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Comments Posted By MurphTheSurf3

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The Debt Ceiling Battle: Obama Won It, Despite What You Heard

And then there was the Senate report that put a lion’s share of the responsibility at their front door.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/04/13/112138/report-market-share-drove-faulty.html

WASHINGTON — Analysts who reviewed complex mortgage bonds that ultimately collapsed and ruined the U.S. housing market were threatened with firing if they lost lucrative business, prompting faulty ratings on trillions of dollars worth of junk mortgage bonds, a Senate report said Wednesday.

The 639-page report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations confirms much of what McClatchy first reported about mismanagement by credit ratings agencies in 2009.

YES, REPRISAL ALSO MAKES SENSE AS A REASON FOR THEIR ACTION.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 7:14 pm

Glad to hear it.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 7:10 pm

I feel like I am at a book club and keep running into a very interesting person named choicelady. So another conversation…

Consider the power that Fox wields. The highest rated cable news network that so clearly and obviously trades in lies and was hatched by a young Ailes in the White House and then funded by Murdoch whose citizenship was a gift of a GOP President.

Considering who the Fox audience is, your definition of power is particularly apropos. Now extend that to the Tea Party (and consider how they were underwritten by mega-millionaires and billionaires via Freedom Works et. al) and it all makes very disturbing sense.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 7:09 pm

Add 3 years for me, but as a student of American Political History I suggest that we have not had a Congress as incapable as this one since Great Depression (when they were matched by an equally useless President).

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 6:45 pm

No I am not Wendell, but I am an admirer of him and his economic philosophy as expressed in his many works (fiction, non-fiction and poetry). An amazing “great soul.”

Like you, I suspect.

Brilliant thoughts so carefully packaged deserve a standing ovation. Considered yourself “hailed and huzzahed.”

The Banana Republicans and so many of my neighbors who they are duping pine for the America of the 18th century while serving the destructive co-dependence of 21st century globalism. Look at the Koch’s, “heroes” of the right, who are, in fact, puppet masters.

Pleasure exchanging thoughts.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 6:31 pm

ChoiceLady….again on the same page.

If it were not for this Bush Created Recession, Barack would truly be about great things….come to think of it, he is but they are mostly about keeping us afloat.

FDR is one of my heroes, but he faced the same problem Obama has. Having righted the floundering ship of state, the Congress then turned on him. FDR was “rescued” by WWII, the largest public employment program in history. Obama? I do not know. I certainly do not wish for war. Can he make the case that we fighting a war against decline and get the infrastructure crisis addressed?

But….you are correct, he plays a very cagey game. He is a centrist, but this means he is pulling a good bit from the left as he works for significant social change. His right side is his reliance on the Wall Street Mechanism and U.S. Defense posture. Not all that I want, but a darn bit better than what he GOP or any other Dem could have given us.

Simpson Bowles was a compromise when the GOP bailed but I think Obama has used it to strategically put revenue enhancement on the table.

B of A….I am a credit union guy.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 6:20 pm

I worked very closely with the Obama campaign in four states and got to know a number of his people who knew him well. I think he is the real thing. Not everything I wanted but a heck of a lot more than I know I would have gotten with anyone else, including Hillary.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 6:07 pm

choicelady

Nearly 40 of those who came on Tea Party enthusiasm are facing very tough races in very middle and lower middle class districts where the unhappiness with Congress is thick and frothy. You are right they know this and they are nervous.

Your read on Obama is mine as well.

And yep, ANY Dem, no matter how bad, is better than an GOPer, no matter how good.

Work for 2012.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 6:04 pm

The only way that little guys will have a chance is if the Dems get back the House, keep the WH and hold onto the Senate (filibuster problems and all).

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 5:52 pm

The so called “super committee” (more properly a joint special binding committee) is operating under rules that have been used to run committees that have closed military bases, refunded Social Security, rewritten the tax code etc.

This is what the GOP proposed in 2007, which Obama endorsed and the Dems said they would accept….and it became the Bowles/Simpson Commission after the GOP withdrew their support (mostly because Obama was for it).

The questions you pose will play out in the next two months. I will take some time to consider them. All I know is tha Barack is one of the smartest cats we have in the WH.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 1:49 pm

I have copy and archived your comment. Terrific sources. I knew of most of them but the People’s View and Oakland Institute are new. I will check them both out.

I am a small farmer (very small). I have three plots (each about 25′ X 50′) where I grow a lot of my vegetables starting in May and ending in Novemeber. I do corn, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbus, squash, peppers, carrots, rutabagas, string beans, peas, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries.

I can a lot of stuff which is used across the winter.

So I have a sensitivity to the farmer and her/his needs.

By the way, I do much of this because I need to. I was a professor of history, but I also worked in another field (as a meeting organizer) and that had become a big part of my income. In 2008 the company for whom I worked folded almost overnight. As it turned out the top bosses did very well in the liquidation…the rest of us were left to paddle on a raft without paddles.

So, I work part time, fight to be sure that the pensions I am looking for in three years are still there when I begin to tap into them, grow food, do all my own home repair (a home I own in toto) and share a car with three others…..and I grow a lot of food…some of which I exchange in barter for services from others.

It’s a new (old) world.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 1:44 pm

What I think is important is the recognition of how many newspapers are owned by so few and how many newspapers are no longer owned by anyone because they are gone.

Print journalism has always been investigative journalism and while the e-world has helped to keep some of that alive BUT a newsroom setting provides the kind of personnel with the kind of training that can really, really DIG and have fact checkers and editors pushing them to verify, verify, verify and then go further.

Imagine the dynamic duo at WaPo without Ben Bradley and that pack of attorneys who made them nail down what they knew.

They also had the luxury of time. Woodward and Bernstein were allowed to work on Watergate almost exclusively for many months. Today, the news cycle moves faster and faster.

While the internet has given greater access to information, it has also provided fertile ground for disinformation. Google searches then to turn up as many lies as truths on anything controversial.

Fortunately, places like PlanetPOV, Alternet, Link TV and Current TV along with non U.S. news sources like BBC and Al Jazeera have filled in some of the gaps.

Good perspective. Thanks.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 1:33 pm

Not sure of your point. Is the LOL the a “chuckle” as in “of course” or is it a “derisive chortle” as in, Murph, you are full of it?

Of course Obama has been negotiating. When faced with Blue Dogs on one side, and neo-Socialists on the other, in the big tent Dem party, this is what s required.

Of note, I took a tally on the measures he has put forth forth in the Illinois Senate and the U.S. Senate. Nearly 75 percent of all the bills he sponsored, or cosponsored are bi-partisan efforts.

It is his natural orientation.

So, are we agreeing or at odds?

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 1:22 pm

Abe, Teddy, Ike would have found no home with this crowd, for certain.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 1:15 pm

They pay attention to that which fits their script. If it does not fit, it’s got no grit.

RedState.com ran a three day blitz attacking McConnell and Boehner, but when it became clear that the GOP defeat had been refashioned as a “triumph” they changed their tune as well.”

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 1:14 pm

Don’t know about the sexy part but I do know what kind of person I would like to be. And Obama is that kind of person.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 10:08 am

The nightmare’s coverage is one of the reason S and P did the downgrade. Its report explaining why the rating was lowered is clear that the impression created by the events was much more important than the events themselves. I.E. There was little doubt the U.S. would honor all debts, but the growing political rancor made what had been a “sure bet” into a “small gamble.” Thanks to the GOP…pure and simple.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 10:06 am

Scripted, punch line oriented, geared to slogans, and commercial. Yep.

Agreed.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 10:04 am

Your reply is why I joined PlanetPOV.

It has provided me with a wealth of new thinking, linked concepts and a agricultural perspective. I am going to copy and archive your post for future use (as a reference and for pithy paraphrasing).

I live in rural Missouri and the power of agribusiness over local government is extraordinary.

As to the rest….we are on the same page. Well done.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 10:03 am

We are on the same page in this. Read my reply to Emerald1943 above for some additional thoughts on the nature of the RW media juggernaut and the Left Wingish muddle.

You bring up another fine point…..the lack of discipline within the “real and respected” body of journalists.

Research, analysis, and message craftsmanship seem to have been relegated to a museum. Why? I think it is the result of the competition for “clicks, hits, and Nielsen points.” The 24/7 news apparatus is mostly talking heads who repeat the same stories again and again all in the search for attention.

Sites like this refresh the dialogue a bit but have small audiences. The same can be said for Link and Current TV.

Best to you of the “True North”.

MTS

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 7:19 am

The GOP has been very disciplined about message and the managing of same.

The the right wing media multiplies the GOP message.

And both arise from the same source: the generally out-of-sight sponsors/owners of both. Corporatocracy is real and it threatens the roots of democracy at every turn.

In the meantime the Dems, and their supporters have to count on media streams dependent on more public support and aligned with the ideas of independent journalism. It’s a bit ironic that most of those outlets really do make an effort to be fair and balanced.

You are correct that the White House press release tells the tale but it’s not one that many of the public voices picked up on. Heck, the Dems did not pick up on it.

Appreciate your comments.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 7:12 am

When The Simmering Public Finally Erupts

Ok….my candle avatar is showing up at a few places here (scroll up and look to the right at the comment summary strip) BUT not showing up in the comments.

Is there something I need to turn on or set? I also have a phrase associated with my avatar (Proud to be an Independent Progressive).

Any help would be appreciated.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 1, 2011 @ 3:00 pm

Yawp. I did that and nothing so far. I already had my avatar at my e mail address so???? Thought there was a trick.

I want to use the same avatar here as I use as HP (the same with my name

I will keep working on it.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 1, 2011 @ 2:49 pm

Hey there funky….it will take a while to figure out to navigate this site.

But I am giving it a try.

How do you get your avatar image to show?

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 1, 2011 @ 2:33 pm

As a child of the 60’s who spent a lot of time in demonstrations, in organizing for change, in railing against the machinery that churned out societal evil, we grew up….Today feels so much like those days.

The Tea Party was and is sham. A front for corporate interests. The Occupy movement seems to be significantly different. We Shall Overcome…I hope.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 1, 2011 @ 2:00 pm

What the Media Won’t Tell You About “Class Warfare”

Oh, I do not say he was a prince. His philanthropy was motivated by his belief that wealth had to be devoted to making more wealth. What he objected to was the dissipation of wealth in ways that threw it away. His essay points out that this is clearly the case in the wastrel sons and daughters of the captains of industry BUT he alludes to waste from government as well.I expect he would be very critical of many government programs today. Money wasted because it did not promote production.

I did not know about his wife and will spend some time looking into that piece of information. It would confirm some of what I know about his work in philanthropy.

Bottom line. I think he makes an argument that one of the motivations for philanthropy of the kind he promotes is selfishness and avarice. How about that!?

As Warren Buffet has said: It puzzles him that so many of his fellow mega millionaires and billionaires have not figured out that if the middle or bottom of the socio economic pyramid upon which upper class is perched collapse….WE ALL GO DOWN.

Carnegie would agree.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 2:04 pm

Thank you for your own thinking in this.

I find your comparison of the electoral process to a reality show very telling.

Scripted, while seeming to be spontaneous.

Driven by ratings.

About making a buck.

Faked.

Yep. Well done.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 10:57 am

The Google Executive, Warren Buffet, and others, like those from Patriotic Millionaires (http://www.patrioticmillionaires.org/)should take their inspiration from Andrew Carnegie and the Gospel of Wealth

In June of 1899 Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men in the world published an essay, an open letter, to the world.

Carnegie, a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century, wrote “The Gospel Wealth.”

A man of no small means he was worth between $299 and $374billion in 2011 dollars.

In the essay, Carnegie described the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich.

He argued that the very rich had to use their money as seed to enrich society in ways that lifted all boats. His reasons for this were not noblesse oblige or the requirement of a citizen’s duty. His argument was that smart philanthropy increased wealth which in turn made life in civilized society better.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 2, 2011 @ 10:53 am

Live Blog – GOP Debate # ????

I have no desire to stay with Fox unless I have to….so I am over at MSNBC with Big Ed.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 15, 2011 @ 8:11 pm

1 in 2 Americans are poor. The Legacy of GOP economy policy (with assists from corporatist Dems)…that’s what Obama is living with.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On December 15, 2011 @ 7:54 pm