It was Congress…

…just not the 110th United States Congress. When President Bush passes the buck on the housing crisis, he sends a solar wave of hypocrisy through the nation strong enough to power every home in America for the year. Maybe that’s a bit idealistic, but we truly have a revisionist in the White House. This current housing crisis couldn’t possibly have been created by bank deregulation and bankruptcy reform of the 109th Congress.

Banks knowing Americans couldn’t get out of trouble when they employed predatory lending practices didn’t spur a wave of high-risk, adjustable-rate mortgages. That couldn’t be how it happened. It must be, as President Bush said today, the fault of a slow-as-molasses Congress divided by the fringe elements of both sides. That makes perfect sense.

Scapegoating

The 110th Congress has failed America in many key ways. Inactivity in government can mean the difference of survival and “falling through the cracks”. It doesn’t come close to the devastation that counteractive policy and reform causes the American public. We work harder for less money, but the banks make far more. The average American swaps out name brands for generics as luxury jets, high-ticket jewelry and $10M apartments in Manhattan sell like hot-cakes.

Cronyism

When you sell office supplies and your boss is underqualified and only became manager because of personal connections, work can be a source of frustration. When your personal connections begin causing entire populations to be ignored in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane, it becomes a much larger issue. Mike Brown, Michael Chertoff, Alberto Gonzales are only a few of the more well-known examples of Bush administration cronies, but they provide enough of an example of how ill-served the American public can be when cronies are appointed. This angers me no matter who is doing it, but by far the most gross example of overstretched qualifications are those appointments by the current faux-Republican, neo-Conservative administration. With recent comments exposing his lack of respect for humanity, one could put Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in that grouping as well.

Economic factors are always difficult to directly correllate and I have a feeling I may have overstretched this link. The 109th did deregulate banks and make it much harder for hard working families to file for bankruptcy. In some way this surely has affected the housing crisis, in lender’s attitude and consumer’s vulnerability. I’m just not convinced it’s a direct cause -> effect relationship, so don’t get the impression I’m blaming the entire housing crisis on the 109th or one piece of legislation.

McCain: Cutting taxes more important than balanced budget

Republican John McCain said Sunday that cutting taxes and stimulating the economy are more important than balancing the budget, and accused both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama of supporting tax hikes that would worsen the impact of a recession.

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Senator McCain thinks he’s going to reverse our $3 trillion deficit by cutting wasteful spending. That’s great, Mr. McCain, but after that $18 billion, what then? We’re 0.6% better-off. The “wasteful spending” he should target is the $500 billion/year war festering a cauldron of anti-American sentiment and making orphans out of Iraqi children. We can’t afford McBush, John McCain is a far better human being and more worthy than Bush to lead the free world, but that was in 2000.

Today he is too out of touch to be effective, associates far too often with Bush administration cronies and knows absolutely nothing about the biggest issue this election cycle: the economy. Sure, he can get advisers who understand the economy, but without some independent understanding he won’t even know who to pick as advisers. That’s a dangerous situation given what has happened to this country as a result of the neo-conservative hijacking of the Republican Party in the last 7 years.

I also noticed on CNN and MSNBC today he’s reportedly aiming for energy independence within 5 years. This is an admirable goal. I just keep thinking “who’s the one spouting empty rhetoric again?” It seems to me that because Senator McCain has been in Washington for a quarter century, he gets a free pass. Anything he proposes is assume to be a good enough idea and above careful scrutiny. A major goal for energy independence should be in 5 years, but to say a candidate can eliminate reliance on foreign oil in that short time almost reeks of corporate greed over the last 8 years.

If this is/were possible, we basically fought a war on a lie, helped our enemy gain footing in a new part of the world. Our true enemy had never been allowed or accepted within Iraq (and isn’t in Iran, for that matter). We’ve stayed 5 years, as long as McCain thinks it would take to gain energy independence. Over that time, only oil companies and corporate executives have benefited from any Bush administration policy.

As this administration destroyed the economy, it sends us $600 checks to make us feel like we’re not being ignored and our rights trampled. As this administration has needlessly put our servicemen in harm’s way, we’ve only heard fear mongering from the White House and most of the news media. As schools have become re-segregated, this administration has standardized tests, so that those with the fewest opportunities and resources are graded on the same scale as those in $100 million high schools.

This article also brings up William Ayers, 1960s-era (as in, when Obama was under age 10) radical who admitted to setting bombs. They were the most extreme part of the anti-war movement, and truly detracted from many of the ideas they tried to uphold. The interesting thing about this, however, is that this man is an English professor. He’s not in jail. I know some Americans read this and think, well WHY NOT? That is a perfectly natural reaction, but the simple fact is that he has not been convicted of a crime in a court of law. Why should Obama be guilty by association? He points out, when asked about Ayers, that he was 8 years old at the time. I believe he was living in Indonesia or Hawaii, far away from Ayers and the Weather Underground.

I’m no TV Guide, but any show with Sean Hannity will discuss this for the next 6 months. I’m also no psychic, but he’ll probably never mention McCain’s wife stealing drugs from her non-profit organizations, his absolute ignorance of economic issues and his utter confusion concerning our enemy. He thinks the way to fix our tax code is to build another, optional system and have it run alongside the current system. That will sure save money for our economy, bloat the government and tax code even more. Vote for a better economy and a safer America, pass on John McCain.

CBS’ Moonves gets a 28% raise as Katie Couric pushed out and ratings, ad sales drop

The network CEO received $36.8 million last year, including an $18.5-million cash bonus.

It’s always easy to gripe about the boss, and seemingly easier to pass off the concerns of the common man when the real wealth is on the table. I’ve argued for a long time that we shouldn’t have the disgusting 300 to 1 scale for the hourly wages of an executive versus a labor worker. It’s not like it would spur creativity to limit the top end of what people can make. Not to a ridiculous extent, but this story is a prime example of a CEO being overpaid and not having any effect. Leslie Moonves will never have to come to grips with the fact that what he did moved kids out of colleges and back home to work. He’s got too much money to need a soul. What he, and many (but not all) of his contemporaries, have done by gouging the worker in a time of desperate need.

Americans must work longer hours just to get by with rising gas and food prices and a weak economy. The corporate greed that has become synonymous with “the American way” is sickening. Our leaders stand by doing absolutely nothing after their past actions included entrenching us in an unjust war and deregulating the bank industry in favor of the CEOs of major banking and financial institutions over the American people. It is now harder for Americans to declare bankruptcy and very much easier to get into the position of needing to file for bankruptcy (from health care costs, foreclosure, natural disaster when none of our troops are available for rescue and restore efforts).

We need a president with a strong code of ethics just like we need CEOs and business leaders with a strong code of ethics, or we will be easily manipulated and led into wars or corrupt financial decisions. I am always surprised with how little feedback is heard when the business elite are given ridiculous salaries or bonuses, like Michael Crow at Arizona State University who receives a $600,000 bonus for staying for his entire contract. At Target, CEO Robert Ulrich’s pay increased by ten percent to $20 million even as sales were down.

I’m not at all saying the CEO should make the same amount as the stocker at Target. I just believe there is something wrong with a raise when revenues are down, and going from $12 million to $20 million when most Americans can’t keep up with inflation is actually pathetic. It shows something of your soul when this is the world you choose to create. Some people are given extraordinary power and do absolutely nothing positive with it. Others possess such power and end up a wash, and very few become Gandhi, Dr. King or Benazir Bhutto. I just hope we’re making it clear to kids who they should and should not look up to, I don’t mind the variety I just hope there’s enough editorial comment for young minds.

Throw in the fact that they are reported to be pushing Katie Couric out, although I’ve seen reports that both CBS and Couric deny that story.

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Two hundred-millionaires attack Obama for being out of touch

The irony about all the “outrage” that’s being manufactured over Barack Obama’s small-town Pennsylvania statement is that it’s coming exclusively from out-of-touch rich people like John McCain and Hillary Clinton, who are making the assumption that this is something small-town Pennsylvanians should be offended by.

I just had to post this. We have this mountain being made out of the little molehills of Obama’s campaign and ludicrous statements and outright lies of McCain and Clinton go by relatively untouched. When will politics as usual end? Hopefully January 20th, 2009 at noon EST we can have a uniting force telling Congress to get things done. Giving them the power to do their jobs back. The cowboy will have dropped the ropes and the bull of our economy and it will let loose.

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John McCain says: Al Qaeda in Tibet is a major threat

Well it’s only a hop, skip and a jump away from what he’s confusing now, that Al Qaeda in Iraq (which gained footing only after the US invasion in 2003) is Shi’ah; and grossly overestimating their popularity (an estimated 1000 extremists in Iraq). Today he says he won’t rule out pre-emptive war and he’s actually being considered for President? I don’t understand how so many people can be duped or asleep at the wheel. Check out the blog and the book on The Real McCain

Throwback: A relevant warning 1961-Present

That’s funny, I don’t remember learning much about this in school. The YouTube generation and younger teachers really need to utilize the internet to its fullest. I’m passionate about education, even if I’m on a hiatus. I would like to continue to develop some lessons and ideas, so as that happens I’ll post the products here.

Check out the Military Industrial Complex in-depth, see today’s contracts, I’m sure there is some bullshit on that site, some over hyping or misrepresentations, but it’s not completely inaccurate, some of the contracts referenced here have popped up in the news. Like a licensed masseuse receiving a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to supply arms to police in Afghanistan. If 40% of the contracts there are accurate, it’s enough to make any American sick and furious at the same time.

NEWS FLASH: YOU just gave $300 to JP Morgan Chase -Jason Kolb

Jason Kolb has written a couple of my all-time favorite blog posts, if I actually kept track. His response to the JP Morgan Chase corporate pork buyout was dead-on. This is not a free market. This misconception that any spending by the government under a Democrat is wasteful and welfare and Republicans are automatically fiscally conservative is absurd.

President Reagan’s administration even raised taxes each of the last 7 years following a large cut the first year. At this rate, any of the candidates could come into the White House and crack down on just a few of the leaks in our public cashflow and lower taxes quite a bit. The problem is that our current war is not being funded by us, it is being funded by our children and grandchildren in the form of loans. A war on borrowed money, could you imagine such an evil plot?

We bail out banks like JP Morgan Chase, in 2001 we bailed out the airlines to the tune of $15 billion. Today we have some 9/11 first responders with major illnesses amidst health budget cuts. I’ve seen some great mom and pop businesses go under, where was the federal government then? I’m cool with businesses collapsing, creative destruction, I truly am. I just can’t stomach how uneven the playing field is at this point. The federal government shouldn’t be bailing any business out. Any bailout measures, for people or business should be carefully considered, but the problem with denying hardworking families and instead giving that money to corporations and banks is that you create people who truly have nothing left. As Bob Dylan said “when you’ve got nothin’, you’ve got nothin’ to lose.” Soon the same people will be complaining about crime and poverty.