" Nicely written... Of course, every self-appointed editor has to add something.

So I'd add that this week the DC stooges of the Wall Street Weasels started shoveling the furniture that could be used to build a life raft into the furnance so we will hit the iceberg even harder.

~Ruff "

" I know how you feel.

If you look at the depression, it was a time in our history where we were closer to our agricultural roots. People were not that far removed from knowing how to actually care for themselves without dependency on others. The level of population was considerably smaller too. But still, there were hard times. People suffered.

Jump ahead to our times and clearly we are in trouble. The vision that comes to mind is New Orleans on a grand scale as so many people who are dependent on others come out of the woodwork and demand services. As a whole, we are not self sufficient. We sustain a high population of those who are enabled and we do nothing to plan for the future. I've never heard one politician address the issue of how to sustain an over populated country who has become large as a direct result of energy availability, nor any solutions on what to do should that energy availability diminish. We are headed toward that iceberg and everyone is pretending it isn't happening.

I'm not joking around when I suggest this: but people need to start thinking about how to grow food. My lawn area, for example, is going to be replaced with some meandering paths and a food garden. I've already planted many fruit trees in the past six months. I'm waiting for solar panel prices to come down to earth and then I will be able to operate my well without dependency on outside sources. Food will become prohibitively expensive so you better start planning now. And for all of those who think government will step up to the plate to take care of you, if they're in the same boat, they'll save themselves first. "

" Ruff Limblog wrote on Oct 5, 2008 8:34 AM:".....DC stooges of the Wall Street Weasels....."

Anything to distract from the real culprits, Carter and Clinton... Carter's attempt at a legacy was to have a policy that everyone had the right to own a home, whether they could afford it or not, and Clinton gutted the regs to make it happen on a large scale... It would have been discriminatory to turn down loans based on race, gender, and finally a disqualifying credit profile, thus Fannie and Freddie bloomed and paid back their Democrat supporters like Dodd and Frank and Obama...

You're like the Navy when something bad happens, Ruff... Blame the lowest ranking grunt you can find as a scapegoat...

The very people who created this mess are the ones who are enriching themselves from the bailout(s)... The House couldn't even pass this bill until the pot was sweetened for the Democrats with more ridiculous earmarks, otherwise called bribes...

Get a grip on the truth...... "

" Dwayne -

Please tell us all a big yarn about those 'poor people' who gathered up 'toxic waste' mortgages into CDOs and peddled them all over the world in huge blocks.

Last time I checked a home buyer wannabe with a lousy job and bad credit could not peddle bad paper for Wall Street grifters to European and Asian central banks.

The real thieving was done by a bunch of white-collar highly-educated Wall Street Weasels like Hank Paulsen who took home multi-millions from Wall Street before he became the Bush choice to head up the latest looting of our treasury.

So far the only professionally qualified Bushite-Republican appointee has been a professional looter.

I have a step-son who was a special needs student and barely graduated high school. Since he is now over 21, he gets scammed by every telemarketer, easy-credit card issuer and email scamster. He had no way to pay, but the scams pour in.

But the laws protect the scamsters and not this poor kid. Just try calling the local District Attorney and find out if you can protect a child over the age of 21.

Please have the decency to quit peddling the VICIOUS LIE that Wall Street was victimized by folks like my poor stepson.

The Bush-Paulsen pork-enhanced Bailout bill was not dreamed up by the victims pulled in by easy-credit scamsters. It was a gift to money-grubbing criminals who buy politicians.

~Ruff "

" Dwayne - What is it about you and your contempt of facts? It is an ongoing problem with extreme right wing conservatives and even though I shouldn't be surprised by it, I am.

From the NY Times. I guarantee it doesn't mention Clinton or Carter. The reason why is obvious.

"Many events in Washington, on Wall Street and elsewhere around the country have led to what has been called the most serious financial crisis since the 1930s. But decisions made at a brief meeting on April 28, 2004, explain why the problems could spin out of control. The agency’s failure to follow through on those decisions also explains why Washington regulators did not see what was coming.

On that bright spring afternoon, the five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission met in a basement hearing room to consider an urgent plea by the big investment banks.

They wanted an exemption for their brokerage units from an old regulation that limited the amount of debt they could take on. The exemption would unshackle billions of dollars held in reserve as a cushion against losses on their investments. Those funds could then flow up to the parent company, enabling it to invest in the fast-growing but opaque world of mortgage-backed securities; credit derivatives, a form of insurance for bond holders; and other exotic instruments.

The five investment banks led the charge, including Goldman Sachs, which was headed by Henry M. Paulson Jr. Two years later, he left to become Treasury secretary.

A lone dissenter — a software consultant and expert on risk management — weighed in from Indiana with a two-page letter to warn the commission that the move was a grave mistake. He never heard back from Washington." "

" Geee whiz, Ruffie, I didn't see you mention or defend Dodd or Frank or Obama...

Psssst.... There's an elephant in the room, and it's the truth you so eagerly avoid...

Besides, you have to give me credit for not brining Obama's huge ears into the discussion... That's 'cause I'm being polite... ;-)

I suggest the Reverend Jeremiah Wright for Secretary of the Treasury... He'd fix this problem permanently... "

" Dwayne -

There's the distinct aroma of Republican flop-sweat in the air. The next weeks are going to be very nasty as the Republicans have said they are going negative. And progressives are prepared.

I don't recall naming a single politician in my post.

Nor have I talked about the ear sizes of the various species of Republican elephants.

Nice attempts at changing the subject, but I am undeterred.

It's a funny thing thing about the criminal mind - many of the most predatory rapists are always saying in various ways "She was asking for it... She wanted it... "

And greed-sickened thieves say "If they didn't want me to steal it, they should not have left it where I could find it."

The Wall Street Weasels and their "opinion mercenaries" are attempting to do the very same thing... blame the victims.

The facts are that Wall Street Weasels raped pension funds, banks, and unwary investors out of hundreds of billions of dollars and now the criminals want the the government to charge the victims for their rape kits.

~Ruff "

" Dwayne - Your one swell authoritarian.

"How can they revere those
who gave their lives defending freedom and then support moves to take that freedom away? How can they go on believing things that have been disconfirmed over and over again, and disbelieve things that are well established? How can they think they are the best people in the world, when so much of what they do ought to show them they are not? Why do their leaders so often turn out to be crooks and hypocrites? Why do the followers accept the flimsy excuses and even obvious lies that their leaders proclaim, and cling to them so dogmatically? Why are both the followers and the leaders so aggressive that hostility is practically their trademark? Why are both so unaffected by the evil they do? "

One of the obvious things is self reflection is not a quality they posses. "

" Ruffie, I expect all your posts to be partisan colored, and you never fail....

Bauhausfan, I read your post three times and have no idea what it means... Have annuda beer... "

" I think I misinterpreted the goal of this commentary in my first post. Nevertheless, I feel we are headed for an iceberg and that, yes, it was greed that brought us to this place. Still, you cannot deny where this is taking us and what impact it will have on the general population. No one is talking about THAT! I suppose we'll respond "after the fact" like we always do, and remain strongly distracted by the causes of the financial crisis instead of discussing HOW to cope with it.

While you guys are all over in that corner arguing the point of who's responsible, I'm in this corner stocking up on supplies.

At this point the damage has been done. We cannot reset time and prevent these events from happening. Applying blame may help us with the future and possibly help us pick our next president (which isn't going to make a huge bit of difference which one it is at this point) but it's not preparing us for the hardships were are about to face.

We've already hit the iceberg. It's just that you cannot see water in the keel. "

" Dwayne - I suspect I know which comment you read three times, but it would be nice to know which one for sure.

I suspect it is the comment with quotes describing authoritarian personality. Here is a really good description of that type:

"High RWAs have proven to be relatively submissive to government injustices, unsupportive of civil liberties
and the Bill of Rights, supportive of the Experimenter in the Milgram situation,
high shockers themselves in a “punish the learner” situation, punitive toward lawbreakers, mean-spirited, ready to join government “posses” to run down almost everyone (including themselves), happy with traditional sex roles, strongly influenced
by group norms, highly religious (especially in a fundamentalist way), and politically conservative (from the grass roots up to the pros, say studies of over 1,500 elected lawmakers). They also have remarkably compartmentalized minds,
endorse a multitude of contradictory beliefs, apply a variety of double standards to their thinking on social matters, are blind to themselves, dogmatic, fearful of a dangerous world, and self-righteous to beat the band." "

" Dwayne….great comments….

When it comes to mathematics it’s meaningless to explain anything to those who are outraged at the millions while their parties policies caused a trillion dollar collapse when, or if, it is ever totaled up.

The Lehmans, Bears and etc. invested massively in the subprime securities at the behest of the Clinton Administration…through the efforts of the Democrat institutions known as Feddie Mac and Fannie Mae….Obama took personal contributions of over $42,000.00 per year while in the Senate from Feddie and Fannie….it can’t get any more basic than that. "