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Israeli’s Demonstrate Against Attack on Ships While Our Politician’s Suck Ass

What Democracy? Neither here or in Israel if freedom of the press has anything to do with it. After the attack on the relief ships headed to Gaza not one friggen word was heard in the US or in Israel about Israeli’s demonstrating against the attack. Not one word. I’ve blasted the attack on the Tiger blog and lots of others have joined in with calling it what it was “A cruel and brutal attack on the high seas”

But not our government , from the president on down they stand up there and kiss APAIC’S ASS (oh yeah I forgot it’s and election year)so we probably should have expected the usual from that bunch of slime balls.

But Jesus H. Christ not a peep out of our Media telling the truth about this attack. Oh there was some token mention of the illegality of this attack on MSNBC but not much anywhere else. If I hear one more time “Israel has the right to defend it’s borders” I’ll scream till your ear drums burst.

It’s always the same with their government. I wish they would just come out and say “We can do anything we God damn well please because of who we are” Better hope Japan never gets the same idea “We can nuke the US because they nuked us” same thinking same murderous idea. They did it to us so we can do it to them. Great way for the world to live.

So I must give credit where credit is due. Demonstrations against the flotilla attack were never seen in this country but they happened none the less and here’s the evidence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57vvS3HKbLI

This was not seen in Israel or in the US so unless you Google foreign news you probably haven’t seen this either.
I knew it was wrong , but I wish I had searched out video of it before now. Looks like a big demo to me…Bless Em!!

THE ABC’s OF FINANCIAL CRISIS

I’m old and slow and have to simplify things down to there lowest common denominator till I can understand exactly what went on. The mortgage crisis that none of the big wigs saw coming , was as easy to spot as lipstick on the wrong end of a pig. You only had to look at a few simple everyday facts most of which were yelled and screamed and touted ofter in the MSM. House prices never in history have gone up 15 to 20% a year. A quick look at a chart on the average price of a house clearly showed a deviation from the normal 3% average increase per year. The frosting on the cake was that nobody can afford a house that cost more than 3 times your average wage. So exactly how did they pull this off.

Keep in mind , this bubble was created to hide the effects of the Dot Com Crash. The Fed used their most popular took, they lowered interest rates to zero. Even though this is often touted as the cause it’s not. If everybody had stayed hones a lot of folks could have bought and kept a house because of the low rates but that’s not what happened.

1.The Mortgage brokers because of deregulation and the knowledge that the government wouldn’t interfere started making all kinds of loans most of which they knew would fail in the first few years. They didn’t care how long they lasted as long as it was longer than the 30 milliseconds they took to unload them to banks. Meantime they collected handsome fees.

2. The banks gladly took the loans off the brokers hands knowing they were bad, but didn’t care as they were going to package them and hawk them to the Investment Houses.

3. The Investment Houses sent the packages to the ratings agencies to be rated as to investment grade (AAA the preferred rating)

4.The Rating Houses would rate 80% of the packages AAA making them of the quality that Pension Funds and Retirement Accounts were looking for. It is known now they didn’t really look very hard at the quality of loans in the package they just gave them the required rating. They normally sent 20% back as low quality , which were repackaged with other dogs, with a few good ones thrown in for luck and 80% of this junk package was rated AAA. This process was repeated over and over till there contents could be properly labeled JUNK OF JUNK.

5.The Investment Houses then sold these packages world wide and essentially turned the mortgage packages (about 7 Trillion bucks worth) and there derivative packages into a 600 Trillion dollar bomb. That you now see blowing up.

6.But wait that’s not all . Eventually the banks and investment houses knew these were pieces of crap and were buying bets they would fail while selling them as AAA investment grade instruments. In the beginning of the bubble they were betting long and did this for several years and during this time almost nobody was betting that housing prices would ever go down so they were buying derivatives packages betting the market would continue up.

7.One loan guy sitting in a darkened office running a small fund and known for his ability to pick good stock buys by carefully reading the quarterly reports . Suddenly he realized that these mortgage packages were based on the incorrect idea that housing prices would never fall. He called some of the biggest banks to see if he could buy a bet they would fall. Almost nobody was interested but a couple took the bait and sold him his shorts. This is all detailed in his book “THE BIG SHORT” a fast reading tell all tale of what started the crash. No it wasn’t his fault that it crashed as no more than 20 people knew and took advantage of this vehicle. When it became apparent because of the high number of these mortgages inside a package were failing (it took about 8% failure rate) to make a package fall like a rock from a tower. Ok , for all you Newton fans (an apple from a tree).

The above is a simple version of what took the mortgage market to hell. Don’t be fooled, we are only about half way through the residential mortgage mess with 2010 and 2011 forecasted to be as bad as we have already seen.

Another big factor in the downsizing of America is the tactics of Hedge Funds and the lack of government interest in controlling them or for that matter enforcing the laws already on the books. Naked short selling by these funds have driven a lot of companies stock to prices that allow the funds to buy the company for pennies on the dollar. (Naked short selling is illegal because it allows companies to bet stock they don’t own or rent, which sometimes throws more stock on the market than actually exists.) After they own the company one of first acts is to downsize the work force (they don’t like to say fire) , then it’s bust the contracts that control wages and benefits (aided by the courts) which often takes away health care and pensions from not only current employees but retirees too.

In the every day market these huge funds because of their piles and piles of money can drive commodity prices anywhere they want. Take a look at a oil price chart, or money, or corn, or just about any damn thing and notice the prices swing widely. Most know now they are artificially swinging the prices so they can make huge profits up or down and exercise huge control of our economy itself by deciding where we would have to spend our money. Will it be on gas, or food, or health care, you got the picture by now I’m sure. The song and dance they do to explain all the price moves are wearing thin now days and most just scream bullshit , put have to pay the piper anyway.

70% of the market today is controlled by what they call “FAST TRACK TRADING” , just a fancy high priced bunch of computers and software that control the market. Did you like the 1000 point swing the other day, all started by a bet of 7.5 million that the DOW would fall, to buy a bet somebody has to be on the long side, they were , and realized they better cover their asses with a fall bet too, somebody had to be on the other side and on and on it went . When the first execute button was pushed (no fat finger mistake) a deliberate bet , the shit hit the fan. They jumped on the panic button and sent the market the other way…Somebody made a shitpot full of money and of course somebody lost. One thing for sure we didn’t have time to do a damn thing but watch and take an extra dose of heart medicine .

The bottom line is this, how can us commoners plan for investment vehicles to provide for college for our kids , or retirement funds for ourselves with this kind of bullshit taking place. Don’t think for a minute that the Financial Reform package will do anything for us, we ain’t got the bucks to buy that kind of deal. Did you notice the shit storm caused by Angela Merkel banning naked short selling in Germany caused, ever some of my favorite economic writers criticized her for it. It’s those kinds of sudden moves that can bust these hedge funds and this automatic trading nonsense overnight. Sounds like a hell of an idea to me. Don’t hold your breath for those kinds of changes happening here, it won’t.

THE WEDGE (CHECKBOOK ECONOMICS)

Some moons ago I started calling common sense economics Checkbook Economics, however , now thinking it needs a more catchy name I will call it the WEDGE which is the simplest tool ever designed by man.  That’s exactly what this economics system is about SIMPLE.

The basic premise  what  can the average family realistically expect on their $46K/yr income.

The blog My Budget 360 lays out item by item what you can do on this budget.

Here http://www.mybudget360.com/how-much-does-the-average-american-make-breaking-down-the-us-household-income-numbers/

What is starkly laid out in the above post is a long ways away from what we are told we should do.

What has prompted me to explore this subject is the repeated media drumming of how screwed up we are and that we have built our own nest and now must lie in it.  Total Bull.  When 50% of the families earn less than 50K they are not going to have health insurance, or a retirement fund or much fun either.  As My Budget 360 says up front you can find fault on a line to line  dissection  of his budget but it does give you a basis to compare your own experiences.  You can plainly see that you are not going to live up to the guidelines given us.  For instance you are not going to save a lot of money, you are not going to have health  insurance, you are not going to have a retirement account and above all you will probably have to work till you drop.

A few articles on where we are actually at in the retirement savings race.

http://www.zero2rich.com/average-retirement-savings.html

http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/average-retirement-savings-by-age.html

About 7% of workers are union members and have retirement programs and some companies do also.  The companies with plans are disappearing rapidly and those that do exist are having benefits lowered .  Is some cases of late companies are just cancelling the retirements they are paying their retirees.  So realistically you are looking at what you will get from Social Security and your meager savings.  Note: Social Security is under attack as we speak.  Before Social Security 80% of seniors lived in poverty and it looks like they are trying to put us back in poverty in the future.

THE WEDGE (SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES)

If you work for wages you are not going to be rich.

Your house is not an investment, it’s merely a place to live.

You will not be able to save a lot of money.

You most likely will not have a college fund for your kids.

Your wife will work.

You will never retire. (unless you work  as a union member)

You will have credit card debt, there’s no way you can avoid it.

You will have to adapt a “Can I afford it by the month”?  attitude. Saving to buy a car, or a house is out of the question.    Doctor and dentist bills are a  waiting terror for every family without insurance.   A trip to the dentist can put you in hock for years.

You will have to figure out what the Rich Folk will let you have and be happy with that.  That is actually not as bad as it seems.  If you can enjoy the simple things in life you’ll be fine.  Only if you keep up with the Johns will you get in trouble.

If your above average in income with your wife working you will average $67.800/yr. Check this chart comparing a 1973 family to today’s family from My Budget 360

http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/cnn-trap-income.gif

This little chart is depressing as hell, it how takes two people working with the same $17K after basic expense, housing, insurance, taxes, cars and daycare.  $17K to do everything else , roughly $1400/mo  dollars to do everything else.  Good luck with that.  This should plainly show you the expectations laid on us by the Media and the Powers That Be are totally unrealistic.

Even if your in the top 15% in wage earnings ($100,000) and you live in a high rent district like California you will barely be making it.  Check out this My Budget 360 post “Going Broke on $100,000/yr.

http://www.mybudget360.com/family-budget-how-to-go-broke-on-100000-a-year-why-the-middle-class-has-a-hard-time-living-in-expensive-urban-areas/

As shown by the budget links provides that there is a long, long way between the median income and the top 15% wage earners.

The single purpose of “THE WEDGE” is to restore your self confidence , you are not as screwed up as the Politicians and the Media make you out to be.  You hear daily how you are responsible for the current financial crisis because you bought a house you couldn’t afford, or you bought those two SUV’s,  or all you do is watch TV and go to the Mall to shop.

The average family was suckered into a huge trap by the housing bubble and easy credit.  You were told hey, just buy this house , look you can afford this low, low payment and in a few years you can flip it or refinance into a more affordable loan, meantime you can take any gained equity out of a Equity Loan and spend it. Alan Greenspan didn’t see any bubble he says and thought that real estate would go up forever.    It’s your money use it.  And then the Merry Go Round stopped and the sky fell.

Meantime back at the DEAR OLE BANK , that screwed you to begin with, they jack your credit card interest up to 30%, change the due date so they can charge you late fees, impose all kinds of fees that didn’t exist before and of course get several million bucks per year in their fat greedy little hands.  The hell of it is , they packaged and sold your mortgage and now they don’t get nailed when you get foreclosed on.

So the bottom line is quite simply this.  Quit believing everything your told about this being your fault.  Sure you bear some of the blame, but you were suckered in.  Plenty of rich guys were suckered along with you, pension funds, investment advisors, foreign buyers of our funny money derivatives .   The Bernie Madoff’s of the world took no prisoners, they screwed everybody , friends and enemies alike.  The average guy was screwed by the biggest crooks of all times,  BANKS.

An old saying comes to mind, DON’T GET PISSED , GET EVEN.

Mike Malloy (a wild eyed talk show host) suggests we just stay home from work.  He figures it will only take one day if we all do it.  It might just work.  Work a day, stay home a day till the changes we need take place.  The hell of this idea is it doesn’t take a big organization, it just takes you and me and somebody to name a starting date.  It’s in our hands , it’s obvious no politician will come to our rescue.  If it’s going to get done, WE HAVE TO DO IT.



REVERSE ROBIN HOODS

Yes I meant plural. There are more than one of these guys out to destroy whatever retirement system you are participating in. They have done a pretty good job driving the stock market to the bottom and then 2/3 of the way back up giving you heart failure as you watched your 401K tank. A lot of people rode it to the bottom of this cycle and are feeling a little better now. It will tank again and soon. This last run up was a totally manipulated affair by government and the big banks trying to recover their balance sheets.

Now Hank Paulson(as detailed by Paul Craig Roberts)herehttp://www.progressivefix.com/obamas-deficit-commission and Mish Shedlock (herehttp://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/02/illinois-pension-fund-61-billion.html,
here http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/02/illinois-pension-fund-61-billion.html,
here http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/02/pew-study-shows-trillion-dollar-state.html to just name two are out throwing their lips around saying that we must cut Social Security and Medicare in Paulson’s case, and we must destroy the the pension systems of state and federal workers.

As if the above were not a big enough attack on all of our pension systems now the Obama administration has set up a panel to make recommendations on how to cut the deficits at the same time Hank Paulson says SS and Medicare have to be on the block for cuts.

Paul Craig Roberts lists the attacks on SS of the past administrations on the system listed in the linked article above. To summarize briefly, the Regan administration (Grenspan and Stockman) had Regan phase in SS increased taxes to create a budget surplus they could then borrow to fund their budget deficits by using the money to buy T bills. They keep saying there is no money in the trust fund which is a flat out lie. If our money isn’t there then all the foreign countries holding T bills are getting screwed right along with us. The Clinton administration buggered the CPI so they could limit SS payments by understating inflation. (some estimate at least 50% higher SS payment if they had left it alone.

Let’s be perfectly clear the Republicans were against SS in the beginning and have been trying to destroy is ever since. They even call it Welfare (a dirty word in their dictionary) but since most of us pay into the system it’s total bullshit to call it welfare. Social Security can be secured easily by a few simple changes that the right hates. No surprise there. Simply lift the cap on wages so that all pay for all of their wages and I would add on top of that the the same tax on all investment income. It can be secured as far as the eye can see by making some minor tweaks in the system. Anybody who says differently is just flat out lying.

Medicare is another story entirely. In it’s present form it is unsustainable. The CBO has estimated the only way out of budget deficits and for health care cost control is to go to a Universal Care Program (call it what you like) . Good luck passing that , so when it bites us in the butt in the near future we will have to deal with it or a lot of old folks will be in the streets dying. All one has to do is look back before 1936 to see the plight of old folks at the time. Around 80% were living below the poverty level with no health care and facing a very dreary Golden Years. We fixed that with SS and Medicare and now they want to go back to the good ole days.

The State and Federal programs are funded by the employees and by the organization they work for. In the State systems they are if supposed trouble now because the states found ways to not put in their money and are faced with raising taxes to fix their self created problems. All these fear factor stories are based on projections of cost way into the future . We all know now how good they are projecting any economic matters > (remember them saying that nobody foresaw the housing bubble problem. (I know several blind men that say it) And now these same characters are projecting these failures. It is probably a badly hidden attack on wage and benefits for the unionized work force.

We have a choice I suppose , we can set here and let them destroy our Golden Years or we can for once fight back. There is deep seated hate out there for Union people because of the benefits they have fought and pain for over time. I ask all you haters out there to remember you too will be forced into the Medicare system at age 65, let it be destroyed for you own peril.

Don’t believe the lies, this is all fixable.

_______
The Grey Tiger

PENSION FUND SMACKDOWN

Mish Shedlock an investment advisor of some fame has consistently ragged  on unions and their pension funds in particular, time after time.  In this post and others Mish claims it is the union workers who have negotiated fat retirement and pay contracts that are bankrupting the states.  Here’s the Illinois story of why this is now a problem.  Seems like the state who owes the retirement system the money they now have to borrow to pay up should have been paying into the system all along.  They opted out of the Social Security system to save money on a year to year basis and of course it’s easier to shine the unions then to cut services or raise taxes to pay your bills.

This argument is used by the right and the rich to try and destroy working families by basically telling half truths  when the system is in trouble.  It’s the same argument they use when they talk of Social Security being broke.  They say there is no money in the systems trust fund.  Hell no there isn’t it’s government T-bills that if the SS system hadn’t bought them somebody else would have had to.  Now the bills are coming due and they don’t want to pay them (default on the debt)  which says they also will try and default on the National Debt.  They won’t be happy till were all eating cat food.

THE WARNING

This is an earlier Frontline program on an honest Woman who tried to stop Greenspan and the boys from destroying the country.  She wasn’t successful but she tried, and the good ole boys beat her to death and screwed us in the process.

NO WINGER-REALLY A RIGHT WINGER IN A TEA STAINED COAT

This letter was first published in June of 2009 but has suddenly appeared again in my email box.  A friend sent it to me for opinion (he already knows what I will say) but what the hell I’m game.  Janet claims to be fed up with both parties (and who isn’t) but seems to be reading from the far right play book trying to hide in  a Tea Bag. Since this was written almost a year ago lots of happened in the Teabagger movement and one could hardly say they have gotten stronger.  Talk on the street is that it will destroy any conservative chance of winning the White House in 2012 , but it is pretty easy to see they might be somewhat more successful in the 2010 races for Congress.  A lot of  talking points in this letter have been out there since they were first aired in the 08 election by those who are against Obama.  My political stance is known as Political Atheist , I’m not locked in to either party but it will be easy to see I am way more progressive than Janet or Beck.  So dig in and check out my comments in RED

GLENN BECK READING ON HIS SHOW THE LETTER BELOW.  MY COMMENTS ON HER POINTS WILL BE IN RED

Janet Contreras Letter, Glenn Beck Program

The text of the letter is below along with an audio video from the show as carried on air. You can visit the Glenn Beck website to sign a petition endorsing the letter.

Janet Contreras (see photo) is a former Democrat who switched parties to Republican to vote for John McCain but she is already fed up with the GOP’s reluctance to stand for the constitution and against Barack Obama’s socialist agenda.

Curious as to reader thoughts.

ON OPEN LETTER TO OUR NATION’S LEADERSHIP:

- Janet Contreras

June 17, 2009

I’m a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you’re willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I’m not a racist. This isn’t to be confused with legal immigration.

By this I suppose she means the rounding up and deporting all illegal immigrants .  Good luck with that !  Where are you going to get the 94 billion bucks to do that job.  The time for you to stop this problem has long since past and would have cost a lot less money.  All you had to do was throw any CEO , owner, manager who hired an undocumented worker into jail for a nice long rest.  The problem would have ended quickly.  By now it is pretty apparent the flow has reversed, they are going home, there are no jobs.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

I actually agree with her that TARP should never have been .  Too late now, it’s been done and the banks are still in the same trouble or bigger.   That was a Bush plan and Obama played along with it so he shares the blame.  Once again though the need for TARP was caused by (what else) a Free Market philosophy endorsed by the everyone from Regan on (yeah Clinton too) .  Dear ole Greenspan recently before congress said OH GEE I was wrong , financial markets need regulators (NO SHIT SHERLOCK)

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Czars are just a name really that brings froth to the mouth of  a lot of people.  They have been used forever almost and simply are a way of pointing out the head of an agency or a policy that the President has authority to control.  Here’s the dictionary definitionn of the job .  Any authority a Czar may have is bestowed because they are head of an agency that control a focused problem.  Drug Czar for instance.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Cap and Trade sucks, nothing more to say.  It might just be Climate Change, check the pictures of ice melting throughout the world and you’ll know that something is going on.  Cap and Trade will not stop the problem and most likely the problem will not be stopped, we will go into an Ice Age when the Great Conveyor stops.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don’t you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Call it whatever you want, but if you expect the Country or each one of us to remain solvent we have to go to a Single Payer program of some kind, The Congressional Budget say that a Single Payer system is the only way the budget can be brought under control.  Why pay insurance companies a 30%  bonus for just paying the bills , something the government does now for 3% .  And while were at it why not go to a drug program like the VA the most efficient in the world and save Medicare 400 billion a year in the process.

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don’t you start there.

Don’t seem like the States are doing a bang up job either, they are broke too.  This is another area where you should have been outraged but probably supported , wire tapping, arresting and jailing citizens without due process, no knock and on and on.  She have been fearful and sucked up the safety under the cloak of Uncle.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don’t trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Most of the crap out there about Acorn was a straight out lie that has been debunked by all, forget about it.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Gee lady, I have paid the same 8 or 9 %% federal tax just about forever, those that make the big bucks can not say the same, nor can the corporations, check the charts the middle class are the only ones who have not got a tax break of any size.  While I wish I had more say in how my bucks are spent (war spending at current levels is nuts) I don’t mind paying my taxes,  All in All I have gotten a lot for my money, too bad they didn’t get more from those that could afford it .  They sure as hell didn’t do any Trickle Down it was more like Piss On the middle class.

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Closet talk , what she really means is destroying Social Security and Medicare and I’m sure Unemployment Insurance is included.  You want to give, then give, but the government will help just in case your a penny pincer.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we’ll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Some agreement here, I don’t think the banks should have been bailed out, but I do think the car companies and any other industry that is in serious trouble should be helped.   Remember the wailing from some when we bailed out Chrysler, well we made money on that deal ,   Without good paying blue collar jobs we are doomed,  want to save some money then cut subsidies that are given on a routine basis for ever, corporate farms, big oil for example.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let’s have it. Let’s say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Good luck with this wish.  They might publish the information and even televised hearings , but tell me how much did you know or learn from the health care debate that went on for year.  Not much!!  If they do publish data you can count on it being twisted so far from the truth the info will be worthless.  Take the unemployment numbers that are published now 9.8%  try 22% for a closer number.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

UNPRECEDENTED SPENDING, I assume you mean Obama here.  Golly Gee I didn’t think this was a new thing seem like since Regan’s day we have been doing a great job in this field.  Has Obama spent a bunch on things you don’t like, is that what your whining about?  TARP wasn’t his, the Recovery Act is and just about most who have studied the Great Depression know that in these time you need to spend to create jobs, and keep people from starving .  But of course you have never thought this was a good thing, you have been against the Social Programs forever, you would like to go back to the pre Social Security days when 80% if seniors were classified as poor.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let’s just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I’m busy. I’m busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don’t want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we’re morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we’re so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn’t ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don’t care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

YEAH SURE, YOUR COMING, LED BY WHO? AN ANGRY MOB?  HONEST POLITICIANS ?  REALLY???   You have a right to believe what you want but don’t pretend to be anything but RIGHT WING, CONSERVATIVE, CRUEL HEARTED, STINGY, FEARFUL, NASTY PEOPLE WHO OPERATE ON FEAR. WELL SORRY LADY, I’M NOT SCARED OF YOU OR YOUR TEABAGGERS,  and if you want to follow a crybaby like Glenn Beck then have at it.

- Janet Contreras

June 17, 2009

GET OUT YOUR HATCHET , SCALPELS WON’T DO THE JOB

BUDGET TALK- CUT, CUT ,CUT.

Never mind we are still in depression times and there are no jobs.  The crazy talk about recovery are simply not backed up by any facts that   are not just pimples on a giant’s butt.  Big news today is WOW we lost 40,000 less jobs than expected and that’s the best they can do.  We have added some jobs in the auto industry and that’s encouraging but the trend to outsource is still underway and companies like Google for instance say they need to hire foreign workers because their are not the qualified workers they need in this country even though their are close to 9 million unemployed citizens already here.  I am beginning to wonder if someone left “TRAINING PROGRAMS” out of the CEO vocabulary .

So let’s cut the federal budget and where’s the first place they look?  Why of course the Social Programs are the first target.  There was talk for awhile that billionaire Pete Peterson was to head up a Presidential commission  http://firedoglake.com/2009/02/18/hedge-fund-billionaire-pete-peterson-key-speaker-at-obama-fiscal-responsibility-summit-will-tell-us-all-why-little-old-ladies-must-eat-cat-food-so-social-security-can-be-saved/  to reform Social Security into a private pension fund , that seems to have been shelved for now.  The original plan was to have a commission like the Base Closing commission that would send a plan to congress for an up or down no change vote.  Thanks to a Democratic leadership revolt that plan is shelved.  Now their will be a commission that will simply issue a report for Congress to consider.  Before moving on let’s be clear the fix for SS is simple,  remove the wage limit and go to a simple if you receive it you pay SS tax on it.  I would also include a smaller tax on dividends and capital gains for all income of those under SS retirement age.

So where do we cut.  The federal budget is dished out like this pie chart shows   http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm Where would you start if this was your household budget.  Of course you would go to the biggest expense and see where you could tweak it to reduce the load.  In this case it’s the Defense Budget that stands out clearly as the target.  Now before you get your panties in a bunch and get all revved up about me being weak on National Defense look at the numbers .  Well over a third is defense.  This chart counts military retirement as part of the total and of course that’s untouchable in my mind.  So let’s consider the 1000 bases we have scattered throughout the world.  http://www.inteldaily.com/2010/02/the-700-military-bases-of-afghanistan-black-sites-in-the-empire-of-bases/ .  First be clear , there are many bases that do not appear on the Pentagon list, like a billion dollar base in Qatar.  You can immediately question the need for base in Japan, Germany, Korea and many other cold war outposts.  Then flip over to the 700 plus bases built in Iraq and the goal of 700 more in Afghanistan.   There is enough pork in contractor monies in building and support of these bases to take care of a huge chunk of the budget.  Much, much more money than is available in all other programs that can be touched.  Pie in the sky programs like the old Star Wars missile defense system , or the F22 fighter program exist today and should be ferreted out and canned.

Before we go destroying the basic support systems for the senior and less fortunate of the country let’s go in and cut the hell out of these  huge wasteful parts of the defense budget.

THE DRUMS ARE PLAYING-WE JUST CAN’T HEAR THE MUSIC

The marching band is banging away and were sitting out here thinking if they would just play a little louder we could hear them.  Were all wanting and expecting reform of our financial systems and all eyes are on the Senate where we see day by day more and more of the reforms wacked from the bill.

It’s all a game my friends.  They have no intentions of changing anything but the paint job. Here’s Why.  The George Washington Blog pops a story that seem new to my eyes.  I’m sure we heard some puff lines about the goodness of this part of the WTO treaty but it didn’t ring a bell at the time.  If you think change is going to happen read this piece.  The cyanide pills are in the upper medicine cabinet.