Nonsense La-La Land

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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.