Hitler Youth? No, but getting there

Tell me if you see a difference between these videos








Take out the production value differences and it's the same thing. Vapid indoctrinated children singing lovingly to a leader. One is in California. One is in North Korea.

Obama: the new Dear Leader.

More ridiculous media spin

Headline today: Consumers Stop Spending in August

Oh my goodness! Nobody spent anything in August?!?

No, not quite. The increase in consumer spending was 0% in August. People didn't stop spending. They stopped the increase if their spending. Not the same thing. Not even close to the same thing. This is typical of the media. When a government program is scheduled to be increased by 10% and it is only increased by 7%, the headline screams PROGRAM CUT by 3%. Only in the liberal media is a program's increase of 7% seen as a cut.

In August, people decided to stop increasing the amount of money they spend on useless shit they don't need to impress people they don't like. You'd think that would be a good thing. But the MSM headline screams crisis. The MSM has been so brainwashed into thinking more spending is good that they can't even stand back for a minute and think about what's happening. Today's financial "crisis" was due to the fact people spent too much money. You'd think some editor somewhere would put 2 and 2 together and understand that spending less is the way to recovery.

If you read further into the article you learn that incomes went up quite a bit in August. So Americans did something unheard of. They saved the difference. Yes I say that again, the actually saved some of their income. Again that should be celebrated, but instead it is spun as a negative by the brain dead, Kos Inspired, Democratic funded MSM.

Arrogance

The arrogance of politicians and pundits is ridiculous. And it is no longer a bailout bill. It is now a rescue bill. Ahh yes, well OK. That makes it all better. Instead of bailing out idiots, I will now be rescuing idiots. Yipee.

The spin on the bailout bill is now that the people just didn't understand. And the Congressmen who voted no, just don't understand either. You see, if you aren't in favor of spending $2 trillion to bailout people who made stupid financial decisions, you just don't understand how things work. And if you blindly follow George Bush, Nancy Pelosi and Barrack Obama, you just don't understand. If you dare believe in that old antiquated notion of free markets and capitalism you just don't understand. If you believe that tax dollars shouldn't be used to prop up failing banks, you just don't understand. If you believe that socialist policies - the same socialist policies that caused the depression to become GREAT - don't work, you just don't understand.

Well to hell with all of them. I understand plenty. I predicted this would all happen when Bush, Paulson and the rest of them were saying there is nothing to worry about. And when the talking heads were saying the housing bubble can't possibly burst, I was rightfully saying the exact opposite. And yet somehow I am now the dunce who doesn't understand and they are the ones to be followed.

Let's all follow Nancy Reagan's advice and JUST SAY NO to this bill.

Hmmm

I woke up this morning and a funny thing happened. The sun came up. Yes, the sun actually came up after the bailout bill was voted down. Incredible I tell ya!!

And this morning millions of people will go to work. And at the end of this week those same million will receive a paycheck. And on the weekend they will all go blow that paycheck on stupid shit they don't need. And on Saturday millions of people will pay a hell of a lot of money to attend a college football game. Same on Sunday there will be 14 NFL games, each with 75,000 people paying $100+ for a ticket and $8 beer.

This is the new definition of a great depression according to the Daily Kos led Democrat funded MSM. 75,000 people in a stadium, drunk off their asses, cheering on grown men throwing a football around. And this after paying $20 to park their luxury SUV that costs $90 to fill up. My god it's like we're back to 1933 right? And the typical American idiot gets in his luxury SUV after the game, listens to the news and thinks, hell yeah, we need Obama to get us out of this depression. And when he gets home he turns on his TV - with 128 HD channels - and watches some more news where the talking heads tell him he is in the worst economic crisis ever. It really boggles the mind how people can be that out of touch with their own reality.

Of course none of this will be mentioned in the MSM. All you will hear for the next two days is story after story of some asshole getting foreclosed on. Or some other asshole who can't get a loan to buy a $850,000 house on a $65,000 salary. And well, see we have to get the bill passed since it is now a Civil Right for everyone to own a house that costs 12X your income. Anyone who says otherwise is a warmongering, racist, homophobe misogynistic pig who doesn't care about the working man.

And it will work. The spineless GOP House members will cave and vote for the bill later this week. They'll throw in some token tax cut that will affect about 17 people and call it a victory. This is so typical of Republicans. They stand up on principles for a day or two, then read a NY Times piece critical of them and then fold to the pressure of the MSM. At the end of the day the government will confiscate $2 trillion more of your dollars and reward people who cheated, lied and stole. And do it with a smile.

well well well

I am somewhat happy today. Not happy really, just less pissed off than usual. The bailout bill is dead. At least for now. The bumbling dolts in Congress are planning on voting for this abomination again later this week. And it will most likely pass a second time around. Just like the amnesty bill will eventually pass, despite the fact that the people are against it. Congress is bought and paid for by special interests groups and in the end they get the final say.

Whether or not the bill does pass is now moot. It is clear Obama will win a landslide victory and implement the bailout in various forms. The brain dead lemmings will follow him off the cliff all the while chanting HOPE and CHANGE, HOPE and CHANGE. He has promised $1 trillion in new spending. That will become $2 trillion soon enough and will have the same impact as the $2 trillion bailout bill. You say potato I say potato.

I am happy that I have been proven right. Housing has crashed and continues to do so. Ditto with equities. All the experts who said otherwise have been proven wrong. Bernanke, Kudlow, Cramer, Dave Ramsey, all of them. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Every real estate agent who said now is a great time has been proven to be a tool. Corruption and graft is now out in the open, and even so, nobody cares. The unraveling of America is happening in real time before our eyes. It is well on its way to 3rd world banana republic status. Historians will look back to this time and ask what the hell were they thinking? They had a hell of a system and they went ahead and fucked it all up, just so they could have granite counter tops in the kitchen and Escalades in the driveway. What fools.

RIP AMERICA
1776-2009

62% of people say so, so it must be so

The major pollsters like Gallup, Rasmussen and Zogby weight their polls. These weights are in an attempt to mirror the general population. So if the population is 40% Democrat, 35% Republican and 25% independent, they'll call people until they get a sample that's 40/35/25. Makes sense.

Except it doesn't. The 40/35/25 is an estimate. It's baed on nothing substantive. Their estimates are based on other polls of self-identified party identification, voter registration numbers and past elections. But it's still at best an educated guess. And every pollster has a different weight, because it is a guess and nobody really knows. Rasmussen, Gallup and Zogby each have their own weights.

I question why any weighting is necessary at all. A poll is supposed to accurately represent the population as a whole. So if you randomly call 1000 numbers, and the population is truly 40/35/25 as you think it is, then you should get a breakdown of 400/350/250 in your sample. If you don't, then it's not a random sample and your methodology is incorrect. Either that or the sample is too small and you have to start calling more numbers.

It's like flipping a coin. Every two flips should yield one heads and one tails. If you flip 2 times the odds of getting 2 heads or 2 tails is high. If you flip 20 times the odds get closer to 10 of each and the odds of getting 20 heads or 20 tails is almost 0. If you flip 1000 times, the odds are close to 100% that you will see 500 heads and 500 tails.

Same with polling. If you call 10 people, you can get 8 Democrats and 2 Republicans or vice versa. If you call 100 people the chances of you getting a true representation of the population as a whole is better, but you could still get something freaky from a small sample. If you call 1000, the chances get exponentially better to find a true representation. And so the need to weight based on some arbitrary breakdown strikes me as unnecessary...if and that's a big if, 1000 is a high enough sample.

As I see it, by purposely weighting the calls you are essentially saying your sample is not random. And if your sample is not random, then the entire validity of the poll - and polling in general - is called into question.

There is one major poll that doesn't do any weighting. That's the BattleGround poll. It is also the one poll out there that shows McCain winning. That poll calls 1000 people at random without any weighting. It is a daily poll and has also been the steadiest poll throughout the campaign basically showing a tie with either of the two up 1 or 2 percentage points.

And that to me says than the numbers themselves. The major polls have seen wild swings during a short period of time. One day Obama is up by 8, the next week McCain is up 7, week after that Obama is up 9 all in the same poll. I find it hard to believe people change their minds that radically that quickly. Sure, one candidate or the other may say or do something to change some people’s minds. But I just don't see 20% of the electorate gyrating so much over a 2-3 week span.

If people are truly that easily swayed by a speech or a commercial, it's a sad commentary on the American voter.
And one more comment about polls. I have heard the valid explanation that youngens are not represented accurately in polls. This is because lots of youngens have cell phones only and are never called. And youngens are heavily Democrat so the polls have to be weighted to take this into account. But what I don't ever hear is the other side of the equation. Evil rich republicans (like me according to Obama) don't answer the phone to take polls. The small business owner who is overwhelmingly Republican who is out working 12 hours a day isn't home to take the call. Nor is the consultant who is away at a client site 3 or 4 nights a week and is never home to take the pollster's call. And any poll conducted over the weeked will way undersample the evil rich republicans on weekend trips. However, the welfare recipient is at home 24/7/365 to take that call. And the teacher as well as all government "workers" who are home by by 4:00 every day has all the time in the world to chat with a pollster.

Best thing to do is ignore all polls.

Must See TV

Youtube video of high ranking Democrats in 2004 saying Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in great shape and should not be regulated. The same high ranking Democrats - Maxine Waters and Barney Frank specifically - who are now in charge of writing the bailout bill. The same Democrats who are painting the undoing of Fannie and Freddie on McCain.

Not that this will ever get played by Katie Couric on her show. But you might want to take a look.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the root cause of this "crisis". The two organizations were nothing but graft machines for the Democrats. These organizations encouraged - at gunpoint - banks to lend money to people who had no business being lent to. And as this video shows, anyone who questioned the wisdom of this process was denounced by the Democrats as racist. Questioning if someone with no job, no assets and a 500 FICO score should get a $500K mortgage is racist, don't you know?

Wonder if anyone in the Kos-inspired MSM will bring any of this up? Probably right after they do a full expose on Obama and his ties to ACORN.

The End of the World....Part 2

The talking heads and politicians have sternly warned us all that if the $2 trillion bailout bill doesn't pass the end will be here. I say bullshit to that. The argument goes something like this; if the bailout bill doesn't pass, banks stop lending. If banks stop lending the economy crashes and burns.

While some of what they're saying is true, most of it is false. They are right that SOME banks will stop lending. And some banks will fold. And the economy will take a hit. But it will not be some 1930s bank run induced financial collapse.

There are thousands of banks all over the country. Most did not go house loan crazy over the past few years. Most banks were prudent and didn't lend $700k to illegal aliens making $20K a year. And those banks for the most part are OK. Not all, but most. And these banks, with good balance sheets will continue to lend prudently.

On the other hand the giant banks that did most of the reckless lending will probably cease lending as they want to conserve every dime they have. But that is a good thing. Those loans should never have been made. And future loans like that shouldn't be made either. Having these banks fail is the best thing that can happen right now.

The bailout bill is not about preserving the credit markets. It's about preserving the credit markets for bad loans. Right now I am quite confident that I could walk into any car dealership and get a loan for a new car. Same with a mortgage. I have cash in the bank, high income and about as good a credit history as you can come by. The irony of course is I don't need a loan and hopefully never will need a loan again.

However Joe Shmoe idiot American living an lifestyle at 125% of his income does need a loan. He need a loan every day to survive. And you know what, if he has to give up the luxury SUV and the 90" plasma and the $500 jeans, it's not the end of the world. I read this article a while back that was stunning. It profiled this guy whose Amex credit limit was cut from $2500 to $2100. And he was complaining that he can't go out to dinner anymore. And this was written up as a justification for the bailout bill to get that credit limit right back up. Nowhere in the article was it even suggested that perhaps this guy should buy a cookbook and not have to rely on maxing out his Amex to get a meal.

Once again this is a situation where both the left and the right agree. The left wants more government spending no matter what. The right wants Wall St. to get as much money as possible. In the end the middle and upper middle class gets it straight in the ass...although this time they actually think they will benefit.

Enjoy the 60% tax rate coming to pay for all this.

Paul Newman

Wow, the MSM is in over drive about Paul Newman's death. No surprise there as Newman was one of the most rabid Democrats in a rabidly Democrat town. He wasn't just your run of the mill liberal Democrat who talked the talked. He walked the walk too.

He gave money to Obama.. And to Chris Dodd, the liberal Democrat who got a cheap loan from Countrywide in exchange for writing the first mortgage bailout bill. He also gave money to Al Franken, the guy who wrote the Saturday Night Live skit implying Sarah Palin's husband had sex with her daughter. What a swell guy! Not to be outdone he also gave money to Howard Dean's campaign. YEEE HAAWWW!!

Other illustrious losers Newman supported: John McGovern, John Kerry, Ralph Nader, John Anderson, Hillary Clinton and Gore Vidal. The same Gore Vidal who is convinced Bush/Cheney orchestrated 9/11.

So while you are reading glowing reviews of Paul Newman, keep in mind the other side of him. A radical leftist supporting the most radical campaigns of the past 40 years.

Can't teach an old dog new tricks

The standard liberal Democrat of solving any problem is one of two ways. Throw more money at it. Or tax it.

The bailout bill is option 1. Now word comes that Nancy Pelosi and her gang of socialists wants to use option 2 as well.

Her brilliant plan is to tax Wall St, if after 5 years, the bailout plan ends up costing tax payers money. Then, presumably the cost to the taxpayers would be made up by the new tax levied on Wall St. firms.

So if I understand her correctly, she doesn't want taxpayers to pay any extra taxes. And in order to achieve that goal, she will impose a new tax. Mr. Orwell himself would be proud by this doublespeak.

Oh but the tax is on "Wall Street" you see. So the "common man" won't be affected, so say the imbeciles with a D next to their name. In the deranged mind of the liberal, Wall St and Main St. have nothing to do with each other. After all nobody on Main St. ever uses a Wall St product. Nobody on Main St. has a 401k invested in and administered by Wall St. Nobody has a bank account. Nobody gets a loan financed by Wall St money.

This tax on wall st, like any other corporate tax is a tax on everyone in the country. When the "Wall St tax" is imposed, who do you think will pay it? The consumer of course. So your $1.25 ATM fee goes to $1.50. Your $4.95 monthly checking account fee goes to $5.25. Your $100 a year IRA fee goes to $115.

A tax is a tax is a tax. Doesn't matter if it's income tax, corporate tax, oil profit tax or Wall St. tax. In the end the payer is the same.

However given the fact that a solid majority of Americans are idiots, they don't see it like that. They want class warfare and punishing the rich is the way to go. And then 5 years from now when ATM fees are $10 a pop to pay for the new tax, Nancy and Co. will propose legislation to punish banks from charging outrageous fees.

And on the stupidity goes on.

ACORN gets your money

Has anyone heard of an outfit called ACORN? Probably not since the MSM has been silent on the matter. ACORN is a "community organizing" kind of thing. It registers voters - including felons, illegal alines and the dead. It is funded by and for the Democratic party. Barrack Obama worked for ACORN for some time in Chicago during his "community organizing" days. And ACORN is under investigation or under indictment for voter fraud in several states right now.

Some links to this dreadful organization:

Their work in Missouri where their members were arrested for vote fraud. Hmmm when else has Missouri been in the news lately? Oh yeah I remember now. Obama has instructed sheriffs in Missouri to arrest anyone they think is telling "lies" about Obama. Awesome plan really. Arrest your opposition and get your former employer to register non-existent voters. Absolutely brilliant strategy. Not to be outdone, their west coast members were even more criminal in Seattle and they were arrested too.

A good summary of all the ACORN fraud so far in all the states can be found here.

Why is this important or relevant for the bailout bill? Because up to $100M of the proceeds received from the MBS sales via the bailout will go to....anyone, anyone, Bueller?...that's right ACORN. Yessir, $100M of tax payer dollars going to fun the ex-employer of Barrack Obama which has been proven again and again to be a criminal organization.

Minority Leader's comments on the issue:

Washington, Sep 27 - House Republicans have made clear that they will fight for an economic rescue package that protects the interests of families, seniors, small businesses, and all taxpayers. And as discussions continue in order to forge an agreement that reflects these principles, the American people are taking note of a left-wing giveaway Democrats are pushing to force taxpayers to bankroll a slush fund for a discredited ally of the Democratic Party. At issue is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – better known as ACORN – an organization fraught with controversy for, among other scandals, its fraudulent voter registration activities on behalf of Democratic candidates.

And putting aside the voter fraud, Bush and Paulson along with McCain and the rest of the stooges in the GOP supporting the bill are sending a $100M check to an organization whose sole mission is to destroy the Republican party. And what the hell is this crap about fighting for families, senior and small businesses? This is a giveaway to Henry Paulson's pals at Goldman Sachs, where he used to work.

So to recap the government will spend $700B (so they claim I say it's more like $2T). That money will benefit the Treasury Secretary's ex-employer, Goldman Sachs. It will also directly benefit Barack Obama's ex-employer. Can you say Banana Republic everyone? You expect this kind of graft from Central American countries. You don't expect it from the US. At least not out in the open like this.

Someone posted a comment earlier criticizing me for not watching the debate. This bailout/ACORN deal pretty summarizes it all. Obama worked for ACORN. McCain supports giving ACRON $100M. Paulson worked at Goldman, he writes the bill that boosted Goldman's market capitalization over $1B last week. McCain wrote the amnesty for illegals bill. Obama gladly supported it as did Paulson/Bush.

Obama will raise my taxes to pay for his bullshit programs. They will have no effect on me. I am not a welfare receiving lowlife nor a government worker nor a union thug (which all fall under the same category of welfare recipient when you really think about it). McCain will raise taxes to spend money that will have no effect on me since I am not the CEO of an investment bank nor a "victim" of the housing crash nor an illegal, illiterate alien doing the job Americans won't do. Both of them, along with Bush/Paulson couldn't care less about me. They are both bought and paid for by groups that also couldn't care less about me.

So exactly what do I gain from watching these two debate for two hours? And exactly what do I gain if one or the other wins? Heads they win, tails I lose. Why even bother flipping the coin?

The Obama Fans

An insight into the typical Obama voter from the Kodak gallery. If I had to pick one word to describe this group, I think unwashed would do be it. Given the recent thuggery promoted by Obama, this group should apply for positions in the FBI during Obama's rein.

And what happened to the hippie lib hotties? Back in my day, they were all over the place in college. I even joined a protest once to impress a fine (yes utterly insane) looking leftie. I don't remember the exact details, but it had something to do with boycotting something because of child labor in some 3rd world country....or something like that, I didn't care then and don't remember now. And there were plenty of otherwise normal guys there for the same reason...hot, crazy chicks with daddy issues and low self-esteem and lots of time on their hands to go out in the streets with protest signs.

But looking at these pictures I see over the past 15 years those beauties have morphed into something horrible. I'm not even sure which ones are the guys and which ones are the girls.

Link courtesy of hotair.com

No, this is not Stalinist Russia, this is the Obama campaign

Once again, if this doesn't scare you, I don't know what else will. The Obama goon squad has instructed Missouri prosecutors to prosecute anyone airing any anti-Obama ads. We are talking about criminalizing political speech here.

http://www.kmov.com/video/index.html?nvid=285793&shu=1

Ladies and Gentlemen, President Obama

I was holding out some kind of hope that the debates would wake up the zombies in America to the dangers of electing a quasi-Muslim communist, raised on the streets of Jakarta. For some reason McCain and the rest of the incompetent GOP has ignored the fact that he is a) a Muslim and b) a communist. Instead they have spent the last few weeks figuring out how to outshine Obama on #2 and take the country down the path to communism themselves via the $2 trillion bailout.

I didn't see the debate, but from the analysis I've read, sounds like at worst Obama did so-so, at best he kicked ass. The debate was essentially more similar lies from Obama without any counter punch from McCain. Kind of like the entire campaign has been. McCain insists on bringing a knife to a gun fight while Obama brings Stinger missile. Obama deserves to win.

At the end of the day, 2008 was going to be a liberal year no matter what. The foolish American is easily marketed to and will believe any lie. Buy a car for only $199 a month!! Never mind that it's $199 for the rest of your life. Sure you can afford this $750,000 house on a $45,000 salary. Just refinance in 2 years. Dear sir, I am pleased to announce you have won the Nigerian Lottery. Barack Obama is a centrist politician who will lower taxes for 95% of people and "fix" the economy.

For the typical idiot American, that sounds as plausible as anything else. The average American can't even name the VP of the country. The average American thinks if he gets a tax refund, it means he pays no taxes. Such an imbecile becomes putty in the hands of a smooth talking con-man like Obama The Roman Empire fell because it got too lazy. The American empire fell because it got too stupid.

For a while I buried my head in the sand and thought if McCain won, it would be OK. But it has become increasingly obvious that strategy isn't working. At heart McCain is a liberal as well. His actions this past week ended any illusion I had. A few true conservative Republicans had the fortitude to stand up to Bush and say no to the bailout. What does McCain do? Runs to Washington in an effort to quash that effort in an effort of BIPARTISANSHIP. Well fuck you McCain, I don't want bipartisanship. I want to not pay 60% of my income in taxes to bail out people. I'm pretty sure Cindy's $300M fortune won't be too affected by this bailout. But when my taxes double, I will be quite affected. And that is a wee bit more important to me than whether or not Democrats and Republicans get to be friends in Washington.

On balance McCain is still the better option. Obama's goon-like tactics (hacking Palin's email, threatening TV stations if they run ads, spamming radio stations that have anti-Obama guests on) are downright fucking scary indeed. I'm hoping when he does become president there will be more scrutiny on him and even the liberal MSM won't stand for that kind of thuggery.

But the American people have spoken. The Democrats cheated fair and square and they won. If there is actually an election in 2012, maybe the GOP can get its shit together. I say if there is an election, because I can see a national disaster looming in the next 4 years. A terrorist attack, a complete meltdown of the economy or a Cat 5 hurricane hitting Miami. President Obama would have no qualms declaring martial law, suspending elections and of course 'temporarily' confiscating guns for the safety of the public. Call me paranoid if you want, but you know very well it's not that far fetched.

My advice to everyone reading is get citizenship somewhere else as a just in case. It's easier than you think. In many European countries, as long as you have just one grandparent who was from the old country, you can get citizenship there. Australia and New Zealand have very liberal immigration policies, especially if you are white collar sort of worker. Exchange as much of your $US into foreign currencies, mix it up, some Euros some Swiss Francs, some Yen, some Yuan. If you think owning a gun might be helpful in the future, buy that gun now while you still can. Buy a couple and strategically place then out of the reach of the Obama thugs who will be coming to look for them.

It was a great time to buy right?

The final stage of the housing crash has begun.

Unless you have perfect credit, 20% down and a debt to income ratio under 40%, there is no loan available. And I suspect about 10% of the US population qualifies. Maybe not even that high. That 20% might as well be 2000% for most Americans who don't have $500 in the bank, let alone $50,000 to buy a $250,000 house.

The money shot:

But these days many lenders are anticipating that home prices will continue to fall, so they're automatically discounting every home's appraised value by 10%.

I think 10% is way too optimistic but hey, these guys know what they're doing...snicker, snicker.

Oh the foolishness of people who bought houses in 2006 or 2007 or even the really foolish ones who bought this year.

But what do I know? After all I'm just a renter not living the American Dream. I can't paint my walls. Well yeah I can, actually. I just have to paint them back when I leave. So I have saved potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling when I did and renting since. But I will have to spend an extra $150 to paint the walls back to white when I leave. Hmmm, I wonder if I did the right thing?

2nd what?

Obama's henchmen are now targeting TV stations and threatening to revoke their licence for daring to run anti-Obama commercials. If the thought of this man as president doesn't scare the shit out of you, you're simply not paying attention. See the second page of the letter for the truly fascist part.

Thanks to National Review for the link.

Those experts

For the past two weeks - ever since this financial "crisis" was made up by the MSM - I have heard a parade of experts discuss it. These experts almost all unanimously favor the $2 trillion bailout proposed by our Great W Leader.

Well they are experts so if they say it's a good thing it must be a good thing, right? Not even close. They are "experts" that also happen to work at financial institutions. The same financial institutions that stand to benefit from the bailout. And also the same financial institutions that thought lending $720,000 to an illegal alien making $15K a year was a prudent business move. If these assholes are such experts, why in the world didn't they use their expertese to stop this kind of lending in the first place? And the same experts that have for years now said the housing bottom was just around the corner.

How's all that working out for everyone? I sure hope you weren't silly enough to take the expert advice and invest your money according to their idiocy.

And today we get this little gem showing once again that so-called experts don't know a damn thing.

The department said new requests for jobless benefits for the week ending Sept. 20 increased by 32,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 493,000, much higher than analysts' expectations of 445,000.

Only off by 11%. Thanks for the expert analysis there boys.

And the "expert" I love to hate the most is Dave Ramsey. This swindler who wraps himself up in religion has a show on Fox Business (surprise surprise) and a syndicated radio show. He is still playing his pump and dump scheme. This real estate agent still tells his callers that real estate is a great buy and every day they don't buy real estate, they're losing money. I would love to have him take a call from one of his kool-aid drinkers who took that advice and bought a house 3 years ago in Las Vegas or Phoenix. But you see, Dave only takes calls from minions that worship him and hence nobody dares challenge his lies and deception.

He also sells books, tapes and goes on tour charging people $100 to see him in person. And the fact that he has millions of followers, proves P.T. Barnum right once again. If you want to have a good laugh listen to his show some time. You will be amazed at the stupidity displayed by the callers. And even more amazed at the advice he gives. To me it's like a train wreck listening. I know I should turn it off, but can't help myself.

A close runner up to Dave is Larry Kudlow. Larry is a supposed conservative who has yet to meet a government program he doesn't like. Not any government program though. Only the type that helps Wall St. But Larry goes even a step further. He claims that this latest bailout is a net positive and will make the government lots of and lots of money.

Dave, Larry and every other expert have been wrong at every turn over the past 3 years. Everything they predicted has been wrong. And yet both of them still have a TV show offering expert advice. Only one conclusion: Americans are morons.

What I would do

A simple 5 point plan to solve this "crisis" with very little cost to taxpayers.

1. Immediately disband the FHA and any organization that helps "low income" people buy houses. This was the root cause of the problem, people buying homes who should have no business buying homes. Solving a housing crisis means eliminating the cancer of the crisis. No more meddling in the housing sector by the government through subsidies.

2. Eliminate the long term capital gains tax for 3 years. You want to prop up stock markets, make the after tax rate of return higher and people will buy stocks again. At the same time, triple the dividend tax for 3 years. This will essentially force companies to stop paying dividends and instead invest the money back into the company, resulting in more growth.

3. Suspend all gas taxes, both state and federal. You want people to spend more to stimulate the economy, don't send a check. Make the price of gas lower. This will not only give consumers more money, it will also result in lower prices throughout the economy due to lower transportation costs.

4. For 12 months, allow people to file bankruptcy without a negative impact on credit scores. Lots of people right now are hanging on by a thread. They are afraid of the FICO hit, so they are making the ridiculous payment on the house. They will go bankrupt eventually, might as well get that out of the way now. Rip that band aid off in one swoop instead of bit by bit. Then instead of paying $2500 mortgage on a condo they can't afford, these people will pay $1200 rent on an apartment they can afford and have $500 extra to spent in the economy. All this without always being on the verge.

5. Immediately start enforcing a new rule for all government assistance: NO GREEN CARD, NO CHECK. Doesn't matter if you have the saddest sad story that ever was told. And I don't care if you've been here for 18 years and your kid is on the honor roll and about to go to Harvard on a full scholarship right after serving in the Marines. If you're here illegally you don't get any government money. Period.

Another $25B

Right on schedule, GM is lined up to get $25B of taxpayer dollars. Is anyone still keeping count of the total tab? I'm at $2.1 trillion. But really when you get into numbers that high, it's impossible to know. $2.1 or $2.8, who the hell knows. It might as well be 100 trillion. No matter what the number is, it will never be paid off. My kids and their kids and their kids and their great great great great grand kids will still be paying this shit off. Just so Henry Paulson and the CEO of GM can continue attending the country club dinners.

I missed the speech by our Glorious W Leader last night. Forgot all about and just as well. Had I watched it, my TV would probably have a big hole in it this morning. Reading the text of it I see I was right. A bunch of bullshit about how the government will make money off this mess. Here is why it's bullshit:

The government claims it will buy worthless mortgages and sometime in the "future" sell those mortgages for a profit as the housing market improves. So many flaws with this argument..

1. That "future" could be 20 or 20 years from now. If you think that's unrealistic, think again. It took from 1929 to 1954 for the stock market to get back to pre-crash levels. Nasdaq is today - 8 years later - less than 50% of the value it was at the peak in 2000. There are some areas of Texas were house prices today are about where they were in the mid 80s, at the height of the Texas oil-led real estate boom. Adjusted for inflation those houses are worth pennies on the dollar compared to the peak value. Sounds like our Great W Leader has been reading NAR press releases and thinks now is a great time to buy.

2. How will our Great W Leader and his sidekick min-Great Leader Paulson know what the true value of the loans are. There is absolutely no way to know. It will be a guess and nothing more. And it will invite unimaginable corruption. Basically it will be up to a bureaucrat somewhere to determine the value of every single CDO held on the books. And how easy would it be to bribe that bureaucrat to say your particular bank's CDOs are worth 50 cents on the dollar instead of 30 cents. Since nobody has any way to prove or disprove that amount, you can't even prove corruption if you try.

3. If this is such a great deal for the government, why doesn't someone do it in the private sector? The reason the govt has to step in is because the private sector knows these junk loans will never be paid back. The value of them is $0. And it will be $0 forever. If there were truly profits to be made as our Great W Leader says, believe me Goldman Sachs would be all over it.

4. Again, if these junk loans are really discounted future profits, why not just have the banks hold on to them? Say you have a CDO that you KNOW (according to the Great W Leader) will be worth more in a few years. Why on earth would you sell it at a discount today?

None of it makes any sense. No matter how the Great W Leader spins this, it all comes back to a $2T give away to banks by taxpayers. And it is fucking disgusting. And because it is absolutely the wrong thing to do, it will be passed by congress with a huge majority.

RIP AMERICA
1776-2009

At least it's under 3/4

74% of El Paso, Texas speaks Spanish at home. It's just about time to rename the state back to the original Tejas I'd say.

If you've ever been to El Paso, it's a good view into the future of most American cities. It's like a Mexican neutron bomb went off. The buildings are still standing and the city looks like an American city from a distance. But the American people have been wiped out and replaced with Mexicans.

And in the SW, cities are well under way to being exclusively Mexican.

The numbers also say that one out of every five people living in the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California use mainly Spanish, and not English, at home.

I question the 20% myself. Anyone who has visited Los Angeles in the past couple of years will question that as well. I'd say 40% is more like it and 60% in Los Angeles itself.

Officially, 20% of the two most populous states in the country speaks no English. And nobody thinks anything is wrong. I get to save 3 cents on the cost of a tomato, so I guess it's worth becoming a N. American version of Yugoslavia.

VIVA MEXICO

RIP AMERICA
1776-2009

The lost tapes...circa 9/22/08

Bush: Hank, we need this bailout ASAP.No fucking way I'm going down in history as Hoover 2. I don't care if I bankrupt the country, this bailout is getting done.

Paulson: I know but the Democrats won't let me have everything I need. And the rubes are starting to ask questions themselves. Might not be as stupid as we thought they were. Damn internet and those blogs.

Bush: OK you have to give them something.

Paulson: They're talking about limiting executive pay.

Bush: Sounds like a fair thing, given that taxpayer money is used, CEOs shouldn't be making $50M a year

Paulson: Fuck that. What do you think my next job is going to be? Whatever this final monstrosity of a bailout will be, will mean trillions of free money for Wall St. And as a former and future CEO of a Wall St firm, I'm getting mine.

Bush: Yeah good point. Well still, look at the big picture. You now own millions of shares of Goldman Sachs. This bailout will mean a profit of hundreds of millions for you. Not a bad deal really. Just give them this and add in some language about what an "executive"is. Then when you go back to Goldman Sachs, your title can be janitorial consultant and pay yourself $50M a year.

Paulson: Brilliant as usual George. Let me call Harry Reid and see if he wants anything in this as well.

Bush: And don't forget Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan. Without those crazy mo-fos none of this would have happened. And as with all things Bush Adminisration, instead of firing incompetent people, we reward them with fame and fortune.

Paulson: Oh don't worry about them. They have been more than well compensated.

But they have gun control

So I hear that a school massacre in Finland occurred yesterday. 10 students were killed by a crazy person. So the answer of course is to do what liberal Democrats always suggest after school shootings. And that of course is ban guns. Except there is a slight problem with that response. Finland already has extremely strict gun laws.

Once again proving that liberalism is a mental disease.

What do you get

after 50 years of a publik skool education system run by unionized, Democrat voting government employees? An idiot socialist nation. That's what.

Of the more than 1,000 Americans surveyed in a national CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 62% said they think in general the government should step in to try to address the problems facing struggling financial institutions. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Though 55% said they favor the proposed bailout, 65% said it would probably treat taxpayers unfairly.

OK. Putting aside the idiocy of people who think a bailout is a good idea, I would like to know who the 35% are that think giving $2T of tax dollars to investment banks is NOT unfair to tax payers. Wait, I just figured it out.

35% of the population is about the number of government employees and those on welfare.
These parasites pay no taxes, so they don't give a shit one way or another. Their goal is to expand government at every step of the way. Doesn't matter it costs taxpayers trillions of dollars. They are the beneficiaries of it all.

Republican or Democrat, doesn't matter. The common denominator here is government.
Government is the anti-Midas. Everything it touches turns to shit. It is inherently evil and must be destroyed. The low level clerk working in the Ministry of Propaganda during Hitler's years was as guilty as anyone else. Same goes with today's government employee parasites slowly killing the host. They are the cogs that make it happen. All unionized, all socialists all voting for fellow unionized/socialists that expand their ranks and incomes at the expense of those that actually produce a good or service sold in the marketplace.

You can go on arguing about McCain and Obama all you want. At the end of the day every year the government grows bigger. Every year the government has a higher payroll with ever more generous benefits to those that sit around all day long doing nothing. Every year millions more graduate from government run schools unable to read and write, but indoctrinated about the glories of socialism for 12 years by unionized, socialist teachers. The same teachers that work (and I use that term very loosely) 6 hour days, 35 weeks a year and then spend their 17 week holidays complaining about how unfair life is for them. Every year hundreds of billions more is squandered for some program dreamed up by a government employee that does nothing to benefit anyone else but fellow government employees.

What we need is a restart button. Destroy the government from top to bottom. Burn it all down. Remove the millions of parasites living courtesy of the tax payer. Fire every teacher. Fire every federal employee. Do we really need a Bureau of Indian Affairs? Does anyone even know what the fuck the Department of the Interior does? Aside from waste tens of billions of dollars every year that is, which it does very well indeed. Does anyone really think we couldn't get by as a nation without the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation? Or how about the Appalachian Regional Commission? This kind of bullshit is what the $2.5 TRILLION dollars a year confiscated from taxpayers is used to fund.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
- Thomas Jefferson

If that is not applicable today, I don't know when it ever will be.

Ladies and Gents I present to you today's clueless real estate agent:

KANSAS CITY, Kansas (AP) -- By late Saturday afternoon, only three prospective homebuyers had visited the open house Valerie Morrill was hosting. The Prudential real estate agent recalled a year ago, she'd see 10 to 15 people during an open house in this midtown Kansas City neighborhood. She said the government's efforts to bring stability back to the economy and the credit markets may help but she's seen no immediate improvement.

"It's just the buyer pool is so low," she lamented. "Eighteen months ago, you needed $500 to buy a house." Now, all the special rates and government programs are gone, leaving buyers facing a 10 percent down payment. "You have to have money and nobody has money."

Oh I see. So we should go back to the days when you needed $500 to buy a $500,000 house. Because doing so worked so darned well. I mean, come on. It is so unrealistic to expect, you know, people to have like down payments and stuff. Talk about 1993 here people! And yet imbeciles like this are touted on the nightly news as experts on real estate.

It gets better

"We are seeing buyers. The interest is there. But people have problems," said Marc Montalvo, who is trying to sell a house in Hollywood, Fla., that he bought as an investment in June and fixed up. "They can't qualify for the mortgage. Or they need to sell their home before they can buy another, but that house isn't selling. Or they have been through foreclosure. We try to work with people because we want someone in the house."

"People want to buy. The problem is you can't get them qualified for financing because the lenders have tightened up so much that only people with the highest credit ratings get approved," Montalvo said. "We haven't seen the interest rates fall and the qualifications become more realistic."

Wrong dumbass. People can't qualify because prices are still too high. The so called tightened lending is only going back to what was normal 10 years ago. A downpayment, good credit and a reasonable debt to income ratio. Which means someone making $40K can qualify for a $150K home. Not a $500K home. And even for the $150K home he'll need a couple of dollars as a downpayment.

These people make used car salesmen look smart and ethical.

Insanity

The definition of insanity was defined by Einstein as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result each time.

Interest rates were too low. People bought houses they couldn't afford. Financial meltdown occurred.

So how does the Democratic party want to prevent this from happening again? By providing home "owners" with assistance in buying homes they can't afford. Not content with squandering $700 billion, Obama and his palls want another government hand out to home "owners" struggling to make the payments. Hey Barrack, newsflash old buddy, old pal. They can't make the payments because they should not be in the house to begin with. I can't make a payment on a Lear jet. That doesn't mean I should be handed a check to do so. But I also didn't buy a Lear jet.

See the difference? Every day this thing gets more and more fucked up. Yesterday I posted that the cost would be $2 trillion when all was said and done. I think my figure was too low.

And for anyone reading this who thinks, well, we need it because they alternative would be worse, ask yourself where this $2 trillion + will come from. At what point does the medicine end up being worse than the disease it's trying to cure?

Also think to yourself why is it that keeping home prices artifically inflated is good. Housing is the biggest cost for most people. So why in the world would the govt actively keep that cost inflated? Gas goes to $4 a gallon there are near riots on the street. Yet buying a shitbox 3 bedroom house for $500,000 is celebrated. It makes no sense.

Think of the economic benefits to the country if everyone's mortgage were 35% less every month. Just investing the difference over 30 years would take care of retirement needs. That could be a reality if the government just let the market equilibrium take place.

Instead the government is keeping in place policies that will mean slavery to a home lender for 30, or even 40 or 50 years. It's a hidden tax essentially that everyone is forced to pay. Except the money doesn't go to the government it goes to lenders. And while you're paying for monthly mortgage tax, you also get nailed a second time via inflation throughout the economy. That $500K house means people will demand higher pay to just barely afford the house. To give that higher pay, employers have to raise prices.

Take a look at Obama and Hillary and McCain's top lenders. Almost identical names. Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Morgan, Chase, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America. Same names, just different order and amounts. All three of them are in the pockets of politicians. And what do all of these names have in common? They lend money. And what better way to pay back those that give you money, than setting up conditions that will mean generations worth of indebted serfs?

It's all a con game folks. My advice to everyone is get a second citizenship. This thing isn't going to end well for you.

Can you count that high?

$700B more tax payer dollars down the tube. Which will really end up being twice the estimated amount when it's all said and done. That is in addition to the $300B for Freddie/Fannie, $85B for AIG, $30B for Bear Sterns, $150B for the stimulus and the $300B for the original bailout from June. Can anyone even count that high? We're talking close to $2 TRILLION dollars.

Step back a second and think about that number. 2 trillion.

2 thousand billion dollars.

2 million million dollars.

Someone earning $50,000 a year would need to work 40 million years to earn $2 trillion.

With $2 trillion you could stack dollar bills to the moon. Twice.

That's how much money the federal government has just wasted in the span of a few months.

And what for? So the typical American could go on a spending spree of houses he can't afford, cars he can't afford, TVs he can't afford and vacations he can't afford.

But now all will be well right? Bush and Paulson have leapt to the rescue and we're OK. Good times are here again. Your once $500K home which is now worth $200K will jump back to $500K. Now is a great time to buy!! Given the average IQ of the American voter, that is probably what they are thinking now. Better go buy that shiny new F-150 with the low low financing. And better get all the extras too. The 19" chrome wheels, the 1000 watt stereo, the V8 with 10,000 lbs towing. If you don't, you're not a real American man. And so what if you make $35K a year? You can afford it. After all remember Bush said it was your patriotic duty to buy something after 9/11. Well, the same applies this time around. If you don't go out and spend 110% of your income, you're just downright un-American.

Despite what Bush and the incompetent media is tell you, at the end of the day house prices will continue to crash. The original RTC was supposed to save housing prices. It existed from 1989 to 1995. Look at a price of housing between 1989 and 1995. The more the govt tried to prop up housing, the more housing fell. Even with all the printed money they can muster, the govt cannot fight against supply and demand. It might as well try to fight gravity. Not that the average American understands any of this. As long as Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric says everything is fine, well everything is fine. And lots of "experts" on the tee-vee think all will be well. The same experts who said there would be no housing crash. The same experts who said the economy is sound and we have nothing to worry about.

Of course the criminal actions of Bush and Paulson are nothing even remotely close to what America used to be. It used to be a place where hard work was rewarded and the bad guys were punished. Now the CEOs of Goldman Sachs (which Paulson used to be) make $250M salaries creating a meltdown. Instead of being arrested and sent away to jail for 25 years, they given a blank check to the tune of $700B.

And just wait until the Democrats start getting their payoff money. The banks have been taken care of they will say, what about the "average person"? And so look for another $500 billion in spending over the next week in some form of stimulus package with new govt checks coming in the mail for one and all. Except I probably won't get one since a) I make too much money and hence I'm rich and b) I'm not a deadbeat piece of shit.

You'd think that someone, somewhere in government would stand up and say, WHOA! let's slow down here. Nope. This thing was written up in a couple of days and will be passed. By the end of this week Hank Paulson will have his $700B charge card ready to go. The markets will be up another 2000 points and the bonuses at Goldman Sachs will be back into the 8 digit mark soon enough.

The final result of all this will be the title of this blog. This country will be so indebted that eventually whatever semblance of democracy there is left will break down. Either a fascist or a communist revolution will happen and you will be slaves of the state. Not a matter of if but when. This week was just the begining of an all out government takeover of society. Fascism and communism are really two sides of the same coin. Totalitarianism is coming, only a matter of what label gets placed on it. Your debt will become your enslavement. I hope the enjoyment you had driving your Hummer bought with the heloc was worth the hell that will be coming down the line.

It would really be amazing if in 20-30 years my kids will have to travel across an ocean to fight in a great war against fascism. Except that the ocean will be crossed from east to west and the continent liberated will the American continent. If you think that is far fetched, examine which continent on average is less government controlled today. Which continent controls $5T worth of mortgages? Which government just gave its executive branch complete control over the financial market? Which government allows the ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs to give Goldman Sachs a $700B wet kiss? Which government writes legislation in the middle of the night without any debate or oversight? And which government writes that legislation with explicit language that says no courts shall have the right to overturn any of the legislation? It's not the Europeans. It's George Bush and Hank Paulson. Read the full language of the bill and see for yourself.

Chairman Mao said, the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. The US has taken a lot of these steps and is well on the way.

That's the end

They've done it. The mother of all bailouts. The federal government will spend trillions of your your dollars bailing out the banks by buying all the bad debt.

The new America: cheat, lie, steal, get rewarded.

Good luck everyone. You will need it.

Et tu weather.com?

You can't even check the weather without being slammed by political bias from the left. On weather.com there is a "weather poll" which asks if today's recession is worse than the one after the tech bubble burst. I guess along with cold fronts and barometric pressure, recessions now make up the weather. And once again proving the financial illiteracy of the American populace, 70% say this recession is worse. Amazing how much power the MSM has to distort people's very own experiences and make them think they are worse off now than 7-8 years ago. I guess the post 9/11 near meltdown of the economy never happened.

Here are the results of the poll.

I do have to give weather.com credit though for acknowledging that the early 2000s recession was indeed caused by the tech bubble collapse and not because of Bush's evil tax cuts. But even suggesting that a 20% drop in stocks this time around and a 70% drop last time around is anywhere near the same ballpark shows where their beliefs lie. And the fact they frame the issues as causation, ie market collapse causes recession, shows that a weather website should stick to predicting the weather and not venture out of its lane. But then again the person who wrote this poll question most likely went to a publik skool and was taught that the Great Depression was caused by the 1929 stock market crash, one of the greatest myths of our time. That myth is only second to the myth that FDR fixed the economy by creating Social Security and other wonderful socialist programs we are stuck with today draining trillions of dollars from the economy.

RIP AMERICA
1776-2009

Totalitarianism 101

This is how your next president, Barrack Hussein Obama operates:

Instructs his goons to hack into Sarah Palin's email account.

Instructs his henchmen to flood a radio station with spam because it dares have on a guest that is not an Obama kool-aid drinker. And then does it again 2 weeks later with another guest.

Accepts donations from members of Hamas.

This will be the man controlling who gets investigated by the FBI. This will be the man controlling who gets audited by the IRS. If you thought Nixon's enemies list was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet from this one.

If the thought of this man in power doesn't scare the shit out of you, then you're not paying attention. Or you've so gone down the PC rathole of voting for change, hope, hope and change that you are beyond saving.

Obama to Lehman Bros: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

And there goes the election for McCain.

The polls have made a 180 over the past three days with Obama in the lead once again and gaining momentum. Americans being the morons they are will now vote for Obama so he can wave a magic wand and "fix" the economy. The economy is is not really all that broken but just slightly bruised. The economy that could be roaring again in 12 months if it were just left alone from the stupidity of government employees like Paulson and Bernanke. Not that the rubes out there have even the foggiest clue of what's happening.

It's no wonder liberal Democrats never want to fix the education system. If publik skools taught anything other than gay studies, enviro studies and "white men are evil" studies, people might have a clue about the world around them. Instead the unionized teachers of the country churn out millions of illiterate clueless high school graduates.

These people are the perfect Democrat voters who think making rich people poor makes poor people rich. And they are multiplying at alarming rates. It will be fun to watch these idiots descend into hell over the next 8 years from abroad.

Another $85B

Another $85B bailout for AIG. This on top of the $30B for Bear Sterns, the $300B bailout for idiot home "owners" and another $300B+ for Fannie and Freddie. The latest $85B comes only 2 days after the government said no more bailouts. So we now have almost a trillion dollars worth of handouts announced in the past 6 months. And Wamu and Wachovia are just around the corner with a sweet bailout waiting for them as well.

That's close to a trillion dollars that the government doesn't have. And where is it getting this money? China of course which already holds a couple of trillion dollars worth of US debt.

The people making these decisions should be brought up on charges for treason. How else can you describe the process of selling your country's future for the profit of your friends. And by friends I mean Hank Paulson, the Secretary of Treasury is the ex-Goldman Sachs CEO. You do do the math as to where his interests lie and you do the math as to who stands to gain the most from this and all the other bailouts. Hint: it's not you.

So as of right now the Federal Government of the United States owns 80% of the biggest insurer in the world. It also owns 100% control of Freddie and Fannie, which control about $5 trillion worth of mortgages. The next president of the United States has promised to raise taxes to a top marginal rate of 54.9%. The same president will provide socialized medicine for its citizens as well as state subsidized gasoline as well as state subsidized housing for tens of millions via mortgage freezes.

If anyone can make a convincing argument as to how the United States is NOT a socialist country, I'd love to hear it.

Tax cuts for those that pay no taxes

I expect liberal Democrats to champion tax cuts for the middle class. Liberals have this notion that the poor oppressed middle class pays taxes while the fat cats sit around lighting cigars with $100 bills. Of course the truth is the middle class pays no taxes, at least at the federal level. A family of 4 earning $50K - the median household income nationally - pays $0 federal income taxes.

The fact that economically illiterate Democrats want to give a tax cut to those who pay no taxes is understandable. Yet for some reason, many on the right stick to this silly notion as well. National Review is part of that group. Either the editors don't know what middle class means or they have no idea of how the tax code works.

The fact of the matter is, only the "rich" pay any taxes. Therefore by definition any tax cut, whether big or small, is a tax cut for the rich. The poor and middle class get a free ride and then have the gall to complain when those that pay the bills get some tax reliefe every now and then. This is one of the many Democrat constituencies, along with government leeches...I mean employees that depends on the government for its survival. These are the people who 100 years ago would have starved to death, having no marketable skills to offer an employer.

Don't do it Benny B

Oil is down to $92. Pretty good. As I said many times here oil was in a bubble of its own and was due for a massive correction. Nobody in the MSM will bother telling this story though since they are so pre-occupied with Lehman Bros. And I will bet before yesterday, 80% of the so-called reporters out there had no clue what a Lehman Brother even is. I'd guess 50% still have no clue what it is (was) or what it does (did).

And now of course right on schedule Benny B will lower rates again. Lowering did jack shit in late 2007 and did about the same this year. Hey I know, Benny. Why don't you take a play out of Greenspan's play book and lower all the way to 1% like he did in 2002. That worked out so well didn't it. Oh right, it did cause the housing bubble and crash that is the root cause of all this mess. But why let pesky facts get in the way of a good hyper inflation inducing rate cut?

The scary thing for me is not that Lehman Bros. collapsed. I couldn't care less about that. However this overreaction by the media and government is the really scary shit. After Enron, we got Sarbanes-Oxley, quite possibly the worst piece of legislation written in the past 100 years. I can only imagine the insanity of a bill that will be hastily written and passed to "fix" this problem. By this time next year the financial markets will be so regulated you'll need a blood sample and 3 references to get an Exxon credit card.

And even scarier, the rubes are going to think the Muslim from Jakarta will have the answers with his class warfare, soak the rich socialist bullshit policies. The MSM is doing its duty of course. You see, idiot home "owners" making $40K buying $750K homes are victims in all this. The true villain is Bush since he made them do it. And even though McCain is and has always been the anti-Bush, he is to blame as well. Probably because he doesn't spend 10 hours a day on Twitter as the Muslim from Jakarta has pointed out.

And that's where today's American society is. Its citizens vote for whomever Hollywood airheads tell them to vote for. They believe without question a never ending lying media with an socialist agenda.

At least the French are quasi-communists but they have some of the benefits. Sure they have never ending double digit unemployment and a 50%+ marginal tax rate. But they also have 8 weeks vacations, 35 hour work weeks, "free" health care, and nobody really works there when they are at work. Americans on the other hand are also close to the quasi-Communist state but with none of the benefits. They will have the 50%+ marginal tax rate next year. But they won't have 8 weeks vacation. If they have 3 it's a big deal. They'll still be working 40+ hour weeks and eating crappy cheese too. The "free" health care will be free for the very poor, just like it already is. The middle class will still pay for it in one way or another. And after having elected a Muslim as commander in chief, Americans will be paying gazillions of dollars on the military to protect its citizens from Muslims. Now that is some fucking irony.

I never thought I'd say this, but the French have outsmarted you America.

RIP AMERICA
1776-2009

UPDATE:

He did it. Another $70B printed and thrown down the drain. Looks like there is no sanity left anywhere in Washington.

WASHINGTON - Urgently trying to keep cash flowing amid a Wall Street meltdown, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday pumped another $70 billion into the nation's financial system to help ease credit stresses.

THE END OF THE WORLD IS HERE!!!

Or maybe not. Jezuz the MSM is having a hissy fit today on a Palin like scale. Lehman Bros fails and holy shit the end is here. Dow is down 500 run for the hills. OMG, OMG, OMG what will I do?

Come on people, take a deep breath and relax. This is something that is needed. Just like home prices need to fall from the excesses of the past decade, stock values have to fall too. This is a good thing and should be celebrated for finally happening. Your choice is a 500 drop today or a 1500 drop next year had Lehman been bailed out and this ponzi scheme were left to fester for another 6 months. This should have happened 18 months ago and had that happened the DOW would be at 13,000 today. But no, government's dirty hands had to get in the way once again.

A couple of big banks may very well fail too. Wamu, Wachovia come to mind right off the bat. And that's fine as well. Where does it say that every financial institution is supposed to be around forever? Anyone been to a branch of First Republic Bank lately? Probably not since that bank failed in 1988 with abouu $30B worth of deposits. What about the Bank of New England? It failed in 1991 with as much in deposits. Southeast Bank? Failed with $15B in assets too in 1992.

At the time that was big news and people were freaking out. And yet somehow the sun managed to come out the next day and the 90s turned out to be pretty decent on the economy side.

Not that the lazy MSM would ever tell you this, but since 1934 there has been at least one bank failure ever year, with the exception of 2004 and 2006. Banks always fail. Sometimes big banks, sometimes small banks, sometimes regional banks. But fail they do and often. Banks are not all that special in the grand scheme of things. They are companies like any other. Some suceed, some fail. Lehman failed. Bank of America is buying up everything in sight and will most likely succeed for a good long time to come. Winners and losers is what makes capitalism work. If you have no losers you cannot have winners. The alternative is everyone loses. See N. Korea, USSR and Cuba is you don't believe me.

From FDIC, bank failuers by decade:

2000-2007: 32
1990-1999: 925
1980-1989: 2,036
1970-1979: 79
1960-1969: 44
1950-1959: 28
1940-1949: 99
1934-1939: 312

If anything we're just due for some big failures to catch up to the average of previous decades. And adjust this for population growth, the 32 so far this decade is way below average.

So once again, I urge you to - as always - ignore the MSM and just calm down. It's going to be fine.

Hey brother, can you spare a gallon?

I was gone for the weekend and missed the whole Ike drama. Sequestered from the tee-vee and interwebs, I kind of forget all about it. Then driving home on Sunday afternoon I see gas is at $4.29 having been at $3.49 on Friday. Took me a while to figure it out. Oh well, $4.29 for a week or whatever it takes to get the refineries back up and running. No biggie.

Then last night before going to bed I watched a bit of the blithering fools on the local Atlanta channels who fancy themselves news reporters. The first story was how awful it is that gas is up over $4 again. I was waiting for the blame Bush/Republicans for the hurricane, but it didn't materialize surprisingly enough. I suppose even the most partisan of partisan fools wouldn't fall for that stupid argument a second time.

The second story was the shortage of gas. Some gas stations had to close. Some people would be unable to get to work Monday. Oh my, what will we ever do?!?!?. No connection really made between the shortgage and increase in price of course. Why confuse the masses with any basic economic lessons of supply and demand. What they did do however is put up a phone number where viewers could call and report price gouging and Action News 5 (or 2 or 7 or 9, they are all the same of course) would go investigate.

Unreal. A shrewd businessman in the gas station world would have foreseen this. The best thing he could have done is hoard his gas on Friday, when it was $3.50 and sell it today for $5 or $6 or whatever someone is willing to pay. That's not gouging, that's supply and demand at its core. If I really need to get somewhere, I'll pay $6 a gallon. If I don't really need to go anywhere, I'll wait it out.

But in the socialist republics of the USA, and especially Fulton and Dekalb counties - where John Kerry got something like 80% of the vote - profit is a 4 letter word these days. It's better to have no gas for everyone, than have some gas for some people at a higher price.

Absolutely brilliant strategy.

Can I get a bailout please?

Remember way back in March when the federal govt had to bail out Bear Sterns? The reasoning was if they didn't the world's financial markets would melt down. And we couldn't let that happen. And remember how if the Fed didn't lower interest rates to a near-hyper inflation level, world markets would crash? And how about the theory that if the govt didn't bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the world would end? How did that all that work out for everyone?

Well now Lehman is dead and so far - I repeat so far - the govt will not bail it out. And world markets are melting. Now wouldn't it have been a lot easier and a lot less costly for taxpayers to play this out in March after Bear Sterns? Instead here we are with still outrageous oil prices, a $30B giveaway of taxpayer money on the Bear Sterns deal and a $300B+ - and counting - giveaway on Fannie/Freddie. All to come to the same place.

And let's not forget the additional $300B in the home "owner" bailout that will still result in the same crash as without the bailout, only with a $300B tab to the taxpayers. So in total $630B - and counting - of wasted taxpayer money in 6 short months. With the result of nothing.

That's your federal government ladies and gentlemen. Run by idiots who know only one thing. Tax. Spend. Rinse. Repeat.

What the imbeciles earning a US Treasury paycheck don't understand is you cannot fight market forces. Try as hard as you can to prop up a $650,000 median home price in a city with a $45K median income, it won't work. It may work in the short run, but in the long run the system collapses. It's a little like Black Jack. Everyone has a system they swear by. And for a few rounds, those systems work, at least in the eyes of the system holder. But in the log run, everyone loses to the house since every one of those systems tries to defies the basic laws of statistics. And like defying the basic laws of gravity, you cannot succeed long term. Same with trying to defy the laws of supply and demand.

I predict today we will see Barry Hussein Obama as well as Juan McAmnesty out in full force promising to put and end to the crash with a brand new scheme. It won't work of course, but it will cost me a lot of money and go one step closer to socialism.

RIP AMERICA
1776-2009

Obama on 9/11

Sickening. But what else would one expect from a Muslim socialist.

What is sad is that this is the thinking among most liberals. That is if they think about 9/11 at all. Anyone see any of the footage of that day lately on TV? An Iraqi gets a hang nail and it's 24/7 coverarge on CNN and MSNBC. But remembering the day when 3000 people died? Don't want to offend anyone and so we won't show it.

Now is a great time to buy

Another day. Another record number of foreclosures.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Foreclosures hit another record high in August: 304,000 homes were in default and 91,000 families lost their houses.

91,000 families lost their homes? Excuse me? Why the hell can't the MSM ever acknowledge that a home "owner" with a mortgage doesn't own jack shit. These 91,000 families were simply renters. Except instead of renting a house from a landlord, they were renting money from a bank. And just like a landlord kicks out his tenants when they fail to pay rent, the lender kicked out these tenants when they failed to pay rent.

Great line here:

Foreclosure filings of all kinds, including notices of defaults, notices of auctions and bank repossessions, grew 12% in August over July, and 27% compared with August 2007. The 27% jump over last August represents a more modest year-over-year increase than in previous months.

So now a 27% year over year increase in foreclosures is seen as "modest". Does anyone in the MSM have any clue about anything these days? Gas goes up 25% year over year and you'd think Armageddon was just around the corner. But foreclosures go up 27% and it's ho-hum, just a modest increase. It's a little like saying 2 nights ago I drank 20 beers and damn near died of alcohol posioning. But last night I learned my lesson and toned it down a little by drinking a modest 18 beers.

And finally we have the winner of the MOST OBVIOUS STATEMENT OF THE YEAR AWARD from a Fannie Mae economist. No really, this is not an onion article, this is an actual CNN Money piece of "journalism".

Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) chief economist Doug Duncan isn't surprised by the swelling numbers. "It's been my view for a long time that foreclosures won't peak until the last three months of 2008," he said. And now that the nation in a recessionary economy, with job losses exceeding 400,000 a month, Duncan speculates that the foreclosure crisis may be drawn out even longer.

Really? You mean when the economy goes into the shitter, you speculate the rate of foreclosure might just increase? I speculate you are a moron Mr. Duncan. This is the head economist at Fannie Mae folks. The same Fannie Mae that will cost you, me and everyone else $300B at minimum because of idiots like Douggie over here having absolutely no clue about a damn thing.

I remember now

With all the Palin boo-ha-ha around, one can almost forget why one can't stand McCain. The thorn in the side of conservatives for the past 10 years showed his true colors again yesterday.

In a spirit of "bipartisanship" (ie when conservatives give up 90% and liberals get 90%) McCain said he would suspend campaigning in honor of 9/11. Aww how touching. You have Obama running scared and what do you do? You lay off him for a full day while his henchmen are in full force trying to dig up dirt on Palin. Think Obama would have done the same had he been on offense?

And not to be outdone, word comes out today that McCain has offered Obama a cabinet position in his administration. Maybe it can be treasury and we can get the 70% marginal tax rate Obama is promising after all. How about Immigration? Both McCain and Obama share the same views. Amnesty, amnesty and more amnesty. Talk about BIPARTISANSHIP! Or better yet, maybe Sec. of Defence. Iraq is pretty much wrapped up, we don't need a military right? Hell why not go all the way and create a new department just for him...Department of Advancing Socialism A Little More Each year. Obama would be perfect.

Just when I think to myself, hey McCain isn't so bad after all, he comes right back to remind me why I couldn't stand this man all along.

No, we really mean it this time

I lost count at the number of bottoms predicted. I guess it's around 12,000 or so. It all started with Alan Greenspan's famous 2006 bottom call. Then Jim Cramer's early 2007 call. And of course we have the NAR calling bottoms every month.

Well right on schedule, a new housing crash bottom is predicted. But this time they really mean it. Like totally, this is the real bottom, we gua-RON-TEE it.

Several panelists, including Economy.com's chief economist Mark Zandi, Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) economist Charlie Himmelberg, S&P managing director David Blitzer and S&P senior economist Beth Ann Bovino all agreed that home prices would stabilize sometime during the summer of 2009.

Oh I see economists from Wall St are predicting it, so it must be so. These are the same economists who said all was well in 2005. The same geniuses who ran Lehman and Bear Sterns into the ground. The same economists who are running Washington Mutual into the ground. And of course the economists who ran Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae into the ground.

Does anyone take these jokers seriously?

First we had no bubble in 2005.

Then we had a bubble in 2006 but it was manageable.

Then we were supposed to have a soft landing in early 2007.

Then we had a subprime issue that wouldn't affect too many people in mid-2007.

Then we had bailout 1 which was going to solve everything in Sept 2007.

Then we had bailout 2 which was going to solve everything in June 2008.

Now we have bailout 3 which will solve everything.

None of these dopes have been right about anything for the past 3 years. And yet the MSM quotes them as experts. Once again proving the uselessness of the MSM.

But if you believe them, by all means rush out and buy real estate. I heard a real estate agent say now was a great time to buy, and you know, they're really unbiased too.

Tax Dollars at work

Damn I wish I worked at the MMS. Now that's a job worth waking up for every morning.

And yet 50%+ of people in this country think the same federal employees should decide which doctor you can see and when.

Stand Up

Watch this video of Biden.

Watch this video of Obama, paying specific attention to where Obama thinks he is.

Afterwards, think of the reaction if Bush or McCain had said the same.

Then search for any MSM reference to either of these bonehead moves.

Then with a straight face, try telling yourself there is no media bias.

Swine

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Muslims don't care much for pigs. So is it any wonder that the new line of attack from the quasi-Muslim raised on the streets of Jakarta uses unkind references to pigs?

Stephanie Cutter, Michelle Obama's chief of staff, told MSNBC on Tuesday: "The more we learn about her, the more these facts don't add up. We now learn that she's the queen of pork in Alaska."

“There’s no way you can dress up that record, even with a lot of lipstick,” he said. Later in the day, Obama used a variation of the lipstick line, though he was clearly talking about the McCain-Palin reform rhetoric. "You can put lipstick on a pig," he said. "It's still a pig."

It's amazing how much this woman has rattled the left. The media is ain a feeding frenzy over, well, nothing. The quasi-Muslim and his henchmen are left to throw around 6th grade insults.

If nothing else, watching this is entertaining.

I've always had a crush on her

Kirsten Powers writes about Barry's fumble. A lone, sane, liberal voice in a sea of insanity.

Failed sportscasters and whatnot

Keith Olbermann was bitch slapped by his superiors this week. And with good riddance I suppose, seeing how is is one hell of an asshole. However, in a way I disagree with the decision. MSNBC has clearly become the network of the far left. And to me that's fine, it's more than fine actually. They make no bones about the fact that they are screaming liberals and they present the day's events from that perspective. They're really no different than CNN or CBS News in their views, but they don't pretend to be objective.

I would love all news organizations to stop pretending otherwise. Fox News should drop the fair and balanced shtick and just come out and say we're a conservative network. We will give you the news with a conservative slant. Ditto for the Wall St. Journal. The NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, ABC, CBS, etc should do the same. Say look, we are liberals and we will give you the news through our point of view.

And somewhere in between a network or two as well as a national newspaper or two will transform itself into a centrist point of view. Then the public will truly have an unbiased choice. You want a pro-McCain slant, you tune in to Fox. You want an Obama slant, go to CNN. You want a Karl Marx slant, you go to MSNBC.

And in the end this would be a much better system than the one we have now, where everyone is pretending not to be biased. What the MSM is essentially doing is taking us all for fools when it expects us to think that Soledad O'Brien and Campbell Brown are not in the tank for Obama bin Biden. Give me a break.

Madness of a liberal #2

The Obama bounce is history. The McCain bounce looks solid. Polls all over the place say McCain is ahead either by a little or by a lot or at worst the two are tied. Compare this with Obama being up by a lot a week ago. Any way it is spun, the race has changed dramatically since the RNC.

Ahh, but wait say the liberals in the MSM (but I repeat myself). National polls don't matter because you have to win 270 EVs and national polls are irrelevant. The polls weren't irrelevant when the quasi-Muslim from Jakarta was up, but why quibble. And if you look at the EV polls, Barry Hussein Obama is still up. Technically they are correct. But technically they are also cretins.

State by state polls won't change as quickly as national polls, they never do. Pollsters aren't going to run 50 polls every day like they run the national polls daily or at least a few times a week. Some state polls that the libs are using to back their argument are over a month old. Might as well be 10 years old given all that's happened in the past 2 weeks.

My prediction is that in the coming week or two as the state polls are run, the EV vote will start mirroring the national poll numbers, more or less. I somehow doubt that the McCain bounce was all in Texas and the Obama swoon was all in California. Some of the change has come from people in Ohio, Florida, Colorado and Nevada changing their minds, ie the EV map has changes somewhat, but has not been reflected in 4 week old polls.

Madness of a liberal

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrat Barack Obama says he would delay rescinding resident Bush's tax cuts on wealthy Americans if he becomes the next president and the economy is in a recession, suggesting such an increase would further hurt the economy.

So high taxes are bad for the economy. Got it.

Nevertheless, Obama has no plans to extend the Bush tax cuts beyond their
expiration date, as Republican John McCain advocates.

HUH? Not extending the tax cuts when they expire is the same as rescinding the tax cuts. How can he do one and not the other? Does he have any idea what the hell he's talking about? Does any liberal Democrat have a clue about anything these days?

Instead, Obama wants to push for his promised tax cuts for the middle class, he said in a broadcast interview aired Sunday. "Even if we're still in a recession, I'm going to go through with my tax cuts," Obama said. "That's my priority."

What about increasing taxes on the wealthy?

"I think we've got to take a look and see where the economy is. I mean, the economy is weak right now," Obama said on "This Week" on ABC. "The news with Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM), I think, along with the unemployment numbers, indicates that we're fragile."

Oh-KAY then. So raising taxes on the rich using one method in a recession is bad. But raising taxes on the rich using another method is. Got it.


Keeping the taxes of the rich - who actually pay taxes - is bad. But lowering taxes of the middle class - who pay no taxes - is good. The great myth of middle class tax cuts still lives on. It is a myth because the middle class does not pay federal income tax. Middle income is around $40K a year. Use any online tax calculator and see what the tax burden is for a 2 income family with a couple of kids making $40K a year. The answer....a negative tax rate. These scum are already on welfare to start with. And Barry wants to give them even more welfare. At $50K a year the 2 income earner family pays $2,500 in taxes. A whopping 5% of their income. Compare that with the same 2 earner family making $200,000 who pays about $40,000 or 20% of their income. And yet liberals, with a straight face, claim that the so called "rich" don't pay a fair share.

Michael Savage wrote a book called Liberalism is a Mental Disorder. A better description has yet to come along. Only a mentally diseased person could think paying 16 times the amount of tax and receiving LESS in return is somehow not paying one's fair share.

A middle class tax cut cannot exist. Plain and simple. A tax cut for the middle class is really an increase in welfare payments. If you pay $0 in taxes and Barry Hussein Obama cuts your tax bill, that's called welfare. Now if Barry wants to increase welfare, fine. But come on Barry, be honest about it. Don't play games with the wording. You want a nation of welfare recipients dependent on the government for its existence. You want socialism, plain and simple. Why hide your true feelings?


And what's this "we're fragile" business? I was under the impression that the economy was mired in the depth of Great Depression Part Deux. At least that's the impression I got from watching the Socialist National Convention from Denver. Now all of a sudden, we're just fragile? Damn talk about a quick turnaround during the past two weeks.


People, think of the tragedy that will become not only this country but the world, were this man to win this election. He is utterly clueless about even elementary economic theory. And even worse, he thinks he knows what the hell he's talking about.

Quasi-muslim from the streets of Jakarta speaks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKGdkqfBICw

Freddie and Fannie do the two step

You will all read much nonsense in the financial "press" today about Fannie and Freddie being rescued. The story goes something like the housing market will be saved by this move. It's bullshit. You all remember how the last bailout bill from June was supposed to save the housing market? Or the mini-bailout from last fall that was supposed to save the housing market? Or the HOPE NOW program that was supposed to slow down foreclosures. Or the devaluing of the dollar for the past year that was supposed to save housing, which instead created $130 oil? How's that that working for everyone. After every federal government scheme to save the housing market, the housing market crash accelerated.

Each of these bailouts do nothing but throw government money at the problem with no results. It's like public education. The more money thrown at the problem, the worse it gets. I mean come on people, we're taking about two of the most evil entities out there. Government and union in the form of unionized government employees. Expecting anything other than failure from this combination is silly. You have unionized workers who can't ever be fired no matter how much they screw up. And you have government with endless access to tax dollars and no accountability. Expecting anything other than complete and utter failure is silly.

And yet 1/2 the population thinks this entity should also manage your health care and figure out which doctor you should see. Scary shit indeed. Anyway, back to housing....

What the talking heads on CNBC will say is that the takeover will result in lower interest rates for mortgages, and therefore, presto bingo, the housing crash will end. If only it were that easy.

First off historically speaking interest rates are very low. A 6.5% 30 year fixed is a great rate when compared to the 90s when 8% was the norm. 6.5% may seem high when compared to 2002-2004, but that was an aberration. The housing bubble occurred because of these insanely low interest rates. That should not be repeated again. But like I said, this is the US federal government we're talking about here so of course they will do the wrong thing.

GM has been offering 0% financing for the past 7 years. And still the company is well on its way to bankruptcy. Bribing customers with cheap financing doesn't work in the long run. It may bring a few people into the showroom, but if your product is a piece of junk, 0% or 5% financing leads to the same result: no sales.

And housing right now is a piece of junk without further price falls. The $400K home of 2006 is now $300K. A good start. But its real value is $175K. And until that price hits the true market value all the Freddie and Fannie dances won't do shit. It's the equivalent of a Honda Civic being sold for $35K but with low, low 0.9% APR. Not gonna have too many sales at that price.

However given that 50% of the country will vote for Barry Hussein Obama and 50% of the country thinks the bureaucrats in DC should choose your doctor, there will be morons who fall for this scam. Aww gee wiz Sally, look, we can get a 5.5% mortgage and buy that dream house we've always wanted. And look it's on sale from $400K, we are getting a heck of a deal. Well, good luck with that, and don't come crying to me when you try to sell in 5 years and it's only worth $200K.