okay, i want to know

[barbtries]

why it's all being done in secret:

House and Senate lawmakers have are working behind the scenes on the Financial Markets deal.

from cspan. http://www.cspan.org/

the government of the united states SUCKS.

:nuke: want my country back! :cry: after this past week the hope i had that obama could just begin to put things right has really faded. anyone else?

[grannie4peace]

1. you need some hugs & mark halpin said obama won the debate :):)

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: :pals: :hug: if we don't beat them we can all move to the same country or state & take over. kind of like the mormons did .:):):shrug:

[barbtries]

2. thank you grannie4peace!

i did need that. not a good day.

i'm thinking belize, maybe costa rica - what about you?

[grannie4peace]

7. i'm game for anywhere with honest people..

will you be my translator? i'm no good with spanish. we had a friend who was an illegal alien who is from mexico. we would talk for hours in english--but i never could learn spanish. :):)

[barbtries]

8. sure,

have spanish/english dictionary, will travel! if we're living in a place where it's the dominant language, we'll learn it as a matter of necessity. i'm more concerned about how i'll get work...

[grannie4peace]

14. back in the 60's i was in san francisco-- in our house live a couple

the woman was the daughter of some big wig in d.c.-- i never found out who..... but she had run away to mexico with a black man--because it was so frowned upon in the u.s. she learned spanish like that & was really good at it :):):):toast:

[Glorfindel]

11. Belize would be perfect - it has a tiny population and is English-speaking

Nice warm climate, too, which is important for those of us with elderly bones. :hi:

[barbtries]

12. AND

i know someone from there, and she's moving back! i would love to at least visit belize if not live there before i die. it sucks but more and more and more i'm thinking about getting away from the US to live somewhere else. it's just talk, probably will stay that way, but i don't know. i never thought i'd leave CA in my lifetime, and here i am living in NC. if i can do that, why not expatriate? if i can find a welcome shore in a foreign land far, far away from the rot that has infested the government of my once upon a time country tis of thee.

[grannie4peace]

16. i lived in cal & thought va was a foreign country in the 60's

[barbtries]

17. lol

my freind carla from los angeles lived in SC for 6 months 30 or so years ago and that was her take on it. i'd always wanted to visit the south. you could knock ME over with a feather that i now live here.

[grannie4peace]

15. & my s s would go further there -right?

i don't care....just so long as people are honest :):):)

[stillcool]

3. I read yesterday that the final bill..

will be posted on the net for a full day before the vote. I look forward to reading the opinions of those more knowledgeable than myself. I was under the impression that bills are generally written behind the scenes no? And the final version is debated and voted on?

[barbtries]

4. i would hope so

but considering that they're trying to get it passed before the asian markets open which must be within a few hours of now, how's that going to work?

[malaise]

6. Do you think they will give a flying

fuck about responses after they post it?

[stillcool]

9. I have no idea...

I guess I can't work up the outrage without understanding what it is I'm outraged about.

[barbtries]

10. exactly.

at this point i'm pretty sure they don't give a flying fuck about the people of this nation. why would that change in the next couple hours.

malaise, are you jamaican? how did you swing living there if you're american (you seem a very engaged american)? i have been to jamaica and i loved it and i'm thinking a lot about getting away from this place. but i don't know how i'd swing it, especially making sure i had work and a place to live.

[malaise]

19. I'm Jamaican but all my siblings are American citizens

My oldest sibling was born there and the others have lived there for periods ranging from 25 - 40 years. I was there for a while back in the 'good old days'. My great aunt migrated to New York in the 1920s and my maternal grandfather studied at Howard University at the beginning of the last century.
My New York cousins from both sides are card carrying 'liberal' Democratic Party people. You'd be shocked at the names of great Dems I met at my great aunt's home.

Jamaica is not an easy place - crime is the biggest problem and we've been totally fugged by politicians on both sides with IMF policies. Most of our local industries have been destroyed; unemployment is high and I fear that the stupid special interests and politicians who thought tourism was an industry to bank on are about to be jolted into reality. Once US credit is cut, it's bye bye to the American tourists.
If you're a professional or a creative businessperson, life here isn't bad at all, although the cost of living is rising by the day.

We're both academics and US politics is one of my areas of interest. After 30 years of IMF policies, the least I can do is warn my siblings, their kids, grand kids and DUers about what lies ahead. What I am reading in IMF papers is not good news for the US.

sp.

[barbtries]

20. great story

you're such an asset to this board.

we'll see how things go, it's really all i can do. when i was in jamaica it was only for a week at a resort. it was clear that tourism was the main industry and that there was a great deal of poverty. still the jamaicans that i did meet were wonderful, as was the weather and the scenery! i also went out with a man from kingston for a short time - he talked to me about the crime there. i think the murder rate there and in los angeles, where i am from, is probably comparable.

thanks for responding! i'd be interested to hear the rest including all the names at any time in the future.

[balantz]

5. Obama supports the bailout. n/t

[onenote]

13. whenever did congress draft legislation in public?

Bills are never drafted in the light of day. Political compromises are always hammered out behind closed doors. Always have been, always will be.

Compared to the not so distant past, we have far more information, more quickly, about what Congress is doing that at any other time in history. We may not agree with or like the results of the compromises that are worked out, but we are more broadly aware of them now than ever before.

[barbtries]

18. whenever it's on cspan?

i had it on all day long yesterday. not this deal. all in the smoky back room. regardless of whether they've been doing it that way since adam and eve i don't have to like it, and i don't.

[onenote]

21. i guarantee you never saw legislation actually being drafted on CSPAN

What you see on C-SPAN is speech making and hearings, much of which is posturing. THe real work takes place behind closed doors and while it may be discussed after the fact on the floor, the deals aren't being cut live on tv.