Arkansas Blog

Times are getting hard, money is not going to flow from the fountain forever, and there will hardly be a business one can compliment or help without risking the ire of some group offended or hurt by that business........ So, better Bill stop some of his speeches for the time being and concentrate on charity....

Yep, Mr. Sekhar uses Bill Clinton just like Bill Clinton uses Mr. Sekhar who apparently breaks numerous promises just like Mr. Clinton always has. These fellas are genuine, fascinating masterpieces of art.

Obviously Americans aren't the only ones who got screwed by Dubya's banker buds; so, too bad Malasia business people...get in line with your anger and quit paying ANY of our politicians for their 'wisdom.'

Clinton should quit making paid speeches. My gosh...how many millions does he need; and if he needs more wait till Hillary serves her stint. It's not complicated.

According to all our brilliant talking heads/DC politicians poor people are responsible for hoodwinking Wall Street bankers into buying them houses they couldn't afford. If not for this horrendous scam they wouldn't have had to pull off the biggest bank heist in history and destroy the economy. And, of course, unions are completely responsible for...I guess everything bad in our economy that those home-grabbing poor people aren't responsible for. Who knew poor people/unions had such power.

It's insulting to watch our politicians nitpick the auto industry over a PALTRY thirty-some billion package while the banking industry was handed the entire treasury without so much as a blink or a condition. AT LEAST the auto people actually produce something and actually employ those middle-class Americans politicians love to yammer on about. It's so transparent it's disgusting.

I have two young friends from Malaysia. One holds a business degree from UA and the other is
an Md who has since moved back. Both told me how utterly corrupt the nation is. It was during a major scandal, one of several here and they said it was nothing. Sekhar gets by with his thieving because the nation doesn't have equity courts where he can readily be sued. And if he could be sued should he because interrelationships can get bizarre. Malaysian government is one big family, literally.
According to my two Malaysian friends it's really laissez faire at all levels. But the business fellow lamented the price of sex is much lower than here.

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Off the thread, sort of:

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and DAVID M. HALBFINGER
Published: December 5, 2008

Caroline Kennedy, a daughter of America's most storied political family who for many years fiercely guarded her privacy, is considering whether to pursue the Senate seat expected to be vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton early next year, a family member said Friday.

Wow.. Elwoods description of Malaysia sounds like us... except for the cheap sex.

Problem is those corrupt folks and their banks )Malay, China, Japan, Dubai etc.).. own a much bigger piece of the pie now.. including our debt and our dollar... may both buy us up... and ignore us like we never imagined.

They may take us down without ever firing a shot... How's that for a cheap military?

Militaries are around to keep civilian populations from getting the wrong ideas about
stuff like democracy. And military is good for overthrowing governments.

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This redneck knows nothing about business. They aren't selecting because of his 'words of wisdom' relative to business or anything else for that matter. They are trolling for influence. Unfortunately he knows that and is more than willing to sell himself out as well as his own country for the attention and the buck. Shameful creature!!!!

Without liquidity and a viable banking system EVERYTHING stops working. That is what happened in the Depression when thousands of banks failed. Comparing the bailout of banks who got in a jam because the Congress passed legislation that forced them to make bad loans isn't the same as industries that filed for decades because they were producing a product that couldn't compete in the free market. Thousands of businesses are in need of money is the Fed going to bail them all out? I have a feeling that when the cost of these bailouts hit the taxpayer---and I mean all of the taxpayers---we are all going to be singing a different tune.

because the Congress passed legislation that forced them to make bad loans

by strange

What legislation? Be specific.

What acts---How about the Community Reinvestment Act and their oversight of Fannie and Freddie that is the responsibility of the Congress. How about the elimination of downpayments and financial background checks? The NY Times had an article in 1999 that nailed the responsibility.

Congress failed miserably (and so did Clinton when he signed onto some of it), but the banking and finance industry... along with Phil Graham and the Republican Friedmanite shock doctors paid a lot of money... begging congress to do so.

It was not force.. though it was a plan... a failure of monumental proportions based on self defeating greed, dishonesty and hubris.

The questions now are will we fix it? Will we admit no regulation is a disaster? And will we quit listening to, bailing out those who both led us to this point and have yet to admit it's failure much less haves a real plan on where to go from here?

Considering folks like Paulson and Bernake are still in charge instead of in jail... or at the very least ostracized. I would say it's a very important question.

For example: As disappointed as I am with folks like barney Frank for what they have done on this issue in the past... the big difference is he is honestly trying to fix it.

The same old failed GOPers like Shelby and Corker are the enemy within.

This is so not news. Clinton is offered 200 grand to speak and he does and puts the money in his pocket and leaves. Petra is not a terrorist group and the man who invited him to speak is not a fugitive from the law. I have no idea why he wanted Clinton to speak, but I can think of 200,000 reasons Bill Clinton agreed to speak. I see nothing wrong with any of this. And if Petra hasn't lost money in the last couple of months, they must be selling cocaine or something....everyone has been infected with the Bush Recession-Depression. This is not news. Make me a big offer and I will gladly come speak to your group. Go on......make my day!

From the usual online sources

hypocrisy

1: a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not ; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion2: an act or instance of hypocrisy

The word hypocrisy derives from the Greek ὑπόκρισις (hypokrisis), which means "play-acting", "acting out", "feigning, dissembling" or "an answer"[7]. The word hypocrite is from the Greek word ὑποκρίτης (hypokrites), the agentive noun associated with υποκρίνομαι (hypokrinomai), i.e. "I play a part." Both derive from the verb κρίνω, "judge" (»κρίση, "judgement" »κριτική (kritiki), "critics") presumably because the performance of a dramatic text by an actor was to involve a degree of interpretation, or assessment, of that text.

The word can be further understood as an amalgam of the Greek prefix hypo-, meaning "under", and the verb "krinein", meaning "to sift or decide". Thus the original meaning is given as a deficiency in the ability to sift or decide. This deficiency, as it pertains to one's own beliefs and feelings, does well to inform the word's contemporary meaning[8].

Whereas hypokrisis applied to any sort of public performance (including the art of rhetoric), hypokrites was a technical term for a stage actor and was not considered an appropriate role for a public figure. In Athens in the 4th Century BC, for example, the great orator Demosthenes ridiculed his rival Aeschines, who had been a successful actor before taking up politics, as a hypokrites whose skill at impersonating characters on stage made him an untrustworthy politician. This negative view of the hypokrites, perhaps combined with the Roman disdain for actors, later shaded into the originally neutral hypokrisis. It is this later sense of hypokrisis as "play-acting," i.e. the assumption of a counterfeit persona, that gives the modern word hypocrisy its negative connotation.

You are right dbi. Free enterprise is free only when those who indulge in the practice are friends or favored by the critic.

I don't care if Bill Clinton makes a gazillion dollars from now until he dies as an old, wealthy man and leaves Chelsea a fortune.
I'm with DBI. If someone wants to pay me $200,000 to give a speech, I'm there in a heartbeat. AND I'll wear my own clothes, put on my own makeup, and do my own hair. And, also, I'll sound intelligent.
LOL