Sunday, April 30, 2006
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Gas Prices
I'm sure you all hear about the retiring CEO of Exxon getting his 400 million dollar retirement package. That breaks down to about $117,000 a DAY. A fricken DAY!! Think about that. We are paying close to $3.00/gallon and dipshits like that are getting retirement packages worth $117,000 a DAY? Doesn't that get a reaction out of you?
When the heads of the oil companies testified on Capitol Hill the chairman from Alaska refused to swear them in. About a week later the Washington Post released a report contradicting the testimony they gave. Why on Earth would you not swear people in when they testifiy before congress?
The tax cuts were full of kickbacks to the oil industry for 'R&D' and the like. Wow, that worked well! These companies are making record profits, in not small part due to those tax cuts, and we are paying up the ass for gas.
Obviously, something fishy is going on here. So what does your President do? Well, calls from the Dems last week he ignored. Yesterday the speakers of the House and Senate wrote him a letter and he finally decided to ask for an inquiry into price fixing. Not that that will go anywhere with this Administration. I mean, come on. Bush's roots are in the oil industry. It's no mistake the tax cuts were aimed at them.
And now, one of the most environmentally unfriendly administrations in history is doing this. How fricken convient. Gee, I wonder how long this rollback will last?
The environmental rules are not the problem. The problem is price fixing and kick backs to an industry that has no intention of investing in alternatives when they can make record profits with a friendly administration in place. The investigation will be stone walled just like the 9/11, wiretaping, Abu G, Gitmo, Iraq, etc etc investigations have all been stone walled and we will continue to pay up the ass so these guys can laugh all the way to the bank.
Disgusting.
When the heads of the oil companies testified on Capitol Hill the chairman from Alaska refused to swear them in. About a week later the Washington Post released a report contradicting the testimony they gave. Why on Earth would you not swear people in when they testifiy before congress?
The tax cuts were full of kickbacks to the oil industry for 'R&D' and the like. Wow, that worked well! These companies are making record profits, in not small part due to those tax cuts, and we are paying up the ass for gas.
Obviously, something fishy is going on here. So what does your President do? Well, calls from the Dems last week he ignored. Yesterday the speakers of the House and Senate wrote him a letter and he finally decided to ask for an inquiry into price fixing. Not that that will go anywhere with this Administration. I mean, come on. Bush's roots are in the oil industry. It's no mistake the tax cuts were aimed at them.
And now, one of the most environmentally unfriendly administrations in history is doing this. How fricken convient. Gee, I wonder how long this rollback will last?
The environmental rules are not the problem. The problem is price fixing and kick backs to an industry that has no intention of investing in alternatives when they can make record profits with a friendly administration in place. The investigation will be stone walled just like the 9/11, wiretaping, Abu G, Gitmo, Iraq, etc etc investigations have all been stone walled and we will continue to pay up the ass so these guys can laugh all the way to the bank.
Disgusting.
Monday, April 24, 2006
The Way of the Master: Kirk Cameron
I think I posted about Kirk Cameron lecturing everyone about how you are going to hell if you aren't Christian OR if you are Christian, you are going to hell because you haven't converted enough people.
If you haven't seen it, it's awesome. Get Lectured by Kirk!
Anyway, here is a new one that is even better. Some teasers:
1) Theory on how a tin can was made
2) Proof that god exists is in a banana because it fits in the human hand.
3) Taking Darwin and Einstein out of context.
4) Learn how to prove god exists!
Good times. Get lectured by Kirk again!
If you haven't seen it, it's awesome. Get Lectured by Kirk!
Anyway, here is a new one that is even better. Some teasers:
1) Theory on how a tin can was made
2) Proof that god exists is in a banana because it fits in the human hand.
3) Taking Darwin and Einstein out of context.
4) Learn how to prove god exists!
Good times. Get lectured by Kirk again!
Friday, April 21, 2006
Photos of Iran
Not sure why I was surprised about these, but Iran looks like a nifty place to visit if everyone can just get along.
Pictures of Iran
Pictures of Iran
Light Reading to Start the Day
Moral Clarity
Bullshit.
The democratic state uses violence, and terrorists use violence; but these acts are not alike.
Bullshit.
Jingoism vs Conscience Patriotism
Since no one is commenting anymore I'm just going to post for myself. Anyone that stumbles along here is welcome to read it and comment if you want.
Jingoism vs Conscience Patriotism
Jingoism vs Conscience Patriotism
Crazy Canadians
Holy crap, Jen. No wonder you want to move down here:
Nuke Iran
I thought we had some crazzies down here. Yikes.
The comments are awesome, though. The one about Civ IV is classic.
Anyway, for more reasoned commentary on the whole Iran thing:
Iran and the Bomb
Attack on Iran: Can They Be Serious?
I can't believe after the fluster cluck Iraq has become anyone is even THINKING about this.
Nuke Iran
I thought we had some crazzies down here. Yikes.
The comments are awesome, though. The one about Civ IV is classic.
Anyway, for more reasoned commentary on the whole Iran thing:
Iran and the Bomb
Attack on Iran: Can They Be Serious?
I can't believe after the fluster cluck Iraq has become anyone is even THINKING about this.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Dominate the Farket!
You know how spammers change a few letters in words to get past spam filters? Here is the best one yet:
SPAMAXIMUM PILLS - WORST SPAM VOLUME INCREASER ON THE FARKET!!
SPAMAXIMUM PILLS - WORST SPAM VOLUME INCREASER ON THE FARKET!!
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Monday, April 03, 2006
First Sign of Housing Market Grenading
This article and signs such as rates raising fast and people starting to forclose have been the signs I have been watching for to determine when to start thinking about selling.
The way housing prices have sky rocketed in Northern Virginy in the past five years, particularly since 03, I've suspected that a lot of people in the area have gotten interest-only loans. In 2000 that would have been an awesome thing to do. You basically are banking on the value of your house increasing so you can sell it since you are not paying any money towards the principal. As a result, the only way to increase equity is for the house to value up. The other gotcha is that these interest-only loans are always an ARM.
So what happens when you get an interest-only loan because it is the only way you can move into an expensive neighborhood like you find in NoVa and the interest rates start to climb? What happens when they climb to the point that you can't pay them anymore? Well, you sell your house and get out of dodge to a lower priced area. But what if you can't sell your house for more than you paid for it anymore? Ahh, that is when the foreclosures start and the housing values start to drop, creating more forclosures.
This is the first sign of that process. Hopefully it will just be a market adjustment and highly inflated areas like mine aren't going to crash. If it's an adjustment and the prices level out or even drop a bit, that's not too big of a deal. It really all depends on what happens with all those interest-only loans and the interest rates to determine how bad the cycle will be.
Holding my breath...
The way housing prices have sky rocketed in Northern Virginy in the past five years, particularly since 03, I've suspected that a lot of people in the area have gotten interest-only loans. In 2000 that would have been an awesome thing to do. You basically are banking on the value of your house increasing so you can sell it since you are not paying any money towards the principal. As a result, the only way to increase equity is for the house to value up. The other gotcha is that these interest-only loans are always an ARM.
So what happens when you get an interest-only loan because it is the only way you can move into an expensive neighborhood like you find in NoVa and the interest rates start to climb? What happens when they climb to the point that you can't pay them anymore? Well, you sell your house and get out of dodge to a lower priced area. But what if you can't sell your house for more than you paid for it anymore? Ahh, that is when the foreclosures start and the housing values start to drop, creating more forclosures.
This is the first sign of that process. Hopefully it will just be a market adjustment and highly inflated areas like mine aren't going to crash. If it's an adjustment and the prices level out or even drop a bit, that's not too big of a deal. It really all depends on what happens with all those interest-only loans and the interest rates to determine how bad the cycle will be.
Holding my breath...
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
"God's Senator"
Rolling Stone article.
How on earth can someone like this get elected. Hopefully the Abramoff thing will bring him down with it.
How on earth can someone like this get elected. Hopefully the Abramoff thing will bring him down with it.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
No Good News In Iraq
Yes, still butt ass early for me. This is third post so far tonight/morning. Shorter than the last so your eyes stop bleeding.
Again, a post from Digby caught my attention. Here
To summarize again, the very complaint that newspeeps must risk their lives in Iraq in order to leave the green zone so they can report on the 'good news' in Iraq that, according to the Administration, isn't being reported is a pretty damn good indication that maybe their isn't all that much good news.
In other words, if things were going so peachy why can't jourlists even leave the green zone?
Again, a post from Digby caught my attention. Here
To summarize again, the very complaint that newspeeps must risk their lives in Iraq in order to leave the green zone so they can report on the 'good news' in Iraq that, according to the Administration, isn't being reported is a pretty damn good indication that maybe their isn't all that much good news.
In other words, if things were going so peachy why can't jourlists even leave the green zone?
Media
Its 6am. I've been up for about three hours now doing a new release. A lot of the new release involves waiting for crap to copy or database structures to be updated, etc so I've been reading. And now I'm going to share something with you all. However, don't miss the post below...good stuff.
Anyway, read this. You won't, so I will summarize for you. In a nutshell, back in 1968 after Mayor Daley in Chicago had the police beat the snot out of a bunch of protesters and newsmen at the Democratic convention in Chicago, a guy named Joseph Kraft wrote an article. That article basically addressed some of Daley's 'reasons' for beating people up from the perspective of newspeeps. In essence, what Kraft points out is that at that time the media establishment was run by the upper white middle class. If you don't read anything else here is the key paragraph:
His point is that this upper-income middle class with the ideas were running the show while you had the vast majority of Americans on the traditional fear change side. With me so far?
So the media was out of touch with the public. The larger majority of the public were the traditional conservative types (see the two time election of Nixon for all the proof you need of that) while the media peeps were the left-leaning more liberal types. That's the key concept so far.
Flash forward 40 years in the future and you have basically the opposite of the situation that was going on then. Now you have 'more conservative politics, a more liberal culture and an electorate as divided as ever'. The media, after years of calls of 'left wing biased' have internalized that notion and are super sensitive to such a charge so much that they over compensate (check out the whole Red State blog ordeal at the Washingpost.com if you want a fun example of such overcompensation).
Anyway, that article I linked to drives the point home much better than I ever could. It's a good read.
Anyway, read this. You won't, so I will summarize for you. In a nutshell, back in 1968 after Mayor Daley in Chicago had the police beat the snot out of a bunch of protesters and newsmen at the Democratic convention in Chicago, a guy named Joseph Kraft wrote an article. That article basically addressed some of Daley's 'reasons' for beating people up from the perspective of newspeeps. In essence, what Kraft points out is that at that time the media establishment was run by the upper white middle class. If you don't read anything else here is the key paragraph:
"To get a feel of this bias it is first necessary to understand the antagonism that divides the middle class of this country. On the one hand there are highly educated upper-income whites sure of and brimming with ideas for doing things differently. On the other hand, there is Middle America, the large majority of low-income whites, traditional in their values and on the defensive against innovation."
His point is that this upper-income middle class with the ideas were running the show while you had the vast majority of Americans on the traditional fear change side. With me so far?
So the media was out of touch with the public. The larger majority of the public were the traditional conservative types (see the two time election of Nixon for all the proof you need of that) while the media peeps were the left-leaning more liberal types. That's the key concept so far.
Flash forward 40 years in the future and you have basically the opposite of the situation that was going on then. Now you have 'more conservative politics, a more liberal culture and an electorate as divided as ever'. The media, after years of calls of 'left wing biased' have internalized that notion and are super sensitive to such a charge so much that they over compensate (check out the whole Red State blog ordeal at the Washingpost.com if you want a fun example of such overcompensation).
Anyway, that article I linked to drives the point home much better than I ever could. It's a good read.
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