The coming bad decade and the Wall Street cult

I've nearly resigned myself to voting for McCain, primarily because I think an Obama administration will be economically devastating. I don't think McCain will fix anything, but Obama's radical redistributionism ("fairness", aka "soak the rich") is appalling. Add to that the likelihood of lousy supreme court picks, and I'm practically swayed.

In the local US congressional race, Cazayoux (incumbent D) has been pounding Cassidy (R) with negative TV ads, outspending him 10 to 1 (my guess). I'm voting Cassidy, too, because even though Cazayoux seems like a decent conservative Dem, I fear the pressure to conform to a Obama/Reid/Pelosi triumverate will overwhelm him.

I haven't made up my mind on the Kennedy v Landrieu US senate race. That looks like a no-win, as well.

As most of you know, I don't stand with Baton Rouge Reader on my pick for prez, I do think that the point is pretty valid.

I fear we may be headed into another legislative storm here by over-compensating for the issues at hand. If you are able to take the Clinton admin's involvement in the current situation at face value, it was ultimately the policies of a neoconservative presidency and a sympathetic congress which stoked the flame of the current crisis. It seems like we are going to do the same thing again by electing a liberal democratic administration with an even MORE sympathetic congress. That is a dangerous scenario because its way too easy to fore-go the necessary deliberation, forbearance, and scrutiny in favor of political partisanship and bandwagon legislation. I'm afraid people will stop thinking for themselves, and listen blindly to what Obama's administration has to offer. How is that any better than what we have now? To twist his campaign words, it's "more of the same".

I whole-heartedly support an Obama presidency. I think he is an intelligent and fair man with the heart of the American people pulsing in his chest, and I truly hope has has the opportunity to prove the naysayers wrong and rise above the current turmoils. A sympathetic congress can help expedite that sort of progress, but we must exercise restraint when stacking the chips so heavily in his favour. We are at the cusp of electing a 60/40 majority in the senate. That is HUGE. That is way bigger than either of the candidacies in line now, and it more dangerous because McCain's candidacy is dwindling fast. We must do everything we can as informed constituents to ensure that congress acts in our best interest over the next few critical years.

as a side note, I've always felt this country runs best with a Democratic president to look after the social welfare of the people and a republican senate to exercise the necessary restraint to make such a president's lofty and ambitious projects economically feasible. I would, however like to see a much higher (read: any) representation by "third" or minority parties in both the house and senate. That would make the candidacy of the libertarian or other parties much more viable and bring legitimacy to their inclusion in the presidential debates - a move which I feel (*hope) is both necessary and inevitable.

Did I miss it? When did Big Government go away? One of the reasons so many conservatives dislike Bush is because of the enormous increase in government generally, entitlements particularly.

I hate to be so cynical, but I have about as much faith in the prognostications of 'sage investors' and economists as I have in weathermen: they've got a 50/50 record at best. Go back and look at the days of the tech bubble, or the crash of 87 and read all the dire pessimism of the time: sure they were right - for a few months or a year or two. But the economy - with proper management and regulation - came roaring back.

10-15 years of 'bad economy'? All of these 'sages' haven't even addressed root causes of the crisis yet - heck, they can't even agree on what they are! But they know what's going to happen in 10 YEARS?! Please. Just. Go. Away.

A large segment of us Democrats opposed the DLC's Republican-Lite method to governing. The DLC was essentially liberal on social issues (Although Clinton himself would end up caving on half of them thanks to 'triangulation'.) but conservative on fiscal issues.

And I know there's recently been some confusion about what 'fiscal conservative' means. By 'conservative on fiscal issues', I meant he pushed 'less regulation' and 'free trade', to help the American stockholder at the detriment of the American worker and the American consumer.

I don't mean that he 'spent wildly while cutting taxes left and right' or 'shipped uncounted billions in cash to a war zone with no oversight on spending' or 'purchased banks and insurance companies with trillion dollar deals' or 'funded golden parachutes so the people that got us into this mess can waste our country's future on hookers and blow for the rest of their lives', which are, I believe, the New Fiscal Conservatism.

Doubling foreign aide would have a trivial impact on the budget.

I wasn't assuming anything, I was just wondering about the inconsistency of deploring one form of redistributionism versus an apparent, and still apparent, at least acquiescence to another. I am not really a socialist, but I would prefer socialism for everybody rather than just socialism for the rich, as we have now.

Partisans are stupid, and make their stupidity abundantly clear at every juncture.

The two "parties" are just different sides of the same coin, both sides bought and paid for. You dummies who finger point are tedious beyond belief. To reach the cliff of economic ruin it took fierce energy from both of the dumb parties, dining with lobbyists, taking bribes, ignoring constituencies.

Most of them, from both parties, should be shot, along with most of Wall St.
They've raped and pillaged an entire COUNTRY. They've done an equity extraction and taken the plunder to China, India, etc., leaving our economy and our workers in the dust.
Now as taxpayers, we have to pay for their "losses." What a sick joke! They make trillions from the housing bubble/derivatives, and walk away now that the easy money is gone. People should be rioting.

I am seriously thinking of leaving this country...