Golly gee, who’s shocked that Fitch and Moody’s have upheld AAA, S&P to follow, you know the fix is in, the threats have been made.

o got no tax raise, so he cannot use the Clinton mantra against Bush I that you lied.

o got nearly equal cuts to his debt increase on paper, whether they materialize until we get ride or him or not.

o appeared before the US populace several times in the last month and LOST popularity points with EACH appearance. People are tired of seeing and hearing him and that feeling will only increase as he campaigns and campaigns and etc. because he doesn’t know anything else.

o was abandoned by the Dems. (they did that to Carter) in the end and worked out their evil on their own.

o is now the progressives’ true lost hope, and they will not support him as they did in 2008, altho’ they will surely vote for him because they wouldn’t dare vote to the right. But the stupendous money and new voter registrations, the feet on the ground, the transfixed students, they will all be gone.

o is definitely the loser no matter what CBS says or the NYTimes writes. And people know it.

Why do I take this stance? It is very simple, I think it is atrocious that asshats in Wallstreet got bailouts from the taxpayers, all because they made bad judgements in investment choices.Isn’t the stock market a place where you win some and lose some based on your choices of investments? I personally think those making poor investment choices should never be exempt from taking the losses irregardless of the cause of the losses. Suck it up and learn from your mistakes, instead of climbing into bed with government power brokers and eiltist thieves.

Will Boehner and McConnell pick 6 Tea Partiers?

I’m also pretty sure he’s lost the “white guilt” vote. They need only vote for him once to satisfy that guilt and to be able to “say they did.” They’re free to vote for his opponent this time around, and I’m sure many will do so.

Lastly, there were news reports shortly after the 2008 election indicating that some 20% of self-described conservatives had voted for Obama. In retrospect, this comes as no surprise, given the propensity of many conservatives to want to send a message to RINOs such as McCain. Unless we blow the nomination process again, I doubt that’ll happen this time. Even if we do blow it, there may be more of an inclination for these same people to stay home to send their message, rather than cast another vote for someone as demonstrably destructive to the country as Obama.

As to the third party thing, let’s hope it doesn’t pick up steam. The solution is to primary the RINOs and/or those who otherwise betray our trust, replace them with tea-party type conservatives, and vote GOP in the general election. It may be too early to tell, but I have some confidence that more and more people are starting to realize that this is the way to handle it – not a third party.

I thought that the message coming from our guys was mostly brilliant and well articulated.
Its just that none of it was broadcast across the MSM
The general public does not have access to our message unless they happen to watch C-Span, search for conservative news on the internet or happen to be among the 40% of households who have ACCESS to expanded cable AND happen to patronize FNC.
Conservatives have all the access to liberal politics they want to see.
Liberals are bombarded with a neverending drumbeat of nothing but their own liberal baloney day in and day out.

It isnt really. Remember how Obama tossed this mess to the congress and avoided it himself as much as possible, while the Reps constantly called for him to submit his plan so they (and the public) would know where he stood.
Yet he did make plenty of statements publicly demogogueing the Republicans idiology.
This bill ensures he will not need to (publicly) be involved in round two of the debt ceiling debate. Which is what he wanted for the first round.
It is all about the election for Obama.

The Dems are defending their +6 Senate pickup from 2006 this cycle and their +8 Senate pickup from 2008 in 2014.

The Tea Party had a significant influence as, Paul Ryan put it, as 1/2 of one branch of govt. Win the other half of Congress and the Presidency, and the RINOs won’t be able to hide behind “compromise”.

Everyone knows there’s more to do. Which is just another albatross around Obama’s neck heading into the election.

+Conservatives wanted a balanced budget. We received a vote on a BBA, which is worse than no vote at all. Because the amendment needs a supermajority to pass, all red-state Senate Democrats seeking reelection in 2012 have cover to vote ?for? the BBA, knowing that it will still fail to pass. Far from placing them on record against a BBA, the vote will hand them talking points for the 2012 elections.

+ Conservatives wanted no tax increases. We received a commission that is tasked with spending cuts AND “tax reform.” Care to guess whose taxes will be “reformed” by that commission?

+ Conservatives wanted immediate and substantial cuts in spending. We received illusory cuts in 2013 appropriations, centered on defense and Medicare. After the Dems run tear-jerker commercials explaining that the GOP voted to kill Grandma and leave our country defenseless, the 2012 election is in play for them.

+ Conservatives wanted to defund Obamacare. We received a bill that continues all funding for Obamacare. The economic fate of the nation now hangs on the vote of Justice Kennedy in the inevitable Supreme Court review of the law’s constitutionality.

+ Conservatives wanted to defund Planned Genocide. Murder, Inc. remains fully funded.

+ Conservatives wanted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Pravda Amerika remains fully funded.

+ Conservatives wanted to defund the National Endowment for the Arts. The Nationalist Endowment for Anti-Christian Art remains fully funded.

+ Conservatives wanted to provide a short-term ceiling increase. We received an increase that gives Comrade Obama a pass until after the 2012 election.

+ Conservatives wanted entitlement reform. We received a commission that, at best, will give lip service to entitlement reform.

+ Conservatives wanted reform that would preserve America’s AAA bond rating. With a downgrade inevitable, care to guess which party will be blamed for the downgrade?

We can debate which political party is best positioned to issue talking points claiming victory. We can debate whether Comrade Obama won anything lasting. But it is difficult to see how Americans won anything at all.

I am reminded of the famous scene in Doctor Zhivago, where Yuri Zhivago returns from the World War to the spacious family home, only to find that the Communists have turned it into a collective. Learning that his family is now relegated to one room, he acidly tells the head of the collective that “Yes, it is much fairer now.”

One thing’s for sure, there’s a lot of work to do. But with the Dems defending their +6 Senate pickup in the 2006 this cycle and their +8 pickup from 2008 in the next, I’d have to say that we have the ball and control our own destiny.

And while we’re at it, let’s throw in the style points of figure skating. Obomy didn’t look too smooth out there.

To a great extent, we don’t build great companies with public funding anymore in America. Certainly not like we once did. I think that’s an awful shame.

And if you’re an investor in the public stock markets, well, I feel for you.

I think that on net, the financial industry today is parasitic to the real economy, and I’ve felt that way for quite a lot of years. Nearly all the years I’ve been involved in finance, actually. If you know anything about the microstructure of derivatives markets (and maybe you do), you’re probably as disgusted as I am. And they’ve gotten measurably worse just in the past two years.

I think that investment firms need to be restructured such that the primary stakeholders (be they partners, MDs or shareholders) must be fully exposed to the downside as well as the upside.

I believe that the government can and MUST impose much stricter capital requirements on banks. In this, I’m in full agreement with the recent Tarullo proposals. If anything they don’t far enough. Certainly Basel III doesn’t go far enough. And the “con-cons” that people like Credit Suisse are talking about are too geeky to work right in a crisis, when you need them.

Your questions about “is the country in trouble” are too contradictory and full of red herrings and straw men to answer reasonably. So I’ll pass on those.

Who bears the pain from a contracting economy? Don’t make me angry, Jack Savage. You know the answer as well as I do: it’s the people who want to work at good jobs and provide for their families, but can’t because the wealth creators are being taken out of position to create jobs.