Woodstock CT Café

from Thomas Friedman’s Can’t Keep a Bad Idea Down
“Let’s have more tax cuts, unlinked to any specific spending cuts and while we’re still fighting two wars — because that worked so well during the Bush years to make our economy strong and our deficit small.”

from Kos

President Obama reminds us in his weekly address that in addition to the above accomplishments, one of his greatest was passage of the Financial Reform Act and the creation of a stronger Consumer Protection Agency.

Both of these accomplishments help protect middle class families from Wall Street greed and corporate exploitation.

President Obama stated, “Our economy depends on a financial system in which everyone competes on a level playing field, and everyone is held to the same rules – whether you’re a big bank, a small business owner, or a family looking to buy a house or open a credit card. And as we saw, without sound oversight and common-sense protections for consumers, the whole economy is put in jeopardy.”

But it seems that the Republicans are in denial of the Great Recession and the causes of it because House leaders are already talking about repealing these bills.

President Obama sums it up nicely in his address:

“The special interests poured millions into a lobbying campaign to prevent us from reforming the system – a system that worked a lot better for them than for middle class families. Some in the financial industry were eager to protect a status quo that basically allowed them to play by their own rules. And these interests held common cause with Republican leaders in Washington who were looking to score a political victory in an election year.”

I wonder why the Tea Party isn’t angry about this? I thought they were for American families and against entitlements? Yet they are running under the umbrella of the Republican party who spin the web of corporate welfare.

from John 

See “Iran expands economic influence on Iraq“ 

Everyone’s focused on the impact of the Great Recession and its economic impact on our lives today. No one seems to remember that the Obama Administration inherited both the Iraq War and the Recession which were the benchmarks of eight years of Bush-Cheney. Let’s face it, there are no quick fixes for these two disasterous results of Bush-Cheney unless you are an ignoramous. Let’s not forget how our situation came about.

I was against the Iraq War since the War’s inception on March 20, 2003, e.g. “Operation Iraqi Liberation”. First and foremost, the cost in innocent human lives has now been estimated at about 120,000, but more realistically well over 200,000. Furthermore, >4400 US soldiers have lost their lives to date and >32,000 have been wounded trying to save us from “Weapons of Mass Destruction” – the Bush-Cheney lie drummed up to justify the War. The monetary cost of this War will ultimately be over three trillion before the dust settles. We and our children will be billed for this War for generations to come. But more tragically, this war has undermined our ability to deal more effectively with the greater emerging military threats of Iran, Afganistan, and Korea, address important national needs, and form international alliances to effectively address other more important global issues in addition to our domestic needs. Read the rest of this entry »