What is going on?

American Born Abroad Or Immigrant

2012-01-27T10:06:00.000-08:00

The Definition of American Born Abroad: An American Citizen born in another country to parents who are United States Citizens.
The definition of Immigrant: A person born to foreign parents of one country who migrate to another country.

Mitt Romney made a blooper when he spoke of his father being a Mexican immigrant, at the January 26, 2012 Florida Republican Primary Debate. Was it deliberate mistake, a deliberate lie, to capture the Latino vote?

George Romney was born in Mexico: True.
George Romney migrated from Mexico: FALSE!!!

George Romney, Mitt Romney's father, was born in Mexico in July 08 1907 to parents who were citizens of the United States, who left Utah to live in a Mormon Community in Mexico. However when the Revolution in Mexico began, his Utah American Mormon parents, took their family BACK to the United States. Which means that George Romney was an AMERICAN BORN ABROAD who was returning to his home in the United States. Mitt Romney lied when he said that his father migrated to the United States of America. Mitt Romney deliberately exaggerated a lie when he said that his father was a Mexican immigrant.

Why did he lie? Mitt Romney LIED to get the Latino vote.

Sorry Mitt, but your father was NEVER a Mexican immigrant. George Romney, your father, was never an immigrant at all. George Romney was an AMERICAN BORN ABROAD, born to American parents, who only returned back home to the United States when his parents fled the war of the Mexican Revolution.

To Unlawfully Defraud

2012-01-23T22:20:00.000-08:00

It has been a year of hustle and bustle. Being constantly busy with work and hardship. Hours being cut, even though the company did better this year than last year. Even though the company did better every single year than the year before. Even when the Economy had gone bust, Corporate was doing financially better than the year before. Even when Wall Street was loosing ground, Corporate America was doing very well. Even when Banks invested the Government issued TARP, instead of the purpose it was intended for, which was to create new company start-ups. The establishment of Corporate America did better than they admit.

There is a pattern of falsehood which corporations have used to confuse and defraud the average American citizen. A falsehood in which Corporate America has used to fool those of us who do not understand that what is happening in Wall Street has absolutely nothing to do with what is happening in Corporate America. Every major corporation in the USA have lied about the need or reason to cut hours, cut wages for new hires or by-way-of not giving any raises at all and cut back on the labor force while they raised their prices for the goods and services they provide.

Beware, corporations are determined to turn American Workers into slave laborers with slave wages. An idea the Republicans have been trying to legislate into their own states. Yep, CEO's in Corporate America will be lining their pockets with gold while throwing bones to the American worker. Yet the average American Laborer wont even realize that corporations are the ones who created the high--number--of--unemployment without reason or purpose other than working against President Obama.

That proves that Corporate America is Republican controlled and Republican Run with the Republican agenda of lining their pockets with gold while working against President Obama instead of doing their patriotic duty of putting country first. The actions of Corporate America leave me with a feeling of disdain for the Federal Tax and State Tax systems that favor the Unpatriotic Corporate America.

Maybe, the IRS should be auditing the books of Corporate America. Something tells me there may be some creative artwork in the Corporate Ledger pages.

Child Labor Law

2011-02-19T09:14:00.000-08:00

Here in the United States of America, in all my 58 years of existence, I never believed that we would ever be taking on a subject which in the past had some serious, dire consequences.

I read the some alarming articles and watched and listened to the news of some Republican Senators wanting to get rid of regulations, rules, and protections that are currently in place in their States Child Labor Laws and the Federal Child Labor Law.

Republican Senator Jane Cunningham from Missouri is pushing for her state to get rid of the protections and restrictions for children under the age of 14.

Republican Tea party Senator Mike Lee from Utah has declared the Child Labor Law as being Unconstitutional. So Utah's Republican Senator Mike Lee wants to get rid of the Child Labor Law altogether.

Have we forgotten the lessons of the past? Are we gonna be forced to repeat the past?

Unfortunately Child Labor in the United States of America before the Child Labor Laws were passed proved to be extremely dangerous for children. In a lot of cases even fatal! The known statistics of their suffered abuses on the job and working conditions were very harsh and deadly.

Is that the future Republicans want for our children?

Be careful for what you wish for. You just might get it.

Hidden Waste?

2011-02-15T18:27:00.000-08:00

There's a lot of news on Republicans of Washington in Congress coming up with cuts.

There was some little news on speeches Democratic President Obama gave during the last 2 years with the lists of the same cuts and sacrifices, telling everyone 'We will have to bite the bullet". Remember?

But what about the hidden stuff. Did you know about the hidden stuff. There is no HIDDEN STUFF in the Republicans Plan. There is only a lot of SERVICES money cuts.

In California, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown found the hidden stuff from the previous Republican State Administration. The stuff no one thinks about, because no one knew. Like the cell phones Governor Brown placed on the chopping block saving billions of Tax Payer's money.

What about the Federal Government? Did anyone at the Federal level even bother to look? Cell phones that were being used for personal use, not needed for Government business. Chances are if SLASHING the California government cell phones saved a lot of tax revenue for the state in the millions, then chances are the SLASHING of cell phones for the Federal government would save even more, could be in the billions, possibly in the hundreds of billions or trillions! Don't laugh, thinking in terms of across the country it could just be that much.

In California, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown found that the Past Republican Ex-Governor Schwarzenegger Administration was selling Government property then Leasing it back at very high rates with Tax Payer's money. By CUTTING and STOPPING that practice, Democratic Jerry Brown saved California $Billions.

What are the chances that the Federal government during the Bush and Cheney years were wasting tax payers money at the Federal level across the country selling Federal land then leasing it back at high rates? Think of how much money would be saved if that practice was STOPPED. If the State of California saved $Billions, then the Federal government could save way more. Think of the possibilities.

In California, Democratic governor Jerry Brown also CUT OUT more Government waste when he found out that the Ex Governor, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was spending billions Yearly on fleets of new cars that were being used for private use and NOT Government business. The waste was on NON-emergency vehicles. Plus paying the home storage permits. These were New Cars Every Single Year. While California was broke. In the $Billions of Wasted state tax revenue.

Could the Federal government had been doing the same thing for years, for Decades? Did anyone check? Could there be hidden waste at the Federal level of the same across the country? Just how much could be saved if the Congress and Senate would STOP THAT SPENDING?

If the State of California Governor Democratic Jerry Brown manage to save over $$$$billions of government waste on those three examples alone, think of how much more the Federal Government could save at the Federal Level. Would it be in the Hundreds of Billions? Could it be in the Trillions? Possibly in the Hundreds of Trillions?

We will never know if the both Houses at the Federal level do not tackle the hidden wastes!

Correcting All The Wrongs

2011-02-15T05:51:00.000-08:00

In listening to conservative media, we might think that Democrats spend while Republicans don't.

But that statement is far from the truth. In California Republicans have always had control of State government with greater more Republicans in California State Legislature. And when the Governor's office was Republican, well it was always a field day of spending.

Fact is that Ex-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger splurged California Tax Payer's money on unnecessary spending, and it is those unnecessary spending that Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is NOW cutting while saving Billions of Dollars on Each of those that he is now cutting:

1) Cell phones for California State Government employees from Sacramento to local districts, government employees received cell phones bought and paid for with monthly payments on service all done with California Tax Payer's money.

2) Selling of California State Government Property, which was bought and paid for over a century and a half ago, only to lease the property back to the State Government at the expense of the California Tax Payers.

3) Then there is the California Tax Payer funded New Car Purchases for the State Funded Vehicle Fleet that were NEVER essential to the State Government business.

Republican Arnold's mistake was balancing the California State budget by stripping the Public School Funding and using that money to balance the books. Schwarzenegger stripped the money intended for fire fighting using that money to balance the State books while cutting back on fire fighters, fire fighting equipment and their services. Also Ex-Governor Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger stripped the money intended for police departments, using that money to balance the California State books while cutting back on the number of police and services. Yet Ex-Governor Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger just continued to get the State deeper and deeper into the RED DEBT. Do those Republican Schwarzenegger solution's sound familiar? They sure do. Chris Christie is doing the same Republican stuff that did not work for California in his New Jersey State, but will the people of New Jersey see the the parallel universe of the two states?

Well the New California State Governor, Jerry Brown, is having to 'Correct All Those Wrongs' in California. He is getting rid of those unnecessary expenses along with many more while restoring that which makes Californians feel safe, secure, and protects our future generations education. A task that only Jerry Brown knows very well. The same way Jerry Brown in the 1970's had to turn around a poorly financially handled California State which was mismanaged by then Republican Ex-Governor Ronald Regan, Jerry Brown is once again ridding the California State of another Republican's disastrous financial blunder caused by Ex-Governor Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The difference between Republican Chris Christie, New Jersey Governor and Democratic Jerry Brown Governor is, while the Republican Chris Christie wrongly blames the Public Schools Teachers who are teaching our country's future and hopes for destroying New Jersey's economy, and as Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersy continues to attack the Fire Fighters who lay their lives on the line every day while he cuts away at their pensions and support, New Jersey will still not be able to fix their Financial mess because the real unnecessary wastes in New Jersey's State is not being dealt with.

Yet Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is taking a real look at the real Government wastes which will save California State in the Billions EACH. And that is just from the first three of real cuts Democratic Jerry Brown is making of which I have listed. Democratic Governor Jerry Brown took the State of California in the 1970's out of the Red after Ex-Governor Ronald Reagan bankrupt the state. And now, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is at work again in 2011, using real Financial Budgeting Techniques that will put California back into the Black.

Californians forgot how great Jerry Brown was at Correcting The Wrongs when in 1980 they blamed him for the Flooding disastor caused by unusual higher rain fall and poor California soil. Yep, they blamed him for the California soil that cannot literally hold water, causing homes to wash away. But they were also angry that Jerry Brown was running for President , even though Jerry Brown immediately left the campaign and dropped from the Democratic Primary to deal with and clean up that mess. Yet Jerry Brown lost his bid for second term even though he fixed California's financial mess, a task of which NO governor has ever matched. Jerry Brown lost his bid for the second term because Californians blamed him for California's poor soil.

Well, Californians have their priorities straight now. We do understand that a State that has a great budget to work with is the State that never tries to balance the books on the backs of the most vulnerable who live and work in the State, nor does it balance the books by destroying the services that are the most needed for a safe and secure environment.

Denying Responsibility!

2011-01-10T08:49:00.000-08:00

From 2009 through the first week of January and even on the day of the Attempt Assassination of the Democrat Washington Representative Gifford, Democrats have called on the Republican Leaders to 'Tone Down The Violent Rhetoric' that Republicans have spewed against the Democrat Representatives.

But the only responses from the Republican Leaders has always been that the violent rhetoric is protected under "Freedom of Speech." Really? Violent rhetoric is nowhere listed in the 'Bill of Rights' as being 'Freedom of Speech'. In fact in most, if not all, the States in the United States of American there has been a law in the USA that Violent Rhetoric of death threats or Violent Rhetoric to bring about physical harm to any citizen in the USA is considered a 'TERRORIST THREAT'.

The only other responses from the Republican Leaders and the Republican commentaries is that people feel frustrated and this is the only response anyone can get across. John Boehner and other Republican Representatives in Washington have said that they will NOT tell their constituents what they cannot say.

Really? Is it really their Constituents who are saying those words, or is it the Republican Representatives and the Republican Spokes people, and the Republican Talking Heads who are the ones stating those violent rhetoric across the USA?

Republican Congressman John Boehner, the Congress Leader, the Republican Congress Majority Leader himself who back in 2010 stated a violent rhetoric himself. It was John Boehner who said that if you don't like the results in Washington and Congress it is time to get your gun. In shock I saw him and heard him speak those words in the media on TV.

In 2009 it was Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who, along with other Republican Representatives in Washington, while holding an enlarged picture poster of Pelosi on the balcony of the building in Washington who kept hitting and violently gesturing a motion with his hand and arm movement against Pelosi's giant picture in front of the First Gathering of the Tea Party, a movement bought and paid for by the company Koch Industries and their subsidiaries. FYI: grassroots movements are from the bottom up. Unlike the Tea Party which was from the Top down.

In 2009 Sarah Palin got into the act with her posting of the Map with shot sites on the locations on the map of Democrat Congress offices at their local state offices along with the addresses and names of the Democratic Congress on her own web pages. Her own Facebook page and her own Political page. However, just recently after the attempted assassination of Gifford, someone associated with Palin did get rid of the map on Sarah's political page.

From 2009 through 2010 much of Sarah Palin's speeches and talking points have always been using the Violent Rhetoric as she tells her audiences that when they don't get what they want from Washington, it's time to get their guns. Of course her most recent speeches has added the words, that she doesn't advocate violence. Yet with her gun message and her gun shot sites on a map of Democratic Congress state locations that was posted on her Political Page which just recently removed the map, and her Facebook page it has all the proof of being Violent.

From 2009 through 2010 Rush Lumbard stated many of his Violent Rhetoric such as: if you don't get your way in Washington then it is your duty to get your gun. In fact Recently in the past few months of 2010, Rush Lumbard even stated a Violent Rhetoric against our First Lady Michelle Obama.

And now here we are, on the Monday after the Saturday morning Attempted Assassination of Democratic Arizona 8th District Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford. The Attempted Assassination by Jared L Loughner was planned well in advance. The proof of the Attempted Assassination being planned in advance and premeditated was on his blogging days, weeks before stating that this was going to be his lasts postings, along with a letter he had in his safe in his room. That letter had the word Assassinate and the name of Democrat Congress member Gifford as his target.

The definition of Assassination is to target to murder of a prominent person, a political figure for political reasons.

The points in the definition of assassination was in much of the Violent Rhetoric and gestures stated and or done by Republican Leaders, Republican Representatives, Republican Politicians, Republican Talking Heads. Why do I say this? Because the Republicans from Boehner to Mitch to Palin to Rush Lumbard to Bech all Targeted Democratic Prominent and Political figures for Political reasons in their own VIOLENT RHETORIC against the Democratic Party as a whole.

These past few days all we are getting from the Republican Leaders, Republican Politicians and Republican Spokes people, like Congressional Republican House Leader John Boehner, Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican Politician Ex-Governor Sarah Palin, Rush Lumbard, Bech, and other Republicans in both houses in Washington is TOTAL DENIAL!

Today Monday January 10 2011 the Republican Talking heads in the News Media and their Reporters are making statements that even though the letter had the name of Gifford in the letter with the word assassinate, those Republican talking head reporters are making statements that there is no proof of attempted assassinate. Wow, talk about Denial.

Warning of Double Dip?

2010-08-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

Let's see what does the news media have to say about unemployment now and the economy? Oh yeah, they are stating that unemployment will rise even though the stimulus created a lot more jobs than what was believed.

What, unemployment is still high? Why is unemployment expected to rise? According to different money news and economic news experts on various news stations, many businesses and companies are cutting back to hold on to their money, since they are unable to get those loans and credit from the Banks and Credit Financial loan companies which was suppose to stimulate the economy with the help of that stimulus.

What? Didn't they get their stimulus money, the same stimulus money they suppose to use to stimulate the economy? And didn't they pay it all back with interest after getting totally out of the RED?

Of course they did. But it is an election year.

The Democrats did dare to pass that Financial Reform Bill earlier this summer. And since it is an election year, the Banks and Credit Financial Loan Companies are mad as heck at the Democrats for passing that Financial Reform bill. So as a form of protest the Banks, Credit Finanical Loan Companies along with Wall Street Companies and Insurance Corporations have all backed the Republican 'Just-Say-Hell-NO-Party' in hoping that the Republicans will go in and Reverse that Financial Reform Bill. They are angry and are funding the Republican's message which has duped so many Americans into believing that Reversing the Financial Reform Bill is good for them.

So in their form of protest, the Banks and Credit Financial Loan companies, have held back those loans and credits for most businesses, thus helping to EXTEND the unemployment situation while creating more unemployment to get voters behind the Republicans. Yep those Banks, Credit Financial Loan Companies, Wall Street and Republicans are teaching the average Middle Class American a lesson in economics alright.

They are teaching us that we, the Average Middle Class American, need not apply for the right to expect them, the Banks - Credit Financial Loan Companies - Wall Street, to play by the rules and regulations in any Financial Reform Bill, because with the help of Republicans, they the Banks - Credit Financial Loan companies - Wall Street, will always have their way.

So go ahead and vote Republican in November and just watch how the Republicans get the Banks, Credit Financial Loan Companies, Wall Street off the hook for what they did in the pass while Republicans allow them to do as they please again so they can go back to destroying our economy.

While the Republicans controlled the Senate and Congress their decisions have always favored with the Banks, Financial companies and Wall Street Companies. In 1999 Republican Senate and Republican Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which allowed for the first time since 1933 the commercial Banks, Investment Banks, Securities Firms, and Insurance Companies to consolidate.

Well the Act was passed in 1999. But in 1998 Citibank and Smith Barney and Primerica and Travelers had already consolidated before that bill was passed making their merger a violation of both the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956. So the Republican Senate and Republican Congress Bill of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act had a notation of back tracking the bill one year to make the Consolidation of the bank company, securities company, and the insurance company merger forming the Citicorp Corporation of 1998 legal thus protecting Citibank and Smith Barney and Primerica and Travelers from being prosecuted for any violations. Because of the Republican 1999 Act that allowed the merger from the previous year the Republican's Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act became known as the Financial Services Industry bill.

The Banks, Credit companies, Loan Companies, Insurance companies and Wall Street can always count on Republicans to sell their souls to the highest bidder. And you can bet that the Banks, credit companies, loan companies, insurance companies and wall street companies are all happy that the Republicans are very good at convincing the Average Middle Class American Citizens that it is the unemployed and the Police Officers and the Fire Departments and the Teachers in our country who should be considered the Special Interests Groups.

So will you be duped into voting for Republicans who work tirelessly against the Average Middle Class American Workers and their families? If you dare vote Republican, you definitely have been duped!

Losers and Winners

2010-03-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

On abc.go.com Ron Scherer tells, us that there are some states that are states who are winners in the Health Care Reform and there are looser states now that the Health care Reform has passed. And what did he base his speculations on? Could it be that he is hoping that unemployment rises for his speculations to come true? His full of Speculations article - Health Care Reform Fallout: Which States Are the Winners? should be read with an open mind as to the direction unemployment goes, either up or down. Not just if it continues to stay the same or goes up.

OK, so it does benefit the states which already provide it to childless adults? The Federal government will pick up the financial burden which those states already have in the way of providing 50 percent reimbursement, saving the costs to those states half of what they are now paying. But as many of the people in those cases get jobs so does the costs. We all know that those states regard it as a temporary help for those on the programs. Not only is it hard to get on with strict guidelines but it is hard to stay on since most cases are considered are considered the key word "temporary".

And why does he consider the other states losers? Those that do not already have the program in place will receive the 100 percent start up costs, but over time those states will have to pay more of their own costs. Now try to remember that Republican and Tea Party are against any help for the unemployed uninsured down trodden American Citizens.

I'm sorry Mr. Scherer, since when is having to pay back a 'Portion' of the 100 percent of taxpayers money back to the Federal government which provided it a bad thing? Isn't that what taxpayers want? And don't you consider the Unemployed of the middle class situation in this country a temporary thing?

The truth is that many of those who are unemployed will no longer be unemployed in 3months, in 6 months, in 12 months.
The truth is that by 2014 many unemployed and uninsured will no longer be unemployed or even uninsured.
The truth is the uninsured who do work, make an income that does not qualify them for the state's program.
The truth is the uninsured working for companies which lowered the hours of employees so they do not qualify for medical insurance coverage from their employers also do not qualify for the state's program because they're working and have income.
The truth is the States will be spending less than estimated by all the Republican and Tea Party Talking Heads like you.

The Public Option is not in the Health Care Reform Law, But if it was than the situation for those states would have been a lot better because the Public Option was private insurance subsidized by the government like the way an employer subsidizes for their employees. It would be as if it were a more affordable HMO. But as it stands, the Public Option is out. So by fighting the private insurance affordable Public Option you Republican talking heads helped burden the medicaid. I and all states would like to Thank You for doing just that.

The Reporter Mr. Scherer on abcnews.go.com seems to base his theory on his speculating that the unemployment numbers would go up instead of down. And ABC, CNN, Fox news, with other news outlets also seem to be giving a lot of credibility to those types of speculations.

When did Intelligence Fail?

2010-01-03T08:16:00.000-08:00

It has been reported that Obama found proof that the failed bomber, Abdumutallab, was connected to al Qaida group in Yemen. And of course, Republican talking heads are blaming Obama for not catching the bomber before he got aboard the plane months ago. Yet since Republicans want to go backwards and claim that there should have been warning signs in Stopping the attack before the Umar Farouk got on the plane, then we should go Farther back to 2007 with Two of the Main MasterMind Planners of that Attack.

Why? Because in 2007 Those two MasterMind Planners were Released from Guantanimo Prison by Bush and Cheney. But both Cheney and Bush stood infront of the cameras on the News claiming that the Detanees they released in 2007 were not terrorist. However, now we know that at least One of the Two MasterMind Planners was in Bush and Cheney's program for 'Terrorism Rehab'. That means that One of the failed Christmas attack planners was already a known terrorist. That means that Cheney and Bush had Released a known terrorist in 2007. And the posibility that there may be more out there who were released in 2007 by the Bush and Cheney Republican Administration is very frightening.

So if Republicans want to go to the Beginning of the Actual Planning of the Christmas attack, I am sure investigative reporting is more than happy to comply. After all Republicans can't hide the truth in todays technology when in 2007 it was reported in the news aired on TV that Republicans Released those same Detanees, who then became the Masterminds in 2009 to plan that attack.

Now I ask all you Republicans, When did our Intelligence Fail? Did it Fail this Christmas? Or did it Fail back in 2007 when You Republicans released those Two Mastermind Detanees from Gauntanimo Prison?

Decisions of the Past

2010-01-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

It was reported on various news that the Fort Hood shooter was a soldier who was promoted to a high ranking officer during the Bush and Cheney years even though Hassan's Army file had reports and warnings in it of his Anti-American and Pro-Terrorism Views.
What ever policies and decisions made regarding Hassan's promotions while ignoring the warnings in his file during the eight years of the Cheney and Bush and the Republican Administration personnel prove to still Reek Havoc on the American People.

Two of the mastermind planners of the failed Christmas jetliner attack were released in 2007 from Guantanamo Prison by Bush and Cheney.
One of those masterminds was in a Rehab for terrorist program at Guantanamo just before he was released in 2007 by Bush and Cheney.
Bush and Cheney statements on National TV that the detainees they were releasing in 2007 were Not terrorists were proven to be a lie this Christmas.
What ever Policies and Decisions made regarding the two mastermind planners of that failed Christmas Jetliner in releasing them from Guantanamo Prison back in 2007 by the Republicans Cheney and Bush and the Republican Administration personnel prove to still Reek Havoc on the American People.

When Did The System Failed?

2009-12-30T17:19:00.001-08:00

By now everyone knows about the Christmas bomber.
But what is not known by many is that two of the Masterminds behind planning that Christmas attack were released from Grantanimo Prison in 2007 by Bush and Cheney.
Since those two detanees released in 2007 are really terrorists, then how many more of the released detanees in 2007 by Bush and Cheney are actually terrorists as well.

I remember Bush and Cheney telling us on TV in 2007 that the Detanees they were releasing were Not Terrorists. But their statement was proven a lie this Christmas.

By now everyone has probably heard Cheney's comments against Obama's handling of the Christmas attack.
But what is not known by many is that the Republican Senators have held up the appointment for the Head TSA for almost a year, leaving the White House without eyes and ears in that Security office.
The Republican Senators must know that without an appointed Head of TSA to communicate with the President that the White House would be in the dark.
Could the Republican Senators have done that on purpose, knowing that they were putting the lives of Americans in danger?
Did the Republican Senators hoped that an attack like the Christmas one would happen to sway public opinion for the upcomming elections for the Senate Seats in washington.
Are the Republicans playing Russian Roulette with American Civilian lives to sway voters against the Democrats by delaying the seat of the Head of TSA to be filled for almost a year?
Just how low will the Republican Party go?
So I ask you this question:
Did the system fail now because of incompetance at the White House?
Did the system fail because the Position for the Head of TSA has been left vacant because Republican Senators have been holding up the appointment for almost a year?
Or did the system fail back in 2007 when Bush and Cheney released the 2 masterminds al Qaeda Guatanimo Detanees who are responsible for planning the attack this Christmas?

As The Political World Turns

2009-09-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

Nine months into the new presidency, a lot has changed. Yet the attitudes and push for what does not make sense remains the same.

In a television political commercial a woman claims that in these hard times moms are struggling to feed their families. The young actress hired to play a mom in that commercial also states that she is opposed to the tax on SODA, because as she puts it - that tax on soda will make it hard for her to feed her family.
I am a housewife, a mother, and a grandmother. I may not be a career actress getting paid good money to appear in commercials, but even I know that *SODA is a carbohydrate and that carbohydrates turn into pure sugar in the human body. And that one 12oz can of SODA is equivalent to one full cup and a half of sugar.
Why would a mom want to feed her children that?

Just wandering.

Los Angeles County Drivers

2009-01-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

I have a hard time understanding the drivers in California, especially in Los Angeles County, California. It seems that the average driver in the Antelope Valley of Los Angeles County in California only obeys the Rules of the Road they agree with.

You see, I now live in Palmdale, California. A pleasant stretched out land of a desert type city where the Business districts and Residential districts or neighborhoods are clearly mapped out in the design of the city.

My street is a cuddle sack with a home at the end of the cuddle sack, yet on occasion I have witnessed a driver or two, who do not live on our street, turning into our street at high speed. But to get to our street there is two other small streets that are surrounded by homes. This is a residential neighborhood after all. And I have witness quite a few of drivers speeding up while children from school begin to cross one of those small residential streets. This is very frightening but also illegal.

Yep, according to the California DMV booklet for the Business or residence districts, Which does include neighborhoods, The speed limit is 25 mph, unless otherwise posted. Well there is no otherwise posted sign down my street.

So why are people in Palmdale's eastside in the Antelope Valley of Los Angeles County in the State of California Driving 40 to 50 mph down the neighborhood streets? And why have none of those drivers ever been issued a speeding ticket?

I have also witness this strange behavior of the California drivers in the Antelope Valley here in Palmdale driving that fast down other neighborhood streets as I walk to the stores. I can not even begin to tell you the number of times I have witness drivers trying to race a mother pushing a stroller crossing the street. It just boggles my mind how these drivers were able to be issued a drivers license in the first place.

Even in the Business corner of the Shopping centers drivers are driving a lot more than 25 mph. The speed limit signs giving the speed limit are away from those locations, so why doesn't the California driver obey the law of 25 mph in the business districts as well?

Maybe if Governor Arnold 'I'll be back' governor wanted to really make some money he would insist that the traffic cops plant themselves at these locations and right out those tickets so the State of California can make some money. I bet if everyone violating that law of 25 mph were given a ticket in the Los Angeles County alone, it would fix California's economic crises.

And The Beat-Goes-On!

2009-01-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

I took a much needed break during the Holliday Season.

There is so much in the news with:
Hamas and the Israeli fighting in Gaza.
Russia turning the switch off on the gas for heating throughout Europe during a bitter cold winter.
A Power Plant in Tennessee releasing Toxic-Sludge, causing a Harmful Toxic mess. Pennsylvania Security guards sleeping on the job at a Nuclear Plant.
The truth about the Economic mess which will be inherited by the new Obama Administration when it takes over after the Inauguration swaring in ceremony on January 20 2009.
Another report being released about the most current job loss being higher than last reported.
The year end report of the jobs loss, the unemployment rate average for the year, and the average of those who just dropped out of the system (unable to get a job yet no longer qualifying for unemployment)
And the Beat-Goes-On!

Who is the real Maverick?

2008-11-17T19:17:00.000-08:00

An interesting change is already happening in Washington, with the President Elect, Obama, having a productive meeting with John McCain. This is the first time since before the Presidential Campaigning that the two men have sit down to discuss the issues together in a bipartisan way.

In the news article on ABC News website the writer Jake Tapper tells us, The two later released a joint statement, saying, "At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time. It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hardworking American family."

Yes it looks as if John McCain, who claimed to be the Maverick is out Mavericked by Obama whom McCain called 'That One'.

3 Major Auto Industries Blame Who?

2008-11-15T06:48:00.000-08:00

It is Saturday, November 15 2008. A week after the election economic troubles is still brewing for GW Bush's year end. The Final days till January 20, 2008 are still filled with more financial evils with the 3 major American auto industries now threatening to lay off workers if they do not get a bail out. It seems so strange to me that just before the November 4 2008 elections, the American auto industry said nothing of any problems. In fact, they hid their predicament so well. So why did they all of a sudden feel they needed to make the demand? Just what brought that on? Would those 3 American auto makers had made the same threat if the Republicans, McCain and Palin, were elected?

Yet the same old imaginary villain who the 3 American auto makers blame are the Unions. It seems that the same old song of the Republicans and the manufacturing industry is to cry about how the Unions are to blame for the over spending, over extending mistakes of the Companies. Yeah it seems the Old 3 Manufacturers are following suite of the companies of our past of bellowing out that Old Republican refrain from Reagans time of blaming the Unions instead of taking a good look into their own mirrored past that could explain why their present situation has come to pass.

Those 3 auto makers had been sending jobs over seas as they opened new manufacturing plants in other countries where they were building the more economical cars for decades, while they laid off employees, down scaled work and jobs, and closed a few auto plants here in the States. During these last 8 years of GW Bush administration, toward the end of the year, at least one of the auto giants here in the USA has laidoff some of it's workers. But when you add the number of those laid off during these last 8 years, you can begin to realise that the auto makers have caused this negative aspect themselves.

How can Americans buy the goods and services in this country, if the American Businesses keep laying off the American workers in this country while closing up shop in this country? Yep, it still has not occurred to the American Corporations that taking jobs away from the American worker also takes away the buying power of the American middle class worker. The American companies have yet to figure out that by making the American Middle Class Worker unemployed and devaluing the work of the American Middle Class Worker has stripped away 'The Cycle of the Economy'.

When will the companies realise that every time they make Americans unemployed, those same companies which relied on the American consumer, just keep shooting themselves in the foot.

Campaign Lies

2008-11-05T02:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, November 4th 2008, a Democrat who is a Black man named Barack Obama was elected to be president. Of course he will be sworn in during the inauguration ceremony on January 20, 2009 Inauguration day. But this campaign was unlike any other. There were the lies and innuendo, which we do normally experience. But this time, we actually had a fact check to mark the lies. John McCain, the Republican candidate told quite a few out right lies. Of course my list only has a few of the false, misleading, lies. I only went as far as one month's worth.

John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin called Obama a Socialist. They said over and over again that Obama was going to share their supporters wealth and distribute their income to others. They had a Joe the plumber who they paraded around as proof because Joe the plumber said that Obama's tax plan sounded like Socialism.

Well Fact Check called that misleading (a lie). According to Fact Check During the panel discussion, Obama talked about court rulings and "redistributive change" from a historical legal perspective but there's no indication that he was advocating "redistributing wealth and income" which McCain and Governor Palin lied about. That also means that Joe the Plumber whom McCain and Palin had campaign with them also lied when he said that Obama's tax plan sounded like socialism.

John McCain and Sarah Palin claimed that Obama has Political links to Khalidi whom they claim is a Muslim terrorist.
What was the verdict from Fact Check regarding John McCain's claim against Obama? The verdict was considered misleading (a lie), since John McCain chaired the IRI which funded the CPRS which was co-founded by Khalidi.

And what was the verdict from Fact Check regarding Sarah Palin's claim against Obama? The verdict was considered misleading (a lie), While Khalidi eight years ago hosted a political fund-raiser for Obama, the two men strongly disagree over the Israeli-Palestinian issue and there's no evidence of a continuing political relationship.

John McCain made the statement: "According to the independent Center for Data Analysis, Barack Obama's new policies will destroy nearly 6 million jobs over the next decade."
What was the verdict from Fact Check regarding John McCain's claim against Obama? According to Fact Check the verdict is False (a lie). The study does not say Obama's plan would "destroy" jobs.

John McCain said that Obama and Biden are inconsistent on who will get the tax cuts. According to Fact Check the verdict is False (a lie). What McCain is doing here, in part, is comparing apples and oranges. He compares two different aspects of Obama's tax plan as if they were the same. And Biden never said people making less than $150,000 are the "only" people who would get a tax cut under Obama's policies.

McCain's VP running mate Governor Sarah Palin stated that Obama only served 300 days in the Senate before he became a presidential candidate.
What was the verdict? According to Fact Check that statement was false (a lie). Actually Obama served 743 days in the Senate working. Now 304 of those days he worked while the Senate was in Session. But the Senate works in the Senate even when the Senate is not in Session. So again, according to Fact check Sarah Palin lied.

McCain made said, "Sen. Joe Biden, Obama's VP running mate, had this cockamamie idea about dividing Iraq into three countries."
What was the verdict? According to Fact check it is false (a lie). Biden proposed decentralizing Iraq's government, but not breaking up the country.

Change Is Here

2008-11-05T01:50:00.000-08:00

I have witnessed many things in my life time. At 4 years of age in 1957 in Chicago Illinois, I witnessed my father being told that he had to sit in the back of the bus, but because I was white looking the bus driver told my father that I could sit in the front. Even then I had the good sense to grab my father's hand and say, "Daddy, I want to sit with you."

At the age of 12, I remember watching TV at a peaceful civil rights march led by Martin Luther king in Chicago South Side in the 1960's. I watched in horror as white men, their wives, and their children were throwing bottles and bricks at the peaceful marchers as the Police stood on the side lines and did nothing. And as the civil rights marchers were being hit by the bottles and bricks thrown at them, I witness the blood as the marchers fell.

One news reporter captured a Chicago police officer saying, "We don't want their kind here."

Yes, I have witness many things in my day. But I never thought I would ever witness a Black man elected President in my life time. God Bless the United States of America. God Bless Barack Obama. God Bless the Obama family. And God Bless the Biden family.

The Continued Global Economic Crises

2008-10-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

It is Monday October 6 2008 9:06 am Pacific Time in the USA and our markets have began to continue their downward plunge after the markets in Asia and Europe did a downward spiral on their Monday which is our Sunday. Try to remember that those countries are one day ahead.

I just wonder, since the Bush Administration pushed for and got laxing regulations during most of the 2 terms of Bush, and since the same Financial companies, Banks, and Wall Street corporations all benefited from those laxed regulations thus being able to do their deceitful business transactions with no oversight or accountability, how would throwing tax dollars at them suppose to improve the economy?

I have a hard time with the Bush Administration concept that throwing away 700Billion of tax payers money with the 150Billion of the sweeten deal at the same scrupulous companies and their devious transactions is suppose to improve the economy.

Just HOW does it improve the economy anyway?

Asia and Europe Markets Plung after US 4th Bail Out

2008-10-06T00:59:00.000-07:00

It is Sunday, three days after the Congress voted for the 700billion dollar sweeten deal, in the United States but it is Monday in Asia. And in the Far East the Stock Market took a plunge.

In an article written by Alex Kennedy with the Associated Press in Singapore, the Asian and European Markets spiraled downward because they could not trust that the U S government bail out was enough to help the world economic crises.

What? The Europe and Asia Markets could not trust that the US government Bail Out as enough to help the world economic crises?

Why don't they do their own bailing out? Our U S Government is using the money of the tax paying working Middle class United States Citizens to bail out the Financial corporations, the banks and Wall Street. The federal tax dollars are supposed to be used to RUN THE GOVERNMENT not bail out companies. The federal tax dollars are supposed to be used to pay for the Government services that are suppose to be provided to the US Citizens, not given to CEO's. And how does that translate into bailing out the whole world?

You know what Asia and Europe? I have some advice for you. " BAIL YOUR SELVES OUT! " Enough already!

The U S economy is on the brink because of regulations that were altered by the Republicans in the Bush White House Administration.

Maybe you in Asia and Europe also took out regulations that protected the economy, and that could be why your economy is not doing well. Do you want to fix your economy, then put the regulations in your market and corporations to prevent the destruction of the economy as well. Try it, it just might work.

Too bad the Republican Bush Administration had spent most of the last 8 years to do away with those regulations. Wouldn't it be just PEACHY KEEN to see those regulations back in play, fixing the economy?

Sweeten 700Billion Deal

2008-10-06T00:45:00.000-07:00

It has been one and a half week of president GW Bush demanding that the Congress approve a 4th bail out bill for the Financial Corporations, Banks and Wall Street. Only this time it was 700Billion tax dollars being decided on.

However, at first the Republicans walked out of the meetings. They refused to approve the 700Billion bail out the way it was written. Of course the Democrats also did not trust the bill that was presented to them because the Democrats wanted regulations and limitations added to it.
But that is not what the Republicans were concerned about and it is not what they wanted added to it. No! The Republicans in the Senate stated they would vote for it if they rewrote it. Well they did, and the Republicans added a lot of pork which has come to be known as the sweet deal.
Yet there was NO REGULATIONS, NO LIMITATIONS, NO RESTRICTIONS, and NO GUARANTEES for the American Tax Paying working middle class people.

The 7 1/2 years of the Republican GW Bush presidency has given us a roller coaster economy EVERY SINGLE YEAR since 2001. Guess Republican Bush just wanted to leave his office with something big to be remembered for in history. And it looks like he got his wish.

The Biggest Bank Failure, Is My Bank!

2008-09-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

I just read an article by Charles Herman and Daniel Arnall from September 25, 2008, FDIC: 'WaMu the Largest Bank Failure Ever'. What a surprise. WaMu, short for Washington Mutual, just happens to be my bank. You can bet that it took me by surprise to read it. Especially since I was never given any indications at all that there were any problems. JP Morgan Chase & Co. has bought up the working assets of Washington Mutual. It is the largest Savings and Loan bought for 1.9billion. What a bargain? Considering that it costs American Taxpayers 700 billion to bail out Wall Street. Too bad, we could bail out WaMu for 1.9 billion instead.

There was no impact on the customers and depositors of WaMu. The name will remain the same for now. Washington Mutual did have 307 billion dollars worth of Assets, which made the it possible to save the bank.

Why is this story so important? This story comes at a time when we are already dealing with our government Bailing out the companies, Financial Corporations and Banks of Wall Street for the 4th time within a 7 month period. But this fourth time bail out is using 700 billion dollars of Federal Taxpayer's money.

It makes me very angry and sick. I am especially confused. I always believed, as did most Americans, that our tax dollars paid for our Government and the Services they provide. But how can any of the Services they provide exist if the money is going for Bail out of the CEO's, Financial corporations and the Banks who all made Devious Financial Business Transactions.

We were told that the government passed the Bail out with Oversight attached. I hope there are some strong regulations and ethical restrictions prohibiting the same type of Deceitful Business transactions from ever occurring again.

Oversight Of Bank's Bad Assets

2008-09-28T22:21:00.000-07:00

For as long as I can remember, the Republicans have always called for Deregulation. The thought of government looking behind the shoulder of Big Business never sat well with the Republicans. So came the call for Deregulation from the Republicans, Loudly and clearly as they sounded, Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush Jr., McCain. Oh yes, Senator McCain has always sound the horn the loudest from the 1980's on.

But McCain did more than sound the horn, in 1999 McCain help sign the bill that did away with only protection that existed since the Great Depression. Yep, there was a bill that was put into law, which contain the rules of ethics for Wall Street. You see it put there after the big crash when a lot of people committed suicide after the total life savings was gone in their investments on Wall Street.

Many will say, but Clinton was president. Yes he was. But the Republicans had control of the Senate. And they finally pulled the ultimate switch and bait on the American people when we were not looking. Now add to that the 8 years of republican Bush that followed, and what we have is a crises waiting to happen.

Maybe they thought it would be when the next administration was up? Or maybe they thought they could hid it? But here we are with 4 bailouts using Taxpayer's money in just 7 months. It sounds ludicrous. I never thought I would ever see the day when Big business of Wall Street and the Financial Corporations along with the Banks would have the gull to demand that our United States government Bail them out with No Regulations to follow, No Restrictions attached, and No Government Oversight. Well The people have spoken, And if they want to be bailed out then it will only be if our Government Looks over their shoulder for now on.

Personally, I would prefer that they fail and fall, loosing all their wealth and money. I like to call it "Tough Love." After all, I do know one thing about the Great Depression. The people to suffered the most were the companies of Wall Street and their investors who put all their savings into the company stocks. Yes the working middle class did suffer somewhat. But after these 8 years of Bush and the Republicans devaluing the jobs of the working middle class, forcing our wages down and sending our jobs overseas, we working middle class do not have far to fall if a Great Depression were to hit again. It would only be the CEO's, companies, and investors who would not do well. A lesson that Today's young and successful Americans who value the market and the 'Get Rich Quick Schemes' were never taught.

National Road Fund Broke In One Month

2008-09-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

I just read a news article by LISA STARK and KATE BARRETT Sept. 5, 2008 about the money for the nationwide projects of repairing our roads and bridges being depleted to almost nothing by one month's time. Since drivers are driving less to conserve their gas and save some pocket change because they want to have enough to buy their groceries which has also rose in costs the Department of Transportation are warning that they now have less revenue to pay for the road and bridge repairs across our nation.

Yep, less purchases at the pump means less money in the kettle for our highways. In fact Lisa writes, "the department called for an immediate infusion of $8 billion in tax revenues into the fund. That's precisely what some Democrats in Congress have been trying to do -- and a move that the administration, just six weeks ago, opposed."

But the Transportation Secretary, Mary E Peters a bias Republican, tells us: "Every family understands that constantly spending more than you earn is a recipe for insolvency. Yet many in Congress have refused to apply that same common-sense thinking to the federal program that currently accounts for close to half of all highway and transit investments."

Yet Senator Murray, Democrat stated "It's too bad that it has taken an emergency to force the administration to pull its head out of the sand and appreciate how serious this problem is."

Well, at least the proof that the Democrats in Congress had been trying to do precisely what was needed with the Republican Bush Administration opposing them just six weeks ago is CATALOGED in the Congress Library. Oh, yeah! Too bad Mary E. Peters put her foot in her mouth, and lied flat out because now her words blaming Congress wrongly is also recorded in the news for historical facts of her Republican lies.

Rising Foreclosures And Delinquencies

2008-09-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

And just when you thought it was getting better. Well it's not. No!

According to Alan Zibel, an AP Business Writer for on line news, now the blame has been shifted again. Yep instead of it being borrowers with bad credit, now the blame is homeowners with good credit who took out exotic loans with ballooning monthly payments. Well I cannot speak for the other home owners, but I was told that my loan was a 30 year fixed. I did not want an exotic, balloon loan. But unfortunately my husband and I found out too late that the broker for the lenders lied to us. And after our loan was sold to another lender that was when the real problems started to come with the medical bills piling up. Don't you just love it when they LUMP all the homeowners into one category?

In the news Alan writes: The problem that policymakers and Wall Street once assured us was 'contained' to subprime mortgages has proven to be anything but," Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research, said in a research note. Gee, even I new that before I read it in Zibel's news article.

Now we are being warned that this wave of mortgage defaults flooding the market, with homes plunging in value, is expected to continue through the year 2010. One of the faults is loss of income or drop in income with either unemployment, health and medical, or loss of a spouse through death or divorce. And the numbers are climbing with new foreclosures rose from the first quarter in 35 states and Washington, D.C.

There were a few states where the foreclosures declined, but that was because those states passed laws to slow the foreclosures process and give the homeowners time to catch up on their payments.

Yet the blaming continues with the nick name "Liar Loans" because they claim that the incomes were not documented. That is a lie. My husband is a computer contractor who works for different consulting firms for their clients and we do our INCOME TAXES every year. Our income is well documented.

So Go ahead and blame the consumer. After all, we have had eight years of the Bush Administration, the Republican economists experts, and the Business news media who every year have blamed the American consumer for not spending enough. In fact, beginning November and December of 2001, all we got was complaints on how our not spending more was driving down the economy. Too bad we are not given an opportunity to review those news casts from money news on CNN, Fox cable, MSNBC and all the local station news as well along with all the Republican financial experts telling Americans that they should be using their credit cards more.

Yep, these last eight years, each and every year, the Republican financial experts and money news reporters have blamed the financial mess on the American consumers.

Job Loss Still Rising

2008-09-05T13:39:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press on line reported on Sept 5 2008 the unemployment rate is higher than the economic experts expected. Yep, Employers slashed 84,000 jobs in August as we hit a 6.1 five year high in unemployment. A financial toll is effecting our economy as the housing, credit and financial crises worsen. The employment deterioration tumbled all major stock indexes on Thursday. Yet I do not recall hearing anything of it on any of the news stations or the local news.

In fact, the number 84,000 does not seem to add up to the list of jobs that were loss in the government's Labor Department Report. In the report the lists include: "Factories cut 61,000 jobs, construction firms eliminated 8,000 jobs, retailers axed 20,000 slots, professional and business services slashed 53,000 positions and leisure and hospitality got rid of 4,000." You do the math.

Now also in the same news article in the Associated Press: "Job losses at all private employers -- not including government -- came to 101,000 in August." It seems we just keep getting higher figures in the reporting, yet the government report have the number lowered.

Loss Mitigation or Delinquent Department

2008-08-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

I have experienced something horrifying to me. If it isn't illegal, it should be.
This all began shortly after my original mortgage company sold my account. At first I was OK by it. Then our life began to take a turn for the worse a combination of unemployment and illness.

My husband's permanent secure high tech job disappeared back in 2002 to outsourcing. Since that time we have managed to stay afloat with my husband working temporary contract jobs in his field. Of course those jobs are not easy to come. They are few and far in-between so I managed to put some money aside during his working sessions so we do not loose the house when the next job is hard to come by .

However, we encountered a set back with my husband's health when he was suffering from gall stones in his gall bladder while he was unemployed. First it took a long time to get a doctor and a hospital to diagnose the problem. Why? We do not have insurance, and I found out that unless the doctors can pin point the problem, they do NOT have to treat you. It took more than 6 months of my husband suffering before someone at a hospital took his pain seriously and finally performed the operation of removing the gall bladder. It has been five months since the operation and he has had no more problems. My husband even had a job waiting for him to start. Within a two week period he was on the new job.

We did fall back just a little so I called to make a payment in late March. Saxon told me to filled out Loss Mitigation paperwork with Saxon Mortgage and not to make a payment until they had a chance to work out a plan. As soon as I received and completed the Loss Mitigation paperwork, I faxed it to them April 8 2008. I never heard from Saxon, so I called a week later. They claimed there was nothing on their computer about the Loss Mitigation, So I redid the paperwork and faxed it the Same Day April 12 2008.

Yet I still had not heard from them so I decided to send a May payment in good faith. But the mortgage company did not acknowledge that they received it. In fact I did not receive a statement. Not wanting to give them a reason to take my home, I sent another payment June 8 2008 using an older payment stub and a letter. A week later I received a call from the mortgage company. They did acknowledge receiving the May payment, but they placed it in another account to use toward a repayment plan. The mortgage company also asked if I paid another payment, it would aid me in my repayment plan. But after that not to send any more until a plan was worked out.

Well I informed Saxon that I did send out a payment a week prior. And few days later, I checked my on-line bank statement and the second check was paid out to Saxon Mortgage on June 17, 2008. The money was subtracted from my checking account on that day by the bank in my checking account. I thought everything was fine, UNTIL...

When I still did not hear from Saxon nor receive any statement during the week of July 20, full month later, I spoke with Stanley a representative of Saxon. Stanley of Saxon delinquent department claimed that Saxon did not receive that June check. He wanted me to send proof of confirmation. So I quickly got a copy of the front and back of both checks from my on-line banking which showed the date it was cashed and paid to Saxon mortgage along with a running on-line balance bank statement of my checking account showing when both May and June checks were paid out. According to my bank, it clearly showed the second check being paid on June 17 2008, more than a full month before. I faxed it to the Delinquent Department fax number provided to me by Stanley with Saxon Mortgage.

Several days later they still claimed they did not receive it. Then I told the person over the telephone that I did faxed it too them and I will again go ahead and re-fax the information to him right then and there. He then claim that he finally found the information and did acknowledge that I paid it, but he claimed that they did not received the check until June 21, 2008. In fact the Saxon representative claimed that I broke contract with the company because he claimed that I was suppose to get it to them by June 20, 2008.

Well, 'DO-THE-MATH!' My bank subtracted the money from my Bank checking account, paying it to Saxon Mortgage on June 17, 2008, which is four (4) days prior than June 20th. Now the mortgage company delinquent department wanted me to refill out the Loss Mitigation paperwork based on their claim that they did not get the check until after a date they set. Yet no one ever set a date with me since I already had sent the check PRIOR to the discussion of me sending a second check. Well I still had the originals saved on my documents so I refilled them and faxed the paperwork immediately.

Yet something kept stirring at me. I felt as if I was being conned and my information was being manipulated by the Saxon mortgage. I began to believe that Saxon was deliberately setting me up so that they could foreclose on my home. The recent news of a family whose home was foreclosed and the wife committing suicide came to mind. The husband claimed that his wife was working with the Mortgage company's Loss Mitigation department for months and she was constantly calling them sending them more paperwork. He mentioned that she had to redo the paperwork several times because their mortgage company claimed there was a slip up, or they did not get it, or it wasn't gotten to them on time. Maybe, I would not had paid attention to the news when they spoke of that on CNN, but it was the 'COLDNESS' of the TV CNN money news people that got me. That was why I remembered it.

Although I never received a notice of any foreclosure, I was so frustrated and fearful of loosing my home that I told my son we may end up loosing our home if Saxon continues to playing with me.
On July 25, 2008 my son connected me to a friend of his who did a three-way calling for me to speak yet with his friend who just happens to work for a company that specializes in negotiating better mortgages for the homeowners. Since July 28 2008, I hired his company to negotiate on my behalf for a much better mortgage with Saxon. His words were, Stop paying them, do not talk to them, if they call tell them that my company is doing your talking for you, and if anything regarding foreclosure should come in your mail just FAX it too me immediately so that I can stop the foreclosure process.

I did finally begin to receive a Saxon billing statement on August, but it had the payment as received by Saxon on July 10 2008.

What a bunch of crock??? Saxon manipulated the information in their computers so much that they have the funds for the check, which was cashed and paid by my bank to Saxon on June 17 2008, as received and paid a FULL MONTH later.

Isn't it illegal for Financial institutions to be manipulating the information of the homeowners just so they can STEAL the homeowners home right from under them? The FBI and the IRS should be freezing Saxon's operations, and assets immediately. Everyone from the owners of Saxon to the top CEO to all the employees in the Delinquent Department and the Loss Mitigation Department should all be arrested and taken away in hand-cuffs and NEVER ever be able to 'SEE-THE-LIGHT-OF-DAY' again.

Republican Moral Ideas

2008-08-05T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today, August 5, 2008, at the age of 55 years I thought I had seen and heard it all. Well even I was shocked today after reading the report on abcnews.go.com. Forget about almost falling out of my chair. I did fall out of my chair! Yep, there was something in the news today that just literally took my breath away as I began gasping for air while turning blue and chocking.

I never thought I would ever read anything like this. But that is just what happens when a Political Party like the Republican Party, ride high on the insistence that they are the 'MORAL MAJORITY Party'. The Republicans also for decades have won big on the claim that they are the 'FAMILY VALUE Party'. However, the Republican slogan will have to change, thanks to John McCain's 'DOUBLE-TALK' mouth at one of his small town rallies today.

"I was looking at the Sturgis schedule, and noticed that you had a beauty pageant, so I encouraged Cindy to compete," McCain told an audience at the rally. "I told her [that] with a little luck, she could be the only woman to serve as both the First Lady and Miss Buffalo Chip."

Now what is wrong with a beauty pageant, you ask?

Nothing is wrong with a beauty pageant, EXCEPT when that Beauty Pageant is of 'TOPLESS CONTESTANTS'. Nothing is wrong with a beauty pageant, EXCEPT when that Beauty Pageant has the contestant exposed without any decency.

Hmm, could this be the 'NEW-KIND-OF-CAMPAIGN' John McCain said he was running?

The Weekend Blues

2008-08-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

During a time when AP economics writer, Jeannine Aversa, informs us 'Stores, factories and other businesses large and small showed workers the door last month, sending unemployment to its highest rate in four years and adding to the evidence an economic recovery remains far off. Employers clamped down on hiring and cut 51,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said Friday. The economy has shed jobs each month this year — 463,000 in all.'

Also reports like that of Jim Marshall in the Reuters news report, 'the analysts at Standard & Poors warned against mortgage related debt products in Internet emails, stating in one email, where a S&P manager wrote that the 'ratings agencies were helping to create an "even bigger monster -- the CDO (collateralized debt obligation) market. Let's hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of card falters."'

While still getting news of 'U.S. auto sales plunged to a 16-year-low in July, led by a 27 percent drop at General Motors Corp , as high gas prices and tight credit sent the industry into a tailspin' , written by Poornima Gupta of the Reuters news on-line.

And as many stories of the 'Oil giants Chevron Corp. and Total SA wrapped up a string of gargantuan, record-breaking earnings reports Friday, a stretch in which six of the major international oil companies topped $50 billion in combined profit for the first time.' Like the one told to us by John Porretto, AP Business Writer during the same time period people are struggling to decide whether they buy gas for their cars to get to work or groceries to eat. During a time when people begin to purchase that heating oil to prepare for the winter, wondering if the Oil giants are planning to create another questionable paper written demand and supply to call it a shortage while raising prices even higher.

There is a new story brewing in the works about 'New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo plans to imminently charge Citigroup Inc , accusing it of fraudulently marketing and selling auction-rate securities, and destroying documents that had been subpoenaed' in the Reuters by Joseph A. Giannone and Jonathan Stempel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080802/bs_nm/citigroup_subpoenas_dc;_ylt=Ar2mX7W1.bpaHLPLWs0iq4SyBhIF

More Jobs Lost As few Return

2008-08-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

According to an on-line news article 'U.S. Loses 51K Jobs but Some Outsourced Jobs Are Coming Back' written by Alice Gomstyn of ABC News, "As the U.S. economic slump continues, American jobs are increasingly in short supply: the U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday that employers shrunk payrolls by 51,000."

Yet Gomstyn lets us know what employers like Monster Job on-line search Vice President O'Donnell are are saying about the returning jobs that were outsourced, "You've got to have a workforce that you can control and you can invest in and grow talent and skills over time, and that usually doesn't happen offshore,".

Gosh, and it took O'Donnell from when Bush first took office in 2001 until today, August 1 2008 to figure that one out. That is seven years of the Republican selling the lie that Americans are too stupid to do the jobs. Gee, what happened? Did Americans all of a sudden become intelligent again?

Remember, the whole concept of outsourcing was based on GW's early speeches about how "the American worker did not have the intelligence or skills or base knowledge for the high tech industry." GW Bush also stated during that same time period from 2001 through 2002 that "America will no longer be a High Tech country! America is now a service country!" Those words still rip through my heart, tearing it to shreds.

So according to Bush in his early speeches, the country of American workers who created the 'SILICON CHIP', and the country of American workers who created the 'PC', and the country of American workers who created the 'INTERNET', the country of American workers who built the 'SPACE ROCKET' for the Apollo missions and 'FIRST MOON MISSION', the country of American workers who launched the successful 'SATELLITES' into space, the country of American workers who designed and built the 'SPACE SHUTTLE' and had the successful space missions, the country of American workers who had the successful 'MARS MISSIONS', was just not smart enough to be the High Tech country anymore? Oh yeah and by the way, the country whose American workers created and built the first 'TELEPHONE', the first 'AIRPLANE', the first 'AIR CONDITIONER', the first, 'CABLE NEWS NETWORK' is just not smart enough?

But now, a new awakening is arriving. A very small portion of the jobs are returning. Just not the highly technical ones yet.

Alice also wrote in her ABC news report, "In March, AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson told a Texas business group that the communications company was having trouble finding qualified applicants to fill 5,000 jobs -- mostly customer service positions -- that it had pledged to move back to the United States from India, according to a Reuters report."

Wow, did Randall Stephenson mean to say that when AT&T first took the jobs to India that all those new workers in India who took those jobs away from Americans had all the skills to work for a telephone company without having to be 'TRAINED?, or SCHOOLED in any way? Well if I remember those news articles in March concerning AT&T did admit to spending a lot of time and a lot of $$$$$$$ dollars in the millions or billions to train those Indian workers in India when they first outsourced those jobs back in the early Bush years.

Well maybe AT&T is just not willing to spend the same amount of time or money training the American worker that AT&T spent on the Indian Worker.

Also concerning the report written by Alice on AT&T, "An AT&T spokesman Thursday backpedaled from Stephenson's comments. Michael Coe told ABC News that AT&T had filled more than 2,500 positions and that the company is confident it will fill the rest."

Brain storm! Why not spend the same amount of time and money to train the American workers in the United States that you need just like you, AT&T, did on the Indian workers in India. DUH!

Alice of ABC news also got reaction from other companies who are either returning the jobs or bringing new jobs. ""It takes 70 Korean or Chinese workers 20 minutes to make a Chi flat iron," he said. "Now, in the United States and in Houston, with five people, I can make an iron in five minutes." Shami, who was first profiled by ABC News Houston affiliate KTRK, said he is building a new facility in Houston that he hopes will house 1,000 new workers within a year. He said he expects to neither save nor lose money through the new venture. A Palestinian immigrant, Shami said he's just doing his part to help the U.S. economy. "The only way to recover our economy is if we start manufacturing," he said. "I'm doing my part as a good citizen, that's all.""

Gosh, did Farouk Shami just give the workers of the United States of America a compliment?

You mean to say that the top 'CEO's' who were complaining in 2001 and 2002 that the American workers were just lazy and that the companies had to find more reliable workers was all a lie? Hmmm, What are the chances of that happening?

Speculation UP, Speculation Down

2008-07-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

Here we go again. First Wall Street's Stock Market speculates the price of oil up by speculating that the demand is up, although it is only speculation.

Now the candidates talked about drilling in more of our coastal beaches. So what does the Speculating Traders on Wall Street do? They again speculate the price of oil. Only this time the Stock Market is speculating the price of oil down.

So was it really demand? And does what the speculators do here really justify the 'ROLLER COASTER' pricing of oil? Hmmm, let's see what is going on in the news.

On Friday, July 25 2008, there were talks on the horizon for that weekend, with speculation of a positive resolve that lowered the price of oil barrels on Friday. Yet in the news on Monday, July 28 2008, the press both on-line and in various news outlets reported on the oil price creeping back up on Monday.

On CNN on-line business news, Kenneth Musante, wrote an article titled 'Gas Prices Fall For 13th Straight Day.' I guess Ken and CNN did not get the news of oil price creeping back up on July 28th Monday. And Still on Tuesday all news media kept saying was oil has continued to drop. 'Continued?' But no mention of the glitch from Monday, just one day prior. http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/30/news/economy/gasoline/index.htm?postversion=2008073006

And now on July 30th 2008 there is still conflicting reports. With CNN stating that gas prices fall for 13th day straight, the Associated Press on-line has a new article.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080730/oil_prices.html Stevenson Jacobs AP business writer's article 'Oil Jumps $5.00 After Report Says Gas Supplies Fell" indicated today that the price per barrel has jumped again. This time $5.00 more per barrel. Of course this business writer also states the two-week slide with no mention of July 28th price creeping.

Why there was even a July 11 2008 news article by Associated Press Writer, Madlen Read, where Read talks of the price per barrel passing $147.00 per barrel.

During the time frame of July 11 thru July 30 the price per barrel was not in any way continuing to go down. The weeks of July 14 - July 21 through Monday July 28th news reports have it ROLLER COASTING up and down. There was no two-weeks straight slide. A two week period is fourteen days. There is Not any 14 days of straight decline at all. There is only a continuous positive spin ignoring any facts of the rise in price that just keeps creeping up now and then.

Yet in my city, no one had reported that their price at the pump had even gone down .1cent. So I would of loved to see the prices at the pumps marked as a drop. In fact the price remained the same. However buy Tuesday, there was a report that some pumps either dropped their price by several cents or by 1/2 cent in some other places. But on the on-line business news reporting, the media were able to find an area or two where the price showed more than a .10 cents drop.

All of this speculating is enough to make me dizzy with the positive spin on oil drop and negative rise. When will the price become stable at a level we can afford.

Remember that many of us do not drive for pleasure. We drive to get to work. We drive for our work. We drive to get important errands done quickly and smoothly and on time. Some are small business owners. Some are workers who work 2 to 3 jobs to stay afloat. Some are households with 2 workers paying between $100.00 to $120.00 tank of gasoline on each car to get to work. Some errands have to be done by car. Try loading your groceries on the bus with your milk and ice cream while the air conditioner is not working. Yep, that happens a lot when you live in the high desert area. Try waiting for the bus in the smoldering heat, where the buses break down and a replacement is not sent so you just have to wait an hour or two later with small children and a milk souring in the heat. Everything from doctor office appointment to dental appointments end up being rescheduled when we arrive late because buses break down. Many times the delays can cause as much as a 2 hour later showing up for the appointment that was just 5 to 10 miles away. WE--NEED--OUR--CARS!

Driving is no option. Driving is a necessity. And when the speculators speculate the oil price 'ROLLER COASTER', you are stuck in a tizzy.

Bush Administration Projected Trillion Dollar Deficit

2008-07-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

The Republican Bush Administration today, July 28 2008, projected the year 2009 will reach trillion dollar deficit for the next presidency, no matter who is president according to Jeremy Pelofsky and David Lawder in the Washington (Reuters) news on line. The housing slow-down will hit government revenues in a soaring half a trillion dollars of U.S. budget deficit.

Yet the, "we--are--not--in--a--recession," Bush Administration is still optimistic saying that the new report should cut the deficit to 178 billion in 2010 and may begin to produce surpluses in 2012. But everything the Bush Republican Administration had stated that would happen or should help our economy since the end of 2001 has proved NOT to work. So I hope Bush and his Republicans wont mind if I do not hold my breath.

Still the Bush Administration did give a worse forecast at 3.8 percent inflation this year. Many in the Republican Party, along with Bush, are selling the idea that 2009 will look better with a 2.3 percent and calling it moderate.

I guess that would depend on where the line is placed. Remember the Bush administration has changed the line of where the acceptance of average is, making it seem to be better than what it really is according to the original line. When they move the imaginary line of acceptance, Republicans can make it appear as if we are doing better than we actually are.

As Bush's tax cuts went into effect, the budget has been sapped by the expense of the Iraq and Afghan war.

The article, White House Sees Record Budget Gap In 2009, also reported "Democrats have blasted the Republican administration for squandering budget surpluses and nearly doubling the national debt, from $5.6 trillion when Bush took office in 2001 to over $9.5 trillion now." The Chairman of the House Representatives Budget Committee, South Carolina Democrat John Spratt said, "Under its policies, the largest surpluses in history have been converted into the largest deficits in history."

In the report, "Merrill Lynch & Co Inc last week estimated that a 2009 deficit topping $500 billion, combined with the government's normal financing operations, would require the Treasury to sell about $1 trillion in debt next year, a task they called "daunting."

John McCain Ignores Pentagon Orders?

2008-07-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

McCain said,"If I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn't visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event,"

Well, If the PENTAGON says "NO", you can bet you will NOT be allowed anywhere near the wounded soldiers. How could an ex-soldier, ex-air pilot, ex-POW think the Military are going to allow you, no matter who you are, to get anywhere close to the wounded soldiers on an American Military base in another country when the orders came from the Pentagon itself?

Just who is John McCain kidding? What makes him think he go and do the opposite of what the Pentagon ordered? Is John McCain having a Bush moment?

Without any proper authorization, does anyone believe that they can 'side--step' the Pentagon orders? Without the proper authorization does anyone believe that a civilian can just go on base and go anywhere they want and not follow the guide lines as to where they can and cannot go?

I believe the American US Citizen is too smart to fall for that one.

Remember, those wounded soldiers are in a military hospital on a military base in GERMANY and It is very ARROGANT for John McCain to have said those words, "If I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn't visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event,"

And I guess that the Military on base will 'IGNORE WHAT THE PENTAGON ORDERS WERE.' Yeah, when-pigs-fly!

It seems that there is a different set of rules regarding following the orders of the Pentagon as well as the Military Commanders on base for the Republican party politicians.

While everyone else would be put under Military arrest or kicked off of the base for trying to cause trouble on Base, the Republicans seem to think that they can do as the Republicans please on the base whether the Pentagon allowed it or NOT!!!!

I guess the Pentagon and Military enjoy having their orders ignored by the Republican Party.

Republicans Laugh, Americans Cry

2008-07-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

MARTIN CRUTSINGER, an AP Economics Writer in Washington on July 24, 2008, in his news report article on the ABC news on line tell us, "The National Association of Realtors reported that sales dropped by 2.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.86 million units. That was more than double the decline that had been expected and left sales 15.5 percent below where they were a year ago."

He also wrote, "The downward slide in sales depressed prices, too. The median price for a home sold in June dropped to $215,100, down by 6.1 percent from a year ago. That was the fifth largest year-over-year price drop on record."

Yet Bush with his Republican Administration crack jokes about the economy and Wall Street?

Associated Press Business Writer, STEPHEN BERNARD in NEW YORK, yesterday July 23, 2008, reported in his business news, "Student lender SLM Corp., more commonly known as Sallie Mae, said Wednesday its second-quarter profit plunged 72 percent as funding costs remained high amid further weakening in the credit markets and the company took charges related to its restructuring.Net income fell to $266 million, or 50 cents per share, during the second quarter, from $966 million..."

Why do Republicans laugh at stuff like this?

DEE-ANN DURBIN and TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writers in DEARBORN, Mich. July 24, 2008, inform their news readers, "Ford Motor Co. posted the worst quarterly performance in its history Thursday, losing $8.67 billion in the second quarter."

How do Bush and his Republican Administration find a joke in our failing economy?

A Reporting by Kyle Peterson, from the Reuters News Service Chicago, Ill. July 23, 2008, appeared on ABC news website. In Peterson's reporting he gives us some insight on Northwest airlines dilemma.

Kyle's report states, "Northwest Airlines Corp reported a quarterly net loss on Wednesday, reversing a year-earlier profit, on skyrocketing fuel prices. The carrier, which plans to merge with Delta Air Lines Inc , said its second-quarter net loss amounted to $377 million, or $1.43 per share, compared with a profit of $2.1 billion a year earlier."

Where is the Joke in this?

Steve Hargreaves, a New York staff writer of CNN Money.com July 24 2008, gives us these details, "The government charged an oil trading firm Thursday with manipulating oil prices in the first complaint to be announced since the regulators began a new investigation into wrongdoings in the energy markets. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused Optiver Holding, two of its subsidiaries and three employees with manipulation and attempted manipulation of crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange."

How is this funny?

Still it is hard to get to the truth when we have to deal with manipulating reporting like the on ABC news money beat correspondent Bianna Golodryga. Her title, "Who's to Blame for High Gas Prices? You" on July 23, 2008, says it all.

Why do the Republicans keep claiming that it is the American people's fault for our bad economy? How many jokes do the Republicans have blaming the American people off camera that we do not know about? And how much longer will the American people put up with the Republicans insulting and smearing the American people?

Home Values Drop With Plummetting Prices

2008-07-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

Tuesday a government report gave a 4.8 percent drop in home prices. Yet the percentage of dropping prices were a lot higher in other parts of the country.

Just four months ago, my husband and I went to our bank to see about refinancing our home into a 30 year fixed. But because the value of our home had already dropped approximately $150,000.00, while making our home almost $50,000.00 less in value than what we owed on our home, our bank was 'UNWILLING' to refinance with no money out on a 30 year fixed. We were stuck. Out contract with a finance loan company was sold to a different company in November 2007, when it was brought to their attention that our loan was suppose to be a 30 year fixed, and not an Adjustable Rate. When we originally did that refinancing back in December 2006 it was the Notary, who had the finance company on speed dial of his cell phone, told us that according to the Finance company the information of the 30 year fixed was just worded differently because it was just that type of wording, but not to worry it did mean a 30 year fixed. So under duress both my husband and I signed. Since December 2006 a lot has changed.

But why was the bank unwilling to refinance our home? The drop in home value just did not make any sense to us.

Well, according to the bank's home financing person, it was the homes as far as 10 to 25 miles from my home that did their quick sells, lowering their home prices below what they owed their Financial institutions in mortgage that caused my home to plummet in value.

Three months ago my friend's home, at the other end of town, had dropped $200,000.00 in value.

Just this month a friend of mine who lives up in Washington State in the Pacific Northwest was in shock to find out that the value of her home had decreased by $100,000.00 as well. However, just last month the news were reporting that Washington State with 9 other states were doing far better than the rest of the country and not loosing any of their home values.

It is now four months later after that trip to my bank. I am even more shocked to find out that the value of my home was lowered at least another $100,000.00.

Still my government keeps bailing out the same Financial Companies and Banks that are responsible for ripping off and lying to the homeowners.

Now isn't that a kick in the head?

Slashing The Job Market

2008-07-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Wachovia Bank is now cutting jobs due to their large second quarter loss this year.

So far for these past six months many jobs have been lost to either cutbacks or leaving the country, as businesses back track to gain some ground during these economic hard times. The Airlines, the different auto manufacturers, stores, restaurants, real estate, construction, many different mortgage companies, many different credit card companies, many different banks, many different manufacturing companies, many different packaging companies, many different distribution centers, the different telephone companies, many different medical clinics and hospitals have cut back, reports of cuts during the past seven years has even hit some police departments in different cities and other law enforcement agencies, and the list goes on.

But has job loss only been for these past six months? What about the High Tech Engineer and Program jobs? What about the Customer Service jobs? Look over jobs lost and cut backs since Bush took office in 2001. It began with Bush and his Republican Administration Outsourcing of jobs. And every year since other job industries would report lay-offs and cut backs do to the Roller-Coaster Bush Economy. Yet, the jobs loss would only be here in the U.S.A. and never in the companies other plants or business offices over seas. In fact, none of their overseas company opperations had any job loss at all.

For the past seven years the Bush administration logo in describing the cause of the economic hard times has been 'THE LACK OF CONSUMER SPENDING'. Let's face it, according to the Republicans, it is always 'Our Fault'.

What caused the lack-of-consumer-spending?

Well, remember the words of GW Bush in 2002, "America is NO longer a High--Tech--Country. America is Now a Service Country."

And remember when GW Bush said on national TV, "Americans NO longer have the 'INTELLIGENCE', knowledge or skills for the High Tech Industry."

Thanks to Bush and his administration the secure permanent high tech jobs left our country, leaving many Americans unemployed and scrambling for high tech temporary jobs in their field of which they qualify for with no medical insurance and no retirement plan benifit. Temporary jobs are only for a few months. When the jobs are over, the workers are scrambling to get another job with other consulting firms in the contracting industry to work for that company's client. The jobs available are too few and far in-between. Keeping up with the latest technologies is not hard for those like my husband who do have the Education, Skills, and Intelligence (which Bush denies). My husband is in his late 50s now, having been going through the job scarcity in his field for the last seven years, thanks to Bush and his Republican Administration.

And thanks to Bush and his Republican Administration, we lost a lot of the High Tech Engineers who quit their field because of Bush and his 'ANTI HIGH TECH' workers attitude since 2002.

Is it any wonder that consumer spending has been down during these past seven years?
Does it take a 'Rocket Scientist' to figure out that Bush and his Republican Administration have been calling the American People 'too dumb' to work high tech jobs for the past seven years?
Or hasn't anyone else figured that out yet?

Was Friday's Drop, Monday Rise All Speculation?

2008-07-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

On ABC news online, Adam Schreck, the Associated Press Business Writer reported on the oil price creeping back up on Monday after it had slipped down on Friday, July 18 2008.

There were talks on the horizon for that weekend, with speculation of a positive resolve that lowered the price of oil barrels on Friday. Yet, there was no credit to the upcoming Saturday talks on Friday and what they, the traders and buyers, were hoping for. In fact, in reading the Money and Business News on Friday the only credit of the oil plunging in price was given to the oil companies and their oil executives and to George W Bush and his Republican Administration. Yes, even the on line money and business news writers and television reporters on Friday and this past weekend were all trying to convince us that the up swing in oil prices was over and that we should be expecting a recovery of lower prices at the pump for the rest of the year. "Oh, Really?"

However, it wasn't until Monday, July 21 2008, when we are finally given the truth."The talks didn't resolve the problem of Iran's nuclear program, and that has been a factor in prices ticking higher today," What was that? Who was that? Did David Moore, a commodity strategist in Sydney Australia just admit that the oil prices fluctuate according to the 'POLITICS' of the day? "Part of the reason prices had fallen recently was on the expectation a deal could be made there." Did the commodity strategist just state that Friday's price drop in oil was only based on 'Speculation'?

'Oil prices also rose Monday on concerns that Tropical Storm Dolly may disrupt oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Moore said.' Was another reason for Mondays rise in the price per oil barrel due to more 'Speculation'?

When will the average American Citizen be told the truth? Is it demand, or is it 'Speculation'? The News Media, the Reporters are all suppose to be reporting the news. However all, we seem to get is Oil top executives and Corporate interests, Wall Street, and Republicans manipulation of the news.

Someone is laughing--all--the--way--to--the--bank, and it's 'NOT' me.

Is It Really Ludicrous?

2008-07-18T17:33:00.000-07:00

When the Right brothers invented their flying machine, everyone called them crazy.

When Kennedy said that we, as a nation, would be sending men into space, many Republicans ridiculed him.

When NASA said they were sending astronauts to the moon, a lot of people were gearing for the worst.

When we, as a nation, sent the Pathfinder to Mars, there were those who tried to stop it.

Now Gore has taken the stand and is trying to convince Americans and our government to switch over our energy to cleaner energy so we will never be dependent on OIL again within the next 10 years. The Republicans and the Oil corporations and oil interests groups are calling the idea 'LUDICROUS!'

We are a nation, a country of impossible dreams coming true. This is one dream that is very possible.

Changing City Codes Creates a False Picture

2008-07-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

In a news report, by Patrick Rucker on ABC news on line, the government is ecstatic because housing building, in New York, is on the increase.

But was it the economy that caused a stream of new home frames popping up in New York?

'NO!'

Than what could it be? Why would new homes suddenly begin to spring up when the housing industry has been hit so hard with dropping home values, foreclosures, and a very high number of over-stock of unsold homes in the real estate market?

The answer is very simple. New York City changed their Building Codes to allow new housing development in a failing economy even though there is a large number of vacant-unsold-homes, both new and old. The U.S. government are excited that 'Building Permits' climbed to 1.091 million and that construction is already begun. The Bush Administration will be gearing up to paint that 'Rosy-Picture' again.

But what will such a move do to a troubled, failed economy? Would viewing this move as an economic progress, improve our economy? Would the speculator, traders, and buyers in the Stock Market see this as a good thing? And even if they did, would this be real proof that the economy is getting better? Or is this just another illusion, trick-of-hand maneuver by a state trying to grasp at straws?

Are we going to see other states in the Union coming up with similar changes in their Building Codes, only to burden an already failing housing industry due to the economy?

Well does the term Don't-count-your-eggs-until-they've-hatched ring a bell?

World Economy Prove Bush Wrong

2008-07-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

Today, Tuesday, July 15, 2008, President Bush gave his spin on how great the economy is. Today, Bernanke gave his testimony in front of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on how good the economy is 'NOT!'

But there was a more pressing matter that occur today, which might have a lasting effect on the economy. One that can make the growing recession to last longer than expected. An irreversible downward spiral in the Stock Market effecting the world economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down more than 90 points, falling below 11,000 for the first time since July 21, 2006. By itself, it may not leave a lasting impression, but with the "economy continuing to face numerous difficulties, including ongoing strains in financial markets, declining house prices, a softening labor market, and rising prices of oil, food and some other commodities," the effects could last longer. Leaving this generation to deal with something far worse than a recession. Add to that the 'ever-ending-U.S.A.-shrinking-dollar' that sank to a new low against the Euro.

Although Bush and his administration keep painting a rosy economic picture, they just cannot hide the 'Ferocious-Fanged-Recession-Monster' from showing it's ugly head.

Even with the Feds financing Fannie and Freddie with a Billion, confidence in the U.S.A. economy declining causing the stock markets in Asia and Europe to drop. The repercussions were felt in Britain, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia. It is also believed that China felt it's effects in some of their stocks. It has been rumored that China holds stocks of Fannie and Freddie.

Economics Good Cop, Bad Cop

2008-07-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

While Bush was putting his usual spin on the condition of the economy, convincing those who would believe anything that the economy is on the up swing, Bernanke was in-front of the Senate Committee in a position where he had to tell the truth.

Having to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, Bernanke stated to the Senate Committee that the Economy is still sliding downward and that the Inflation continues to soar.

If the president were under Oath to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, his speech would have painted a different picture of despair and the trouble yet to come. But Bush is in a position where he can say anything to the same people who are being forced out of their homes, to the people who are cutting back on essentials to pay for gas to get to work, to the people who will have had to rotate their bills to pay for heating oil before the cold weather comes, to the people whose home values have dropped (in some cases as much as $250,000.00+ drop in value for the average middle class home), to the people who 'Quick Sold' their homes for hundred thousand less than what was owed on their home mortgages causing their neighbors home values to plummeted. Yes, Bush is a politician. Not the smartest one in the bunch, but he is a spinner.

Looking back on my days in school, I remember it was the truth of events and dates that are studied in history. Bernanke and the economy will be in history, like the events that led to the depression. History is 'Never' based on a spin.

Declining Stocks, Smoke Screen Fixes

2008-07-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

The AP Business Writer, Tom Paradis, on the ABC news web page had his take on the decline of the stock market today. Even the Billion that the Feds put into Fannie and Freddie, could not stop the traders and buyers from loosing faith.

The Financial Institutions will have their quarterly reports in soon. All those homes that went into quick sale with debt that was forgiven in $100,000.00 to $200,000.00 range for each home, and causing their neighbors homes values to decline will be showing it's ugly head in those reports as money lost. Also all those foreclosures where the money is lost and the banks have to sell them for a lot less than what is owed will also show itself in those reports.

Earlier today, Chairman Bernanke was seen as the hero for the failing economy and the home mortgage foreclosures. However, even the Fed's new rules for the lending companies can not turn around this economy, because the new rules only apply to 'New Future Home Loans'. There is nothing to stop the next wave of the adjustable that are coming in current existing mortgages whose times are closing in for the rate change. Also the home mortgages whose time is still one to five years away for the adjustable rate change are not going to get any help either, since their loans existed before the new rules were put into law. Nope, the only ones getting the help are those who either do not need the help or the future new home owners.

The Financial institutions are refusing to even consider helping the borrowers get into a 30 year fixed that they can afford. Yet, the monthly on the 30 year fixed would be more affordable, which means fewer foreclosures and better economic times. But those mortgages whose adjustable will be changing in the next 6 to 12 months, will not be affordable once they adjust. Therefore there will still be plenty of foreclosures on the horizon. In the mean time those same homes have fallen in value since homes in near by communities have 'Quick Sold' their homes for a lot less than what was still owed on the homes and $200,000.00 to $300,000.00 less then what the homes were valued at 1 to 3 years ago.

My home has dropped in value $250,000.00, making it valued at $100,000.00 less than what is still owed in the mortgage. A friends home had dropped in value $300,000.00, making her home valued at $200,000.00 less than what is still owed on her mortgage. We are all stuck between a hard place and a rock of not being able to sell because that would mean giving our home away and still owing monthly payments for years to come at the adjustable rate. Unless the company is willing to forgive what was lost with the 'Quick Sale'. But then the following year the amount 'Forgiven' would have to be counted as income. Imagine having to count the amount forgiven of $100,000.00 to $200,000.00 for income in your taxes. Yep, just call me a Hertz. I'll climb into the cemetery grave hole, by myself.

I bought my home, when both my husband and I had a stable job, stable retirement, stable everything. And only went for what we could afford. Only after my husband's job was outsource did we fall into trouble. And with the loss of medical insurance the medical bills piled up, while my husband worked temporary high tech jobs in his field. Grasping for straws, we refinanced. We stated that we wanted the 30 year fixed. We were told we had the 30 year fixed. When we were signing the papers, we were reassured that it was the 30 year fixed, and that the lending institution just had it worded differently, but that it was still the 30 year fixed. Well, We found out a month later, 'IT WAS NOT' a 30 year fixed! And we are now stuck. It was our word against theirs. And no one wanted to help us. Not even the new company whom bought our account 6 months after that from the cheating company.

We got ripped off, and cannot get out of it. The Financial institution who bought our account in November 2007 when the mortgage fiasco finally came out and foreclosures were abundant, is refusing to give us a 30 year fixed, which the other company, they bought us from, ripped us off when they lied to us in the first place.

Those new laws, Will--Not--Undue any of the current bad lending practices that effect the current mortgages whose APR's are coming up. And there is no way to stop them.

Soaring Past $147.00 A Barrel

2008-07-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

In reading the money news article by Associated Press Writer, Madlen Read, Friday July 11, 2008, I was hit with oil fatigue. It was shocking when the oil had soared to $100.00 a barrel back in February 2008. Now here we are averaging at $150.00 a barrel just 5 months later. Putting the national average at over $4.00 a gallon while the price has hit San Mateo California at $5.21 and 9/10 a gallon for regular with premium at $5.45 and 9/10.

The Managing Director of FACTS Global Energy in Energy in Singapore, Jeff Brown was quoted as saying, "There's always a fear premium in pricing. The tensions in Iran and the threat of supply disruption will help support oil prices,"

Of course the rising tensions between the Western countries and Iran with the 'Potential' of Nigerian militant group resuming their attacks on the Nigerian oil facilities seem to be having an effect on the 'traders and Investors' as they did their end-of-the-week-trade. And the shrinking American U. S. dollar was also to blame. Then there is also the possibility of a strike by oil workers in Brazil. But so far the only definite thing that has occurred is our devalued U. S. dollar. All the other factors for the rise during these 5 months were only probabilities.

There may not be much that we can do to stop the downward spiral of the U. S. dollar, however news on a repeat of possible threats seems to be having an effect on the 'trading and investing on Wall Street' thus controlling the price in the consumer market.

A Sworn Oath Testimony

2008-07-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

We have Rules and Laws in our lives and our government to maintain stability and order. They exist for the stability of the way of life in which we live. To be issued a Subpoena is to be, by law, ordered to appear and give testimony under oath, 'To-Tell-The-Truth-The-Whole-Truth-And-Nothing-But-The-Truth!' If the oath is violated and it is discovered that the statement that was given under oath to be a lie, then the person under oath is charged with perjury, which carries with it a penalty of prison time.

So why would someone who is/was a member of the Bush Administration feel that he/she does not have to be sworn in prior to their testimony. Could it be that the person knows that their statement would perjure himself/herself. In other words, that person wants to 'LIE' and not be charged with perjury. Remember that refusing to co-operate with an order of subpoena is breaking the law. That is why Republican Linda Sanchez, who is the Chairman of the House Subcommittee, ruled that Republican Karl Rove was breaking the law to co-operate with the Congressional Subpoena by refusing to testify.

Other Republicans are calling it a political ploy of the Democrats in insisting that Karl Rove give an oath to say the truth and nothing but the truth in his testimony. Yet Republican Linda Sanchez recognizes the law, and unlike her fellow Republicans, is under the legal oath of following the letter of the law just as the Democrats on the House Subcommittee are under the legal oath to do.

I wonder if any of us could so easily 'REFUSE' to give the sworn oath, thus allowing us to lie in our testimony, if we at any time are ordered by a subpoena to testify in court. I guess we all know the answer to that one.

Iran Missiles Cause Campaign Concerns

2008-07-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Test missiles in Iran caused concerns in the Middle East and western world bringing the price per barrel up in other regions of the world whose price was always lower than ours.

Both candidates of the United States presidential election were asked: "Does Israel have a right to a preemptive strike against Iran?" Not surprising candidates views differ. What is surprising is who said what.

John McCain said, "I can't know whether a strike would be justified because I don't know the progress or the nature or the significance of the threat." Am I surprise by the Republican candidate response. No! Since Israel is not an oil rich country I did not expect any republican to care. Look at their history. No rich resource, no care. Can you here me now?

Obama on the other hand, being the presidential candidate who puts people over 'Foreign Oil Interest' answered the question in the right, humanitarian way: "Israel always has the right to protect itself from serious threats and Iran is a serious threat."

Now, what do we do about Iran. John McCain says, "Defense shield in Europe."

Obama says, "What we should have been doing from the start, instead of engaging in over-the-top rhetoric, what we should be doing is gathering our allies together in a serious effort to apply sanctions to Iran and encourage them to change their behavior."

But how did Iran get this far? In late 2002 and early 2003, wasn't it Bush and Rumsfeld who both said with straight face in front of the news cameras, to the American people and the world that Iran was our friend? Wasn't it Bush and Rumsfeld and the Republican party who insisted that we can now trust the information coming out of Iran regarding the WMD's in Iraq? And wasn't it the Bush administration who patted themselves on the back insisting of better relations with lifting the sanctions against Iran at that time and increasing the exports to Iran?

Well, the WMD's were not in Iraq! That did not and does not surprise me, after all the Iranian government have not been honest in any of their claims of the past since the take over of the Shaw. However, just as I warned on the discussion boards in late 2002 and early 2003, I do have an erie feeling that the Iran government played us during that time period of trying to get us tied up in a war that would prove be difficult to get out of since we already had been trying to deal with the real terrorists at that time, Bin Laden and Al Qaida and the Taliban. Yes, the Iranian government reeled the Bush administration in, 'HOOK-LINE-and-SINKER.

So how do we save face. Do we do as John McCain says, as he is trying to save face for the Bush Republican Administration, who have not yet been held accountable for their role in ignoring the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency's warning about Iran. Our own current history already proves that the Republican party 'Helped Iran To Get This Far Since 2002.'

Or do we follow Obama and his suggestion of beginning a process of drawing the line, which the Bush Republican Administration abandoned in the first place. Remember, the beginning process is only the beginning process, which does have to change as the circumstances call for.

But the correct actions have already elude the Republican party. Do we really want more of the same mistakes with another Republican Administration.

Yes, It Is A Fix. No, It Is Not!

2008-07-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

According to Jeannine Aversa the AP economics writer on the news website, abcnews.com, the Federal Reserve will issue new home lending rules that the financial institutions have to follow sometime next week. According to the report, "It is suppose to protect future homeowners from dubious lending practices..." But the new rules will only apply to the new loans to prevent a repeat of the current mortgage mess.

Yet there is nothing to fix the current mortgage mess. I am still waiting.

If half of $75,000.00 is $37,500.00 than $40,000.00 is almost half and no where near 25%. That means every time my husband did a refinancing of our home (2 x's since his high tech job was outsourced 5 to 6 years ago and our bills were piling up), the brokers, whom the financial institutions began using for home loans, lied to my husband and stole almost half of the money loaned each time. Of course the grand total of the entire 1st loan, $75,000.00, was what was added to our mortgage. Plus the second time my husband did the refinancing from a different financial institution, he took out half and thought for sure he would get a better deal since the broker promised that it was a fixed 30 year loan. None of our refinancing were a quick-over-night. In fact each one would take 1 month to 2 months to go through. During the signing of the loan they said that the people re-financing the loan had to make a change for one reason or another. We asked what the changes were but they were never clear as to what the change was, just that it was necessary.

Well the 30 year fixed was a lie, which we did not discovered until we received the new billing in the mail. It had the APR set for the higher rate in February 2009, only 2 years after the signing the documents. In fact in a 10 month period our new mortgage account was sold to a different company we did not have a contract with who totally refused to help us get into a 30 year fixed with NO MONEY OUT. Why? Since they know we were lied to, they should be willing to help us get into a 30 year fixed that we can afford with our home.

Now, one of the excuses used by the Financial institutions is that people with bad credit should not qualify. Yet my husband and I had 'EXCELLENT CREDIT' before his high tech job was outsourced. Gone is the Medical coverage. It all comes out of pocket and every year more and more has to be ignored, like my asthma. I stay inside a lot. My husband heart condition can not be ignored. He has heart attacks and had a single bi-pass and is on heart medications. No medical insurance to pay for anything. His Emergency room visits, hospital stay bills cannot be paid until he gets a permanent job in his field to pay monthly payments. So our credit report is bad now since his job has been 'OUTSOURCED TO INDIA' since January 2002.

Now think about this. My husband contacted the financial institutions and thought he was dealing with them directly. They would take the information, do a quick review to see if we qualified, then have a broker contact him. The broker always introduced himself/herself as a representative of the Financial institution. But after everything was done, and we realized something was wrong, we would talk to the Financial institution and be told that the broker was not their employee, but an independent broker.

And in one of the cases, after all the paper work was finished and we received the billing, I called to question why it did not say FIXED instead of the APR, their response to me was that I can complain about the independent broker to a phone number of theirs.

What??? They were the ones who had that broker contact us. Who are they kidding? That phone number is just that financial institutions customer service.

So now the Feds are going to introduced new rules for lending institutions to protect future homeowners from unfair practices in future new loans. Yet I just listed a few unfair and unlawful practices that they did and are still doing to me. How can the Unfair Practices be OK to continue to happen to me, but not to the next guy.

That is so-not-right.

What Were the Republican Years About?

2008-07-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

I recently read a post on digg by the engineer2008. He started out writing a paragraph of an article in which George Packer interviewed Buchanan, who worked for Nixon and secured his winning that election. I was interest in the Article because I remember watching the election so I clicked on the title, 'The Fall of Conservatism. Have the Republicans run out of Ideas.' It took me to http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/26/080526fa_fact_packer

The interview covered the early Nixon years when Buchanan worked for Nixon's campaign and helped him get elected. Buchanan tells Packer about an idea they came up with. Nixon and Buchanan had an idea of creating a new majority bordering on the fenced grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Well it worked because Nixon won by a land slide that election.

Buchanan tells Packer in the interview: 'The sixties, which began in liberal consensus over the Cold War and civil rights, became a struggle between two apocalyptic politics that each saw the other as hellbent on the country’s annihilation. The result was violence like nothing the country had seen since the Civil War, and Perlstein emphasizes that bombings, assaults, and murders committed by segregationists, hardhats, and vigilantes on the right were at least as numerous as those by radical students and black militants on the left.

What are the Republican years about? What is any Republican year in the Oval Office about? It can be summed up with the last sentence of the article. 'Nixon claimed to speak on behalf of "the nonshouters, the nondemonstrators," but the cigar smokers in that South Carolina hotel were intoxicated with hate.'

They can call themselves the 'Moral Majority, the Right-Winged Party, The Evangelical Right, The Family Value Party,' But to me, they will always be no different that the NAZI party of Germany.

The Up-Swing Continues

2008-07-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

In reading a money news article by Adam Schreck the AP Business Writer it is clear that the rise in Oil Prices is not over. Late Wednesday the price per barrel hit over $144.00 just as the government reported an unexpected drop in U.S. supplies with the threat of attacking Iran on the traders minds.

Speculation? It seems every time the oil people sneeze, and something in government happens it is the traders on Wall Street who frantically sell, trade, buy causing speculation that drives up the oil price. But don't take my word for it.

Good luck this 4th of July at the pumps. And expect higher prices all the way around the grocery stores and utilities.

Positive trade? Really?

2008-07-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

According to Joe Bruno, an AP business writer, 'bargain hunting in the trade market today sent shares up then soaring downward only to creep up slowly toward the end of the day.' Yet it was called a positive trade and say we could be headed for recovery. Really?

Well, Ford motor Co. in its' report stated that sales dropped sharply in June. That does not sound like a recovery to me.

Oil rose again in record high levels. That does not sound like a recovery to me.

And according to Scott Mayerowitz a member of the ABC business news unit, during these hard times, as companies cut back like the airlines and cell phones so does the customer service. That does not sound like a recovery to me.

And many of the free-bee stuff that you used to get in some industries like the hotels and motels, will now cost you.

The associated press economics writer, Martin Crutsinger concerning the continuing slump in housing, he stated in his money news report that for the 11th time in the past year construction spending fell in May. In fact 'home builders have been frantically slashing back on their production in the face of the worst slump in housing in more than two decades.' That does not sound like a recovery to me.

And with all the news articles written on the oil, whether it was demand or speculation to blame for the oil hikes, another article was there on the news again. Yep, this time it was Barbara Lewis who claims that it is demand not the speculation on Wall Street that is responsible for the price hike. Hmm, I wonder. Were any of these news reporters around in the 1970s'.

Remember that time in history, During the Nixon and Ford years when they claimed that it was DEMAND that drove the price of oil from .25 cents a gallon to $1.40. Oh, you were not born yet. Well let me inform you of REAL HISTORY. You see a few of the OIL people in TEXAS got together and on paper transferred the ownership of oil from family member to family member to in-law to cousin. That process created a shortage on paper. But there was NO real Shortage nor was there an Increase in demand. However, there were long lines at the pump, the price jumped from .25 cents to .50 cents to .75 cents to $1.00 in a very short time. By the end of the three years the price jumped to $1.43 per gallon. But it wasn't until Carters time when an investigation of the Oil shortage and demand revealed that there was no shortage at all and that the demand was never increased. There were government hearings and a trial. There was serious talk of sentencing and jail time. But then Reagan became president and then Ronald Reagan slapped the American Citizen in the face when he gave clemency to the OIL people from TEXAS. And anyone who refuses to believe it, was either not born yet, or is still in denial. Do your own research in the Libraries your self. Scan all the old news articles of the time. Yep, the Oil People got the American Citizen to believe that Carter was a bad president, but in fact he was the only American president who went after the Oil People of Texas when they had the power. I wonder if any other American president could ever have the courage to take on the OIL PEOPLE who are now in control of the global economy.

Cycle Of Oil Prices Rise Again

2008-06-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

It seems that we continue to go in circles with our oil prices rising above $143.00 per barrel. Strange that every time the money experts on the News stations like CNN, Fox, MSNBC all seem to suggest and do say that our oil prices are expected to go down with the help of the Bush administration. Yet, that NEVER happens!

With everything the Bush administration has done so far the oil crises just continues to get worse. Now why is that? What was the very first impact of change of policy since GW Bush took over in 2001? The very first thing he worked on was changing the U.S. policy of outsourcing of American jobs. It started before the 9/11 attacks. Yet no one remembers.

Now what is the secret to a strong economy? The secret to a strong working economy is to have the people in that economy working, Economics 101.

When the high tech jobs were sent overseas with Bush selling the Idea that Americans are too stupid to do the job, there began a domino effect both in the job market, and in Americas' economy. Our dollar began to fall and get weak. Old home sells began to fall. Older middle aged people who were loosing their jobs along with medical benefits and retirement had to find other work to pay for the rising cost of Utilities: electric and gas.

By the end of his first term in office, Bush sold the belief that we are no longer a high tech country, but are now a service country.

Now nearing the end of GW Bush second term in the Oval Office, the oil has more than double since the beginning of his first term, more than 3/4 of all the states in the United States are experiencing quick sells, causing mortgages of unsuspecting neighboring homes to be a lot higher than the falling value of their homes. Although the promise of forgiving what is owed sounds good, the truth is that what is forgiven has to be included as income in the following tax year, leaving all those homeowners who are holding on to their homes watching the value of their homes drop. Selling is no option for those of us who are still paying into our mortgages as the value of our homes decline below what is owed.

The Electric and heating gas utilities has continued to rise every year. In my area alone, the electric rate rises twice each year since Bush began his first term with the heating gas rising once each other year.

Now with the gasoline price more than doubled since Bush second inauguration, I can not help but wonder why the American people are not fed up.

When we had Bin Laden in our grasp, it was the Bush administration that backed down. When our intelligence had proof that Pakistan was harboring and protecting Bin Laden, it was the Bush administration that denied, denied, denied.

When will we finally admit that the Republican Party are not the party of the people, but the party of Oil and Big Business? When will we finally admit that you cannot have a democracy, a government by the people for the people with a Republic administration? Is there democracy in Red Communist Republic of China, or the Banana Republics? No! And you will never have a democracy with a Republican administration.

Oh Happy Day

2008-06-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

After reading an economics news article on http://www.abcnews.com/ that was written by Tom Hays, an associated press writer, I just had to spread the good cheer.

Oh Happy Day, Oh Happy Day, Federal Authorities have arrested 2 Bear Stern Managers. They are being charged with conspiracy and fraud charges in misleading investors adding in the collapse of the Subprime Mortgage Market making this a Happy Day.

Both Mathew Tannin and Ralph Cioffi were arrested at their homes. Tannin was arrested in his New Jersey home and Cioffi at his New York City home by FBI agents. Their arrest came as the result of a year-long-Federal-Securities-Fraud-investigation of the 2 Bear Stern Managers misleading the investors in the risky Subprime Mortgage Market.
The two are speaking to authorities under anonymity due to the outcome of the investigation still pending, leaving me to believe that they will not serve any real time. Tannin's lawyer, Brune, believes in her clients' innocence, claiming that her client is a scape-goat. She is looking forward to his acquittal, while Coiffi's lawyer refused to comment.

The Subprime Mortgages were repackaged and sold around the globe as securities. Bear Sterns collapse revealed the damage that had been done to the companies that had bought, packaged, then sold the loans. In fact the Bear Sterns hedge funds failed way back in June of 2007 although Tannin and Cioffi continued with positive assessments of the loan securities. Before crashing, the loans had more than 20 Billion in assets.

Stating that they were misled in the investments, Barclays Bank along with other hedge fund investors had file a lawsuit last year naming the two, Tannin and Coiffi.

Yet the lawsuit also claims that Bear Sterns itself knew for a while that certain assets in the Bear Sterns high Grade Structure Strategies Enhanced Master Fund were worth far less than their stated values. The portfolio asset values were declining during the same time that Bear Sterns told Barclay the enhance fund was up at 6% percent in June 2007.

The company Bear Sterns itself might had gotten bailed out with billions in tax-payers money it collapsed. But the company has suffered a humiliating loss recently when it was bought out at $10.00 a share, yet their shares were $171.00 each back in January 2007. Oh happy day.

Now, how many more will be named and with what companies since the investigation is still pending?

Iraq, Afghan Veterans Guinea pigs for Suicidal drugs

2008-06-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

The report of our American Soldiers and Veterans being used as Guinea pigs for drugs that cause Suicide and other violent effects is not new. It has been documented during the past wars. The effects have always been negative to our men and women in the military. And in the military, you are not given the option to opt out of receiving the shots. You are told that you will receive these shots for your protection before going into your deployment. Or they are told that they have to get this shot or that shot to prevent an outbreak from a virus of some-kind.

However, what is being done to our men and women in the military with our government, in this modern day, using them as guinea pigs for drugs that are known to have violent and suicidal effects is disgraceful.

Why? In the past the doctors and scientists did not know what negative effects there would be. But in our present day, they are well aware of the permanent damaging harmful effects of these drugs before they even administered them. One of the drugs they have been exposed to recently is Chantix, an anti-smoking drug. Chantix causes suicide and neuropsychiatric behavior. Known are the side effects: anxiety, nervousness, tension, depression, thoughts of suicide.

These brave men and women sacrifice their futures, they put their lives on hold, they are separated from their loved ones, they put their lives in harms way to do the jobs that our government asks them to do, and do all of this and much more on very little pay. Their benefits have gotten leaner, having to pay more for their medical, almost equal to or as high as what is in the private sector, while being denied medical coverage after they were injured in Iraq or Afghanistan when they are unable to continue serving due to injury on the job. They pay more for housing, almost equal to or as high as what is in the private sector. In fact on many bases it is the private sector that owns the housing, charging our military personnel the same amount for rent. Gone are the days when the military are the ones guarding the entrance gates to the bases. Yep, even that is private security, an action that has hit all the bases in these last five to eight years. So much for homeland security, when those protecting our bases do NOT answer to top military personnel, but to a private corporation.

Yet, our military personnel still serve the United States of America with great pride and honor. Their dedication knows NO bounds. They are strongly committed to our Constitution, our Bill-of-Rights, our many privileges that make us a strong free nation.

That is why I consider it shameful and criminal that our brave men and women should be subject to suicidal drugs that cause such violent adverse, permanently harmful effects to them.
These brave men and women should receive our respect, and our loyalty, Not-Our-Indifference to their situation.
These brave men and women do deserve protection from our government, protecting them from permanent harm through psychic drug testing, Not-Expected-To-Be-Guinea pigs.
These brave men and women must have the same amount of dedication from us in seeing to their safety as our government claims to have for its' civilian citizens.
These brave men and women deserve the same outcry of what is happening to them, as is given to the many programs in saving the environment and life on this planet.

We can care so much for environmental effects. We can care so much for the extinction of the whales and other animals. We can care so much for the loss of the rain forests.

But what is missing is the LOUD-OUT-CRY for what is happening to our own military personnel. They are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our parents. They are our friends, our neighbors. They are our fellow citizens. They are us.

"For what so ever you do to the least of my brothers, you have also done to me."

'Hope Now' Is A Shortie

2008-06-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

The latest in the foreclosure fiasco is that "Bush administration-backed mortgage industry coalition, called 'Hope Now' has fallen short in stopping or lowering the number of foreclosures. In fact the glistening 'Hope Now' was suppose to turn around the economy and show a decline in foreclosures. But it did not. Actually, as it stands right now the foreclosures are forty-three percent higher this year than what it was this time last year.

Of the mortgages held by nine large banks foreclosures rose in March by 1.23 percent according to a new government report. In May the Real Trac report stated that one in ever 483 households received a foreclosure filing.

There are reports that foreclosures are likely to rise much higher towards the end of the year.

Meantime, some are doing the 'short sale', which means lowering the price of their homes to sell quickly. Some sales are lowered between $100,000.00 to $250,000.00. The good thing about this is that some mortgage companies are willing to forgive what is still owed on the mortgage after the sale. The bad thing is that you have to count the forgiven amount as income when you do your taxes. This is a loose, loose situation for the ex homeowner.

But it is a loose, loose situation for the surrounding neighbors, neighborhood, and sometimes the entire city. As homes continue to sell at lower than their value, it brings down the values of the homes in the community. I know because several homes sold in quick sales in my community. The bank told me that my home had dropped in value $250,000.00 because of someone Else's 'quick sale.' Leaving me and my home in the 'QUICK SAND OF DECLINING HOME VALUE.'

American Consumer Always Gets The Blame

2008-06-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

When it comes to the price of oil, whose fault is it?

Well, one news money expert on TV stated that it all boiled down to the huge demand of the American driver. "Really?"

On another news channel the oil price hikes was blamed on Americans love affair with their cars. "You don't say."

Yet just a few days before that statement, another money news expert claimed that the American driver had cut back too far in their usage. "What?"

And then there was an oil rep who said that China and India have a much higher legitimate demand for oil, and that their demands have to be met first. "Oh, really?"

Meanwhile the European truck drivers had staged their protest on the oil price hikes and blocked their borders. Their protest is that their prices at the pump are some of the highest in the world. And none of them are blaming the average American for the oil hikes. In fact, I have not heard anyone try to tie the price of gasoline in Europe with the demand of the average American or European. "Hmm, why is that?"

Is the American consumer at fault with their demand for oil? Is it the American consumer with their cutting back in their demand for oil with American consumer cutting back their daily spending more each year to blame? (Less money spent, less money for goods and services profits.) Is OPEC at fault? Is it the middle man whose the one laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank? Are the speculators on Wall Street responsible for the price hike?

Or maybe, just maybe, the outsourcing of jobs at the Beginning of the Bush Administration, putting many Americans out of secure jobs, stuck with temporary work without job stability and without job security, without medical insurance, making it harder and harder to make ends meet with lower pay for the same job and same job requirements and education for those jobs which just continue to get fewer and farther inbetween each year, having to spend less and less money and cutting back on goods and services that started a chain reation with different industries recieving lower profits for the past eight years. First went the High Tech Jobs and the Customer Service jobs along with the annoucement by Bush that "America is no longer a High Tech country but now a Service country (like medical, police, fire fighters)", then the retail profits dropped each and every year since as more industries cut back due to lower profits with layoffs and hiring less or having a hiring freeze, while the electric companies were raising their prices and putting penalties on private homeowners for using more electricity with the change of the weather and seasons yet no limits or penalties were placed on businesses who always waiste, then it was found out that some in the energy industry inflated the shortage but nothing was done to pay customers back for being overcharged by the electric companies as they continue their price hike each year, then the gas heating industry rasing their prices on homeowners and placing penalties on homeowners yet no penalties were placed on businesses for their waiste, then some more jobs cut with fewer jobs available in different industries continued, then the new car purchasing began to decline, then there were reports of jobs loss in American auto manufacturing, then the older homes sales began to suffer, then the new homes sales began to decline, then there were reports of job loss in the construction industry, then the housing industry worker jobs declined, then the water industry placing limits on homeowners and penalties for usage while no penalties are ever placed on business, during all this time the oil industry were raising their price of oil.

Yep, but according to all the different industries listed it is always the American consumer who is the first one they blame.

Iran, The Supreme Leader, and Republicans

2008-06-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Leader of Iran is a religious leader who believes that he is Religiously Right. If he were an American, he would be a Republican.

The Supreme Leader of Iran is a religious leader who made a deal with Regan to hold the hostages (remember them), in 1980 until after the November elections and to release them after the January 20, 1981 inauguration, which he did. A piece of the news that had hit every news media at the time. I wonder how the hostages feel about that. Or if anyone even showed them the news report at that time. I know if it were me who was a hostage, I would have been very angry that the Republicans made the deal for the Supreme Leader of Iran to hold me longer and not listen to those who wanted me released sooner.

The Supreme Leader of Iran hates democracy, and calls it the demon. But he loves the Republics. You know, the Republic of China. But I believe that the Supreme Leader also loves the Republicans like Bush and Rumsfeld. After all both Bush and Rumsfeld made the statement in March 2003 that Iran was our friend on national TV as they bragged that it was an Iranian Government informant who told them that there were WMDs in Iraq, which made it possible for Iran to work on their own Nuclear WMDs unwatched. Remember, how both Bush and Rumsfeld both talked that they were on good terms with the Iran Leaders.

Job Loss For Fifth Month Straight

2008-06-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

High unemployment continues as the numbers come in for the month of May. Jobs loss to American workers in May was reported at 49,000. So far the highest reported for a single month was February when the figure hit 63,000 jobs loss.

As more home foreclosures are increasing, and more job opportunities are declining, employers are worried of their own prospects and the profits for their businesses that they lay off employees and clamp down - freezing - any new hiring.

Still with the Government reporting lower job losses for January, April, and March then coming back with the corrections after the numbers were challenged - what are the chances that the number for the month of May are accurate. Just like the other three months whose figures turned out to be much higher than first reported, May could have higher figures as well.

Chief economist, Mark Zandi stated that for the average American there is not debate that the economy is in a recession. He added "That's because their net worth is lower, their purchasing power is lower, and it's tough to find a job. If you lose a job, it is tough to get back in."

For the fifth month of the year the job lose has totaled 324,000.

Still the feds and Bush Republican Administration are hopeful that the economy will be pulled out of the "Deep Funk" in the second half of the year, which was reported by Jeannine Aversa the Associated Press Economics Writer. The article was U.S. Jobless Rate Spikes to 5.5 percent, which was posted on ABCnews.com.

Unemployment UP, Stocks DOWN, Oil Prices SOAR

2008-06-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

Strange that today, Monday June 9 2008, ABC reports on the Stocks fall in wall street while the Oil Prices surge and the Unemployment on the rise. Yet that was suppose to be Fridays news, since that is when all this had occurred. So then why were some news media planting the idea that the costs of oil barrels were down on Friday?

Maybe they were trying to plant a positive on the negative events that were happening on Friday.

Maybe they were trying to prevent a panic to flow into the weekend.

Or maybe, just maybe, the Bush administration and Oil Industries just wanted to give any candidate from connecting the dots. Well the American people, as well as any people around the world are just smart enough to be able to connect the dots themselves.

While we suffer loosing our jobs, loose our homes, with prices at the pump and the energy costs going up, the prices of food continue to climb as shortages are to blame, it is true that there is only one truth.

And that one truth is that the Oil industries, OPEC, China, India, Bush, Chaney, and the Republican Party are all laughing all-the-way-to-the-Bank.

World Oil Prices Outrage

2008-06-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

As oil prices climbed even higher throughout the United States bringing oil prices at the pump up to an average of $4.50 a gallon in California pumps with the rest of the country hitting the average of $4.00 at their pumps, European truckers are getting hit by even higher prices. Truckers in throughout Europe are staging massive protests.

The different European truckers have blocked their Countries borders. Included in blocking the borders are Spanish truckers, French truckers, Portuguese and truckers from Belgium.

However as demand in America and other western countries drop, China and India demands continue to grow.

One could almost guess that the countries that have taken the jobs away from the Middle Class American are the same countries who are growing their demand for oil and getting it. Thus giving those countries like China and India lower prices at their pumps.

Yet many of the investors who had their money in the Mortgage and Loans have bailed out, jumping into the bandwagon of OIL INVESTMENTS sending oil prices soaring.

Add to that the weaken American dollar. Since oil prices are set in American dollar which is much weaker than other currencies around the world the prices continue to rise against the American consumer.

Of course the OPEC nations have made it very clear that they will not increase the supply for American demand, although they found no problem in increasing the supply of what they sell to India and China.

It's The Sign Of Bad Times

2008-05-26T23:07:00.000-07:00

It's the sign of bad times, when the USA has the most unsold homes since 1985.
It's the sign of bad times, when sales of Existing Homes are stagnant as Inventory Stays High.
It's the sign of bad times, when Median Home Prices Fall Again lowering the home value throughout the neighborhood.

Oh listen to what I have to say: "We are in a recession. We are sliding into depression, anyway, anyway."

It's the sign of bad times, when current job market conditions keep the aging from retiring.
It's the sign of bad times, when corporate heads take away your jobs and send them to another country.
It's the sign of bad times, when the successful young Generation X are crying out "FOUL!"

Oh listen to what big business have said: "You the US citizen is to blame. Corporations will always blame the US citizen, anyway, anyway."

It's the sign of bad times, when food is being rationed.
It's the sign of bad times, when the cost of gas tripled with in a 3 year period.
It's the sign of bad times, when the consumer is blamed for the bad economy because the consumer is not spending enough.

Oh listen to what money analyst keep saying: "The consumer needs to spend more. It don't matter if they do not have a job to spend money, anyway, anyway."

It's the sign of bad times, when more homes have fallen into foreclosure.
It's the sign of bad times, when the borrower is blamed for excepting a bad loan.
It's the sign of bad times, when even a Congress woman battles foreclosure on her home.

Oh listen to what will continue to happen: "Financial institutions are swooping up homes, and they do not care if they through whole families into the street, anyway, anyway."

Fuel Costs Claims Its' Next Victim

2008-05-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

With the rising cost of Oil, which has doubled since 2005, the instability of the oil crises has just claimed its' newest victim, the Ford Auto Industry. Yep, that's right, the good old Ford Motor Company has just declared that has stopped any further production of its' trucks and SUVs for the rest of the year. Ford will be releasing more of the details of how they will be cutting their costs and cutting back sometime in July. Sounds like big Ford lay-offs are on the horizon. Of course, the only cutting back in production that Ford plans on doing is in the North American production plant in Dearborn. So I was surprise to find out that the Ford Motor Company did do extremely well during the first-quarter of sales making $100 million profit.

Also in the Auto Industry, General Motors Corporation had cut its' second-quarter production in North America by 5%, Chrysler LLC during the first 4 months of this year has already cut North American production by 16%. Add to that the Toyota and Nissan Auto Manufacturers cutting their North American productions to meet lower demand.

My, my what a vicious pattern is encircling our economy. With major auto manufacturing companies on the down-swing and big auto industry lay-offs on the horizon, it's only a matter of time when unemployment and foreclosures will be on the up-swing even more. Isn't the Republican Economics of the past 7 1/2 years just grand?

$133 Oil Industry CEO and Presidents before Congress

2008-05-22T00:18:00.001-07:00

In the 1970s the Oil Companies were before Congress due to price hikes and shortage. Yet it took almost a full decade before we found out that the oil industry's' shortage was just on paper. Also we learned that their price hike was caused with selling of companies, just on paper, to different family members causing a price hike at the pump. Yep, those were the good old days. And when it looked like the oil companies at that time were going to get into trouble, along came president Reagan who decided that the Oil Companies Executives should not be penalized or jailed or charged. What a let down that was.

Now fast forward to 2008. We now have the Oil CEO and Presidents of the Oil Companies before Congress on May 21, 2008. "We're on the precipice here and about to fall into a recession," Dick Durbin said. "Is there anybody here who has any concerns about what you're doing to this country?"

"The American economy is buckling under the weight of gas prices. And while consumers and businesses suffer from these price increases, the oil industry seems only to get richer and richer." Senator Herb added. Oil prices climbed to $133 a barrel today which ricochet great concerns on what was happening to the American Economy.

On April 1, 2008, April Fools Day, there was a hearing on the oil prices slightly rising over $100 a barrel, yet nothing was done to stop the up serge of oil costs at that time and now the price per barrel is up 1/3% at $133.00. Will the prices start to fall because of the hearing? Will the prices freeze and stop rising? Or will we be reading reports in the next month or two of how the barrel price rose another 1/3% bringing the cost closer to $166.00 a barrel? Hmm, well the Bush, Chaney and their close friends and relatives can line their pockets with all the money their stocks in the oil industry is making.

Oil Price Hike With Lower Supply

2008-05-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

In reading 'Oil Crosses $129.00 For The First Time,...' on the ABC news, the associated press writers, Hogue and Jahn report on the oil price surge and the excuses offered by the OPEC representatives.

It appears that I was right in my belief that the price of oil would hit over $125 dollars per barrel just before this summer. Of course the rest of the country is complaining of the national average of $3.79 per gallon, yet they have no clue just how lucky they are. Here in Southern California we have been stuck at over $4.00 per gallon for weeks now.

Some of those in the Oil industry have blamed the higher prices on:
1) Stronger demand for diesel fuel in Asia.
2) The weakening of the American dollar against the Euro, making oil prices cheaper for foreign investors.
3) Recent earthquake has the regions in China relying heavily on generators for power.
4) China is also ramping up diesel fuel in preparation of the Olympics driving up the costs.

But Energy Minister Khelil stated that OPEC wont increase it's output this summer driving season, thus less supply during the heaviest use of gasoline consumption. I guess we can just expect higher prices at the oil pump. Heating oil prices and natural gas costs have increased and may also rise just before summers' end in time for the cooler months.

Foreclosures Equals Depression, Migraines, Suicides

2008-05-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

With more and more home owners on the verge of loosing their homes, while more homes are added to the foreclosure lists every month a new survey is rearing its' ugly head. An increase in Doctor reports of patients physical, mental, and emotional health being affected by the foreclosures, or the realization that they are near foreclosure has continued to rise.

Studies have been done in the past from 1968 through 2002 that show the effects of recession with the threat of one loosing their homes and their emotional, mental health on the decline with suicide on the climb. Of course the reports of the Republicans referring to the foreclosures as the fault of the homeowners just adds to the anxiety with depression, migraine headaches, insomnia, and even suicides. But there is a victim that the Republicans seem to miss. A victim that has always been ignored by the Republicans and the SUPER RICH.

The victims that are most affected by the loss of their homes, and who suffer very greatly are the children. If I hear one more person say the words that children are resilient, I will slap that person so hard that his/her eyes will pop out. Children are showing the effects of the pending foreclosures their parents are experiencing. But it is even worse when the foreclosures actually happen.

For decades the Republican party have ran their campaigns on the statement that they and only they are the 'Family Value Party'.

So I ask:
What is so 'Family Value' about putting parents and children out in the street? What is so 'Family Value' about financial institutions and Banks having the mortgage contract papers state 30 year and APR in the same paragraph when the homeowner originally asked for and insisted on 30 year fixed? What is so 'Family Value' about the company person who is with you at the signing of the contract papers, calls the company to verify when you question about the 30 year adjustable when you originally insisted on the 30 year fixed? What is so 'Family Value' about the person reassuring you that it is just worded differently, but that it is the same as a 30 year fixed according to the individual he spoke with? What is so 'Family Value' about sending the first billing with the adjustable rate two year change time frame after you were told that it was a 30 year? What is so 'Family Value' about the financial institution stating that they cannot help you and that you need to talk to the broker who got you that deal because he/she is not an employee of theirs? What is so 'Family Value' about the financial institution then telling you that there is nothing they can do for you, not even try to redo the paperwork to put it into a 30 year fixed which is what you, the customer, wanted in the first place? What is so 'Family Value' about telling you that there is nothing they can do for you, especially since they are a financial institution that claims to be a mortgagor and do advertise 30 and 40 year fixed in their ads and on their website? What is so 'Family Value' about, after bringing it to the mortgage company attention that you wanted the 30 year fixed instead, the financial institution suddenly sells your mortgage to another financial company whose billing and website state that they are a mortgage financial institution, however every time you call their customer service the company calls themselves a collections company? What is so 'Family Value' that with out an appraiser looking at your home, the mortgage company states that the house down the street sold in a quick sell lowering your house value 50 thousand below what your mortgage is, which is a hundred fifty thousand below what your home originally appraised at? What is so 'Family Value' about mortgage companies dictating the value of the house to the appraiser, instead of the other-way-around? And after going through all that, what is so 'Family Value' about the Republicans and Super Rich making the statements that you got yourself into this fix in the first place?

I wonder, do the Republicans and the Super Rich really believe that with their greed and indifference to the middle class of American Families along with the stealing and sending American jobs overseas that they will ever enter into the gates of heaven? After all it is the Republicans and the Super Rich who have placed themselves on that religious pedestal as being the most 'Righteous' and 'Religious Right Winged' and 'Family Value Party'.

Stimulating Whose Economy?

2008-05-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

If those writing history pay attention to the time line, then the history of our current economic tax rebate will prove that shortly after Bush announced his Stimulating Economy Rebate 'it was the oil companies' who quickly schemed to raise their prices at the pumps forcing the American Citizen to spend their rebate money to stimulate Foreign Oil Countries instead.

Contrary to what the Bush administration claims, the evidence is there that the members of the Bush administration who are still on Halliburtons' payroll in one way or another will be benefiting from the foreign oil companies countries boost in their economy from the average American two car family whose tax rebate of over a quarter percent will be boosting the foreign oil. In a worse position are those small businesses that rely on many driving hours during most of their working hours. Even many of the home run businesses that exists now-a-days have the business owners and or partners doing many hours of driving/delivering of products or services. Stuck are the small businesses who are forced to raise their prices more, causing many American consumers to cut back from spending even further, thus putting many of the small companies out of business.

Did our current Bush Administration think this out? Or did they count on it?

Governmental Politics Getting In The Way

2008-05-09T06:31:00.000-07:00

Devastation has hit a small country in a romote part of the world early this week. The country known as Myanmar has been hit by a cyclone storm of huricane winds with almost 62 thousand killed or missing. The stench of rotting corps fill the air with many bodies not being burried as of yet. Efforts of a massive food aid rescue attempt, which was launched by many countries around the world in the United Nations was crippled by the military government of Myanmar as they confiscadated the food, halting any further aid from reaching their country.

The military government of Myanmar has refused foreign aid workers into their country to help with the overwhelming million survivors who are waiting for food, medicine and clean drinking water. Completely submerged in the water of the Irawwady Delta are whole villages. Aid groups are warning that the country is on the verge of a Medical disaster of greater propotions than originally thought.

Back To The Old Slashing Of Interest Rate

2008-04-28T09:04:00.001-07:00

Are the Federal Reserve and the Chairman Ben Bernanke creating a muddier mess of the economy every time they try to stop a recession with their constant lowering of the Key Interest Rate?

So far since September 2007, the Federal Reserve have cut the interest rate up to six or seven or even eight times already, promising that each time was the last to secure that we not go into a recession. Yet each time they slash the rate, it has prove not to be the last since the inevitable is sure to happen. Or has it happened already and they are just not admitting to it, while they lie to the American people?

I don't know about you, but in January it was reported that the key interest rate was lowered five times since September 2007. That means that in February and March and again in April when Bernanke and the Fed cut the rates those three times the number increased to eight times since September 2007.

Where is the outcry? Why hasn't anyone stood up and said, "YES WE ARE IN A RECESSION!" Do they really think that the USA citizen is that naive and gullible? Or are we?

One thing is certain, someone is laughing all-the-way-to-the-bank. And that someone is NOT the USA citizen.

Price Per Barrel Almost $120.00

2008-04-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

I never thought the oil prices per barrel would jump so high, so quickly. But it did. The US Light Crude is at $119.26, while the London Brent Crude jumped up to $117.07. Of course the news media keeps telling us that our price per gallon is not as high as Europe. Yet they keep basing the cost by percentage of the whole country, which is not the accurate price per gallon at all.

Here in different parts of California the prices vary from county to county, from northern to southern, from coastal to desert. With most areas already hitting the $4.00 per gallons while some are still at the $3.75 per gallon, it is unthinkable that along Hi-way 1 in a small town community out in the middle of no-where the price per gallon for regular oil is at $5.40. But do not expect to see a sign letting you know what the price per gallon is. You do not know until after you pumped the oil into your car. The owner of the station is also the owner of the town and claims he is loosing money, because his towns' electricity is powered by the oil fuel. So instead of doing the right energy saving thing and switching the power of the towns' electricity to either wind or solar, the owner prefers to stick it to the stranded motorists who are driving along Hi-way 1.

Price gouging is a factor in this instance, and a violation. Now why would I call it price gouging, because the motorists do not see any price signs on what the price per gallon is and they do not know until after they pumped the oil into their cars.

We Are Not In A Recession?

2008-04-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

Announced on TV, CNN news, the Oil prices for regular premium gasoline have hit closer to $4.00 a gallon in some states, while in a few locations in the USA it is already at $4.00 per gallon. Diesel fuel is over $4.00 per gallon making it harder for some independent truck drivers to compete with companies for the jobs. Yet, president Bush stated once again for the fifth or sixth time this year, "We are not in a recession."

Announced on TV, CNN news the housing market has hit another all time low, with home values dropping and consumers paying mortgages that are higher than the current value of their homes. Yet, president Bush stated once again for the fifth or sixth time this year, "We are not in a recession."

Announced on TV, CNN news the mortgage foreclosures are still on the rise, with homeowners reporting of getting no help from their lenders. Yet, President Bush stated once again for the fifth or sixth time this year, "We are not in a recession."

Announced on TV, CNN news the job loss has risen again with families struggling to make ends meet. Yet, president Bush stated once again for the fifth or sixth time this year, "We are not in a recession."

Announced on TV, CNN news the numbers of job loss continues to climb with companies trying to stay afloat, while fewer and fewer jobs are becoming available. Yet, President Bush stated once again for the fifth or sixth time this year, "We are not in a recession."

Announced on TV, CNN news as the value of the American dollar sinks the world market of trade suffers. Yet, president Bush stated once again for the fifth or sixth time this year, "We are not in a recession."

Announced on TV, CNN news as the world food market faces a crises, people in other countries are taking to the streets protesting the rising cost of food. Yet, president Bush stated once again for the fifth or sixth time this year, "We are not in a recession."

Announced on TV, CNN news that in the USA a rationing of Rice has just begun, with a limit of what restaurants or companies who use the Rice product in their canned or packaged foods can purchase at any one time. Yet, President Bush stated once again for the fifth or sixth time this year, "We are not in a recession."

Trust me, the recession has already begun.

Home & Mortgage Worries

2008-04-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

In a new AP-AOL money & finance poll study the results are alarming if your selling, good if you're the one buying, but not as good if you are a first time buyer. Although many home values have dropped across the country, for a first time buyer it is even more difficult to be approved for a home finance.

According to the study, one in seven mortgage homeowners worry they may not be able to make their payments within the next six months. The numbers are even higher on the results regarding the people who fear the value of their homes is dropping or will decline sharply. With the numbers of job loss of 23,000 in Jan, with February job loss number at 63,000 ad to that the March unemployed numbers which have yet to come out, we could expect to see even higher numbers of foreclosures?

Yet there is another worry, not covered by this poll, the homeowners who have fallen into the quick sell of selling their homes for a lot less then what they owe will have a surprise when they do their taxes the following year. Yes, the mortgage companies can agree to forgive what is still owed, but then the homeowner who did the quick sell has to count the amount that was forgiven as his income in the next tax season. If this year the home sold for $100,000.00 less then what is owed, it is considered income for the homeowner who dropped the price for a quick sell. Good luck come April 15, 2009. "The vision of things to come."

The source for the AP-AOL Money & Finance poll study, http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/WireStory?id=4646234&page=3

Nonsense La-La Land

2008-04-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

Tim Paradis, AP business reporter wrote: "Wall Street stumbled Friday after a disappointing first-quarter report from General Electric Co. surprised the market and stoked concern about the health of both corporate profits and the wider economy. The major indexes fell more than 2 percent, with the Dow Jones industrials giving up more than 250 points."

Woe, the Dow Jones Industrials slide 250 points and there are no bells and whistles, no red flags. Is everyone asleep.
Funny that the media is concentrating on Bill Clinton adding a few more lies to his wifes remarks about Bosnia. And strange that Obama's comment on the Pennsylvanians being angry, frustrated and bitter with 25 years of poor economic growth and job loss in their state that they are just fed up with Washington would warrant the media and other candidates to concentrate on that statement to twist and turn it on it's head. Strange also is the attention the news media place on Cindy (Mrs. Barbie-doll McCain) and how much more out going and out spoken she has become.

Yet how many people both in the news media and the viewers could say that they saw the news regarding the 250 point drop of the major industry of the Dow Jones commodities in the stock market today.

Where have all the BRAINS gone? To the not so important part of political nonsense La-La Land.

Summary Of Todays' Economic News

2008-04-08T22:59:00.000-07:00

In todays economic news an Associated Press Business Writer, John Wilen, speaks on the possibility that by this summer we may be paying $4.00 per gallon on the oil at the pump. Yep some government watchers are warning that this summer driving season may be stopped in it's tracks by the price at the pump.

I read an article on abcnews.com in the money about Greenspan. 'He's Back' and with an attitude. "Consumers are beginning to shrink in, the automobile markets are beginning to contract, production is beginning to ease, and we are in the throes of recession," he spoke on CNBC. Funny, but haven't the CNN news media been stating every Christmas since December 2001 every single year how the consumers were spending less during the holiday season. Yes that's right. Every single year I do recall how the outlook on consumer spending shrunk more every Christmas season. In fact consumer spending did drop again during the 2007 Christmas Holiday spending. That is 7 plus years of Christmases which have seen less spending each year, yet Mr. RIPVANWINKLE Greenspan is just now seeing it as the beginning. Where has Mr. Greenspan been? Has he been asleep all these years? Why is everyone pretending that this recession just started.

On abcnews.com Joanne Morrison writes, "Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell to a record low in February and consumer confidence hit a new low this month, according to reports on Tuesday that heightened recession fears."

From USA Today, Chris Woodyard tells us, "Suddenly the rich aren't getting richer — and luxury car dealers are joining other high-end retailers in feeling the pinch." Yes that's right, you heard it hear. The Luxury car sales saw a drop last month.

Soldiers Owe Their Souls To The Company Store

2008-04-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

Everyday there is more news about the population being disappointed in how the government has handled things for the past eight years. We have had issues during these two Bush administrations with OutSourcing, inflation oil prices, doing an about face with abandoning Afghanistan and not getting Bin Laden, al Qaida and the taliban when we had the chance and the constant struggle with the economy. Then there was the cutting of the budget at the beginning of the Invasion in Iraq without the proper equipment or the number in man power that was needed for the rebuild. But something today has caught my eye that does need some discussion.

According to the ABC news in the article written by Joseph Rhee the pentagon debt collectors have inflated penalties and fees and have illegally collected money from the soldiers benefits or tax refunds which have caused serious problems for the soldiers and veterans. The money that was being collected was for the uniforms and ammunition that the soldiers have to buy while in service for their country.

Source:http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4591406&page=1

Foreclosures And The Middle Class

2008-04-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

I just read a news article from USA Today where two of the writers, Brad Heath and Charisse Jones, have put the blame of the foreclosure crisis on the homeowners for getting homes they could not afford. But they are not the only economic writers who have fallen into that trap. It seems that every economic writer has concentrated the blame on the homeowners for not being able to afford the homes they bought. Since most of the apartment vacancy rate has dropped very rapidly and the costs are beginning to soar as well most of the homeowners who have fallen into foreclosure in Denver Colorado are having to move in with family. Of course the economic writers are blaming the homeowners who did fall into foreclosures for the rising cost and lack of apartments as well. Even though there has been an increase of States whose government officials were admitting that there has been an increase of homelessness in their states, it seems that very little if any is being said about it. Still many of the foreclosed homeowners are moving in with family in Denver and other parts of Colorado. Yet Colorado is not the only state hit by foreclosures and homeowners doubling up with family in single family homes. In Kalamazoo Michigan many people are doubling up and there were over 1,000 foreclosures of homes last year. Still every writer speaks of subprime rate loans, the aggressive lenders and the fault of the homeowner.

However, no one has ever tried to find out about the jobs. Has any of the 23,000 jobs lost in January, or the 63,000 jobs lost in February have anything to do with it? How about the OutSourcing of jobs with Bush and his administration giving Government Financial Incentives to Corporations to take jobs away from Americans and give the same jobs to workers in other countries? After all, my husband's job was outsourced in Jan 2002 and we have barely been able to hold on with temporary High Tech contract jobs that are becoming so few and far in between. When we first bought our home, it was a 30 year fixed FHA. My husband's job of 12 years with Rocketdyne was permanent and secure, his retirement was set, our medical insurance covered. Everything had been wonderful for his 20 years of experience and employment in his field, Until his job was OutSourced. Then it began. The ability to obtain another permanent secured job was becoming a thing of the past. Yet no one wrote about that. Since 2002, every year the jobs in his high tech field were fewer, farther in-between, and for a lot less length of time, which did pose a serious threat to our ability to hold on to our humble abode. My husband had taken those temporary high tech jobs OUT OF STATE and had to pay for living expenses in both locations, just so we can hold on to our home. We have even had to obtain one of those subprime loans just to stay afloat so we would NOT loose our home when the length in-between jobs was more than expected. Yet no one ever wrote about that. Recently, we even got a second refinance loan when it looked like we may be headed down the road to loss of ownership. Yet no one ever wrote about that.

No! It seems our problem is not that we bought a house we could not afford. No! What is our problem? If our home were to go into foreclosure, what would be the cause? Our plight would be that my husbands job was OutSource. It would be that the Secured Permanent jobs in the Hight Tech field are a thing of the past. It would be that the Bush Administration and the Republicans took my husband's job, send the job overseas, and gave his job to a foreign worker. In short, Bush and the Republicans have pulled the safety rug of security from under our feet and threw it to the wind.

Yet no one will write about that!

Taxpayers Bailout The Banks

2008-03-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

Last week Bear Sterns got help from the Fed and Chase. What no one mentioned was that it was the government using Taxpayers money to BailOut the Bank.

Yep! The GW Bush Republican administration did just what the Bush Sr. administrations had done. While it was the GW Bush administration, WITHOUT the Congressional oversight, who bailed out Bear Sterns with the taxpayers money, his father, George Bush Sr. administration in 1989 bailed out John McCain's best friend Keating and his Lincoln Savings & Loan costing American taxpayers Billions of Dollars.

Like father, like son!

Bear Stern bailout story source on abcnews.com: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=4516226&page=1
Lincoln Savings&Loan story source copied from abcnews.com in its original form: http://questioningwhatissaid.blogspot.com/2008/02/sometimes-i-have-to-hold-on-to-original.html

Stolen Government LapTops-The Trend?

2008-03-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

In July 2006 a Florida Government Laptop was missing from the Government Vehicle of a special agent for the Department of transportation. Gone is the sensitive personal information of 133,000 Floridians. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/09/AR2006080901177.html

In September 2006 it was estimated that 250 LapTop computers disappeared of the Census Bureau containing names, incomes and social security numbers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101602.html

In June 2006 it was reported that a government IRS laptop also went missing that contained the names, birthdates, social security numbers and finger prints of its employees. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13152636/

In February 2007 a government laptop disappeared. It contain the sensitive information of patients, names, medical data, medical diagnosis, at the National Institute of Health study.

You might think that these are just a few Laptop computers from a few locations with just a few people affected by it, but that would be a lie. First off the total of information stolen, which I listed so far, was more than 100,000 personal data on people. More than 500,000 total. Just the few I listed gives us close to if not over 1000,000,000.

Back in September 2006 there was an article about the numbers of computer laptops that have vanished since 2001. Between 2001 and 2006 the number of laptops was 1,100. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092101602.html

Since the number of computer laptops was last configure in 2006 there has been quite a few more incidences of stolen government laptops. However the number data of how many is not know since the reporting is not all collected in one place, and most times they consider the computers to be missed placed.

Delay In Reporting Patients' Information Stolen

2008-03-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting story in the Associated Press Political news today about the government waiting over a month to let 2,500 patients know that their medical records, which were not encrypted, stored on a laptop computer were stolen.

"The stunning failure to act ... raises troubling questions," said John Dinglle who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee who is looking into why the delay and why was there a violation of federal security policies regarding the patients records not being encrypted.

The National Institute of Health Study did not take the proper steps in protecting their patients from exposure.
Since 2006 when 26.5 million Veterans personal data on laptops were stolen, the government has required that any sensitive data store on laptops were to be encrypted.

50 Something Year Old Moves In With Parents

2008-03-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

I read an article today on ABC news, written by Emily Fredrix, of a woman who moved into her parents home at 52 due to the poor economy and the loss of her job. The Associated Press business writer tells us the woman lost her job, sent her daughter to live with her husband since she could no longer support her daughter, then in Dec 2007 moved in with her parents, was able to get another job with the Experimental Aircraft Association, is living close to her ex-husband to be close to her daughter, does not pay rent or barely contributes for food because her parents let her.

Yet since the woman is not spending anything to help her parents who are on a fixed income, she says she could have her 5% down payment to buy herself a home by June this summer.

OK, now back up a minute. If she is getting paid enough to be able to save for a 5% down payment to buy herself a home by June, why doesn't she just get herself an apartment. If I was able to save that much from the time of December 2007 to the time of June 2008 and have that much as a down payment on a home, then I know that I could rent and pay my own bills in a small one bedroom apartment and just wait longer to buy a home. Yes, it might take a full year, or it could take two years. But if she down scales, she could do it.

The thought of burdening my parents with them providing for me especially if I could save that much in 6 months is shameful since my parents are on a fixed income, as most seniors are. In this economy seniors are getting hit as well. It's OK to except help from our parents when we are struggling. I and my husband have been struggling since 2002 when my husbands secured permanent HIGH TECH job was OutSourced to India and our Medical Insurance and his retirement fund disappeared. But to move in with my parents so they can support us when one of us had a job and pay nothing while saving to buy a new home because we did not want to rent an apartment when we were able to do so, just sounds wrong to me.

Yes, I do know what it is like to struggle. My husband's jobs have been temporary contracts, too far in-between, and too few. We are even close to foreclosure every time he is between jobs. But I will not live with my parents unless we loose our home and have no income of any kind coming in which would cause us to be turned down to rent an apartment.

Trouble On The Horizon

2008-03-20T08:21:00.003-07:00

When answering a question today Hillary's response rested on non other than her believe that she is the most qualified candidate: “well my campaign has been making the case that I am the most electable that I have said that for a year or more that I am the person best able to make the challenges that our country faces as commander in chief.” Hmm, "to make the challenges" should she be saying to meet the challenges. When you make challenges, you create chaos. When you meet challenges, you create calm and stability.

In fact it was Hillary's husband Bill and her own campaign that have claim that Hillary is the Heroine of children for her dedication for helping the abused children. Well, I guess if we just listen to the campaign speeches of Hillary, her husband, and her supporters on the campaign trail we might come to the conclusion that Hillary is America's version of Mother Thereasa. But there is something not many people know.

Let's view Hillary's years of dedication. At the age of 27 the attorney, Hillary Rodham (not married yet, but shacking up with Bill), defended a rapist in a criminal case. The victim was a 12 year old child. What was stunning about the case, wasn't her defense of the rapist. No! It was the way she attacked the victims credibility. Please remember that I am speaking of a 12 year old child.

Andrew Shepard, director of Hofstra Law Schools center for families and children of the law stated that Hillary was vigorous in supporting her criminal client. However, the well being of the child was not her problem.

So what did Hillary do that caused me alarm? After all, she was doing what every good lawyer does for their client. Right? Or did Hillary Rodham, (before she became Mrs. Hillary Clinton) overstep her attacks on the child when defending her client at any cost. Just, what did Hillary do?

Hillary, going beyond the call of duty, had signed a sworned court documented Affidavitt proclaiming testimony that Hillary witnessed the 12 year old child say that she always preferred and sought after older men, while making untrue statements about them.

That 12 year old child, after being raped and no one believing her, and the rapist getting an easier sentence due to Hillary's words signed and dated July 1975, a year later became a drug addict. Yet, before the rape she never did drugs.

The 12 year old victim, now an adult, is still having a difficulty developing a good relationship with men and has never had the emotional and psycho therapy that should have been deemed necessary by the court due to Hillary's Affidavitt and is still suffering from nightmares of the memory of her rape.

"It's not true, I never sought out older men - I was raped," the child victim who is now an adult said in an interview in the fall. Newsday is withholding her name as the victim of a sex crime.

With that sign Affidavitt is it is very difficult for me to view Hillary as America's version of 'Mother Thereasa.

The complete story is: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-usark245589997feb24,0,2670956.story?page=2

The CheerLeader for NAFTA

2008-03-20T08:21:00.002-07:00

Hillary's speech blows in the direction of the wind. The most recent released documents concerning the White House papers of the Clinton years have Hillary performing her tasks as First Lady, arraigning meetings, planning dinners, and organizing rallies for the projects she supported.

You know which papers I am talking about. The one with 500 pages missing. Yep, it was documented that Hillary was giving her pom-pom cheer at the 'RAH-RAH' rally for business women to support NAFTA. Jake Tapper on abcnews.go.com reports on the AP story of the 11,000 pages of Hillary's role and schedule as first lady: "schedules show her holding at least five meetings in 1993 aimed at helping to win congressional approval of the deal."

A far cry from the Clinton campaign position, "Contrary to her stated opposition to NAFTA, Hillary Clinton attended NAFTA meetings to work for its passage." Hmm, her stated opposition. Was that stated back then? No, there does not seem to be any statement by Hillary Rodham Clinton back then that she ever opposed NAFTA at all.

While Hillary Clinton ran for New York Senator, there was no speech of ever opposing NAFTA either.

And when Hillary was Senator and the Bush administration held their North American NAFTA meeting with Mexico and Canada, there was never any speech of Hillary in the Senate or in front of the news media ever opposing NAFTA.

In fact even as late as 2005 Hillary visited India and was very out spoken in verbally backing and praising the Bush and Republican for their sister project to NAFTA, the Government Financial Incentives of Out Sourcing American Jobs to foreign workers in other countries. You know, that other project of stealing American Jobs away from the American Workers.

Well like I said, Hillary's speech on Jobs for Americans is just a reflection of which direction the wind blows.

Republicans Love Obama's speech

2008-03-20T08:21:00.001-07:00

I posted Obama's entire speech regarding his religious mentor, Wright, on my blog at: http://questioningwhatissaid.blogspot.com/2008/03/obamas-speech-on-pastor-wrights.html and I believed the speech to have calm some nerves. However, when Obama gave his speech on what his pastor, Wright, stated in his sermons in church the Republicans are happier than most on what Obama did not say and claim that it will destroy his chances of winning in the 2008 General Election.

First let's review who these Republicans are.
They are the same people who attacked Romney's Mormon faith, calling them the devil.
They are the same people who base the assumption that only a candidate of the extreme white, right, protestant religion that the candidate is electable.
They are the same people who want to amend the Constitution of the United States to reflect their own religious beliefs, even though the 1st amendment of the first 10 amendments that were ratified on December 15, 1791 known as 'The Bill Of Rights' states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."
They are the same people who backed white, conservative religious leaders who make claims that all homo sexual will go to hell.
They are the same people who have foreign oil interests in their back pockets.
They are the same people on payroll or/and own stock in Hallaburton.
They own stocks in the financial money institutions that have been dictating to the appraisers what the value of homes are before the appraisers take the job of evaluating a home for a refinance loan. (Appraisers are not suppose to except jobs of predetermined values.)
They are the same people who have been blaming the consumer for the failing economy at the end of every year since December of 2001 when news reports stated that the Republican administration are warning the public that if they do not spend, spend, spend for the Christmas Holiday that the economy will fail.
They are the same people who have been blaming the consumer for getting themselves into deep credit financial debt.
They are the same people who have abandoned the war on the 9/11 terrorists by backing away from apprehending Bin Laden when they had the chance.
They are the same people who have abandoned the war on the 9/11 terrorists by backing away from destroying al Qaida.
They are the same people who have abandoned the war on 9/11 terrorists by backing away from stopping the Taliban.
They are the same people who have abandoned the Afghan people, leaving them to fall into the hands of Bin Laden, al Qaida, and the Taliban.
They are the same people who are responsible for the poppy fields in Afghanistan, which are funding Bin Laden, al Qaida, and the Taliban.
And this is just the tip of the Republican Iceberg.
I do not want another 8 years of the Republicans blaming me for the failing economy. Do You?

The Economic RollerCoaster

2008-03-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

While yesterday's news was filled with the Interest Rate cut again by Bernanke and the Fed for the for the fifth time since August 2007, plus the government freeing up millions of dollars for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae, and yesterday's news gave a glimmer of hope with the up swing in the Dow stocks with the rise in gold, it appears that today, March 20 2008, puts us right back on that roller coaster ride I keep talking about.

Yep, the gold had fell sharply according to the money news of abcnews.go.com. Also on that news article by the AP Business news writer, Tim Paradis, "The Dow Jones at times gave up more than 200 points." Although things are looking up for Morgan Stanley, the sight is more on a downward angle for Lehman and Goldman.

On the upbeat are the Mae's, Fannie and Freddie. It could mean some help to turn around the sweep of foreclosures, but when we put our economy on roller coasters, sometimes it is hard to predict. And since the largest credit card company, Visa, is not a lender, it appears that it has a good chance of surviving as it staged one of it's largest sell offs in history.

The thought is that the economy may gain solid footing, but how does that work when the whole trade and sell stock market is a continuous wheeled roller coaster ride?

Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC-40 had a fell, with the up swing of Japan's Nikkei stock and Hong Kong's Hang Seng.

Now, not mentioned is the Euro, the British pound which have in recent past fallen. Of course, the world market did attribute the fallen currency in other parts of the world to the fault of the shrinking American dollar.

Today's Interest Rate Cut

2008-03-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

On abcnews.com I read an interesting money article written by Scott Mayerwoitz, of ABC news business unit, regarding Bernanke and the good old interest rate. Guess what it is?

Bernanke and the Feds have cut the interest rate again today, by 3/4 of a percentage point. Yep, they did! This supposedly the five time since August 2007 that they have done this while trying to repair the broken USA economy.
According to the money news, the last time the Interest rate was this low way in February 2005 when Greenspan and the Feds cut the rate trying to correct the recession at that time. Strange that Bush even admitted in a speech on 2004 that we were in a recession during his speech. However since that time no one in the Bush administration, including Bush, will utter the word recession since.

Scott Mayerwoitz goes on in his article reporting on what the Fed said in a statement: "Recent information indicates that the outlook for economic activity has weakened further. Growth in consumer spending has slowed and labor markets have softened. Financial markets remain under considerable stress, and the tightening of credit conditions and the deepening of the housing contraction are likely to weigh on economic growth over the next few quarters."

With the way the Dow has gone up today because of the move by the Feds, it appears as it Wall Street might be healing. But then this is the sort of thing that has been going on back and forth, up and down like a RollerCoaster Ride since Bush and the Republicans began their Government Financial Incentives for Businesses to send American jobs overseas, calling it OutSourcing. Infact, if people would take the time to thoroughly investigate the Nixon and Ford Administrations from Nixon's trip to China to the changes the Republicans made to the USA Foreign Trade Agreement they would have seen a pattern of slowly sending American jobs to other countries that eventually destroyed economy.

What troubles me is that even Lou Dobbs does not credit the Nixon and Ford Administrations for destroying the economy of the 70s. Nope! Just like all the other present and past Republicans, Lou Dobbs blames Jimmy Carter who actually inherited it.

Well here we are in the first quarter of the year 2008. Out economy has been going down hill since Bush took office and began his OutSourcing of American jobs to Foreign countries to Foreign workers and NO ONE sees the pattern.

What pattern am I talking about? Why do I keep connecting jobs with the economy? What could I possibly know that no one has even spoken about?

I am talking of the pattern, the connection of jobs with the economic rule: "FOR THE WORKING ECONOMY TO WORK, YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE PEOPLE IN THAT ECONOMY WORKING!"

Taking jobs away from American workers only destroys the American economy.

Obama's Speech On Pastor Wright's Comments

2008-03-18T10:50:00.001-07:00

The following is Obama's speech in it's entirety from ABCnews.com.
"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations. Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time. And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same wayBut the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity: "People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild."
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
adsonar_placementId=1280789;adsonar_pid=43749;adsonar_ps=-1;adsonar_zw=165;adsonar_zh=220;adsonar_jv='ads.adsonar.com';
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
adsonar_placementId=1280789;adsonar_pid=43749;adsonar_ps=-1;adsonar_zw=165;adsonar_zh=220;adsonar_jv='ads.adsonar.com';
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."
"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

Banks Get Bailed Out

2008-03-14T18:45:00.002-07:00

JP Morgan Chase and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York bailed out the Bear Sterns investment after the bank suffered a run today. The 85 year old firm has 28 days to fix it's finances or sell out. As Bear Sterns stocks fell 47 percent, there was fear that more banks may suffer the same fate as Bear Sterns credit crisis.

The Federal Reserve found it necessary to bail out Bear Sterns investment bank since it is a major player on Wall Street of borrowing and lending billions, fueling the everyday business of capitalism. A sudden collapse would shake the entire system and bring the markets to a screeching halt.

Lehman Brothers, another Wall Street firm secured loans from other banks to insure that it will not suffer a great lost after it's stocks fell 15 percent.

Bankers Telling Appraisers The Value Of Homes

2008-03-14T18:45:00.001-07:00

Bush and the Republicans and the Financial institutions are blaming the current economic crisis on the people who got loans they could not afford. Well I just read an article by an appraiser who gives a first hand account on just what was really going on. After reading the news article I felt the only way to tell the story was to print the story in it's entirety just as it was written on the CBS news web site by their own correspondent Sharyl Attkission:

*(CBS) Home appraisers Pam Crowley and Joyce Potts knew the roof was caving in on the housing industry four years ago, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports. That's when they noticed their profession being turned on its head. Instead of letting them do their job and figure what a home was worth ... bankers and realtors started telling them what dollar number to hit. "The appraiser is not to accept any orders where it's pre-determined what the value should be," said Crowley, a Florida certified real estate appraiser. Most everyone wants a high appraisal: buyers pay less cash down; banks make more money on bigger sales. It's the appraiser who's supposed to be fiercely independent to keep things honest. But more and more, appraisers have been told that, to get hired, they have to guarantee a high appraisal - sight unseen. One lender emails appraisers, "I need at least $210,000." Another writes: "I want to know if we can hit a value of 280K." Some lenders even send out blatant mass e-mails putting appraisers in a bidding war. To 77 appraisers for a home in Arizona: "whoever can provide the highest [appraisal] will receive the deal." "We were blackmailed," Crowley said. Those who don't play ball lose work. Whoever can provide the highest will receive the deal. Those that are honest will get run out of business. We didn't have to look far to see the fallout. Joyce Potts had just been called by a mortgage broker who wanted a high appraisal to refinance this tiny house in disrepair. The owners don't want to be identified. Attkisson asked Potts: "What was the number they wanted you to appraise this house at?" "Well, it started at $210, then he says, 'what about $175.' Then, 'how about $150. can you get $150?'" she said. Potts turned down the job. But while we were there, another appraiser came by. He decided not to look at the house with CBS News cameras there. Records are confidential, so CBS News doesn't know if he ended up appraising the property. So many appraisers have felt pressured to give inflated home values, 10,000 of them signed a petition hoping to get federal regulators to act. Now under scrutiny, bankers and lenders are starting to adopt new rules to ensure independent, reliable appraisals. "It's not in the lenders' best interest to have an inflated appraisal, to the extent to that was taking place, lenders want to see that corrected," said Steve O'Connor of the Mortgage Bankers Association. The changes are too late for many, including Crowley who's lost her business, and the couple struggling to make inflated payments on a house that's not worth what they owe.*

Bush And The Economy

2008-03-14T18:45:00.000-07:00

Bush spoke to the Economic Club today. The Economic club is not filled with people like you and me. No. It is filled with the extremely well off people who never suffer any ill effects when the Economy in our country is failing.

Bush told them that the Economy will fix itself. Yeah, Right! Does anyone want to by a bridge in the middle of the Pacific? It seems that Bush and the Republican party still believe that there is no recession. Bush probably still believes that the $4.00 a gallon of Diesel fuel is just every truck driver's imagination. I wish I knew what Bush was smoking. It must really be wonderful for Bush to breeze through the day with his head in the clouds of ignorance while ignoring the world around him as it comes crashing down.

Bush warned of over compensating for the failing Economy, or someone will find themselves in a ditch. But isn't that what Bush, Bernhardt, and the Republicans have been doing. And before Bernhardt, isn't that what Bush, Greenspan, and the Republicans have been doing during Bush's 2 terms in the White House.

Seems like Bush and his friends already drove this country into that ditch a long time ago.

Keeping Track Of Economic News

2008-03-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

William Maclean wrote "Oil prices will stay at current high levels for the rest of this year due to speculation and geopolitical tensions, Algerian state media on Monday reported OPEC President Chakib Khelil as saying."

To say that the money financial news reporters are the historians of our time would be a fair assumption. For the past seven years of GW Bush, I have read many articles from news websites: abcnews.go.com, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, cbsnews.com on different stories on the economy yet there always seemed to be a glimmer of hope. I have even read news reports of associated press and Reuters news service from websites like yahoo, msn, google. Each time there were signs in the articles that the economy was not doing well, but there was always a statement added that it could turn around for the better.

However with the current stories of our economy continuing on the decline with our shrinking green money I can't help but notice that in this new found world economy created by the most wealthiest in the world just how much the value of a single worker or human being has also declined as well. Big business and employers don't even bat an eye when they lay off and fire workers to balance the companies budget. It seems the more experienced and skilled knowledge the workers have, they end up being the first to go. I even heard on CNN a money news reporter suggest that the manager of manufacturing may find it necessary to retrain for the High Tech jobs.

Only retraining to go into the High Tech jobs would end up being a mistake. That CNN news reporter must have been asleep when a lot of the High Tech jobs were being Out Sourced to India, leaving a lot of highly skilled, educated with degrees, experienced and knowledgeable in the field unemployed and constantly scrambling to get temporary contract jobs in that field like my husband. Only those jobs are becoming more far in-between and shorter term. I guess that CNN money expert who was giving advice on TV was no expert on the fact that many of the jobs which did remain are only temporary short term jobs with NO job security at all, and are lower in hourly pay since those jobs do NOT have any of the benefits which used to come from having a permanent position with a company. And after paying your own taxes and paying your own medical insurance, dental insurance, and coverage for seeing an eye doctor and glasses you end up with a lot less money than what used to be paid with secured jobs plus benefits. But then my husband at 52 in 2002 was laid off when his job was Out Sourced.

Holding on is just not easy any more.

CEOs questions of hitting JP during Foreclosures

2008-03-07T18:44:00.003-08:00

"There seem to be two different economic realities operating in our country today. And the rules of compensation in one world are completely different from those in the other," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Most Americans live in a world where economic security is precarious and there are real economic consequences for failure. But our nation's top executives seem to live by a different set of rules."

Scott Mayerowitz ABC news reported on the web about the Democratic Congress getting right to the point in a hearing where the CEOs of three mortgage companies that collapsed with the subprime mortgage market. The CEOs made millions while thousands of Americans lost their homes and investors lost billions of dollars.

Mayerowitz continues in his report: "I think there's merit to pay for performance," Waxman said. "But it seems like CEOs hit the lottery even when their companies collapse."

Of course the economy news reported by Scott wouldn't have the flavor of politics without someone present to take advantage of the situation and declare in his own partisan way that he was not in favor of the investigation. In the news article Mayerowitz writes: But the Republican ranking member on the committee warned that he would not let the hearing turn into a witch-hunt. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said it is not the job of Congress to second-guess investor decisions or to help plaintiffs gather evidence for their lawsuits. He said it is fair to question compensation packages but warned that the debate should not turn into a "sanctimonious search for scapegoats."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the whole foreclosure and dropping home values was instigated by the wealthy and powerful Republicans and their filthy rich friends. I just hope that people in America wake up before it is too late.

Labor Department's February 2008 Report

2008-03-07T18:44:00.001-08:00

Browsing ABCNews I came across a news article about the crises. No, it was not the war. No, it was not oil. No, it was not foreclosures. No, it was not dropping home values. No, it was not any of those things that are mostly written about.

This time Jeannine Aversa wrote about the rate of job loss climb. Yep, someone is finally talking. It appears that the February Labor Department's report on job loss came out, and it is the highest job loss rate in five years. In fact Aversa even wrote about the job loss rate that was reported in January.

The January jobless rate report was wrong. The report has the rate at 17,000 for the month. But in fact the rate was really 22,000 of jobs loss for the month of January. But February's report is much higher at three times the amount.

The February's job loss report for the month is at 63,000.

The economy will only get worse now. The Republicans never learned that one true law of economics. That law has been around for a very long time. It was true in every great civilization during it's peak when the economy was best. That law is as true today, as it was decades or even centuries ago.

"A Working Economy Only Works, When The People In That Economy Are Working!"

Hillary's Experience by Mike

2008-03-06T08:25:00.002-08:00

On abcnews.go.com message board, Political Punch: Clinton Camp Compares Obama to Ken Starr, which began March 06, 2008 11:00 AM there were many posters quarreling back and forth. Republicans and Democrats alike attacking Obama and Hillary. But one stood out. Not because it attack, but because it listed Hillary's contradictions. I thought it would be fun if I copied Mike's post to my blog.

A FEW FACTS ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON'S EXPERIENCE:
1) I Served on the Board of UNION HATING Wal-Mart, But I am Pro Union.
2) I voted for the war in Iraq, But I am against Iraq War
3) I Voted for Kyle-Lieberman to extend the war to Iran, But I will bring soldiers back home in 60 days
4) I will provide universal health insurance, But I will force you to buy it to boost insurance company???s profits.
5) I Supported NAFTA, But now I oppose NAFTA
6) I am a strong woman and a fighter, But I cry and complain when I can not win
7) I can stand the republican heat, But I cannot stand the Democratic heat
8) I am the most experienced candidate, But I have no clue how to run a presidential campaign.
9) I hate Bush, But I try to copy his politics of fear and division
10)I am the most vetted candidate in the race, But, no I won't show you my tax returns
12)I support drivers licenses for the undocumented people in New York, But I changed my mind after the MSNBC debate when you guys made fun of me
13)I voted for the bankruptcy bill, But I hoped it wouldn't pass
14)I voted for the Credit card interest bill, But I think 30% interest is fair!
15)I am honored to be with you Barack Obama, But Shame on you Barack Obama

Posted by: Mike Mar 6, 2008 5:32:25 PM

Other Currencies May Follow The U.S. Dollar

2008-03-06T08:25:00.001-08:00

I came across a news article on abcnews.com about the shrinking currencies around the world. Matt Moore wrote the article which was published on line. It sounds as if the different world currencies may share the same fate as our U.S. dollar. Of course the American dollar is not doing well. In fact our American dollar should have it's name change to the 'Shrinking Green'.

Moore spoke of the euro European trade closed with a drop at 1.5262. It was even stated in Matt's report by the European Trade Union Confederation that the "excessively expensive euro will cost European jobs..." This morning before the drop it did show a short lived promise at 1.5370. But like the American dollar, it too is showing signs of weakening. The pound dropped to 2.0027 after trading just slightly higher at 2.0057 and the Japanese yen dropped from 103.87 to 103.11.

Matt Moore wrote, "European Union businesses said they were starting to feel the pinch, too, notably from U.S.-based buyers who pay for goods from Europe."

"We said when the euro was above $1.40 that we feel the pain. When the euro is above $1.50, it is alarming," Mr Moore quoted Ernest-Antoine Sillier, president of the EU employers' group BusinessEurope in this report.

"On Wednesday, reports showed that U.S. factories saw demand for their products drop sharply in January, while the country's service sector contracted last month. That provided new evidence of weakness in an economy hit by housing and credit crises — weakness that has raised expectations that the Fed is not done with its interest rate campaign." Matt in his news report continues his observation. "Speculation has mounted that the Fed might cut rates by as much as three-fourths of a percentage point this month. Lower interest rates can jump-start a nation's economy. But they can also weaken its currency as traders transfer funds to countries where they can earn higher returns."

Foreclosures Are Worse Than First Reported

2008-03-06T08:25:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press writer, Jeannine Aversa's article today covers the last quarter in the rise in foreclosures of American homes. It seems as if companies are in a hurry to kick families out of their homes, because they have started procedures as early when the home owners are just 30 days behind in their mortgage before considering them delinquent. They companies are not even working with the home owners as earlier thought. One thing no one has even mentioned is how companies are selling the mortgages to other companies before the homeowner even shows signs of a problem.

I am not sure exactly how or why, but our mortgage company did that to us. We had one of those adjustable rate loans which is not due to be adjusted until 2009 in February. Yet the mortgage company, Nova Star, for no reason at all sold our mortgage to Saxon during the month of Nov 2007. Our first payment was in Dec 2007. My guess is that Nova Star some how got a hold of my husband's work information that he had been unemployed for a few months, even though we were able to keep up our mortgage payments. They probably saw us as a risk since my husband has short term contract jobs.

Since Jan 2002, when my husband's job was being Out Sourced to India, and the Boeing Company was sending some of the IT Department of Rocketdyne to India since late 2001, Allen, my husband, has only been able to get temporary jobs of contracts with various companies here in California and four other states. Each time the jobs were only for 6 months to a year. But because he would finish the assignment sooner than expected, and better than expected, the contract would be over. There were even jobs where, they would have him train someone with a green card from India, then the company would have that person replace my husband. That is what the American high tech workers call -- Insourcing --.

Thanks to the Republican Out Sourcing Government Incentive Financial Program as well as the new Insourcing of jobs, the jobs my husband gets are too few and far between. If Americans do not have the high tech knowlegde needed for the work, and if only the Green Card Indian from India have the high tech knowlegde then why does my husband have to train them. Something is wrong with the scenario the Bush Administration have been dishing out with those speeches of Bush claiming that the Americans not having the skills or knowledge for the high tech world. I wonder if anyone is really paying attention to what the Republicans have been doing for the last 7+ years to the American Work force or if they just do not care.

ABC News Dot Com Is Bias

2008-03-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

Today the unthinkable happened. I scanned my computer with my PC Tools Spyware Doctor and found that there were high risk level infections planted on my computer from a website that I would least suspect, abcnews.com. The infections that were found are: 1 infection of Addware.Trymedialsd5, 2 infections of Backdoor.IRCBotBMD, 1 infection of Trojan.Small!sd5, 2 infections of Worm.Sdbot.

I have been posting on the message boards my views of the politics of the day along with commenting on news stories and the candidates. I never suspected that abcnews would kick me off their boards since I did not violate their policies. I never used obscene language. I never used bad words. I never personally attacked another poster. I never grouped with other posters to sabotage a poster. I never falsely marked anyone with a violation.

One thing I did was type that I voted for Obama, and believed in him. The other thing I did was comment on facts collected from news stories about the other candidates that proved they were not as good of a choice.

I talked about the economy, the lack of medical insurance, the 1st Amendment to the American Bill of Rights, NAFTA, Out Sourcing of jobs, with homeowners paying more for their mortgages as the value of their homes keep dropping. I talked of how we needed change and do away with the Old Dirty Political Games that the Republicans and Hillary Clinton play.

Well, all that got me was kicked out of the message boards and a totals of 6 infections. I guess they want to make sure I never post on their message boards again.

I returned recently to the abcnews.go.com and began reading the posts. It is very sad that the Conservative Republicans and their Broadcasters and Telecommunication corporations get to control everything that is communicated on line as well as on television. I just hope that some where there is still freedom of speech, since it no longer exists in the United States of America.

Good Bye Land Of Opportunity

2008-03-04T17:29:00.002-08:00

The day has been a bit crazy with Bill Clinton calling the voters liars. Then there were Conservative Republicans who were doing just what Rush Lumbaugh told them to. He told them to Vote for Hillary since he believed it was easier for McCain to Beat Hillary in the November Presidential Election. Then there were people who said there were fliers that stated that Obama was a Bible Hating Muslim which played on their fears so they voted for Hillary instead.

Yes the Republicans and Hillary have a lot to fear of a candidate who does not play by the old rules of DIRTY POLITICS. Unfortunately the real losers are the American People who will continue to live in a down sliding economy with NO real job security, no Medical Insurance Coverage to speak of, with more American Workers loosing their jobs to foreigners both on American soil and in Foreign lands. The foreclosures continue, more middle class families slipping into poverty, more mortgage companies selling the ARM loans to other mortgage companies to avoid giving any help to the families who owe on those mortgages and are now struggling to hold on to their homes. More homes have lost their values and the mortgages owed on those homes are based on the original value, meaning that the mortgage owed on the homes is a LOT HIGHER than what the homes can sell at. That means even if we sell our homes we still owe anywhere between 200,000 and up on the mortgage with the high payments. There is no way to get out of debt.

The Rich Republicans, Bush, Cheney have done this to the middle class, but no one sees, no one is listening, everyone is asleep. Hillary has been in the Senate all this time and has not spoken out for the American Worker, the American Middle Class. Hillary ignored the American people and so has the Republicans. McCain has been in the Senate for three decades, he NEVER once spoke out for the American Worker.

Good bye America the country of possibilities. Hello misery and woe.

Bernanke Pleads: Lower The Principle

2008-03-04T17:29:00.001-08:00

It is March 4 2008 and Bernanke, my favorite Federal Reserve Chairman, is back in the news at a meeting in Orlando Florida. With the interest rate expected to be reduced on March 18 2008, today Bernanke urged the Bankers to do more for the homeowner to prevent an increase in foreclosures. Bernanke suggested the financial institutions to reduce the principle on what is owed, allowing the struggling home owner to hold on to their home a little longer and wade out the storm of the troubling economy. "Principal reductions that restore some equity for the homeowner may be a relatively more effective means of avoiding delinquency and foreclosure," Bernanke explained as he spoke of the home owners inability to remain in their homes with little or no equity. "They say that if they were to write down the principal and house prices were to fall further, they could feel pressured to write down principal again," Bernanke said about the lenders. Still he was talking of a more permanent solution instead of the limited temporary one that would just have more foreclosures down the line.

"When the mortgage is `under water' a reduction in principal may increase the expected payoff by reducing the risk of default and foreclosure." Bernanke goes on to say "Measures that lead to a sustainable outcome are to be preferred to temporary palliatives, which may only put off foreclosure and perhaps increase its ultimate costs."

Bernanke also warns that the Bush Administration Bush administration's promoted rate freezes only "reduce the impact somewhat, but interest rate resets will nevertheless impose stress on many households," Bernanke said.

So Close, So Far

2008-03-04T17:29:00.000-08:00

Today the battle is on in Ohio and Texas. In the ABC news report on line it was stated that Hillary concentrated on the 'WHITE, WORKING CLASS VOTERS.'

Now I am not one to put race into it, especially since it does not reflect off of me. But why is Hillary only 'Fighting Hard for the White, Working Class Voters' as the news reported. It seems to me that Ohio is already divided racially. Hillary did not have to add to that. She could have tried with all the Non Whites also. But there was no mention that she did. It seems that someone has been giving her the wrong advice from the start. Too bad she never picked up on what Obama's campaign was about. If she had, Hillary could have been the candidate of many people. Instead of the Candidate who only concentrates on one class of people every where she goes.

In Ohio, it was the white working class voters. In both Texas and California it was the Latino voters. I do not remember her talking to Native Americans. Maybe it's because she forgot they existed. But the choice of going only after one group makes it look like she is and has been ignoring everyone else.

Kinda like the time in 2005 when Hillary went to India and was addressing the Indian workers in India. She praised the Republican Outsourcing as being good for the Indian workers. But Hillary forgot one little detail. The Indian workers in India do not vote for the Presidency in the USA. No they don't. It is people like my husband whose job was outsourced who votes for the president of the USA. Needless to say, Hillary is not whom we will vote for come November.

New Clinton Scandal

2008-03-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

Strange that this was in the news for a split second, yet there was little said of it. So here is the story in it's entirty by the original writers, titled 'Sen. Clinton accepts donations from troubled firm' Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 3:50 PM PT By Lisa Myers and Jim Popkin, NBC News: Sen. Hillary Clinton has declined to return $170,000 in campaign contributions from individuals at a company accused of widespread sexual harassment, and whose CEO is a disbarred lawyer with a criminal record, federal campaign records show.
The federal government has accused the Illinois management consulting firm, International Profit Associates, or IPA, of a brazen pattern of sexual harassment including "sexual assaults,” “degrading anti-female language" and "obscene suggestions."
In a 2001 lawsuit full of lurid details, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims that 103 women employees at IPA were victimized for years. The civil case is ongoing, and IPA vigorously denies the allegations.
"This is by far, hands down, the worst case I've ever experienced," said Diane Smason, one of the EEOC lawyers handling the lawsuit. "Every woman there experienced sex harassment, they were part of a hostile work environment of sex harassment. And this occurred from the top down."
Sen. Clinton’s spokesman, Howard Wolfson, told NBC News in a statement that the senator decided to keep the funds because the lawsuit is "ongoing" and because none of the sexual harassment allegations has been proven in court. "With regard to the pending harassment suit, as a general matter, the campaign assesses findings of fact in deciding whether to return contributions," Wolfson said.
Allegations:Adrienne Slick, who worked at IPA for seven months in 2000 and 2001 as a business coordinator and is now part of the EEOC suit, told NBC News in an interview that the sexual harassment was oppressive. “I had multiple managers come at me, press themselves up against me ... ask me to go home with them, and to a hotel room so they could fulfill their fantasies," she said.
The EEOC lawyers say the man at the top of the firm - IPA founder and Managing Director John R. Burgess - was among the worst offenders. The EEOC lawsuit claims, “The harassment emanated from the top: the owner and Managing Director, John Burgess, is accused of sexual harassment by at least 10 different women.”
Burgess has a criminal record, too. The former lawyer pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny in 1987 and was disbarred in New York, court documents show. Burgess also pleaded guilty to “patronizing a prostitute” in 1984, according to Erie County, N.Y., court records.
Still, none of that has stopped powerful politicians in both parties from being courted by Burgess and IPA. Since 2000, IPA officials and their family members have given Sen. Clinton at least $170,000 for her Senate and presidential campaigns, federal campaign records show. Senator Clinton also spoke at a company event and rode on an IPA jet in 2004.
In May 2006, the New York Times brought Burgess's criminal history, and the allegations against IPA, to Sen. Clinton's attention. The May 7, 2006, article was titled “Rubbing Shoulders with Trouble, and Presidents.” In the article, a spokeswoman for Sen. Clinton was quoted as saying the Senator was not aware of Burgess’s criminal past and "will be reviewing" the contributions.
Almost two years later, federal records indicate that Sen. Clinton still has not returned the IPA money. Howard Wolfson, her communications director, did not dispute the $170,000 figure in an email to NBC News. He said Senator Clinton was not aware of Burgess’s past legal problems when she first accepted the donations. "In 2000 and 2003 when Sen. Clinton's campaign accepted money from Burgess, it was not aware of his legal problems from the 1980s," he said.
However, there were public reports of allegations against Burgess as early as 2000. That’s the year that Inc. Magazine first reported that Burgess had patronized a prostitute and had pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny. And Senator Clinton’s campaign has accepted other contributions from other senior IPA officials as recently as last year, the campaign records show.
Many other politicians have been quick to distance themselves from IPA, and have returned donations. In 2002 in New York, Andrew Cuomo, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate at the time, returned $20,000 from Burgess. Cuomo’s office said the donations were returned after a New York newspaper reported on Burgess’s past legal problems and on the EEOC sexual-harassment allegations.
Other prominent Democrats also have returned IPA's donations including Sen. Ted Kennedy and then-Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. On the same day in 2006, Sen. Barack Obama received $4,000 in campaign donations from a senior IPA official and his wife. Obama quickly returned $2,000 from the senior IPA official, campaign records show. But the campaign has held onto the matching $2,000 donation from the IPA official’s wife, the Obama campaign confirms.
Some political analysts say it is surprising that the first viable female candidate for president would not be more sensitive to allegations of sexual harassment.
"The fact that Hillary Clinton at this point is holding onto money from a contributor who has been charged with sexual harassment can only be perceived as insensitive to women's issues and women," says Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, Senior Scholar at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California. "I don't think that fits the definition of feminism, at least the last time I looked."
Adrienne Slick, the former IPA employee, says she's disappointed in any politician who would take or keep money from IPA. "This is not something that should be taken lightly, and to accept those funds makes a statement," she told NBC.
The EEOC lawyers would not comment on any aspect of the political donations, and confined their remarks solely to the lawsuit.Clinton Campaign Response:Wolfson dismissed the notion that keeping IPA money reflected a lack of concern about sexual harassment. "Sen. Clinton is proud of her long record of championing women's causes," he said. "When the EEOC rules on the allegations involving Burgess, we will consider that outcome in assessing if there is any reason to return his contribution." Of the $170,000 total in donations from all IPA officials and employees, Burgess and his family members personally contributed $16,000 to Sen. Clinton, campaign records show.
IPA Reaction:For its part, IPA vigorously denies any wrongdoing and said it has been fighting the EEOC lawsuit for more than six years. "Since a lawsuit was filed in June 2001, IPA has continually and consistently denied the allegations," IPA spokeswoman Jennifer Cumbee wrote in an email to NBC News. "At IPA, we have zero tolerance approach when it comes to sexual harassment."
Cumbee added: "This involves primarily claims by persons who worked a short time in the mid- to late 90s (although there are some persons who worked after that). Immediately after the lawsuit was filed and by early 2001, IPA in an abundance of caution had its sexual harassment policy completely revised by competent outside professionals."
She says, "IPA has had no unresolved claim of harassment for several years now and any one of its 2,000 employees who violate the policy, after investigation, is dealt with swiftly." She would not comment directly on Slick’s claims, citing employee confidentiality. She said that the EEOC already has dropped some claimants from the suit. “All employee claims have been contested as many have no witnesses or records or current complaints,” Cumbee said.
The IPA spokeswoman did not dispute that Burgess had a criminal record from his days in New York. "All that you have asked, in regards to John Burgess, is a matter of public record," she wrote. “Mr. Burgess is not a felon and was never convicted or pled to a felony.” She said that it would be unfair to judge Burgess on two-decade-old crimes, and pointed out that Burgess and IPA are solid employers who donate generously to charities.

Bernanke Warned Of Sluggish Growth

2008-02-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

Today I was reading an article by Jeannine Aversa AP Economics Writer. The money news article was again about Bernanke adressing Congress that the Business Growth of the US will be sluggish. "The economic situation has become distinctly less favorable," Bernanke warns pointing out some causes like the deteriorating job market, the slump in home sales, and credit problems that have increased. Bernanke contintued his warning, adding that the Feds need to watch the price increase in energy which could further dampen the economic growth. Bernanke is talking about another cut to the key interest rate, as an insurance to prevent down swing risks.

Jeannine also states in her written news report: The central bank, which started lowering a key interest rate in September, has since become more aggressive. Over just eight days in January, it slashed rates by 1.25 percentage points -- the biggest one-month reduction in a quarter century. Economists and Wall Street investors predict the Fed will cut rates again at its next meeting on March 18. There are dangers that the economy will weaken even further. "The risks include the possibilities that the housing market or labor market may deteriorate more than is currently anticipated and that credit conditions may tighten substantially further," Bernanke cautioned.

Tuesday Debate

2008-02-26T22:04:00.001-08:00

To be honest with Hillary's form of ranting and raving, I have gotten to the point where I just turn off when Hillary talks. But todays debate took me to a different level. I walked back and forth between my computer and watching the debate of both Hillary and Obama. I have to say that Obama has done even better today than what he has done in the past. I did not catch a moment when I felt Hillary had a chance to come out from under.

It seems Hillary shows signs of on the verge of coming apart, add to that catching her at times on the brink of slamming her fists on the table. Not to mention the lengths her campaign will go with the half truths and innuendos thrown at Obama, only to roll off like 'WATER DOWN A DUCKS BACK'.

She looks the wear for all the emotional mood swing roller coaster we have witness these five days after their last debate on Thursday. To go from how much she was honored to be running against Obama on Thursday, to her "Shame on You Obama!" On Monday. With her waving the fliers which did contain facts of Hillary's position on NAFTA.

Yet with her crazy episodes, reminding me of what MENOPAUSE was like for me, I can sympathizes for her. But if Hillary cannot handle Obama, and his gentleman nature, How could she ever handle McCain and his mood swings combined with the mouth of an old drunken sailor. Let's not forget that elderly men do suffer from menopause also, the medical profession just labels it differently.

To Call It Recession Or Not

2008-02-26T21:17:00.000-08:00

It was reported today that oil had reached 100.88 a barrel by the news on line. The president of Excel Futures Inc stated: "The weak dollar seems to be the biggest catalyst for this boost." Yet I do not recall any mention of it by the, so called political experts today on the television news. Nope, not one single word was mentioned on CNN or MSNBC about the price of oil barrel jumped. Nor did anyone say anything about the weak American dollar being the biggest catalyst, as if it were the cause.

While browsing the Internet news I found more information on the home sales declining even as the price of homes have dramatically dropped. In fact it was mentioned that across the nation home prices did drop significantly in most metro areas. J.W. ELPHINSTONE AP Business Writer wrote in her article: "A government report Tuesday said U.S. home prices posted their first annual decline in 16 years."

ABC on line money news: NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. home foreclosures for January increased 57 percent from a year earlier, ... "January's foreclosure numbers demonstrate that foreclosure activity is continuing on its upward trend, substantially increasing from a year ago in many states," James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement.

Also in the news stores like Home Depot are reporting a decline in their profits with a drop in their annual sales. While stores that are not usually effected since the people who shop there are better well off like Nordstrom had to admit that their profit drops and sales declined at the year end of 2007. Nordstrom is expected to brace for a tough 2008 sales report as people are now holding back on spending.

David J. Lynch of Waterloo, Ontario wrote an article of how the slump in the American Housing is starting to effect Canada. Since we are not buying as much lumber as we normally do from the Canadians, they are starting to experience the cold chill of the economic slow down reality. "More than three-quarters of Canada's exports — including oil, minerals, lumber and passenger vehicles — are sold to Americans. The U.S. housing collapse already has slashed sales of Canadian lumber."

So after seven years of Bush and Republican policies with drops in profits and sales with Up and down swings in the Stock Market can we say this is a recession, or are we still waiting?