Someone please explain why most commentators keep saying…things will get better in a matter of months.  We are in the 13th month of a recession (which was just announced during this 13th month.  But all I keep hearing is worse and worse news.  Now retail season is over and store closings, layoffs and lack of shoppers will create a new round of economic damage to our economy.  Doesn’t anyone else see we are heading for a depression (if we aren’t there already). 

Credit card debt is staggering and rates of 22% are now considered wonderful, what with banking companies allowed to charge 39%.  So how can anyone get out of debt? 

Mortgages were down to 5% and are now drifting upward to 5.25%, but who can get those mortgages?  I am trying to help a man who was a mulit-millionaire last month and is now as poor as can be, having lost it all in the Madoff rip-off.  He has a 770 score and cannot get a mortgage, because his tax returns show he had invested in the Madoff fund.  So because his only assets left are unencumbered real estate, he cannot get a mortgage.  So we seek other ways for him to survive. 

I believe the world will see a turnaround when we all start helping one another, rather than the anchor I saw last week who, after the story about the people not paying credit card debt or mortgages, said “Well at least I’m paying my bills”.  Well I’d like to hear him after he’s fired, whether he will continue to pay his bills.  I have a client who is a Doctor.  He did not get paid on the payday (Christmas eve)…Forget bonuses, he did not get paid.  He received an email saying cash flow was too tight and Doctors and management would not be paid.  As he said he can pay his bills for a month or two, but he better get paid within that time, or he won’t be able to pay his bills.  So no holier than thou attitude anymore.  We need to realize that we’re all in this together.

 If a house goes into foreclosure and is sold to a bottom fisher for 1/3 the value as it had a year ago, then the entire neighborhood hurts from that sale.  Wait til you want to sell or you want to refinance, the valuations will take into consideration that price.  What is a bank to do?  They should offer any deal on any mortgage to keep it alive.  I spoke to a client last week about his real estate holdings.  He runs a second generation family business which owns strip centers in the Northeast.  He told his broker community last month I’ll accept any offer.  A broker emailed him with an offer and an apology for such a low ball offer, hoping that the landlord will not be angry for wasting his time.  The landlord wrote back that if the Tenant is willing to sign a lease within one week, the offer would be accepted.  The landlord’s attitude was that if one store goes empty and a second and a third his strip will be empty as shoppers will not want to shop in a “dead” mall.  So he’ll take a small percentage of his asking price for the first three years of his new lease to keep the center looking filled.  He also has substantial credit lines available so he can do the up front work and make a profit on that money spent by getting the tenant to repay that with the 10% Landlord’s fee and interest if paid over time.  This is a man thinking about how to profit in this economy. 

It is time for all bankers to start to make deals with homeowners.  Cut principal.  Cut interest rates.  Keep the deal alive.  Shorten the term.  Allow homeowners the opportunity to live and find a way to prosper for a few years.  Then when the economy finds its new level, see what shakes out from there.  This is no time for a bank to own property…They can sell it for 30%.  Let the homeowner pay 75% at 3% rather than foreclose and get 30%.  It all makes sense to me.  Credit card companies have to claim amnesty to all.  Rebate all interest over 9%.  Cancel all late charges applied during the second half of 2008.  Apply that rebated amount to equally reduce payments over 2009 and you will see how well most people will pay their bills, which will allow the holder some breathing room. 

I received my first Landlord’s ten day notice to cure from a client of mine today.  My client owes tens of thousands of dollars on a lease.  That sounds like a lot of money, however, the tenant is only in default for November and December rent.  If I were the Landlord I would be calling and saying let’s make a deal.  Who is going to fill that space if he goes through with the eviction?  When someone does come in months from now, what percentage of the 2006 rent will that Landlord get?  I believe that Landlord will win the case and evict my client, but will lose the battle and the war.  My client will find another space at 50% of the present rent, and the Landlord will lose several months income and then end up making a deal for 50% of the present rent with a new tenant.  I’m sure every reader can advise the Landlord what to do today.  But this landlord is not so smart. 

As far as the auto industry…The Government should give them Hundreds of billions of dollars…but only for R&D toward electric cars and hydrogen cells.  That’s what we need, and that would make them #1 in the industry. 

As far as the TARP funds, get an accounting.  Get to trials against management, let jurors, the taxpayers of America decide whether the money borrowed by every single bank or Wall Street institution, was used in accordance with what the taxpayers thought.  Not what Paulsen and some Banker friend didn’t write, but what we all thought the money was to be used for.  I bet the day the indictments come down, you will see open credit in America.  But until then, big wigs will spend on acquiring other institutions, and paying big salaries and bonuses to once again help the fortunate few, rather than the hurting American taxpayers. 

Finally, to President Obama (figuring he won’t read this until after January 20…)  I like the idea of building new roads, bridges and re-creating the infrastructure of America.  However, we have been an economy of services and some percentage of Governmental largess must go to the members of the service community not making it today.  Small business owners, small professional firms, teachers, hospital workers or municipal employees, all of us need help too.  I know no one is going to hire me to lift a shovel to carry dirt from a road side bed.  But they might hire me as a professional for that is what I have been.  I hope to be that successful professional again.  But in this new economy there are no guarantees.  There is only hope that all will be well.

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Hamas starts a series of terror attacks on Israel, and after a few days of warnings with no retreat by Hamas, Israel strikes back with greater force than terror.  The state sponsored terror inflicted by Israel upon Gaza does not gain any political ends and certainly does not create a next generation for peace. 

While I am Jewish and believe in the sanctity of the State of Israel, I do not believe any state has the right to kill civilians for any reason.  Collateral damage, death penalty, alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction, or to seize control over governments of another territory. 

Peace is a virtue.  Turning the other cheek is a much better biblical motto to live by than an eye for an eye.  In this case, as with America over the years of the Bush administration, we have moved that motto to a greater retribution than even the unsightly eye for an eye. 

Now there are deaths of women and children whose families will remember what Israel did to disrupt their family existence for another two or three generations unless the state stops and says no more fighting. 

I will continue to rail against retaliatory strikes as the State must rise above the mentality that striking harder creates new safety.  Never has and never will. 

I will write about the ravages of war and the gains of peace til the day I die.  It is my passion, though I know I have lost friends by not supporting the American wars in which we are engaged, and I have lost the zeal for peace until this past weekend, when I realized that we must speak out, whether read or unread, whether heard or unheard, we must continue to speak out and say NO MORE.  I have a dream that man will not lift sword against man and Nations shall not learn war no more.  Unfortunately thousands of years of evolution and that is still a dream, not even close to a reality.  How is it possible? 

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If the McCain-Palin ticket become the next administration then it is probable that tonight’s speech kicked off that possibility.  Sarah Palin is now a name in American History and because of that, another mozaic in this year’s election drama.  Her small town gal with high school sweetheart-union husband, world champion avocatist, special needs child, pregnant teenage daughter with boyfriend (chewing gum) at her side, parents together, played so well to America, even me.  She is the Republican Party’s elder statesman for two or three generations to come, and watch her enlisted children grow into their roles.  This is the truth whether McCain wins or loses.  That is his legacy…he has coronated the next leader of his party, whether next year or in 3 when it is time to announce her candidacy. 

It was said earlier in the evening that “it is not eloquence we need right now it is record.”  I disagree.  I think we should have a spokesman for our country one who can deliver a message no matter what the circumstances.  Sarah Palin delivered her message and while I do not trust her experience to make all right choices, I do trust she will learn and be ready.  However, Senator Obama has been running a campaign in an extraordinary manner which created his nomination, and part of that winning strategy was to speak eloquently and take the high road at all times.  I think he’d make a remarkable leader of the Free World. 

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Since our world is becoming smaller with ever more increasing contact between peoples of the world, it is important to remember that we are all human, we all breathe the same air, we all love our children, and we all are mortal.  As Jimmy Carter said in his recent acceptance speech for his Nobel Peace Prize “We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”  The Dalai Lama pointed out in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, that “the only sensible and intelligent way of resolving differences, whether between individuals or nations, is through dialogue.”  And 25 years before that, Martin Luther King accepted his Nobel Peace Prize based upon his profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of his time—the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.  Farm activist Cesar Chavez told us “Nonviolence is not non-action.  It is hard work.  It takes patience to win.”   

We believe that all humans yearn for freedom, equality and dignity with respect for human rights.  Whatever our differences we must always remember that we are bound together as members of the human family. 

To find resolution to conflict the advice is clear from John Kennedy’s inaugural address:  We must first explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.  Never fear to negotiate.  Let all peoples share in the wonders of science instead of being affected by its terrors.  And as to governments remember that the strong must be just and the weak secure.   

The key to creating a better and more peaceful world is the development of love and compassion for others.  This naturally means we must develop concern for our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than we are.  It is a tragedy that in so many parts of the world there is no shortage of guns and bullets, but a severe lack of food.  In order to co-exist, we must begin to resolve clashes of interests using new techniques.  It can no longer be thought that war will win the debate.  It is not weakness that drives continued discussion.  It is willingness to evolve toward a higher humanity that will allow patience in discussions to eventually become solutions. 

Let us, as humankind, work as one community to solve the grave problems of our time.  Terrorism, overpopulation, dwindling natural resources, environmental issues all threaten our very existence on this planet.  Human rights, environmental protection and great social and economic equality are all interrelated.  Peace will prevail on earth as soon as we understand old lessons, and start sharing this planet as a human family.   

In this age where security is not assured the only way to find peace daily is to work with all peoples toward disarmament, and embark on a path toward love and compassion for ourselves and our brothers and sisters.  Compassion is, by nature, peaceful and gentle, but it is also very powerful.   

Ultimately, humanity is one and this small planet is our only home.  

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http://www-tc.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/2007/10/01/20071001_gravel28.mp3

Listen to Mike Gravel’s interview on NPR… Just amazing.

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‘Tempo’ host Stan Bohrman interviews then-Senator Mike Gravel in 1971 on White House aspirations.

Senator Gravel also discusses Direct Democracy, and the current political process of the day.

www.gravel2008.us

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As we mark the six anniversary of the 9/11 attack, it is time for Americans to face the real lessons of that horrible morning. Until we dispel the myths which the Bush administration and a compliant media have been feeding us, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes and suffer similar consequences.

Lesson 1: They Do Not Hate Us Because ‘We are Free.’

For decades the U.S Government has committed horrible acts around the world, often in secret but always in the name of the American people. In every region on earth, our government has overthrown or undermined democracies, aided brutal dictatorships, and funded guerrilla wars under the guise of fighting for freedom. Until the American people grapple with this fact, our government will continue to engage in activities that destabilize the world community and bring pain and suffering to millions, including our own citizens.

Lesson 2: Anyone Could Have Imagined the 9/11 Attack

Our government failed to protect us on 9/11 not because such an attack was unimaginable but because bureaucratic turf wars and incompetence at the highest levels impeded our counter-terrorist efforts. The CIA tracked one of the hijackers into the United States but refused to pass that fact along to the FBI. FBI field agents repeatedly warned their bosses about suspected terrorists taking flight lessons but no investigation followed. The president was explicitly warned about an impending attack with airplanes but did nothing. Why not? We still don’t know. The 9/11 Commission was a whitewash designed to protect the reputations of incompetent, bloated bureaucracies and a distracted White House.

Lesson 3: Our Leaders Displayed Cowardice in the Face of Terror

After the attacks, our local and national leaders refused to question the administration’s contention that the air at ground zero was safe. Why was no alarm sounded by all the politicians who visited ground zero and smelled the foul, poisonous fumes? Leaders in both parties also surrendered our constitutional liberties and protections because they feared being called unpatriotic. They allowed Bush to ignore the Geneva Accords and engage in torture and extraordinary rendition. They allotted Homeland Security funds based on politics, not genuine threat assessments. And some politicians now seem unbothered by our failure to kill Bin Laden. Let’s be clear, Bin Laden is not just a symbol — his hands drip with the blood of thousands of Americans who must be avenged. When our leaders abandoned their responsibility to protect our lives and our ideals, they gave a great victory to the terrorists. Nothing could be more cowardly.

Lesson 4: The World is Not Divided between Good vs. Evil.

We should never negotiate with terrorists and we must hunt down Bin Laden and anyone else who attacks us. But we should not arbitrarily label governments ‘evil’ or ‘terrorist regimes’ and then wage covert or overt war against them. Look at the effects of Bush’s belligerence toward the so-called Axis of Evil. In Iraq, we could have avoided 3700 American dead and the deaths of tens of thousands of innocents if we respected international law and allowed the UN weapons inspections to continue. By spurning direct talks with North Korea and threatening them, Bush forced Kim Jong-ill to create and test a plutonium bomb. Fortunately South Korea took a conciliatory diplomatic approach that now promises a peaceful resolution. We need to once again work with Iran on issues of mutual concern (Iraq, arms proliferation, and regional peace). Opening diplomatic negotiation with Iran is not naïve, shameful or irresponsible. In fact the tough talk we hear from Bush, Cheney and many presidential candidates simply feeds influence of Iranian extremists. The United States must stop all covert activities against Iran and begin good faith negotiations that will secure a lasting peace.

Long before 9/11, Iran fought a war against the Taliban and Wahabi terrorist networks like Al-Qaeda. The Iranians funded the Northern Alliance and in the fall of 2001 they provided the U.S. with key intelligence about Afghanistan. However, Bush and the neocons ignored the advice of the State Dept. and the CIA and spurned further cooperation. Once Bush dropped the ‘Axis of Evil’ line in January 2002, there was no turning back. We missed a great opportunity to learn from the Iranians and to build ties between our intelligence communities that might have helped us find Bin Laden.

Lesson 5: We Must Fight Them Over There Before They Attack Us Over Here.

Invading Iraq was a terrible mistake and now we are trying the fix the mistake with more violence. The surge is not working despite what General Petraeus says. In the last year the civilian death toll has risen along with the number of refugees. Our occupation of Iraq has fed anti-American resentment worldwide. We need to admit we made a terrible mistake, begin a troop withdrawal immediately and work with regional powers, including Iran, to stabilize the country and the region. Once we stabilize Iraq, we need to settle the Palestinian issue once and for all. The cycle of violence will not be broken with more violence. We will live in peace only after fair-handed, good-faith negotiation.

Lesson 6: We Need a Real 9/11 Investigation

This September 11th I am going to give a speech at the UN calling for a new, truly independent 9//11 Commission. This commission would investigate unanswered questions including the historical causes of the attack and the manifold failures of our government before and after the event. Unlike the first investigation, this commission should be granted subpoena power and full access to all governmental files and personnel. George Bush should be forced to testify ALONE.

I do not believe 9/11 was a governmental conspiracy. But I know that our government was partly at fault by engaging in polices that inspired it, failing to take aggressive steps to stop it, and sacrificing the liberty and safety of our citizens after it. It’s time we find out why and do something about it.

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WHY DO WE LET IT HAPPEN?

We the People can do something about change, but we let it happen. 

They say money buys the elections.

They are right but only because We the People let it happen.

What can we do about it?

Get behind a platform issue. 

For example…

I have found a solution to the problem with funding social security… reduce the 6.7% tax to a 2% flat tax and there will be much more money in the pool than the present collection method which caps the tax receipts to less than the first one hundred thousand in income. 

2% flat tax will tax Mayor Bloomberg and other high income Americans on their full incomes.  We must also tax trust income, dividends, stock options, tax deferred income, capital gains, barter… any income any way, no cap, just a straight 2%.   This sharing of the public good will cause much less pain at 2% than it does to the sufferers in the present system at 6.7%. 

There are others issues

We, the People, as consumers, can purchase efficient lighting.  That will change our use of energy to the extent of changing the present direction toward irreversible global warming. 

We, the People, can elect officials who want to work for us, and not those that work for big corporations or big lobby groups or to help the rich at the expense of the poor.  But that is who we are electing, because We don’t stick together.  So let us form a union.  If you earn less than one million dollars then let us all discuss who we will vote for and if we do that We the People will have the power to help Us the People. 

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New York Magazine has a great article written by John Heilemann and my take on it…

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/36114/

Fighting Rove’s Last War
Yes, he was a great tactician. But for Democrats, his tactics are a trap.
By John Heilemann

Unlike his soon-to-be-ex-boss, Karl Rove has never claimed to be “a uniter, not a divider.” But with his announcement last week that he would depart the White House at the end of this month, Rove provoked an outpouring of political obituaries that were striking in their degree of essential agreement. All gave props to his tactical prowess and ruthless brilliance. All credited him with three successive, and increasingly improbable, Republican electoral triumphs in 2000, 2002, and 2004. And all concluded that he had failed utterly to achieve his ultimate goal: an enduring national political realignment in favor of his party. Indeed, the consensus view, even among conservatives, is that the GOP is far weaker at the end of the reign of Rove than it was at the beginning.

The only person who seems to demur at the last portion of this verdict is Turd Blossom himself. In a slew of exit interviews last week, Rove argued that his tenure advanced the cause of long-term Republican dominance and that history would judge George W. Bush kindly, particularly on Iraq. Much of what he had to say, of course, was either pure fantasy or self-justifying bullshit or a toxic combination of the two. But Rove also made three points, I think, of great relevance to the election that lies ahead—points that the Democrats currently celebrating his exit would do well to take seriously.

The first is that the 2006 midterm election was “really close,” as he put it, much closer than it appeared. Despite an unpopular war, a more unpopular president, and a rash of scandals among Republican incumbents, the margin by which Democrats took control of Congress was threadbare indeed: just 3,562 votes in the Montana race that tipped the balance in the Senate, and a total of 85,000 votes in the fifteen House contests that put the lower chamber in Democratic hands. No less a partisan than James Carville describes the outcome as “predictable and well within the range of historical norms”—not, that is, a landslide endorsement of his party or its policies.

The second point of Rove’s worth considering is one he stated bluntly to Mike Allen of The Politico. “The Democrats have a problem with national security,” he said. “Too many Democratic leaders are opposing policies that will lead to America’s success in the Middle East.” To Rove’s way of thinking, the Democratic opposition to Bush’s troop surge in Iraq and the party’s increasingly ardent get-out-now posture on the war echo the party’s dovish stance on Vietnam in the early seventies—which hung the albatross of foreign-policy weakness around its collective neck for years thereafter. And they will make whomever the Democrats pick as their nominee in 2008 vulnerable, once again, to Republican charges of pusillanimity.

Rove himself seems to have little doubt that the Democratic standard-bearer will be Hillary Clinton—the third point of his deserving of note. “She’s strong and she’s got the Establishment of the Democratic Party, and she benefits from having relatively weak or inexperienced opponents,” he opined. But Rove then went on to trash her in an interview with Rush Limbaugh: “She’s going into the general election with, depending on which poll you look at, high forties on the negative side and just below that on the positive side. And there’s nobody who has ever won the presidency who started out in that kind of position.”

Many Democrats will airily dismiss such talk as spin, as a desperate bid to perpetuate the illusion that all isn’t lost for the Republicans. But coming from a mind as Machiavellian as Rove’s, it’s more likely an attempt to bolster Clinton’s prospects by inciting support for her on the left—because in fact she is the opponent he believes the GOP stands the best chance of defeating. And the truth is that, for all his deviousness, Rove isn’t simply spreading manure. Despite the deftness of her campaign so far, Hillary remains a hugely polarizing figure. Her principal rivals, meanwhile, all have ample weaknesses for Rove’s successors to exploit. And their party remains less loved than tolerated, still not entirely trusted by voters to keep them safe in an age of terror.

All of which suggests that the 2008 campaign may prove to be a more close-run thing than many Democrats now expect. To win it will require more of the party and its nominee than Rovism in reverse: more than courting the base, turning out loyalists, and maintaining iron message discipline. What the 2006 election hinted at is that the country is ready to move past the era of divisiveness and stark red-blue polarities, toward some kind of consensus-building and reconciliation. The Democrat who can plausibly offer that will not just wind up in the White House. He or she will drive a stake through whatever remains of Rove’s conception of himself as someone who changed our politics forever.

Ok, right off the bat anyone that calls Rove a “Turd Blossom” is awesome in my book… but more importantly highlights the simple fact that the Democrats are missing the golden egg.  No one has stepped up to the plate with any real experience and just because you watched from the sidelines for a couple of years (yes, I know Hillary did alot in her terms as the first lady) but do you think she was sitting in the major briefing rooms about war or terrorism? am I playing into the stereotype now?  I dont know and really I think I’ve found the point of frustration… Rove has done it again - no matter who wins in 2008 America still loses, the train has fallen off the tracks to the point of no return (am I serious? I am but I hope I am not correct) but look at it this way the economy is tanking, jobs are about to turn around again from what little rebuilding they had done in the last two years, and we have a war thats now being called/polarized as another Vietnam…

Congratulations you’re the winner - You are the President of the United States of America - the prize fix this WONDERFUL mess, while not hurting your party at the same time. 

And as a wake up call for everyone who doesnt think there is anything wrong with the economy… The Euro is now 1.9:1 to the US Dollar and how are we doing against the neighbors to the north? Just a little time ago it was .6:1 (in 2003) and they’ve totally made up the difference .9:1 (2007) [Canadian:USD]

When does it become to time take our toys and head home before someone comes knocking on our doors and asking for our toys back (oh wait - I saw a stat that a town in Cali had a 1:26 home foreclosure rate)… We’ll deal with China’s recall and the home foreclosure market in an upcoming post I guess.

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