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Labels: politics

Labels: politics

Labels: politics

Labels: politics

Labels: politics

Barack Obama laughs off charges of socialism. Joe Biden scoffs at references to Marxism. Both men shrug off accusations of liberalism.

But Obama himself acknowledges that he was drawn to socialists and even Marxists as a college student. He continued to associate with Marxists later in life, even choosing to launch his political career in the living room of a self-described Marxist, William Ayers, in 1995, when Obama was 34.

Obama's affinity for Marxists began when he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles.

'To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully,' the Democratic presidential candidate wrote in his memoir, 'Dreams From My Father.' 'The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists.'

Obama's interest in leftist politics continued after he transferred to Columbia University in New York. He lived on Manhattan's Upper East Side, venturing to the East Village for what he called 'the socialist conferences I sometimes attended at Cooper Union.'

Labels: politics

A perpetuation of existing exchange rate policies, then, based on flawed economic analysis, is creating broadly similar conditions to those that prevailed before the Great Depression. History suggests great economic hardship will follow and that it will be proportionately borne greatest by the debtor nations. But the creditor nations will be afflicted as well as they suffer the loss of their largest export market,

And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived in luxury with (Babylon), will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning; 10they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,
'Alas, alas, the great city,
Babylon, the mighty city!
For in one hour your judgement has come.'

11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo any more, 12cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, 13cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, choice flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, slaves—and human lives.
14'The fruit for which your soul longed
has gone from you,
and all your dainties and your splendour
are lost to you,
never to be found again!'
15The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
16'Alas, alas, the great city,
clothed in fine linen,
in purple and scarlet,
adorned with gold,
with jewels, and with pearls!
17For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!'

And all shipmasters and seafarers, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off 18and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,
'What city was like the great city?'
19And they threw dust on their heads, as they wept and mourned, crying out,
'Alas, alas, the great city,
where all who had ships at sea
grew rich by her wealth!
For in one hour she has been laid waste.'

20 Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints and apostles and prophets! For God has given judgement for you against her.

Labels: religion, spiritual

The operation is massive, the goal is to paint a picture that is that of a winner, regardless of the results.
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Our goal is to continue to make you lose your moral. We worked hard at persuasion and paying off and timing and playing the right political numbers to get key republican endorsements to make it seem even more like it was over and the world was coming to an end for you all.
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Sarah Palin is a huge threat, and our campaign has feared her like you can’t imagine. If it seems unfair how she has been treated, well its because she has had a team working round the clock to make her look like a fool.
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Its not over yet, but I think the machine is working. And its a hill to climb.

I will be quitting my post on nov 5th and my vote will be for John Mccain.

Labels: politics

First, the $700 billion rescue for the economy was about buying devalued mortgage-backed securities from tottering banks to unclog frozen credit markets. Then it was about using $250 billion of it to buy stakes in banks. The idea was that banks would use the money to start making loans again.

But reports surfaced that bankers might instead use the money to buy other banks, pay dividends, give employees a raise and executives a bonus, or just sit on it. Insurance companies now want a piece; maybe automakers, too, even though Congress has approved $25 billion in low-interest loans for them.

Three weeks after becoming law, and with the first dollar of the $700 billion yet to go out, officials are just beginning to talk about helping a few strapped homeowners keep the foreclosure wolf from the door."

Labels: financial ponderings, politics

Labels: politics

Labels: politics

'Everyone is staring at their screens in disbelief,' said Tom Hougaard, a strategist at City Index in London.

Senior Tehran officials are recommending a preemptive strike against Israel to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear reactors, a senior Islamic Republic official told foreign diplomats two weeks ago in London.

Labels: gardening

It's liquidation selling. On Monday and Tuesday there was much more discrimination in what was being done. Today is more like a going-out-of-business sale. We've decided to get in cash, so everything must go," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies' Co.
Falling as much as 690 points in the final 15 minutes of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered slightly, ending at 8,519.21, down 5.7%, or 514.45 points, its 7th-largest point drop on record.

Labels: financial ponderings

Labels: politics, watching the skies

Labels: politics

Over the years I have seen more than my share of "intellectually challenged" gun owners committing a wide variety of gun safety violations at public ranges and shooting events.

I attribute their lack of proper gun handling and safety protocol to the simple fact that they have not had the good fortune to attend a course at Front Sight, because once you attend a course with us, you forever operate mentally and physically at a level that far exceeds 99% of the gun owning population.

Just when I thought that public displays of improper and unsafe gun handling could not get worse, I found this..."

Labels: politics

Labels: felicity and jocularity

Ron Paul appeared on CNN's 'American Morning' on Friday, pushing the same apocalyptic message he served up during the Republican primaries, with one difference. His prediction of doom makes a heck of a lot more sense now than it did then.

'This system that we've had since 1971 is nonviable,' he said, 'and it's coming to an end.'

That's what this whole story is about, the end of a monetary system that we've had since 1971. And something has to give. You just can't create more money out of thin air and propping up everybody.

It's an immoral system. You're asking the poor people to bail out the rich. You're asking the innocent people to bail out the guilty. You're asking people to just totally defy the Constitution because there's no place in the Constitution that says that we can do these things.

And, besides, economically, it's a disaster. This is going to cause a great deal of harm. It's like a drug addict taking a strong fix, and he feels better for a day or two. But believe me, we're going to kill the patient. And the patient here is the dollar system and our entire world economy.

But there's also been a rush of roving capital out of the market. According to the latest data from Hedge Fund Research, third-quarter hedge-fund redemptions hit a record-high $210 billion, spearheading an exodus of money that has burst one of the biggest commodities bubbles of all time.
It's no coincidence that oil prices plunged in tandem with these record withdrawals, exposing for all to see just how much of the summer's oil-price spike was driven by speculators.

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the blue-collar worker asked.

After Obama responded that it would, Wurzelbacher continued: "I've worked hard . . . I work 10 to 12 hours a day and I'm buying this company and I'm going to continue working that way. I'm getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American Dream."

"It's not that I want to punish your success," Obama told him. "I want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success, too.

Then, Obama explained his trickle-up theory of economics.

"My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Critics said Obama let the cat out of the bag. (Ed note: MEOW!)

"It's clear that his main goal is redistribution of wealth, not growth," said Andy Roth with the anti-tax group Club for Growth. "He's perfectly happy to destroy wealth as long as he can redistribute it."

Obama has been meticulous, Roth said, to conceal the "socialistic" nature of his tax plans. "But every once in a while, he lets it slip," he said.

Labels: politics

Labels: politics

I'm not an alarmist person by nature. In fact, I believe my innate entropy is the source of much frustration from many in my circle. I'll even wager my parents cyclone in their twinset sarcophagi over whether I'll finally give a shit, and do something!

Which is my take on politics, as I irritatingly remind you. My jaundiced eye hand always sullenly pulls the lever for the lesser of two evils, while I remark to total strangers It'd be a lot easier if we just shot the other cocksucker.

Except for Reagan, of course. I strode out of the booth declaiming "I just voted for the fucking MAN!" both times, to the bemused stares of bussed-in vagrants. Small, but gratifying moments.

I say this to insist the following is not Chicken Little, but Foghorn Leghorn. Look: McCain is just going through the motions. Even he knows he's hammered dogshit. Christ, I've had ghosts sitting next to me in the ride at Disney's Haunted Mansion that had more corporeal substance than this guy. Bob, for one.

So get used to AbomiObamanation.

Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve, demurred George Bernard Shaw, that crusty old Marxist cunt.

Maybe so, maybe so. But that doesn't mean we deserve to be governed by people elected via endemic voter fraud, in cahoots with criminal tongs supported by taxpayers. Or people cossetted into office by a self-indulgent media whose blatant abrogation of their civic responsibilities would gladden the heart of the most craven Pravda apparatchik. I, personally, think we deserve a little better than that.

Here's the Foghorn Leghorn part: President Obama will have a compliant Congress, and a filibuster-proof Senate. His first 20 days will be busied rewarding his criminal co-conspirators in the voter fraud community organizing racket with federal largesse that would make a Sandfly whore blush. $700 billion bailout? That sum seems about right to "balance things out" for the disenfranchised. You'll hear words like "justice" and "equity" and "fairness" from the Man from Capone. But that's nothing.

The rest of the first 100 days will revolve around this mischievous Nowhere Man instructing Congress to pass omnibus hate crimes legislation. Which they will gladly do. The purpose will be the crushing of dissent. Every fucking thing you say against the regime nouveau will be characterized as racist. And he won't need a compliant press any more, although they'll happily continue to carry the water like the corrupt spavined burros they are.

Make no mistake: your dissent WILL be crushed. One newspaper columnist, one blogger, one querulous student at a time.

The economy, you ask? Barack Obama doesn't give a fuck about the economy. Hell, his naysaying and greedy pocketstuffing from the culprits helped engineer this shitstorm. Anyone remember the economy being an issue at the conventions a few weeks ago? Didn't think so. It wasn't. There's your October surprise, my fellow Blindsideses.

I hate to be a downer, dogs. In fact, tin foil makes me look fat. But my crystal ball (the one with the flying monkeys in it) says 7 years of bad luck. Plus one. The only upside is being one of the 300 Barack targets for the inaugural reeducation program. That's okay. I haven't seen Gitmo since 1976, and I kind of miss it. Plus, I'm just a lone nut. A Ted Kaczynski recluse sitting here not even with pajamas on, but nude from the waist down, whacking the keyboard, admiring my goddam awesome but temporarily flaccid cock. I blame the wine Obama.

P.S. Anyone know where I can get my hands on a functional artillery piece? I might need to rake the hillside leading up to the house, oh, sometime around April 2009. A sweet little 8 pound brass napoleon loaded with screw heads and nails would be cool, but I'll settle for a shizzled bronze of circumspect accuracy and provenance.

Labels: politics, society and culture, watching the skies

Labels: financial ponderings

...the pirates broke open one of the containers and discovered it to be filled with packets of what they said was "a powdery fine sandy soil"....

Within a period of three days, those pirates who had boarded the ship and opened the cargo container with its gritty sand-like contents, all developed strange health complications, to include serious skin burns and loss of hair. And within two weeks, sixteen of the pirates subsequently died, either on the ship or on shore.
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[Russian sources claim she] was an enormous floating dirty bomb, intended to detonate after exiting the Suez Canal at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and in proximity to the coastal cities of Israel. The entire cargo of radioactive sand, obtained by Iran from China (the latter buys desperately needed oil from the former) and sealed in containers which, when the charges on the ship are set off after the crew took to the boats, will be blasted high into the air where prevailing winds will push the highly dangerous and radioactive cloud ashore.
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This ship was nothing more nor less than the long-anticipated Iranian attack on Israel.

Labels: watching the skies

"For Bush, it was the 22nd day in the past 27 he had spoken about the financial crisis, since evidence first arose that the year-old subprime mortgage mess was evolving into a broader and more calamitous meltdown."

Labels: financial ponderings

An English columnist notes the probable conclusion to these economic 'rescues':

A quarter of a century ago, in the era of the Labour manifesto that was dubbed (by a member of the Labour shadow cabinet) 'the longest suicide note in history', when one wanted to depict the absurdity of the view of the world advanced by Tony Benn and Michael Foot one simply had to say: 'They want to nationalise the banks!' People fell about laughing.

Today, it is all considerably less funny. We are all socialists now.

Labels: financial ponderings, liberty, politics, society and culture

Labels: financial ponderings, politics

Chancellor Angela Merkel has been forced to pull her head out of the sand, guaranteeing all German savings, a day after she rebuked Ireland for doing much the same thing. Reality intrudes.

During the past week, we have tipped over the edge, into the middle of the abyss. Systemic collapse is in full train. The Netherlands has just rushed through a second, more sweeping nationalisation of Fortis. Ireland and Greece have had to rescue all their banks. Iceland is facing an Argentine denouement.

The US commercial paper market is closed. It shrank $95bn last week, and has lost $208bn in three weeks. The interbank lending market has seized up. There are almost no bids. It is a ghost market. Healthy companies cannot roll over debt. Some will have to sack staff today to stave off default.

As the unflappable Warren Buffett puts it, the credit freeze is "sucking blood" out of the economy. "In my adult lifetime, I don’t think I’ve ever seen people as fearful," he said.

We are fast approaching the point of no return. The only way out of this calamitous descent is "shock and awe" on a global scale, and even that may not be enough.

Labels: financial ponderings, politics, watching the skies

"It's hard to exaggerate how bad things are. Things are still profoundly dislocated," T.J. Marta, fixed-income analyst at RBC Capital Markets, told The Associated Press.

Labels: politics, society and culture, watching the skies

Labels: vacation