Things That Just Piss Me Off

This is undeniable fact. There are republicans that are so concerned about winning elections that they will continue to deny, dispute, spin, and defend Bush’s economic policies. They will do it just because they do not want the republican party to look bad.

Bush never admitted to any mistakes the whole time he was in office. His republican supporters never admit he was wrong about anything either. They will say John McCain should be elected, despite the fact that he supported all of Bush’s economic policies.

Republicans want to win. That is all that matters to them. What is good for this country is second to winning the election at all costs. They will lie, cheat, and steal to get there.

This is not the republican party of the eighties. This is the pissed-off-that-clinton-got-elected republicans. They will not back down even when there is proof that those republicans they elected screwed up on almost every front.

The Iraq War was a mistake. The way it was handled was a mistake. Republicans cry out, “But the surge worked!” That’s like your football team being beat by 60 points, but in the 4th quarter, a “surge” in the backfield allowed your team to score one touchdown, then finding out that they were playing a team they were not supposed to be playing in the first place. Your team was supposed to be playing Afghanistan where the people responsible for 911 were.

On the economy John McCain not only supported George Bush’s economic policies, he still supports those same failed policies. Just 2 months ago, he stated that the economy was sound. His spokesperson said that we are just in a “mental recession” less than 3 months ago.

So it is not just during the Bush term that he supports these economic policies, he was campaigning on how he would continue those wonderful economic policies. He still supports the same tax cuts to big corporations and the wealthy and wants to renew them or increase them.

McCain claimed Obama would not admit the surge worked. When is John McCain going to admit that the Bushonomics that he supported were wrong? Better yet, when will republicans realize they are in denial about how bad the Bush Presidency was and realize that john Mccain is just Bush’s Mini Me.

Wall Street Posts Worst Loss Since 2001

In another unnerving day for Wall Street, investors suffered their worst losses since the terrorist attacks of 2001, and government officials raced to prevent the financial crisis from spreading.

Trading opened sharply down Monday morning, and the mood later turned even gloomier, despite efforts by President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., in separate appearances at the White House, to reassure markets that Wall Street’s deepening problems would not weaken an already anemic economy.

Can you still defend George Bush’s economic policy? Can you still say John Mccain is the right choice for president when he supported that policy and by his own admission does not know much about the economy?

Amid worries that the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch over the weekend might not be enough to stop the downward spiral, stocks fell sharply in the last half hour of trading. By the end of the day, the Dow Jones industrial average had dropped 504.48 points, or 4.4 percent, as a record volume of more than 8 billion shares traded hands on the New York Stock Exchange. It was the biggest decline since Sept. 17, 2001 — the day the index reopened after the 9/11 terrorist attacks — when it fell 7 percent, or 684.81 points.

Are you better off now than you were 8 years ago? Maybe you are, but this country is in much worse shape than it was before Bush took office. Denying that just makes you look stupid. Not a nice thing to say? Let me repeat; If you think George Bush’s economic policies, that John Mccain supported and still supports, worked to our benefit, then you are by definition stupid.

Nervous investors around the nation logged onto their investment accounts on the Internet to see what toll the financial tumult had taken on retirement and college-education funds.

Yes, Bush’s economic policies will also hurt education. College education is already unaffordable for most Americans and now those funds that do help our children go to college will take huge losses and more of them will not be able to afford to go to college.

Merrill employees who are laid off will have plenty of company, as many financial workers have lost jobs in the last year, leaving many without a paycheck. Appearing briefly in the morning before reporters in the Rose Garden, Mr. Bush characterized the recent events as short-term market adjustments that would have a limited effect on an otherwise sound economy.

And Bush is still in denial that there is anything wrong. McCain still thinks the economy is fundamentally sound. You do not need to be an expert on economics to see that with millions of foreclosures, the failing of Fanny Mae and Fanny Mac, the failing of Leahman Brothers, The failing of AIG, The failing of Merril Lynch, the closing of at least 10 banks, and more prove the economy is going downhill.

Bush created a business atmosphere that was “anything goes” and allowed shady lenders to make bad loans, allowed the SEC to turn away at wrongdoing by CEOs and Corporations, and allowed the FTC to approve any takeover or merger that came along. Name the last time you heard a merger was not approved.

Look at this photo of John Mccain, proudly smiling next to the article about the Keating 5.

The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators, Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), John Glenn (D-OH), John McCain (R-AZ), and Donald W. Riegle (D-MI), were accused of improperly aiding Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).

The U.S. Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s was the failure of 747 savings and loan associations (S&Ls) in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.

The core allegation of the Keating Five affair is that Keating had made contributions of about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators, including John Mccain, and he called on those Senators to help him resist regulators. The regulators backed off, to later disastrous consequences.

DeConcini told Keating that McCain was nervous about interfering. Keating called McCain a “wimp” behind his back, and on March 24, Keating and McCain had a heated, contentious meeting.

On April 2, 1987, a meeting with chairman Gray of the FHLBB was held in DeConcini’s Capitol office, with Senators Cranston, Glenn, and McCain also in attendance.

On April 9, 1987, a two-hour meeting with three members of the FHLBB San Francisco branch was held, again in DeConcini’s office, to discuss the government’s investigation of Lincoln. Present were Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and additionally Riegle.

The regulators felt that the meeting was very unusual and that they were being pressured by a united front, as the senators presented their reasons for having the meeting. McCain said, “One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion. ACC [American Continental Corporation] is a big employer and important to the local economy.

American Continental went bankrupt in April 1989, and Lincoln was seized by the FHLBB on April 14, 1989. More than 21,000 mostly elderly investors lost their life savings. This total came to about $285 million.[citation needed] The federal government was liable for $2 billion to cover Lincoln’s losses when it seized the institution.

McCain said, “I have done this kind of thing many, many times,” and said the Lincoln case was like “helping the little lady who didn’t get her Social Security.”

McCain “of the five Senators was the closest socially to Mr. Keating,” according to the New York Times. Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.

In addition, McCain’s wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators.

McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard Keating’s jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating’s opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.

So John Mccain paid keating back for the trips only after it was a high profile news story. He never paid back the contributions that got him to help Charles keating bilk thousands of senior citizens out of their money.

John Mccain was more concerned about getting campaign contributions than he was about how the failing of those savings and loans would affect this country. It was the last big banking crisis before the one we are currently in and John Mccain still supports those corporations and banks who will fold and cause millions to lose money again.

In a time of economic crisis with bank failures, home foreclosures, rising gas prices, rising profits for oil companies, and more, it is not time to re-elect one of the Keating 5.