Why is it Jane’s job to ask your questions? I have never known Jane to back away from asking a tough question. How often does she need to expose the conflicts and hypocrisies of the governement and unions, before it satisfies you? Congress is voting on the trade bills this week, not Obama.

Jon, I actually think it was smart of the democrats to delay implementation of the individual mandate until after the 2012 election. Who is going to support a party that makes them buy unaffordable healthcare? Expanding medicaid would be a gain for democrats, but I think that will totally be overshadowed by the individual mandate. It pisses me off and I have insurance (currently).

Could this be the end of the EPA? He honestly must think he has the North East and West coast sewn up. It will be interesting to see how much further this will push the Repugs to the right.

Apparantely Rush Limbaugh was correct all along.

They always attach a dollar amount to it. If BofA knew about an AIG lawsuit seven months ago that would reshape the extent of their mortgage liabilities, and chose not to reveal that information, that’s a serious error. Is it criminal? Hard to say.

David the reporting requirements don’t require disclosure of a name. If it is only “reasonably posssible” that they will suffer a loss, they don’t have to accrue anything. Unfortunately the law is on their side. You can thank Barney Frank for the lax accounting rules on this.

Paragraph 10 of SFAS No. 5) requires disclosure of losscontingencies if: 15

• A losscontingency is probable, but it is not accrued because it cannot be reasonably estimated.

• A losscontingency is reasonably possible, in which case it would not be accrued because it is not probable.

• A losscontingency is probable and is accrued, but an exposure to loss exists in excess of the amount accrued.

708.23 In those situations, the disclosure must indicate the nature of the contingency and must include:

• An estimate of the possible loss or range of loss, or

• A statement that such an estimate cannot be made.

Bank of America explicitly stated that they “intend to meet this standards without having to issue additional common stock.” But the deal gives Buffett warrants to purchase 700,000,000 shares of common stock at $7.142857 per share. This is pretty much lying to investors.

The stock options have a 10 year time period and so they don’t dilute the common stock until purchased. There is no way these stock options get exercised in the next 5 years. Really Bank of America was correct in what they said. They got additional capital without diluting the common shares.

Obama’s right, by the way, that a failure to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance will cost about 0.5% growth and up to 1 million jobs.

By letting the Bush tax cuts expire we would would hurt the economy as well because that was actually more stimulative by any measure than the Obama payroll tax holiday. Bush gave an advanced rebate in the form of $400 per person up to $1,200 per familly. This was an advanced payment for the new 10% tax bracket. That is of course if you believe tax cuts are stimulative.

VMT,

I completely agree with you that Romney would be no worse than Obama for Four years. He might even be better because the democrats might even fight for something if there was a Republican president.

Although voting for Romney is the wrong strategy. Write in your own name if you need to, but definitley don’t vote for Romney. Voting for Romney will just be validating Romney’s policies by the two parties. Voting for someone else will be seen as a rejection of the two parties.

Is all I can say is “whatever”. Like these picks will make a difference. There is not one democrat in the senate that I would trust to stand up for progressive principles. Show me an issue that needs a democrat to fight tooth ‘n’ nail and I will show a strongly worded letter instead.

You don’t think the few billion in unemployment benefits will be enough to fix this global meltdown? I’m shocked, I thought for sure that would be an adequate fix.

Completely agree, I have been voting Green Party or Write In candidates for the last 20 years knowing they didn’t stand a chance.

We have a great model of what the U.S. will become, “India”, you know with out the healthcare and education part.

A third party can’t work in the current system. The Corporations own the two parties and they own the media. Why would they allow another party? It is cheaper to bribe two parties as opposed to three.

Because “restructured” means privitized.

I am afraid that kabuki dance is called the progressive party.

The second half of the speech attempted to pull off a pivot to jobs. He cited the need to extend two key stimulus measures, the payroll tax cut and extended unemployment insurance,

One of his two key elements of job creation is to defund Social Security? Brilliant!

I now understand why he keeps talking about the need to cut social security benefits, because he plans on eliminating the funding for them. You know, stregthen social security by eliminating it.