January low political content thread - Page 16 - Politics and Economics

Two Plus Two Forums Other Topics Politics

January low political content thread

...

Page 16 of 57

First

6 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 26 36

Last

Page 16 of 57

First

6 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 26 36

Last

01-12-2010 , 11:32 AM

#376

Huehuecoyotl

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 29,320

Hint: It is completely biased, but under the guise of telling the truth against "Western propaganda"

P.S. Any bombing anywhere in the world is reportedly done by RAW ( Indian Intelligence), the CIA, Mossad and occasionally Blackwater if your in Pakistan and the CIA,MI5, Mossad and Blackwater if your in the Middle East. You can bet on it

01-12-2010 , 11:37 AM

#377

Effen

CRAB

Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 24,004

they had me at hello

01-12-2010 , 12:36 PM

#378

Borodog

Enemy of the State

Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 25,491

Quote:

Originally Posted by yellowbastard

Very good speech by a former US soldier who is ashamed of what he did to people in Iraq.

Goes a little lefty at the end, but yeah, great speech.

01-12-2010 , 12:48 PM

#379

Huehuecoyotl

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 29,320

Tiger's Gator-aid brand found in stores.

01-12-2010 , 12:49 PM

#380

Brian J

TOTP Master

Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 10,650

Quote:

Originally Posted by Borodog

Goes a little lefty at the end, but yeah, great speech.

he lost me at "racist"

which was about two words in

01-12-2010 , 01:54 PM

#381

Not_In_My_Name

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 23,099

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian J

he lost me at "racist"

which was about two words in

Yeah, it's not like anyone is dehumanizing the enemy based on race now is it.

01-12-2010 , 03:24 PM

#382

The 13th 4postle

banned

Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 11,244

Biden Criticized For Appearing In Hennessy Ads

01-12-2010 , 03:34 PM

#383

Bigdaddydvo

King of the Politics Forum

Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 21,496

Quote:

Originally Posted by The 13th 4postle

Biden Criticized For Appearing In Hennessy Ads

hahahahahaha

01-12-2010 , 04:36 PM

#384

Brian J

TOTP Master

Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 10,650

Quote:

Originally Posted by Not_In_My_Name

Yeah, it's not like anyone is dehumanizing the enemy based on race now is it.

Why are you linking to a tv miniseries video?

01-12-2010 , 04:39 PM

#385

Brian J

TOTP Master

Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 10,650

Interesting

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archive.../01/025363.php

Quote:

I wrote here about a very important story, which originated with Edward Pinto, a former chief credit officer for Fannie Mae, and was broken by Peter Wallison in the Wall Street Journal, that deserves much wider coverage. Everyone knows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored entities that helped create a market for mortgage-backed securities, played a key role in last year's financial crisis. But the truth is, apparently, worse than that. It seems that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--the U.S. government, in effect--"routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime or Alt-A...." The much-reviled Wall Street bankers relied on those representations by agents of the federal government when they bought and sold securities backed by those misrepresented mortgages.

Qualitatively, this is not quite as bad as Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, but it is worse than anything Enron did. Quantitatively, it caused financial devastation compared to which Enron and Madoff are barely grains of sand in the ocean. So, wouldn't one expect our reporters to show a little curiosity? Silly question, perhaps: mainstream reporters don't like where that trail leads. Also, to be fair, most of them are not smart enough to understand it.

But Pajamas Media is on the case; Tom Blumer elaborates:

Quote:

Before Pinto's bombshell, we knew that Fan and Fred were used as instruments to "encourage" loans to undeserving borrowers. We knew that this "encouragement" was enforced through the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a law originally passed in the 1970s that was "progressively" given threatening teeth in ensuing years.

We have known for some time, as described in my September 2008 column, that Fan and Fred lowered the qualifying standards for conventional and subprime loans they would buy from participating lenders roughly as follows (quoting from that column):

The credit score threshold for conventional mortgages, which had generally been 670 or more, dropped to about 630. In the real world, a score of 630 indicates that you're having trouble with your debt load, paying your bills on time, or a little of both.

More ominously, the credit score threshold for subprime mortgages, which had generally been 630 or more, fell to about 590. A score of 590 is the credit scoring equivalent of barely having a pulse.

We know that in doing this, Fan and Fred, as well as those who underwrote or bought securities backed by these conventional and subprime mortgages, were taking a huge risk by hoping that borrowers with mediocre or poor credit histories would somehow keep up with their mortgage payments. ...

Incredibly, the Pinto paragraph above takes things one step further. It's bad enough that Fan and Fred lowered the loan approval thresholds. Pinto's point is that for 15 years, they doubled down by "routinely" misclassifying approved loans, effectively telling the capital markets and the public that these loans weren't as risky as they really were. Because of this, securities backed by these mortgages carried lower interest rates than they would have if the risks had been properly disclosed. Some of the offerings should probably never have been issued or should have been given junk bond pricing. Further, misrepresented loans Fan and Fred kept on their books enabled the two entities to continually make false claims of financial health.

01-12-2010 , 04:56 PM

#386

Not_In_My_Name

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 23,099

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian J

Why are you linking to a tv miniseries video?

It is based on a book by an embedded journalist and the guys in it were signing a racist song?

The quote from the soldier in the original videowas -

"Racism could no longer mask the reality of the occupation, these were people, these were human beings."

He is clearly talking about how racism is used to dehumanize the enemy, to "rationalize" the actions carried out, to distance oneself from the actual people being effected by the war. You are on another planet if you think racism plays no part in making wars more palatable for the public, for politicians and for soldiers.

01-12-2010 , 05:07 PM

#387

Brian J

TOTP Master

Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 10,650

Quote:

Originally Posted by Not_In_My_Name

Racist song, ok. Ah, so it's "zomg racist!" to sing "hijabs falling to the street." Gotcha. I love the way the meaning of that word gets expanded.

01-12-2010 , 05:15 PM

#388

SL__72

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 16,499

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian J

Racist song, ok. Ah, so it's "zomg racist!" to sing "hijabs falling to the street." Gotcha. I love the way the meaning of that word gets expanded.

Wait, you really think this doesn't happen?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Not_In_My_Name

He is clearly talking about how racism is used to dehumanize the enemy, to "rationalize" the actions carried out, to distance oneself from the actual people being effected by the war. You are on another planet if you think racism plays no part in making wars more palatable for the public, for politicians and for soldiers.

01-12-2010 , 05:21 PM

#389

Not_In_My_Name

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 23,099

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian J

Racist song, ok. Ah, so it's "zomg racist!" to sing "hijabs falling to the street." Gotcha. I love the way the meaning of that word gets expanded.

lol, hajjis, not hijabs. Look it up. I don't think you have to be flyfw (

) to construe signing songs about killing "hajjis" as racist.

Also, that was clearly used as a semi-snarky illustrative video, you just ignored actual point I was making.

01-12-2010 , 05:54 PM

#390

Huehuecoyotl

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 29,320

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian J

Why are you linking to a tv miniseries video?

Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and The New Face of American War (Hardcover)

or if you prefer less Rolling Stone bull%$#4 and a more of a strait up historical read you could read

One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer

They both cover the same events but One Bullet Away is far better

Last edited by Huehuecoyotl; 01-12-2010 at 06:00 PM.

01-12-2010 , 06:03 PM

#391

Brian J

TOTP Master

Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 10,650

Quote:

Originally Posted by Not_In_My_Name

lol, hajjis, not hijabs. Look it up. I don't think you have to be flyfw (

) to construe signing songs about killing "hajjis" as racist.

Also, that was clearly used as a semi-snarky illustrative video, you just ignored actual point I was making.

yeah sorry, ears here one thing and fingers type something else. I don't get the whole racist thing tbh and the overuse of that word is a pet peeve of mine when people should be using words like bigot or prejudice. If a guy sings about hajjis falling to the streets and then turns around later and helps dark skinned muslims (which happened quite a bit if I remember the articles correctly) what does that mean? Can he be a racist?

01-12-2010 , 06:21 PM

#392

Not_In_My_Name

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 23,099

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian J

Yes. Clearly. I can give a whole bunch of people throughout history, undisputed racists, who showed compassion and empathy towards the targets of their racism. Many slave owners, for example, were fairly benevolent towards their slaves, educating them, giving them health care, doing much to improve their living conditions. That doesn't change the fact that they were racists.

Racists aren't psychopathic monsters. They are still human beings. They can still show love, tenderness, kindness and mercy to those their racism is directed towards. There are many different kinds of racism, and people are racists for many, many different reasons. Some people are intentionally racist. Some are racist due to the institutions they function in, some are racist because of social or cultural pressures. Some people are even racist because it makes it easier to perform actions which would be psychologically difficult for them to undertake against someone they viewed as "equal" or "human." Maybe bigoted or prejudice is a better choice of words, and maybe there are better words to choose, but racism will do just fine for me thanks.

I'm not saying this is confined to the war in Iraq, and it's certainly not confined to the USA. You'll probably find this kind of situational/institutional racism in pretty much every single international war in history and even many civil and class wars. It's just an inevitability of taking hundreds of thousands of guys from one country and sending them to fight and hundreds of thousands of guys in another country.

01-12-2010 , 10:03 PM

#393

The 13th 4postle

banned

Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 11,244

Apparently, President Clinton had a romantic relationship during the 2008 campaign.

01-12-2010 , 10:14 PM

#394

cres

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 10,331

Al Sharpton kickin the crap out of Hannity and Coulter tonight.

01-12-2010 , 10:34 PM

#395

yellowbastard

old hand

Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 1,674

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian J

he lost me at "racist"

which was about two words in

He says the military uses racism to get the soldiers to carry out their shameful deeds against the innocent people over there. I hear neocons talk like this all the time. People in the military should be ashamed of themselves as well as all of the "arm-chair warriors" that support them.

01-12-2010 , 10:43 PM

#396

Ineedaride2

Politics Court Jester

Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 25,080

Quote:

Originally Posted by cres

Al Sharpton kickin the crap out of Hannity and Coulter tonight.

Quote:

Yes we remember Preston Blake, a man with faith no man could shake. A strength no man could break. A character no man could fake. For goodness sake, let's eat some cake.

01-12-2010 , 10:55 PM

#397

DVaut1

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 30,005

Harold Ford

...in 2006:

Quote:

COLMES: Why would you change your view? You were pro-choice at one time. What happened?

FORD:Let me say this. No, no. I was not pro-choice at one time.

Today:

Quote:

FORD: I am pro-choice -- have always been since I entered politics almost 15 years ago...Any assertions to the contrary are false.

This is going to be a tough nut for Gillibrand to crack imo.