... I'm gonna tell em we have a strong dollar policy... yer doin' a heckuva job. hehehe."
I used to think in terms of recession
Until I realized we're in a depression
When you can't pay for gas
Without selling your ass
We're living in a state of oppression
kablooie @ 42:
I also have two neighborhood gas stations that have closed shop.
The nearest mall to me used to be a thriving small business haven. Half those units are "for lease" now.
Radically Moderate @ 21:
How can you get C's at Yale when you 1) never go to class spending half the week drunk and coked up and 2) a dumb ass far from Yale material to begin with. My guess Chimp flunked but Poppy pulled strings to get him at least a C average. I say check the year Chimp graduated and see how much the Bush Crime Family contributed to Yale's endowment.
44 - Garcia.
You need to read my post again. I may have been subtler than to froth at the mouth while attacking Bush, but clearly I was not endorsing his maneouver.
JohnnyThief @ 46:
The rich assholes might whine about the hit to their portfolios but they've already made their money. Those of us who've lost ground the past 7 years are going to get hit just as hard -- or harder.
A weak dollar is going to be great for industrial exports. Oh thats right, our industry is in China now isn't it. Wonder if we can export cheap ass jobs at Walmart?
We better tighten our belts, because when not if oil goes off the dollar(as official trading currency) it'll plummet to peso value.
Fascist States of America @ 50:
HOW???? Gas is over three dollars?
We are already in recession, the CPI number is a lie, job creation numbers are pure fantasy and the dollar is going down faster than Larry Craig.
Of course Bush is doing all of this on purpose. He is doing the same thing to the US that he did to Iraq. And he's doing it for the same reason: Control. By destroying society through war, he is trying to take permanent control of the Middle East's oil. By slowing destroying American society from the inside, he is trying to take permanent control of the US.
"Creative" destruction. It's the only thing that makes sense, that explains everything they're doing.
we don't torture.....he tortures
we have a strong dollar policy.....dollar is at all time low and sinking fast
we love muslims.......killing 1 million+ iraqis
we support the troops....1/4 living on the streets
etc
etc
when are you people going F'n wake the hell up?
The MSM is already beating the drum, and trying to prepare us for
$4 a gallon gas. This means that the Arabs and the oil companies
will have all our cash, and China will be holding all our notes,
but not to worry, the President has a strong dollar policy.
Does the year 1929 ring a bell?
here in Monterey gas is 3.30 for regular.Premium is 3.50. Milk is over 4.00 a gallon........and it don't look like it's going to drop anytime soon.
but were making progress... don't forget that.
Regarding the falling dollar, Bush says,
'What, me worry'!?
(He draws his presidential salary in Zlotys, due to a 'signing statement' he made on the latest defense appropriations bill)
slippytoad @ 56:
The price of gas doesn't pay for the owners rent. What pays for their rent are impulse buys like that gallon of milk, soda or candy bar you pick up after you are done paying for your gas.
I'm 31 years old and the end of clinton's administration and all of this one I have been keeping an eye on. Before that drinking beer and getting laid was more important (still is :)). But to all you old timers out there ( more than 55 yrs old ) Have you ever seen a more disastrous administration or are they all like this? If they are the US is not what I had thought it was.
I'm not so sure that it is all that unbelievable - perhaps not in a "controlled by foreign powers, ready to kill" sense, but ideologically, I think it's quite believable that this administration intends to "break the system."
Think of it as Maoist budgeting (in the tradition of Maoist revolutionaries). The way to bring down the entire (fiscal) system is to make things so bad that everyone recognizes that the system is broken. All they have to do is make sure that it's their guys who are standing next to the spigot when the whole thing gets rebuilt.
"Viola - the new America" (aka "Feudalism, the Sequel")
I guess we'll all soon be 'Living off the land'.
Anyone have any good recipes, or recommended seasonings, for dirt?
Ti chi @ 65:
nope....this one hits the lowest mark......
Preacher Boob @ 67:
yeah...boil it first......then give it a nice sage rub.....
Fools! Bush is the Manchurian President, he dose the opposit of every thing he says wtf! dose someone have to slap you all in the face to see that.
that picture up there is very revealing......bored, spoiled, frat boy...doing something he doesn't want too.
Robert @ 70:
hey...first you have to have a reasonably intact brain to be brainwashed.............he didn't like the buzz from cocaine....he just liked the smell of it.
Realistically, it’s almost impossible to believe that Bush is some kind of Manchurian President, intentionally screwing up and deliberately undermining the United States. But sometimes, it’s hard not to wonder.
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In all honesty -- although I know that it sounds more than a little crazy -- I'm starting to wonder exactly the same thing. If there's one thing which history has shown time and time again, it's that dictatorships generally don't rise to power in times of prosperity but in times of hardship. There is at least one quote on the record from Bush which suggests that he does not find the idea of a dictatorship all that repellent as any true American ought to, provided that he's the dictator. Regardless of whether he was only joking or not (despite the fact that in my opinion, even what sort of humor a person uses can be indicative of what sort of person he or she is) these remarks do seem at least somewhat telling -- and chilling.
It's by no means a secret that almost ever since he first took office, Bush has been steadily chipping away at our civil liberties under the guise of protecting the American people. We went to war with Iraq based on seriously faulty if not outright fabricated intelligence and Bush has been borrowing money hand over fist to pay for it, throwing billions of dollars into what seems to be a "money pit" in Iraq despite the fact that some rather sizable amounts of money that we have already sent remain unaccounted for. At least in part because of the War In Iraq, our reputation and credibility with the rest of the world has been on a steady decline ever since. Bush is now talking about going to war with Iran as well -- but there is reason to question whether we have the resources at present to fight on three fronts at the same time. The price of oil has risen some 41% over the last couple of years. Increasing numbers of American families are losing health insurance, losing their homes, losing their sense of financial well-being. Within the last week, we have become neatly wedged in between a rock and a hard place with Pakistan where we cannot afford not to support Musharraf because of the risk that religious extremists might succeed in toppling him and gain access to nuclear weapons, and yet nor can we afford to truly support his actions because they undercut our claims that we believe in freedom and democracy. As much as I dislike Bush, I don't want to believe and find it hard to swallow the idea that he could be doing something so utterly vile as deliberately attempting to demoralize and undermine the American people -- but if he were trying to create the conditions through which a dictator (either he or someone waiting in the wings) could potentially succeed in seizing power, he could almost scarcely do a better job of it when all these things are weighed together.
Iam seeing something here! The dollar melt down is some what like the savings and loan disaster! You can not get through a bu$h administration with out the people getting the shaft!
So why isn't the Democratic congress that we elected in 2006 doing anything about this miserable failure. They just throw up their hands, whine about not being able to do anything, because THEY took away the only thing that could have done something, and we watch as this incompetent, stupid, hateful man drags this country down into the mud.
Where are the people who were so anxious to tell us that they were going to make things better????? The DEMOCRATS made Bush the Emperor with their traitorous betrayal. They were supposed to be different.
Screw them. They are certainly screwing us. Anybody got a poole going as to when the democrats capitulate and give Bush his rubber stamp funding for the war that is fueling the next depresssion? I'm betting 15 minutes after Bush vetoes their bill.
Traitors!!!!
mudshark @ 61:
ummm, yah I feel bad for you but all I can say is welcome to the rest of the world.Where I am in northern BC(Canada) regular gas sells for $4.49 a gallon. Milk has been over $4.00 a jug here for the longest time.
Mike the Canuck @ 76:
yep...it certainly appears our dollar is dropping down to yours...but yours is going up now....right.there almost even now.
People talk as if Bush is really calling the shots. Remember Senior called for a "New World Order"... not a New American Order. In order for these Skull and Bones, Freemasonry types to accomplish their real plan, America must fall and come in line and be ok with dictatorial authority. The Dollar is quite strong for those in the know.
Bush believes that god has chosen him to bring on Armageddon.
mudshark @ 77:
Actually mudshark $1.00 Can = $.94 US I think thats what the market rate was at the close of trading yesterday.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news
Daisy Zimmerly @ 57:
The comedy of the CPI is that is doesn't include Food, and Energy.....wait, what?
Yes two things EVERYONE needs to live, and work.
And that's the official untweaked policy,
not to mention all the other ways unofficaily the numbers can, and are tweaked.
So much for every neo-con policy.
Wake up America.
Mike the Canuck @ 80:
well..atleast my Canadian freinds are happy now.........roughly one more year to go......and then we can start trying to fix all the fubar things this twit has done....
since the days of FDR the repigs have been seething at the mouth that rooseveldt gave the poor and the working class an even brake , the wpa the right to form unions so the rich bastards couldnt completly exploit thier workers , i can remember when poor slocks lined up outside of the rich mans factorys and just waited till some mook dropped dead from working 16 hrs a day in horrible conditions for 20 cents a day, it wasnt pretty , and theyd kill each other just for the privilidge of makeing some fat rich turd richer, now they got thier paybacks the new deals dead and your going to pay for what your daddys daddy did to the rich classes, shades of calvin cooledge!
Bush has run up a huge debt and people around the world are dumping their dollars. Oil is based on the dollar, hence the increase. Sorry America but if you charge everything to that credit card, sooner or later it comes due. Welcome to reality.
Next time don't vote for the AWOL coke-snorting fratboy drunk whos run every business he's had into the ground.
I guess that's just like "We don't torture." If the president says it, it's true.
Bush the Liar @ 85:
and for gods sake beware of greeks bearing diebold machines!
Bush destroys everything he touches. Constant failure in every field
Every American should stop borrowing. However, an economic depression will follow as debt collapses. The 1990's boom was built on a pile of debt and an even larger pile of debt is required to service that debt, which is why Greenspan dropped interest rates to rock bottom and created a debt driven housing bubble.
The strong dollar policy isn't, because there are only two ways to pay back debt. One is through default, which happened in the 1930's. The other is through inflation, paying the debt back with money that is worth less.
jr @ 88:
That pretty much sums it up!
I have never detested a president as much as I detest this one.
He was seated by a cooperative of greedy thug/chicken-hawks and corporations, and they systematically set out to destroy other countries, the USA economy, the middle class, wages, jobs, health, well-being, privacy, and the American dream. Even our posts and email addresses right here on C&L are likely being harvested by this bastard and his corporate friends at AT&T and Verizon, among others. A message to all of you: Go screw yourselves.
There is no doubt in my mind that these ruthless sons of bitches will not give up what they started. It's a matter of long far our lazy population is going to allow these men to continue their devastation of everything in their path.
After watching SICKO last night for the first time, I'm just hopping mad at what the United States citizens have allowed to happen in this country. It's no longer our country, but is owned by a collective of GD'd corporations that run it like they run their own GD'd businesses, using people for profit.
A great attitude for a Saturday morning, eh?
Bush has run up a huge debt and people around the world are dumping their dollars. Oil is based on the dollar, hence the increase. Sorry America but if you charge everything to that credit card, sooner or later it comes due. Welcome to reality.
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Americans have run up a huge debt. Cash out re-fi's. Running up credit cards. The American economy expands on expanding credit. President Bush ran up a huge debt. Well, who bought all those houses on credit, during the housing bubble?
Seems to me, that you would have been happier if a depression would have occured after the 1990's stock bubble burst.
Krugman describes this as one of the rare times he disagrees with Froomkin.
I believe his intentions have been to bankrupt the nation since he took office. The neocons and other repubs are infamous for hating social security, medicare, public schools,and of course "socialized medicine", and any give aways to anybody but corporations. So, when the US is bankrupt all we would be forced to pay for is for the defense of the country.
Of course, they use everything we have to accumulate their wealth; our highways, our infrastructure, our federal lands, whatever. Accordingly, when a gov't goes hand in hand with corporations over the citizens it is fascist-NAZI. I think republicans are nazis.
GonzoD @ 47:
Nope. But I can sure as hell say DEPRESSION, like nothing ever seen before in US history. The big one is coming.
Impeach Bush/Cheney @ 94:
I'm with you. This was their intention from day one. But first they needed a nice little 10-year-long war (like Vietnam) to enrich themselves and rob the country blind, while destroying the working class and now the middle class. I have ALWAYS believed they set out to destroy the government, the economy, the constitution, the dollar, etc. Mission Accomplished.
Ron.j @ 89:
Germany did this back in the 1920s. They paid their war reparations to France and England with inflated currency. They intentionally destroyed their own currency so they could honor their debts with worthless paper. Bush neocons are doing the same thing.
Marc @ 2:
Bush has been a failure at about everything he has ever done in his life. The only things he has succeeded at are being a total loser, stealing an election or two, and manipulating the American public into a costly war of no return.
Was that picture of bush taken during his visit to the UN where he had to write condi for permission to go to the bathroom?
As for his messmaking it's deliberate. Can anyone imagine this do-nothing congress letting a democrat get away with the things bush has done?
I always thought that impeachment was a bit of an extreme, especially after the Clinton debacle. I thought that if we impeached Bush right after they tried to convict Clinton it would lead to most presidents coming up on impeachment at some time during their term and the functionality of the govt would look more like elementary school recess politics. Nope, we need to get Bush and Cheney out of office and we need to do it at the same time. More like a parliamentary vote of confidence if you will. I believe that would put Pelosi in office would it not? I'm tired, we need a revolution.
And with Reagan's 20 year treasury notes coming due, Bush probably thinks that he can pay that debt off with a cheaper dollar... while at the same time putting dollars in his friends' pockets by creating a new debt that wil have to be paid for by yours and my grandkids...
and globalists think that a lowered dollar pus us on better footing for trade, but surprise! we don't actually produce anything in America these days, do we?
Ack. It's enough to drive one batshit crazy.
In the film the "Manchurian Candidate" was the tortured and programmed person, but don't forget that there was a stooge being groomed for the presidency.
Given the laws in the US during the last 10-20 years which have pretty much eliminated taxation for the wealthy and allowed them to keep their wealth offshore while reaping the benefits of being in the US, as well as corporate America's allegiance to oil rich muslim governments, George Putz is a spot-on clone of Sen. John Yerkes Iselin.
times comeing when americans out of work because of these repig thieves will be fighting the iliagles for jobs just picking mellons, and the illeagles will have the law on thier sides!
Shrub needs to get past another 14 months or so and then inflation will go through the roof. At present, the feds have been pumping $$ into the banking industry and doing whatever they can to prop up this economy. Oil is pushing $100 per barrel. It's going to get ugly. Our economy is a ticking time bomb that Bush lit in March of 2003 when he sent our troops to war on borrowed bucks. The next pres will be handed a handful of shit. They couldn't pay me enough to take the job. I can't believe people actually *want* to be president!
That photo, like virtually every one of the Resident-in-Chief, just screams mediocrity, stupidity and incompetence, among myriad other deficits. A national embarrassment, indeed. Too bad we can't dip his head in an inkwell. Or make him write "I am a total screw-up" a thousand times on the blackboard.
Realistically, it’s almost impossible to believe that Bush is some kind of Manchurian President, intentionally screwing up and deliberately undermining the United States.
I disagree. I think it is pretty easy at this point to come to that conclusion.
is kucinich the next FDR hes as close as we,ll get !better snag on to him and ride his ass into the whitehouse ,
Bush is a kind of Manchurian President. He is not a plant from some foreign power, but from the corporate power (mainly oil) elite. It works the same though. But the interesting aspect of his presidency is that one can see how greed tends to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Corporate people never have enough, it's how the system works. To increase their profits, they got lower taxes and the invasion of Iraq to get lots of cheap oil, which increased the deficits, which drove the dollar down, which drove the price of oil up, which made gas so expensive that the oil companies cannot get the profits the oil companies had when they got the tax benefits. Now the U.S. is in a bind. The Chinese don't want to keep the dollar, which will tank the dollar more, which will drive the cost of crude oil more and put great pressure on inflation and drive the economy into a recession, which is driving the stock prices down and the cost of borrowing money upwards, which will make the recession worse. A reporter asked Cheney about the impact of deficits. His response was that deficits don't matter in the short term. He was right, but eight years is enough for policies to work themselves through the system. I believe he thought that by the time the shit hit the fan, they would be out of office. Guess not.
All I have to say about this is:
Emulate the rich.
Do as GW and Cheney have done and turn your dollar savings into Euro's.
Dump your US investments and invest in strong European companies.
Buy property in Europe.
I have done the first one, it eases the pain of watching your country go down the toilet to know that at least your money isn't following it.
Yeah, and his "strong dollar policy" has been as successful as his Iraq war. Or his Katrina relief efforts. Or his entire administration. You are a miserable failure in every single level, George. Please resign and take Dick with you, so you can concentrate in about the only thing you do well: ride your bike. It would be the best Christmas gift you could ever give your country and the world.
Mike the Canuck @ 76:
That's not the same thing.
In Canada and Europe the extra cost is due to tax's that are used to benefit your societies.
In the US the extra cost to the consumer is actually profit for the oil companies.
I would gladly pay more if it offset health care or education.
I despise paying more to enrich old assholes.
Symes @ 111:
old assholes ? maby thiers a few young assholes that are picking your toke allso!
tyree @ 112:
Oh yeah, I'm sure of that!
Most are old assholes though, you don't usually become CEO of an oil conglomerate until you are at least 50.
Unless you daddies head of the CIA of course.
tyree @ 112:
You've got that right.
The old assholes are mostly at the top. But there is an army of YOUNG people who are doing the dirty work, "for the benefit of the company".
Company people are typically under 50. Old people (those over 50) get weeded out because they're onto the crooks at the top.
slippytoad @ 10:
ROFLMAO! About the only thing this moron is good for, is providing material for "punchlines."
OK OK! You are both right! :)
How about we just shorten it to assholes?
Marc @ 2:
He is absolutely getting things right for The Empire Seeking crowd. His friends' Oil Companies got their War. He is getting the Destruction of America right, which is a goal of some international minded types like those that attend Bilderberg meetings, International Banking types, Council on Foreign Relations members, etc. These guys want to control the entire world and America's sovereignty was a stepping stone that hindered their plans. If they can destroy the American currency and transfer it like Europe did to a Euro they can more easily control us. If you control a countries currency, you control them. That is their goal from what I can tell. So if you can see these people's intentions, you can see that they are succeeding beyond their wildest dreams. From our perspective and intentions, they are failing us as Americans. True?
Symes @ 112:
Touche
The dollar is dead!! The new method of exchange will be real gold, real silver, .22 bullets and cheap whiskey, yeeha!!
Dancer @ 16:
This is what still amazes me. If they simply had impeachment hearings, and the american people even got just a "whif" of the criminal incompetence and cronism of this administration (and what it's true costs really are), even if B/C survived the 2/3 conviction in the Senate, the repukes would be done for a generation!
You cannot run extreme debt, and telegraph that you don't have much intention of ever paying it back, without doing severe damage to the value of your currency. You cannnot plunder the assets of a nation without harming the currency. You cannot create wealth when you ship the means of creating the wealth outside of your borders. You cannot create welath if you foster a society that consumes far, far more wealth than it produces. You cannot build an economy that relies on a model of criminal expropriation of other nation's natural materials as the basis of sustaining you own nation. You cannot build an economy that uses war without end as the foundation of it's remaining industrial base. You cannot maintain an economy that systematically and deliberately improverishes the middle class.
This is Bush's plan. This is the corporatists' plan. Of course the dollar is becoming worthless. But, Bush doesn't care, because he and his are accumulating the wealth into their own hands, and can convert that to foreign currencies like the Euro with ease. So long as they get theirs, they give a damn what happens to the country and to every other person on the planet. They are driving the country to ruin, deliberately, and They have their escape plans. Bush to Paraguay, where he thiks he will be immune from extradition and justice. Cheney to Dubai, where he thinks he can disappear within a fortress of stolen wealth. They don't intend for America, much less its economy or currency, to survive.
mudshark @ 84:
Quit dreaming, America is pretty much doomed for the next 20 years if you're being optimistic. The train has already been derailed, we are just experiencing the first second of it now.
This presiDUNCE said he'll veto any change to the Alternate Minimum Tax because it will raise taxes. Fucking A right it will -- for the MIDDLE CLASS, you scumbag! He'll stick it to 20 MILLION of us rather than raising the taxes on 50,000 bigwigs.
Tom (Not Tom) @ 14:
Shouldn't that read,
"...and still, impeachment is "off the table". Thanks, Nancy, you feckless piece of shit!"
There, that's better.
SpankyTheMonkey @ 15:
I don't think there's any question... Look at where you live, what you drive, the clothes you wear. Nobody else in the world lives like this! We are placated with cheap goods made by underpaid (if paid at all) brown people while our country rapes the world.
And we are fooled into thinking that the internet is a useful tool. Allowing those of us who see the naked emporer to share our "discovery". Outing these grave injustices instantly for the world to see. Uhh...not so much.... Instead it keeps us busy tip tapping harmlessly away, arguing arcane points and dissecting the "nuance" of some career politican's last appearance. Completely harmless and ineffective. One pulled plug away from nothing.
Democracy is a contact sport. We are playing fantasy football with it.
Now... back to my Cheetos and politically tailor-made cable news....
Can you believe we had a surplus in our yearly Budget when Clinton left office. That was the discussion in this country, what to do with this massive budget surplus. Unbelievable.
garcia @ 4:
I know, I know- what exactly are the winguts referring to when they talk about "the nightmare of the Clinton years"? I mean, relative peace, booming prosperity, a budget that ended up in surplus- jesus! What Mario Cuomo used to deride as "these geniuses, the conservatives" have fucked things up massively, but no one can point this out? It's not allowed?
Ti chi @ 67:
Emphatically, NO and I'm old enough to have voted for McGovern. I think the presidency has been gutted. We are in a fascist state now, and the president is an ornament- the ventriloquist's dummy in chief.
I wish we would have held those who killed JFK accountable. If we would have, we very well might have averted this mess.
How long before everyone "gets it".
Bush's JOB is to destroy America.
That way there won't be ANYONE in the world who can stand up to the Corporations.
By default Corporations will rule the world.
Yellowbird @ 132:
They just love the smell of fascism
in the morning...And the afternoon..24/7It seems to me that America is doing exactly what they fault China for doing.
For years now, America has complained about China deliberately keeping their currency low and have demanded that China re-value the currency upwards because it is contributing to "Unfair Trade".
As a Canadian, I think that the deliberate U.S. policy of devaluation is a direct violation of the NAFTA free trade agreements.
It seems to me that America was never interested in free trade, but used free trade as a method to allow equal access to financial assets and natural resouces of free trade partners. It was only after America succeeded in purchasing all of Canada's assets, that they began to devalue the U.S. dollar.
In addition, and a bit off topic .... Canada is selling America oil while at the same time America is refusing to recognize Canada's soverignity over the Artic. It seems to me that in actual fact, Canada will need to use the profits earned from oil sales to the U.S. and buy ships, armaments and planes to patrol our Arctic against U.S. invasion. We should shut down the oil sales to America until such time as they recognize our Arctic sovernity. Seems kind of foolish to sell our oil if we are gonna need to use all the profits to protect ourselves from U.S. interests. (And worse, we will need to buy all the military equipment from America which would be used to protect us from them.)
Bush doesn't know what a strong dollar policy is. He was put in the white house mainly to keep shady speculation investors and corporate interests outside this country happy. Not to mention appease China with all their cheap products which we now know are dangerous and thousands have been recalled. Bush and his cronies didn't really dwell that this policy would eventually cause an economic meltdown. So he really is for a weak dollar because his corporate cronies want cheap and fast money even if it's ruining our country.
kablooie @ 51:
Excellent.
lol
What really gets me is that people STILL support this dipshit! I mean really, what does it take? Only a few Amerikans get it, the rest will just go blindly along til the end. Get ready for "I just didn't realize..." Most people are complete morons but they don't deserve this.
Wait a sec...Bush DID visit China when his daddy was there...
Mmm...
I'm a lot more inclined to believe that Bush was kidnapped, brainwashed and indoctrinated to be a Chinese sleeper (and he does sleep a lot), than I am to believe, ooh, I don't know, that things are going well in Iraq or that Jesus will return any day now.
FUCK Bush. He is the poster-boy for failure. Look up the word 'failure' in the dictionary and you'll find his ugly picture. Google the the words 'failure' and 'bush', you'll get 4,810,000 hits.
Bush always has been and will always will be a failure. The man is a waste of human flesh.
Market up? Bush's brilliant leadership.
Market down? Uh, Clinton's fault?
These words will always be burned into my memory: We'll pay for it all out of the surplus!
JerryO @ 139:
I agree, but if Bush's intentions are to destroy this country, he is succeeding wildly. Would you say that Cheney is failing?
They are failing the American people. That is all. They are not failing their corporate interests or quest for Presidential Powers. That is for damn sure.
GonzoD @ 48:
are you kidding? how about depression and inflation?
Orangutan. @ 141:
have you picked out your new home and office space in DUbai? cheney and bush have.
garcia @ 11:
As a Canadian, I can tell you, even with our more valuable dollar, it would be a foggy day in Flin Flon before I'd bother setting foot in the USA.
Typical. You don't care about the policy. It's just a way to attack Bush. What Hillary's dollar policy? Does anybody here know enough about monetary policy to write one paragraph?
asymmetricblog
re: manchurian.
There is a document online that I first found over 10 years ago.
Since that time most of the warned events in the document have happened.
Its a paper written by police and servicemen for police and servicemen.
For the last 10 years- I saw no 'accidents'- only people following the script.
For real. This paper predicts a situatuation where all our soliders are overseas for some reason or another- Furthurmore it predicts our National Guard being sent out of the country.
When noone is left to protect the mainland, some 'tragic event' happens, which than causes other countries armies to enter the usa to 'help'.
And everything goes rather badly from there.
I read this 10 years ago. Now look where we are.
Anyhow- it is a legit document.
"Officers who think they will be at home watching their own children and spouses are wrong. Once the N.W.O. is set up in the year 2000 (just a couple of years away) you, officer, guardsman, and soldiers, will be in other countries . Foreign police troops will be guarding and enslaving your spouses and children in the U.S.A. [see diagram in printed manual]"
Well the first part has definitely happened.
Ryan @ 124:
sounding a little down aren't we....or maybe a realist...me.....I prefer to have hope....at least if you have hope..you still have a chance to fix it.
dumya had two qualifications for president. He was over 40 and he was born in this country. He was selected to see that the corporate takeover was a success and it has been. He surrounded himself with sycophants to reach that goal. These people could not care less about anybody but themselves and their instant gratification. They certainly are not even thinking about their descendants. Global warming is upon us and their descendants are going to suffer just as mine and yours will. They all have their wealth offshore; they can enslave the children of India and China to send us cheap goods. There is no way these people can not make money. They leave the rest of us to a future of poverty. It will make the starving millions in Africa look like good times when they are finished raping this country and its resources
Manchurian? Hudsucker!!!
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