Retreats: Democrats, GOP resort to rest

With the news of banks and their lavish retreats....neither party really looks good in this.

Okay, when do we get out retreats? Being laid off or fired doesn't count. All of them are a bunch of hypocrites, they make me sick and I hope they all get food poisioning!

How nice that all the "swells" (and that applies to both parties) can get away on a retreat. I thought the country was going down the crapper? Hope they all come down with a "huge" case of food poisioning!

Total waste of taxpayers money, regardless of the party, in times like this. God forbid if the could'nt settle for Mc Donalds, like most of America are doing these days.

Now children, how about some perspective. They are saving the jobs of tens of bellboys and waitresses and keeping the resorts afloat. A pittance compared to the billion plus wasted in Iraq.

Williamsburg--built for Tories by slaves. Just heard that tax payers will not pay for this. Conflicting stories.

Last time I checked, when I needed R&R or a "get-a-way" I had to pay for it myself. Now I have to pay for theirs too? They look like a bunch of baffoons!!

I hope DC gets the wire that CHANGE is on the way, and if they think that is only an Obama slogan they will be sorely mistaken. Incumbants really need to start listening to the people that elected them....from both parties.

"better informed, better acquainted and inspired to do the work." Give me a break! I'll give you inspiration to do your job...how about voting for someone who doesn't need (yet another perk) any more incentive than being there to do the job they were elected to do?
Geez, it's the same *&^%, just another day. Can you spell R E V O L U T I O N ?

When is everyone going to wake up and realize that the "powerful" people (excuse me I mean prominent) have a different standard that they live by on our money. Hallelujah!
Thank God for change! Are all of you finally waking up? Oh, that's right, B.O. never really did say what that change was...now you know. Change we need...change we can live with.

Well, if everybody needs a retreat, I reckon that includes a hardworking self-employed person. Therefore, my next vacation is going to be deducted from my taxes. Then I'll be "inspired to do the work" when I come back.
No problem with their retreat, but they should have done it less lavishly. Otherwise they lose credibility. We could reduce their salaries until they become effective on the economy. That'd be better than expecting them to stay at the Motel 6.

A FINANCIAL REVOLUTION PART II

A Modern day “Boston Tea Party”, Americans all over America have gotten wise. Here is the American publics’ response to government, bailouts, stimulus packages and the putting us back to work to spend. The wizards of Government and Wall Street, through their greed and corrupt practices, have given us the people few options: risk destitution, foreclosure and bankruptcy or save. We've chosen to save. To save, save, save ourselves.

1. This isn't working. The public doesn't get information on what's going in and what's coming out of bills until the information is already out of date. We have no effective means of tracking and influencing the legislative process. Our participation is limited to whether or not we support saving the economy. We don't have a seat at the table when it comes to the actual nature of making government work.
2. Whoever is in office be it Democrat or Republican makes no different. American government is about keeping the system going. The system is for the elite; corporate America, our elected officials and keeping capitalism alive. The masses of people are inconsequential and expendable at every level, rich, middle class and poor.
3. Let's face Reality; the top 400 people in this country took in 250 million a piece each and every one of them for a year... ONE MILLION DOLLARS A DAY......or 100 billion for the year and paid less than 20% in taxes....and that was adjusted income,,,, What do you imagine their incomes were BEFORE the adjustments....
4. Wall Street is the CANARY in the COAL MINE... We will never make significant process until these people’s unmitigated GREED is alleviated by 94% tax rate....
5. The less you know, the less you care. The less you know, the more you believe. The less you know, the cheaper your job. The less you know, the weaker your opinion. The less you know, the easier you're scared. The less you know the better pawn you are.
6. This is what the internet is all about! This is what transparency looks like! Put a million pissed off people with computers to work and stand back!
7. Judging a system only by the magnitude of profits is a fool's assessment; capitalism as designed by free market fundamentalists, also, falls much harder when it fails, and it ALWAYS fails, as its design flaws make it impossible to sustain.
8. I am one of many unemployed Americans. I lost my job 10 months ago, and have yet to find employment. The harsh reality today is that I had 2 interviews for a long-term temp assignment, and still haven't even landed a short-term assignment. I possess a graduate degree and have 9 years of direct work experience. The point of my comment is not to elicit pity; I am simply one of the millions of disillusioned Americans hoping for a better tomorrow.
9. Government tells us keep hope alive for that bridge building job or to pave roads. Who cares if you paid $100,000 for your education or what degree you hold?
10. American people, design stuff, manufacture stuff, construct stuff, grow stuff; create your own jobs. Human productivity, not financial manipulation.
11. I think we have to pull together. People on the lowest rung......they need the most support. If the gas prices go up, they can't even get to work or feed the kids. They are looking at homelessness. Those who have stretched their resources and bought a house beyond their real capacity to guarantee repayment lured in by greedy bankers whose at fault? They aren't the worst who need to be saved. Some were suckered into taking a bad risk.
12. A great way to put billions of dollars back into the economy via this stimulus bill, lobby for every Senator and Representative to take a 35% pay cut, every senator and rep receiving Soc Sec and drawing a congressional salary, give up Soc Sec, because that's double dipping. Whittle down those aides and staff from 50 each to 5 each so these people can actually do the jobs they're hired for instead of handing tasks off to a lackey. Also, cut off pensions for these losers. If American people who have lost all their pensions and the autoworkers who are being penalized for drawing pensions can do without, so can these moochers.
13. Alright everybody time to start calling our congress and senate.
14. For all of the pandering, the "moderates on both sides" are now getting ready to gut the budget, and prove that the only thing they believe in is a failed ideology of "supply side economics." Cut taxes, raise defense spending, screw the poor.
15. This "bipartisanship", "post-partisanship", "new politics" is a complete and total failure.
16. For the Office of the President the people voted for change. But when it came to the Congress people voted for the status quo in both houses. The people in Congress are the same people who voted for the Iraq war, No Child Left Behind, TARP, etc. If you wanted change, you should have voted against your incumbent in the primary and general election. As long as the same people are in Congress we will not have change. 2010 you get another chance to do so.
17. We are still arguing Evolution and the rest of the developing world is investing in education, infrastructure, engineering and science. What do you expect in a highly competitive globalized business?
18. We are getting rolled by government. That has no experience in governing and it is showing. The lack of ability of government to pass a bill or negotiate with colleagues on an executive level civilly is showing every time key legislation needs to be passed. They have no idea what they are doing and so our congressional leadership is playing games and playing us like a fiddle...particularly with these catch phrase named bills where they through in the kitchen sink to be funded by us.
19. Could you explain how enormous government spending and borrowing from the Chinese will create long term private sector jobs?
20. We wouldn't be in the position if we hadn't gone heavily into debt to purchase sophisticated agreements that nobody really understood but seemed like a sure thing right up until they started destroying the economy. In the solution I see ominous reflections of the problem. Do we really know what we're getting for our debt? Does anybody know if it will work? The answer is no.
21. It seems that most efforts to help the housing market are aimed at maintaining the artificially high inflated prices that are part of the problem. If you want to see home sales go through the roof, list a $100,000 house for $100,000 instead of $300,000 and watch what happens. Continuing to prop up these unrealistic home "values" only makes current mortgage holders' ability to make their payments more tenuous (in this job market especially) and continues to price many prospective buyers out of the market entirely.
22. The real problem can be summed up with two numbers: Average price of houses sold in America in December 2008: $247,900. Average personal income 2007 (most recent data available): $38,611.
23. Hang onto your wallet...The states are collectively about 100 Billion in the red.
24. A tax rebate is tempting, but doesn't change the bottom line, which is we aren't making enough money to afford the housing bubble. Where I live $15,000 does not offset the fact that mortgages have doubled in a few short years. All this will do is lure people in who can't afford it, and award those who can game the system. It will keep mortgages artificially high and we'll need another boost down the road....
25. Doesn't it seem that the bailout dollars will keep those sinking from going to the bottom and that then it will take even longer for the fail/rebirth cycle to run its course? Like the Phoenix that rose from the ashes, wouldn't we need ashes before there could be an arising, and anything else will just prolong the misery.

American people while the old way of “storming the fort” was applicable in that day and age to signal revolt, this is modern America’s way, by us staging a “financial revolution”. Not buying into the consumerism that keeps the cycle of abuse going.

We have seen our annuities shrink by tens of thousands of dollars, and likewise, the value of our homes. Of course we are not spending. We may never spend. One reason is that we are so ANGRY at the corporations. We are tired of being subjected to social engineering every time we enter a store, tired of cheap junk merchandise from China, tired of our government being bought instead of representing us, tired of the government being taken over by armband religion, tired of our healthcare, tired of lousy schools that are unaffordable, tired of bailouts which is really nothing but more robbery of the people, specifically, the middle class.

We have no representation, no free press, and no recourse of any kind, except, not spending. So, by golly, we are not spending. It's practice for when we won't be able to spend anyway, because the government will end up with every last cent that we ever earn anyway.

Congress, American government, consider yourself notified. Americans are no longer “buying” the swampland, of buy, buy, buy, or, consume, consume, consume. It is now save, save, save ourselves. Unless you start mailing out checks directly to the American people to help bail us out, to get us through this depression, expect it to go on for as long as it takes, to bring down the system of the elite. You left us no other recourse. We are no longer going along with the program (stimulus, relief, bailout, TARP or whatever you decide to call the next bone); you heard it, first, from us…

Hey that looks like Algore's home in Belle Meade, where he uses 18-20x the national average in energy each year. We all need to make sacrifices to beat back the ozone hole, er, global warming.

Well, if everybody needs a retreat, I reckon that includes a hardworking self-employed person. Therefore, my next vacation is going to be deducted from my taxes. Then I'll be "inspired to do the work" when I come back.
No problem with their retreat, but they should have done it less lavishly. Otherwise they lose credibility. We could reduce their salaries until they become effective on the economy. That'd be better than expecting them to stay at the Motel 6.

This is what Ralf Nader call the mockery of our politicians toward their contingecies. People, we need to get involved. Like Nader said, The elected officials are only a handfull ( one hundred senetors and plus or minus 450 house of representative. If we only get a task force in our communities to watch these representative, I bet there will be a change. Check November 5.org to find out more about getting involved.

The wizards of Government and Wall Street, through their greed and corrupt practices, have given us the people few options: risk destitution, foreclosure and bankruptcy or save.