Day: October 10, 2008

Smell That? It Is Called Desperation!

And it is rolling off the McCain camp.  Geez…tough words.  Yep and with good reason.

First, McCain has hired the same maggots that did the hatchet job on him in 2000.  Second, he is sliding in the polls so the wifey is used to question Obama’s motives on thewvote against the war funds, but hubby voted against it too.  Hubby getrs a D from the Veterans of America on his voting record for vets.  THird, surrogates calling Obama an outright liar, so his hands stay clean.

Since the McCain/Palin team are not talking about issues, instead every question is answered with an attack on Obama, tgells me they have nothing.  They cannot talk about issues that concerns most Americans because they have no answers.  If you listen to all the McCain surrogates on the airwaves, they have nothing but negativity to say.  When asked a question they will give somne vague response and then immediately go into an Obama bashing.  That is desperation and it smells awful.

The more you listen to McCain the more he sounds like a man ate up with hate and that hate is forming a culture around him.  His attempt to disguise that hate as concern is really pathetic.  An American hero, a TRUE hero, would not stoop to this level of hatred and he would most likely not act like a spoiled brat when not getting his way.

Mortgage Bingo

So much movement on what to do for the mortgage holders that are in trouble.  McCain has a new idea.

Ordering the government to buy up bad mortgages to cut homeowners’ monthly payments might sound good, but experts are skeptical. They say the plan John McCain is promoting is unlikely to solve the housing crisis that’s pushing the economy toward recession.

One big problem: The vast majority of the toxic home loans that are clogging financial markets and freezing up credit have been sliced, diced and repackaged into complex investments that the government would be hard-pressed to unravel and buy.

Even if the government did gain access to the mortgages, it would have to pay far more than they would ever be worth, housing specialists said Wednesday. That would effectively bail out banks and lenders with taxpayer money to a greater degree than Congress and the Bush administration are already doing through the $700 billion financial industry rescue enacted last week.

Under McCain’s plan, the government would spend $300 billion to purchase distressed loans and provide new, fixed-rate mortgages. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the Arizona senator’s economic adviser, said the plan would help stabilize the plunging values of mortgage-backed securities that are at the heart of the crisis in the financial markets.

To do so, the government would pay the full face-value of the distressed mortgages, Holtz-Eakin said.

Under that scenario, the government could buy a $200,000 subprime mortgage on a home now worth just $100,000, give the homeowner a 30-year, $90,000 loan with a 5 percent interest rate, and essentially eat the $110,000 difference.

The plan would cause the government “to massively overpay for mortgages in a plan that would guarantee taxpayers lose money and put them at risk of losing even more if home values don’t recover,” said Obama economic adviser Jason Furman. “The biggest beneficiaries of this plan will be the same financial institutions that got us into this mess, some of whom even committed fraud.”

Indeed, analysts on the right and left said the plan would let banks and investors who bet heavily on the risky mortgages walk away with a handsome payout courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.

The bailout package already directs the Treasury secretary to renegotiate whole mortgages it acquires from troubled financial companies, and to use its leverage to rework loans that are part of larger investment pools.

Markets Not The Only Thing THat Is Bad

Gap, the largest U.S. apparel retailer, said yesterday that September sales dropped 11 percent, including a 24 percent plunge at its Old Navy chain. Abercrombie & Fitch and TJX also posted declines, saying profits would be lower than they expected.

The results, combined with results Wednesday from J.C. Penney, Nordstrom and Kohl’s, indicate the financial crisis, coupled with higher food and gasoline costs, have discouraged consumers from spending.

“The economic conditions are going to affect a broader array of people than last year,” Laura Gurski, a partner specializing in retail at consulting firm A.T. Kearney, said in an interview. “The horizon doesn’t look that great.”

“Consumers are bracing for recession,” Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics, wrote in a report. “Credit will continue to be very difficult to come by through the holiday- shopping season, and the jobs market is likely to further deteriorate.”

The collapse of the U.S. housing market has upended the economy, frozen credit markets and saddled financial firms with almost $600 billion in mortgage-related write-downs and credit losses. The National Retail Federation has forecast the worst holiday season since 2002.

I fear that it is only the beginning and hard times are approaching.

Does Palin Truly Energize The Base?

Is Sarah Palin truly bringing in voters to the Repub Party or is she just an oddity that curiosity to be seen?  And the media is doing all it can to make her look as if there is more substance to her than there really is.

In the beginning there were just as bunch Repubs trying desperately to be the nominee…slowly but oh so slowly there were two…McCain and Huckabee…then there was the Repub messiah…McCain and his trusty sidekick, Lieberman.  But , aw shucks, Lieberman was not acceptable to the base as a VP pick…so McCain had to generate some enthusiasm within the party…and BAM!…enter Sarah Palin…she was cute, likable, conservative, and religious.  Almost immediately she was the darling of the RNC, she was very personable and most important she could deliver a punch line in a speech with her folksy little act.

Sad days were approaching….she was allowed to be interviewed and the MSM found that she is a really good vessel for party rhetoric but is a hollow person on substance.  That made her the perfect attack dog, with or without the lipstick.  What does she have to lose?  Absolutely nothing, she is soldifying her place in the RNC for other endeavors down the road.  She would be NOWHERE if Obama had chosen Hillary as his running mate.  The more that the people learn about her and her dealings the more the voter is pulling away from her.  Palin is doing little, as of this writing, to help McCain in the polls.

Of course all conservative talking heads talk about her draw among the people.  That she is preaching to thousands where McCain use to preach to hundreds.  The media plays into this delusion also, they need Palin to keep the drama of the election going if not the 24 hr news cycle could be boiled down to about 8 hrs of reporting.

From what I have seen, she is an oddity.  People come to see the only Repub woman to ever be considered as a VP candidate.  She turns a cute phrase with her cute little way of talking.  When she speaks she gets the usual yippies, whoas, you go girl, and the typical stuff that means nothing but if someone claps, you clap.  When she and McCain appear together at the massive rallies that she is drawing, once she finishes talking then some people begin leaving.  They were there to listen to the oddity, to the cuteness of a “Fargo” accident after that they are finished and go about the business.  I am not saying that everyone leaves…that would be a lie….but she is not energizing to many in McCain’s favor.  The loyal base would be there regarless of who was the VP, with the exception of Lieberman.

If they McCain/Palin ticket should happen to lose in November, Plain will probably be blamed and then disappear into the Alaskan landscape.  Or she will be given her own show on FOX News.

Palin is now nothing more than a political curiosity.  She is not helping the cause of McCain.  The voter sees that she is flash with little substance.

Just The Facts On The 2 Health Plans

Everybody is talking about health care and what the candidates will do to help Americans get the care they need and desperately deserve.  Here are the plans of both candidates put as simply as possible.

MCCAIN

OVERALL. Begin taxing employer-sponsored health benefits as income, instead providing a tax credit of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to increase incentives for insurance coverage. Contain costs through payment changes to providers and tort reform.

INSURANCE POOLS. Work with states to create a federally supported Guaranteed Access Plan for people denied coverage due to pre-existing medical conditions. Financial assistance would go to those below a certain income leve

CHANGES TO PRIVATE INSURANCE. Promote competition by allowing insurance to be sold across state lines. Encourage multiyear insurance products.

COST CONTAINMENT. Adopt malpractice reforms that limit frivolous lawsuits and excessive damages. Promote less expensive alternatives such as walk-in clinics in retail outlets. Invest in prevention and care of chronic illnesses. Increase competition by permitting the sale of nationwide insurance not regulated by states.

COST OF THE REFORMS. $1.3 trillion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center; campaign says cost containment measures will pay for it.

OBAMA

OVERALL. Require that health insurance be provided to all children, and require all employers to offer health benefits or contribute to a new public program. Create the National Health Insurance Exchange, through which small businesses and individuals without access to other public or employer-based programs could enroll in the new public plan or in approved private plans.

INSURANCE POOLS. Require participating insurers to offer coverage on a guaranteed issue basis.

CHANGES TO PRIVATE INSURANCE. Prohibit insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Children up to age 25 could continue family coverage through their parents’ plan.
COST CONTAINMENT. Invest $50 billion toward adoption of electronic medical records. Promote competition by regulating the portion of premiums that must be paid out in benefits. Promote generic drugs and repeal the ban on direct price negotiation between Medicare and drug companies. Require hospitals and providers to publicly report measures of health care costs and quality.

COST OF THE REFORMS. $1.6 trillion over 10 years, according to the Tax Policy Center; campaign estimates $50 to $65 billion per year when phased in. Much of financing expected to come from system savings; additional revenue to come from discontinuing tax cuts for those with incomes over $250,000.

There you go Irene, take your pick on which will best suit your family.

Wassup With The Debt Clock?

The US government’s debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiralling figure.

The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount.

The board was erected to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989.

The clock’s owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt.

For its part, the digital dollar symbol has been supplanted by a cheaper version – perhaps a sign of the times for the American economy.

Some economists believe the $700bn bail-out plan for ailing US financial institutions could send the national debt level to $11 trillion.

The way things are going, maybe they should add more than two extra zeros.