September Week 5, 2008

Monday, September 29, 2008

Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.

Ambrose Bierce, author and editor (1842-1914)

The Stock Market finally lost it... I am sitting here watching 30 years savings go up in smoke because arrogant, stupid, greedy people couldn't see that they were killing the goose that laid golden eggs. They turned an engine for generating money to finance real businesses and started selling securities backed by imaginary assets then they were selling security backed securities... unbelievable. Bush and his little band of warmongers took their eye off the ball while they played some sort of empire building power trip game. They have not only taken America to it's knees, they have damn near financially bankrupted the world because they didn't understand that unrestricted capitalism is what made Al Capone a wealthy man.

What's good for big business is good for the country... Jesus, what a bunch of arrogant self-aggrandized bastards they are. They are the only people on the planet that don't know that they are pompous idiots.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Our memories are card indexes consulted and then returned in disorder by authorities whom we do not control.

Cyril Connolly, critic and editor (1903-1974)

Christy and I went out and dug up about 50 pounds of potatoes and checked on the corn... Calie is at a volleyball game

I have lost a bunch, almost half of what I worked 30 years for is gone in less than 8 years. I had choices when I retired and I chose wrong, and, I compounded that bad choice with an unwillingness to see the writing on the wall. I should have taken my money out in December of 1999... but I listened to my 'Financial Advisor' and 'stayed the course. Spilt milk...

I may have been able to recoup some of it if that bill passed but.... I'll be damned if I don't take a little bit of pleasure in seeing Bush and the rest of the politicians who voted for it... on both sides... get their bill handed back to them. I don't know if it was integrity or fear of not getting reelected that caused those Democrats and Republicans to reject that piece of Pork. I got a newsletter that laid out a few points more concisely than I can, I hope it was rejected because: 

1. The bailout bill had NO enforcement provisions for the so-called "oversight group" that was going to monitor Wall Street's spending of the $700 billion;
2. It had NO penalties, fines or imprisonment for any executive who might steal any of the people's money;
3. It did NOTHING to force banks and lenders to rewrite people's mortgages to avoid foreclosures -- this bill would not have stopped ONE foreclosure!;
4. It had NO teeth anywhere in the entire piece of legislation, it even used words like "suggested" when referring to the government being paid back for the bailout;
5. Over 200 economists wrote to Congress and said this bill might actually WORSEN the "financial crisis" and cause even MORE of a meltdown. (I don't usually have much respect for anything Economists have to say but it appears that some of them actually agree on something and they have enough backbone to lay it on the line.)

(Please note that our glorious media has not mentioned any of this)

It's time for the taxpayers to tell Congress and the President what WE want.

... it's not over yet though. The rest of the week will be pretty hectic and I think they will eventually pass some sort of a bill, I read yesterday that it only needs 10 votes to pass. The whip is now in the hands of the Democrats but Wall Street still has a gun to their head.

Joke:

In a small rural town, Drummond's bar began construction on a new building to increase their business.

The local Baptist Church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed right up till the week before opening when lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug about their accomplishment after that, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building's demise.

As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork. At the hearing he commented, 'I don't know how I'm going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that does not.'

OCTOBER