Is there a "buy out" clause in the

[ruppertflywheel]

Presidency?. Also, is bga1 still sticking to his guns that we're not in a RECESSION? "W" should've been voted out 4 years ago ( actually he was if you consider the hanging "chads"in Florida)
This administration has created heartache world wide for millions of people. If "W" has any sense of dignity he quietly ride off in the sunset and never show that smug ass face in public again.
On ABC's World News Bush expressed remorse about lost jobs, depleted nest eggs and other damage wrought by the financial crisis. " I'm sorry it's happening of course" said Bush. He then said he backs more government regulation. Well "W" your eight years after the fact and your legacy will be linked to the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz...."If I only had a brain"

[bigtenchamps1899]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Derangement_Syndrome

[grunkiejr]

Presidency?. Also, is bga1 still sticking to his guns that we're not in a RECESSION? "W" should've been voted out 4 years ago ( actually he was if you consider the hanging "chads"in Florida)
This administration has created heartache world wide for millions of people. If "W" has any sense of dignity he quietly ride off in the sunset and never show that smug ass face in public again.
On ABC's World News Bush expressed remorse about lost jobs, depleted nest eggs and other damage wrought by the financial crisis. " I'm sorry it's happening of course" said Bush. He then said he backs more government regulation. Well "W" your eight years after the fact and your legacy will be linked to the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz...."If I only had a brain"

Before I say this, I never voted for Bush and I don't like him.

But are you another person that wants to blame the financial crisis on deregulation under the Bush administration?

Sarbanes-Oxley is a landmark piece of legislation that increased regulation and was passed during the last 8 years. Can you give me one law that was passed that led to deregulation in the financial markets in the last 8 years?

The last major piece of deregulation I can recall was Glass-Steagall and it was repealed under Bill Clinton. That is actually the bill the led to the combination of investment banks with commercial banks including Credit Suise and First Boston, Citigroup and Soloman Smith Barney, UBS and Warburg Dillon Read, Chase and Hambrecht & Quist, Deutche Bank and Alex Brown. You may notice that those were the survivors of the financial crisis. The companies that went under or were acquired were the investment banks that remained independent including Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Stearns. The commercial banks that went under or were acquired were the ones that focused on the more exotic forms of home lending (IO's, ARM's, etc). Wachovia is the one exception because they acquired First Union which had and investment bank but they also acquired Golden West which was an extreme case of bad home lending.

The greatest truths about the financial crisis is that it is more complex than too much or too little regulation and it has been poorly reported by news stations that want a short news clip rather than to educate viewers.

[diehard]

Yeah, what he said. Great post, grunkie! Some actual common sense supported by facts. Few realize the damage Sarbanes-Oxley has caused the American economy. The Dems have great candidates available, but nominate Gore and Kerry? The soul of the Dem party had been lost for a long time. The soul of the Rep party was lost sometime ion the last 8 years. I have hope Obama can salvage the Dems. He doesn't seem to be as he represented himself during the primaries and has Rahm Emanuel to keep Pelosi and Reid at bay. If he finds a coalition of Blue dogs and thinking Repubs we could start in the right direction, if not we are headed into a deep deep hole. Bad regulation has to go, needed common sense regulation needs to be added, not piled on. Just back from an OSHA compliance conference. Much worse than I thought. I have a lot of work to do. Some good stuff, lots of really stupid stuff with huge fines that are not survivable. You're correct about the media not educating people. Same can be said for Washington. The unthinking just want to rant.

[grunkiejr]

Yeah, what he said. Great post, grunkie! Some actual common sense supported by facts. Few realize the damage Sarbanes-Oxley has caused the American economy. The Dems have great candidates available, but nominate Gore and Kerry? The soul of the Dem party had been lost for a long time. The soul of the Rep party was lost sometime ion the last 8 years. I have hope Obama can salvage the Dems. He doesn't seem to be as he represented himself during the primaries and has Rahm Emanuel to keep Pelosi and Reid at bay. If he finds a coalition of Blue dogs and thinking Repubs we could start in the right direction, if not we are headed into a deep deep hole. Bad regulation has to go, needed common sense regulation needs to be added, not piled on. Just back from an OSHA compliance conference. Much worse than I thought. I have a lot of work to do. Some good stuff, lots of really stupid stuff with huge fines that are not survivable. You're correct about the media not educating people. Same can be said for Washington. The unthinking just want to rant.

I agree. The Democrats have no one to blame for Bush being in office for 8 years other than themselves. As Clinton left office the American people generally felt good about our country and where we stood and while Clinton was in office Americans achieved the greatest prosperity the world has ever seen. In that situation it makes sense to nominate Al Gore, the Vice President during the booming 90's. However, the campaign he ran was idiotic and failed to realize the middle class had shifted upward economically. Gore stuck to tried and true Democratic principles of going after the blue collar, low income, inner city vote and completely alienated the middle class to upper middle class that had been the primary beneficiary of the 90's boom. In the process Gore lost an election at a time when the Democrats had no business losing power.

In 2004, Bush was a very vulnerable president because he was so polarizing. The polarizing nature of Bush was going to drive the Democratic base to come out and vote. But the Democrats nominated an equally polarizing candidate intended to rally the base. A figure more to the center would have picked up the independent vote and the base would have still come out resulting in a Democratic presidency in 2004.

I don't want to hear about hanging chads or supreme court decisions. The elections were lost when the Democrats made tactical errors (just like running Franken against a very vulnerable Norm Coleman) about candidates or campaign strategies.

I'm not one to give too much credit or blame to the economy under a sitting president because policies take longer to implement and have a desired result than the term of the president, and congress deserves equal credit/blame. I believe Clinton was the beneficiary of changes made during Reagan's presidency and a techonological revolution that neither party had anything to do with. However, I'll give him credit for not screwing it up. The Bush presidency was riddled with corrections for excesses in the economy during Clinton's presidency--though the excesses are not the fault of Clinton--and for an accomodating Fed.

It will be very interesting to watch Obama in this time of crisis and to see whether his policies reflect more toward Bill Clinton or FDR. For the sake of the country and the world economies I pray that Obama has more in common with Bill Clinton than FDR.

[grunkiejr]

Yeah, what he said. Great post, grunkie! Some actual common sense supported by facts. Few realize the damage Sarbanes-Oxley has caused the American economy. The Dems have great candidates available, but nominate Gore and Kerry? The soul of the Dem party had been lost for a long time. The soul of the Rep party was lost sometime ion the last 8 years. I have hope Obama can salvage the Dems. He doesn't seem to be as he represented himself during the primaries and has Rahm Emanuel to keep Pelosi and Reid at bay. If he finds a coalition of Blue dogs and thinking Repubs we could start in the right direction, if not we are headed into a deep deep hole. Bad regulation has to go, needed common sense regulation needs to be added, not piled on. Just back from an OSHA compliance conference. Much worse than I thought. I have a lot of work to do. Some good stuff, lots of really stupid stuff with huge fines that are not survivable. You're correct about the media not educating people. Same can be said for Washington. The unthinking just want to rant.

Oh yeah, and the Republicans need to get rid of the religious right wing.

[diehard]

They need to stop pandering to 'religious right wing' political ideology, but they don't need to run off actual God fearing conservatives. People of true faith do not spew the hate we so often hear in the ideology of phony christians. The pronouncement of religion based ideology and the practice of a true religion are very different. FWIW, I will add that the voices and actions we see as the face of Islam are ideological and not spiritual. I just mention that as most people don't realize that and accordingly cannot understand the true nature of 'radical Islamic terror.' I think the differences here are much larger than the accompaning rhetoric of the blogosphere, media, and Washington. No education, perhaps no understanding. Way off point, but another example of why the economic IQ and general level of common sense of this country is so low. No common sense voices to educate the masses. Obama is taking over at a time of great peril and also great opportunity. Many things can be accomplished now that cannot during 'normal' times. Let's make the right changes. BTW, at change.gov or maybe org (memory fails right now) you can make your comments to the transition team. They do read the comments and they do respond. The site is well worth a look. This is your country.

[ruppertflywheel]

diehard and grunkiejr. I would suggest you step back in time and keep it simple stupid as Harry S. Truman did: "The buck stops here"

[diehard]

ruppertflywheeel. I would suggest you realize this not 1950 and government and the economy are far too complicated to comprehend for people who only view it from their favorite angle. A narrow (partisan) view is never a wise view. It's the partisan people from both sides who have driven American into this morass.

[NateDawgUM]

It's the partisan people from both sides who have driven American into this morass.

Amen, and if these diehard partisans would take off their blinders and realize that we're all Americans and agree with each other on 99% of the issues, we'd all be heading toward more productive days.

[Gopher4Life]

diehard,

>>People of true faith do not spew the hate we so often hear in the ideology of phony christians.<<

Are you perhaps confusing "spewing hatred" with promoting actual scripture-based standards that not all Christians find comfortable?

>>The pronouncement of religion based ideology and the practice of a true religion are very different.<<

Be careful not to climb too far out on that limb.

[bga1]

Hello again Ruppert.

As to the recession we are in one. A bad one. The facts are the facts.

As to Bush you remain entitled to your opinion- but I suggest you move on. Right now I am hopeful Obama can do a good job and his early appointments appear good.

As to Florida- every organization that recounted came to the same conclusion, Bush won on every won and by every standard. Look it up.

How do you like the gas prices? I noticed that your post omitted your normal gas price rant- wasn't the GW's fault? Is it now to his credit?

[ruppertflywheel]

It's "supply and demand" Americans have dropped 80 billion miles in their vehicle travel. Bush did nothing to create the lower gas prices

[Gopher4Life]

If it were really that simple, we'd drop another 40 billion miles and enjoy 99-cent gas once again.

[UpnorthGo4]

The Executive Branch has numerous ways to "deregulate" without the passage of federal legislation. Among these ways are executive orders, executive appointments, judicial appointments, and outright obstructionism. The federal laws that are not being properly enforced are too numerous to list but suffice to say they can be found within the jurisdiction of every federal agency (e.g. environmental laws, anti-trust laws, labor laws, federal tax laws, and all forms of business regulation). Furthermore, the most recent Bush administration has raised "deregulation" to an artform. If the mortage crisis can't be blamed totally on Bush, there are plenty of other things that can be.

[Gopher4Life]

The mortgage crisis is far more the fault of Barney Franks, Chris Dodd, et all, than of George Bush. Liberal "do-gooders" who pushed for loans to people who couldn't afford them...and then personally benefitted from the scam themselves. Why has there been no investigation?

[UpnorthGo4]

Quote: "The mortgage crisis is far more the fault of Barney Franks, Chris Dodd, et all, than of George Bush. Liberal "do-gooders" who pushed for loans to people who couldn't afford them...and then personally benefitted from the scam themselves. Why has there been no investigation?"
Today 02:37 PM

Because the people who made most of the mony during the mortgage free-for-all were Republicans and huge contributors to the Republican Party. If you think that the Bush Administration was going to interfere with their supporters making huge amounts of money you don't know how things work in Washington D.C.

[bga1]

That's not what you were saying when the price was near $4.00 ruppert. You were blaming it on Bush- please admit that.

[bga1]

UpNorthGo4 - please state some statistic, any statistic or fact that backs what you are saying. There is no validity to stating that the rich are Republicans these days. If you want to look at some Dems that were piling it away you can start with Franklin Raines @ $90 mil. At best this was an equal opportunity scandal and the record shows that the administration attempted to stop it many times.

[grunkiejr]

The Executive Branch has numerous ways to "deregulate" without the passage of federal legislation. Among these ways are executive orders, executive appointments, judicial appointments, and outright obstructionism. The federal laws that are not being properly enforced are too numerous to list but suffice to say they can be found within the jurisdiction of every federal agency (e.g. environmental laws, anti-trust laws, labor laws, federal tax laws, and all forms of business regulation). Furthermore, the most recent Bush administration has raised "deregulation" to an artform. If the mortage crisis can't be blamed totally on Bush, there are plenty of other things that can be.

You can argue they didn't enforce regulation but it is stupid to suggest they deregulated because that actually would require legislation.

Anti-trust? Like their attempt to block the merger of Whole Foods and Wild Oats? That case was always an extreme reach and they lost it in the courts. They tried to be tough but the fact is it wasn't a monopoly. I can get organic food at Cub, Rainbow, Lund's/Byerly's, or Whole Foods.

Or did you mean like going after Microsoft and forcing them to unbundle products?

[grunkiejr]

Quote: "The mortgage crisis is far more the fault of Barney Franks, Chris Dodd, et all, than of George Bush. Liberal "do-gooders" who pushed for loans to people who couldn't afford them...and then personally benefitted from the scam themselves. Why has there been no investigation?"
Today 02:37 PM

Because the people who made most of the mony during the mortgage free-for-all were Republicans and huge contributors to the Republican Party. If you think that the Bush Administration was going to interfere with their supporters making huge amounts of money you don't know how things work in Washington D.C.

Let's not be partisan here because I don't care about Republican or Democratic ideals. But if you're going to go there Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by the Democrats and have always been supported by the Democrats much moreso than they have been by Republicans.

[Gopher4Life]

UpNorth,

Where'd you read that? On some liberal blog? Never let facts interfere with your irrational opinion.