Rumble Strips|You have been warned!

Of course we should. Should that include municipalities? Yep. The rec center in Angleton is nice, but it represents a lot of property tax money collected by the city that wasn’t really there. I don’t use the rec center for reasons obvious to any adult who has been to a public rec center. On the other hand, with the extra money I have paid to the city behind inflated property valuations, I could have had my own hot tub installed at the house plus a home gym. or maybe bought a boat for some recreation on the water.

Angleton’s population has tripled in 40 years but the police department is about ten times bigger. Why? Too much money in the city coffers that wouldn’t normally be there if not for the inflated property valuations, that’s why.

The bottom line is that these corrupt bankers, investors, and borrowers along with government enablers have caused financial distress to everyone else at every level of society.

A common mantra I keep hearing on this bailout mess is that if we don’t act quickly, millions of people will be hurt by the looming collapse. Well millions of people, lets say three million, is just 1% of the US population. Several million people pale in comparison to the tens upon tens of millions who have literally seen their wealth dry up over the last five years or so due to the corruption in the banking industry and their government counterparts.

So let’s say maybe it’s 3% of the population at risk. Ten million people will be severely hurt financially if we don’t bail out the banking system. Well, if those 10 million people are about to lose everything anyway, maybe they could pitch in about $70,000 apiece and, according to Paulson and Bernanke and Bush, et al, that will protect their remaining assets as well as alleviate the need for the government to have to steal from fellow citizens in order to save their asses.

The people with the most exposure to the financial collapse should be required to sell a boat or a summer cottage or even borrow from the government at a reduced rate to come up with $70,000 as their fair share of the cash needed to fix the financial system seeing as they are the ones who broke it.

Here are a few things to ponder when considering the bailout:

• To pay for this bailout, everyone man, woman, and child in the nation will need to contribute about $2,333. For a family of four that’s about $9,300. Since only about half the population pays taxes, double that if you are a taxpayer.
• Responsible people who have at times had to cash in retirement funds to pay for living expenses, like keeping their mortgage up, will be required to underwrite the lavish lifestyles of those who made bad personal financial decisions. Even while I’m still paying the outrageous penalties for accessing my own money to pay my mortgage obligations during tough times, I am expected to pay even more to cover those who were irresponsible or just plain greedy.
• Those who have struggled to pay their mortgages due to huge property tax increases related to the soaring real estate valuations are now going to be required to pay even more to bail out the very ones who were driving up property values to fairy-tale levels.

Here’s an idea. How bout we make the bailout for $1.4 Trillion and give every tax payer a $25,000 tax credit.

Gore urges civil disobedience in support of his lunatic religion.

“If you’re a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration”

Has anyone done any long term environmental impact studies on pumping liquefied CO2 into the ground? For all we know pumping it into the ground could be far worse for the planet than pumping it into the air. We must be extremely careful when messing with the delicate balance of the earth’s environment. The ground is part of the environment, right? Too much CO2 could cause excess heat to be trapped in the ground, causing extreme earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes. We need to see some data. We must be careful for the sake of the world and all the creatures and plants on it.

In a recent interview, Katy Couric hammers Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the big, complicated Wall Street con game scam, also known as “The Bailout” or “The Plan” expecting that she should be some kind of expert on it. Of course the hate-based liberals who dominate unmoderated comment sections like the CBS site at the link can scream everyone down so no serious comment can be heard. Fortunately I have my own little outlet.

In the end, on the occasion when finally pressed into saying something of substance, Governor Palin nails it.

Couric: But he’s been in Congress for 26 years. He’s been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.

Palin: He’s also known as the maverick though, taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he’s been talking about – the need to reform government.

She’s a reformer baby, not a Wall-Street bail scam artist.

Couric was clearly trying to maneuver Gov Palin into the perverted position of saying more government regulation was needed as the solution to the financial crisis, while inferring that lack of same is what caused it. To her credit Palin found a way out without saying anything stupid, policy wise. The interview was a test Sen Biden would have failed as Biden would have said all kinds of crazy shit just to try to sound smart, and tough. Biden’s gaffes would be in the news for two, three days. Palin stuck to the campaign talking points but what the heck is she supposed to do, propose a new policy while her boss is back in D.C. grandstanding the issue?

You liberals don’t worry. The time is coming soon enough when Palin will be the top guy and you will be hearing more of what Sarah Palin thinks than you will care to stand for.

Here’s a new hot photo of Sarah Palin. I think I am going to start a collection.

Ooh, you better act right or you’re gettin’ a spankin’.

Something does not seem quite right with “The Plan“. Maybe it is time for a renewal of corporate America. Like the destruction stories contained in all cosmologies, destruction of the banking system will be followed by a period of renewal. I think maybe the elites like Bush, Cheney, Paulson, Bernake don’t want to see their friends, and probably themselves, take the big hit that’s obviously still on the horizon.

I get how the financial markets affect the middle class on a broad, general basis, but what I don’t get is how spending $700 Billion to prop up failed businesses helps me. I know that a lot of people have their shirts invested in these high falutin’ mortgage backed investment products, but I don’t. If these big banks fail, my credit union will still be open wont it?

Other than my mortgage, on which I owe less than it’s worth; one new vehicle that is worth more than I owe on it; and some back taxes, which are like pissing in the wind; and some medical bills that I don’t intend to pay, I am completely debt free. I don’t have much but what I have is mine and nothing that happens in the financial market is going to change that in the short term, unless I lose my job. But that wont exactly be a new territory for me either.

From my point of view, which is from the outside looking in for any competitive advantage to “improve my balance sheet,” several hundred thousand incompetents getting tossed on their ass from their lavish glass towers is not a bad thing. Several hundred thousand people having to sell their boats and jet skies and motorcycles are not a bad thing for the millions who would like to buy some of this fun stuff at a good price. Good capitalists will always move in and pick through the ruins, taking anything left of value and use it to make a better mousetrap.

Either you believe in capitalism, or you don’t. I don’t think President Bush gets it. It has been evident since he was elected that Bush beleives the government can actually fix things with big government programs, regardless of the principles on which this country is founded.

Using the government, that is, taxpayer money to protect some people at the expense of others is not capitalism. It is a corrupt form of socialism.

Has anybody asked Sarah Palin what she thinks about the $700 Billion bailout?

These people are so incredibly naive. How can anyone be so blind? Marcia Kramer reports on the dismay of the Anti-Ahmadinejad event organizers

Three organizations supporting the rally threatened to pull out unless Palin was disinvited. She was but organizers didn’t stop there.

…

“I am upset by the [Anti-Obama] sign because this is a non-political event,” said Janice Shorenstein, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council. “We are here today to cry out against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, not political. American elections are not part of this event.”

Shorenstein and other event organizers clearly want Obama elected and can not see the problem with that vis-a-vis Ahmadinejad. President Obama and a deterred Iran are mutually exclusive.

At least the people in the crowd don’t seem to be as thick as the organization leaders. A couple are quoted in Kramer’s article:

“As important an event as this is, you needed a unity of Democrats and Republicans to show Ahmadinejad that we’re not going to accept a nuclear Iran.”

…

“I’m so disappointed, upset,” Macy said. “She would have brought 10,000-20,000 more supporters of Israel. People who were curious were stopped because of partisan action.”

And there were signs.

On several levels, this is the most incredibly stupid thing I’ve heard anyone say in a long time:

“We will not simply hand over a 700-billion-dollar blank check to Wall Street and hope for a better outcome. Democrats will act responsibly to insulate Main Street from Wall Street,”

First, handing over $700 Billion is exactly what congress is going to do so right there you know the statement is a fluffer.

Second, I’d rather hand the money over with no conditions whatsoever than to have Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid be in charge of setting up a far reaching boondoggle.

Third, in this time of post-partisan politics, she said “Democrats will act responsibly” in an effort to distinguish Democrats from Republicans during an election season, showing that she has already put party before country on this, one of the most daunting financial crises we have faced in more than two decades.
And finally, Wall Street is Main Street.

Pelosi is the perfect example that experience has no bearing on ability and performance.

Talk about out of touch with the American people. I didn’t pay my taxes on time for 2005, 2006, and 2007 because I had to choose between paying the government and paying my mortgage and I owe more in penalties and interest than Rangel’s entire tax bill for 2004, 2005, and 2006 on rental income for a beach house in the Dominican Republic, three rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem, and free parking in a covered congressional parking lot for his dilapidated Mercedes. Most people can’t even park a car with expired registration or inspection at their apartment or in their neighborhood, much less in tax-payer funded covered parking.

The difference between me and Rep Charlie Rangel (D) New York, is that he was breaking the rules to not only avoid paying taxes but to gain additional tangible benefit as well, whereas I was just broke and couldn’t afford to pay them, largely due to policies enacted by people like Charlie Rangel, who is chairman of the most powerful ways and mean committee.

Rangel crys that he is a victim of guerrilla warfare from the Republicans during the mean season of presidential political campaigning. Well, welcome to the club, Charlie. Ordinary Americans are under attack by guerrilla assault from the government everyday of their lives.

Conservatives believe that patriotism has nothing to do with supporting and empowering the government and liberals think that patriotism has everything to do with supporting and empowering the government.

Country First does not mean government first.

For a party who finds no problem splitting hairs with the definition of is, I think we must question and highlight the left wing liberal Democrat’s definition of patriotism at the very least.

I think anyone who drives already knows this.  These texting yahoos are a menace.

Stephen Glaiste, director of the RAC Foundation says that research “clearly shows that a motorist who is texting is significantly more impaired than a motorist at the legal limit for alcohol.“

Well no duh. Picking boogers is more distracting that driving at the legal limit of alcohol.

Julian Caley, a lead researcher from the Australian Institute of Marine Science:

“People have been working at these places for a long time and still there are literally hundreds and hundreds of new species that no one has ever collected or described.

“So in that sense, it’s very significant in that if we don’t understand what biodiversity is out there, we don’t have much of a chance of protecting it,” (Link)

They see nothing wrong with wanting to protect something that don’t even know about or understand.