Sunday, November 30, 2008

Bailout Nation

First, I just want to say that The Most Likely International Incident To Be Ignored As Insignificant And Boomerang On Our Corpulent AmeriKKKan Asses is this crap happening in Mumbai.

I know, we've had to endure these low-grade terrorist boom-boom's since Osama showed the World How It's Really Done.

But this one seems different. Blowing up a Train In Spain where the chards fall Mainly On The Plains is one thing. Spain is the trailer park of Europe.

India, in case you've been lost in a fog of hyper-consumerism for the past decade, is RICH. India is extremely wealthy nowadays, and there is NOTHING up-and-comers like to prove more than I Can Kick Your Poor Ass. We've been doing it for 50 years.

Just keep it in mind: That Mumbai shit could escalate to NUCLEAR in no time at all. Always stay alert on where the next downleg can come from.

Speaking of head-in-hand Pathetic, I still very occasionally head over to Bend Economy Board (via ANONYMOUS PROXY!!!!) to see if things are headed up over there. Well, except for BendBB's still kick-ass data collection, this thing has seemingly turned into a Ra-Ra board for RE. To wit:

Housing Consumer Confidence Returns!
posted by:
No better time to buy

All you have to do is read some of the comments to see few people, IF ANY, are buying this tripe. But there is the occasional Realtor plant:

I will admit, having been actively in the real estate market (looking for a good deal on a house) for some time now, there has been an unmistakable uptick in activity.

And there are the Ever-Ebullient Perma-Bulls, like Jack Elliott, for whom No Piece Of Bad News Is Truly Bad.

And I'm sure a lot of people think that I am of the "100% All About Any Piece Of Bad News Is 100% True, And Any Good News Is Bullshit" mindset. Not true.

I just feel that we are in the post-traumatic throes of a Bubble Deflation that will bring down this country to a financial level we have not experienced in 50-100 years. And there will be nowhere in the US that suffers more than Bend.

And I think what I've been saying here about the Nationwide Vicious Aftermath is pretty clear for all to see. Number 1 News Item for months now. But what about Bend?

I'll tell you right now that Bend is going to be ravaged harder than anywhere in the U.S. There's a bit of a somber mood about town, and you can finally actually speak about The Current Bad Times at a cocktail party without fear of ostracism.

But THIS is NOTHING. This is NOTHING compared to what is coming. Just take a look out the Side View Window:
Bend Annual October Unemployment, Oct 1990 - Oct 2008.

It's pretty plain to see that we spanned almost the Entire Gamut of the previous 19 years of economic activity, in one feel swoop, going from some of the lowest unemployment rates ever, to The Highest October Unemployment Rate On Record In One Year.

This AIN'T a Bump In the Road. Wait for February. We will see The Worst Unemployment Rates In Modern Bend History. There's going to be some Major Epiphanizing going on; People realizing EN MASSE that YES, Bend Is Different. IT'S WORSE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE U.S.

The Bulletin, of course, ran a piece regarding the Great Deflation Of Bend (Population), but it began with a hashing over of The Glory Hole Years.

"This Here? Why, This Is A Little Bump In The Road! Bigger & Better Than Ever In No Time, And So Forth. Yes, Yes. Outdoor Recreation, Wealthy Widows With Big Ol Double Deez, Monsters Of Cock On 96 Year Old Men! It's A Paradise!"

Yeah. Right.

OK, here's an interesting piece that should get your pot boiling, if you managed to act in a fiscally responsible manner for the past 10 years.

Why lenders might forgive your debt

There was a time when lenders didn't want to work with you if you couldn't pay. Now they want to avoid foreclosure, lawsuits or repossession almost as much as you do.

By Liz Pulliam Weston


People who overdosed on debt in recent years learned the paradox of easy credit: While lenders were willing to let you borrow copious amounts, they weren't particularly interested in helping you work out a solution if you fell behind on repayment.

Lenders often found it easier and cheaper to write off delinquent accounts as bad debt than work with you on a repayment plan. After all, they could get a tax break on the loss and then get on with the profitable business of extending credit to the next guy.

Lately, however, lender perspectives have changed. Soaring default rates, a weakening economy and the credit crunch have rewritten the rules.

* Credit card lenders charged off 5.47% of the total amounts owed on cards as bad debt in the second quarter, according to the Federal Reserve. A year ago, the charge-off rate was 3.85%.

* Consumer bankruptcy filings in October topped 100,000, a 40% increase from a year earlier and the highest level since the federal bankruptcy reform law took effect in October 2005, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

* More than 2.2 million homeowners are more than 60 days late on their mortgage payments, according to the Hope Now alliance of lenders and credit counselors, and one in six homeowners owes more on a home than it's worth.

* With home prices plummeting, every foreclosure now represents a loss of 44% of the original loan amount, up from 29% a year ago, according to data from LPS Applied Analytics.

That's why lenders are now looking for ways to keep people paying their bills, even if it means forgiving some of their debt. Now the paradox is that in order to qualify, you must be struggling, but not so much that a change in terms wouldn't help you.

How the new programs work

The most sweeping new program was announced Nov. 11. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the government agencies that guarantee 31 million U.S. mortgages, will begin paying the mortgage service companies that maintain the loans $800 for every loan they modify. Borrowers would get help in several ways: Interest rates would be reduced so that borrowers would not pay more than 38% of their gross income on housing expenses. Another option is for loans to be extended from 30 years to 40 years, and for some of the principal amount to be deferred interest-free.

The same day, Citigroup announced it would halt foreclosures for borrowers who live in their own homes, have decent incomes and stand a good chance of making lowered mortgage payments. Ultimately, it plans to modify the repayment terms on up to $20 billion in loans.

Late last month, JPMorgan Chase expanded its mortgage modification program to an estimated $70 billion in loans, which could aid as many as 400,000 homeowners. The modifications were to include reducing amounts owed or the loans' interest rates, and replacing so-called "pay option" loans that typically resulted in mortgages growing over time.

Bank of America, meanwhile, has said that starting Dec. 1, it will modify an estimated 400,000 loans held by newly acquired Countrywide Financial as part of an $8.4 billion legal settlement reached with 11 states in early October.

Loan forgiveness is a key part of the Hope for Homeowners program. This is the foreclosure prevention program that Congress created as part of the $700 billion Economic and Housing Recovery Act of 2008. Lenders that want to participate typically must agree to reduce borrowers' principal to 90% of their homes' current value.

But wait, there's more

In late October, a coalition of lenders and consumer advocates asked banking regulators to approve a pilot program that would allow struggling borrowers to pay off, over time, less than they owe -- as much as 40% less. Under current rules, any repayment plan has to be for the full amount owed.

Though the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rejected the first draft over how banks would book the resulting losses, backers of the plan say they're committed to finding a remedy for overtaxed borrowers that's short of bankruptcy -- which would likely mean the banks see no repayment at all.

In the first proposal, a joint project of the Financial Services Roundtable and the Consumer Federation of America, applicants would have been evaluated by certified credit counselors; those who couldn't pay off their debt under a regular debt management program would have been placed in one of four repayment plans that would reduce their principal by 10%, 20%, 30% or 40%. Only consumers closest to bankruptcy could have qualified for the biggest reduction.

Travis Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America said his group would continue to lobby regulators "to do everything they can, within bounds of the safety and soundness of the financial system, to help consumers," but that ultimately consumer advocates may have to turn to lawmakers for help.

"It may be Congress that has to step in, and I think there's a lot of interest there" in doing so, Plunkett said. "We've got a train wreck coming."

Student loans and car debt

Meanwhile, makers of student and auto loans haven't announced any new plans for forgiveness. In recent years, in fact, both groups made escaping their debt more difficult. But:

* Certain borrowers can still get portions of their federal student loans forgiven through volunteer work, military service and teaching in low-income communities. And Congress passed a law in 2007 that wipes out federal student loan debt for people who work in certain jobs and who make 10 years of on-time payments. Plus:

* Auto lenders are stepping up their education efforts to let troubled borrowers know they have alternatives if they fall behind on their car payments. According to credit bureau Experian, more than 500,000 borrowers are 30 days or more overdue on a car loan.

Yet fewer than half of consumers in a recent poll knew that auto financing companies often worked with troubled borrowers, said Eric Hoffman, spokesman for the Aware, an education group set up by auto dealers and lenders that commissioned the survey.

Auto lenders may be able to modify a loan to stretch payments over a longer period or allow borrowers to make up missing payments, Hoffman said.

"We tell people, 'Don't ignore the situation if you're having trouble,'" Hoffman said. "Get in contact with your lender and see if there's a way to work out a different payment plan."

The same advice holds true for student loans. You may be eligible for income-sensitive or graduated repayment plans or, if you're facing economic hardship, forbearance or deferment that would allow you to skip payments for up to three years.

Here's what to do about other debt:

Credit cards. If you're already behind on your credit card payments, you shouldn't wait to see if you'll qualify for any loan forgiveness programs. Make two calls: one to a legitimate credit counselor and another to an experienced bankruptcy attorney. Between the two, you'll get the information you'll need to decide whether you should continue paying your debt or have it "forgiven" by the U.S. bankruptcy court.

Mortgages. Gather your paperwork -- your mortgage documents, last year's tax return and some recent pay stubs -- and call a HUD-approved housing counselor to evaluate your situation and your options. If you qualify for a loan modification program, the counselor can help you get through to your lender's loss mitigation department, which will evaluate your application.

A lender will want evidence that you're in trouble -- and assurances that any changes will keep the payments coming. Don't expect that it will immediately hack your loan balance to what the house is currently worth; it won't.

Your lender has only a few ways to help you: It can reduce your interest rate, defer payments, extend the length of the loan or forgive some part of your principal.

With your counselor's help, you should decide what solution you want before approaching the lender. If you have a temporary situation such as an illness that will be resolved soon, for example, ask for deferred payments. If your adjustable-rate mortgage is about to reset, use MSN Money's Mortgage Calculator to see if a reduced interest rate could keep you in your home.

You may have trouble getting your lender's attention. That's particularly true if you haven't already fallen behind on your payments, something you should try to avoid, because late payments can kill your credit scores.

In that situation, consider getting an attorney's help, said lawyer and mortgage broker Alan Jablonski, author of "Successfully Navigating the Mortgage Maze" and operator of the AJ Consumer Watch Web site.

Unlike some of those who advertise loan modification help, attorneys have a fiduciary duty to put their clients first (and clients have many remedies, including lawsuits and disciplinary complaints to the bar association, if the attorney fails to fulfill those duties).

That's a far cry from many of the fly-by-night outfits that demand big upfront fees and then fail to act, or disappear with the money.If you decide to hire an attorney, you'll have to find one on your own, Jablonski said; anyone legitimate has a full workload and isn't proactively contacting potential clients.

Your state's bar association may offer referrals. In any case, you'll need to confirm that the attorney is in good standing with the bar, and that he or she has experience with loan modification.

Published Nov. 17, 2008

Just read that over. Sounds good, right? Actually, no. Most of these "workouts" are simple extensions of the loan term, or rolling missed payments into the principal.

You've got to understand these loan workouts are a clusterfuck. They ACTUALLY REWARD PEOPLE FOR DEFAULTING. You are only eligible for The Best Workouts if You Are 3 Months Behind, or are on the verge of going bust. If you are playing by the rules, you get screwed. To wit:

Feel like a sucker? You're not alone

Bailouts are going to reckless Wall Street bankers, to homeowners over their heads and now maybe even to Americans hooked on credit cards. Where's the reward in doing the right thing?

By Liz Pulliam Weston

If you feel like you're being played, you're not alone.

The financial crisis has deepened many people's suspicions that doing the right thing hasn't paid off. Instead, they feel it's made them chumps.

You see it in the "Where's my @#$%ing bailout?" T-shirts, the despair about plummeting retirement accounts and the hostile comments that greet every news story about mortgage restructuring or credit card forgiveness.

One reader put it this way:

"Doesn't keeping your promises mean anything? Most if not all of the people who snagged these (mortgages) were well aware of the risk and the responsibility. It kills me that I'm playing by the rules and bailing out those who were greedy, stupid or both."

Even when they're not directing their anger at anyone in particular, many of my readers feel like they've been led down the garden path.

"I am 62 years old and HAD been planning to retire in 5 years," one wrote. "Although I have lived frugally my entire life and put away 15% of my income every year in a retirement account, my balanced portfolio lost 60% of its value in the last two months."

What he wanted to know: Would he be a bigger fool for pulling his money out of the market now or staying in and possibly suffering more lumps?

If you have similar questions -- if you suspect you're being a chump for making your mortgage payments, paying your credit card bills and continuing to invest in your 401(k) -- read on. You're certainly not alone as you watch others exploit loopholes, mistakes and well-intentioned remedies.

Bailed out but still ruined

The question of why some homeowners are getting bailouts has really been answered by the financial turmoil of the past few months. A huge spike in foreclosures, magnified by derivatives cooked up by Wall Street firms, nearly brought down the global economy. As it stands, we're still likely to suffer one heck of a hangover in the form of a serious recession.

The foreclosure mess is far from over. Many of the riskiest loans -- the ones where homeowners weren't even paying all the interest that was accumulating on their loans each month, let alone touching the principals -- are just now resetting.

Then there's the whole vicious-cycle effect, which I wrote about in April. As foreclosures rise, banks slash the prices of the homes they recover, putting downward pressure on everybody else's property values. With more homes "underwater," more fall into foreclosure when their owners lose a job and can't sell, or simply decide to walk away.

That's why the Powers That Be are finally getting serious about working with struggling homeowners. Given how interconnected everything is in our economy, their success in saving your neighbor from foreclosure might ultimately reduce the chances you'll lose your job.

I agree that a lot of borrowers were complete idiots for agreeing to mortgages that were eight or nine times their incomes (a mortgage that was three times your income used to be considered a stretch in the days before lenders went nuts). Smart borrowers fixed their rates for at least as long as they planned to stay in their homes; dumb ones agreed to adjustable-rate mortgages on their brokers' assurances that they'd be able to refinance before the payments reset.

But borrowers didn't get these loans in a vacuum. Mortgage brokers and loan officers downplayed the risks. So did lenders, who gave the brokers and loan officers fat incentives to push them. The Wall Street machine encouraged looser lending standards and created exotic investment products that wound up multiplying, rather than reducing, the risks. Regulators, meanwhile, stood by and basically did nothing. No one involved is covered in glory.

Neither is anyone getting an entirely free ride. Plenty of people will still lose their homes, and many who get workouts will have to live with trashed credit from the payments they missed before help arrived.

Forgiven but not forgotten

Personally, I wouldn't trade places with any of them, not even the ones who'll wind up keeping the bigger, fancier homes my husband and I decided we couldn't afford. I wouldn't want to live with the anxiety those troubled borrowers have faced ever since they got unaffordable mortgages or the uncertainty they're feeling as they wonder whether a workout will save their homes. Those folks made a hell of a gamble, and even with efforts to help on the rise, most of them are still going to lose.

Give me a home bought with a fat down payment and a 30-year fixed rate any day.
Forgiven but not forgotten
So how about the people who may be about to get big chunks of their credit card debts forgiven?

Major credit card issuers are seeking permission to knock down troubled borrowers' debts by as much as 40%. Debtors would get preferential tax treatment as well; they wouldn't owe income tax on the forgiven debt until they'd paid off the remainder of their balances.

Credit card issuers are recognizing the obvious: that their free-lending ways have come back to bite them. Delinquencies are soaring, and issuers' charge-offs -- balances written off as bad debt -- are up nearly 50% compared with last year.

The issuers figure getting something out of these debtors is better than getting nothing if they stop paying or file for bankruptcy.

The number of people admitted to the issuers' proposed pilot program would be small -- about 50,000 -- although enrollments likely would rise if the plan worked as anticipated.

You might have a beef with this particular bailout if you faced a huge pile of debt and opted to pay it off rather than have it wiped out in bankruptcy.

But once again, I'd rather be financially responsible and conservative than not. I'm not sorry that we've always limited our credit card charges to what we could pay in full every month.

Maybe we haven't bought as many toys as the folks who carried debt and are about to have some of it forgiven. But we also haven't spent a fortune in interest charges, which those people certainly have.

And I seriously doubt I'd have to pay higher interest rates or suffer in any way from this program, even if it became wildly successful. Those of us with good credit still would get the best rates, as I explained in "The real victims of deadbeats? Other deadbeats."
Investing blindly makes you a sucker

How about the last station on the have-I-been-a-sucker line: investing. Surely we were sold a bill of goods when we were told stocks are a good long-term investment. Haven't they gone essentially nowhere for a decade now?

Yes, except that those who continue to invest, in good times and in bad, inevitably come out ahead. MSN Money columnist Jim Jubak explains it best in "When to start investing? Now."

The folks who blow it are the ones who take too much risk in the good times, then panic and bail out in the bad, locking in their losses.

The reader who asked whether he should stay or go is a case in point. So close to retirement, he should have been ratcheting back on his risk. Although he thought his portfolio was balanced, it clearly wasn't -- otherwise, it wouldn't have dropped 30% during the worst of this fall's gyrations, let alone 60%.

This just encapsulates somewhat, the Heinous Agency Problems we are in the midst of creating.

We've already bailed out Huge Banks and Insurers. We are starting to bailout homeowners who have defaulted (ie; SPECULATORS). We're headed towards an Auto bailout, cuz Barack loves Unions, and the largely Muslim sections of Southern Michigan.

Everyone, it seems, is being Bailed Out. Except The Responsible. Those who lived within their means. I'll agree that Hard Times can hit those who deserve it least. But I'll also put forth that ALMOST NONE OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BAILED OUT SO FAR MEET THAT DESCRIPTION.

They've said that They Will Print Money Until This Thing Is Solved.

That will, of course, solve nothing. It simply devalues the proxy by which we exchange goods & services. It also redistributes that proxy. Those of least merit are simply given wealth.

This is where we are on a slippery slope. We're a Bailout Nation 100% Addicted To Government Handouts. This should sound EXTREMELY FAMILAR to our local condition. Bend is NOTHING but a taxpayer boondoggle municipality where wealth is redistributed to those who know that local government is nothing more than a wealth redistribution mechanism. Ask Hooker Creek & Knife River: These are less profit seeking corporations, than Sucker Fish on the ailing Bend Slush Fund City Council.

We're NOT governed as much as we are pilfered of our wealth in Bend. Look no further than the last City Council election. Bought & Paid For By COBA. We deserve whatever we get.

And what we'll get is endless USELESS contracts to build infrastructure & "affordable homes".

I actually saw cripple ramps next to The New COVA building on Harriman & Irving, REMOVED and replaced with regular CURBS. Our City, in it's Infinite Wisdom, has decided to allocate resources AWAY from frivolities like Firemen & Policemen, and TOWARDS bricking up cripple ramps at warp speed. Why? Cuz a cripple ramp built TWICE, and still FAILS TO MEET GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS, is a hell of a profitable racket, and THAT IS ALL BEND IS.

That's us: Schemes & Scams that rob the citizens & reward GRIFTERS. And these poeple essentially RUN our EXECUTIVE & JUSTICE systems, as well. So what should we expect?

Well, from my own experience, I can say NEAR ENDLESS ATTEMPTS TO SHUTDOWN UNSAVORY FREE-SPEECH RE BLOGS. Yeah, it's become an onslaught. And just so you know, if this thing just DISAPPEARS one day, THAT IS THE REASON.

We can also expect cops & judges to be on the dole. This fucking place is going to be The Most Corrupt City On Earth, and we are well on our way. It's just going to be a bunch of suckerfish sucking on a corpse. Sooner or later, the money will go away, and all the Corporate Welfare Sleeze will just up & leave, and we'll be left with a hollow husk. It's already happening. They're gutting city services, while erecting ridiculous roundabout art.

Simply incredible. We're going 100% BROKE, and they're still putting art on roundabouts.

We're going BROKE, and they are WAIVING SDC charges to BUILDERS.

Have no doubt: Bend is The Most Corrupt City In The U.S.A., and we are rapidly coming to the end of our RE lotto winnings. The Good Times are LONG OVER, and you are about to witness the most incredible financial implosion of a municipality EVER.

And All There Is To Do, Is Stand Back And Witness The Horror.

598 comments:

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IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

And THIS is where Osama bin Barack really pisses me off:

He says that ANYONE who played it straight, should SUPPORT the vast web of bailouts, cuz "YOU WILL BE WORSE OFF VIA DECREASED HOME VALUE & POSSIBLE JOB LOSS".

What a load of bullshit.

This is some of the most specious reasoning possible. Maybe I should SHOOT MYSELF in the head before the fucking marauding meth gangs do.

Yeah. Don't believe this Crap.

"If you don't get the AIDS today, you might get SHOT tomorrow."

This is the reasoning we are being told to SUPPORT this bailout.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

And here's an excerpt from the recent Source, A one-way trip?

The Nuclear Option

City councilors voted last week to retain the current service level through the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

To do that, the council will plow an estimated $20,000 in fuel savings and another $125,000 in maintenance savings as well as $24,000 in unbudgeted revenue into the bus system.

In the meantime the city council will meet in January for a financial summit that will include a discussion of the long- term options for transit. But it’s unlikely that the city will be able to entirely dismantle the bus system – at least not without some severe financial consequences.

If the council took the “nuclear option” as city staff referred to it, the city would lose its annual $1 million federal match for the program. The city would also have to return any buses purchased in the past five years with federal dollars to the state Department of Transportation, greatly diminishing the fleet for any future system. Last, but not least, the city would be required to repay the state $4.1 million that it has used to construct the yet-to-be-completed transit hub on Bear Creek Road.

In other words: In for a penny; in for a pound.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Awesome. Despite the fact that BAT is HEMORRHAGING money, we actually CANNOT get rid of it by just shutting it down.

We'd OWE MILLIONS if we did.

This is called HEINOUS EXIT COSTS, and we probably face this sort of barrier to exit all over the place.

THIS is why Bend will HAVE TO DECLARE BANKRUPTCY. We CANNOT afford to continue funding these money holes, but we definitely cannot afford to exit.

BK IS THE ONLY ANSWER.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

the city council will meet in January for a financial summit

Oh Jeebus H Christ. This will be akin to a midget-porn-clusterfuck.

And will someone catch a goddamn ball? It's like watching a bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob out there!

Patches O'Houlihan

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

re: Financial Summit.

Cotton McKnight: I'm being told that Average Joe's does not have enough players and will be forfeiting the championship match.

Pepper Brooks: It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Cotton McKnight: It looks like the clock is about to strike midnight on this Cinderella story, turning Average Joe's into the proverbial pumpkin.
Pepper Brooks: I sure do like pumpkins, Cotton.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Marge... any data recently?

Maybe you've posted it in last wks comments? I haven't checked....

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

I actually got off my ass:

Blogger Marge said...

It is the end of a dismal month of RE sales. November to remember.
NOD's filed 171 in the County.
115 sold (all types of Res). NOD's win again.
Bend SFR only for Nov. 08:
60 sold @ $269k median
Nov. 07 97 sold @ $339k median.
Active listings 1398 Bend SFR
Active in county 3941. Average PPF was $155 in Bend SFR's. Only 2 homes sold over 1 Mil and there are 100 active listings. Damn this is just getting cruel.
CAR October stats on Cali are out. On average the the state has dropped 47% of value in about 14 months since their peak. Since we are 18 months behind Cali we can look forward to medians between $150 and $180 about winter 2009-2010.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

An interesting commentary by David Foster regarding the shuttering of the Old Mill Re/Max office.

http://davidfoster.biz/Market08/index.html

Duncan McGeary said...

There's a great example of bailout on the front page of the business section of the Bulletin.

A couple who managed to leverage their 169k house bought in 2003 into 304k in debt, 2,400.00 monthly mortgage payments.

If I'm reading this right, they have another 54k second mortgage.

If they can come up with 4,400 their 54k lien will be forgiven?

They will be given lower interest rates, and a 40 year mortgage and deferred payments for five years.

Much of this money was used to support and renovate a business in Sisters (gift shop) that "is not profitable".

She spent the second mortgage (54k) renovating her business.

How do you spend 54k renovating a business if you don't own the building?

Anyway, by my reckoning they spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars over the last few years, and came up broke.

And it is all to be swept under the rug.

Which is interesting, because I bought my house in early 2004 for the exact same 169k. My payments are 1100.00 a month. We owe a total of 155k still, including our Heloc.

I sure would like to have had that 200k to spend and end up paying the same as this couple.

Duncan McGeary said...

In other words, they may end up with about the same amount of monthly payments as me, living in a house worth about the same as mine, and they frittered away 200k.

Which I did not do.

tim said...

>>I sure would like to have had that 200k to spend and end up paying the same as this couple.

Yeah, but they are stupid and you are not. Still want to trade?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Much of this money was used to support and renovate a business in Sisters (gift shop) that "is not profitable".

This describes 99.999999999% of all businesses in Sisters.

Anonymous said...

Dunc and others are unhappy with bailouts to unresponsible people.

So am I. However, perhaps the alternative is worse.

Consider the following opinion piece by Greg Mankiw, who is a professor of economics at Harvard. Although he worked for Bush at some point, he is a good economist....


November 30, 2008
ECONOMIC VIEW

What Would Keynes Have Done?

By GREG MANKIW

IF you were going to turn to only one economist to understand the problems facing the economy, there is little doubt that the economist would be John Maynard Keynes. Although Keynes died more than a half-century ago, his diagnosis of recessions and depressions remains the foundation of modern macroeconomics.

His insights go a long way toward explaining the challenges we now confront.

According to Keynes, the root cause of economic downturns is insufficient aggregate demand. When the total demand for goods and services declines, businesses throughout the economy see their sales fall off. Lower sales induce firms to cut back production and to lay off workers. Rising unemployment and declining profits further depress demand, leading to a feedback loop with a very unhappy ending.

The situation reverses, Keynesian theory says, only when some event or policy increases aggregate demand. The problem right now is that it is hard to see where that demand might come from.

The economy’s output of goods and services is traditionally divided into four components: consumption, investment, net exports and government purchases. Any expansion in demand has to come from one of these four. But in each case, strong forces are working to keep spending down.
CONSUMPTION The Conference Board reports that consumer confidence is near its record low. It is easy to understand why consumers are so scared. House values have declined, 401(k) balances have shrunk and unemployment is up. For many people, the sense of economic uncertainty is greater than they’ve ever experienced. When it comes to discretionary purchases, like a new home, a car, or a washing machine, wait-and-see is the most rational course.
A bit more saving is not entirely unwelcome. Many economists have long lamented the United States saving rate, which is low by international and historical standards.

For the overall economy, however, a recession is not the best time for households to start saving. Keynesian theory suggests a “paradox of thrift.” If all households try to save more, a short-run result could be lower aggregate demand and thus lower national income. Reduced incomes, in turn, could prevent households from reaching their new saving goals.

INVESTMENT In normal times, a fall in consumption could be met by an increase in investment, which includes spending by businesses on plant and equipment and by households on new homes. But several factors are keeping investment spending at bay.
The most obvious is the state of the housing market. Over the past three years, residential investment has fallen 42 percent. With house prices continuing to decline, increased building of new homes is not likely to be a source of robust demand over the next few years.

Business investment has lately been stronger than residential investment, but it is unlikely to pick up the slack in the near future. With the stock market down, interest rates on corporate bonds up and the banking system teetering on the edge, financing new business projects will not be easy.

NET EXPORTS Not long ago, it looked as if the rest of the world would save the United States economy from a deep downturn. From March 2004 to March 2008, the dollar fell 19 percent against an average of other major currencies. By increasing the price of foreign goods in the United States and reducing the price of American goods abroad, this depreciation discouraged imports and bolstered exports. Over the last three years, real net exports have increased by about $250 billion.
In the coming months, however, the situation may well go into reverse. As the United States financial crisis has spread to the rest of the world, fast-moving international capital has been looking for a safe haven. Ironically, that haven is the United States. Since March, the dollar has appreciated 19 percent, a move that will put a crimp in the export boom.

GOVERNMENT PURCHASES That leaves the government as the demander of last resort. Calls for increased infrastructure spending fit well with Keynesian theory. In principle, every dollar spent by the government could cause national income to increase by more than a dollar if it leads to a more vibrant economy and stimulates spending by consumers and companies. By all reports, that is precisely the plan that the incoming Obama administration has in mind.

The fly in the ointment — or perhaps it is more an elephant — is the long-term fiscal picture. Increased government spending may be a good short-run fix, but it would add to the budget deficit. The baby boomers are now starting to retire and claim Social Security and Medicare benefits. Any increase in the national debt will make fulfilling those unfunded promises harder in coming years.

Keynesian economists often dismiss these long-run concerns when the economy has short-run problems. “In the long run we are all dead,” Keynes famously quipped.

The longer-term problem we now face, however, may be more serious than any that Keynes ever envisioned. Passing a larger national debt to the next generation may look attractive to those without children. (Keynes himself was childless.) But the rest of us cannot feel much comfort knowing that, in the long run, when we are dead, our children and grandchildren will be dealing with our fiscal legacy.
So what is to be done? Many economists still hope the Federal Reserve will save the day.
In normal times, the Fed can bolster aggregate demand by reducing interest rates. Lower interest rates encourage households and companies to borrow and spend. They also bolster equity values and, by encouraging international capital to look elsewhere, reduce the value of the dollar in foreign-exchange markets. Spending on consumption, investment and net exports all increase.

But these are not normal times. The Fed has already cut the federal funds rate to 1 percent, close to its lower bound of zero. Some fear that our central bank is almost out of ammunition.
Fortunately, the Fed has a few secret weapons. It can set a target for longer-term interest rates. It can commit itself to keeping interest rates low for a sustained period. Most important, it can try to manage expectations and assure markets that it will do whatever it takes to avoid prolonged deflation. The Fed’s decision last week to start buying mortgage debt shows its willingness to act creatively.


It is hard to say how successful monetary and fiscal policy will be in avoiding a deep downturn. But as events unfold, you can be sure that policymakers in the Fed and Treasury will be looking at them through a Keynesian lens.


In 1936, Keynes wrote, “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slave of some defunct economist.” In 2008, no defunct economist is more prominent than Keynes himself.

foz said...

Just spent Monday through Friday in Bend and there were three instant observations. It was incredibly quiet, no traffic and downtown was dead, even on Wednesday night which is usually a big bar night just before Thanksgiving. The second thing was that roads on the westside are in the worst shape that I can remember. The third thing is that NWXing is like a ghost town. No cars, nobody walking around. The little coffee shop seems to be doing alright and La Rosa was mildly busy but a long way from full. That place has to have huge overhead.

Anonymous said...

Breaking news: Buster wrong again.

http://bendbulletin.com/assets/PrecinctFolo-g1_113008.pdf

Voting by precinct. Bend is Dem and almost every precinct in Bend went for Obama.

Deschutes county is repub, but Bend is dem.

Fuck off.

Anonymous said...

Just Say No!

http://www.ci.bend.or.us/depts/community_development/planning_division_2/current_bpc_packet.html

click on link* to review the agenda for the upcoming Bend Planning Commission meeting on Monday, December 8TH at 5:30PM and pay particular attention to items number 4.1 and 4.2.

Planning Division wants to grant developers extension after extension to get through these tough economic times. But what does this do for the surrounding neighborhoods of wannabe projects and community-at-large? What does this do for the locals if the project no longer makes sense years on down the road, but approval is still in place? Does it makes sense to extend approvals to build a rocket ship to some far distant planet if that planet no longer exists?

(4.1 references a broad range development code tune-up and 4.2 highlights one section in the tune-up -- the extension of land use development approval or of a phase.)

Get your comments into COB by 12/1 to Colin Stephens and Aaron Henson re: PZ 08-308 & PZ 08-494. cstephens@ci.bend.or.us and ahenson@ci.bend.or.us

*go to COB website and click on Planning Commission agenda if link at this site does not connect.

tim said...

I've been to La Rosa three times and it was packed every time (except for the bar, which seemed empty).

tim said...

>>The local population has quadrupled in the past 20 years, but the town's core of 70,000 are friendly and eager to get outside and play.

Hey, want to go out and play?

Anonymous said...

Glad you mentioned Mumbai homer, lets remember that its basically like New York or Silicon Valley, and they talk out the finest hotels, and the finest people.

Good show, one up for team anti-USA.

A lot of campers ain't happy with the ameriKKKanization of their country.

I expect this kind of shit very soon as well in Dubai,

Mumbai has always been the high-tech capital of India, and they have been bitch slapped big time.

Yes, its going to go Nuclear now with India invading Pakistan with no pre-text and the USA ramping up on Paki in the west.

tim said...

It may well get bad with India and Pakistan, but if I remember correctly, India has the largest population of muslims in the world. A major move against Pakistan could incite a lot of internal messiness as well.

Anonymous said...

Buster is not a PUG, buster wish that Deschutes Co wasn't PUG, ... The majority of Deschutes for Palin, what can I say?


If Bend voted for Obama good for them, buster voted for OR-BOMB-EO, just cuz BUSH was such a fucking asshole, the OREO will also be an asshole, but WTF this is the USA.

Ask any fucking old timer, Bend has been fucking PUG forever.

Anonymous said...

For any of you KUNTS that eat BULLshit, you might not know about MUMBAI, but if you bored 'google high tech mumbai'.

... Homer is right this is a very big bitch slap on the terrorist vs anti-terrorist game-plan, ...

A.
Hightech Marketing Corporation
- www.highmark.co.in - +91 22 24379187 - more
B.
High Tech India
- qualcost.com - +91 22 26204526 - more
C.
High-Tech Digital Imaging Studio Inc
- maps.google.com - +91 22 26742094 - more
D.
High Tech Enterprises
- maps.google.com - +91 22 28360092 - more
E.
High Tech Flavors
- maps.google.com - +91 22 24372164 - more
F.
Hightech India
- maps.google.com - +91 22 23002933 - more
G.
Hightech Refrigiration&Aircondition
- maps.google.com - +91 22 23867614 - more
H.
High Tech Rubber Machinery
- maps.google.com - +91 22 28507673 - more
I.
High Tech Rubber Machinary
- maps.google.com - +91 22 28507673 - more
J.
Super High Tech
- maps.google.com - +91 22 28815410 - more

Anonymous said...

OK FUCKING HOMER you said you fixed the NO-FOLLOW but sure as fucking HOMER SHIT if you view page source, there it is every fucking comment and source on your fucking blog is 'nofollow'.

What is your fucking problem HOMO??

foz said...

tim said...

I've been to La Rosa three times and it was packed every time (except for the bar, which seemed empty).

Yeah it could have just been that it was Thanksgiving week.

I was planning on going over and checking out the new place in the old Mill district Martini Bar but never got around to it. Anyone been there?

Anonymous said...

>>The local population has quadrupled in the past 20 years, but the town's core of 70,000 are friendly and eager to get outside and play.

Hey, want to go out and play?

*

This is fucking targeted to CHICAGO, are they in effect saying that all in BEND are fucking 'players', that we want to go out in the woods and wife-swap? What the fuck??

The population is 4X, and we all want to go out and 'play' with the fucking tourists, who in the fuck writes this shit??????????

Anonymous said...

"If there is deer and elk season, how come Bend doesn't have a tourist season"??

Anonymous said...

How about it HOMER, how come everybody else can fix the fucking NOFOLLOW, but not you??

What is the fucking problemo??

Anonymous said...

Sub Rosa SUCKS DICK worst fucking marghritas on the planet, they used koolaid, and fucking bad tequila, its not even tequila they use, and the food don't get me on the food.

If you think Sub-Rosa is mexican, then your probably a KUNT that thinks olive-garden is Italian food.

Pleeeeeeeze, lets remember there is only two mexican joints in Bend worth eating, or perhaps 3, and they be taco-stand, super-burrito, and rigoberto's, and they be damn good food, all others are fucking chain 'costco food', which for most of you dumb fucking renters is probably the closest you ever get to non canned food, well except that everything at sub-rosa comes out of a can.

As far as high end goes, Bend doesn't have a fucking high-end Mexican place, in fact Bend really doesn't have any place that's really good, I know the blacksmith is ok, but only cuz everything else in Bend is so bad.

Anonymous said...

I was planning on going over and checking out the new place in the old Mill district Martini Bar but never got around to it. Anyone been there?

*

The martini-bar in the old-mill burnt down and got shut-down, now they're back to the downtown location, very popular with cougars and kids.

It's a fueling station, but there is no food, worth eating.

Even the fucking Deschutes brew-pub is going to shit, I was there a fw days ago, and there were four women in a row there at the bar, and everyone of them has asses 3-4 wide, over-lapping the seats, you never saw that shit years ago, ... Bend is fucking sad.

Anonymous said...

And despite all of its tourist draws and attractions, the town hasn't lost its hometown feel.

*

If your idea of 'home' is fucking Walmart, Costco, and Lowes, Home-Depot, and strip-malls, come to Bend and feel at home.

Anonymous said...

PDF votiing results from above, ..

blue indicates a D4 2004-46% 2008-51%

Regarding the KUNT flaming over about how great BEND is DEM, look at the facts, in 2004 Bend was 46% DEM, and now 51%, another words a hairs-ass improvement that only a SORE reader would love.

foz said...

burned down (burnt)??

Jim had the locks changed because he wasn't getting the lease payment. He never left the downtown location. He sold the the new one to Jamie and Mike and they struggled. The cost of that building went way over budget and the lease payment reflected that. The music upstairs was a draw but there were complaints from the motel that sits right above it and music was never in the original permit.

foz said...

>>If your idea of 'home' is fucking Walmart, Costco, and Lowes, Home-Depot, and strip-malls, come to Bend and feel at home<<

I agree there is no "home town" feel to bend anymore. Not sure there ever has been. Maybe the 2 or three block area downtown. The strip mall feel is the same pretty much where ever you go in this country. That is what happens when your whole economy is based on buying junk.

Bewert said...

Anyone curious about the Planning Commission approval extension stuff, I put up a post about it on juniper-ridge-info.blogspot.com

I have yet to see a homeless person on a corner with a sign in Salt Lake.

Anonymous said...

>Regarding the KUNT flaming over about how great BEND is DEM, look at the facts, in 2004 Bend was 46% DEM, and now 51%, another words a hairs-ass improvement that only a SORE reader would love.

Or, you could read what it actually says, which is the Dems had a 51% lead in that district. For you math challenged people it would mean D4 went about 24.5% repub and 75.5% Dem.

No matter what you read, that's a huge gap.

You should actually read instead of just yapping your gums. It would benefit us all.

Bewert said...

Also, just paid $1.51/gal for gas. I can't remember the last time I paid that little.

Bewert said...

Also, just paid $1.51/gal for gas. I can't remember the last time I paid that little.

foz said...

Where was a buck 51? Was that from that meth head that siphoned my tank when I was there? I think the lowest I saw when I was there was 1.89

Anonymous said...

Not only was Buster wrong about Bend being dem, he swore that the rural areas around sisters were where most of the Dem votes in Deschutes county had to be coming from.

D14: 13% lead to McCain
D45: 3% lead to McCain

Buster is an idiot. An idiot of the most dangerous kind - one that thinks if he raises his voice enough and calls you enough names it will prove he is right. But he's wrong, and he just looks like an asshole.

I don't care about the fact he is an asshole, I want to know WHY!!! We must always ask the WHY!!.

Buster, WHY are you an asshole?

Bewert said...

$1.51/gallon at the Holiday/Chevron on the corner of 90th South and State.

Anonymous said...

Buster doesn't raise his voice so you will think he is right. He raises his voice so you won't question him, but you should always question him because he is usually making shit up.

Did you know that 47.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot? It would be closer to 12.3% if buster would shut the fuck up.

Anonymous said...

because he is usually making shit up.

*

No, he's not making it up. He's actually right. If you are early 20's with perfect credit and have a bank that wants to loan you at 4% for 15 years then you SHOULD be out there buying really nice West Side homes that are well taken care of. Oh, they can't be foreclosures and probably not on the market. You need to find the people that have lots of equity and are willing to sell it to you at the same price as recent foreclosures to make it all pencil. And lord knows that people that have lots of equity and have taken care of their West Side homes are dieing to sell at rock bottom prices.

So if you can fit within that criteria...fuckin a' you should buy 12 of them.

And since as someone already said, Buster has a hammer. It's all he knows so that is all he's able to swing.

foz said...

so is my math right? I get confused with so many zero's. But with 8 trillion in bailouts and about 200 million adults in this country couldn't they just have written us each a check for 40K and let us bail out the economy?

Anonymous said...

>so is my math right? I get confused with so many zero's. But with 8 trillion in bailouts and about 200 million adults in this country couldn't they just have written us each a check for 40K and let us bail out the economy?

But the only thing that would accomplish is devaluing the dollar... oh... wait.... shit.

Anonymous said...

>No, he's not making it up. He's actually right. If you are early 20's with perfect credit and have a bank that wants to loan you at 4% for 15 years then you SHOULD be out there buying really nice West Side homes that are well taken care of. Oh, they can't be foreclosures and probably not on the market. You need to find the people that have lots of equity and are willing to sell it to you at the same price as recent foreclosures to make it all pencil. And lord knows that people that have lots of equity and have taken care of their West Side homes are dieing to sell at rock bottom prices.

You forgot that you have to have 30% down on each one, because true investors do it that way. Since they will always hold their value at 4x income that would be about 68k, or 75k after closing each.

So you just need to be in your early 20s with 225k to buy your first three and you will be set. Can't do that? Wow. you are a moron. just read the fucking book.

Anonymous said...

You forgot that you have to have 30% down on each one, because true investors do it that way.

*

Damn, forgot about that one. You also have to have time to manage and upkeep these properties as Lava mentioned. I obviously haven't finished the book yet.

So it's someone very young with loads of cash and lots of time on their hands. Sounds like Buster is marketing to the Trustafarians in town. Too bad most of those in town that I know are too busy recreating to take his sage advise.

Anonymous said...

All you fucking KUNTS will be forever miserable.

You will never have joy in your life. You will never smell wild lavender. You will never meet you soul mate. You will never feel the wind in your face as you shuss down the slopes or carve singletrack. You will never enjoy the fine taste of you favorite wine, microbrew, or locally roasted coffee. You will never laugh. You will never have wonderful dinners with friends. You will never have children and learn the magnificence of parenthood.

Why? Because you are a loser renter, and nobody likes to be around you. Especially those that are going underwater on their real estate.

Bewert said...

Bitter, much?

LavaBear said...

>>>You will never have joy in your life. You will never smell wild lavender. You will never meet you soul mate. You will never feel the wind in your face as you shuss down the slopes or carve singletrack. You will never enjoy the fine taste of you favorite wine, microbrew, or locally roasted coffee. You will never laugh. You will never have wonderful dinners with friends. You will never have children and learn the magnificence of parenthood.


Wow, that's kind of funny. I've done a shitload of the things you mention and NONE of it has anything to do with me renting a house right now. The reason I'm in this town is because I have many, many friends and family here. It's where I'm from. It's where I want to raise my kids. And I'm not really miserable. Actually the opposite of it.

The part I find the funniest about your statement....the pals I have in town these days that are miserable? The owners who are underwater. They like tossing beers with me because I'm not miserable and I may buy now and again.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

OK FUCKING HOMER you said you fixed the NO-FOLLOW but sure as fucking HOMER SHIT if you view page source, there it is every fucking comment and source on your fucking blog is 'nofollow'.

True. I did not put them there, and I hope you DO NOT believe that, so you work your panties into a bunch.

And I am MILDLY curious why they are there again. I took them out of the Expanded Template long ago. They ain't there. They were NOT there last wk. Now they are. Dunno.

If you want to believe that I even GIVE A FUCK, well then you go ahead. I don't, and I did not put them there... I don't care THAT much.

BFD... so this blog ain't indexed. Big Deal.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Because you are a loser renter, and nobody likes to be around you.

See. This Bubble is ruining lives. Fuckers get bitter.

Ain't never happened before, probably won't happen again... but for now, for this 10-20 year span, the lowly, poor disheveled ass-wipe renter is kicking the fuck outta home owners, many of whom are decent, but a large number are irresponsible pricks whose FICO is fucked for life.

Cheers, my bitches.

Anonymous said...

"So if you can fit within that criteria...fuckin a' you should buy 12 of them."

in a town with few jobs that'll have many fewer in the coming years? who's going to rent a house in a town without jobs? they'll go empty or rent for pennies. better to buy rental properties someplace where people can find jobs.

Anonymous said...

I name name is suzie. I'm new in Bend, I'm a renter, and I want to meet new guys. I prefer guys who rent. They make me feel smug, very smug. I'll be at Bend Brewing tuesday night. You'll know me, just ask for suzie.

Anonymous said...

If you want to believe that I even GIVE A FUCK, well then you go ahead. I don't, and I did not put them there... I don't care THAT much.

*

Will somebody here with a fucking brain that knows how to use a fucking computer, pleeeeeze explain to HOME-LESS-HOMER Bend's biggest fucking poverty pimp bitch how to fix his fucking blog?

Somebody? How about it quim? Lava? Apu? Any of you? I have tried a dozen times, walked the fucking homer through the html-template for blogger, and still the KUNT can't fucking fix his blog.

Anonymous said...

The part I find the funniest about your statement....the pals I have in town these days that are miserable? The owners who are underwater. They like tossing beers with me because I'm not miserable and I may buy now and again.

*

Lava I want you to buy me a beer.

Anonymous said...

Because you are a loser renter, and nobody likes to be around you.

*

This is not really true.

HOMER is the biggest loser renter in Bend, and look at his fucking blog!

It's full of miscreants, Homer has lots of 'friends'.

A dumb fucking loser renter in Bend, that is like the old line 'why do I repeat myself'.

Look around, there aren't many Bledsoes in Bend, but we fucking grow loser-renters on rocks.

Nirvanna, now if we can only get Lava to buy our beer.

Anonymous said...

Buster, WHY are you an asshole?

*

Ah shucks, I give up, let me think , ahh I know now, lets see, ...

Bill gates is an asshole, larry ellison is an asshole, Buffet is an asshole, I have never met a fucking industrial fucking business leader that wasn't an asshole, ... hell to me being an asshole is a badge of fucking honor.

I think everyone wants to be an asshole, but most men live lives of quiet desperation. ( Emerson )

A few men can say what they feel, act how they think, ... a very few, to the sheep, they appear to be assholes.

To me an 'asshole' is someone who tells you what they really think, a rare bird in a nation of parasitic grifting cock-sucking shit-eating, knee-dragging losers.

Did I mention Bend?

LavaBear said...

>>>Nirvanna, now if we can only get Lava to buy our beer.

It's just that Suz doesn't get it. Monday's at Deschutes is where you'll find me. Probably buying a few.

Anonymous said...

I have yet to see a homeless person on a corner with a sign in Salt Lake.

*

I have yet to see a MORMRON on this fucking blog other than the PUSSY report from SLC.

Pussy put the funny underwear back on your head.

Anonymous said...

Anyone curious about the Planning Commission approval extension stuff, I put up a post about it on juniper-ridge-info.blogspot.com
-bp

*

Your no different than HOMER you fucking BRUCE-PUSSY, why don't you read the fucking comments on your blog? You don't, you never will.

About the same time you read the comments on your blog, is about when homer will figure out how to fix the 'nofollow' on his blog.

Lastly, let me say something on this demise of RE-BLOG's as an endangered species, HOMER you are no fucking threat to the RE world of Bend, your blog is fucking pathetic, there is not one fucking thing to do with Bend on your blog.

You a poverty pimp, and always have, your the city's best kept secret weapon, keep everyone in the dark and feed them shit, you BP should get a room when he gets back from SLC.

LavaBear said...

>>>Lava I want you to buy me a beer.

Sorry, I'm from old school Bend, OR. There is no such thing as 'a' beer. It's either 15 or it's none.

Anonymous said...

The part I find the funniest about your statement....the pals I have in town these days that are miserable? The owners who are underwater.

*

That's funny lava, cuz the biggest problem I have in this town, is getting out of being invited to wine&dine party's every fucking night of the week, I want to go on killer hikes and bikes everyday, and if I wine&dine, I don't get up in the AM til late, ... and I like to get up early, my idea of a good time is 7pm, in bed.

Once in awhile I go out to friends home and 'dine', and I'm telling you, all the people I know up at broken-top, .... are still fucking partying every fucking night, the money is still flowing, but hell most the people I know are 50+ retirees, that never have to work another day in their lives, and they moved to Bend in the last 5 years, and they bought a house, and they spend most of their time traveling and I don't hear nobody talking about economy, sure a few comment about the 50% loss in the stock, but most have bonds and have seen no loss.

The people I know go jog everyday 10-20 miles, and/or mtn-bike, most them do gourmet every night. Everyone has wives, and they're all beautiful.

If there is fucking poverty in Bend, its only for those that have job.

The biggest single change I have seen in the last two years is that the average wine has gone from $50/bottle to $20/bottle; that said people are now buying wine that they like rather than being sold.

Sure I'm there every monday at Deschutes have been for years, but the place is going downhill.

Personally that's the the biggest change I'm seeing is that the wives do the shopping at TJ's, or Newport, or Whole-Foods, and the guy bike/hike everyday, and the nightlife downtown is OUT,GONE,FUCKED, now everybody is doing @home dining with friends, good to me, I always thought that the ALL the restaurants in BEND sucked. Big time.


The women all do yoga, spin classes, taiji, ... you name it looking good, I don't know a fucking fat woman anywhere, but I go into downtown Bend and they seem to grow them.

Anonymous said...

There is no such thing as 'a' beer. It's either 15 or it's none.

*

15 jubels? or 15 abyss?

Hell even HOMER likes abyss,

I can do 2 jubels if I drive and 4 jubels if I bike, which is 90% of the time, if I do more than 4 jubels then I try to ride the rail of the little foot-bridge going over the deschutes, and I generally get wet, a few times coming down the stairs going through drake park I have done endo's.

15, tell us how you do it??

Deschutes is 20oz pints, and the jubel is 6.7%,

Anonymous said...

better to buy rental properties someplace where people can find jobs.

*

Nobody is suggesting that this conversation is directed towards you, as you wouldn't even meet the renter criteria, let alone purchase criteria.

LavaBear said...

>>>15, tell us how you do it?

After 4-5 I lose all track and then the bill shows 15. But we typically end up at the D doing shots before that happens. Marge knows what I'm talking about.

Anonymous said...

lord knows that people that have lots of equity and have taken care of their West Side homes are dieing to sell at rock bottom prices.

So if you can fit within that criteria...fuckin a' you should buy 12 of them.

*

There are always people that need to sell, but remember that most of 'us' paid on average of $30k for our homes back in the 1980's.

So even in these times, $150k is a nice tidy profit, sure its not $500k ( 2005 ), but for most folks that will not return in their lifetime if they're in their 60's or later.

Even up into 1998 and a little later you could still pencil, in 1998 you could buy a nice home for $120k.

On my street the avg person paid $30k for their home, thus even at $150k if they had to sell today, they would fell like they made a profit.

To me most of BP's REO's REPO's bank fodder, that shit is all gutted, and ransacked, where the turds remove all the fixtures, plumbing, copper, appliances, ... nobody wants that shit its all in siberia, and it all was bought top dollar for nothing down. Run quick from that shit.

Anonymous said...

>>>15, tell us how you do it?

After 4-5 I lose all track and then the bill shows 15. But we typically end up at the D doing shots before that happens. Marge knows what I'm talking about.

*

You don't get head from BP at the D? Do you? Let's see 4-5 20oz pints at deschutes, and on over to the D&D, and then upstairs to Bledsoes cigar shop?

Shots at the D&D, and then why not have greasy breakfast at about 2am, ...?

I like to feel good in the AM, shit I would crawl under somebody's car for a week if I did shots after 4 pints.

Anonymous said...

better to buy rental properties someplace where people can find jobs.

*

Hell yes, but if BEND is your base-camp, then you make do with what you have, if you live in BEND, and you got a hammer ( actually dees days me prefer the dewalt 18v screw-gun ), I only use a hammer anymore for demolition.

Bend sucks renting, but that just makes it more interesting, and destroys the competition quicker.

Renting is ONLY about screening, screening, screening, and screening.

My screen makes the FBI background check look like a fucking joke.

Anonymous said...

Planning Division wants to grant developers extension after extension to get through these tough economic times.

*

Normally everything the city-hall does reeks, but extending a building permit to somebody that already paid the full amount that can't get the job done by an artificial time by a clock somebody pulled out of their ass.

Why aren't we talking about Suterra? This issue reeks of a made-to-order non-issue.

NOTE, as always, BP originated this non-issue.

Bewert said...

Re To me an 'asshole' is someone who tells you what they really think, a rare bird in a nation of parasitic grifting cock-sucking shit-eating, knee-dragging losers.

###

Yeah, it's easy to spout shit when you remain an anonymouse. Just keep on piling it deeper and higher, Buster.

Note that I did respond to your comment on my blog earlier--pointing out that you didn't bother to actually read my post, as your first eight words made clear.

I would normally now simply put in "Dumb ass." But that has become redundant at this point.

Bewert said...

Re:...but extending a building permit to somebody that already paid the full amount...

Dumb ass.

If you actually bothered to read the code change, you would realize that it extends the time they have to actually get a building permit.

Here, let me repeat this from the Memo again: "...keep their planning approvals active until the market allows them the financial ability to submit their building permits, pay their SDCs and commence construction."

What part of that did you not understand?

These guys have already had two years to get a building permit. Now they want to wait indefinitely. Until it is convenient for them.

Meanwhile, we have empty weed-filled lots surrounded by cheap fence, ala Mercado and that shithole downtown around Bend Brewing.

Get a fucking clue. Or at least read enough to have one.

Bewert said...

What pisses me off the most is the blatant diregard for any real public process. The city staff put documents online that show the outcome is predetermined. What the public wants is of no concern.

Bewert said...

disregard

Anonymous said...

If Bend 2008 were made into a movie I believe Buster should be played by Rodney Dangerfield.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Redmond Citizens Armed For Christmas


Down Seventh Street, at Cent-Wise Sporting Goods, sales clerk Jaidon Caffro said people used the promotional dollars to buy from him as well.

Caffro, 17, has worked at the shop for more than a year and said this weekend was busier than last year at the same time.

The big sellers were weapons like semi-automatic rifles and handguns, Caffro said. He said the store is having a tough time getting more of some models, like AR-15 rifles, from manufacturers.

Buyers are worried, he said, that a ban on some weapons might be reinstated after the new president is sworn in.

By Sunday afternoon, the store only had one AR-15 left in stock.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

I have to admit, my initial foray of Holiday Hyper-Consumerism took place at the Redmond Monster Wal-Mart this weekend.

The place is huge. And packed with trailer park hotness. Big hair & tight, TIGHT wranglers. Me likey.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

The spending data covered Thursday, Friday and Saturday as well as projected numbers for Sunday. It showed that more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and Web sites over the weekend, up from 147 million shoppers last year.

These people have been talking to COVA to learn the fine art of ESTIMATING.

17% Increase? Bullshit. These changes are measured in Small Percentages. NOT 17%. No Way.

Anonymous said...

I don't get no respect, hic - bart

Anonymous said...

How can Bend be made into a movie when KUNTS like HOMER make sure that this blog is invisible to the world.

Doesn't everybody see that HOMER has created a honey-pot where everybody just pisses in the wind.

'gorbachev, take down the wall' - raygun

'homer kunt, remove the no-follow ' - rodney

Anonymous said...

Here now think about this for a MOMENTO KUNT's, you got the prez of CHINA telling folks the truth, could you imagine just for a moment if the US were a NAZI paradise for liars?


Get ready for a rough ride from world recession, Chinese President tells party

Jane Macartney in Beijing

The Chinese President has issued a rare warning to the ruling Communist Party, telling his officials that the global economic downturn is so severe that it could shake its 59-year grip on power.

President Hu Jintao's remarks, at a weekend meeting of the ruling 25-member Politburo, appeared on the front page of the party's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily. It was his bluntest message yet delivered on the crisis to China's 1.3 billion people and more than 70 million members of the party.

The subtext of his speech was the increasing risk of social unrest caused by China's rising unemployment, as a slump in exports leads to factory closures and a fall in property sales results in abandoned construction projects.

The President, who is also the head of the Communist Party, said: “In this coming period, we will starkly confront the effects of the sustained deepening of the international financial crisis and pressure as global economic growth clearly slows.” He said that the slowdown would “steadily weaken our country's traditional competitive advantages”.
Related Links

* China can no longer save world

* China's richest man in economic crimes inquiry

The speech is the most authoritative warning yet of the blow dealt to the world's fourth-largest economy by the international financial crisis. Tens of thousands of migrant workers at failed factories are already heading back to their farms, and economists say that the real drop in export orders may not be felt until early next year.

Mr Hu said: “Whether we can turn this pressure into momentum, turn challenges into opportunities, and maintain steady and relatively fast economic development ... is a test of our Party's capacity to govern.”

It is unlikely that the President expects a challenge serious enough to force the party from power. But his warning is evidence of anxiety over a threat to social stability, and is almost certainly a reminder to regional authorities that they must maintain order by stepping in to resolve popular grievances. Protests over factory closures, particularly in the most developed southern coastal zone, have erupted in recent weeks.

Most have involved enraged workers, as their employers skip town and leave their wages unpaid. But the tens of thousands of others heading back to their rural homes for the Chinese new year in late January could add to the threat if they cannot find new jobs in the cities on their return. China's top economic planner, the chairman of the Cabinet's National Development and Reform Commission, gave warning last week that the impact of the global financial crisis was worsening and that rising job losses could fuel instability.

China's leadership has said on several occasions over the past decade that popular anger over official corruption poses the most serious threat to continued party rule. It is unusual for a government that has placed the economy above ideology for three decades and which has ensured sharply rising incomes to issue such a stark alert over living standards.

The message that people may not be able to expect greater prosperity with each passing year is a particularly unpalatable one for the party to deliver. Since the death of Chairman Mao and the end of the ultra-leftist chaotic Cultural Revolution in 1976, the party has effectively based its legitimacy on its ability to guarantee growth. The urban middle class has largely focused on Deng Xiaoping's exhortation that “to get rich is glorious”, setting aside any demands for more checks and balances on Communist Party rule.

The party had begun to shift its focus towards more equitable growth and greater environmental sustainability, but this shift may face pressure as officials scramble to shore up growth - and jobs. The Government has unveiled a 4 trillion yuan (£381billion) fiscal stimulus package to counter the global financial crisis. Some of those funds - pre-allocated under other programmes - are already flowing into the economy.

President Hu said that it was now more urgent than ever to transform China's export-driven, resourceirresponsible development, although growth was also more crucial than ever. “Under current conditions, we must keep an even tighter focus on economic development,” he said.

Knowing that China can no longer rely on exports, the Government is eager to boost the domestic consumer demand that was a major engine of growth in the 1990s. A nationwide rebate scheme to encourage rural residents to buy more refrigerators, washing machines, colour televisions and other domestic appliances will be expanded to 14 provinces from today and nationwide from February.

Anonymous said...

China see's that they have stuff times, and they're going to do something about it, to keep Mao's 1,000 yr plan on order.

On the other hand the USA has every intention of running the country into the gutter, and returning to a pre-civil war plantation state & prison colony.

"Send your convicts to the USA", ... "USA becomes one big fucking Guantanamo Bay".

Anonymous said...

If you actually bothered to read the code change, you would realize that it extends the time they have to actually get a building permit.

*

FUCK YOU BP, why should their be a time limit on a 'building permit'. Just another fucking racket.

You I'm the first to pile on the builders, but that said I have built lots of houses in the past forty years, and I say FUCK-YOU to people like you that say "I MUST RUSH MY PROJECT".

Anonymous said...

Where is the BP PUSSY this week? Salt Lake City, at the annual MORMRON black-friday-under-wear sale.

Then he has the audacity from UTAH to tell us in ORYGUN how to live, this fucking MORMRON just got here, and thinks he own's ORYGUN.

Now he sits back in SLC, and tells us what to do, go put your funny-under-wear over your head and run on the FWY BP.

Anonymous said...

se guys have already had two years to get a building permit. Now they want to wait indefinitely. Until it is convenient for them.

*

List YOU GOD-DAMN socialist mother fucking anti-gun MORMRON fucking carpet bagger. Two years is not enough time to build a quality home. It's people like you that create the environment we live in, there is no fucking RUSH for anything BP, stay in UTAH and fuck little mormron boyz in the ASS.

Anonymous said...

Tell BP, PUSSY, Smither's, ... Tell us how to live in Bend.

While you like a parasite, live off your wife that works part-time in a failed and for-sale bike-shop.

Then add insult to injury, you do your posting from Salt Lake City, can you type while your giving Joseph Smith an ass rim with your tongue?? Do they let you sit on them gold plates? Is it like heaven to be in SLC? Do they let you have 24 virgin little boyz everynight? Mormron Heaven??

Your boring BP, very boring, but you love your name, and you being the center of attention on an invisible blog.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, we have empty weed-filled lots surrounded by cheap fence, ala Mercado and that shithole downtown around Bend Brewing.

*

So fucking what? There are laws against weeds in Bend, fire laws. If you pubic hairs that you didn't shave are so worked up, why don't you file a complaint with the 'fire dept', come on PUSSY?

Pick your fucking wars, your entire history BP is and always has been to keep the peoples eye off the ball.

The weeds next to Bend Brewing were there before you moved here PUSSY, it doesn't bother us, don't let it make your mormron under-wear give you a wedgy.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe the PUSSY today, he sits in SLC ranting about weeds, and we got a container of plywood heading to Bend.

I wonder if the pussy will get himself all worked up when all of downtown is plywood, like it was 25 years ago??

A few weeds, pleeeze pussy, lets talk about Suterra.

Maybe you can get the city to pass a law that owners of land have to buy herbicides from Suterra, and keep Suterra in biz, not that they make herbicides, but it would be an easy switch from Zyklon-B to Round-Up.

Anonymous said...

The city staff put documents online that show the outcome is predetermined. What the public wants is of no concern.

*

Sorry all the PUSSY shit this AM, but the SLC boredom must have made the pussy go astro, and thus I must react to his pussy shit.

PUSSY on this relevation of yours, in my 40+ years of ORYGUN, I can tell you this is how city-biz is done in ALL fucking ORYGUN city's always has and always will,

All public meetings in ORYGUN are quid-pro-quo, meaning the that outcome has already been pre-ordained, ...

Tell BP, since you just got here, and are all worked up about how stuff works in ORYGUN, how the fuck are things done in UTAH? My bet is that the only difference is that the MORMRON CHURCH lay's down the quid-pro-quo, ...

No place, ever does anybody care about the 'people', if you believe that then your a dumber pussy than you let on.

Maybe the pussy can file a 'complaint' and send it to Salem,OR so the AG can get a good laugh??

Anonymous said...

It showed that more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and Web sites over the weekend, up from 147 million shoppers last year.
17% Increase? Bullshit. These changes are measured in Small Percentages. NOT 17%. No Way. - homer

*
Read closely 'web sites', I think that's the issue here, they shouldn't be mixing physical with virtual.

I'm sure virtual is up, as we all know, computer prices have dropped, and 'visiting', so fucking what.

The only useful data would be 'visits' to physical stores YOY going back to see the trends. Fuck the internet, that's whole other racket.

The real issue is that western country's have on the avg 3sq-ft of retail space per person, while the USA has 18-sq-ft per person, that is the thing to watch, strip-mall ghost towns, ...

Anonymous said...

If the council took the “nuclear option” as city staff referred to it, the city would lose its annual $1 million federal match for the program.

*

Federal BLOCK-GRANT put in place by KURATEK&GARZINI, and that is why BAT is kept alive, and there are more block grants available, even if its a toy bus system, this town always wants and needs matching cash from the FED's, how it gets spent is irrelevant, income from any source dictates decisions in this town.

Anonymous said...

HBM, so much 'change', I want to vomit.

The Wall Street Journal

Dec. 1, 2008

Barack Obama unveiled his choice of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, saying her nomination is "a sign to friend and foe of the seriousness of my commitment to renew American diplomacy and restore our alliances."

He also officially announced that he would retain Defense Secretary Robert Gates and would name Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security, Eric Holder as attorney general, retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones as national security adviser and Susan Rice as ambassador to the U.N.

Anonymous said...

We're fucked, the skinless, boneless chicken ranches are now imploding. Who would have guessed?? Too much chicken??

The Wall Street Journal

Dec. 1, 2008

Chicken producer Pilgrim's Pride said it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, blaming a deep downturn brought on by high feed costs, an oversupply of chicken and softening consumer demand.

Anonymous said...

More on CHICKEN, biggest news today, ... and you ain't seen nutting yet!!!

Pilgrim’s Pride Seeks Bankruptcy on High Grain Costs (Update1)
Bloomberg - 5 minutes ago
1 (Bloomberg) -- Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., the largest US chicken producer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection along with five affiliates after rising

Anonymous said...

HOLY FUCKING SHIT THE BIG ONE TODAY!!!!! THE US GOVERNMENT ECONOMIST's have declared we be in a recession, who would have guessed??????

The Wall Street Journal


Dec. 1, 2008


The U.S. entered a recession in December 2007, according to the official recession watchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER economists met on Friday and declared the end of the expansion that began in November 2001, lasting 73 months.

Anonymous said...

Close by Bend, killer deals at Bed, Bath, & Beyond (BK) Cuisinart for -80%, killer deals if you cook.

Anonymous said...

HBM,

Another note regarding 'bob', the NO Bob Woodward tags are down real low.

Yesterday I did the 'shelter loop' on mtn-bike.

Swede, Meisner, Shooting-Star, a few others, you start at skyliner, the funny thing is every fucking shelter had a homeless group living in them, some had permanent hammocks. Tons of pickup trucks up there on the roads and trails, this late snow and cabins of full of wood, the word must have gotten spread to the homeless community.

The forest service really needs to gate the swampy & meissner trailheads, otherwise all the cabins will get burnt down. Once the firewood is gone, these guys will use the cedar-shakes, and trim for firewood.


The forest-service has volunteers stock all these cabins with firewood, and kindling in the fall, and the way its going by the time the snow falls and these 'homeless' can no longer drive to the shelters all the firewood will be gone.

The point of these shelters ( actually nice little cabins ) is that you ski to them in the winter, and then sit by the fire, before you ski back to the car, or where ever.

Sort of interesting.

In all my years I have never seen all the shelters taken over.

Ok, back to BOB, last year every shelter had a 'NO BOB' scratched, this year nobody has made the mark, so it looks like that hysteria has passed.

Anonymous said...

If the council took the “nuclear option” as city staff referred to it, the city would lose its annual $1 million federal match for the program.

*

Federal BLOCK-GRANT put in place by KURATEK&GARZINI, and that is why BAT is kept alive

.....

It's actually more interesting than this now, GARZINI & KURATEK put this all together back pre 2004, and they rushed to have any old fucking bus in place to get the FED money, of course the Buses didn't work, but who cares? This is Bend.

Now we're fucked, technically you must return the money, ... this city has set itself up to an incredible FALL, by letting Garzini & Kuratek let them grab those Federal Block Grants.

Free federal money, just like city's selling CDS's using their good name to get $5M up front for 'credit swap' bets on future interest rates, its all good now or 2004, but some day in the future you must pay the piper.

Anonymous said...

HEY KUNTS,

So tell me WHY does HOMER want this blog to be invisible to the google search engines?????

It makes no fucking sense??

Tell me why??

I know, I know, BP says don't worry about 'why' about anything, ... Since when do the KUNTS here do what BP tells them to do or think??

tim said...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27994326

Buffett's style of investing is dead

Anonymous said...

"The Warren Buffett approach is dead and it's been dead for ten years and it's going to be dead for another ten years," Faber said Monday.

*

I love YOU APU, but lets acknowledge, that BUFFET has never in 10+ made money buy BUY&HOLD long term.

BUFFET has been selling 'credit swap' default bets for the past 10+ years by the TON, buffet is the biggest writer in the country, and their is NO HOPE ever of him making good on them.

This news release is COMPLETE FUCKING BULLSHIT, its a cover for BRK.A implosion, to blame the stock-market, and NOT buffet for gambling with other peoples money.

Buffet BET that interest rates would go up, and Fortune 500 never go down, and BUFFET bet wrong, now he has to make good on all the insurance premiums he took up front or BK, or get bailed-out.

Anybody want to bet that BUFFET soon calls BRK.A a 'bank holding company'????

Anonymous said...

APU,

TELL me why HOMER wants this blog to be invisible to the GOOGLE search engines??

Anonymous said...

MOUNT BACHELOR, Ore. — Deep powder is standard issue at Mount Bachelor, a West coast favorite that averages 400 inches of snow per season, just 20 miles from the outdoors haven of Bend, Oregon.


*

Yes, but the whole article is about shopping in town.

Besides, why this late in the cycle, promote a ski area that has no snow??

Somebody, I mean COVA Bend taxpayer paid a lot of money, to get every fucking newspaper in the world to print this story as news.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, if anybody searches google for 'bend oregon', they will NEVER find this fucking blog-site,

Homer has made sure of that.

tim said...

>>BUFFET has been selling 'credit swap' default bets for the past 10+ years by the TON, buffet is the biggest writer in the country, and their is NO HOPE ever of him making good on them.

I mentioned this once earlier, and I know you did, that Buffett doesn't DO what he SAYS. What Buffett does is mess with futures (remember his silver play?), get distressed companies to sell him warrants, and every other little trick that comes to him (he is brilliant and focused) to increase the value of BRKA.

What he did at the start is not what he does now. People like to think he's got this simple system, but he's a shark that adapts amazingly well to changing waters.

If you aren't Buffett, don't try to play his game, because you're playing his game from 30 years ago.

tim said...

I drove 4 different routes through the passes in the last 2 weeks. Dry as a man's nipple, all around.

Anonymous said...

I mentioned this once earlier, and I know you did, that Buffett doesn't DO what he SAYS.

*

Yes, but we got your article today, that says 'game-over', for a game that has been over for thirty years.

This is news??

I think it was you APU who said he held BRK-B, e.g. baby berkshire, you going to hold that shit??

I can see 'buffets holding company' imploding very quickly.

Buffet has never done what he say's, he say's he is a student of Graham, old fashion, value, ... but if your read 'graham', and watch what buffett has done since the 1960's, there is a fucking disconnect.

Yes, buffet does what he does very well, and that is sell swamp-gas to the believers, and today, the game is over.

SELL.

Anonymous said...

Here's a good intellectual article by George Will for all you PUG KUNTS that know how to read.

***

The Colossal Collapse of Conservatism


Conservatism has become obsolete. Social progress and the practicalities of governance have revealed the fundamental and fatal flaws of conservative thought. Conservatives today are like followers of a religious cult milling about confused the day after their leader's prediction of Armageddon failed to materialize. The immediacy of the problem is clear as normal life goes on. The failure reveals a fundamental flaw in the sect's belief system, but the failure simply cannot be denied in the light of the new day's dawn.

Republicans face a similar dilemma trying to justify the abject failure of their founding ideals in the face of a confounding reality -- the success of liberalism. Like cult members who sold all worldly possessions in anticipation of the Rapture, Republicans stand naked in the cold wind of change, grasping for a way to explain away their failed vision for the future. A clear sign of decay is their desperate appeal to twisted and contorted logic to shore up the movement's crumbling foundation. This becomes starkly evident in the Wall Street bailout through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), an effort inspired and implemented by a Republican administration and supported by a critical mass of conservative allies on the Hill.

Before we can understand how TARP reveals conservatism's soft white underbelly, though, we need to go back to a more fundamental problem. The United States was founded on revolution, a violent break from tradition through radical and sudden change. Conservatism is the disposition to preserve what is already established. If conservatism had prevailed in the 1770s, we would all be British subjects now, answering to the Queen. We are Americans precisely because radical liberalism won the day. Commentator George Will, in a fit of dyspeptic rationalization, tried to suture this fatal gaping wound in the flesh of conservatism with the oxymoronic and absurd notion of a "conservative revolution." Will's formulation is a futile attempt to merge two incompatible concepts to save the founding ideals of his philosophy from the ash heap of history. We might accept some inherent contradictions like "jumbo shrimp" or "found missing," but no revolution is ever conservative.

Fast forward to the year 2008, where we find conservatives floundering on the shores of the Bailout Sea. In deepest and most troubled waters is the drowning ideology of Republican icon Ronald Reagan, who famously said that government was the problem, not the solution. Yet his disciples turned immediately to government when Wall Street imploded. They act like an adolescent boy strutting his independence who runs back to daddy at the first sign of trouble. The Republican bailout constitutes failure at two levels. First, the crisis itself is a consequence of conservative prayer at the altar of deregulation, which allowed subprime lending and nearly $1 trillion of hidden credit default swaps to corrupt our economy. Second, these failures, caused by a fundamental flaw embedded in conservative ideology, are solved by taking actions anathema to conservatism: government intervention.

And now we come full circle. In the face of this obvious failure of conservatism in an economic meltdown caused by conservatism, Republicans find themselves trying to justify their continued existence with a fresh appeal to the same logic that led to the ridiculous notion of a "conservative revolution." For symmetry, we can again look to George Will for conceptual contortions that would do a gymnast proud.

Will claims in a recent editorial that while a Republican administration began the bailouts, conservatives only supported the effort "grudgingly...and with uneasy consciences." He then conjectures that it is "probable" that "some" Democrats "relish this eruption of government into finance and industry." Based on this unsubstantiated conjecture, he concludes that the Republican bailout "serves the left's agenda of expanding the scope of politics by multiplying the forms of dependency on government."

Well now. He excuses the Republican appeal to government because the Party does so with some guilt, even as they throw another $800 billion onto the stinking pile of rescue money. He blames Democrats for expanding government, even though they are not responsible for doing so, because they might in theory support the Republican action. That is analogous to a judge letting a murderer go free because the killer felt guilty, while sentencing the victim's survivors to life imprisonment because it is "probable" that "some" thought the killer deserved to die. To justify their existence, Republicans have been reduced to asking us to ignore the actions and deeds of their Party, because they feel queasy about what they are doing, while drawing negative conclusions about Democrats because they might not feel as queasy as Republicans do about Republican programs. Anybody with a pulse can see that this logic is absurd and desperate. Yet that is all the Republicans have to hold onto now in the face of their unambiguous failures.

Republicans have failed not because of poor execution, but because they are acting on a philosophy deeply and fundamentally flawed. Without conservatism, we would not have benefitted from the American Revolution or had to suffer the horrors of the past eight years under George Bush. Without liberalism, blacks and whites would remain segregated; women would not vote; blacks would not vote; we would have little or no religious tolerance and our civil rights would be threatened, just as we see happening under Bush. That is the ugly world that conservatism sought to protect from change. In the history of our great republic, only liberalism pushed us toward greater enlightenment from the dark days of bigotry and intolerance. Conservatism, protector of the status quo, resisted the very changes we now take for granted, proving the ideology as wrong then as it is now.

I will continue to plead that we once and for all reject the ridiculous myth that Republicans are the party of small government and fiscal responsibility. We must never forget that Republicans have overseen the largest tax increase in U.S. history under the leadership of Ronald Reagan. Reagan was responsible for the most bloated growth of the federal government. Reagan created, with his proposed budgets (not that of Democratic Congress), the largest debts and deficits in history at that time. Now we have Bush, a Republican who epitomizes financial mismanagement. He ballooned our debt to $10 trillion and exploded our deficits in an orgy of prolifigate spending with no off-setting revenue. But all of those travesties under 16 years of Republican rule are OK because Republicans feel "queasy" about their prolifigate spending and government expansions even as they continue to gorge at the trough. Democrats are to blame for these Republican excesses because some might not feel guilty about Republican spending.

George Will, along with many Republicans, makes a critical mistake about liberalism. He confuses liberalism with big government because doing so helps perpetrate the failed myth of conservatism. Liberals support a woman's right to choose, a view to limiting government's role in our personal lives. Liberals support limiting the police powers of government in search and seizure. Liberals seek to limit the government's ability to hold American citizens without trial and without the benefit of habeas corpus. Liberals want the government out of our bedrooms, working to overturn laws that prevent consenting adults from enjoying the partners of their choice in the privacy of their homes. Yes, anti-sodomy laws are on the books in 15 states. Liberals literally want the government off the backs of its citizens. Republicans oddly decry "tax and spend" Democrats who seek fiscal responsibility in government, while conservatives go on a wild rampage of "borrow and spend" on the backs of their grandchildren.

Liberals and conservatives alike seek to limit the role and power of the government, and both groups support bigger government when an expansion supports their cause. Enough already with the nonsense that Republicans are responsible fiscal stewards and Democrats are big tax hounds dedicated to the "expanding scope of politics." Just read our history, or review the actions of our government over the past eight years, and you simply cannot draw that conclusion. Republicans have failed the test of practical governance.

George Will is one of the conservative movement's most articulate and thoughtful spokesmen. Even he, though, cannot overcome the reality of failure in spite of his Herculean effort to contort the truth. His verbal assault on logic represents the terminal gasps of a dying philosophy. The need to go to such extremes to explain Republican behavior is evidence of inherent rot and decay, and the impending collapse of conservatism.

Anonymous said...

Sweet 8% drop today in the DOW,

Who would have guessed?

Anonymous said...

Twisted Shrub (W-BUSH) told us Korea,Iran, & Iraq were the bad guys, now OREO tells us that SE-Asia is the bad guys, the eye of Sauron has turned.

Interesting that a motley crew of some of the poorest people on earth, could be the biggest threat to the most powerful nation on earth.

I think what OREO is really saying is that SE-MUSLIMS being the majority of Muslims in the world are the greatest threat to christian rule of the Islamic world.


***

Obama says S.Asia is chief threat to US
Reuters - 3 hours ago
CHICAGO (Reuters) - US President-elect Barack Obama said on Monday militants based in South Asia represented the biggest threat to the United States and he was "absolutely committed" to eliminating the threat of terrorism

Anonymous said...

I drove 4 different routes through the passes in the last 2 weeks. Dry as a man's nipple, all around.

*

All the mtn-biking trails all over the cascades are perfectly dry, and packed.

Never been a better winter for summer sports.

Only in Bend would the city spend tons of good money on advertising about snow on mt-b all over the world.


The good news is they ain't coming.

Anonymous said...

So now the OREO has made the FULL transition to OR-BOMB-EO, new war fronts all over the world.

WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED??

Obama says S.Asia is chief threat to US
Reuters - 3 hours ago
CHICAGO (Reuters) - US President-elect Barack Obama said on Monday militants based in South Asia represented the biggest threat to the United States and he was "absolutely committed" to eliminating the threat of terrorism

Anonymous said...

Bend is the Aspen of the west! Real Estate prices are a complete STEAL here. If I were a lame-o renter I'd buy IMMEDIATELY.

Quimby said...

Ah shucks, I give up, let me think , ahh I know now, lets see, ...

Bill gates is an asshole, larry ellison is an asshole, Buffet is an asshole, I have never met a fucking industrial fucking business leader that wasn't an asshole, ... hell to me being an asshole is a badge of fucking honor.

I think everyone wants to be an asshole, but most men live lives of quiet desperation. ( Emerson )

A few men can say what they feel, act how they think, ... a very few, to the sheep, they appear to be assholes.

To me an 'asshole' is someone who tells you what they really think, a rare bird in a nation of parasitic grifting cock-sucking shit-eating, knee-dragging losers.

Did I mention Bend?


GOSPEL FUCKING TRUTH !

The minute you're out of debt and financially independent, you suddenly feel free to speak your mind.

DEBT IS SLAVERY

Anonymous said...

Why would the town poverty pimp ( homer ) want to run an invisible honey-pot?

It defy's all logic?

Anonymous said...

Speaking your mind only shows you to be an asshole if you really are an asshole.

Anonymous said...

Bend is the Aspen of the west! Real Estate prices are a complete STEAL here. If I were a lame-o renter I'd buy IMMEDIATELY.

*

Well not quite, Aspen is in the west, and Aspen is a town of billionaires.

Bend is in the west and its a town retirees and parasitic losers who serve them.

In Aspen the losers ( renters ) have to commute from miles away, as you actually have to be rich to live in Aspen.

In Bend any loser can live, and as most people who have spent any time here will tell you they have never seen so many feel-sorry for themselves losers.

Aspen has a world class Institute of higher learning, famous people from all over the world come to the Aspen Institute 24/7.

Bend is a town of hair-lips, tire retreaders, and pesticide manufacturing.

Bend is NO Aspen.

Only Billionaires can buy RE in Aspen. In Bend, just about any regular guy that hasn't fucked his credit can buy a crap shack for about $200k. That said 90% of bend's citizenry has fucked their credit.

Bend is NO Aspen.

Sorry, even Lame-O-Renter can't get a MTG in Bend.

Bend is NO Aspen.

What leads to the question. What is Bend???

Bend is a desert Island of a town, inhabited by cargo-cultists who wait for their boat to come in, many have been waiting for generations.

What is Aspen? Aspen is a well planned, and designed town that has 100's of patrons, and is a who's who of the richest and most powerful people in the world.

Bend is NO Aspen.

Given there never has been jobs in Bend, and that most kids in Bend, as soon as they grow up leave. The rhetorical question is, where is the best place for a lame-o-renter to live???? Where can an unemployable hair-lip, with no education, make his $7/hr and live like a king?? Even I don't have an answer to that question.

Last time I looked into the stat's something like 42% of the people in Aspen have PHD's. In Bend it is 0.042% ( made it up, but its actually lower ).

Bend is NO aspen.

Given there are no jobs, I think a lame-o-renter would be better suited in Burns or Lakeview, you can rent a nice little home for $400/mo, and work at Les Schwab. Given that most people who actually 'work' in Bend either flip tires, burgers, and Suterra barrel's, its a fair bet if they can get a job in Bend, that they could get a job in Burns or Lakeview.

Anonymous said...

Speaking your mind only shows you to be an asshole if you really are an asshole.

*

An 'asshole' is someone who tells other people, what they don't want to hear.

I'm an asshole.

Bend is a town of hair-lip, parasitic losers, ... There the truth, now how come I'm not free?

Your supposed to be set free if you tell the truth.

No, afraid not.

George Seldes, the greatest journalist in the past twenty years used to say "Tell the truth and RUN like hell".

Anonymous said...

Humans are like dogs, dogs are comfy when everything is the same.

Like the old black sheep.

Whenever you disturb the pack, or the status quo, you will be hated, its always been this way,

So fucking what.

None of you cowardly fucking KUNTS have told me why HOMER keeps this blogsite invisible.

Anonymous said...

Why would the town poverty pimp ( homer ) want to run an invisible honey-pot?

It defy's all logic?

Quimby said...

>> None of you cowardly fucking KUNTS have told me why HOMER keeps this blogsite invisible.

I just figured out how to use this "mouse" thingy so don't look to me for help with HTML templates!

Anonymous said...

The minute you're out of debt and financially independent, you suddenly feel free to speak your mind.

DEBT IS SLAVERY

*

Since a child, I have always thought that USA meant United Slavery Amalgamated.

I'm sure that most men in the USA are in debt their whole lives, and thus always tremble in fear of losing their income to service their debt.

Anonymous said...

I just figured out how to use this "mouse" thingy so don't look to me for help with HTML templates!

*

Not out homer, he's an MBA, he's a big time computer consultant, he big guy in world of PERL.

Anonymous said...

>> None of you cowardly fucking KUNTS have told me why HOMER keeps this blogsite invisible.

I just figured out how to use this "mouse" thingy so don't look to me for help with HTML templates!

*

No about six months ago, we explained to home-less homer, how to fix his html-template, and he did so, but then about a week later, it reverted to default.

NO, he made the explicit decision, to keep this site invisible, and this was LONG before he was allegedly 'outed', which we still don't know if that event was true.

Anonymous said...

This board is so easy to troll it bores me.

Anonymous said...

Dunc,

Actually takes the same approach with his blog, "If they higher powers, want me to be invisible, who am I can go against the force?"


....

The funny thing is everybody else but HOMER & DUNC, have removed the no-follow, now dunc, I can understand, cuz under all the fluffy kiss persona is Ned Flanders, who really wants to be a good dog in the animal kingdom of boss-hoggs, ...

But HOMER, who publicly condemns the status-quo, why would he roll over and play dead?? When he only has to remove the no-follow??

Just doesn't make any sense, unless HOMER really is a PUSSY, like some here have said.

Quimby said...

>> I'm sure that most men in the USA are in debt their whole lives, and thus always tremble in fear of losing their income to service their debt.

BINGO!

Only a few (3%?) will introspect enough to know this about themselves and their situations.

Anonymous said...

This board is so easy to troll it bores me.

*

You must be under 50, think about that for an hour, then you might get an erection.

Remember sonny, most of the folks here are old enough to be your grandfather.

Trolling on a senior citizen blogsite, now go to the martini-bar and tell the RE-HO's, maybe you get laid, hell $10, and troll and you can get a mojita.

Anonymous said...

Except now it's the government that trembles that we may not be able to service our (collective) debt.

LOL

Why should anyone tremble? The government will bail us out and if you have bad credit it's more like "who doesn't?".

Time to eat the rich, they've had it a long time coming. haha

Anonymous said...

You guys should remember the parable of the vineyard, you're all good x-tians. The guy who showed up LAST got paid the same as the guys who worked ALL FUCKING DAY. That is reality folks.

tim said...

>>I think it was you APU who said he held BRK-B, e.g. baby berkshire, you going to hold that shit??

I held a couple BRKB shares for years. But I sold it a few years ago. Realized I can just read the shareholders letters right off the Internet if I want.

I still think he's smart as hell. But the way people look at his holdings of Amex and Coke and Washington Post well, they're missing 90% of the picture. That's not what BRKA is all about.

What it's all about is float from insurance and buying companies and getting favorable warrants because of his power and influence, not about common stock.

If you want to call me a dummy, go ahead. I don't know shit. I'm just saying people fool themselves when they think they understand things. Usually, the superficial understanding is what knocks them dead. A healthy does of awareness of your limitations is more profitable.

Too many people think they have too much figured out. Especially young people (but everyone).

tim said...

>>None of you cowardly fucking KUNTS have told me why HOMER keeps this blogsite invisible.

Butter is a mystery to me.

Quimby said...

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security

Troops against our own folks in times of "trouble". Making it sound like its for terrorists....BULLSHIT. It's for controlling the panic when the system melts down.

BBB = Bullets Beans & Booze

Anonymous said...

What it's all about is float from insurance and buying companies and getting favorable warrants because of his power and influence, not about common stock.

*

Yes, to me what he's about is writing 'covered puts', 99% of the time you keep the money when you sell puts, because buying puts is statistically a fools game.

The problem is 'puts' is a tiny several billion dollar market, this KUNT buffet-berkshire has built a $500TRILLION dollar 'credit-swap' insurance program, by taking premiums 'selling puts' against all kinds of 'improbably events', trouble is the 'black-swan' finally fell out of his ass, imagine that.

Now all these 'insurance holding companys' are on the obligation for trillions, that they don't have, and thus bail-out time.

I hope berkshire investors take it in the ass big time.

Anonymous said...

ok, lava see you at deschutes, monday happy-hour $3 pints, and then shots @ d&d were going to do the the LOTR 'drinking game' tonight,

Anonymous said...

BINGO!

Only a few (3%?) will introspect enough to know this about themselves and their situations.

*

Almost 150 years ago Ralph Waldo Emerson said ...

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation"

How much has change in the USA?

Anonymous said...

$69 for Bachelor on Saturdays? Yeah, someone's getting sixty-nined, all right.

$69 just won't fly, mark my words. $39, maybe.

Anonymous said...

Bend is no Aspen? Yeah, good thing that... even better, Bend is no Yellowstone Club. That pup is on its back as Tim and Edie Blixseth fight it out.

Anonymous said...

>>Troops against our own folks in times of "trouble". Making it sound like its for terrorists....BULLSHIT. It's for controlling the panic when the system melts down.

BBB = Bullets Beans & Booze<<

Yeah Quim, you got that right. It's heads down from our own government. They are ready to lock up any that don't get in line when they say so.
On the invisable subject..it is better to be invisable. When I raised sheep..OK back awhile..One night the coyotes came in(whilst I was asleep) and killed, ate drug off, 15 of my ewes and lambs. It was really creepy. So I had to become invisable in the pasture, with my sheep. Built a small blind, dressed warmly, I knew the F***kers would come back. Locked and loaded...fell asleep and awoke to coyote sniffing at my head. Scared the pee out of me. Still had 3 weapons which quickly came out and began picking the wyley beasts off with crimson sites and CCI pistol blasts.
One is never really invisable. Especially on the net..let alone in a pasture.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Butter is a mystery to me.

No mystery, really.

I'm rich & creamy, and most people can't believe I'm not me.

Anonymous said...

Especially on the net..let alone in a pasture.

*

Ok, I give up marge & homer are really really married, only a fucking PERL expert would think that the net is a fucking reality.

Anonymous said...

So let's understand marge & homer theory of invisabanility, that if you be invisabanil to the commen folk you be invisbanal to the gubmint, yeh, and you wonder why centrol-OR folk become extinct, and thee ostriche bloom?

Anonymous said...

All points Bulletin, the Bend police are on the lookout for a heavily armed women named Marge in DRW.

Crime? Don't matter, andybod with this mcuh buuuze, butter, rum, & condominiums must be breaking th e law.

Anonymous said...

OK, lava where were you??

I be @ deshutes farm 7p to 9p, an d d&D til 01000pm, and da hsots kep flu'ing, and whar do you?

i'b be hoem now are youa stil itnfkin abut goin ut in dirkn tanigh?t??

I'm be readde,

Quimby said...

Sounds like you lost the LOTR drinking game Bart!

Anonymous said...

I went to Bend city council tonight and talked to mike about Bruce Ewert.

Mike had interesting story to tell, he knew bruce, turns out bruce died five years ago.

So who is posting from salt-lake-city using bruce's name? I ask mike?

Mike said he knew of the guy married to the bike shop woman at NWA on Galvesston, but that he had gone back to Utah months ago.

Sounds like our Pussy has done a Homer on us.

Anonymous said...

You should habe been dar quim,, I knew that somebun of y wud sho, bu hes, how be yanko tha everbuy be dar ????
Lav,apu,but, i love but, he was wearing a sw ar inujan oufit, takling shitet.

but do best is da killer shods 2 Dnd, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, willll se ya allldar nex mon$$eay
ab

bad noonse is dat da paints a@ deschTUE s now 3.25, a fukc=ng quarter, fuck innnnnn REOE infaglation ya?

Anonymous said...

No mystery, really.

*

Best little invisible HO house in Bend.

Quimby said...

3.25, yeah, up by .25 cents for WHAT REASON????

Yeah, that sucks. Were you one of the midget dudes near the kitchen?

Bewert said...

So what happened at the CC meeting tonight? There doesn't seem to be an agenda for one. I'm curious.

And I'm back.

Anonymous said...

Midget pussy is the only available pussy in Bend, they're coming by the busload from LA.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Now, for a wondrous story of fairies, goblins, princes & princess, and a pot of gold over the rainbow...

Ford sees at least breakeven in 2011

(Reuters) – Ford Motor Co said on Tuesday it expects overall and North American automotive business pretax results to break even or be profitable in 2011.

Highlights:

* Says submits business plan to Congress

* Says plans electric vehicles

* Says will sell its corporate aircraft as part of overall cash improvement

plan

* Says asking for access to up to $9 billion of bridge financing

* Says does not anticipate a liquidity crisis next year, barring a bankruptcy

of one of its domestic rivals * Says hopes to complete its transformation without accessing government loan

* Says company plans call for investment of about $14 billion in the US on

advanced technologies and products for fuel efficiency over next seven years

* Says in discussions with UAW to further reduce cost structure

* Says to provide more details on electrification of vehicles at Detroit auto

show

* Says CEO Mulally would work for $1/yr salary if Ford does access funds

* Says canceling all 2009 bonuses for management worldwide, bonuses for all

employees in North America

* CEO Mulally says government loans to serve as 'critical backstop'

* Says to continue to reduce its dealer and supplier base, estimates it will

have 3,790 dealers by end of 2008

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

* Says does not anticipate a liquidity crisis next year, barring a bankruptcy


Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Says will sell its corporate aircraft as part of overall cash improvement plan

Man, I don't know which Representative asked those auto clowns about corporate jets, but the fucker is going to SHUT DOWN Cessna, with a mega-glut of corp jets in the aftermarket!!!

Anonymous said...

Yep, BB2 the secret blogsite nobody will ever find.

That homer got balls,

He always says the comments are the best part of BB2, but he goes out of his way to hide them from google or any other search engine.

Yep, that homer got balls, he knows that mean people who run Bend, will never come after him, cuz bitching in secret is like pissing up wind.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Says CEO Mulally would work for $1/yr salary if Ford does access funds

Lee Iaccoca... you magnificent bastard!

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Says canceling all 2009 bonuses for management worldwide, bonuses for all employees in North America

Notice that 2008 Management Bonuses are going out, even if it means shutting down the company....

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

He always says the comments are the best part of BB2, but he goes out of his way to hide them from google or any other search engine.

Jeezus... why do I answer this crap...

Dude, the nofollow's are on the tags around Blogger registered users ONLY. Not you, or other anon commenters... so WHY DO YOU CARE?

Check the source. Only around registered users, and most of those links GO TO DEAD PAGES!

Dude, seek counseling. I'm not sure you even know what these nofollows mean, and if you do, you don't seem to realize that the search engines that DO NOT follow them, are basically NOT WASTING bandwidth going to a bunch of useless pages like this one (for QUimby):

Profile Not Available

The Blogger Profile you requested cannot be displayed. Many Blogger users have not yet elected to publicly share their Profile.

If you're a Blogger user, we encourage you to enable access to your Profile.


That's ALL THERE IS. You want Google to INDEX THAT?

OK, that's what is NOT BEING INDEXED. Check the source. And take some ritalin or some shit. You're going bonkers.

Anonymous said...

Dude, the nofollow's are on the tags around Blogger registered users ONLY. Not you, or other anon commenters... so WHY DO YOU CARE?

*

All the blogs that deal with RE in the area other than YOU & DUNC have removed the NO-FOLLOW, what it does is makes your blog invisible to google search engines. Why do you care to be invisible is the question??

Even BP removed the no-follow from his template, and so did marge, but not homer.

What is the point in this day & age of having an invisible blog??

Anonymous said...

The 'nofollow' tells all search engines not to cache.

Thus nobody searching 'bend real estate corruption' will ever find these blog's, given that you have no-follow enabled.

What most people now do is 'haloscan' which is much better than blogger, and automatically places the comments on cache. The problem is existing blog's cannot transfer old comments to 'haloscan'. Note blogs like portlandhousing.blogspot.com use haloscan.

Given that we're STUCK with blogger, and that that google in the last year put in the no-follow by default, it must be over-ridden.

Anonymous said...

Dude, the nofollow's are on the tags around Blogger registered users ONLY. Not you, or other anon commenters... so WHY DO YOU CARE?

*

There are three no-follows in each template, they all need to be removed. They all do different things.

Why do you care to have stuff invisible??

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

From Dunc:

Which, as I've said in Christmas pasts, is kind of scary because it really comes down to about 10 days and what happens if there's a blizzard or a terrorist attack or something?

Oy. Dunc, this sort of thing leads to the loss of Bleeding Heart Liberal Merit Badge Points!

Saying that you care more about a bump in sales in comic books over mass loss of life is something you bury deep, deep inside, and never let out. Liberals ALWAYS wail & moan & lament the loss of life ON THE OUTSIDE, while carefully guarding the gnurled selfish beating heart of a Capitalist Pig on THE INSIDE.

We're all the same selfish bastards, but only RePug's can let that stuff out. Liberals keep their hypocrisy busied deep down inside...

Anonymous said...

This shit is amazing.

The pussy doesn't care about 'why'.

Homer doesn't care about being invisible.

Why don't you just write shit, and then hit delete Homer?

The RE bogey man ain't coming after you, the reason you got outed on BEBB is that your a fucking retard, you posted there as a registered user, which automatically made your IP visible to BEBB, who outed you. Only cuz he hates your ass.

BB2 never contains anything that is a threat to anyone in BEND RE, 99.9% of of the stuff on this blog is just childish gibberish.

To me the issue is we write comments on COVA advertising, and it would be useful if our comments were visible to those that were googling about BEND-OR, but HOMER has decided that all the POSTS MUST be invisible.

Go figure.

Who is the worst MOFU nut case in BEND?? Is it costa or homer?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Why do you care to have stuff invisible??

Here I go..

DUDE, I HAVE REMOVED THE NOFOLLOWS REPEATEDLY!!!

Now, I know you want to say that you're looking over my shoulder & I've done it wrong, and a bunch of other crap. But I have gone thru this procedure more than any other human alive, and I know what I'm doing.

Blogger (ie BrinPage) has seen fit to randomly sprinkle these nofollows all over the place. I DO NOT KNOW WHY.

OK, but I DO KNOW that MOST IF NOT ALL are on "Blogger Profile Missing" sorts of pages, that are frankly not worth indexing.

Chill & take Ritalin.

Anonymous said...

The real sales for my store usually come in the second half of the month. Which, as I've said in Christmas pasts, is kind of scary because it really comes down to about 10 days and what happens if there's a blizzard or a terrorist attack or something?-dunc
*
Scary, not really, you get fucked, and santa doesn't fill comics in baby-jeebus stocking, so fucking what?

I think the solution is a complete news black-out the last ten days before xmas, that way no matter what happens, the shopping goes on!!!!

Let's start it this year! If it works, we could do it more often. Be a patriot, turn off your TV 10 days before xmas.

Anonymous said...

DUDE, I HAVE REMOVED THE NOFOLLOWS REPEATEDLY!!!

*

No you haven't and if you have, then you have failed to 'save' your change, or you have failed to do it correctly.

Anonymous said...

It's quite ODD, that ONLY two fuckers in BEND who do RE blogs, have failed to remove the NO-FOLLOW.

Those two be DUNC & HOMER.

Perhaps quim is right, perhaps homer really doesn't know how to use a mouse.

We know that dunc is computer illiterate and thus cannot remove the no-follow from his html-template even if he wanted to.

This can only infer that dunc & homer are the same KUNT.

Anonymous said...

This cyclic kluster fuck has been going on for six months with zero progress.

You simply edit your html template, and remove the 'rel=nofollow', there are three of them, and then you save the template, its best to save it also on your hard-DICK, so that you can replace it later if the no-follow reappears, without having to edit over & over.

Everyone else has done this except you homer.

Anonymous said...

#
I hate TV, but its clear that HOMER is an idiot, and needs a TV. Here homer, here is a site that has a VIDEO showing you how to remove the fucking NO-FOLLOW.

***

Remove Nofollow Links From Blogger | Tushar Dhoot
Blogger and Blogspot blogs come with the nofollow attribute activated by default . In this video tutorial, I show you how you can turn off nofollow.
www.tushardhoot.com/remove-nofollow-links-from-blogger/ - 30k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Comments on: New Blogger, nofollow

Anonymous said...

Buster, why don't you just copy/paste the whole damn comment thread into your own blog, and let the engines search that?

Butter will never live up to your expectations.

Anonymous said...

>Buster, why don't you just copy/paste the whole damn comment thread into your own blog, and let the engines search that?

Or just fucking go away since your words are wasted on this blog.

LavaBear said...

>>>Jeezus... why do I answer this crap...

You answer because it's good humor. Kind of like heading on over to the Special Olympics to watch the races. Fun stuff.

Duncan McGeary said...

"Saying that you care more about a bump in sales in comic books over mass loss of life is something you bury deep, deep inside, and never let out."

Hey, just because you're mad at Buster doesn't mean you should take it out on me!

I may be a computer illiterate, but I think the way to avoid having the 'nofollow' shit reasserted is to have no one posting comments....then blogger won't be worried about 'spam.'

So, write like Buster and you have nothing to worry about....

Anonymous said...

Bend is the ASPEN of the west! A true mountain paradise. Real Estate is a STEAL in Bend. All you hoofers should just make like trees and get outta here.


~THRASHER (who just put new wheels on his shiny red H2 now that gas is back to reality)

Anonymous said...

>>>who just put new wheels on his shiny red H2 now that gas is back to reality

Didn't I key you all the way down the passenger side the other night?

Anonymous said...

Blogger and Blogspot blogs come with the nofollow attribute activated by default . In this video tutorial, I show you how you can turn off nofollow.
www.tushardhoot.com/remove-nofollow-links-from-blogger/

Maybe we can get Ned Flanders & Homer to watch this video???

Anonymous said...

Where were you last night lava? You were supposed to be at Deschutes?

Anonymous said...

I understand why you leave the no-follow in Ned, cuz you don't know what your doing but homer is supposed to be some kind of PERL geeneeASS,

LavaBear said...

>>>Where were you last night lava? You were supposed to be at Deschutes?

And I was. Didn't I buy you those pints? Ah fuck if it wasn't you then who was it?

Bewert said...

After pulling back mortgages and auto loans, what next?

Yep.

Credit-card industry may cut $2 trillion lines: analyst

(Reuters) - The U.S. credit-card industry may pull back well over $2 trillion of lines over the next 18 months due to risk aversion and regulatory changes, leading to sharp declines in consumer spending, prominent banking analyst Meredith Whitney said.

The credit card is the second key source of consumer liquidity, the first being jobs, the Oppenheimer & Co analyst noted.

"In other words, we expect available consumer liquidity in the form of credit-card lines to decline by 45 percent."

Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) represent over half of the estimated U.S. card outstandings as of September 30, and each company has discussed reducing card exposure or slowing growth, Whitney said.

Closing millions of accounts, cutting credit lines and raising interest rates are just some of the moves credit card issuers are using to try to inoculate themselves from a tsunami of expected consumer defaults.

A consolidated U.S. lending market that is pulling back on credit is also posing a risk to the overall consumer liquidity, Whitney said.

Mortgages and credit cards are now dominated by five players who are all pulling back liquidity, making reductions in consumer liquidity seem unavoidable, she said.

"We are now beginning to see evidence of broad-based declines in overall consumer liquidity."

"Already, we have witnessed the entire mortgage market hit a wall, and we believe it will, for the first time ever, show actual shrinkage over the next few months," she wrote.

The credit card market will be 18 months behind the mortgage market and will begin to shrink by mid-2010, Whitney said.

Whitney also expects home prices to continue falling another 20 percent hurt by lower liquidity. They are down 23 percent from their peak, she said.

"In a country that offers hundreds of cereal and soda pop choices, the banking industry has become one that offers very few choices," Whitney wrote in a note dated November 30.

She also said credit lines to consumers through home equity and credit cards had been cut back from the second-quarter levels.

"Pulling credit when job losses are increasing by over 50 percent year-over-year in most key states is a dangerous and unprecedented combination, in our view," the analyst said.

Most of the solutions to the situation involve government intervention, and all of them require more dilutive capital to existing lenders, she said.

"Accordingly, we continue to be cautious on our outlook on US banks."

SUGGESTIONS

In a column in the Financial Times, Whitney suggested four adoptable changes to make a difference.

The first would be to re-regionalize lending, which has gone from "knowing your customer" or local lending, to relying on what have proven to be unreliable FICO credit scores and centralized underwriting, due to the nationwide consolidation since the early 1990s, she wrote in the column.

Expanding the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp's guarantee for bank debt will also help as the banks need to know they can access reasonably priced credit for an extended period to continue to extend new credit lines, she wrote in the column.

Whitney also advised delaying the introduction of new accounting rules, which would bring off-balance-sheet assets back on balance sheet, until 2011 or 2012, as the primary assets that will come back are credit card loans.

Whitney suggested amending the proposal on Unfair and Deceptive Lending Practices that is set to be adopted in 2010, saying restricting lenders' ability to reprice an unsecured loan will cause them to stop lending or to lend less.


We're heading back towards a cash society. For awhile, anyway.

Anonymous said...

On good news, ... US auto's tumble over 40% in sales.

The Wall Street Journal

Dec. 2, 2008

Auto makers continued to post sharp declines in U.S. light-vehicle sales in November. General Motors reported a 41% tumble; Toyota saw a 34% drop, while Ford had a 31% decrease. Chrysler was also set to report weak sales. The dour numbers highlight the pressures facing the auto industry and why the Big Three U.S. auto makers are seeking federal assistance to help them through the current environment. All three U.S. auto makers are slated to submit business plans to Congress Tuesday.

Anonymous said...

So everybody knows, the way homer has this blog setup right now is that all logged-on users their comments are invisible to google search, but all anonymous comments are visible to google search.

Thus if you post something, and want it to back-track to HOMER-COWARD then always post as anonymous.

If you wish that your comment not be publicly available to search engines, then always be logged in as something when posting here.

We have NO fucking idea why HOMER wants it this way, but it might explain why so many people like to be logged in, my guess its an extension to the honey-pot, sort of an incentive for privacy that you login, but with all his widgets you actually lose privacy when logged on.

Homer is a control freak just like BEBB. Someday all those here that use logon's will happily find that homer as logged all your IP's.

Anonymous said...

"Pulling credit when job losses are increasing by over 50 percent year-over-year in most key states is a dangerous and unprecedented combination, in our view," the analyst said.


*


God bless ameriKKKa, more slaves, more frightened men, more cowards, ... Pussy's Unite.

Anonymous said...

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/12/jim-rogers-on-markets-and-bailouts/

very sweet new jim rogers video.

Anonymous said...

Film Oregon Alliance takes queue from COVA - goddamn embarrassing.

I had the opp to attend the Q&A in Sisters with Katherine Hardwicke, director of the "Twilight" movie (she has family here - otherwise it would probably be a cold day in hell before she ever set foot in Central OR). It was interesting and ALMOST a feather in FOA's cap - until the end of the Q&A when they announced they had a five minute video to share with everyone. There's Ms. Hardwicke, the Assistant Director, casting director, etc craning their necks around on stage to watch... a five minute COVA inspired but FLOOID Images produced fluff piece on the lack of shit stink in Central OR. Yes folks, they actually had the BALLS to toss up "300+ days of sunshine" on screen as well as the unforgettable "downtown Bend is shoot ready" with a lingering shot of Franklin Crossing. It was so embarrassing I felt an overwhelming compulsion to apologize for the rest of us. Oh, those of us without our heads up our collective asses...

Bewert said...

On the same site as the Rogers video is this link:

Calculating the Total Bailout Costs

The numbers are staggering. So far, $3.1 trillion has been spent out of $8.5 trillion allocated.

For comparision, last years' entire US healthcare spending totaled $2.3 trillion. Hell, our entire GDP, all of our outputs, totaled $13.8 trillion.

Uncharted waters ahead.

Quimby said...

>> a five minute COVA inspired but FLOOID Images produced fluff piece

Did it involve 100% crane/boom shots? Bob got that crane work down pat!

When all you have is a hammer.....

Anonymous said...

Calculating the Total Bailout Costs

The numbers are staggering. So far, $3.1 trillion has been spent out of $8.5 trillion allocated.

*

Yes, bruce ritholz.com is a great site. Its the first site in all my years of fucking with you people that I ever 'bookmarked' a site, there are dozens' jewel's there.

I really think that HOMER should take their XLS and add it to his next sunday post ( the xls has the only known break-down in the world on the actual USA bailout money spent to date ).

Anonymous said...

Whoops GM just doubled their hand-out bucket.

Let's see, If I promise to make 'smaller comments', and lower my pay, will you folks give me Billions???

***

The Wall Street Journal

Dec. 2, 2008

General Motors presented a turnaround plan to Congress that suggested it is in a more dire situation than previously thought.
As part of a renewed bid to win backing for a government bailout, GM requested a total of $18 billion in federal loans -- $6 billion more than it said it would need a few weeks ago -- and added it needs an immediate injection of $4 billion to stay afloat until the end of the year.

Bewert said...

From the comments on that last link:

“We are not an emergency bank where companies can get money when things take a turn for the worse. That would just be a misappropriation of taxpayers’ money,” [Swedish Enterprise and Energy Minister Maud Olofsson] told Dagens Nyheter.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jlSz_d-DCbzADaQbcl69tQcOXnIg

###

Gad dammit, those fuckin' socialist swedes aren't bailing out their biggest companies, like we are?

That goddamn unAmerican.

This period, the end of the BushCo years, will go down in history as the fleecing of regular Americans. The razing of the social net in favor of the once flush, cashed out, and now failing financial network.

They are cashing out yet again.

Our goal should be trying to map and profit from the coming inflation needed to "retire" this debt.

And, Buster, you are right in one way--as inflation goes up, fixed mortgage payments get easier.

Bewert said...

Re: I really think that HOMER should take their XLS and add it to his next sunday post

Second that.

I've never heard of the guy before.
He's good.

Anonymous said...

Rogers as always is hilarious, my favorite quote is when DILDO ask's him why todays economic meltdown is any worse than recent, ...

He reply's ...

"IN NO TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY, HAVE PEOPLE GOT HOMES FOR ZERO DOWN, AND MANY GOT 4-5..."

Simply hilarious.

"Everybody followed, ... auto's zero-down, yachts zero-down, ... stocks, airplanes, ... not a problem no collateral required" ...

Yep, this is going to cause the biggest credit contraction in human history. Only if the US government becomes the BANK can the current system survive.

Rogers, is rather certain that the DOLLAR is finished. Forever.

That said also on this site ritholtz.com(?) there are some good contrarian opinion's on why it will not be as bad as the great depression, but these are more fund-managers trying to assure investors, ... Like "There's never been a better time to BUY BRK.A". ...

I completely agree with Rogers, right now everything is being SOLD to raise cash, EVERYTHING.

The un-winding will take years.

Anonymous said...

Buster, you are right in one way--as inflation goes up, fixed mortgage payments get easier.


*

If you believe that BP, then you better BUY a home now while you can get 5% fixed money, and do a 15yr if you can.

Volcker is going to be taking over on Jan 20, 2009, and its not going to be pretty.

Anonymous said...

Tanta from Calculated Risk has died.


http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/11/sad-news-tanta-passes-away.html

Bewert said...

Tanta's complete UberNerd Collection here:

http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2007/07/compleat-ubernerd.html

If you really want to understand this arcane BS...

We should, you know.

Anonymous said...

I hope all of you watch all four parts of the above Jim Rogers interview.

He completely lays out survival for the next five years.

This is a keeper.

Anonymous said...

Well I hope your happy homer. Ned Flander's has taken the 'nofollow' story national.

I'll give my take for Ned's behalf.

Like I have said all along here, I liken here and Ned's sites as rocks in the park where all we dogs piss.

We sniff each others scent, and leave our own piss/comment.

Dog's die, they come & go, its the nature of nature.

By keeping the comments invisible to the google 'world', the so called ONLY valuable thing on BB2 secret, means that nobody new ever comes here, it means that eventually as the old dogs pass away there are no new dogs.

Might as well put a big paper bag over this rock or hydrant.

That's my take, who in the fuck knows how or why or what makes homer tick, if he even does tick.

Life for any parasitic system requires a changing host. A host needs a diversified group of parasites, limiting the rock-pissing to the same old internal circle-jerk is not only depressing, it is intellectually lazy.

Pissing up wind is never a long term sustainable approach to living.

Quimby said...

Investor Sues to Block Mortgage Modifications

This guy is my hero!

Anonymous said...

I'll say one for thing about no-follow, just for those who think that they're pissing on this rock and nobody can find them.

Google has many search engines.

The Nofollow is only for the 'public search engines'.

Government and law enforcement search engines provided by google ignore the no-follow.

It's all a silly game, the internet is new, I was working with TCP-IP in the early 1970's, but HTML was around in 1992, and Netscape took off in 1995 with the 'modern browser'. Alta-Visa by DEC was the first good search engine, but google blew them away.

Today we have too much democracy, and the government is learning to control information. I think its a good thing to have information, and thus I'm against allowing the 'nofollow' be the default.

Anonymous said...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20081202/bs_bw/dec2008db2008121173068?ref=patrick.net

The above is quim's hero

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