http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i4estRSYeFBIII9kezxnP4jgoGZQ

A very big ball just dropped, the ramifications of this won't be felt for a few months.

The government just passed a what $3.4T budget? Thats not going to be happening in the future unless they inflate the dollar significantly. Congrass is going to learn real fast that you can't just keep printing and spending fake money.

The Chinese have been rumbling for months, and now they are voting with their check books. Obama was right, this is the end of an era. Big government is going to run out of money, or keep printing until a cheeseburger costs $50k.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Obama and Congress seem to be enjoying driving the bus off a cliff; or do they think they're flying high?

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

Ah, republican banter. I assume crusty old McCain would have been doing a vastly better job somehow?

An 8-year republican gov created all these problems, now Obama gets to try and fix/solve them all....progress is going to be slow.

Republicans are like arsonists sitting around criticizing the fire fighters trying to put it out the fire they started.

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'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Politicians live in their own strange world...just like the executives at GM. And we all know how well GM is doing these days.

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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

Really, not much over a year ago McCain told us the economy was good. A few months before that Bush said the same.

Bush also played funny with the numbers, the entire Iraq War, for example, was financed "off budget". Obama instituted an honest budget that does not use Republican Borrow-and-Spend gimmicks designed to hide that fact that tax cuts for the rich were actually putting us deeper in the red than even the deficits showed as Bush and his rich cronies used the tax system to transfer billions from the public treasury to the very, very rich:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/us/politics/20budget.html

Actually, you guys drove the bus off the cliff, Obama's the guy driving the wrecker.

Now that is an interesting link. Thank you JR. And I have no problem with such a large budget as (from what I understand) some will go towards fixing roads and bridges. Which IMHO needs to be done.

I found this and like minded real people will see this as i do - jz

I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.
Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten - fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?

We learn that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is
$2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700B we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a
government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders.
Apparently not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?). We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is medicare and our entire government, our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about) - the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion,
who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

We have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska.
All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh of course. The media would never
play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe was more important.)

Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change.
Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.

This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.

And that is only the beginning.

And I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory. Conservative "losers" read it right now.

And promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully them into submission. And then, he was duly elected to office, a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world.

He did it with a compliant media-did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and . . . change. And the people surely got what they voted for.
(Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.)

Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.

Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And in less than six years-a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency - was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course.
The road to Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me.

Some people scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe - and why I believe it.

That's about the lamest "historical parallels" piece I've read in a while, especially the attempt to somehow tie the mistakes of the Repubicans to Obama, like the "intentional de-industrialization of our economy". And for those of us who like to stay informed, let me address the most ridiculous assertion in the piece: Obama's campaign promises were far from limited to the one word "change". His website, which I am sure you and just about everyone else on the right never visited, and his speeches, were chock full of what "change" was going to be all about, and so were his speeches. Oh, and that "intentional dismemberment"? Guess who is putting it back together:

Obama seeks tax changes for U.S. firms overseas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday will propose changing provisions in the tax code that he says encourage U.S. companies to move jobs overseas, as part of a broader package aimed at saving $210 billion over 10 years.

U.S. officials said that in an announcement planned for 11:05 EDT (1505 GMT), Obama will seek to follow through on a campaign promise to change the tax treatment of American firms with overseas operations.

That portion of his plan -- opposed by such firms as Pfizer Inc and Oracle Corp -- would raise more than $100 billion in revenue over the next decade.

In an echo of a line he used often on the campaign trail last year, Obama vowed in a February address to the U.S. Congress to make the tax code more fair by "finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas."

Currently, U.S. firms are allowed to defer paying taxes on profits earned overseas if they plow those profits back into their foreign subsidiaries.

Critics say those rules encourage businesses to bolster their foreign operations instead of creating jobs at home.

But an array of firms signed onto a letter to congressional leaders in March opposing changes to the so-called deferral provision, saying they would make U.S. businesses less competitive.

The letter was signed by 200 companies and trade associations, including Pfizer, Oracle, Microsoft Corp Johnson & Johnson and General Electric Co as well as the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The letter said the firms would not be on a level playing field with international rivals, many of which are not required to pay taxes at home on overseas entities.

Senior U.S. officials who described Obama's plans said they were balanced and would not put excessive burdens on firms.

NO MORE DEDUCTING EXPENSES

A central provision would prohibit companies from deducting expenses supporting their overseas operations until they pay taxes on offshore profits.

The officials said the plan would also end a practice by which some firms take big deductions against their taxes by inflating the amount of foreign taxes they have paid.

The proposal also includes extension of a research and experimentation tax credit the administration says businesses have been pushing for, which is expected to give a tax cut of $74.5 billion over 10 years to companies investing at home.

Obama's proposals on deferral mirror legislation drafted by House Democrats, whom the Obama administration consulted in crafting its plan.

In addition to the changes to the deferral provisions, separate proposals in Obama's plan would raise $95 billion by cracking down on overseas tax havens. Such tax havens became a major topic at the April meeting in London of leaders of the Group of 20 major economies.

The Obama plan would close loopholes that allow firms and individuals to hide income. He also plans to bolster enforcement of overseas tax evasion and wants to see stiffer penalties for those who fail to meet reporting requirements.

While serving in the U.S. Senate, Obama backed legislation drafted by Sen. Carl Levin, head of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, to crack down on tax havens.

That legislation did not pass, but Levin and other lawmakers are working on other ways to address these issues.

In one of the proposals to crack down on tax evasion, the administration would require financial institutions to share information to the Internal Revenue Service about its U.S. customers. Foreign institutions must sign up with the IRS to become "a qualified intermediary" or else face a presumption that they are helping individuals evade taxes.

"The financial institution has to come forward with evidence to show there is not tax evasion going on," one official said.

Swiss banking giant UBS AG acknowledged in February that it helped U.S. clients conceal assets from their government. It agreed to pay a $780 million fine and has since identified about 320 of its American clients.

The U.S. government is now suing UBS in a civil case to reveal the identities of 52,000 Americans suspected of using accounts at the bank to hide about $14.8 billion of assets and evade U.S. taxes

More than a few germans moved out of the country when WW2 broke out. Who intentionally Dumbed down the schools? I belive for the past few years school work has gotten harder and rightfully so. More than a few times budget cuts are the result of good school programs going away. Protest the schools if you are so angry. I agree with you that oversight of government funds has been lax and should be tightend. If you are looking to blame someone for who has been shipping jobs overseas just look around and in a mirror (and I am just as guilty). We as Americans need the best and the cheapest goods. So cost cutting and such is in business intrest. So is the point of that paragraph this is all a Democrats fault? Because as always more than enough blame can go to both parties. And are we forgetting he was a Senator so I would comptetly say that is harder than running some town. I for one am extrodinarily offended that I am being compared to a Nazi in this article for being a Democrat. Call me what you will but Nazi will never be one of them.

There was a budget vote? I all I keep hearing about is SWINE FLU Although now that the SW is turning into a bust, the local news is harping 'Racoon Round Worm' as the next destroyer of civilization (not a joke)

I am scared out of my mind for my kids...

John... Great post! It really was well constructed and the argument was valid. You are one of the good ones on the board and we need to hear from you more often. While we are distracted by Swine Flu, Somali Pirates, Sarah's Soap Opera Life, Racoon Round Worm, the government is taking liberties they should not be able to.

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"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy"

Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

The result of the policies of eco-freaks over the last several decades that make it prohibitively expensive for manufacturing to exisit in America. Almost exclusively a liberal preserve. Aided and abbetted by slick willies policies to China. Not Obamas fault but definately not a republican either. Not to mention the dumbing down to of the US educational system since the 60's. Even more so a bastion of PC BS LIberalism than any other aspect of society. But that's ok. A liberals gonna fix it. Yeah right

- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

If you think school has gotten harder in this country at the pre-college level, then you must have been looking at private schools. our public school system is for most part a joke......

And right now it feels like the wrecker has gone off the cliff as well.

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1984 300TD