I just got back from spending a few hours walking neighborhoods around Middletown putting out the word about Scott’s campaign to defeat Rush Holt.
I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised by the reception I got from people and how willing they are to consider the issues. People are concerned by the size of government and by the runaway level of insane spending.
…Myth: Buying used is safer, now that “cash for clunkers” has cleared out the jalopies.
Truth: Lemons are still out there — and they’re even more expensive.
The “cash for clunkers” program did take a lot of the lower-end vehicles off the market, but thanks to the recession, drivers have been less able to afford proper maintenance for their cars. That’s led to more lemons on the market, including some with problems even a savvy buyer armed with a vehicle history report might miss. “We’re not seeing good cars traded in,” says LeeAnn Shattuck, a co-owner of negotiation and buying service Women’s Automotive Solutions. “A lot of the used cars on the market have been neglected.”
Worse, inflation has pushed up prices even on the crummy cars.
As ably researched by the ever able Dan Collins, here is a lot of good and very frightening information on just why all these big honking banks who took billions of our dollars have stopped processing foreclosures and the gaping abyss they’re facing…of their own fraudulent creation.
Oh, and which in all likelihood the politicians will find a way to stiff us with the bill for.
Read it all, follow the links, and for God’s sake remember it when you step into that voting booth in a few short weeks.
U.S. states can proceed with their lawsuit seeking to overturn President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare reform law, a Florida judge ruled on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson had already indicated at a hearing last month that he could not uphold parts of a motion by the Justice Department to dismiss the lawsuit, led by Florida and 19 other states.
Value-Added Tax Could Cost 850,000 Jobs: Retail Group
The National Retail Federation is trying to put some numbers behind its argument against a value-added tax, which is one option being considered by a presidential commission looking into ways of reducing the ballooning federal deficit.
The retail industry’s trade group said a study it commissioned estimates a European-style VAT would result in the loss of 850,000 jobs in its first year, reduce the US gross domestic product for three years, and cut retail spending by $2.5 billion over its first decade.
…In order to achieve the goal of reducing the annual federal deficit by 2 percent of GDP, the VAT would need to be 10.3 percent.
…This was best highlighted by an event that generated plenty of late-night chuckles last fall, when Wells Fargo sued … Wells Fargo.
Wells Fargo wanted to foreclose on a condo unit which had multiple mortgages attached to it. Wells Fargo also owned one of those second mortgages. So Wells Fargo spent money to hire a law firm and file suit against the irresponsible lenders at Wells Fargo. Then, Wells Fargo spent money to hire a different law firm in an understandable effort to defend Wells Fargo from the vicious legal attack coming from Wells Fargo. The second law firm even prepared a legal statement for Wells Fargo which called into question the dubious claims being made by Wells Fargo. Sadly, Wells Fargo won the case, crushing the hopes of Wells Fargo.
So will you. Along with “horrified”…”aghast”…and “pissed off beyond all recognition”.
The foreclosure stoppage isn’t the simple little muddle they’d have you believe on the evening news.
For all of you in the are I hope you’ll join me this Saturday, October 16th in Middletown:
Middletown Door to Door
When: Sat, October 16, 10am – 2pm
Where: Middletown’s GOP Headquarters, 340 Highway 35 South,
Description: Mark SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16 at 10am on your calendars to meet at Middletown’s GOP Headquarters, 340 Highway 35 South, Middletown to rally and literally blanket this important town with our Sipprelle for Congress message. THIS IS A MASSIVE DOOR-TO-DOOR GROUND ASSAULT AND WE NEED EACH AND EVERY PERSON FROM ALL OVER THE 12TH DISTRICT …. SO PLAN YOUR ROAD TRIP NOW!
For some reason Sipprelle’s website omits “cocktails at 3pm” from the plan for the day, but rest assured they will be happening.
We can pull this one out, folks!
email me if you’re coming.
thanks
Update: oops! Sis emailed me and helpfully points out in her usual subtle style that I should make my email a tad easier to find: mr_bingley (insert the appropriate “at” symbol here kids) mac “dot” com
You guessed number THREE???? By George, YOU’VE WON A CHOCOLATE CREAM FILLED DUNKIN DONUT!!!!
The bailed-out mortgage companies hired by the Treasury Department to manage its main program designed to prevent foreclosures probably weren’t up to the job, and tapping them may have increased taxpayer losses, a new watchdog report says.
Failed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac relied heavily on subcontractors to manage a program aimed at lowering borrowers’ monthly payments, according to a report Thursday from the Congressional Oversight Panel monitoring the $700 billion financial bailout. The job probably detracted from their efforts to right themselves financially and minimize the size of their bailouts, which total $148 billion and are likely to grow, the report says.
Treasury hired them despite their history of mismanagement, the report adds. It says they have misreported key data and missed important deadlines.
Every Chilean miner needs to get down on his knees ONE more time. Do you REALLY think it was a WHOOPS! when the Chilean president didn’t say “Obama” when he thanked EVERYBODY else in the FREE WORLD?
But very soon the 50-year-old miner became even better known for something rather less noble. His wife and another woman were both holding a vigil for him in Camp Hope.
Marta Salinas, 58, whom he married 28 years ago, reportedly almost came to blows with Susana Valenzuela, 50, when they faced off in the mine’s dining area. The pair had to be pulled apart.
According to Miss Salinas, Barrios had been dividing his time between the two women for the last couple of years. And it was Miss Valenzuela who broke the news to her that there had been an accident at the mine.
There must be something in the water there…
Mr Barrios is thought not to be alone in his complex domestic arrangements.
According to reports, another Barrios – Carlos – who was rescued yesterday has a five-year-old son with a woman he has not divorced and his girlfriend of seven months is pregnant.
Another miner is said to have four women claiming his affections and perhaps soon-to-be-increased income – a wife he has not divorced, his current live-in girlfriend, a third woman who claims to have had his son and another who says she is having an affair with him.
Some of those guys may soon miss being down in that mine…
…What this administration wants is a list of who the companies are who are contributors, and we saw last year, Jake, why, when we very publicly ran ads against the patients protections and affordable care act, quoting the CBO, quoting the head of CMS, the Centers for Medicare Services, that it would not in fact bend the cost curve down, that it would bend the cost curve up as they testified before the senate finance committee, there was an attempt to try and find out who were the corporations that were contributing to that effort.
When some of those corporate names were divulged, not by us, by others, what did they receive? They received protests, they received threats, they were intimidated, they were harassed, they had to hire additional security, they were recipients of a host of proxies leveled at those companies that had nothing to do with the purpose of those companies. So we know what the purpose here is. It’s to harass and intimidate.
Be sure to read all of Jake’s interview with Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce.
Boy, I **heart** me some Tapper. If ever there was a need for cloning…
…“It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, they feel more responsible, either because they didn’t do as well as they anticipated, and so the strategy of just saying no to everything and sitting on the sidelines and throwing bombs didn’t work for them,” Mr. Obama said. “Or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals and work with me in a serious way.”
He seems inherently unable to keep his mouth from engaging when random angry thoughts carom off the inside of what was supposed to be a far superior skull: his verbalized jaundice leads one to ponder if he is a Barack of very little brain. Has there EVER been a less presidential, less appealing, less consequential, more egocentric, snide, smarmy and cretinous carbon-based life form occupying the Oval Office? (And I DO mean “EVER“.) I doubt anyone even comes close. Carter? Nuh-uh. He’s left Jimmah in the dust for sheer repulsive power.
In the magazine article, Mr. Obama reflects on his presidency, admitting that he let himself look too much like “the same old tax-and-spend Democrat,” realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” and perhaps should have “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” in the stimulus.
There’s something about this whole “my husband was shot by pirates while jet skiing” story that strikes me as…odd, but this latest development is horrific and barbaric
(CNN) — The lead Mexican investigator in the Falcon Lake case, Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, has been killed, his severed head delivered Tuesday in a suitcase to the Mexican military, officials told CNN.
“His head was delivered to the army garrison this morning in a suitcase after he failed to report back home last night,” Zapata County, Texas, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. said.
BOSTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) issued its biggest-ever security fix on Tuesday, including repairs to its ubiquitous Windows operating system and Internet browser for flaws that could let hackers take control of a PC.
The new patches aim to fix a number of vulnerabilities including the notorious Stuxnet virus that attacked an Iranian nuclear power plant and other industrial control systems around the world.
Bill Gates says “gosh, we really got it right this time!”
Biz | Mr. Bingley | 6:52 am | Comments Off on It’s Not A Bug, It’s A Feature!
Watching that first rescuer go down into that shaft and then waiting…waiting for that first miner to come up.
Sheesh.
Miracles and the power of human perserverance never fail to make me cry. And how the little guy’s face crumpled when he saw his dad in the rescue capsule? Tears at your heart.
…“I am not going to release my hold on Jack Lew,” Landrieu [Sen Mary, D-LA] said in a statement. “Instead I will take this time to look closely at how [the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management] is handling the issuing of permits and whether or not drilling activity in both shallow and deep water is resuming.”
Landrieu said she will use the remaining month before Congress convenes on November 15 for the lame-duck session to “evaluate if today’s lifting of the moratorium is actually putting people back to work.”
…Announcing the fundraiser, Coons praised the accomplishments of the Obama administration. “Our nation has seen great progress these last two years,” he said. “Unemployment benefits have been extended for families in need. More Americans have or will soon have access to more affordable, higher quality health care. Protections are in place for those struggling with credit card debt, and Wall Street reforms offer the promise of increased transparency and protection for investors.”
WAIT. A. COTTONPICKIN’ MINUTE!!! “GREAT PROGRESS”? THAT’S IT?!?!?!
And O’ DONNELL‘s supposed to be the idiot in this race?
…is most emphatically NOT a witch and wants to remind everyone deMint started the recession.
Now. I know ya’ll be DYIN’ to vote for this personable fellow, just to say you did ~ a “feel good” sort of thing. We’ve seen how these gestures with best of intentions can go seriously awry, so…
…and went to an Escambia Republican Executive Committee meeting last night (the paid campaign guy was supposed to be handling such things to this point). It was, actually, tres informative AND I was lucky enough to catch a meeting where our pretty TERRIFIC local congressman, Jeff Miller (FL-1) [aka “Jeff” in these parts] {Oh, yeah ~ we **heart** him, BIG TIME}, was the guest speaker. I wanted to share a couple interesting factoids that came out of the question and answer period afterward, just for “chew on it” sake:
-During an ObamaCare discussion (GOP plans for repeal/defunding the same), and right after a fellow who worked for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida noted that within 3 days of passage of the same, BC/BSoF ceased writing children’s policies, Jeff said Congress had started getting reports that insurers were not only not writing new children’s policies, but DROPPING children from ALREADY EXISTING policies. And, he asked, were we aware that military dependent kids ARE NOT COVERED under ObamaCare’s “up to the age of 26” mandate? (major dad is wondering if that’s the trade-off that keeps their paws off our our “gold-plated plan”…who knows?)
-GOP “tidal wave”: should such a marvelous thing come to pass, what is Jeff’s sense of the lame ducks? Do they retire the field gracefully, or strike out in anger, leaving smoking wreckage on the churned-up, bloodied soil for the incoming 112th Congress to try to untangle as quickly as they can? His sense is that, for all the snarls, they’ll pass the Bush tax-cuts for another 2 years and leave. If they don’t…if they choose to scorch earth it, some of the ramifications are terrifying. One particularly hideous example Jeff used is buried in the Cap and Trade Bill: a provision impacting EVERY citizen who might want to sell their home. If Cap and Trade becomes federal law, ergo makes no nevermind WHERE the house physically IS ~ prior to selling a house, it would have to be brought up to California building code. (Try liquidating an indigent, cat loving hoarder of an aunt’s estate with THAT requirement.)
God, what a stud this guy is. If I was of the feminine persuasion I’d be so jumping his macho bones. With that in mind, I completely, totally accept his learned opinion on this topic
…one of the [BBC] corporation’s most familiar faces, Andrew Marr, has dismissed bloggers as “inadequate, pimpled and single”, and citizen journalism as the “spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night”.
Marr, the BBC’s former political editor who now presents BBC1’s flagship Sunday morning show, said: “Most citizen journalism strikes me as nothing to do with journalism at all.
“A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother’s basements and ranting. They are very angry people,” he told the Cheltenham Literary Festival. “OK – the country is full of very angry people. Many of us are angry people at times. Some of us are angry and drunk”.
Nanny State, People, Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
October 16, 2010 3:26 pm | 
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