Sunday Roundup

Phil Gramm obviously had the quote of the week. Voters dealing with skyrocketing gas prices and collapsing home values just love being called "whiners" by a millionaire. This kind of out-of-touch condescension comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed Gramm's career. He's left his fingerprints on some of the worst economic debacles in U.S. history. He was a champion of energy deregulation, which gave us Enron and blackouts and price gouging. He was a champion of deregulating the savings-and-loan industry, the bailout of which cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. And his leadership on banking deregulation helped create the current sub-prime mortgage crisis. Republicans love to talk about Obama's lack of experience. I'll take fresh blood over Gramm's kind of track record any day of the week.

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Comments

[nyboomer]

I have been in the USA since November 1962. At no time have I seen any evidence that the Republican Party cares at all about anyone other than the rich and powerful. They may claim to have all of Amrica's interests at heart but they lie.

What has fascinated me all that time has been how they succcessfully persuaded poor and middle class voters that all will be well if they just learn to survive on the crumbs falling off the feasting tables of the rich.

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

Your fascination is the fascination of most Americans.I can't quite wrap my mind around it either because the results of Republican administrations are there for everyone to see.Yet there are many who keep getting in line to pull the lever to punish themselves.Even after exposing all the corruption of this administration the last poll I saw showed 58% of Republicans still back Bush?I'm not sure if fascination is the right word.I think perplexed might be more on target.

[researcher]

deregulated capitalism has to self destruct

human greed gets a free ride with deregulated capitalism

dr phil two walks away with millions while the dollar sinks and the middle class goes bye bye

will we learn our lessons

not yet must get worst much worst

paradigms can persist even when self destructing

in fact while the paradigm is self destructing those with the paradigm will want more of the same paradigm

ie repubs want more deregulation not less

we borrow from communists, socialists and kings and still americans think their economic system is the best in the world while americans work two jobs and the germans work 38 hr weeks with double time for holiday pay

much of the high price of gas is due to the devalued dollar

few americans understand that

while america creates a few billionaires and the middle class goes bye bye americans blame politicans and refuse to look at their economic and market system called capitalism

even the liberals are capitalists

it will take decades of corp and media fascism to move american's paradigm from capitalism to a form of socialism that is for the people and not the corporations

[Mack20]

Sounds like whinning to me.

[TheWordman]

You misspelled 'winning'. There is no 'h'.

[Strain]

No. He's making sense. It's just that he's used buzz words we associate with evil things. Socialism, capitalism and fascism. This country is a democracy (or is supposed to be), but we are also a socialist country and we're a republic. Personally, I want all the regulations put back in place before Reagan came to "power". We as human beings, can't seem to behave ourselves and do the right thing. The more power we have (or think we have), the greedier we get and put ourselves above the law. The people need to take back the power, and make the government, whether it's federal, state, city or county, be held accountable for their actions.

[wbramh]

I'll always take intelligence and honesty over stupidity and greed.
Barack Obama is a 47 year old man. He no longer needs to sit at the
kiddie table during Thanksgiving dinners.
I guess I'm old fashioned but I prefer to have a President that's wiser and smarter than me -
especially when he's walking around with nuclear weapon codes.
I can't think of a better argument against Experience then Phil Gramm, Dick Cheney and John McCain.
This country couldn't be in worse shape had we randomly chosen the first person off the street to run the country. What would they have done - started a needless War and put us 3 trillion dollars in debt?
Probably not.

[MsDoc]

I've been thinking along these lines and have come to the conclusion that there is no way a person can have sufficient knowledge/experience to be POTUS. What they CAN have is intense intelligence, an ethical foundation, and really really smart advisors who can be trusted and have a firm ethical foundation of their own.

I suppose there is a valid political reason not to do this, but I would still like to see Senator O'bama discuss publically his tentative choices for his Cabinet. I am convinced that it will take a very wise and intense team effort to try to untangle the Gordian knot that has become our government and undo the damage that the greed and innanity of the past eight years has created.

I would like to see an ethical "slate" of Democrats who are determined to undo as much of this horrendous mess as possible and put us back on the path to international respect. I want to see our economy brought back into our own hands and thereby our fates brought back into our own control. I do not like being ransomed to an international coaliton of those who wish us harm.

I want to see egos placed way behind a commitment to the national good.

I also want a pony for my birthday.

-AMD

[julia06]

Thanks, Arianna, for telling it like it is!
Best regards,

[Paul Peete - Huffpost Blogger]

It's great that this pompous effete snob exposed who the true elitists are. Maybe those who are looking to McCain to feel safe will recognize what they really think of their American citizens who are struggling to stay afloat!

[HippyGourmet]

We love your Arianna! We're so thankful to have your voice out there telling it like it is!

So true about Gramm's comments this week! How is it that the GOP has any ground to stand on at all calling Obama an 'elitist'!

Meanwhile, McCain is flying over us 'whiners' in his wife's private jet, staying at any number of his seven (7) residences, and forgetting that Social Security is something he qualified for a long time ago.

[Algird]

No suprise to me from "let them eat cake" party sugeesting I shoulod suck it up and pay more less in health care, stay home instead of driving to work, and let my mortage go into default. wHAT A CRY BABY i AM THANKS pHIL i'LL MAN UP NOW AND VOT mCcAIN.