Our federal govenment now controls the largest insurance company in the world

GlennS wrote:

GlennS wrote: passed in the Senate 90-8-1 and in the House: 362-57-15.

Im bad with fractions, is that two thirds?

you're bad with the way laws are made as well i guess, was that a veto override vote?

Strizzo wrote:

GlennS wrote:

GlennS wrote: passed in the Senate 90-8-1 and in the House: 362-57-15.

Im bad with fractions, is that two thirds?

you're bad with the way laws are made as well i guess, was that a veto override vote?

Why would he veto something that has near unanimous support? Feel good points? Its just going to go back and get overridden.

maybe to express that he didn't approve of the bill? isn't that why he has veto power in the first place?

Strizzo wrote: maybe to express that he didn't approve of the bill? isn't that why he has veto power in the first place?

I'm pretty sure the president "has" the "veto" to serve as a "Check" and/or "Balance" against the "power" of the "legislature".

Salanis wrote:

Strizzo wrote: maybe to express that he didn't approve of the bill? isn't that why he has veto power in the first place?

I'm pretty sure the president "has" the "veto" to serve as a "Check" and/or "Balance" against the "power" of the "legislature".

Now we know, and knowing is half the battle!

Salanis wrote:

Strizzo wrote: maybe to express that he didn't approve of the bill? isn't that why he has veto power in the first place?

I'm pretty sure the president "has" the "veto" to serve as a "Check" and/or "Balance" against the "power" of the "legislature".

aaaaand for what? to "veto" anything that he doesn't see as useful legislation. i'm not sure if i can explain this any more simple.

clinton didn't veto the bill. he signed it into law, instead of using one of any other methods that could have communicated his disaproval with it. if he disagreed with its intent or purpose, he could have a) not signed it, and after ten days (not including sundays) it would have become law without his signature b) vetoed the bill, and see if the house and senate could get another 2/3rds vote to override the veto c) used a "pocket veto" if congress were to adjourn before the ten days were up.

8 years of bullE36 M3 later and people are still blaming the one guy who slowed growth of the federal deficit.

Buck up fellows! Your team had the ball and screwed up the touchdown.

I won't say the Democrats are going to do better. The democratic congress sure didn't do jack. I blame them as much as Bush and his 8 years of weak domestic policy.

At least be adult enough to admit we didn't get here because of 8 yrs of flawless leadership. Mistakes were made. Stop trotting out an Administration that is 8 years in the grave. It's truly pathetic. After all, we don't exist in the alternative reality that is Fox news.

i never said its the fault of any one person, in fact quite the opposite. when a president signs a bill into law, is it not reasonable to believe that he approves of said law? the bottom line is that it doesn't matter what the vote was in the house and senate, the president can still veto it, and they have to go back and vote on it again.

you can't say that clinton has no responsibility in it when he signed the bloody thing into law.

The news keeps getting worse

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2008/09/17/2008-09-17_hard_economic_times_hits_the_high_end_gi.html

Hard economic times hits the High End Girlfriend Index

The Dow Jones industrial average rebounded a bit Tuesday, but the true index for measuring hard times - the High End Girlfriend Index - was off the charts.

The HEGI is charted by Edward Hayes, a noted lawyer who started as a Bronx homicide prosecutor but has become the go-to guy among the city's moneyed classes when promises are broken.

"Particularly if you happen to be a woman in trouble," Hayes says.

The model for the defense lawyer in Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities," Hayes is an astute observer of social archetypes, including a particular sort of schlub who was invisible to girls in high school but became a magnetic figure thanks to the magic of millions.

"You have a Wall Street guy and he looks like one of the seven dwarfs," Hayes says.

The schlub finds himself with a fabulous girlfriend such as used to brush pasthim as if he were a wall. He will do almost anything to keep her if his magic millions suddenly evaporate, even selling his watch and cuff links.

"The last overhead to go is a really high-end girlfriend," Hayes says. "If you're a short, ugly 40-year-old guy and you're throwing over a high-quality girlfriend, you're desperate."

The absolute economic low comes with a realization that Hayes summarizes in a sentence.

"I can't afford her anymore!"

When he hears of one tumbling titan after another giving up a fabulous girlfriend, Hayes knows we are in the direst of economic times, no matter what the Dow says.

"I see the end of the world here every day," Hayes says.

For good measure, the HEGI is confirmed by the High End Stripper Index. Hayes allows he has a certain admiration for the strippers he has represented.

"They're all homecoming queens with no fathers who are in grad school," Hayes boasts. The tuition has become increasingly difficult to pay in recent days, with some strippers resorting to selling their favors.

"No investment bankers go in and throw $100 a pop at them anymore," Hayes says.

The girlfriends sometimes find that a guy will attempt the sort of maneuver he might use with the company books.

One woman came to Hayes saying her banker boyfriend had given her a multimillion-dollar house, only to siphon off its value with what might be called a sub-slime mortgage.

"I went and had a talk with him and it got straightened out," Hayes recalls.

Too bad nobody went and had a talkwith the big shots at Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac and Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers about what they were doing to their investors.

"It's a failure of a whole way of life," Hayes says. "They have no concept of, 'I'm managing somebody else's money and have to be careful.' It's, 'How can I make as much as I can for myself?'"

The sub-slime at the very top figure to remain rich, no matter how many other people are hurt, no matter how bad the HEGI gets.

"How come nobody goes to jail?" Hayes wonders.

Strizzo wrote: i never said its the fault of any one person, in fact quite the opposite. when a president signs a bill into law, is it not reasonable to believe that he approves of said law? the bottom line is that it doesn't matter what the vote was in the house and senate, the president can still veto it, and they have to go back and vote on it again. you can't say that clinton has no responsibility in it when he signed the bloody thing into law.

Now, now- that kind of talk means you believe in responsibility. As in Clinton can't push it off on Dubya's plate.

I still think that Dubya's biggest perception and approval problem is he's having to patch up a lot of stuff left over from WJC. But, since he's the Prez and as such has no real power, he's farked and We the People hate him for being the bearer of bad news. Hey, at least this isn't ancient Rome where the messenger could be whipped or killed for bringing bad news.

Of course, the next Prez will have to deal with the leftovers from Dubya.

Jensenman wrote: I still think that Dubya's biggest perception and approval problem is he's having to patch up a lot of stuff left over from WJC. But, since he's the Prez and as such has no real power, he's farked and We the People hate him for being the bearer of bad news. Hey, at least this isn't ancient Rome where the messenger could be whipped or killed for bringing bad news.

Yeah, the fact that Bill Clinton stubbornly entered into a war that has all but wasted trillions of dollars in order to topple a dictator and used his position in government to create golden parachutes for all of his buddies from way back.

Whip and kill the messenger, they are responsible for all this global warming.

Jensenman wrote:

Strizzo wrote: i never said its the fault of any one person, in fact quite the opposite. when a president signs a bill into law, is it not reasonable to believe that he approves of said law? the bottom line is that it doesn't matter what the vote was in the house and senate, the president can still veto it, and they have to go back and vote on it again. you can't say that clinton has no responsibility in it when he signed the bloody thing into law.

Now, now- that kind of talk means you believe in responsibility. As in Clinton can't push it off on Dubya's plate. I still think that Dubya's biggest perception and approval problem is he's having to patch up a lot of stuff left over from WJC. But, since he's the Prez and as such has no real power, he's farked and We the People hate him for being the bearer of bad news. Hey, at least this isn't ancient Rome where the messenger could be whipped or killed for bringing bad news. Of course, the next Prez will have to deal with the leftovers from Dubya.

along that same line of reasoning, Billary couldn't be the cause, if the president has no real power and all....

LOL

But.. but... Clinton signed the housing bill into law. Doesn't that make him as culpable for that as Dubya for all the stuff that gets piled on HIS plate????

LOL yerself. Ya can't have it both ways.

I am amazed that I had not heard that angle of arguement regarding WJC vs W

Brilliant, simply brilliant

Glad you like it.

Xceler8x wrote: 8 years of bullE36 M3 later and people are still blaming the one guy who slowed growth of the federal deficit. ... I won't say the Democrats are going to do better. The democratic congress sure didn't do jack. I blame them as much as Bush and his 8 years of weak domestic policy.

But what about Reagan. It's been 20 years since he was president and it's still fun to point fingers at his policy failings.

Granted, a most of what I blame him for is putting into vogue an economic policy that has proven to not work, and yet people to this day trumpet as economic brilliance. Which is kinda funny that people think that an ACTOR was a brilliant ECONOMIST.

But the guy did want to stick frickin' lazer beams into frickin' space to shoot down frickin' nuclear missiles. How frickin' awesome is that?!?

Ye have ta be a pirate to have those kind of crazy balls!

When you really think about it, this whole mess could have been avoided if we had just stayed a colony in the first place. I blame General G Washington.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/no-deal/

Krugman says.. no deal.. For a bunch of well reasoned issues...

The plan gives Paulson Carte Blanche purchasing power with no oversight or review.. that is scary.