Hot enough for everyone? Its the dog days of summer for sure and this is one of the hottest summers on record.
Thank goodness for air conditioning. How did people survive without it?
160 Thoughts to “Open Thread………………………………………..Sunday, July 29”
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Blogroll
- 9500Liberty
- Bacons' Rebellion Blogspot
- Bearing Drift
- Blue Virginia
- Citizen Tom
- Counts of Monte Cristo. The
- Derecho, The
- Dixie Pig, The
- My Side of the Fence
- My Star Journey
- NARAL Pro-Choice VA Blog
- New Dominion Project
- Nova Common Sense
- NovaTownHall Blog
- One Libertarians's Point of View by Al Alborn
- Pete Candland's Blog
- Potomac Local
- Prince William Muckraker
- PW Conservation Alliance
- PWC Moms
- PWCPolitics.com
- PWCPolitics.com
- Red NoVA
- Shad Plank, The
- She the People
- State of NoVA, the
- The Jeffersoniad
- Townhall
- VEA Daily Reports
- VivianPaige
- WDGolden.com
- You, Me and the Lamp Post
Here’s more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43943482/Washington_Is_Annoyed_at_Wall_Street_s_Failure_to_Panic
Here’s the evidence that the powers that be were PURPOSELY TRYING TO TANK THE MARKET.
I just got off the phone with a source on Capitol Hill who has spent the past few days trying to convince Republicans to vote for a debt ceiling hike.
He told me that the biggest obstacle he faces has been “market complacency.”
“Frankly, a bit of panic would be very helpful right now,” he said.
As he explained it, lots of people in Washington, D.C. expected that this would be a week marked by panic in the markets. Stocks would tank. Bonds would get clobbered. The dollar would do something dramatic. And all of this would help convince reluctant lawmakers that they had to reach a compromise on the debt ceiling.
Hmmmm…..doesn’t sound like a Tea Party member to me. When you tie this to the report that Obama was telling banks secretly that he would not default if the ceiling wasn’t raised while telling everyone else that default was inevitable, you can see the attempt to create a crisis.
Of course, I’m just going to be called paranoid and that this pattern doesn’t match the identical attempts to create crises during Tarp, the bailouts, the stimulus, and health care reform.
Have you guys seen this?
PWC is suing the Dept of Homeland Security over illegal aliens being released.
http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2011/aug/04/3/prince-william-county-files-suit-over-illegal-immi-ar-1218019/
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. —
Prince William County filed a lawsuit today against the Department of Homeland Security, according to a county press release.
In 2007 the Prince William Board of County Supervisors passed an ordinance that requires county police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they arrest.
If police find that they have arrested someone who is in the country illegally, they turn that person over to the department for deportation.
To date the county has turned over more that 4,000 people over to DHS, the release stated.
After Carlos Martinelly Montano was charged in Aug. 2010 with killing a Benedictine nun while driving drunk in Prince William County, county officials became concerned that department was releasing illegal immigrants back into the community.
Police records show that Montano was previously convicted of drunken driving, identified as an illegal immigrant, handed over to DHS for deportation, subsequently released and was then given an employment authorization card, according to the release.
When county officials discovered Montano’s record and learned that the department had failed to deport him, they became concerned that other criminal illegal immigrants may also have been released.
After the crash, the county made two separate Freedom of Information Act requests seeking records that disclosed the disposition of the people who police had turned over the department.
The requests went unanswered, so the county sued the department.
Hey, we were talking 401k? That’s the revised number of jobless claims last week? How ’bout that?
@Cargosquid
Corey Stewart wants to ensure his reelection.
ICE is already short-handed. What if they had to respond to every community in the United States having a temper tantrum? Who would pay for that? How many extra people would have to be hired? Perhaps ICE agents in the field could be pulled in to do this important task. [sarcasm button on]
My question is how much will the tax payers have to pay for this one so Corey can have some more visibility here at election time.
@Cargosquid
How is that ‘evidence?’ There is no evidence. Anyone can say anything. That doesn’t make it true.
Odd, remember who TARP was under……not Obama. Why would George Bush want to create panic over the markets? That ship had already sailed.
ooooops.
SELL!! SELL!! SELL!!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44017828
In response to #8 above. Cargo, check out http://artofmanliness.com/2011/07/11/how-to-make-a-survival-shotgun/
Debt has reached 100% GDP. Buy beans, bandages, bullets and gold. The zombies are coming!! The zombies are coming!!
BTW, the entire TP discussion above has me in stitches. Tempted to eat popcorn and keep reading that part of the thread. 🙂
I am glad you find it so effen funny. How did your 401k do today or do you not believe in them for yourself, just for everyone else?
There should have never been strings attached to something that had to happen. Just out of curiosity, let’s say that the debt ceiling wasn’t raised. That leaves x number of dollars coming in and X + y that had to go out. Who would not get a check? Let’s assume that we are an honorable nation and pay our creditors. Who would not have gotten a check?
@Cargosquid
The Democrats didn’t stonewall to raise the debt ceiling. No one should have been voting no. It had to be done. There should have been no hostage taking. It should have never gone that far.
Interesting to see all that white-washing attempt. It looks like Tom Sawyer out there.
There is a way things are done. This wasn’t the right way.
Certainly no one should be surprised when the tea party members of congress are reviled. I will make no secret of my contempt now. Not after what I saw.
@Moon-howler
Yep….Bush did support TARP. But whose party was in control of Congress and pushing it? The Democrats.
I’ve said it previously that I think Bush made a mistake in falling for TARP or if he didn’t fall for it, for supporting it.
Marin, I defended you last night. Someone asked me why you had an avatar with someone sieg Heiling. I said you didn’t it was something about labor.
@Moon-howler
I don’t understand what you mean by white washing?
I’m sure not whitewashing anything.
Who wrote and passed bills raising the debt limit?
Who refused to even debate them, much less pass them?
Who, then refused to present their own bill until the other party presented a THIRD bill?
Who demanded that any bill meet exacting criteria, without possible compromise, even it was passed and was the “will of the people”?
Are you upset that the Republicans, like the Democrats, added pre-conditions to their bills? Are you upset that both the Democrats and Republicans ended up with similar bills, both with “spending cuts”?
Are you upset that the Democrats presented NO bills until the final few days?
Please, point to me where the Tea Party wasn’t compromising, when it was the Tea Party that presented the first bills raising the debt limit and within days, the Democrats were agreeing that spending cuts were fine, but they wanted a different bill.
You can blame the Tea Party all you want. And you will be wrong, just like all the other liberals that are blaming the Tea Party for the disaster that the liberals have caused. Remember, its the Democrats that haven’t presented a budget bill in over 900 days.
@Moon-howler
Who would not get a check? Hmmm….depends upon the priorities of the President. If I had been him, I would have suspended HCR. That cuts 100 billion immediately. Then I would look at downsizing Departments. Perhaps furloughs. I would examine the priorities of the nation, determine what is least necessary and cut that first.
Why is this so hard to fathom? Families and businesses do it every day?
Heck, sell the USS Kitty Hawk (if its been decommissioned) to India. They’re looking for a carrier and we’re trying to sell them F-18’s.
Checks or jobs are not guaranteed.
@Cargo, so you would default on the American people.
Do you suppose those who voted NO to raising the debt ceiling would also agree with you that we fault on the American people?
Just a suggestion, you can’t turn things around on a dime.
I would venture to say most Americans would think your plan is unacceptable.
There never should have been provisions attached to raising the debt ceiling. It had to be done. There really is nothing else to say. You can’t make heroes out of people who hold running the country hostage. They aren’t.
@Moon-howler
Default on the American people? What are you talking about?
There is no such thing.
So, according to that logic, there can never be a reduction in government Because that would be a default on the American people? Am I reading that right?
Wouldn’t forcing the American public to pay for ever increasing budget deficits and higher debt be a default on the American people?
Are you saying that the American public can’t survive a 1% cut in spending?
@Cargo, more words in my mouth…..
If Americans are expecting checks that do not come to them, then that is a default on the American people. It could be a defense contractor, a soldier in the field, a federal employee, a SS recipient, a kid getting aid to dependent children because his mother is dead, a doctor getting reimbursed for medicaid or medicare services, a state expecting its impact aid from federal employees kids attending school, etc.
Yes, I would say if those people aren’t paid, then We the people have defaulted on them. What would you call it?
“I am glad you find it so effen funny. How did your 401k do today or do you not believe in them for yourself, just for everyone else?”
My 401K reports that it’s up 3% for the year. I don’t check it every day as I don’t expect to tap it for retirement funds for another 30 years.
“Marin, I defended you last night. Someone asked me why you had an avatar with someone sieg Heiling. I said you didn’t it was something about labor.”
Thanks. But, my avatar has changed. The old one was about BIG LABOR. The current one has a person holding money and another person holding a gun to his head with the caption “SOCIALISM”. So, I’m not sure why someone (without even asking me no less) would automatically assume that it was pro-nazi.
It’s just an image that captures the idea of taking from those that have to those that think they deserve it.
I don’t think they were accusing you. It was someone who assumed that is what the avatar was. I didn’t notice you had changed. I was going on the old info. Sorry. Well, I didn’t let anyone think it was sieg Heiling at least.
@marinm
Liberals are obsessed with everything late 30’s early 40’s Germany. You know that, right? Sometimes they can’t get a complete thought out without invoking it.
@poke,
Should I go back and correct what I told the person who questioned me?
I don’t think the person I spoke with was a liberal. He kept asking me about the guy who was doing the sieg Heil. I couldn’t figure out who he was speaking of.
Perhaps he is a closet liberal and just put up a McCain sign in his yard to throw us off the track.
#34, appreciate that.
#33, a McCain sign to show that someone is on the ‘right’ of the spectrum? ROFLMAO. I think I just woke up my kids laughing so hard. 🙂
MH has me thinking. My 401K ‘s performance isn’t that great but I guess with the DJIA matching Carter’s performance http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dows-losing-streak-now-in-ninth-day-2011-08-03 I maybe should be happy I’m up rather than down.
Wasn’t McCain the republican nominee? I must be slipping. I sure thought he was. I didn’t comment on his left or rightness. If a person had a MCCain sign on the yard or the car I assumed they were voting R for whatever reason. It was pretty clear that Mr. O'[Bama and Biden couldn’t count on that person’s vote.
@Moon-howler
So, anytime that someone loses a job because that company cannot operate, goes broke, or closes, they are defaulting on the employee?
You are talking about one thing and I’m talking about another, apparently.
Defaulting on the American people……hmmmm….is that American under contract? Then yes, its a default.
It could be a defense contractor (contract for work), a soldier in the field (same), a federal employee(same, but could be fired or downsized) a SS recipient (gov’t has no fiduciary responsibility other than Congress saying that it will pay out), a kid getting aid to dependent children because his mother is dead (charity), a doctor getting reimbursed for medicaid or medicare services (contract, but apparently arbitrary payment as gov’t is willing to cut that payment on a whim), a state expecting its impact aid from federal employees kids attending school (that fed employee pays local taxes, right?),
Is that American getting money from an entitlement that is not a contracted obligation…then its not a default. If you are implying that SS is a contract…nope. But, by law, the President does have an obligation to pay them first or at least give it a high priority.
I’m talking about shutting down employees, departments, etc. If we can’t prioritize our money, then we are doomed.
By the way, there is no obligation for the aid to dependent children, etc….in fact, the Constitution does not provide for any …..well, lets go to the source.
James Madison wrote disapprovingly, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.
Davy Crockett also mentioned charity by gov’t: “Mr. Speaker: I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it. We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.”
As long as we continue to run our government as a charity, we will go broke.
Ugly, just ugly. Well played bears. A lot of people got caught with their pants around their ankles today, of which I was one.
What happened today was so statistically improbable that it leads me to only one conclusion – the market thinks that there is another company like AIG out there, and the employees at this one speak Italian and Spanish. This wasn’t just woe-is-me our economy is sputtering selling, this was big money – institutions running for the hills like it was 2008 all over again.
The question is…what happens after an “in-line” jobs report, or slightly better jobs report tomorrow. I’m thinking it’ll be up, but man, that’s throwing darts in the dark (my investing strategy).
@Moon-howler
Seriously, who the heck looks at an avatar and thinks it’s somebody “sieg heiling” (auto-correct was killing me with that). A McCain sign? Yes, that could very easily be a liberal 🙂
I love watching CNBC when the market goes down 400 or more points. They really mess their britches! So exciting!
USMC Dining Etiquette
Very funny. http://threebeerslater.blogspot.com/2011/08/usmc-dining-etiquette.html
Commandant Gray was instrumental in keeping the Marine Corps as a fighting force during the late 80’s. His appointment is one of the few things that I approve of former Sec. Webb doing. Talk was happening of downsizing the Corps or even folding them into the Army.
Enlisted to Commandant. Outstanding.
Here’s my encounter with General Gray.
I had an encounter with Commandant Gray, indirectly.
I worked at a military intelligence building where the rear entrance was guarded 24 hours by two Marines. While transiting that area, I realized that the Commandant was coming down the stairs behind me and I warned the Marines.
As he entered the security area, we came to attention. Ignoring me, a lowly sailor, he approached one Marine, got into his face, and shouted, “Marine! Are you ready for anything?!” The Marine shouted back, “Sir, Yes Sir!”
The General again shouted at him, “Are you sure, Marine!”
“YES SIR!” was the reply!
And the General punched the Marine NEXT to the one he was accosting in the stomach.
“He wasn’t.” said the Commandant.
“Carry on.”
And left.
Elena will be on Channel 7 news tonight. Go Elena!
Well, here’s an interesting reason why the markets are crashing even though the debt ceiling was raised. Never thought of this one: http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2011/08/kipper-_und_wip.html
“Apparently, the resolution of the debt ceiling restored the dollar’s status as a safe haven in the eyes of the world’s investors. That accelerated the flight from European sovereign debt and European banks. That in turn raised fears in financial markets, driving down stocks, including in the United States.”
Want to wargame the electoral college? http://www.270towin.com/
This guy thinks he knows which will be the battle ground states.
http://pajamasmedia.com/vodkapundit/2011/08/04/wargaming-the-electoral-college-30/
Here’s why I’m with the Tea Party. Way back in April of last year, we were being attacked. And its the same old song and dance now that we were being accused of then…..
http://pajamasmedia.com/ejectejecteject/2010/04/13/reasonable-men/
“There is a concerted effort afoot on the part of big-state socialists to paint the Tea Party as a bunch of dangerous, hate-filled radicals with a bunch of crazy new ideas that go far beyond the pale of the traditional American political mainstream.
Let’s ask some reasonable men – because the Founding Fathers were surely the largest collection of reasonable men ever gathered in one place at one time in history – what they thought about the issues raised by the Tea Party movement.”
My favorites:
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government…”
Did the greatest mind in American history have any other radical, dangerous thoughts on the encroachment of government and uncontrolled spending?
Jefferson, 1782:
“On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that power to them? If so, how many rebellions should we have had already?”
Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816:
“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Spencer Roane, March 9, 1821:
“The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife.”
Thomas Jefferson, 1824:
“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.”
And finally Samuel Adams
“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
Cargo,
There is no faith in the ability of our government to compromise and find fair solutions that take each parties concerns into consideration. Why the market fell today is up to people more astute than you and I, but lack of confidence that calmer minds will prevail is not a premise that I see on the horizon. The fight over the FAA extension is a perfect example.
@Slowpoke Rodriguez
Obviously not me. I didn’t know he had changed it.
@Elena
“but lack of confidence that calmer minds will prevail is not a premise that I see on the horizon”
Um, not sure if I follow you. “not a premise”? Because the first line states that there is no faith, ie, a lack of confidence…that calmer minds will not prevail.
If you are saying that Americans are not trusting that Congress will fix things, either through vaunted compromise or through actual ability, I agree with you.
I know little of the FAA battle, so I’m not commenting on it.
Meant to say “there is no faith, ie, a lack of confidence…that calmer minds WILL prevail.”
I think I said that right……
Jefferson died without wealth or assets. His home had to be sold to pay his bills. Before he died he had to sell his library. Madison also had extreme financial difficulties towards the end of his life.
I am not sure they practiced what they preached. Perhaps it was easier to deal with those issues like debt in the abstract rather than in the here and now.
But it was THEIR money that they lost. Not the nation’s. Apparently they did practice what they preached as politicians. Madison spoke out against the redistribution of wealth as unconstitutional.
Robert Heinlein said it well.
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as “bad luck.”
So Madison said he didn’t believe in redistribution of wealth? Where might he have said that? How prophetic of him.
Are we so sure that the founders didn’t lose national money? I am not. I think they all did. (The Virginians) There was national debt from the beginning. We had a war to pay for. Who financed the Lewis and Clark expedition? There were probably plenty of folks who saw that as a big waste of money. Equipment was lost and Jefferson never got his reports from Lewis.
Everything is relative. We live in different times now. All those founders were really old liberals willing to take some mighty big risks. I hate thinking of TJ as a liberal.
I have no idea who Robert Heinlein is but he needs some prozac.
The falling stock market:
Peter Schiff, President of Euro Pacific Capital: “Now what people are realizing is the stimulus didn’t work, and we may be headed back to recession.”
Rich Ilczyszn, market strategist, Lind-Waldock: “When we start looking at the recovery, there is nothing to hang our hats on anymore.”
Tom Manning, chief investment officer, Silver Lake Investors: “Fears of a recession seemed to grip investors all day long.”
Boston Globe: “…economic growth so anemic that the once-distant thoughts of another recession now don’t seem so far-fetched.”
Sara Johnson, global economist, IHS Global Insight: “Economic indicators are coming in worse than anticipated, and decision-making is frozen.”
Mike Lenhof, Brewin Dolphin Securities Ltd.: “There is growing concern that the US economy may relapse back into recession.”
One brighter note: Lenhof, I believe, thinks that this may be just a “soft spot” for the actual market. At least he is hoping this is the case.
From what I can see, investors were upset somewhat by the fight over the US debt ceiling; but I would think that the problem of overall investor confidence is much, much deeper than that.
..Angst in military over Pentagon cuts
By KIMBERLY HEFLING – Associated Press | AP – 56 mins ago..
WASHINGTON (AP) — From the helicopters they fly to the base housing where their children sleep at night, U.S troops and their families are directly affected by the prospect of deep cuts in the Pentagon’s budget, which surely will shrink over the coming decade as the military closes out two wars, trims its ranks and possibly chops some budget-busting weapons systems.
And the troops’ concerns don’t end when they take off the uniform: Many retirees are dependent on the military’s health insurance. With Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s blunt acknowledgment this week that the Pentagon “has to do its part” to meet the public clamor for deficit reduction, there’s much angst among the uniformed services.
Reflecting the widespread demand for more fiscal responsibility in Washington, the compromise debt deal that President Barack Obama reached with Congress and signed Tuesday will slice $350 billion from projected military spending over the next 10 years. And it leaves open the possibility of up to $500 billion in additional reductions.
http://news.yahoo.com/angst-military-over-pentagon-cuts-080758244.html
The teajadis don’t support our troops!
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
MMMM, the Obama economy. Take a big, fat whiff, folks! Just like a men’s room at Heathrow airport, isn’t it? For those of you who have never been in a men’s room at Heathrow……ohhhh, buddy!
@Wolverine
Yesterday’s free fall, I will agree with. Before that…I feel fairly confident over what I saw.
Things just got way too close to the wire. People around the world got spooked. We will never KNOW what set off what. We can only THINK.
Congress has an 82% disapproval rating according to a survey I saw last night. The Pew Institute Report doesn’t deviate too far from those figures either.
The FAA battle was all about union busting. Again.