OT: Election/Politics thread, Part 6

[TRI]

Better buy some Gold and other precious metals because all the bailouts and trillion dollar stimulus will at some point drag down the dollar. We CANNOT spend our way out of this crises!!! Recessions are a good thing because they clear out the excess from the prior boom. It is when the government intervenes and adds to the imbalances with big increases in deficit spending like work projects that the recession is prolonged. Quantitative easing has NEVER worked before. Japan tried it in the 1990s and it failed. We tried it in the 1930s and it failed!

Credit bubble busts are usually followed by long lull periods with decreased investment and spending and pain. It is often made worse when the government steps in and increases spending on work projects that provide only temporary employment and crowds out private investment effectively prolonging the recession! It is going to take time to repair the damage and wealth destruction. Debt must be reduced and some companies must go bankrupt and people will lose jobs. It is a painful process but healthy.

We are about to repeat the same mistakes of the past which will increase the duration of the pain and recession!

[FatPitcher]

Looks like Google will be a future target on the greenies' radar:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol ... 489134.ece

Take care,
PK

California, Australia, and the UK are both going after plasma TVs now. It's only a matter of time before, as I have said before, video games are targeted as a frivolous waste of energy, as current-gen consoles use even more energy than the TVs they are trying to ban. Of course, with each new target, they lose a few people. People who are against the idea of driving a gas guzzler for enjoyment but play Xbox 360 and watch 20 hours of TV a week on their big screen plasma may suddenly decide that maybe it's OK to use energy for enjoyment instead of practical reasons.

Or perhaps they will simply continue to be hypocrites.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-t ... 9589.story

[Teal]

Hell, FP...all the energy exerted trying to get people to BELIEVE this nonsense might be what's eating a hole in the ozone... Nanny State, here we come!!!

[bdoughty]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-t ... 9589.story

I saw that awhile back and got a good chuckle out of it.

During a peak viewing time when most sets are on, such as the Super Bowl, TVs in the state collectively suck up the equivalent of 40% of the power generated by the San Onofre nuclear power station running at full capacity. Televisions account for about 10% of the average Californian's monthly household electricity bill.


Watch out Mr Goodlle, the NFL might get taxed next, for offering programming in California that sucks up too much of the states power.

[JRod]

Better buy some Gold and other precious metals because all the bailouts and trillion dollar stimulus will at some point drag down the dollar. We CANNOT spend our way out of this crises!!! Recessions are a good thing because they clear out the excess from the prior boom. It is when the government intervenes and adds to the imbalances with big increases in deficit spending like work projects that the recession is prolonged. Quantitative easing has NEVER worked before. Japan tried it in the 1990s and it failed. We tried it in the 1930s and it failed!

Credit bubble busts are usually followed by long lull periods with decreased investment and spending and pain. It is often made worse when the government steps in and increases spending on work projects that provide only temporary employment and crowds out private investment effectively prolonging the recession! It is going to take time to repair the damage and wealth destruction. Debt must be reduced and some companies must go bankrupt and people will lose jobs. It is a painful process but healthy.

We are about to repeat the same mistakes of the past which will increase the duration of the pain and recession!

In reference to the 1930's. Those in the majority opinion say that what stalled the recession was pressure from congress to balance the budget in the late 30s. Most economists say you have to deficit spend to get out of this.

People are losing their jobs and business are going out of business. The problem is the hypocritical nature of how the government is bailing out what type of businesses. Detroit has to bankrupt but Wall Street doesn't? Seems odd doesn't it.

And to your point that government spending makes it worse. Well that's just off the mark. Deficit spending is the only want to get out of this problem. The government is the only entity that can accept the risk and take heavy losses. The free markets will rebound but only with infusion of cash from the government. I doubt we can even sniff working off our deficit until the next President takes office, if Obama serves two terms. Balanced budgets are a little different, I think you can have a balanced budget much earlier but that will do little to reduce the federal deficit.

[Rodster]

I hate to bring a cold splash of reality but this is starting to feel like part two of the great depression.

The more I read and compare what took place then and what's going on now they both seem eerily similar. The politicians were saying the same things back then that they are saying now. About three weeks ago I was watching a 4 hour riveting program on the History Channel regarding the great depression. It discussed how we got ourselves into it and eventually how we got ourselves out of it. It was striking the comparisons between both eras wrt greed and excesses of businesses and individuals.

[Teal]

GO, MICKEY ROURKE!

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/795 ... wrong-time

[pk500]

GO, MICKEY ROURKE!

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/795 ... wrong-time

"The Wrestler" is a GREAT film, by the way. Super story, and Rourke was fantastic.

Take care,
PK

[bdoughty]

GO, MICKEY ROURKE!

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/795 ... wrong-time

"The Wrestler" is a GREAT film, by the way. Super story, and Rourke was fantastic.

Take care,
PK

Yup, great movie. Too bad he just killed his career by defending Bush.

[Teal]

GO, MICKEY ROURKE!

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/795 ... wrong-time

"The Wrestler" is a GREAT film, by the way. Super story, and Rourke was fantastic.

Take care,
PK

Yeah, that's on my 'must see' list.

[bdoughty]

Teal if you have not seen Slumdog Millionare be sure and check it out. Great movie and the most impressive part is how everything based around each question and how from his past, he knows the answer.


Now back to regularly scheduled programing...

Chris Rock once said this regarding kids who kill...

Everybody is wanting to know what music were the kids listening to, or what movies were they watching. Who gives a f*** what they was watching! Whatever happened to crazy? What, you can't be crazy no more? Should we eliminate crazy from the dictionary?


Judge finds Daniel Petric guilty of killing mother, says video games played a role in crime

http://www.chroniclet.com/2009/01/13/ju ... crime_122/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
“(In the game) you can shoot these aliens, and they’re there again the next day. You have to shoot them again, and I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea, at the time he hatched this plot, that if he killed his parents they would be dead forever,” Burge said.

Instead, Burge said, the game created a “delusional environment” where the normal rules of reality didn’t apply.

“The addiction to the game was so strong that (he believed) his parents’ temporary death would turn on a light for them so they could see just how serious he was,” Burge said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the Judge in question?

Judge James Burge.




Delusional environment you say? Okily dokily. Safe to say this guy might just be an expert on this.

[webdanzer]

Oops, my bad...

...but the search and seizure still counts:


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... gD95N0TF80

[Teal]

Well, apparently...

What's good for the goose:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... -110m.html

is, in fact, NOT good for the gander:

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature ... auguration

[bdoughty]

Bah who cares about Obama's inauguration and how much it costs. You provided me with the most important news information from that link.

Amy Winehouse sinking to new lows?




Also you have to expect these things from any president. We stick them in a house with 100+ rooms and such. I kinda expect to see a little money spent on anything they do, being presidential and all.

Liberualz media going gaga over Obamamania, more shocking news at 11:00.

[RobVarak]

Oops, my bad...

...but the search and seizure still counts:


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... gD95N0TF80

Courts have refused to exclude evidence derived from improper searches and seizures in other circumstances, so in that respect this is not a departure. The big change is that it introduces police negligence into the equation of whether to exclude evidence.

Criminal Procedure can be aggravating because it tends to be a bit of a passion play, with the same players, issues and arguments phrased in infinitesimally different ways in a succession of cases. Cases like this make it a hell of a lot more interesting.

Here's a link to the opinion

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-513.ZS.html

And a few bloggers' takes. I looked around at some of the lefty and public defender blogs, but none have posted anything on the case yet.

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/the-surpas ... #more-8528

http://volokh.com/posts/chain_1223137259.shtml

[Jared]

Well, apparently...

What's good for the goose:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... -110m.html

Attendance for Bush's 2nd inauguration events: approx. 300,000.
Predicted attendance for Obama's inauguration events: approx. 2 million.

My guess is that it might have something to do with the difference in cost.

[Feanor]

Obama's White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement that Geithner had committed honest mistakes that he quickly addressed upon learning of them.

'He made a common mistake on his taxes, and was unaware that his part-time housekeeper's work authorization expired for the last three months of her employment.

I thought that employers only had to check an employee's work authorization at the start of a job, and it was actually illegal to not hire someone for a job based on when their work authorization is due to expire. But maybe they're also obliged to keep track of when it expires and lay the employee off the day that it does.

[JRod]

Well, apparently...

What's good for the goose:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... -110m.html

Attendance for Bush's 2nd inauguration events: approx. 300,000.
Predicted attendance for Obama's inauguration events: approx. 2 million.

My guess is that it might have something to do with the difference in cost.

It's a Keynesian inaugural Jared!!

[Teal]

Well, apparently...

What's good for the goose:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... -110m.html

Attendance for Bush's 2nd inauguration events: approx. 300,000.
Predicted attendance for Obama's inauguration events: approx. 2 million.

My guess is that it might have something to do with the difference in cost.

I don't care about the difference in cost-I care about the double standard.

[JRod]

Double standard?

People are going to washington, not all have inauguration tickets. And not all are going to be able to get to the mall. You can't stop them. So resources are needed. There's no double standard, there's the reality of the situation...people want to be in DC when Obama gets inaugurated.

[RobVarak]

Glenny Reynolds has an op-ed on Herring.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01152009/po ... 150225.htm

[RobVarak]

The retrenchment continues unabated. Life is full of smally hypocrisies, I can live with that. But it's beginning to be a death by a thousand cuts-type situation.

"We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda."

--Obama ad nauseum during the campaign.

COURIC: How important do you think it is, Mr. President-elect, to apprehend Osama bin Laden?

OBAMA: I think that we have to so weaken his infrastructure that, whether he is technically alive or not, he is so pinned down that he cannot function. My preference obviously would be to capture or kill him. But if we have so tightened the noose that he’s in a cave somewhere and can’t even communicate with his operatives then we will meet our goal of protecting America.

LMFAO

[Teal]

Double standard?

People are going to washington, not all have inauguration tickets. And not all are going to be able to get to the mall. You can't stop them. So resources are needed. There's no double standard, there's the reality of the situation...people want to be in DC when Obama gets inaugurated.

The democrats in congress, the media, all made a big stink about Bush's inauguration costs back then, during a war. They are a FRACTION of the cost of Obama's ditty, during a deep recession, and I hear no democrats complaining. Double standard.

[Jared]

The democrats in congress, the media, all made a big stink about Bush's inauguration costs back then, during a war.

From the article you linked to:

This week's inauguration story came ready with two interesting news angles: the huge cost (in contrast with the dire situation in Iraq) and the unprecedented security. And in both cases, the political press corps, as has been its habit under the Bush administration, showed little interest in prying. In the days and weeks leading up to the event, the press has largely treated inauguration criticism as partisan and silly, making sure to give Bush backers lots of time and room to defend the unmatched pomp and circumstance.

The author is asserting the opposite of what you claim, that the media wasn't making a big stink about this.

[RobVarak]

I definitely remember outlets like NPR and The Daily Show taking shots over the cost of the inauguration, but it wasn't a universal complaint. I thought it was a baseless criticism then as it is now.