The Ojai Post

I haven't watched the debate yet as I've been working away at a project this evening.

But a friend of mine called to express dismay about the truly bizarro idea that you don't need to be qualified to be a teacher if you're a vet.

Cool progressive post dude !

I turned to the friend that I was watching the debate with and asked, "Did he just say that people who've been in the military shouldn't have to take all those tests to become teachers?"

We looked at each other in disbelief!

I heard we need a bresh of freth air.

I saw a smug smirk and a lot of blinking. I heard John McCain say that women's health (air quotes) has been stretched (air quotes) and a lot of rhetoric about pro-abortion. Yeah, like anyone is pro-abortion. I heard a lot of yammering about taxes. Just how does he expect us to get out of the debt his party put us in?

As a former teacher I think I'm qualified to speak on this. My friends, anyone can be a teacher! You know the saying,"Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." All it takes is discipline to let those brats know who's boss. The military gives you plenty of discipline. The rest you can get off the internet now, lesson plans up the wazoo for free. So there you have it, straight from a teacher, well, a former teacher anyway.

McCain was wrong about one thing, though. He said you can't throw money at the education problem. Oh yes you can!! Teaching is hard work. Don't knock it if you haven't tried it. Not everyone can be a teacher! They deserve more money! Unregulated money!! Without all that government oversight that the Democrats want to force on us!!!

'Joe the Plumber' says he has no plumbing license

HOLLAND, Ohio -Joe the plumber says he doesn't have a plumbing license. Joe Wurzelbacher said he works for a small plumbing company that does residential work. He said that because he works for someone else, he doesn't need a license.

Wurzelbacher was cited by Republican candidate John McCain Wednesday night in the presidential debate as an example of someone who wants to buy a plumbing business but would be hurt by Barack Obama's tax plans. The Democrat said that his tax plan would only affect people making more than $250,000 a year.

Wurzelbacher, 34, said he was surprised that his name was mentioned so many times.

(Source: JOHN SEEWER AP)

I didn't hear the McCain plan for turning teaching into PTSD therapy.

I heard gibberish from the man for the first ten minutes at least. Seriously, not a coherent thought expressed.

Then, I heard him bring up Bill Ayers. He forgot to look Obama in the eye for the first 3/4 of that attack.

I heard Obama knock that out of the park. Thanks for bringing it up McCain. You demonstrated by doing so beyond doubt that you are not fit to be President.

I heard McCain demand, over and over, whining like a little brat, for Obama to retract something somebody not affiliated with Obama's campaign said that apparently really hurt McCain's feelings.

Thank you McCain for showing America why we don't want you talking with our enemies. Or friends for that matter. Yeesh. Is demanding that Putin repudiate your kindergarten teacher who called you out for peeing your pants in class the kind of "precondition" you are talking about before you'll sit down and deal with the issues of the day?

Thanks for illustrating so vividly what that part of the debates has been about.

I heard Obama explain why it is that a person might have expressed the thoughts that this person did about McCain's campaign, a campaign in which its veep spouts outrageous lies like "Obama pals around with terrorists" to crowds who respond "kill him!" I saw McCain just collapse inside of himself, realizing at that point that other than incoherent gibberish, he'd made two all-too-intelligible attacks and been crushed on both.

I heard no apologies given where none were merited, and I heard no apologies given where they clearly were merited. But I only saw one side ineffectively, pathetically, beg for an apology to assuage his hurt feelings.

Sorry McCain. That ain't a tough leader, that's a whining brat who puts his hurt feelings and ego ahead of the good of the country and world.

I heard about Joe the Plumber. I didn't need to hear about him though. All I thought is the candidate fixated on Joe the Plumber is out of touch. Not to mention ridiculous. "Joe the Plumber." The Dow dropped another 700 points on the day of the debate, and McCain is fixated on Joe the Plumber's failure to understand Obama's tax proposals?

I heard McCain in full Orwellian doublespeak insist that he is not George Bush, and urge over and over that this country needs a change from the last eight years.

Yes, we do, John McCain. We do need change from the last eight years. So why are you running?

Bizarre.

I heard John McCain say the financial crisis is as a result of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Thanks John McCain, for making clear that you do not understand the economy and are not the person to steer the ship in this crisis.

I heard McCain talk about how Sarah Palin "knows about autism." What in the world does that have to do with anything? All I could think of was, is John McCain already senile? Palin's baby has Down's Syndrome, not autism. What is McCain even talking about?

What I heard and saw in John McCain, in bold relief, was a man who devoted his lifetime to failed ideology and failed ideas, desperate to change the subject in order to continue doing more of the same.

He also showed himself a incoherent, lacking ideas, wrong on the facts, wrong on the solutions, wrong on who is who and what is what, and so fixated on his own hurt feelings that he was ready to stake the debate on his demand for an apology.

McCain didn't just lose the debate last night. If there is any hope left for this country, he gave Obama the landslide this country needs.

Anonymous #8, I hope you post that far and wide...take it to the top!

I, too, noticed McCain's autism comment and thought the same thing, "Uh, Palin's son has Downs, hello?" Anyhoo, the googles are abuzz:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2008/10/did-john-mcca-1.html

Has no one told McCain that Palin's youngest child has Down's Syndrome, not Autism. Also, someone should maybe tell him that Palin is a Governor, not a Senator, as he said three times last night.

The bottom line, McCain and the Republicans have become incoherent. Their entire ideology has lost legitimacy with the ongoing collapse of the global economy. The American people can apparently only be fooled for so long. When the economy collapses, they have an historical tendency to wake up.

Of course, perhaps we'll become infatuated with new/old shiny objects again. After all, Madonna is getting divorced and apparently Brittany is back in the top 100.

“Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.” Obama

hat Iran doesn’t “pose a serious threat to us” — cluelessly arguing that “tiny countries” with small defense budgets can’t do us harm. Obams

Earlier this month in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Obama showed off his knowledge of the war in Afghanistan by homing in on a lack of translators: “We only have a certain number of them, and if they are all in Iraq, then it’s harder for us to use them in Afghanistan.” The real reason it’s “harder for us to use them” in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages. Obama

Credit NRO

BC

So sad Brian. Really. Just give it up, it's over. No one is buying it anymore. One thing that really has to piss you off though. Obama didn't mention nuclear power at all this time. Yep, backed right off that noise. Looks like despite all of your work and all of the work of your party, this country is ready to get better.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

More vetting problems for the McCain camp? Apparently "Joe the Plumber" isn't a plumber at all. Wow! So either the McCain campaign is incredibly incompetent or they are incredibly cynical and manipulative and they thought we wouldn't find out the truth. Which is worse really?

Maybe "Joe" is a plumber like E. Howard Hunt was a plumber for Nixon. Damn! The unmitigated gall!

Brian, you ignorant slut, we are talking about last night's debate, not whatever trivial crap came up umpteen months ago (although I think we can certainly come up with some good ones for you)! What else you got?

Who do you want for a mom; Sarah Palin, or Anjana the chimpanzee?

Wow. I really messed up that link. This works: http://thumbsnap.com/v/2dglgzQO.jpg

Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63SRpGXBHE

So even worse for "Joe the Plumber". His father was involved in the Keating Five scandal and the S&L Crisis of the late 80's early 90's. He apparently mismanaged upwards of 14 million dollars and spent like 40 months in jail for it. He was a lower level guy, so he spent time in jail unlike McCain. I'm finding it harder and harder to believe the campaign didn't know this guy. Incompetence in action. Unbelievably bad judgment for McCain to decide to use this guy as the center point of his whole debate. Really stunning.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/16/obama-bucks/

Anyone feel like voicing your feelings towards Californian Diane Fedele who created and then sent around the unbelievabley and blatantly racist illustration - Obama Bucks - to her women's Republican group, I'm sure she LOVE to hear from you:

diane1354@mindspring.com

Lisa, a bagged-out, dried-up, slunken meat like you should know that all of these bumper sticker slogans that Obama is spewing out are nothing more that sound bits from an empty suit. The fact that Obama is whoring around with Bill Ayers and the Acorn crowd should raise a red flag ! But I suppose that sort of fashionable promiscuting means nothing to you, Lisa, someone who hops from bed to bed with the frequency of a cheap ham radio. Did you happen to see what Joe (plug head) Biden said today ? he can't even count to 4, He thinks JOBS is a 3 letter word, what a moron ! Please !

Okay, in case no one gets it, Jane and Dan, SNL, the 70s.

:)

Jane and Dan?

sorry, Lisa, you lost me there.... are you and Brian re-enacting some ancient comedy routine?

if so, the humor got lost over the course of the last couple centuries

Uh, yeah that helps. I was about to put you both in your place for being so out of line. ;)

Well, the hack kneed attempt at comedy by Brian aside. What it masked in his statements is still out of line. Brian, all you have is Ayers. Really, come on. Obama already blew that one out of the water, but I guess you republicans have the same disease that many of us on the left do. When Obama speaks, you are totally incapable of listening to the content of his words. For us on the left, we can't listen to Bush for any amount of time. But the primary difference is that Bush has not content to his words.

The old bit with Jane Kurtin and Dan Akroid verbally abusing each other on SNL with straight faces and smiles was classic. However, a major component of those skits was the inherent sight gag. The juxtaposition of two TV news people looking normal and smiling while they hurl sexist invectives at one another.

Still, a nice try.

Question for Brian:

Say I start with nothing and work hard all my life, and eventually save $100,000 that I decide to give to my boy so he can get a jump start on life.

Say he walks out the door, finds the first homeless bum he sees, and says, hey, want to borrow $100,000? Just sign this loan note and the cash is yours!

Say the homeless bum lives large for awhile, spends all the cash and is unable to pay the money back, but now, he is starving in the street because he's signed away all his panhandling earnings to repay the loan and can't even keep a few pennies for a piece of bread.

Now say my kid comes back to me, crying, and says he lost all the money because that no good homeless bum won't pay back the loan, and ain't making enough panhandling to even pay the interest.

Should I be pissed at my kid? Or the homeless guy? Or myself? Who is most at fault?

Should I give my kid another $100,000 and say hey, that's OK son, go on out and try again, maybe you'll have better luck?

Should the homeless guy starve in the street, or should I tell my kid he better release the loan so the guy can at least panhandle himself some food?

I'm just trying to understand Republican values.

Thanks in advance for your help.

(And please, anyone else who can help me understand, feel free to chime in.)

It's actually a little different then that #27.

See the kid is really a greedy little prick(GLP). so he gets this bum to sign loan documents then he goes back to his fraternity friends who have all gone out and made similar loans. They bundle all these loans together and then they Tranche the bundle of loans and con or bribe investment rating companies like Moody's into calling the newly minted "securities" these tranched slices of the original bundle represent "triple A" investments. So then the frat boys go out and sell these "securities" to their dad's friends and others, even each other. Of course, commissions are taken all up and down the daisy chain and that original $100,000 loan to the helpless, hapless homeless guy is suddenly the basis of literally millions of dollars in "securities"(READ bets).

But that's not good enough for the greedy prick son(GPS). He and his friends decide to game the system some more by offering insurance against any losses on the securities. Of course, they can't call it insurance because, even in George W. Bush's America, insurance is still regulated. So they call them credit default swaps--you know like swap meet. So anyway, these guys sell insurance(a rose is a rose) that the securities won't default, but then they turn around and buy credit default swaps in equal proportions to the ones they sold from their dad's companies. This is known as a Ponzi Scheme or Pyramid Scheme.

These sorts of fraud are well know and recur constantly in capitalism. In fact, the unsustainable nature of these schemes is actually the signature, like a recurring "landscape" in a fractal image, of the whole of capitalism itself. Unregulated capitalism always produces these kinds of unsustainable wealth extraction schemes. It's the end game of acquisition. You see, the GPS is the kid who loved to play monopoly even though he always cheated and always ended up winning.

How many more times do we have to see this happen?

Here you go Brian. Here's the direct result of your constant pimping for commercial nuclear fission power. More exploitation and by most accounts there's only enough Uranium ore in the Earth to run your precious reactors for 30 more years if they were the sole generators of power. Don't be a GLP.

Nice explanation spk.

Here's another way Republican vs. Democratic values might have it play out:

Republican:

Dad says, "Geez, son. Get it right next time, will you?" Then he pours his kid a cocktail, gives him a clap on the back, and shells out another $100,000 to son, and asks for the homeless bum's note. He heads down to the streetcorner, where he rousts the bum with a nightstick and tells him he'd better get panhandling on the better corners 24/7 or else. He hires a thug to smack the bum around if he slacks off. Dad takes all the bum's earnings as interest and penalties. Then he has his thugs go to the bum's kids and friends, and tell them they'd better start contributing quick, or else. After a few years, the bum and his friends have paid hundreds of thousands on the note, still owe the entire principal, and are starving and sick. Bum dies. Dad is in shock. His $100,000 note is worthless.

He starts looking for someone to bail him out.

Democrat

Dad says "Geez son, get it right next time will you?" He takes the note and tears it up. He tells his kid, "Alright, I'll give you another chance. But this time, you'll have to come to me and tell me what you need money for, and convince me you know what you're doing. I'm not going to just give you the money. Any money I do give you, I'm going to keep track of it and watch what happens the whole time. You need to learn to behave responsibly."

Then he heads down to the streetcorner, finds the bum, and buys him a hearty meal at the local coffee shop. He tells the bum, "look, get on your feet man. Here's my card. If you need some help and are getting your act together, call me."

Then he goes home and pours himself a stiff drink, shaking his head the whole time.

Is that about right?

Sean,
With respect to the uranium mining, We are taking the uranium out of the area and using it up ! There will be less uranium there ! Less uranium for you to become radioactive ! With the breeder reactors and by using the new thorium reactors the supply is vertually unlimited. But in the good ol' USA we can't even do the experiments to see how these things work now ! Our reactors will most likely come from France since they have been advancing the technology and because our country doesn't produce engineers anymore.

This was suggested by Bob Brinker, on his syndicate radio show MONEYTALK, he suggested that the US Treasury should simply make (guarantee) payments on mortgages in default so that the banks do not have to list foreclosed loans as bad debts that reduce a bank’s capital reserves. This would immediately remove the basic cause of the credit crisis in the financial industry. As soon as the world knows that bad mortgages can not bring down a bank and that the foundation for other derivatives based on mortgages is secure, much of the normal credit industry between banks can continue.

This could be done much more quickly than the time that will be required to audit each bank’s total bad debts. And it could cost much less compared to buying large parts of the debts owed by thousands of banks.

The Government would acquire an automatic interest in the property covered by any mortgage that the government is paying. The existing mortgage service companies have all the records and procedures in place to implement this plan immediately.

No new bureaucracy is required to begin Brinker’s plan immediately. In fact, this plan can be put in action tomorrow with a simple proclamation from the US Treasury.

Imaginary thorium reactors Brian, like clean coal.

On Brinker, I suggested something similar some time back, but I suggested that new loans be issued at the de-inflated values of the assets, because it is the deliberate bubble economics practiced by Greenspan, his econ-puppet Reagan, Bush, Clinton(yes him) and Bush the lessor that is destabilizing the world economy. Even with "Brinker's Plan" the leaning pyramid of derivatives would collapse forcing the nation-states to bail out the banks. The better move is to simply cut the financial sectors bad debts loose. Let them float away with the banks themselves and truly nationalize the financial sector. But that's only if you want to stop the bubble and mania economics that have gotten us here.

I don't pretend to understand the intricacies of the financial crisis but from what I understand is that the home loans that are in forclosure the bank has to count those loans as zero. But they are not really zero, they do have value, if the government were to make those payments then the banks could put those assets back on the books.

Investors anywhere who are willing to buy the toxic debts or foreclosed mortgages from banks should be relieved of all capital gains taxes on the properties or debts when they sell the assests they bought. This could be a great incentive for private investors to do the job instead of tying up taxpayers’ money forever. In fact, it will motivate many investors and banks to go to work on their own to relieve the credit crisis.

BC, am I right to suspect that responding to the hypothetical on Republican values above is, as McCain would say, "above your pay grade"?

The Brinker plan is not a plan that makes sense. It is similar to the McCain plan, which asks the taxpayer to buy up inflated mortgages and take the losses, and does nothing to keep the American worker, "the strongest worker on earth," in his or her home and working. It is similar to the nonstarter plan originally proposed by Paulson, which was essentially a looting plan. ("The house is burning! Quick, run in and raid the valuables!")

In point of fact, the "market", if left alone, was, and would, properly address the problem mortgages, by writing them down for home"owners" who were ready to step up and take on a new fixed loan at the current appraised value, and foreclosing the rest. This was already happening, until the bailout plan froze it. Talk to people who were negotiating with their lenders and ask them what has happened over the last few weeks - word has come down from on high, there will be no renegotiation. Why take a writedown when the taxpayer is ready to buy the crap at full value? The "bailout" perversely has caused banks to freeze any efforts at properly revaluing the problem loans on their books on their own, because doing so would require them to record a larger hit than just waiting for the government to bail them out at full value.

The result is, now, unless and until Uncle Sam gets the mortgages in hand and sets up a program to write them down and reissue new mortgages, people either have to keep throwing good money after bad in the hopes a solution will come around the pike, or stop paying and risk foreclosure and loss of the home.

The problem with the market solution is that, while banks and lenders were renegotiating those loans, all of the paper written around those loans was impossible to value, and of course, the banks themselves were necessarily starved for capital and unable to make new loans.

Last week, the community of nations, through the groups of seven and twenty, came in and gave some straight talk to Bush, Paulson and Bernanke, and told them they'd better get on the program of providing new equity to banks so they could keep primary lending going. This is what Europe and other nations have done - no "bailout"/looting, but an infusion of capital directly into the banks with a condition that they use it to make new loans now, and prohibitions on dividends and big executive compensation until the government makes its money back. This solution pushes the banks to renegotiate their problem loans, allowing homeowners to save their homes and take on a loan at a realistic asset value, still make new loans to keep the economy running, and let investors take their eventual losses, whatever they turn out to be, on the toxic mortgage backed securities and credit derivatives. All this is how it should be.

So far, however, there is a huge problem. Paulson has been a disaster. Arguably, Paulson unnecessarily created the stock market crash and caused the loss of nearly 2 trillion in wealth suffered so far in retirement accounts all by himself, by idiotically approaching Congress with a three page nonstarter looting proposal, instead of something real. By the time Congress was able to fix that, the damage was done. A worldwide run on stock markets and complete loss of confidence in our primary financial institutions was added to the mix.

Now, even after abandoning his original looting plan (the groups of 7 and 20 did something last weekend that turned him around), unlike Europe, Paulson has failed to put in conditions requiring the banks to actually lend the equity infusion he is giving them. The New York Times has reported that most of the major banks are already on record that they intend to hold the cash to shore up their balance sheets - making the equity infusion just a waste of resources from a public policy perspective.

This speaks to the politics. We've seen foreign policy incompetence from the Republican side that has destroyed our influence abroad, and made us the enemy of the world, the country to be contained. We've seen domestic incompetence, from Mike Brown and Hurricane Katrina to Alberto Gonzales at Justice. And now, economic incompetence with Hank Paulson and his ideologically blinded inability to implement the necessary solutions that economists have laid out as what needs to happen now. We are on track to head into a new Great Depression if we can't fix this now.

Frankly, at this point, getting rid of Republicans is not a partisan issue. Its a simple matter of whether you are an American, and care about this country. As Americans, it is time to come together and understand that these people we've had for the last eight years need to go. Now.

And never come back.

And I suppose the democrats are blameless. The Congress has done nothing.