I have a huge amount of repect for vdh, but his piling on the financial industry in this current catastophe is off-base.

Yes, they did not cover themselves with honor…but the clear perpetrator of the greatest financial catastrophe of all time is Big Government.

The Mortgage industry businesses did not wake up one morning in the late 90’s, take stupid pills in concert, and decide to make 2% loans to ex-cons with 500 credit scores.

The government forced it, pure and simple.

No individual business could wreck the havoc that central government can wreck. Check with Soviet Russia and China from the 50’s to the 80’s for confirmation.

And the recent huge market losses result from Soros and other speculators (probably including foreign powers) driving the equity markets down to get Obama elected. The Sept/Oct drop in the Dow is the largest on record, including 1932, for an election year. It is not due to normal market fluctuations. There were no economic indicators that merited such a drop. Unemployment was ok, cpi was ok, PE ratios were ok, personal income was ok, consumer spending was ok, etc., etc., etc.

And the unprecedented drop in gasoline prices has also been manipulation to get Obama elected. There was never anything remotely like it before, ever.

The data points about the huge drops in market equities and gas are facts, not speculation.

Mr. Hanson is wrong to pin this all on greedy executives. The financial industry did not perform well, but the massive problems the country now faces are due to your government’s foolish risk-taking and the left’s scorched earth effort to get Obama elected. Period.

Church and Synagogue attendence on the weekend following 9-11 was possibly the highest in history and certainly the highest in recent years. I’d venture to say that nearly every reader of this column was in church or synagogue that weekend.

Where was Senator Obama on September 16, 2001? And where were his wife and kids?

Are they watching the polls and gloating? Have they resigned themselves to being bested logically here and dropped out?

We must dig deep and give money to McCain. It’s the only thing we can do.

Mr. Berg was on Savage last night with his law suit. But Little Green Footballs wants no part of it. #37 Charles is right. Why won’t Obama just show it? It’s like Kerry. He only shows the ‘Discharge’ that Carter issued to draft dodgers and deserters. He won’t open up the form 180 for a reason.

They’re both hiding the obvious. Or is there something else we don’t know?

However, I think you overgeneralized. There still exist a few companies that understand customer service. For example, I have automatic credit card payments with some businesses. A few of them sent reminders that my credit card expiration date was two months away, and that I should call or use a special form on their secure web site to update the card. On another recent occasion, the automatic full payment option (set up at my bank) on my American Express Card failed. Though American Express was not at fault, they immediately reversed the late payment penalty and the interest charge, and they offered to set up the automatic payment system themselves.

Customer tolerance of poor service explains its high prevalence. Too few of us stop doing business with companies that treat us badly. My relatives and friends think I’m crazy for changing banks, credit cards, e-mail providers, plumbers, etc. after repeated episodes of poor service. I think they’re crazy for not doing so themselves. That’s the only effective way to send a message that quality counts.

Its got the point now where people are saying obama is bringing in 200k pre hour. he could make this story go away for $15 by producing a birth certificate. but instead his lawyers have become squirmy about it.

Some time ago, AmEx had a campaign on TV led by the late Carl Maulden. He encouraged travellers to keep one traveller’s check in his wallet after coming back home. They made a fortune on interest from that campaign.

People talk about Obama and Marxism and Socialism referring only to economics. What nobody talks about is the most prominent facet of those ideologies. That is, eliminating the opposition. Imagine the type of behavior that tried to silence Mr. Kurtz and Mr. Freddoso on WGN having federal sanction.

Some may laugh, but I fear for Right Wing commentators. If Obama’s biggest criteria is loyalty, who will he appoint to head the IRS and the FBI? The FCC?

It ain’t over ’til we vote.

If Obama wins, just remember that the MSM stole this election for him. Personally, I’ll never trust their opinion or analysis again, on any subject.

And if Obama loses, it should be seen as the American public acknowledging the fact that the media failed to vet this candidate adequately. These are trying times indeed to select a leader we know so little about.

FM