What? Me blog?

Finally got a response to the e-mail I sent to Mr. Donnelly (D - 2nd District) - nearly two months later!

November 26, 2008

Dear Mr. hoosiertoo,

Thank you for taking the time to contact me about the ongoing financial crisis. I value your views, and your input helps me to better represent the people of Indiana's Second District in Congress.

As your congressman, I believe it is my duty to do whatever I can to protect jobs, retirement savings, and economic growth in our communities. The financial crisis threatens them all. I am angry that Main Street was asked to step up and fix a mess that was caused by the greed and recklessness of Wall Street. The FBI is already investigating many firms for possible wrong doing, and I hope anyone who acted illegally lands in jail. However, I believe that the cost of inaction would have been much greater than the cost of the rescue package, and I could not stand idly by as your representative and do nothing as the crisis worsened. On October 3, I joined colleagues from both parties in the House of Representatives in passing H.R. 1424, The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, by a vote of 263 to 171. The bill was signed into law that same day.

One of the primary causes of these problems is that mortgage companies and lenders began several years ago to significantly expand the number of home loans they provided to Americans with questionable credit histories. Homeownership soared as
the number of "subprime" home loans increased. Many banks, investment firms, and other financial institutions got in on the housing boom by offering and trading incredibly complex "mortgage-backed securities" and other products whose values were, in theory, based on the value of the mortgages held by lenders. These were bought, repackaged and traded by an increasing number of financial companies, leaving many banks and firms exposed to huge unknown risks in their pursuit of bigger profits.

When the housing market crashed, so did the value of these complicated assets, and the result has been the worst economic crisis America has seen in several decades. In mid-September, lending activity began to freeze up. Reacting to the failures of major investment firms and fears that others were on the brink, banks slowed, or, in some cases, even stopped, their lending. These banks either did not have enough capital on hand to continue their standard lending practices or decided they were unwilling to assume the risk of possibly not being paid back.

Our economy depends on the availability of credit, and action was necessary to get the credit market to thaw. H.R. 1424 authorized the Treasury to use up to $700 billion to purchase shares of banks or buy existing mortgage-backed and other troubled securities over the next two years in an effort to ease the flow of credit and restore confidence in our financial system. The government would hold these assets temporarily, selling them back in a few years and earning most of the value back. The bill includes strong oversight mechanisms, prohibits any executive of a participating company from getting a golden parachute, and temporarily raises from $100,000 to $250,000 the amount per depositor the federal government will insure.

Much work remains to shore up our economy, protect retirement savings, and ensure that hard-working Americans can feel secure in their ability to provide for their families' needs and plan for the future. I promise to do everything within my power to ensure that smart regulation and oversight of our financial system is restored so that this kind of disaster never happens again, and as Congress considers future action to help the economy, I will always put the interests of Hoosiers first.

Thank you again for contacting me about this important issue. Please do not hesitate to write, call or email me again if I can ever be of assistance. Also, if you would like to receive regular updates on my actions on your behalf in Congress, sign up for my e-newsletter, The Donnelly Dispatch, at http://donnelly.house.gov.

Sincerely,
Joe Donnelly
Member of Congress

Labels: bailout, politics

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The end is near!

“The world’s food-producing system,” warns Dr. James D. McQuigg of NOAA’s enter for Climatic and Environmental Assessment, “is much more sensitive to the weather variable than it was even five years ago.” Furthermore, the growth of world population and creation of new national boundaries make it impossible for starving peoples to migrate from their devastated fields, as they did during past famines.

Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed might...create problems far greater than those they solve. But the scientists see few signs that government leaders anywhere are even prepared to take the simple measures of stockpiling food or of introducing the variables of climatic uncertainty into economic projections of future food supplies. The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality.

Newsweek article

Labels: global warming

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What recession? According to Gun Magazine:

Sales by firearm and ammunition manufacturers were up 9.7 percent in the
first quarter of 2008, led by a 17.3 percent increase in ammunition sales, a 5
percent rise in handgun sales and a 6.7 percent increase in long gun
sales.

The statistics are taken from the latest Pittman-Robertson federal
excise tax collection report. Excise taxes are calculated as a percentage of
wholesale receipts, paid quarterly by firearm and ammunition manufacturers, and
earmarked for state wildlife conservation and habitat restoration programs.
These statistics are based solely on US civilian sales and do not include sales
to military, police, etc.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_11_54/ai_n28573738

And the Bend Bulletin:

Southport, Conn.-based Sturm, Ruger & Company Inc., manufacturer of Ruger
brand guns, saw its sales increase 31 percent in the third quarter of 2008 from
the third quarter of 2007.

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081103/NEWS0107/811030387

And the International Business Times:

As firearm sales continue to increase this year, at a rate of 10 percent over
the same period last year and 15 percent in October alone, the National Shooting
Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for the firearms industry --
is pointing to gun-owner concerns about an Obama Administration as reason for
the boom.

Last week President-elect Obama's Web site had posted his
administration's agenda for curtailing the Second Amendment rights of law
abiding Americans, thereby validating the concerns of gun owners, sportsmen and
firearms enthusiasts all across the country. Curiously, the Obama-Biden
gun control agenda was taken down from the Web site after just two
days.

http://ibtimes.com/prnews/20081110/nssf-obama-anti-gun.htm

Go figure... And in Raleigh:

Barack Obama said he would improve the economy. Turns out he already has, at least in one retail niche: gun sales.
Starting in the days before the election, gun shops across the state have been mobbed by buyers who fear that Obama and a larger Democratic majority in Congress will restrict firearm sales. Many were stocking up on things such as assault rifles, high-capacity magazines and handguns that they think would be the most likely targets of new laws, though practically everything related to shooting has been selling more quickly.
"It's been an absolute madhouse," said Trey Pugh, a manager at Jim's Pawn Shop in Fayetteville, which is selling 15 to 20 AR-15 assault rifles a day. "I'm getting guys come in and say I always wanted that gun, and give me that one too and that one and, oh, I need a gun safe, too."
Distributors are running out of assault rifles, he said, and prices are rising.

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1286786.html

Dang inflation! Ol' hoosiertoo, ever slow to spot a trend, has decided to join the spree. Mrs. hoosiertoo is figuring another shotgun and a hunting rifle are in order. She wants an M1911a1 all her own too. I'm going to need a second job.

Labels: toys for adults

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Found in inbox and unattributed. Nicely done parody.

Labels: politics

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Noting that DHL now wants a bailout...

Most everyone making more than me are getting bailouts.

Most everyone making less than me are - have been! - getting bailouts.

I'm putting Uncle Obama on notice - I WANT MY BAILOUT TOO! I'm thinking $100 grand ought to cover it, a bargain compared to these other clowns.

Labels: did I say morons?, morons, politics

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While I can say emphatically that I'm not at all happy with an Obama win, I note that the country has survived socialists and eugenicists for the past 100 years. Hopefully the Repugnicons will now go about the business of purging the libtards and becoming a true opposition party. Not likely, but one can dream.

I don't have complete results yet, but it appears all my candidates - with the obvious exception of Baldwin - won. Obama's coat tails weren't very long in my area, I guess. All those suckers buying the Obamessiah's change message seemed to lose focus farther down the ticket. I'd like to say I'm surprised at Obama carrying Indiana, but given the demographics and McCain's lack of appeal, I'm not. One thing that strikes me - there really isn't a big ideological divide in Indiana. Mitch Daniels is a Bush Republican who seemed to run away from the McCain campaign.

The Libertarians made a sad showing in an election that was tailor-made for them - a weak Repugnicon candidate should have allowed them to garner more than a paltry 1.24% of the vote in the most "conservative" district in Indiana, although Horning got twice that in the gubernatorial race, which had a strong Repugnicon candidate. Way to go guys!

It's going to be a long four years...

Labels: politics