This just In

MSM figures out what I said a week ago. OK, so maybe others have said it too. But come on, it's been a few weeks since the Jorge W. checks were announced. And just now the MSM thinks illegals may get checks too? Boy you guys is slow on the uptake.

In their bipartisan zeal to quickly cut a deal on an economic stimulus bill, GOP lawmakers overlooked something that will certainly inflame the conservative base _ illegal immigrants could receive a tax rebate check from the government.

But late Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee was scrambling to fix the problem _ contained in the House bill _ by only allowing taxpayers using legitimate Social Security numbers to receive rebates.

The text of the House passed bill contains language making "non resident aliens" _ illegal immigrants _ ineligible for the tax rebates. But every year, hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants use individual taxpayer identification numbers, known as ITINs, to file income tax returns with the IRS. These ID numbers are used instead of Social Security numbers. There are no exact statistics for how many illegal immigrants file tax returns, but this New York Times story from last year details the significant increase in use of ITINs.

Immigration advocates point out that many legal immigrants use ITINs, so it would be impossible to tell who is legal and who is not from those who use these IDs. The Senate version of the bill would prohibit use of ITINs, meaning some legal immigrants would not receive rebates.

Inflame the 'conservative base'? So unemployed liberal union members who vote Democrat in places like Michigan and Ohio like the idea of their tax dollars being handed over to illegals. OK if you say so.

ITINs are used by illegals 99.9% of the time. There is absolutely no reason to use an ITIN other than you don't have a SSN. And the only reason to not have an SSN is you are not in the country legally. For the 0.1% of ITINs issued to legal immigrants, well tough shit, you ain't gettin' no tax refund. And for that 0.1%, there is most likely a back story for why they don't have an SSN too. Most likely to avoid paying SS taxes. So you've received your tax refund 10 times over already.

Aww come on Senators. You are being mean spirited. Don't you know that Juan and Maria are doing jobs Americans won't do? Without them the economy would come to a halt. Frogs would start falling from the sky, or so the NY Times would have me believe. I encourage you in a spirit of bipartisanship to just give Juan and Maria their $1200.

And look guys it's a moot point. By about this time next year when John Rodham McClintobama is settling in to his/her Oval Office chair, amnesty will be a done deal.All the illegals will be magically turned into 1st generation citizens (that voted 15:1 for Clinton in 1996). So give them the money already

Burning Down The House

Well this is silly. People burning their underwater homes so they can escape the mortgages. Come on people. Let's think for a second here.

1. All you have to do is walk away from the mortgage. No need to get in trouble with the law by setting fires. Just mail the keys to your lender and be done with it. You'll take a hit to the old FICO but so what? You were most likely a 550 to start with. How much difference will it make when you drop to 510?

2. Just stop making payments. It takes a long time to get foreclosed on. And even then it can take months or even years before the sheriff comes knocking on your door. And who knows, by then John Rodham McClintomaba will be president and he/she will bail your sorry ass out. And give you "FREE" health care too. In the meantime Jorge W. will be sending you a nice fat tax rebate in June for taxes you haven't paid. Take that money to the local casino, bet it on 23 and who knows you might just win enough money to pay a few months of mortgage.

3. Benny B will drop interest rates to 0%.Maybe even into negative territory. Soon enough your lender will pay you interest.

My point is, no need to resort to drastic actions like arson. You live in the People's Socialist American Republic. Let the government take care of you.

By Marilyn Lewis

Arson is nothing new in Detroit. It's a time-honored weapon of the angry, vengeful, distressed and dispossessed in a city that gets hurt harder and sooner than others, making it a perfect place to spot early evidence of stress from the real-estate meltdown.

The Detroit Fire Department can't draw a definitive link between its rising arson rate (151 arrest warrants in 2007), rising foreclosures (up more than 65% last year) and falling housing prices (the region's median house price dropped 17.3% in the past four years, to $145,173).

But Capt. Steve Varnas of the department's arson section says he sees a connection: In 2005, the city issued only 80 arrest warrants for arson -- about half the number last year. "Things were going great," Varnas says. "There were fewer desperate people in 2004 and 2005."

Across the U.S., homeowners are searching for ways to escape from mortgages they can't pay -- or don't want to. A few are turning to arson, but it's too soon to turn anecdotes into meaningful statistics. Consumer pressure and state laws require speedy settlements, which means insurance companies are quick to pay up and slower to complete complex arson investigations. Definitive answers will come later.

But the signs of trouble are there if you're looking for them:

• The FBI reportsthat arson grew 4% in suburbs and 2.2% in cities from 2005 to 2006. The 2007 numbers aren't out yet.

• In California, a state hit particularly hard by foreclosures, insurance companies must tell the state within 60 days if they suspect a fire is "questionable." Last year, more than 120 reports were filed, and in 14 foreclosure was named a possible factor. The previous year, just 70 reports were filed, with seven citing foreclosure, says the state insurance commissioner's office. (Not all reports become arson cases.)

• Arrest warrants for arson in Detroit rose 89% between 2005 and 2007. "We are up to our eyeballs in arsons," says Varnas, of the Detroit Fire Department. "We're not only dealing with hardened criminals. We're dealing with desperate people."

Goodbye Grand Old Friend

Jan 29, 2008 a day that will live in infamy. Not to most people of course. And 25 years from now it will be celebrated by historians and academics as a great turning point in American politics. It may well even be a national holiday of sorts, at least in the Hispanic community,which will be the majority of the country.

This day will be remembered as the day capitalism died in the USA. It will be remembered as the day the non-Hispanic majority died in the USA. It will be remembered as the day government's role in the daily lives of Americans was increased like no other post-FDR period of time.

It is the day John McCain won the GOP nomination. And it is the day that the US as it has existed for 200+years ends. For no matter whether he or Hillary wins in November, the end result will be the same.

I have identified myself a Republican ever since I can remember. It seemed logical. I am a conservative and the Republican party was - or so it seemed - a conservative party. The party of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater. That was then.

First George H W Bush appeared. He was supposed to carry on the Reagan legacy. He instead raised taxes and puked on a Japanese prime minister. That's OK, they can't all be winners.

Next up we got George W Bush. Talked the talk. Most definitely did not walk the walk. This man spent in ways that would make LBJ and FDR blush. Yeah but he was still better than Dems or so I tricked myself into thinking. Sure he acted like a Dem, but he wasn't a Dem. And that made sense to me in the ever twisted pretzel my logic had become. Sure he wanted amnesty, but he wasn't a Democrat. Sure he created the medicare drug nightmare,but he wasn't a Democrat. Sure he fumbled and bumbled Iraq as badly as it could be fumbled and bumbled, but he wasn't a Democrat. Sure he can't, after 8 years, say the word nuclear, but he wasn't a Democrat.

OK so the lesson learned was not so much the party but anyone named Bush. 2008 would change that and with a clean slate. We'd get back on track with a conservative. We'd get back on track with limited government

And in 2008 instead of Thompson, instead of Romney, instead of Rudy, instead of Ron Paul the Republican nominee is John McCain. A man who has spent 20+ years fighting against every single conservative issue. Fighting against lower taxes. Fighting against secure borders. Fighting against reduced spending. Fighting against the 2nd Ammendment. Fighting against the 1st Ammednment ever with McCain-Feingold.

Fighting WITH Ted Kennedy. Fighting WITH Hillary Clinton. Fighting WITH John Kerry. Fighting with every liberal Democrat he could find in order to advance his cause.

So farewell GOP. It's been fun. We've laughed, we've cried, but now it's time to say goodbye. I can no longer in good conscience support a party that stands for nothing I stand for. If you ever get your act together, give me a call and we can have coffee or something.

Flori-DUH at it again

Seriously can someone teach people in Florida how to have an election? It's not that hard people.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-129electionday,0,6968764,print.story

And once again Independents - read liberals - are voting for McCain. Never mind that in FL you have to be a registered Republican to vote in the Republican primary. Pesky laws like that are of no concern to these people.

In northern Coral Springs, near the Sawgrass Expressway and Coral Ridge Drive, David Nirenberg arrived to vote as an independent. Nevertheless, he said poll workers insisted he choose a party ballot. "He said to me, 'Are you Democrat or Republican?' I said, 'Neither, I am independent.' He said, 'Well, you have to pick one,''' Nirenberg said.

In Florida, only those who declare a party are allowed to cast a vote in that party's presidential primary. Nirenberg said he tried to explain to the poll worker that he should not vote on a party ballot because of his "no party affiliation" status. Nirenberg said a second poll worker was called over who agreed that independents should not use party ballots, but said they had received instructions to the contrary.
"He said, 'Ya know, that is kind of funny, but it was what we were told.' … I was shocked when they told me that." Nirenberg said he went ahead and voted for John McCain.

I can picture Nirenberg now. An ex-NYer who moved to Florida to get away from NY taxes, brought on by decades of liberal rule. He moves to Florida and from the day he arrives tries to chage Flordia into NY. He votes for liberals, he complains about zoning, about the environment, etc. He slowly turns NY into NY Part Deux. Not unlike what Californians have done to Nevada and Arizona. Nirenberg, not content with turning his own state into a shithole, feels the need to further turn the whole country further down the road of socialist ruin as well.

Hey fehget about it right? He's from NY and damn everyone will listen to him.

How dare the state tell him he can't vote for McCain? It's his right damn it. And if he doesn't get his way he will huff and puff and hold his breath until CNN shows up and accuses those crazy redneck, racist, inbred, illiterate Repulican Southerners of denying him his right to vote for McCain. It's just not fair darn it. And in 2008 America, if something isn't fair it has to be abolished. If something is offensive it has to be shut down. And if a Democrat wants to vote in the Republican primary, well he can.

McCain is the perfect choice for Nirenberg. He thinks voting laws are unfair. His hero, McCain thinks immigration laws are unfair. A match made in heaven.

United States of America
July 4, 1776 - 2009
R.I.P.

Real Estate Never Goes Down....except when it does

Just imagine if you had listened to the NAR a year ago and bought a house.
Oh the humanity of it all.

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. home prices plunged by a record 8.4 percent in November, marking two years of slowing returns, according to a key index released Tuesday.

The decline in the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 10-city composite home price index was the biggest year-to-year drop since a 6.7 percent decrease in October. The November performance was the 11th straight monthly decline. The index tracks prices of existing single-family homes in 10 metropolitan areas.The 20-city composite index also was down year-over-year, falling 7.7 percent in November.

Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC and one of the architects of the index, noted that 14 of the 20 metropolitan areas posted their single largest monthly decline on record in November.

This is kind of funny though. November's record drop was the biggest drop since the record drop in...October. Come on December, I know you can beat November's record. Let's hit that 8%. With hard work and training I'm confident you can do it.

So if you had listened to the NAR and bought a $500K home last year, on average you would have lost $38,500. Plus you would have spent thousands of dollars in closing costs, taxes, fees. And of course your mortgage would have been hundreds if not thousands more a month than renting a comparable house.

But it would all be worth it right. Anything to own the 'American Dream'. Anything to not be called a 'renter'. Ewww. Gross. I hear renters have these crazy Satanic orgies and stuff. Can't be associated with those kinds of people right? No, no, no. You do whatever it takes to "OWN" your home. You go right on ahead and commit financial suicide. What's $38K when compared to being a homeOWNER? I mean come on, renters can't even paint their walls, talk about losers.

Juan, Jorge, Harry and Nancy....please read

Juan McCain and Jorge W. probably don't have to worry about things like this. They send their kids to exclusive private schools. Their kids and grandkids never see the inside of a public school. Neither do the familias of the Kennedys or Clintons or any of the open borders crowd. So they don't care, but you might.

Best and worst schools by state vs. rank of illegal immigrants on a per capita basis

Arizona #50 in education, #2 in illegals
Nevada #49 in education, #4 in illegals
California #47 in education, #1 in illegals
Georgia #41 in education, #10 in illegals
Utah #38 in education, #7 in illegals
Texas #25 in education, #3 in illegals

Vermont #1 in education, not enough illegals to count
Mass. #2 in education, #30 in illegals
Conn. #3 in education, #26 in illegals
Maine #5 in education, not enough illegals to count
Montana #7 in education, not enough illegals to count
Wisconsin #8 in education, #33 in illegals

Obviously there are more factors than just illegals. And it is not linear in that #50 in educaion is #1, and vice versa. New Jersey is high up in education and illegals. But there's no denying that overall, there is a pretty heavy inverse correlation between the quality of a public school education and the number of illegals in the state.

Hey wait a minute...isn't John McCain from Arizona? And isn't Harry Reid from Nevada? And isn't Nancy Pelosi from California? And isn't Bush from Texas? And isn't Orin Hatch (the 1 Republican who wants amnesty even more than Juan McCain) from Utah?

Gosh, you'd think they'd all have first hand experience with the devastation of their state's public school systems. You'd think they would do whatever they could to stem the tide of this problem. You'd think right?

SOTU

I was going to watch the speech, but didn't after all. I like my TV and I think 5 minutes into watching Jorge W. speak I would have thrown something at the TV and that would have sucked.
Reading the analysis from the so-called experts I'm glad I didn't waste my time and instead watched Rock of Love 2 on DVR...no I'm not kidding. I saw higher IQ levels on that show than I would have seen watching Jorge W. speak or listening to the insipid Democrat response that followed.

Oh look he wants to make tax cuts permanent. I want to go to Mars for the weekend. The odds of me making it to Mars this weekend are about as high as tax cuts being made permanent with Nancy and Harry running things in DC.

Oh look we wants to spend my money to stimulate the economy. It's only been proven about 5 times in the last 25 years that stimulus programs don't do anything. But why learn anything from history?

Oh look he wants to spend $300M so poor kids can go to private schools. Hey Jorge, private schools are private for a reason. Rich people don't want their kids to be near poor kids. If you're confused (and I'm sure you are) ask Hill and Bill about it. They sent their daughter to one of the most exclusive and expenses private schools in Washington. You also should have thought about that when you let Ted Kennedy write your No Child Left Behind Act. Throwing more money at a dysfunctional education system is not the way to fix it.

Oh look he wants to meet with his Mexican counterpart to discuss immigration. Awww how nice of him. I wouldn't stress too much over that Senor Arbusto. Your replacement, either Auntie Hillary or Juan McCain will finish off that job for you. You've done more than your share in destroying this country. You've let in your quota of a few million non-English speaking, uneducated peasants infiltrate. You've allowed California, Texas (or Tejas is it now), Nevada and Arizona to turn into 3rd world cesspools. And you've put N. Carolina, Georgia and Colorado well on their way to a similar situation. The people of Azatlan thank you.

Boo hoo

Here we go again. The MSM is in create victims mode once again regarding the "subprime crisis".

The latest:

Sarah Evans, 60, opens the door with a mixture of curiosity and alarm. She says she is one of the last people left on the street. And she is on the verge of losing this two-bedroom house in which she has lived for more than 30 years because she simply cannot afford her monthly payments.
It is a complicated story. She refinanced in 2003, but did not realize the document she signed included provisions to radically increase the interest rate. She stopped making payments in 2006 and shows her unpaid bills totaling 24,000 dollars.

Are you kidding me? A woman has owned the house for more than 30 years and yet she is defaulting on her mortgage? She refinanced in 2003 when she had owned her home for 25 years. Which means it was almost paid off. Ahh but that wasn't good enough. No, she had to refinance. Take out some equity. Buy the H2. Buy the 90" plasma. Go on a Fiji vacation. And boo hoo, she didn't read the fine print where it said her rate would re-adjust. I guess she thought ARM stood for Amazing Rate Mortgage not Adjustable Rate Mortgage.

And now here comes the MSM creating a victim out of her. She is not a victim. She is a moron. And imbecile. A fool. A cretin. A greedy woman who deserves to be thrown into the snowy Cleveland streets. I am so sick and tired of these people being made to look like innocent victims. She knew exactly what she was doing. She bought the NAR propaganda of housing never falls. She wanted to make a quick buck and signed her life away in order to do so.

But fear not. Jorge W and the rest of our esteemed leaders will make sure she gets to hold on to her house. So what if she was a completely irresponsible, greedy dolt? Uncle Sam will be there to bail your ass out.

Danger Mr. Robinson

THEN:In 2003 McCain said he wants amnesty. In 2006 and 2007 he led the fight in the Senate to give amnesty to illegals. He worked with Ted Kennedy on this issue.

NOW: In 2008 he now say he never was for amnesty and is for border security. And he still wants a "temporary" worker program. If anyone
can find an example of a temporary government program that didn't become permanent, I would be curious to see it. McCain has not changes his tune whatsoever. He is still for amnesty. You don't fight for a cause over a decade and then suddenly change your mind.

THEN: In 2001 McCain voted against tax cuts. In 2003 he voted against tax cuts. Both times he played the socialist class warfare game. He said, on numerous occasions, he thought the rich got too much of the tax cut at the expense of the poor. He ignored the fact that the poor pay no taxes and hence cannot logically get a tax cut. He sounded no different than Hillary or Kerry or Kennedy.

NOW: Says he wants to make the tax cuts permanent and voted against the cuts not because of class warfare but because there weren't enough spending cuts. The man is a fiscal liberal. He believes in the "soak the rich" mentality. Again, you don't fight against tax cuts for a decade and then flip flop overnight.

THEN: Founding member of Gang of 14. Opposed every conservative judge appointed by Bush. Worked with Harry Reid to filibuster judge after judge after judge.

NOW: No change. He still believes conservative judges are dangerous.

This man has been a Senator for 20 years. He has done everything in his power to thwart the conservative agenda.

This man is more dangerous than Hillary Clinton. If Hillary wins, it will galvanize conservatives for 2010 and 2012. It will lead to a revolution like 1994. 2 years of a Hillary/Dem congress would be awful, but we could get through it. It would be such and awful 2 years that nobody except the DailyKos crowd would want 2 more years and in 2010 things would turn around.

If McCain wins, it will devastate conservatives. We will have a far left liberal president and far left Congress. Amnesty will be a done deal, taxes will be raised by unimaginable numbers. Say bye bye Social Security income cap. Say 45% top marginal rates. Say hello socialized medicine for and all, including of course the 20 millionnew citizens from south of the border. And all the while conservatives will be kicked and spat on as being mean spirited racist crazies. The MSM will cheer 'bipartisanship'. Look how wonderful it is that a Rep and Dems can work together to turn is into a Spanish speaking France.

And finally just remember the NY TIMES has endorsed him. If nothing else makes you run away from this man, this should.

Please, I urge, beg and plead with you, do not vote for this man.

CLINTON News Network.....no seriously

Man, talk about history revisions. Clinton did not get 50.3% of the popular vote in 1996. Despite the best efforts of the MSM, Clinton never got above 50%, either in '92 or '96. And I do believe Bush got 51% in 2004. And unless I just stepped into a freaky Bizarro world scenario here, Bush 1 beat Dukakis did he not?



On cnn.com:

Past General Elections

2004	Bush (R) 50.0%	Kerry (D) 49.3%
2000	Gore (D) 48.5%	Bush (R) 48.2%
1996	Clinton (D) 50.3%	Dole (R) 39.9%
1992	Clinton (D) 43.3%	Bush (R) 37.3%
1988	Dukakis (D) 54.7%	Bush (R) 44.5%
1984	Reagan (R) 53.3%	Mondale (D) 45.9%
1980	Reagan (R) 51.3%	Carter (D) 38.6%
1976	Ford (R) 49.5%	Carter (D) 48.5%

The party of tolerance and diversity

Dems are always portrayed as the party that ebraces the colors of the rainbow. Black, white, pink, turquoise all welcome in the Dem big tent. Unlike GOP tent where only descendants from the Mayflower are allowed in....or so the MSM tells me daily.

But here's something odd about such a multi-culti party. They are rather racist when it comes to voting. SC Exit Poll shows that whites voted for Edwards and Clinton about 75/25 while blacks voted for Obama about 75/25. Whites vote for the white candidate, blacks vote for the black candidate. Not exactly the revolutionary and historic election the MSM is pumping up after all.

Whites can vote for whites and blacks can vote for blacks. Nothing wrong with that. However when Republican nominate yet another white candidate, it is further proof that Republicans are hood wearing life long members of the KKK. When Dems do the same thing, it's hard fought and astute politics on the part of the super duper intellectual Dem voters. See, they aren't racist or anything, they just know that Republicans are racist and would attack poor old Obama, therefore they need to vote for Hillary in order to make sure Cheney doesn't get elected president. Or some such nonsense.

Hard to prove obviously but I have a feeling that if Condi Rice were running for the GOP nomination in a 3 way race, she would receive more than 25% of the white vote.

Le trader "rogue"

You've all heard about Jerome Kerviel, the "rogue" trader at SocGen who did some things he shouldn't have done and lost his employer Societe Generale a few billion dollars. His actions also supposedly spurred Benny B into cutting rates last week. Wow, what a guy.

This "rogue" trader has been described a junior trader. Yet this junior trader has access to billions and billions of dollars to do with as he pleased. I don't buy it. I don't buy this lone gunman theory for a second. I don't buy that none of his superiors noticed that what he was doing. I have worked at a couple of banks in my day and security is pretty damn tight. There are triggers and flags set up to detect this kind of stuff and for much lower amounts. Trading managers' only job is to watch what their traders, and especially junior traders do all day. I don't for a second believe that SocGen didn't have the flags set up to alert trading managers what was going on.

Sure they're French, but even the French aren't that incompetent. No seriously, even the French. Yes those French. Stop laughing.

What I suspect was going on was this: the "rogue" trades being made were good trades for the most part. His bets were the right bets. His superiors knew fully well what was happening but turned a blind eye. It's when he started losing that all hell broke out and all of a sudden his "rogueness" was discovered.

Now all this will be swept away. Poor old Jerome will go to jail for a year or two. His bosses will get their $10M bonuses and the story will go away. Justice will once again be served.

Juan McAmnesty

NY Times has endorsed Juan McAmnesty. The most liberal Republican this side of Jorge W. gets endorsed by the most far left fishwrap this side of Pravda. Shocking.

And then I read that Juan McAmnesty's Hispanic outreach director is a former minister in the Mexican government. Not just any minister. The minister responsible for the “Presidential Office for Mexicans Abroad.” In other words, the minister of Illegal Aliens in America del Norte.

If this lying piece of shit ever does become president, he will give Jorge W. a real run at the title of worst ever. Won't matter much though since the country will cease to exist shortly after all 100 million Mexicans move here.

VIVA LA RAZA Senator. And fuck you.

Las Vegas Duel

Remember this?

10652 BONCHESTER HILL ST. Las Vegas, NV 89141
Price Reduced: 12/11/07 -- $324,900 to $308,500
Price Reduced: 12/21/07 -- $308,500 to $293,500
Price Reduced: 01/04/08 -- $293,500 to $280,000
Price Reduced: 01/08/08 -- $280,000 to $266,000


Well looks like a duel to the death is about to begin.

Just listed:

10682 BONCHESTER HILL ST. Las Vegas, NV 89141
Asking $244,900

Let the race to the bottom begin...

These houses were selling for $400K+ in 2006.
But real estate never goes down.

I like to torture myself

So I watch CNBC.

This afternoon those knuckleheads had a discussion about housing. 3 impartial (ahem ahem) real estate experts were guests. These experts were - wait for it - real estate agents. So we of course know they had no incentive to lie or spin.

The topic du jour was the raising of conforming loan limits for $417K to $727K. Of course the 3 experts said yes yes yes do it do it do it.

What these dumbasses still don't get is that you could raise the limit to $727M and it won't make much of a difference in affordability. Median income is $50K in the US. That means the median house should cost $150K to $200K. It is getting there there nationwide. Another 9 months and nationwide prices will probably have bottomed.

In places like LA the median income is $65K and yet median house price is $500K. The math doesn't add up. Someone making $65K cannot afford a $500K home. That simple. People though they could in 2005. They bought and now in 2007 and 2008 they are foreclosing.

The gubermint, being the gubermint simply cannot allow the market to correct on its own. It has to get its dirty hands involved. Oh well, instead of having a 3-5 year housing recession, we'll have a 5-7 year housing recession. The end result is the same. Regression to the historical mean of 3 to 4 times income.

The NAR (National Association of (Lying) Realtors) will never admit what's happening. They are still on the NOW IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY plan. A fish swims, a realtor says buy a house. That won't ever change nor do I expect it to. What I would hope is that the lazy MSM would at least call them out on it.

In the meantime I'll keep on kicking it old school in my rental (for which I am paying pennies on the dollar compared to "owning" ) watching the whole thing unwind.

Did someone say the "D" word?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sales of existing homes fell in December, closing out a horrible year for housing in which sales of single-family homes plunged by the largest amount in 25 years. The median home price dropped for the entire year, the first time that has occurred in four decades.

For the year, sales of single-family homes were down by 13 percent, the biggest drop since a 17.7 percent plunge in 1982. Lawrence Yun, the Realtors' chief economist, said it was likely that the country has not experienced a decline in housing prices for an entire year since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Hey wait a minute Larry. Just hold on one damn minute. Last year around this time and 9 months ago and 6 months ago and 3 months ago, you were saying NOW IS THE BEST TIME TO BUY. You were saying the worst is over. You were saying nothing but sunshine and lollipops on the horizon. You were talking about how renting is throwing your money down the tubes. You were also instrucing your minions to spew the same vile garbage to unsuspecting people who simply don't know any better.

If anyone had listened to you 24, 18, 12, 9, 6 or 3 months ago, they would have bought in a housing market not seen since the Depression. The Great Depression Larry. Do you understand how bad things are in housing if you have to go back to the 1930s to find a worse situation? The second the ink had dried on their contract they would have been upside down on their loan be potentially ruined financially. Hey but what do you care? As long as the 6% is kicked upstairs to the NAR (National Association of (Lying) Realtors) it's all good right Mr.Yun?

And here's a shock, Yun says he expects things to be better by spring. No, really? I'm shocked at his prediction.

Care to explain yourself sir? Care to explain how a so-called economist could possibly knowingly give such awful economic advice to the public. You sir are a disgrace to your profession. You are a disgrace to your country and a disgrace to the human race to be quite honest.

About those cheery unemployment numbers

Woo hoo! Number of people filing for benefits falls for 4th straight month scream the headlines. Recession is over before it even started. Man Benny B is an even bigger hero than Alan G.

Except it's all smoke and mirrors.

Let's take a trip in the wayback machine to 2004. Who was making money hand over fist back then? Mortgage brokers. Real estate agents. General contractors. Electricians. Plumbers. Anyone involved with building or selling houses.

Millions of these folks were raking in 6 sometimes even 7 figure incomes. But - and this is NEVER mentioned in the MSM - they were all independent workers. They were not employed by anyone. Remember the disconnect in 2004 when the Dems were saying we were in a depression because no jobs were being created? Well they were 1/2 right. No "jobs" were being created in the traditional sense of an employer hiring an employee and paying him a salary. But there was plenty of money being made by lots of people.

Now that the housing crash is upon us, the millions of brokers and independent contractors are not technically "unemployed" so they don't show up on unemployment numbers. But their income has fallen substantially, making them virtually unemployed.

And also who built all those homes? Hint: they weren't named Joe and John they were named Jose and Juan. And of course they were paid under the table. So now when they have nothing to do, they too don't show up in the unemployment numbers. Now this might be a silver lining if Juan and Jose pack up and head back home without anything to do. However I have this feeling that most will just kick it old school in the Mexico Norte for a while. They will still use the ER as as their PCP. Their kids will get an free education. And since they will now be classified as poor, they will qualify for every possible gubermint welfare program known to man. Oh sure technically they don't qualify since technically you have to be a legal resident to qualify. But since the gubermint doesn't check immigration satus - you know since it's racist to ask for ID proving you have the right to free government money - and since they are here ILLEGALLY already and obviously could give a fuck about the law, that won't be a much a problem for them.

America, what a country!

WOW

Down 300

Up 300

Now that's some volatility ladies and gents.

I'm pretty sure the bottom of 11,600 for the Dow and 1275 for the S&P500 is behind us. Volatility like that usually indicates a bottom.

I was predicting a 1325 bottom. Close, but no cigar. Either way, so far everything I bought up Thurs, Fri, Tues and today is up. Currently I have my non-cash holdings in QQQQ, SPY, IWM and just a little GLD.

Should be a fun and interesting rest of the month.

They still don't get it

The chattering fools on the MSM were rather orgasmic yesterday. An "unexpected" rate cut. Woo hoo. Recession over. Housing crash over. It's gonna be party like it's 1999 time. I heard it said a few times that this rate cut will ease the ARM resets coming.

For the 18,881,258th thime: ARMs have nothing to do with what Benny B does in his secret money printing lab. ARMs reset based on LIBOR rates. Man, you'd think a financial journalist or better yet a housing "expert" would know this most very basic fact. And 30 year mortgage rates again, do not get set based on what Benny does either. They are set based on bond yields.

Now it often is the case that LIBOR and bond yields and Benny B's magic printing press have similar trends. But it is not always the case. For a long time, Fed Fund rates were going up while yields were going down or staying steady. The opposite could easily happen again.

And this is interesting from Yahoo Finance discussing who wins and who loses from the rate cut. It's a moot point really since EVERYONE loses from the rate cut. When hyperinflation and/or stagflation appears everyone loses. Again, this concept is way over the head of the mindless robot MSM reporter. Here is what Yahoo has to say

Loser: Borrowers with bad credit

Falling mortgage rates are great for home buyers and homeowners looking to refinance. But if you've had credit problems in the past, tightening lending standards means you're less likely to be approved for a loan, Duncan says.

Hey good luck with all that subprime borrowers looking to refinance when your teaser rate triples to 12%.

Loser: Home equity loan borrowers

Home equity loan rates have remained frustratingly static throughout the Fed's most recent series of rate cuts. Sometimes they move up a bit, other times they tick down a hair. But overall, rates have hovered around 8 percent for more than six months. Bob Walters, chief economist at Quicken Loans, says growing lender reluctance to offer these loans has stifled the type of competition necessary to drive rates down.

Hmm, again I see defaults in the future. Is anyone seeing a theme developing? Those slime ball subprime borrowers are going to be even more fucked than before. It is primarily the subprime crowd who took out the HELOCs so they could buy that H2 or Escalade while holding down a $35K a year job. Once again, good luck with all that.

So who are the "winners" from this inflation triggering insanity Mr. Yahoo Expert?

Winner: Credit card debtor

In a surprise move, the Federal Open Market Committee reduced the federal funds target rate. It cut the target rate by 75 basis points, which brings the federal funds rate down from 4.25 percent to 3.5 percent. This reduction will trigger the prime, which is usually 3 percentage points higher, to drop from 7.25 percent to 6.5 percent.

Sweet. So the 23.99% card goes down to 23.24%. Boy oh boy. I smell shopping spree coming. Instead of paying off the balance in 17 years, now Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class American will pay it off in only 16.2 years. What a deal. Thanks Benny B. You saved the world.

Here's the part the "expert" omits from the equation. Sure your interest rate will be a little lower. But the price of everything you buy will be higher, much higher due to the inflation lower rates bring. The higher price will offset your interest savings and then some.

Here is a simple example

Buy something for $10,000 over 5 years at 10% vs. buy the same thing for $11,000 at 9.25%.

Option 1: total cost is $12,748
Option 2: total cost is $12,780

Not only that but everything is more expensive, even the things you don't borrow. Things like gas, food, utilities. So go ahead Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class America, celebrate your new found hero in Benny B. You will no doubt see him as a god just like you say Alan Greenspan as a god.

But no need to worry about any of this. I hear some actor overdosed on drugs (quel surprise) and it's 24/7 coverage on CNN, Fox, MSNBC. Sorry to bore you with pesky things like the economic collapse of our society. You may now return to your Heath Ledger week of mourning.

No Panic Yet

Down 2-3% at 10:00. Given the Chinese fire drill for 2 days, that's holding up OK. As I expected, the panic that would have happened yesterday had the markets been open didn't occur. Or occurred on a much smaller scale. I am buying up some more.

We're off 20% give or take off 2007 highs. That is a nice chunk of change off already. We are in an election year with 3 Senators running. Benny B is in cut rates to 0% mode. Jorge W. is getting ready to spend money like nobody's business. The cards are being stacked for at least a short term run.

Oh we'll have inflation run amok, but that is beside the point, a point that obviously nobody gives a shit about right now.

75 POINT CUT ANNOUNCED

Get ready
Ge set

HYPERINFLATE!

Benny B will save Wall St at the expense of everyone else. They will go back to 2002/2003 and 1% rates. The housing bubble/crash taught these idiots no lessons. Benny B should not only be fired he should be thrown in jail. Banana republics operae with less back scratching than this.

They cut 75 today, will cut 75 next week and by the end of March the dollar will be used in lieu of toilet paper.

And yet on CNN the top stories are still what is Lindsay Lohan doing? The sheep has no clue that the slaughter is coming. As long as American Idol comes on every night, all will be well.

What Does Kudlow Think?

How's that Goldilocks treating you these days Larry? Same guy that was sure subprime was inconsequential. Same guy that thought talk of a recession was crazy. Same guy that thinks Bush should be on Mt.Rushmore.

That same guy took the comments section off his blog. The same blog where he is begging, pleading (and most likely somewhere in a dark alley blowing) Benny B for a rate cut. This senile man actually thinks we're in a DEflationary environment. He must never buy food or gas or heat his home (errr Upper East Side apartment) or buy anything other than 90" plasmas, which have fallen in price quite a lot recently. And, this is the best part, he is still saying there is no recession and none coming.

Hey Larry do you still believe the sun revolves around the earth as well?

Good lord man, wake up to realities of the day.

Chinese Fire Drill

Tuesday's action in the communist (although we pretend they're not) Chinese neck of the woods.

Hang Seng down 8.65%
Hong Kong HSCC Red Chip down 8.64%

As was foretold on this blog in the summer, if you look at a chart of the Chinese markets 2005-2007, it looks just like a chart of Nasdaq 1998-2000. So this is not all that unexpected.

On the other hand Europe is up across the board with the exception of Germany. London up 1%, Paris up close to 1% as of 6:30am.

US futures down 500, but I don't see a massive sell off at 9:30. I really think having the day off yesterday was the savior of the US markets. Plus right now I'm sure the CEO of Merrill, Goldman, Lehman et al are at Benny B's house begging, pleading and most likely blowing like they have never begged, pleased or blew before. Maybe it's just the contrarian in me, but when every headline screams end of the world, I look in the opposite direction.

Since I haven't been to the dentist in a while, I haven't seen a copy of Time Magazine in a while. If the day comes when Time's cover says "DON'T EVERY BUY A STOCK AGAIN", my advice is find every dime you can and buy nothing but stocks. This strategy should have been followed 3 years ago when Time had this to say about housing.

Bloodbath

Lots of people on Wall St are on their knees right now saying a little than you prayer to the man upstairs. No not him. I mean Martin Luther King. They're saying thank you MLK for being born right around now and sparing us from a 7% or 10% slaughter this morning. Tomorrow will be ugly but not as ugly as it would have been today. Everyone will have time to think things out, analyze, discuss, etc before pushing the sell button in a panic mode like would have happened this morning.

Plus I still believe as I did last week that Benny B will ride to the rescue either later today or early tomorrow with an early rate cut. Don't be surprised if at 8:30 CNBC starts popping champagne and declaring the bear dead as Benny B slashes by 75 or maybe even 100.

And here is a suggestion for Jorge and Co:

If you are really gung ho on spending money, why not kill 2 birds with one stone. Send everyone 2 checks. The first is the $1500 or whatever amount already proposed. Then send a second check only cashable only at Merrill Lynch, Schwab, E-Trade, etc. Stimulus Part 2 only this money has to be invested in stocks. Sure it is ridiculous and makes no sense economically speaking. But so is the idea of any stimulus package....or a mortgage rate freeze....or killing the dollar...or an FHA loan for subprime scumbags....or encouraging people to buy houses they can't afford using a ninja ARM. Just because an idea is insane doesn't mean Jorge won't put in into action.

Wait a minute, I thought SS wasn't a "tax"

I have heard politicians, especially those on the left say over and over how socical security isn't a tax but a contribution. That is it's a contribution to the ponzi scheme, errr retirement plan from which we will benefit. Essentially their argument is whatever you put in, you'll get out when you're old. It's total bullshit of course for anyone under 40 since we all know we'll get $0. But aside from that, the argument for saving that beast is that it's not a "tax". It is sold by liberals as some kind of group annuity. How many times have we been told that SS is not a welfare program but a fair program where everyone gets out whatever they contributed in?

Fine. Then why is Chuckie Schumer saying this?

"If we did the rebate based on the payroll tax, it would hit a lot more people at a lower end of the spectrum. And so to just say income taxes are the only taxes we're considering that people pay is unfair," said Sen. Charles Schumer, the New York lawmaker who is chairman of the congressional Joint Economic Committee.

Whoa! Hold on there Senator. Those low end workers are not paying taxes, they are making "contributions" to their futures remember? Those unfair taxes you're babbling about aren't really taxes remember? So if you give people who are making "contributions" a tax rebate, I am guessing you will make that up by giving them less money when they're old right? After all in a "fair"system if they contribute less, they should get less.

Of course that is not the case. What Chukie is really doing is giving these people a tax rebate on taxes they are not paying. If they get $1000 reduced from their SS tax, that $1000 will still count when they retire. So the $1000 is being made up with general revenue money. What he is proposing is a simple welfare payment of $1000 to people who pay no income tax. He might as well just cut all these people a check for $1000 and save money on the accounting paperwork. Yet since many people don't even know what their tax rate is**, this proposal comes across to the Joe 6 Pack masses as being.....my favorite word of today....fair.

** I was actually told by a former co-worker that he doesn't need a tax cut because he gets a refund every year and so that means he pays no income taxes.

Then again...

I was a little premature in bitch slapping the Jorge W. Arbusto Election Year Giveaway. Turns out he is supposedly opposed to giving low lives on welfare yet more welfare. And yes anyone receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit is on welfare whether they "work" or not.

Paulson said Bush doesn't support cash for people who don't make enough to pay federal income taxes. The administration also does not back non-tax related ideas, favoring simplicity to ensure a package could be passed and implemented quickly, Paulson said. "We're not looking to decorate a Christmas tree," he said.

Some Democrats were disappointed.Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said he agrees with Bush that a plan must be approved quickly, but he said it must help working families. "The people who are struggling every day to pay their bills, heat their homes, and pay their mortgages need our help now," Kennedy said. "We must act quickly to provide immediate help for those in crisis."

Hey Teddy K, here's a thought on how to help those who can't afford to pay their mortgage or heat their home: STOP ENCOURAGING THEM TO BUY A HOME THEY CAN'T AFFORD! If they can't afford to even heat their home, they should be in an an apartment where heat costs a fraction of what it costs them now. If they can't afford their mortgage, then default, walk away and go back to the apartment from which you came. Stop asking me to subsidize these people.

Yet instead what Teddy K along with Auntie Hillary, Unlce Barracky and the rest of their pals do is come up with scheme after scheme to encourage home "ownership". It's a brilliant strategy politically for the Dems. The sheep all over the land are convinced that the Democrats care about them. Awww shucks Bobby Sue, Ted Kennedy really cares about us, not like those meanie Republicans who expect us to work for our money. And they become more and more and more dependent on the gubermint for every aspect of their lives. Not only do they now expect - no demand - the gubermint to provide them with free health care, educate their urchins for 12 years, give them a generous pension now they expect the gubermint to pay for their mortgage and heating bills too.

How soon before the BMW or Hummer H2 lease is considered a necessity that the gubermint will subsidize? We can't have Juan and Maria along with their 7 kids roiling up in a beat up Chevy. Imagine what that would do to the self-esteem.

And will the leftists please stop saying the phrase 'working family' to describe the poor? That is another one of these phrases that has been invented by the left. It's no longer illegal alien, it is now undocumented worker. It's no longer, lazy bums who can't hold a job to save their lives and need gubermint handouts, it's now 'working families'. Then what the fuck is my family? I work after all? Ahh I know the difference. I work and I **pay** taxes. It appears that to qualify as a member of the 'working family' club I need to maybe kind sorta work every now and then but **not pay** any taxes. 1984 is becoming more and more of a reality every day.

Is that revolution here yet?

TAX TIME

I did my taxes today and survived.

Doing one's taxes is one of those things that people like to bitch about but in reality it's not that hard. I had W2 income, business income, a shitload of business deductions, interest income, investment gains, losses, dividend income, mortgage deduction, I sold a house, bought 2 cars, sold 2 cars, registered all 4 cars, donated to charities, moved cross country, lived in a state with income tax, lived in a state without income tax, my wife had a Roth IRA, I had a SEP and a 401(k).

So not exactly your EZ 1040 tax return.

Yet all that and it took me about 4 hours to get it more or less complete thanks to the wonders of TurboTax. So I really don't get why people complain that taxes are soooooo hard. Yeah some of the wording is a little confusing but it isn't rocket science.

And this leads to the campaign for prez. Lots of talk on simplifying taxes. That's all fine and good, but let's not get too bogged down on simple at the expense of lower taxes. Hell, I'll spend 4 or 8 or 15 hours doing my taxes if it means the gubermint gets to steal less of my money. Loopholes and obscure deductions are fine by me. When the politic ans talk about simplifying taxes, they really mean taking away deductions from me. Thanks but not thanks.

Money for nothing

It's official. $150B of tax payer money squandered in the form of a "stimulus" package. Let me translate what that means....$150B extra debt that your children's children's grandchildren will be paying.

Hey cool a little somethin' somethin' in my pocket so you say. Not so fast there. If you are "rich" you don't qualify. This is a tax rebate for the low lives of society. Why should Jorge give a tax rebate on the people who, like, uhm, you know, pay all the taxes? No, instead the checks will be sent to those who contribute nothing to society and leech off those who do. If you make $20K, pay nothing in taxes, get food stamps, get free medicaid and god knows what else from the gubermint you're in luck. Uncle Jorge is sending you a $1600 check so you can buy yourself a new plasma for the trailer to go along with the Elvis commemorative plate set.

If you make a decent living and pay more than $20K in federal taxes alone, receive no government assistance and have never leached a penny from the gubermint, you get nothing.

Only in America does someone who pays $0 taxes get a tax "refund" yet someone who pays 30% of his income in taxes gets no "refund". I swear we are living in George Orwell's 1984. If the government is going to spend $150B in welfare payments at least call it what it is. Don't throw out this bullshit tax rebate. You cannot get a rebate on something you never paid in the 1st place Jorge. You went to Harvard Business School for crying out loud, I think even a man with your limited IQ should be able to figure that one out.

And of course Jorge doesn't care if you are here illegally or not. He's sending out checks to one and all, legal, illegal doesn't matter. Hey Jose, if you leave now and cross the Rio Grande in the next couple of days guess what amigo, you too will have that $1600 check waiting for you. And by this time next year Auntie Hillary with the help of Juan McCain and Humberto Reid will be getting ready to sign your amnesty bill. Better get going, you don't have any time to waste.

Jorge W. Arbusto, the nightmare that keeps on giving. Is it 1/20/09 yet? Oh shit, never mind, I forgot who's coming after him.

Damn we're so fooked!

UPDATE:

As soon as this nightmare was announced stocks rallied from their lows of the day. Luckily for me I bought up some more this morning. In addition to the SPY I bought yesterday I bought some IWM today.

It appears the stupider the ideas from the gubermint are, the better stocks do. Can't fight em, join em. At least until the rally fizzles again sometime after Benny B's final push to kill the dollar next week.

Your taxpayer funded Democrats at work

Do you know the difference between Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson? Maybe, maybe not. It's no exactly common knowledge among the masses. But you'd think a Member of Congress would know. A Member of Congress who votes on how to waster (err spend) my tax dollars. A Member of Congress who you would at least hope picks up a newspaper every now and then to know what's happening in the world.

Benny B is the Fed Chairman and was formerly a professor at Princeton. Hank Paulson is the Treasury Secretary and was formerly the CEO of Goldman Sachs. They are both bald though and I can see how Marcy could have mixed them up.

This is the transcript of yesterday's hearing with Benny B on Capitol Hill when being questioned by the stupidest woman in politics, Marcy Kaptur, Democrat from Ohio.

Democrat Moron: "Seeing as how you were the former CEO of Goldman Sachs ..."

Benny B: "No, no, no, you're confusing me with the Treasury Secretary,"

Democrat Moron: "I've got the wrong firm? Paulson, Oh, OK. Where were you sir?"

Benny B: "I was a CEO of the Princeton Economics Department,''

Democrat Moron: "Oh, Princeton, oh, all right, sorry. I got you confused with the other one"

Denial

Damn Larry Kudlow annoys me. But he has an entertaining show. I gotta give the guy credit though he is sticking to his guns. He is deluded and insane, but he is consistent.

Kudlow thinks that Bernanke isn't cutting enough or fast enough.

Kudlow is positive there will be no recession and still talks about golidlocks.

Kudlow thinks there is no inflation and actually believes the 2.0% inflation nonsense.

I am genuinely curious to know if he really believes this stuff. Is it possible for someone to be so detached from reality?

Kudlow was also sure housing wouldn't tank and was100000% positive the stock market would zoom to the moon in January.

What a silly man.

So I went shopping

for stocks today. S&P500 is near the 1325 territory I have been looking for. Not quite there, but I hedged a little and bought some SPY near the close this afternoon. I have this sneaking suspicion that Benny B is going to do something real fucked up like lower 75 or even 100. And when he does Pavlov's dogs on Wall St will hit the BUY button like it's 1997.

I see a mini rally coming again, which will once again fizzle out. Just like I said it would last week and just like it did.

Rents Falling

Quick recap for those of you joining us mid-program...

The so-called experts led by the NAR (National Association of (Lying) Realtors) and the liars in the MSM such as Larry Kudlow and Jim Cramer told us over and over that there was no housing bubble. Then they told us that OK maybe there is a teenie tiny bubble but it will never burst. Then when it burst they told us, yeah OK but it will be contained to subprime. Then when the whole mother effer collapsed they said yea but at least rents will go up since so many people will be renting.

And once again the so-called experts are proven wrong. Any 1st year econ student could tell you why they are wrong. The lesson is taught day 1. Supply and demand. When there are millions and millions of empty houses and condos on the market, prices for those millions and millions of housing units will drop. And they will drop whether the units are lived in by the primary owner or the units are rented out.

And what do you know, once again that old supply and demand curve is proven right again. Sorry NAR. Sorry Kudlow. Sorry Cramer. Better luck next time.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home prices dropped last year in most cities around the nation, and now rents are flattening out in many of the markets worst hit by the housing downturn. According to data from Investment Instruments Corp. generated by their rentometer.com site and supplied the data exclusively to
CNNMoney, the median monthly rental bill for a sampling of 10 metro areas all around the United States rose just 0.5 percent in 2007 from $1,457 to $1,465."The major factors having an impact on housing prices are foreclosures, which make more rental property available," said Owen Johnson, president of Investment Instruments, "and also foreclosures that are not happening." In the latter case, according to Johnson, many speculators bought properties to "flip," selling them quickly in a rapidly appreciating market. In some Sun-Belt areas, investors bought condos and other properties while they were still in development, to sell when a
project finished.

Of the 10 areas sampled by Rentometer, Atlanta and Houston rents declined the most, plunging 12.8 percent for the year. Median monthly rent for all rentals in Atlanta is now $884, and in Houston it's $779. Other cities reporting big declines included Washington (11.8 percent), Miami (9.0 percent) and Phoenix (7.3 percent).

Hmmm I think I have a phone call to my landlord to make asking for a 12% reduction in rent. If he says no, judging by a quick perusal on craigslist, I have a feeling some other desperate homedebtor will say yes. That's the great thing about now being tied down to a mortgage. Within 30 days I can move. Sure it costs a couple of bucks in moving costs, but I could move every month and would still spend less on movers than what the average homedebtor is losing every month on the value of his home.

Incompetence thy name is George W. Bush

Ben "Helicopter Ben" Bernanke has outdone himself. He has jumped his own shark. Less than 2 months after doing the right thing and ignoring calls for a 50 cut, he has now folded like a cheap suit. He will cut 50 next week and now he says a further inflation inducing stimulus package is A-OK by him. So far so bad. Here is where it gets the worst:

One of the plans being hatched up by Jorge W. Arbusto and Humberto Reid is a plan to get people to buy homes with incentives, tax rebates, etc. I had to check the date as I could have sworn I was transported back to 2001.

This is the logic used by he Idiot in Chief: We have a housing crash. The housing crash has caused a recession. The housing crash was caused by a housing bubble which was caused by reckless lending to people who shouldn't have bought a house. So we will fix it all by encouraging people to once again buy houses they can' t afford. And we'll get my hack appointee Benny "Helicopter Ben" Bernanke to set it all up. Benny B is a disciple of Alan Greenspan, the guy who started the whole mess back in 2001.

It used to be that I'd hear people call Jorge W. Arbusto the worst ever and dismissed them as cranky liberals still bitter over 2000. But today, given his behavior, I must say, liberals you were right and you were ahead of the curve. This man is simply deranged. When he gave speeches and sounded like an escaped mental patient I defended him saying his couldn't speak well that's all. Now I realize he does indeed have the faculties of an escaped mental patient...my apologies to mental patients for the comparison.

Jorge W. Arbusto has destroyed the Republican party and has done some serious damage to the conservative movement. He is the anti-Reagan. The only American benefiting from his stay in office is Jimmy Carter. Jimmy will never again be thought of as a disaster. Future historians will think man, Carter fucked up, but at least he didn't pull any Bushes while in office.

STAGFLATION IS HERE

Stagflation: a term in general use within modern macroeconomics used to describe a period of out-of-control price inflation combined with slow-to-no output growth, rising unemployment, and eventually recession.

Inflation numbers released today show a 6.1% year over year jump in CPI. Unemployment jumped from 4.7% to 5.0% last month. Look bell bottoms and disco to make a comeback folks, because we are time traveling back to the 1970s.

And yet the CNBC drooling, blithering, incompetent buffoons are pleading for more interest rate cuts. I guess 6.1% isn't enough inflation. What will make them happy? 8, 9 15%?

Disgusting.

And I think I have seen yet a new low from CNBC. Cramer was just intewviewing Queen Latifah about whether or not she thought Bernake knew what he was doing. Yes, that Queen Latifah.

Oh the humanity

Hang Seng down 5.4% today, the worst 1 day drop since 9/11. B, b, , but I thought subprime was contained. Mr.Kudlow? Mr.Paulson? Mr.Bernake? Any comments. Any mea culpas? No, of course not.

What do I know? I'm just a member of the doom and gloom crowd. I'm no expert or nuthin'. I just predicted everything that would happen over the past year. Housing is in a tailspin. Stock markets are in free fall. The country is in a recession. Oil is hovering near $100. Gold is at $100,000,000 or something like that. OK I was slightly off on that on and I still think gold is over valued long term. But other than that, while every CNBC talking head was scoffing at the "doom and gloom crowd" and predicting nothing but sunshine and lollipops I and other members of my club were speaking the truth.

And my message this morning to CNBC is "told you so beatches".

Now the very same idiots who 6 months ago said all is well, buy houses, buy stocks, buy iPhones, are saying western civilization as we know it is about to end. That is of course unless Benny B rides to the rescue with a massive, stagflation inducing rate cut. Those cretins were wrong then and are even more wrong now.

The only thing to do is let this recession run its course. No stimulus package. No rate cuts. No tax cuts. No extra spending. No increase in unemployment benefits. No housing bailout. No mortgage rate freeze. No nothing.

Who am I kidding. The dynamic trio of Pelosi, Reid and Jorge W. Arbusto will trip over each other showing that they care. As any economist will tell you stimulus packages are useless. Any fiscal stimulus takes 6-9 months to have an effect on the economy. We are in recession now. By the time the dynamic rip agree on how best to waste my tax dollars it will be March or April. So the effects of the proposal won't be felt until sometime in early 2009. By then the economy will have started growing on its own. So all this will do is create un-necessary inflation in 2009.

But again, I'm no expert or nuthin', just a member of the doom and gloom club.

I thought it was all Bush's fault

Remember that bridge in Minnesota that collapsed last year? And remember how immediately after the MSM, DailyKos and the rest of the left wing wackjobs started pointing fingers? And remember how all the fingers were pointed at Bush and the war in Iraq?

As much as I dislike Bush, blaming him for this was beyond idiotic.

That was the knee-jerk left-wing reaction. Because there is a war, the bridge collapsed. Harry Reid said it, Nancy Pelosi said it and it was repeated numerous times by their MSM cohorts. And of course the left's plan to "fix" the problem was spend gazillions of dollars.

Some examples:

“In terms of infrastructure, where has the Republican Congress been on the WRDA bill for the past seven years?” - Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.)

A better question is where was the Democrat majority held from 2001 to 2003? Hey weren't you part of the majority Senator?

“Since 9/11, we have taken our eye off the ball” - Senator Harry Reid

Uhm yea Senator, ya think? Should we instead have ignored 9/11 instead set out to inspect bridges?

Or my favorite one of all, blame global warming, which is what a MN Democrat Congressowman suggested when she said

Hortman speculated that 90-plus-degree heat Wednesday and the above-normal temperatures of the past two summers may have been a contributing factor. "Did the heat put extra strain on the steel?" Hortman said. "You wonder if this bridge was built to withstand the massive heat we have had this summer."

No Congresswoman, the bridge was built to withstand only temps in the 70s as up until Jan 19, 2001 the state of Minesotta had never experienced temps higher than 80 degrees. Is this really the quality of politican coming out of your state? Oh wait you have the world Walter Mondale, never mind.

Well what do you know. Today the news comes out that the bridge collapse had nothing to do with the war or Bush or with lack of funding or anything else the stooges with a "D" next to their name could dream up . Turns out it was a nothing more than a design flaw. Poor engineering was to blame. Poor engineering that would have occurred with or without 9/11, with or without Iraq and with or without Bush.

Once again proving the MSM and Democrat party have no purpose on this planet.

MSM you crack me up

Headline this morning:

BREAKINGNEWS:

Retail sales surprisingly weak in December, down 0.4%

Surprisingly? To whom? Oh the so-called experts and talking heads on CNBC. If the sun rises in the east and sets in the west those boneheads will be surprised.

Well actually I'm surprised as well. Surprised it is down 0.4% and not down 4.0%.

Maybe I was a little premature in selling my RTH puts after all.

Alan Greenspan - Evil Genius

This is mind blowing. Having orchestrated the biggest credit bubble and subsequent credit bust in the history of man kind, Alan Greenspan is on a roll. First he wrote a book basically summarized as "wasn't my fault suckers, now out of my way I gots 'mo money to make".

Now Mr. Andrea Mitchell of NBC News (not that I am implying that means he gets favorable coverage in the press or anything) is joining a hedge fund. No biggie. Except this is no regular hedger fund. As Fortune says

The move, which comes on the same day that Merrill Lynch (MER) and Citi (C) raise some $21 billion in new capital to offset losses tied to the collapse of the housing bubble, puts Greenspan on the advisory board of the firm that has been among the biggest winners in betting against subprime mortgage-related securities.

Alan I gotta say you are one brilliant son of a bitch. You encourage reckless borrowing. You ruin thousands of lives. You destroy the US dollar. You take the economy to the brink of economic collapse. And yet you get rewarded as a highly paid advisor to a fund that profits from your destructive forces. Kudos to you man.

Martha Stewart went to jail for making $200K on some inside information. Alan Greenspan not only gets no jail time, he gets to profit even more from his disastrous policies. I'd expect this kind of thing to happen in S. American, African or E. European countries. Not in America.

If I ran the world (shudder)

Among other things I would chance the primary system. Iowa, NH. Love ya guys. But come on.

A while ago I read an interesting proposal. Can't remember who it was or have a link. But I will paraphrase what he said. Split the states into four groups based on population. Group 1 would be the smallest states that make up 25% of the population. Group 2 would be the next 25%. Group 3 the next 25% and so on.

Then with those 4 groups you have a super Tuesday every 4 weeks starting somewhere in late January. The idea is that this way every state gets some say equally, and no state, big or small is ignored. Plus since the order of the voting is based on population alone, all areas of the country will be represented randomly and equally.

On the first ballot you'd have states like South Carolina, Delaware, Nevada, Montana, Connecticut and New Mexico. Then the next ballot would be states like NJ, Tennessee, Mass and Georgia. Group 3 would be states like Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Illinois. And then Texas, California and NY would be the last group.

Every group would have east coast, west coast, lily white states, Hispanic majority states, rural states, urban states, farm states, industrial states. A true microcosm of the general election in every primary. In a multi-candidate race like 2008, nobody could win the primary without winning substantial amounts of votes in every round of voting. None of this you win Iowa and/or NH and you are crowned the winner bullshit. And none of this campaigning in Iowa and NH for two years and every other states for 2 minutes bullshit.

Hillary, tsk tsk tsk

How many times have you heard the MSM crown Hillary as the smartest woman alive? Brilliant. Yale graduate. Co-president for eight years. Understand the issues. Tried tests and true. Ready to be the head cheese.

Sorry, but a smart woman running for the Democrat nomination - a party that attracts 90%+ of the black vote - does not bitch slap the memory of MLK on the eve of MLK's birthday. Even a somewhat dense woman wouldn't bitch slap MLK when running for the nomination against a black man.

One of two theories I can think of:

1. She is a complete fucking imbecile that isn't fit to run a Denny's let alone the country.

2. No that about sums it up.

Vota Aquí

Ahh Nevada. My former home whose motto should be "Corruptus Everywhereus".

Can anyone see the problem with this?

Next Saturday, gamblers at the Bellagio, the opulent Las Vegas casino immortalized in the George Clooney blockbuster "Ocean's Eleven," will be treated to an unusual sight. Just before noon, the hotel's dishwashers, cocktail waitresses, porters and bellhops will go on break and gather in a 30,000-square-foot ballroom to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama or maybe John Edwards to be the Democratic nominee for president.

The casino caucuses are open to any shift worker, including cab drivers and employees at nonunion casinos, who is on duty midday Saturday within a 2 1/2 mile radius of the nine sites. They must present identification showing that they work on or near Las Vegas Boulevard, the Strip's official name

What they don't have to present is any ID showing they are legally allowed to vote. You know those racist forms of ID like a birth certificate or passport that the ALCU hates so much.

I can say without any hesitation that 80% of the maids, busboys, dishwashers, etc employed by Bellagio and all other casinos are illegals. Oh sure officially they have valid SS cards and are all citizens since nobody checks and it's all wink wink nudge nudge. While I never worked at the Bellagio itself I spent many days in the employee area of the casino. Spanish is the de facto operating language for employees doing the menial work. It's also hilarious to see their name tags showing Chicago or Seattle as their home town. Since we all know the 1st language from people born in Seattle is espanol.

Gracias Senator Hillary.
Gracias Senator Humberto Reid.
Gracias Senator Juan McCain
And of course gracias El Presidente Jorge W. Arbusto.

Without your help these poor illegals would be disenfranchised.

P.S. Bellagio is opulent? It's nice. But opulent? I think not.

It's ugly out there

So me and the Mrs. went to look at some houses this Sunday. No, no, no. I didn't get a hold of Larry Kudlow's special Kool-Aid or anything. We aren't about to buy anything, just taking a look.....for now.

Went to one subdivision first. A small subdivision, about 15 homes in all. Nice looking homes, built in 2004 and 2005. Prices paid in the $500K to $600K range when bought new. In this subdivision of 15 homes, there were 7 homes for sales. Of those 7 for sale, 5 were in foreclosure. Of the 8 that weren't for sale, one had just been bought at auction for $350K. One of the 5 in foreclosure is up for auction this weekend and the real estate agent on hand said the bank would most likely take $325K. Big auction this coming Thurs-Sun, it will be interesting to see if the banks have capitulated yet or if they are still playing games and acting as if it's January 2006. When homes start selling for pennies on the dollar, then the bottom will have hit. Until then, it's not worth my time even going to these things.

Saw another one, about 2 miles away that was originally listed for $1.2M. Current listing is for $900K. I started chatting with the real estate agent and he said the owner would take $700K. I told him jokingly I might offer $450K. He practically begged me to write up an offer. Now at $450K for that house, I just might be tempted. Or I could wait another 6 months and offer $415K.

This is really starting to be fun.


But hey wasn't Atlanta supposed to be different? Uhm yea, about that. No it isn't different. No city is different. Every city is the same and the housing crash is in full swing everywhere.

In Defence of Ron Paul

Sean,

I agree that Ron Paul often hangs out in the 'extreme' foreign policy side of things. Think of my supporting Ron Paul akin to Southern Baptists supporting Giuliani. They don't agree with everything Rudy stands for but they can live with it on the whole. His fiscal positions trump some of the more Kosian foreign policy positions for me.

If we continue at the pace we are with spending - including never ending wars, social security, Medicare and all of Jorge W. Arbusto's "compassionate conservatism" spending initiatives - my tax rate will hit 70% by the time I am blowing out 55 candles on the cake. This is actuarial fact no rhetoric. Everyone knows what is down the road, yet nobody by Ron Paul will call it out. Fred, Hillary, Obama, McCain and the rest just dance around the real issues and argue about whether to delay the day of reckoning to 2032 or 2034. None of them are willing to say we are dead broke and need a serious overhaul of everything. They are arguing over the positioning of the Titanic chairs.

As for foreign policy issues he's not all crazy. We don't need 100,000s of US military in Germany 60 years after WW2 and 15 years after the USSR died. His argument against Iraq would be more persuasive to Republicans if he termed it in that framework. Do you want American soldiers stationed in Baghdad in 2055? I sure as hell don't.

And I know it's a technicality a lot of conservatives dismiss. But he is not an isolationist. Pat Buchanan is and isolationist. Ron Paul is is a non-interventionist. Not the same thing.

Ron Paul has zero chance of winning a general election. I'm not delusional. I wish it weren't so, but it is reality. Maybe in 2012 or 2016 a new version of him will show up (he'll be too old) when the shit really starts hitting the fan. But not in 2008. If you support and vote for Fred(or Ron Paul), you are essentially supporting and voting for Hillary since he wouldn't stand a snowball's chance against sher. I can live with that supporting Ron Paul. As I have said before, we needed a Jimmy Carter to get a Ronald Reagan. We may very well need a Hillary Clinton to get the guy who fixes things.