Bailout – Libraries – - Broad Street Bully?
The bailout story can make you sick. There is no oversight. The Treasury Boss wants to change the focus to credit companies. The Treasury keeps bailing out AIG and all the other companies run by incompetents, and has NO interest in saving the heart of our economy – the auto industry.
Barack Obama will try to save what’s left of the U.S. car industry, but 67 days may be too long to wait.
And what about a bailout for cities in financial trouble? In Philadelphia, the library closings will hit hard, especially in an economy where it is very difficult for chiidren and their parents to buy books. The library system in America levels the educational playing field. We need to find a way to keep those libraries open.
On a much different note, we need to bring back Stan Hochman, Bill Campbell and Bill Lyons, and other great sportswriters. I really don’t like critiquing my fellow journalists but we might have a bully at the keyboard.
Andy Reid is a man of steel. He knows this is a tough town, but the word hatchet thrown by Inky reporter Ashley Fox was a kick in the groin that deserves a penalty flag. The columnist’s attack on the good coach was as close to assassination in print as I’ve ever seen in this town, and I’ve seen a lot of gonzo journalism here. Fox’s Tuesday rant on the coach wasn’t even close to objective – it was an angry rant.
I don’t know Fox, but I can say with clarity that her attempt to nuke Reid in print was a pure act of pandering to the fans. If she wants to be a fan, so be it. If she wants to be reporter, or even a columnist, she can do a classier job of taking on the coach. I don’t know about you, but 5 and 4 is a decent record the last time I looked.
Besides, by Sunday the Eagles will be 6 and 4.
Sometimes, even a Philly sportswriter can accentuate the positive.
Comments(81)
Larry,don’t worry obama will save the auto industry,he will save the world,he will turn water into wine.
the cities need financial help,also the black on black crime and black on white crime has to stop.
on the sports note,you must be kidding andy reid is made of steel?Ashley Fox is a fine reporter,the eagles are a mediocre team since 2004 super bowl disaster,and the fans are tired of the andy reid arrogance and the donovan mcnabb lack of leadership.
was it gonzo journalism for the last 2 years with the bias media’s (electronic and print) waving the pom pom’s for obama?
Larry,you bashed Hillary Clinton,you bashed Sarah Palin and now you bash Ashley Fox a fellow journalist all of them women,you have to be joking.
Larry, see you next week,when you check in again.
Ahoy Maties! Your new blog topic, should ye decide to accept it, be borrowed from the original pirate, Yankee Free Air Pirate. He of the Gulf of Tonkin.
Here be your new blog topic, maties:
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER OBAMA FOE AND DETRACTOR. BARELY CAMPAIGNED FOR OBAMA IN GENERAL ELECTION. HER HUSBAND REPRESENTS A HUGE POTENTIAL DISTRACTION FOR THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. WHAT DOES OBAMA DO WITH HILLARY CLINTON? AND WHAT SAFEGUARDS DOES HE PUT IN PLACE TO PREVENT BILL CLINTON FROM THINKING HE IS BACK IN CHARGE HE HILLARY GETS A SIGNIFICANT POSITION WITHIN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION? IS OBAMA BETTER OFF TO KEEP HIS DISTANCE FROM THE CLINTONS OR EMBRACE THEM AS PART OF HIS INCLUSIONARY VISION FOR HIS ADMINISTRATION?
Sir Larry has finally attempted to change the blog topic this weekend when he runs out of Cheetos. Arrgh. Disregard all of his attempts to change blog topic. This be the Kane mutiny on the Good Ship Beatles!
‘
”
”’
””
””’
”””…
()
()
()
()
()…
Sonny, you are a man of few words yet you make so much sense.
CC, I’m with you on Punxsatawney Larry’s posts. Dreadful. Boring. Most importantly, not thought provoking.
I will post under the good Captain’s orders but first a short comment on Larry’s latest post. Larry, you are such a liberal socialist.
Let’s save the Auto Industry.
Let’s save the cities.
+Let’s save the libraries.
—————————
Let’s raise taxes
The Eagles are a mediocre team because Andy Reid is a mediocre coach and McNabb a mediocre QB.
Where was your outrage against the media when they went after Sarah Palin with a vengence. Alledged affair. Trig was actually daughter’s child. Shameful. You are shameful.
If I were Obama, I’d keep the Clintons as far away from the Obama White House as possible.
1) Hillary is in this to make Obama look bad and herself look more Presidential. Were I Obama, the only position I would nominate her for is the Supreme Court.
2) Bill Clinton will think that selecting Hillary to any cabinet position is an implicit request for his help as well. Last thing Obie needs is the First Felon getting involved. Unfortunately, it’s a two-fer. You can’t get Hill with Bill and all of their collective baggage.
3) Hillary barely survived sniper fire in Bosnia. Is it fair or right to send her into harm’s way again? Perhaps as Ambassador to China. That’s about as far away as possible.
Larry really is a 1960s beads and sandals liberal who wants the government to pay for everthing. Why should mis-managed cities be bailed out? Why not restructure them and bust the political patronage and crazy union influence so they would be able to balance a budget? Southern states don’t have such troubled cities becasue they are run properly. Vince Fumo type politicians are a great reason our city is in such a bind.
Closing the libraries is a good idea, it’s mostly homeless people sleeping in them and washing themselves, or gays cruising for action. City residents dont use the public libraries for anything other than a cheap daycare center to dump their kids or senile parents to be watched by city worker who are half asleep or half drunk all day. Larry you have not been to a public library lately!
Larry, how many American cars have you bought in the last 30 years? Cut me a break, you don’t drive American cars, so give us a break about saving the industry, you’re just repeating what I’ve been saying because you know it will sound smart.
George, Southern cities are run properly? Most have the same problems as Philly. They have all of the patronage and even less competence (just think about that!)….otherwise you’re dead on.
When the Phillies dumped Ed Wade it seems they really turned things around. Maybe its time to dump Reid, judging from the job he did raising his sons, I’d say winning a Super Bowl ring is beyond his core competancy.
))..
))…..
Ed Wade’s father was an undertaker in Carbondale PA, and he use to say “my name is Wade and I’m not afraid” but the irony was that he was afraid, and would never want to be alone with a corpse. Strange but true!
))..
))..ooo
Larry Kane is a good guy with a bad blog.
))..
))…
Formerly Jim. I’ve thought about it and retract my southern cities comment. I was thinking about southern cities like Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston etc. that seem to not have our problems, but then there’s New Orleans and other southern toilet cities that are mismanaged.
My instincts tell me that Hillary will be a good Secretary of State. Although, keeping her tucked away in the Supreme Court would be better for my eyes.
I don’t think she would try to show up her boss. It would not work and she would be in danger of being replaced. That would really sting.
Forget the squabbling between Republicans and democrats over the election season. What was most disturbing was how many Democrats had showed their true ugly faces. Many people who should have never been in the Party in the first place were unceremoniously exposed.
I am not responding to Larry’s topic until I finish my big ol’ bag of Pirate Cheetos. Notice how he finally showed up once we raised our new Black Flag. Pirate’s Rule!!!
……..FACES TO WATCH……………….
Andy Reid: he’s in the hamper and needs a total remake. Maybe a new nickname.
2)Mayor Nutter: While running low on cash
his “A New Day and A New Way” slogan sure has taken on a whole new meaning. Then again maybe not.
3)Hillary Clinton: She would turn an already Clintonesque Obama regime into the Clinton White House that has some black guy in the Oval Office.
4)Larry Kane: As a consultant for CN8 Larry has done a tremendous job of giving viewers a chance to watch other stations without feeling that they might be missing something interesting on CN8.
One final note: Jack Russel is the MAN!
I especially liked the “see you next week” line.
One final final note: To the rest of you semi great Americans I applaud your new blogging endeavor. I will check back often. If you are promoting anything other than the Beatles put me down for a half a dozen.
Ed, you forgot to finish the sentence:
3)Hillary Clinton: She would turn an already Clintonesque Obama regime into the Clinton White House that has some black guy in the Oval Office instead of Monica Lewinsky.
Wasn’t 8 years of ‘Scandalot’ with the Clintons enough? Why must we be subjected to their egos and abuses any further. Just like Obie has distanced himself from frauds like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, he should do the same with the Clintons.
I don’t think Obama is “just some black guy” OOOJ, he’s now president elect and regardless of whether you voted for him he’s now our president. He hasn’t yet screwed up and earned the postion with a pretty sizeable win against tough oppostion, so let’s “cut him some slack” as the homeboys say, and see what he can do. Obama has already been very smart about putting the Clintons in their place by not selecting Hillary as VP. Now she is his bitch and will probably take the Secretary of State position which I think she would be good at.
Larry, how’s your American car running? Worried about the warranty being voided if they file bankruptcy? Oh, that’s right you don’t actually have an American car, and you don’t care for unions either. Yet you want the taxpayer bailout for the Big Three. Is this just a tad hypocritcial?
‘
‘
”
”’
””
””’
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
()
()
()()
()()()…
}}
o
Tonight my hit show 24 which is seen on that popular station FOX 29 is up against Larry Kane’s show I think it’s called “Reason Something” on CN8. Even though my show has affected the presidential race, brought about new techniques in broadcasting, and is on top of that very entertaining, I want you to tune into Larry and give this man a chance. I understand tonight’s guest is Sonny Lee, A very opinionated Rickshaw owner with a lot to say.
Larry next time you guarantee a win for the Eagles I wouldn’t use your friend Ed Rendell as an expert………
‘
”
”’
””
””’
”””
”””’
””””
””””’
”””””
The Eagles…
I can see Jack Bauer is still a premature blogjaculator he was when we were dating. Hey Jack, the show is not until next week. Have Chloe call you when your show is on.
Sonny Ree, see what you missing
}}
o
Larry you need some plumbing work. I have a big pipe.
()*()
!! !!
!! !!
!! !!
O O
Sonny Ree, I need to ride your rickshaw. It been too long.
Kim Lee you disgrace Sonny Lee.
()
()
”
”’
””
””’
”””
”””’
””””
Kim Lee.
Kim Ree still above Iggles.
}}
o
just stopped in to squeeze one off!
))..
))…00
Larry, you called for an Eagles win, but I’m sure you could argue a tie was close to a win, so you are still somewhat right. Andy Reid should pass the torch, go on a diet, and tend to his family.
Larry,great prediction on the eagles game.
**
George I’ll smell ya later my friend,you are a great american.
**
Sonny Lee,I need a ride to the airport,you are a great chinaman.
**
Ed thanks for the kind words,you’re a great american.
**
oooj you’re a great american,but why do you and company have to keep attacking the Clintons they are truly america’s first family..what didn’t you like about the 90′s the peace or the prosperity?
**
Larry what is your problem with Ashley Fox,she is a great sports writer also she writes a column more than once a week.
My money is on Hillary staying in the Senate.This way she stays inside the beltway bubble & if Obama stumbles,she’s positioned for another run in 2012.Yea I know that incumbents aren’t normally challegened from within their own party but it has happened before.
Larry,nice call on the Eagles game.I think it’s time to blow up this regime.Reid & McNabb have had a nice run but all good things come to an end.This has come to an end.
George-I love your description of the libraries.Harsh but funny.
Larry,
I’m concerned about the campaign for FREE AIR. Now that socialism is en vogue again, I thought you’d redouble your efforts on behalf of poor car owners everywhere.
Maybe you can spend extra time on the matter now that CN8 is cratering.
It’s too quiet,I feel a Pirate attack coming on.
And speaking of pirates,how bout them Somali’s ? Got themselves an oil tanker this time.Get one of those tankers in the Strait of Malacca & it’s bye bye world economy.
YFAP, Larry is the Wizard of Oz. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
This site has degenerated to a new low. Keyboard symbols for bodily functions. No words, just symbols. Attack of the Sock Mimes?
All the regulars have been out lately. Is that because we’ve had to get a second job after betting on Larry’s sure picks?
This is another thing the Press has swept under the rug. It just
might make President Bush’s approval rating go up.
I went to the websites listed at the bottom of this article and read
them before choosing to share this with you. I think you owe it to
yourself to at least read the MSNBC website article from AP that is
the first reference site listed at the end of the following message..
The Truth or Fiction website confirms the article as True. The link is
also below.
A national defense analyst says President Bush should be commended
for keeping quiet about a discovery that could have blown his critics
out of the water.
Retired Major General Jerry Curry is a decorated combat veteran who
served as an Army aviator, paratrooper, and Ranger during a military
career that began during the Korean conflict. He recently wrote about
a very under reported story by the Associated Press.
According to the report, a large stockpile of concentrated natural
Uranium, known as “yellowcake,” reached a Canadian port to complete a
top secret U.S. Operation that included a two-week airlift from
Baghdad, and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. The Uranium material
had been housed at a former Iraqi nuclear complex 12 miles from
Baghdad.
Curry says the president kept mum about the discovery in order to
keep terrorists in the dark. “He made a very brave stand, a resolute
stand…, in which he decided that he wasn’t going to blab everything
to the press,” Curry commends. “…And in the meantime while he kept
it quiet, he was buying time from the terrorists to get all that stuff
out of the country. So that’s what was done — he just very quietly
kept his mouth shut.”
“The press beat him to death for the last several years,” he
continues, “and now it turns out that, yes, there were weapons of mass
destruction….” Curry also maintains that Saddam Hussein had an
active nuclear program and the material could have been made into a
nuclear weapon.
President Bush’s actions took courage, he notes, and all Americans
should be thankful to have such a brave president who puts the welfare
of the American people above personal considerations.
…………………………………………………………………
On July 5, 2008, the Associated Press (AP) released a story titled:
Secret U.S. mission hauls uranium from Iraq. The opening paragraph is
as follows:
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussien’s nuclear program (a huge
stockpile of concentrated natural uranium) reached a Canadian port
Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week
airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
See anything wrong with this picture?
We have been hearing from the far left for more than five years how
Bush lied. Somehow, that slogan loses its credibility now that 550
metric tons of Saddam’s yellowcake, used for nuclear weapon
enrichment, has been discovered and shipped to Canada for its new use
as nuclear energy.
It appears that American troops found the 550 metric tons of uranium
in 2003 after invading Iraq. They had to sit on this information and
the uranium itself for fear of terrorists attempting to steal it. It
was guarded and kept safe by our military in a 23,000-acre site with
large sand beams surrounding the site.
This is vindication for the Bush administration, having been
attacked mercilessly by the liberal media and the far-left pundits on
the blogo-sphere. Now that it is proven that President Bush did not
lie about Saddam’s nuclear ambitions, one would think that the
mainstream media would report the true story. Once the AP released the
story, the mainstream media should have picked it up and broadcast it
worldwide.
That never happened, due in large part, I believe, to the fact that
the mainstream media would have to admit they were wrong about Bush’s
war motives all along. Thankfully, the AP got it right when it said,
“The removal of 550 metric tons of yellowcake, the seed material for
higher-grade nuclear enrichment, was a significant step toward closing
the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy.”
Closing the book on Saddam’s nuclear legacy? Did Saddam have a
nuclear legacy after all? I thought Bush lied? As it turns out, the
people who lied were Joe Wilson and his wife.
Valerie Plame engaged in a clear case of nepotism and convinced the
CIA to send her husband on a fact finding mission in February 2002,
seeking to determine if Saddam Hussien attempted to buy yellowcake
from Niger. The CIA and British intelligence believed Saddam
contacted Niger for that purpose but needed proof.
During his trip to Niger, Wilson actually interviewed the former
prime minister of Niger, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki. Mayaki told Wilson
that in June of 1999, an Iraqi delegation expressed interest in
“expanding commercial relations” for the purposes of purchasing
yellowcake.
Wilson chose to overlook Mahaki’s remarks and reported to the CIA
that there was no evidence of Hussien wanting to purchase yellow cake
from Niger.
However, with British intelligence insisting the claim was true,
President Bush used that same claim in his State of the Union address
in January of 2003. Outraged by Bush’s insistence that the claim was
true, Wilson wrote an op-ed in the New York Times in the summer of
2003 slamming Bush.
Wilson did this in spite of the fact that Mayaki said Saddam did try
to buy the yellowcake from Niger. The Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence disagreed with Wilson and supported Mayaki’s claim. This
meant nothing to Wilson who was opposed to the Iraq war and thus had
ulterior motives in covering up the prime minister’s statements.
It was a simple tactic, really. If the far-left and their friends
in the media could prove Bush lied about Hussien wanting to purchase
yellowcake from Niger, it would undermine President Bush’s credibility
and give them more cause for asking what other lies he may have told.
Yet the real lie came from Wilson, who interpreted his own meaning
from the prime minister’s statements and concluded all by himself that
the claim of Saddam attempting to purchase yellowcake was
“unequivocally wrong.” Curiously the CIA sat on this information and
did not inform the CIA Director, who sided with Bush on the yellowcake
claim. This was made public in a bipartisan Senate Intelligence
Committee report in July 2004.
Valerie Plame also engaged in her own lie campaign by spreading the
notion that the Bush Administration outed her as a CIA agent. Never
mind that it was Richard Armitage – no friend of the Bush
administration – who leaked Plame’s identity to the press. Never mind
that Plame had not been in the field as a CIA agent in some six years.
The truth is, due to their opposition to the war, Joe Wilson,
Valerie Plame, the mainstream media, and their left-wing friends on
the blogo-sphere engaged in a propaganda campaign to undermine the
Bush administration. Now that Saddam’s uranium has been made public
and is no longer a threat to the world, do you think these
aforementioned parties will apologize and admit they were wrong?
Don’t count on it.
The rest of the American people should hear the truth about Saddam’s
uranium. It is up to you and me to inform them.
As far as the anti-war crowd is concerned, the next time they say
that Bush lied, we should tell them to “have the yellowcake and eat it
too.”
For verification of this information, click on these links:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25546334/
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/u/uraniumyellowcake.htm
well that’s quite a mouthful katie couric, a real full load of information for you to swallow.
Yellow Cake is like Tasty Kake, but better!
Sweep this up for me:
))ooo
George now that the election is over its back to full disclosure. Well sort of.
I sent George Bush a box of Duncan Hines yellow cake mix.
Katie, why did you just put in the firt paragraph of the MSNBC story. (which is ancient history)? You forgot the line farther down “There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said.”
Everyone knew the stuff was there. It was old and not strong enough to made the weapons we feared. This isn’t the story you implied it was. You’ll tarnish the MSM by saying such things. tsk,tsk,
After this election, nothing can further tarnish CBS’s eye. My career as a perky cheerleader on the Today Show took a dramatic turn for the worst when I switched to real news. Details.
Hi Larry my esteemed colleague. Remember that night in the Poconos? Never mind that was Tom Synder. Anyway don’t you know that libraries are a thing of the past? No one uses libraries any more. People get books at garage sales or flea markets or Barnes & Nobles. They research on line. Only dinosaurs like yourself care about libraries. Dude you’re showing your age and irrelevance.
To all of my pirate friends, I could not resist sharing this article- enjoy!
Hijacked Oil Tanker Anchored Off `Pirate Stronghold’ (Update3)
2008-11-18 12:51:13.140 GMT
By Alaric Nightingale
Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) — A Saudi Arabian supertanker hijacked
off east Africa is anchored close to the Somalian coast, the U.S.
Navy and its owner said. Frontline Ltd., the world’s largest
owner of the ships, said it may divert vessels from the area.
Pirates directed the Sirius Star, the largest merchant ship
ever seized, to the Eyl coastal area to the north of Somalia,
navy spokesman Lieutenant Nate Christensen said by phone from
Bahrain today. Saudi Arabia’s state-owned shipping line, Vela
International Marine Ltd., said it created negotiation teams to
free the vessel and its crew of 25.
“What we’ve seen typically in the past, the vessel will be
held in anchorage off the coast in a pirate stronghold, for want
of a better word,” Christensen said. “We’ve had no
communication. Sometimes it’s a couple of hours, sometimes a
couple of days.”
Ships passing close to Somalian waters carry oil from the
Middle East via the Suez Canal and Asian-made goods to Europe and
the U.S. Some companies including Odfjell SE, the world’s largest
chemicals shipping line, have said they will shun the canal
because of the attacks off Somalia, threatening one of Egypt’s
biggest foreign-currency earners.
Frontline has yet to make a final decision about sending
carriers away from Somalia, Jens Martin Jensen, interim chief
executive officer of the company’s management unit, said by
mobile phone from Singapore today.
Premiums Advance
About 11 percent of the world’s seaborne petroleum passes
through the Gulf of Aden en route to the Suez Canal or regional
refineries. Shipping lines should “seriously consider” sailing
around Africa rather than using the Gulf of Aden, said Simon
Stonehouse, a hull underwriter at Brit Syndicates Ltd., a Lloyd’s
of London syndicate.
Insurance premiums will rise and unless the Egyptian
government becomes “more actively interested” in combating
piracy in the region they risk damaging the business of the Suez
canal, Stonehouse said.
The pirates are likely to have fired grappling hooks at the
supertanker, allowing them to scale the side of the ship using
rope ladders, said Roger Middleton, an analyst at Chatham House
in London. Middleton has researched Somalia for the past three
years and piracy for nine months.
Somalian pirates have asked for $1 million ransoms on
average this year, he said. New supertankers cost $148 million,
according to data from Oslo-based shipbroker Astrup Fearnley. The
Sirius Star is designed to carry more than 2 million barrels of
crude, which at the current price would be worth about $110
million on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Crew Safe
Ships are normally attacked by five or six pirates, though
given the size of the supertanker as many as 15 may have been
involved this time, Middleton said. Once the pirates are on board
they are normally joined by others, he said. A supertanker is
bigger than the Chrysler Building.
The crew of the Sirius are “believed to be safe” and Vela
is talking to their families, Vela said in an e-mailed statement
today. The crew consists of 19 Filipinos, 2 Britons, 2 Poles, 1
Saudi and 1 Croatian.
Saudi Arabia is unlikely to be considering an armed response
to the hijacking because it may endanger the crew, according to
Nick Day, London-based chief executive officer of Diligence Inc.,
a security and intelligence group.
“Once in port you’ve got several hundred people around
there, heavily armed,” said Day, a former member of the U.K.’s
Special Boat Service.
Ships Under Attack
Somali pirates are holding 250 crew hostage on board 14
merchant ships in coastal waters, according to the International
Maritime Bureau, which compiles data on piracy. There have been
88 attacks against ships in the area since January, of which 36
were hijacked and 14 remain captive, Noel Choong, head of the
bureau’s reporting center, said by phone from Kuala Lumpur today.
“Every single ship is coming under attack,” Captain
Nasrollah Sardashti, chartering manager of the National Iranian
Tanker Co., operator of Iran’s supertankers, said by phone from
Tehran today. “That’s what the captains are saying to us.”
Shipping lines are increasingly forming convoys to navigate
the Gulf of Aden, he said. The European Union last month joined
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, India, Malaysia and
Russia in deploying vessels to combat piracy.
“Piracy like terrorism is a disease that affects everyone
and we have to deal with,” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Saud
Al-Faisal said today in Athens.
Time to put weapons on these ships.Actually it’s overdue.Read “Dangerous Waters” & you’ll see how predictable this was.Written in the mid 90s I believe.
Thanks…..YAP. Ever since you started to promote that book, all I’ve been seeing are pirate stories from Somalia. Do you think terrorists can’t read? Why didn’t the author just title the book “A Terrorist’s Guide to Pirating”.
BTW, YAP what ever happened to the ship with all those tanks aboard?
The pirates won’t be satisfied until they get FREE AIR. Expect the thuggery to continue unabated until owners of gas stations stop oppressing the operators of motor vehicles.
I’m glad Dubya has made the high seas safer. Armed combat and occupation in Iraq was a good way to spend a bajillion dollars and to use our military.
Larry, in your post you mention “chiidren.” Are “chiidren” children who are being raised by Nintendo Wiis? Will they DESTROY ALL HUMANS? You’ve scared me.
Mr Larry,we still waiting for are check,my brothers DePaul and LeJohn and myself need to know who do we call for are check,do you know are the checks cut?my lazy mailman said he don’t know.
Ed-The MV Faina is still under pirate control,docked in Somolia.They never followed through on the threat to blow themselves up.Maybe their working out a way to get the tanks off board.
The book actually was a warning & the warning was ignored.
el ah….el ah….. You poor devils think that we needed a book to carry out our honorable misdeeds? We wrote the book on how to become evildoers. It’s called the “Koran Mutiny” The hero of the book Mr Muslim, takes over the ship
and turns the ship’s crew into scavage hunting high seas pirates. In our spare time we take flying lessons. Only takeoffs no landing lessons. It’s all for an evil cause you might say.
Hey guys, I think this article is worth reading and perhaps something most of us can agree on with hregard to how we got to this point in the economy. ))…
The Shallowest Generation
by James Quinn.
~~~
The Baby Boom Generation will never be mistaken for the Greatest Generation that survived the Great Depression and defeated evil in a World War that killed 72 million people. I hate to tell you Boomers, but putting a yellow ribbon on the back of your $50,000 SUV is not sacrifice. Our claim to fame is living way beyond our means for the last three decades, to the point where we have virtually bankrupted our capitalist system. Baby Boomers have been occupying the White House for the last sixteen years. The majority of Congress is Baby Boomers. The CEOs and top executives of Wall Street firms are Baby Boomers. The media is dominated by Baby Boom executives and on-air stars. We have no one to blame but ourselves for the current predicament. Blaming Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson for our dire situation is a cop out. Baby Boomers had the time, power, and ability to change our course. We have chosen to leave the heavy lifting to future generations in order to live the good life today.
Of course, not all Baby Boomers are shallow, greedy, and corrupt. Mostly Boomers with power and wealth fall into this category. There were 76 million Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1963. They now make up 28% of the U.S. population. Their impact on America is undeniable. The defining events of their generation have been the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, Kent State, Woodstock, the 1st man on the moon, and now the collapse of our Ponzi scheme financial system. They rebelled against their parents, protested the Vietnam War, and settled down in 2,300 square foot cookie cutter McMansions with perfectly manicured lawns, in mall infested suburbia. They have raised overscheduled spoiled children, moved up the corporate ladder by pushing paper rather than making things, lived above their means in order to keep up with their neighbors, bought whatever they wanted using debt, and never worried about the future. Over optimism, unrealistic assumptions, selfishness and conspicuous consumption have been their defining characteristics.
Boomers are currently in their prime earning and spending years. A Baby Boomer turns 50 years old every 7 seconds. The older Boomers had a fantastic run from 1989 through 2004. Median net worth for those between the ages of 55 and 59 rose 97% over 15 years to $249,700 in 2004. Median income rose 52%. The younger generation between the ages of 35 and 39 saw their median net worth fall 28% to $48,940. Their median income dropped 10% over the same 15 year period. It is clear that all Baby Boomers are not created equal. Based on calculations made by the Federal Reserve, at least 50% of Boomers will not have a happy retirement. The bottom 30% will reach the age of 65 with net worth of less than $100,000. They will try to subsist in poverty, dependent upon social security and part time Wal-Mart jobs until they die peniless. The top 30% will retire to lives of luxury and leisure. The middle 40% will muddle through with social security payments the only thing keeping them from an old age in poverty.
We have become a have and have not society. Our economy favors education, entrepreneurship, and creativity. Those benefitting from a good education will make dramatically more money than the uneducated laborers. The top 20% of households make 12.5 times the lowest 20% of households. This ratio was 7 to 1 in 1982. The top 1% of households make 20% of all the income in the U.S., the highest rate since 1928. Does this statistic portend a decade long depression? The difference between now and 1928 is the huge household debt burden of Americans. This usage of debt by the poor has masked the gap between haves and have nots for the last 20 years.
As I drive to work every day in my fully paid for 2002 CRV with 110,000 miles, I have plenty of time to observe my surroundings. Sitting in traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway, I have noticed that the number of luxury Mercedes, BMW, Cadillac and Lexus vehicles seems out of proportion to the number of wealthy people in the Philadelphia population. When I see an older gentleman, wearing a suit, driving one of these automobiles, I assume that he is a wealthy executive who has put in his time and rewarded himself with a luxury vehicle. But, most of these vehicles are being driven by Joe the Plumber types. As I take a short cut through some of the more depressed areas of West Philadelphia, I see people talking on their Apple iPhones, Direct TV satellite dishes attached to dilapidated row homes, and Cadillac Escalades & Mercedes parked on the mean streets. This is not exactly the world that Henry Fonda’s character, Tom Joad, described in The Grapes of Wrath:
“I’ll be all around in the dark – I’ll be everywhere. Wherever you can look – wherever there’s a fight, so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready, and when the people are eatin’ the stuff they raise and livin’ in the houses they build – I’ll be there, too.”
When I see “poor” people appearing to live a more luxurious life than myself, I don’t feel jealous. The thought that goes through my head is: Which banks or finance companies were foolish enough to loan these people the money to live this lifestyle? These foolish financial institutions will never get their loans repaid. What does bother me is that the Bush-Paulson-Pelosi Bailout of Stupid Banks will use my taxes to buy these bad loans from the foolish banks. So, who is the fool in this scenario? The “poor” person got to drive a Cadillac Escalade for a period of time, the foolish banks got bailed out, the bank CEOs took home $30 million, and I lived within my means and footed the bill for the reckless actions of others. It appears that the fools are the Americans who lived their lives according to the rules. The anger is building. I don’t think the politicians running this country realize what true anger looks like. They are used to Americans being herded along like passive sheep.
I’ve heard many Republican ideologues blame the current crisis on the people who took the subprime loans for home purchases. I’ve also heard many Democratic ideologues blame the crisis on the regulators. The ideologues are wrong, as usual. If a poor person has no home, no vehicle, and no prospects; then a bank tells them that they can buy a $300,000 home, drive a $55,000 Mercedes SUV, and live like people on TV; why wouldn’t they say yes? What is their downside? If you have nothing and “The Man” offers you the American dream, you’d actually be foolish to say no. Now that they have lost the home in foreclosure and the repo man has taken the Mercedes, they are exactly where they were a few years ago with no home, no vehicle and no prospects.
The regulators were certainly asleep at the wheel. They did not enforce existing rules, foolishly waived leverage rules for the biggest investment banks, and believed that the banks would regulate themselves. They were wrong, but they never made a single loan. The commercial banks, investment banks, auto finance companies, and credit card companies made the ridiculous loans to people who could never pay them back in the search for short term profits. Greedy Wall Street executives created an artificial market for the loans in order to generate billions in fees so they could enrich themselves through stock options and obscene bonuses. They spent their false riches on $2 million NYC penthouses, $100,000 Porsche 911s, and $5 million beachfront estates in the Hamptons. Based on the estimated $2 trillion of losses that our banks have generated, the CEOs certainly deserved annual pay 500 times as high as the average worker. There is no way an “average” worker could possibly be talented enough to lose $2 trillion. You would need to be truly extraordinary to lose that much.
Absurdity, cartoonish violence, sexism, campiness — these are no bars to enjoying a matinee with my teenaged boys. So off we went to see Daniel Craig as James Bond do his suave star turn in Quantum of Solace over the weekend.
We ought to have known, from the impenetrable title, that this was not going to be satisfying entertainment. “Quantum” means — roughly — amount, and “solace” of course means comfort. Since this is a story about revenge, we are asked to believe that Bond achieves a measure of comfort from dispatching any number of bad guys unfortunate enough to cross his path. The Bond girl, too, is acting out her own revenge fantasy. Unfortunately, there was hardly a quantum of coherence to the story.
Bond is seeking revenge for the murder of his love Vesper (introduced in Casino Royale). Except that Vesper betrayed him. Or has he forgiven her? We aren’t sure how he feels because the dialogue is extremely sketchy. Craig’s Bond is not the winking, debonair skirt chaser of earlier iterations. He is all taut energy and grim determination. That’s fine. The nudge-nudge naughtiness of the earlier Bonds was cloying. But Quantum’s plot line is so neglected (nearly all of the focus is on chase scenes and hand-to-hand fighting) that we don’t get any clear idea of why this particularly menacing Bond is killing people without so much as a backward glance.
The vast conspiracy in this film concerns a fiend who uses an environmental firm as a cover to corner the market on the world’s most precious resource — water. A little harder to swallow than Goldfinger’s plan to corner the market on gold perhaps. O.K., whatever. But the film’s writers and producers could not resist making the CIA a heavy. The CIA, we are told, has no objections to propping up corrupt and murderous thugs in Latin America so long as a few individuals get a cut of the action. Explaining his plan to his CIA contact, (I quote from memory) the villain notes that the U.S. surely does not want another Marxist “giving away wealth” to the people of Latin America. (The British are portrayed as having rogue elements, a high-ranking minister and a few secret agents on the take, but not the entire security service.)
Here we go again. As it happens, I hold no brief for the CIA. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a dysfunctional agency that has been wrong about most of the important threats of our lifetimes. In 1981, noting the careerism, caution, and lack of elan he saw, Robert Gates said the CIA had “a case of advanced bureaucratic arteriosclerosis … CIA is slowly turning into the Department of Agriculture.” But the idea — and it is a hoary one — that the CIA is in the business of creating evil, right-wing dictatorships in Latin America is just laughable. Besides, the CIA in the film is clearly meant to stand for the U.S.
Yes, the U.S. had a role in propping up dictators in the 1950s and ‘60s. And yes, it would have been ideal if those countries had moderate democrats we could support. But they usually didn’t. It was often a choice between a Soviet-backed thug like Fidel Castro or a right-wing regime.
But in the 1980s and since, the United States did everything possible to find the moderate forces in places like El Salvador and Nicaragua. We enjoyed great success in spreading democracy and free markets in Latin America. Don’t look to Hollywood for instruction, but today that progress is profoundly threatened — not by right-wing nut jobs as the movies would have it — but by genuine left-wing dictators and would-be dictators. Do the names Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, and Daniel Ortega not ring a bell? Last week, Castro acolyte Chavez threatened to send tanks into states that refused to vote for his slate of candidates in local elections. Morales, the left-wing leader of Bolivia, had stopped cooperating with U.S. anti-drug efforts in his country and has arrested domestic opponents. Ortega, returned to power in Nicaragua by a 38-percent plurality vote, is repeating the tactics that made him so unpopular in the 1980s — stifling dissent, fixing elections, and employing street thugs to intimidate the opposition.
Hollywood types were delighted with the election of Barack Obama, some hoping that the choice would improve America’s image abroad. It’s a little ironic, because Hollywood’s portrayal of the U.S., in a thousand films like this one, goes a long way toward creating that anti-American sentiment in the first place.
Ahoy maties! Back from tooling around the Caribbean. Ye are hearty men endure the abyss of this here website. Sir Larry is a friendly enough captain but his ship has been drifting without sails or rudder for a long time. He be as clueless as that pirate Barney Frank with a similar aft looking approach. Argggh. Sir Larry lives in the past much like pirates.
Nora-This site sometimes devolves into a Pirate site but never a movie review site.
Here’s my suggestion for another topic: what do we do to stop the escalating acts of piracy ? How involved should the U.S,France,Egypt etc become ?
Short of providing some security at strategic choke points, I think it should be incumbant upon host waters nation and sovereignty of the ship to provide security in open seas.
It is not a movie review. It is an Obama review.
Reagan would have bombed the pirates back to the stone age. Then he would have sent in the CIA to mop up the survivors.
OOOJ-”Host water nation ” would be Somolia in this case so that’s out.Weapons on board should be mandatory.
Nora-This is (primarily) a pro -Obama site so pick your metaphors carefully.
Obama can put a sock in it. He is nothing but a new Clinton. Clinton caused all of the problems in Somaliland. That is all.
Nora-The idea that you can “bomb them back to the stone age ” didn’t work for LeMay in that other “adventure”,a.k.a. Vietnam.
YFAP, who is your guess to who the regular blogger is behind “Angry Nora”?
My guess is George.
LARRY, I KNOW WE HAVE NOT HIT THE MANDATORY 6 DAY OR 100 BLOG COUNT YET BUT CAN YOU PLEASE CHANGE THE BLOG TOPIC. THIS MAY BE YOUR WEAKEST EFFORT YET.
LARRY, THERE ARE NO REGULARS LEFT. EVEN THE SOCK PUPPETS HAVE HAD IT. TIME TO REACT BEFORE EVERYONE IS GONE.
LARRY, IT CAME IN THROUGH THE BATHROOM WINDOW
Another Phila cop bites the dust. Let’s face it, the city is a cesspool and needs a total makeover. If we would just legalize drugs inside the city limits then the jails would be able to contain the bad guys who have an extensive records for other felonies. Drug dealers would be off the streets. No more turf wars for the best dealing locations. Those addicted would be finger printed and offered rehab opportunities. The profits from the sale of drugs could be used to rehab the war torn neighborhoods. I say prohibition didn’t work neither has the war on drugs……
LARRY CHANGE THE TOPIC!!!!!!!
OOOJ, Angry Nora is not me. I have not been sock puppetting lately, but did at one time have a very active double life as puppeteer on this site.
I don’t usually go for the extended manifesto but the one submitted by George is a sobering piece. It is strange how the generation of hippies, counter-culture and rebellion became the ultimate middle class consumer of ‘stuff’.
Maybe we should make room for movie reviews. There’s not much new on this blog. The page turns once a week anymore. Maybe we could sell advertising space.
Angry Nora is either a drive by type or the latest nom de guerre of he who shall not be named.
FJ-There is lots of irony in what you say.So much for the “revolution”.Don’t have much sympathy for people who got caught up in “keeping up”,too bad if it didn’t work out.
Ed-I go back & forth on the idea of legalizing drugs but never reach the point where I fully endorse it.If it played out the way you describe it, yea…….
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by discouraging the rich. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
-Abraham Lincoln
I don’t think Abe would want wealth redistribution or social welfare.
New topic-Should we bail out the big three ? My short answer,no.I say that with some hesitation because I don’t want to see people get hurt.As you can guess,I’m not a big union guy & I think that’s at the root of the problem.
YAP, bail them out, but only with union concessions such that big three can employee american workers at same pay scale as Japanaese and german companies do at American car plants in right to work states. Give the Big three one last chance to get it right. They need to shrink no matter what, but economy cannot take shock of failure now, too many related jobs, health benefits etc. Just look at all the lost tax revenue if they fail, plus those employess go on government payroll for uneployment benefits, i’d rather have them working!!
George-I agree that a bail out solves a short term problem.Would it not be better to let them reorganize under chapter 11 and maybe shed some union problems ?
Georgr, I agree on the cutbacks but it has to be everyone. When the GM spinoff, Delphi, was going down, the unions were hammered into taking 50% pay cuts and loss of a lot of benefits. However, the operations budget contained $500 million (1/2 B!!!) for executive bonuses. That’s got to stop.
agreed formerly Jim. Just like the TARP money being given to banks, there must be caps on executive comp and abrogation of golden parachutes etc.
With regard to a bakruptcy, chapter 11 would be nice if it allowed them to really reorganize, but I think it will lead to liquidation as consumers panic that warranties will not be honered and banks stop financing cars made by the company in bankruptcy.The unintened consequnces of banruptcy are too great and unknown to try it in the current environment. Two years ago the economy could have dealt with it, not now, we are too much on the brink of depression in my view.
Okay,this topic is over.How about Ayman al-Zawahiri’s flaming rhetoric toward Obama ?
This topic tanked too.
Larry Mendte has really disappeared, perhaps LArry Kane could invite him to write News Flashes here as he tries to rehabilitate his career. Dawn Stensland is tired of having him around the house all day, and the nuns taught him that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. This blog could give Mendte soemthing to obsessively check 20-40 times per day and would boost his ego, since he patterned his metoric career rise after the great LArry KAne, that is until he lost his way with Alicia Lane affair. LArry helping Larry get back on his feet again would be a great human interest story- what do say Kane Man?
May this blog rest in peace…….Amen
Hi Larry,
I was born and raised in philly and grew up watching you on the news everynight,so imagine my surprise when a copy of Lennon made its way to my hands and I realized that you were apart of such an amazing era in the mist of true greatness and writing and witnessing life fighting for change. I havent been able to put your book down I think its awsome. Im very proud of you being a hometown man and excellent writer, thanks for your vision.