Is this a best of Thom?

I can't believe this bozo is spouting the same drivel you hear on Faux news.

"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything." - mark twain

Correction: For-Profit Death Panels.

AP, 2/17/2010

The insurer Humana said Wednesday it will cut about 2,500 positions as it adjusts to a smaller enrollment.

Its Medicare enrollment slid 24 percent last year to 3.4 million people, while its commercial enrollment fell 6 percent to roughly the same amount.

The Louisville company, however, said it will add 1,100 positions in growth areas like medical-cost containment and pharmacy management.

DEATH PANELS!

re: cheney's confession:
http://www.truthout.org/cheney-admits-war-crimes-media-yawns-obama-turns...

re: Confessions: Bush also confessed on-air, 1 week after his '05 State-of-the-Union speech. He bragged about having "gone-around" the FISA law over 30 times. (I don't remember the exact phrasing; it might have been "gone above" the FISA law, a la Fawn Hall.)

"Include me out." - yogi berra

Found Thom's Two Santa Clauses on common dreams (Excellent read!):
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

@Charles in OH: How do you keep prisons full, and thus the private companies that run them profitable? By convincing municipalities to pass restrictive laws that target the innocent and discourage rehabilitation .. precisely why we have DUI repeat offenders and lock people up for decades for smoking pot. Getting money out of politics is the answer ... wow, seems like it all keeps coming back to the simple solution of publicly financed elections (local to state to federal)!

I've been trying to promote High Speed Rail in Kentucky with my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Kentucky-High-Speed-Rail-Connecting-the-Nations-Corridors/291471702368?ref=ts
Posting links and papers discussing the benefits of High Speed Rail. Please check it out!

From Va Congressman Forbes
Friend –

Did you know that Moody’s has warned that the United States could stand to lose its gold-standard Triple-A debt rating if government debt continues to rise? And despite this reality, the House of Representatives voted this month – without my support – to increase the U.S. debt limit for the third time in the past year, adding $6,000 per citizen to the $40,000 in national debt Washington has spent for every single American.

Clearly, there is a disconnect between decision makers in Washington and those living in the real world. This type of debt increase cycle also begs the question of whether the “debt ceiling” really is a ceiling at all if it is so easy to raise.

That's why I recently cosponsored the CAP the DEBT Act (H.R. 4262), which would mandate a 2/3 roll call vote in both the House and Senate chambers in order to raise the debt ceiling. It would repeal the current Gephardt Rule that allows a debt ceiling increase to be included in budget resolutions without facing a direct vote.

The CAP the DEBT Act will make passage of debt increases far more difficult. Most importantly, though, it will bring more transparency to the process so Members of Congress are held accountable for their votes to raise the debt limit.

I invite you to email me with your thoughts on this issue and to forward this information to anyone you know that may also be concerned about our nation’s fiscal future.

- Randy

My reply to Mr. Forbes
I agree, Cap the debt; No more war funding!
(What do you want to bet military spending is excluded from his debt cap)?

Yesterday, Thom and a caller were discussing the issue of debt forgiveness on a world-wide scale, which I suppose on a certain level has a kind of Disney Land appeal. What if the U.S. decided to unilaterally cancel its own debt? It would likely send seismic shockwaves into the living rooms of individuals whose pensions and savings are tied-up in government bonds or notes, all the way to foreign governments retaliating by seizing U.S. assets within their borders. If no one trusted the worth of U.S. bonds and notes, it would be impossible to raise money to pay for government programs save from taxes; you can’t just print money willy-nilly without converting them to bonds that are then purchased, because that money would quickly become worthless.

Now, we may conjecture that individual debt works via a different dynamic if that debt is forgiven. Subsequently freed-up funds would be re-invested into the economy as people become consumers again, that is if they learn their lesson and refrain from using overusing their credit cards. But what of the banks that “loaned” them the money that they now don’t have to pay back? That money belonged to depositors. How will they get their money back if the banks go broke? Won’t this set off another cycle of bailouts? I’ve heard at least one radio host suggest that if credit card companies keep piling on the high finance charges, over-limit fees and late charges that make it impossible to pay-off the balance, that hey, just show them credit card companies that you won’t take it anymore and don’t make any more payments. Sounds good to me, except that even if after six months the creditor writes off the debt, they will simply “sell” the debt to a collection agency, and you better have a good story before a judge (like being homeless) or face wage garnishments.

There are a lot of debt settlement companies popping out of the woodwork with alternate plans to ward-off private debt, but they are largely unregulated and rarely have your best interest in mind. When they give you a fixed settlement amount, that usually only includes the balance, not the subsequently accrued finance charges or the taxes you have to pay on the “forgiven” debt (which counts as “income”); and unlike debt consolidation programs, a much larger chunk of the monthly payment goes to various service fees. Although the monthly payment might be smaller, it may take longer to pay-off the debt in the long run, and you may end-up saving very little.

It is interesting to note that the problem of private debt and the way it handicaps an economy has been around for a long time. Back in the days of Ancient Rome, Julius Caesar “solved” the private debt problem by promulgating a law that allowed a determination of the amount of interest a debtor had paid, and subtracting that amount from the total of the original debt; if the debtor had paid more in interest than the original debt, that he was no longer liable for further payments on the debt. In this way, the debtor was relieved of excessive and unfair financial burdens, while the creditor, if he didn’t make a profit, at least recovered the entire amount of the original debt. Given the fact that the bank and corporate conspiracy to keep wages low and keep the economy artificially inflated with credit is largely responsible for the current credit crisis, resurrecting this idea seems fairly reasonable.

I guess this must be it:

http://movetoamend.org/

If corporations are people, and no person shall be denied Equal Protection, then natural born people have all the rights of corporations. No person arrested after this ruling can be jailed, because we all now have limited liability. The worst thing that you can do to a person is fine them. Every person gets the same tax status as a corporation. We get to write off all expenses.

If corporation want to be people, then they have to have all the responsibilities of people. They lose any special tax status, and liability. You can’t have it both ways, that’s not Equal Protection.