But with bailout mania running wild in DC and only a few conservative Republicans fighting it (until the deadwood shakeup next month), four years of nearly total liberal Democrat dominance imminent, and very few people looking beyond their dwindling paychecks to the root causes of the problem (excluding my fellow bloggers who are sure to chime in), I find myself running on mental empty. But since it's been days since a post I'd at least get something up.
And then I remembered Barney....
I'd refer to him as a pair of fucking clown shoes, but I respect clown shoes more than that. He showed up on 60 Minutes to explain why we're going down the same futile road we did back in 1933 (the beginnings of the New Deal):"What we're now faced is with all the taxpayers having to prop up companies that made terrible decisions consistently," Stahl remarks. "No, we're not propping up companies," Frank insists. "That's your mistake. We're propping up individuals. The world doesn't consist of companies. The world are people. The country is people. And yes, it is possible to argue that the government..." "But then you're talking about welfare," Stahl says. "Yeah, I'm for welfare," Frank replies. "You're not? Are you for letting people starve?"
I'll take over for Lesley Stahl, because she obviously underestimated this disgrace to asshats.
No, Mr Frank, I don't believe in letting people starve. But better death by starvation than a life of servitude, which is the end result of an unremitting demand for welfare. Your contention is that we have to prop up these companies because we have to protect the individual. If that was the case, then the government has already failed me at least once. I worked at one business until it went under. But there was no bailout for them, or for me. It was simply a matter of limping along on the mere scraps I could muster from unemployment until I found myself another job.
In your half-baked, half-assed, Marxist philosophy, I have a right to a job, which means the government is responsible for making that job exist even if the company can't....
Wait, could it just be you're afraid that these specific workers could lose their jobs and/or benefits.
Let's rewind the conversation a bit since Ms Stahl failed to punch you in the mouth for your blather....
"There's only one thing you can do in bankruptcy: break your word, break your deals. It allows you to say to the small businesses, who have been catering lunches for you, 'Sorry, we're not paying you.' It allows you to go to the workers and say, 'Sorry, we're not paying you.'"
Mr Frank, you do understand that the point of chapter 11 bankruptcy is to make as many people as whole as possible by paying them as much as possible and allowing the business to survive, thus allowing them to pay their people, more debt than if they just liquefied with chapter 7? And the government propping up a failing business (and don't give me that 'propping up individuals' bullshit again) gives them not one incentive to fix their problems. Which means when our assload of debt from all these bailouts finally bites us in our collective ballsack, then these companies, and any that are still on life support, are going to fucking die. Horribly. Will make the Great Depression look like fun. Will make rolling naked in brooken glass and salt while lemon juice rains down seem pleasurable, even.
In the end, none of us have much input, because far too many people have turned over the reigns of power to pissballs like Barney Frank who believe it's the government's job to "prop up individuals". What he forgets is that if we don't stand on our own, what happens when government fails us?
21 comments:
Yep, once again, propping up capitalism...if that is the word to use to describe our current economic system...helps the individual.
I just love it when I am seen as a dependent of big government and big business.
Its all about special interests and "you scratch my back and I will scratch yours..."
The citizen is the one who gets whatever crumbs are left after everyone else...
Patrick, the liberals believe they need to prop up individuals by proping up companies.
Conservatives beleive that they need to prop up companies and all of us will be better off.
Whats the difference? They both are paternalistic. I cannot help but see government as some sort of welfare system for big business and also like the lottery for business....
Enjoy the simple things in life...the big things we really have no control over....
Obviously!
BARNEY FRANK IS AN IDIOT! I watched him on CNN yesterday as much as I could stomach but hearing this guy speak and having to look at him almost made me toss my lunch.
Barney Frank is an extremely competent person. I think that goes without saying, unless you think that his legislation is misguided, mis-directed and over-reaching. But those words are just too hard if you've had too many baccardis. So let's criticize the way he talks, his sexual orientation and anything else about him we can think of. After all, that is the Republican way - kill the messenger - don't have to worry about the message.
I do wonder though where Congressman Frank generates his campaign contributions. And I would not be surprised if a lot of it came from the banks who know that it is in their best interest to pass some kind of legislation regarding this mortgage mess, but it would be even better if it benefited the banks by killing their competition - the broker.
He doesn't know jack about the mortgage biz. I was shocked watching this on CNN yesterday... the dont even know the difference between a "broker" and a "lender" they don't understand why some of these so called "victims" are in the situation they are.
Because of IDIOTS like Frank,millions of people lost their life savings... It's horrifying it was watching these wetarded homos, liberwal democrawts, deciding our future.
Barney Frank said that
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. And that the more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.
And that was all Bull Crap in the first degree.. He’s a blithering idiot.
Now, it’s to bad that numbskull Bill O’Reilly didn’t have any of this information to grill Frank with, but of course Frank is such a lying fat ass slob that he would still be screaming and spitting that he didn’t say any of that.
But O’Reilly did a good job on him anyway.
I think it was only because O’Reilly lost a lot of money himself on that bad news...
Bill O'Reilly seems to be struggling right now...he is trying to cultivate a new audience and he has not yet figured out what his message will be.
It seems as if he has lost his focus or his train of thought.
Trying to figure out which way the wind is blowing....
Tao: A related point to yours. The health care crisis is another result of this overzealous paternalism. We went from paying the doctor, to paying insurance to pay the doctor, to our employers deducting money from us to pay insurance to pay the doctor. And we're now on the road to the government taxing people and taxing business to manage doctors who will dole out our health care.
Paternalism (the Barney Frank way) in any form erodes the human soul.
Private: Welcome. I'm still trying to figure out your political leanings because your comment seems to swing both ways.
But let me grab a couple of points. First of all, the message is what matters, and while making fun of Barney Frank is fun, it's his vision of America that is what has to be destroyed.
Sadly, he does represent his constituency well enough to get reelected.
I try not to comment on his sexuality, and thus avoid those particular word combos, because that's between him and whoever he's fucking. But the damned lisp is just sooooo cliche and sooooo very, very fun.
As for the O'Reilly situation, I think Bill was a little pissed when he had that dustup with the representative from Taxachusettes. But at least Bill ruffles people's feathers. I like that.
Patrick said:.."Private: Welcome. I'm still trying to figure out your political leanings because your comment seems to swing both ways."
Well, Maybe I should keep you guessing?...lol.
I always enjoy a good mystery that keeps me guessing the whole time.
I always find it amusing when a business is faltering, they often fire leadership, rehire and try to steer it back on course.
In Congress and the Senate, they keep themselves in power with arrogance of false business sense. But when you a locked in job, it's easy to make irrational and piss poor fiscal choices.
"...four years of nearly total liberal Democrat dominance..."
This is where you lose me, Patrick. It's a bit--no, not a bit--hugely naive of you to blame it all on Democrats who just gained a tiny majority in the Senate and a bit more in the House in 2006. Before that, the government was all Republican all the time. Full control to do what they wanted--to review any of the horrible, non-conservative legislation that was antithetical to the pristine fiscal conservative mind.
The point is, the Republicans didn't change anything, didn't investigate anything--like what the hell Fannie and Freddie were doing.
So what's their excuse? They held all the reins of power and the ability to correct the fiscally unsound policies that blew up in our faces a few months ago. Where were the Republicans/conservatives when they had the power to actually do something, because there was no opposition to stop them???
Where were the great protectors of our economy when Bush never saw a spending bill he didn't like? He never vetoed one in the first 4 years, and how many? 2 in the second term?
You cannot blame this mess on the Dems only. Both parties had a hand in screwing the American people.
It's curious when people howl about welfare for the working class but say nothing about the subsidies for the multi-billionaire oil companies, agri-businesses, and numberous other big business with their hands out or with innumerable tax loopholes or when they use offshore addresses to duck paying taxes.
It's always easier to point to "welfare queens" in cadillacs, buying lobsters with food stamps or lie about auto workers making $70/hr.--a HUGE lie--while the big players are taking billions and billions of taxpayers dollars to help them sustain their companies' CEOs salaries and perks.
If you look closely at what's been happening, you'll notice that the biggest perpetrators of fraud, cheating, and malfeasance have been white collar bandits--men and women who used their insider knowledge to destroy not just our economy, but the world's.
Blue collar working men and women haven't done that.
/rant over/ off now to bake cute little gingerbread men and women.
Private: Usually, I can get the answer quickly from either your comment (which appears almost written by two people), profile (which has no info and links to left and right blogs), or blog (which you have private).
I think I'll just have to wait for a few more comments to nail it.
Obob: That's changed. Now they go to Washington with a hand out, and, if necessary, the other hand lubed.
Shaw: You cannot blame this mess on the Dems only. Both parties had a hand in screwing the American people.
Have you not been reading? I'm pissed at a whole lot of the Republicans. They all have the Barney Frank mentality: Government as a prop, means of support, and a tool to grow their power. It's just a matter, in many cases, who's bitch they are.
"...four years of nearly total liberal Democrat dominance..."
This is where you lose me, Patrick.
Oops, let me clarify: four years of nearly total liberal Democrat dominance imminent!
I'll correct the post.
And I'll let you go shoot out some gingerbread. I'll be doing my baking next week.
Maybe (pardon the expression) I go both ways?
I'll have to quote the late, great George Carlin (from a movie) on this one:
Don't be so suburban. It's the new millennium. Gay, straight... it's all the same now. There are no more lines.
LOL, trust me I am as straight as they come..
But I do acknowledge that I am a independent thinker.. who is at time very bitter about how things are being run in our country.
You asked Shaw "have you not been reading?" I don't think trolls read all of a conservative blog. I always get comments from them where they even argue with me when I've said the same thing they said. That happened again on my last post. Weird!
Sheesh, Patrick. I thought I despised Barnie Frank, but you gave despised a new meaning! LOL! Great job, but please... next time make an effort to not stifle yourself. ;)
Gayle: Have to issue a correction. Shaw does read my blog (i.e. not a troll). She just missed something somewhere.
Also, I don't hate Barney Frank personally. But he's the fruitiest incarnation of a bad politician, and will get elected spewing this rank socialsism. And that really just chaps my balls. And I don't like chapped balls.
No Patrick, I think Shaw brings up a good point...
It seems that conservatives are so fearful of a FUTURE with democrats and or liberals in full control that they seem to gloss over the fact that AFTER over 8 years of Republican or conservative control we are REALLY in the tank!
I know, I know...you don't consider Bush to be a conservative....as with most conservatives they want to disown the guy...but HE says he is a conservative and the Repbulicans say they represent the conservatives...and most conservatives vote Republican so its really hard to separate the two...
I HATE the Republican Party because I expect to get screwed by someone that I do not agree with...but BOY, to get screwed by someone who you supported and who supposedly agrees with your principles....
That is a bigger evil....if you cannot trust the folks you sleep with then who can you trust?
I am not sure if having no government involvement is any better than having government assist the big boys in raping this country....
Oh, and we have been raped big time....
I mean, there's just no point in me even trying to argue this. Where would I begin and how, possibly, could I come to a conclusion?
We are just too far apart on this to even try.
I mean.. you HAD to drag healthcare into this, didn't you?
What part of everyone having access to healthcare strikes you as bad and evil? What part of you getting healthcare for you and your kids by paying taxes for it versus paying exhorbitant sums and potentially getting in catastrophic debt when you can't afford it is horrible? What part of everyone kicking in so everyone can benefit is a terrible thing?
I have perspective on this that you don't, maybe, and so I'm seeing this in ways I hope you're never going to see. But for Chrissake, I cannot fathom how people can conceive that giving everyone healthcare by asking everyone to pay somewhat for it is a bad thing.
And Patrick, I don't want to hear any of this Malthusian bullshit about how if you can't pay you deserve to die or whatever. Seriously.
Tao: That's a point I'm trying to make though. We don't elect Republicans and expect a screw job. We know the Dems will give it to us.
BTW, that's why I broke with the party.
And it's not hard to separate the conservatives from Republicans. On the conservative side you find people ranging from Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint to Ron Paul and Libertarian Bob Barr. Representing the liberal Republicans, you have Colin Powell and John McCain. Bush has moved economically to the McCain (dark) side.
But the problem is the big government mentality. It used to be the blasphemous province of the Democrats, but the GOP chose it with vigor over the last 14 years.
BTW, you'd better lay off the ass rape talk. Might excite Barney. Or Toad (and his man-ass sex obsession).
Saty: Glad you're learning that arguing common sense is futile. Shows you can grow. :)
Now, as to how healthcare figures in:
What part of everyone having access to healthcare strikes you as bad and evil?
None. Everyone already does, to varying degrees. But the greatest weakness in the system is that we're no longer financially responsible for our own health care.
I'm not going to go into the entire healthcare thing on this post. But moving from a system where everyone has to manage their basic care and everything transpires between doctor and patient to a system where layer upon layer of bureaucracy rules the day (and it's already bad enough with insurance companies) lends itself to dehumanizing and quantifying the patient.
The solution to health care in this country would unquestioningly include some kind of safety net. But universal health care (as any other government program) does what big government does best: it denies human nature.
I am too mentally tired to say more than "oh bullshit Patrick" for a myriad of reasons that we have already fought out.
But still, oh bullshit Patrick.
Well, I see I'm going to have to do a full post to elicit more than "oh bullshit" from you.
Post a Comment