A New Day?

Or just more bullshit?

We’re gonna find out. Hope you enjoy the ride.

Robert Oak, an online friend of mine, has a post up….

‘Politics is distasteful…..’

Check it out. It might change your view of a few things….

Anothere take on ‘Outsourcing’…heh…

Yep, I was on the phone to India while getting ‘support’ for my installation of MS Small Business 2007 and you will never, never, believe how I finally got it ‘installed’.

Don’t forget to vote and don’t forget to stay tuned afterwards to track what is being done…

In your name.

The translation of this song, interestingly it’s about separation, is here.

Progressives in Congress show the right way to ‘right the market’.

Dear Democratic Colleague:

The House of Representatives rejected the $700 bailout yesterday. Distinguished economists across the world have stated it would not have solved the problem at hand. However, we can potentially solve this liquidity problem at little cost to the taxpayer. I am proposing that Congress drop the Paulson Plan, and instead pass the No BAILOUTS Act. The No BAILOUTS Act provides an alternative to the Paulson Proposal to address the current credit crunch. Once Congress addresses the liquidity shortfalls in our financial markets, a Democratic Congress can turn to Democratic solutions to address the broader economic crises we face today. Specifically, Congress can work to resolve the housing crisis across the country and pass effective job stimulus, which is the response Main Street America expects and deserves.

While Democrats and Republicans may disagree on the underlying solutions to solve the economic crises we face, the No BAILOUTS Act – a regulatory based proposal – has the potential for significant bipartisan support.

The Paulson Premise Flawed

Simon Johnson, a former chief economist as the International Monetary Fund, stated today in the New York Times of Paulson’s plan, “It’s our view that this package, in a fundamental sense, will not solve the problem.” Other economic analysts noted yesterday that the credit markets around the world were almost entirely dysfunctional even when political leaders and investors assumed that Congress had reached a deal and would easily approve the bailout. There is no reason to believe Paulson’s plan will work.

Alternatives

We have credible alternatives to the Paulson/Bush $700 billion gamble. William Isaac, the chairman of the FDIC during the previous worst financial crisis in the United States during the 1980s, believes Congress can address the current crisis with simple changes to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules. Mr. Isaac points out that while we face serious financial challenges today, many banks are still in good shape. This allows Congress to take swift, uncomplicated steps to ensure the financial markets return to working order. After that, we can work to resolve the housing crisis and pass effective job stimulus.

Today I am offering an alternative to the Wall Street bailout that will correct the capital shortfalls experienced by many financial institutions and help protect the integrity and quality of the securities market. My plan could be implemented promptly meeting the demands of the Bush Administration to act immediately without putting the American taxpayer on the hook for billions of dollars.

No BAILOUTS Act

Bringing Accounting, Increased Liquidity, Oversight and Upholding Taxpayer Security

1) Require the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require an economic value standard to measure the capital of financial institutions.

This bill will require SEC to implement a rule to suspend the application of fair value accounting standards to financial institutions, which marks assets to the market value, no matter the conditions of the market. When no meaningful market exists, as is the current market for mortgage backed securities, this standard requires institutions to value assets at fire-sale prices. This creates a capital shortfall on paper. Using the economic value standard as bank examines have traditionally done will immediately correct the capital shortfalls experienced by many institutions.

2) Require the Securities and Exchange Commission to restricting naked short sells permanently

This bill will require SEC to implement a rule that blocks naked selling, selling a stock short without first borrowing the shares or ensuring the shares can be borrowed. Such practices many times harm the companies represented in the sales and hurt their efforts to raise capital. There is no economic value produced by naked short sales, but significant negative effects.

3) Require the Securities and Exchange Commission to restore the up-tick rule permanently.

This bill will require SEC to implement a rule that blocks short sales without an up-tick in the market. On September 19, 2008, the SEC approved a temporary pause of short selling in financial companies “to protect the integrity and quality of the securities market and strengthen investor confidence.” This rule prevents market crashes brought on by irrational short term market behavior.

4) “Net Worth Certificate Program”

This bill will require FDIC to implement a net worth certificate program. The FDIC would determine banks with short-term capital needs and the ability to financially recover in the foreseeable future. For those entities that qualify, the FDIC should purchase net worth certificates in these institutions. In exchange, these institutions issue promissory notes to repay the FDIC, counting the amount “borrowed” as capital on their balance sheets. This exchange provides short term capital, with not cash outlay. Interest rates on the certificates and the FDIC notes should be identical so no subsidy is necessary.

Participating banks must be subject to strict oversight by the FDIC including oversight of top executive compensation and if necessary the removal of poor management. Financial records and business plans should be subject to scrutiny while participating in the program.

In 1982, Congress approved a program, known as the Net Worth Certificate Program, that allowed banks and thrifts to apply for immediate capital assistance. From 1982 to 1993, banks with total assets of $40 billion participated in the program. The majority of these banks, 75%, required no further assistance beyond the certificate program.

5) Increase the FDIC Insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000.

The bill will require the FDIC raise its limit to provide depositors confidence that their money is safe and help eliminate runs on banks which are destabilizing to the industry.

Sincerely

Peter DeFazio

Member of Congress

Call your congress person and demand they support this instead of George The Robber and Nancy the Fluffer’s giveaway to the rich. It’s your’s and your grandchildren’s money they want.

Tell them NO!

Do You Ever Wonder Why the Roads in Your Town are Turning into Gravel?

Wonder no more. It’s because ‘some people’ are not paying their fair share of the cost of government. Otherwise known as taxes. I know this story has been in the corporatist press but I thought this post:

Based on IRS records, a recent GAO report indicates that many corporations claimed to owe $0 in U.S. taxes from 1998 – 2005: roughly 28%-53% of large foreign-controlled and 23%-38% of large U.S.-controlled corporations. [The GAO considers a "large" corporation one with at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in gross receipts.] 

From NoQuarter had a lot more detail and so link to it.

There is a growing opportunity for those of us who are economically literate, a tiny minority, to take back the high ground in the never ending debate about taxes, government and what should be done by same. The ‘conservative’ shills who’ve been preaching the Friedman Lunacy for decades are gob-smacked that the ‘trickle down’ theory has at last been proved to be the utter bullshit that it is. There is a desperate air of ‘now what do we do…’  as the third artificial bubble of ‘asset building’, housing, pops following  the dot.com bubble and ‘financialization’ coming from the morons such as Greenspan who’ve been ‘supervising ‘ our economy. As Ol’ Shakespeare opined, ‘The truth will out…’ and now folks are waking up to the realization that while their real income has declined every year since Nixon under the Republican fantasy machine corporations and very wealthy individuals merely extract whatever amounts of cash they need from the U.S. Treasury, that’s us Homer, in the form of  taxes not paid.

This report points a finger at why you, yeah you Homer, ‘can’t’ have healthcare, good schools, well-maintained roads, safe food and on and on…. The next time some low-info fool tells you, ‘Oh, we can’t afford that…’ about some needed social program tell them the following:

‘Of course we can afford that. If corporations and the uber-rich would pay their fair share of taxes instead of bribing Congress to give them a free pass we’d’ have plenty of money to take care of the real, immediate needs of our society.’

And if they start bloviating tell them this:

‘Surely you are not advocating that some, particularly those best able to pay, should be excused from their social obligation to pay their fair share of the costs they helped create are you?’

More on how your are being screwed solely because you are NOT rich in future posts.

HiJack….

steal…

commandeer…

pirate…

seized…

hijack…

assume…

usurp…

seize…

take over…

arrogate…

Hmmmm…. I don’t see fair, just, proper…. Above all, the one word I don’t see because what was done, in secret, is not…is not unless you are in the grip of a dangerous delusion….

Democratic!

….no matter what Howie or Donna or Kos or Bowers or Kid Oakland or anybody else says or does what was done in that meeting was as un-American as antithetical to my value system, to the values this nation was built on as anything the Communists, the Nazis or any of the other heinous scum we had smash to survive ever asserted.

600,000 voters not just disenfranchised!

Fuck no, their votes, votes they cast for Clinton, were stolen.

As I’ve said many a time Sinclair Lewis made no assertion about which side that figure, ‘….wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross…’ was coming from. At this moment  it would be hard to argue that it’s coming from anywhere but the left.

Fortunately, no matter what Obama, Howie, Miss Nancy, Donna and the rest of the corrupt knot of toads which squats in our Party can treat the GE like they have the primary. Such utter contempt would not go down with the ‘bitter, clinging masses…’

Frankly, I’ve never been so ashamed of my fellow citizens in my life. Not even during the Vietnam occupation did I feel like this. One million Iraqi dead….

And Democrats cannot find a better candidate than ‘The One’ Miss Nancy and the Knot of Toads on the Hill have in ‘selecting not electing’ Senator Obama, who, to remark on just one of the truly stupid things he’s done lately, feels it more important to play golf than address the nation about Russia’s rending of Georgia.

A faithful ally being dismembered and the man has to make his tee time.

Disgusting.

And to anyone I’ve called out by name here or who disagrees with my assertion here I’ve only got one question for ya?

Just one….

What if that was your vote Howie and Donna stole?

What then fellow ‘progressives’?

What then?

Essential Reading for all Democrats….

Is this site operated by The Denver Group. You will be hearing about them once the convention starts. Probably you will be hearing a lot.

Just keep in mind that according to it’s rules the Democratic Party despite what Obama and the corporatist press who so love him are acting like has not, in fact, elected a nominee. No voter by the delegates has been taken. None.

Latest reports have a haggard Howard Dean not looking very well and seeming to have lost quite a bit of weight. Obama was feeling good enough to play golf today as Russia invaded Georgia and McSame and The Hill were on the campaign trail. The HIll campaigning for Obama.

My personal opinion rendered without any satisfaction is that the wheels are going to come off the Convention ‘Unity Train’. There tension and actual hysteria are building. I’m not even going to report what some are saying the Obama campaign or it’s workers are doing. Not unless arrests are made…which is a possibility.

Old fashioned smash-mouth politics more akin to the 30s that ‘Yes we can!’ so hang on to yer TeeBee remote and stay tuned here also.

Flash Update: Here’s a little something I just tripped over…. So the next time I start ranting about what a lousy campaigner Barky is just think back to this little episode. Or you might find Tweety playing the tape and chortling about what a frikin’ Clown the Barkster is but that will not happen until he does become the nominee. If he does.

A Brief Word…..

…..yeah, the revolution will not be televised. Indeed, there looks to be no revolution. With Barky calling for a non-vote Democratic Convention, he won’t get that predicts I, and McSame being…well, more of the same I suppose you could vote for Nader or Barr but neither are viable let’s face it. Sister Beezlebub still has a shot moreso every time Barky sticks his foot in his mouth and hops around going Uh…Uh…Muh! Currently the Bark-O-Meter has him at 1.5 hops per week. But enough of the cheap shots.

The real problem sits on ‘The HIll’ like a horrific knot of toads in human form. 535 elected representatives of the people.

Or not.

Yep, in situation, after issue, compounded by crisis we see that the legislative branch of our government is stuffed to the gills with folks who are one of three things:

Corrupt…the biggest faction. Politicians are trained early that it’s all about the Benjamins as our ‘system’ rewards those who get elected and under the current system you need lots of B’s to get elected…

Stupid…plenty of those after all if you’re buying a Congressperson you don’t need one that’s smart. Just one that loves to follow orders.

Nuts….Yeah, barking mad. These are the ones found in a hotel room with hookers and coke or an underage boy. Significant fraction….

So what to do. First up is very simple.

Get real.

Understand that the level of corruption is now at unprecedented levels. Levels no mere change in ‘party’ will fix. The job is a wholescale clean up similar to Hercules and the Augean Stables. Ever read that one? You should it’s not really about what it seems. Yeah, get real. No one candidate is going to ‘save’ us folks. Most adults realize reality don’t work that way but….

People want to believe.

Well…

Believe this.

If you and I don’t get off our asses and take back our government the future will be very bleak. The tipping point on many problems affecting our very survival as a society is near. I assert that the tools to fix those problems which threaten us most are also hand. Requiring only affordable amounts of money and some intelligent leadership. But with a government composed of the corrupt, the stupid and the barking mad we are not going to be able to use those tools.

What to do?

Look around join up with like minded folks. Stop talking and start doing. You will be noticing some changes around here as I ‘renovate’ my new primary residence. And no I don’t care what the Congressional mortgage lending ‘bail out’ bill says, it’s amazingly stupid go look it up, about how to treat ‘primary’ vs. ‘secondary’ residences.

One signpost to a new way is the widget in the upper right sidebar called: ‘Accountability Money Bomb’.

This takes you to a spot where you can contribute to a fascinating group headed by Jane Hamscher and a bunch of right wing folks. Yep, wingers and progressives…together. Seems there is common cause to be made by all Americans in the face of the Congress’s gutting the 4th Amendment. Here is the link to the statement of purpose from StrangeBedFellows the ad hoc group just beginning to get some traction. I will be blogging about this more as the idea of ‘Accountability for the Asylum (Congress)’ resonates with me.

Hope you will hang around as I am planning some extensive remodeling here and I hope you will find it interesting.

Muh Daddy usta git pretty mad at me at times….

…I was a smart allecked little sucka and would not hesitate to tell him when I thought he was wrong. Which he was upon occasion. One was the Vietnam War and event you younger whippersnappers will prolly never really understand. It’s like they say, ‘Ya had to be there!’ Not to say that you cannot sit down with some books ‘stead of yer Ipod and read about it. Learn about it. But, what the fuck nobody really gives a damn they are only concerned with today. Today’s gas prices. Today’s baseball scores. Today’s chances of getting laid. Yadda and yadda…. This attitude served our chimpy ancestors, yes pal you are related to Bonzo, very well indead. It mattered not what yer cousin’s complaints about the head chimp were as long as that dude kept the troop alive. Basically, stay away from leopards and close to bananas would work pretty good as policy.

Now my dad and I actually came to blows over ‘Nam. Briefly, no knockdowns no winners and after a while he was forced to admit that, ‘Yes, you were right son. ‘Nam is a fuckin’ disaster.’ except he never swore. Which brings me to today’s post. Some have said that I need to STFU! about certain issues. Obama’s candidacy being one of them. The theory here being, as best I can follow it as it really makes no sense, it’s wrong to criticize The One as he is the ‘Democrat’ Party nominee and that anything brought up about him only helps the vile, heinous Senator John McCain. And further, Obama would be a much, much better President than McCain. I got myself in big trouble, and expect to continue to do so, when I pointed out that: First, Obama has not been nominated you can look that up; Second, It’s not clear that Obama would be a better President see Douglas Kmiec…FISA flip-flop…drill for oil in flip flop….Presidential Seal stupidity jsut for starters; Third, and this is the one where the shit hits the fan, where folks want to start swinging, I contend that Senator Obama is a horrible campaigner and a truly third rate politician. Whoa, folks really get pissed when I assert this.

Well, all you Obamacans out there what is the reality today pals? This is the reality:

John McCain is now trusted more than Barack Obama on nine out of 14 electoral issues tracked by Rasmussen Reports. The latest national telephone surveys find that McCain has the biggest advantage on the war in Iraq, by a 51% to 39% margin.

From the Rasmussen Report folks and it gets worse for the esteemed Senator:

Perhaps the most interesting finding of these polls is that McCain has expanded his leads on nearly every issue he had previously had the advantage on, while Obama’s leads have diminished over the past two weeks…

In the new survey, McCain has tripled his lead on the topic of immigration. He now has a 45% to 36% advantage over his Democratic opponent…

The Republican also has pulled ahead on the issue of balancing the federal budget. Two weeks ago, the candidates were tied on this issue at 40%. McCain now has a 43% to 40% lead on the issue among voters.

McCain used to be behind on the issue of Social Security but has pulled ahead of Obama for a 44% to 38% lead…

On national security, an issue that McCain consistently performs well on, the Republican leads 52% to 40%.

This mirrors what I have been asserting about Obama for over a year and a half. Assertions which have me banned from OpenLeft, Corrente, TalkLeft and Crooks and Liars. Now it may very well be that Obama will engineer a comeback and beat McCain but, another question no one wants to answer:

‘How the hell can the Democratic Party nominate a candidate for President of the United States in one of the most critical periods of our history who is struggling to compete with, not beat, compete with a Republican nominee who, given his and his predecessor’s track record, should not be able to be elected dog-catcher?

Come on guys! Come on Kos…Bowere….Marshall….Armando…Marsh…..

Explain that one to me pals. Oh great and mighty seers of the Awesome Blogosphere. Bah! None of these AssClowns can find their butts with either hand when it comes to what they are suppose to be so damn good at, political analysis. Sadly, many of the netizens and Democrat rank and file have bought off on this fantasy and worse yet consider anyone such as myself a heinous asshole for pointing out that yes, ‘The Emperor has no Clothes’ and I’m talkin’ about Obama.

The reason Obama is where he is is a topic for another day. Until then remember A.Citizen’s ironclad guarantee to you and every other citizen of this still great nation which is:

‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it’

Yeah, I stole it from Voltaire. Or so you think just another example of how things we ‘know’…well, we really don’t. One of my goals is to get folks to understand why that quote is so important. Sadly, the chimp brain is not wired to understand this meme.

That’s why they made Socrates guzzle some hemlock. Not too worry. I ain’t guzzling’ no hemlock. No. Matter. What.

Welcome to A.Citizen’s New Home!

As small blog where, as far as I can tell, I am free to say what I want to say how I want to say it. Politics is a full-contact sport. People get hurt. Physically, financially, morally and their psyche’s take a beating upon occasion also. If you are of such a sensitive fame of mind that you’ve had problems with my content, syntax or scatology….

Leave now.

It’s only gonna get worse because we, real progressives from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, are surrounded by enemies. McSame doin’ his little jig of smear…smear…smear…

And much, much worse the illegitimate ‘nominee’ of the ‘Democrat’ Party who has used every slimeball tactic known to politics and one he stole from the WingNuts, that would be the ‘believe’ schtick, to convince the American people that he already is President….their vote just a formality. Not only is this false, as the non-Kool-Aide guzzlers understand, but in fact Senator Barack Obama is not yet, and may never be the nominee. Yeah, shut UP with the calls for the tin-foil hats. You are only exposing you own abysmal ignorance, albeit encouraged and nourished by Barkey and his pet press mutts, about what’s actually happened and what can happen in the Democratic Nomination process. read on to see what I am talking about.

But before we can get to that I need to introduce a fellow blogger. A woman of far greater stature than I in the growing state of NoBamaLand a seething mass of outraged folks who’d the likes of ‘The Committee of Three’ would just as soon you never heard of. Heidi Li Feldman, Joint Degree in Law and Philosophy; Professor of Law,  A.B., Brown; J.D., Ph.D., University of Michigan and is that a mouthful or what. Not even ‘Barkey’  Obama can match that…not even close. Take the time to read this page. BRAG posts by me are not for the lazy; one page of type too much for ya head on back to the HDTV and suck down another Budweiser still a shitty beer but at least it ain’t American no more. I hope you do take the time to read the little bit about her, love that part about ‘bullshitting and the law…’ because this post is just about all her! I luv it! Here’s the lede para:

For the most part, I find Senator Obama boring. So usually in this space I do not write much about him directly. But today Senator Obama played a little trick that reminded of the person who I think of as his nearest political relative – Richard M. Nixon.

Whoa! Bitch must be crazy right? I mean come on….Nixon and ‘The One’. Clik on thru read the whole thing and admit it. She nail’s Obambi’s hide to the barn door where it’s stink drifts away as it dries in the sun.. Yep, go ahead and read it. Then tell me why she’s wrong in the comments. They work here at B.R.A.G. and the new, improved A.Citizen expects, even demands, that you respond if you have something to say.  As my sainted Daddy usta say, ‘Speak up son I cain’t hardly hear ya.’

Stay tuned there is an almost endless line of bloggers, the vast majority of ‘em women, who will be appearing hear to let you know that they are done eating shit for:

‘The Precious’

‘The Boyz in the Blogz’

Howard Dean

Donna Brazile

Tweety

And I’ll even kick the dead stinking corpse of PumpkinHaid a few times just for the hell of it.

Yep, as the Great Yogi once said: ‘It ain’t over ’til it’s Over’

And it ain’t over.