Yeah but the new hotels will probably come in on time.

California and Nevada are getting crushed. So is Florida.

Check out Hawaii: Worst Summer EVER! - CR

Oregon is also completely effed, and if Broward's experience is any clue, Seattle is not so hot, either. Is the entire Left Coast doomed?

Its lucky for them the government is pondering rolling out tax credits for employment. Just think of all the people they can hire with that credit!!! Wow, i'm so happy we have such great minds in Congress to save all these failing businesses!

As I mentioned on a prior thread, some hotels might be reducing their overhead by allowing employees to live there.

Alternate reading of this headline and recent posts:

CR: Now might be a good time to buy some SRS!

Vonbek777 (profile) wrote on Wed, 10/7/2009 - 11:04 am

Guess I should start pestering the wife to get that PhD.

Sober, the world as Freud would have seen it is a sick disfigurement of humanity to me. Sufficiently drunk, it's AWESOME.

The study is amusing -- women who finished college undergraduate compared to those who didn't finish high school? Yeah, just a bit of selection bias in this piece of bad research, or at least, bad research reporting. I hate this popularization of crap findings, and it degrades and casts a bad light on legitimate behavioral research.

more like, red wine promotes health. The more you drink, the healthier you get.

In some cases the lenders are simply locking up the properties...

I think we need to lock up more than just the properties. Let's start with the underwriters who signed off on the pro forma estimates of revenue.

barfly wrote:

The more you drink, the healthier you get.

Hey, isn't that true? I've been "testing" this theory for 10 years now!

I've been "testing" this theory for 10 years now!

how's that workin' out for ya?

Wow! This is going to hurt. Our economy has really sucked for some time, hasn't. Enough people desperate enough to blow a bubble that big through malinvestment b/c they had no better options?

Better yet the classical music for babies. I listen to a lot of classical music ergo my kids do too...my kids are showing signs of abnormal development. Somethings they are very advanced, somethings they are way behind the curve so to speak...but it is enough of a difference to be noticeable by other moms at the playground. I don't think this is because I listen to a lot of Bach and Holst. Enter my wife's little sister who was a high school drop out and in the California tradition, decided to become a mom at 17 and a Vegas exotic dancer. The dancer thing fell through...she is now on husband 3 and can't understand why her little girl is behind all the other first graders in reading and math when she put on a disney classical music album every night at bed time.

Vonbek, It breaks my heart when I hear of children suffering for their parents stupidity.

Bob, maybe your area is "special". We have too many hotels here in California.

Oh.. let's see, within 2 miles from where I am in southern CA, I count on Google Maps... 16 hotels, and I'm not by the beach, downtown or next to Disneyland A bit of a saturated market.
~splat

Isn't it bizarre, our perpetual motion machine that can't be stopped (well, not for awhile...)

There are thousands of Consumer Cargo Cult ships laying at berth going nowhere fast all over the Far East, and yet the shipyards in South Korea are making more of the same, just like more hotels are in the midst of being built in California, as a good many going concern hotels are being foreclosed on...

There is one area where hotel occupancy is booming - Washington D.C. - just had to check with five different hotels to find a room for two nights in two weeks. Must be all the doctors visiting the White House and their lobbyists visiting the Hill.

Terry wrote:

Washington D.C

The smart people are where the money is. Can't argue with that!

There are thousands of Consumer Cargo Cult ships laying at berth going nowhere fast all over the Far East, and yet the shipyards in South Korea are making more more of the same

Ah.. I read a report about how Korean shipbuilding will basically grind to a halt in 18-24 months when the current contracts are complete unless there is an uptick in new orders. IIRC it was basically that they've got nothing new in the pipeline (!)
~splat

"I have never seen so many lenders contemplating mothballing properties,"

What about the Shadow No's over in residential real estate?

It reeks of mothballs over there...

You'd expect to see great deals on hotel stays. That's not happening.

Maybe they can be turned into half-way houses for all the released convicts.

Would not be surprised if like the Dollar store the $10 hotel with a menu of supplies and extras. TV, Internet, towels, AC, Phone, etc at additional cost. Survival of the fittest (New word for cheap)

Terry wrote:

I am out there hoping to jsut keep a few cents in my client's pockets. . .

The partial walletectomy, eh?

12th Percentile wrote:

HST, the largest hotel REIT was at $3.08 a share earlier this year. It is now at $11.42.

That tells you that recovery is at hand. I'm going to buy all I can.

Burned Bondholders Get Movie, Bowling Claims for Junk (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

Some 38 percent of the junk bonds sold this year are backed by collateral, compared with 8 percent in 2007, Bloomberg data show.

In May, Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage sold $1.5 billion of debt at yields as high as 11.6 percent and secured by collateral including a first priority lien on Bellagio, its most profitable hotel and casino. MGM’s secured debt is rated B1 at Moody’s and B by S&P.

"What are these 'hotels' everyone speaks of...why when I was a boy we stayed at some distant relatives house or slept in a tent, or even the car when we went on vacation. We couldn't plan a trip without looking at the family tree first."

When I was a child I used to have to walk to school 5 miles uphill both ways. Pa also made me clean the pavement in front of our house every day with my tongue.

HollywoodHack wrote:

the spelling is 'EVARR', CR

Sometimes I'll also spell it with an H.

'Worst summer EVAH!"

But then you need to do it with a diva headshake.

Looks like the news places have been reading CR:

Does the $8,000 Tax Credit Really Cost $43,000 Per Buyer? - CBS MoneyWatch.com

Office vacancies tie 17-year high - Phoenix Business Journal:

I'm assuming this is good news for consolidation sites such as Hotwire, which now have lots of choice properties to resell at good prices. There was a time during the boom when they were hurting because they didn't really have any deals to offer.

An anecdote -- a very cheap, high-powered salesperson I know uses it, and claims many 4- and 5- stars are offloading lots of rooms at 50-75% off -- says it was something he never saw a few years back.

speed,

I use priceline and seem to get the deal I want consistently...

Vonbek777 wrote:

What are these 'hotels' everyone speaks of...why when I was a boy we stayed at some distant relatives house or slept in a tent, or even the car when we went on vacation.

I remember. Once we had relatives come in from South Africa, rich ones. They'd been traveling the globe. And we still put them up at the house. That was just the way.

Still a lot of that; my wife has a friend who goes to Tuscany every couple of years; but only because her husband has relatives there, and a place to stay.

Feds Spent $1.2 Trillion to Keep Fannie, Freddie, Others Afloat in FY 2009 

Later man.... stick it to the man! YouTube - cat power-nude as the news

So, what's the big report today?

I've now seen loss estimates on CRE running as high as $1 trillion.

Tough when it froze, wasn't it!

mp wrote:

I've now seen loss estimates on CRE running as high as $1 trillion.

Current losses, or anticipated losses? I'd be curious how people would be forecasting future drops in CRE revenue and increases in vacancies...

A recovery in California's hotels in 2011 sounds a tad optimistic! How about 2021 ... or 2025?

CR's chart shows that a full cycle takes been 10 to 20 years (boom to boom). We're only 4 years into the current cycle, so at best the next boom is 6 years away but, due to the excesses in the current cycle, we're likely much much farther away from the next boom.

I've now seen loss estimates on CRE running as high as $1 trillion.

Timmie & Bernanke have the check ready.. hmm.. you think they'll write one really big check or 1,000 small ones for $1 billion each ?
~splat

"Timmie & Bernanke have the check ready.. hmm.. you think they'll write one really big check or 1,000 small ones for $1 billion each ?
~splat "

It'll be one big one. Ed McMahon will show up cameras in tow at GS head-quarters.

mp wrote:

Expected credit losses.

Okay, so not just loan losses that are on (or should be on) the books now, but also a bit of forecasting for the depth of the CRE bust and anticipated loan losses. I'm not pooh-poohing the estimate, just trying to get a handle on how it was arrived at.

Is anyone else getting the ad about selling a kidney?

On a bleak LA thruway, lights out everywhere
Fear of bankruptcy, rising up through the air
Up ahead in my future, I saw a panicking gov
His fist was shaking and I’m feeling no love
“You’ll have to lower your rates, now
And give out more free stuff;
I got a call from Timmay and Ben
And they are most displeased,
You better fix this for them or this could be hell”
Then Arnie stuck his thumb in my chest, and he glowered again
He held up his mobile on speakerphone,
And I heard them say...

Welcome to the hotel california
Such a broken place
What a big disgrace
Plenty of doom at the hotel california
We got lots of fear, you can find it here

noob goldberg,
Can I forecast a shift away from consultants in the Ontario government? Never, too early, or soon?

Retail observation. Some of my favorite brands are having sales with free shipping on their websites. The catch is, the prices are lower on the manufacturer's site than they are at the department stores' sites. Lower even than Zappos. So these guys are undercutting their distributors, dealers, and even their discounters. Which obviously kills urban retail CRE even more.

While usually hitting 'reply' simply opens the quote above it (and I love that feature, kcoop!), sometimes it opens a whole new window, even when it's in the same thread.

Any idea what causes that? Differences in the two themes or something? It seems somewhat random, but I'll post another one when it happens again.

I have a Ditech "Refi Rate Sale" across the top of the page. On the left is a "Find Foreclosures SAVE BIG!" ad for foreclosure.com and across the bottom is an ad for "Find Out If Your Bank Is On The Next To Fail List"

noob goldberg wrote:

Any idea what causes that?

If you have other "replied to" expansions open this can happen.

I agree with Christopher Whalen.

The real economy is "dying."

Anecdote: I read a post from another board last night from a lumberman in Washington state. He says the price he gets for 2x4 lumber is now less than the price of firewood.

Rob Dawg wrote:

If you have other "replied to" expansions open this can happen.

Thanks! I'll try this next time...

Why not turn hotels/motels into boarding rooms for the new homeless?

They are a bit more comfortable than prison cells, and we could "mothball' human beans there.

He says the price he gets for 2x4 lumber is now less than the price of firewood. - mp

Same thing happening in Oregon. Very little building going on, except for all-cash types.

I don't know. I clicked on the kidney ad and got Chinese

Rob Dawg wrote:

If you have other "replied to" expansions open this can happen.

I think that's coincidental. I've seen it without others expanded.

EDIT: and it's been happening with the old theme for some time too.

mp,
Just got back from the Home Depot. Lumber on the floor is the same price it was 2 years ago despite lumber wholesale prices down what? 60-80%? Premix mortar up 80% over last week. Last week. It seems that making stuff is getting creamed at the same time selling/handling stuff is getting the sugar. Lumber or mortgages; the providers and the consumers are getting squeezed while the pipeline gets fat.

So are we going to have any real action today when the markets open, are we waiting for Thursday and Friday...

nova wrote:

I don't know. I clicked on the kidney ad and got Chinese

Oh God! Now the Chicomms are trying to corner the commodity market in human organs!

noob goldberg,
In general. The eHealth foul-up seems to have brought things to a head, and one of the longer term things I look for is the government to reassert power as an institution and source work back in

Rob Dawg wrote:

Just got back from the Home Depot. Lumber on the floor is the same price it was 2 years ago despite lumber wholesale prices down what? 60-80%? Premix mortar up 80% over last week. Last week. It seems that making stuff is getting creamed at the same time selling/handling stuff is getting the sugar. Lumber or mortgages; the providers and the consumers are getting squeezed while the pipeline gets fat.

This will only happen so long, as the arbitrage opportunity is too great. Even my father was half-tongue-in-cheek debating about putting up a couple more storage buildings and buying a few truckloads full.

EHP,
This is what I don't get.

Why doesn't Congress file a lawsuit? Why doesn't anyone else do so?

I'm beginning to think the reason for the recent "explosion" in ammunition sales goes far beyond a concern over gun legislation.

The same kind of fear is in the gold coin market. Zero Hedge has a piece on double eagle sales. Interestingly, my brother and I were talking about that last night.

I'm beginning to think the reason for the recent "explosion" in ammunition sales goes far beyond a concern over gun legislation.

more

EvilHenryPaulson wrote:

In general. The eHealth foul-up seems to have brought things to a head, and one of the longer term things I look for is the government to reassert power as an institution and source work back in

I can ask a few friends, but I don't spend much time in provincial politics in Ontario. Certainly the ehealth brouha was some egg on their faces, so it might slow down the hiring of some consultants. But avoiding consultants would necessitate bringing on more permanent staff, which creates long-term funding commitments. It may change in the next couple of years, but for now there is still a lot of political danger in being labelled as a politician who permanently expanded the size of government.

Of course when there are no consequences for bad behavior and the public knows it, the French proved you can bypass the courts completely. No need to sue, just say hi to the public's new best friend Mr. Guillotine. What was that popular phrase a couple of years back something about forgiveness and arranging the meeting with God?

YLSP: you have to be personally hurt to sue ("standing"). Wasting your tax dollars isn't the right kind of harm. You can't sue the government just because something is unconstitutional (or illegal). There are complications involving environmental laws and separation of church and state, but that's the basic idea.

Maybe a bank that could have been TARPed and wasn't could sue. You'd need something like that.

Why doesn't Congress file a lawsuit?

Separation of powers

You don't the third branch of government to adjudicate a dispute between the Executive and Legislative branches. If Congress disapproves of the execution of its laws by the President, it needs to expressly voice that displeasure via a law. For example, Congress has often passed a law overruling an Executive regulation.

"poic
That was for TARP. This had nothing to do with TARP "

I'm pretty sure that Paulson got blanket immunity from any decisions/actions he made, not just with TARP. Though I could be wrong.

scone wrote:

I don't think so, because the internet will route around it. You can't block access like you could way back when, and FedEx and UPS can deliver anywhere, so there's less 'tyranny of distance' problem. I think it's more likely the whole wholesale/retail model will change. Finally. There's no particularly good reason to have both a Sears and a J.C. Penney. The one with the better model may survive. The others will die.

I completely agree that the times are different, but I would simply bear in mind where the bulk of sales are made. I think the percentage of online sales for any manufacturer are very low compared to total sales, and a large enough group could bring a manufacturer or wholesaler to their knees.

However, most of the time the large box-store retailers are the problem, so we just need to find a way to bring them to their knees.

poic,
there was beyond reproach from everything under the sun for TARP, and then there was the standard in the course of duty immunity. It's not clear to me that what Paulson did is covered

What I don't get is why the target of your itch is the FDIC prepayment.

he's grasping at straws, and wants to hamstring the current administration any way he can.

Example:

I'm on travel next week to the autonomous republic of texas next week. Rooms at hyatt are 230 a night. Rooms in another dumpy hotel 145. Either way, both are more than vacancies justify.

On rounds: Hope not to touch off a secular religious debate regarding sizes, but I lean toward .45 APC (no shortage) and .306 spire-tipped boat-tailed (no shortage).

And in memory of my father-in-law, if your not melting the lead in your basement and hand loading, then what good are you anyway?

@Mike

Mike, I think a lot of people are beginning to experience existential doubt. The US mint says the demand for double eagles is "unprecedented." This fits with what my brother told me last night. He told me they are "unobtainable." Put those two data points--gold coins and ammunition--together.

Joe Sixpack may be engaged in some intuitive decision-making.

maybe now we get a little justice

from seattle kplu

"Massive WaMu Lawsuit Moving Forward
Wed Oct 07 11:40:42 EDT 2009
It’s been more than a year since the collapse of Washington Mutual Bank. It’s the largest bank failure in U.S. history. And now a federal judge is allowing a potential class-action against WaMu to move forward on behalf of angry shareholders. KPLU business and labor reporter Bellamy Pailthorp has the story.

The case has already generated reams of documents - millions of pages of allegations and responses. Brad Keller represents plaintiffs who say WaMu executives violated the federal securities act of 1933. He says the bank's leaders, and their outside accountants, repeatedly assured the public that their money was safe when they invested it in WaMu products.

"In fact the real story was quite different," Keller says.

"We believe the evidence will show that management was very much aware of the problems and that the underwriters and the accounting firms were negligent in not ferreting out the real truth at that company and disclosing it to the investing public."

Also suing are WaMu workers who invested in company stocks.
The combined lawsuits have cleared a significant hurdle.
Federal Judge Marsha Pechman is bringing both sides in this massive lawsuit back to court in 3 weeks.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news.newsmain/article/0/13/1563150/Top.Stories/Massive.WaMu.Lawsuit.Moving.Forward"

obviously the gov aint gonna do shit against the real bankstas

so shareholder lawsuits may be the way to go

internal memos indicate wamu execs new the shit was hitting the fan long before,,,

mp,
When you say double eagles, do you mean that new special edition re-release of the old coin?

Hotels in Seattle are doing awful, but not as awful as other places...

So that means, according to CNBC, we're doing GANGBUSTERS!

barfly wrote:

he's grasping at straws, and wants to hamstring the current administration any way he can.

poic wrote:

Or he could just be sick and tired of what's going on.

I don't know if these two options are mutually exclusive.

/we are cramming more than 30 TB/rack U with a proprietary approach/

Please explain:

is that 30TB per U within a Rack, or 30TB per Rack.

Either way, I can make that work on a per-U basis, not too proprietary.

Just curious.

using Left-hand networks to virtualize your dasdi solution of 2TB slow-ass drives?

Basel Too wrote:

doesn't political dissent necessarily require undermining, or at least attempting to undermine, the status quo?

Yeah. If you're not dissenting against the status-quo what WOULD you be dissenting against?

Vonbek777 wrote:

I want to ask a theoretical question(s)...a big if here, not saying this is so, but just an if...If the US government is tasking most of its surveillance capability on American soil...and the majority of ill conceived measures under W, have not been undone by O...what does this mean? Do we have a real and credible threat to American security on domestic soil...has the government become scared of its citizenry? Do these kinds of actions provoke borderline groups who are usually all bluster anyway? How do you reconcile a press and hollywood that feed Armageddon type scenarios with citizens who in earlier times would have been upheld as models of the American militia spirit. I see such extremes on both sides of this issue...just looking for some illumination.

I would just like the folks sitting in the basement at Fort Meade to realize that I don't know this guy at all. He's just some wingnut I met on an internet forum. Please don't send the .

Sun's Thumper (x4500) does 48 drives in a 4U slot, so 48 TB. 40TB within a 1U would be insanity today

Probably stated already, but the article linked by Tyler indicated the mint was stopping PROOF sets, not stopping the production of coins. I'm conflicted about physical in that it can't be eaten. Long term it can store weath, but is it subject to deflationary forces? If the $ tanks, physical could bridge you to another fungible, assuming it is not confiscated a la FDR......

"I would just like the folks sitting in the basement at Fort Meade to realize that I don't know this guy at all. He's just some wingnut I met on an internet forum. Please don't send the"

Don't they need a tn-visa to cross the border noob?

So, J6P and Jane Chardonnay went out and bought guns & ammo, and their credit-card bill went from $12k to $13k, and they are as broke as ever and Jane lost her job as a dog polisher, and both are contemplating not paying their bills anymore, because they saw some teaparty guy dressed up like Benjamin Franklin on the tv, that told them that their government is bad, and it was on Fox news, so it must be true.

So what do J6P & JC do with the guns & ammo?

Joe Sixpack may be engaged in some intuitive decision-making.

Thanks for sharing mp. That does not bode well for mad max - the probability of it not happening that is.

PS You've mentioned "buy more concrete" several times. In my misspent youth I worked for a small family owned masonry business. It was my 3rd summer of working there before they let me "float and finish" any concrete with the magnesium trowels and wood floats - no broom finish for them. The 1st 2 summers were spent mixing concrete and mortar - the mortar always by hand since they were very particular about how stiff they wanted it - and carrying block and brick. An almost apprenticeship like experience that provided more end of day job satisfaction than I usually get today...

OCC’s Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities Second Quarter 2009

http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2009-114a.pdf

tick, tick, kaboooommmmmmmmmmm

Sell it along side baby clothes at a yard sale?

So what do J6P & JC do with the guns & ammo?

Open a "wild game" diner featuring squirrel stew, rotisserie rabbit and pan fried pigeon?

Speaking of ZH: I found this commenter's thought interesting:

(In regards to the strengthening Euro and devalued USD) Germany and other Euro countries should just start issuing all new debt in US$? That would be the perfect hedge, either it sucks up dollars making dollar go up or Bendover prints even more making the debt loose value.

It makes sense to me in some way, but it sounds like a bad position to put European countries and companies. Almost like it puts them because a debt 8-ball that is bankrolled by the US & China. Talk about strange bedfellows as this currency brouhaha starts up...

barfly says,

"with all the crack and meth labs, theft, vandalism, more crime of every sort per capita and square mile, from kidnapping to murder, what would you prefer? Less surveillance? Cue B_R "

it doesn't seem to help on that front either....Meth is similar to bankers, a toxic solution cooked up to burn the sheeple...

JD,

In the business as usual scenario, (big assumption, but probably valid) they, joe & jane, die, with a house full of guns & ammo. The ammo cannot be resold in a traditional legal market, but it can be recycled for scrap. The guns can be resold by the estate. Undoubtably, they have a few modified guns--screw the government and all--and the ATF having seen this over and over again will ask some routine questions to the executor of the state and relative, and dispose of the modified fully-automatic rocket launchers.

EHP,

They ryhme (loosely) with Death-Trap.

You've mentioned "buy more concrete" several times.

I am a firm believer in having insurance.

Juvenal Delinquent wrote:

Once we allowed the Unabankers access to PseudoFEDrine, they cooked up quite a scheme...

Let me guess that it causes Math Mouth?

Let me guess that it causes Math Mouth?

Ah, you've seen the 'Faces of Math' with Hank, Ben, Timmay and the other Boys of Summers?

Anyone catch the consumer credit or Treasury budget releases - I thought they were due at the top of the hour?

no idea

Juvenal Delinquent wrote:

So what do J6P & JC do with the guns & ammo?

Wait for "those people" to show up, what else!

Vonbek777 wrote:

I want to ask a theoretical question(s)

Paranoia is normal. The government is incompetent (including our mythological spooks). As things get worse the paranoia will increase. Eventually a great-leader will be found, and he will lead the dumbasses to glory. Repeat for 10000 years. Call it the Glorious History of Humanity.

hmmm... unless I misread the fabulously reliable Yahoo Finance, consumer credit was due out at 2 pm EST...

Senate approves $636B Pentagon bill

Senate approves $636B Pentagon bill - TheHill.com

My how the money just falls from the sky..

A good article: The Automatic Earth: October 7 2009: A killing of cash

(sorry if it's been posted already)

EvilHenryPaulson wrote:

Google street view is now available for Canada. Come enjoy a virtual staycation

Wow, that' really recent too. We've been in our place since April, and it's after that, but before chopping down a couple small trees in our front yard which occurred in June, IIRC.

Sorry noob,

Didn't mean to cause you so much consternation. In the future i'll have my stereotypical stooges have normal jobs that they are laid off from.

not a real - what "liberties" are you prevented from enjoying?

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

I just don't see how an "internet revolution" could ever take place except at an individual, local, level and even then only by a minority of individuals

The internet would be useful to spread the glorious word. But, eventually the non-lazy need to get off their butt's and actually revolt. As was said previously tho: I think cable sports & porn will keep this from happening tho.

noob goldberg wrote:

Let this be a lesson to you: be careful...
Please feel free to tell me it's just me, but does anybody else think noob might be our long absent and much missed very own bacon dreamz?

Yalt,

That fabulous reliabilityat work! Thanks

barfly wrote:

not a real - what "liberties" are you prevented from enjoying?

I'm not worried about "liberties". I'm not a patriot or a believer in "democracy".

But, did you mean “liberties” right NOW? Or potentially - in the future – “liberties”, as the police-surveillance state gets larger and larger?

Hey JD,
That's not treasonous speech, it's entertainment... people love that funny stuff, you must too if you can stomach 15 minute segments. I gave up the radio talk show circuses years ago. But be honest, if the ultra left used to have some pretty good treason on too.

energycon,

I called the Fed...the number listed said check the website - you can press 2 to leave a message for the Fed board...

These data are released around the fifth business day of each month. The exact date and time may be obtained by calling 202-452-3206.

Who would qualify as "ultra left" on the radio dial, past or present?

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

We don't stand a chance.

Well, first of all "we" ain't doin' nothin' YOU are.
Second. With great risks comes GREATER reward. (Can't recall if this was Mao or GS).

I hear constant reference to the coming Civil War. I don't think they've worked the logistics out too well as of yet but bless their little hearts they sure do like discussing it. At least I don't have to listen to them babble about the last Civil War so much anymore.

barfly,
Here's some liberties my children won't be enjoying...I used to run all over tarnation with my dog...later on my bike I went everywhere alone. Don't see my kids enjoying that kind of freedom. Granted this is out of fear probably more than reality...but then when you have city councils that allow a motel full of sex offenders to be housed across the street from a elementary school...it sort of screws with your perceptions of reality. So I think to some degree the criminals have free reign...good people more and more seem to be in the cages.

Comrade Kristina wrote:

At least I don't have to listen to them babble about the last Civil War so much anymore.

The next one will be a continuation of the last one. To get even with "those people". It's always at the back of their (tiny) "minds".

I don't see stirring racial animosity and hatred to be entertaining. I consider it dangerous. We are witnessing an ever increasing amount of violent attacks as a result of these lunatics. Holocaust museum, Census worker, 4 cops in Pennsylvania, gay church in Tennessee (I believe it was), Black mother beaten up in front of her daughter by a racist creep in a Cracker Barrel. I live this shit every day and see the violent rhetoric weaving it's magic with the mouth breathers. It IS NOT FUNNY NOR ENTERTAINING>

This next "revolt" not require anymore violence than the fall of the Berlin Wall required of the East Bloc peoples.

People on the inside looking out were only too happy to see communism go away and embrace capitalism, but will folks be nearly as happy to see capitalism go away and embrace the unknown?

Vonbek777 wrote:

then when you have city councils that allow a motel full of sex offenders to be housed across the street from a elementary school...it sort of screws with your perceptions of reality.

The problem is lumping sex offenders all together. If you limited it to non-pederasts, it's unlikely that the children would be targets.

noob goldberg wrote:

I love bacon

Bacon or Canadian bacon?

These endless comparisons to Nazi Germany are pretty useless. USA is not homogeneous enough and not regimented enough for modern day Nazis to actually have enough power to take over the country.

They might take over in some corners of USA but not everywhere without all out civil war between about 20 different fractions, speaking about 100 different languages. Even US military is infiltrated by every major American criminal gang already.

What could happen soon is the division of USA into many regions. Latinos will soon take over the South for good, California splitting into two?, East Coast also? Hard to say now what is going to happen but something big will surely happen soon.

Vonbek777 wrote:

Don't see my kids enjoying that kind of freedom

Other countries still do have it. It's interesting to see the number of un-supervised kids running about in (say) Florence. Kids about 10 yo on (gasp) a public bus ALONE, going or coming from school.

That's all gone here unless you are living rural or small town (I guess). Americans have turned their own society paranoid. It feeds on itself until there's no turning back. All you can do is leave.

I'm not sure why we have so many sex-offenders and criminal in Merica. Maybe we'll end up like Brazil, with huge populations in cities run by gangs. I'll be dead before then, so I don't care.

Civil War? Boy, do I hate those assholes with their confederate flags. My daughter asked me once "Isn't that like flying a swastika?"

"Yep."

Discovery had a parole board show on the other night and they had a guy on in Oklahoma who rec'd 20 years for theft, his 3rd violation...trying to steal aluminum of something like that..He stated he made mistakes but his sentence was more than a murderer, rapist and molester would get...

talk about injustice....

Americans have turned into pacificists, letting criminals (murderers, rapist and molesters) who steal everything "a person/child is or was going to be" off with free meals, tv and conjugal visits for 7-15 years while the victim is just a newspiece...

until capital punishment is handed out like wine at a church, America will keep sliding down a hill...

I believe we should cut the back legs of any criminal behind the knee and troll them near the farallon islands so they can feel whats it like to be eaten alive..of course I'm old school and maybe a little bitter about how crime is rewarded and victims are tossed into a personal hell...

rant off....

scone wrote:

There's no particularly good reason to have both a Sears and a J.C. Penney.

Competition?

YouTube - South Park - Durka Durrr They took err jerb !!!

blackhat wrote:

We do about 12TB per 2 U enclosure. That sounds right. But it could go up if you elminated all those features of snaps, and mirroring, and cloning, and reserve space, and double-parity...by now you may now which vendor we work with a lot...

What does this have to do with health care, TARP, Bernenke, Sarah Palin, et al.....

ResistanceIsFeudal (profile) wrote on Wed, 10/7/2009 - 1:35 pm

'I just don't see how an "internet revolution" could ever take place except at an individual, local, level and even then only by a minority of individuals.'

I laugh that I'm replying to my own post, but what I mean here is that the 'online community' centralization in effect creates local broadcast nodes for a message that was a collective effort of a relatively small and self-selected (statistically abnormal) group of widely-dispersed individuals.

I believe we should cut the back legs of any criminal behind the knee and troll them near the farallon islands so they can feel whats it like to be eaten alive.

I knew this crazy diver, who illegally dived on wrecks in the Farallon Islands, in search of gold coins from mid-19th century shipwrecks. He was showing me some of his finds, and he described this adversary named "Whitey" and I thought he was talking about a rival diver, but no, it was Great White sharks he was talking about...

Comrade Kristina wrote:

I can't speak for other areas but down here that is a huge factor.

It ain't just down there. The north-east cities (anything east of the mississippi) are the same. But, the north-east cities might be changing (slightly) as the 40+ people are replaced with more moderate younger people. I don't know if this is true or not but at least the north-east don't have that historical civil-war mythology as baggage. The hate I grew-up with - in the 60's and 70's - was more individual human stupidity manifested in group-stupidity. The south-east is that PLUS history.

I know I've never seen this kind of unrest before and it is being fueled by people like Levin, Savage, Beck etc. Anyone that doesn't think dog whistles work would do well to revisit Ronny Rayguns election.

creditcriminalslovetarp wrote:

I believe we should cut the back legs of any criminal behind the knee and troll them near the farallon islands so they can feel whats it like to be eaten alive..of course I'm old school and maybe a little bitter about how crime is rewarded and victims are tossed into a personal hell...

You have entirely WAY too much faith in our justice system to get the right guy.

we most certainly have lost freedom and justice

sneak and peek

warrant less wiretaps

gathering data on your every purchase and move across the country

cameras on street corners

arrest without subsequent filing of charges and no probable cause

forfeiture laws...caught carrying cash on the highway and the cops can take it and they dont have to prove anything...you have to prove its yours

same with your house or car, if the police find even the minutes amount of contraband, you loose your home

maybe soon they dont find anything but it just appears heh

on top of that the entire drug war does more harm than good

To be clear, there is technically no such thing as immunity for criminal behavior, "full" or "partial", only a pardon after the fact. Individuals may not have standing to sue, but shouldn't refrain from petitioning Congress to expand standing, or just enforce the law and check executive power.

Obama shouldn't get a pass on Paulson and cronies, just as he shouldn't back off from punishing some uniformed agent who tortured a foreigner to death just because an executive order said he could.

"Right; the best part is when the radical activists execute the "intelligentsia" after the revolt. They KNOW that they don't want those guys around stilling up trouble.....LOL"

The true believers ALWAYS get taken out after any revolution. They're the most dangerous to those seeking power.

I'm more perplexed by the fact that these same people who talk revolution now were MIA for 8 years when the ball got rolling and in much more tangible way. The Impeach Bush people were never this upset and they wanted to use the system in place to carry out their whims (no matter how dumb it was).

Yes but Bush was........no wait a minute that was the other guy.

No wait Bush did......nope again wrong guy.

Oh wait I know Bush helped.....again some other guy.

Yup can not think of much at all. Bush and Obami should get along quite well like Clinton and Bush senior.

2 do nothings.

NOTaREALmerican wrote:

We're talking bout Mericans here. talk talk talk....

It's cause we're all extroverts.

You can't fight the smart amoral scum-bags;

talk to Jeff Skilling, and Jack Abramoff, and maybe Bernie Madoff, etc.

Anyone got any experience with the USDA? They've got a couple Canadian positions open...

E Thomas St. wrote:

I'm more perplexed by the fact that these same people who talk revolution now were MIA for 8 years when the ball got rolling and in much more tangible way.

'Cause it's not about constitution rights; it's about whether "our side" is in charge.

It doesn't help that guys like these don't understand constitutional gov't. That if you let "your guy" have the power, the next guy has it, too -- and he may not be yours. That's part of the reason for the chest-beating; now that their guy's out, the fedgov is way too intrusive in peoples' lives.

Am I just being a negative kill joy when this looks like an avenue to provide an instant deposit base for the banks without the possibility of withdrawal?
Coming Soon: $500 for Every Newborn?
By Kimberly Palmer
On 11:52 am EDT, Tuesday October 6, 2009

Imagine a world where every baby received a trust fund at birth. It might sound like a fairy tale, but being born into money--or at least into a $500 savings account--could soon become reality for all children born in the United States. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would give each newborn just that, with the goal of promoting savings that would later be used for education, a first home, or retirement. Here's what you should know about the ASPIRE ("America Saving for Personal Investment, Retirement, and Education") Act:
Yahoo! 404 - Page Not Found

shill wrote:

Yes but Bush was........no wait a minute that was the other guy.

Yeah. Everybody is Bush this and Obama that. The "ism" people always have the exagerated view of their own big-kahuna and the enemy one. When people vote - and talk - about the-big-kahuna it's really the entire Party that's involved. Lots of very Smart Amoral Scum-bags lurking in party doing anything it takes to keep the powers that be - their owns - happy.

anybody who talks or advocates revolution is not only a fool they are a traitor

how the hell do have have order peace and freedom if every time a group gets angry to the limit they decide to get violent
just as important

nobody has a right to go violent if they haven't run for congress, doorbelled their neighborhood and used all manner of nonviolent resistance

next year we elect 435 congress men and woman

how many of you are running?

We're talking bout Mericans here. talk talk talk....

You mean like this? (around 4:15 or so)

Barley wrote:

Illinois State Comptroller Dan Hynes Says State Finances A Mounting Crisis, Things Getting Worse - cbs2chicago.com

Oooh oooh ooh, I know this one: they deal with the crisis by giving their employees furloughs and paying vendors in IOUs.

What do I win?

Bob Dobbs (homepage, profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Wed, 10/7/2009 - 1:52 pm

It doesn't help that guys like these don't understand constitutional gov't. That if you let "your guy" have the power, the next guy has it, too -- and he may not be yours. That's part of the reason for the chest-beating; now that their guy's out, the fedgov is way too intrusive in peoples' lives.

The use of double standards is an essential and time-tested tactic of human political behavior, unfortunately. We'll accept all manner of travesties and screwups under "our" Alpha, but put another not our favorite into power and... don't look, Ethel! (or ethic)

mock turtle wrote:

next year we elect 435 congress men and woman
how many of you are running?

Like somebody famous in the early 20th century said - when asked if he was going to run for the senate after retiring, said: "Why run for the senate when you can own a senator".

Well thanks for all the inputs and opinions. Nice to see people can still be stirred, we aren't all emotionally dead yet, which I would say is a good sign. As others have mentioned...I think the key to this whole mess is that people will have to be increasing kept entertained and distracted in order for modern society to work. Who cares if we can't go outside or if big brother is watching what we watch, as long as we are entertained. I don't think we will see very many multiple volumes of history or philosophy penned by one man in the future. Wikipedia is the model of our future...