The BoBo Files

Welcome to yet again, another great edition of The BoBo Carnival of Politics. This week’s submissions come from all around the horn on a very wide range of subjects. Please be sure to visit these blogs and let them know what you think about their discussions. I’m sure they will appreciate it.

Conservative

Selkirk presents Question of the Week: The Budget, Tax Plans, and Our Chinese Heritage posted at Political Castaway Blog: Broadcasting Conservatism to Rescue America.

Hythloday was right on target with his/her? analysis.  He inherits a $500 Billion deficit – and within 30 days increases it by another $3.5 Trillion and vows to cut the deficit in half by 2012 – that’s still just down to $1.75 Trillion which is 3 times larger than when he took over.  Considering this spending was just in the first 30 days – how much freakin higher is it going to go over the next 3 Years and 11 months?  Holy shit!

Regarding your post – I took German!  Also – we have Clinton to thank for China.  (That’s Bill not Hill).  He was the one that made China a most-favored nation and began opening it up for them to buy our debt.  It was ironic that Hill was sent over there to beg them not to foreclose on us.  Good post.

lsm presents Release The Hounds. posted at awaken the elephants blog.

Who let the dogs out?  That’s just damned crazy!  No offense to my California readers – but – your leadership there is absolutely nuts!  LSM – thanks for bringing this to our attention.  I would like to see California secede too if they continue these crazy policies.  Let Mexico have it back.  After all, Mexico has pretty much invaded and recovered all of Southern Cal so far.

Pauly presents Smooth Move Mr. President posted at Political Rants from The Right, saying, “That idiot of a President just telegraphing everything to our enemies.”

Welcome back, Pauly.  Glad to see you’re still around.  BTW – that is the same layout I started off with when I was with blogger.  Great minds think alike I guess.  I have to agree – that is a pretty stupid thing for the President to do – tell the enemy exactly what date we plan on withdrawing.  Now all they have to do is just sit back and wait – then they’ll move in.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Watch Prices Go Up: Interesting Facts About Inflation posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “Here are some thoughts on inflation.”

“Heck, if you went further back and looked at how much things cost in 1964 when many of us weren’t born yet,” I’m offended!  I was born in 1964!  Do you really think The BoBo is “old”? 

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Second Stimulus Check: Strong Opinions On A Second Economic Stimulus Package posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “I apologize for the 2nd post submitted. I wasn’t sure if you’ll accept the first one, so I am submitting this in case the 1st one isn’t accepted. I hope you’ll consider including one of my posts in your carnival. Thanks so much!”

SVB – you’re welcome to submit as many posts as you want.  As long as it is somehow related to politics – I’ll publish it.  Given the economy is very closely tied to our politics these days – every post you’ve submitted has had relevance to the current issues at hand.

Regarding your post – my understanding is that we aren’t actually receiving a stimulus check.  What we are receiving is a tax cut – which really isn’t a tax cut (that I will be posting on tomorrow) in the form of an extra $13/week.  I will have to agree – stimulus checks aren’t the answer – job growth is what we need.  Most importantly – we need sound policies that stimulate that job growth – not more government handouts.

John Kaduk presents Obama To Start Chipping Away At 2nd Amendment posted at The Right Wing.

And he and his racist AG are doing a damned fine job of it aren’t they?  I posted up about this earlier this week myself.  However, I didn’t touch all the points that you have.  I recommend this to my readers that are looking for more information beyond what I have already posted.  One of the first steps leading to socialism and communism is disarming the people. We are living in dangerous times when a government feels threatened enough to start taking the weapons away from the people – do you think they know something is up?  Shhh.

Wenchypoo presents And So It Begins…Again posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket.

I saw Zimmerman on Glenn Beck last week.  If what he has to say is true and what you have also written – we’re all really screwed.  Great post again Wenchypoo.  Is there another installment of this series coming in the future?

The Smarter Wallet presents Our Mortgage Bailout and Rescue: Obama’s Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan posted at The Smarter Wallet, saying, “Thanks!”

Anytime!  You missed the part about the bill providing $1,000 to the loan servicer who does the refinancing.  Seems to me that just provides more incentive for predatory lenders again.  And..sorry..I have to agree with Rick Santelli on this argument.  Let the market reset itself.  I don’t care if my home value goes down for a while.  As history has shown – every downturn in the market eventually turns around.  I shouldn’t have to pay for my mortgage and then have my taxes bail out someone else who made some bad decisions.

Regarding the provision to allow judges to re-write mortgages – that will be destructive to the mortgage industry as a whole for years to come.  I get they already do this in bankruptcy.  I get that.  But, to allow a judge to re-write the arrangements for someone just because they are having financial difficulties – without filing for bankruptcy – now that’s a problem!  You might want to check that secion again.  Judges are already allowed to modify those loans under bankruptcy.  This provision moves itself outside of the bankruptcy courts.

Upside down loans – this should be between the homeowners and the banks.  I should not have to subsidize my neighbors loss in value.  The day I drove my car off the lot – I was upside down on it – yet – I still continue to pay it without having to refinance it again.  The same applies to homes.  As long as you are not struggling to pay the mortgage – there is no reason to refinance it.  Here is a real situation that could happen – and I’m not willing to pay for this.  A couple buys a home for $150,000 three years ago.  Last year the value of their home was $250,000.  They see trouble coming and decided to get a home equity loan to pay off their other debt.  They now have a loan for $200,000 (including the $50,000 equity loan with slightly higher payments).  Now – under this plan – the value of their home has fallen back to $150,000.  They now refinance that loan for $150,000 and lower payments.  Essentially, they just got a free $50,000 loan and I have to pay for it.  How can that possibly be okay?

Liberal

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Ode To Bobby “Kenneth the Page” Jindal posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

Well – I have to admit – he may not be a good speaker either – but – actions speak louder than words.  If you check out how LA has improved because of his policies since he became Governor there – you will see that he is a true conservative and knows how to turn around a failing state.  He needs some serious PR work.  We saw what happened when we had a good President that was a bad communicator. I personally wouldn’t say he’s the best the GOP has to offer – at least I hope not!

Miscellaneous

lsm presents Who?s Under the Bus Now? posted at awaken the elephants blog.

That’s quite the list there.  Until you see them all together it kind of escapes you just how many people he’s thrown under the bus on his way to the top there. He really doesn’t care about anything but power, does he?  A very scary and shady individual if you ask me.

nickel presents Taxpayer Benefits in the Economic Stimulus Package posted at fivecentnickel.com.

Thanks Nickel.  This is a great resource for understanding the tax benefits in that spending bill.  Highly recommended.

News

U.S. Common Sense presents Why I Find the Monkey Cartoon Objectionable posted at U.S. Common Sense, saying, “While the cartoon this week from New York Post is objectionable, it is not racist.”

Good one U.S. – I hadn’t even considered it from that point of view.  When I first saw this cartoon I never pictured it as racist – I saw it the way you described it – as a dig on the Congressmen who wrote the bill.  But, for the reason that you find it objectionable – I can agree with that as well.

RE Ausetkmt presents Sick*Saturday – See Rappin Hitler and Barack?s Monkey Shots Videos posted at BadGalsRadio – RootsRock since 99′, saying, “this takes stupidity to a different level.. beyond the monkey post. a whole video set.”

While I too can definitely find offense in that video – those guys are obviously idiots – I still say that monkey cartoon was not racist at all and would have to agree with The Post that opportunists are out there always trying to make something out of nothing (i.e. Jackson and Sharpton).  Personally, I saw no need for Murdoch or the Post to apologize.  If this cartoon caused such an outrage for all the wrong reasons – why is it that there is NEVER any outrage from the left when cartoonists and artist depict Jesus or Christians in an unflattering manner? When Christians complain about that kind of art – we’re labeled as zealots.

steven germain presents How To Fix The Economy… posted at Rough Fractals, saying, “How to stabilize the economy and restore confidence in the capital markets – back the future…”

Steve – I agree – let’s reverse the Mark-to-Market rules.  This has also been proposed by many other financial experts and economists.  This would do a great deal to help turn the banks around again.  I don’t know what idiot put those rules in place to begin with as they are completely anti-capitalism and served only to doom the banks – even if we weren’t in this position.  I don’t see how any financial institution could have continued under mark-to-market anyway.

Ellie Fields presents The Viz Police: Improving Digital Democracy posted at Official Blog of Tableau Software, saying, “We need the transparency of recovery.gov to have an informed debate… but it could use improvement. In this blog we offer suggestions.”

Excellent visuals.  I think you have something there.  Have you actually considered speaking with the webmasters of the recovery.org website and offer up some suggestions – or perhaps – paid consulting work?  Your visuals were a helluva lot clearer than what is currently on recovery.org – and I like your proposed visuals as well.  If the Obama administration really wants transparency – it should be transparency that can be understood.

Robert Hazlewood presents How Much Power Does The President Have Anyway? posted at Ways to Survive Life, saying, “With the election over, these are some thoughts on the process. I also offer my opinion on why the election process misleads us when deciding who to vote for.”

Robert – sure – our government is SUPPOSED to work under a system of checks and balances where each branch watches over the other – however – when you have two branches of the government with a majority – the President will have implied power.  He pretty much is guaranteed the power and ability to push through whatever he wants – as has been evidenced these past 30 days.  Unfortunately, the voters aren’t paying attention.  If they were – there would never be two branch majority.  Great post.

U.S. Common Sense presents Like clockwork, enter the NAACP posted at U.S. Common Sense, saying, “This is the follow-on to my article “Why I Find the Monkey Cartoon Objectionable.” Those that use racism (or the label of racism) as a means to maintain their power have jumped on the Monkey Cartoon bandwagon.”

Did you really expect anything different? Good follow-up. It doesn’t surprise me that Sharpton is assaulting the First Amendment.

Politics

Wenchypoo presents *Book Recommendation* posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket.

Good one – “If you’d like to know what the big O has in store for you, read this book…then join the nearest militia group you can find.” Considering there has been some serious talk around this country about “the bubba effect” and the rise of militias should Obama continue down this path of socialism – I can see that happening.

Aetius Romulous presents 789 Billion Cubic Dollars Of Panic « ScreamBucket posted at ScreamBucket.

While I most thoroughly enjoyed the historical recap on some of the most prominent and key players in economics – it appears you too are blaming capitalism for the problem we face now.  I’m actually more of a believer in Friedman economics.  Having said this – it isn’t capitalism that failed the people – it is government.  Government has interfered in every aspect of private business since Keynes and his cronies got together.  Friedman is correct – a more freer market with less government interference will be more productive.  If the government hadn’t forced banks to give loans to poor people who could not repay them – we wouldn’t be in this mess.  There would have been no need for financiers to experiment and create those derivatives in an attempt to mitigate their losses.  We have never truly been a free-market capitalist country because our greedy politicians keep sticking their fingers in the pie to scoop theirs from the top.  Socialism and Communism do not work.  Capitalism – TRUE capitalism does. I highly recommend this post to my readers if they want to get an understanding of basic economics and a great profile of the greatest minds in economic theory.

Matt U presents Michelle Kwan: US Envoy. Who Knew? posted at Inside Government.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The BoBo Carnival of Politics using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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