Exactly what freebies, tommy?

yeah - I remember - one of the strongest economies of the 20th century - I remember it well

Any one can improve their stature in life with work and diligence but no one is going to get very far on unemployment or welfare because we get used to it and it saps our initiative to excell -anyone who has been in both circumstances knows this is true

I was downsized four times due to corporate take overs and plant closings. I was working homeless for 7 months because the only job I could find was a part time one where I didn't make enough to put a roof over my head. I've worked up to 3 jobs at a time to try and rebuild my life.

I've been in both circumstances and I can tell you that you are full of crap.

Do you have a source for this claim? I haven't seen anything to show something like this from bain capital. What I have seen is the owners borrowing money to buy distressed corporations, fix them up and then sell them for a profit.

Bob Hope had it figured out.......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a6YdNmK77k

Bam see post #56

I thought it was the democrats were crying over the $2 trillion in cash that businesses are keeping on the sideline. I think you got your parties mixed up here. I also fail to see the leap logic you use in having Bain capital buy undervalued companies and flip them for a profit contributes to people become more poor. It simply doesn't make sense.

Thats simply not true because we dont have half the decline as greece,spain,france,or even uk because we have helped keep them afloat with germany---Also we are still the largest giver to other nations in the world

"Solyndra"

we have helped keep them afloat with germany

Are we part of the EU now?

No just part of the world bank-The biggist part

Greece and Ireland were bailed out by the EU.

Only partially bailed out. They have a long ways to go.

You get what I mean.

By GERALD P. O'DRISCOLL JR.

America's central bank, the Federal Reserve, is engaged in a bailout of European banks. Surprisingly, its operation is largely unnoticed here.

The Fed is using what is termed a "temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangement" with the European Central Bank (ECB). There are similar arrangements with the central banks of Canada, England, Switzerland and Japan. Simply put, the Fed trades or "swaps" dollars for euros. The Fed is compensated by payment of an interest rate (currently 50 basis points, or one-half of 1%) above the overnight index swap rate. The ECB, which guarantees to return the dollars at an exchange rate fixed at the time the original swap is made, then lends the dollars to European banks of its choosing.

BAm BAm

You seem to forget that Obama was elected to clean up the Bush mess. Well, he hasn't. In fact, Obama adopted many of the Bush economic policies even though he knew they failed.

Stop trying to make yourself seem informed when all you are proving is that you are just another uninformed Obama supporter who like to run their mouth on Newsvine.

CFL bulbs

Naw, he is just hiring 4000 IRS agents to make sure we pay tax or else confiscate every thing we have earned in these hard times

Karl,

The law passed a Republican Congress and was signed into law in 2007 by President Bush!

Bush pushed CFL's. Obamas Jobs Recovery Act is pushing LED's.

Well, Obama did manage to take each families share fo the national debt from $45,000.00 when he took office to $122,303.00 in just 2.75. Of course these numbers only reflect the time when Obama's never ending debt crises was created at the beginning of August, 2011.

That was seven month ago and the debt has just kept growing and growing with Obama economic policies. He's only managed to get the debt ceiling raised to $16.7 trillion. As we've been reading, with his borrow and spend policies, he trying to reach that debt ceiling by the end of December.

Be nice Bam Bam. Your man Obama has quite a record of flip flopping himself with a special skill of talking out of both sides of his mouth at same time promising two different people the complete opposite courses of actions he plans to take on their behalf.

I would say that Obama is trying to do the biggest flip of all. He's trying to convince America that he's not a Left Wing Ideologue.

He's trying to do a Clinton. Too bad he's a Carter. Oops I apologize President Carter I Didn't mean to insult you.

You can add that to Obama's list of Accomplishments. President Carter is no longer the worst President in recent History.

Many Nobel Peace Prize Nominees and Recipients spent years, decades maybe their whole life, working for peace, some people that should get an NPP never have or will.

What was it again that Obama did to "EARN" the N.P.P.?

and they believe in the trickle down effect...

Don't eat yellow snow.

You need the "Seven Steps of Acceptance" Obama is your President and will be until 2016. Accept it!

It's the "Seven Steps of Grief". I searched your exact string and not one hit for "Seven Steps of Acceptance".

This might be a little easier for you since it appears you may be having a hard time accepting the truth and there's less steps.

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer

David

Thank you. I never saw that one before. Its a keeper for sure because it shows what a phony this Obama is.

Romney is gonna sellout the low income tea party down the river and work with pelosi and reid for his agenda and say to america how he was able to bring people together for the better good of america.

He is truly a RINO!

repug in name only not in actions

The Democrats are supposed to be the ones who will clean house?

How can anyone forget when Nancy Pelosi said they were going to drain the swamp and have the most honest, most open most ethical congress in History.

Shall we count the ways I mean Democrats?

Rangle found guilty of 11 ethics violations and re-elected. Wiener forced to resign for tweeting his Weiner. Maxine waters facing ethics violations, Eddie Bernice Johnston facing ethics violations. Barbra Boxer more ethics violations.

Lets not forgot the two most prominent Democrats Pelosi and Reid; and who can forget the Democrats History making accomplishment of having the longest serving representative in history being a racist former KKK Member, Exalted Cyclops and Kleagle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd

A member of the Democratic Party, Byrd served as a U.S. Representative from 1953 until 1959 and as a U.S. Senator from 1959 to 2010. He was the longest-serving senator and the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Congress.

…

I was only 23 or 24 years old, and the thought of a political career had never really hit me. But strike me that night, it did."^[9] Byrd held the titles Kleagle (recruiter) and Exalted Cyclops.^[9] When it came time to elect the "Exalted Cyclops", the top officer in the local Klan unit, Byrd won unanimously.^[9]

In 1944, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo:^[17]

“

I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.

”

— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944,

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/10/pelosis-disclosure-belated-in-husbands-land-deal/

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband, a real estate developer and investment banker, stands to make millions of dollars in a previously undisclosed residential real estate project in California as a partner with the father of a woman Mrs. Pelosi helped become ambassador to Hungary, records show.

Paul F. Pelosi’s investment in Russell Ranch is worth at least $5 million and possibly as much as $25 million in a deal put together by his friend and longtime business associate, Angelo Tsakopoulos, patriarch of a multimillion-dollar real estate development firm, according to Mrs. Pelosi’s latest personal-disclosure statement.

Mr. Pelosi said in an email from his wife’s spokesman that initially he invested between $1 million and $5 million in the project a dozen years ago, although its value has shot up recently as the undeveloped land moves closer to being annexed by a nearby city. He said the Russell Ranch investment had increased in value less than 5 percent per year over the last dozen years.

Despite his involvement in the project dating back to the late 1990s, Mrs. Pelosi first listed the investment in May 2010 on her federal financial-disclosure forms covering the couple’s finances during 2009. The forms are required annually and are supposed to identify assets she and her husband have that are worth more than $1,000.

The first Russell Ranch listing came a month after The Washington Times raised questions about business dealings between Mr. Pelosi and Mr. Tsakopoulos and Mrs. Pelosi’s successful efforts to help his daughter, Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, become ambassador. For 2009, Mrs. Pelosi reported that the Russell Ranch investment was worth between $1 million and $5 million. The next year, she listed the value as between $5 million and $25 million.

Nadeam Elshami, spokesman for Mrs. Pelosi, said the California Democrat did not have to list the Russell Ranch investment because it was held in the name of another company her husband owns, Forty-Five Belden Corp., which is a Subchapter S corporation and taxes it owes are paid by the shareholders rather than the corporation.

While federal officials usually have to list the underlying assets of their privately held companies that hold investments, the House does not require such disclosures for Subchapter S corporations

Asked why she listed the project now if she was not required to do so, the spokesman said Mr. and Mrs. Pelosi “voluntarily decided to list it separately for clarity and transparency purposes.” Noting that the couple has been friends with Mr. Tsakopoulos and Mrs. Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis “for more than 25 years,” he said there was no attempt to hide the asset - calling any such claim “ridiculous” and “false.”

But a government watchdog said that even if it was not legally required, Mrs. Pelosi should have voluntarily disclosed the Russell Ranch investment earlier, at least by the time she was helping Mrs. Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis become an ambassador in November 2009. Mrs. Pelosi promised upon her election as House speaker in 2007 to lead “the most honest, most open, most ethical Congress in history.”

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=17582

Real Life Example No. 1: In the early 1990s a helpless corporation, Del Webb, wanted to realize its personal dream and develop some land outside Las Vegas. There was just one problem: the government owned much of it and it wasn’t for sale! Employing the simple Reid Estate wealth building system, Del Webb hired a former Reid aide, donated $18,000 to Harry Reid’s campaign fund and then did the obvious next thing: it purchased “environmentally sensitive” lands 400 miles away near Lake Tahoe. After two letters to the Interior Department from Sen. Reid and a personal meeting organized by him, at which a government employee said he felt “pressured” by Reid, the Interior Department allowed Del Webb and its partners to swap that environmentally valuable land near Lake Tahoe for the environmentally worthless (but commercially valuable) land in Las Vegas. Reid claims to have done nothing unusual.

BAM! Instant value. IT’S JUST THAT EASY TO MAKE MONEY IN REID ESTATE!

Real Life Example No. 2: In a remarkable coincidence, land adjoining the above “swapped” land was then sold by a Del Webb partner to … Sen. Harry Reid and his partner, Jay Brown. The transaction was at fair market value, Reid later stated. Mr. Brown, described by the Associated Press as a “casino lawyer” whose “name has surfaced in federal investigations involving organized crime, casinos and political bribery,” and Sen. Reid wished to develop the land as a strip mall—which would have a much fairer market value than the land they bought, which was zoned strictly residential. A Reid Estate rezoning was called for!

But first Sen. Reid sold his land (for the exact price he had paid for it) to “Patrick Lane,” a limited liability corporation created by Mr. Brown, in exchange for a share of that limited liability corporation. This move created no net value, but coincidentally resulted in Reid’s name being removed from the deed before Mr. Brown went publicly before the zoning board to represent Patrick Lane LLC, a corporation that somehow omitted Mr. Reid’s name from any of its public corporate filings.

When the first board rejected the rezoning as “inconsistent” with Clark County’s Master Development Plan, Brown appealed and the Clark County Zoning Board and the Clark County Commission overruled the decision. Coincidentally, Mr. Brown’s agent had stated to commissioners during the appeal, "Mr. Brown's partner is Harry Reid, so I think we have people in this community who you can trust to go forward and put a quality project before you." Strange—that Reid’s name was so carefully removed from legal documents and then dropped casually in the halls of government—and right before the commission overruled the previous decision. Well, the important thing is that the residential land Reid bought for $400,000 was soon sold for $1.1 million (Reid’s part) as a commercial property. And all because Sen. Reid did nothing unusual. That’s the power of the Reid Estate system! Let the wheels of government grind away your financial worries!

Real Life Example No. 3: But even the first two examples are nothing compared to the experience of one Harvey Whittemore, a simple lobbyist and long-time practitioner of the Reid Estate system. Whittemore inadvertently got a great deal on a 42,832-acre property once intended as a missile test range. The land was a development nightmare, because it was infested with the endangered Desert Tortoise and the entire road frontage along U.S. 93 was blocked by a mile-wide power line corridor leased to the federal government. Either one of these problems alone might take an act of Congress to solve. But Harvey Whittemore had that in mind all along! Whittemore understood the importance of “Step 2” of the system: “Hire a Reid, invest with a Reid, contribute to a Reid, but above all know a Reid!”—and he had all the bases covered.

"You have to understand how close the Whittemore and Reid families are," Whittemore told the Los Angeles Times. "My relationship with Sen. Reid goes back decades." In addition, Whittemore’s personal attorney is Leif Reid, the senator’s son. Rory Reid, another of the senator’s sons and head of the Nevada Democrat Party during the Clark County Commission’s decision to rezone his father’s property, was made a partner in Whittemore’s law firm. In fact, all four of Reid’s sons (Rory, Leif, Josh and Key) have worked for the firm during their careers. Whittemore has given tens of thousands of dollars to Harry Reid’s campaigns, thousands to Rory Reid’s successful campaign to be elected to the Clark County Commission, and thousands to Josh Reid’s unsuccessful bid to be elected to the city council of Cottonwood Heights, Utah.

Although neither Sen. Reid nor Leif Reid intervened on his behalf, according to Sen. Reid, the Bureau of Land Management gave Whittemore clear title to 10,000-acre rent-free lease constituting the Desert Tortoise Preserve in the middle of the site, in exchange for 10,000 acres on the eastern edge of the 5-mile by 13-mile tract. Local officials of the Interior Department objected to this minor “boundary adjustment” of the preserve, but were overruled by Washington. The Desert Tortoises, it turns out, were willing to move to the Mormon Mountains.

The federal power corridor was a bigger problem. But after Sen. Reid inserted a measure into a federal land bill opening up the property across the highway for the corridor, then repeatedly inserted a provision into bills to move the corridor across the highway, that pesky 15-square-mile corridor just disappeared. At first, this was to be a gift from the government to Mr. Whittemore, but after a minor stink was raised, Whittemore offered to pay $160,000 for the 15-square-mile improvement. Eventually, he was forced to pay the $10.4 million that government appraisers said the change was actually worth.

But that was still a bargain, since together the federal changes to the corridor and the Desert (and Mountain) Tortoise habitat freed up more than 20,000 acres of highway-accessible Reid Estate for a development that will eventually include 159,000 homes, 16 golf courses (several by Jack Nicklaus), and all the associated strip malls this new city will require. I suggest they call it “Tortuga Hills.”

But there was one last obstacle to clear. The EPA suddenly decided that bulldozing desert streambeds, as proposed, might be bad for the streambed environment. A flurry of calls from Sen. Reid arranged meetings between the EPA, Whittemore and Leif Reid. Nevada’s junior senator, Republican John Ensign, was enlisted in the cause, clearing the way for the senior senator, Harry Reid, to also become more directly involved in talking to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. Can you guess what the outcome was? That’s right—the system worked. The Harry Reid Real Estate Investment System, that is. The project proceeded with minimal changes.

There are other examples, as well. But you can see how this simple investment system, accessible by every citizen (no mater how unconnected), works to create millions and millions of dollars of new government-unleashed wealth for its practitioners

How successful is the system for its inventor, Sen. Harry Reid? So successful he doesn’t even remember how much land he owns anymore! He’s constantly “remembering” old parcels just before the ethics committee asks about them. Such oversight is often the result of “clerical errors”—just like Sen. Reid accidentally paying personal obligations with campaign funds was the result of “clerical errors.” “Clerical errors” are soon to be added as “Step 4” of the system: “What to claim upon getting caught using the system.”

In fact, the system is so successful that Harry Reid, that beacon of morality from Searchlight, Nev., can now stop worrying about money altogether, and concentrate on his true calling: fighting the “culture of corruption” in Republican Washington.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/11/16/us-usa-congrss-rangel-idUSTRE6AF47I20101116

Democratic Representative Charles Rangel, Congress's former chief tax writer, was convicted by a congressional panel on Tuesday of ethics violations, many dealing with personal finances.

A congressional ethics subcommittee found the veteran representative guilty of 11 counts, including failing to report rental income and improper use of a rent-stabilized apartment and soliciting charitable donations from people with business before Congress.

"I talked to the whole leadership team this morning, along with the staff, the senior leaders, about our need to continue to work together for our team," Boehner told reporters. "And so, I feel good about where we are, and happy that we've got the team that we have." Then he continued... "Mitch, Eric and I all want the same thing. As we've said before, we want to see America fail. This is the only thing that will put us back into the White House. Our team is in agreement on this. Even Rush and Grover say so...the lobbyists waiting in my office right now want it too! Once Willard "Mitt" Romney is elected, we can all shift our bank accounts from Switzerland and the Bahamas back to the USA, as we'll have no taxes at all." You could see a tiny tear form as he uttered that last sentence.....

All I can say liberty is a academic year at my local community college cost $17500, plus food, shelter and clothing, also transportation.

Get a job but I need a skill, but if I make to much I can't get a fed loan, if I don't pass 75% of attempted credits I lose all federal loans qualifications.

Liberty, you cannot do it anymore; it costs too much. You have to hold down three jobs just to pay for tuition, not including living expenses. No high paying jobs are available to people without a degree or experience to match that degree. You cannot get the experience in most cases without getting a job which would require a degree. See the little paradox here?

In some IT fields it is possible to land a job without experience or a degree but you have to prove you are very good at what ever it is. Programmers can usually increase their hiring chances by making portfolios for example.

Flipping burgers or being a sales person ain't going to cut it.

Terry-empty suits make jokes about Mitt. They worry that he will make them seem less interesting than they are. Valid worry.