The economy today is the result of mainly Republican Party control for about 25 years. It is time to shoot down the myth that the Republicans are "good" for the economy.

I hope the party is up to the challenge --- it could lead to a generation of Democratic rule if they save America's bacon and prove they have the leadership skills that the R's have shown not to have. But, we will need leadership in the congress from some folks who have not shown a lot in the past. Perhaps this opportunity will shake them out of their slumbers.

Perhaps.

Here's an inquiry from a blog reader. Can anyone answer here answer this one?

Dear Mr. [blogger],

I recall reading a few years ago that part of the original Federal Reserve legislation allowed that the congress could, at its option, buy back the Fed for a sum of 850 million dollars. (At this point a rather paltry sum.)

If true, it would seem that all that lovely interest they collect would land in the U.S. Treasury and could be applied to paying off the national debt.(That is if it's true)

I therefore, somewhat naively inquire;

1. Is it true?

2. If true, does the idea deserve some loud drum beating?

Columbia Journalism Review writes:

The Associated Press retracted two government-issued photographs last night after a photographer in Texas alerted the agency that the photos in question appeared to be doctored.

Bob Owen, chief photographer of the San Antonio Express-News, notified the AP that the photos of two deceased soldiers, who died in Iraq on Sept. 14, were nearly identical. Upon examining the photos, Owens noticed that everything except for the soldier’s face, name, and rank was the same. The most glaring similarity, Owen told CJR, was that the camouflage patterns of the two uniforms were “perfectly identical.” ... [there is more, click on sig]

Imagine that, the USA military lies to American Citizens! Well, I guess it must be for our own good, eh?

It is hard to accept that Americans can look at all the known examples of the government engaging in propaganda and yet will still believe most of the swill. As just one example, consider the nuclear bombing of Japan in WWII. I know many who believe (no, really believe) that the event was necessary to save a million American soldiers!

How do you run a Democracy if the government itself is set up to keep the voters in the dark? What was all that stuff the founders wrote about an "informed public" and so forth?

Blah! (as someone else here says all the time)

I am surprised that you do not find American pilots who drop 500 pound bombs on women and children as heroic as Palestinian rock throwers.

After all, a boy with a rock going up against a modern killing machine may get hurt, but the American pilot might suffer engine failure or worse!

from Bloomberg:

Treasury Seeks Asset-Buying Power Unchecked by Courts (Update2)

By Alison Fitzgerald and John Brinsley

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — The Bush administration sought unchecked power from Congress to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from financial companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the markets.

Through his plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson aims to avert a credit freeze that would bring the financial system and the world’s largest economy to a standstill. The bill would prevent courts from reviewing actions taken under its authority.

“He’s asking for a huge amount of power,” said Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University. “He’s saying, `Trust me, I’m going to do it right if you give me absolute control.’ This is not a monarchy.”

Why prevent the courts from reviewing the actions of the Bush administration in financial matters? That plan did not work so well in legal matters down at Gitmo, now did it?

What we have here is a failure to communicate! To communicate that power is moving to the center as if a black hole were in DC.

Russian peasant predicted, in the 20s, the fate of the Russian government 70 years later:

"'It's too big,' he said. 'Too big. At the top, it is too small. It will not work. In Moscow, there are only men, and man is not God. A man has only a man's head, and one hundred heads together do not make one great head. No. Only God can know Russia.'"

This was told to Rose Wilder Lane on her visit to Russia and there was more. I especially liked the peasant telling her that the central government was taking too many men away from productive work in the villages and putting them to non-productive work in government.

Hmmm. It took 70 or so years before the mistake finally ended the Russian Communist Empire. Are we next up?

It is time to grab back the votes of the working class. For more than 1/2 century the Democratic Party could depend on the votes of the "regular folks" and that is a vast majority of the country. It is time to get them to come home.

Let Bush II be known as the "Great Uniter". Let him be the one to put most of America under a big tent called the Democratic Party and let us win this election cycle in a landslide. (or a mudslide since Rove will still be involved)

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/
cr071602.htm

or click sig

Here is the speech, I think. He introduced legislation that would have prevented this nightmare.

As the song said: They were not listening then, they are not listening now, and perhaps they never will.