Ever since the TARP rescue for credit markets was first proposed, we've heard and read many times how if credit dries up on Wall Street, it affects us on Main Street. And I've sort of, kind of understood that in the abstract.
But I understood a little better how in could play out when I read this piece this morning in The Wall Street Journal, about what's happening out there to small businesses. I was particularly struck by this anecdote about a business that is strong (for its size) in every other way, but is now in trouble because of the lack of credit. That sort of isolates cause-and-effect in a way that I found illuminating:
Even some small businesses that have seen a rise in demand are
struggling, due to the credit squeeze. In October, the most recent data
available, the Federal Reserve Board reported that 90% of U.S. banks
had tightened lending standards on small businesses in the previous
three months. That hurts young businesses that need to finance growth.
Susan Knapp once sold yellow-pages ads to small businesses, meeting
people who had turned their dreams into companies. It inspired her in
the late 1990s to turn her love of making pear jelly into a side
business. For years, she had collected pears from a Northern California
farm, whipped up batches of jelly and passed it out at holiday time. In
2003, she quit her job and became a full-time entrepreneur, using
credit cards, personal savings and an equity line against her home to
get going.
By 2007, her company, A Perfect Pear, was reporting $700,000 in
sales. She says she is sitting on $100,000 in orders from specialty
stores and grocers who want to buy her jellies and salad dressings. On
the company's Web site, many items are on back order.
And yet Ms. Knapp can't fill those orders: She doesn't have the
money to buy the 300 cases of vinegar and 200 cases of olive oil she
needs to make the products, and she hasn't been able to find funding.
Ms. Knapp, 56, says she has gone from making six figures to not
taking an income. For the first time, she and her husband, a
self-employed chiropractor, are without health insurance. In the past
year-and-a-half she has nearly drained her $190,000 retirement account
to pay for operations and two-part time employees.
Related Posts
The last set of rhyme has begot another.
There will be cows and rumors of cows,
Whatever is left of the law allows,
And a past complicit with plenty of nows,
The building blocks of tomorrow,
Collateral against which cunning cronies will borrow
Much to our pastoral sorrow.
A candidate for RNC chair has been passing out a little ditty himself, “Barak the Magic Negro.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28400799/ Rush has been playing this on his show.
Espousing immigrant hostility and racism is hardly a winning formula for the GOP going forward. If Powell and other moderate republicans lose out to Palin and others racing to the right to win approval from Rush and Hagee, the GOP will devolve into the Dixie-crats.
There you have it, from the lips of Randy E. himself: The Democrats win one stinking presidential election, and for once in a blue moon have control of Capitol Hill and the White House at the same time, and now they think they’re qualified to give the Republicans election advice.
Why don’t you just call every Republican in America a racist because Limbaugh had a song on his show that poked fun at Obama, Randy? What makes him above being laughed at, when every other president has to live with the same kind of thing? Do you really think this “Oh, wait a minute, he’s black; we can’t say anything critical of him” thing makes things better, when it’s really just another way to be dishonest?
Randy, your mock outrage is just a little bit tiring. Liberals have absolutely NO credibility when they spout and pontificate about racism. Rants about racism are nothing but tools used by the left to obfuscate real issues and bludgeon opponents.
The “Magic Negro” term was first coined and used to describe Obama in the LA Times, a liberal rag of no small reputation. That’s right Randy, Magic Negro was YOUR idea! At least it was originated by your side.
It was subsequently picked up and poked fun at by Rush and others.
Conservatives are going to enjoy satirizing this kind of delicious hypocrisy on the left, and you’re just going to have to get over it. Or better yet, don’t get over it. Continue foaming and bloviating whenever bonehead moves by the left provide conservatives with hanging curve balls which we can knock out of the park. Your puling makes YOU part of the fun.
By the way, IS Obama a magic Negro?
David
Another by the way Randy, PM is right: You and Bud and the rest of the liberal nut jobs on this blog who think you know what is best for conservatism and presume to tell us conservatives what we need to do going forward, really ought to find another hobby.
First, it is arrogant.
Second, no one on the right pays any attention to you because you clearly don’t have conservatisms’ best interests at heart.
Third, you are wrong to think that conservatism lost in November. It did not, because it was not on the ballot, Buds’ protestations notwithstanding.
Conservative ideals win every time they are presented on
a ballot. John McCain did not present with any fidelity or enthusiasm. I was actually a little relieved in a way when he went down in flames.
David
Randy,
The Republicans have already devolved into the Dixiecrats. They are the residue of a failed party which, if it continues to listen to right-wing talk radio and nurture its abiding hatred of difference, is doomed to insignificance for the next generation.
What’s unfortunate is that we cannot have a viable opposition party to the Democracy as envisioned by Kevin Phillips (a political scientist who worked for Nixon and who has characterized today’s Republican Party as the party of big oil, big debt, and crazy fundamentalist religion).
Just reading the above entries moves me to believe that the Republicans will nominate someone like Sarah Palin in 2012 and the country will once again hand them the third major drubbing in a row. If Obama has even a moderately successful first term, it could be the death of the GOP and herald a sea-change in American politics.
Rightwingers need to realize that they are in the minority now and that their thinking goes out the door on January 20th!!
The problem with the credit markets isn’t a lack of funds but a lack of certainty over interest rates created by all this government tomf*ckery in the economy. This business owner may be a safe risk, but if inflation is greater than the interest rate return, lending her money is a losing proposition. If it were a winner, everyone would be salivating with greed in their desire to lend her money.
I would still like to know whether or not Obama is a magic negro. Surely Randy or Rich or some other pseudo-sapient liberal hack can say definitively whether they’ve yet seen Obama live up to this label they’ve attached to their messiah figure.
What say you Rich? Has Obama fully attained magic Negro status yet or must we wait until the end of January?
Your side came up with this descriptor, so I assume that some bright light on your side will let us know when he’s reached full magic Negro status.
Then again, “some bright light” probably lets you out. Maybe Randy.
David
David,
You and your attitude toward politics are two more reasons why the Republican Party is doomed to obscurity and obloquy.
You lost, you’re now irrelevant, get over it!
No one’s listening.
Peace, out.
Rich
Rich, ’tis you no one hears nor wants to hear, save those foolish others who would, like you, beat their chests over someone else’s triumph and imagine it to be theirs, too.
When Obama turns out to be your pig in a poke, and the policies you champion wind up as hammer and sickle, headless and dull, wielded unaccustomed by an affirmative-action Harvard bloke, don’t be disappointed if we don’t all go to heaven in a little row boat.
P.M., you’re just stupid. You lost the election, and you will lose many more! How about that new Republican CD making fun of Barack!! Talk about an astounding lack of taste, education, and basic human decency!!
Use the CD in the Sarah Palin bid for the presidency in 2012! See what happens!
“You’re just stupid…”
Ooooh…. THAT’S the kind of razor sharp arguement that so distinguishes the quick wit and piercing intellect on the left.
You’re just stupid PM. I guess Rich supposes that this kind of moronic “sharp stick” is the end of the debate. I swear, it’s like attempting to have a conversation with a two year old.
Nitwit.
Fear not PM, with flying monkeys like Rich on the left, there’s always hope.
David
I once dated a GBM,and every little thing he did was magic.And with the big things,he was MIRACULOUS.
brad, i am sorry they can’t stay on topic. i share your frustration.
the banks have used the tarp to make timely acquistions and shore up their balance sheets to ride out the magic carpet ride.
While hoping to avoid the childish arguing going on here, I would like to point Rich towards atheist Matthew Parris’ fine article in The Times. It must be very disconcerting when one’s cherished foundational world view begins to crumble, but healthy nonetheless.
Herb, the Parris article is a commendation of faith-based missionary work in Africa, and the positive change brought about by inspiring hope in the native communities.
It’s not a refutation of atheism.
Christianity does not have a monopoly on hope. There are tens of thousands of people, of all religious and secular stripes, aiding and educating people in Africa, and around the world. And every activist group can play an important, positive role, whether that be Doctors Without Borders, the Peace Corps, or these fine folks who risk violence and disease to do their charitable missionary work.
It seems to me that a healthy foundational world view would be belief-agnostic when it comes to the obvious moral obligation of helping one’s fellow humans progress toward education and self-empowerment. While, in the long term, supplanting indigenous tribalist superstitions with Judeo-Christian tribalist superstitions may be counterproductive, the examples of service, selflessness, perseverance and optimism exhibited by the missionaries are priceless with respect to mouths fed, lives transformed, communities healed…
What’s critically important is that this personal hope and empowerment is married to rigorous educational programs in literacy, health (particularly sex education), and life and social sciences. Prayer alone will not save Africa.
Unfortunately, a lot of people are hoping for an Obama to enrich them by confiscating the wealth from those who earned it.
JFX is right on the money when it comes to supplanting one faith with another. It’s still faith, i.e., belief without evidence. No one is morally obligated to believe any proposition for which there is no empirical evidence. But then again, arguing with people of faith is like talking to the wall; they know the mind of God and the rest of us poor slobs do not.
What concerns me is that the GOP appears to be engaged in a slow-motion act of self-destruction. As a Democrat, I recognize the need of my party to have a responsible, constructive dialogue with a genuine, intellectually respectable opposition party that would demand fiscal discipline, lean government, adequate but not overweening regulation, as well as protect the interests and the role of the military in American life and in maintaining our national security.
Instead, we have a GOP that has just socialized the massive losses of the financial sector without assuming control over their day-to-day operations. Why do we have to socialize losses and privatize profits in this country? All that happens is that the rich get richer while the poor go under. Why don’t we allow companies to fail that need to fail, or go into Chapter 7 protection, while nationalizing profitable companies–such as all the oil companies, and then transferring the profits to the public treasury?
If you want to do socialism, at least do it right. Nationalize companies that are profitable players in the market, not the losers who will only end up costing the public treasury billions and billions.
Lee talks about confiscating the wealth from those who have earned it. Did the rich financiers on Wall St. truly earn their wealth? Or have they not instead successfully made the case that they are too big to fail and therefore must be on federal life support lest the whole system come crashing down??
Was it poor people, minorities, Mexican immigrants, the men on the shop floors of Detroit, or the average middle-class homeowner and wage earner who put such a huge drain on our national wealth? Or was it not instead the greedy financiers in New York who made the bad loans, erected the Ponzi schemes, and helped drive manufacturing from our shores?
And on whose watch did all this happen??
To think we’re not even dealing here with the cultural issues that threaten permanently to marginalize the GOP as a latter-day “No-Nothing” party of gun-toting, low-information, bigoted, supersititious yahoos nursing a sense of grievance against the poorest members of our society!!
The ranking aspirant to the chairmanship of the GOP has the singularly bad taste to send out a CD with a ditty concerning Obama’s racial background. I think the fact that he would even consider such a thing funny let alone have the incredibly poor judgment to send it out speaks volumes about the Republican Party’s impoverished spirit.
Colin Powell isn’t the only Republican who voted for Obama. So did Kevin Phillips and, I would surmise, a lot of other soon-to-be-exGOP members who simply cannot associate themselves with something so ignorant and so utterly embarrassing.
The Democracy needs a viable and vibrant opposition in Congress, but, alas, the GOP is disappearing ignominiously from American national politics!!
For so long I have despised the GOP for it’s arrogance, greed and imperialism that it was unthinkable to have even the slightest tidbit of sympathy for them. But the new shameful, racist dity sung to the tune of puff the magic dragon now making the rounds of talk radio really has me shaking my head in pure, unadulterated pity for this soul-less shell of a political party. To think they could lose two elections in a row in such grand fashion and still just don’t get it. Instead of shame, shame, shame, all I can think to do is shake my head and shed a tear at how irrelevant this once vaunted juggernaut has become. They can’t even string together a serious opposition with a tiny bit of credibility any more.
You may ask why should I pity a party that has led us to economic ruin, destroyed our international respect and throttled the energy out of our national spirit? The answer is simple: two (or more) parties with thought-provoking points of view can make for a more vibrant and healthy debate about the issues. But now with the apparent demise of the GOP, as evidenced by “Barack the Magic Negro” the Republican party has to re-build itself simply to be taken seriously any more. Rush Limbaugh and his band of talking morons has done more to destroy the GOP than anything else. I hope they’re happy with the rump party that’s left. Oxymoron Rush deserves it. Sadly, the rest of the country will pay the price.
From above:
I recognize the need of my party to have a responsible, constructive dialogue with a genuine, intellectually respectable opposition party…
You may ask why should I pity a party that has led us to economic ruin
It is amazing to me that there are still people out there that think the Republican and Democratic parties are interested in some kind of honest dialogue. It is amazing to me that there are people out there who see one of the two parties leading us to destruction while standing behind the other party and ignoring the fact that both parties only care about doing what it takes to stay in power.
Whoever said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results could have easily been talking about the voting public in this country. You people are absolutely nuts.
Bud, I think the GOP is finally “getting it.”
Music Break:
Happy Getting It!
Rich, dearest, you’re right. I was stupid to engage you when you have 1) no inkling how stupid your advice to the GOP sounds; 2) no hope of understanding how irrelevant I think you are when I outgrew your manner of thinking and misunderstanding of human nature 30 years ago.
If I’m stupid, you’re a baby amoeba, dude. And an artless one, at that.
JFX,
I wasn’t out to disprove atheism. All I have to establish is the overwhelming evidence for the positive good of Christian truth, and Rich’s position is already undermined. He considers Christians one of the basic problems of our society.
I doubt very much that Obama would agree with him, since Obama is a man of faith himself. In fact, I doubt very much that the majority of Democrats would agree with Rich.
Thankfully.
I’m guessing that Rich plays the role of the woman in his relationship with his boyfriend.
Interesting Q & A with George McGovern in U.S. News and World Report:
“I don’t have any personal malice toward Bush. I wish him well. I’ve talked to him on a couple of occasions. He’s a congenial, likable guy. I always admired his father and I hope things will go well for him. I don’t think Bush is a bad man. I just think he was mistaken in so many of the judgments he made as president. But I wouldn’t throw a shoe at him.”
One could wish that Rich and Bud could be as congenial toward their political enemies, especially since they know less about them that a man like McGovern does. It is interesting that those who primarily get their information from one corner of the press spew the most hatred, as opposed to those who who personally acquainted with the people involved.
Herb, you made some good points along with the astute observation by Birch Barlow. The hope of any honest discourse between Republicans and Democrats on anything meaningful is as hopeless as trying to convince Rich, bud, and many others that Bush is not the evil Darth Vader they believe him to be and that Christians and conservatives are not the minions of the evil empire run by Bush and Cheney.
After visiting several other blogs and reading the comments on them, Rich and bud are two who spew hatred with a vengence. It must be awful living in their tortured minds and dwelling in such a negative world with no actual understanding of what life really is. They actually believe that Obama is some messiah or could be if they believed in God at all.
I am convinced that their world does not exist beyond the past eight years and anything that happened prior to Bush being elected in 2000 has no meaning. Neither one can admit that most of the problems we are experiencing financially across the world was actually set in motion by social engineering started by Democrats, Jimmy Carter in particular. They cannot understand or refuse to acknowlege the fact that the massive loss of domestic jobs is a direct result of NAFTA, a program initiated and signed by one Bill Clinton. Bush had nothing to do with it. They cannot admit to the fact that two of our giant institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are under the thumbs of Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, both Democrats. They have no real understanding that it takes years for problems like the ones we are experiencing now to come to fruition. It was not one party but the complicity of both to achieve such a momumental disaster. Republicans had their fair share of input as well but they did not act alone.
It is disheartening to think the education of our children is in the hands of people like Rich.
George Bush made mistakes and forgot who he was when it came to signing everything that came across his desk up until the last year of his administration. Just like every other president who has occupied the White House, history will be his ultimate judge. I never hated Bill Clinton and not once during his eight years did I ever indulge in or encourage the type of slanderous language that has been used against Bush by the likes of Rich and bud. In all of their supposed liberal compassion, both have exhibited unbridled hatred in total intolerance for anything that is in opposition to their beliefs. Each has participated in hypocrisy at the highest level when they pontificate against conservatives and Christians, belittling their beliefs and religion while praising the murder of a child in the mother’s womb along with other so-called “tolerant” attitudes.
If these two are the face of the Obama generation, there is no real hope for this country. They are no better than their most hated enemy, Rush Limbaugh. If anything, Rush is a notch or two above them in everything. Now that is something I never thought I would say about another person.
Herb-
“…the overwhelming evidence for the positive good of Christian truth…”
Now THAT is just zealot propaganda. How about a more balanced position, Herb?
How about, instead of tossing around the word “evidence” haphazardly, you indulge in a balanced look at the history of Africa, and tell me, conscientiously, whether the presence and work of True Believers…of ANY faith…has been more for good or ill in Africa.
Let’s remember that many Western “Christians”, or whatever you want to call them, spent the better part of the last few hundred years exploiting Africa for slaves and resources. And, currently, because of the introduction of more virulent strains of this or that religious fanaticism, we have religious wars occurring in Africa between Christians and Muslims. Somalia is a toilet. Remember Rwanda?
Yes, it is a positive thing that there are some Christian groups…and other religious groups…and many, many secular groups….working to fix much of what’s broken in Africa. But hey, the West and the Middle East had a pretty strong hand in breaking Africa in the first place, so it seems fitting that some of us go in now and help mend it.
And since when is helping people a “Christian” truth? That’s not a spiritual truth. It’s common sense. Altruism among humans is older than any man-made belief system, older than any religious fiction. It is possible to be ethical, and educate and empower people, WITHOUT superstition and dogma.
Rich, bud, jfx, and others of their ilk are in denial when they try to blame President Bush for the failed policies of Democrats, and when they distort the failures of socialist intervention as “the free market not working”.
* When the war on terrorism was so successful that it was no longer a political issue, the Democrats suddenly pushed the banks and automakers into crisis as an “October surprise”, with their media cohorts blaming President Bush.
* The mortgage frauds which brought down banks and insurance companies was a Democrat program which sold houses to 10,000,000 unqualified black buyers, and 5,000,000 illegal aliens.
* FMAC and FNMA submitted fraudulent annual reports of profits while actually losing billions in the subsidy of these junk loans. The board members, mostly Clinton appointees and Obama advisors, collected hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent bonuses.
* Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, on the oversight committees, blocked Republican reform legislation sponsored by John McCain and others, and were rewarded with cheap loans from these corrupt lending institutions.
* Obama and the Democrats continue to sabotage the saving of the automobile industry, by promising taxpayer subsidies of the union contracts which are the primary reason the manufacturers cannot make a profit.
* Obama and the Democrats threaten to raise taxes and confiscate private retirement accounts, which has sent the stock market into free fall since Obama sewed up the nomination.
I am not surprised that small businesses can’t get credit. The banks that have received the bailouts have been using them to invest in Europe, in bank consolidation, and in everything but loosening up credit. And we worry about a few billion for the auto industry when we’re giving 143b to AIG, let alone the rest of them!
While I am certain that the government had to do something to free up credit, clearly the bail-out was not the solution. Somehow, the money should have found its way to provide credit for small businesses, refinancing mortgages, and into the consumer stream so that an economy such as ours–based on consumption–could continue to consume, albeit in a more responsible way. E.g., there should be capital for businesses that are going concerns and mortgage money available to people who qualify.
Let’s remember, however, on whose watch this entire mess has developed. Supposedly, for the last eight years we have had a Republican White House and for six of the eight years a Republican-dominated Congress.
If the problems we have now began in the 90s, then the Republicans should have addressed them with regulation and a monetary policy that would have fostered responsible borrowing and shored up domestic industry and infrastructure. Instead, we went on a tax-cut, de-regulation, lending free-for-all binge supervised by a GOP determined to take care of the interests of the rich first and foremost.
It is ironic, isn’t it?, that the Joe Six-Packs of the world see their interests tied to a party that has led this country to financial ruin, endless wars overseas, and a very uncertain future.
I think it’s all a question of symbolism. The Republicans pretend to be fiscally conservative while advocating conservative positions on hot-button social issues. They are pro-gun, pro-military, anti-abortion, anti-immigration, anti-evolution, anti-gay, anti-stem-cell research, English-only xenophobes who express themselves through the voice of right-wing talk radio with its outrageous daily insults to any and everybody with whom it disagrees.
And now we have the CD with the Obama ditty on it. The Republican Party is becoming noticeably risible–the daily fulminations of the likes of Rush Limbaugh notwithstanding.
As for me, I will continue to listen to NPR All Things Considered every day, and hope for the best.
Oh, and by the way, if the Republicans expect to filibuster to death Obama’s stimulus package, I hope we start to look at real constitutional reform in this country. People will start to see that a determined minority in our system can indeed thwart the will of the people.
The Senate needs to be abolished. Expand the House and create an expanded unicameral legislature. Federalism does not require the existence of a national Senate for its protection. The states are vibrant entities that will endure for a long time to come.
Another milestone. GMAC has received a portion of the bailout money so cars can be financed again. Strange. A friend who owns a Chrysler dealership has not had any problems securing loans for his customers. What gives?
PM, I pointed out the racial insensitivity of many republicans in regards to the song and you jump to the extreme conclusion that I won’t tolerate criticism of Obama. There’s a tremendous difference between hypersensitivity to criticism and common sense as to what is inappropriate. Besides, the song isn’t critical of Obama.
The divide and conquer strategy of the republican party is losing effectiveness – Willie Horton is long gone. As far as “giving the GOP advice”, it is Powell and other moderates who are making this point. In 30 years whites will be the minority in the US. That hardly bodes well for the WASP party.
One party had nothing but white male candidates while the other had Hispanic, female, and African-American candidates. After kicking Powell off the island, the only nationally known African-American politician is the former Lt. Gov from Maryland. Good luck with Palin and her lilly white “real America” following in 2012.
PM, I pointed out the racial insensitivity of many republicans in regards to the song and you jump to the extreme conclusion that I won’t tolerate criticism of Obama. There’s a tremendous difference between hypersensitivity to criticism and common sense as to what is inappropriate. Besides, the song isn’t critical of Obama.
The divide and conquer strategy of the republican party is losing effectiveness – Willie Horton is long gone. As far as “giving the GOP advice”, it is Powell and other moderates who are making this point. In 30 years whites will be the minority in the US. That hardly bodes well for the WASP party.
One party had nothing but white male candidates while the other had Hispanic, female, and African-American candidates. After kicking Powell off the island, the only nationally known African-American politician is the former Lt. Gov from Maryland. Good luck with Palin and her lilly white “real America” following in 2012.
The guy who wrote “Barack the Magic Negro” gave an interview about the song and explained how it came about. In fact, the LAT reporter who wrote the original story, “Obama the Magic Negro” has been unscathed by the maelstrom that has come about by the media, liberals, Democrats, and racist theorists.
The intent was to parody Sharpton’s attack against Obama and his questioning of Obama’s being black enough and not having the “black experience” Sharpton and Jesse Jackson thought he should have had before bursting on the national scene, upstaging both of them. There was never any racism involved except in the minds of liberal bigots.
GWB had the most racial and ethnic diverse cabinet in the history of politics, surpassing the other “black president”, Bill Clinton. Yet, the media, liberals, Democrats, and the Sharpton/Jackson faction refuse to acknowledge that Condi Rice or Colin Powell are black. Instead of applauding this fact, the media and Democrats labeled Rice as the “house n—-r” with a parody cartoon depicting her as an Aunt Jemimia or Butterfly McQueen. Talk about racists on the left accusing the right of racism. Again, the hypocrisy of liberals is astounding. They practice the most insidious form of racism possible by using the tactic that all the “black chillun” must be taken care of by “liberal white folks” who know what is best for them. Their condescending elitist attitude toward blacks is sickening and the hollow words grow tedious.
I may not agree with Barack Obama’s politics or his socialist values but I do admire his ability to stick it right back to the liberal “whitey” by playing their own game even better than they do. If you haven’t read his books, you should do so before he is sworn in but read them with an open mind. Don’t let the Chris Matthews “leg tingle” influence your ability to comprehend what you are reading.
I get it now, Bart and David. The candidate for RNC chairman, a man who will be heavily involved in working with public servants elected to represent our country, was engaging in parody.
So when Bill Maher suggests killing Cheney would save thousands of lives, he is only joking therefore it is perfectly acceptable. Yet, there was pleny of criticism from the right because of his statement.
I find it hypocritical that the right wants to engage in censorship when it comes to material they find offensive but then take issue with political correctness.
The LAT writer is a cultural critic. He wrote a serious piece with seriousness towards context. The song written by Rush’s writer was a cheap attempt at humor. A potential RNC chairman, while engaging in a campaign for this office, was childishly distributing the CD to get a cheap chuckle. Does the GOP really want to enter the 2012 campaign with this guy as a major player?
Interesting article in Forbes about the crash and burn of several of the new billionaires across the globe. Some have lost everything, others major portions of their fortunes. Maybe before this is all over, sharing the wealth won’t be the problem anymore but just finding and holding on will be the challenge.
Randy,
If you can seriously equate Maher’s calling for Cheney to be killed with a Sharpton parody, you have serious problems with reality. Problem is that Maher was most likely not kidding. The hatred from the left as demonstrated by some of the most vicious visuals against Bush and Co. is disheartening.
The fact that you covered the LAT writer as a cultural critic shows your lack of understanding the total hypocrisy of the left when it comes to politi-speak. It also demostrates a genuine lack of a sense of humor.
I guess Maher and his ilk are engaging in serious dialogue instead of the left’s version of “cheap humor”. Maybe Madonna’s grand gesture in telling Palin she was not welcome to her concert was an attempt at sarcasm and she didn’t really mean it at all. Maybe Rosie’s belief that Bush planned 9/11 is just another attempt at poking fun at all the victims and their families.
Give me a break and get over yourself.
Well, it is official. The United States of America will offically cease to exist by the end of 2010 according to a Russian expert on the US. He predicted the demise of America 10 years ago at a conference when he displayed a map showing how the revolution would realign the country.
Our liberal friends will be happy with the expected new alignment SC will be associated with. According to the map, SC along with a few more SE states and the entire NE will become part of the European Union. The remaining states will come under the influence of Canada, China, Russia (Alaska – won’t Sarah be proud?), Mexico, and maybe Japan.
A civil war is expected so everyone clean your guns and dust off the Bible if the expert can be believed. Problem is that the track record of some predictions of this nature have come to pass. The break-up of the Soviet Union was predicted 15 years before it happened. I know some will not believe this but when I was working in the Middle East, one of my associates told me one night after the weekly poker game that three things would happen and he gave me a timeline. First, the Berlin Wall would come down; second, the Soviet Union would break up; third, the United States would have a black president within the next 30 years. Ron called me the day the Berlin Wall came down and he called again when the Soviet Union broke up. I damn sure don’t want to get his third call because he was dead on the money with the first two.
For those who haven’t worked overseas or in hostile territories, you have no idea of just how long America has been hated. It is not a recent phenomenon and it cannot be placed at Bush’s feet either. There has been an ongoing hatred for decades and it grows with each passing year. The average person in most other countries does not hate us but their leaders generally do along with the intellectuals and elitists just as our own home grown ones do. The high degree of national self loathing and self hatred by our liberal, intellectual and elitist class is growing by leaps and bounds. The election of Obama won’t stem the tide either.
I may be wrong on this point but if Lee will relate some of his experiences dealing in foreign countries, I think he will confirm what I say here.
Sorry, didn’t complete my thoughts on the third prediction. If Ron was right on the three things he predicted, then his other comment made with less conviction may have some relevance after all. He also made the comment that as things change in America, we may one day experience the same fate as the Soviet Union would.
Things to watch for in 2009:
1. Will the GOP reject the childish philosophy of talk radio and join the adult world? They need to do so in order to become a relevant national party again. Otherwise they may become nothing but a regional party pandering only to the “Barack the Magic Negro” faction.
2. Will Obama finally begin the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq? If not his approval ratings could plummet rapidly.
3. Can the American economy recover from the Bush recession? The president and congress will have to boldly increase federal spending and give the middle class a tax cut. The Herbert Hoover wing of the GOP will squeal but hopefully they will be ignored.
4. Will the State Newspaper editorial board finally admit that it is part of the national Republican party? By supporting the pathetic McCain/Palin ticket it’s pretty clear now that they will NEVER endorse Democrats for the nation’s top ticket. Why not just make it official?
5. Will we have a playoff for the championship of major college football? Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians all seem to agree on this one. So why does it not happen?
Liberal, Democrat, MSM countdown. 19 more days and the dreaded Bush will be gone.
Why has this posting about the practical effects of tight credit prompted the same old bickering and name calling. This is a very real problem. When small businesses cannot get financing to fund their operations we all suffer. I don’t understand why she would not qualify for a revolving line of credit with the upper limit tied to sales. The interest rate the bank can charge should not be important to the lending institution as it will always have a consistent premium built in over the banks cost of money so the banks profit should be the same. What is the origin of the suddenly fear to make conventional loans to average and above credit risks? (I apologize for not insulting anyone, I will try harder next time.)
Why has this posting about the practical effects of tight credit prompted the same old bickering and name calling. This is a very real problem. When small businesses cannot get financing to fund their operations we all suffer. I don’t understand why she would not qualify for a revolving line of credit with the upper limit tied to sales. The interest rate the bank can charge should not be important to the lending institution as it will always have a consistent premium built in over the banks cost of money so the banks profit should be the same. What is the origin of the suddenly fear to make conventional loans to average and above credit risks? (I apologize for not insulting anyone, I will try harder next time.)
What political enemies?? The conservative right needs to lose the bunker mentality, or it will find itself being continually marginalized by the rational, voting majority in this country!
Have we seen the last Brad Warthen post?
Meanwhile, our country continues to spend billions that it doesn’t have to support failing companies that have spent 20+ years ignoring what we’re doing to our environment while continuing the standard of “planned obsolescence” and even promoting the lack of safety in their product as a “safety factor” (eg. SUV’s are safer because they protect their occupants better–well, yeah, if force=mass x acceleration and acceleration is equal for both parties, then force is going to be on the side of the more massive car; and if your bumper is high enough to guarantee that the smaller car’s engine goes right into its owners lap, then that’s just a plus, I guess). We’re also giving loads of money to folks who didn’t do enough homework to discover what kind of loans they were assuming, or else intentionally accepted loans that they knew were potentially unpayable. On the plus side, at least pres.-elect Obama’s planning on plowing the money we don’t have into infrastructure that we desperately need.
Commenting on bud’s “things to watch for in 2009”:
1. Will the GOP reject the childish philosophy of talk radio and join the adult world? They need to do so in order to become a relevant national party again. Otherwise they may become nothing but a regional party pandering only to the “Barack the Magic Negro” faction.
(Bud, the adults in the room ARE Republicans — and independents. The childish attitude is “gimme some more, momma” — the Democrat method at its core. Just you and Rich and a few others seem to believe that winning one election makes Democrats electoral experts, though beggars usually aren’t experts at anything except begging.
2. Will Obama finally begin the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq? If not his approval ratings could plummet rapidly.
(Who knows? We have no record by which to judge Obama.)
3. Can the American economy recover from the Bush recession? The president and congress will have to boldly increase federal spending and give the middle class a tax cut. The Herbert Hoover wing of the GOP will squeal but hopefully they will be ignored.
(If Obama and his minions increase federal spending dramatically and cut taxes for the middle class, they won’t be doing it to battle the recession. They’ll be doing it to pay off the null intellects who 1) voted for them and 2) are stupid enough to think increasing the national debt significantly can help the economy.
4. Will the State Newspaper editorial board finally admit that it is part of the national Republican party? By supporting the pathetic McCain/Palin ticket it’s pretty clear now that they will NEVER endorse Democrats for the nation’s top ticket. Why not just make it official?
(The State is much more Democrat than Republican, bud. Read the whole paper for a change)
5. Will we have a playoff for the championship of major college football? Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians all seem to agree on this one. So why does it not happen?
(No, we won’t, because the bowl system is too lucrative, because it’s more fun to argue about who ought to be in the national championship game, and because who wins the national championship in football really isn’t important to adults. Besides, the bowl system more adequately reflects our modern educational system: Just for passing, every child gets a sucker, a pat on the back and a free trip to Six Flags, just like a bowl trip. And now they’re expecting a check from Obama when they grow up, or maybe even before.)
Krugman speaks to the GOP problems in his article today. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/opinion/02krugman.html?_r=1
The “Southern strategy” has led them into a cul-de-sac…
Hmm.
There’s something wrong with typepad. I have to post in order to see the latest outrageous entries!!
Real important stuff now. What happened to the Tigers and Gamecocks? Now we are falling behind in football as well. What next? Will someone take over our bargeque leadership?
How do we give the taxpayer any assurance that their taxpayer momey will eventully save our country with a bailout?
When you are putting your money on the line to save industry from failure and you do not see a solution of eventually spending more and more money to prop up the failure, why would you approve such a solution?
There is a saying about the bucket that has a hole in it. Before you pour more into the bucket you must first plug the hole. I do not see a solution of pluging the hole by our elected officials. Money down the rat hole. Another day older and deeper in debt.
When the bucket has a hole in it, you fix the hole before trying to pour anything else into the bucket. No bailouts until the holes are fixed.
17 more days – count’em. 17 days and all will be right with the world. The seas will recede. The ice caps will grow in size. The economy will rebound. The war in Iraq will be won. Osama Bin Laden will surrender in a gesture of good will.
And all of this on the first day. Wow, can’t wait to see what happens on Wednesday, the 21st.
Does Bud and Rich realize how ridiculous they are? They and others like them are the reason so many Obama supporters were so ignorant about the facts as the howobamagotelected.com post election survey showed. Bud and Rich does not know very much about President Bush. They call President Bush a racist, yet President Bush has given more to the Black people of Africa than has any other President. I beleive more than all combined.
Testing.
16 days and counting. GWB’s reign of terroe will soon end. Liberals can come out of hiding and leave the safety of their caves. Truth and clarity in government will once again be the norm and the bashing in of doors and hauling off of dissenters to prison will be stopped.
T
15 more days to go. Then the end of the reign of terror brought down by the Bush and Cheney travelling horror show.
Now liberals can come out of hiding and spend time in the sun.
Don’t know when Brad is going to put up another post for discussion but in the meantime, this is the last thread and in keeping with tradition of going off topic, here is a little entry at Huffington about carbon and weather. It seems that more and more legitimate scientists and meteorologists are coming out against the “popular junk science” theory on global warming especially when it comes to carbon emissions.
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…..Harold Ambler, the owner of TalkingAboutTheWeather.com, writing at HuffingtonPost.com:
[T]he theory that carbon dioxide “drives” climate in any meaningful way is simply wrong. . . . Carbon dioxide cannot absorb an unlimited amount of infrared radiation. Why not? Because it only absorbs heat along limited bandwidths, and is already absorbing just about everything it can. That is why plotted on a graph, C02’s ability to capture heat follows a logarithmic curve. We are already very near the maximum absorption level. Further, the IPCC Fourth Assessment, like all the ones before it, is based on computer models that presume a positive feedback of atmospheric warming via increased water vapor. . . . This mechanism has never been shown to exist. Indeed, increased temperature leads to increased evaporation of the oceans, which leads to increased cloud cover (one cooling effect) and increased precipitation (a bigger cooling effect). Within certain bounds, in other words, the ocean-atmosphere system has a very effective self-regulating tendency. By the way, water vapor is far more prevalent, and relevant, in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide — a trace gas. Water vapor’s absorption spectrum also overlays that of carbon dioxide. They cannot both absorb the same energy! The relative might of water vapor and relative weakness of carbon dioxide is exemplified by the extraordinary cooling experienced each night in desert regions, where water in the atmosphere is nearly non-existent…..
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Of course, no one expects the Gore disciples to believe anything other than his “Day After Tomorrow” gospel.
Since the only people who know Obama are people like Bill Ayers, Louis Farakhan, Reverend Wright, Rahm Emanuel, Rob Blagojevich, David Axelrod, Tony Rezko, and ACORN crowd, are the rest of us no entitled to have an opinion about the man?
Aren’t the indisputable facts about some politician like Obama good enough, especially when he hides and refuses to answer questions?
T
This is a test.
Wow, here I was all worried about the fact that people were having trouble posting comments on this thread (I have an inquiry in to TypePad about that), and then I actually went back to READ the thread, and find out that instead of being about the instructive story with regard to our economic woes, it’s a partisan back-and-forth over something called “Barack the Magic Negro.”
Folks, didn’t y’all get enough of that stuff back during the election? I certainly did…
Testing.
Testing
… still waiting to hear from TypePad…
testing
“Barak the Magic Negro” originally was the title of a Los Angeles Times article about how Obama, with no record, did not have the baggage and enemies of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton.
George McGovern also said that after he got out of the Senate, and went into business, he learned how wrong he had been on many issues, and how it was a good thing he didn’t win in 1972.
Unforturnately, his former hippie campaign workers like Al Gore, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Diane Feinstein are now implementing the McGovern Socialism, and sending the economy into a tailspin.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Deborah
http://termlifeinsurance2.com
T