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2007-09-21 Home Front: Politix
MoveOn.pimp's Hypocritical "Slam" on Bush
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Posted by gorb 2007-09-21 06:19|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ]  Top
 File under: Iraqi Insurgency 

#1 
Posted by Tarzan Sheth3256 2007-09-21 08:35||   2007-09-21 08:35|| Front Page Top

#2 name one, punk
Posted by Frank G on the road">Frank G on the road  2007-09-21 09:06||   2007-09-21 09:06|| Front Page Top

#3 Maybe we will get lucky and Pariser will emigrate to Finland.
Posted by JohnQC 2007-09-21 09:26||   2007-09-21 09:26|| Front Page Top

#4 Ass-kicking for Tarzan Sheth in Aisle One, please. Ass-kicking to Aisle One for Tarzan Sheth.
Posted by Excalibur 2007-09-21 09:39||   2007-09-21 09:39|| Front Page Top

#5 Clowns like Eli Pariser live in their own echo chamber and only accept information that conforms to what they want to hear. How blind is this? Consider the politicizing the military? Four thousand years of human history clearly demonstrate you want the military not to be politicized cause in the end, they become the people running the government. I guess the Eli thinks its different here, special above every other human pattern of behavior.

He's also failed to notice in the real reporting that America's military is eating the insurgency and AQ alive. So, just pause Eli, you think that after the generals accept the authority to run things, that we could rise up to overthrow the suits? Look again. They've been damn well successful in cleaning house. They're getting the strategy and the tactics in dealing with the 'problem'. They're taking down your allies daily. So much so, that your allies know that their only hope of success is for you to win within the beltway cause all else is lost. Dream on. The allure of the song of the barricades is indeed a dream. Like - in the sleep of death what dreams may come.

Don't ever force the American people to have to choose between weiners like you or their military. Cause you ain't it.
Posted by Procopius2k 2007-09-21 09:57||   2007-09-21 09:57|| Front Page Top

#6 Guess he never heard of the concept: "If you want peace, prepare for war."
Posted by JohnQC 2007-09-21 10:02||   2007-09-21 10:02|| Front Page Top

#7 Was stuck in a doctor's waiting room yesterday, watching the big screen tv on CNBC (Shudder) as the crawl on the botom said "Bush approval rating is 39%" they instantly cut the crawl.
Posted by Redneck Jim 2007-09-21 14:11||   2007-09-21 14:11|| Front Page Top

#8 The economy's in a tailspin? Since when? Record low unemployment means record high employment. Record highs on Wall Street despite a few adjustments which were overdue. Record tax revenues so the government and both parties can spend like drunken sailors.

Where's the tailspin? Where's the recession? Where's the irreparable change making us all peasants? Even without a job currently my credit rating is good enough that all I need is a co-signer to get a new car, I've got an unemployment award that almost equals my bi-weekly net takehome, and I have a roof over my head, food in my stomach, a little leftover play/beer money, and enough to take care of everything else.

I'm no serf - and neither are the people I work or otherwise associate with.

Posted by FOTSGreg">FOTSGreg  2007-09-21 14:52||   2007-09-21 14:52|| Front Page Top

#9 The only negative to some quarters is the valuation of the US Dollar.

(I believe the Canadian Dollar matched it in the last day or so? That was on the front of the local commuter paper/fishwrap--albeit on Friday's they carry The Manolo, which is cool.)
Posted by eLarson 2007-09-21 15:05|| http://larsonian.blogspot.com]">[http://larsonian.blogspot.com]  2007-09-21 15:05|| Front Page Top

#10 Maybe someone can explain to me the problem of the Canadian dollar matching the US dollar. It did when I was younger, and I don't remember anyone whining about it.
Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut  2007-09-21 15:39|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]  2007-09-21 15:39|| Front Page Top

#11 Maybe someone can explain to me the problem of the Canadian dollar matching the US dollar.

It means some people's Labatt and Molson is going to cost more before they filter it through their kidneys. :)
Posted by Procopius2k 2007-09-21 15:50||   2007-09-21 15:50|| Front Page Top

#12 Barbara: i have been listening to a Canadian station for awhile ( better music) and they are concerned because there have already been big job losses ( ~ 250K) due to loss of buying power. add in the better value in the US and the Canadians have been streaming across the border ( here is WA state) and spending like mad. (refuse to say like a drunken sailor) that equates to a loss of tax revenue. for us US tourists, it means that we cannot get so much when we go up north. i travel up ther almost monthly to go racing and we are now carrying our booze and food more than before.
Posted by USN, Ret. 2007-09-21 15:55||   2007-09-21 15:55|| Front Page Top

#13 Oil will get way more expensive. And foreign products. And foreign work. There will be a limit of course, when taking care of things locally offers more value than going abroad. But that limit is at prices significantly higher than they are now. On the flip side, everyone will want to buy our stuff because our price is pegged more to the dollar than the euro, and will therefore be cheaper than what they can buy at their home.

It's a mix, but I don't see that other countries that had a currency with low valuation suffered all that badly. Maybe I'm wrong here.

I don't know what effect it will have on our bond payments etc., but I would think they would be paid off in dollars. Of course the dollars are worth less, so it should be easier to meet those obligations in a way, especially with tons of euros coming in. If this is true, then I don't see why any country with investments here would like to see the dollar devalued.

I suppose I am probably half-baked here. Can anyone else shed some light on this for me/others?
Posted by gorb 2007-09-21 17:07||   2007-09-21 17:07|| Front Page Top

#14 That's all true, gorb, but there are some downsides. We finance a lot of our growth and high standard of living by borrowing from foreigners. If they think they will be paid back in dollars that will be worth less, they will charge a higher interest rate to lend us money. That will result in less foreign borrowing, fewer imports and a lower standard of living or in higher interest rates and ultimately a recession.

There is also a foreign policy implication. Countries with a strong currency are seen as strong countries that can manage affairs. Countries with weak countries are seen as ill-disciplined sloths who cannot manage their own affairs let alone those of others, see Italy.

A lot of that may be written off as perception. But most financial activities rest on confidence, which is ultimately a perception.

This is the culmination of a lot of trends, some of which go back to FDR. It will be a long time a fixin, also. But once the boomers do the far, far better thing than they have ever done before and kill Medicare and Socialized Security to pay for the coming War, things will get back on track. Otherwise, the future may look a lot like the 50's and 60's for Britain as our currency falls from favor as a reliable store of value.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2007-09-21 17:30||   2007-09-21 17:30|| Front Page Top

#15 Hope we get the bands and BRM.
Posted by Thomas Woof 2007-09-21 18:53||   2007-09-21 18:53|| Front Page Top

#16 To add to Nimble Spemble's excellent summary, the key fall out of the very low valuation for the US$ will be the imminent unpegging of the Saudi currency (and oil prices in general) from the dollar.

It was that peg that let us borrow so heavily and spend the money on consumer goods & expensive houses without paying a predicted penalty a couple years earlier than today. The desire for dollars was less about the strength of our economy by, say, 2005 than it was about the need to use dollars for energy trading and secondarily for other trading.

Our current situation, in which consumers are mostly insulated against the penalties for a weak dollar, is not sustainable. When the piper comes to be paid, he will be paid painfully, I fear.

Caveat: geopolitics and geoeconomics are shifting in fundamental ways. Add in a really transforming technology that gets commercialized fast ... say, a breakthrough nanotech / energy / robotics application mature enough to spin off products that are worth the cost of switching ... and all bets are off.
Posted by lotp 2007-09-21 20:45||   2007-09-21 20:45|| Front Page Top

23:54 Zenster
23:52 JosephMendiola
23:50 Barbara Skolaut
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