http://www.bloomberg.com/...

July 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury Department's plan to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is an ``unmitigated disaster'' and the largest U.S. mortgage lenders are ``basically insolvent,'' according to investor Jim Rogers.

... ... ...

``I don't know where these guys get the audacity to take our money, taxpayer money, and buy stock in Fannie Mae,'' Rogers, 65, said in an interview from Singapore. ``So we're going to bail out everybody else in the world. And it ruins the Federal Reserve's balance sheet and it makes the dollar more vulnerable and it increases inflation.''
... ... ...

James Hansen spoke to Congress last week.  The biggest criticism on this site against a tax on gasoline is that the tax would be regressive.  James Hansen proposes a carbon tax with dividend.  The tax revenues would be redistributed to the people.  This would eliminate the regressive nature of the tax, and only carbon users would be penalized.

A carbon tax is imperative for any progress on global warming.  As James Hansen puts it, "A price on emissions that cause harm is essential... ... Tax and dividend allows the marketplace, not politicians, to make investment decisions."

The alarm bells over global warming have been ringing on this site.  I have seen very little discussion regarding tax and dividend.  This dialogue is needed.

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
... ...
Julius Caesar
Act 3, Scene 2,

And Mark Antony uses the death of Caeser to take control of Rome.

The United States economy is going down the toilet.  Since 2001 growth in the economy was based on the housing market.  We invested heavily building McMansions in suburbs which often required 30 mile commutes.  The price of oil keeps rising and our transportation system requires cheap oil.  We have very poor mass transportation.  We rely on oil squandering airline travel and the airlines are going broke.

Our health care system gives fealty to the private insurance companies.  Our crooked legal system is a drain on our resources.  But worst of all is the 500 billion dollars our nation spends every year on the military.  

Our military spending has reduced the standard of living and quality of life for Americans since WWII.  We are now past or nearly past peak oil production on this earth. The fortune we spend on the military is needed for an energy efficient transportation system.  The American people will begin to really suffer if we do not start investing in mass transportation and high speed rail.  We need to divert the money wasted on the military into our infrastructure.

Fact: In 1998, women were 101 times more likely to be murdered with a handgun than to use a handgun to kill in self-defense. Women were 302 times more likely to be murdered with a handgun than to use a handgun to kill a stranger in self-defense. Women were 83 times more likely to be murdered by an intimate acquaintance with a handgun than to kill an intimate acquaintance in self-defense.(Violence Policy Center, A Deadly Myth: Women, Handguns, and Self-Defense. Washington, D.C., 2001, 2-3.)

Rates of female homicide, suicide and unintentional firearm death are disproportionately higher in states where guns are more prevalent.  (Matthew Miller et. al., "Firearm Availability and Suicide, Homicide, and Unintentional Firearm Deaths Among Women." Journal of Urban Health 79: 26-38 (2002))

When the Constitution was written slaves were considered three fifths of a person.  This concession was made to give the South enough clout in the legislature so they would agree to ratify the Constitution.  

Less than 100 years after the Constitution was written a bloody civil war broke out in the United States.  The argument was over the Constitution.  The original purpose of the second Amendment is clear as mud, but its effect was to give the Southern States firepower with which to state their case.  The Civil War gave us over one million dead Americans.

Police shot and killed a cougar recently in Chicago.  If the police did not have guns this cougar might still be alive.  An easy access to guns decided this poor magnificent animal's life.

Do you want your life decided by some bozo with a gun?

There are many articles on Dailykos sounding the alarm on global warming and the comments blast government for inaction.  

The number one contributor to suburban sprawl is the price of housing.  Houses will not be built if it is not profitable to build them.  The price of housing determines profitability.  Higher housing prices mean more development and construction.  This is an immutable law of economics.

Wealth is transferred from taxpayers to homeowners using the mortage interest deduction, the capital gains tax exclusion, government financing and loans to housing.  In general the larger and more expensive the house the larger the government subsidy.

These government subsidies increase the price of housing which in turn leads to mindless but usually very profitable development and construction.

Suburban sprawl is Mother Earth's worst enemy.  The FHA, the mortgage interest deduction, the capital gains tax exclusion and all the rest of the wealth transfers that the USA government gives to homeowners are suburban sprawl's best friend.

The only good news we have on global warming is that housing prices are crashing.  If we want to save the environment we have to let housing crash.  Real estate construction and the environment are mortal enemies.  

In the year 2000, the fed raised the federal funds rate to to 6.5%.  This election was very close and the policy of the federal reserve basically decided this election.  

After this election the federal funds rate was brought down to 1% in June 2003 and held there until June 2004 when it was raised to 1.25%.  The election in 2004 was again very close and federal reserve policy decided yet another election.

This year is another election year and the federal reserve is dropping the federal funds rate and pouring liquidity into the economy.  The Federal Reserve is run by the banks in the private sector and bankers prefer Republicans.  The Federal Reserve is doing all it can to decide this upcoming election.

Inflation of the currency causes a transfer of wealth.  Wealth is transferred from those that save to those that borrow.  Further wealth is taken from those on a fixed income and given to everyone else in society.

Inflation is also a hidden tax on all of us.  When the government invades Iraq and does not have the money to pay for it the deficit shows up in inflation.  When the Republicans cut taxes, really all they are doing is inflating the currency.

How was MSNBC allowed to break the law and refuse to allow Dennis Kucinich to debate last Tuesday in Nevada? The law is that there must be pre-established criteria before a debate. MSNBC issued an invitation to Kucinich and then rescinded the invitation. Clearly Kucinich met the pre-established criteria or MSNBC would not have invited him to the debate. MSNBC must have changed the criteria.  But if pre-established criteria can change at a whim it is not really pre-established criteria.  

This law is either complete nonsense or MSNBC broke the law. Will someone please explain how MSNBC can be allowed to break the law?

How was MSNBC allowed to break the law and refuse to allow Dennis Kucinich to debate last Tuesday in Nevada? The law is that there must be pre-established criteria before a debate. MSNBC issued an invitation to Kucinich and then rescinded the invitation. Clearly Kucinich met the pre-established criteria or MSNBC would not have invited him to the debate. MSNBC must have changed the criteria.  But if pre-established criteria can change at a whim it is not really pre-established criteria.  

This law is either complete nonsense or MSNBC broke the law. Will someone please explain how MSNBC can be allowed to break the law?

It is my understanding that most of the votes in New Hampshire are counted by a company named Diebold.  For this fact alone these votes should not only be recounted but they should be recounted again.  And then recounted one more time.  And then after sixteen recounts an entire audit of the election should be conducted.  Further there should be an investigation into the audit and this should be made public.

We already have had two presidential elections with doubtful outcomes.  How can a site dedicated to electing Democrats dispute the need to protect the integrity of elections?  How can there be any doubt as to the need to protect the integrity of this election or any election?  

There are two important problems facing our nation today.  We are spending too much on the military, and we have an atrocious health care system.  The solutions are cutting the military budget and single payer health care.

The candidates at the recent debate in New Hampshire support neither cutting the military budget nor single payer health care.  

Dennis Kucinich both supports cutting the military and single payer health care.  Dailykos has for the most part either ignored or demeaned the Kucinich candidacy.

For the sake of argument, let us just grant that the Kucinich candidacy is in some way fatally defective.  I do not believe this at all, but the arguments against Kucinich are so trivial and such tripe that this discussion is worthless.

Why did the Democratic candidates not challenge the ABC bogus scenario of terrorists detonating a nuclear warhead in a US city?  This was crass fearmongering.

Why not any discussion of single payer health care?  Why were there so few specifics on change?

John Edwards called for decisive action against Iraq before the invasion.  Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraqi war resolution, but she tried to stay on the fence as best she could.  Now John Edwards has changed his stance.  John Edwards would be torn to shreds in the general on the Iraq war issue.  How can he make the argument that he had lousy judgement six years ago but now he has good judgement?  This dog will never hunt.

In this primary, John Edwards has become the ultimate pander bear.  He wants to give 2-300 billion in subsidies to the private health insurance companies, He wants to spend tens of billions on New Orleans, tens(hundreds?) of billions to those that are losing their homes in forclosure, a hundred billion for an environmental jobs program, tens of billions more to fight poverty, for every problem John Edwards wants to throw more money at it.  The only revenue source for this increased spending is rolling back the tax cuts on the wealthy, and perhaps raising taxes on the well to do.

Gore Vidal endorses Dennis Kucinich

Davis Fleetwood investigates why Dennis was barred by the Des Moines Register at the latest debate in Iowa.