jazzman's Comments (480)

“I won't believe anything until Wallace interviews the real expert on this matter, Sarah Palin. After all she's up in Alaska and can almost see the North Pole from there. She can tell us if the ice is melting or not.”

“"The problem was that, unlike call or put options one buys on commodities or stocks, they weren't backed up by assets if the market moved against them."

Oops, small oversight.”

“I nominate this comment for the understatement of the year.”

“I don't know what it did for me but I know what it did to me. It cost me about 40% of my 401K savings.”

“Government is all pervasive because government is the rule maker and enforcer that interweaves throughout our society. There is no such thing as small government or big government. There is just government. For example, for the rich to keep so much of their wealth and have much larger tax breaks than the rest of us is an act of government. However, the cost of making that tax break for the rich does not take government off the backs of people it put the government on the backs of someone else like a poor person who cannot get his street repaired. That rotten street is also an act of government. Government is present in both situation guiding the rules and flow throughout our economy and society. Thus, if we have a financial meltdown, like the one we just experienced it's not because their was no government or regulations its that the regulations were either wrong, poorly devised, or were not enforced properly. Doing each of these things is an act of government.”

“Today I read an article in the Boston Globe that stated that although the economy and health care is in bad shape, the Reagan paradigm of business good/government bad still prevails in the minds of most people. Thus, Wall Street, the insurance industry, mortgage lending organizations, coal, gas, and mining interests are able to fend off regulations even after they almost sunk this economy. The reason is that most legislators and the public still are so suspicious of government that they are unwilling to make the changes necessary to reign in the most outrageous and risky practices of these companies.

As long as we live in an orthodoxy of supply side, free market, de-regulated, and small ineffectual government, we will not see any change even if the status quo sends us down into chaos. New thinkers, such as Bruce Scott have posited a whole new theory about the interplay of government and business that demonstrates that you cannot have a free market without a government that sets rules and regulates the games. However, his theories have not gained traction among the population and with the propaganda tools the right wing has in its corners, it will be difficult for us to shift our paradigm and build a society that more adequately reflects the necessities for good governance and government interventions that are necessary to make a free market work.”

“We've had 40 years of a culture shaped by right wing corporate Republicans who have allowed the corporate world and its minions of lobbyists to run through Washington unabated like water. They have infiltrated every aspect of the government and turned it into an enabler for its worst practices. The Democrats have had to try and survive in this environment. Moreover, the zeigeist of the times has been for a small government, de-regulation, tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, and no enforcement of any existing regulation. Now comes Obama and liberals, progressives, and at times even myself are frustrated that he has to try and enact some change in a cesspool not of his own making.

The only thing that is going to change Washington is for Democrats to stay in power and for enough time to pass that a new culture of service, community, and loyalty to our nation and its people can emerge. Right now the baby boomers and 'me' generation corporatists with their 'greed is good' mentality still inhabit the seats of power. Those like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson are still acting out in their narcisstic ways. All we can hope for is that they die quickly and are replaced by Democrats with higher values and more concern for the general welfare of the country. Until then, we all need to have Obama's back and continue to support him as he works slowly to change the mentality and culture of a nation.”

“Linda,

Can you address the two questions listed below? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.”

“"And that brings me to the final point here -- what passes this year or early next year is only the beginning of the reform process."

This is the argument that will keep me in the game. I'm an impatient idealist. I wanted Obama and the Democrats to act like the Queens, Rooks, and Bishops on the political chessboard, sweeping in and creating reforms that would lift our country out of its retreat, economically and in its standard of living. I wanted affordable, accessible health care like my parents had and I had as a child. Alas, I have found that the Democratic Party is filled with corporatists and sell outs and that what we have to play with are little pawns and that we can only move one square at a time. I'm wary because I think today's problems require dramatic reforms however I'm heartened by the fact that after Social Security passed it had to be revised and tweaked several time to make it work the way it should. The passage of this health care bill is not the end game but the beginning so let's push that little pawn forward and let the game begin.”

“Perhaps Obama is a conservative or at least a neo-liberal and fully believes in the market philosophy of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of economics. If so, then Obama is not aligned with the mainstream Democrats at all but is closer in philosophy to the blue dogs and DLC Democrats. If this is the case then Obama is not 'caving', 'compromising,' or 'weak' in his leadership. He is doing exactly what he wants to do, which includes leaving private insurance companies in complete control of healthcare, continuing on the wars of George W. Bush for both profit and gain, leaving banks unregulated and free to pursue their profits in any manner possible, and using cuts in spending and tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy to stimulate the economy.

What looks like weakness to those, like me, who projected onto Obama a sense of caring and daring that would inform his Presidency, might be a misperception instead. Next year will probably be the revelatory year for most of us regarding who Obama is and what he really believes. Look to see if Obama proposes to make the Bush tax cuts permanent or agrees to make them permanent. If that happens I think we will then realize that what we got in this last election is someone who, with a little bit different style, resembles the last President more than we would like to admit.”

“No one ceded control to Lieberman. This is all theater. The President is getting the bill he wants. The Democratic leadership is getting the bill it wants. The health care and big pharma are getting the bill they want.

The drama surrounding Lieberman is part of a well scripted act put together by those boys in the back room to make it look like the deal couldn't be done without dropping the public option and/or the medicare buy-in provision. Drug re-importation couldn't be done either. Nor can caps on how much profits the insurance companies can make. Repeal of the anti-trust provisions given to the health care industry also could not be implemented.

The only thing that could be done is mandating all American citizens to buy a product from corporate America at prices that can take away 17% of their income and still provide high deductibles and co-pays. In other words, we are witnessing the biggest giveaway to a corporate entity in our history.

My prediction will be that we won't get better health care, people will still go bankrupt at the usual rate, and citizens will be choosing between paying their health insurance premium or heating their homes.”

“A born again, family values Republican no doubt. However, like Sanford, Ensign, Craig, Foley, and Vitter, all will be forgiven when he takes his trek to C Street and meets with the Family.

HYPROCRITES and moral degenerates! The whole lot of them.”

“My brother and his wife worked in the Reagan administration. They once explained to me Reagan's strategy for getting what he wanted. Reagan would always start out with an outlandish position, on taxes, the budgets, spending, or whatever. When it would be introduced to Congress there would always be a big reaction. Through negotiations the demand would be pared down to a more 'moderate' tax cut, spending cuts, etc., However, what Reagan was getting was exactly what he wanted in the first place.

Obama and the Democrats, in contrast, have always started out by giving away half the store before the debate began. Instead of fighting either for a single payer system, or an expanded medicare program for all in the beginning they let Baucus take it off the table. So now their public option was the extreme position rather than the compromise position. Now we're faced with a health care bill that is so watered down that it's been reduced to Rahm Emanuel's dictum of 'make a deal with Lieberman and take whatever you can get.' This is a pathetic end to a noble cause. However, because Obama was not bold in the beginning he is ending up with nothing substantial as a result. We see this repeated over and over again with Wall Street, Mortgage lending, the stimulus, climate change, and the jobs legislation.

In the use of power to get what you want, Obama could have learned alot by studying Reagan.”

“I admire Tiger Woods game of golf. However, when you are a total control freak there is bound to be trouble somewhere in your existence. This may be the case with Tiger Woods.

One wonders how his need for control, his obsessive perfectionism, and his inability to accept any weakness plays out in his domestic life. What is it like to live with a control freak? Yes, Tiger has perfect control on the golf course but it may be a detriment on life's course.”

“We need to get rid of the way we fund the campaigns for Congress.”

“You assume the President is the most powerful man in the nation but he is not. The most powerful men in the U.S. are the financiers, corporate cheiftains, and the oil men. They own the intelligence community and see the President of the U.S. like any other figurehead with which they must deal. If they don't like what they see, they chasten him. If he keeps bucking them, he soon finds his career destroyed.

I'm sure Obama is reminded from time to time that he stays in office at the pleasure and desire of those powerful interests who really run things. I even think that the gate crashing at the State dinner was a message sent by the intelligence community to remind Obama that he is never safe even if he has a secret service.

Never forget, one President was struck down in Dallas. Several major players from the CIA, the oil conglomerates, and organized crime who were connected to each other and united in their hatred of JFK were present on that day. It's a message that has never been forgotten by any President that has come to power since.”

“No Nassim don't go. We need to hear from you. No book has altered my perception of how things work more than your book the Black Swan. You, along with Nouriel Robini, are the contra-voices we need to hear amongst the orthodoxy and 'establishment' wisdom that is pumped at us daily across newspapers, TV news stations, journals, and magazines.

Yes, I know you want to retreat but where would we be if Galileo had retreated or Darwin when they were rejected by the orthodox scientific, religious, and political communities of their day. Don't retreat. Keep speaking. Yes, it seems like nobody wants to hear what you say but that was true of Martin Luther and Martin Luther King when they started out.

You must keep on truckin and keep on speaking even when it seems no one is listening.”

“I think the banks ask themselves three basic questions:
1. Does the government let us do what we want to do?
2. Are we making money?
3. Can we get our big bonuses this year?

If they can say 'yes' to all three questions then I think they wonder what it is they should be ashamed about?”

“The Constitution and its form of government has nothing to do with socialism or capitalism. Those two systems are economic systems that are not built into our foundational legal document that governs how the United States shall govern itself and make laws. Don't confuse the two.”

“Why doesn't Obama study history? After WWII, deficit hawks were wringing their hands over debt that would strap the nation for a generation. Then all of a sudden they raised the tax rate on the wealthiest Americans up to 95%. Yes the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and all of the other robber barons were paying 95% of their income in taxes and remaining rich at the same time. Strangely enough, without this supply side trickle down economics of the Reagan era, America recovered and boomed going into the 60's with the debt paid down in 10 years not a generation. Before the oil crisis we were a humming economy and that was when we were fighting the Korean War and then the Vietnam War.

Obama needs to get this economy back on its feet and people back to work first then he can worry about currying favor with his little blue dog buddies and his Republicans opponents, whose affection he seems to crave. Right now, it's getting things moving again and then maybe somebody, somewhere, someway, somehow, will come up with the brilliant idea of insituting a progressive tax just like was in place when America really worked.”

“Dubai is the result of tax breaks that were given to the rich. With lower tax rates and more money than they know what to do with, they didn't start reinvigorating our economy with wealth trickling down to the great unwashed. No, they went and spent their money on more and more ludicrous things. Dubai was their new playground. It was a place where you could ski in the desert and get laid in the sun with prosttitutes made available to all those folks with excess income. While our roads crumbled, our cities, schools, and neighborhoods went to hell through lack of funding, these people played on man made islands in the shape of palm trees.

When are we all going to say nuts to this nonsense, start rolling back the tax breaks on the rich, bring revenue back into our country and start to rebuild the place.”

“I think we'll need a populist revolt to correct the Wall Street abuses. It's obvious, for reasons that we don't know, that Obama is not about to push for real reform over the banking industry nor is Congress unless we, the people, continue to demonstrate such repulsion over the way Wall Street has been coddled that politicians fear for their political lives.”

“Of course they have told Obama. Do you think that the two uninvited guests who crashed the State dinner and then shook hands with the President was just a breakdown of security?

It was a message, probably delivered by the CIA and the NSA telling Obama that no matter who he is they can get to him easily if they want to. While America will smile bemused at the 'party crashers,' I'm sure Obama and Michelle will understand the true intent of the message that was sent.

Expect 40,000 new troops into Afghanistan by May.”

“The genius of the book is in the writing. It's a literary masterpiece. 'm not sure how it will translate onto the screen. I'm going to go see it anyway.”

“Timing is everything. My wife and I time getting into the theatre to just miss the giant ad machine that now annoys everyone for about half an hour before the previews begin. I'll see the Road but then its back to Netfliks for me - no ads or promos.”