Author Topic: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst  (Read 3333 times)

Offline lazs2

  • Radioactive Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 24886
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #30 on: September 19, 2008, 02:54:33 PM »
then you can't read..  I blamed it on the socialists who.. in their "end justifies the means"  came up with a complex and unworkable solution for a nonexistent problem.

That of not enough people who owning homes who could not afford it.

When you force the companies to make these bad loans you open the flood gates of greed.. the shysters and the scumbags feed at the same trough as the poor downtrodden minorities..  creative loans went to them too...  interest only..  ARM's the whole gambit of crap loans all aimed at getting people who shouldn't own homes getting into em..

This created an artifical bubble that had to burst eventually.. 

The blame rests on the government for forcing the idiotic loans and encouraging them.

lazs

Offline bongaroo

  • Silver Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1822
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #31 on: September 19, 2008, 03:00:33 PM »
Oh, I coulda sworn most of the problems arouse from the deregulations that broke down the barriers seperating mortgage, investing, and banking groups.

Show us the laws you blame the cause of this on.
Callsign: Bongaroo
Formerly: 420ace


Offline Dos Equis

  • Nickel Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 365
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #32 on: September 19, 2008, 03:02:31 PM »
Bam!  I knew he'd blame it on minorities. 

Yeah, it was a given. Sad.

I like how he says that the Dems "made" private banks loan money to "scumbags" - most of whom in his world are minorities. I wonder what legislation he can point to to prove that assertion, since there was none.

Nope, credit swaps and the republican mantra of "shop until you drop" caused this, the culture of excess greed and consumption and a devalued dollar based on tax breaks for the rich forcing us to borrow. That's the truth. It's way too complex for a guy like lazs to grasp, so xenophobia is all he has left.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2008, 03:33:07 PM by Dos Equis »

Offline Hangtime

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 10148
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #33 on: September 19, 2008, 03:21:10 PM »
The republican plan.. 'we gotta pick up the turd.'

The democratic plan.. 'we gotta pick up the turd from the clean end.'
The price of Freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness...

...at home, or abroad.

Offline Bronk

  • Persona Non Grata
  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 9044
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #34 on: September 19, 2008, 03:23:42 PM »
The republican plan.. 'we gotta pick up the turd.'

The democratic plan.. 'we gotta pick up the turd from the clean end.'
OMG new keyboard pls. :rofl :rofl
See Rule #4

Offline crockett

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3420
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #35 on: September 19, 2008, 03:25:00 PM »
then you can't read..  I blamed it on the socialists who.. in their "end justifies the means"  came up with a complex and unworkable solution for a nonexistent problem.

That of not enough people who owning homes who could not afford it.

When you force the companies to make these bad loans you open the flood gates of greed.. the shysters and the scumbags feed at the same trough as the poor downtrodden minorities..  creative loans went to them too...  interest only..  ARM's the whole gambit of crap loans all aimed at getting people who shouldn't own homes getting into em..

This created an artifical bubble that had to burst eventually.. 

The blame rests on the government for forcing the idiotic loans and encouraging them.

lazs

You do understand that the banking companies were the ones whom pushed for the relaxation in the loan market? Specifically so they could give loans to people who shouldn't really get them. The current day mortgage companies found out what the credit card companies figured out years ago. It's much more profitable to give loans to people that can barely afford to pay them than it is to give loans to people with great credit and the ability to pay on time.

Lazs you do understand these companies make their money by interest rates and fees right? Those people that couldn't afford the houses were gold mines to these companies. The banks & loan companies wanted to lend them money because that's where their big profits are at. They can sell these morons off on interest only or ARM's and laugh all the way to the bank making solid profits. If they are late on the payment they laugh again all the way to the bank because of the late fee they rake in.

These companies got so addicted to these bad loans because of their profits that they went overboard and caused this mess. It damn sure wasn't because of Congress forcing them to lend to low income. low-income is a lenders wet dream.

Now they once again laugh all the way to the bank after all the profits they made they still get bailed out with no risk to themselves. Hell why wouldn't they want to lend to low income, it's a dream come true.. massive interest rates and it's backed by the govt. What more could a business ask for? Oh I know 4 more years to fux over the American tax payers.  
"strafing"

Offline Toad

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 18415
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #36 on: September 19, 2008, 03:27:34 PM »
The republican plan.. 'we gotta pick up the turd.'

The democratic plan.. 'we gotta pick up the turd from the clean end.'

Yeah, bears repeating that only 10 Senators did not vote for the repeal of Glass-Stegall. It's a bipartisan effort a clogging the toilet and they succeeded very well.

But hey... be a maroon. Vote to return your Senators and Representatives to Congress...after all, they're doing SUCH a GREAT job for you in DC. And don't forget to vote either for Obamessiah or McC because... well, if you repeat the same experiment over and over and get the exact same results... maybe NEXT time you'll get a different result. :rofl
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

Offline Hangtime

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 10148
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #37 on: September 19, 2008, 03:45:20 PM »
Toad, this has probably been the best week politically for the independents ever.

If this economy tanks and two years from now the bailout doesn't head off a depression it'll be curtains for long term congressmen.

Should be now.

I'll be voting independent at the top of my ticket because this state always goes liberal anyway. Further down, I'm implementing incumbent surgery. I don't give a damn what party they get their political power from, I don't care what corporation funds their election.

Bastards. All of 'em. Party hacks and puppets are deserving of no respect.. As a citizen, I haven't voted a party line ticket; ever, it's always struck me as moral & intellectual laziness.
 
The price of Freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness...

...at home, or abroad.

Offline Charon

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3705
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #38 on: September 19, 2008, 03:50:16 PM »
Quote
Kinda starts to make sense now why, McCain has so many lobbyists running his campaign. I'm sure it was obviously somehow the Democrats fault though.

They must really suck at their jobs, because "lobbyist-free" Obama is out in front in taking money from financial institution interests. Not that the others are far behind, but those wall street types must really be "hoping for change" in Washington with Kid Dynamite. Something I've pointed out here for months, though I still contend they are giving him and the others the payola to get a real neat carbon credit trading scam going for the next financial balloon to build and burst and not so much as protection for the current mess. Perhaps both though.

Quote
The financial industry has invested heavily in that dialogue, giving $22.5 million in the current election cycle to Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, and $19.6 million to Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178601242954941.html

Where lobbying and Fannie and Freddie are concerned, it does start to get far more lopsided. Obama, the "non lobbyist" just cream all the competition:

Going back to 1989 Obama comes in at second (amazing given his short time in office during that period) to Chris Dodd (D), chairman of the Senate banking committee (in office since 1980). John Kerry runs a close third to Obama.

Quote
(Figures: Total/PAC/Private)

Dodd, Christopher        CT     D     $165,400     $48,500     $116,900
Obama, Barack           IL    D    $126,349    $6,000    $120,349
Kerry, John              MA    D    $111,000    $2,000    $109,000

A few other names:

Reid, Harry        NV      D      $77,000      $60,500      $16,500
Clinton, Hillary            NY      D      $76,050      $8,000      $68,050
Pelosi, Nancy            CA      D      $56,250      $47,000      $9,250

McCain, John            AZ      R      $21,550      $0              $21,550
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html

The donations to Obama just since 2005 are impressive, even by "no change" Washington standards:

Quote
The federal takeover of mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae may stabilize the economy and help the housing industry. But politicians could take a hit, particularly Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Employees of the government-sponsored firms, which own or guarantee half of the nation's mortgages, have donated almost $4.3 million to federal elected officials and their various campaign committees since 2005.

Obama is the largest individual recipient at about $112,000, federal campaign finance reports show.

And don't worry. Not only will the criminally negligent financial firms be bailed out in a bi-partisan Washington manner at the expense of responsible tax payers, but Obama will cover the moron borrowers as well!

Quote
While campaigning Thursday, Sen. Obama said that the Fed's effort to pump billions of dollars into global financial markets to ease liquidity problems was important to "maintain the functioning of our financial system and the flow of credit to American households and businesses."

Sen. Obama said he planned to meet Friday with his top economic advisers to craft a "Homeowner and Financial Support Act" that would provide capital to the financial system, liquidity to the markets and help for families who need to restructure mortgages they can't afford.

But, this is not new territory for the left. While the leaders of these financial institutions certainly made highly questionable, greediest decisions they had some encouragement from the progressive side of the aisle:

Quote
Political correctness won the day. Washington made it clear to banks and other lending institutions that if they did not do something .. and fast .. to bring more minorities and low-income Americans into the world of home ownership there would be a heavy price to pay. Congress set up processes (Research the Community Redevelopment Act) whereby community activist groups and organizers could effectively stop a bank's efforts to grow if that bank didn't make loans to unqualified borrowers. Enter, stage left, the "subprime" mortgage. These lenders knew that a very high percentage of these loans would turn to garbage - but it was a price that had to be paid if the bank was to expand and grow. We should note that among the community groups browbeating banks into making these bad loans was an outfit called ACORN. There is one certain presidential candidate that did a lot of community organizing for ACORN. I won't mention his name so as to avoid politicizing this column.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/09/the_rest_of_the_meltdown_story.html

Obama did accomplish something as a community organizer!  :aok

Cont.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2008, 03:53:17 PM by Charon »

Offline Charon

  • Gold Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3705
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #39 on: September 19, 2008, 03:51:18 PM »
I post this not to pump McCain up on the issue. I believe he is marginally out in front ethically but not enough from any true Maverick sense. He did have this to say though, in 2006:

Quote
Sen. John McCain [R-AZ]: Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae's regulator reported that the company's quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were "illusions deliberately and systematically created" by the company's senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's report goes on to say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae's former chief executive officer, OFHEO's report shows that over half of Mr. Raines' compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator's examination of the company's accounting problems. This report comes some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs--and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO's report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO's report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.

Last Action: Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
Status: Dead
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-s20060525-16&bill=s109-190#sMonofilemx003Ammx002Fmmx002Fmmx002Fmhomemx002Fmgovtrackmx002Fmdatamx002Fmusmx002Fm109mx002Fmcrmx002Fms20060525-16.xmlElementm0m0m0m

They should have written McCain a few more checks, I guess...

Getting back to this line:

Quote
Kinda starts to make sense now why, McCain has so many lobbyists running his campaign. I'm sure it was obviously somehow the Democrats fault though.

Let's look at how both candidates have staffed and remember the whole glass houses and stones thing. There's plenty on McCain's staffing here, but for a reminder about our Boy Wonder:

Quote
The two government-chartered companies run a highly sophisticated lobbying operation, with deep-pocketed lobbyists in Washington and scores of local Fannie- and Freddie-sponsored homeowner groups ready to pressure lawmakers back home.

They've stacked their payrolls with top Washington power brokers of all political stripes, including Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign manager, Rick Davis; Democrat Barack Obama’s original vice presidential vetter, Jim Johnson; and scores of others now working for the two rivals for the White House.

...A spokesman for the Obama campaign declined to comment, noting only that former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson stepped down from his campaign post in June. His resignation came in the wake of charges that he collected more then $7 million in home loans at special, below-average rates. http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080716/pl_politico/11781;_ylt=Aqra8AQGuKZ7chQBIo7D5e2s0NUE

Oops!

The Obama coolaid drinkers are going to be mighty surprised when "the one" turns out to be a younger, charismatic  version of "Ted Kennedy Goes to Washington!" (Minus the reckless homicide stuff, of course.) And with a Democratic congress to support Obama's every program, I imagine he will work many of the same types of unrestrained miracles GWB worked under similar circumstances during his terms.

I can honestly say I voted for candidates other than Bush in 2000 and 2004. Didn't think Bush was qualified for the job, and disliked his overall attitude and positions. I will be able to say I saw the same great potential for Obama in 2008 that I saw in Bush in 2000. What about you? Where McCain is concerned, I think he will cause less damage than Obama -- potentially much less damage. And since the Libertarians drafted drug war Barr, well, they are being knuckleheads as well. I contend I am far less likely to be embarrassed by a vote for McCain than a vote for Illinois democratic machine hack Obama.

Of course, the good news is that an Obama win will remove him as my state Senator. The bad news, is that the likely approved replacement will be Jesse Jackson Jr. (who I actually like a bit more on the "real guy" level though.)

Charon

Offline bustr

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 12436
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #40 on: September 19, 2008, 03:52:08 PM »
You guys need to read your History to understand how the mortgage crisis or housing bubble was created by Democrats.

The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities
Howard Husock

http://www.city-journal.org/html/10_1_the_trillion_dollar.html

The Clinton administration has turned the Community Reinvestment Act, a once-obscure and lightly enforced banking regulation law, into one of the most powerful mandates shaping American cities—and, as Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm memorably put it, a vast extortion scheme against the nation's banks. Under its provisions, U.S. banks have committed nearly $1 trillion for inner-city and low-income mortgages and real estate development projects, most of it funneled through a nationwide network of left-wing community groups, intent, in some cases, on teaching their low-income clients that the financial system is their enemy and, implicitly, that government, rather than their own striving, is the key to their well-being.

The CRA's premise sounds unassailable: helping the poor buy and keep homes will stabilize and rebuild city neighborhoods. As enforced today, though, the law portends just the opposite, threatening to undermine the efforts of the upwardly mobile poor by saddling them with neighbors more than usually likely to depress property values by not maintaining their homes adequately or by losing them to foreclosure. The CRA's logic also helps to ensure that inner-city neighborhoods stay poor by discouraging the kinds of investment that might make them better off.

The Act, which Jimmy Carter signed in 1977, grew out of the complaint that urban banks were "redlining" inner-city neighborhoods, refusing to lend to their residents while using their deposits to finance suburban expansion. CRA decreed that banks have "an affirmative obligation" to meet the credit needs of the communities in which they are chartered, and that federal banking regulators should assess how well they do that when considering their requests to merge or to open branches. Implicit in the bill's rationale was a belief that CRA was needed to counter racial discrimination in lending, an assumption that later seemed to gain support from a widely publicized 1990 Federal Reserve Bank of Boston finding that blacks and Hispanics suffered higher mortgage-denial rates than whites, even at similar income levels.

And for Laz, in this article the high lighted text is the zinger.....

Bill Clinton's drive to increase homeownership went way too far
Posted by: Peter Coy on February 27

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotproperty/archives/2008/02/clintons_drive.html

Add President Clinton to the long list of people who deserve a share of the blame for the housing bubble and bust. A recently re-exposed document shows that his administration went to ridiculous lengths to increase the national homeownership rate. It promoted paper-thin downpayments and pushed for ways to get lenders to give mortgage loans to first-time buyers with shaky financing and incomes. It’s clear now that the erosion of lending standards pushed prices up by increasing demand, and later led to waves of defaults by people who never should have bought a home in the first place.

President Bush continued the practices because they dovetailed with his Ownership Society goals, and of course Congress was strongly behind the push. But Clinton and his administration must shoulder some of the blame.

In writing this blog entry, I’m following the lead of Joseph R. Mason, who is a finance professor at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and a consultant at Criterion Economics. Here is a link to a piece that he wrote on Feb. 26.  

http://www.criterioneconomics.com/docs/20080226%20Market%20Commentary.pdf

The Clinton-era document that Mason cites—“The National Homeownership Strategy: Partners in the American Dream”—was hiding in plain sight

on the website of the Department of Housing & Urban Development until last year, when according to Mason it was removed (probably because the housing bust made it seem embarrassing to the department). Mason credits Joshua Rosner of Graham Fisher & Co. with saving a copy of it before it was expunged.

The National Homeownership Strategy began in 1994 when Clinton directed HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros to come up with a plan, and Cisneros convened what HUD called a "historic meeting" of private and public housing-industry organizations in August 1994. The group eventually produced a plan, of which Mason sent me a PDF of Chapter 4, the one that argues for creative measures to promote homeownership.

The very worst idea in the plan, which fortunately never gained approval, was to let first-time homebuyers freely tap their IRA and 401(k) retirement-savings plans with no penalty to scrounge up a downpayment. That, HUD estimated, would have "benefited" 600,000 families in the first five years.

Plenty of other ideas in the plan did become reality, though. Knowing what we know now about the housing bust, the earnest language in the document seems faintly ridiculous. Here's an excerpt. Read it closely and you can see the seeds of disaster being planted:

For many potential homebuyers, the lack of cash available to accumulate the required downpayment and closing costs is the major impediment to purchasing a home. Other households do not have sufficient available income to to make the monthly payments on mortgages financed at market interest rates for standard loan terms. Financing strategies, fueled by the creativity and resources of the private and public sectors, should address both of these financial barriers to homeownership.

Note the praise for "creativity." That kind of creativity in stretching boundaries we could use less of. Mason puts it well: "It strikes me as reckless to promote home sales to individuals in such constrained financial predicaments."



« Last Edit: September 19, 2008, 04:50:33 PM by bustr »
bustr - POTW 1st Wing


This is like the old joke that voters are harsher to their beer brewer if he has an outage, than their politicians after raising their taxes. Death and taxes are certain but, fun and sex is only now.

Offline Fury

  • Copper Member
  • **
  • Posts: 261
      • http://n/a
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #41 on: September 19, 2008, 04:01:13 PM »
I don't see how this bailout or any other B.S. the government has done recently (Fannie/Freddie and whoever else came along last spring/summer) has anything to do with party lines.  I claim ignornace as to why it would be along party lines.  What am I missing?  Is it the bailout itself that is in question or is this more fingerpointing as to whose fault it is that the bailouts are even needed?  I don't see this as a party problem at all, I see it as bad management from top to bottom and CEO bonuses that are obscene.

Let em fail and accept the fallout.  There's nothing I can do about the implications of a bailout or the implications of a fallout.  Those stupid companies need to stand up and accept some responsibility for the screw job they've done, and it's nobody's fault but their own.

Offline bustr

  • Plutonium Member
  • *******
  • Posts: 12436
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #42 on: September 19, 2008, 05:17:03 PM »
Fury,

You need to study our 20th century political history and the core phylisophical differences in how Democrats\Liberals\Socialists view the economy\free market versus Republicans\conservitives view the economy\free market.

The housing bubble and subsiquent credit failure was due to the Democrats general SOP violation of the law of unintended consiqunses by trying to use the force of law to make the free market produce social justice outcomes with no losers\greatfull voters(minorities) rather than allow it to reward those who work hard to win the reward by their personal efforts(more often republicans or conservitives).

When Clinton mandated that the Community Reinvestment Act be used as a club to force the previously sound and responsible free market banking industry to give away garbage unsecurable loans to get minorities into homes or suffer the Ire of the federal government. What do you think had to happen to make those loans possible?

The law of unintended consiquenses was violated. To make those loans possible the system had to become corrupted and finessable by anyone greedy enough to do it. So it created the housing bubble based on speculation of short term turn around on property. It then created the credit crunch because of the many hands that the garbage loans passed through so money could be made on the worthless paper.

Now its 14 years later and Clinton has slithered under a rock like a good Democrat\Liberal and takes no responcibility for using the weight of the federal government to force the banking industry to cut it's own throat.
bustr - POTW 1st Wing


This is like the old joke that voters are harsher to their beer brewer if he has an outage, than their politicians after raising their taxes. Death and taxes are certain but, fun and sex is only now.

Offline Getback

  • Platinum Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 6461
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #43 on: September 19, 2008, 05:40:23 PM »
It's funny that we don't hear a word from the OC about this bailout. Complain about taxes? All the time. Complain about lazy people who want "your money" and social programs to help the poor? Non-stop here in the O'Club.

Paulson intervenes and buys all the banks debt, for $1.1T, and you - the taxpayer - foot the bill? Not a peep.

Shouldn't lazs and others be going nuts on a socialism diatribe right about now? Because this is the biggest government bailout in US history. It dwarfs propping up AIG and everything else that happened.

Amazing...

Well actually you folks are jumping the gun. Laz was complaining about these bailouts in another thread and I agreed. But you're correct, why have it both ways. I sure don't like it. It's a terrible thing to do. Some republicans are calling it bail out mania to show their resentment toward these bailouts.

  Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

Offline Fury

  • Copper Member
  • **
  • Posts: 261
      • http://n/a
Re: Paulson Plan: Lazs style socialism at its worst
« Reply #44 on: September 19, 2008, 05:45:27 PM »
Thanks bustr, I need to read your earlier link too.  I missed the original news about 1.1 trillion and am just catching up after getting home....I thought this thread was along the lines of AIG and whoever else the government bailed out earlier this week.  If being for bailouts like this mean Republican, then I'm going to have to change my card.  Am I living in a Socialist country now?  What else is the government going to bail out or take over?  All I'm hearing this week is the govenment is saving this, the government is saving that.  One of these days it's not going to work; all they are doing right now is delaying the inevitable.  They're too stupid to make any real change.  I think it's time for me to vote for anyone without a D or R after their name, straight ticket.  They can't be any worse than this.