Get a Job!!!!

"WASHINGTON - New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to their highest level in seven years"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/jobless_claims;_ylt=Aqlw4pq7hsaR9prvCXLZL92s0NUE

WASHINGTON - New home sales tumbled in August to the slowest pace in 17 years, while the average sales price fell by the largest amount on record, demonstrating the depth of the problem

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy;_ylt=Ah9a4.i10EQF36M.9bBpMd.s0NUE

A flailing economy - Just another facet of the Bush Legacy.

One would hope that the lesson learned from this last 8 years is that the Republican ideals of "Give tax breaks to the top 5% and they will re-distribute it to the rest of the tax payers" and "If you want the economy to flourish, leave corporations and financial firms to regulate themselves" are complete fantasy.

These ideals have proven themselves time and again to be failed policies. I can only hope that this time around the country will have learn from this lesson because it has been a VERY expensive one.

... pssst! Hey taxpayers, want to buy a bridge?

Watching the testimony and questions from Congress on this Trillion dollar bank bailout.

The CNBC talking heads keep pitching the bailout as an idea that should make the taxpayers money.

Should? SHOULD!!!!!

Time for a reality check here people. We are in this very mess because some "really smart" CEO's from the BIGGEST financial institutions in this country agreed to deals that they were convinced "SHOULD" make them money.
THEY DIDN'T !!! In fact several of those companies have ceased to exist!
The Government (taxpayers) making money should have nothing to do with this decision. As these very companies have proven, we stand just as much chance of LOOSING money on this deal as making it.

These companies are now holding a gun to "the head" of our economy and we find ourselves forced to bail them out. Again (see S&L Crises of the 80's). The only way we should fork over this nearly TRILLION dollars to cover their bad investments is if some of those involved are sacrificed. Jailed. Shot. Something.
We need there to be REAL, negative consequences for willingly putting the country in such dire straights. This is the only way we can avoid having this happen again.

BTW ... if one were to accept the idea that the U.S. Government should loan money we don't have based on possible profits to the taxpayers ... there are probably much more profitable and much less troubled industries for "the Taxpayers" to get into. Like the oil industry for example.

Look, ... but don't ask any questions!

So, what do you do if your candidate can't answer even the most basic of questions related to the office they have been nominated for? You hide them away.

Palin has given only two "one on one" interviews since becoming the Republican choice for V.P.
One in which she was shown to have only vague notions about the job and one (with Faux News) which featured such hard hitting questions as "So do you think the rich AND the middle class would be better off if they didn't have to pay taxes?"
Oh, please. Why not just ask her if people feel better when you don't hit them in the head with a hammer.

So now the Republican campaign has lined up a series of "visits" with foreign dignitaries hoping that Palin, getting her picture taken ONCE with these folks, will suddenly qualify in the voter's minds as having "Foreign Affairs Experience". Never mind the fact that the first time in her life she even traveled outside the U.S. was just last year.

Just one hitch, her handlers are forbidding any reporters (only photographers) to be present when this takes place. Having those who could tell us about these photo ops would apparently run the risk of proving just how "out of her element" she will be.

Simply incredible.
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Palin bans reporters from meetings with leaders

NEW YORK - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has not held a press conference in nearly four weeks of campaigning, on Tuesday banned reporters from her first meetings with world leaders, allowing access only to photographers and a television crew.

The meetings scheduled for Wednesday are part of the Republican campaign's effort to give Palin the apperance of experience in foreign affairs. She has never met a foreign head of state and first traveled outside North America just last year.

The full article is found HERE -
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080923/ap_on_el_pr/palin_leaders;_ylt=AnPbBNDUL_3MnrWuDq_xZTes0NUE

The Circular Talk Express

This is from Sunday's news. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080921/ap_on_el_pr/financial_meltdown_candidates_1)
The audacious double-talk and flip flopping simply HAD to be called out.
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McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, has long supported fewer regulations for businesses. But as the financial crisis on Wall Street worsens, McCain is calling for more government.

McCain was asked if he regretted supporting a 1999 law that removed barriers between investment banks and commercial banks that were erected in 1933, in response to the 1929 stock market crash.

(so he is all for deregulation until it has sent the country into economic crises ... THEN he wants to try and regulate it. Swell.)

"No," McCain said. "I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy."

(if by "growth" he means "destruction" then he is spot on)

In the same interview, McCain defended the Bush administration's proposed bailout of financial firms as necessary, though he acknowledged it could get expensive.

(deregulate to make the CEO's rich ... then have the government bail their companies out at taxpayer expense. THAT is a TAX INCREASE.)

Former Sen. Phil Gramm, one of McCain's economic advisers, was a chief sponsor of the 1999 bill that removed restrictions on investment and commercial banks.

(Why would we want to continue to let the people who have run our economy into the rocks ... steer the ship of state?
Doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is one definition of insanity.)