Math-Challenged America

I don’t know what it’s going to take to get people to “wake-up.” My guess is that many will never wake-up to what is happening to ths country. It’s amazing that people who complained to high heaven about anything Bush did are now so very quiet about all of the crap that is going on. Who knew these people could be so blind, so gullible and so very, very STUPID.

Off topic (way off):

http://www.tinyurl.com/orh5k3

Come on people. . . time for some fun!

And worse, the fools in Congress will go along with it.

And that is what they want.

It is starting to feel like we are on the Titanic. Except that the passengers can see the impending iceberg, and the captain and crew can’t see or say the don’t see it. The captain has convinced 52% of the passengers that they are not really seeing what is plainly in front of their eyes. Perhaps maybe because they want to believe what the captain is saying rather than see the plain truth. The remaining 48% watch in absolute horror as the ship steams ahead into certain disaster knowing there aren’t enough lifeboats to go around. The captain and crew and their immediate circle have already entered the lifeboats taking with them all their possessions, filling them completely and are ready to cut the rest of us loose to our fates. Meanwhile the captain fiddles and frolics with his dog, while his circle maintains he is the smartest, wisest, and most elegant captain they have ever had the privilege to sail with. Unbelievable.

Most of the oil may be in Texas……but ALL of the dipsticks are in Washington.

This comment will mostly fit the title.
Our school kids today do not understand even the basics of math, much less money anymore.
If the calculator gives them a number then thats the answer, even if they punched in the wrong numbers.
Most kids in middle and high school cannot even do basic times tables.

Then you add up all the expensive toys their parents buy them. Even the kids that are on free lunches and welfare seem to have cell phones, ipods and x-boxes.

I have a feeling our next generation is going to be very screwed. Our dollar will probably be worth very little and they will probably be taxed to death.

It’s his plan to wipe out the middle class.

We end up with the ruling class and the serfs!!!!!!!

Welcome to the serfs………the (old) new middle class!!!!!!!!!!

Socialism, anyone????????

The economic mess we are in is also due to obama’s bank bailout too. Talk about spending money you don’t have. His bailout plan is a slap in the face to the American people who have already been fleeced by these bank frauds. They should be in jail, not spending billions of taxpayer dollars we don’t have.

Here’s a link to an interview by “The Young Turks” radio show (imagine that!) with William K. Black (consumer-protections hero of the 1980′s savings and loan scandal) discussing the massive bank fraud that has been perpetrated upon the American people.

http://www.truthout.org/video/050609C

His main demographic, the 18-20 some year olds in my intro computer programming class could not translate simple math word problems into simple arithmetic formulas and then code them. You expect them to understand deficits and trillions, Larry?

I have to assume that Mr Summers, or is he Dr Summers, and Timothy Geithner and their little helpers think they know what they are doing. They must have a plan. Inflation, in fact, seems to be part of the plan…a good dose of inflation might wipe out a lot of that deficit and the only people who will really suffer are those on fixed incomes, but they will all soon die anyway without medical care, which the country can’t afford to provide to them anymore. I can see their logic there.

I am not being totally facetious because just the other day, I checked into buying some Series I, the supposedly inflation-proof, savings bonds. The banker told me that within the last few months the government has restricted the purchase to $5000/yr, down from a considerably higher amount last year, and the base interest has dropped down to 0.1% from about 3.75% just a few years ago. I don’t find these changes reassuring.

Also, from my limited perspective, I have to say that ANYONE who talks about Medicare reform, as part of entitlement reform, had better talk about price controls before they talk about anything else. One small exposure to this program has convinced me that the “entitlements” are not the major problem; the major problem is the LARCENOUS fees charged by bandit health care providers…all legal without a doubt.

Well, gee wiz Larry, if you’re going to use common sense I’m not sure I want to read your opinions any longer.
Have a nice weekend everyone with a BRAIN

I have two qualms about your angst.

Firstly, the lemming instinct has taken such hold in this country that nearly everyone expects tomorrow to be a carbon copy of today. This is a great morale booster in good times. In bad times the population responds as if the black-robed grim reaper was patrolling the Cosco parking lot.

The world does not work that way. It is not inconceivable that a Clinton boom is in our future once inflation is drained out of the post recession economy. There were dark and grim predictions in 1993 and not a single Republican voted for Clinton’s stimulus (just like 2009 — some people never learn) but the latter part of the decade bears witness to how things can turn around just like deja vu all over again.

Secondly, those numbers are two months old and I don’t even know if they are in constant dollars. Additionally, how about the GAO or Treasury weighing in on the deal to provide countervailing power?

Obama is putting our wars into his budget. Has anyone audited the CBO data to find out if the Bush-era data includes our wars?

If it has not been apparent up to now, I am skeptical of this data, especially of eleven year projections. Hell the Reds couldn’t even handle five year projections.

Last, the problem rests not with Obama but with the senior congressional Democrats that are refusing to raise money. This leads me to further distrust the data in the CBO chart. I would not put it past the congressional Democrats to field phoney data and use scare tactics to control a President that they feel is slipping their reins. Remember that one of my first comments on this blog was to muse about who was using Obama as one of Lenin’s “useful idiots”?

I know the Eastern Seaboard real estate is still in the crapper but I bear tidings of great joy: The West Coast markets have troughed and are on their way up. So suck it up and soldier on.

Agree, agree, agree. Rob the middle class of all ages, steal Social Security from upcoming retiree boomers like me who have paid in for 40+ years, and expand a wasteful government even more. Learning curve, Americans????

C’mon, We the People! Wake the hell UP!

But, what is the interest payment on 9 trillion dollars? Not at today’s low rates, but at high rates in an economy suffering from hyperinflation? I am beginning to believe that we have no intention of ever repaying this in today’s real dollars. I think we… and by we, I mean those in charge for this administration, are counting on hyperinflation. But, consider China when they figure out the ponzi scheme collapsed and they lost big time. A billion Chinese also losing what little they have and they aren’t going to be happy campers about it at all.

I don’t believe they’re math challenged. I believe they’re turning a blind eye. They don’t care because they don’t want to think about how it will effect them or their families, till it does. A lot of Obama’s supporters are still living in Neverland where he’s going to pay for their homes, their gas. The Obamaman can.

Too bad the reality is another half a million jobs lost in April. Our grandchildren will probably pay 60 to 70 percent of their wages in taxes. I thought that’s exactly what our forefathers fought against in this country? But, let’s all cheer as Obama continues to spend.

He has checks, a printing press surely there is money in the bank…who cares how our future generations will have to live. We won’t be here to see their suffering. (Of course I’m being facetious, many in this country do care what they leave behind for their future generations.) Worry about how they will live. How they’ll be able to support themselves.

Just not Obama supporters, apparently their children and grandchildren mean nothing to them. Actions speak much louder than words. Their actions are speaking quite clearly.

The tea parties were nothing but a bunch of radical far right Republicans…Yeah, well apparently those radical Republicans have awaken, they’re protesting not only Democrats, but members of their own Republican party. What are the majority of Democrats doing? Was that a pin dropping?

truthout.org??? THAT is a questionable source.

Truthout was a gung ho 0bot —

truthout is the enemy.

———–

Calculators are great — but it helps to be able to estimate what the answer should be. In other words be able to do the basic math without a calculator.

0zero is a con man — and he has surrounded himself with con men. He is playing one of the oldest cons — bait and switch.

I wish 0zero well, and I want him to stay healthy — because I want to see his ass in jail. bush won’t pay for his crimes, Nixon didn’t pay for his crimes, Ray-gun didn’t pay for his crimes — for the good of the country and the world — THIS TIME — this President MUST pay for his crimes.

LJ wrote:

“Have we lost our fucking minds?

NO, THEY HAVE!

And, I also remember how the Democrats were complaining Bush was spending almost 4 billion dollars a month in Iraq. And “do you know what that money could have been used on Domestically?”

And now the Democrats are spending HOW MUCH????

Lets see, Barack asked for 83 Billion additional for this year and what, `120 billion in his budget for next year. Now the Dem’s are claiming they need an additional 94 billion for their Wars.

They are making Bush look like a sober sailor and like they just won the lottery. THIS IS DISGUSTING!!! …and I bet if you asked the Afghans, they’d say KEEP YOU MONEY and stop bombing us!

Jut a note — there were also Democrats, Libertarians and Independents protesting alongside Republicans at the Tea Parties. While the majority has not awakened yet — it is not only one side that is complaining.

TIP: Investigate Home Health Care agencies. These agencies are multiplying like rabbits because they are a lucrative rip off of the taxpayers, and the feds haven’t yet figured out the scam (or they are being deliberately obtuse). Once the agency is licensed for operation (the main obstacle, as this may take a couple of years, and the agency will need to have sufficient start-up capital to make it through this period until the medicare money rolls in), many of these agencies employ physicians and other recruiters to sign up patients (medicare only, as those pesky HMOs ask too many questions, limit payments and only work with a few agencies), whether or not those patients qualify for home health care visits. The patients are supposed to be homebound, with medical problems and dily medications. In practice, the doctors employed by the agencies will sometimes recruit anyone with a pulse, and then diagnose phantom ailments and medications. The doctors can get several hundred dollars for each referral from the agency, and once the agency has been paid, the doctor orders the patient discharged and then signs the patient up with another agency for another referral fee. The patients are becoming aware of the kickbacks and are starting to demand a piece of the action as well, such as payment for their medications , diabetic testing supplies, adult diapers, and I’ve even seen a family demand an X-Box for their kids. Some of the patients work full time, so the nurse can only visit them on weekends, and the agencies can certify them to receive physical and occupational therapy, more frequent visits by nursing assistants, housekeepers, all on the taxpayers’ dime. Home Health Care is a useful and compassionate program in theory, and if used properly, can save money expended for nursing home care or emergency room visits, but in practice, it is ofetn a fraud filled gravy train.

Speaking non-hypothetically…The majority of students I encounter in our public school district supported BO for POTUS. To a person, other than repeating platitudes, they cannot delineate why; but this does not mean, they cannot think for themselves. It’s just that they are surrounded by like-thinking people. However, when I explain the story behind the story to them, I swear, I see the brain cells turning…

Same thing with diagnostic centers and rehabilitation centers. Back ten years ago, I was offered limited partnerships with diagnostic and rehabilitation centers for referrals of MRI, neurological testing, work hardening referrals… name it. The hospital AE’s all looked like models. It is ridiculous actually to think about it. If we are to reform this system, and if we ever even think about a single payer system… it will be bled dry by graft unless there is one rule. That the government will pay nothing at all for any care, services or testing provided by non government owned agencies. The private health systems “cherry pick” the government payment schemes. Look how many prime time ads there are for power chairs and diabetes testing supplies just as an example. If there weren’t obscene profits, then how would these companies be able to advertise on prime time like they do? Meanwhile, you have a child with no insurance, maybe all he needs is some stitches… these for profit hospitals do not want these cases.

I know, I was at one. I was speaking of what they’re trying to promote. What they’re saying it was. I wrote I was being facetious.

I really do not believe that not one of Obama’s supporters cares about their future generations. However, I do think they need to wake up to the reality of what is actually happening. It’s time to step away from the candidates, the parties and look at things as an American first and what is best for both this country and her citizens. The dividing/division crap has to stop on both sides.

What is “the story behind the story”?

Okay, “that” made me laugh, Harp. And laughter is a hard thing to conjure up anymore.

This just seems like insanity to me, especially in the middle of the steepest recession this country has seen since WWII. It appears that Obama and the dems are intent on slamming their agenda through as fast as possible – and to hell with the cost.

The banks appear to be coming back a little, which one would expect given the billions in bailout money they’ve received. That’s good for Wall Street, good for the so-called investor class . . . but us folks on Main Street are still hurting out here. This economy continues to shed jobs at an alarming rate, and we’ve yet to fully feel the effects of what’s happening with GM and Chrysler.

Also of concern is Obama’s cap and trade bill that is being debated by Congress right now. If this passes, energy prices (including oil) will skyrocket in the short-term. Obama knows this and is even on the record saying so. How can this be good for the American people in a recession? Maybe we will finally achieve a “green” economy when the American people are so poor we’re forced to go back to the horse and buggy and living in log cabins.

On top of this, it appears that the promised “middle class tax cut” has now been trimmed to what will be a one-time $400 tax rebate. In 2010, when the Bush tax cuts expire, we will all get a tax hike across the board.

I hate to disappoint the corporate media, but I’m just not quite ready to sing Happy Days Are Here Again. I long for the days of the most fiscally responsible president in my lifetime – William Jefferson Clinton.

Today–allover the MSM, C-span, FBN,–that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel now. Banks and the Dow are not in “free fall” now–it seems that there are ‘signs’ that we’re close to ‘bottom.’ And then we have the One with yet another press conference added to his thousand others(it seems)being ‘the voice of reason’ except that he’s reading the same old lies. They don’t care about what will happen after they’ve ploughed through the next year trying to get every government program through, he’s out for complete government control–look at what’s already happened. I think the tea partiers better understand that this is just the beginning of the fight and to understand that BO’s thugs will do anything, say anything to try and discourage the fight.

lol.Harp good one..

You’re right, Cath. The happy talk is drowning out the critical thinking and investigation of the numbers. But Karl Denniger posted this tidbit this morning, and then followed it up with extra evidence later in the day [what a concept!!!]:

“Fannie reported 1Q 2009 results and, bluntly, they blew big bananas.

They lost $4.09 a share (!) and will be “asking” for $19 billion from Treasury. That’s the bad news.

The worse news is:

They see home price declines of 7-12% nationally for 2009. But but but but I thought home prices had stopped going down?
They see “losses continuing” and see “09 credit losses exceeding 2008.” (!)
They don’t see the firm operating profitably in “the foreseeable future.” (!!!)
But but but but I thought things were leveling off and we were going to see a recovery in the second half of 2009?

How can that be, if Fannie projects their losses to continue for the “foreseeable future”, 7-12% (call it 10% – split it down the middle) in home price declines for 2009, and credit losses for 2009 exceeding those for last year – if we are coming out of recession now?”

We are being lied to like there’s no tomorrow. But, of course, there is a tomorrow even for coma patients. And when you build a house on sand, you’re in for a rude awakening.

It’s beyond belief!

We are are bring robbed, lied to and made the
utlimate suckers. And yet the band plays on.

Sickening!

Here is simple math for you. Obama seeks banks to take massive hits on Chrysler and GM loans to aid the recovery of the two auto companies. Major banks are already selling off loans at 37% losses, in otherowrds billions.

Wow banks are not taking any risk, they just have to go back to Obam for more money when they sink from this Obama deal!

Suprise of all this, Ford hasn’t asked for a penny and they are keeping on trucking!

Logic is where, oh yes, handng over Chrysler to Fiat for ZERO Dollars, intelligence of the new Obama clan!

he has a lot of thugs working for him.and the main thug acorn..

That’s one question I would seriously like answered. There has to be a violation of federal laws giving money to that organization that only represents one side of the table. Talk about a partisan group and our government is funding them.

Which Republican organization gets the same/fair amount of money that ACORN gets from the government? They’ve never promoted a Republican respresentative, a Republican bill. It’s not just Democrats paying those taxes. I for one don’t want one single penny of my money going to groups like ACORN and I think it’s time we as taxpayers stand up to say so. On either side.

Did you hear the latest — Obama is cutting funding for ports to detect nuclear bombs on ships….Hmmm lets just open up our ports totally
And now the border fence project has been stopped due to budget cuts…ok lets just keep letting the drugs and guns flow in and out.

His bailout plan is a slap in the face to the American people who have already been fleeced by these bank frauds.

But…but if Obama can get the banks and Wall Street percolating again, the results will trickle down . . . Wait a minute – where have I heard that before?

Just for example… I mention the huge stimulus bill, $700 billion, 1,000+ pages handed over at midnight on a Thursday…BO claimed it was such an emergency to get this money in circulation,banks had stopped lending, no credit, businesses could not meet payroll…Need to stimulate the economy, now! Congress had to pass this on Friday…So, they did…Running for office, BO promised transparency, all bills would be posted 5 (five) days before passage so people could weigh in on the process of government; but this stimulus bill was not on line until after Congress passed it, which meant that constituents like me, who could read in a hurry and figure out it was not workable, with all kinds of pork and earmarks, and poor oversight for allocation and payback…had no chance to register our opinions with our legislators.

Now, the students chime in. ‘But it was an emergency! He had to get out a bill to fix what President Bush did!’ And there’s my opening. I chuckle.

‘Okay, let’s assume getting the money into the economy was such an emergency that the bill given to Congress on Thursday night had to be signed on Friday, before being read. (This statement, of course, sounds stupid on its face.) Once Congress signed the bill, it could not become law until signed by the POTUS, right? So, guess when BO signed this bill. Not on Friday, which means Congress and their constituents could have taken another day to read the bill. Not on Saturday, giving them 2 days to read the bill. Not Sunday, giving them 3 days to read the bill. Not Monday, making 4 days they could have examined the legislation. No; BO did not sign this bill he told the country had to be passed on Friday, until 5 days later, on Tuesday, at a special signing ceremony he had scheduled to take place in Denver, CO, BEFORE Congress even signed the bill.

Whenever I give them the facts about BO, I assure them, these facts are out there, but you have to take the time to look; because for some reason, the corporations that own the MSM are unwilling to entrust you with the truth.

Dear Smilin’ Jim and Anyone Else out there who likes to “hope”,

The Clinton-era ‘boom’ was not caused by government stimulus, but rather by the Fed messing with money and credit—especially heavily since 1997. As the technology sector was experiencing growth, the Fed’s monetary and credit expansion created a huge inflationary boom in tech stocks which made it seem as if the economy had grown enormously. We all know what happened to those tech stocks: the prices eventually corrected themselves. In other words, they ‘crashed’ and we experienced a recession. Those who had believed in their stocks’ inflated value lost a lot of money. Those who had gotten out because they recognized the overvaluation were more or less spared.

The same scenario has repeated itself in the housing and bond markets, made worse by bad credit risks such as risky loans and highly leveraged credit default swaps. But make no mistake, every trail of blame we trace always leads back to the Fed’s monetary and credit expansion policies as a primary source of the inflationary growth bubbles. Add to this lax (or absent) regulatory oversight and it’s even messier. The pricing corrections we have been experiencing are painful yet necessary. If prices have truly bottomed in a particular market and are now going up, I hope it is at around the rate of inflation and not higher, which would indicate a secondary bubble in that local market.

Government spending does not ‘fix’ things. Please read this excellent article on the flawed premises behind the idea that spending produces wealth. (If only it was that simple—I would happily make myself one of the wealthiest people in the world!) I wish I could summarize it for you here, but know I could not do it justice, and it contains arguments that are of the utmost importance for everyone to understand clearly these days:

http://capitalisthero.com/Keynesian_Economics.php

Finally, you say Democrats are refusing to raise money. Please rethink your wording. Government does not ‘raise’ money, it either takes (confiscates, if you will) money from people and/or creates printed paper out of thin air (fiat money) that we are all supposed to believe is worth something. For the most part we do and carry on, but this fiat money causes two huge problems. First, other countries like China who are investing in our fiat-money bonds start to say “Whoa, not so fast!” They realize this money has less and less to back it and so will either demand higher interest on it or slow down in buying it—our wells dry up. (And we are still stuck with those huge debts which even our grandchildren will be paying down.) Second, it creates inflation. Creating money is not the same as creating a good or service. More fiat money just means more dollars will be spread out over all the goods and services we already have. When there are more dollars out there prices become inflated. Inflation eats away at the wealth of all citizens because in an inflationary environment they can purchase less with the same amount of money they had before. It lowers everyone’s standard of living. Our government is setting us up for big time inflation. It doesn’t matter how ‘smart’ (snark) or ‘eloquent’ (blech) our president is—this is going to be some major hurting!!

Government does not make goods and services–government does not create wealth. Government only has the ability to confiscate money or conjure fiat money out of thin air. Looking to government to raise our standard of living as a nation is foolish. They cannot do it—as a matter of fact, they just get in the way of our doing it for ourselves. What they are actually doing is simply redistributing wealth and passing it off to the ill informed masses as “growth”. It’s a lie and it doesn’t do one thing to fix our economy. We need to accept price adjustments, stop borrowing and spending, stop expecting an easy and quick fix, and work harder to produce more goods and services–preferably ones that people in other countries will buy, thereby injecting real and fresh capital into our economy.

While I agree that the lemming instinct has taken hold in this country, it is not the clear-minded like Larry who have been transformed but rather the hopey changey Keynesian voodoo fallacy mongers that have lost their human capacity for logic and have mutated into kool-aid fed animal spirits ( http://mises.org/story/3413 ) who feel the power of believing will be enough to rescue this economy. It will not. It will take realism, honesty, work and sacrifice. (Unfortunately, these are not politically salable qualities.) And it will take We the People stopping the Fed from interfering with normal market corrections. Call your congressperson and tell him or her to support HR 1207–the “Audit the Fed” bill. It’s the first step to unraveling the tangled knot they have produced. If we continue to pretend everything is OK, we are just setting ourselves up for an even bigger crash and deeper, longer depression in the future.

Best of luck, America. Peace & out.

[...] Numbers Do Not Lie In response to a commenter from an excellent yet numerically stunning and sickening story from No Quarter: [...]

Seriously – I have had calculators malfunction and give me the wrong answer over and over – my accountant wouldn’t believe me until he tried it.
I’ve also had banks lose transactions from one account to the other in the same bank. Save all your paper receipts everybody.
I’ve seen Home Depot shut down their store when the computer went down because no one could calculate tax or make change.
Please teach kids more math. Help.

“hopey changey Keynesian voodoo fallacy mongers”

All is revealed.

black-robed grim reaper was patrolling the Cosco parking lot.

Was that the guy with the two turkeys and the huge plasma TV?

The questions you raise a valid. The CBO numbers may be way off. So hypothetically speaking, if they are what else on the Costco parking landscape is lurking? As far as West Coast real estate being on the way back up, I disagree. 200k for a 3 BD in a town that the same house went for 475 is a lot of “equity” up in smoke. It will never return in my life time…UNLESS there is inflation. There will be and it will be the same death spiral that we are going thru now. So that your house return to its previous value, if only because thats how much TP it takes not that its worth that much.

As far as the lemmings go…I guess I will invest in parachutes…the demand will be skyrocketing.

LJ, I am a CSPAN junkie… now all those Bush years I watched the Dems rail against the machine are rendered asunder like so much horse flesh.

With Nancy Pelosi telling reporters that the House will do the Executive branch’s bidding, (this while BO sings Give It To Me Baby to Nancy.) She can lie. Why? Because the Rebuplicans did. Why did they lie? Because they could.

Economies of fear never prosper for long.

My own brother (an intellingent IT professional and a lifelong socially moderate but fiscally conservative Dem) was one of those who had complained bitterly and often about the SCANDALOUS overspending of the Bush Administration!

So when the figures came out showing projections for the colossal debt about to be incurred by the Obama administration, I immediately phoned my brother to review the projections with him and I asked him if he were not now even more appalled….

His answer?

Well, giggling nervously, he responded with: “Well, maybe things won’t be really that bad…maybe they won’t really spend that much…maybe Obama will find some way to cut corners before things get too far out of hand….maybe this… maybe that… etc.”

I’m afraid that the truth is that so many of our fellow Americans turn a blind eye to the truth. They are either so lazy or so romantically involved with their “dreams about how cool it is to have contributed to putting the Tiger Woods of American Politics” in the White House, that they don’t care to see how far left Obama and his handlers really intend to take this country. Too many Americans find it hard to believe that Obama really is a fascist and totally into achieving “Social Justice”, that they turn a blind eye to all the early warning signs.

I don’t think they ever will really see what is happening until it is way too late — too late to roll back from the massive increase in government control we will have over nearly every aspect of our lives.

By that time, these Obama-voters will find a way to blame it on something or someone else…but never on their “dream candidate” or on themselves for voting for a “dream” without seeing what the man was all about. They didn’t care to do the research or the vetting, and now we will all pay.

So, in other words, they just irrationally think that things will magically get better…and are afraid to really look at what they have unleashed on the country….

Most credible analysts think that this is only a “sucker’s rally” and that we aren’t really coming out of the recession just yet.

In fact, there are likely to be several of these sucker’s rallies before we really turn around…and the smart money is waiting to see how successful Obama is in driving through his massive government programs…and then at that point, seeing the US as a BIG LOSER riddled with colossal insurmountable debt, the larger and institutional investors will invest offshore…not in America anymore….

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions…

So this is the result when the country becomes so PC and our left-wing controlled and dominated schools rewrite history and teach only from the ultra-left point-of-view, brainwashing our kids into thinking that the world owes them all a comfortable living without putting forth much effort. Too many believe that it is their right to expect to leave the comfortable homes of their parents and be instantly guaranteed all of the material comforts to which they have become accustomed, without having to work their way up as their parents’ generation had done.

Having said now dissed the “ultra-left”, I also would like do dis the “ultra-right” — who I wish would bug off as well. By trying to cram their religious beliefs down everyone else’s throats, they turn off a lot of moderate thinkers who would otherwise be inclined to join a coalition of fiscal conservatives.

Could we please just leave religion out of politics for a while, at least until we snatch the country back from a death sentence — condemned to a future of socialist/fascist Hell?

I’d be very happy to see moderates unite at least for long enought to set things aright in the next couple of elections, but I am not holding my breath expecting that to happen. I wish for that to occur, but I am not so naive to think it really will occur.

Too many American voters lack sufficient interested in educating themselves about responsible government and fiscal policy and are too easily swayed by Madison-Avenue-created Superstar candidates promising everyone a chicken in every pot.

Sadly enough, I fear that we are doomed….

There are no thugs quite like Democrat thugs. Act as if the survival of this nation depends on whether they are voted out in 2010…

Northwest Rain,

I agree with you, which is why I put in parentheses “imagine that”! However, the interview with Black clearly exposes that the banks perpetrated fraud on the American people. This calls into question why obama is enabling these bank with his bailouts, instead of holding them accountable.

Jueliet16,

Excellent analysis! However, I beg to differ with you that obama actually “won’ the election. Let’s not forget that Hillary won the popular vote and that the obama campaign (aided and abetted by the DNC and the MSM) gamed the caucuses. So, just like GWB, obama was selected, not elected, by the DNC. Even still, Hillary kept winning primary after primary.

Throughout the primary, the obamabots engaged in the same kind of politics as Karl Rove did on behalf of GWB. You know the kool-aid must be strong because they don’t care that they’ve become even bigger hypocrites than the neo-cons were when they called democrats “sore losers” and told us to just “get over it”, after GWB stole two elections.

I am certain that Hillary would have won the presidency if our elections process was not totally corrupt and broken. The party leaders choose who they want in order to remain in power in perpetuity. Hillary was not the party leader’s choice, but she clearly was the people’s choice and she clearly would have been the better president than either obama or mccain.

That’s my sincere hope.

My optimism is influenced by living in Silicon Valley for 30 years and Seattle for 10 years off and on. Undeveloped land is scarce and technology is a regenerative wonder. I remember when the “Will the last person leaving Seattle please turn out the lights”? billboard first went up just outside Seattle.

In the Santa Clara Valley the same tilt-ups and houses have had three or four booms wash through them: Semiconductors; semiconductor capital equipment; personal computer & disk drive; medical instrumentation; dot.com and the genetic boom. My home is down to the price it settled to when the recovery from the dot.com bust began. It is still valued at an obscene amount more than I paid for it.

In this area there will always be something new just as it has been since Shockley and the Varian brothers moved here to be near their mothers. Other places with similarly limited real estate (like Seattle– confined between the sound, the lake and the Cascades) that have a history of technology will fare similarly.

The problem with this past housing boom is that they opted for “creative” financing first used in this valley during the disk drive and computer boom of the mid-80′s. A few, but not many, of these hard lessons were learned locally. The current damage is that the national market had no immunity to this stupidity (they elected Bush twice, after all) and the “creative” financing was applied to smokestack, flyover and rustbelt America which have nowhere near the powers of regeneration that we have.