The Real Killers

Posted on August 9, 2011 at 9:46 am by Bob Cesca

Okay, sure, the S&P is corrupt and the power the big three credit rating agencies have over the U.S. government is a threat to our national sovereignty.

But let’s keep our eye on the real killers here: the Republican Congress.

They sabotaged the economy and are threatening all of our livelihoods — such as they are.

Get them. Demand they be expelled from Congress. Even if it doesn’t work (and it probably won’t), it’s important for us to loudly emphasize the name of the guilty party here, and it’s not the S&P. In fact, the S&P named names, too. Let’s go.

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  • laddieluv

    Agree.

    The right wing “haters/crazies” have to be GONE.

    • Scopedog

      Yep.

      That’s why between now and November of 2012 is critical. We need to put pressure on them, to let anyone and everyone know just how these nutters have been screwing the country over and are laughing about it.

      Or we can just keep griping about Obama. Our choice, plain and simple.

  • dildenusa

    Our entire sociopolitical system is nothing but a corrupt dystopian parallel world of what the founders of the US envisioned. They envisioned a world as close to utopia as was possible. What happened? The Civil War changed things forever.

    The republican tea party republic and the firebaggers are still fighting the civil war. The firebaggers think their general, General Obama, is a wimp. Maybe he is. But that isn’t the point. The republican tea party republic are following the tactics of their dead hero, General Raygun. Beyond that they have no real strategy other than some incompetent followers in congress who are scared shitless because if they don’t follow the tactics of some dead white former president then the republican tea party republic might put up a primary challenge so far to the right to get rid of them. They can really be called monarchists since that was sort of how it was back in the Middle Ages. But they really are anarchists.

    What a sad situation. Nothing good will come of this. Matt Taibbi blogged about the debt ceiling deal on Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/debt-ceiling-deal-the-democrats-take-a-dive-20110801

    I agree with just about everything he says.

    • incredulous72

      Actually, if the republicans were following General Raygun, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

      But I do agree that this is turning into a civil war all over again. My belief is that the undercurrent of this is racism, but the overall biggest issue at hand is class warfare. The middle class is just trying to hold on to what they have left and the poor is not holding on . . . and the wealthy (not to mention our elected politicians) have the ‘let them eat cake’ attitude that if not checked by the public could have the same consequences it had for Marie Antoinette (figuratively speaking, of course).

      There must be a grassroots way to organize and turn this anger and frustration into a proactive common goal of getting these assholes out of office and getting new progressive politicians that are for the people into those seats.

      And absolutely getting President Obama re-elected.

      The underlying meme coming from the Democratic Party should be without question, “Do you really want the people that got us into this mess at the helm of getting us out of it?”

      • dildenusa

        The republican tea party republic is taking General Raygun’s class warfare to it’s logical conclusion. He was the one who really started us on the path we are on of Reverse Robin Hoodism. That’s why we’re at the point we are now.

        If they we’re really following Raygun’s economic policies it’s only partially true that things would be different. The difference is that Raygun was willing to compromise to get his policies implemented and he did have the nation’s best interests at heart. So at least the democrats in congress at the time were willing to compromise to get what they thought was in the nations best interests. Today, the democrats and President Obama are still acting mostly in the nation’s best interests. The republican tea party republics has dropped any pretext of the nation’s best interests from it’s platform.

  • trgahan

    I am likely wrong, but reading around the internet, I am reading a similar the conversation to those had in the months immediately after the 2004 election. Everyone is wondering how this happened while they watch the aftermath of a comprise drain the economy in a fashion similar to what we were told would happen if we didn’t do anything. Everyone is frustrated that it seems no matter what is done (and what poll after poll on the issues and viewpoints claim) the state and federal governments in this country continue to trend to the right. So far right that it feels like there is no middle ground for even a discussion.
    It feels like progressives have been punched in the face when we were expecting a handshake and the far right is looking us in the eye asking “What are you going to do about it?” What will be our response this time?

    • Scopedog

      Well, if we get in a hissyfit and walk off and don’t vote next year to “send a message”, then we’re not just going to be hit in the face, we’ll be (and excuse my crude language) bent over the railing and given the business with no Vaseline.

      And the reason WHY “there is no middle ground for even a discussion” is because one side refuses to compromise or govern properly. And no, it’s not the Dems or President Obama.

      We need to hit the GOP constantly with attacks that show to everyone what a bunch of mean spirited, limp d**k, racist, uncouth jerks they really are. But to do that, we must turn the guns on THEM, not keep firing away at the President and griping about how everything is so f**ked up we might as well let it all burn.

      • incredulous72

        Amen!

        When the man said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”, it wasn’t a damn campaign slogan.

        HE HAD ALREADY WON!

  • POLITICALPARTYPOOPER

    I wrote this post recently…figured it was fitting, partly:

    S&P Credibility Rating Downgraded

    Posted by politicalpartypooper on August 9, 2011

    From 2000 until the third quarter of 2007, if you wanted to sell a mortgage backed security, and you wanted that security to get a higher rating than it deserved, you packaged decent mortgages together with crap, and called on S&P’s rating service to make shit look like gold.

    From Wikipedia, The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported in January 2011 that: “The three credit rating agencies were key enablers of the financial meltdown. The mortgage-related securities at the heart of the crisis could not have been marketed and sold without their seal of approval. Investors relied on them, often blindly. In some cases, they were obligated to use them, or regulatory capital standards were hinged on them. This crisis could not have happened without the rating agencies. Their ratings helped the market soar and their downgrades through 2007 and 2008 wreaked havoc across markets and firms.”

    I’m am saddened to announce that in light of S&P’s long history of rating securities they clearly had conflicts of interest over, we have decided to downgrade their credibility rating from a DD- to an FF+, with a negative outlook.

    In case you’re wondering why the negative outlook, it’s due to our uncertainty that S&P can be trusted at all. An FF+ rating is the twenty-eighth lowest possible rating but still implies a modicum (the slightest bit of it) of credibility, but believe it or not, we’re not certain S&P has earned even that. Their ratings of mortgage backed securities stretched for nearly a decade; a record of dishonesty that has even North Korea wondering how any group of people could be so cavalier with the truth.

    In fact, our downgrade of S&P came after seconds of painful deliberation, when it was discovered that executives of the firm may have received bonuses based on the amount of ratings their division pushed through the “mill”.

    But nothing compares to our outrage over S&P’s insistence that these shit sandwiches earned S&P’s highest safety rating, a rating few American companies enjoy, along with the full faith and credit of the United States of America.

    Yes, that’s right. S&P rated these mortgage backed securities to be on equal footing in terms of investor safety with the government of the United States; not on much lower footing, not even on slightly lower footings. Nay, S&P rated these securities to be EXACTLY as safe as debt issued by the USA.

    For that alone, we recommend that S&P ratings be avoided at all costs.

  • POLITICALPARTYPOOPER

    And in keeping with my “both sides are the same” meme, for the benefit of JM Ashby, Today, President Obama called on Congress to pass his Free Trade agreement with Panama, citing that it would create more jobs for Middle Class America, and did I get this right????…that the deal would help the IRS track American money hidden in Panamanian banks and close tax loopholes used by corporations laundering money offshore? Ahem, I do believe I said “laundering”. I meant “hiding”.

    We wouldn’t want people to confuse tax cheats with drug lords. After all, cheating on your taxes is a victimless crime, according to Republicans.

    Why are both sides the same? Because their results are the same. Panama is rated by the IRS a a tax haven for tax criminals…ahem…cheats. It is also one of the few nations in this world with strict privacy laws protecting foreign depositors from their home nation’s tax collectors. In essence, Panama is known as one of the last true places where “off-shore” corporate subsidiaries can hide American wealth, and the IRS can’t do a damned thing about it. Panama is known as the worst of offenders, and this Free Trade Agreement will make them even worse.

    President Obama knows this, or he SHOULD know it. He also knows that Free trade is an absolute failure for the Middle Class. This is an “experiment” that has been attempted for two decades now, with the most horrific results that it’s hard to believe anyone would still think these agreements were a good idea.

    America has IVY League Graduates amongst its elected officials, but when it comes to understanding macroeconomics, and the effects of tax policies on the overall economy, as well as trade policies, we are a nation full of governing morons.

    Yes, I just called President Obama a moron; on equal footing with Michelle Bachman in his understanding on how his Free Trade agreements will affect America.

    Is there even a single Democrat or Republican who won’t give American jobs and American wealth away to FOREIGNERS for nothing?

    ONE?