Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

So, the net result is this:

-The anti-war sentiment was a huge rallying cry for the Democrats throughout the primaries and into the general election.
-As Election Day got closer, Obama's team severely toned down the anti-war rhetoric, probably as the understanding grew that the initially-promised withdrawal was not a feasible plan.
-Because of the economy and Obama's general popularity, his handling of the war has not been scrutinized strongly.
-Bush made the massive mistake of using 9/11 and mass panic to launch a full scale war.
-The Bush administration's handling of the war for most of his 2nd term was actually not nearly as awful as portrayed during the election and assumed by most of the American public. 
-In fact, Obama has basically decided to stick with a cleaned-up version of the same plan.
-A massive point of contention in the election was simply a way to use Bush's biggest mistake against the Republican party as a whole.  The Democrats likely knew all along that ending the war or pulling out large numbers of troops on a certain pre-determined time frame was a non-starter.

[rjs246]

I would narrow down your 5th point to only include the last 2 years of Bush's second term but essentially, yes, that's right.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I didn't want to say it, but the magic "turning point" was really the infamous SURGE.

Hearkening back to the election rhetoric around the war makes me nauseous.

[Munson]

Olbermann or however you spell his name tore Rush about 5 new iceholes tonight. Pretty awesome.

[SD_Eagle5]

Rush bashing was good, but not as good as
Glenn Beck getting destroyed by Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters on the View.

[Seabiscuit36]

the new CARD bill really is going to farg the credit card industry.  Nice job. 

-Making it very tough to get credit cards before 21...LOL
-No increasing rates(here comes Annual Fee's again)

[rjs246]

farg the credit card industry.

[Seabiscuit36]

LOL at being able to join the army or get married at 18, yet not get a credit card without co signing by parents. 

Some of the stuff makes sense, but these congressmen have no idea how much they'll end up farging over people in the long run.  Risk based pricing is mostly shtein, it definitely works, but its too subjective, and needs to be on an account by account basis.  The fact that they tried to decrease interchange fees is another amazing attempt.  Luckily that was shot down, as it made no sense, other than to punish cardholders by more fees in other areas. 

[rjs246]

Short term it will help. Medium term it will hurt. Long term it will stop people from being able to buy anything and everything that they want without being able to afford it. People will actually have to have money to buy shtein and will not run the risk of defaulting on their credit cards at such an astonishing rate.

This is a good thing. And farg credit card companies.

[Seabiscuit36]

Dont get me wrong, Financial Literacy is the one thing this country doesn't teach or focus on.  And i know way too many people when i was younger who got cards and maxed them out in under a month.  The Gubament better find some other alternatives building young persons credit, otherwise your going to have 21yo's coming out of college with no credit history. 

[rjs246]

Is there a more artificial and damning measure of a person than their credit history? Credit ratings and histories were concocted by companies who want to give credit. Think about that. It's circular nonsense and now we as a society are so beholden to it that you are openly wondering what a 21 year old will do without a credit history to point to... IT'S ABSURD.

Bring on the zombies.

[Seabiscuit36]

i played my cards right amazingly, my dad sat me down at 18 and went over what i had to do to make sure i dont dig myself a hole and how credit cards are built to farg you, i came out with excellent credit and that continues to this day.  Parents should have a bigger role in teaching Children how to farging use money, save money, and use credit to pay it off.  To me this is just another one of the Big Brother stepping in moments over the past 20 years. 

The issue with FICO's are how subjective they are at this time.  You'll probably see a whole new system come out based more on D/I ratios along with more of a focus on Payer patterns.  I agree that a Credit based system can be a joke, but we dont live in a utopian society, and i need work to sustain my drinking habits. 

As far as Absurd, we'll see here in a few years.  I hate that the insurance companies are trying to use credit ratings as a basis to increase their rates, but its the future buddy.  So hope for zombies otherwise i'll be hunting you.

[rjs246]

My credit is farging pristine, despite years of abusing the shtein out of my credit cards. I'll spare everyone the details because it couldn't be more boring, but credit history and rating are meaningless numbers that credit companies invented to convince people that they need credit. People survived for thousands of years without credit ratings.

[Seabiscuit36]

we just use our cards for convenience, and take the points and convert them to cash.  50k points = 500 extra bucks.  We dont revolve balances unless its a larger purchase at a promo rate of 0% for a set time, and we make larger than needed payments(did this with my Lazyboy couches and HDTV/Surround sound setup).  We could have paid for both immediately, but its easier to spread out the impact of larger purchases if you can get 0% financing, and not farg up your payments.   

All i know is here's how ill be collecting debts once the virus spreads

[SD_Eagle5]

I'm 33, never had a credit card.