Republicans Privatize Social Security

Yes, in their own words, they will privatize Social Security.  This is what the voters of Pennsylvania voted for when they elected Toomey.  Yes, Tea Party members and Patriots, you will have to hand over your Social Security to the thieves on Wall Street and you can kiss your Medicare good-bye.  And you voted for this because there is a black man in the white house.  Sorry to say that racism is alive and well in the “guns and Jesus” parts of Pennsylvania.

One more thing, Tea Party members and Patriots, you better start bottling your water because once the gas drillers come into your neighborhood, your water will not be safe to drink.  This is what will happen because you voted for Republicans to control Harrisburg and they support the rights of the gas drillers and NOT your rights.  Fools.

Pat Toomey’s book

I Want My Country Back

Yes, you heard me.  I want my country back… back from the Tea Party and the big corporations that financially support them.  I do NOT want my country to return to the Tea Party and Republican principles of:

• Repealing the Civil Rights Act because the central Government should not tell States how to treat American citizens.
• Eliminating the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.  Women should not be voting.  They don’t have time for politics because they need to be in the kitchen cooking and they should be waiting on their husbands.  The bible tells us that women are subservient to men.
• Returning to slave labor and sweat shop labor practices because businesses should be free to abuse their employees without Government interference.
• Dismantling Social Security because seniors should have planned better for their retirement.  Too bad and too sad if Wall Street bankers stole most of their IRA money.  Tough luck if the seniors worked at jobs that didn’t have a pension program or 401K program.  If these seniors worked for minimum wage, they still should have thought ahead even if it required providing less food and clothing for their children so that they would have that extra money to save for their retirement.  Some Republican candidates are claiming that Social Security is unconstitutional.
• Dismantling Medicare because health care is not a right, it is a privilege and the Tea Party does not approve of privileges except when it comes to their idols and themselves.  Besides, only the privileged deserve health care.
• Eliminating disability payments because people need to be more responsible and not get injured on the job.  This includes our military veterans.  They should stop whining because after all, they volunteered.
• Forcing Catholics, Jews and Muslims to commit sins by having to read and study the protestant bible in public schools.
• Allowing property owners to create toll roads.  People have a right to collect money from anyone that crosses their property line.  Good luck with getting to work on time and having any money left over from your paycheck after paying all the tolls.
• Supporting “Second Amendment” solutions as a means of conflict resolution.  This might also work as a method of population control.
• Returning to the glory days of lords and serfs.

I want my country back from hate mongers like Beck, Palin, Limbaugh, Malkin, Kristol, Bachmann, Rove, Cheney, and all the rest that appear on Fox News, the opinion network.  The goals for these people are to divide our country and to make piles of money while undereducated people do their dirty work for them.

I want my country back from racists such as Beck, Laura Schlesinger, the Tea Party and the Larouches.  These people are so upset because there is a black family living in, what they perceive as, the White(‘s only) House.

I want my country back from people that profit from the suffering of others (Beck, Palin and Limbaugh).

I want my country back from politicians that place Wall Street above and before Main Street, such as Pat Toomey, Tom Corbett, Jim Gerlach and all the other Republicans and Tea Party members.

Yes, I want my country back.  The one where everyone is treated with respect and  equality, the one where everyone receives good health care, the one where everyone receives a livable wage, and the one where everyone is free to practice their religious beliefs without interference from other religions.

I want back, the country that was progresing forward.  Not the one that is currently heading in Reverse.

On Becoming A Poor Nation

Let’s face the facts.  Our local governments are in a financial crises.   With the loss of jobs, comes a decrease in State income tax revenues.  Smaller State revenues means that there is less money to help struggling cities and towns.  Add to this, the decrease in sales tax revenues that are the result of less purchasing power, and we have a State going bankrupt.  Now, multiple this by the number of States near bankruptcy and we have a nation of the edge of becoming a third world country.

As States become poorer, they need to make cuts to their spending.  One of the many areas where they choose to make cuts is in funding for education.  That means that our children suffer by not receiving a full education.  Poor education will not help these children when they become adults because they won’t be able to find a job that pays a living wage or better.  Ignorance is NOT bliss.  It leads to poverty.  The greater the poverty, the closer we are to becoming a third world country.

Even though only about 10% of Americans are heavily invested in stocks and bonds, our economy is driven by the DOW.  In order to grow, we need an economy based on jobs that produce goods.  Our nation has been slowly losing its goods based economy.  Instead, our economy is based on market gambling.  There is no bartering for goods and services in this country.  We can’t “take a chicken to the doctor” because banks won’t accept chickens as mortgage payments from the doctor.  (I’m curious about this “chicken”.  Is is a live chicken or a dead chicken?)

Do you see the pattern?  It a vicious cycle, one that Republicans claim can only be fixed by cutting taxes which decrease revenues.   Understand, the taxes that get cut are the taxes to the richest 1% of Americans and the services that get cut are the services needed by the other 90%.  The Republicans and Tea Partiers support Reagan economics.  It was during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, when the decline in the middle working class started.

The bottom line is this… we need jobs based on goods that pay a living wage or better so that the States and local municipalities can collect the revenue needed to keep our governments functioning.   This includes ample money for police, firefighters, educators, libraries and infrastructure repair and maintenance.  More tax cuts for the rich will not produce jobs and will not bring in more revenue.  Instead, it starves the masses.

One question before I end this thread, how is that “trickle down” economics working for you?

Financial Modernization Act of 1999

Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) was prescient when he gave this speech in the Senate on November 4, 1999 regarding the Gramm Leach Bliley Act.

Yes, Virginia, Senator Dorgan saw a light at the end of the tunnel and he knew a train was coming. He knew it wasn’t sunshine and that the passage of the Gramm Leach Bliley Act would eventually bring down our economy.

Part 1

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvnO_SH-4WU)

Part 2

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veAOoQEy0PI)

Did you hear Senator Dorgan say “Too big to fail“? These words are so familiar to us. Unfortunately, Congress didn’t heed Senator Dorgan’s words. He predicted that we would be visiting the failures in 10 to 15 years as a result of passing the Gramm Leach Bliley Act and Congress didn’t listen.

(h/t to skymutt at Daily Kos)

Times Tough

The job situation is becoming worse. Each day, news outlets are reporting another Corporate lay off effecting thousands of people’s lives. When I drive around my neighborhood, I see more and more “For Sale” signs in front of houses.  I even saw one house that had a “For Sale” sign and a “For Rent” sign in front of it. Either option was acceptable to the homeowner.  Now that’s desperation.

President Obama created a stimulus plan that would help put Americans back to work. He presented this plan to the House of Representatives hoping that Congress would write a job stimulus bill. After a few days of discussion, the House passed a bill which removed some of the spending and added more tax cuts.

The House stimulus bill is now with that elite group, the Senators, and the so called “Moderates” or “Centrists” have brutally chopped away at the “spending” and added more tax cuts. For 8 years, the Republican mantra has been tax cuts and more tax cuts. Since our economy is taking a nose dive over a cliff (h/t Daily Kos), it is obvious that these tax cuts didn’t save us. So what do the Republicans want more of in this stimulus bill? You guessed it, more tax cuts. They want to continue doing the same thing over and over again even though it never worked in the past. There is a word for this behavior. It is called insanity.

Obama to the Rescue – Update X 2

While John McCain is suddenly pretending that he is concerned about ordinary Americans by suspending his campaign and running off to Washington DC for photo-ops, Barack Obama is keeping a cool head and staying out of the way of the current economic negotiations. Obama said that he will go to Washington DC to vote or if Congress or the President requests his presence sooner. Senator Obama has also spoken with Paulson and Congressional leaders daily.

President Bush requested a meeting with both McCain and Obama and the leaders from both parties in Congress. The news reported that this meeting is basically to explain the current situation to both presidential candidates and to get their input into the proposed bail out.

Now that I got all that information out of the way, let’s look at the records. Everyone is aware that John McCain is a huge supporter of deregulation. Even Sarah Palin was lost for words when she couldn’t provide Katie Couric with any example of what John McCain has done for de-regulation of Wall Street.

During the 110th Congress, John McCain never sponsored a banking bill. Out of the 38 bills sponsored by John McCain, not even one of these bills have been referred to the Banking panel. Compare this to 5 of the 130 measures offered by Barack Obama which were referred to the Banking Committee.

Obama’s legislation calls for bolstering housing assistance for veterans, amending the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 to provide shareholders with an advisory vote on executive compensation, halting mortgage transactions that promote fraud, authorizing local and state governments to crack down on companies that invest in Iran’s energy sector and authorizing a pilot program to prevent at-risk veterans from becoming homeless. (excerpt from The Hill)

Off topic… during Wednesday’s speech to the American people, President George W Bush blamed the Clinton administration for this Wall Street mess. Bush said that the problem started 10 years ago which would mean that it started while Bill Clinton was President. I beg to differ on this… this Wall Street mess was started by “Mr Deregulation” and that would be President Ronald Reagan.

Never trust a Republican with your money.

UPDATE:
Read the latest text of the bail-out plan here, at the Wall Street Journal.

UPDATE 2:

You can’t make this stuff up… unbelievable. Read and watch the videos at Tirg Caps.

When Black Friday Comes…

Only, this time it’s Black Monday. This is part of the Bush Economic Plan, the very plan that John McCain supports and wants to continue. A couple of years ago, Dick Cheney dumped his stock investments and purchased Bonds. Cheney saw this coming. McCain won’t feel any of this pain. As a matter of fact, drug and alcohol use increases during times of financial depression.

The better tax plan…

Woohoo! A better tax break with Obama for Middle Class Americans, those of us that have to work for a living.

WAIT… There’s more