Americans...endless source of comedy.  Amirite?  I want to get "CNN" tattooed on my ass.

Urrite.

I don't understand how so many republicans vote no when it was their leaders' plan.

It really looks bad when you have republican leaders, and I'm not talking just about the president, that are on TV 24/7 screaming about how they "MUST" do the bailout, and then over half of their party votes no, lol.  And people were saying the democrats are the ones that are divided?  They really shouldn't do that during an election.

It's a tough vote.  I'm not even sure how I would vote being in their situation.  I don't have enough information as to how the 700 billion would be used to make a proper decision.  Even if I did...

There's quite a bit of pork in the bailout from what I've heard. At this point though, there's no better option, and none in a timely fashion.

As for blaming Republicans? Democrats have had majority rule for two years now. If they'd had ten more liberal votes, it would've passed.

Forget about the vote.  Republians (Bush Party) caused this mess in the first place.  The spending they burnt in eight years is insane.  As if that's not insulting enough Bush spent the majority of his time removing controls and restraints on big corporations/banks.  The Bush party should be lined up and stoned to death. 

Agent Ghost


Forget about the vote.  Republians (Bush Party) caused this mess in the first place.  The spending they burnt in eight years is insane.  As if that's not insulting enough Bush spent the majority of his time removing controls and restraints on big corporations/banks.  The Bush party should be lined up and stoned to death. 

I was thinking more along the lines of the execution scene in COD4, and after we're finished with the republicans we can line up the democrats. In America, no matter the party, you get fucked. Democrats want to give your money to people too fucking lazy to work and the Republicans want to give your money to giant corporations.

Here's an interesting one:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

Forget about the vote.  Republians (Bush Party) caused this mess in the first place.  The spending they burnt in eight years is insane.  As if that's not insulting enough Bush spent the majority of his time removing controls and restraints on big corporations/banks.  The Bush party should be lined up and stoned to death.

Bush did little to stop the decline, but he sure as hell didn't start it. Go back a little further, like, Jimmy Carter and Clinton further. It breaks down like this:

-Carter passes the Community Reinvestment Act, which gives incentives to help low-income, unreliable-credit buyers get into homes, whether they can afford it or not.

-The act is a moderate success, up until 1995, when the Clinton Administration added massive provisions to the CRA, in a failure in social engineering of epic proportions.

-CRA 2.0 allows the securitization of CRA loans that contain suprime mortgages. The bill forces banks nationwide to issue $1,000,000,000 in brand new subprime loans. It created an "equal opportunity loaning environment", where next to no-one could be denied a loan, even if they had an abysmal credit record, and no paper trail to confirm that they could actually pay back the bank.

Why? Because banks were legally required to issue subprime mortgages, or suffer major fines and penalties.

-By 2004, 92% of subprime mortgages were variable rate, guaranteeing reckless loans in vulnerable communities, without guaranteeing that the interest rates will always be that low. Home ownership rises, and so do home prices.

-With rising home prices, guess what else rises? Interest rates! Interest rates explode, people can't keep up with their house payments, especially those low-income house owners who were promised a way to get money, due to the spike Up until CRA 2.0, home prices were tied with inflation. After CRA 2.0 the two detach, and housing becomes more expensive, causing massive speculation, and then wham-o! The bubble bursts, creating a debt-vacuum.

Very rarely will you hear me coming to the aid of GW, but to say that his administration has been totally deregulatory is false. He pushed for a bill in 2003 to oversee Freddie and Fannie, and the Democrats in Congress shot it down.

He hasn't done much to help, but this isn't entirely the fault of Republicans either.  Isn't it a little naive to think that in politics, there's a wholly good, morally upstanding party, and a wholly corrupt one? Corrupt is corrupt, and it doesn't choose sides.

But celebrities support the Democrats and host huge fundraisers for them, so the Democrats MUST be good and the Republicans MUST be evil!

I am so glad to be unaffiliated.  Belonging to either party would be more embarrassing than having AIDS.

That's an interesting perspective, Eddie.  Can you clarify how the Democrats were capable of shooting down that bill in '03 when the Republicans had the majority in both the House and the Senate until '06?

Also, I think it's an interesting characterization to say that banks were "forced" to issue these subprime mortgages by the CRA 2.0.  Who do you think lobbied to pass those massive provisions, if not the banks themselves?

Republicans deservedly get more ire for this financial mess because they have mischaracterized themselves as the "fiscally conservative" party for the past 28 years, and have villified Democrats as "tax and spend liberals."  In reality, though, the Democratic party has been the more fiscally conservative party and produced a budget surplus during the last few years of the Clinton administration. 

I agree that neither party is free of corruption, but the Democrats are the more fiscally responsible party of the two.

Joe Redifer


But celebrities support the Democrats and host huge fundraisers for them, so the Democrats MUST be good and the Republicans MUST be evil!

I am so glad to be unaffiliated.  Belonging to either party would be more embarrassing than having AIDS.

The Gipper and the Governator would be glad that you pointed that out, Joe!  Too bad Fred Thompson couldn't join their ranks.... looks like the GOP needs some more good actors.

By the way, I'm an independent as well.

Zoy


That's an interesting perspective, Eddie.  Can you clarify how the Democrats were capable of shooting down that bill in '03 when the Republicans had the majority in both the House and the Senate until '06?

Also, I think it's an interesting characterization to say that banks were "forced" to issue these subprime mortgages by the CRA 2.0.  Who do you think lobbied to pass those massive provisions, if not the banks themselves?

Republicans deservedly get more ire for this financial mess because they have mischaracterized themselves as the "fiscally conservative" party for the past 28 years, and have villified Democrats as "tax and spend liberals."  In reality, though, the Democratic party has been the more fiscally conservative party and produced a budget surplus during the last few years of the Clinton administration. 

I agree that neither party is free of corruption, but the Democrats are the more fiscally responsible party of the two.

Youre a moron to use Clinton's surplus as an indicator for the rest of the Democratic party. He was a CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRAT, not a completely liberal fuck like his wife or Obama.

Um, there was 12 years between Carter and Clinton, and another 8 since then.

Democrats got us out of the depression in the 30's and it falls onto them to get us out of this one, republicans are incompetent.  If you want to look at the positive side of things however, there is not going to be a republican president for a long time after this.

Zoy

Joe Redifer


But celebrities support the Democrats and host huge fundraisers for them, so the Democrats MUST be good and the Republicans MUST be evil!

I am so glad to be unaffiliated.  Belonging to either party would be more embarrassing than having AIDS.

The Gipper and the Governator would be glad that you pointed that out, Joe!  Too bad Fred Thompson couldn't join their ranks.... looks like the GOP needs some more good actors.

By the way, I'm an independent as well.

because you're too lazy to register

I am registered as an independent.  Maybe Zoy is, too.

Adam's video is great.  In depth yet clear.  I knew how they were creating money from debt, but I'm chocked to learn that they're printing 90 times the value of the credit!  Sickening.  Then people are scratching their heads wondering why banks are approving these absurd loans as they dig themselves deeper in debt.

My mind is blown when they revealed that 95% of money in circulation is debt, in other words the banks pulled the money out of their asses.  Total Debt increases faster than the actual money by the fundamental nature of our system.  There's basically no way to fix this crisis without everything crashing.  We're royally fucked.

Money is only an idea, anyway.  Even gold is only worth anything simply because we have decided that it should be.

Yeah but at least Gold is tangible.  The concept of currency is supposed to represent a fixed value of something that's in their possession.  They're not doing that anymore.  Banks are loaning money than they don't have in order to collect more interest.  Pure greed.  The disparity between how much money the bank has and how much they are "lending" is increasing at an exponential rate.  This is the system fucking itself because eventually we reach a point where the economy can't possibly support the amount of debt that individuals and corporations are in.  If no one can pay their debt, the banks have no choice but to freeze loans/credit (which is already happening).  Everything depends on credit.  You'd be surprised to know how many businesses depend on regular loans to pay the bills.  Prepare for massive layoffs everywhere. 

New Zimbabwe.