tagged w/ Great Depression
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Economy, Money, Government, Lost, Job Lost, Depression, Recession, Great Depression, Great Depression 2, Great Depression 2, Hunger, Poverty, Work, CareersEconomy, Money, Government, Lost, Job Lost, Depression, Recession, Great Depression,... more
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Are we headed for another Great Depression? It’s a question a lot of folks are asking these days. Foreclosures are hitting record numbers, banks are failing, unemployment is on the rise, consumer spending is tanking, and the stock market is giving average Americans anxiety attacks. It sounds frighteningly reminiscent of the Great Depression, but does it really compare? The Consumer Warning Network’s Angie Moreschi takes a look at then and now. Hear what some folks who lived through it have to say and the general consensus of economists today: http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com/2008/10/31/todays-economy-the-depression-is-it-panic-time/Are we headed for another Great Depression? It’s a question a lot of folks are... more
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History shows us the time to act is now. (Works Progress Administration)
The candidates can talk all they want about putting money into alternative fuels, electric cars and high-speed rail, but none of that will mean much if our roads, bridges and rails can't support them. The next president must commit to fixing our infrastructure. Such an investment will create jobs, strengthen our economy and make America more competitive.
"Congress should invest in the more than 3000 ready-to-go highway projects that could be under contract within the next 90 days," says John Horsley, exec director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. "Funding these ready to go projects offers Congress a tremendous opportunity to create jobs & help cash strapped states repair & replace our crumbling infrastructure."
One of every four bridges in the country is structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, & updating them will cost $140 bill, according to the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials. America's drinking water infrastructure is underfunded; the Congressional Budget Office says we must invest at least $11.6 bill over the next 20 yrs. Highway congestion costs us $78 bill annually through the 4.2 bill hours and 2.9 billion gallons of gasoline we waste each year, according to the Texas Transportation Institute. The list goes on.
Of the two candidates, Obama's said the most about the issue, but not much. At the bottom of the 6th page of his economic policy paper, he calls for the creation of a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank. It would "expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments." On the face of it, that means a new chunk of money would be allocated for infrastructure projects as opposed to simply shifting cash from other projects. Obama wants to deposit $60 bill into the bank over 5 years. That's far short of the $225 bill a bipartisan transportation policy commission recommends spending each year for the next 50 yrs, but it's a start. If Obama's numbers are to be trusted, the bank would create two mill jobs and generate $35 bill in economic activity each year.
As for McCain, he hasn't said much of anything. His record so far isn't good. Among other things, he's called for a national gas tax holiday, which would save people pennies at the pump but take money away from the already strained Highway Trust Fund, which finances construction projects. Three years ago, McCain voted against the Transportation Equity Act, which provided more than $286 bill for transportation infrastructure.
Clearly America needs to invest quickly and heavily in its failing infrastructure, and, ironically, now may well be the perfect time to do so. The spiraling economy has drawn comparisons to the Great Depression. While that may be extreme, there's no doubt we're in for tough times. A national infrastructure initiative could make things a little easier.
During the Depression, Pres Roosevelt put $11.4 bill (est $175 bill today) into the Works Progress Administration.
The agency spent nearly $4 bill on highway & road projects and more than $2 billion on public buildings and utilities. All told, the WPA put 8.5 million people to work between 1935 and 1943. Together those people built 651,087 miles of roadway, built or improved 124,031 bridges, erected 125,110 public buildings and laid 853 airport runways. Not bad at a time when the unemployment approached 25 percent.
Beyond providing jobs, analysts say every $1 billion spent on transportation projects creates 35,000 jobs, a modern day WPA would produce lasting benefits. "China is spending 9 percent of its GDP on infrastructure, and we're spending something like one or two percent," says Allen D. Biehler, Pennsylvania's transportation secretary. "A sustained investment would not only create jobs that have a strong multiplier effect on the larger economy, but would prevent us from falling behind other nations."
History shows us the time to act is now. (Works Progress Administration)
The... more
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(CNN) -- Memories of salvaging and stealing to avoid going hungry are part of the legacy of the Great Depression. Some iReporters say they can't help but look at the current economy and feel the past holds lessons for the present.
Pam Van Hylckama Vlieg says her grandfather tried to steal chickens after being laid off from coal mining.
Donna LeBlanc of Waxia, Louisiana, says she carries no credit to this day as a result of the frugality and self-reliance instilled in her by her family. Her husband keeps the couple's credit card and maintains a zero balance.
The Great Depression meant scary times for many households as a period of economic downturn spread throughout the world. Historians trace its start to the "Black Tuesday" stock crash on October 29, 1929, and argue that the resulting global desperation set the stage for World War II.
LeBlanc said her grandparents were fortunate that they didn't have investments and could grow -- or catch -- their own food during the Depression years.
Her grandfather Lester was a "Cajun cowboy" often seen wearing a cowboy hat, and her grandmother Ida was a resourceful woman who spent much of the 1930s working as a store clerk. LeBlanc, always told never to keep credit card debt, heard frightful stories from Ida. iReport.com: See a photo of the happy couple together after all these years
"She remembered vividly the barrels of flour, the bolts of cloth and the hunger in the faces of people as they begged for store credit," LeBlanc said. "The store must have been at least marginally successful, because my grandmother was able to purchase, a piece at a time, a complete six-person setting of Gorham Chantilly silverware for her trousseau, linens and even a Lane cedar chest to house her treasures."
The couple would catch wild hogs, feed them corn for a year and eat them once the wild taste was out of the scavenging animals. They also took advantage of available squirrel meat, a common food in the South at that time.
"It was a uniquely disgusting thing ... to see my grandfather take a stewed, skinned squirrel's head, smack the skull's dome with a heavy silver tablespoon, and dine on the brains," LeBlanc said.
Years after the Depression, LeBlanc's grandparents were well off once again. Ida became a packrat and couldn't help saving what she could. When the family opened up the old cedar chest after she died, they found a decades-old treasure trove of sewing materials and other keepsakes. iReport.com: "My dad used to cry when he spoke of that Great Depression"
The Great Depression turned many Americans into packrats who couldn't bear to part with anything of potential value. They couldn't always afford to buy what they needed....(CNN) -- Memories of salvaging and stealing to avoid going hungry are part of the... more
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"Hearing some of the dire predictions for an economy struggling to avert a financial collapse, it's easy to recall 1930s photos of people huddled in soup lines or traveling the country for work, and wonder what a depression would look like in the modern world.
Experts say that won't happen. Yes, banks are failing and the stock market plunged Monday. And yes, there is genuine concern that, regardless of the government's $700 billion bailout proposal, the United States still could land in a severe recession.
But despite the alarms, including dire warnings from President Bush, economists insist there is no risk of a second Great Depression because, for some time now, the U.S. economy has been in the midst of a very different, less-threatening phenomenon: 'the Great Moderation.'
Coined by a Harvard economist earlier this decade, the term refers to a U.S. economy shaped by more flexibility and far less volatile swings in growth. That flexibility, fueled by everything from financial deregulation and global trade to the shift toward a service economy, will keep the nation from sinking into a depression.
'The Great Depression should not be the reference point,' said Erik Hurst, an economics professor at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
'When (Bush) says "there goes the economy," that doesn't mean one in four of us will be out of work. It means we're going to have a recession. There could be a drag on U.S. productivity for four to five years. We may get 1 ½ or two years with little or no growth,' Hurst said.
Is there any possibility of repeating a period in history when the nation's jobless rate reached 25 percent and economic output fell by one-third, as it did during the Depression?
'Zero, just zero,' said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economics professor. 'Ten percent, that could happen. If we got to 10 percent, that would be pretty spectacular for the U.S. But it would take a lot of mistakes (by Congress) for a long time . . . if Congress takes the ball and it fumbles'...
A better reference point that economists point to is the recession of the early 1980s, triggered by the Federal Reserve Board's efforts to curb runaway inflation by raising interest rates. By September 1982, the overall jobless rate reached 10.8 percent, the first time it had climbed into double digits since the Depression.
In 1982, at least one member in 8 million families was unemployed, accounting for 13 percent of all families. The housing, automobile, aircraft and steel industries all were hit. High oil prices reduced the demand for oil and gas, putting 150,000 miners out of work in a single year. Residential construction slowed because of high mortgage rates. Meanwhile, jobs in the services sector grew, but at a slower pace than previously..."
Full article at link."Hearing some of the dire predictions for an economy struggling to avert a... more
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Now whether or not we are headed for a Second Great Depression has yet to be decided by the market, however, looking to the past of what lead to the first great depression could possibly hint at out fate.
check it out at http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Timeline.htm since the info is more then 4000 charecters.Now whether or not we are headed for a Second Great Depression has yet to be decided... more
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Were you aware that you may be bailing out the dying Big 3 in Detroit?
It seems everyone is jumping on the bailout bandwagon.
I for one will not be funding this fiasco.
I have chosen to claim EXEMPT on my W4.
I have paid my taxes for fiscal '08. They will get nothing more to help fund this raping of the American public.
Click on link above for full story on Detroit's handout.
Ride a Bike.
Ride on!
Were you aware that you may be bailing out the dying Big 3 in Detroit?
It seems... more
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The events of the past few days have caused me great pause and consternation. Our nation is gripped in a financial crisis that at its worse could send us down a course that would rival the Great Depression.
And yet these days it seems we go from crisis to crisis – a war with no clear result or end, the housing and foreclosure crisis a few months ago, now we have a melt down on Wall Street.
Congress considers passing a plan to bail out an industry that should know better, an industry Congress had coddled, and will now subsidize.
Congress will then move on to the next debate – all without addressing the underlying conditions that got us here, and keep getting us here.
Why are markets failing? Why are the fundamentals of our economy not sound? Why do people feel worse today, and are more pessimistic about our future than at any other time in our history?
This is a time when Washington has lost its values----- lost its principles - lost its sense of purpose - It no longer invests in our cities, it no longer invests in our people.
Plain and simple, Washington has abandoned us.
Cuts to education, cuts to housing, health, public safety, youth programs, economic development, job training, arts, and infrastructure.
This comes at a time when people in America are suffering – when our nation needs the most.
Consider the following:
1 in every 6 children lives in poverty, with nearly half living in extreme poverty. Is poverty and economic opportunity an urban problem or an American problem?
The US economy has lost over 450,000 jobs so far this year - wages remain flat - gasoline is now over $4 a gallon - rising food prices, rising medical costs - hitting each and every one of us in the wallet.
Is our economy an urban problem or is it an American problem?
We know the answer - these are America’s problems – and yet cities have been left alone to deal with them.
Cities drive the national economy. And yet, when Mayors bring up the issues we all face – we get the same response.
We are told Mayors need to be fiscally responsible, that we need to do more with less, but there is not enough money to solve urban problems.
CDBG is funded at a little over 3.5 billion annually, and has been cut every year since I’ve been in office – We get a Water Bill passed over a veto, approximately $5 billion annually – this is what we spend on water! And remember the SCHIP crisis? How much resistance did the current administration put up to spending money to make sure uninsured children got health insurance?
And yet, this same administration proposes we spend $700 Billion to bail out Wall Street. We are supposed to entrust the bailout to the same regulators who allowed it to happen.
This isn’t monopoly money – Can any of you imagine what $700 billion dollars could do in America’s cities? Or even $350 billion?
Then we are told we MUST spend this money to save our economy, save our very way of life, but no one talks about the path that led us here. The financial crisis has been building up for some time – we know about the bad lending practices; irresponsible borrowing; irresponsible lending - No one bothered to look at underlying value until it was too late.
Meanwhile, mayors have been working on financial literacy, small business assistance, entrepreneurship, education – working with organizations like the ICIC to reinvigorate our inner cities –
We are arming people with the knowledge and tools necessary to make wise financial choices, to build credit worthiness, to accumulate wealth. And now the financial crisis may lead to a credit crisis – Whereas banks were too eager to lend, now they don’t lend at all.
It is time for Washington to end its partisan gridlock, end the pointless debates, and engage in some serious planning and leadership to address the issues we all face.
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Click the link for the rest of the post.The events of the past few days have caused me great pause and consternation. Our... more
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NEW YORK - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Wednesday that the United States could be headed for another Great Depression if Congress doesn't act on the financial crisis.
Palin made the comment in an interview with "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric while visiting New York to meet foreign leaders for the first time in her political career. As Palin sought to establish her credentials in world affairs, first lady Laura Bush said Palin lacked sufficient foreign policy experience but was "a quick study."
Recent surveys have shown that Palin's popularity, while still strong, has begun to fade.
Earlier this month, an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll showed more people viewing Palin favorably than unfavorably, 47 percent to 28 percent. But an ABC News-Washington Post poll released Wednesday showed that in a two-week period, the number seeing Palin positively dropped 6 percentage points while 10 points more see her unfavorably. On Monday, a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll said her favorable rating dropped 4 points and her unfavorable rating rose 8 points over two weeks.
Palin has been in New York this week for a series of meetings with foreign leaders, part of an effort by Republican John McCain's presidential campaign to counter criticism that the former small-town mayor lacks the experience to be vice president, let alone president in an emergency.
The CBS interview was just her third major interview in nearly four weeks on the GOP presidential ticket. Asked whether there's a risk of another Great Depression if Congress doesn't approve a $700 billion bailout package, Palin said, "Unfortunately, that is the road that America may find itself on."
Palin said the answer to the financial crisis doesn't necessarily have to be the bailout plan the Bush administration has proposed, but that it should be some form of bipartisan action to reform Wall Street.
NEW YORK - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Wednesday that the... more
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You've seen the clip over and over and over again; McCain stating that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" in the face of the largest economic disaster since the Great Depression.
Not that he knows what those fundamentals are; he has stated in the past, on the record, that he has "a lot to learn about the economy."
Since then, he's had to backpedal, revise, and make stuff up in order to try and save face. By "fundamentals" he meant "American workers." In that interview when he said he didn't know about the economy, what he really meant was that he knew so much about National Security, that it was like he didn't know much about, that is to say, of course he knows about the economy, he just, as a former prisoner of war, is well-versed in National Security issues.
In the last few months, McCain can barely open his mouth without inserting his foot into it. And that might be overlooked if he didn't insist that what appears to be foot is something else entirely.
I find McCain a worse choice when I remember that this isn't the FIRST time there's been a huge economic failure during a Republican administration and McCain made bad choices. Remember the Savings and Loan Crisis from twenty years ago? More to the point, do you remember Charles Keating and the five senators who tried to interfere with what little regulation there was ?
One of "the Keating five" was Senator John McCain. While McCain was cleared of corruption charges and found to have not violated any laws, he was chastised by the Ethics Committee for his extremely poor judgement. He would later write that his involvment was "the worst mistake of my life."
He made a bad choice, and had to explain it away later.
Sound familiar?You've seen the clip over and over and over again; McCain stating that "the... more
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Bill Moyers interviews former Nixon White House strategist and political and economic critic Kevin Phillips, who gives a ground-level perspective on the mess we're in the middle of. Phillips rips into Bush, shakes his head at Greenspan and doesn't give the democrats much in the way of props either.
Though I am no finance major, this was a fascinating, frank and somewhat frightening discussion.Bill Moyers interviews former Nixon White House strategist and political and economic... more
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Federal regulators have shut down Ameribank, a small bank in West Virginia, saying it overextended loans for the rehabilitation of distressed properties.
It was the 12th failure this year of a federally insured bank.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has been appointed receiver of the bank, based in Northfork, W.Va. It had $115 million in assets and $102 million in deposits as of June 30.
The FDIC said Friday the bank's insured deposits will be assumed by Pioneer Community Bank Inc. of Iaeger, W.Va., and Citizens Savings Bank in Martins Ferry, Ohio.
Its branches in West Virginia will reopen Monday as offices of Pioneer Community Bank and its Ohio branches will reopen Sunday as offices of Citizens Savings
Ameribank ran into trouble because of "excessive growth" in the construction loans for property rehabilitation, mainly in low- and moderate-income housing markets, according to the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, the bank's primary regulator.
The April-June quarter marked the fourth consecutive quarter of net losses and capital erosion for Ameribank, the thrift agency said in a news release. The agency deemed the bank to be "critically undercapitalized" and found it was unable to develop a viable plan to restore capital to an adequate level.
The regulators tagged Ameribank as a troubled institution in May 2007 and issued a formal enforcement order to the bank in October, saying it had failed to comply with their earlier directives.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-09-19-ameribank-closure_N.htm Federal regulators have shut down Ameribank, a small bank in West Virginia, saying it... more
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Is Morgan Stanley next? What happens after the collapse of the largest US investment firms?Is Morgan Stanley next? What happens after the collapse of the largest US investment... more
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As the government contemplates how slow the collapse of Wall Street, the Great American Screw increases at the pump.
Good luck my fellow citizens.
Ride on!
ABC NEWS-
The price of crude oil dropped below $100 a barrel today, settling at $95.71. While the price of crude is falling back to Earth from record heights of more than $147 in July, the cost of gasoline, after falling slightly, spiked over the weekend due to Hurricane Ike.
In Chicago today, gas prices reached $4.45 a gallon, while prices in Charleston, S.C., climbed up to $4.59. According to the American Automobile Association, the national average price of regular gas came to $3.84 per gallon.
"We've seen the price of gasoline jump 17 cents over the last three days," said Troy Green, manager at AAA. "This is the most gasoline has skyrocketed at one time since 2005, after Hurricane Katrina."
At one gas station in Houston today, the line of cars stretched almost a mile down the service road of I-45; people waited for more than four hours to fill up their tanks.
As the government contemplates how slow the collapse of Wall Street, the Great... more
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The collapse is being televised-
Global investment bank Lehman Brothers is teetering on the verge of collapse after Barclays pulled out of an 11th-hour rescue.
Lehman Brothers HQ in New York
The departure of Barclays left US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, spearheading desperate last-ditch attempts to put in place some form of a workable rescue package.
Traders fear that the collapse of Lehman would send shockwaves around the world and spark a global sell-off of shares.
Lehman which employs 4,000 staff in London and 24,00 around the world, could be placed into liquidation as soon as Monday. The bank would be the single largest casualty of the current credit crisis and its collapse one of the biggest failures in Wall Street history
Read full article at link-The collapse is being televised-
Global investment bank Lehman Brothers is... more
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One question swirling over the weekend-long effort to rescue Lehman Brothers: What's to become of its $128 billion in long-term debt?
Great question.
Get ready to foot the bill.
Good luck all.
Ride on!
Read full article at link-One question swirling over the weekend-long effort to rescue Lehman Brothers:... more
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Get ready to ride the wave!
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street prepared for a potential Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bankruptcy after Barclays Plc said it pulled out of talks to buy the firm and the government indicated it wouldn't provide funds in a resolution.
Banks and brokers today held a session for netting derivatives transactions with Lehman, or canceling trades that offset each other, in case the New York-based firm files for bankruptcy before midnight New York time.
``The purpose of this session is to reduce risk associated with a potential Lehman Brothers Inc. bankruptcy filing,'' the International Swaps and Derivatives Association said in a statement today. The ISDA includes 218 banks, brokerages, insurance companies and other financial institutions from the U.S. and abroad.
The step indicates that Wall Street lacks confidence that three days of talks to find a buyer for Lehman, held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will be successful. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who has led the talks with New York Fed President Timothy Geithner, was adamant two days ago against using taxpayer funds in a resolution.
The fourth-largest securities firm until the past week, Lehman has thousands of such trades in credit, equity, commodity, interest rates and currency derivatives.
``ISDA confirms a netting trading session will take place between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. New York time for over-the-counter derivatives,'' the ISDA said. ``Trades are contingent on a bankruptcy filing at or before 11:59 p.m. New York time, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008. If there is no filing, the trades cease to exist.''
The announcement came after Barclays, the U.K.'s third- biggest bank, said it abandoned talks to buy Lehman, contending it couldn't obtain guarantees to protect against potential losses at the U.S. securities firmGet ready to ride the wave!
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street prepared for a... more
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US taxpayers could be on the hook for as much as $24 billion to rescue embattled Washington Mutual, the country's No. 1 savings and loan, a top banking analyst is warning.
The jaw-dropping tab would come in the form of federal mortgage loss guarantees needed to coax a buyer into purchasing WaMu, according to Landeburg Thalmann's Dick Bove, whose view on the need for a federal backstop is shared by an official with the Office of Thrift Supervision, WaMu's regulator.
Bove, in an exclusive interview with The Post, said the crushing $32.5 billion in mortgage defaults he is estimating WaMu will face over the next five quarters will force the federal government to guarantee as much as $24 billion in losses on defaulted option-ARM and subprime mortgages and home-equity lines of credit, or HELOCs.
After crunching numbers on WaMu's balance sheet, Bove said a sale price for the Seattle-based bank could be in the neighborhood of $2 a share. The possibility that WaMu will be sold, he said, increased recently.
"Killinger was fighting to shrink the balance sheet and keep the bank independent," Bove told The Post. "By adding Fishman, who's known as a guy who can get a bank ready for a sale, they removed an important obstacle."
Bove was referring to the ouster last week of Kerry Killinger, the longtime WaMu CEO, who had steadfastly balked at selling the thrift. Alan Fishman, the new CEO, was in charge of Independence Savings Bank when it was sold to Sovereign in 2006.
I know your probably tired of all of my doom and gloom posts but I'm trying to prove my point : we are in DEEP kimshee!!
US taxpayers could be on the hook for as much as $24 billion to rescue embattled... more
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This website was sent to me by my representative (R) Geoff Davis KY 4th district. He will go back to Washington August 13, to call the Dems back into session to grandstand for offshore drilling. Davis has voted to adjourn congress 11 times in the last 90 days. He has voted against the clean water protection act and wishes to hand out 3 billion of your tax dollars to the coal industry. He has towed the party line 99% of the vote in congress, and his minions are always sculking about the local school districts finding new area's in which to cut funding. He has voted against renewable energy, price gougeing initiatives, windfall profit taxes, and against the "use it or lose it " bill that would require oil companies to drill on the existing 68 million acre leases they already hold. This man voted against interest rate caps and later started his own micro-finance company that charges 50% to 130% interest on loans. Geoff Davis also supports an additional $3 billion of YOUR tax money paying for coal to liquid energy refineries. These refineries not only increase mountaintop removal but also require vast expanses of forest to be burned with coal in order to produce the gas needed to convert to liquid energy.
These are the phone numbers to both his district and Washington offices. Please help stop this.I will post the numbers to my local newspaper and TV affilliates tomorrow as I don't have them handy.
PLEASE, help us and thank you.
Geoff Davis (202)225-3465
district office (859)426-0080
Support for Nancy Pelosi blocking this catostrophic bill at (202)225-0100 or (202)225-4965This website was sent to me by my representative (R) Geoff Davis KY 4th district. He... more
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For anyone out there not familiar with Greg Palast, he represents what the investigative reporter used to be and should be. This man is feared by right wing politicians, bankers, oil companies, pharmaceutical co.'s, and anyone else living outside the law. Funny how all his awards for journalism can't get him even mentioned in the US media. He has offered countless stories to our mainstream media and they are always catagorically declined. Not for the lack of factual information but for the inclusion of it. The only way we can be decieved is through misinformation and lies, and the corporate media is drowning in it. It is a sad day for democracy when an american journalist is blacklisted for telling truth to power.
"Oh the times ,they are a changin."For anyone out there not familiar with Greg Palast, he represents what the... more
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