More info please

They don't really mean it. It's just bluster to make themselves look "serious" and "ruthless" and "intellectually honest." The fact is: a complete meltdown of the U.S. financial sector would devastate the U.S. economy.

Does anyone have last night's Word from Colbert to submit? It was one of the best I've ever seen. He perfectly eviscerates the GOP's cynical attempt to keep people from asking substantive questions to/about McCain/Palin. Please, for the love of FSM, someone post it!

Bush family cleaning up on transfer of public lands to private hands

WMR has learned from a senior Democratic congressional source that the Bush family, most notably former President George H. W. Bush, is reaping windfall profits from the transfer of title of public federal and state lands to private hands. The elder Bush, according to our sources, has a vested financial interest in land title companies that specialize in the transfer of public lands to private interests.

The revelations represent the first evidence that the elder Bush has benefited from the transfer of public lands to private hands in a giant scheme to defraud federal and state governments, as well as the American taxpayers and Native Americans.

The land-grabbing scheme primarily involves the transfer of federal lands, including Native American lands and national forest system lands, in the Rocky Mountain West, state lands in Texas, and both federal and state lands in California, Mississippi, and Florida to private entities. The scheme is also at the center of the scandal surrounding jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff who conspired to privatize federal lands and assets around the country to benefit his corporate clients.

In 2004, under pressure from Abramoff and the White House, Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Jim Gibbons (R-NV) shepherded the passage of the Western Shoshone Distribution Act, which was quickly signed by President George W. Bush. The act settled federal violations of the Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863 with the Shoshones and compensated them a mere $135 million for 24 million acres of Shoshone land illegally seized by the federal government in Nevada, California, Utah, and Idaho. The Shoshones cried foul, saying their land is rich in gold reserves. Gibbons, who is now governor of Nevada, instantly moved legislation to privatize the former Shoshone lands. Reid, Gibbons, and Senator John Ensign (R-NV), all received lucrative cash contributions to their campaigns from Abramoff clients.

Bush White House official Jennifer Farley urged passage of the bill claiming that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were personally interested in its enactment, further adding that the legislation was considered “hot.” Cheney paid a visit to Nevada as the Senate voted to pass the bill.

The Washington Post reported that Farley and Karl Rove were recipients of sporting event tickets from Abramoff’s assistant Kevin Ring, arrested and jailed this past week for his involvement in the Abramoff bribery scandal. Farley termed tickets as “fruit” in her conversations with Ring. Abramoff, already serving a prison sentence for a guilty verdict from a Florida case, received an additional four years in prison last week for his role in the scandal, which has tainted a number of Republicans in Congress, as well as senior members of the Bush administration. Tony Rudy, another Abramoff assistant and a former deputy chief of staff to former Texas Republican Representative Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty in the bribery scandal.

WMR has also learned that the Bush administration ordered a number of California and other Western state forest wildfires purposefully set with the intention of damaging and destroying federal and state forestlands, thus making them ripe for exploitation and sale to private interests. California Republican Representative John Doolittle, also under investigation in the Abramoff bribery scandal, promoted the passage of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which permitted national forests to be purposefully thinned by timber companies to make them less susceptible to the fires, exacerbated by global warming, that were being set by others within the Bush administration. The purposeful destruction of federal forests was carried out with the knowledge of top officials of the Interior Department under both Interior Secretaries Gale Norton and Dirk Kempthorne.

In 2003, California law enforcement concluded that a number of devastating fires that destroyed 718,000 acres in the state were the result of arson. Some within the Bush administration suggested that “Al Qaeda” terrorists could be behind the blazes. It now appears that it was the Bush administration that was the actual terrorists in carrying out the arson to enrich their friends in the real estate, Indian gambling casino, mining, and other exploitation industries.

In Florida, under both Governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, the St. Joe Company, a firm that has close financial ties to both Jeb and George H. W. Bush, has steadily encroached on lands adjacent to state and federal wildlife management preserves, state forests and parks, and national forests.

Hey, don't dump on that land developer. Maybe he understood what was going on and didn't participate, or dabbled but wasn't a pig, you gotta eat, and he has been waiting for the expected drop. Saving your money is also a practice of keeping your labor from government consumption. Perhaps he's a Buffett type capitalist.

It's a possibility.

America's fastest growing municipality was Las Vegas @ 10:

Hey, don't dump on that land developer. Maybe he understood what was going on and didn't participate, or dabbled but wasn't a pig, you gotta eat, and he has been waiting for the expected drop. Saving your money is also a practice of keeping your labor from government consumption. Perhaps he's a Buffett type capitalist.

It's a possibility.

You're right he's not a pig...

But he's still a vulture by all accounts....

this is the ultimate distribution of wealth, and something that the new deal was created to stop

i honestly heard a conservative pundit call social security, medicare and the tax credit being proposed by obama as welfare programs

at the same time he opined that obama wanted to raise taxes on those that "create the wealth"

question....can any corporation create wealth without its employees? so who are the true wealth creators?

do all those that make over 250k a year actually create wealth? how does loofa boy create wealth?

btw, can loofa boy be sued for defamation of character? this morning, in attempting to defend palin in regards troopergate, he called wooten a bad guy who tazers kids, then went on to misstate the public facts of the case, saying that wooten has tazed his stepson because the kid was showing bad behavior

I caution anyone here who has a high opinion of George Soros to do no research whatsoever on anything he ever did to take advantage of weak financial markets. Ignorance is bliss.

This reminds me of "zeitgeist the movie". You can watch it online. It kind of creeps into the tinfoil hat territory but is is very interesting. The part about banking reminds me very much of what we see happening now. The ultra rich set up a crash and then buy real assets for pennies on the dollar.

Uncle Joe Mccarthy @ 14:

I'd reverse the argument. A certain amount (and it's always debatable how much) of government redistribution is necessary to ensure the freedom of the markets.

Without capital-gains taxes, without anti-trust regulation, without estate taxes, and so forth, the concentration of wealth is pretty much inevitable. The rich get richer. An unregulated market can be shown to do many things in theory and in practice. But I've never seen any theory or practical example that showed it to distribute or redistribute wealth more evenly, rather than concentrate it.

And that destroys the freedom of the so-called free market. Because a monopoly is anything BUT a free marketplace.

John J @ 8:

Bush family cleaning up on transfer of public lands to private hands

WMR has learned from a senior Democratic congressional source that the Bush family, most notably former President George H. W. Bush, is reaping windfall profits from the transfer of title of public federal and state lands to private hands. The elder Bush, according to our sources, has a vested financial interest in land title companies that specialize in the transfer of public lands to private interests.

The revelations represent the first evidence that the elder Bush has benefited from the transfer of public lands to private hands in a giant scheme to defraud federal and state governments, as well as the American taxpayers and Native Americans.

The land-grabbing scheme primarily involves the transfer of federal lands, including Native American lands and national forest system lands, in the Rocky Mountain West, state lands in Texas, and both federal and state lands in California, Mississippi, and Florida to private entities. The scheme is also at the center of the scandal surrounding jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff who conspired to privatize federal lands and assets around the country to benefit his corporate clients.

In 2004, under pressure from Abramoff and the White House, Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Jim Gibbons (R-NV) shepherded the passage of the Western Shoshone Distribution Act, which was quickly signed by President George W. Bush. The act settled federal violations of the Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863 with the Shoshones and compensated them a mere $135 million for 24 million acres of Shoshone land illegally seized by the federal government in Nevada, California, Utah, and Idaho. The Shoshones cried foul, saying their land is rich in gold reserves. Gibbons, who is now governor of Nevada, instantly moved legislation to privatize the former Shoshone lands. Reid, Gibbons, and Senator John Ensign (R-NV), all received lucrative cash contributions to their campaigns from Abramoff clients.

Bush White House official Jennifer Farley urged passage of the bill claiming that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were personally interested in its enactment, further adding that the legislation was considered “hot.” Cheney paid a visit to Nevada as the Senate voted to pass the bill.

The Washington Post reported that Farley and Karl Rove were recipients of sporting event tickets from Abramoff’s assistant Kevin Ring, arrested and jailed this past week for his involvement in the Abramoff bribery scandal. Farley termed tickets as “fruit” in her conversations with Ring. Abramoff, already serving a prison sentence for a guilty verdict from a Florida case, received an additional four years in prison last week for his role in the scandal, which has tainted a number of Republicans in Congress, as well as senior members of the Bush administration. Tony Rudy, another Abramoff assistant and a former deputy chief of staff to former Texas Republican Representative Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty in the bribery scandal.

WMR has also learned that the Bush administration ordered a number of California and other Western state forest wildfires purposefully set with the intention of damaging and destroying federal and state forestlands, thus making them ripe for exploitation and sale to private interests. California Republican Representative John Doolittle, also under investigation in the Abramoff bribery scandal, promoted the passage of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which permitted national forests to be purposefully thinned by timber companies to make them less susceptible to the fires, exacerbated by global warming, that were being set by others within the Bush administration. The purposeful destruction of federal forests was carried out with the knowledge of top officials of the Interior Department under both Interior Secretaries Gale Norton and Dirk Kempthorne.

In 2003, California law enforcement concluded that a number of devastating fires that destroyed 718,000 acres in the state were the result of arson. Some within the Bush administration suggested that “Al Qaeda” terrorists could be behind the blazes. It now appears that it was the Bush administration that was the actual terrorists in carrying out the arson to enrich their friends in the real estate, Indian gambling casino, mining, and other exploitation industries.

In Florida, under both Governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, the St. Joe Company, a firm that has close financial ties to both Jeb and George H. W. Bush, has steadily encroached on lands adjacent to state and federal wildlife management preserves, state forests and parks, and national forests.

so basically the Administration sought to rush the transfer of coal and oil from public lands and waters into private hands at bargain prices...............hmmmm

dennis @ 16:

I caution anyone here who has a high opinion of George Soros to do no research whatsoever on anything he ever did to take advantage of weak financial markets. Ignorance is bliss.

I hold Soros in high regard, and I do not have any problems with what he did. If you want, you can do some research and find his justifications for it. But in short: He didn't create the system. He didn't advocate the failed policies that caused the situations he drew advantage of. And the fact is, he wasn't the only one in the game. Others would still have done it, even if he hadn't.

Bush family cleaning up on transfer of public lands to private hands

ohio progressive @ 18:

this is an unfair, irrational post-- about as sane as the baloney we hear/see on limbaugh and hannity...

so what now, you're calling for a bailout? i thought everyone was complaining that bear stearns was bailed out by the bushies, and now the liberal rant is that the bushies aren't bailing out wall street?...

makes no sense....

who is calling for a bail out?

the point is, the bushies allowed this to occur, because it hurts the little guy more than the uber rich...just like during the depression

and please change your nick...you are about as progressive as those aholes on fox

Nada @ 3:

So the goal of "conservatism" is to turn 'merika into the newest feudal country?
The corporate masters will be the vassals and we'll all be their happy little surfs.
For most of us it won't come as a surprise to be told we're property of the country/corporations.

I talking to my cousin the other day and I still think we're all going to be like those migrant workers in "The Grapes of Wrath" (John Steinbeck) except it will be the corporations looking for the cheapest labor migrating country to country. Any country that has a population that is willing to work for the rock bottom price offered by these corporations will get the opportunity to eat.

The surfs had it better (if you can call being one step up from being a slave) because the nobles couldn't run off looking for a better deal.

If it ends up the way I think it will we won't even be "surfs" or "property" just some pitiful group of people competing globally with other desperate people willing to pimp out our services for next to nothing just to basically survive.

I'm afraid I agree with them.

I can't afford a home. I want them to become affordable again.

Joementum @ 22:

See, the market may fail, but it's always right. We will never have another Great Depression. What we'll get instead is the Great Correction, which will make everyone feel better about being destitute.

what we get is worse than the great depression...because back then, there was still a manufacturing base...and there were still ways to regain and remake wealth

we now live in a service based economy, and for the life of me, i cant find another society who has endured as a result of a service based economy

Alexdem @ 13:

Nada @ 3:

So the goal of "conservatism" is to turn 'merika into the newest feudal country?
The corporate masters will be the vassals and we'll all be their happy little surfs.
For most of us it won't come as a surprise to be told we're property of the country/corporations.

Hey now.. as someone of noble heritage I won't stand for slandering feudalism like that! It worked great for us. ;)

Seriously though.. feudalism was in fact more socially responsible than capitalism is. Nobles were tied to their land. They couldn't sell it, much less outsource it. And their serfs/peasants were tied to it as well. The nobleman was dependent on them. He couldn't just lay them off in a year with a bad harvest. On the contrary, they were expected to help 'em out in that situation - out of pure self-interest if for no other reason.

The surfs were also part of the property and you may not have been able to sell them but killing them wasn't a big deal.
Slavery is slavery no matter how nicely the master treats you.

America has always been a nation with a Free Market Economy. It works. If you want Socialism, go to Venezuela and see how they are doing, with incredible crime rates, nothing in the stores, and worthless currency. Distribution of Wealth by Mandate DOES NOT WORK. Never has. Never will. The only people who bitch about capitalism are those who don't think they have a big enough piece of the pie and are not willing to work for it. Don't covet your neighbor's house, or his ox, or his servant, or his potroast, GO GET YOUR OWN!

capnmike @ 36:

America has always been a nation with a Free Market Economy. It works. If you want Socialism, go to Venezuela and see how they are doing, with incredible crime rates, nothing in the stores, and worthless currency. Distribution of Wealth by Mandate DOES NOT WORK. Never has. Never will. The only people who bitch about capitalism are those who don't think they have a big enough piece of the pie and are not willing to work for it. Don't covet your neighbor's house, or his ox, or his servant, or his potroast, GO GET YOUR OWN!

You are wrong. Move on.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144

Is the Coast Clear?--- @ 28:

Nada @ 3:

So the goal of "conservatism" is to turn 'merika into the newest feudal country?
The corporate masters will be the vassals and we'll all be their happy little surfs.
For most of us it won't come as a surprise to be told we're property of the country/corporations.

I talking to my cousin the other day and I still think we're all going to be like those migrant workers in "The Grapes of Wrath" (John Steinbeck) except it will be the corporations looking for the cheapest labor migrating country to country. Any country that has a population that is willing to work for the rock bottom price offered by these corporations will get the opportunity to eat.

The surfs had it better (if you can call being one step up from being a slave) because the nobles couldn't run off looking for a better deal.

If it ends up the way I think it will we won't even be "surfs" or "property" just some pitiful group of people competing globally with other desperate people willing to pimp out our services for next to nothing just to basically survive.

I see it going back to the old 'company store' says. You work for the company. Live in their house. Buy from their store and essentially are their property because there are no other jobs.

The land owners of the past may not have been able to 'run away' looking for a better deal but let me just say that there is something seriously fucked up when people start discussing the virtues of feudalism. ;)
It does suggest that the current situation has almost reached rock bottom. I assume it will reach the point of mass arrests and food riots before anything changes but I am a pessimist of the highest order.
Then again I haven't seen anything in the last ten years that gave me any hope to the contrary. In fact from what I've witnessed it occurs to me that total social break down is the plan. It's easier to control people when you're the only one with the guns and the food.

Joementum @ 22:

See, the market may fail, but it's always right. We will never have another Great Depression. What we'll get instead is the Great Correction, which will make everyone feel better about being destitute.

Now that is funny.

Uncle Joe Mccarthy @ 27:

ohio progressive @ 18:

this is an unfair, irrational post-- about as sane as the baloney we hear/see on limbaugh and hannity...

so what now, you're calling for a bailout? i thought everyone was complaining that bear stearns was bailed out by the bushies, and now the liberal rant is that the bushies aren't bailing out wall street?...

makes no sense....

who is calling for a bail out?

the point is, the bushies allowed this to occur, because it hurts the little guy more than the uber rich...just like during the depression

and please change your nick...you are about as progressive as those aholes on fox

so i don't believe in plunge conspiracies, and i'm not liberal....

so what, you think little bush cousin rigged WTC with explosives?

last i heard, soros was a liberal, and he's likely right there with the rest calling for the melt down so he can pick through the ashes...and if he's not, then he's calling a bailout....(which libs decried in case of bearstears)

and isn't that what spitzer's new career is gonna be-- a vulture as they call it-- buying up foreclosed properties....

i am seeing liberals decry the policies that got us into this mess (and i echo those cries), but also any and everything the administration does--- if they bailout bear stearns, they're out to help the CEO's on wall st....if they draw a line and say, fix it yourselves, they're decried for watching the markets melt down....

i think you've all been hannitized...

or else you're talking your portfolio

capnmike @ 36:

America has always been a nation with a Free Market Economy. It works. If you want Socialism, go to Venezuela and see how they are doing, with incredible crime rates, nothing in the stores, and worthless currency. Distribution of Wealth by Mandate DOES NOT WORK. Never has. Never will. The only people who bitch about capitalism are those who don't think they have a big enough piece of the pie and are not willing to work for it. Don't covet your neighbor's house, or his ox, or his servant, or his potroast, GO GET YOUR OWN!

no disrespect but you have overly simplified a complex
equation......you don't understand the price of having
a democracy/republic.

capnmike @ 36:

America has always been a nation with a Free Market Economy. It works. If you want Socialism, go to Venezuela and see how they are doing, with incredible crime rates, nothing in the stores, and worthless currency. Distribution of Wealth by Mandate DOES NOT WORK. Never has. Never will. The only people who bitch about capitalism are those who don't think they have a big enough piece of the pie and are not willing to work for it. Don't covet your neighbor's house, or his ox, or his servant, or his potroast, GO GET YOUR OWN!

It works if it gets bailed out by our money.

Nada @ 3:

So the goal of "conservatism" is to turn 'merika into the newest feudal country?
The corporate masters will be the vassals and we'll all be their happy little surfs.

You win a cookie.

Billy @ 29:

on FOX and CNBC say to let it all burn down so they can pick the bones off our country…I saw one land developer licking his chops at the prospect of being able to buy a ton of buildings real, real cheap…That’s conservatism at its finest.

Again, this is simple con-artistry. Conservatism has absolutely no connection to it.

Step number one in problem solving, by the way, is correctly identifying the cause.

Agreed. The cause was financial market deregulation. (The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 killed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which prevented these kinds of financial mergers. Yes, Gramm as in Phil "Nation of whiners" Gramm.) Do you deny that financial market deregulation is part of the conservative philosophy?

If the Glass-Steagall Act was still in place, the present financial crisis wouldn't have been possible. At the moment progressives are claiming that this crisis occurred because the financial market was deregulated, and the conservatives are claiming it happened because the market was NOT DEREGULATED ENOUGH. Given the horrible track record of conservatism, all the way from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush, I'm going to throw in with the progressives.

uhhhh... that was kind of my plan all along?? that would ultimately be the free market at its finest.

while the rest of American businesses get their revenue from selling Chinese made goods, IBM gets a fat chunk of their revenue by providing consulting to Chinese businesses. this was part of the deal they made with the nation of China when they sold their "Think" brand to Lenovo. they have first-tier status with pretty much every Chinese business for the next 15 years, and Chinese businesses need to go along with this agreement because.... well, China's a communist nation.

I get my revenue by providing a service to IBM that nobody else in the world can provide.

soooo... even though I got really shitty credit, my revenue is going to increase and my job is going to maintain its stability while the rest of these motherfuckers are making a panicked run on their bank before desperately looking for work.

I had big big big plans to buy my dumb neighbor's house out from under him after he got foreclosed on and the bank was desperate to get somebody, anybody back in there making mortgage payments.

I had big big big plans to tell my arrogant baby boomer parents and in-laws "I told you so" when they warned me to focus on my credit instead of my assets, and to quit bouncing from job to job looking for a raise instead of showing long-term stability on my resume.

I saw this shitstorm brewing 5 years ago, and I've been licking my chops for 5 years now.

this whole "bailout" thing is a crock of shit. dammit. either bail my neighbors out, and make me a humbler man.... or let the market come to its ultimate demise. this cutesy pootsy game of handing CEOs a welfare check with no restrictions and billing the American taxpayer for the check is a bunch of bullshit though.

Folks...it's not rocket science....

Free Market = Alice in Wonderland...its a fairy tale, there is no 'free market'...never has been, in the history of humankind...they can't point to one single time in human history when it has worked...well, at least for the majority of people....

Con-servatives don't see Oliver Twist as a work of social commentary or a cautionary tale...they see it as an instruction manual
Con-servatives view the film Caligula and think, hey....why not? What could go wrong with that way of governing? Instead they PR market that as 'you can have a beer with that guy'
Con-servatives believe there's nothing wrong with the confluence of business and state...which coincidentally is the goal of their evil driven 'free market' hocus pocus/supply side/Reaganomics/Bushonomics reverse Robin Hood BS and happens to fit the exact definition of fascism from the two individuals that created and implemented the concept...Giovanni Gentile & Benito Mussolini (PS....don't bother asking a con-servative about the history of fascism...you'll get the yearbook Jonah Goldberg rewrite version).

Re: Bush family...

Shrub, Sr. is as crooked and corrupt and foul as they come. (Details omitted, but they're readily available). He looks OK to some only because of comparison to Shrub, Jr., who makes each and every failed president of the past look OK.

Behold the McCain miracle: He invented the Blackberry!
(McCain doesn't really know what the Blackberry is or does. But, he created it anyway.)

Seems like the McCain campaign's claim that McCain invented the Blackberry isn't really going over that well. You can practically hear the snickering in the articles. Here's AP, which, for the most part, has been hyper-supportive of McCain:

Move over, Al Gore. You may lay claim to the Internet, but John McCain helped create the BlackBerry.

At least that's the contention of a top McCain policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Waving his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and citing McCain's work as a senator, he told reporters Tuesday, "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."

McCain has acknowledged that he doesn't know how to use a computer and can't send e-mail, one of the BlackBerry's prime functions.

*Note:Blackberry was developed by Research in Motion, a Canadian company.

A readers wrote, "Not only did McCain invent the BlackBerry -- he outsourced it!"

Nikola @ 51:

Nada @ 3:

So the goal of "conservatism" is to turn 'merika into the newest feudal country?
The corporate masters will be the vassals and we'll all be their happy little surfs.
For most of us it won't come as a surprise to be told we're property of the country/corporations.

Vassals are also servants, though. The corporate masters will be the Lords.

The guvmint will be the lords. The vassals are given tracts of land/businesses and surfs to "care for" for the lords. The corporate heads already own most of everything and employ everyone so there would be almost no change when they switch over to straight feudalism.

Dhalgren @ 5:

But John, markets have to bleed so that people can ride the next wave of prosperity. Think back to NYC circa 1989. The NYC housing market went bust. People could buy entire brownstones in Brooklyn for less than $200K. Today, they can be sold for over $4 Million each. And no, they are not solely owned by Republicans. Quite a lot of Whole Foods munching / Starbucks slurping Democrats got rich off of the last housing bubble.

Here's to the next wave.

If this comment doesn't summarize the sheer stupidity and unutterable mean-spiritness of (what I can only assume is knee-jerk) Republicanism: 'Whole Foods munching? Starbucks slurping?' These are all Democrats? Have you ever been to a Starbucks or Starbucks type coffee shop or a Whole Foods or other organic store or market in a small town or in a red state? Not a Republican or a religious believer among the customers? Every one of them a godless America-hating liberal? Not a single veteran? Not a single decent human being? Every one of them a stereotype ripe for mental lynching. Grow up. Get your head out of your limbic system and into some kind of analytical intelligence. Whichever way you vote, or swing, or express you views, for God's sake - whether he or she exists - do it as a human being and not as a smooth-brained, pre-conditioned fool.

Naomi Klein could sum this all up in 5 minutes:
Disaster Capitalism at its finest.
America is just an old rust belt factory, take it over, run it into the ground, break it up and sell the pieces.

Gordon Gecko in 2012!

capnmike @ 36:

America has always been a nation with a Free Market Economy. It works. If you want Socialism, go to Venezuela and see how they are doing, with incredible crime rates, nothing in the stores, and worthless currency. Distribution of Wealth by Mandate DOES NOT WORK. Never has. Never will. The only people who bitch about capitalism are those who don't think they have a big enough piece of the pie and are not willing to work for it. Don't covet your neighbor's house, or his ox, or his servant, or his potroast, GO GET YOUR OWN!

Go get mine?

I could probably buy and sell all you clueless, free-market moron dupes, who spew these mindless neocon bullshit talking points on a daily basis.

The biggest "socialists" in this country are the "rich," who gorge themselves at the taxpayer trough through no-bid privatization contracts (though they themselves don't believe in paying taxes), and then tell dumb-asses like you, that if you get a social security check that you paid into your entire life - "well, that's socialism."

And while these corporate welfare queens are screwing you sideways, you sit their and defend their lying worthless asses! They are laughing at you - idiot! Come back when you have a couple of I.Q. points to rub together. I won't hold my breath though, because from the lack of reality based intelligence in your comments, it may take quite a while!

Trickle Down Reaganomics = Suck the life blood from deregulated institutions and turn to the middle class to pay the losses.

Drilling solves nothing (aka right wing hater) @ 56:

Folks...it's not rocket science....

Free Market = Alice in Wonderland...its a fairy tale, .....

Larry Kudlow calls it "Goldilocks".

I've often wondered if that wasn't part of someone's plan all along. Use the ill-gotten gains to buy up huge swaths of land when the market bottoms out and everyone loses their homes. In the end, we'll all end up feudal serfs.

Pericles @ 73:

Captain ENOUGH Kangaroo @ 69:

Pericles @ 52:

Billy @ 29:

because the market was NOT DEREGULATED ENOUGH. Given the horrible track record of conservatism, all the way from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush, I'm going to throw in with the progressives.

Do you or anybody have a link that says that the neocons are saying that it is because the market was NOT DEREGULATED ENOUGH. I have heard them saying that the Democrats are responsible becaue the Democrats wanted deregulation (which of course how Republicans try to change history- or blame it on Clinton).

Just search YouTube for any talk given by Milton Friedman, who is the conservative movement's god of economic theory, then ask any American fiscal conservative if they support Friedman's position. That's the quickest way to answer that question. You could do the same with any YouTube search for William F. Buckley. As for specific conservatives talking about the current crisis being the result of the market not being deregulated enough...those might be a little harder to find. But I did see a fiscal conservative making the argument on TEE VEE yesterday, which is what made me think of it.

Yeah I understand what you mean. I just haven't seen them come out and say it straight up like you did on TV. I know that it is their "theory" but I didn't know they were stupid enough to actually say it in the very very recent past. Especially when it can be debunked so easily and proven that it was the Republican deregulation by Gramm that set all this in motion.

the market and the government are interwoven....
(interdependent) on each other....because of this relationship you must have transparency of risk.
at this level these type of players like financial
banks or an AIG can have a systemic affects on the economy. in darwinian capitalism some of the winers aren't concerned about the losers until it's too late.
to be expected we're all tryin to figure who's at fault
of course there are many players in this. take a look
at phil gramm when you have time.

capnmike @ 36:

America has always been a nation with a Free Market Economy. It works. If you want Socialism, go to Venezuela and see how they are doing, with incredible crime rates, nothing in the stores, and worthless currency. Distribution of Wealth by Mandate DOES NOT WORK. Never has. Never will. The only people who bitch about capitalism are those who don't think they have a big enough piece of the pie and are not willing to work for it. Don't covet your neighbor's house, or his ox, or his servant, or his potroast, GO GET YOUR OWN!

LOL... I take you can't even point Venezuela in the map.

Gramm orchestrated the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 which “destroyed the Depression-era barrier to the merger of stockbrokers, banks and insurance companies.” He also pushed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000, which made legal “the mortgage swaps distancing the originator of the loan from the ultimate collector.” The Nation writes that “those two acts effectively ended significant regulation of the financial community.”

NoGWBpolicyleftinplace @ 59:

dennis @ 16:

I caution anyone here who has a high opinion of George Soros to do no research whatsoever on anything he ever did to take advantage of weak financial markets. Ignorance is bliss.

The old "see, you guys are just as bad as us, because even though we out-number you 15:1 in criminals and theives, since a few of your people are criminal, that makes you just as bad as us" excuse. Once again, Dennis shows us just how "dim" a bulb he truly is.

Conservatives is so stupid - Yoesemite Sam

You misconstrue me, as usual. I don't see how the land developer is criminal or immoral or even how it is an example of what's wrong with conservatism. I can assure you, the folks on Fox are not the first ones ever to have endorsed the idea of letting the marketplace sort it all out.

it's interesting listening to the talking heads ask government/leaders to pass around the hat to 'save' AIG'
....there are many people that don't consider the
systemic possibilities of losing..cheap risk isn't for FREE often black and white thinkers and/or greedy don't
consider the reprecussions.

Tyler Durden @ 81:

twocanpete @ 79:

McCain invented the Balckberry? Do they even have those in the nursing home?

No what he meant is that he is so old, that he did a consulting job for god when he was creating the berry family. The blackberry is his baby,

...causing him to be viciously smeared in South Carolina, where they much prefer white berries, even if that means they won't be ripe for 3 weeks and are completely inedible.

constituent @ 82:

Gramm orchestrated the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 which “destroyed the Depression-era barrier to the merger of stockbrokers, banks and insurance companies.” He also pushed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000, which made legal “the mortgage swaps distancing the originator of the loan from the ultimate collector.” The Nation writes that “those two acts effectively ended significant regulation of the financial community.”

and effectively ripped the heart out of the new deal

No surprise. Sounds like a page out of the Shock Doctrine.

woody, tokin librul @ 91:

constituent @ 82:

Gramm orchestrated the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 which “destroyed the Depression-era barrier to the merger of stockbrokers, banks and insurance companies.” He also pushed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000, which made legal “the mortgage swaps distancing the originator of the loan from the ultimate collector.” The Nation writes that “those two acts effectively ended significant regulation of the financial community.”

The Clenis proclaimed his pride in the accomplishment when he signed the bill into law...he called it an historic occasion, and praised the "modernization" of the economy...Fuckwit!

excuse me.........what?

woody, tokin librul @ 89:

Three sets of two words each, please:
Naomi Klein
Shock Doctrine
Disaster Capitalism

Pay attention please...They've been doing this for over 150 years...

^ #66 ;-)

dennis @ 43:

Alexdem @ 23:

dennis @ 16:

I caution anyone here who has a high opinion of George Soros to do no research whatsoever on anything he ever did to take advantage of weak financial markets. Ignorance is bliss.

I hold Soros in high regard, and I do not have any problems with what he did. If you want, you can do some research and find his justifications for it. But in short: He didn't create the system. He didn't advocate the failed policies that caused the situations he drew advantage of. And the fact is, he wasn't the only one in the game. Others would still have done it, even if he hadn't.

You seem to be refuting the central thesis of this blog post, then. How is the land developer who kept his powder dry waiting for a bottom in the market to buy property cheap a scumbag or an example of conservatism at it's finest?

Um, I'm thinking maybe because he didn't use the resources of the Government of the People of the United States of America to do that. He's a savvy business person. I do not know if Soros actually violated any laws in his dealings - but he certainly did not buy off the US Congress, pass riduiculous legislation and pack the courts with scum, and perpetrate false-flag terrorism and unecessary wars in order to acquire his property.

The Bush Crime Family and other have done exactly that for the past 50 years, and now all of their schemes are coming to fruition. Free markets/deregulation set the stage for their rape and robbery of America.

Abramoff was framed by McCain, the Bushs to probably - this was past topic on C & L with the title:
New book: McCain lying about motivation for going after Abramoff

This is a commnet by the author on that topic:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/08/new-book-mccain-lying-about-mot...

In short: The rich white land owners are now doing to the new American natives what they did to the old American natives.

VietVet8666 @ 58:

Re: Bush family...

Shrub, Sr. is as crooked and corrupt and foul as they come. (Details omitted, but they're readily available). He looks OK to some only because of comparison to Shrub, Jr., who makes each and every failed president of the past look OK.

Exactly - Pappy Bush has been the most evil person in the US government for decades.
He was always busy behind the scenes while serving as ambassdor, head of the CIA and as VP fro Reagan (when all of this free market/deregulation stuff really took off)before he got elected as Pres. (might be fun to go back and count those votes).

You can also see photos of his smiling face standing outside the hospital in Dallas in 1963, when JFK was assassinated - wonder why he was there??

Why is that "conservatism at its finest"?

I'm a left-of-center Democrat, and I'm also licking my chops about maybe getting some cheap real estate.
That is, if I have anything left after the banking system fails.

capnmike @ 36:

America has always been a nation with a Free Market Economy. It works. If you want Socialism, go to Venezuela and see how they are doing, with incredible crime rates, nothing in the stores, and worthless currency. Distribution of Wealth by Mandate DOES NOT WORK. Never has. Never will. The only people who bitch about capitalism are those who don't think they have a big enough piece of the pie and are not willing to work for it. Don't covet your neighbor's house, or his ox, or his servant, or his potroast, GO GET YOUR OWN!

This is either the typical american who is as dumb as a post or super rich. I'd pick the former. By the way, have you checked out our currency and crime rates?

P.D. @ 45:

I'm getting pissed. Everytime I turn on MSM, there is a McCain toadie talking about the McCain plan(What plan?).
I haven't seen an Obama operative. WTF?

now you see the plan in action...

just saw some asshole from cnn reporting on indiana being a swing state and he said he was in evansville indiana , the background showed a water fountain ect that looked like something from indianoplis , i know evansville like the back of my nuts , and if he was in evansville ill eat my own dooty, dont know why they lied but there it is!

[Deleted. Worst spamming concern troll ever. BTW, Aco!, you're banned. Site Monitor]

The "free markets" you all hate aren't really free. This is evidenced by the large bailouts that have happened (and will continue to happen). Less obvious, and equally opposite a free market is the intervention in the markets by the Working Group on Financial Markets AKA the Plunge Protection Team. Then there are all the government (tax payer funded) subsidies that are handed out to various special corporate interests, not to mention all the large no bid contracts awarded to certain large corporations.

These things are not characteristic of a true free market. Yet you call them "free markets"... Do you do this because you actually believe them to be a representation of Free Markets or have you just had too much of the orwellian newspeak koolaid that is dolled out by the "media"?

Ron @ 40:

capnmike @ 36:

America has always been a nation with a Free Market Economy. It works. If you want Socialism, go to Venezuela and see how they are doing, with incredible crime rates, nothing in the stores, and worthless currency. Distribution of Wealth by Mandate DOES NOT WORK. Never has. Never will. The only people who bitch about capitalism are those who don't think they have a big enough piece of the pie and are not willing to work for it. Don't covet your neighbor's house, or his ox, or his servant, or his potroast, GO GET YOUR OWN!

You are wrong. Move on.
Obviously you have never been there.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144