TragicHipster's picture

Anyone get a speech from management about the economy? We got one last
week at a staff meeting. Nothing awful, but they recognized that
everyone is tweaked. And went on to intriduce 4 new hires. They are
cautiously optimistic.

Anyone get any sort of speeches or know of lay-offs?

How about sudden price jumbs or declines?

This is all so strange.... the fringe people like me are screaming
"the room is on fire" and so is the establishment. Everyone else seems
to be standing around confused, after all, there are no soup lines.
Its a little weird, I think, for most people to understand there is a
crisis when they and everyone they know is employed.

Any stories out there?

As they haggled about creating a fourth branch of government in DC,
the Fed has been injecting $600 billion of liquidity into the
international banking system TODAY in order to stablize world markets.
A commentator on CNCB said: "The numbers are so large it doesn't even
seem to matter."

Wachovia bought by Citi via FDIC "deal" last night.

D_Bone's picture

Changes


Well, I've been a bit busy these days, so here's a catch all.

Andi, hi, welcome, if you need to know anything about this Syndicate's members, ask Kieran.

I was just going through some old emails, and we had a bit of a convo on Rahm Emmanuel, specifically about his father's involvment in a militant Zionist group.  It is interesting to note that on the other side, his mother was a civil rights activist who marched with MLK in Chicago, so whose to say which parent influences him the most!

And also going back through those emails, and seeing the various opinions we held on pre-election Obama, I have to say, that some little things are happening that have to be considered good.  For one, he has overturned some loosening of environmental regulations that
Bush put in place at the end of his term.  Now that, I can see how some people may have a more "pro-business" attitude, and disagree with O's move, but I have a hard time thinking that any on this list would find the repeal of these legal memos a bad thing:


Declassified Memos Provide Look Into Bush Policies


The Obama administration declassified nine Justice Department legal memos
on Monday that asserted a sweeping view of presidential power,
including authorizing the military to search Americans' homes without a
warrant and sending detainees to other countries regardless of
congressional statutes that might dictate otherwise.

Now civil liberties groups are pushing for the release of dozens of similar memos that remain classified.

About
a month ago, the American Civil Liberties Union sent the Justice
Department's Office of Legal Counsel a letter and a chart. The chart
listed 55 classified Bush administration legal memos on national
security issues. The letter basically said, "release these memos."

Some of the memos that the Justice Department declassified Monday were not even on the ACLU's list.

"So
there are dozens of memos that are still secret," said Jameel Jaffer,
director of the ACLU's national security project. They include "memos
that provided the basis for the national security agency's warrantless
wiretapping program and memos that provided the basis for the CIA's
torture program."

"Those are critical memos, and they're all
still secret," he said. Jaffer knows they exist because the government
has summarized or listed them in court documents.

Some secret
memos have been mentioned with no description of their contents. And
presumably some memoranda have never been mentioned at all. So, to
paraphrase former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, there are known
unknowns and unknown unknowns.

Surprises In The Memos

One
reason there's a lot of interest in these documents is that they could
contain some surprises. For example, one memo declassified Monday is
dated Oct. 23, 2001. It asserts that the military can ignore Americans' Fourth Amendment privacy rights
and conduct searches against suspected terrorists without a warrant.
It's a controversial claim, but the public learned about the assertion
years ago in a footnote to another Justice Department document. The
public did not know about a line in the same memo that said: "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully."

The
Justice Department withdrew all nine of the newly released memos in
January. The acting head of the office of legal counsel, Steven
Bradbury, formally repudiated them five days before President Bush left
office.

Duke Law Professor Chris Schroeder was acting head of
the Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton administration, and he
was on the Obama administration's Justice Department transition team.
He called the wholesale overturning of legal opinions such as these,
"Absolutely unprecedented. I know of no comparable experience that
comes remotely close."

Liberal activists say the Bush
administration's last-minute about-face is evidence of how far off the
rails the Justice Department went in the last eight years.
Conservatives say it's a sign that things are going off the rails right
now.

David Rivkin worked at the Justice Department under
President Reagan and the first President Bush. He says he never would
have written these legal memos, and he might have even withdrawn them,
but not like this.

"In a normal environment," Rivkin says, "you
gently pull it back. In an abnormal environment, you engage in
recrimination, vilification, demonization and public repudiation —
almost show-trial like. That's a very, very bad way to proceed."

Establishing A 'Truth Commission'

The government seems committed to pulling back the curtain further than it already has.

The
attorney general and other Justice officials have said they want to
declassify more documents from the Office of Legal Counsel. And
Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing into
whether to create a "truth commission" — an independent panel to
investigate Bush administration policies.

The ACLU's Jaffer
says a truth commission could investigate a question that the Justice
Department cannot answer: "What conduct was authorized on the basis of
these legal memos? Because in some senses these legal memos tell us
what the Justice Department thought the executive branch was authorized
to do, but they don't actually tell us what the executive branch did."

For
example, we now know the military was told it could secretly search
Americans' homes. The next question is: Did those searches ever happen?




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oblio's picture

RE: Changes

I too have been busy. But i have been listening to the "loyal" (my ass) opposition via savage and limbaugh these days.

i wish i had more time, but there's some interesting stuff going on. you guys heard about the rush v michael steel (RNC chairman i think - and black of course) thing?

so rush says some things like - "i want Obama to fail". the RNC chair says rush is incendiary and ugly. rush flips out saying the repubs have totally lost their way. rnc chair APOLOGIZES to rush. Obama spokesperson makes great joke about some guy apologizing to the head of the republican party.

so i was listening to rush and he is going on and on and on about how the dems are saddling us with debt, they are going to cause our children to have lower living standard etc etc etc bunch a bullshit obviously.

and it occus to me - this is the republican philosophy in a nutshell:

it is completely abhorable to pass on debt to our children that comes as a result of trying to help poor people.

it is completely acceptable to pass on debt to our children that comes as a result of KILLING poor poeple (mostly in other countries).

my point is this: rush and every other repub spouting this nonsense should ask their children - if they have them, this:

"son (or daughter) would you rather be saddled with debt for your entire adult life as the result of trying to help poor people or killing them?"

now, i assume rush's son would prolly say KILL EM! but i think most children, being children, would pick the correct answer.

honestly, this is what the repubs have become to me. they have lost ANY credibility they once had. after 8 years of bitching non stop that liberals wanted GW to fail (and liberals saying no, that's not really true) the repubs are now stating with complete aplomb that they want O to fail. and that's cool - cause he is trying to help poor people, not kill them.

savage went on for 15 minutes yesterday about how Hillary Clinton is an appeaser because she is pushing a 2 state solution in the holy land. he then called her a zionist. ummmmm.....huh?

i mean, they just got nothing.

i fully believe, 100%, that had mccain won, the same exact goddamn bill, except maybe tax cuts would be 40% of total instead of 30% would be being pushed right now. and the dems would prolly be supporting most of it (tax cuts aside.) i really think the repub stategy (if you can call it that) is twofold -

get as many brown republicans as possible into the national spotlight. as long as they are men.

subvert the dems in congress and in the media to the point where they have to fail. because even if they suceed, socialism is still a failure.

i really just dont get it. i feel like the political discourse in the country is at an all time low in my lifetime right now. there basically is none. the dems have stars in their eyes and the repubs have hatred. this does not make for a good political future. i think i should just give up. it all seems so hopeless.

D_Bone's picture

RE: Changes


I hear you, man....check out these clips from CPAC on John Stewart....makes me wish we were a monarchy and these guys could be tried for treason.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219518&title=cpac-after-party



From: oblio <>
To: PHL Syndicate <>
Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 10:11:11 AM
Subject: RE: [syndicate] Changes



I too have been busy. But i have been listening to the "loyal" (my ass) opposition via savage and limbaugh these days.

i wish i had more time, but there's some interesting stuff going on. you guys heard about the rush v michael steel (RNC chairman i think - and black of course) thing?

so rush says some things like - "i want Obama to fail". the RNC chair says rush is incendiary and ugly. rush flips out saying the repubs have totally lost their way. rnc chair APOLOGIZES to rush. Obama spokesperson makes great joke about some guy apologizing to the head of the republican party.

so i was listening to rush and he is going on and on and on about how the dems are saddling us with debt, they are going to cause our children to have lower living standard etc etc etc bunch a bullshit obviously.

and it occus to me - this is the republican philosophy in a nutshell:

it is completely abhorable to pass on debt to our children
that comes as a result of trying to help poor people.

it is completely acceptable to pass on debt to our children that comes as a result of KILLING poor poeple (mostly in other countries).

my point is this: rush and every other repub spouting this nonsense should ask their children - if they have them, this:

"son (or daughter) would you rather be saddled with debt for your entire adult life as the result of trying to help poor people or killing them?"

now, i assume rush's son would prolly say KILL EM! but i think most children, being children, would pick the correct answer.

honestly, this is what the repubs have become to me. they have lost ANY credibility they once had. after 8 years of bitching non stop that liberals wanted GW to fail (and liberals saying no, that's not really true) the repubs are now stating with complete aplomb that they want O to fail. and that's cool - cause he is trying to help poor people, not
kill them.

savage went on for 15 minutes yesterday about how Hillary Clinton is an appeaser because she is pushing a 2 state solution in the holy land. he then called her a zionist. ummmmm.....huh?

i mean, they just got nothing.

i fully believe, 100%, that had mccain won, the same exact goddamn bill, except maybe tax cuts would be 40% of total instead of 30% would be being pushed right now. and the dems would prolly be supporting most of it (tax cuts aside.) i really think the repub stategy (if you can call it that) is twofold -

get as many brown republicans as possible into the national spotlight. as long as they are men.

subvert the dems in congress and in the media to the point where they have to fail. because even if they suceed, socialism is still a failure.

i really just dont get it. i feel like the political discourse in the country is at an all time low in my lifetime right now. there basically is
none. the dems have stars in their eyes and the repubs have hatred. this does not make for a good political future. i think i should just give up. it all seems so hopeless.

--- El mié 4-mar-09, D-Bone <> escribió:

> De: D-Bone <>
> Asunto: [syndicate] Changes
> A: "PHL Syndicate" <>
> Fecha: miércoles, 4 marzo, 2009, 5:11 am
> Well, I've been a bit busy these days, so here's a
> catch all.
>
> Andi, hi, welcome, if you need to know anything about this
> Syndicate's members, ask Kieran.
>
> I was just going through some old
emails, and we had a bit
> of a convo on Rahm Emmanuel, specifically about his
> father's involvment in a militant Zionist group.  It is
> interesting to note that on the other side, his mother was a
> civil rights activist who marched with MLK in Chicago, so
> whose to say which parent influences him the most!
>
> And also going back through those emails, and seeing the
> various opinions we held on pre-election Obama, I have to
> say, that some little things are happening that have to be
> considered good.  For one, he has overturned some loosening
> of environmental regulations that Bush put in place at the
> end of his term.  Now that, I can see how some people may
> have a more "pro-business" attitude, and disagree
> with O's move, but I have a hard time thinking that any
> on this list would find the repeal of these legal memos a
> bad
thing:
>
>
> Declassified Memos Provide Look Into Bush Policies
> The Obama administration declassified nine Justice
> Department legal memos on Monday that asserted a sweeping
> view of presidential power,
> including authorizing the military to search Americans'
> homes without a
> warrant and sending detainees to other countries regardless
> of
> congressional statutes that might dictate otherwise.
> Now civil liberties groups are pushing for the release of
> dozens of similar memos that remain classified.
> About
> a month ago, the American Civil Liberties Union sent the
> Justice
> Department's Office of Legal Counsel a letter and a
> chart. The chart
> listed 55 classified Bush administration legal memos on
> national
> security issues. The letter basically said, "release
> these memos."
> Some of the memos
that the Justice Department declassified
> Monday were not even on the ACLU's list.
> "So
> there are dozens of memos that are still secret," said
> Jameel Jaffer,
> director of the ACLU's national security project. They
> include "memos
> that provided the basis for the national security
> agency's warrantless
> wiretapping program and memos that provided the basis for
> the CIA's
> torture program."
> "Those are critical memos, and they're all
> still secret," he said. Jaffer knows they exist
> because the government
> has summarized or listed them in court documents.
> Some secret
> memos have been mentioned with no description of their
> contents. And
> presumably some memoranda have never been mentioned at all.
> So, to
> paraphrase former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, there
> are known
> unknowns and
unknown unknowns.
> Surprises In The Memos
> One
> reason there's a lot of interest in these documents is
> that they could
> contain some surprises. For example, one memo declassified
> Monday is
> dated Oct. 23, 2001. It asserts that the military can
> ignore Americans' Fourth Amendment privacy rights and
> conduct searches against suspected terrorists without a
> warrant.
> It's a controversial claim, but the public learned
> about the assertion
> years ago in a footnote to another Justice Department
> document. The
> public did not know about a line in the same memo that
> said: "First Amendment speech and press rights may also
> be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war
> successfully."
> The
> Justice Department withdrew all nine of the newly released
> memos in
> January. The acting head of the office of
legal counsel,
> Steven
> Bradbury, formally repudiated them five days before
> President Bush left
> office.
> Duke Law Professor Chris Schroeder was acting head of
> the Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton
> administration, and he
> was on the Obama administration's Justice Department
> transition team.
> He called the wholesale overturning of legal opinions such
> as these,
> "Absolutely unprecedented. I know of no comparable
> experience that
> comes remotely close."
> Liberal activists say the Bush
> administration's last-minute about-face is evidence of
> how far off the
> rails the Justice Department went in the last eight years.
> Conservatives say it's a sign that things are going off
> the rails right
> now.
> David Rivkin worked at the Justice Department under
> President Reagan and the first
President Bush. He says he
> never would
> have written these legal memos, and he might have even
> withdrawn them,
> but not like this.
> "In a normal environment," Rivkin says, "you
> gently pull it back. In an abnormal environment, you engage
> in
> recrimination, vilification, demonization and public
> repudiation —
> almost show-trial like. That's a very, very bad way to
> proceed."
> Establishing A 'Truth Commission'
> The government seems committed to pulling back the curtain
> further than it already has.
> The
> attorney general and other Justice officials have said they
> want to
> declassify more documents from the Office of Legal Counsel.
> And
> Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a
> hearing into
> whether to create a "truth commission" — an
> independent panel to
> investigate
Bush administration policies.
> The ACLU's Jaffer
> says a truth commission could investigate a question that
> the Justice
> Department cannot answer: "What conduct was authorized
> on the basis of
> these legal memos? Because in some senses these legal memos
> tell us
> what the Justice Department thought the executive branch
> was authorized
> to do, but they don't actually tell us what the
> executive branch did."
> For
> example, we now know the military was told it could
> secretly search
> Americans' homes. The next question is: Did those
> searches ever happen?
>
>
>
>     
> --
> Powered by http://DiscussThis.com
> Visit list archives, subscribe, unsubscribe or change your
> subscription preferences:
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>
>


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WR_Thunderstud's picture

RE: Changes

So then how do you feel about libertarins.

 

"it is completely abhorable to pass on debt to our children that comes as a result of trying to help poor people."

"it is completely acceptable to pass on debt to our children that comes as a result of KILLING poor poeple (mostly in other countries)."

 

My answer is that they are both wrong.  It is always wrong to pass debt on to children for any reason since they can't vote on it. 

 

The argument in favor of the war is that it is for the benefit of our freedoms (including the children's furture fdreedom).  I, and I think everyone here, disagrees.  One, the war is not making us freer or safer in any measurebale way. 

 

Two, regardless, there should be no debt financing of war (passing it on to our children) even if it is "necessary."  If the war is really "necessary", then the entire war should be paid for exclusively by voting tax payers since they are the ones, by their votes, deeming it "necessary"

 

The argument is favor of "helping poor people" or "paying for infrastructure" fails for the same two reasons. 

 

One, the claim of helping poor people is dubious as such measures rarely achive their stated goals, and neverly really calculate the full cost of the help.  It is easy to identify the beneficiaries of the help, but it is very difficult to estimate the unseen costs.  As with any government expenditure to help someone, the money (i should say value -since the government can just print "money") came from somewhere and is not being used for the purupose it otherwise would have had the government not taken it.  This translates into enourmous lost opportunitys which are vbery difficult to quantify since they never happened. 

 

However, even if you diagree and think it is worth creating infrastructe and helping people through the government, it is still wrong to do any of it with debt financing as it is forcing children who can't vote top pay for it.  If these projects are that important to us as voters today, then we should be forced to pay for it now, out of pocket.

 

In both cases its like having a credit card right to spend, but knowing that you won't have to pay the bill.  Aside from being immoral it is a roadmap to fiscal disaster.

 

On your point about the republicans they are in the middle of a breakdown.  There are fiscal concervatives in the party, but there support of deficits in support of the war completely undermine their positions. 

 

That being said, there are a lot of ordinary people who are pissed about the spending.  The republicans are going to go after them.  The democrats are now in power, and since they are they will have to govern from washington, and most likely have to be hypocrits and spenders on many issues.  We will know a lot more once the next set of congressional elections comes in.

 

Greg

 

 

 

 

 

 


--- On Wed, 3/4/09, D-Bone <> wrote:

From: D-Bone <>
Subject: RE: [syndicate] Changes
To: "PHL Syndicate" <>
Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 1:36 PM



I hear you, man....check out these clips from CPAC on John Stewart....makes me wish we were a monarchy and these guys could be tried for treason.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219518&title=cpac-after-party






From: oblio <>
To: PHL Syndicate <>
Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 10:11:11 AM
Subject: RE: [syndicate] Changes


I too have been busy. But i have been listening to the "loyal" (my ass) opposition via savage and limbaugh these days.

i wish i had more time, but there's some interesting stuff going on. you guys heard about the rush v michael steel (RNC chairman i think - and black of course) thing?

so rush says some things like - "i want Obama to fail". the RNC chair says rush is incendiary and ugly. rush flips out saying the repubs have totally lost their way. rnc chair APOLOGIZES to rush. Obama spokesperson makes great joke about some guy apologizing to the head
of the republican party.

so i was listening to rush and he is going on and on and on about how the dems are saddling us with debt, they are going to cause our children to have lower living standard etc etc etc bunch a bullshit obviously.

and it occus to me - this is the republican philosophy in a nutshell:

it is completely abhorable to pass on debt to our children that comes as a result of trying to help poor people.

it is completely acceptable to pass on debt to our children that comes as a result of KILLING poor poeple (mostly in other countries).

my point is this: rush and every other repub spouting this nonsense should ask their children - if they have them, this:

"son (or daughter) would you rather be saddled with debt for your entire adult life as the result of trying to help poor people or killing them?"

now, i assume rush's son would prolly say KILL EM! but i think most children, being children,
would pick the correct answer.

honestly, this is what the repubs have become to me. they have lost ANY credibility they once had. after 8 years of bitching non stop that liberals wanted GW to fail (and liberals saying no, that's not really true) the repubs are now stating with complete aplomb that they want O to fail. and that's cool - cause he is trying to help poor people, not kill them.

savage went on for 15 minutes yesterday about how Hillary Clinton is an appeaser because she is pushing a 2 state solution in the holy land. he then called her a zionist. ummmmm.....huh?

i mean, they just got nothing.

i fully believe, 100%, that had mccain won, the same exact goddamn bill, except maybe tax cuts would be 40% of total instead of 30% would be being pushed right now. and the dems would prolly be supporting most of it (tax cuts aside.) i really think the repub stategy (if you can call it that) is twofold -

get as many
brown republicans as possible into the national spotlight. as long as they are men.

subvert the dems in congress and in the media to the point where they have to fail. because even if they suceed, socialism is still a failure.

i really just dont get it. i feel like the political discourse in the country is at an all time low in my lifetime right now. there basically is none. the dems have stars in their eyes and the repubs have hatred. this does not make for a good political future. i think i should just give up. it all seems so hopeless.

--- El mié 4-mar-09, D-Bone <> escribió:

> De: D-Bone <>
> Asunto: [syndicate] Changes
> A: "PHL Syndicate" < rel=nofollow>>
> Fecha: miércoles, 4 marzo, 2009, 5:11 am
> Well, I've been a bit busy these days, so here's a
> catch all.
>
> Andi, hi, welcome, if you need to know anything about this
> Syndicate's members, ask Kieran.
>
> I was just going through some old emails, and we had a bit
> of a convo on Rahm Emmanuel, specifically about his
> father's involvment in a militant Zionist group.  It is
> interesting to note that on the other side, his mother was a
> civil rights activist who marched with MLK in Chicago, so
> whose to say which parent influences him the most!
>
> And also going back through those emails, and seeing the
> various opinions we held on pre-election Obama, I have to
> say, that some little things are happening that have to be
> considered good.  For one, he has overturned some
loosening
> of environmental regulations that Bush put in place at the
> end of his term.  Now that, I can see how some people may
> have a more "pro-business" attitude, and disagree
> with O's move, but I have a hard time thinking that any
> on this list would find the repeal of these legal memos a
> bad thing:
>
>
> Declassified Memos Provide Look Into Bush Policies
> The Obama administration declassified nine Justice
> Department legal memos on Monday that asserted a sweeping
> view of presidential power,
> including authorizing the military to search Americans'
> homes without a
> warrant and sending detainees to other countries regardless
> of
> congressional statutes that might dictate otherwise.
> Now civil liberties groups are pushing for the release of
> dozens of similar memos that remain classified.
> About
>
a month ago, the American Civil Liberties Union sent the
> Justice
> Department's Office of Legal Counsel a letter and a
> chart. The chart
> listed 55 classified Bush administration legal memos on
> national
> security issues. The letter basically said, "release
> these memos."
> Some of the memos that the Justice Department declassified
> Monday were not even on the ACLU's list.
> "So
> there are dozens of memos that are still secret," said
> Jameel Jaffer,
> director of the ACLU's national security project. They
> include "memos
> that provided the basis for the national security
> agency's warrantless
> wiretapping program and memos that provided the basis for
> the CIA's
> torture program."
> "Those are critical memos, and they're all
> still secret," he said. Jaffer knows they exist
> because the government
>
has summarized or listed them in court documents.
> Some secret
> memos have been mentioned with no description of their
> contents. And
> presumably some memoranda have never been mentioned at all.
> So, to
> paraphrase former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, there
> are known
> unknowns and unknown unknowns.
> Surprises In The Memos
> One
> reason there's a lot of interest in these documents is
> that they could
> contain some surprises. For example, one memo declassified
> Monday is
> dated Oct. 23, 2001. It asserts that the military can
> ignore Americans' Fourth Amendment privacy rights and
> conduct searches against suspected terrorists without a
> warrant.
> It's a controversial claim, but the public learned
> about the assertion
> years ago in a footnote to another Justice Department
> document. The
>
public did not know about a line in the same memo that
> said: "First Amendment speech and press rights may also
> be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war
> successfully."
> The
> Justice Department withdrew all nine of the newly released
> memos in
> January. The acting head of the office of legal counsel,
> Steven
> Bradbury, formally repudiated them five days before
> President Bush left
> office.
> Duke Law Professor Chris Schroeder was acting head of
> the Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton
> administration, and he
> was on the Obama administration's Justice Department
> transition team.
> He called the wholesale overturning of legal opinions such
> as these,
> "Absolutely unprecedented. I know of no comparable
> experience that
> comes remotely close."
> Liberal activists say the Bush
>
administration's last-minute about-face is evidence of
> how far off the
> rails the Justice Department went in the last eight years.
> Conservatives say it's a sign that things are going off
> the rails right
> now.
> David Rivkin worked at the Justice Department under
> President Reagan and the first President Bush. He says he
> never would
> have written these legal memos, and he might have even
> withdrawn them,
> but not like this.
> "In a normal environment," Rivkin says, "you
> gently pull it back. In an abnormal environment, you engage
> in
> recrimination, vilification, demonization and public
> repudiation —
> almost show-trial like. That's a very, very bad way to
> proceed."
> Establishing A 'Truth Commission'
> The government seems committed to pulling back the curtain
> further than it already has.
>
The
> attorney general and other Justice officials have said they
> want to
> declassify more documents from the Office of Legal Counsel.
> And
> Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a
> hearing into
> whether to create a "truth commission" — an
> independent panel to
> investigate Bush administration policies.
> The ACLU's Jaffer
> says a truth commission could investigate a question that
> the Justice
> Department cannot answer: "What conduct was authorized
> on the basis of
> these legal memos? Because in some senses these legal memos
> tell us
> what the Justice Department thought the executive branch
> was authorized
> to do, but they don't actually tell us what the
> executive branch did."
> For
> example, we now know the military was told it could
> secretly search
> Americans' homes.
The next question is: Did those
> searches ever happen?
>
>
>
>     
> --
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oblio's picture

RE: Changes

i dont have time to respond in full, but i gotta jump back in real quick:

> "it is completely abhorable to pass on debt to our
> children that comes as a result of trying to help poor
> people."
>
> "it is completely acceptable to pass on debt to our
> children that comes as a result of KILLING poor poeple
> (mostly in other countries)."
>
> My answer is that they are both wrong. It is always wrong
> to pass debt on to children for any reason since they
> can't vote on it.

first of all, it wasn't a question. it was a statement. this is basically how i see it: Dems - ok to pass on debt to help poor people, ok to pass on debt to kill them (usually). repubs - not ok to pass on debt to help poor people, but ok to pass on debt to kill poor people.

my position is irrelevant. i was simply pointing out that imo, the repubs are remarkably MORE hypocritical and immoral.

greg, i agree with you in principle. however, your philosophy simply does not apply to the real world. it is not practical, so it is basically irrelevant.

government simply is not going to nothing. saying it should do nothing is not helpful.

its like this oldest moral quesion in the book:

you have 2 children and a terrorist makes you chose which one will live - do you pick one or let both die?

the dem position would be to pick one - lesser of two evils. the repub would be we dont negotiate with terrorists, they both die. your position would seem to be - giving in to coercion is wrong, so both die.

all i'm saying is that we totally screwed because we can only think within the context we have created. this is nothing new of course.

> One, the claim of helping poor people is dubious as such
> measures rarely achive their stated goals,

irrelevant. many things do not acheive their stated goals. does that mean that if you are unable to be first in your class, you should settle for last? no, that makes no sense. you do the best you can.

and neverly
> really calculate the full cost of the help.

again, this does not seem relevant to me. nothing the government ever does calculates the full cost. hell, i can't even do that with my food budget.

It is easy to
> identify the beneficiaries of the help, but it is very
> difficult to estimate the unseen costs. As with any
> government expenditure to help someone, the money (i
> should say value -since the government can just print
> "money") came from somewhere and is not being used
> for the purupose it otherwise would have had the government
> not taken it. This translates into enourmous lost
> opportunitys which are vbery difficult to quantify since
> they never happened.

so what your saying is that helping poor people is dubious because it costs more than people are willing to admit, doesn't meet lofty goals and is taking money that would be spent somewhere else.

i'm sorry, absolutely none of that is compelling enough to me to say that new deal type programs are failures.

let me be very clear. i disagree with government intervention in principle. however, i can't live my life saying everything the government does is wrong (even tho i basically believe it!) so, i gotta play the game. and that game to me is this:

it is better to help people than kill them.

i really truely think that is at the core of many conservative / liberal differences.

and yes savage and limbaugh represent the basest of the republican base, but they also have millions of listeners everyday. there are many MANY people who listen to them who would not admit it to you, or would not talk about it.

and in the end there are many pepole who would rather use tax payer money to kill people in other countries than to help poor people in this country. i realize that both are morally er...less than ideal. but, only someone with no sense of practical reality would say they are both equally immoral.

it is quite clear to me that killing people is more immoral than TRYING to help them.

so you see even the most unsuccessful of socal programs is better than the best of all possible wars.

that is just my opinion of course. but if my money is going to be taken at the barrel of a gun - and it is going to go to help people or kill them. i will chose helping them every single time. i do not think most republicans can say the same. Many democrats can tho. But by no means all.

Rasputin's picture

RE: Changes

I don't know why you're listening to Rush and Savage ... in my mind,
those loons represent the very basest of all political discourse in
this country ... they live for nothing more than to attack those who
don't agree with them (or look like them in Savage's case) ...

listening to them for longer than say, five minutes, is enough to push
me into angry intolerant rage of all Republicans ... I just don't buy
it that all Republicans think like those loons ... I'm friends with
several Repubs and none of them are that extreme ... I get the same
kind of reaction when I listen to Al Sharpton blab on about some
insanity ...

I totally agree with you that no matter who is in power, we'd see
basically the same bailout bill ... it's a political fix to something
that can't be fixed, something that needs time to correct itself
without the intervention of gov't ... (except for AIG ... which, if it
collapses, would doom us all) ...

As much money as AIG is getting, that's the one aspect of this I think
is completely necessary ... if AIG goes down, this entire economy will
collapse

On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 1:36 PM, D-Bone <> wrote:
> I hear you, man....check out these clips from CPAC on John Stewart....makes
> me wish we were a monarchy and these guys could be tried for treason.
> http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219518&title=cpac-...
>
> ________________________________
> From: oblio <>
> To: PHL Syndicate <>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 10:11:11 AM
> Subject: RE: [syndicate] Changes
>
>
> I too have been busy. But i have been listening to the "loyal" (my ass)
> opposition via savage and limbaugh these days.
>
> i wish i had more time, but there's some interesting stuff going on. you
> guys heard about the rush v michael steel (RNC chairman i think - and black
> of course) thing?
>
> so rush says some things like - "i want Obama to fail". the RNC chair says
> rush is incendiary and ugly. rush flips out saying the repubs have totally
> lost their way. rnc chair APOLOGIZES to rush. Obama spokesperson makes great
> joke about some guy apologizing to the head of the republican party.
>
> so i was listening to rush and he is going on and on and on about how the
> dems are saddling us with debt, they are going to cause our children to have
> lower living standard etc etc etc bunch a bullshit obviously.
>
> and it occus to me - this is the republican philosophy in a nutshell:
>
> it is completely abhorable to pass on debt to our children that comes as a
> result of trying to help poor people.
>
> it is completely acceptable to pass on debt to our children that comes as a
> result of KILLING poor poeple (mostly in other countries).
>
> my point is this: rush and every other repub spouting this nonsense should
> ask their children - if they have them, this:
>
> "son (or daughter) would you rather be saddled with debt for your entire
> adult life as the result of trying to help poor people or killing them?"
>
> now, i assume rush's son would prolly say KILL EM! but i think most
> children, being children, would pick the correct answer.
>
> honestly, this is what the repubs have become to me. they have lost ANY
> credibility they once had. after 8 years of bitching non stop that liberals
> wanted GW to fail (and liberals saying no, that's not really true) the
> repubs are now stating with complete aplomb that they want O to fail. and
> that's cool - cause he is trying to help poor people, not kill them.
>
> savage went on for 15 minutes yesterday about how Hillary Clinton is an
> appeaser because she is pushing a 2 state solution in the holy land. he then
> called her a zionist. ummmmm.....huh?
>
> i mean, they just got nothing.
>
> i fully believe, 100%, that had mccain won, the same exact goddamn bill,
> except maybe tax cuts would be 40% of total instead of 30% would be being
> pushed right now. and the dems would prolly be supporting most of it (tax
> cuts aside.) i really think the repub stategy (if you can call it that) is
> twofold -
>
> get as many brown republicans as possible into the national spotlight. as
> long as they are men.
>
> subvert the dems in congress and in the media to the point where they have
> to fail. because even if they suceed, socialism is still a failure.
>
> i really just dont get it. i feel like the political discourse in the
> country is at an all time low in my lifetime right now. there basically is
> none. the dems have stars in their eyes and the repubs have hatred. this
> does not make for a good political future. i think i should just give up. it
> all seems so hopeless.
>

TragicHipster's picture

RE: Changes

> I don't know why you're listening to Rush and Savage ... in my mind,

know they enemy ;)

> without the intervention of gov't ... (except for AIG ... which, if it
> collapses, would doom us all) ...

yeah, its epic fail.

as far as an aig fail, it would be a credit problem that would take
time to trickle down into the real economy. hell, it could cause a
3,000 point drop in the dow in a week for all i know. but in the case
of a GE or GM/Chrysler collapse, you're going to have a VERY LARGE
NUMBER of VERY ANGRY people who will have everything pulled from
beneath them all at once. they won't be unemployed wall street
bankers. you're talking masses of unionized blue collar works and some
and medium business that are in the supply chain - and pensions
(jeezus). you're talking major civil disorder and with most of the
national guard overseas... bad.

i was listening to some talk radio and there was a guy that called up
claiming to work in some capacity for a county gov't in indiana.
homeland security paid them a visit and told them that in the case of
a gm/chrysler bankruptcy, they can expect a 40% drop in local and
state gov't revenue. then they started asking lots of questions
like... do you have a procedure in place to "harden" gov't buildings?
do you have a plan to install barricades and do you have ways to block
entrance into and out of gov't buildings? the guy was all wtf?!? i
dunno, could be completely made up, but if state/fed/local gov't
aren't preparinig for upcoming civil disturbances, they sure as hell
should be.

RE: Changes

>> I don't know why you're listening to Rush and Savage ... in my mind,
>
> know they enemy ;)

At some point over the last couple years, Rush basically admitted that he
really didn't support a lot of what Bush did, but that he feels it's his
duty to support the cause. That combined with him RAILING against people
who use drugs for years while he was hiding a Perks addiction... why would
anyone take him seriously ?

Usually trolls just grow stronger when people pay attention to them, ann
coulter being a prime example. Her mission is to say the most vile, hateful
and repulsive things possible so that people get angry. Michelle Malkin,
O'Reilly, Rush, et al, it's all the same playbook.

HL Menken summed up demagogues as "one who will preach doctrines he knows
to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots".

Kieran

WR_Thunderstud's picture

RE: Changes

AIG is big.  Their failure is basically based on out-and-out insurance fraud.  They sold policies (and made money) on insuring CDOs and kept NO MONEY IN THE VAULT TO PAY FOR IT.  90% of AIG was fine, but the losses at the 10% are so bad it collapsed them in a month or so. 100 year old company collapsed in an instant because of bad math (over estimating countiued housing prices).

 

If they fail, their counterparties are all screwed.  I think the mechanism works like this...  Cities, municipalitys, businesses etc, raise money by selling bonds (issuing their own debt).  Debt/bond holders need to know that they will be paid back the interest on the bonds based on faith + INSURANCE.  So the municipalities, business etc.. get insurance from AIG in order to back their bonds and raise the rating associated with the bonds. without this, their cost to go into debt is higher (way higher) without the insurance.

 

For exmaple, city X needs a 1,000,000 for a school.  It uses 500,000 from cash and issues a tax free municple bond(s) for 500,000  To issue the bond, a bond issuer (lehman, merril, investment bank X ect...) sets up an auction to sell the bonds.  To set the interest rate, say 3% per year that the investor will expect, they issuer (investment bank) will get insurance to rasie the credit rating of the bond (which would have been based on the town's credit rating) to a better rating (based on town + AIG's insurance policy).  For exmaple town is A- where investors will expect 10% (to cover the high risk) to AAA where investors will expect 3% (for low risk).

 

If the insurer, If AIG goes under the insurance part of the equation is gone and then the bonds go from being insured to not being insured which moves them up to 10%.  These contracts for the bonds are not like normal personal lending, they can change based on any credit rating changes immediately.  This means city X which could make iuts 3% payments will now have to make 10% payments or default.  DOH!

 

This where I think the cascade starts.

 

It would translate into legal nightmares and lots of bankrupt municipalities, cancelled bonds.... and so on.

 

It would be bad and way too complicated to understand in full, by anyone. Half the fear is that it is literally impossible to mentally get one's head around the scope of it. 

 

Greg

--- On Wed, 3/4/09, TragicHipster <> wrote:

From: TragicHipster <>
Subject: RE: [syndicate] Changes
To: "PHL Syndicate" <>
Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 2:08 PM

> I don't know why you're listening to Rush and Savage ... in my
mind,

know they enemy ;)

> without the intervention of gov't ... (except for AIG ... which, if it
> collapses, would doom us all) ...

yeah, its epic fail.

as far as an aig fail, it would be a credit problem that would take
time to trickle down into the real economy. hell, it could cause a
3,000 point drop in the dow in a week for all i know. but in the case
of a GE or GM/Chrysler collapse, you're going to have a VERY LARGE
NUMBER of VERY ANGRY people who will have everything pulled from
beneath them all at once. they won't be unemployed wall street
bankers. you're talking masses of unionized blue collar works and some
and medium business that are in the supply chain - and pensions
(jeezus). you're talking major civil disorder and with most of the
national guard overseas... bad.

i was listening to some talk radio and there was a guy that called up
claiming to work in some capacity for a county gov't in indiana.
homeland security paid them a visit and told them that in the case of
a gm/chrysler bankruptcy, they can expect a 40% drop in local and
state gov't revenue. then they started asking lots of questions
like... do you have a procedure in place to "harden" gov't
buildings?
do you have a plan to install barricades and do you have ways to block
entrance into and out of gov't buildings? the guy was all wtf?!? i
dunno, could be completely made up, but if state/fed/local gov't
aren't preparinig for upcoming civil disturbances, they sure as hell
should be.


    
  
TragicHipster's picture

RE: Changes

> If the insurer, If AIG goes under the insurance part of the equation is gone
> and then the bonds go from being insured to not being insured which moves
> them up to 10%.  These contracts for the bonds are not like normal personal
> lending, they can change based on any credit rating changes immediately.
> This means city X which could make iuts 3% payments will now have to make
> 10% payments or default.  DOH!
[...]
> This where I think the cascade starts.

Right. There are also contractual/regulatory requirements for various
investment funds (ie pensions) that require held bonds to be of a
certain credit rating. so if the teacher's union of PA has $20 million
of bonds that are suddenly downgraded, they have to sell them. that's
where the spiral starts. of course, a major bout of selling across the
market causes other similar sales to be executed as well.. and then
you get a massive systemic downward spiral.

Then throw on the top the side bets, also known as credit default
swaps (CDS) which are where the MASSIVE systemic risk comes into play.

This guy explains it pretty well and actually has a half decent
solution on what to do to unwind those things (the AIG bail-out money
is actually going to goldman sachs, et al, in order to cover these
bets).

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/849-Stop-OTC-CDS-Abuse-NOW.h...

RE: Changes

Hi Andi ! Hope you stay with us !

I guess no surprise that once rocks were overturned we'd be disgusted at
whatever was crawling around underneath, and these memos certainly fit the
bill. BTW not sure if anyone saw "W", the Oliver Stone movie, but it paints
an interesting picture. More or less the view is a fool surrounded by
wolves and driven by his daddy insecurities. One of the best scenes is when
condi, colin, cheney, bush, rove and rummy are in a room debating over
invading Iraq, everyone exuding arrogant confidence and self righteousness,
except powell. He struggle and flails against it, but cheney breaks it down
"this is about oil, you think the chinese are just going to give it to us
when we desperately need it in 20 years ?". F**k your morals, this is about
power and control, and everyone except Colin agrees.

Maybe it's a simplified take, but when it comes down to it, that's how
empires are decided. Overall the movie was alright, but after eight years
even two more hours is kind of painful.

Compared to that, Obamanator is looking great. But he really hasn't jumped
off any decision cliffs yet. The bailout, which imo seems ludicrous and
futile, is an expected reaction from politicians. At this stage, despite
job losses and such, the full force of the economic kick in the nuts hasn't
happened yet. Joe Biden predicted a test of the presidency, well it's
comin.

Kieran

On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 20:11:17 -0800 (PST), D-Bone <>
wrote:
> Well, I've been a bit busy these days, so here's a catch all.
>
> Andi, hi, welcome, if you need to know anything about this Syndicate's
> members, ask Kieran.
>
> I was just going through some old emails, and we had a bit of a convo on
> Rahm Emmanuel, specifically about his father's involvment in a militant
> Zionist group. It is interesting to note that on the other side, his
> mother was a civil rights activist who marched with MLK in Chicago, so
> whose to say which parent influences him the most!
>
> And also going back through those emails, and seeing the various opinions
> we held on pre-election Obama, I have to say, that some little things are
> happening that have to be considered good. For one, he has overturned
some
> loosening of environmental regulations that Bush put in place at the end
of
> his term. Now that, I can see how some people may have a more
> "pro-business" attitude, and disagree with O's move, but I have a hard
time
> thinking that any on this list would find the repeal of these legal memos
a
> bad thing:
>
>
> Declassified Memos Provide Look Into Bush Policies
> The Obama administration declassified nine Justice Department legal memos
> on Monday that asserted a sweeping view of presidential power,
> including authorizing the military to search Americans' homes without a
> warrant and sending detainees to other countries regardless of
> congressional statutes that might dictate otherwise.
> Now civil liberties groups are pushing for the release of dozens of
> similar memos that remain classified.
> About
> a month ago, the American Civil Liberties Union sent the Justice
> Department's Office of Legal Counsel a letter and a chart. The chart
> listed 55 classified Bush administration legal memos on national
> security issues. The letter basically said, "release these memos."
> Some of the memos that the Justice Department declassified Monday were
not
> even on the ACLU's list.
> "So
> there are dozens of memos that are still secret," said Jameel Jaffer,
> director of the ACLU's national security project. They include "memos
> that provided the basis for the national security agency's warrantless
> wiretapping program and memos that provided the basis for the CIA's
> torture program."
> "Those are critical memos, and they're all
> still secret," he said. Jaffer knows they exist because the government
> has summarized or listed them in court documents.
> Some secret
> memos have been mentioned with no description of their contents. And
> presumably some memoranda have never been mentioned at all. So, to
> paraphrase former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, there are known
> unknowns and unknown unknowns.
> Surprises In The Memos
> One
> reason there's a lot of interest in these documents is that they could
> contain some surprises. For example, one memo declassified Monday is
> dated Oct. 23, 2001. It asserts that the military can ignore Americans'
> Fourth Amendment privacy rights and conduct searches against suspected
> terrorists without a warrant.
> It's a controversial claim, but the public learned about the assertion
> years ago in a footnote to another Justice Department document. The
> public did not know about a line in the same memo that said: "First
> Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the
> overriding need to wage war successfully."
> The
> Justice Department withdrew all nine of the newly released memos in
> January. The acting head of the office of legal counsel, Steven
> Bradbury, formally repudiated them five days before President Bush left
> office.
> Duke Law Professor Chris Schroeder was acting head of
> the Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton administration, and he
> was on the Obama administration's Justice Department transition team.
> He called the wholesale overturning of legal opinions such as these,
> "Absolutely unprecedented. I know of no comparable experience that
> comes remotely close."
> Liberal activists say the Bush
> administration's last-minute about-face is evidence of how far off the
> rails the Justice Department went in the last eight years.
> Conservatives say it's a sign that things are going off the rails right
> now.
> David Rivkin worked at the Justice Department under
> President Reagan and the first President Bush. He says he never would
> have written these legal memos, and he might have even withdrawn them,
> but not like this.
> "In a normal environment," Rivkin says, "you
> gently pull it back. In an abnormal environment, you engage in
> recrimination, vilification, demonization and public repudiation —
> almost show-trial like. That's a very, very bad way to proceed."
> Establishing A 'Truth Commission'
> The government seems committed to pulling back the curtain further than
it
> already has.
> The
> attorney general and other Justice officials have said they want to
> declassify more documents from the Office of Legal Counsel. And
> Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing into
> whether to create a "truth commission" — an independent panel to
> investigate Bush administration policies.
> The ACLU's Jaffer
> says a truth commission could investigate a question that the Justice
> Department cannot answer: "What conduct was authorized on the basis of
> these legal memos? Because in some senses these legal memos tell us
> what the Justice Department thought the executive branch was authorized
> to do, but they don't actually tell us what the executive branch did."
> For
> example, we now know the military was told it could secretly search
> Americans' homes. The next question is: Did those searches ever happen?
>
>
>
>
>

Dommie's picture

RE: speeches from your boss and price changes

actually, i got a sort of speech last week.  well, more of a rant.  boss directed anger at stock performance/housing bubble/aig, etc towards me.  said it was "my generation's fault we're in this mess."  i took the opportunity to point out that all of these failing compainies/government branches/etc. were all run by people from his generation.  most of my generation had absolutely nothing to due with any decision making in any of that.  i told him that a large part of this financial crisis is from poor/illegal business practices.

i don't think what i said really impacted him though.

anybody else get that generational blame thing also?

--Greasy D.


On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 11:16 AM, TragicHipster <> wrote:

Anyone get a speech from management about the economy? We got one last

week at a staff meeting. Nothing awful, but they recognized that

everyone is tweaked. And went on to intriduce 4 new hires. They are

cautiously optimistic.



Anyone get any sort of speeches or know of lay-offs?



How about sudden price jumbs or declines?



This is all so strange.... the fringe people like me are screaming

"the room is on fire" and so is the establishment. Everyone else seems

to be standing around confused, after all, there are no soup lines.

Its a little weird, I think, for most people to understand there is a

crisis when they and everyone they know is employed.



Any stories out there?



As they haggled about creating a fourth branch of government in DC,

the Fed has been injecting $600 billion of liquidity into the

international banking system TODAY in order to stablize world markets.

A commentator on CNCB said: "The numbers are so large it doesn't even

seem to matter."



Wachovia bought by Citi via FDIC "deal" last night.


Rasputin's picture

RE: speeches from your boss and price changes

my landlord is Republican and every time I see him he makes sure to
tell me that the Democrats caused the whole crisis because they didn't
do something two years ago ... I haven't looked up what he's talking
about ... something about Fannie and Freddie ...

I always tell him that, it just seems like this country was a lot
better off 8 years ago ... I don't know if technically that's true or
not ... I mean, the seeds of this economic crisis were sown long ago,
but still ... seems like 8 years ago things certainly weren't this
crazy ...

anyway, it's fun to argue at 7 30 a.m. with my landlord, a born and
bred Brooklyn Italian named Vinnie who I'm pretty sure beats his wife
...

On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 12:03 PM, Greasy D. <> wrote:
> actually, i got a sort of speech last week. well, more of a rant. boss
> directed anger at stock performance/housing bubble/aig, etc towards me.
> said it was "my generation's fault we're in this mess." i took the
> opportunity to point out that all of these failing compainies/government
> branches/etc. were all run by people from his generation. most of my
> generation had absolutely nothing to due with any decision making in any of
> that. i told him that a large part of this financial crisis is from
> poor/illegal business practices.
> i don't think what i said really impacted him though.
> anybody else get that generational blame thing also?

WR_Thunderstud's picture

RE: speeches from your boss and price changes

If he is a fox watching republican they have been runnig footage of Barney Frank from about 2003 where he was saying that all of the calls to regulate the size of Freddine and Fannie were ovberhyped and designed to keep poor people from getting homes.

 

TANGENT ALERT -

 

I have been hearing alot about our generations (X-Z) as well, that we don't have as much of a desire for grounding and perserverence, but I say fcuk them.

 

Last time I checked this country was on the freight train for infinte debt long before I could even vote.  Having kids now makes me really see this even more.  My oldest son turns 3 on Thursday, he will be able to vote in 15 years. The day he turns 18 he will be inherenting 3 lifetimes worth of post WWII debt load, of which he could not possibly have avoided or benefitted (for the most part).  How do you explain to him that it is social obligation to keep paying because that jusst the way it is.  Hell I don't think I should have to pay for thew generations before me now. 

 

Taxes/bonds and the rest of it are not just ill advised policy they are immoral taxation without representation of future generations.


BACK OF TANGENT -

 

no speeches here but we are defintiely watching the markets.

 

The bar downstairs where I go to lunch is getting a steady trickle of layoffs comming in at 9:15 (right after they hear about it).  We are only 3 blocks from the Bear headquarters, but the layoffs are from a lot of ancillary businesses.

 

Greg

 

 

 



--- On Mon, 9/29/08, chris <> wrote:

From: chris <>
Subject: RE: [syndicate] speeches from your boss and price changes
To: "PHL Syndicate" <>
Date: Monday, September 29, 2008, 12:16 PM

my landlord is Republican and every time I see him he makes sure to
tell me that the Democrats caused the whole crisis because they didn't
do something two years ago ... I haven't looked up what he's talking
about ... something about Fannie and Freddie ...

I always tell him that, it just seems like this country was a lot
better off 8 years ago ... I don't know if technically that's true or
not ... I mean, the seeds of this economic crisis were sown long ago,
but still ... seems like 8 years ago things certainly weren't this
crazy ...

anyway, it's fun to argue at 7 30 a.m. with my landlord, a born and
bred Brooklyn Italian named Vinnie who I'm pretty sure beats his wife
...

On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 12:03 PM, Greasy D. <>
wrote:
> actually, i got a sort of speech last week.  well, more of a rant.  boss
> directed anger at stock performance/housing bubble/aig, etc towards me.
>  said it was "my generation's fault we're in this mess."
 i took the
> opportunity to point out that all of these failing compainies/government
> branches/etc. were all run by people from his generation.  most of my
> generation had absolutely nothing to due with any decision making in any
of
> that.  i told him that a large part of this financial crisis is from
> poor/illegal business practices.
> i don't think what i said really impacted him though.
> anybody else get that generational blame thing also?
> --Greasy D.
>
> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 11:16 AM, TragicHipster <>
wrote:
>>
>> Anyone get a speech from management about the economy? We got one last
>> week at a staff meeting. Nothing awful, but they recognized that
>> everyone is tweaked. And went on to intriduce 4 new hires. They are
>> cautiously optimistic.
>>
>> Anyone get any sort of speeches or know of lay-offs?
>>
>> How about sudden price jumbs or declines?
>>
>> This is all so strange.... the fringe people like me are screaming
>> "the room is on fire" and so is the establishment. Everyone
else seems
>> to be standing around confused, after all, there are no soup lines.
>> Its a little weird, I think, for most people to understand there is a
>> crisis when they and everyone they know is employed.
>>
>> Any stories out there?
>>
>> As they haggled about creating a fourth branch of government in DC,
>> the Fed has been injecting $600 billion of liquidity into the
>> international banking system TODAY in order to stablize world markets.
>> A commentator on CNCB said: "The numbers are so large it
doesn't even
>> seem to matter."
>>
>> Wachovia bought by Citi via FDIC "deal" last night.
>>
>> --
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>> 
>>  
>>
>>
>>
>
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Rasputin's picture

RE: speeches from your boss and price changes

I haven't seen any layoffs other than people I know at Lehman, most of
who still don't know what their ultimate fate is going to be ...

you make a great point that this still hasn't really touched the
regular person ... other than, if they're even paying attention, their
401Ks may have lost money over the past few weeks ...

no management speeches ... !

On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 11:16 AM, TragicHipster <> wrote:
> Anyone get a speech from management about the economy? We got one last
> week at a staff meeting. Nothing awful, but they recognized that
> everyone is tweaked. And went on to intriduce 4 new hires. They are
> cautiously optimistic.
>
> Anyone get any sort of speeches or know of lay-offs?
>
> How about sudden price jumbs or declines?
>
> This is all so strange.... the fringe people like me are screaming
> "the room is on fire" and so is the establishment. Everyone else seems
> to be standing around confused, after all, there are no soup lines.
> Its a little weird, I think, for most people to understand there is a
> crisis when they and everyone they know is employed.
>
> Any stories out there?
>
> As they haggled about creating a fourth branch of government in DC,
> the Fed has been injecting $600 billion of liquidity into the
> international banking system TODAY in order to stablize world markets.
> A commentator on CNCB said: "The numbers are so large it doesn't even
> seem to matter."
>
> Wachovia bought by Citi via FDIC "deal" last night.
>


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