patrick.net

U.S. aid to Israel and Egypt tends to run about $4.5 billion. Not cheap: .04% of GDP. Oil imports were running 2% of GDP back in 2004, when oil was at $60/barrel. Ballpark figures.

Relatively small fluctuations in oil prices cost us far more than our entire foreign aid budget. Oil prices respond immediately to political instability in the Middle East. See Libya. The OPEC oil embargo was directly related to the Yom Kippur war.

You can argue that washing our hands of Israel would also lead, eventually, to more stability. I wouldn't disagree with that. Walking away would be tantamount to condoning ... well ... whatever Israel's neighbors decided to do with Israel.

Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

So do you have children Shrek? Teaching them to shoot at pictures of the President?

And Kucinich and Paul both have the same chance of being president: ZERO.

Reminds me of this:

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/004171.html

I guess realtors ruin people's lives in multiple ways.

You're right. The military aid roughly doubles the numbers. Same ballpark. Point stands.

On the strategic front: you did not mention Iran, with its close ties to Hezbollah, Hamas, and Syria and history of arming them. Many analysts view Hezbollah in particular as an Iranian proxy-asset. Good relations with Egypt are far from guaranteed, going forward: Israel isn't terribly popular in that future-democracy.

It's not hard to imagine a Hamas uprising and/or Hezbollah raids (acting as a proxy for Iran) escalating into a regional war with Egypt and Syria as early as next year. Perhaps unlikely; but, certainly: the weaker Israel is, the more likely such things become.

thunderlips11 says

It’s legal to buy Gold in China again, and man are they buying

I don't know about now.

20 years ago, if you buy gold. Then try to resell it back. The bank will tell you it is fake.

I'll double down on that right on.

And HW, it is a LONG way 'till November 2012...

While we're talking about cutting aid to Israel, we should stop proping up the Saudi Royal Family, cut off aid to Egypt, cut off any aid we send to the Palestinians, stop sending aid to Jordan, get out of Iraq, etc., etc., etc...

The folks who are anti-Israel tend to ignore all the billions we give to Arab governments and to Arab peoples to manipulate the entire region.

Arabs tend to forget about the billions the US sends to them.

If we can get the Europeans and the Russians to stop sending aid to Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt while the US stops sending any aid to Israel or any Arab entity, the region would be less militarized because there would be much less money going around to buy weapons in all countries in the Middle East.

If the entire West plus Russia stopped treating the region as colonies and protectorates, all peoples there would become much more willing to negotiate with each other instead of using foreign aid to threaten each other.

Arab countries and Israel would find their own balance if all aid was cut off to the entire region. All of them would suddenly realize that cooperation and mutual dependence would bring not just peace but prosperity.

Those who believe that Israel is hated by the common Egyptian must not know any Egyptians and have never been to Egypt. This Jew has been to Egypt and knows many Egyptians. The average Egyptian wants a secular domestic government that doesn't get them into dangerous and expensive conflicts with neighbors over religious ideology. They don't love Israel but they also don't hate Israel either. They do resent foreign intrusion and manipulation in their domestic affairs and in the affairs of the Middle East.

We'll see what happens in Egyptian elections this year. I think many who don't know Egyptians will be very surprised to see the results if the elections are run legitimately.

An Article on Gold from China - translated by Google - the article makes the claim that the Government sees Gold as an Investment to funnel new Capital away from necessities of life and reduce the inflation effects of economic growth in China:

中国的黄金热和美元的失去未来
"The Chinese government changed its policy

For a long time, the Chinese government does not allow too many people buy gold. But it also changed. Now the Chinese Government to encourage people to buy gold. China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan recently talked about the gold market in Shanghai, the three trends. One trend is that the gold will be more into private hands. The background behind this idea is developed in China's capital market, millions of dollars, rich in recent decades the Chinese people do not know how their financial management. Many people now buy property, leading to skyrocketing real estate prices.

Now, all have entered the Chinese market, speculative areas, including raw materials, and even food, prices have risen a lot. China's inflation reached a new high of two years. The gold to absorb funds. People can put money into the precious metal itself useless to go, and will not lead to the continuation of raw materials and food prices skyrocketing, so that industry and the people suffer."

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw-world.de%2Fdw%2Farticle%2F0%2C%2C14741339%2C00.html

When the government encourages people to do something, it is usually an indication the top.

I still remember George Bush wants to use Social Security fund to buy stock.

The US Government started getting really in encouraging the US Citizens to buy Real Estate, especially the less wealthy, in the early 1990s.

who knows when this bull market ends, but I think your government indicator lesson isn't very accurate.

On the other hand, the Republicans won the same seat with 73% of the vote just a few months ago running against (mostly illusionary) tax hikes and deficit spending. There is a lot to dislike in Ryan's plan, but at least its coherent and outlines what would be necessary to achieve low taxes and high military budget that are Republican priorities. I fear that our political system isn't going to bring us to an understanding that the things we think we want (very low taxes, Social Security and Medicare at near-current levels, a world-dominating military, and a balanced budget) are incompatible. Instead we'll just have more wave elections from one side to the other.

Ah, sweet:

Beat GOP nominee Jane Corwin, 48 percent to 42 percent. Tea party candidate Jack Davis took 8 percent of the vote.

Man I love the Tea Party. Maybe it's not a GOP astroturfing but a deep-cover Democrat Party instigation.

Wow, she didn't get over 50% of the vote. Most of the news stories leave that out...

"As opposed to the non-existent Dem alternative?"

Obama has released a budget. You really have a bad habit of spreading misinformation.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Overview/

ObamaCare did not cut funding from Medicare. It cut from Medicare Advantage, which is Medicare in name only. It is made up of private insurers.

And if the Obama budget is not enough, there is also the Progressive Caucus Budget. So that is 2 Democratic budgets versus 1 Republican budget.

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=70

Nate Silver has a good analysis. The Tea Party candidate in this race has a history of running as a Democrat, and about a third of his support came from liberals. There was also a Green candidate who got one percent. So it's unlikely this race was actually spoiled. Pretty stunning victory for a race where the Republicans would normally expect to win by 12 points in a neutral political environment with evenly matched candidates.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/six-months-after-midterm-disaster-hopeful-signs-for-democrats/

It's a shame that you can't touch health care in this country without the electorate taking you out to the woodshed and beating you senseless. But turnabout is fair play, I suppose.

Two hundred and thirty five members of the House voted for Ryan's bill. You can bet the Democrats are going to hammer them for their support just as mercilessly. The Senate is going to vote on it, too.

Porposing the Medicare voucher plan in the first place was a dumb idea. The Republicans knew full well that it would NEVER get 60 votes in the Senate or be signed into law by Obama.

And it is only going to get worse for the Republicans once Harry Reaid forces the Senate Republicans to vote on the Ryan budget. Scott Brown is running as fast as he can away from it, probably because he is afraid of Elizabeth Warren beating him next year and using his Medicare vote against him.

HousingWatcher says

It cut from Medicare Advantage, which is Medicare in name only. It is made up of private insurers.

ie Medicare Part C, the GOP's gift to the insurance industry when they were in the majority, 1995-2006.

Msilenus writes and says "Two hundred and thirty five members of the House voted for Ryan’s bill. You can bet the Democrats are going to hammer them for their support just as mercilessly. The Senate is going to vote on it, too."

Agreed. Here's what they didn't vote for: They didn't vote to end tax loopholes for corporations. They didn't vote to raise taxes on the rich. They didn't vote to close the tax loopholes which make the rich richer.

The Congressional Budget Office long ago said that after four years of surpluses under Clinton the deficit would be repaid by now. Then came Bush, two wars, $4.35 trillion in new deficits and lower taxes for the rich.

The real point is to hobble the government by talking about spending but not talking about taxes.

Obama or some other politician needs to come 100% clean and explain to Americans where we are and what has to be done.
I still believe the Gang of Six (err, Five) is our best hope; there are still adults in the Senate. If they ever put out a plan, it will be interesting to see if folks in Congress have the guts to vote for it.

And when the Republicans passed Part D, aka the prescription drug plan, they passed it knowing full well tha it contained a doughnut hole that woudl make it hard for peopel to afford drugs on it.

Bill Clinton responds:

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Bill Clinton had a word of warning on Wednesday for fellow Democrats: Don't get too cocky about voters' rejection of Paul Ryan's Medicare plan.

In a special election for a vacant House seat on Tuesday, a Democrat candidate upset a Republican in a GOP-stronghold in upstate New York.

The race was widely seen as a proxy on Ryan's controversial Republican proposal plan to convert Medicare into a voucher program.

Clinton, speaking at a fiscal summit sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, said the race showed that voters don't like the Republican plan. But he also told Democrats not to shy away from tackling entitlement programs.

"You shouldn't look at the New York race and think that nobody can do anything to slow Medicare costs," Clinton said.

House budget chief Ryan's proposal would convert Medicare -- the health care program for seniors -- into a voucher program in 2022. Seniors would choose from a Medicare-approved list of private insurance plans. Wealthier seniors would pay more and poorer seniors would get federal subsidies.

Debt ceiling vote will be meaningless

Ryan, who spoke after Clinton at the summit, wasn't asked directly about the New York race. But he did accuse Democrats of trying to use Medicare to scare seniors.

"Democrats are shamelessly demagoging and distorting this," Ryan said. "Trying to scare seniors and (making) these things as political weapons creates political paralysis," he said.

Clinton also weighed in on the most pressing fiscal issue facing policymakers: the debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said the ceiling, a cap on total federal government debt, must be raised by Aug. 2 to prevent the country from defaulting on its bonds.

The former president said President Obama should consider giving a national address to educate American voters about the consequences of a failure to raise it in time.

"They never lived through it; nobody knows what will happen," Clinton said. Clinton warned that political leaders "can't be paralyzed," and that they must find a bipartisan way to raise the debt limit, even if it's unpopular.

"A lot of the most important things I did were unpopular," Clinton said.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/25/news/economy/bill_clinton/?section=money_latest

Troy says

ie Medicare Part C, the GOP’s gift to the insurance industry when they were in the majority, 1995-2006.

Just to be confusing, my grandmother said she loves medicare - she has medicare advantage and didn't even know it. Now, she has never been the brightest bulb on the bush but I don't think most senior citizens know the difference.

thunderlips11 says

And for the record, most anti-West, anti-Israel terrorism is committed by Sunni Groups, and backed by Saudi Arabians.

Everyone keeps forgetting Saudi Arabia has been the largest source of money for terrorism for at least 25 years. With friends like these.

In fairness, Coburn has at least been willing to take on some special interests, such as ethanol producers.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0524/Taxes-are-off-the-table-GOP-family-feud-over-what-that-means-exactly

Easy for Coburn to oppose ethanol subsidies when his state does not exactly produce ethanol. Where did he vote on oil subsidies? Isn't Oklahoma a major oil producer? So let's see where Coburn stands on oil subsidies, which unlike ehtanol subsidies, affect his state:

Dr. Coburn Calls Big Oil Hearing Unserious and Partisan

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=26c685dd-f28b-4fa8-a304-9322d9164242

In other words, he supports oil subsidies

Housing --

Agreed. But it's a start....

tohit76 flagged this data by Patrick as incorrect:

As of date = 2011-05-22

Apartment number

2 bedrooms

0 bathrooms

Type is SFH

Monthly home owner association fee (HOA) is $0

Square feet is

Estimated rent is $1130

Asking price is $63000

tohit76, please say what part of that data is incorrect.

Patrick, please say why you think that the data is correct.

Troy says

Tea party candidate Jack Davis took 8 percent of the vote.
Man I love the Tea Party. Maybe it’s not a GOP astroturfing but a deep-cover Democrat Party instigation.

Yes, and in this particular case, it was. A Democrat running as Tea Party candidate took 8%. The majority of those votes would have likely gone to the Republican.

What a great flanking approach: Simultaneously attack the Republican position with whatever hyperbole one can (no real criticism here - politics is politics), along with putting up a shill candidate to siphon votes! That's the spirit!

Even if the Tea Party guy did not run, the Republican would have still lost.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/six-months-after-midterm-disaster-hopeful-signs-for-democrats/

Most Americans are Socialists and don't realize it. The Tea Party is made up primarily of Socialists.

Chris, you do know that you are a Socialist, right? That's right, you, like everyone else in America, are a Socialist. But don't worry, therer is hope. You can take the Anti Socialism Pledge:

pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life. I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following:

Social Security

Medicare/Medicaid

State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP)

Police, Fire, and Emergency Services

US Postal Service

Roads and Highways

Air Travel (regulated by the socialist FAA)

The US Railway System

Public Subways and Metro Systems

Public Bus and Lightrail Systems

Rest Areas on Highways

Sidewalks

Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet, shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, outdoor hose!)

Public and State Universities and Colleges

Public Primary and Secondary Schools

Sesame Street

Publicly Funded Anti-Drug Use Education for Children

Public Museums

Libraries

Public Parksand Beaches

State and National Parks

Public Zoos

Unemployment Insurance

Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services

Treatment at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, Stateor Federal Government (pretty much all of them)

Medical Services and Medications That Were Created or Derived From Any Government Grant or Research Funding (again, pretty much all of them)

Socialist Byproducts of Government Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions)

Use of the Internets, email, and networked computers, as the DoD's ARPANET was the basis for subsequent computer networking

Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown With Government Subsidies

Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. cotton) That Were Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies

If a veteran of the government-run socialist US military, I will forego my VA benefits and insist on paying for my own medical care

I will not tour socialist government buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of the following types of socialist

locations, including but not limited to:

Smithsonian Museums such as the Air and Space Museum or Museum of American History

The socialist Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments

The government-operated Statue of Liberty

The Grand Canyon

The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials

The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as Arlington National Cemetery

will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist military of the United States of America.

I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana, FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army.

Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist Social Security checks.

Upon reaching age 65, I will forego Medicare and pay for my own private health insurance until I die.

To whom do they owe the money? Windex?

FN/FR have to go. It is a giant ponzi scheme designed to benefit the wealthy bankers and builders while screwing the poor and the middle class in the process.

bgamall4 says

NAHB is joining Wells Fargo, the IMF, Bernanke, and NAR

Talk about an axis of evil. Can the Justice League even stand a chance against that magnitude of suckage?

But it's a great time to buy. That's what my Realtor says.