From Pine View Farm

May, 2008 archive

And Now for Something Completely Different 0

Check out this site for grins and giggles.

This is my favorite. Maybe because First Son is Airborne.

Back in my corporate days, I was showing these to the class over lunch and people were coming in from the offices wanting to know why we were laughing so hard.

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Bubblelicious 1

A house down the street just sold after being on the market for about five months. The owners, who were old, had already moved.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the sales on the street on the county website (remember, a real estate transaction is a Public Record–I was surprised what you can find on the county website, including the really bad year when I was late on my sewer tax. “Honey,” said the lady with the county, “Don’t worry. They ain’t gonna turn off your sewer.”).

A few notes:

  • The street was built in the mid-50s and has fewer than 30 houses. Some–a dwindling number–of the houses are still occupied by persons who bought them when the street was first opened.
  • Most of the other houses have been occupied by the same families for 15 or 20 years. There’s not a lot of turnover.
  • Even given normal changes and alterations (garages turned into family rooms, partition walls removed or moved, porches and patios added or changed), most of the houses would pretty much fall into the same price range.
  • The house that sold on September 25, 1992, had been neglected because owners had become physically unable to keep up with it. The new owners have fixed it up nicely.
  • The sales in June 1996; November 2002; and June 2007 were sales on the same house. In 1996, it had a number of unfinished renovations, including an expanded second floor. The “unfinished” part, though, kept the price slightly lower than market. By 2002, when it sold for $189,900, all those renovations were complete and it was–and is–probably the nicest house on the street right. In 2007, when it sold for $345,000, it was pretty much the same house as at the previous sale. It was, nevertheless, hardly almost twice the house it had been five years before.

The most recent sale probably reflects the current ballpark value of houses on the street much more realistically.

The new owners of the nicest house on the street house got a nice house in a quiet, safe neighborhood. But they clearly got bubbled on the price.

Home Sales

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Peas. Pod. PodPeople. 0

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“935 Lies” 0

From Harry Shearer:

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Bushonomics: Sidebar Changes 4

I’ve added two sites to the sidebar to which I want to call your special attention:

Marketwatch, a service of the Wall Street Journal, and Bonddad. So far, I haven’t gotten the Bonddad RSS feed to work. but I’m going to keep at it.

Both of them are financial sites highly recommended by Ray, who has made and lost fortunes in the markets.

(By the way, Ray has promised to work on a post to explain to us what hedge funds are and how they work. I suspect most of us who keep hearing the term “hedge funds” don’t really know what it means; Ray does.)

On Marketwatch, I recommend checking the comments to the stories; the commenters there are only in it for the bucks (that is, they are concerned about what’s happening to the financial markets) and, consequently, bring a special perceptiveness about what’s happening in the financial markets as it relates to the economy as a whole.

Bonddad is a “chartist.” He posts and explains charts about what is happening in the economy.

Check them both out and batten down the hatches. The Bushonomics storm really hasn’t started yet.

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Support the Troops, McBushie Style 0

What Digby said.

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Bushonomics 3

Up, up

Philadelphia-area gasoline prices approached $4 a gallon this Memorial Day weekend after crude-oil prices spiked to a record $135 per barrel.

“Almost every day we’re hitting a record,” said Catherine Rossi, spokeswoman for the American Automobile Association’s Mid-Atlantic chapter, which is tracking summer gas prices with a weekly report.

And away.

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Bushonomics: The FDIC Prepares for the Bottom To Drop Out 0

Earlier this year, the FDIC began trying to lure roughly 25 retirees like Holloway back to prepare for an increase in bank failures. It’s also hiring about 75 new staff.

Holloway quickly went back to work. ANB Financial N.A., a bank in Bentonville, Ark. with $2.1 billion in assets and $1.8 billion in customer deposits, was failing and an expert like Holloway was needed to value the assets and find a stronger institution to take them on.

“I was very excited about coming back,” Holloway said in an interview. “I’m now 57. There’s still a lot of life left and the juices are flowing again.”

On May 9, life for ANB ended when the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, another bank regulator, announced that the lender was closing. . . .

Only three banks have failed so far in 2008. But that number is set to surge as the credit crunch slows economic growth and hammers some lenders that grew too fast during the recent real-estate boom, experts say.

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Memorial Day 0

Earlier today I heard this from the Current Federal Administrator:

“Today, we gather to honor those who gave everything to preserve our way of life. The men and women we honor here served for liberty. They sacrificed for liberty. And in countless acts of courage, they died for liberty. From faraway lands, they were returned to cemeteries like this one, where broken hearts received their broken bodies — they found peace beneath the white headstones in the land they fought to defend.”

They died for liberty.

Except for those who have died–are still dying–for a lie.

Does the man have any concept of the contrast between his words and his deeds?

Those who think there is somehow virtue and justice in pursuing an unjust war based on a lie might want to listen to the Fresh Air interview with officers whose job is to deliver the news of soldiers’ deaths to the soldiers’ next of kin and ask, “Why must they do this job for a lie?”

Go to the website and click “Listen Now.”

Bring handkerchiefs.

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DL and Support the Troops, Bushie Style 0

Dr. Ira Katz, chief of mental health services for the Department of Veterans Affairs, sent an e-mail to a VA colleague this past February that read:

“Shh! Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before somebody stumbles on it?”

Unfortunately for the government, somebody did “stumble” on it. Dr. Katz lied about the numbers before the House of Representatives Veterans’ Affairs Committee, grossly understating the number of such suicide attempts. He testified that the number for all of 2007 was 790. He also neglected the Army’s own “Suicide Event Report,” which disclosed that 2006 saw the highest rate of military suicides in 26 years!

Come to Drinking Liberally, Tuesday, 9 p., Tangier Restaurant, 18th and Lombard, Philadelphia, to discuss how the Bushies support my son the troops and other stuff.

News story courtesy Brendan.

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Bushonomics 1

Making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Must be nice to one of the five . . .

First, note that I said “most” families’ incomes haven’t gone much of anywhere in recent years. Well, all of that productivity growth had to go somewhere, and most of it accumulated at the top of the income scale. The top five hedge-fund managers earned $12.6 billion last year, the equivalent earnings of the bottom nine million workers. Those high-enders generated a lot of that extra spending.

But the second source is the bigger story, and it is, of course, borrowing. As incomes stagnated for many yet consumption soared, we made up the difference with borrowing. Household debt, including mortgages, just about doubled in seven short years (2000-07), from $7.4 trillion to $14.4 trillion.

But not to be a working stiff . . .

“I’m busing it now, because I can’t afford a car,” said Stella Stanford, a Wilmington mother of two who relies on disability payments to support her two sons and 93-year-old mother. “I can’t afford the gas. I can’t afford the insurance.”

For some, there is even a growing recognition that American consumers have been living too large, spending too fast, borrowing too much. Whether today’s circumstantial thriftiness gives rise to a more frugal culture remains to be seen, but some experts hope the current crisis will at least encourage more rational spending habits.

“In past years, we’ve seen people talking the talk, but now they’re walking the walk,” said Jack R. Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research.

It’s certainly achieving it for the time being. A study of middle-class Americans last month by the Pew Foundation found that more than half have had to reduce their spending in the past year. A quarter expect to have trouble paying bills. Within the course of the past year, heating oil has leapt more than 50 percent nationally, and gasoline is up 25 percent.

(snip)

In just a year, prices of many kitchen essentials have seen double-digit price spikes, including flour (18.3 percent), bread (14.1), eggs (30.5) and milk (13.5).

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Linux Must Be Making Inroads 2

There is now an AIM for Linux.

Of course, I wouldn’t use it on a bet.

Why should I, when I can use Kopete, which does AIM and almost everything else?

I was using Pidgin, which used to be GAIM, and which I have used for years in both Windows and Linux versions, but it broke my Opera.

Yes, it did. I opened it up to send an IM to Second Son, which is the most reliable way to reach him, then I left the house.

When I got back, X had crashed with a message that said, loosely paraphrased, “Pidgin did it. It wasn’t your fault. Send a message here.”

Since I wasn’t present when X crashed, there was no point in sending any message anywhere, because I didn’t have anything to report. Ever since then, Opera has been unable to display anything Flash (such as You Tube videos). There’s just a big hole where the video should be.

I tried removing and reinstalling Opera, but nada. I’m hoping that the next Opera upgrade overwrites whatever was torqued.

Since I haven’t had the energy to rebuild the computer–I’m saving that for the next version of Slack–I’ve been mucking about with Firefox and Thunderbird.

I’m not particularly impressed with Thunderbird; it’s just another clunky mail client, better than MS Lookout (but then what isn’t?), but not as good as Eudora or Pegasus, and its handling of newsgroups leaves a lot to be desired (for instance, there doesn’t seem to be a way to delete individual articles–you have to wait for them to expire, though you can set the expiration rule), but I have to say that Firefox is a nice piece of work.

In other news, I’ve followed the example of John Cole of Balloon Juice and included my AIM name on the sidebar. Now my two or three regular readers can harass me in real time, should they so desire.

I’ve also added the Phillies to my sidebar. Live with it.

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Walk Score 0

Duncan looks at the Walk Score of his neighborhood.

My address got a 35, but the calculation doesn’t seem to include the bus stop at the end of the street.

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Bushonomics 0

Feed the rich:

The inspector general for the Defense Department said yesterday that the Pentagon cannot account for almost $15 billion worth of goods and services ranging from trucks, bottled water and mattresses to rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns that were bought from contractors in the Iraq reconstruction effort.

The Pentagon did not have the proper documentation, including receipts, vouchers, signatures, invoices or other paperwork, for $7.8 billion that American and Iraqi contractors were paid for phones, folders, paint, blankets, Nissan trucks, laundry services and other items, according to a 69-page audit released to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

An earlier audit by the inspector general found deficiencies in accounting for $5.2 billion of U.S. payments to buy weapons, trucks, generators and other equipment for Iraq’s security forces. In addition, the Defense Department spent $1.8 billion of seized Iraqi assets with “absolutely no accountability,” according to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), who chairs the oversight committee. The Pentagon also kept poor records on $135 million that it paid to its partners in the multinational military force in Iraq, auditors said.

That’s $15 billion.

Just as a little bit of a comparison, that would run Philadelphia for approximately four years.

And that’s not an accounting of the total wasted money. That’s just the wasted money that the Current Federal Administration lost track of.

Oh, yeah, and Republicans know how to run a business.

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We’re Rich, the Law Doesn’t Apply to Us Dept. 0

Glenn Greenwald:

Just in the first three months of 2008, recent lobbyist disclosure statements reveal that AT&T spent $5.2 million in lobbyist fees (putting it well ahead of its 2007 pace, when it spent just over $17 million). In the first quarter of 2008, Verizon spent $4.8 million on lobbyist fees, while Comcast spent $2.6 million. So in the first three months of this year, those three telecoms — which would be among the biggest beneficiaries of telecom amnesty (right after the White House) — spent a combined total of almost $13 million on lobbyists. They’re on pace to spend more than $50 million on lobbying this year — just those three companies.

Let’s pause for a brief minute to reflect on how ludicrous and deceptive — laughably so — are some of the main FISA/telecom claims that are being advanced. We continuously hear, for instance, that these poor, beleaguered telecoms need protection from the big, money-hungry plaintiffs’ lawyers driving these “costly” surveillance lawsuits. One of the two organizations leading the litigation against the telecoms (along with the ACLU) is the non-profit group Electronic Frontiers Foundation. . . .

But wait! There’s more!

Follow the link to read the whole sordid analysis of how big corporations think they should not have to be accountable for ignoring the law.

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Pathetic (Updated–I Am So Trusting Dept.) 0

I was not a big fan of Bobby Kennedy.

As far as I was concerned at the time, he pretty much stabbed Gene McCarthy in the back. Senator McCarthy had the courage to get in front of the crowd on the issue of the Viet Namese War and, when Kennedy saw McCarthy’s success, Kennedy jumped right in.

Nevertheless, Bobby Kennedy did seem to have a true concern for justice and for the little guy.

Therefore, all I can say is that this is just pathetic:

Hillary Clinton cited the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy in justifying her decision to keep campaigning for president in videotape released today.

It’s like Britney Spears doing something in honor of Benny Goodman.

The Booman, in contrast, thinks it is just massively stupid.

Addendum, the Day After:

I am so naive and trusting, so unwilling to think the worst of someone until I have been shown that they deserve it, that I did not even conceive of the most sinister implications of this remark until I heard Daniel Schorr’s commentary this morning.

Guess I need to work on being more cynical.

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Chromosomes 2

In certain areas of Left Blogistan, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth that Senator Clinton has not, as the Senator expected to do, waltzed uninterrupted to the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.

In those quarters, her failure to march triumphantly to the convention is being interpreted as a result of prejudice against women.

It is also giving rise to conspiracy theories as screwy as Republican policies. Phillybits has been doing a pretty good job keeping track of them here and here and here and here.

Senator Clinton’s supporters have also claimed that she has been mistreated by the press. When pressed, they offer up the same two or three culprits, most notably Chris Matthews. Yet, as Suzanne Smalley pointed out on today’s Radio Times, half the reporters on the campaign bus are women (go to the website and search for today’s date or listen to the show in Real Audio format here).

A couple of days ago, Howard Fineman, shilling his new book on that same show, said that he thought that there perhaps had been some coverage that betrayed sexism on the part of the reporter, but not a significant amount. He also pointed out that there’s a reason 75% of the word news is n e w, and Senator Obama is new. (Listen to the show in Real Audio here.)

(Aside: These generalizations do not apply to political blogs. Look not far to find enough racism and sexism to keep you gagging for a week.)

Senator Clinton’s double-x chromosomes do not make her more virtuous than Senator Obama’s x and y make him, despite what some seem to believe. Nor does it make her less virtuous.

Senator Clinton entered the campaign expecting, not a nomination, but a coronation. She unexpectedly found herself facing a competent and energetic challenger. Then she started to, well, behave badly.

Senator Clinton’s failures are her own failures. They don’t belong to anyone else. They are failures of strategy, such as running an incompetent campaign in Iowa (and elsewhere). It is her conduct and her behavior, not her sex, that has backed her against a wall.

It is her vote in favor of the fraudulent War in Iraq, in contrast to the vision of an opponent who recognized from the git-go that it was a fraud.

It is her lame claim that everything she has done since she got her law degree is somehow “experience in governance,” when most of it was experience in corporate law.

(And, as I have demonstrated, experience in governance is irrelevant to effectiveness as President. Hell, look at all those in the Current Federal Administration who have spent almost their whole working lives in the government, the Cheneys, Rumsfelds, the Ashcrofts–based on their performance, one can argue that experience in governance should actually disqualify persons from high office).

During the campaign, it has been her choice to pander to the worst American instincts, rather than to search for the best, that has seen her sink. And, at this point, she has shown that she can attract voters in the Appalachian states, whereas Senator Obama has shown that he can attract voters everywhere else (and don’t talk to me about Indiana and Ohio; anyone who has spent significant amounts of time there, as I have, knows that their south and central areas are pretty much nothing more than northern Kentucky).

And, as her prospects have become dimmer, her conduct has become–er–screwier.

Now, do not mistake me. If, through some combination of luck and political muscle and skulduggery, she gets the nomination, I will certainly support her.

The Current Federal Administration has proven to me that any Democrat is superior to every Republican. The political discourse can continue from that point.

Nevertheless, it’s not because Senator Clinton is a woman that she looks to be a sure number two in the race for the nomination.

It’s because she has shown herself to be a jerk.

And, sadly, some of her most fervent supporters over here in Left Blogistan have followed her lead.

Hillary Clinton gives me the willies.

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Bushonomics 0

Viewed from abroad:

Sales of previously-owned US homes fell in April but not as much as had been feared, industry figures show.

The number of transactions during the month was 1% lower than in March to an annual rate of 4.89 million, said the National Association

(snip)

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $202,300 in April, which is 8% below a year ago when the median was $219,900.

Analysts predicted further price falls to come as a result of the increasing backlog of unsold homes.

The NER said inventory rose 10.5% to 4.55 million homes.

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Philadelphia 0

Phillybits just published some more great pictures of the town he is one of the bits of–or something like that. Check them out here.

In related news–related to his photographs, that is–summer weather is around the corner. According to todays paper, tomorrow God will flip a switch and we’ll be going from highs in the mid-60s to highs in the high 70s and low 80s.

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The Republican Problem Solving Manual 0

An excerpt. Follow the link to see their plots revealed:

  • give yourself a cool undercover spy name
  • add three levels of corruption to it
  • change subject to fancyboy haircuts
  • link it to the death tax/gay marriage/social security
  • borrow a mountain of money for you know, whatever
  • say something about Hitler or Lincoln or Reagan
  • jury is still out on it.

Via DelawareLiberal.

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