...America

Rocks. Unless you have been living under one for the past 28 hours then you already know that America's credit rating has been dropped by Standard & Poor's from AAA to AA+ for the 1st time in U.S. history. Though no one knows what this means for sure for America's short term future, because the markets have yet to dictate that, so far I have heard nothing too good. I find it horrible that we must wait for the markets around the world and here in NYC to dictate the nation's future. I understand how it works, 75% anyway, and I do not like it. Most say that eventually this will impact all of us who need to take out a loan for a home, car, business, etc. In normal times, in another country, a downgrade in a country's sovereign debt rating probably would force its government to pay higher interest rates to convince investors to keep buying its debt. Standard & Poor's reasoning for doing this is because they feel that the bill that was passed by congress to cut $2 trillion worth of spending over 10 years is not enough. They were looking for a minimum of $4 trillion, and they warned the government about that. Also they feel as if the political climate in D.C. is too unstable to be a safe enough bet right now. Still U.S. debt is special. Treasury debt is considered the safest investment in the world. Even after the downgrade. Investors don't doubt the U.S. government's ability to repay the $9.8 trillion it owes. So what does China think? Well they said, "The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone." Other nations are also concerned about what this will mean for their economic situations as well. There will most likely be a special meeting among the G8 nations to talk about how to fix this issue. Honestly there is nothing that can be done int he near future. There needs to be massive cuts across the board and people will just have to be pissed off about it. New leaders will need to be selected to run certain departments in our nation before it is too late, though the S&P has already warned that we can be further downgraded in6-24 months. The "bright side" of this is that they are the only agency to downgrade us and they also gave AAA ratings to a lot of home loan agencies, and we all saw what that did to the economy. Still things need to change. Politics need to be put aside and major moves nee to be made. I doubt this will happen so I plan on converting all of my assets into cash, because eventually even gold will fall. And if you are wondering, it takes about 9-18 years for most countries to regain a AAA rating after dropping to an AA+ rating, and it has only happened 4 times. I am giving America 2 Digits Down for letting things get this bad.

...Jared Lee Loughner

Jared Lee Loughner, age 22. Who is he? No one really knows. He was arrested a day before his 19th birthday in 2007 for drug paraphernalia, he also has 2 other minor infractions. He tried to join the U.S. Army in 2008, but he was denied. January 8, 2011 he killed 6 people including a 9 year-old girl and injured 13 including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords(D). All day there were conflicting reports. Was she dead... Was she alive... Many publications posted online that she had died, we all thought she had died. Hours later a doctor set the record straight by letting us know she was alive and that she was out of surgery and while she was in very critical condition, he was optimistic. Jared basically tried to assassinate her. He shot her point blank in the head and then unload his semi-automatic gun into the crowd. He killed 8 people, a child, a judge, staff members on Congresswoman Giffords. Some say that he planned to kill himself, he maybe even had a suicide note on him, but 2 people tackled him and thwarted that plan. The Congresswoman received death threats last years after voting in favor of the Health Care Bill. Her offices in Arizona were shot at as well. She was re-elected in a tough campaign, in a state like Arizona that leans Right she managed to win. She is well liked and respected on both sides of the isle so it is still shocking that someone would want to do this to her. Jared did not just come up with this attack out of nowhere, he planned this, he knew what he was going to do. Police think that he had an accomplice, but he is not cooperating at all. From his postings on YouTube and other social sites you can obviously tell he has some mental issues, which is a shame. He will probably get off on a legal technicality, that legal technicality being insanity. I also find it a little sad that a guy with his mental issues and his criminal past was able to get a gun within days of this shooting. I know Arizona is a Red state and I know every state has its own requirements, but maybe more should be done. I like guns, I know why people like them as well and I am all for people having them, but the people that are responsible and reasonable do not do things like this with their guns and we need to weed out the good from the bad before they ruin it for everyone. Jared is going to get punishment. If not justice will not be served at all whatsoever. I am giving Jared Lee Loughner 2 Digits Down.

...Congress

Wow Congress, House and Senate, actually passed something that did not fully directly benefit them for the first time in a long time. Don't Ask, Don't Tell was repealed and it will be singed into law by President Obama soon, very soon. It is a win for the Democrats mainly, since this is something that Obama wanted removed and a lot of Republicans did not want to talk about it. I really do not care really, it is gone and that is all that really matters. After 17 years and thousands, 13,500 to be exact, of gay and lesbian service members discharged the ban has been lifted. I do wonder now if those discharged members will be pardoned or be allowed to receive benefits that their other service members receive, it is not totally fair that they were dismissed. Actually after reading that I thin they are just out of luck, like when an old law gets dismissed, it may have been unfair at the time, but it was the law and you just have to live with it. Maybe if they ask for a pardon... That is too much to think about now. Everyone willing to serve should be allowed, gay, straight, bi, other. Now America will join the other 25 countries that allow gays to openly serve in their armed services. I must say though that just because gays are now allowed to be open,that does not mean their has to be a parade to show your ride, just celebrate and carry on :-) The President now has to deal with gay marriage, the gays will be after him on that one pretty hard. He has 2 years to dodge it, 6 if he is lucky.

Congress is getting a Digit Up tonight for doing something right, finally.

...House Democrats

Somehow Nancy Pelosi is still in power, this time as Minority Leader for the Democrats in the House with a 150-46 vote. I know she has some sort of power and control over those around her, but this was just a bad move. I do believe that when the Republicans gained control of the House it was a good move, sort of, and that they would be able to sit down with the President and force him to compromise and they would be able to argue but eventually work out deals. Now with Nancy back no one is going to do anything. This is what Nancy wanted. It will get Obama re-elected because they will be able to blame the Republicans for blocking everything the President wanted to pass, but the real culprit will be Nancy. Just look at this remark she gave reporters after she was elected Let me put that in perspective. How would your ratings be if $75 million were spent against you?" she said, referring to the television ad campaigns of Republican candidates and allied groups. "Because I'm an effective leader, because we got the job done on healthcare and Wall Street reform and consumer protections, the list goes on. Because they know that I’m the person who can attract the resources, both intellectual and otherwise, to take us to victory because I have done it before." For some reason I have just never been a fan of hers. She seems to have some sort of alteior motive that no one but Nancy knows. I am not ready to see what sort of mayhem lies ahead for the new Congress next year. I must give this move 2 Digits Down.

...Elections

So I am watching these elections tonight and it seems as if the Republicans gain control of the House, by Nancy, and the Democrats retain a slight control over the Senate, oh boy. Who really wins? I thought that if the Republicans were to gain control of the House and Senate that the President would really win. The economy is not expected to get better until around 2014, so he could place all of the blame on the Republicans because they would be in control off the laws that would get passed and whomever ran against him would come from the Senate most likely, maybe a Governor. So Now I am here watching closely and wondering did America lose? We are going to have a Senate that will be stalled on all things minus patriotic anti terrorist, pro self raises, pro armed forces anything. We are about to have 6 years of nothingness, at least 2. What will happen? Nothing will change except the majority and their ideology. Can they actually come together and work with one another to solve our nation's problems? Not at all! It just will not work! It needs to work here and now more than ever but it just will not. I do not know how to feel at all about this. I will wish for the best, expect the worst, and hope that it does not happen. I can not give this a Digit Up or Down for now, I will put it on hold until I see results, real results, not just results on paper.

...Health Care Waivers

Here we go again The controversial health care plan that had all of America abuzz is doing it again. With almost 1 million employees about to lose their health care coverage, 30 companies we given waivers. The waivers were given in order to make sure that they employees did not lose their coverage, because their employer threatened to drop them, and to make sure that they did not have to pay high premiums out of their own pocket. Some of the companies that received these waivers were: McDonald's, Jack in the Box, Aetna and Cigna. The law says that employers and their insurer have to offer an annual coverage limit of least $750,000 by 2011, $1.25 million by 2012 and to $2 million by 2013. McDonald's had this to say, "We remain in conversations with our current provider and are confident that we'll continue to provide health care coverage for our 30,000 hourly restaurant employees. We're pleased and encouraged by the progress that's been made by the Federal government on this issue." Since the law does not take effect until 2014 the companies can apply for these waivers until then, which Cigna said it plans to do. I think this is just perfect. Eventually these companies will have to pay out huge sums of money annually for health care and somehow it will be paid for by the customer. I assume these companies think that the law will be tweaked by the new Congress and Senate that is about to come into term, which is probably true. Many economist and business majors told the President and those in Congress that this could happen, but they did not care! They did exactly what they wanted to do and that crappy bill became a crappy law. I am giving these waivers a Digit Down.