Originally Posted By dshyates Oil just crossed to $110/barrel again for a second time this week. This time its expected to stay. And the Dollar is at a 13 year low against the yen, and an all time low againts the euro and pound. And what's the prez addresing on TV today? He is threatniong senate to pass HIS "protect the Telecoms" bill. How about "No". How about we don't pass the "protect the Telecoms bill, and start prosecuting them for illegal spying on the American people.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy You just have sour grapes because you weren't smart enough to buy ExxonMobil in December 2000 when this clown was elected President. The handwriting was on the wall a long time ago. Very predictable outcome.
Originally Posted By Mr X Don't forget the crashing stock market. (sure it surged 2 days ago BUT it seems more like crazy death throes than anything else...a crazy 400 point rise after several 300 point drops followed by a crash...what a mess!).
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<(sure it surged 2 days ago BUT it seems more like crazy death throes than anything else...a crazy 400 point rise after several 300 point drops followed by a crash...what a mess!).>> And that surge only happened because the Fed let banks borrow 200B, using their bad morgage portfolio as collateral (in effect, the Fed is buying up the bad mortgages). We ain't seen nothing yet.
Originally Posted By StmbtWilliam311 I agree-- I'd rather forget about all the real world problems when I come to enjoy Disney. Not to say that's not important, but there is a different setting for that kind of thing.
Originally Posted By ecdc So that's what Bush meant with his Mission: Accomplished sign! Not victory in Iraq, which has been a failure, but getting his oil buddies more money. It all makes sense now!
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Not victory in Iraq, which has been a failure >>> What are you talking about? Just within the last 24 hours, we have the following good news from Iraq: - 15 people killed by carbomb - Kidnapped Catholic Archbishop found dead - US troops kill a little girl by accident with warning shots But things have been improving. Only 1 US soldier was killed today, a vast improvement from the 8 that were killed on Monday.
Originally Posted By pecos bill It will take a miracle to restore my faith in this country. The current administration is the political equivalent of the Mafia, and no one can do a thing about it. They have sucked this nation dry to feed the military industrial complex. The United States is as close to a plutocracy as it can get.
Originally Posted By gadzuux There is no accountability with this administration. None whatsoever. This is due,not only to the bush administration themselves, but mostly because of the republican party itself. Bush and his administration has been enabled by republicans in the house and senate to abdicate their responsibilities for oversight and representing the interests of the public, and instead serves the interests of their party. Cases in point - sustaining the veto against the ban on torture. This bill is only necessary because this GOP administration began torturing and mistreating it's political prisoners. Bad enough - but the GOP actually supports this. Why? It's not in the best interests of their party, or our nation, but bush wants to do it, and they won't deny him whatever he wants. Unreasonable search - also known as trammeling the fourth amendment. The constitution says what it says, but the bush administration doesn't care one whit. They openly mock the FISA courts, and pass on opportunities to modernize it. They'd rather just circumvent it altogether. This is (of course) a crime, but this too is okay by the republicans in congress. Whoops - it appears that some telecoms are complicit in these crimes, so the GOP sets about to indemnify them - all while saying that no crimes are being committed. If that's true, then why the big push to give them immunity? How stupid do they think we are? Gross fiscal irresponsibility - cutting taxes in the topsy-turvy belief that it increases revenues. Of course they don't really believe it - and good thing too because it didn't work. Instead they've racked up the largest debt load ever throughout all of history. Deficit spending is the highest ever too - and that's not even counting the two separate wars we're waging. The meter on those is over two trillion dollars. Guess what? We don't have two trillion dollars. And about those wars - republicans love to tell us that "the surge is working". Really? I'm not convinced. What they won't say is that the troop numbers now more closely resemble what they were told would be needed at the outset. They fired those guys. The bush administration was completely wrong about everything - but they won't say that either. It's awfully cavalier to be getting it so badly wrong when it's people's lives on the line. Nobody even tries to make the case anymore that the iraq war and occupation has any chance of making us "safer". We're now down to just trying to fix what we broke any way we can. Forget democracy in the middle-east, iraq will soon be a nation-state of iran. That's what our two trillion dollars has bought us - a strengthened iran in the middle east. And some people think bush and rice and the rest of them are heroes for this. So - war, economy, gross constitutional violations, torture - these are the hallmarks of the bush administration - and all of them enabled by a compliant republican party. Do you think McCain is any better? He likes the war, doesn't understand economic issues, and has voted to support bush in unwarranted wiretaps AND (amazingly) use of torture. This fall's election should be a really easy call. Why in the world would anyone vote for a republican?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>The meter on those is over two trillion dollars.<< And the meter's still running. This is why I have to laugh when anyone points to the GOP as the "party of fiscal responsibility." They spend every bit as much as democrats, and then some. They just spend it on different things.
Originally Posted By Mr X Gold hit $1,000 an ounce for the first time yesterday. The goldbugs who've been screaming for $2,000 gold don't seem all that kooky anymore...it certainly could happen if this keeps up!
Originally Posted By SuperDry What do you think I should do with my Silver that I bought at $6 an ounce?
Originally Posted By jonvn Make spoons. The reason these prices are going up is that the dollar is becoming close to worthless. In fact, people around the world are starting to no longer accept it as currency There is more trading in Euros and in the Yuen from China. We're sinking under the waves. The republicans have destroyed this nation. Here's an article about it: <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23616851/" target="_blank">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23 616851/</a>
Originally Posted By SuperDry There is some nonsense in that story: the bit about the money-changer offering more foreign currencies and recommending that travelers change money directly into the currency of the country that they're going to. That's good advice no matter what the value of the dollar is, and the weakness of the dollar doesn't really come into play unless you're worried about it losing value from the time you change into it and the time you change out of it (I'm sure someone will post a smart comment about this, but it's not really relevant). Certainly, the notion that the Chinese yuan is now more of a preferred currency is nonsense, since it's not a freely-tradeable currency and has a more or less fixed exchange rate with the dollar (set by the Chinese gov't). Of course, nothing I've said really diminishes the fall of the dollar of late - it's just that adding nonsense on top of that is not really necessary.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***What do you think I should do with my Silver that I bought at $6 an ounce?*** Pat yourself on the back, and treat an old friend to a teppanyaki dinner next time you're in town. Now it's where, around $20 per ounce. Nice 300%+ profit! Unfortunately the way the government taxes precious metals is pretty unfair (taxed as "collectibles", I believe, at a high rate)...but still, a nice return there!
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<The republicans have destroyed this nation.>> Sadly, I agree with you. We have offshored just about everything possible and created an economy based on construction and house flipping. Even might Boeing offshores most of its work these days, and thtat includes design work. One of the reasons today's young people have been avoiding pursuing careers in sciences, engineering and IT is because they know its a dead end with limited career opportunities (contrary to what Bill Gates says). Why bother when you know that your job will eventually be sent offshore?
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << One of the reasons today's young people have been avoiding pursuing careers in sciences, engineering and IT is because they know its a dead end with limited career opportunities >> This is the most patently absurd statement ever. Young people avoid these disciplines because they are lazy. We have a culture of people that not longer aspire to be astronauts, but instead the next American Idol. There are plenty of career opportunities for people with strong educational backgrounds, and the best thing about the sciences is there are no dead ends -- people with smarts can branch out to do lots of different things. Offshoring is certainly a reality, but to say that young people should just give up on their education because it is a "dead end" is just plain wrong. On the contrary, we have a lot of students pursuing dead end degrees in non-science and technology related disciplines because they don't want to deal with hard things like math. Consequently, they come to their dead end because they can't aspire to do things the people with brains and a work ethic might be expected to do.
