Jay Bookman

By DB, Gwinnettian

December 2, 2008 7:36 AM | Link to this

What a kooky lot, those Latvians.

Good thing our nation would never persecute individuals simply because they published unpleasant truths.

By leni

December 2, 2008 7:44 AM | Link to this

In Myanmar (Burma to those of us who refuse to change names (reality) for political purposes) has just sentenced a comedian to 57 years in prison for making jokes about the government. Imagine!

About the economy?—-Robert Rubin, Robert Rubin,Robert Rubin.

About reality?—Jim Kramer this morning: “People should not use the word ‘depression’ .”

By Taxpayer

December 2, 2008 7:55 AM | Link to this

Denying reality doesn’t change reality! Funny, that never stopped Bush. As far as Latvia is concerned, the election is over and the Republicans lost so we don’t need any more reasons at the moment to vote out the Republicans.

By Bud Wiser

December 2, 2008 8:06 AM | Link to this

Through the early and middle parts of the political season, right up until the September collapse on Wall Street, the Republicans were still claiming that the economy was doing just fine…..

Let us not forget the Congressional committees, most notably the one headed by blowhard Barney Frank, who testified before Congress the very same about Fannie and Freddie, etc, etc.

As far as Latvia, who cares? And Taxpayer, I’d get my head out of the sand or wherever you park it, and get over the election thing. Your team of Clinton retreads won, so now what are they going to do about it? Is this the Change you can believe in crap they fed the ignorant masses to get elected? Yeah, its change alright, change back to the past, garbage, baggage and all.

By reebok

December 2, 2008 8:09 AM | Link to this

I, for one, find it entirely plausible that Saxby Chambliss does not know what the term “recession” means. I’ve heard him speak, and there seem to be MANY terms that he does not understand.

By DB, Gwinnettian

December 2, 2008 8:28 AM | Link to this

Along with the firm belief in unreality comes the notion that 2008 was a failure for the GOP due to some out-of-the-blue event—in this case, a “nobody-could-have-anticipated” credit meltdown.

The same way that the 2006 failure was due to some out-of-the-blue event—in that case, weird and wacky Congressional scandals. (But they included “Dollar Bill” Jefferson, so shouldn’t that have hurt the Dems as well?)

I suppose on one level I should be glad that, apparently, a substantial percentage of the GOP faithful and leadership continue to think their misfortunes are due to weird, beyond-their-organizational control happenstance. I should be glad they’ll likely continue to field candidates whose positions on issues bear no resemblance to those of a majority of Americans’, and run utterly tone-deaf campaigns.

But I’m fine with the national Republican party, embracing a reality-based model for the first time since, oh, around the spring of 1980, any time they’re ready to do so.

By Soixante huitard

December 2, 2008 8:31 AM | Link to this

Phil who?

That bit about Latvia was from The Onion right?

Anyway, whoever thought that one up, pretty funny. Had a nice chuckle this morning with my coffee.

By Morningstar

December 2, 2008 8:31 AM | Link to this

(((Saxby Chambliss enlisted in the effort as well, claiming back in July that “We may not be in a recession. I don’t know what that term means.”They were wrong, of course. Most Americans knew in their gut that something was wrong)))

You betcha. Any ‘thinking’ person who knew anything at all about what was going on in the real estate and banking business, would have known we’ve been in a recession all along.

Human nature dictates that we all wish everything to be OK, but one would think common sense would occasionally kick in.

Go vote!!!

By lovelyliz

December 2, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this

Why can’t one who creates facts also create their own reality?

By Taxpayer

December 2, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this

This Bud’s for you:

[[[ By Bud Wiser December 2, 2008 8:06 AM …Let us not forget the Congressional committees, most notably the one headed by blowhard Barney Frank, who testified before Congress the very same about Fannie and Freddie, etc, etc…]]]

First of all, Bud, the election is over so Get OVER IT,

Second, try dealing with the facts. Especially the ones that will affect us well after the demise of the Republicans that wrought this destruction on us. Take the following, for example:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents,

Finally, Bud, you should be more concerned about where you have decided to park your own head.

There, I hope this retort meets with your approval, Jay.

By SOUTHERN ATL

December 2, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this

GEORGIA, The world is watching….and there will be a lot of analysis of this “GREAT STATE” based on the outcome of this election….I am hoping that we will choose WISELY…..and be able to hold our heads high as the “NEW SOUTH”………..It is a cold day but please get out and VOTE!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8IqkRbxcTA&feature=related

It is vital that JIM MARTIN wins……PEACE!!

By Soixante huitard

December 2, 2008 8:48 AM | Link to this

Human nature dictates that we all wish everything to be OK …

And ideology dictates that human beings relentlessly suppress all that does not correspond to the official rosy picture.

Definition of ideology:

A brutal campaign of forgetting and ignorance.

By AJC/DNC Management

December 2, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this

Recession: 2 consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.

Perhaps if we “create” a recession before we actually enter one, then we can blame it the people who didn’t cause it.

No problem, maybe y’all can whip up a report next summer saying that we’ve been in a depression for years, to get the heat of your little pompous failure.

By Eric1

December 2, 2008 8:56 AM | Link to this

The change is at the top, Butt Wizer. Change from moron to thoughtful intelligence. As far as Clinton “retreads” are concerned, if memory serves, they gave us eight years of peace and prosperity.

By Soixante huitard

December 2, 2008 9:04 AM | Link to this

Perhaps if we “create” a recession before we actually enter one, then we can blame it the people who didn’t cause it.

Definition of ideological obfuscation part II: the attempt to divert blame and attention by claiming that words don’t matter and dismissing technical terminology as irrelevant and rigged when it’s inconvenient to your cause.

By leni

December 2, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this

omnia republica delenda est

and Mr. Bookman’s special needs kids are licking the dust

taste better than paste?

taste better than play-doh?

By Bosch

December 2, 2008 9:10 AM | Link to this

When I saw Jay’s headline this morning, I thought, “Wow, that could be about almost anything in wingnut world.”

By "The Corporal"

December 2, 2008 9:18 AM | Link to this

Off Topic

An editorial in today’s AJC compares the Obama’s family values to those of Ward and June Cleaver.

I’m sorry, but I can’t see either of the Cleaver’s voting to end the life of a child born through a botched abortion.

By Morningstar

December 2, 2008 9:24 AM | Link to this

Southern ATL @ 8:46AM

Thanks Southern ATL. It’s been a while since I listened to Ray Charles sing “Georgia.” Makes me ‘tear up.’

Georgia became a progressive state after that Lester Maddox fiasco way back when. At some point many of the democrats (‘scuse me - Dixiecrats) switched to the Republican party due to race issues. All one needs to do is take a look at the rural areas, as well as some of the burbs. They get their news from Faux and Limbaugh. Some get their ‘news’ from a double digit IQ preacher subtly (and sometimes not subtly) projecting their end of time ideas from the pulpit. I’m a regular church goer and a Christain, but don’t mix it in the church please. It’s a ‘divider,’ not a ‘uniter.’

Then we have all those ‘move ins’ from the other 49 states, mostly from the North. Y’all think we have born and bred all the rednecks here in Georgia? Get a grip. I could tell you some stories!! Nope! I’m not fingerpointing at my Yankee friends, and I DO have quite a few. I’m stating that people are the same everywhere. Some are better educated; hence, they are more economically stable, but the brain waves that promote their ideology or whatever you wish to call it, are the same.

Go vote! Take Granny, Great Aunt Susie and your elderly neighbor with you!!

By Bosch

December 2, 2008 9:24 AM | Link to this

Corporal,

Gee, I couldn’t see that either considering both are fictional characters.

Talk about denying reality.

By Taxpayer

December 2, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this

Andy,

You do know about the NBER and its function, don’t you?

By "The Corporal"

December 2, 2008 9:30 AM | Link to this

Here’s some reality

Headline: Jews in Mumbai tortured before they were executed ….

They will come for you first Jay. You liberals had better wake up.

By @@

December 2, 2008 9:32 AM | Link to this

this former Soviet republic recently took a novel step to contain the crisis. Its counterespionage agency busted an economist for being too downbeat.

I couldn’t help but laugh when I read today’s column, jay.

Last night you deleted Andy’s comment because………?

I’ve stored away this visual in my mind’s eye of you, jay making decisions about whose speech should be suppressed.

It’s the e-trade commercial with the little asian guy about to make his first online transaction. All the kids standing behind him, wide-eyed in anticipation. He hesitates until one kid says “Go ahead Mr. jay……pull the trigger.” All the little children clap and cheer in celebration.

Too funny!

and somewhat frightening.

By AmVet

December 2, 2008 9:34 AM | Link to this

From downstairs, but worth a reprise for our neo-con “economists”:

Every so often a Reich-wing moron here gives BushCo a free pass on this administration’s complicity in the attempted corporate destruction of capitalism. Utterly uninformed and unread, they often invoke the name of the sodomite, Cong. Franks, as the “real” reason for the nightmare we now face.

And other myopic buffoons here regularly attribute the downward spiraling DJIA as evidence that it is somehow Obama’s fault!

No wonder these idiotic/repulsive Republicans-first keep seeing their “conservative” heroes either jumping ship to avoid the embarrassment of running or getting slaughtered in November elections from one end of the country to the other. (Excluding here in the Moron Belt, of course.)

Most Americans are absolutely sick of them, their corruption/avarice and their glee in destroying everything from the planet to the markets.

Fortunately, like the Nazis, they only remained in power a little over a decade.

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to a review of regulatory documents.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying - along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK - regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

The administration’s blind eye to the impending crisis is emblematic of a philosophy that trusted market forces and discounted the need for government intervention in the economy. Its belief ironically has ushered in the most massive government intervention since the 1930s.

Many of the banks that fought to undermine the proposals by some regulators are now either out of business or accepting billions in federal aid to recover from a mortgage crisis they insisted would never come. Many executives remain in high-paying jobs, even after their assurances were proved false.

They (along with many others in the private sector and some in government) should be doing time for fraud in a federal pen being some large man’s “little banker”…

By "The Corporal"

December 2, 2008 9:36 AM | Link to this

To Bosch

Will then, by your logic the liberal writer of the editorial shouldn’t have used fictional characters either - correct?

Just how would YOU vote on that issue Bosch?

By Bosch

December 2, 2008 9:43 AM | Link to this

Corporal,

Did the Editorial author bring up the abortion issue, or are you just trying to throw that topic in today?

The last time I noticed, abortion is still legal, so I do not have to vote on that issue.

But if I did, my vote, like any other vote on any other issue would be none of your damn business.

By getalife

December 2, 2008 9:44 AM | Link to this

Don’t be scared @@.

I have been banned at Free Republic after one post.

I have been banned on “progressive” er lib blogs for supporting Hillary.

The owners of such blogs can “pull the trigger” as they wish.

By Morningstar

December 2, 2008 9:45 AM | Link to this

@@ @ 9:32AM- I know a lot of people, in fact many who were work in the construction industry, and believe me they are not laughing. The same goes for the automobile industry.

We have a serious economic disaster that has been obvious for at least 2 years, and BOTH parties have had a hand in this disaster. Now let’s see if BOTH parties have enough sense to start turning things around.

Pray for more snow! And go vote!!!

By getalife

December 2, 2008 9:50 AM | Link to this

Yes, if you want to hold somebody accountable for the bailouts and recession you can,

Fire suxby today!

By Midori

December 2, 2008 9:52 AM | Link to this

you know what real torture is?

reading Corporal’s posts.

By Paul

December 2, 2008 9:54 AM | Link to this

DB 7:36

Oh yeah, Valerie has a book out. Little late, but it’s out. So gotta drum up interest?

Question of the day: who was the first person to identify Valerie’s status as ‘covert?” Not that she worked for the CIA. Not even that she was an ‘agent’. That she was ‘covert.’ Hint: it wasn’t Bush, Rove, Libby, Novak or Armitage. First right answer gets you an autographed book.

leni 7:44

[[In Myanmar (Burma to those of us who refuse to change names (reality) for political purposes) ]]

That, following Jay’s headline “Denying Reality Doesn’t Change Reality.” Good one! LOL!

BudWiser 8:06

[[Let us not forget the Congressional committees, most notably the one headed by blowhard Barney Frank, who testified before Congress the very same about Fannie and Freddie, etc, etc.]]

Good point. So you’re saying denying reality is not the sole province of Republicans? My other comments on how that is different from the recession topic are in my response to Jay, below.

Soixante huitard 8:43

[[And ideology dictates that human beings relentlessly suppress all that does not correspond to the official rosy picture.]]

Another example of ideology crossing Party lines? Such as statements by Democratic leaders and activists on the Iraq situation after the surge? And the ensuing silence? I suppose one could argue ‘silence’ does not mean ‘denial.’ Wasn’t The Iraq War supposed to be The Number One Issue of the Campaign?

Jay

For consistency’s sake, can we have agreement on definitions? Remember Charlie Schumer’s “It may not technically be a recession but to people it feels like one” comment (at least, I think it was Schumer).

A recession, according to economists, is two quarters of decline. Economists said we didn’t have two quarters of decline (I know they call it “negative growth”). Democrats, to make political hay, said “we are too in a recession, Pres Bush and you incompetent Republicans! There’s an election! Vote Democratic!

Then, as usually happens, some months pass and economists revise their call. Updated data and all that. Again, they said “Whoopsie, lookit the new numbers! Whaddaya know, two quarters of negative growth!”

Does it mean Republicans were wrong? No. Just imagine an Econ test: “The economy grew by 0.1 percent in Q1 and 0.1 percent in Q2. Was the economy in recession?”

Answer “Well, it sure feels like one” and see how many points you get. (what is it about Democrats and “feelings” vs “facts”, anyway?).

So, Jay, I have to agree with your “Denying Reality Doesn’t Change Reality” headline. If one follows accepted definitions of a term (recession), then denying Reality (not having two quarters of decline) doesn’t change Reality (doesn’t meet the definition of recession).

Even if later events, based upon updated data, prove the experts were incorrect. Take your premise to other situations:

“Wisconsin election officials announced Al Franken won the Senate election. Sen Coleman disputed this, saying it sure felt like he won. Election officials conducted a recount, confirming their earlier announcement that Sen Coleman won. Franken said forget determining winners by the most ballots, he felt like he’d won.

“One week later, 500 ballots, all marked for Franken, were found in a cleaning supplies box at a central polling station. Officials certified the ballots and announced Franken the winner.”

Updated, after the fact data, does not mean a guess based on feelings is anything other than a guess based on feelings.

By "The Corporal"

December 2, 2008 9:59 AM | Link to this

To Bosch

Well if you noticed the first two words of my post it said Off Topic. So yes I threw it in!

Yes, the killing of unborn children is still sadly legal but I will let the world know my vote.

Stop it!

And I could never vote as Obama did to take the life of one still so desperately trying to live after a botched abortion.

God help us!

By Truthman

December 2, 2008 10:01 AM | Link to this

Quote from John McCain in 2002 about Zaxby Chambliss’ putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and OBL next to then Sen. Max Cleland:

“Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to the picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield, it’s worse than disgraceful; it’s reprehensible!”

Those were JOHN MCCAIN’S OWN WORDS!! Think about that when you enter the voting booth today!!

Dump Zaxby the Chicken Man!!!

By Morningstar

December 2, 2008 10:08 AM | Link to this

By “The Corporal” December 2, 2008 9:18 AM

Now, now Corporal. Why are you trying to throw the Abortion issue in today? We’ve been through this dialogue before, and EVERYONE, democrat and republican, knows abortion could have been STOPPED in it’s tracks during the 6 years the R’s had control of EVERYTHING.

I will not go through this again, because this is NOT AN ISSUE for the republican party, it’s a POLITICAL tool, and a really good one.

Although I don’t advocate abortion except in extreme situations, as you stated in your 9:59AM, “Stop it.” I’m sure the R’s will then cooperate with the D’s to ensure that children have the proper health care, a decent place to live, and a quality education.

It’s the “RIGHT” thing to do!!!

By Truthman

December 2, 2008 10:11 AM | Link to this

Hey Private!

It’s called CHOICE!!! If you don’t want an abortion, don’t have one!

My ex and I never had an abortion, and we’re raising two beautiful, loving, intelligent, liberal children!!

(Jay, please censor insults directed at my children as I’m sure TC will do!)

By Doggone/GA

December 2, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this

“Yes, the killing of unborn children is still sadly legal but I will let the world know my vote.”

No, it isn’t. An “unborn child” is a foetus that is at a developmental stage where it ought to be capable of sustaining life outside the womb. Terminating a pregnancey when the foetus is at that stage of development is not an “abortion” - it is an induced delivery and the resulting child is already protected by the laws against murder.

“And I could never vote as Obama did to take the life of one still so desperately trying to live after a botched abortion.”

Fortunately, then, neither did Obama. First of all, a “botched abortion” would be one where the foetus is NOT removed from the womb, and hence the pregnancy continues. Any abortion where the foetus is removed from the womb and where the foetus is not developmentally at a stage where it can sustain life outside the womb is a SUCCESSFUL abortion.

And again, if a pregnancy is terminated and the foetus IS developmentally at a stage where it should be able to sustain life outside the womb that is NOT AN ABORTION - it is an induced delivery.

Obama voted against that law because it was unnecessary. The existing laws already cover a child delivered through induced delivery.

NO FOETUS EVER SURIVES AN ABORTION, unless the abortion is unsuccesful in removing the foetus and the pregnancy continues. Abortions are performed before the stage where a foetus is developmentally capable of sustaing life outside the womb. It doesn’t matter how “alive” a foetus is when it’s removed during an abortion - it is NOT GOING TO LIVE, because it is not developmentally capable of living and we do not have the technology to sustain it until it DOES reach that developmental stage.

By @@

December 2, 2008 10:14 AM | Link to this

Morningstar:

I’m well aware of the impact on construction and autoworkers since I know people in both industries. I have a neighbor who owns his own electrical company (construction). He had the good sense to diet during the feast and subsequently was well prepared for the famine. His only concern was which workers he would let go. It was the unreliable he cut. Those that showed up everyday giving him a full-day’s work for a full-day’s pay are still with him.

The autoworkers? I have little sympathy for them. If they and the democrats had their way, the nation would maintain a perpetual jobs bank. 95% pay for doing absolutely nothing.

By @@

December 2, 2008 10:17 AM | Link to this

Oops! the answer to Paul’s question.

Question of the day: who was the first person to identify Valerie’s status as ‘covert?”

Her husband, Joe Wilson.

By Truthman

December 2, 2008 10:18 AM | Link to this

Morningstar, I wish to echo your point and expand on one I raised last week:

The R’s are there until the baby’s head crowns, then they’re out the door.

An R asked me who I was supporting after their birth and I didn’t have an answer…but then I thought a little more and the right answer came to me: I’m willin to pay more taxes to ensure that baby has adequate health care, that the mother has adequate day care so she can get job training and not have to work at McDonald’s for $7.25/hr, and I’m willing to pay more taxes to improve our PUBLIC schools.

That’s the difference, I’m willin to pay more taxes to make America a better place for the least of us.

If you are a christian, how about “casting your bread upon the water?” That’s what your bible says!

By joey

December 2, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this

Deny reality:

That is exactly what Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters and dozens of other Democrats did in 2006 when they blasted the people who came to warn them about trouble at Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac.

Dodd, Frank and Waters did not arrest, like Lativa, the people sounding the alarm but they damn sure muzzled them.

Meanwhile Jay, his peers and his sheep still cannot admit the reality that Democrats started this, Democrats refused to stop it, and Democrats refused to allow any warning to escape Congress.

Shameful but typical.

By Truthman

December 2, 2008 10:23 AM | Link to this

@@…still holding on to you guns, guts and lack of reality, I see!

By Bosch

December 2, 2008 10:28 AM | Link to this

Joey is still on the “It’s all the Democrats fault” mantra I see.

Pathetic.

By Truthman

December 2, 2008 10:30 AM | Link to this

joey…blah, blah, blah!!

Hey Jay, I’m proud to be one of your sheep. History always shows that conservatives have been on the wrong side of all social issues (child labor, 40 hr work week, Social Security, paid vacation, family leave, employer-paid health insurance, a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body, the right to death with dignity…I could go on and on)!

Signed,

Proud sheep of Jay’s flock!! BAAAA!!!

By Midori

December 2, 2008 10:31 AM | Link to this

You Republicans will never go forward until you admit and own up to the failures of your “leadership”.

Instead you want to keep throwing up strawmen in the guise of Barney Frank, etc.

Barney Frank hasn’t been running this country the past 7 plus years.

By leni

December 2, 2008 10:31 AM | Link to this

Did someone mention Max stoned or fragged Cleland?

By Taxpayer

December 2, 2008 10:31 AM | Link to this

I don’t recall the writers of Leave it to Beaver ever broaching the topic of abortion, Corporal. Do you have a particular episode in mind.

By Paul

December 2, 2008 10:36 AM | Link to this

@@

[[Question of the day: who was the first person to identify Valerie’s status as ‘covert?”

Her husband, Joe Wilson.]]

DingDingDing!!! You win!!

To claim your prize, you have to go to a book signing and ask “Can you sign that ”Love and Kisses from Valerie Plame and her loving husband, who outed me and made us rich”?

Shoulda known it’d be you who knew and would answer. Others probably knew but wouldn’t admit it out loud. Hey, is that another example of Denying Reality Doesn’t Change Reality?

:-)

By joey

December 2, 2008 10:38 AM | Link to this

And you Democrats never accept responsibility for any error, mistake, bad decision or wrongdoing.

But you are right about Barney, Dodd and Waters being straw-people. None of them has a backbone and all are heartless.

By jacksmith

December 2, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this

WE HAVE MORE TO DO:

Democrat Jim Martin is in a runoff against Bush Republican Saxby Chambliss for the Senate seat from Georgia. Bush’s Saxby Chambliss voted against spending a few measly dollars to provide health care coverage for Georgia, and Americas needy children. But he supported wasting hundreds of billions of your dollars, and the life BLOOD of Americas finest on an unnecessary war in Iraq.

At a time when 47 million of you have no health insurance coverage, and over 100 million of you with insurance are just one major illness away from complete financial destruction. Bush and Saxby Chambliss voted to make the heart break of bankruptcy relief even harder for all of you to use.

You see, Bush and Saxby Chambliss, and his family don’t have to worry about their health care coverage. They have the finest health care coverage your tax money can buy for them. Courtesy of you. The American Tax payer. In fact, no one but the super rich can afford the health care coverage you the tax payer provide for Saxby Chambliss, and his family for FREE! with your tax dollars.

He supposedly works for you. But he doesn’t think you and your family should have access to the type of taxpayer supported FREE health care that you provide for him, and his loved ones for FREE!. Doesn’t that just make you BURRING MAD!

Vote for JIM MARTIN for US senator from Georgia. Vote for JIM Martin who will be on your side. Vote for JIM MARTIN who will work with President Obama and a majority congress for you. Vote for JIM MARTIN most of all for your-self, your family’s, friends, and loved ones. Vote for JIM MARTIN for a better America, and a better World.

Don’t let Saxby Chambliss make a chump out of you by tricking you into voting against your own best interest. Saxby chambliss is NOT! on your side. He’s not one of you. He is on George Bush’s side. And we all know what a catastrophe the Bush Chambliss administration has been the past 8 years.

Contact all your family and friends and do every thing you can to see to it that JIM MARTIN and GEORGIANS! take that senate seat back for Georgia, and America. No matter where you live in America. This is important to you. President Obama will need all the help, and power you can give him to try and fix this catastrophic mess that the Corrupt Bush Chambliss administration has created.

As I said before you will have to vote in overwhelming numbers to overcome the Bush Chambliss “Let Them Eat Cake” vote fraud machine. Vote early if you can. Then help everyone you can get to the polls and vote for JIM MARTIN. You and your loved ones don’t have to be Saxby Chambliss’s victims anymore.

I know you will get it done. Just like you did for President Obama.

God bless all of you

jacksmith - WORKING CLASS… :-)

By "The Corporal"

December 2, 2008 10:44 AM | Link to this

To Midori

Then don’t read them.

To Morningstar, Doggone/Ga., Truthman, Bosch, et al

First to Doggone,Ga. You are so morally wrong. Babies can be sustained from 5 months now. The only issue has to do with their lungs (not human life) and how they breathe, get oxygen. That (the method of oxygen intake via the mother or their own lungs) does not determine what is human life.

But ….. let me ask you this. Let’s say I am a dog breeder. Puppies are on the way but alas I cannot afford to raise them right now. So I abort them a week before they are due, take the mother immediately away, and let them die. Can I be charged with animal cruelty?

By tcoach

December 2, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this

Truthman that is honorable that you are so willing to help out the less fortunate.

Why should the rest of us want to pay more taxes, to support someone who has obviously made bad or faulty decisions in their life.

Are you also proposing that we (taxpayers) pay for ALL mothers day care? If not you are proclaiming nothing more than class warfare. Thus punishing (making them pay for)those who are responsible and have done the right things throughout life.

What is it about personal responsibility that you are opposed to?

By jacksmith

December 2, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this

WE HAVE MORE TO DO:

Democrat Jim Martin is in a runoff against Bush Republican Saxby Chambliss for the Senate seat from Georgia. Bush’s Saxby Chambliss voted against spending a few measly dollars to provide health care coverage for Georgia, and Americas needy children. But he supported wasting hundreds of billions of your dollars, and the life BLOOD of Americas finest on an unnecessary war in Iraq.

At a time when 47 million of you have no health insurance coverage, and over 100 million of you with insurance are just one major illness away from complete financial destruction. Bush and Saxby Chambliss voted to make the heart break of bankruptcy relief even harder for all of you to use.

You see, Bush and Saxby Chambliss, and his family don’t have to worry about their health care coverage. They have the finest health care coverage your tax money can buy for them. Courtesy of you. The American Tax payer. In fact, no one but the super rich can afford the health care coverage you the tax payer provide for Saxby Chambliss, and his family for FREE! with your tax dollars.

He supposedly works for you. But he doesn’t think you and your family should have access to the type of taxpayer supported FREE health care that you provide for him, and his loved ones for FREE!. Doesn’t that just make you BURRING MAD!

Vote for JIM MARTIN for US senator from Georgia. Vote for JIM Martin who will be on your side. Vote for JIM MARTIN who will work with President Obama and a majority congress for you. Vote for JIM MARTIN most of all for your-self, your family’s, friends, and loved ones. Vote for JIM MARTIN for a better America, and a better World.

Don’t let Saxby Chambliss make a chump out of you by tricking you into voting against your own best interest. Saxby chambliss is NOT! on your side. He’s not one of you. He is on George Bush’s side. And we all know what a catastrophe the Bush Chambliss administration has been the past 8 years.

Contact all your family and friends and do every thing you can to see to it that JIM MARTIN and GEORGIANS! take that senate seat back for Georgia, and America. No matter where you live in America. This is important to you. President Obama will need all the help, and power you can give him to try and fix this catastrophic mess that the Corrupt Bush Chambliss administration has created.

As I said before you will have to vote in overwhelming numbers to overcome the Bush Chambliss “Let Them Eat Cake” vote fraud machine. Vote early if you can. Then help everyone you can get to the polls and vote for JIM MARTIN. You and your loved ones don’t have to be Saxby Chambliss’s victims anymore.

I know you will get it done. Just like you did for President Obama.

God bless all of you

jacksmith - WORKING CLASS… :-)

By AF

December 2, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this

Don’t be stupid, Joey. Bush sits in the White House. If the Democrats were “muzzling” information, Bush is the guy in the big seat and could have done something about it. Besides that, since when have Repubs been muzzled - they bark and yip constantly. If they wanted to blame something on the Dems, nothing would have stopped them. They didn’t because they knew they were a culpable as the Dems. This is a case of everyone playing “lets go hide.”

Get over it about Fannie and Freddie. The recession would have happened without them. The economic mess is about “companies too big to fail”, financial instruments so esoteric that no one understands them, and greed at the top. It is about a belief in unregulated capitalism being some sort of magic potion. Guess what - it isn’t.

By Midori

December 2, 2008 10:56 AM | Link to this

Corporal

I wish it was that easy.

All I can do is scroll faster, but by then the damage is done.

By Midori

December 2, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this

That’s ok, Joey — just keep right on.

We like being in the majority.

Oh dear!! Martinez of Florida isn’t running for reelection in 2010.

Throw him a bone Joey. Which Dem can you blame that on?

By joey

December 2, 2008 11:07 AM | Link to this

AF:

Stupid? I do fit “annoying, irritating or toublesome” definition of stupid.

But denial and/or ignoranance is where your comment fits. However, I do agree with the “greed at the top” part. The top of the Democrat Party is Greed personified.

By Truthman

December 2, 2008 11:09 AM | Link to this

Tcoach…Yes, I’m willing to pay more taxes so any mother, or father (you know, there ARE single fathers out there. I’m one!) who needs child care to hold a job should have it available. Rich folks usually hire nannies or put their kids/tax writeoff in some ritzy boarding school (some kinda parenting there, eh!?!) However, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be available to all in need.

Finally, I pay my bills on time, don’t cheat on my taxes, don’t cheat, steal or covet my neighbor’s wife (MOOOOO!!), and I’m raising two high-achieving, liberal children.

I’d call that personal responsibility.

P.S. In your mind, are all your mothers who make “faulty” decisions Black?

By DB, Gwinnettian

December 2, 2008 11:10 AM | Link to this

Paul, no, Joe Wilson did not “out his own wife,” although it is very popular among conservatives to assert that he did.

As far as I’m aware, there is precisely one (1) man, Paul Vallely, actually on the record claiming this, and he was never called upon to testify under oath.

If you have a credible source to contradict this, please cite it.

By Midori

December 2, 2008 11:12 AM | Link to this

Paul,

are you aware just how stupid that sounds?

that Wilson outed his own wife?

I’m with DB on this one; I’d love to see a credible source.

By GodHatesTrash

December 2, 2008 11:14 AM | Link to this

I think we can all agree that there is never ever anything in any of Corporal’s myriad mindless repetitive posts worth hi-liting.

By tcoach

December 2, 2008 11:21 AM | Link to this

No Truthman, they are not all black, but it does say alot about your thought process, always expecting the worst in people. I was not attacking your personal responsibility. It only seems that you are not in favor of their being consequences for bad decisions or judgment.

It appears form your answer that you only want the daycare to be available to poor children. Since as you said rich people send their kids to boarding school or hire nannies.

Once again with your sweeping generalization of ALL people that are wealthy you show that you have many bigoted feeling towards those who are well off. I was at an uber-expensive private school last year. This was not a boarding school and it was extreamly demanding academically. Also of the 14 young men on my team NONE had ever had a nanny in their entire life.

So stop hating all rich people so much, it makes you seem pety and jealous.

So would you then give the money to rich people as well or is this another list of the things the wealthy must pay for and have no access to. Seems like bitter class warfare to me.

By Abomi Nation

December 2, 2008 11:23 AM | Link to this

Denying reality is all the Republican’s have left.

Lets pretend!

Palin is electable

We are NOT in a recession

There were WMD’s

God only loves Republicans.

Mission Accomplished!

Obama is a Marxist-Commie-Socialist- next Hitler- Terrorist loving- non flag pin wearing Muslim

The media never reports all the GOOD things Bush has done.

Science really is bad.

World leadership is overrated.

Deregulation saved the economy.

Oh my God! I just thought of something. It was the minimum wage increase that caused the recession!

Wow! I just thought of a new Democrat scapegoat. High fives!!! Stupid minimum wage.

By sam

December 2, 2008 11:23 AM | Link to this

if saxby wins i’m moving to latvia….

By Truthman

December 2, 2008 11:34 AM | Link to this

tcoach…please learn to read! I wrote @ 11:09 today:

However, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be available to all in need.

Which part of “all in need” excludes the rich?

I shot graduations at private, boarding schools (Case Western in Ohio) for years and I saw a lot of mal-ajusted, bratty rich kids, as well as good kids. That’s all about parenting.

Be that as it may, I never excluded the rich, as you seem to wish to twist my words in a very Rovian way.

Your dinosaur days are over!! No Ward Cleaver life for you, cha-cha!!

By @@

December 2, 2008 11:39 AM | Link to this

@@…still holding on to you guns, guts and lack of reality, I see!

The reality is you and I weren’t engaged in an online conversation but since you’re open……

The R’s are there until the baby’s head crowns, then they’re out the door.

When did it become anyone’s responsibility, other than the parents’ to raise and care for children?

That’s the difference, I’m willin to pay more taxes to make America a better place for the least of us.

And I see that you’re willing to place your wallet and blind trust at the disposal of the government and politicians in hopes that their benevolent nature will substantially serve you and yours?

I thought liberals didn’t believe in miracles.

“All socialism involves slavery…. That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he labors under coercion to satisfy another’s desires. The relation admits of many gradations. Oppressive taxation is a form of slavery of the individual to the community as a whole. The essential question is — How much is he compelled to labor for other benefit than his own, and how much can he labor for his own benefit?” —Herbert Spencer

Paul:

Thanks! that’s the second time I’ve won something here at jay’s. I’ll pass on the prize though. jay didn’t even offer one.

And it would appear that jay’s has, once again , become a place where the bored congregate.

Best of luck to The Family of Meagers.

I’m outta here.

By tcoach

December 2, 2008 11:43 AM | Link to this

Granted but are boarding schools and nannies not forms of childcare.

Also since you took the time to blast the rich, I concluded that you were establishing that they are not in need.

What is your definition of in need?

What level of income does a person attain to no longer be in need?

Also does the amount of children go into the in need equation?

By Paul

December 2, 2008 11:44 AM | Link to this

DB-Midori

Gen Vallely backtracked.

“Outed” was a bit strong. “Asserted her status” would have been better. Novak’s article simply said Ms Plame was an “agency operative.” Lots of people work for the Agency. They generally don’t like to talk about it or minimize what they do, but the main point in the subsequent investigation is, was it a violation of law? It was relevant in context as to how Wilson (nonagency) got selected.

But David Corn, Washington Editor of the Nation, two days after Novak’s column, referred to her status after discussing the matter with Wilson. Regardless of how Corn framed his statements, we were off and running with “Plame is covert.”

I also had saved a reference, long since deleted, to Wilson being interviewed by a Washington media guy where, the same time as the Corn article, he spoke of the damage done to his wife’s career because she was covert.

But your question was: who first said she was covert? And we know who it wasn’t - anyone in the Bush Administration.

Point of clarification: it’s one thing to identify as someone working for the Agency. That’s not the issue. The question was, who first publicly asserted Plame was covert?

By Redneck

December 2, 2008 11:45 AM | Link to this

Jay, some of us saw this coming back in 2005. Remember the HUD official who tried to blow the cover of the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the dems with help from a few RINO’s kept things under cover. Any system of finance that allows people to use food stamp vouchers, unemployment insurance, disability payments, TANF, and other social payments as income will eventually cause the person getting the mortgage loan to go into default. That is what brought this financial crisis to a head and the 850 billion bailout was entirely the wrong thing to do. Disolve Mae and Mac and let the lending institutions that are marginal go into bankruptcy and be reorganized.

As to the newsman being arrested for negative reporting overseas. If BHO lasts 8 years I can see that happening right here. After all one of his prime mentors was an avowed marxist!!!

By AF

December 2, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this

Joey, Stupid – as in unintelligent (dim, thick, dense), but not slow – you are not slow. Also as in unwise (ill-advised, imprudent, injudicious, ludicrous, and ridiculous), but I would not use the words foolish, silly, or daft.

I don’t deny Dems culpability in the economic meltdown. What bothers me is your narrow view, your simplistic vision that if only Fannie and Freddie had not promoted those bad loans, all would be well. That is what is stupid. This mess is also regulators who refused to regulate. Lack of regulation of credit default swaps – lets all thank Phil Gramm. Greed that overcame fear of risk, as Alan Greenspan had to admit to his surprise. Companies too big to fail – an impossibility under basic assumptions of capitalism.

There is a lot economists and politicians will have to work through to see all that went wrong. But, it was not just Fannie and Freddie, and it began long before the Dems held the majorities in the House and Senate.

By Truthman

December 2, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this

I don’t blast the rich, tcoach. I blast those who are more in love with their money than their fellow man.

Pls refer to the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes to learn Jesus’ take on the lovers of money!

@@…I’ll engage whomever, whereever, whenever I read ignorant and contradictory screeds against what is true and right in the world.

By AF

December 2, 2008 11:52 AM | Link to this

Joey, Stupid – as in unintelligent (dim, thick, dense), but not slow – you are not slow. Also as in unwise (ill-advised, imprudent, injudicious, ludicrous, and ridiculous), but I would not use the words foolish, silly, or daft.

I don’t deny Dems culpability in the economic meltdown. What bothers me is your narrow view, your simplistic vision that if only Fannie and Freddie had not promoted those bad loans, all would be well. That is what is stupid. This mess is also regulators who refused to regulate. Lack of regulation of credit default swaps – lets all thank Phil Gramm. Greed that overcame fear of risk, as Alan Greenspan had to admit to his surprise. Companies too big to fail – an impossibility under basic assumptions of capitalism.

There is a lot economists and politicians will have to work through to see all that went wrong. But, it was not just Fannie and Freddie, and it began long before the Dems held the majorities in the House and Senate.

By Greg Mendel

December 2, 2008 11:52 AM | Link to this

“You liberals had better wake up.” — Corporal

What makes you think anybody’s sleeping and unaware of terrorist threats? The question is what do do about them, and if aimlessly and recklessly invading foreign countries is the answer, it was stupid before and would be stupid again.

Question of the day: who was the first person to identify Valerie’s status as ‘covert?” — Paul

Probably several someones in foreign countries, conspiring to spread WMD, who didn’t know she was a CIA agent. Their surprise, upon reading Robert Novak’s expose, likely resulted in great misfortune for individuals cooperating with her, as well as the destruction of anti-WMD operations.

By Redneck

December 2, 2008 11:59 AM | Link to this

AF, I disagree. See my previous post. The collapse was brought on by the Mae and Mac fiasco. It is the domino effect. We had a housing/real estate boom because of the millions upon millions of unqualified borrowers who got loans that even a pawn shop owner would not have approved. Once the first few dominoes started falling there was no way to keep the others players in the game from being affected.

Sorry, but that is reality!!!

By Jim Turner

December 2, 2008 12:00 PM | Link to this

Jay - It’s a shame we can’t treat you the same way!!!

By Paul

December 2, 2008 12:00 PM | Link to this

DB-Midori

Just saw this on FactCheck. It appears the blogger I was thinking of was in fact Corn.

[[July 16, 2003 – Wilson speaks about his conversation about Novak’s column with David Corn, Washington bureau chief for the liberal magazine The Nation. According to what Corn writes on his blog at thenation.com, Wilson says, “Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career.” Corn says Wilson is still “known to friends as an energy analyst for a private firm.” (“A White House Smear,” The Nation, July 2003; Wilson, Politics, 349 ). Corn’s entry is the first instance where someone alleges publicly that the release of Valerie Plame’s name disclosed the identity of a covert agent. ]]

But, you know, I’ve asked the question before:

If our laws were not clear enough or strong enough to convict anyone for outing a covert/noncovert CIA employee….

In the years since Democrats have held Congress and led the appropriate committees….

How much legislation has been introduced to correct the weaknesses illustrated in the Plame affair?

Answer: DingDingDing: NONE! Zero, nada, zilch.

So I guess key Democrats didn’t think it was really all that big a deal.

By tcoach

December 2, 2008 12:06 PM | Link to this

Truthman, You show again how you THINK you understand my perspective yet, you are far from.

The loss of money is not my concern for doing this.

Through your method you think you are helping those who are in need. While in my opinion you are crippling them.

The mothers, fathers or whoever it may be do not have to face the full impact of their decisions, if you would help them to continue to live the same life as before they had a baby,(remember there has never been a baby that asked to be conceived or born)with no knowledge gained from the experience.

See you see me as someone who thinks badly of these people and wants to make their life hard.

When I only want them to actually learn from their mistakes. While all you want to do is fix all of their mistakes.

Do you not feel you are discouraging those you would help to be motivated and be willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. Why do you think these people are so dumb, ignorant or lazy that these people need your help. Are they not strong enough to make it on their own? Do you really think they are that weak?

By bobfromcanton

December 2, 2008 12:07 PM | Link to this

Jay, you just bring out all the wingers (left and right) don’t ya….

By no to nannystate

December 2, 2008 12:15 PM | Link to this

“If socialists mean that under extraordinary circumstances, for urgent cases, the state should set aside some resources to assist certain unfortunate people, to help them adjust to changing conditions, we will, of course, agree. This is done now; we desire that it be done better. There is however, a point on this road that must not be passed; it is the point where governmental foresight would step in to replace individual foresight and thus destroy it.” – Frederick Bastiat from Journal des Economistes

By making

December 2, 2008 12:18 PM | Link to this

With the extremely low turnout at the polls, Saxby will win easily as it’s been proven in past elections.

By Matt

December 2, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this

This debate about the recession is WAY too simplistic. First of all, the left just keeps chanting Bush, Bush, Bush as a reason for anything and everything bad in the economy. It’s “Bush’s failed economic policies” which got us into this mess! Really, which policies? I don’t know, I just blame Bush!

To play on the title, that’s not reality. Those blaming deregulation have not studies what was actually deregulated and what wasn’t. The repeal of the Glass-Steagal act had NOTHING to do with the recession. It basically allowed banks to do investment bank-type things, but the pure investment banks we’re still the ones who lost their shirts in the mess. Regular banks have lost the most money due to defaults on regular loans which would have happened regardless. Unregulated derivatives should have been regulated, keeping the government from having to bail out AIG, but those were always unregulated.

The main policy contribution was by far Fannie and Freddie. For both stock-holders who wanted more profits and congressmen who wanted cheaper credit for constituents, Fannie and Freddie became the biggest players in the Alt-A and subprime market through buying mortgage-backed securities.

In all of this, I don’t see where Bush is blamed for the recession. We had his policies in the good times and the bad times of this decade. You can blame him for Iraq, for increasing government government spending and a number of other things, but not the economic crisis.

Going forward, the government does need to stimulate the economy. However, we should not turn into some European socialist state. They have consistently higher unemployment and lower growth. See the standard of living of the average resident of London, Paris or Munich.

The great depression and high unemployment lasted so long because FDR thought that the free market as a whole, and not just the banking system, was to blame for the depression. He gave unions tons of power and levied all kinds of taxes on businesses and the rich and we got a decade of misery instead of the short recessions before the 1930’s. Reform banking regulation, but don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.

By Doggone/GA

December 2, 2008 12:41 PM | Link to this

“First to Doggone,Ga. You are so morally wrong.”

Morality is not the issue. Morality is too relative to the belief system of each person. The law is not concerned with morality.

” Babies can be sustained from 5 months now. The only issue has to do with their lungs (not human life) and how they breathe, get oxygen.”

Exactly. They can be artificially sustained, but they are not DEVELOPMENTALLY capable of sustaing their own life. Personally I consider it morally reprehensible to condemn such a premature foetus to a lifetime of the health and possible mental issue associated with such an artificially sustained existence.

Who will make the decision which 5 month old foetus is to live and which to die? We cannot sustain them ALL.

” That (the method of oxygen intake via the mother or their own lungs) does not determine what is human life.”

Yes, it does. Until the foetus is developmentally capable of breathing on it’s own it is just a symbiote of the women and it is developmentally dependent on her body, which is HERS to control..not the foetus’s.

“But ….. let me ask you this. Let’s say I am a dog breeder. Puppies are on the way but alas I cannot afford to raise them right now. So I abort them a week before they are due, take the mother immediately away, and let them die. Can I be charged with animal cruelty? “

Certainly you can. Because a puppy only a week from natural birth is developmentally capable of surviving outside the womb. That does not mean it has a RIGHT to live though, but it does impose on YOU the responsibility to end it’s life humanely. Letting them die of thirst, hunger and exposure is not humane.

By AGTfan

December 2, 2008 12:46 PM | Link to this

Matt you get the award for making the author’s point. You are most definitely living in a world of delusion. Not one of the statements in your post has any basis in reality. I suggest using historians to get a view of history instead of Rush.

By DB, Gwinnettian

December 2, 2008 12:50 PM | Link to this

Paul, that’s just weak.

By Taxpayer

December 2, 2008 12:59 PM | Link to this

I guess some people simply refuse to educate themselves about such things as credit default swaps and their history before making claims to know so much about them.

By The Ghetto Prophet

December 2, 2008 1:32 PM | Link to this

It’s like this Gay Bookman, If you get enough people to believe something it can ultimately become reality. The panic is what put us in an official depression. Businesses began to rethink their position due to the elect president’s promise to raise CG taxes, so they bailed out and relocated US jobs to Mexico and elsewhere. The only real depression is within ourselves. If you believe you’re poor then you are. If you believe you’re rich then you are. ATTENTION: Money does not determine your character nor integrity. Gay Bookman tell the people what they need to hear! Lift them who are down up with words of a positive outlook & stop acting like a nine year old! Well I take that back, my nine year old has the heart of a Lion & the soul of an angel! That’s a little too much for you bugga bookman!

By FrankLeeDarling

December 2, 2008 1:37 PM | Link to this

Who’ dude I can just think my self rich wow Ill never work again! cool.

By "The Corporal"

December 2, 2008 1:42 PM | Link to this

To Doggone/Ga.

Your sense of morality astounds me.

Those babies feel pain just as much as those tiny puppies. Do they get anesthesized during an abortion, especially late term?

Brainwaves, heartbeats, sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing makes that fetus a human in every sense of the word - just as much as an 80 year old on oxygen. Sad, sad, sad ………

To Midori

Oh no, you don’t have to stop and read. It’s your choice. Just keep moving.

P.S. I didn’t know you were a lady or I would have been more polite in the past.

By Matt

December 2, 2008 2:02 PM | Link to this

AGTFan, I’m glad to hear your opinion, but what facts do you have disputing my points? I’ll honestly listen and I’ve been wrong before. My views, by the way, are far more nuanced than I can show here.

But please, google “UCLA Economists: Government Intervention prolonged great depression” and go to the ucla.edu result. Basically, the National Industrial Recovery Act allowed businesses to be exempt from anti-trust laws if they allowed workers to form strong unions, driving up prices and wages while also keeping unemployment high. For example, if all the airlines were allowed to combine into one big, unionized airline, airfares would go up, wages would go up, but there would be less routes and less people working.

It’s no coincidence that the states suffering the worst are Michigan, Ohio and New York. I lived in Ohio, where taxes were high and you had to pay a union a lot of money to do any sort of construction work. It’s no surprise, then, that unemployment’s the highest in those states and they unfortunately want more of the same poison to fix it.

But, I can’t get too mad at you as a Tech fan. It’s hard to get mad about anything really since Saturday’s win.

By Bill B

December 2, 2008 2:03 PM | Link to this

There is enough “blame” for the current sorry state of our economy to go around. Politicians of both parties along with the President bear much of it. But the American people are equally at fault. We, both individually, and as a nation, have lived “above our means.” As individuals, many of us have tried to “borrow” our way out of debt. Now the Federal Government is doing just that. We all know, or should know, that you cannot do that. It goes against the “Laws of Economics.” These laws catch up with individuals rather quickly. It takes longer for them to work with goverrnment spending. But, they do eventually work. And the day of reckoning for our country is quickly approaching.

By Bill B

December 2, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this

There is enough “blame” for the current sorry state of our economy to go around. Politicians of both parties along with the President bear much of it. But the American people are equally at fault. We, both individually, and as a nation, have lived “above our means.” As individuals, many of us have tried to “borrow” our way out of debt. Now the Federal Government is doing just that. We all know, or should know, that you cannot do that. It goes against the “Laws of Economics.” These laws catch up with individuals rather quickly. It takes longer for them to work with goverrnment spending. But, they do eventually work. And the day of reckoning for our country is quickly approaching.

By Bill B

December 2, 2008 2:07 PM | Link to this

There is enough “blame” for the current sorry state of our economy to go around. Politicians of both parties along with the President bear much of it. But the American people are equally at fault. We, both individually, and as a nation, have lived “above our means.” As individuals, many of us have tried to “borrow” our way out of debt. Now the Federal Government is doing just that. We all know, or should know, that you cannot do that. It goes against the “Laws of Economics.” These laws catch up with individuals rather quickly. It takes longer for them to work with goverrnment spending. But, they do eventually work. And the day of reckoning for our country is quickly approaching.

By Ben

December 2, 2008 2:20 PM | Link to this

The word recession has a defintion, and it is not “The economy sucks.” The definition is that the GDP went down in two consecutive quarters. By that actual dictionary definition, we are not in a recession yet. That doesn’t mean the economy is doing well.

You liberals should stop lying to yourselves. The root of all this was the CRA, which Clinton pumped up in the 90’s. Don’t tell me that that only applies to banks. 4 out of 10 sub primes were from actual banks that fall under the CRA, and an even higher percentage of the money involved. And some of the non-bank lenders are owned by banks, and thus also fall under the CRA. Plus large non-bank lenders like Countrywide were put under extreme pressure from D.C. to follow the same basic measures as the CRA.

Encouraging banks to make loans they normally wouldn’t by giving them both an economic and legal incentive caused the loss of over $13 trillion of wealth. And you can damn well bet the Republicans neither created the CRA, nor supported it. But Barney Frank told us all that everything was just fine. So did Maxine Waters. Both Democrats, and neither getting any blame. Frank was even sleeping with a Fannie Mae exec while serving on the committee that oversees the. This is sick, corrupt, evil stuff, yet y’all hide from it and blame Bush.

That said, there are even worse financial crisies in the making. Medicare, social security, public and private pension funds… All of those are going to make the mortgage crisis look like a walk in the park.

By Doggone/GA

December 2, 2008 2:49 PM | Link to this

“Your sense of morality astounds me.”

Great. Astonishment is the first step. When you can convince me that natural abortions NEVER, EVER happen then we can revisit whether induced abortions should be abolished. Naturally aborted foetus’s have exactly the same physicality as due the foetus’s in induced abortions. Who cares about their pain?

By Peter

December 2, 2008 3:44 PM | Link to this

Come on folks…REPUBLICAN’S will say anything….then blame it on “Faulty Intelligence”……

AS we read today……..we have been in a Recession since December 2007.

Republican’s = Liars…….

By "The Corporal"

December 2, 2008 3:46 PM | Link to this

To Doggone/Ga

O.K. We’re in agreement then. All aborted babies (natural or induced) should be given anesthesia. Correct?

One more question based on one of your previous comments.

According to your logic it would be criminal for me to let a just born puppy lay there and die from starvation but if I pull it apart (like a baby in the womb) that would be o.k.

Amazing.

By Gerald West

December 2, 2008 4:46 PM | Link to this

And, poor, dumb Georgia will send Saxby back to Washington to obstruct the good-faith efforts to repair the damage that Bush-Cheney-Saxby Republicans have done.

In only 7.875 years, America has gone from prestige and prosperity to disgrace and economic meltdown!

By CommunistAJC

December 2, 2008 4:58 PM | Link to this

AND HERE….WE…..GO…..

Experts warn Barack Obama of ‘hornet’s nest’ in Middle East.

Iran poses the greatest foreign policy challenge to the new president with Tehran on course to produce a nuclear bomb in the first year of an Obama administration, an unprecedented coalition of top think tanks warned yesterday.

Barack Obama must follow through on his promises of direct talks with Tehran and engage the Middle East region as a whole if he is to halt a looming crisis that could be revisited on the United States, the experts warned.

“Diplomacy is not guaranteed to work: it is not,” Richard Hass, one of the authors said. “But the other options – military action or living with an Iranian weapon are sufficiently unattractive for it to warrant serious commitment.”

The warnings came in a report called “Restoring the Balance,” a Middle East strategy for the incoming president drafted by the Council for Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution. Gary Samore, one of the authors, said the level of alarm over the “hornet’s nest” facing the new president in the Middle East, and the need for the swift adoption of previously untested approach, had inspired the unprecedented decision to write policy for him. “New administrations can choose new policies but they can’t choose next contexts,” Mr. Samore said. “This is what they inherit.”

The report paints a grim picture of the problems in the region but asserts that Mr. Obama is still in a strong position to exploit the positives. For the first time since the Iranian revolution, the leadership in Tehran has endorsed the idea of talking directly with Washington, as Mr. Obama has suggested. Falling oil prices also provide a new opportunity, restricting Iran’s means to sponsor terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah that act as its proxy in the region.

The new administration, however, must not fall into the trap of treating Iran in isolation to the rest of the Middle East, as the previous administration did, but deal with it as part of a larger jigsaw within the region.

Syria, which has shown tentative signs of a desire for better relations with the West, and has held negotiations with Israel through Turkish interlocutors, could be the idea test case for a new diplomatic approach. “Syria is a natural candidate for direct contact,” Mr. Hass said, as part of “a greater embrace of diplomacy with out preconditions” that should be extended to Iran.

The report laid blame for much of the crisis squarely with the Bush administration, whose war in Iraq fuelled Iran’s ascendancy as a regional power. But the authors warned against an “ABB” – anything but Bush – approach, urging Mr. Obama to build on some of the changes in direction over the last two years. “Change for sake of change is not a good idea,” Mr. Hass said. “Great powers have to be predictable.”

Mr. Obama must also team up with Arab countries for an urgent push to resolve the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, they said. Efforts by the Quartet – created “by mistake over vodkas at the Russian ambassador’s house,” according to Mr. Indyk, who was present, were necessarily limited because of the lack of Arab representation. “Time is not working in favour of a resolution,” he warned, noting the hardening of Israeli public opinion. “There is a real danger that support for a two-state resolution will falter.”

By Doggone/GA

December 2, 2008 6:52 PM | Link to this

“According to your logic it would be criminal for me to let a just born puppy lay there and die from starvation but if I pull it apart (like a baby in the womb) that would be o.k.”

Don’t know much about abortions or birth do you? A birth is a very painful process for most mammals and a foetus has increased pain tolerance so that it can survive the pressure of being born.

And there’s no absolute morality. If it’s necessary to dismember a foetus in order to save the life of the woman, then it’s necessary. But when such procedures are necessary the woman is usually anesthetized and - guess what? That anesthesia DOES transfer to the foetus, just as do nutrients supplied by the woman’s body.

Life is not all sweetness and light. Horrible things happen. All we can ever do is try to reduce them as much as possible. But it’s not possible to reduce them to zero and it never will be.

The bottom line is: it’s not YOUR choice, and it’s not MINE either. It’s the woman’s. It’s her body and she is the one that has control over it. If you don’t like that, that’s your privilege. But it’s not your right, or even privilege, to forcefully impose that dislike on someone else who does not agree with you.

No amount of ranting and raving will make a non-viable foetus a PERSON. Personhood only comes about when the foetus is developmentally at a stage where it can be expected to survive outside the womb AND when it is ACTUALLY outside the womb. Until that moment, it is still a foetus dependent on the woman’s body for survival and HER survival is more important than is that of the foetus. SHE could have more pregnancies…her foetus can never inhabit another womb.

That’s the reality of being human.

By GodHatesTrash

December 2, 2008 7:01 PM | Link to this

RightWingnuts - Day 2639 of bin Laden at Large.

Let’s face it. On his best day, George Dumbya Bush is a moronic corrupt incompetent.

And only the moronic and simple-minded still support him.