Automobile Workers, We Don Need Your Stinkin Automobile Workers

I guess one thing I thought about Obama was that he would not be so doctrinaire. So ideologically rigid. He seems unable to think of anyone who is not in his circle as human and to care about them. Let's face it. When you come out and speak in favor of letting the wealthiest 1% keep their monies and bonuses and then tell the real workers that they have to take one for the good of us all. Or actually I guess, 99% of us have to take one for the good of the 1%, well shit.

The real interesting thing is that the right hates him even more for saving their bacon. The left is forced to support him cause he is all we've got. But to me it looks like we are going to be right back where we were, you know.

I Could Use a Laugh

Well I certainly hope that Marx (Karl not Groucho) was right about history repeating its self because I could use a great big laugh. Although I'm not sure that the first time with the Clintons wasn't farce, so I don't really know what this time will be, but I'm wishing for some more of that farce, since it really looks like that's where we are headed. Since Obama apparently wants the union contracts broken at the automakers. The insurer for the pension system in this country is busy gambling (badly) with our pensions. And it looks like Obama is planning on following the Soviet Union down the rat hole that is Afghanistan.

I know I have explained why I voted for Obama, but please remind me why again.

A Couple of Brief Blogger Thoughts

I am a little delayed in getting the animals up, but I've had a couple of thoughts.

First, one reason I voted for Obama instead of Clinton in the primary was because I didn't want a Clinton II presidency. By that I mean that I believe that Hilliary and Bill are peas in a pod. Whatever their personal relationships are, their political beliefs are (I think) very similar. Particularly their economic thought. So, I figured that Obama would at least be a little different.

I did not think that Obama would recycle all these old Clintonistas as his economic advisers and appointees. I figured that he would have at least a few new faces, at least some people who did not parrot the Wall Street line. I guess not.

(By the time the general election came around I thought I had no choice. I figured the republicans were going with bat shit crazy. No matter how rational it seemed to let the worst be elected so the general public could feel the results of their own stupidity...........I live here. I do not really want to spend the last few years of my life under a bridge eating the apples I couldn't sell. Now I'm no so sure that isn't what is going to happen anyway.)

Second, this is just bullshit. All the complaints about anonymity in today's world seem like a wilful (one hopes it is wilful and it is not that they really don't know) refusal to know and understand our very own history and the importance of the anonymous pamphleteer. As Mudflats says Ben Franklin used a pseudonym in some of his writings. Also, the fellows who wrote the Federalist originally wrote anonymously. Outing someone like that is really kind of pricky. And one hopes it will come back to bite the ass of the asshole who did it.

Of course, given they way the world works, probably not. I would think that is probably the reason people believe in the afterlife. There everybody gets their just reward. Unless of course you are a fundie. In which case you can be the biggest asshole in the world as long as you believe in the correct way. Which might explain the incredible number of fundies in the world.

A Funeral

Went to a viewing last night, the funeral was today. The guy was two years younger than I am (60). He had been feeling unwell and losing weight for some months. His wife was closely watching what he ate and was concerned.

Oh yes, he had been laid off a little over a year ago when he lost his employer provided health insurance. He and his wife could not afford to pay for COBRA so they were without that insurance. So they were hesitant to go to a doctor and were just hoping that there wasn't really anything wrong that wouldn't fix itself. They rescue (or at least did) animals from horrible conditions. All their "excess" money went into caring for the animals. They lived simply. He was not fat or in bad shape and had no really bad habits that we are always being warned to give up so we can live longer.

Monday he went out to feed the animals and was a little long out there. His wife went to see how he was and found him out there surrounded by the animals.

They asked for money to defray the cost of the funeral instead of flowers. Tell me again the danger of socialized medicine.

We Are Doomed in Afghanistan

Clearly we are doomed to lose in Afghanistan.

Fuck 'em All

These are the people I hate with a real passion. No not those in the mob, I mean the ones who write the pathetic articles. I do not mean that in any metaphorical sense nor do I mean that in any literary sense I mean I hate this whiny little shit. I hate his family and I wish the worst luck in the world on him and his. I want his house burned to the ground and the land sown with salt. I want his family scattered to the winds and I want him living by himself under a bridge eating cat food on a good day. I hate all the other people on Wall Street who have been making enormous profits while moving shit around. They make nothing they add nothing to the wealth of this country and they understand nothing except their shit.

Directly from school he apparently went to buying and selling shit. Shit that did nothing except make more money for him and his friends. Fuck him (and his horse). He would have made well over a million dollars a year for the last several years. He would have made at least half or three quarters a million in 2008 before the boom fell. Don't whine to me about the fact that you get a million (at least) in a bonus which you certainly do not deserve.

It should not have to be said, but apparently many miss the fact that auto workers have lost their bonuses but the NYT doesn't print their complaints. Nor for that matter can an autoworker do anything, but take the hit. Nor can the autoworker give over $700,000.00 to a chairty. Lets face it there would be no company if we hadn't poured billions (or maybe a trillion if you count the Federal Reserve) into AIG with apparently little or no preconditions. Unlike with the automakers.

Do not let the door hit you on the way out you ass hole.

Uh Oh

You know that we are in real trouble when the best Krugman can hope for is that Geithner, Summers and the rest of the Obama crew are lying.

I remember, I remember when that was my fondest hope about Clinton. Guess what. I was wrong, they were as serious as a heart attack (to coin a phrase). The result was a terrible disaster for Clinton and for American workers in general (anybody remember NAFTA and GATT and watching them jobs continue to drift overseas).

Yes, I know that Clinton remained popular throughout his administration, but just remind me what he accomplished. I realize that compared with the second greatest failure in American Presidential history (Buchanan will probably be the greatest failure until this country ceases to exist) Clinton is quite the fellow. Still other than screwing the American worker, destroying any hope of real health care reform for a decade, and getting rid of most of the remaining regulations on Wall Street thereby helping bring on our current disaster and getting a blow job, what did he do? Oh wait, he helped to continue to destroy the middle class (but I repeat myself).

I am kind of sorry that Greenwald finds something good about the criticism of Obama from progressives. Not that I am sorry that progressives criticize when Obama is obviously wrong, but that there are so many opportunities to do so.

You would think that Obama would prefer to have a memorial in D.C. resembling F.D.R.s rather than the one for Hoover (what there isn't one for Hoover--my oh my). But I guess not.

All Your Tarps Are Me

Let me see if I can say this right. If we do what Krugman and others like him want and they are wrong, what happens? We get rid of bad debt, we get rid of bad and stupid bankers we put the country back on the road to recovery quickly. Then we also nationalize some very large banks (we are already nationalizing small and medium banks weekly) for a short time. We then get rid of banks that "are too big to fail" so this kind of economic melt down will be much less likely to happen again. Essentially, nothing bad will happen if we go the Krugman route and we find it is unnecessary.

Now what happens if we go the Geithner route and he is wrong? Continued recession going into a possible depression. More money to the bankers and speculators and less to the "middle" class and working class (anymore the phrase middle class must be put into quotation marks as there is little real middle class left). The people who caused the recession left in power to do it again. The government buying these people out giving any loses to us the tax payers and any profits to the speculators. Finally, a continuation of the war against the middle and working classes by the wealthy and their minions. And those who got us here left in power to do it again and to profit from their mistakes (not at all like real capitalism). In other words: screwed.

What we have here is a failure of imagination. The people with the power simply are unable to look beyond their little area of muck. It is unfortunate, isn't it?

Later the Same Sunday

Loki drools over Opus.

I can hold my likker.

Sunday

Having trouble downloading pics so we will go with what we've already got.

Ming in the Confusian contemplation pose.

Sonny taking care of his little brother.

Halley watching over us all.

More of the Fucking Same

I couldn't think of a single funny thing.

So the best of the economists of the left, the ones who predicted the collapse, have jumped all over Obama's leaked (should that be in quotation marks?) new (that should definitely be in quotation marks) economic plan. For those who have been asleep for forty-eight hours, they panned it.

Basically, as I understand it we, through our rulers, by giving money to the people who originally screwed up will buy bad assets at way over the market prices and take the hit if they stay down, but not get the profit if they go up. That will be because we've loaned the money to these assholes to make the purchases, not made them ourselves.

It truly amazes me that these people (the ones running the companies, the ones making the trades, the ones who used to run the companies and now run the Treasury and government in general) seem to have absolutely not one second of self doubt. It was beyond their control, no one could have foreseen this problem (it doesn't matter that people did, of course)(including a Noble prize winner). It will correct with a "little" help from the government.

The government's position: It will all be over by next year. And when it isn't, it won't be the conservative assholes who get blamed.

Nuts

Well, after just posting about lying republicans I get to post about not exactly lying democrats, but democrats who are taking us down the long dark road to national bankruptcy.

Krugman is pretty unhappy and so am I. It looks like the Obama boys are dead set on saving their buddies' (and you know the old military definition of a buddy) financial asses. One of the most interesting things about FDR was how he would get information from all sorts of people. People who had various points of view and who came from different backgrounds. Of course, the fact that he was married to Elinore couldn't hurt either. I looks to me that Obama only listens to the people who matter. You know the bankers and economists who got us into this situation.

That does correspond with the bonus issue. No matter what they've done they can't be wrong. And they deserve extra money for it, don't ya know. Nor can the system be wrong, nor can the theory be wrong. Therefore, what you see is an illusion. Everything is really OK don't you know.

Hypocrisy Watch

There is serious hypocrisy and there is just your normal hypocrisy. I figure that Buchman is just your normal hypocrite for lying about ear marks. But Rice and all the Bush people are just wow.

I Don" Know

I don't know, but I'm beginning to think that maybe The Memorandum might be kind of sort of right wing in its point of view.

UDATE: It's late afternoon now, after 5:00 p.m. that above was posted this morning. Apparently nothing has happened all day as the same stuff is at the top of Memorandum that was there this morning. That is stories that link to the Special Olympics joke by Obama on Leno.

Oh Just Waaaa

I mean like Atrios says "poor wealthy white people." I do see that one of the writers is a Buckley, I wonder if it's a relation.

You know I've had clients who were charged with a crime when they were in a car when the real thief went into the place to rob it. I've also got a guy who bought a gun from a thief, thinking it might be stolen, but not sure. He's now charged with receiving stolen property. These people at AIG (and other places like MSNBC and Bear Sterns) should be glad they are not in jail.

Boring AIG & Bonuses Again

I have been thinking about these people at AIG who got the bonuses and the ones who will receive the next billion in bonuses. They ran the company into the ground and they ran the entire world's economy into the ground. Which now that I think about it really is pretty impressive.

On the other hand, what do you think that they do/did that a graduate of a good joint vocational school with dual degrees in accounting and computer science couldn't do?

Damn I Hate It When I'm Right

I put up the last post before I saw this. There is apparently no way you can fail without being chosen to work on this administration's financial team. At least under Bush they waited until they were appointed to fail completely.

Given my tax problems and criminal history I should be a natural for some high level administration position. Well that and the fact that I am willing to take a position in a field I know nothing about. I think that I'll put my name in today.

Epic Fail

I don't think that Obama has permanently failed, but I do think that he has up to this point on the two most important issues out there right now.

The bailout package and the war in Iraq. His positions are in lock step with the completely repudiated positions of Bush and the republicans. The only reason he isn't getting reamed on Iraq is that it is relatively quiet right now and the bailout has pushed it off the front pages.

They screwed the pooch on the bailout bonuses and now they are trying to blame Dodd. Apparently, that is not true. In fact Dodd tried to put limits on the bonuses and Geithner and the rest of the administration were able to keep limits out of the bill.

It is difficult to understand just what he is doing and why he is doing it. I would like to believe that there is some really clever concept here rather than think that the guy I voted for is a complete idiot. But right now he and his administration are acting like complete idiots and they were idiots when they forced the bailout bill through. Of course we're not even talking about the most expensive provisions of the bailout bill. And you do not really think that they are any more fair in the long run, do you?

Quite simply, I doubt if he has the desire to force anything other than variations on what he has already do through the congress. Therefore, we're fucked. Now where have I heard that before?

But to get back to my first point, I do not expect Obama to change his policies or the people he listens to which means: EPIC FAIL!!!!!

The First African American Hoover

You know I always thought that Obama wanted to be the first African American FDR, not the first African American Hoover. But I would not be surprised to begin seeing some Obamavilles around soon, if this ass hole doesn't get his act together.

I am having the same sinking feeling I had with Carter and Clinton. Perfectly good republicans.

As usual Greenwald has some interesting stuff about who put the protection for bonuses into the bailout bill. His piece and the links are very interesting. In one of his updates he states the the Times has changed it story to reflect the reality of who (the administration not Dodd) insisted protection for bonuses be put into the bill.

I find it interesting that the Times would change its story after being confronted by outsiders with the truth. I would be encouraged by this, but I am reminded that we do have a "democratic" president, no matter how incompetent he is turning out to be. Perhaps just because he is turning out to be incompetent they will be more willing to pile on.

Blind Pig?

Do you suppose this Fox (yeah I know) article is right? I find the graphs at the bottom very interesting.

Do you wonder about the Cuomo thing? At least he apparently got to look at the work by the [unnamed] law firm. Why do you think they are not named. It might not be a bad deal that he wasn't appointed to Clinton's seat.

Well clearly some democrat helped move this little thingy right along. Be it Geithner or Dodd. However, my money is on Obama. He is the president. He is the guy who hired Geithner. He is the guy who is responsible. Or at whose desk the buck stops to quote another democrat. He is still ridding high and his numbers are good. But I think that he just is (as mom used to say) buying trouble. He might ride this one out, but then again something will come along that will blow him out of the water. The media would love it. The wealthy would love it.

He can think that he hitched his wagon to that conservative democratic star, but it did neither Carter nor Clinton any good in the end. I did think that Obama was smarter than he now appears. I hope he is a lot smarter than I think he is. Cause otherwise we're fucked.

Of course a few hundred million is I guess less than 1% of the money we've already given to AIG. Still, it is good to get outraged over something involved in the bailout. Do you think it is just a way to distract us? We pour mass amounts of money into their (and a lot of others) pockets with little or no oversight. Hell, oversight. We should own them but because of our ideological rigidity we let the same people run them who ran them into the ground and/or stole from them and us. So now we are upset because they play the scorpion? No one could have predicted.

So we get this money back and all is well, we just go on as before pouring 1000 times that much money into the shit pile.

Deep Thought -- AIG Contracts

You know I wonder if our president, who happens to be a constitutional law professor has seen these unbreakable A.I.G. contracts.

Does It Strike You As Strange or Where Are The Fucking Contracts

Now I've got you by the short and curlies

Does it strike you as strange that we have not seen any of these unbreakable contracts?

OK, maybe Clinton would have been better. Maybe (heresy) McCain would have been better. It is hard to imagine someone being worse. I would have expected that anyone would have tried to buy their friends out of this trouble. Anyone would/could have thrown money at the banks as easily as our Democratic friends are. Although I'm hoping that the Republicans would have had more fun (oh, that Henny Youngman).

As I said his brilliant political skills will only work if he produces. You can run and you can get elected, but then you have to produce --- if you are a Democrat I mean. For the most part Republicans still get a pass.

I would like to see the contacts, though. It is one thing to leak to various news media that the contracts are unbreakable, knowing that the "reporters" (scare quotes) we have now wouldn't even try to see them. It is another thing for congress and the white house to buy into it without looking at the contracts and then letting us see them. Unless they are all in on it (says that little voice in my head).

The more I think about this story the fishier it gets. All those people who are getting the bonuses are probably working at will. All can be fired. And replaced with people who are competent. Let us see these unbreakable contracts. Another question, do you think that given the choice of losing their jobs and foregoing a bonus most of these people would choose to lose their jobs? Aren't bonuses by definition dependant on doing something special? I would think at the vary least you would have to make the firm money not lose the firm money before you get a bonus.

Where are the fucking contracts?

Oh here they are:

So I guess this is what we now own.

OK Maybe I Was Wrong

OK, perhaps I was wrong and maybe Obama wasn't the best of three bad choices. Or if he was then we are indeed fucked.

I've Got Something Else to Complain About

This post by Creek Running North, is kind of depressing. Mostly because he is so right: about how progressives aren't holding Obama's feet to the fire about getting out of Iraq. Not about: "It all happened before, with Clinton, and it will again." At least I hope he isn't.

I don't think I've been blogging a lot about that specific busted promise. And male no mistake that is a busted promise, perhaps the most obvious of all his busted promises. That is now just gone away as if it wasn't ever there. "Hey, I said we'd get out, but golly gosh, the people who got us into that, and whose reputations require that we stay there want to stay. So what can I do?"

"Yeah, I mean once it is explained to me by the people who have been wrong about nearly everything for as long as I can remember (yeah, Clinton too) well I guess I'll just have to go along them."

It is another WTF moment. But to get back to the link, I haven't been blogging much about it because, well I guess because the immediacy of its effect isn't there. Or perhaps because it isn't right in front of my face all the time, like the economy. Yeah, yeah I know about the negative effect it has on the economy.

Perhaps I should go to Code Pink a little more.

Aw Shit

So what do I see as a headline in the paper today: Administration is open to taxing health benefits. What kind of horse shit is this? The best way to balance the budget is on the backs of those least able to pay for it?

Well gee, I guess it would be an easy way to make sure that unionized workers didn't price themselves out of the market, since they would not be able to afford health benefits and would, what? I guess that they'd have to go out buy their own with what I would guess would be their increased salaries. Sure.

I'm not sure what Obama is trying to do. He keeps doing things that seem to be designed to piss off those who (however misguided they were) were his strongest supporters. Yeah, I did vote for him, but completely understanding that he was hopefully the best of three (counting Clinton) not particularly good choices

Of course that comes in on top of this shit. Giving some insight into what our unelected rulers continue to do. That is they take our money and then spit in our faces. I don't think that people (well at least not good old U.S. American patriot people) are willing to get out their pitch forks and tar and take these assholes out. But it would be nice to see Madam Guillotine up and operating on Wall Street. Not that I would ever seriously encourage something so awful, really. No really.

I am continuously amazed and how little these people seem to understand about what they have done and how little they care about getting it right this time.

UPDATE: Perhaps I was wrong about the health, stuff. On the other hand I am beginning to have a hard time trusting Obama.

Sunday

Sonny on his back pack taking in the bass through his butt.

Torti and Tux power napping

And Ming with Sonny keeping an eye out

Accurate At Least

So Mexico (the government, at least) is all upset because this guy is one of the wealthiest people in the world. He comes in at 701 with a puny billion dollar fortune. All because he got it illegally. (By the way check out Greenwald today about Protugal's legalization or at least decriminalization of all drugs.)

That means that there are at least 700 people in the world who are worth more than a billion. Think about that for a minute.

OK, have you gotten your mind around that. Meanwhile I'm worried about a couple of hundred (that's dollars not thousands). Everybody I know, even those who are "well off" are looking over their shoulders.

Actually, a second thought is that there are 700 people who can legally steal more than a billion from the rest of us.

Why Should I Work?

Why should I do the heavy lifting when someone else does it and I can just link to them? Although, I do not expect anyone to believe me, I had come to the same conclusion about Madoff's plea before I read Simple Justice. That is, that by pleading to these counts it was the only way to (perhaps) tramp down all the evidence of conspiracy with his sons and wife and other relatives.

I mean let's face it all Madoff can do is hope to keep the kids, at least, out of it. And let's also face it that Madoff was allowed to plead to eleven counts that did not include conspiracy. I suspect that the problem with that is that when the victims realize that there really isn't a lot of (or maybe any) money to cover their investment, they will start to check out the other parts of his "businesses" and his relatives. They can bring civil suits and, stuff will probably come out in five or six years. I suspect that if the only victims were poor (before Madoff's crime was revealed, that is) people and charities, all of that sordid stuff might be kept hidden. But given that the victims are (or were) the wealthy I suspect that it will all come out in the end.

Although, you have gotta wonder just what the prosecutor was thinking and what is going on letting Madoff plead with no conspiracy count. That certainly raises questions about the forth rightness of the U.S. Attorney.

I Just Do Not Understand

This makes no sense in any way at all. Not even the floating of the idea. Of course Bush did cut veterans benes in the middle of a "war." So my concerns from the previous post appear to be being answered and not in a good way.

Good News and Disturbing News

My congressman responded to my email asking him to support card check and said that he definitely does support it and will vote for it. That is good news since while he may not be a blue dog he is definitely a New Democrat.

However, this is really disturbing. I don't really care what he calls himself, but I don't like the idea of his triangulating like Clinton. We do not need more NAFTA, GATT, or giving the owners of our businesses the permission to send more jobs overseas at cut rate wages.

So if he acts in a pragmatic and practical way then I don't care. If all he is trying to do is calm the conservatives (although it won't work) then I don't care. But if what he is doing is sucking up to the wealthy again, and screwing up our chances for a recovery, then I do care.

The bank nationalization issue is the one where push is going to come to shove sooner rather than later. Right now Obama and his people are opposed to it for ideological reasons rather than any practical reasons. If he continues this kind of attitude then we are all screwed and we'll find that out sooner rather than later. If he does he will be another Clinton rather than another FDR, right now it looks like that is what he wants, but maybe not. I would think that he would want to be remembered as a hero, rather than a place holder. Maybe not though.

Card Check & Updates

You know I've often wondered just who Obama thinks his supporters are (no really!!!!! are you kidding!!!!!!you don't believe everything he says????????).

This card check thing (sorry for the Wall Street Journal Link) is simply outrageous. The unions have been Obama's strongest supporters. The evidence seems to indicate that white union households voted for Obama at a much higher percentage than white non-union households.

So the there are a few things: First, just having the card check will allow more people to become union members, which will in turn get more votes for progressives/democrats, not necessarily the same thing, I know. On the other hand, the republicans are reliably reactionary. So the votes would in the end, be in the interest of the entire county.

Second, it's just more fair and more just to allow unions to be formed with a card check. Forcing union s to undergo a "secrete ballot" allows the owners to put incredible pressure on the workers who are at that time non-union. The owners are able to delay the election, something they can't do with card check. And for the most part the workers, who are the organizers really do not have the protections a union can provide (no matter what the laws claim) and the workers also, for the most part, not aware of what those protections are.

Third, a one line sentence of support isn't support. Obama should be out there twisting arms because he is going to need those votes in 2010 and 12 and that kind of lukewarm support isn't what he gave to the bank bail out.

Of course, who would be surprised to see the democrats screw over one of their key constituencies? Not me.

UPDATE: Check out this and this. So Wal-Mart is being downgraded as an investment because the workers might get a decent wage with benefits and decent hours? Work place democracy too much for our economy to absorb. Once again I can merely look and wonder.

Economics? Eh

So reading again about Obama who is not, it appears, doing enough. I say it appears because those who knew what was coming and just where we are are now are calling him on his "too little, too late." There is also the seeming willingness to throw tons of money into holes that have been dug by the wealthiest (the money coming, of course, from the rest of us). Add to this little or no oversight and we have a disaster, and who knows if it would be as big or bigger or smaller than if nothing were done.

Well, OK the people I mentioned earlier know, and they seem to say something is better than nothing economically. But in political terms probably doing a little something, is worse than doing nothing. Why, you vouchsafe? Because it will turn people off to government action and progressive politics for the foreseeable future. (Obama a Randian sleeper cell?)

Obama is a brilliant politician. But eventually even a brilliant politician has to produce on the most important political issues of his (or her) time. In this case it is the economy. He is doing half assed things, along with his continuing to dangle Social Security out there as a ripe grape for his wealthy buddies. This is not brilliant politics, this is not even competent economics.

I started to write "Once again," but I don't think it is again. I think it is "still." It hasn't changed in at least sixteen and probably more like thirty years. Our rulers allow us enough liberty (read my rants!) and toys (did I show you my new computer?) to keep us occupied.

I suspect now, that the only change that will be allowed through is a sort of cosmetic one, which will look like, what? I don't know, but not like the place I grew up, with expectations for the children being better than those for their parents. A few very wealthy. Their most important minions working hard for them.................. and the rest of us. Probably being given enough to keep us from going crazy and killing those in power. But then it is always easy to convince the vast majority of the underclasses that they really do not deserve anything more and the upper classes deserve all they have and more.

Well, I voted for Obama because of hope (is that word already owned?) and because I knew what both the others stood for. He was zit.

Just Another Dreary Day

Ming looking much like a mop.

Sonny watching the rain

Loki brooding (and watching the rain)

Halley brooding and watching the rain

So I'm looking at the lights under the ceiling fans and wondering why one of the lights will periodically go out and then when I touch it it will go back on. The Wife said that it was because the fan keeps moving and so it shakes it loose.

So I've got to thinking is that our reason? We're on this planet and we keep moving in a circle just like the fan, so we're shook loose ourselves. Not on all the time and not particularly bright.

A Couple of Things

I've been thinking about a couple of things and lo and behold here are some posts about them.

First, I've been wondering about the Madoff thing and this post by Simple Justice is brilliant, because he says just what I've been thinking. I'd figured that the deal was probably to keep his sons out of jail, but I hadn't realized that it could extend to his wife and some other relatives. I am kind of concerned about the thought that they'll be allowed to keep some of the money, but we'll see. My bet is that at least the family won't go to jail and they will be left with smidgen maybe a mill. total,

Second, there is the question I've had all along as to what the hell Obama is thinking about with Social Security. I can understand why republicans would be attacking it, but I cannot really understand why a "moderate" democrat like Obama would keep looking at it for "reform." It doesn't need reform. The only reform that has been suggested is to invest it in the market. That that is still being suggested is, to put it mildly, amazing. I do mean WTF. No matter what you owe your money supporters, I would think that you would not even consider that. At least not at this point.

I mean lets face it for a guy who has been so brilliant politically up to now this does seem like a tin ear sort of thing. Unless, of course he is relying on the so called liberal media to eventually convince the rubes out there that Social Security is unsafe or a form of Ponzi. Then he will let his wealthy buddies swoop in and eat it up.

The other way to look at this is to look at the game he is playing with the banks. Is he just not creative enough? Cause he certainly not dealing with that issue with the kind of forcefulness one would like to see.

I'm thinking that both of these things involve the miss use of other people's money. Maybe I should have been a banker.

Just Wonderin

How do you steal 50 billion dollars if you don't own your own country?

My Line of Work

So I'd meant to write a little about this yesterday as it is about my line of work really. The report says among other things that:

• One in 31 adults in America is in prison or jail, or on probation or parole. Twenty-five years ago, the rate was 1 in 77.
• Overall, two-thirds of offenders are in the community, not behind bars. 1 in 45 adults is on probation or parole and 1 in 100 is in prison or jail.

What that really means for those in the community in small towns, at least, is that they are subject to being hassled and bothered by the cops and their P.O.s whenever the P.O.s feel like it. They are forced to pee into a cup at the direction of the authorities (of course many Americans, who still have jobs in the Land of the Free are required to pee into a cup to just keep their jobs). So maybe that is just another little thing (privacy) in the long list of things that people are willing to give up for a little security (Ben Franklin where are you now?). People constantly looking over their shoulders to make sure they are not breaking some rule that ..... well is just there for our own good, don't ya know?

Still, I watch clients being brought back into court again on what are often very minot violations. Smoking dope! So easy to catch them, it remains in their system for ever and is a clear violation. Even though in Ohio possession is a minor misdameanor, but it can get you put in jail if your on parol or prbation. Or as a juvenile into detention or the Department of Youth Services.

Hmmmmmmmmm

Well perhaps I was a little too hasty yesterday. I guess everything is looking bad. I wonder how FDR would have handled it if he'd been elected just weeks after the crash. Of course, the decline has been going on for well over a year and no one seemed to notice.

Well I'm off to see the tax man it is I hope I make it back.

Another Of Mr. Toad's Wild Rides All Downhill

Wow. So once again the market fell like a stone. This on a day that the unemployment figures although bad aren't as bad was thought they would be. Wow, Wow, Wow. On the other hand it looks like GM might be headed for the scrap heap. I can't remember, but I wonder if any company of comparable size bit the big one during the Great Depression?

You know I really don't understand all that much about economics and the markets, but I think I understand as much as those who make their living from them.

So tell me again why we listen to these assholes and the senators and congresspeople who also do their bidding?

This Doesn't Look Good

Here you go every reason in the world to keep doing what we've been doing and take care of the rich.