Words and Phrases from the 2008 Election That I Never Want to Hear Again
- Maverick
- Main Street
- Wall Street
- Change
- Hope
- Socialism
- My Friends
- Farm
- MBA and/or Ph D
- Joe the Plumber
- Joe Six-pack
- First Dude
- You Betcha’
- Lipstick on Pig
- Throw ______ under the bus.
- Hockey Mom
- Real American
- ACORN
- Country First
- Four more years
- The Bradley Effect
- Rallying the Base
- Indiana’s Election Headquarters
- October Surprise
- Pallin’ around with Terrorists
- Swing State
Feel free to add.
November 14th, 2008 at 8:52 am
That guy
November 14th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I kind of like the “pig” similes…like “trying to teach a pig to whislte….” For example: “Getting Rico to understand the Dems is like trying to teach a pig to whistle. You’ll only frustrate the hell out of the pig.”
November 14th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Unfortunately, your hope for a change in how people communicate for four more years is about as likely as pollsters not using the Bradley Effect to explain away their methodology shortcomings in the future. Still, some of my friends down at Maverick Farm, are already rallying the base of Joe the plumbers and hockey moms to put the concerns of real Americans back on the front page down at Indiana’s Election Headquarters. One doesn’t need an MBA or a PhD to know that ideologies like Socialism, or organizations like ACORN don’t represent the values of swing state Hoosiers who believe in country first. In fact, the first dude who gets caught pallin’ around with terrorists is going to find him (or her) self thrown under the bus by the Joe six-packs of this great land. Still, whether it’s Main Street or Wall Street, the next October surprise for Indiana will be just who is putting the lipstick on the pig for 2012, you betcha’.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:41 am
How about any occasion with Bush and conservative in the same sentence?
November 14th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I fully understand the Dems, Tom. I used to be one. I grew up.
November 14th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Democrat
Republican
November 14th, 2008 at 10:23 am
certificate of birth
vaulted copy
sealed records
forgeries
greed
November 14th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Yes We Can
Change You Can Belive In
Kenya
November 14th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Inside Baseball
Fundamental Difference
I couldn’t agree with you more on your #2. I am so tired of hearing “Main Street”
Thank you, I love this list!
November 14th, 2008 at 10:44 am
“They’re too busy with budget issues to come on.”
November 14th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Barack Obama
I’m going to need to lose my hearing real quick like.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Here’s a heads up: This Saturday, the G-20 nations are holding their emergency meeting to “solve” the global financial crisis.
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If you’re planning on buying gold to hedge your savings, do it now. Before they announce their “solution”. Just make sure that you buy real gold, not COMEX certificates – contrary to what you would expect in a bad market, they’re falling. The reason is because institutional investors who traditionally use COMEX know that it’s really only a paper exchange and that a true financial failure would leave them with nothing more than worthless certificates. They’re turning to bullion and coin instead.
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I’ve been watching this progression intently for 20 years. The solutions that come forth this weekend will result in a global centralization of monetary policy like none before it – that could range anywhere from consolidation of currencies, to establishing a new baseline for currency valuation in an effort to unilaterally re-define the ratio between currency and asset values.
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In other words, by agreeing to walk away from the dollar as the reserve currency, they can re-establish a baseline reserve that is dramatically more expensive than the dollar. If they unanimously align with a single or inter-dependant handful of new treserve currencies, and choose a 10:1 dollar reduction, they can instantly offload a huge percentage of debt while simultaneously increasing the value of assets.
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At the monetary policy level, it’s a paper/numbers game. The folks who are dealing the cards can sign it into international law and “poof”, we have a new monetary system and new currency valuations. It happened at Bretton Woods. And it happened in 1933 when Roosevelt confiscated all gold and raised it’s value almost 70% (Exec. Order 6102).
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Obviously, such a process won’t happen overnight, but there will be thousands of institutions who recognize the terms and that it’ll mean an unprecedented spike in gold prices. There are currently several countries where you can’t find real gold to buy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if several institutions are already looking at this as a possibility. When gold becomes scarce, institutional players are hedging against significant risk.
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My advice is to follow their lead. Us folks on the receiving end are always the last to find out, so let’s play their game this time and follow their leads. If you can, buy today. If I turn out to be wrong (and I hope I am!!!) you can always sell after a few months and nothing is lost.
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Remember this: Those who are working this weekend to “solve” the crisis are the ones who created the crisis. It’s called Problem-Crisis-Solution. Create the problem, wait for the crisis, and then offer the solution. Tomorrows decisions have been planned for a long time. All they needed was the right crisis to get the people to play along.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:50 am
“Battleground state”. Unless bullets are flying or bombs are falling, it ain’t no battleground.
And I was sick of red state/blue state a long time ago.
And how about liberal/conservative? Can we really sum up any person’s entire ideology on all things social, fiscal, and political with one word that is devoid of meaning anyway? We have become such a sound-bite media-label driven society that thoughtful discourse on complex topics is a thing of the past. Perhaps that is why I pretty much avoid newspapers and television news shows any more.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Shorebreak? Thanks for the sound advice. I actually bought another Krugerrand ounce yesterday on ebay and used a 10 percent eBay coupon and bought it UNDER spot. Real gold (not certs) goes for about $1000 an ounce on Ebay. Sometimes you can buy in the low $800′s if you stalk auctions.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
And Shorebreak? What can you tell us about silver prices. They are low now too. I understand that the percentage jumps in silver are predicted to jump much higher than gold. Does this mesh with your research.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
John McCain
I agree with many on your list, Abdul. There are many others, however, that I will be reminding you of at every turn. So there’s little chance you won’t be hearing (reading)them. Sorry.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Melyssa,
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I haven’t trended silver but from a market perspective, silver backed paper is running the same scam as COMEX gold. There’s nothing behind it so investors are running from it. If paper-backed precious metals had real value, they’d be climbing right now, but they’re falling like everything else.
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But if you can find real silver – scoop it up.
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Listen up, folks. Go back and research how many nations have called for a new reserve currency system in the last 60 days. China, Germany, UK, etc. We’re in for a huge currency shift and this “emergency” summit of 20 nations is very likely going to be the event where they begin to roll it out. And if I’m wrong, you’re not hurting yourself. It was just announced yesterday that ther’e going to be mass lay-off’s in the Chicago area in the next month. Don’t think it won’t impact Indy as well. Buckle up and take some smart steps to make it through.
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“Mayor Daley says corporate leaders told him huge layoffs will impact the city this month and next, and into the new year. He also says city, county and state governments should be prepared for their revenue to fall dramatically because of the souring economy.”
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/daley.city.layoffs.2.863161.html
November 14th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
You betcha!
November 14th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I hope to God he’s wrong, but Shorebreak is right.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Advised a friend with a fortune in certificates to sell and get into physical gold. She swears all that paper is backed in real gold. Can’t believe she trusts them. Oh well, she was warned.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Melyssa, I hold 70% of my assets in “hard currency” gold bullion coin. If you’re picking up an ounce here and an ounce there then you aren’t stacking fast enough and will come up short when the dollar tanks further. Silver is a secondary play as gold is “true currency” in the eyes of the rest of the world.
For reference go to:
http://www.jsmineset.com
http://www.kitco.com (click message board)
http://www.goldseek.com
http://www.gata.com
http://www.coininfo.com (click news)
Don’t trust ebay as sooner or later you WILL get burned regardless of a persons feedback.
Yes, the word on the Street is that Comex is soon going to have to deal with default as there is not enough gold in their vaults to cover the paper traded. Same with the silver Comex. I have a mini-contract with December expire for 1000 ounces on Comex. I WILL take delivery.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Thanks JT. I’m very much a novice with hard currencies. And I hope your mini-contract expires in early, rather than late December.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
HERE IS A COMMENT LEFT ON HFFT BLOG EARLIER TODAY. I THINK IT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE IN LIGHT OF WHAT WE SEE HAPPENING. (AND I DO HOPE AND PRAY TO GOD THAT I’M WRONG)
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I am a student of history. Professionally. I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied it all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.
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Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten – fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
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We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?
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We learn just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has “loaned” two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the 700B we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of “we the people,” who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.
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We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?
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We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?
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We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?). We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
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Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is medicare and our entire government, our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about)–the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
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And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more imporant.)
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Mr. Obama’s winning platform can be boiled down to one word: change.
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Why?
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I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.
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This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.
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And that is only the beginning.
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And I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his “brown shirts” would bully them into submission. And then, he was duly elected to office, a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world.
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He did it with a compliant media–did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and . . . change. And the people surely got what they voted for.
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(Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.)
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Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.
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Don’t forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And in less than six years–a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency–it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.
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As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me.
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Some people scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe–and why I believe it.
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I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Your Krugs ARE hard currency Melyssa. Please educate yourself on gold. Stalking auctions on ebay for fun just to put a few coins together will not protect you.
If you invest in gold to make money then you do not understand what the concept of owning gold or money is about.
Do not waste a dime on silver. It’s not money it’s a commodity. Don’t let anyone tell you different. Did FDR confiscate silver in 1933? NO. There was a reason for that.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Please tell me more about the silver commodities. Because I’ve read that it will be where people who cannot get gold will turn. I’ve also been hearing too that silver is very short in supply.
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I like the idea of trading cash for real gold so that it is not traceable and the gains not taxable.
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When you cash in those certs aren’t you going to have to pay capital gains tax?
November 14th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Good info, JT. I appereciate the correction on silver from my earlier post.
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Melyssa – interesting post to your blog. He’s 100% correct, with the exception of the 10 – 15 year time frame. It’s in the last 10 – 15 years that the situation has become more evident. It took many decades to set us up for it.
November 14th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Rico pulled a funny.
I really like most of these words, Abdul…but what I want more than anything else, is a complete end to run-on, impossible-to-diagram sentences from any national candidates.
Mastery of the language, to some degree, is an absolute must for national office these days. It typically indicates intellectual capacity and the ability to take in complicated subjects.
Yeah, I suppose it’s hoity-toity, but, at age 54, I’m not changing. Grammar is important. Ask around.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Rico: LOL.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Melyssa: BOO!
November 14th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Another word (or three): “Margin of error.”
November 14th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Sorry Abdul, I had to do it.
Wannabe First Dude Barack Obama was walking down Main Street looking for Joe the Plumber, he had in mind an October Surprise.
The Real Americans at Indiana’s Election Headquarters told him “You Betcha’ Joe Six-pack can put Lipstick on Pig before you can Rally the Base and install Socialism in the USA”.
Obama responded “The Bradley Effect won’t work here. Within Four more years My MBA and Ph D Friends from Wall Street and ACORN will be Pallin’ around with Terrorists and my Farm (prison) friends. I Hope to Change the American attitude of “Country First”. How? By Throwing those Hockey Moms who vote for me under the bus and raising taxes anyway. I will be the real Maverick.”
It’s too bad that Hockey Moms and America didn’t listen.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
How did I miss Swing state? Damm
Obama responded “Indiana’s a swinging state but The Bradley Effect won’t work here. Within Four more years My MBA and Ph D Friends from Wall Street and ACORN will be Pallin’ around with Terrorists and my Farm (prison) friends. I Hope to Change the American attitude of “Country First”
November 14th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Melyssa,
I do not hold any “paper gold” certificates. I only hold physical gold. I do not trade on the ETF’s or any form of paper gold and therefor have no tax liabilities.
Trading on Comex entails no tax liabilies as you are simply buying gold on the actual exchange and then taking delivery at a future date. But there is a 1000 ounce minimum contract and a few minor fees when you take actual delivery. Buying on the actual exchange is the cheapest way to buy physical gold right now especially with the bullion banks, the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve suppressing the price to make the dollar appear stronger than it is.
Silver is called “poor man’s gold”. It is a secondary form of currency and will only follow gold to a degree. It is used more as a commodity. I’m not one who believes there is a silver shortage. I can purchase all I want to on the exchanges at spot price anywhere in the world. There may be a shortage of small bars and coins, same as gold, in the retail sector but not for large bars trading in the pit.
Of course the exchanges like Comex do not currently have enough gold or silver in their vaults should enough people take actual delivery. If the gold I purchased on the exchange is not there when I want delivery then I would say the exchange has a real problem on their hands and I’m a lot nicer than the Russians, Chinese and the Arabs.
This topic has gotten off Abdul’s original thread so I’ll hit you via email with some info.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Think Again, your last sentence ended in a preposition. Damn, that one ended in a ‘preposition’.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I suggest your read Thomas Sowell’s November 11th column titled ‘Intellectuals”, Think Again. You can find it on Real Clear Politics.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
…..it’s not about grammar….
November 14th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Thank, God. I suggest ‘you’ read……
November 14th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Let us not forget Obama’s famous entry phrase, “look”…….
November 14th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
It’s not strictly about grammar, Rico. It’s about a command of the language. Let’s be clear here, and I promise to stop any attempts to be “cute” about this, because it’s important:
Sarah Palin can’t string together two coherent English sentences. She misunderstands the Constitution. She’s frightfully unaware of geography and geopolitical traits. She shamefully and blatantly misused a Down’s child for personal poliltical gain, which is cruel. Someone is drastically lying about the wardrobe, and I think it’s her. America has not had a more-unqualified national candidate in my lifetime. Unqualified in the sense that she lacks intellectual curiosity and the ability to form cogent thoughts on a consistent basis.
If this election were closer, electorally, ask McCain if he really thinks he did a good thing with Palin. It patently back-fired, and I, for one, after listneing to this ditz, was an advocate of “give her more rope.” It was a matter of time.
FYI: “Ask around” is a throw-away phrase…meant as a subjective punctuation to draw attention to the prior thought. A common writing tool these days. Ask Safire. He laments it, and I do, too, but I use it. Sorry if it offends your grammatical soul…it’s a trait you won’t have to share with Gov. Palin.
I did read the column you cited. It’s interesting. Incorrect but interesting. Please don’t fall into the common far-right trap, that anyone who criticizes Sarah Palin’s lack of depth, does so from a basis of intellectutal snobbery. Far from it. The GOP can rattle that cage for four years if they wanna, but they’ll be right back where they are today: national political losers.
The woman scared the crap out of me and tens of millions of others. This is a leap for me, but: gimme Cheney. He’s the worst VP we’ve ever had, but he’s smart.
November 15th, 2008 at 1:31 am
You could not be more wrong about Sarah Palin. Self-loathing women like yourself are so full of hatred for her that it actually borders on psychosis.
Michael Barone was right. The media disliked Sarah Palin because she chose to give birth instead of aborting her child. That is what your party has become. You claim to be pro-life, but I am calling you a liar.
Sarah Palin represents a threat to the liberal establishment. Imagine an accomplished woman who actually chooses not to kill the most innocent among us.
How did you actually feel when the experienced one on your ticket stated that Roosevelt spoke to the American public on television in 1929? Or any of the other countless gaffes during the campaign? The great Joe Biden with all his foreign policy experience–or any experience for that matter…
You’d rather be lied to than told the truth by someone who may mispronounce a word now and then. That is quite revealing about your character.
You watched the Couric interview, and have your head so far up your rear to believe that it was not their intention to make her look bad. Do you actually believe that if the MSM wanted to make Barry look ignorant on a given topic they couldn’t do it? And do you actually believe that if he did stumble it would have been aired?
I hope you read Thomas Sowell’s article. The self-proclaimed intellectuals like yourself are often at the heart of all this nations ills. If you’re not yet completely Godless(which will invariably be the law of the land in the Obama age), you need to take a look inside yourself to learn what truly matters.
Your boy needed a teleprompter for a few short sentences after Biden’s acceptance speech at the convention. The few times on the stump there were problems with the teleprompter, Obama looked like an unprepared dolt. Does he read reasonably well? Sure. Does that make him a master of the english language? Absolutely not! You’re still living in this fairy tale that Barry is your savior. You do need one, but he ain’t it.
November 15th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Republican, Democrat, and politician – all spelled the same CROOK.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Rico–once again you show yourself…remember what happens when you assume things.
You’ve got my gender wrong, and you’ve got your Palin ideas wrong. And I’m not a self-assumed intellectual. Far from it.
Thankfuly, America realized the Palin truths Nov. 4.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:07 am
One more thing…the McCain Palin intellectual jaugernaut chose Ms. COuric to do the Palin interview. Because they thought she was the weaker, thus more manageable, of the network anchors.
Katie earned her stripes, Palin showed her true self, and America wised up.
You betcha. Also.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Actually they chose Katie because they thought a woman would go “easier” on another woman. Oops!
November 15th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Katie earned her stripes? She should retire in shame for what she did to NBC news. Do you want to compare the job performances of each woman over the last few years? Hmmm, 80-90% approval ratings versus perpetually plummeting TV ratings? Wow! Who’s performing better in her respective position?
It is nice, though, to have network anchors campaign for your candidate. Without their help, your boy would have been destroyed Nov 4th.
November 16th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Gimme a break, guys. Go easier? More manageable? Get serious.
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I’ll never forget the time that The Today Show was on in the background and my wife said to me “Do you think she sold her soul to Satan?” I wasn’t paying attention to the television and I had no idea what she was talking about. I said “What?” and she said “Katie Couric. Have you ever actually sat down and watched her?”
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So, when I discovered that she used to co-anchor with Brokaw, I figured my wife was onto something. So I checked the membership list for the Council on Foereign Relations and sure enough, Katherine Couric is a member. That’s why it came as no surpise to me that she was made nightly news anchor.
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And that’s also why I don’t need to speculate on why she was the one chosen to interview Palin. The answer is obvious.
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Also, if any of you have read the MSNBC follow-ups to the G-20 meeting, you can probably recocgnize some of the terms being used to groom their viewers – UK and China leaders announcing calls for a new global order. Get out your tinfoil hats, folks. World leadership must be paying too much attention to folks like me – they’re starting to follow our predictions.