Politics, Everyday, All day... morning, noon and night....

[Kinetik V]

Like nobody saw this trainwreck coming? The only remaining questions are how big will this Blackwater scandal get and what all can be conveniently covered up with it's demise? Or in other words how many other skeletons can be packed into the same coffin Blackwater will get buried in?

And if people think this marks the end of quasi-military organizations like Blackwater....wrong again.

In any event Blackwater gives some of us something else to distract from reading the horror stories of the just not declared yet recession the country is hurtling into. Things are getting ugly...and it's only getting started.

[cowboyangel]

agreed

[can't sit still]

Kinetic, you used the "R" word. For many people, it's going to be the "D" word. Michigan, Ohio and a couple of other states already have long soup lines. If you listen to GOV, everything is fine. If you listen to the gold bugs, everything is turning to shit. You have to read everything and then decide which scenario fits best for your own personal situation.
A lot will depend if you are on fixed income and use heating oil. GOV has cut way back on subsidies of heating oil for the poor. There is some good info on these sites;
Here's some pages that you should read if you want to make an informed financial decision;
This says a lot about the world scene,,,, and it isn't good http://www.isecureonline.com/Reports/DR ... 2&l=819607

This will affect most http://www.paulchefurka.ca/WEAP/WEAP.html

This series is VERY informative. Read all that you can
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/edito ... /1010.html

Next year looks worse http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home

This is where I find good links
http://www.dollarcollapse.com/

Watch all 5 parts and learn about money


This is the money supply http://www.howestreet.com/articles/inde ... le_id=2463


The treasury doesn't seem to confident http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=3010

The fed is trying to inject money. The problem is that much of the shit is in non-bank structures http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish ... 2396.shtml

Much new poison has been found in Structured Investmen Vehicles. If a bank has lots of these, the bank is refered to as being "SIV positive"
The social security admin is buying GOV bonds because nobody else will. Bush is trying to put off the inevitable til after he exits.

[Kinetik V]

I used to work for the Federal Reserve System, I'm pretty well aware of what's going on. For me personally it's already a full blown depression. I was laid off from a job and I can't find good work in KC. Well I can...if I'm willing to take a 60% pay cut. I put my house on the market and am coming up on the 60 day mark for that. I've had 2 people look at it. 2. Fortunately for me I have an FHA loan that gives me a few options but those are dwindling fast. I'm moving all of my stuff out of there in the next couple of days and by November 15th, I'll either be looking at a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure. I don't intend to keep the place as again...I can't make a living there. Couple that with being way behind on credit card payments and getting calls every day...I received a notice to cure on my truck..one step before reposession...oh and on top of that the furniture place wants to exercise their security rights for the furniture I almost had paid off. To add icing on the cake, my former 720 credit score with all 3 major bureaus has plunged into the low 400 range. Oh and let's not forget the cracked tooth and the $300 I had to spend for emergency care and antibiotics / pain scripts just to get back to functioning...the tooth still isn't fixed and with no insurance...I don't think it will for sometime. So...if anyone wants to discuss financial stress...I might know a thing or two about the subject.

That being said one might think I'm miserable. I'm not. Frankly I'm glad to see the shit go. Good riddance. I'm focused on keeping the truck, paying the cell phone bill so I still have a phone and internet access, and I pay what I can when I can. I intend to take advantage of consumer credit counseling, run that for 6 months, then file Chapter 7 and tell the financial people where they can stick it. I've moved out of Missouri, I get a chance to start over and go back to school, maybe learn stuff that won't see my career outsourced to some IT shop overseas...there's opportunity here. Lots and lots of it. And I should be able to discard much of the bullshit that would keep me from taking full advantage of it. So..is the glass half empty? I say it's half full. Life is tough...but life is good.

Edit: For anyone that's having financial difficulty, I recommend one book. NOLO's "Solve your Money Troubles", 11th Edition, ISBN-10 1-4153-0631-4 or ISBN-13: 978-1-4133-0631-6. If you want no bullshit advice on how to work through things and exercise your rights...this is a great starting point.

[cowboyangel]

Kinetic, I love you.

[MikeVDS]

Kinetic, I love you.

Really? The way he describes it, he seems to be a typical American and it sounds like he got bit in the ass for practicing stupid, yet typical, American behavior. Financed furniture, ran up credit card debt (which most likely means no savings or poorly investing by saving low interest money while paying high interest). I'm not certain about the housing market there, but if it's anything like in California there were probably bad finance choices if the house is close to foreclosure. Then relying on someone else to create a job that pays X amount of dollars and saying "screw you" to the people who lent the money to finance the life that couldn't be paid for.

I don't know any more than you describe Kinetic V, but it sounds like you followed the crowd and made stupid decisions. Instead of blaming others who want to be repaid, I hope more people take it as a lesson learned and teach their children how to properly manage money.

I have never been to Australia, but I'm told that there they pay off their houses. They actually own their houses rather than here where the bank owns our houses (typically). "Credit" is typically borrowed against the house but paid back. It's just smart to actually own the things you rely on so you don't have to rely on others. Out here people are crying about the housing market crash. Sorry if they made stupid decisions and bloated the prices for everyone. The prices needed to come down, if you invested poorly and got in upside down on an interest only loan, you only have yourself to blame. Sure it "slows" the economy, but it was an economy that was held up by the housing market "artificially" skyrocketing, so it really is just showing the economy for what it is.

[cowboyangel]

Mike. I know Kinetic. He is both a gentleman and a scholar. His debt problems are nothing in comparison to the criminal debt crisis the Bush crime regime has inflicted on the US and the world.

[Kinetik V]

Mike, put away the stereotype brush...at least the ultrawide one...you're kinda right, but also way off the mark.

Long story short, I had a 10 year run in telecom. I was burned out, I decided to make a career change. The Federal Reserve Bank in KC had IT openings...I applied, was brought in on a contract to hire basis. I got in there, found that the job wasn't what was advertised, and on top of that they implemented a hiring freeze soon after. 5 months after getting in the door 2 of us got let go. And I learned that they were only ramping up staff to help with the move to their new building, once the move was done there wasn't enough business to justify the high headcounts so cuts were going to happen. So...I got cut early...considering their last one in, first one out policy I would have been out in April 08 anyway....and with Embarq and Sprint cutting staff it made for an ultra tight labor market in KC...

As for the financial side, I bought a half duplex in a growing part of South KC for 95K, put 3.5% cash down, landed a 30 year FHA fixed rate, and all of this with my family and American Express financial advisers guiding me step by step through the process. I had some credit cards but my payment history was so good I had all of the interest rates down below 10% on every single card. My furniture was a deal of taking advantage of Nebraska Furniture Mart's specials...I put 3/4 of the balance down in cash, financed the rest and had the job and the money to pay it off responsibly. In short until the job situation fell through....and who would have expected the Federal Reserve in the midst of an expansion to let people go, I was on track and running things as a pretty tight ship.

So...while I've been blasted in the past for sharing my personal messes in a public forum, I'm hopeful by sharing this that people will see the current financial mess in a slightly different perspective. I had the 2 months salary in reserve. I did everything by the goddamn book and with tons of fucking research and outside advisers mixed in. In the end...it didn't count for a fucking thing. So...when I say good riddance I'm not just talking about the finances, I'm talking the corporate career track, the credit card game, and all of the other bullshit that comes with it.

[Toolmaker]

K you may want to hit up an attorney or do some reading. I hear that chap 7 was changed alot recently. Seems as though you can't say F'Off to creditors anymore with a 7. Not sure about your financial details but its something you want to look into since the change was fairly recent.

[MikeVDS]

So...while I've been blasted in the past for sharing my personal messes in a public forum, I'm hopeful by sharing this that people will see the current financial mess in a slightly different perspective.

I wouldn't have commented on anything except for Cowboy's remarks, which seemed to praise what seemed to be described as common bad practices. If you notice I tried to direct most of what I said not at you Kinetic, but at the common bad practices which I see many of my friends and colleagues doing. With less than 100k on your house you should be able to keep it with even unskilled labor wages if you have a responsible history and references. I know people who spent over $800,000 on houses that require a two income household to pay off where both don't have steady jobs and won't be able to afford it once rates go up and living off credit cards. That's a very common lifestyle in California and you painted yourself in a similar manner before I did. People I know are losing their houses and some will likely lose them in the future because of bad choices which I think most people reading Cowboy's comments would think he was praising.

[can't sit still]

Kinetic, if you decide to take your half-filled cup of water to a new locale, there are several things to keep in mind. I just finished reading "Solar Rain" it has huge amounts of data to show that the sun is warming up and causing the same for good old Terra. It's a natural cycle. Obviously we've been warming up since the peak of the last ice-age.
We're heading in to a period with both water and energy shortages. You would do well to seek a new locale that won't be adversly affected by these things.
Any area that has high costs to maintain a comfortable temperature in the house will be undesireable in the future. Jobs are a necessity also. You would do well to look at Seattle. It has Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. It also has lots of water and reasonable winters. WHEN oil hits $150 a barrel, the people in Phoenix with 5000 sq.ft. houses are not going to want to turn on the AC. Same goes for heating oil in the cold parts of the country. You should try to establish yourself in an area that has a future. I read that 26% of the houses in Detroit are selling for about $20,000
Seattle also has good vision looking towards public transportation. The reports are coming in from all over the world that all countries have overstated their oil reserves. Oil exports are going to drop precipitously worldwide in about 3 years. Now is the time to start making adjustments.
I just found an old homestead with 80 acres, orchards, stream, barns, pastures and 2 houses for 295K in western Or. where the water is always reliable.

[Kinetik V]

I had a hunch people would think I went out and got crazy buying more house than I should have...and making the typical American consumeristic mistakes that the media loves to report on....so when the comment came up I used it as a chance to clarify what happened to me and how it deviated from the typical scenarios you'll keep hearing about in days ahead.

As for the changes to Chapter 7 the NOLO book I referenced makes it much easier to wade through what's changed. The two biggest changes are the means test...which basically diverts anyone with a previous income North of 80K to Chapter 13 instead of Chapter 7. The other step is you've got to go through 6 months of consumer credit counseling first, then if that fails they sign off on a document saying hey, you made the effort to turn things around and then you can go file.

Can't Sit Still, I understand where you're coming from too but right now the jobs I need if I stay in IT are up North in the snow zone. Same thing for school if I want to take a new direction. As for where to live a couple of years out that's already being discussed...but it's too far out to make a decision on that...at least right now. But every point you raised is already on my spreadsheet of things to consider.

[DVD Burner]

I missed a couple of days in the politics thread and am just now catching up.
Not to push the subject back into politics and away from personal financial
despairs...........

Mr. K. said a few days ago:

Like nobody saw this trainwreck coming? The only remaining questions are how big will this Blackwater scandal get and what all can be conveniently covered up with it's demise? Or in other words how many other skeletons can be packed into the same coffin Blackwater will get buried in?

And if people think this marks the end of quasi-military organizations like Blackwater....wrong again.

In any event Blackwater gives some of us something else to distract from reading the horror stories of the just not declared yet recession the country is hurtling into. Things are getting ugly...and it's only getting started.

yep it's only gettin better. Check this out. Just a few hours ago:


Official Overseeing Security Contractors Resigns


By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: October 24, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — The State Department official responsible for overseeing Blackwater USA and other private security contractors in Iraq resigned abruptly today.

Richard J. Griffin, who has been the director of the department’s diplomatic security bureau since June 2005, faced stiff criticism from Congress over his handling of a Sept. 16 shooting episode involving Blackwater that left 17 Iraqis dead and other acts of violence by the State Department’s security guards.

A special panel appointed to investigate the handling of diplomatic security in Iraq found a glaring lack of oversight and accountability that was hindering the American diplomatic and military mission there. The F.B.I. and a joint American-Iraqi board are also investigating the Sept. 16 shooting and the operations of armed private guards in Iraq.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice quickly accepted Mr. Griffin’s resignation, which is effective Nov. 1. “Secretary Rice is grateful to Ambassador Griffin for his record of long exemplary service to the nation,â€

[geekster]

http://doubleplusundead.mee.nu/war

[Kinetik V]

I'm not sure if this can be believed...but....

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

The September 6 raid over Syria was carried out by the US Air Force, the Al-Jazeera Web site reported Friday. The Web site quoted Israeli and Arab sources as saying that two US jets armed with tactical nuclear weapons carried out an attack on a suspected nuclear site under construction. The sources were quoted as saying that Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets provided cover for the US planes.

The sources added that each US plane carried one tactical nuclear weapon and that the site was hit by one bomb and was totally destroyed.

At the beginning of October, Israel's military censor began to allow the local media to report on the raid without attributing their report to foreign sources. Nevertheless, details of the strike have remained clouded in mystery.

On October 28, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the cabinet that he had apologized to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan if Israel violated Turkish airspace during a strike on an alleged nuclear facility in Syria last month.

In a carefully worded statement that was given to reporters after the cabinet meeting, Olmert said: "In my conversation with the Turkish prime minister, I told him that if Israeli planes indeed penetrated Turkish airspace, then there was no intention thereby, either in advance or in any case, to - in any way - violate or undermine Turkish sovereignty, which we respect."

The New York Times reported on October 13 that Israeli planes struck at what US and Israeli intelligence believed was a partly constructed nuclear reactor in Syria on September 6, citing American and foreign officials who had seen the relevant intelligence reports.

According to the report, Israel carried out the report to send a message that it would not tolerate even a nuclear program in its initial stages of construction in any neighboring state.

On October 17, Syria denied that one of its representatives to the United Nations told a panel that an Israeli air strike hit a Syrian nuclear facility and added that "such facilities do not exist in Syria."

A UN document released by the press office had provided an account of a meeting of the First Committee, Disarmament and International Security, in New York, and paraphrased an unnamed Syrian representative as saying that a nuclear facility was hit by the raid.

However, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, SANA said media reports, apparently based on a UN press release, misquoted the Syrian diplomat.

Here's another Jerusalem Post article on the same topic...it has before and after satellite imagery that adds some credibility to the first article. That site got blasted clear.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

[joel the ornery]

[mdmf007]

There s no way a tac nuke could be set off without detection. Even a Davey Crocket (the smallest nuke in US arsenal) sized warhead bursts enough EM and Gamma rays for detection by surveilance satellites.

The US, France, China, Japan, UK, and a few others all have satellites capable of picking this up. The Iranians would be all over the news as well.

Janes Defense Weekly has an article about an underground detonation of high order that may or may not have been a nuclear detonation. Underground blasts even the ones for mining gold, are big enough to be picked up by seismographs on the other side of the planet. They can even be pinpointed to within a few miles from the other side of the world.

I really hope it was not as that is dangerous ground to be flirting with. US bombs are accurate enough that we dont need to drop nuclear weapons to destroy a taret anyways.

[can't sit still]

I don't know if this is true or not.

HISPANICS CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR STARTING CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES

Lock & load...........the fight's on! Race war is beginning!!!
Hispanics claim responsibility for starting California wildfires to burn white people out!!! Well known group " MEChA" - with chapters on every u.s. College campus - says western U.S.A. belongs to them and they started the fires to burn white people out!!!

According to BREAKING NEWS on CNN (Read article below), Radical Hispanic separatist organization "MEChA" ("Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan") is taking responsibility for setting the wildfires in California, confirmed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

California officials received a letter earlier today containing photographs of individuals holding Molotov cocktails, then throwing them into dry brush. The faces of the individuals appeared to have been digitally distorted.

Also included was a rambling manifesto, stating that the reason for the act of arson was that "Aztlán belongs to indigenous people, the Chicanas and Chicanos of Aztlán. We are sovereign and not subject to a foreign culture."

It's official, there is now open racial warfare taking place in the United States. Hispanics have openly declared war on White People and it is up to us to strike back.

As of today, October 27, 2007, the group MEChA and all its members and supporters are declared to be a "Terrorist Organization" and I feel that immediate actions should be taken against them whenever and wherever they are found.

Open war has been declared upon us, Here, In America! We didn't ask for this. We didn't start it. But we are going to damn well finish it, one way or another. You know the Federal Government won't do anything to protect us from it, that's for sure.

Read CNN Article Here: No Longer works.
http://www.cnnheadlienews.com/2007/US/1 ... index.html

[Toolmaker]

While Mecha may be a terrorist organization calling for war against America to reclaim lands I think the story about the wildfires turned out to be false. There are also a few other hate groups with similar beliefs. It is downright disgusting that so many young people are being talked into this race war crap. Hate seems to be the fuel that is keeping many folks going these days. I even had some hate directed my way at Burningman this past year just for being from the East Coast. Granted this was only ONE group of people that claimed the event was only for Californians. It was bad when I was hated for being American born but now I have to worry about where I reside. I just wish I could live like the Rebbi and be done with the rest of the US. People really make me sick sometimes.

[can't sit still]

Toolmaker, I abstained from going to BM2007 because I feel that it is a victim of it's own popularity. How could someone pay lip service to the idea of community and then claim that BM is for Californians?
If one believes in maintaining society, then one has to believe in community. If one truly believes in community, then one has to believe in inclusivity of like minded persons. Espousing exclusivity is against the idea of society, community and burners.
Notice, I said "like-minded persons" Those who would tear down society's collective efforts at cohesiveness should probably be exterminated. I know that it sounds draconian, but as population increases, society gets more and more fractured. The endless chipping away by destructive elements is causing huge problems. Because of mankind's increased powers, he has increased powers of destruction. Both the earth and society are taking a real beating.

I did a search on "incendios + mecha" to see if anyone was claiming responsibility for the fires. I found;
Mike Davis | El incendio perfecto de la California meridional- [ Translate this page ]... densa maleza de sotobosque, excelente mecha que ha disfrutado de meses para secarse. ... Como siempre en la estación de los incendios que es Halloween, ...
www.elmundoalreves.org/Article.do?id=28614 It's not a good link anymore.

As far as Rabbi Rick goes, he has a great location but he has to commute about 130 miles [1 way] because he can't make a living out there. GOV survives by making sure that everyone participates in the taxable economy. Property taxes insure that nobody drops out of society to survive off their own land.

[DVD Burner]

Why is racism so big in America?

[can't sit still]

DVD, I believe that racism is such a big deal because America was founded on the idea of equality [supposed]. There is no such thing as equality. Different groups have taken their turn at the bottom of the ladder. The Irish and the Chinese were there. They pulled themselves up. The red Indians and many Negroes haven't.
Americans will not talk about racial differences, either real or perceived. When the "Bell Curve" came out, many people screamed and then it was all of a sudden quiet. The proof presented by Bell Curve was all to incontravertible. It made people too uncomfortable.
When Rick started the thread about British racist pigs, I posted a link to an Australian collection of statistics; http://www.crusader.net/texts/bt/bt06.html The thread died immediatly.
Most people wouldlike to accept the idea of equality but they can't quite swallow it's entirety. Herbert Hoover could write classical Latin with his right hand WHILE he was writing classical Greek with his left. I can't.

We can easily accept equality in the eyes of GOD and the law. We can never accept universal equality. If there's no such thing as individual equality, why should there be blanket racial equality? You can ask why there should be racial inequality , but you would have a hard time arguing for mental equality when there is so much racial physical inequality. Nature and nurture both affect humans. The 3 races [Mongoloid, Negroid and Caucasoid] have different histories and different traits.
We feel guilty about espousing different classes in our society because of our American heritage, but at the same time, we can't rationally claim that everyone is equal in all ways. Bombay and Cairo have the same poverty rate as our inner cities but only 10% of the violent crime. These kind of statistics are hard to ignore.
Racism today isn't as blind as it was 50 years ago. Today it's based more on a backlsh against crime. Jesse Jackson said that one of the things that really bothers him is that if he's out walking late at night and he hears footsteps behind him,,, if he turns around and sees that it's a white person, he feels relieved.
One white congressman recently tried to join the black caucus because he represents so many blacks in his district. He was refused automaticly. He was told that it's a black only group. The same thing happened to a latina who wanted to take black studies classes. The minorities can't have it both ways; inclusive for them and exclusive for whites.
BTW, South Arica has laws that state that jobs are for blacks only. Whites are not allows to work. The Africanners are starving. Maybe you should ask Mbeki why there has to be racism.

[cowboyangel]

what's worse than a Democrat without balls?




oh wrong thread

[DVD Burner]

I know I wont get an honest answer here but I'm gonna give it a go..........




Anybody here feel like a sucker yet for voting for Bush?


how about voting for him twice?

[DVD Burner]

When the "Bell Curve" came out, many people screamed and then it was all of a sudden quiet. The proof presented by Bell Curve was all to incontravertible. It made people too uncomfortable.

that Curve thing again.

[DVD Burner]

By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: November 9, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/us/09spill.html

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 8 — A South Korean container ship hit one of the stanchions of the Bay Bridge in a dense fog on Wednesday, spilling 58,000 gallons of bunker oil.

Strong tides have since swept the slick through the mouth of San Francisco Bay, fouling beaches up to 20 miles north of the city and girdling Alcatraz Island with a belt of goo.

While every change of tide sent the oil to a different shore, the largest concentrations were “one-and-a-half to two miles offshore, west of the Golden Gate bridge,â€

[DVD Burner]

In a Surprise, Pat Robertson Backs Giuliani

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/us/po ... ei=5087%0A


By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and MICHAEL COOPER
Published: November 8, 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 — They could compete for strangest bedfellows of 2008.
Rudolph W. Giuliani is a supporter of gay and abortion rights who is building his Republican primary campaign around his response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Pat Robertson, the Christian conservative broadcaster, once said permissiveness toward homosexuality and abortion led to God’s “lifting his protectionâ€

[DVD Burner]

hey guys, how long has that youtube function in the posting of eplaya been there?

i just now noticed it.

COOL BEANS!

[cowboyangel]

Giulliani is such a fucking creep....


Hillary, being a Democrat without balls will fit in quite nicely!

[Ugly Dougly]

Strange bedfellows indeed.