Fed Rate Hike on Deck
The Good News: You'll be getting better rates down the road on all of that money you plan to save for retirement... unless, of course, you were planning to throw it into the stock market, because stock markets don't like escalating interest rates (see The Bad News, below).
The Bad News: Interest rate hikes slow economic activity, so you'll be lucky if you even keep your job, let alone gather buckets of money to invest.
Don't worry, though: this is a slow-motion B-rated movie. You'll have time to sit back and watch the descent in leisure. Think of it as family-friendly entertainment.
The Dark Wraith reaches for the popcorn.
Published 12/14/2004 09:47:05 AM
<< 51 Comments Total
Hell, ever since Shrub arrived the stock market's been going sideways anyway, so what's a little bad news?
- oddjob
It will be interesting to some day in the future read history's view of events from the last few years (if we last that long):
Stock market tanks (staged to eliminate new wealth in my opinion).
Interest rates lowered to rock bottom for stimulus, but in process wipes out fixed income for many (among other things).
Economy continues to founder, market treads water, Fed spends like money is going out of style, dollar is falling etc.
Fed starts jacking rates...to who knows where
Throw in rising fuel prices and privatizing of social security some place along the line.
Ugh...makes me wish time travel were feasible.
Time traveled forward or time traveled backward, Mr. Goat? If we're going backward, we need go no further than one decade, to the early years of what proved to be one of the strongest and longest periods of expansion in the history of the U.S. economy.
[And here, I hope some of the nay-sayers of the Clinton Administration will come out of the woodwork to decry my assertion; but alas, the few whom I suspect are lurking on this Blog have yet to open up... just like they avoided directly confronting me on AMERICAblog.]
If we're going forward in time, I fear that we shall need to put quite a bit of distance between us and the first decade of the 21st Century. The damage that is being done to us goes beyond the immediate loss of jobs, extraordinary and increasing national debt, and loss of stature in the eyes of other nations.
We are losing a vision of America. It is as if we are a big, hot-headed teenage boy who had seen what being a grown-up was all about, who had the chance to be a part of the community of those who had already done so, but who chose in the end to waste his life.
Those who deny that America was a special place are wrong: far more often wrong than right, we still had the potential—and even the will, on occasion—to make the world of tomorrow better than the world of yesterday.
Whether or not Mr. Bush really won the majority of the voters' hearts, we cannot deny that an enormous swath of America has rejected a vision of kind and forward-looking liberality for this nation.
Instead, that large portion of America has chosen to see the world through the eyes of the tear-blinded, hot-headed man-child, racing down the night highway, defiant of the hairpin turn up ahead that will take him and all of his potential to oblivion.
And us, right along with it.
The Dark Wraith has spoken.
In less poetic words I have made similar observations on another blog.
The political guru of this administration (often referred to as "Bush's brain", and Karl Rove, but I prefer to think of him as akin to Rasputin) and his allies do indeed seek another vision of America, one better captured by the public morals, political institutions, and unbridled hubris of the era of the Spanish-American War, a war I believe to have been one of our least honorable appearances on the global stage.
I only hope that the hard yank on the other end of the chain that will come from the rest of the world as it "pushes back" against what "the crazies" want to do will be sufficient to stop them in their tracks.
(That was oddjob, still learning to post his name at the end....)
I like the "ticker tape"!
- oddjob
Time traveled forward or time traveled backward, Mr. Goat?I see humans on earth as a virus on a host; a virus that will someday exhaust the various resources that it needs to sustain life, except at significantly reduced levels.
I see no real effort to wean ourselves from increasing oil consumption and the approaching limitations it has created. I see the neocon PNAC approach as a short sighted bandaid fraught with many problems, but at the same time, only token efforts at anything else.
No Mr. Wraith, I have no desire to see the future any quicker than it will come. Can we overcome the current chaos and misdirection in order to survive into the next century? Only time will tell.
I think the analogy comparing America to a tempermental man-child is fitting, and as Oddjob has said, poetic. Interestingly though, I think the appealing nature of your metaphor almost belies the utter seriousness of the situation (and remember I don't know squat of what you speak! wink, wink)
But I wonder if what we are seeing is the beginning of the end of the US as the world's economic super power? Everything goes in cycles, afterall. The U.S. has been dominant for only 100 years, and before that it was the seemingly indominable Great Britian. Could China, or Europe eventually rival the United States? When, more than a century ago, Great Britian relinquished its place as the world's dominant power, it was a "perfect storm," right? The abolition of slavery, outmoded methods of sugar production, competition from more efficient sugar producers like Germany and Cuba....on and on. I've wondered for a while if the United States won't eventually become just like the unwieldy super power GB of a 100 years ago, stretched thin by war and colonialism in foreign territories and out of touch with the homeland. What, I wonder, will be the "perfect storm" that finally sets this country adrift?
Just Ramblin'
Cam
I will be interested to read the Wraith's take on your question, cam, but I knew we were showing significant symptoms of long-term decline back in the mid-80's (forget exactly when) when I heard on the news one day that our cumulative debt had surpassed our credits, thus changing us in a virtual eyeblink from the world's largest creditor nation to its greatest debtor.
Since money is a way of storing energy, as it were, I believe it is a general rule of geo-politics that the one with the money gets to make the rules, and "the world's largest debtor" is not a description of a nation with the money.
Our geopolitical preeminence has been living on a credit card for about 20 years. I don't know exactly what will trip the switch, but I believe we are on the edge of a paradigm change.
- oddjob
Good evening, Cam.
The perfect storm to which you are referring will come; of that, there is no question. The events that usher it to our time may already have happened. Certainly, the attack on the World Trade Center was a part of this, as when a virus finds its way to a host with a peculiar vulnerability. It's always nothing more than a matter of time.
When we read history books, we almost always have a sense of some trajectory to events. This, of course, is merely the product of human reason as it makes sense of a world that often doesn't make that much sense. In time, the events playing out here at the beginning of the new century will all seem logical. And inevitable.
We in the here and now, however, see the outcome as changeable. Lord knows, we tried our best to change history on November 2. Many of us are trying very hard not to believe that, not only could we not change the course of history, but perhaps we were not supposed to do so.
It's almost as if we have been have been working furiously during a raging storm, filling and piling sandbags at the gates of our good city of hope; and finally, we stop to listen: above the howl of the roaring rain, we hear the advancing flood, and we hear its low whisper: "I'm a-comin'...
... an' you ain't stoppin' me."
The Dark Wraith blogs into the evening.
Good evening, Mr. Goat.
A world degraded by the excesses of a superpower can also be a world better for the example it sets. A nation that presses radical political and economic theories into practice is useful to the extent that it tends to drive other nations toward greater adherence to reason and moderation.
The recent actions of the Federal Reserve are an excellent case in point. For years, the Fed had strayed very rarely and little from a mathematical formula for growth of the money supply. Only when Greenspan, beginning in the late 1990s, politely bullied the other Governors and the larger Open Market Committee into a series of technically divergent actions (first, killing off the "irrational exuberance" of the stock markets; then monetizing the Bush Administration's tax cuts) did the monetary substrate of American economic stability begin to crumble.
Had Greenspan not accommodated the first round of Bush Administration tax cuts with a "loose" monetary policy, that round would have caused enough pain for Congress to decline further candy-tossing exercises. Instead, Greenspan covered the neo-conservatives with sustained over-growth of the money supply; and this allowed the the radicals to labor under the illusion that they could get by with policies that were just plain fiscally irresponsible, not just in terms of spending and taxation, but also in terms of the uses to which those policies were focused.
Now, comes the piper, and we shall pay him his due: the Federal Reserve must now ratchet up interest rates at a time when the American economy can ill afford to have such brakes put on an expansion that has been sickly, at best.
The good news for Mr. Bush is that he doesn't have to run for re-election. The bad news for him is that all of the other problems he has created over the past four years may now start spilling out into open discussion and disgust in Middle America.
Now, that would be a fitting end for a man and his cohorts whose very existence is predicated upon hubris.
The Dark Wraith blogs on.
WoW
I love the news panel at the bottom of the blog! Reminescence from the US Stock Market? Was it for sale already? ;)
And I want to join the research team and get my IPOD! But isn't that only for US Nationals? :P Eheheheheh!
fyi - The dollar slides to new record low against euro on more disappointing job growth news.DW, what do you make of what the rest of the developed world (except Australia) is doing regarding the Kyoto Accord? I read that someone at the last round of talks (the first on setting up implementation protocols) described the talks as the beginnings of a new kind of central bank (I believe having to do with a market for pollution control credits) - one we will have no part in as long as we are outside the treaty.
Your last comment to My Pet Goat, and his belief that humans resemble an earth illness, prompted me to ask about this.
(oddjob forgets again....)
The bad news for him is that all of the other problems he has created over the past four years may now start spilling out into open discussion and disgust in Middle America.I'm not holding my breath for the rest of them to catch up.
Technical question professor. I've noticed when I start a comment with < i >itlaics< /i> it gives me a runon with the next sentence even though I space down to start the new paragraph. I assume there's quick fix with a mark up command that wasn't needed with HaloScan? I should add it looks OK in the preview.
Don't make it too quick though; I need to check your new alarm upgrade on the larder.
Just adding something to what OddJob said. The Kyoto Protocol intends to implement a market for pollution control where developed countries would pay underdeveloped countries to use their polluting quotas while they could not implement antipolluting measures and in the process helping the others develop themselves. Australia wasn't interested in the Kyoto Protocol because it seems they have national rules that are rougher (would like to check that)...
Besides, since we are talking environment here are two nice news articles somewhat related:
New warning about climate changeAuthor takes on global warming in latest book
Mike Whitney: 'Gearing up for the draft'
Posted on Tuesday, December 14 @ 10:04:45 EST By Mike Whitney
There's only one way the American people will accept the reinstatement of the draft. There would have to be "a massive casualty-producing event" on American soil.
That's it. There's simply no other way Bush can get the popular support needed.
And, since we're able to figure that out, it's certain that White House planners-and-schemers have figured it out, too. This sets us up for some very ugly scenarios, including the possibility that we'll be seeing more terrorist "events" sometime in the near future.
We're hearing stories almost daily about how "stretched" the military is. A recent army survey discovered that only half the soldiers are planning to re-enlist.
Elaine Monaghan reports from the Times of London that: "The US military is fighting desertion, recruitment shortfalls and legal challenges from its own troops."
She also notes that, "a further sign of strain can be seen in the Army's decision this year to mobilize 5,600 members of a pool of former soldiers that can be mobilized only in a national emergency," and that, "Forty per cent of the 138,000 (National Guard) troops in Iraq are part-timers who never expected to be sent to the front line."
These are signs that the military is understaffed, demoralized and seriously overextended. It needs more "warm bodies" to fill their depleted ranks, and it needs them soon. The state of affairs in Iraq is quickly deteriorating. The siege in Falluja did nothing to quell the insurgency, and for all practical purposes, the situation is getting worse. Stop loss rules have been enacted, forcing soldiers to stay in the military well beyond their original commitment, and tours of duty have been extended for everyone presently in uniform. Those who watched CBS' 60 Minutes last Sunday saw how the Defense Dept has even called a 55 year old woman back to duty to serve in Iraq. These are signs of desperation, and a clear indication that the draft will be reinstated.
Casualties in Iraq are also high, increasing the pressure on the Pentagon to come up with more men. Consider the comments of Paul Craig Roberts in a recent Counterpunch article: "According to the US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, the hospital has treated 20,802 US troops for injuries received in Iraq. According to the Pentagon's figures, 54% of the wounded are too seriously injured to return to their units. If that figure is correct, it would mean that the insurgents have put 11,233 US troops out of action. Add in the 1,254 US troops who have been killed for a total of 12,487. That's 9% of our total force in Iraq and a much higher percentage of our combat force."
"A Military Draft"; from blatanttruth.org; pages 5-7
The articles got tied up... maybe a break is missing?
New warning about climate changeAuthor takes on global warming in latest book
Good evening, Joseph. I shall be somewhat summary in my response to you; I hear some strange noise out by the food storage bin, so I must investigate promptly.
The Kyoto Accords effectively spur the establishment of a futures market in certain types of pollution, particularly those types that have been linked to the depletion of ozone from the stratosphere. Each country that is a signatory to the treaty will be allocated a certain number of "credits," which may be used to create pollution or which may be traded to other countries.
The idea is to set a global ceiling on the amount of "greenhouse gasses" and then to lower that ceiling each year by lowering the total number of credits.
The Clinton Administration had been instrumental both in the architecture of the treaty and in the promotion of the treaty to countries reticent to get involved in an agreement that would undoubtedly complicate and possibly inhibit industrial development. Neo-conservatives and other assorted voices of the Right had seized upon what could be construed as bribes the U.S. had agreed to pay to countries like Russia for their participation. Interestingly, even though the United States pulled out of all activities leading up to and involving Kyoto, Russia signed on. (I must concede that the European Union's carrot of Russian membership in the Union was certainly a good bribe, perhaps even better than the cash-money the U.S. had been offering.)
Anyway, the treaty won't create a global bank any more than many other credit facilities markets and derivatives futures markets do. The credits, themselves, are a fiat currency, of sorts, with international recognition. Like any market for commodities or financial instruments, global speculators will treat these credits as nothing more than a benchmark for betting and for hedging certain types of risks. In some cases, the hedging activity will have very little, if anything, to do with global warming: it is purely the correlation of the futures contract's volatility against some other instrument's volatility that matters. As long as one instrument, to some extent, "cancels out" the volatility of another instrument or basket of instruments, then there is a structured hedge to be made.
That does not mean that the central banks of various nations won't be interested in these futures; to the contrary, the derivatives will likely play an interesting and perhaps not insignificant role in the capital reserve portfolios of nations hedging intermediate-term foreign currency reservesrisks.
Did you follow all of that? I should apologize for writing so summarily, here; it's just that the noise coming from the food pantry is getting louder and louder.
The Dark Wraith goes to investigate.
Now, where did Mr. Goat go? He asked me a question about blogging here, so I need to tell him something.
There is a little glitch in this posting system. Whenever you close an HTML tag, you must put two spaces after the tag, unless you really want the next character or tag to occur right after the old action has ended. So, for example, if I want to italicize some word, I must use two spaces before I type the s in "some." On the other hand, I should simply type the "," with no spaces before it, in this sentence.
The same goes for things like line and paragraph breaks: If you want to start a new line right after closing any kind of HTML tag, put two spaces in before you hit the ENTER button. That's what just happened that caused Joseph's two, back-to-back links to ram up against each other.
I have seen this glitch somewhere before, years ago. It's annoying, and I know there's a way to fix it permanently; but for now, just remember to put two spaces after you close an HTML tag, unless you want the next character to be right up against the last character inside the HTML tag.
Now, I've probably wasted my breath because Mr. Goat apparently isn't anywhere in the room.
The Dark Wraith returns to his investigation of that noise in the kitchen.
Let's try it:
New warning about climate change
Author takes on global warming in latest book
P.S.- By the way it was OddJob that asked you about the "polluters market", I just add something up to the party... ;)
And at the risk of saying something unecessary, I think the Kyoto Accord is not primarily designed to limit gasses that reduce the atmosphere's ozone, but rather to limit (or decrease) gasses that increase the atmosphere's heat retention capabilities.
The mainstream American press is universally & notoriously awful at making this distinction, to the point that I am certain the vast majority of American journalists aren't aware of the distinction.
If I remember correctly, the most important treaty regarding ozone-destroying gasses was signed in Montreal in the 1980's or early 90's.
(oddjob is still forgetting to add his moniker on the end....)
SNORT
SNORT
Ah yes, that works fine. Thank you kind sir.
Back to the business at hand...snort
BTW, can you do something for our dear chap oddjob? I'm afraid he'll hurt himself out of frustration for forgetting his name.
Oddjob: come on, simply fill out the info so you can post with your moniker. I'm trying to learn some things from you very scary, way too smart people, and well...that is just annoying :)
DW: my screen keeps refreshing automatically...have you set your blog up to do this?
Finally with some free time to translate it enterely, here goes this joke, especially to the economists...
IDEAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. They multiply and the economy grows. You sell the herd and you get rich. You retire!
AMERICAN CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell one and you force the other to produce the same amount of milk that 4 cows would produce. You are surprised when she dies.
JAPANESE CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You remake them so they can have one tenth of the original size and so they can produce 20 times more milk. You then create litle drawings of cows called Cowmon and sell them to the entire world.
BRITISH CAPITALISM
You have two cows. Both of them are mad.
DUTCH CAPITALISM
You have two cows. They live together, in a civil union, they don't like bulls and that's fine.
GERMAN CAPITALISM
You have two cows. They produce milk regularly, accordind to the quantity patterns and the schedule previously established, in a precise and lucrative way. But you really wanted to breed pigs.
RUSSIAN CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You count them and see you have got five. Recount them and check out you have got forty two. Counting again and you now got twelve. You stop counting and open another bottle of Vodka.
SWISS CAPITALISM
You have got 500 cows, but none of them is yours. You get payed for keeping other people cows.
SPANISH CAPITALISM
You are very honoured to own two cows.
BRAZILIAN CAPITALISM
You have two cows. And you are always complaining because your herd doesn't grow...
HINDU CAPITALISM
You have two cows. God save the soul of the guy who touches them!
PORTUGUESE CAPITALISM
You have two cows. One of them is stolen. The government then creates a new tax based on cows. A Tax Fiscal comes along and fines you, because althought you payed the tax, the value was based on the number of presumable cows and not the number of real cows. The Finances, with data from your milk consumption, cheese, leather shoes, buttons, concludes that you have got 200 cows and you, in order to get rid of this mess, give the remaining cow to the finances inspector so he can close his eyes and can give a litle help dealing with the problem...
I'll get the hang of it, I promise. :)
- oddjob
The smart one's the Wraith, I don't shine until the science starts getting "fuzzy" (ecology & other natural science-type stuff).
Thanks to him, I'm learning macroeconomics for the first time in my life, really.
- oddjob
Good evening, Impeach Bush. First of all, thank you for bringing your good and valuable insights to The Dark Wraith Forums. I hope you plan to hang around here early and often.
On your question about the refresh, I set a meta-tag to do this. The reason is that, otherwise, you folks won't see new posts show up unless you remember to manually refresh. This can even be the case if you leave the site and return, since many browsers "cache" Websites. The automatic refresh compels the browser to reload the page. I am mindful that some Internet users find this annoying. If I hear enough complaints, I shall remove that meta-tag.
You are seeing a work in progress. I build and refine my Websites over a span of time, trying to balance my own sense of artistic information expression against the needs of users. If you think that something I've done is really, really awful, by all means say something like, "Oh, that truly sucks, you BlogBrute." I'll get over the hurtful comment; and I might even do something to remediate the situation.
['BlogBrute'?!]
Now, as for you, OddJob, I'm glad you like the news feeds. Right now, you're seeing one for political headlines and one for economics and business headlines. I plan to add two more tomorrow: one for science news and another for society and culture news. I'm even toying with one more that headlines weird news.
As I noted above, this site is being created before your very eyes. Keep an eye out for more features over the next few days, including the following:
• Periodic polls on various issues of topical interest (yeah, I know, those things aren't scientific, but if CNN can do it, so can The Dark Wraith Forums); plus,
• A new sidebar section with links to good sources of information on the Internet.
Oh, by the way, I should note that you won't see a lot of advertising on this site, other than what might show up as part of a "free" service I'm using to provide content. It's just not in my nature to degrade the quality and character of a place like this with crass commercialism. Occasionally, I might provide something understated and tasteful that I like and that I think some of you might enjoy, like certain books, art, or music. I also reserve the right to offer, in a dignified manner, my own book, Pulp Economics, provided I ever find a publisher foolish enough to think such a book would be profitable.
And finally, one thing you will never see on this site is a solicitation for "donations." Although I cannot in good conscience criticize any blogger who asks for money since these blogs absorb a huge amount of time, energy, and talent, neither in good conscience can I reconcile this work I'm doing here with material greed in its execution.
I hope this post gives everyone a view of what to expect and what is to come.
The Dark Wraith has blogged.
And finally...
21st Century American Capitalism
You have two cows, each worth $100. You borrow $2000 from the Republic of SheepLand against the cows; then you lay off one of your cows, forcing her to enlist in the Bovine Army to attack PorkLand, an adventure which costs $10,000; you don't have the money to pay back the loan on the cows, so the lenders from SheepLand seize both cows; and so...
[dramatic pause, please]
the rest of the world gets porked while the American people get fleeced!
GawdAlmighty, that was a long way around the barn to get to the outhouse. Why do I even bother?
The Dark Wraith quietly slinks off the stage.
[No need for violence: I can find my own way to the exit.]
What a nice animal farm is the 21st Century American Capitalism. George (Orwell) was visionary, wasn't he?
Well, here is something "tasty" for your new day:
Report: States slow to prepare for bioterror
U.S. states are slowly getting better prepared to handle bioterrorism, but most still do not have statewide response plans and federal funding is declining, according to a new report.
And here is something really tasty!
Flavors for the holidays
and
Holiday recipes
And at least we can look up to Mars and hope for some amazing and wonderful news (until Bush is out of there...) and maybe some kind of lesson?
Images of Earth-like clouds on Mars
"Oh, that truly sucks, you BlogBrute." Yes, very well put. LOL It really is annoying. *S*
Okay, I killed the reload meta-tag.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Then again, so did the picture of the Dark Wraith; but now I'm worried about being charged with Blogging While Ugly.
Geez, this is a rough side of cybertown.
Well, the reload meta-tag was ok, since now we have to reload manually to be up to date to what is happening, but yesterday it seemed to be crashing my browser because it was very frequent... instead of killing it maybe you could redefine a larger time interval to reload?
I do enjoy the fading between pages that is now on! And I noticed that more news lines were added at the bottom. This site is getting great!
About the picture... I would be more worried with the US Secret Services and others... ;)
Secret Service?! Lord. And here I thought that all I had to worry about was the Ugly Police.
I guess it was for the best to give up that reload meta-tag. There's another way I can do the trick, but perhaps I should leave the whole matter alone, especially with all of the new browsers like FireFox, Mozilla, and Opera. It's getting to the point where code writers have to write and test more than a dozen versions of every Web page they write.
And don't get me started on how touchy Netscape is about javascripts. Some of my coolest effects don't even show up on Netscape browsers.
Oh, and by the way, are you really as young as you said you were? I had you pictured as a rather late-middle-aged man with greying hair and a sort of swarthy, Mediterranean appearance.
Huh. Just goes to show how lousy I am at picturing people.
And another 'by the way'. Did you folks notice the comment The Precinct Chair made over on AMERICAblog.org about the latest security upgrade to Internet Explorer filtering AMERICAblog as a 'porn' site? I noticed that John Aravosis didn't comment back, which surprised me: that kind of designation could be a real showstopper, since the filter will not just stop some people from viewing the site, but it will also stop a lot of people from being able to post.
I need to find out how Microsoft, or whatever company is setting the lists for filters, is determining what Websites get which designations.
Scary stuff: the Internet was like the Wild West for so long; but now its extreme vulnerability to a monopoly's power has become a threat to even basic free speech.
Remind me not to say anything too controversial, lest I get some undesirable rating.
Oh. That's right: I already wrote here about eating Spam.
Confound it! Now, this blog is going to get that highly uncoveted, "Bad Cuisine" rating.
The Dark Wraith regrets what he has said in the past.
Hey, I don't really eat the stuff. I just make gas out of it and pass it on as fertilizer. After all, organic fertilizers are going to be very valuable when you have to grow your own food after peak oil makes it too expense to import and distribute food.
You did see recently where the US became a net import of food for the first time? Hopefully it wasn't all Spam.
Hello Dark Wraith...
so, "a rather late-middle-aged man with greying hair and a sort of swarthy, Mediterranean appearance"... you really made me laugh with that one, but that is ok, because I also had pictured you older than you seem to be. I turned 33 (but I'm not into crucifications, ok? Thank you!) on last November 1st (and by the way, thank you so very much for the nice gift you (US) gave me on November 2nd... :P), so I'm also not that young anymore. About the greying hair, no, still brown hair, and I also checked my goatee and still brown in there too... the mediterranean appearance, well, I've got brown hair and eyes, medium height, slim defined body, get tanned after a few hours in the sun... what else can I say? By the way, what gave you the "image" you got from me?
On another subject, no I haven't seen the comment from Precinct Chair. Maybe because the site is openly defending gay rights they connected "gay" with porn. How low will the US go? And to think that I once was considering going there in pursuit of a more fulfilling professional life... will have to check Canada...
Good evening, Joseph. My impression of your age came from your writing style. Interestingly, my impression of OddJob was one of a younger man, possibly in his late 20s.
Cripe. I'm really slipping.
There are a number of factors that enter into those filter rating systems, but one that bothers me is that it appears some special-interest groups—particularly extremist conservative religious ones—are providing URLs of sites that offend "family values." Unfortunately, I have no direct knowledge that this is actually occurring; all I have to go on is the rumor mill among bloggers and techies. Nevertheless, it is apparent that sites like AMERICAblog.org are under assault, while extremist and altogether shocking Right-wing and extremist Christian sites are not being filtered. In my judgment, Websites that go on favorably and breathlessly about subjects like Left Behind are religious snuff sites that I wouldn't want any child or teenager viewing.
Come to think of it, those sites scare the crap out of me. Of course, so does that Freeper site where they have the big picture of Mr. Bush with his trademark vacant grin. I keep thinking to myself, "The NORAD commanders would never tell him how to fire the missiles, would they?"
Naw.
Still, it gives me nightmares.
The Dark Wraith keeps the lights on... and the bunker door open.
Maybe I have a formal way of writing in english since it is not my birth language and I tend to be defensive in order to avoid a lot of mistakes using it... that's one explanation...
About OddJob first I thought he was in his 30's, now I realize he must be in his 40's... but above all I would love to know what is that odd job he has... :)
About the sites, I'm sadly amazed at the route the US is taking. If this goes all the way down your country will really need to be liberated because things are getting unbelievable. I think there was a show in the 80's that was called "Amerika" and I get reminded of that. There was also a SF show "V" that in some ways reminds me of what is happening now... ok, you were invaded by alien lizards that love to eat mice and... humans... but I think the show at first was based on the idea of a Nazi US... Well, above all I think that if your people and your country don't wake up soon and do something about it, anything at all, you will be in big troubles and you are the ones that will need to be freed... Never thought this nightmare would ever come so close to become reality... I know that I might be paranoid but it has crossed my mind that maybe people who participate and give their opinions could be the target of monitoring, including me.
About the missiles and the NORAD... it really makes you think what would be of the world if Bush was in the power if there was a "cold war" going on and in the age of "nuclear blackmail"... but I better keep quiet, because you never know what is about to happen...
I was born in 1960. The brown hair (no much on top, however) is only beginning to gray, but the beard (which I've never worn) has lots of "salt" in it.
I was surprised by Dark Wraith's picture. Since he had made reference to the McCarthy era as though he had lived through it and had strong memories of it, I had assumed he was older than he looks in the picture.
I also assume AMERICAblog has been "listed" as a porn site because it discusses gay issues. :(
- oddjob
"Amerika" was a miniseries that explored what this country might be like if it had succumbed to the seduction of Soviet-style communism.
Of course, once you get to the extremes, the right and left are often difficult to differentiate!
Ugly Blogging? Good gawd. You aren't ugly dear...trust me. LOL I couldn't imagine blogging for myself...I haven't the faintest clue about programming. I just read them and post useless garbage...*sigh*
It seems we are all about in the same age group. Funny. Dare we reflect on what that means for 'our generation'? hehe
AmericaBlog is filtered as porn? I haven't installed any windows updates in a very long time...I'm scared of SP 2 and until I know for a fact that my poor 'puter won't totally freak out over it I won't be any time soon either. I agree that it must be filtered over the 'gay' thing....that is so sad actually. I've just been dealing with the whole issue in my family, and I'm not handling it well. I must be more mature I guess.LOL So hearing that just makes it worse. It's 2005, and we're heading backwards at an alarming pace. While my family is deciding if they should ever speak to me again or to just avoid the whole situation should prove interesting...
I forgot again....it's
just me *S*
Hey, Just Me! Thanks for mentioning my site over on AMERICAblog.
Now, let's see if The Dark Wraith Forums get filtered because it got mentioned on a filtered site.
Filter: verb transitive. 21st Century term for old-fashioned paranoid censorship. Often arises from excessive thoughts about what is to be filtered. Filtering filters the filterers thoughts so the filterer doesn't have to think about those thoughts because those thoughts are filtered.
I think... but I'm not sure, because I just filtered that thought.
The Dark Wraith has gotten himself confused by all the filtered thoughts.
So, our dear Odd Job is a "salt n'pepper" guy"... ;)
Well, I have got a question for you guys... Let us imagine that this new term will be so bad that at some point the noise about a mega fraud in the elections is so intense that comes up to the front scene. Let us imagine that it is proven and that the elections were fradulent... What would happen then?
It's only salt & pepper in the beard - for now! (Most people who don't know my age seem to guess that I'm in my early to mid 30's.)
What would happen then?I've wondered that myself (but not intensely enough for me to have investigated). I can't remember whether the Constitution has language applicable to this hypothetical situation. If it did, I would think that language would be applied. If it didn't, I suppose the matter would be taken up by the courts. Probably someone(s) would sue for redress of the injustice done to "the people".
- oddjob
What would happen then?Court steps in like in 2000.
Halts recounts due to inability to resolve fraud in timely manner. Repugs plant the seed that fraud is the democrat's way of trying to get bush out, but of course the democrats blame the repugs) → Bushco Standoff
Rules in favor of bushco based intent of popular vote.
Bush slides in safe at home (or is he?)
Instant replay anyone?
Good evening, Mr. Goat.
Pretty close. Ultimately, it would end up at the Supreme Court because of the "federal question" involved. At that point, the Court would have to deal with some of its... shall we say, "interesting," rationale for coronating Mr. Bush in 2000. For one thing, the 2000 Supreme Court decision included a heretofor unknown "right" people have to uniformity in certain aspects of voting, regardless of the state. Was that right granted in the 2004 Election?
Moreover, it appears that a completely different matter is coming to the fore, one I mentioned several times on AMERICAblog. If the depositions by the programmer who wrote vote-altering code and the deputy election registrar in Ohio who saw a Triad employee bothering election computers are borne out by further FBI investigations, this whole thing takes on a purely criminal aspect that removes the right of activist, Right-wing courts to intervene to stop the process. At some point, if felony indictments start getting handed out, Federal courts would be really hard-pressed to act like this had no bearing on the Presidential Election.
Of course, they'll do what they must to keep Bush in power, anyway; but the stench of fraud will be enough to gag a maggot. At some point thereafter, it might be enough to gag a few moderate Republicans, too.
Stay tuned. The next four years ought to be fun.
If we live through them.
The Dark Wraith blogs forward into the night.
My question was all about the fact that if a fraud comes to light and it is proven this will be a criminal thing, happening with the knowledge or acceptance of many... so it will be quite messy, and what has your constitution to say about that? If the election became invalid would you have another one? If it was proven that the election was "stolen" would the President get kicked and the opponent be elected President?
Good evening, Joseph.
You seem to have noticed that I was avoiding a direct answer to your original question. The Constitution of the United States is silent on the matter of accession in a situation like this. Theoretically, a solution would be crafted from constitutional language involving other diminishments of the President; but under no circumstances would the losing candidate in the Election be declared the winner by judicial fiat.
Someone out there might be saying, "That's not true! Look at what happened in 2000."
No, in the year 2000, George W. Bush won the Presidential Election because he won the state of Florida by a fewer than 550 votes. That was why Karl Rove sent his thugs down there to thwart the beginning of the recount process until the matter could get to the United States Supreme Court, which did as expected and stopped the recount before Bush was no longer the winner.
As long as Mr. Bush had and has the fig leaf—however thin, however rotten—of victory in terms of votes, the U.S. Constitution, with its tiny but consequential silence on this kind of situation, need not be brought into play.
That means many forces here in the States will come to bear to keep this matter from becoming a "constitutional crisis," and I dare say even the mainstream media will see itself as acting responsibly in not pushing this matter. The media during the Watergate scandal was accused in some quarters of bringing about some kind of constitutional crisis; but that was just plain nonsense, not because they didn't bring it about, but rather because there was no "constitutional" aspect to it at all: impeachment, conviction, removal, and replacement are all clearly set forth in the Constitution.
The current matter, on the other hand, would be a constitutional crisis because, in the absence of the legislative body's willingness to carry out its constitutionally prescribed authority, the courts would be forced to craft an extra-constitutional solution.
And no court in this land, be it in its right mind or in the Right mind, is about to step into that territory.
The Dark Wraith has spoken.