alw

Hey I know you guys are missing the other side of the argument so I'll try to fill in. You're ugly and your mother dresses you funny, and bush sucks, and only the Democrats led by his highness can save this truly f&*^ed up country. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

This one is so simple I would think even you could figure it out Bill. The party in power means they don't have to count on the minority party. GOP causcus before McCain 4 ayes, after McCain 65 ayes. If Obama could have delivered 12 out of the 95 nays it would have passed. If Pelosi could have delivered 12 of her 95 nays it would have passed. If bloviant Barney could have delivered 12 Democrat nays that were cast by his own committee (how sad was that!) it would have passed. Don't blame it on anyone but the party in power - that's what they are supposed to dd - get it done! Cheez what winers. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Touche' --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

What I find appropriately ridiculous here is that the majority of contrasting views here in this thread have to do with math and grammar. Throw out the completely off target and "well you didn't either" and your left with . I can understand the angry comments from the right about Pelosi's comments. Somehow I find it hard to stomach being called unpatriotic for representing their constituency. A constituency who by Biden's estimation lacks patriotism because they don't want to pay more taxes. In fact if every fiber of my being was against the bill and 8 to 1 calls and e-mails in my office said it was not what my constituency wanted it wouldn't have taken that much. But let's get back to the real meat here. Pelosi couldn't deliver 12 votes from her California Democrats (17 voted nay). Franks had enough no votes from Democrats on his committee to swing the vote and he couldn't deliver them. The best they could do as the party in power is to blame the party that was dead set against it it in the first place. Originally the Caucus of Republicans had 4 ayes. After McCain's effort it was 61 votes higher. How many votes did Obama phone in? The Democrats just blew it, and I too am glad they did. Sure the markets will drop. Mortgage loans will be hard to get - that is you will have to actually have a job, a down payment and a good credit rating to get one. College loans will tighten up, or put another way students may have to work, study for scholarships, or maybe god forbid do a hitch in the service and get some veterans benefits. Small businesses will have to actually have a good business plan rather than a great power point presentation. No I don't think you can blame the Republicans for sticking with their ideology and their constituency. They were lucky to get the ayes they managed. I just think the Democrats have forgotten how to behave like the party in power and thought they'd be safe hiding behind Pelosi's skirts. By the way she has really big ears, did you notice? --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

I'd love to get in on this discussion but I've got to go cling to my guns and religion just now. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

http://publicmarkup.org/bill/dodds-legislative-proposal-treasury-department-aut/ --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Curious how people feel about their elected officials. No party talk please, just how do you feel about the job they're doing. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

For me the debate started at 2 AM which has a tendancy to put me in a very pragmatic mood. As much as many people would like to declare a winner and loser and will be willing to cite any reason including the color of their shoes or the style of their tie, I think that would be a mistake. Both men won. They both were able to articulate their position. They both displayed their nature and their manner. They both handled debate tactics OK and they both made their points and attacked their opponents points with some degree of credulity. With all the fluff stripped away from the campaigns and the venom of zealots neutralized with the antidote of reason, realists are faced with a clear choice. These are two competant men representing two fundamentally different positions. They are representing those position in a fashion that gives credit to the process and pause to those who will ultimately decide the election. The thoughtful, analytical, responsible middle of the road every day Americans will have to decide not on personality or sound bites but on substance and policy. It wan't great theater but it was interesting. I'm sad that people will keep throwing darts rather than putting forth ideas that would make the process more productive. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

If you check your statements and timelines, both parties in the house and the senate were stating yesterday just prior to McCains announcement that they were working hard but had reached no concensus. Schumer had stated that it was going to take more time. Several republican congressmen were building steam saying that they did not like what was being discussed. Within 16 hours of McCains announcement Reid had reversed himself, Franks had pontificated, Bush had invited, Obama had refused then conceded to return to Washington, Pelosi had annonced that a bill would be on the floor tomorrow, and everyone was saying that McCain's decision will not effect the outcome. Anyone that suggests he has had no impact may want to restructure their argument. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

So you have information that Bernanke doesn't have suggesting that 100 banks won't fail if they don't get it done soon? --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

. . . Why can't you have the bill in progress faxed to you while you are on the road or in the air? . . . I'm guessing that you have never been in a position to be part of an intense and time sensitive negotiation. FAX? Really? When 80% of communication is non-verbal, you need to be there and look the other guys in the eye. This Bail Out is a carreer breaker for every congressman on the hill and a lot of other bureaucrats and politicians - including the president. Those people are very anxious to make sure they are going to have political cover from the new guy in the big white house - party doesn't matter. They are going to feel much better about moving forward if someone is ready to step up and provide them some shade. That's why Obama should go as well. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

You can predict how it will go. Senate Democrats will say it isn't needed, Obama has said he plans on going to the debate. Stephanopolis reported yesterday that without McCain's support no bill will progress according to Dems and Reps. Liberals are all over this as a cheap stunt. He is doing what he said he would do and for that you have got to give him credit. I don't see that he had a choice. Think he ought to send Palin to debate, her opening remark, "Senator McCain has asked me to come here in the interest of fair play. It is his thought that my presence will for this debate level the playing field regarding experience in Foreign Policy." --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

This announcement isn't about finding anything. The investigations started last week. What the announcement is about is a not so subtle message. "Go along with the bailout program even if you have to give up your bonus - or find out just how hard we will push." I get your dig Amazon, but the FBI is part of the administration, not congress. The message is being sent by Bush. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Something really wierd happened on the hill today. The GOP members took the safe option and ducked behind McCain saying that McCain would have to sign off on Paulsen's plan for them to get behind it. No surprise it puts all the weight on McCain and shelters them from their constituency. That's not the wierd part. The Democrats started to fracture starting along a House and Senate fault line, but expanding. Early reports said a number of the Democrats said McCain would have to back the plan for them to get behind it. I guess they assumed they could lay off the blame on him like the GOP was doing. When I got past the liberal nut cases on the blogs claiming that McCaim was conceited and presumptuous it came down to this. It had the look that congress was looking to McCain for leadership. I noticed the polls tonight were showing a slight uptick for McCain before this news hit the wires. It will be interesting to see where they are Friday before the debate. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

An even more cynical point is that this is exactly what the Democrats want. 1. They raise taxes and blame it on the Republicans 2. They make some money from the transaction and keep it (you don't really think we'll ever know what the accounting of this is do you?) 3. They win seats in congress (see number 1) 4. They win the white house (see number 1 again) 5. They get to call they shots with lots of other peoples money. The Republicans don't like it because: 1. See 1-5 above. Schumer was about as transparent as air today when he asked if they could get by with less and then maybe in January come back for more. After the elections wink wink. Get it straight, the Republicans threw poor Slick Willy in the briar patch in 1999 and forced him to do exactly what he wanted to do. The Democrats failed to heed the warning in 2005 in committee and killed a regulation bill that may have closed the gap and the Republicans let them get away with it. An neither Clinton or Bush blew the whistle loud enough to get anyone's attention. Time to pay the piper. Where do I send my check? --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

I've got to say that many people don't claim their charitable contributions religiously. They tithe to their church, donate time and effort, and contribute ad hoc without noting it. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

No it would be due to plagarism - cut and paste. Who knew. I'm just lucky I know how to use a computer at my age. But Check out the link just for fun. http://www.bairdtelevision.com/RCA.html --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Don't care. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

BZZZZZZT http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_was_television_invented ( Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to speak on television. Roosevelt spoke at the opening session of the New York World's Fair on April 30, 1939. The first presidential address broadcast from the White House was Harry S. Truman's speech about food conservation and the world food crisis on Oct. 5, 1947. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

The term "bail out" has seldom carried the importance in our vocabulary that it does today. While many focus on Wall Street and Washington, the real targets for the bailouts being discussed are harder to pinpoint. Yes there are corporate excesses and yes there were shady loans, greedy investors, and sleazy politicians yet those maladies have been with us always. Today the cause is deeper and the fix more challenging but both did not or will not happen fast. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households. The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Yet since the turn of the century income has had little to do with consumerism. Easy credit and lack of accountability have allowed the lower tier earners to consume at a pace in excess of their income. To make up for the income gap government has continuously "bailed out" these overconsumers with tax breaks and shored up their ambitions with promises. These actions are not attributable to liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. Each in their own way has contributed according to their political leanings but all for one purpose, to garner votes. The Republicans give away tax breaks to the overconsumers to stimulate spending. In this way the ranks of the overconsumers grow in the margins year on year. The Democrats reward the overconsumers out of what they espouse as "fairness". With the same effect as trickle down economics the gap between the haves and the have-nots is blurred while the real gap between the underconsumers and the overconsumers grows. Now, we see the true problem and the true subject of the bail out - the overconsumer. Income has little to do with this as there are overconsumers in every strata of the economic sector. Yet, the one that is placing us in today’s precarious position is the one who has lived well beyond their means and been told it is their right to do so. Once again government plans to step in and give them a big hug and tell them that it will be OK. But this time it may not be OK, in fact this time may be the very last. For us to continue down the road of addressing the symptom and not the problem could very well lead to a total global economic collapse. If it comes it will be global. Just as a town dies when its industry collapses so will the world falter when it's predominant economy falters. Although Europe likes to compare itself to America, the analogy is lacking in that adding many individual countries’ GDP doesn't make a cohesive economy. Reliance in the American economic machine is still very, very high and the tentacles of the world’s economy to deeply embedded. What then might be a solution? What is the national equivalent of a Betty Ford Clinic for the American addiction to overconsumption? To begin with, just as government led the way to the problem they must lead the way to the solution. The people must realize that they too have a problem and they must be willing to fight it, rather than fighting each other. Conventional wisdom suggests that America always pulls through a crisis and comes out stronger on the other side. But America only does that when they pull together. Americans must demand leadership from government, not salvation. They must punish indecision and bad judgment at the polls and have the strength to resist an empty promise of a better tomorrow for the surety of knowing a better yesterday. Consider these examples. The losses in the transmission and distribution of electricity in the United States of America would power the entirety of Spain with some to spare. The USA imports two-thirds of the oil it consumes while consuming one-fourth of global consumption. If the USA used one-tenth of its 2005 consumption it would save the same amount of oil Mexico used in that same year. In America we can make personal sacrifices that would go unnoticed to us and yet what we would give up would be treasure to some in the rest of the world. As in leaner times, Americans must learn to tighten their belts, live within their means, and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. We must be willing to accept the fact that number two or even number three is not a bad place to be. We all must pay our fair share and not expect the ones that got it right to bail the rest out, though they will in the beginning and likely do so willingly. They will because they know that we are in this together and they just want the rest to acknowledge that fact. ALW 2008 --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Of course not. I'm taking editorial license with his thoughts and taking his words out of context. Just polishing up my resume for the New York Times. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

"Sarah Palin is popular " "she's hot " "be happy for her elevation to the ticket" "she was a good choice" http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2008/09/22/bill_clinton_says_he_understands_palins_appeal --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

It's always refreshing to see people so eager to discard the Constitution. Have you ever read the 24th Amendment? Did you ever read the Declaration of Independence? --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

I believe that the liberals in congress see this as a way to achieve their objectives through the back door. What they suggest is nothing more than nationalizing the banking industry and owning property in excess of what anyone could believe is realistic in a free society. They are relying very heavily on re-election and playing a very high stakes game. If they lose, they lose congress and turn it over to the conservatives who may reap the be benefits of their misadventure. With this largess they too would undoubtaedly abuse the situation. Before anyone gets to passionate about one party or the other they need to take a good hard look at human nature and the nature of the political animal. We may be witnessing a very pivotal point in history all in the hands of an egomaniacal oligarchy. As Betty said, fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

Google the references and you'll understand. Dwindling - I don't think so. --------------------------------------------- Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.