Comments for Real Peoples Politics

Comment on All In On Bailout? by rwahrens

rwahrens — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:52:23 +0000

Well, cou, the fact that the greedy mortgage bankers jumped in with both feet and circumvented the law by disguising insurance packages as investment packages didn’t help the situation!! Tis one crosses the line between parties, I am afraid, and it’ll take similar cooperation to get things back in shape.

Comment on Obama Not Swapping Horses Midstream? by rwahrens

rwahrens — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:47:32 +0000

Agreed. He DID promise to reach across the isle, did he not? This is proof that he wasn’t kidding.

Comment on Bush Seeks Positive Legacy by MplsVala

MplsVala — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:24:20 +0000

Well, I think that if one agrees with his social agenda, then it is possible to see some positive aspects of his Presidency. If, like me, you think that his agenda is tragically misguided, then you think he’s the worst ever. But I believe that the weight of history will crush W and he’ll be long remembered for just how awful he was. (Not that he’s done, he’s still jamming through horrible junk Obama will have to fix.)

Comment on Bush Seeks Positive Legacy by threedegrees

threedegrees — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:20:43 +0000

Apparently you’ve forgotten your history. Not only did President Clinton establish the first counter-terrorism office dealing exclusively with Al Qaeda, he successfully kept them from attacking inside the US for the remaining 7 years of his Presidency. Upon leaving office, his mid-East terrorism bureau gave warning after warning to the incoming Bush administration, all of which were ignored.

Clinton also sought to take out bin Laden in 1998, and was widely criticized by the GOP for wanting to do so, as the bin Laden family was crucial to their fund raising.

He launched missile strikes in Iraq, Somalia, Mogadishu, Bosnia, Chechnya, and Afghanistan, and several plots at home and abroad were foiled by the counter-terrorism bureaus established during his tenure.

As for Dubya…there are too many failures to list. Ignoring the advice that could have prevented 9/11 tops my list, because the failures of Iraq, the Patriot Act, FISA, “extraordinary rendition”, torture, throwing out the Geneva Convention, eliminating habeus corpus, the politicization of the Justice Department, ignoring Afghanistan, and refusing to fund troops in exchange for a withdrawal timetable are all incidents that occurred as a result of ignoring those grave and accurate warnings.

Appointing Bush-loyal cronies to permanent positions in the private sector to further undermine the environment, public health and safety, and international relations are tips of a stunningly horrendous iceberg as well.

Katrina. Katrina. Katrina.

Comment on Obama Not Swapping Horses Midstream? by MplsVala

MplsVala — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:38:16 +0000

While some progressives are bitterly disappointed, it seems like a good move to me. Gates has the best grasp at the moment of what the situation actually is. If he can’t follow Obama’s direction change, there’ll be time enough to replace him them. If he can, we need the continuity. I’ve been really pleased with his appointments. I’m okay with keeping Repubs in the Cabinet if they are interested in signing on for the new approach. Obama is in little danger of being overshadowed no matter how powerful the individuals he selects. In fact, the more wattage, the better. We’re going to need all we’ve got to fix this mess.

Comment on All In On Bailout? by politicalanimal

politicalanimal — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:52:46 +0000

Glad to see you’re blog is working again Susie. For awhile i thought’d you’d just packed up your tent and moved on!
I think these “depressions” or recession or whatever you want to call them are periodic and are inevitable and I’m not sure that all this gov’t intervention is the answer. I don’t care what people say, FDR’s (great man that he was) massive gov’t programs did not get us out of the Great Depression, WWII did. And a lot of this is largely Democrats’ fault for making financial institutions give out mortgages to people who were not qualified for them, if i’m not mistaken.

Comment on Obama Not Swapping Horses Midstream? by cgardener

cgardener — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:00:59 +0000

That’s just common sense. I’m sure he will appoint a deputy that will be trained by Gates and take over as soon as possible, but hey, ANYBODY is better than Rumsfeld!

Comment on All In On Bailout? by tisglorious

tisglorious — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:18:44 +0000

Thanks Rwahrens! Glad to be back and have more great discussions with ya’ll!

Re: courteous execs… Well, we sure can hope! However, if the past has been any example, I doubt that many of the same “bail me out NOW!” execs will be rushing to cut their own salary, which just undercuts their argument further, showing their lack of drive to change. And at this point, we really need a change we can see… and a change these companies’ bank accounts can see/

Comment on All In On Bailout? by rwahrens

rwahrens — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:28:03 +0000

Welcome back, Susie!

Good article, and shows an attitude I wish we would see more of.

News was today that two execs of European banks refused large payouts for themselves. They declined millions in bonuses, and restricted themselves to salary only.

Voluntarily.

Will we EVER see that here?

Comment on Conciliation We Can Believe In by rwahrens

rwahrens — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:57:04 +0000

Obviously, Obama heard those same rumblings, and decided to take action. It is good that Reid got pulled back, as that would not have boded well for any sort of bipartisanship.

I’d say, look to see Reid to be out as a real mover and shaker if he continues to clamor for the traditional partisan wrangling. There is a new sheriff in town, and he likes to play nicer.