The Forum

To honor of all of those who have defended and currently are defending the United States of America, take a minute to learn the history behind it, understand its importance, and celebrate the service of every great American. You are all heroes.

Now that our 44th U.S. President has been elected, all of his talk about “hope” and “the future” will be tested with the decisions he makes when he takes office on January 20, 2009. The best indicator of how he will run the country comes with the people he picks to be around him, mainly his cabinet. All of his choices will be followed right here as they are tentatively made, with links about each of them.

Vice President – Joe Biden (22 Aug 2008)
White House Chief of Staff – Rahm Emanuel (5 Nov 2008)
Senior Advisor – David Axelrod (6 Nov 2008, unofficial)
White House Press Secretary – Robert Gibbs (6 Nov 2008, unofficial)

8. ARMs, like the two my parents were forced to take on their house when their businesses declined in this shitstorm of an economy, never got lowered and never will.
7. Buying a new house? Better increase your budget for it.
6. Savings at a bank? Maybe my great-grandmother, who kept her money under the mattress, had the right idea after all…
5. Investments? Or a 401k? A CNBC analyst said it was “more like a 101k” now.
4. Oil down over 80% from its high point, but gas is still $3 a gallon in most places…
3. I can’t wait to pay my $6000 portion of the bailout!
2. Looks like the wealthy will get to keep paying low taxes no matter who gets elected.
1. This man is one our presidential candidates. May voters everywhere look beyond the attacks and vote for the issues.

What’s in that big bailout bill? A first look – The Curious Capitalist/TIME – Justin Fox

The draft of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, known among certain Republican leaders as a “crap sandwich,” is out. All 106 pages of it. I just read through it really really quickly, and my main takeaway is that was that it seems to require that Treasury take stock warrants (or senior debt if no equity is available) in exchange for buying junky securities from a financial institution, except for a few small exceptions outlined below. But it doesn’t say anything about how much of a stake Treasury is supposed to take.

Commentary: America can’t go cold turkey on credit – CNN – Jim Marshall, U.S. Senate

Deep down, we all know that a financial rescue is necessary. … My own strong preference is that it focus less on acquiring mortgage-backed securities and be more of a tightly focused effort to minimize foreclosures and home vacancies that drive down property values for all of us. For these non-prime mortgage notes, I would give bankruptcy courts the power to modify mortgage payments to make them more realistic. I would limit the pay of not only top Wall Street executives but the traders who made millions by making this problem worse.

I hope we can get a plan that includes at least some of those elements. But most important, we need a bill that can attract enough support to pass.

Consumer confidence unexpectedly improves in Sept. – AP – Anne D’Innocenzio

September’s confidence level is about half of what it was a year ago and near the lowest since the index registered 54.6 in October 1992 when the economy was coming out of a recession.

The cutoff date for responses to the survey was September 23 and doesn’t capture Monday’s stock market plunge that wiped away $1.2 trillion in value from retirement funds, mutual funds and individual stock holdings.

The Present Situation Index, which measures shoppers’ current assessment of the economy, decreased to 58.8 from 65.0 in September. The Expectations Index, which measures consumers’ outlook for the next six months, however, increased to 60.5 from 54.1 in August.

“September’s increase in the Consumer Confidence Index was due solely to an improvement in the short-term outlook,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, in a statement. “However, these results did not capture all of the tumultuous events in the financial sector this month, and until the dust settles a bit more, we will not know the full impact on consumers’ expectations.”

Franco added that shocks such as the 1987 stock market crash “generally tend to have a temporary adverse effect on confidence, lasting on average two to four months unless they result in significant job losses.”
…

If Congress doesn’t ultimately approve a bailout plan, analysts say the economy could fall into a deeper recession than already expected.

And one idea that I first saw on CNN iReport and have heard of many times since: Why not bail out the people who are in default and foreclosure on their mortgages instead of the banks? They were the greedy ones who gave away credit like it was air, yet the American people have to foot the bill. In the end, they would still get their money, and our consumer-driven economy would start to get back on track. Just a thought.

If I may take a sidestep from the financial markets for just one post, there is a bill rolling through the Bush administration that stands to greatly reduce the intellectual property rights of individuals and make it the government’s job, not the corporations, to police — and pay for the policing of — ”violations” against the PRO-IP Act. No one knows about it, but its implications are far-reaching and affect everyone.

(Original story @ infoworld)

The U.S. House of Representatives on Sunday passed a bill that would significantly increase penalties for copyright infringement and create a new office of intellectual-property enforcement coordinator in the White House.

The bill, which passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent on Friday, was stripped of one of its most controversial provisions, which would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute civil lawsuits on behalf of copyright owners. The DOJ, in a letter to lawmakers last week, objected to that provision, saying it “could result in Department of Justice prosecutors serving as pro bono lawyers for private copyright holders regardless of their resources.”

The legislation, called the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act, now goes to President George Bush for his signature.

If Bush signs the PRO-IP Act, the law would increase the forfeiture penalties for copyright offenses. It would allow courts, in civil cases, to seize “any property used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part” for copyright offenses.

The bill allows courts to impound business records associated with an alleged infringement, pending trial. It would also increase funding for local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to help with intellectual property investigations, as well as creating the new intellectual-property coordinator position at the White House.

-> The House passed it 381-41. For/against role call: house.gov
-> The Senate passed it with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.

Said by one poster on dslreports.com:

Disgusting.

Hollywood should not be allowed to pass off the cost of enforcing its copyrights down to the taxpayers. If copyright owners can show a preponderance of evidence against a violator in court, then they are entitled to the maximum damages allowed under the law.

Republicans who support this bill, a bill that directly benefits businesses who promote ideals that are contrary to things that Republicans supposedly believe in, are stupid at best and suicidal at worse.

1. Lower interest rates so much that businesses lose the ability to innovate and the housing market becomes ruined

2. Have your “regulatory” commission make exemptions on a whim

3. Bypass any attempts to see an imminent recession (that’s right, I said it – America is in a recession).

The past 10+ years have been a true time of changing the voice of the average American. Anyone with a thought and a computer can start their very own blog, letting the world know their opinion. This ability, while seeming on the surface as useful and fun, is much more than that. With laws being enacted such as the U.S.’s Patriot Act warrentless free-for-all and Sweden’s FRA being allowed to wiretap all information transmitted over the internet, blogging is one of the best ways citizens can voice their opinions and discuss them with other people who care about these important issues. In a sense, the internet has finally “caught up with itself” when it comes to rights and liberties. Things like blogging are a necessity to keep the ‘tubes an open forum for people to keep a watchful eye over the government they elected and voice themselves when a change needs to be made — exactly what a Democracy is all about.