The lunacy in Arizona continues

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Monday January 10, 2011 · 1:17 PM PST

2011/01/10 · 13:17

It seems that one Arizona representative believes the victims in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, because they were not armed, contributed to the harm brought on them.

Please follow over the jump.

vetforobama

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Friday May 22, 2009 · 9:04 AM PDT

2009/05/22 · 09:04

Yes Virginia, Samuel Langhorne Clemens had an economist streak about him. The following quotation from Clemens’ A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is as fitting a statement in these times as it was when he originally wrote it.

It isn't the sum you get, it's how much you can buy with it, that's the important thing; and it's that that tells whether your wages are high in fact or only high in name. Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

It is what your earnings can buy that serves as a real measure of your wages or salary; and lately, our wages and salaries have not enabled us to purchase very much. Today’s diminished, middle class- and working class-buying power and the impact of that lost purchasing power are examined on the other side of the jump.

vetforobama

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Wednesday May 20, 2009 · 8:48 AM PDT

2009/05/20 · 08:48

Bloomberg TV reported that the Obama Administration is planning to strip the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of some of its regulatory powers and give them to the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB). As to what specific powers that will be removed from the SEC are unclear at this time.

Notwithstanding a lack of details, to transfer regulatory powers to the Federal Reserve Bank from the SEC would be like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic because the ship’s captain failed to avoid the ship-destroying iceberg.

General arguments against transferring more regulatory policy to the Federal Reserve Bank will be presented below the fold.

vetforobama

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Sunday May 17, 2009 · 10:12 AM PDT

2009/05/17 · 10:12

Presently, there seems to be an attempt at obfuscation on the matter of waterboarding and it appears to becoming mainly from former Bush Administration officials.

As part of this obfuscatory process, these former Bush acolytes and the plain old crotchety Republican leaders are attempting to re-write the Bush Administration’s legacy – a legacy that is destined to live in infamy.

But to keep matters clear about who the real culprits are in this despicable tale of waterboarding, we need to review some of the sordid details of this lawless period in American history. Across the jump we shall do just that.

vetforobama

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Friday May 15, 2009 · 12:49 PM PDT

2009/05/15 · 12:49

is really much ado about nothing, relatively speaking. It is just a Republican Party talking point designed to misinform the public – propaganda.

Your hear and read about Republicans and their supports screaming about the high level of the United States’ budget deficit in proportion to GDP. Woe is us for the sky is falling because of the "extraordinary" high budget deficits.

After the jump, budget deficit data, in chart form, will be presented for four presidential eras in U.S. history. Hopefully, the chart will help you gain additional insight into the U.S. budget deficit and the sophistic arguments of the Republican Party and its supporters.

vetforobama

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Monday May 11, 2009 · 2:46 PM PDT

2009/05/11 · 14:46

The U.S. Government’s extraordinary financial support for the "banking system" of the United States raises a question with its genesis in the Great Depression-era.

What role should the government play during an economic crisis?

History has shown us that there are two, overarching answers to the above question, and this diary will discuss the answers and their impact on the nation.

vetforobama

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Thursday May 07, 2009 · 8:05 AM PDT

2009/05/07 · 08:05

Most recently, mainly from certain über-right-wing political quarters, there has been excessive "fretting" over the national debt and how the Obama Administration’s budgets will further aggravate that debt. All this "fretting" by the über-right and their Republican cohorts was an impetus to take a closer look at the United States national debt and the uses to which all that borrowing was put.

Should you decide to make the jump to the main body of this diary, I hope you will keep in mind how we have recently used much of the gargantuan borrowing that has driven the steep rise in our national debt and the alternative, more constructive uses to which those borrowed dollars could have been applied.

Across the jump this diary, with the help of two charts (Microsoft Excel based), will examine the national debt and hopefully inspire you to make your voice heard on this issue and the great inflection point at which our country now finds itself.

vetforobama

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Thursday April 30, 2009 · 9:10 AM PDT

2009/04/30 · 09:10

Now that the first 100 days of the Obama Administration have come and gone, the hard work of governing and leading truly begins. A state of irrational exuberance will continue among many administration supporters.

Conversely, the rest of America will be looking for results that are not anchored in reality show hoopla but answers that will address their real world issues. The rubber tires of the Obama Administration vehicle must now the meet concrete road of complex problems.

With great expectations ...

vetforobama

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Tuesday April 28, 2009 · 9:17 AM PDT

2009/04/28 · 09:17

no not that constitutional rock and hard place (aka torture violations) but this one; the 1996 tax treaty between the United States and the Swiss Federation and the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The tax treaty in question also illustrates the asymmetrical and unfair nature of the American banking system – a subject to be left for a different diary.

As some of you may already know, the U.S. Government is attempting to obtain from Swiss bank UBS the names of the bank's U.S. clients who are suspected of avoiding the paying of federal taxes on their incomes. Senator Carl Levin has held hearings on this matter and UBS Bank has paid a 780-million dollar fine after acknowledging their violations of United States law and perpetration of other fraudulent acts.

Across the jump, this diary will provide some thoughts on the critical question of the 1996 tax treaty and whether it was an actual amendment to the Constitution that could be in conflict Amendment XVI to the U.S. Constitution – a possible Constitutional rock and a hard place.

vetforobama

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Sunday April 26, 2009 · 9:30 AM PDT

2009/04/26 · 09:30

in his analysis of President George W. Bush Administration's premeditated policy to torture people. I agree with most everything that Mr. Rich wrote in his New York Times column, "The Banality of Bush White House Evil"; but I differ with him as to what was the orginal sin.

Mr. Rich assigns the original sin for our present policy on torture to the lies about Iraq.

Over the jump, another candidate for the original sin appellation will be discussed.

vetforobama

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Saturday April 25, 2009 · 2:24 PM PDT

2009/04/25 · 14:24

Democrats could become complicit participants in blessing torture should they elect not to use their newly-gained power and hold accountable the government officials who authorized and carried out the Bush Administration’s illegal and immoral enhanced interrogation techniques (torture).

It seems that when a political group has the power to correct such base policies as torture and consciously decides not to do so then they are committing the equivalence of silence on the issue; and the Latin maxim qui tacet consentit comes into play.

Below the fold, we can examine new developments in the U.S. government’s policy to torture people and the implications of continuation of that illegal and immoral policy.

vetforobama

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Friday April 24, 2009 · 6:58 AM PDT

2009/04/24 · 06:58

could be the resulting travails for our nation if our leaders continue their present dithering over whether agents of the United States Government, who were authorized, encouraged or directed to commit acts of torture by bureaucrats of President George W. Bush’s administration, performed such acts effectively and beneficially. The nation needs action now on this matter.

Sir Thomas More once said (courtesy of "A Man for All Seasons") and I paraphrase his statement: A country’s leaders, when they forsake their beliefs for short term gains, put their country on a short route to Hell.

A corollary to More’s statement is: A nation’s leaders who forsake the laws and morals of their nation also place their country on a short route to Hell.

Across the jump a short overview of our current torture turmoil is presented.

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The lunacy in Arizona continues

Mark Twain Was an Economist Too

Musical Regulatory Chairs at SEC and FRB

CIA Waterboarding Story: A New Deception?

The brouhaha over the U.S. budget deficit ...

The United States of America or United States of Banks

The National Debt and Our National Legacy

Economy, War and Health Care - The Next 1,361 Days

Between a U.S. constitutional rock and hard place ...

Frank Rich -Mostly correct with possibly a small error

Torture – Along side Republicans,

A short route to Hell ...