Sunday, January 18, 2009

Free At Last, Free At Last, Thank God Almighty!

Welp, if it's Sunday morning and I'm hung over, well then it must be time for a post.

And we are Free At Last! Free from endless Jew rants about AIPAC (whatever the fuck that is)? Well maybe, for now. Nope I mean we are free of Gee-Dub, perhaps the Worst President of My Lifetime or any lifetime. My God, what a turd. Nope, we're on to the next guy.
Yup, by this time next week, we'll be an Obama-Nation. OK, this guy is going to have his flaws, but he simply cannot be worse than what we have just endured. Twice! We have only ourselves to blame for the past 4 years.

And I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I am at least a little excited about this guy. I mean we're behind the 8 ball, and GeeDub has been a useless sack of shit. If anything, we could have at least used some Reagan-esque "One for the Gipper" speeches from G-Dub, but we're only getting them from The O-bomber.

Well, not much to do but wait... but it'll be nice to know that the next time I post it'll be with a chain-smoking black dude as our Prez. And we'll also have a Flilf in there too!

"I break with thee... I break with thee.. I break with thee.. and then throw dog-poop on her/his shoes" (Steve Martin... and hbm)

Well, we officially got dumped by hbm. How we'll survive is another issue, but his parting shot was rather interesting:

...why are you afraid to put your name on your posts, asshole?

Oh, I know -- you're afraid Mike Hollern and I will order a "mob hit" on you. Fucking psycho.


I'm through with this blog -- too many psychotic trolls eaten up by hate and spite with nothing to do but vent it here on any target that offers itself. I'll read it, but I'm done commenting on it.

Good bye.


And he seemed pretty serious. I mean he only commented about 30-40 more times, and that was it!

What's funny is that "hbm" really could be anyone. EVERYONE is anonymous on here. I mean, people put "handles" to comments, and some are quasi-public figures that many of us would recognize. But were it not for Buster, I wouldn't have a clue who "hbm" is.

But it's curious Why hbm would make all these statements to begin with. This thing has always been anonymous, for obvious reasons. Read the title: it's a blog about the implosion of really the only large-scale industry in this one horse shithole. And as we've seen, "continued prediction" of it getting ever worse by the minute is not a Make Friends And Influence People sort of recipe.

hbm jokes about MOB HITS... well, everyone who posts on here knows DAMN WELL commenting on here could have almost nothing but negative consequences if identities became known. Even BendBB hides his identity. Curiously he also harvests IP's.

So hbm, your accusations of Anonymous Comments = Worthless Blog, is itself pretty fucking worthless. You, and everyone else here, knows Damn Well the RE Juggernaut would not be above offing someone to clam them up. These fuckers are Killing Themselves over bad deals.

OK next: This idea about claiming that unless every comment is backed up by a litany of Courthouse-Ready facts then it's 100% USELESS, is again Bullshit. Your blog went on and on and on about what a TURD Gordon Smith was. OK, I agree... but none of that shit is PROVEABLE.

But hbm, I can agree with you on one thing: You open up a blog to Zero Moderation, and you're going to get some pretty lame shit, as was witnessed Ad Nauseum in the past weeks comments Re Jew Bullshit. Was that you hbm? Cuz if so, point made. I mean whoever posted that shit makes me want to ease back on the Jew Bashing... whoever posted that inane shit is doing enough J-bashing for both of us. My God.

I've said this over and OVER: I cannot & will not "moderate" this blogs comments. First, I can't do it effectively. There's way the fuck too many comments. I think if I turned my posts and All Comments into a PDF, the thing would stack 3-4 feet tall. Just writing this fucker is hard enough... it's like pushing a gigantic hemorrhoid back in: UNPLEASANT BUT IT'S GOTTA GET DONE.

Second, I would NOT be a good moderator, I wouldn't know what to leave in or out. I probably would have nixed early JR-comments. Even City Hall & City Councilor stuff may have seemed outside the fray. But clearly a hell of a lot of shit that doesn't seem relevant, is. The BAT buses? The water lawsuits? Fuck, we're going bankrupt as a town, and that sort of shit is a prime contributor. The finances of this town & the people in it are very interconnected in ways that aren't readily apparent at first blush.

Finally, I just don't like moderated forums. I mean BEM moderated OUT a lot of my comments back in the day, and I assume others. And a lot of people complained about that, and the fact that NOTHING got posted until he approved it... which goes back to #1. And BEM only had 30-40 comments a week or so. This fucker regularly breaks 500 a week. Without the immediate feedback of Immediately Live Comments, a lot of the vitality & back-and-forth "conversations" would just die.

So hbm, you've got a point: Anon unmoderated forums have their problems, but so do the rest. I actually think that hbm sees the writing on the wall, and sees this blog as somewhat of a "competitor" to TSW. Not in any sort of stolen readership or financial way... but just that Bully-Bashing brings a decent audience for both. For better or worse, our beloved hometown paper is a last bastion of journalistic ethical selling out.

And people are pissed about that. And this forum is Wide Open to bitching about it, something hbm also does on occasion. So he & I are birds of a feather really... but with the advent of blogging & open comments, combined with the irrevocable decline in print papers, there can arise the need to Impugn The Legitimacy Of Any Competitor.

Which is sort of funny. As was said in the comments, this thing ain't about me... people like pics of big tits so they know where the end of my interminable rants are. It's about the comments, good, bad, ugly, or interminably idiotic, Thank You Jew-Busting Buster, or whoever you are.

I do wish there was a solution to this. It would have to be Individual User Moderated though. Something where each individual could blacklist comments from given IP's... not me, mind you. You. Something that would simply mask or minify comments from user-selected IP's, or usernames, or something. I don't know.

As can be seen, No User Tracking System Is Perfect and hence no comment masking system would perfect. Ask Becky Breeze over at BendBB. So I hear you hbm. But you declaring this blog Unfit For Your Pedantry Presence because of the Anony-Troll nature of the comments is simply a declaration that Only Your Opinion Really Counts And It's The Only Opinion That Should Count. Which I have to say, I disagree with.

And you can disagree with me. As vehemently as you want. Cuz the comments are wide open.

Well, you've probably noticed but the Bubble Implosion has started to take a toll so heavy that it's Damn Hard to even keep track of it. Used to be that there would be only one or two decent scale shutterings every month or 3. Now shit is closing, or there are large scale layoffs or hourly cutbacks, happening so often that I can't even keep track of it all.

So, if possible, I need you guys' help to keep track of this stuff for the RIP board, which I am going to make a New Years Style Effort (short-lived) to keep updated. So maybe put in comments the term "RIP" and a list of closed down businesses, or places making layoffs or mandatory hour reductions.

I know the Bully has already instituted mandatory days off each month. I have to agree with this route, if it has to be done. Lots of places layoff people who they have expended lots of money to get proficient at their jobs, and with layoffs, this investment is gone forever, and you have to expend it again when things turn up.

I guess everyone knows that Gottschalks declared Chap 11, something I think Dunc spotted early. And once I looked at it, it seemed pretty clear to me they were going down. You know something is wrong when a company of 60-odd stores spends 3X on one crappy store in Bend OR ($6 mill) over what Wall St values the whole shotting match at (sub $2 mill now).

But anyway, I have a terrible memory, and the failures are coming fast & furious, and are too much to really keep up with. And, of course, rumors are Welcome! I know hbm, I'm opening this thing up to LIARS! Well, it's always been that way, and a whole lot of those rumors had a way of coming true. Even KTVZ has started to "speculate" on the true scale of the Cessna layoffs, cuz the company doesn't want a mass exodus of people they actually want to keep.

So rumor has it's place. Shitloads of the Negative Rumors put here actually happened, and even legit rags like TSW print rumors. But those are supposedly more believable cuz the rumor-monger golfs with hbm, or some shit.

But I would like to know if anyone has heard any other juicy nugg's on Cessna. Last I heard it was another 1/3rd of the workforce, for a total of 2/3rds canned. And it'll happen in March. Is that right?

I know The Bull has instituted 1 Mandatory Day Off per month for everyone. It's my prediction that they will start instituting large-scale layoffs there. Place isn't financially viable otherwise.

On a smaller note, I'd also predict that these "Dinner Express" places will start to close. 4 of these sprang up overnight, and this town can barely support one.

I know of some decent sized gyms are going to close. One is a biggie on the East side. Same reason as above, ridiculous overcapacity.

Walked by the new Subway/Coffee Shop downtown. Very nice inside. Not a single customer though.

I guess everyone knows the "temporary" closure of the Speedshop & Fireside Red are 100% bullshit. Always suspect someone who is closing down for CHRISTMAS. OK, that is retarded.

I know 12 O'Clock Tart is also gone, lunch delivered to you by The Hotness Owner. Too bad, she was hot.

And there probably a long list of other small 1 and 2 man shops like this that are just gone one day. So send them along in the comments with title "RIP" so I can search for them.

OK, you can stop scrolling! You've reached the comments!
I wanna get titty-fucked by Obama!

790 comments:

«Oldest   ‹Older   601 – 790 of 790   Newer›   Newest»
Anonymous said...

Mr. Obama, You Are an Authoritarian
By Dark Wraith
Published at 11:11 AM on 19 January 2009 in Editorial |
Suffer me just one more example of Barack Obama's disgraceful choices for positions of power in his government.

Having already taken an initial shot at Obama's choice for Secretary of the Department of Education by recommending a reading of Greg Palast's article, "Obama Slam-Duncans Education," readers here might want to get some more details about just how outrageously loathsome Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Arne Duncan is by reading Andy Kroll's article, "The Duncan Doctrine: The Military-Corporate Legacy of the New Secretary of Education."

Yes, Arne Duncan — Barack Obama's pick-up basketball buddy — is a real piece of work. He has been terrorizing teachers, turning the Chicago Public Schools into military recruitment camps, bullying kids, and cheerleading No Child Left Behind, that disgraceful, useless mess that has done nothing but turn education into a race to stuff one worthless, standardized test after another down children's throats.

And he is Mr. Obama's choice for Education Secretary, yet another in a litany of wretched appointments that now clearly, unambiguously define what will be the administrative and substantive machinery that will rule this land for the next four years.

Now, let me directly address you, Barack Obama, on the eve of your inauguration.

Mr. Obama, you can take your "hope 'n change" lie and peddle it in someone else's face. You are constructing a center-right government with a whole lot of right and not much of a center, just like I predicted you would.

Congratulations. You suckered the Left, you suckered the progressives, you even suckered some conservatives. You suckered a damaged, hurting, wanting nation with your rhetoric. I would use harsh language to describe those who voted for you, but I just cannot bring myself to do that; not now, anyway. The American people were so desperate to escape the spiral of decay into which this country had been falling because of the Bush Administration that they simply could not see the awful maw of an imprudent choice standing before them in the fineries of salvation and rectitude you so masterfully wore.

You think I was hard on George W. Bush? He was an imbecile — a mean, incurious, cruel, incompetent man of his nature and character; he could not help himself, notwithstanding your professed belief that he is a "good guy."

You are not an imbecile; you ought to know better. Take a hard look at your cabal about whom I have already written and warned: Zionist thug Rahm Emanuel; paramilitary law enforcement enabler Eric Holder; AIPAC and Project for the New American Century maven Dennis Ross; Chicago slumlord Valerie Jarrett; Israeli military violence apologist Joseph "I Am a Zionist!" Biden; agri-business shill Tom Vilsack; war management flop Robert Gates; and Federal Reserve Open Market Committee bagman Timothy Geithner, to name just a few. And let us not forget your comfort level with a couple of the worst of the Bush people serving as holdovers: that wrecking ball of privacy rights, Robert Mueller, from whom you could demand resignation (oh, yes you could), and monetary policy failure Ben Bernanke, whose tenure you could repudiate for his staggering mismanagement and malfeasance (thereby eviscerating him and the other Fed Governors of any backing to proceed with yet another round of catastrophically bad, "accommodative" monetary policy). You even plan to corporatize and militarize NASA.

How many ways through these choices can you flout the principles and dismiss the hopes of your wide base of support before people see you for what you really are?

That rhetorical question need not be answered: for years, George W. Bush did it to honest, decent, genuine conservatives. You will have perhaps not as many, but quite a few, to do the same to honest, decent, genuine liberals and other progressive sorts.

No, Mr. Obama, unlike George W. Bush, you are most decidedly not an imbecile; but just like George W. Bush, you know exactly what you are doing. If the Right-wingers who hate you so much would pull their heads out of the sand, they'd be licking their chops at the presidency you are creating. As I have previously written, you are President 2.0: All the authoritarianism with none of the incompetence.

Readers of my work thought I was harsh with George W. Bush? Stay tuned. You, Mr. Obama, are now going to be the President. That makes you, from Day One of your presidency, the focus of my editorial discretion.

You, sir, are a Right-wing authoritarian; as such, sir, you and your acolytes will have to look to others for praise because from me, sir, you will get nothing of the kind when you act to that awful tendency that seems quite clearly to be your nature.

May you stay safe, Mr. President; and may this nation survive yet another leader far different from the one it needs.


The Dark Wraith has spoken.

MrBruce said...

I see 'outrage fatigue' here.

###

Exactly, and what is best? Comics lot's of comics. Had a bad day? Wife will not fuck you? Kids hate your white ass?

Tired of talking about the weather with quim, & tim??

Then go to dunc' shop, and buy comics.

Duncan McGeary said...

City of Bend.

Broke.

Discuss.

Anonymous said...

Dunc,

Four months ago you told us Obama had to be elected and he would fix the economy.

So now you have BUSH 2.0, all same people, but without a buffoon at the helm.

Happy? You ask why the weather? I think because the last week of ice-fog is just fucking horrible for most people, its fucking depressing.

Fatigue? From Bend? City Hall? Kathy Eckman? Cheer leader. Her husband buys her anything she wants, we need more hubby's to spend $40k on their wives election & hobby, then we could 'fix' Bend.

How about you dunc? The ice-fog must have been good for your biz? Sell lots of comics? But then your a bookstore now right? Or a game store?

Bend will survive, Umqua will buy ALL and will buy CACB Geithner has unlimited spending power, so everything will be bought. Everyone will have money.

Soon everyone will be take wheel barrels of money to buy comic books.

Anonymous said...

US GOVERNMENT BROKE. Enron 2.0 Obama/Geithner, the Perfect Robbery. Short-Selling the US T-bill

....

Should We Bailout Geithner Too?
by Susanne Trimbath 01/22/2009

This morning the Senate Finance Committee approved the nomination for treasury secretary of Timothy F. Geithner, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Geithner is a Wall Street darling, but taxpayers may have a different take. Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) reminded us at the Senate confirmation Hearing January 20 that Geithner was part of every bailout and every failed policy put forth by the current Treasury secretary. After you read this, you should begin to see why I’m so opposed to Geithner’s appointment – I don’t want the fox any closer to the hen house than he already is.

For starters, look at what the Fed has admittedly been up to – this is from a recent speech by the President of the San Francisco Fed, Janet Yelin. The Federal Reserve Act authorizes the Fed to lend to “individuals, partnerships, or corporations” in extraordinary times. For the first time since the Great Depression, the Fed is invoking this authority to make direct loans to subprime borrowers – that is, those who can’t get credit from a bank.

Basically, the New York Fed, under Geithner’s direction, created a couple of special companies so they could print money to get around restrictions on what the Fed can do directly. Now, be perfectly clear on this first point – this is not Treasury or TARP or Congress that’s spending this money. It’s the Federal Reserve. They don’t have to ask Congress for money, they just print it. The Fed is providing “credit to a broad range of private borrowers.” And by-and-large, they don’t have to tell you who they give the money to, either. Here’s how Yelin put it:

“It is worth noting that, as the nation's central bank, the Fed can issue as much currency and bank reserves as required to finance these asset purchases and restore functioning to these markets. Indeed, the Federal Reserve's balance sheet has already ballooned from about $900 billion at the beginning of 2008 to more than $2.2 trillion currently—and is rising.”

Notice how easy it is to double our money – they just keep the printing presses running. In fact, the recent expansion is extraordinary. Since 2003 the Fed’s balance sheet averaged only $838 billion. So this doubling has all taken place in the past year. In the last recession, around 2002, the Fed’s balance sheet increased by only 13%. If the current recession started in 2007, and if the Fed’s balance sheet is any gauge, then we’re in for much worse.
Average Federal Reserve balance sheet
Year


Reserves


% change

2000


$625,822,500,000




2001


$653,774,500,000


4.5%

2002


$740,502,000,000


13.3%

2003


$762,853,509,434


3.0%

2004


$803,004,846,154


5.3%

2005


$843,397,519,231


5.0%

2006


$877,922,692,308


4.1%

2007


$907,023,653,846


3.3%

2008


$1,228,848,679,245


35.5%

2009


$2,175,364,000,000


77.0%
2000-2002 are for last 2 weeks only; 2009 is for first 2 weeks only. Data available from http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/hist/

Where are they spending all this cash? You probably didn’t hear that the Fed started buying commercial paper through these “private-sector vehicle[s]” created to sidestep an act of Congress. (Commercial paper is the short term debt of corporations.) Another thing you aren’t hearing about is that back in November 2008, the Fed bought $600 billion of mortgage-backed securities from AIG. This action, if taken without subterfuge, would not be legal. The Federal Reserve Act limits the Fed to buying securities that were issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury or U.S. agencies. In order for the Executive Branch to get around a limit placed by the Legislative Branch, the Fed got help from the Treasury.

Yelin laid it out unabashedly: “Cooperation with the Treasury is necessary because the program entails some risk of loss and, under the Federal Reserve Act, all Fed lending must be appropriately secured. The Treasury has committed $20 billion of TARP funds to protect the Fed against losses on the Fed's lending commitment of up to $200 billion.” Don’t kid yourself: this is a credit default swap on a national level.

On June 26, 2008, the Fed used this scheme to buy the assets of Bear Stearns. That money went to JP Morgan. On November 25, 2008, Geithner’s New York Fed bought out the underlying assets for which American International Group had written credit default swaps, saving AIG from having to pay off the swaps when the assets failed. On December 12, 2008, they bought more residential mortgage-backed securities from AIG. Those two bailout packages currently stand at about $73 billion. The big ones are those where the recipients are not being named. On October 27, 2008, they bought commercial paper from “eligible issuers.” On November 24, 2008, they bought “certificates of deposit, bank notes, and commercial paper from eligible issuers.”

In an odd twist of democracy, you can read all about Geithner’s personal income tax problem but you won’t find anywhere information on who is benefiting from this particular bailout money which Geithner is in charge of passing out. The commercial paper bailout from the Fed (this doesn’t include anything that Treasury is doing or that Congress has authorized) stands at $333 billion.

They aren’t done, either. According to Yelin, there are plans in place to substantially expand this spree of lending, buying, and guaranteeing to include more kinds of assets issued by more kinds of institutions, like commercial loans and non-agency mortgage-backed securities.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) referred to this as Geithner’s participation in “a monstrous act of government intervention and ownership over our financial markets.” While TARP has a Special Inspector General and various congressional oversight duties, similar transparency and oversight does not exist for the bailouts conducted by Geithner in New York. Geithner may be, as Grassley asked him, “the general, drawing on your financial sector expertise, who will marshal the financial troops and assets of the Treasury Department.” But he can’t “lead our nation to prosperity.”

He couldn’t, in six years, stop the primary dealers in US Treasuries from selling more bonds than Treasury issued. The only way this could go on to the extent that it did, with an average of $2.1 trillion of Treasuries sold but undelivered for seven weeks from September 24 to November 5, is because Geithner did not have the support of the “financial troops” to stop it. In fact, I will suggest to you that this level of abuse, in what amounts to massive naked short selling of US Treasury securities, could only be done with complicity.

Finally, it is a simple matter to compare Geithner’s activities at the Fed to those of Ken Lay at Enron. Remember all those “partnerships” with cool names derived from Star Wars movies? Geithner’s New York Fed created Delaware Limited Liability Companies with the name “Maiden Lane” which is the Fed’s street address in New York. They are using unregulated companies to make loans and to buy and sell assets completely outside the view of the public. The Senate Finance Committee approved Geithner’s nomination on January 22, 2009 in an Open Executive Session. Geithner has proven he can hide the ball; let’s not let this scheme move to Treasury.

AIPAC: Geithner, Emmanuel, & Obama: Mission: To rob the USA.

MrBruce said...

Take a hard look at your cabal about whom I have already written and warned: Zionist thug Rahm Emanuel; paramilitary law enforcement enabler Eric Holder; AIPAC and Project for the New American Century maven Dennis Ross; Chicago slumlord Valerie Jarrett; Israeli military violence apologist Joseph "I Am a Zionist!" Biden; agri-business shill Tom Vilsack; war management flop Robert Gates; and Federal Reserve Open Market Committee bagman Timothy Geithner, to name just a few. And let us not forget your comfort level with a couple of the worst of the Bush people serving as holdovers: that wrecking ball of privacy rights, Robert Mueller, from whom you could demand resignation (oh, yes you could), and monetary policy failure Ben Bernanke, whose tenure you could repudiate for his staggering mismanagement and malfeasance (thereby eviscerating him and the other Fed Governors of any backing to proceed with yet another round of catastrophically bad, "accommodative" monetary policy). You even plan to corporatize and militarize NASA.

MrBruce said...

Bend is BK, but for now the thing to do is maximize borrowing, and get as much MUNI money as you can shifted into political pay-back. Save RE investors. Assume MOSS can do CACB magic. Deny the possibility of City of Bend BK.

...

The Age Of City Bankruptcies

The process of cities going bankrupt has already begun. One of Michigan's largest cities, Flint, is already in receivership. The state gets to help pay the bills. Several other large municipalities in The Wolverine State will probably go under as car companies shut factories.

Calpers put money into worthless real estate and may renege on some of its obligations to government employees in California, putting more financial pressure on local governments.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Isleton and Rio Vista, small towns roughly 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, say they have begun consulting with bankruptcy lawyers as they draw up plans to deal with their mounting budget crises." California has already said it will have to slash its budget because the state is going broke.

The financial weight of running local governments is now seesawing back and forth between towns and states. The truth is that, in many cases, it is passing the buck from one insolvent party to another. The obligations grow and no one can pay them.

Unfortunately, this leaves the federal government to deal with the problem. Unlike the way that it handled the financial and car industries, it better get out in front of this one. It is severe and growing rapidly. There is no department within the cabinet set up to handle state and city problems. The work of dealing with failures of local government will have to be handed to one or another cabinet secretary.

The time has run out. And, no one has set up a system to deal with the fallout.

Duncan McGeary said...

So that's it.

This blog is all about you, Bilbo and your weird obsessions.

Paul-doh watches with the glazed eyes and frozen smile of a 'proud' parent.

Bruce likes that you let him play with you and lets you throw your poop on him.

Everyone else peeks in the room once in a while to see if you've calmed down yet. But you never will.

MrBruce said...

Mr. Obama, you can take your "hope 'n change" lie and peddle it in someone else's face. You are constructing a center-right government with a whole lot of right and not much of a center, just like I predicted you would.

Congratulations. You suckered the Left, you suckered the progressives, you even suckered some conservatives. You suckered a damaged, hurting, wanting nation with your rhetoric. I would use harsh language to describe those who voted for you, but I just cannot bring myself to do that; not now, anyway. The American people were so desperate to escape the spiral of decay into which this country had been falling because of the Bush Administration that they simply could not see the awful maw of an imprudent choice standing before them in the fineries of salvation and rectitude you so masterfully wore.

You think I was hard on George W. Bush? He was an imbecile — a mean, incurious, cruel, incompetent man of his nature and character; he could not help himself, notwithstanding your professed belief that he is a "good guy."

MrBruce said...

City of Bend.

Broke.

Discuss.

###

That's it. City of Bend, where you'll find the comic-book, lil-shop that could, would, wanna-be book-store, toy-store, candy-store, hell game-store, ... coulda woulda, enough about Bend.

'BROKE' - Broke only as long as MUNI debt can be borrowed for BIG 'JR' like projects.


'Discuss' - More about comics, and comic sales, and yes did I mention to you I bought $6,000 worth of books? Classics, they always sell well.

Anonymous said...

grew up here and I like the weather just fine and....

What's your point of comparison, Dunc? Have you ever lived anywhere else? Where?

What the fuck? What are we talking about weather for?

Because it interests some of us, and it's at least as relevant to Bend's economy as fucking AIPAC.

In fact it's a lot more relevant, because although Lava Bear and others say climate isn't a factor for them in deciding where to live, it is a HUGE factor when people decide where to retire -- and with its cold, shitty climate Bend will never be competitive with places like Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, California and Hawaii as a retirement haven.

As I said before, us senior citizens like to live someplace warm where we don't have to worry about falling on the ice and we can put on our Bermuda shorts and white shoes and go out and play shuffleboard and croquet in the sun.

Also, I'm old enough (62) to start experiencing some of the aches and pains of age, and believe me, this cold, damp weather and the constant swings of the barometer do not help the arthritis in my neck or my sinus problems.

MrBruce said...

The problem, is that Bend is fucked. The people are fucked.

Imbeciles are Bend. This blog is imbeciles, timmy, brucey, quim, lava, marge, homer, duncy, ... all the blog's and BB's in Bend, imbeciles. The media: HBM, Costa, ... Imbeciles.

City of Bend.

Discuss.

Broke.

It's going down and hard. The dreams are kaput.

Discuss, its all about 'comics' 24/7.

Broke, they're going to pull credit-cards, so enjoy your cash flow, while you still have it.

Even in the best day, there never was any info on these blogs, its always been the 'weather', like dunc protests today. It's the weather, because there is nobody capable of original thought.

Dunc & Brucey many times have said, "I don't care about why?"

Today Dunc made the great revelation about Kathy Eckman being a strange choice, and was picked to be mayor, like it was a fucking miracle.

See that's the fucking point, dunc has had his ass in comic-books for the past twenty years, like rip-van-winkle he awakes and says "where did she come from?". Had dunc been awake and engaged in BEND, perhaps he would know that Eckman has already been on council for six times over the past twenty years, and this cycle, her hubby once again paid for her election, and she told the other councilors that she had to be 'mayor' cuz she had been a council-woman too many times.

It's alice in wonderland, this is Bend, does anyone care? Hell no, Costa just got here, hbm too, nobody on this board knows anything about Bend more than 5 years ago, and dunc says he's been here forever, but in fact has been asleep.

BEND. WTF?

Disuss. WTF?

Broke. It's coming to you soon.

MrBruce said...

See this town ONLY exists today and stays in business by doing the BIG debt projects like JR, which keep Knife-River ( MOSS ) busy.

To date on JR alone its over $12M accrued debt, just that project alone.

Soon 'investors' will quit buying CMO's ( muni debt ), as city's all over the US BK, once that revenue goes then Bend is finished. So just hold on.

Truth, you god damn mother fuckers can't handle the truth.

Back to the weather.

MrBruce said...

To date on JR alone its over $12M PER YEAR accrued debt, just that project alone.

Anonymous said...

Essay question: The frozen-fog "inversions" for which Bend is notorious have been seen by some critics as a metaphor for the "inverted" state of Bend finances and Bend priorities. Discuss.

MrBruce said...

What difference is anything?

Big-Tits? Big-Dicks? IHTBYB?

Me, Me, Me, aka BPussy.

Comics, Books, Comics, Games: Dunc.

Lava, quim, tim, ... marge, ... weather.

Nobody gives a fuck about this blog, and its myth in your own mind that anybody ever did. The best you can say is 'circle jerk', where morons glad-hand, back-slap one another. Nothing less, nothing more.

Fatigue? Most of the real movers and shakers of BEND are GONE, or in Jail, or under indictment.

We are the last morons standing.

Happy yet?

MrBruce said...

Essay question: The frozen-fog "inversions" for which Bend is notorious have been seen by some critics as a metaphor for the "inverted" state of Bend finances and Bend priorities. Discuss.

##


I would rather hbm had a sore-eye about suterra, or rnc getting s-1031 money, ...

The inversions are generally from man-made smoke, the heavy particulates are only capable rising so far and create barrier to sunlight, like monday I think it was low of 24, high of 25, and no sunshine, just hoar-frost.

Eventually the winds blow the shit out and the cycle starts over, the worst frozen muck in the air is in Fairbanks, AK like brown soup, in the winter, from all the stove-fires, permanent state of inversion.

So, BEND yes smoke & mirrors creates our phony economy, then all the morons from CALI came and got trapped, then its gets thicker than shit of CALI-SHIT heads, and then eventually the winds ( recession ) blows them all out.

MrBruce said...

Then the cycle repeats itself, ...

Duncan McGeary said...

Whatever, Buster.

You and Bruce just carry on. I can figure you out in the name or first sentence.

I'll keep checking to see if Tim, or Marge, or Quimby or HBM or anyone else is posting.

Sorry, Bruce...

MrBruce said...

The thing to remember with city-BK, is that managers, and councilors typically MAKE more money, sure cops, firemen, lose their pension, but the 'enablers' get golden-parachutes, so its actually in the interest of people like Kathy Eckman, and Moss to bring on a BK, and make themselves into a fixture for life.

Down in CALI, in all the city's that went BK in 2008, the city-managers, actually gave themselves a raise during BK, ... imagine that? Who would have guessed?

...

Three Decades After Cleveland Defaulted on Its Debts, Cities Face Recession Budget Woes
By Amanda Ruggeri
Posted December 15, 2008

Updated on 12/15/2008

Struggling to emerge from the results of a recession and massive auto industry layoffs, Cleveland became the first major American city to default on its debts since the Great Depression, 30 years ago today.

The city owed $15.5 million, mostly to six banks, which stayed open until midnight on Dec. 15, 1978, to see if an agreement could be reached. None could. The resulting fiasco torpedoed the city's credit rating, which Moody's Investor Service had labeled with a healthy "A" just six months earlier.
Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich in 1978.
Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich in 1978.
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The default ended 22 months later, and only when the mayor persuaded the banks to extend the loans. And then there was the remaining $111 million budget deficit.

Historically, cities rarely default on loans. Rarer still are city bankruptcies, despite Vallejo, Calif.'s much-publicized May filing under Chapter 9, the section of the bankruptcy code that applies to municipalities. And such moves usually stem not only from a financial downturn but from each city's particular situation—from whether the budget has balanced in the past to how willing leaders are to make the politically unpalatable move of raising taxes.

As today's economic crisis deepens, however, so will its impact on cities. In fact, experts say municipalities will feel the recession's full effect slightly after businesses and industries. Even if they do not declare bankruptcy outright, more cities might default on their loans in the coming months.

But before any of that, experts say, expect budget cuts. Lots of them.

"Hopefully, you maintain essential municipal services," says James Spiotto, a leading government bankruptcy attorney. "But we may have to define what we mean by essential municipal services."

Some cities already are. In San Francisco, city officials announced last weekthat the current year's budget will have to be slashed by $71 million. Proposed cuts include laying off 400 of the city's 28,000 workers, halving appropriations to the San Francisco Opera, Ballet, and Symphony, shutting a seniors' day-care center, and eliminating $5.3 million in mental health services.

The next day, a new announcement came: On top of that, the city would have to cut next year's budget by another $144.7 million, or 12.5 percent.

The real signifier of municipal woes, however, is the public safety budget, says Chris Hoene, director of policy and research at the National League of Cities. "Whenever you see public safety get cut, you know that the situation has turned dire for those places," he says.

If so, that's already the case for some cities and towns. Phoenix, for example, currently has a budget deficit of up to $250 million. As it's a growing city, its public safety budget should be increasing, too. But the city's mayor, Phil Gordon, says that he's overseeing the first cuts to the public safety budget made during his tenure.

Equally worrying, says Ben Harris of the Brookings Institute, are cuts to services for people most affected by the economic downturn, such as those in low-income brackets.

When budget cuts can't seem to go much deeper, or when a municipality simply doesn't want to make them or raise taxes, says Spiotto, filing for bankruptcy can be tempting. "It's attractive: 'I don't have to pay people; they can't file lawsuits against me,' " he says. "But like any other narcotic, this sort of euphoria that comes at the beginning—as it wears off, in reality, there's real pain."

The move can ruin a city's credit rating, which it needs to take out loans—loaning money is the usual way for a municipality to cover costs and projects. Chapter 9 filings don't erase debt, but only adjust it. Then, there's the image problem.

"It affects not just creditworthiness but the perception of life in the city and the economic vitality of the city for years and years to come," says Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California and author of When Government Fails: The Orange County Bankruptcy.

Those factors all account for the rarity of Chapter 9 filings. Even Cleveland narrowly avoided filing for bankruptcy in 1978. Since 1980, there have been approximately 40 bankruptcy filings by cities, villages, or counties, and only another 150 or so by other municipal entities, like utility or hospital districts.

MrBruce said...

I'll keep checking to see if Tim, or Marge, or Quimby or HBM or anyone else is posting.


*

They did post, and it was the weather, when they talk comics, I'll forward a mention to your site.

MrBruce said...

The real signifier of municipal woes, however, is the public safety budget, says Chris Hoene, director of policy and research at the National League of Cities. "Whenever you see public safety get cut, you know that the situation has turned dire for those places," he says.

***

Ok, so there's the bellwether, anybody see anything?

We know they have cut back a little, but nothing big.

Anonymous said...

Change, Hope, ... who would have guessed, MORE BUSH THAN BUSH, BUSH 2.0, ... who could have known?? OR-BOMB-EO??

Suspected US Missile Strikes Kill at Least 20 in Pakistan
Washington Post - 35 minutes ago
By Candace Rondeaux ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 23 -- At least 20 people were killed in northwest Pakistan near the border of Afghanistan on Friday in two suspected US missile strikes, marking the first such attack in Pakistan's tribal areas since ...
Suspected US missile attacks kill 18 in Pakistan Los Angeles Times
President Obama 'orders Pakistan drone attacks' Times Online

MrBruce said...

Bend is FUCKED, but its interesting, that the US fears a nuclear IRAN, but look here Pakistan has nukes, yet the US doesn't fear to drop fucking bombs anywhere it wishes in PAKI!!

Thus how much deterrent really is having a nuke when threatened with US genocide like the USA does in Gaza or anywhere it wishes??

###

Drones fire on Pakistan tribal area
More than 15 attacks from pilotless drones have hit North Waziristan since September [File: EPA]


At least 19 people have been killed in two missile attacks by suspected US drones flying over northwest Pakistan.

In the first assault, three missiles were launched on a house in North Waziristan close to Afghanistan, intelligence officials and witnesses said on Friday.

"According to initial information, five militants including foreigners were killed," one official said.

Ismail Wazir, a resident, said: "Nine bodies have been pulled out the rubble."

The house was in the village of Zharki, near Mir Ali, and was hit shortly after 5pm local time.

The second attack, just a few hours later, hit near Wana in South Waziristan. Ten people are said to have died.

Al Jazeera's correspondent in Pakistan, Kamal Hyder, said: "The attacks are the first since President Barack Obama took office and announced his special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan and, more importantly, on the eve of tribal chieftains meeting the president of Pakistan."

Tribal chiefs are expected to raise the issue of US drone attacks, which have killed civilians as well as armed fighters, and provoked considerable anger in the region.

Frustrated over what it sees as Pakistan's failure to stem the flow of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters from its tribal regions into Afghanistan, the US stepped up cross-border attacks last year.

It carried out about 30 attacks using pilotless drones in 2008, according to a Reuters tally, more than half after the beginning of September.

The attacks have killed more than 220 people, according to Pakistani intelligence agents, district government officials and residents.

Pakistan objects to the attacks, saying they are a violation of its territory and undermine its efforts to tackle increasing fighter activity.

No change

The strikes come one day after Obama, the new US president, appointed Richard Holbrooke as special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Tribesmen gather to pray a day before they raise the drones issue with the president [AFP]
Pakistan had hoped the new US administration would review its policy although during his election campaign had Obama spoken about the possibility of further missions in the area.

Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, and General Ashfaq Kayani, the chief of Pakistan's military, met David Petraeus, the US Central Command chief, in Islamabad on Tuesday to discuss ways that the US could assist the country in combating extremism.

US and Afghan officials have said Pakistan is not doing enough to combat fighters in the region, who have crossed over from Afghanistan to attack US and Nato troops.

Pakistan rejects those accusations.

MrBruce said...

Bush, could never have started a new war front, ... but hello the war is now full on in PAKI, and why not, once we take over PAKI we'll have IRAN surrounded.

BUSH-OREO has made his move, and its not going to be Afghan, its going to be a proxy-war in PAKI, in the name of Afghan, ... IRAQ was winding down, its moot issues, ...



Pakistan has become ground zero for terror threats: Kerry



Washington, Jan 23 (PTI) Stating that top Al Qaeda leaders are plotting their next attack from Pakistan, a key US senator today said Pakistan has become the "ground zero" for terrorists threat to the United States.
"As America's second post-9/11 President takes office, a single country has become ground zero for the terrorist threat we face," Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in an opinion piece published in The Washington Times.

"The consensus among our intelligence agencies is that top Al Qaeda leaders are plotting their next attack from Pakistan, where the prevalence of religious extremists and nuclear weapons make that country the central, crucial front in our struggle to protect America from terrorism," Kerry said.

Observing that the current situation in Pakistan is worsening, Kerry wrote: "Pakistan is under enormous pressure from all sides, from tensions with India to a ferocious insurgency in the tribal belt to a financial crisis that threatens the solvency of the Pakistani state." All of this is being held together by a fledgling civilian government not even a year old. For our sake and theirs, America must do more to help Pakistan, he argued.

Crucial to this effort will be finding a winning regional strategy that recognises the centrality of Pakistan's relationships with neighbours such as Afghanistan and India, he said. PTI

Anonymous said...

They'd rather spend money on Juniper Ridge and Bend buses than basic fire, police and road services.

*

You can't 'borrow MUNI' money for bills, or service,

You can ONLY borrow money for BUS-EMPIRES ( propane leonard ), or JR ( moss knife river ),

Like the above says when they cut 'essential' you know your city if fucked, but so what, they'll keep borrowing money until wall street says NO MORE candy, but you can only borrow for BIG MOSS-CACB projects that send MONEY to MDU so that MOSS pays for herself.

There is NO short-term cash money to spend on the bills and services DUNC, you really should understand how city finance works.

tim said...

I think people only get mad at "the weather" when everything else has gone to hell. It becomes the "last straw" for people who have started hating a place. I think hbm must be so sick of Bend that even the weather seems bad.

I don't understand hating the weather. It is what it is. But when I started hating the valley, it was the rain that I complained about.

Anonymous said...

Well its pretty sad TT(APU), cuz in the valley for everyday during the past two weeks has been warm and sunny, but Madras south is Frozen Fog.

The rule-of-thumb, is always to get out of the valley when it sucks and head-east, and then when the east sucks, head back to the valley.

When Bend gets the weeks on weeks of frozen inverted fog its gets actually depressing, and sure you can go out east of badlands, or up to the mt-b, but right now even the skiing sucks, ...

Want sunshine, spend the last two weeks in the valley.

Anonymous said...

Gorge winds tend to wipe out the frozen fog, but for some of the worst go hangout in Hood River some winter, that little canyon can just let shit hang for week around Parkdale.

Anonymous said...

Bend is notorious have been seen by some critics as a metaphor for the "inverted" state of Bend finances and Bend priorities. Discuss.

*

In bad Bend times, aka a Bend Economic 'inversion' this frozen-fog, can help kick in the ass those that still have money, and didn't have a reason to get the fuck out of Bend.

No jobs, shitty weather, no money, fucked self serving government, Best time in 20 years to get the fuck out of Bend.

Anonymous said...

I see 'outrage fatigue' here. Thanks alot, bilbo and bruce, you idiots.

*

Idiot fatigue or just fucking boredom. Like RDC over on BEBB, in his 'peeved' thread, someone suggested that he attend sales meeting people would make the sale to expedite his leaving, the fucking BOOR.

So, hell yes dunc, anytime I want to fall aslseep I can visit min-wage, and I'm passed out in a nano-second.


Bend is fucked, things are imploding, ...

Ground FOG is depressing, black rain days on in end in the valley is cause for suicide, well so is frozen-fog in BEND.

Folks are fucking DEPRESSED dunc, ... but how would you know, you got comics, you probably been asleep for the past 20 years, but now with your help gone, you'll have to go to work, ... do you ever even notice the weather dunc?

When was the last time you played??

I think for most that's hard now with the fog, the skiing sucks, you can't bike ride, ... hell you can't even go hike at Smith Rocks, this fucking fog is everywhere, and it creeps into everything, and its fucking cold.

Well is a great time to walk on ice up at Dutchman, anything it takes to get some sunshine.

Dunc, when was the last time you 'played' in Bend??

Anonymous said...

I think hbm must be so sick of Bend that even the weather seems bad.

Nah, I always thought the weather here sucked in winter, but I was willing to put up with it because of the good qualities of Bend -- low-key small-town atmosphere, friendliness, slow pace, no congestion. Now those are gone, so why the fuck should I stay?

Bewert said...

Re: He couldn’t, in six years, stop the primary dealers in US Treasuries from selling more bonds than Treasury issued. The only way this could go on to the extent that it did, with an average of $2.1 trillion of Treasuries sold but undelivered for seven weeks from September 24 to November 5, is because Geithner did not have the support of the “financial troops” to stop it. In fact, I will suggest to you that this level of abuse, in what amounts to massive naked short selling of US Treasury securities, could only be done with complicity.

Finally, it is a simple matter to compare Geithner’s activities at the Fed to those of Ken Lay at Enron. Remember all those “partnerships” with cool names derived from Star Wars movies? Geithner’s New York Fed created Delaware Limited Liability Companies with the name “Maiden Lane” which is the Fed’s street address in New York. They are using unregulated companies to make loans and to buy and sell assets completely outside the view of the public. The Senate Finance Committee approved Geithner’s nomination on January 22, 2009 in an Open Executive Session. Geithner has proven he can hide the ball; let’s not let this scheme move to Treasury.

###

WTF?


Re: That wasn't me!


###

Welcome to the club.

Anonymous said...

Ground FOG is depressing, black rain days on in end in the valley is cause for suicide, well so is frozen-fog in BEND.

Hell yes. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is real. And despite all the bullshit propaganda about our "300 days of sunshine," Bend is a shitty place for anybody who's prone to it.

And then there's the pollen. I had allergies all my life as a kid and a young man, I moved to California and they went away, then I moved here and inside of three years THEY CAME BACK.

As I said before: "Paradise my ass!"

BTW what's "black rain"? Is that some unique Orygun weather phenomenon like "black ice"? (Never heard of that until I moved here.)

Bewert said...

Re: The city of Bend has all but announced they are broke.

###

The City is having their annual finance meeting in the Council Chambers right now. It started yesterday. All are welcome. There was a crowd yesterday. I would have sat through the whole thing but, hey, I never even was informed that I wasn't selected to the Finance Committee.

Here is a link to the latest forecast: http://www.ci.bend.or.us/city_hall/meeting_minutes/docs/Quarterly_Financial_Report___Q2_0809.pdf

It's a bit too optimistic in my opinion.

Dunc, all those giant Gaza cut and pastes were in my name. Not me. I get the feeling I'm being targeted to be driven away. Even this morning.

LavaBear said...

>>>I don't understand hating the weather. It is what it is. But when I started hating the valley, it was the rain that I complained about.


Exactly. Complaining about the symptom not the underlying problem.


Duncan is right about the fatigue setting in. Just this WEEK we've had unemployment numbers that are way bad and going to get worse. Deschutes County School District is $700k in the hole and I'd double that number and still think it's too optimistic. Our City has now confirmed what we have known for some time. They are Cracker Ass broke. So forgive me Dunc for being a bit worn out by it all on a Friday. Perhaps next week I'll have something else besides the weather.

Bewert said...

Re:
Dunc & Brucey many times have said, "I don't care about why?"

###

Mikey, if you care so much why aren't you at the Finance Meeting right now. About a 100 other people are.

Anonymous said...

"when I started hating the valley"

So Tim what's not to like about the valley (BESIDES rainy weather).

Bewert said...

You guys think this inversion is bad--try SLC. At least here you can't taste and smell it.

But yes, inversions suck. A staple of anyplace near a mountain range. Simple physics.

Madison doesn't have inversions. But then the lows are currently below zero...

Want steady weather, move someplace near a huge body of water and far enough south. Like Hawaii.

Bewert said...

Butter, you might consider one change to your no moderation stance, and delete comments that are spoofing someone else.

(Word: aicant)

Anonymous said...

Want steady weather, move someplace near a huge body of water and far enough south. Like Hawaii.

Works for me. DAMN, does that work for me.

Anonymous said...

Never been a better time to moderate BB2.

Be more like dunc, bendbb, ... moderation just isn't a good idea, its the Bend way.

Anonymous said...

The inversions are generally from man-made smoke, the heavy particulates are only capable rising so far and create barrier to sunlight

That's not how it was explained to me. A layer of cold air slides in under a layer of warmer air, which traps it like a blanket. Then moisture condenses in the cooler air, forming fog. The stagnant air mass allows pollutants to collect, which can create an unhealthy air situation, but the pollutants per se don't cause the inversion.

Anonymous said...

Obama ... seems to be much more balanced, much more of a listener, and much more confident then Clinton.

Clinton seems to have a desperate need to make everybody love him. I guess all politicians have that need to some extent, but Obama not so much.

I read "Dreams From My Father" and the thing that impressed me the most was that Obama has a capacity for introspection. This is a guy who actually THINKS about things, in marked contrast to the just-departed Rodeo Clown.

Anonymous said...

Property Taxes – The first major collection of property taxes was received in November, with
85% of the 2008-09 tax assessment collected through the end of December. Last year, 87% of
total collections were received during the same period. Based on the year to date revenues, it is
projected that the collection rate for the current year assessment will decline from 94% to 92%.


However, collection of delinquent taxes has already surpassed budgeted amounts.

This is due
in part to the increase in bank and lender approved short sales. We are projecting total property
tax revenues to be within budget, as the increase in delinquent taxes will offset the lower
collection rate.

Anonymous said...

Top 5 Revenues Budget YTD Actual * % Received Projection % of Budget
Property taxes 20,636,000$ 17,629,600$ 85% 20,636,000$ 100%
Franchise fees 5,552,500 2,405,200 43% 5,552,500 100%
Transient room taxes 2,510,000 1,377,200 55% 2,254,000 90%
State Shared 1,768,900 848,500 48% 1,693,600 96%
Fines 1,232,400 527,900 43% 1,115,400 91%
Total Top 5 Revenues 31,699,800$ 22,788,400$ 72% 31,251,500$ 99%

tim said...

>>So Tim what's not to like about the valley (BESIDES rainy weather).

Obviously it's me, not the valley. After 10 years, I like to move on and get a new vibe. Very un-Tao, I know.

Anonymous said...

Then moisture condenses in the cooler air, forming fog.

*

That be the 'legal' definition of FOG.

But you haven't enjoyed anything until you have enjoyed man-made fog, I notice about two weeks from the bad-lands everyday getting browner over Bend.

Smoke, particulates don't rise, they become saturated, pea soup of shit, like BP says you can taste it.

Anonymous said...

Prepared by City of Bend Finance Department Page 1 of 6
Quarterly Financial Outlook CITY OF BEND
Second Quarter of FY 2008-09
____________________________________________________________
December 31, 2008


OVERVIEW

The Quarterly Financial Outlook report summarizes revenue and expenditure projections for
the General Fund and other major operating funds of the City of Bend. This report is provided
in addition to the monthly financial statements, which report year to date actual revenues and
expenditures. The projections included in the Quarterly Financial Outlook will be updated
quarterly, and will change as more information becomes available throughout the year.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• The majority of General Fund revenues are currently projected at budget. There are a
few revenue sources projected to be under budget, however in total, revenue derived
from the top 5 revenue sources is projected to be 99% of budget at the end of the
year.
• Based on the decline in real estate development activity, expenditure reductions,
including layoffs, were made in the 2nd quarter to offset the decline in development
revenues. Currently, revenues in the Building, Planning, and Engineering fundsare
projected to come in consistent with the adjusted budget. Additional expenditure
reductions are not anticipated for the remainder of this fiscal year.
• The City monitors delinquency and collection rates for all revenue sources on a
monthly basis. The downturn in the economy has greatly impacted the citizens of
Bend and customers are increasingly unable to make their payments. Delinquency
rates for ambulance revenues, municipal court fines, and utility payments have all
increased from prior years. Staff will continue to closely monitor collection rates to
prevent further deterioration of revenues.
• Situations like the housing market meltdown and the current financial crisis are full of
uncertainties. Forecast risks exist if the economy deteriorates further and recession is
prolonged. The FY 2008-09 projections will be updated quarterly based on the year to
date activity, and as additional state and national forecasts are released. The 3rd
quarter Quarterly Financial Outlook report will be available in April 2009.

Prepared by City of Bend Finance Department Page 2 of 6
GENERAL FUND

Top 5 Revenues Budget YTD Actual * % Received Projection % of Budget
Property taxes 20,636,000$ 17,629,600$ 85% 20,636,000$ 100%
Franchise fees 5,552,500 2,405,200 43% 5,552,500 100%
Transient room taxes 2,510,000 1,377,200 55% 2,254,000 90%
State Shared 1,768,900 848,500 48% 1,693,600 96%
Fines 1,232,400 527,900 43% 1,115,400 91%
Total Top 5 Revenues 31,699,800$ 22,788,400$ 72% 31,251,500$ 99%
*Throughout this report, YTD Actual balances represent revenues received through December 29th.

Top 5 Revenues – The top 5 revenues make up 95% of total General Fund revenues.
Discussion of current collections and projections are noted below.

Property Taxes – The first major collection of property taxes was received in November, with
85% of the 2008-09 tax assessment collected through the end of December. Last year, 87% of
total collections were received during the same period. Based on the year to date revenues, it is
projected that the collection rate for the current year assessment will decline from 94% to 92%.
However, collection of delinquent taxes has already surpassed budgeted amounts. This is due
in part to the increase in bank and lender approved short sales. We are projecting total property
tax revenues to be within budget, as the increase in delinquent taxes will offset the lower
collection rate.

Franchise Fees – Based on rate increases announced by the utility companies and year to
date revenues, franchise fees are expected to come in at budget.

Transient room taxes – Occupancy as reported by motels continues to decrease. Room taxes
are currently projected to come in at 90% of budget. This is down from 95% reported in the 1st
quarter report. Winter months typically have the lowest occupancy rates of the year, with tourist
activity picking back up in the spring. These revenues will continue to be closely monitored on a
monthly basis.

State Shared Revenues – The State has revised their projection of cigarette tax, liquor tax, and
state shared revenues available for distribution to cities and counties. Accordingly these
revenues are projected to come in at 96% of budget.

Fines – Collection of municipal court fines is down 16% from the same time last year. While
citations issued by Diamond Parking have increased from prior years, the number of violations
received from the Police Department is down 15% from the first 6 months of FY 2008.


Prepared by City of Bend Finance Department Page 3 of 6
DEVELOPMENT RELATED REVENUES

Top 5 Revenues Adjusted Budget YTD Actual % Received Projection % of Budget
Planning fees 720,100$ 543,900$ 76% 720,100$ 100%
Engineering fees 357,900 243,400 68% 357,900 100%
Building fees 1,743,900 1,093,600 63% 1,743,900 100%
SDCs 8,119,000 1,610,200 20% 3,446,000 42%
Affordable housing fee 1,000,000 226,200 23% 400,000 40%
Total Top 5 Revenues 11,940,900$ 3,717,300$ 31% 6,667,900$ 56%

Top 5 Revenues – Development revenues collected in the first half of the fiscal year reflect a
continued slow down of real estate development activities, with no recovery expected in FY
2008-09. Commercial activity was strong in FY 2007-08 and was expected to continue into FY
2008-09 based on plans filed with Community Development. However the credit crisis has
caused several commercial developers to withdraw their plans and put their projects on hold.

Through the 1st quarter, development related revenues came in approximately 40% to 65% of
the original budget amounts. Given that the first few months of the fiscal year are typically the
strongest, budget reductions were made to reduce revenue projections to 20% to 50% of the
original budget. The budget and year end projections in the table above reflect the budget
reductions approved by Council in November. Based on the 2nd quarter activity, revenues are
projected to come in consistent with the adjusted budget.

Planning/Building/Engineering - Expenditure reductions were made in the 1st quarter in these
departments and General Fund resources have been reallocated to subsidize long range
planning and engineering. Long term solutions for funding these programs will be discussed at
Council’s Financial Strategy Retreat in January 2009.


MAJOR GOVERNMENTAL ACTIVITIES

Fire/EMS Budget Projection % Street Budget Projection %
Revenues 13,534,700 13,534,700 100% Revenues 7,510,400 7,340,400 98%
Expenditures: Expenditures:
Operations 13,650,605 13,350,600 98% Operations 6,082,712 5,582,700 92%
Capital - - - Capital 1,278,000 1,278,000 100%
Debt 370,900 370,900 100% Debt 93,000 93,000 100%
Balance - Start of Yr 477,470 1,078,500 Balance - Start of Yr 1,103,736 620,800
Balance - Yr-to-Date (9,335) 891,700 -9552% Balance - Yr-to-Date 1,160,424 1,007,500 87%

Fire/EMS Fund – Fire/EMS revenues and
expenditures are expected to be on track
with budget.





Street Operations Fund – State highway
apportionment (gas tax) is below budget
by 95%, or approximately $170,000. The
total snow removal budget for the year is
$345,000. The snow storms at the end of
December cost approximately $129,000
which leaves $216,000 available for future
snow events without dipping into
operating contingencies.


Prepared by City of Bend Finance Department Page 4 of 6
ENTERPRISE ACTIVITIES

Water Budget Projection % Sewer Budget Projection %
Revenues 20,052,700 18,652,700 93% Revenues 25,708,400 23,352,000 91%
Expenditures: Expenditures:
Operations 9,701,543 9,701,500 100% Operations 7,997,917 7,997,900 100%
Capital 7,694,000 7,694,000 100% Capital 8,850,000 8,850,000 100%
Debt 520,500 520,500 100% Debt 2,228,800 2,228,800 100%
Balance - Start of Yr 3,927,058 6,388,000 Balance - Start of Yr 3,483,705 (494,300)
Balance - Yr-to-Date 6,063,715 7,124,700 117% Balance - Yr-to-Date 10,115,388 3,781,000 37%

Water Fund – Water revenues are
projected to come in slightly under budget
due to a projected 70% reduction in SDC
revenues. Approx. $1,400,000 less revenue
will be available for water infrastructure
projects.

Sewer Fund – Sewer revenue bonds
were issued in July 2008 for $2M less
than budgeted. Sewer SDC’s are
expected to come in at 40% of budget,
however the reduction in SDC revenues
will be offset by an increase in charges for
services due to the 14.5% rate increase.

Parking Budget Projection % Stormwater Budget Projection %
Revenues 704,700 704,700 100% Revenues 2,467,800 2,467,800 100%
Expenditures: Expenditures:
Operations 725,275 725,275 100% Operations 1,476,325 1,476,325 100%
Capital 34,500 34,500 100% Capital 581,700 581,700 100%
Debt - - - Debt 60,000 60,000 100%
Balance - Start of Yr 525,827 911,469 Balance - Start of Yr 320,663 1,879,800
Balance - Yr-to-Date 470,752 856,394 182% Balance - Yr-to-Date 670,438 2,229,575 333%

Parking Fund – Based on the 1st and 2nd
quarter activities, parking revenues and
expenditures are expected to be on track
with budget.



Stormwater Fund – Stormwater
revenues and expenditures are expected
to be on track with budget. The $1.5M
increase in the year-to-date ending fund
balance will allow more infrastructure
improvements to be completed than
initially planned.

Airport Budget Projection % Cemetery Budget Projection %
Revenues 5,405,000 5,405,000 100% Revenues 87,300 64,000 73%
Expenditures: Expenditures:
Operations 689,246 689,200 100% Operations 124,380 124,300 100%
Capital 4,305,300 4,305,300 100% Capital - - -
Debt 278,900 278,900 100% Debt - - -
Balance - Start of Yr 1,166,939 239,300 Balance - Start of Yr 434,490 412,300
Balance - Yr-to-Date 1,298,493 370,900 29% Balance - Yr-to-Date 397,410 352,000 89%

Airport Fund – Airport operations and the
runway relocation project are expected to
be on track with budget.



Cemetery Fund – Through the 1st half of
the fiscal year, burials and lot sales are
coming in significantly less than budget.
Permanent maintenance reserve funds
will be utilized for operations as revenues
fall short of operating expenses.


Prepared by City of Bend Finance Department Page 5 of 6

OREGON OUTLOOK REMAINS BLEAK

According to the State of Oregon’s Office of Economic Analysis’ (OEA’s) December 2008
Economic and Revenue Forecast, the Oregon economy will not start to recover until the first half
of calendar 2010 (which is the end of next fiscal year 2009-10). This recovery period is slightly
later than reported in OEA’s September forecast. The housing market slump has significantly
impacted employment throughout the State. In the 3rd quarter, construction, wood products, and
financial activities lost jobs. The slowdown of consumer spending has considerably impacted
retail and wholesale employment sectors as well. Job losses are now projected to continue
through the first three quarters of calendar 2009, compared to the end of 2008 as projected in
OEA’s September forecast.

Across the state, residential building permit activity is down 40% from 2007. The housing
downturn is expected to last longer than projected in September. Both OEA and Global Insight
forecast a continued downturn in building activity through calendar 2009, with a slow recovery
starting in 2010. Over the long term, OEA’s projects housing starts in 2015 to be at
approximately 2002 levels, which are considerably lower than the peak periods of 2004-2005.

Locally, the market remains overbuilt. According to RealEstats, Inc., there are 781 homes for
sale in Deschutes County that were built within the last two years. Builders are selling existing
product and not adding to inventory. This trend is expected to continue into the next fiscal year.

During FY 2007-08, commercial construction activity helped cushion the blow from plunging
residential construction. But the availability of financing for commercial real estate has tightened
sharply while the need for extra retail and office space is diminishing. It is anticipated that
declines in commercial construction will extend through the first quarter of calendar 2010.

Current Unemployment USA Oregon Bend MSA
Unemployment rate (Nov. 2008) 6.7 8.1 9.9
Unemployment rate (Nov. 2007) 6.5 7.2 8.0
Rates are seasonally adjusted Source: Oregon Employment Department
Projection of Housing Starts
2008 2009 2010
Oregon (in thousands) 13.0 10.8 14.0
% change -40.4% -16.9% 29.6%
Bend 350.0 369.0 466.0
% change -59.3% 5.4% 26.3%
source: Oregon Economic & Revenue Forecast December 2008
City of Bend Long Term Financial Plan
Calendar Year



Prepared by City of Bend Finance Department Page 6 of 6
CONTINUED DOWNTURN IN LOCAL HOUSING MARKET

Home prices continue to decline – average home prices in Bend fell over 25% from November
2007 to November 2008. Analysts believe that the housing market has yet to hit bottom in terms
of price declines. The recessionary state of the economy and heightened credit standards will
keep demand for housing relatively low.

Housing inventory – Active listings of homes for sale in Bend (including homes with acreages)
totaled 1,765 in November 2008; the number of homes sold in November totaled 117. At the
current rate of home sales, it will take over 24 months to sell off the existing housing inventory.
Market experts point out that equilibrium exists when the market has 4-6 months of supply for
sale. (source: www.gobend.com and RealEstats, Inc.)

Foreclosure activity – Through the end of November, 234 foreclosed single family residences
have been sold in Deschutes County in 2008. This represents 15% of all homes sold this year.
In comparison, 199 foreclosed homes were sold in the last 5 years combined. With
preforeclosure properties included, there are 1,200 preforeclosed and foreclosed home for sale,
which represents 29% of all inventory and over an 8 month supply of residential properties in
the County. (source: RealEstats, Inc.)


RESERVE OUTLOOK FOR MAJOR OPERATING FUNDS

The current reserve policy requires the City to maintain a reserve balance of at least two months
of general operating expenses. Reserves are used to avoid cash-flow interruptions from
unexpected events, absorb revenue fluctuations, generate interest income, reduce the need for
short-term borrowing, and assist in maintaining an investment grade bond rating capacity.

As of the 2nd quarter, the forecast of reserves at the end of FY 2008-09 for the major operating
funds are as follows:


Major Operating Funds
Projected
Operating
Reserves
# Months of
Operating
Expenses
General Fund 5,000,000$ 1.8
Street Operations 1,007,000 1.7
Fire/EMS 891,000 0.8
Planning 97,000 0.5
Building 500,000 1.6
Engineering 120,000 0.5
Water 1,700,000 2.0
Sewer 1,700,000 2.0
Stormwater 2,229,000 12.6


Please note that this list represents only the major operating funds of the City. The reserves set
aside for debt service, risk management, and facility major maintenance and repairs are not
included in this list.

Anonymous said...

PEOPLE WITH RESPIRATORY DIFFICULTIES SUCH AS ASTHMA MAY FIND ....

THE FREEZING FOG ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM SATURDAY PST. .....

LIKE SMOKE AND VEHICLE EXHAUST...TO BE TRAPPED IN THE LOW LEVELS OF THE ATMOSPHERE ...

Bewert said...

Re: But you haven't enjoyed anything until you have enjoyed man-made fog,

###

We don't make it, we just foul it.

Thanks whoever posted that Finance Overview. Take a good look at those reserves. Two weeks in some cases, two months max, except for stormwater which is an anomaly because of the fairly recent placement of a fee for it.

That's scary.

But Mayor Eckman stated to me last week that we are not going bankrupt. Trust her.

Bewert said...

Re:
Duncan is right about the fatigue setting in...

###

Exactly. Everytime I turn on the radio, it seems like more layoffs happening. Ten minutes ago it was 200 from Movie Gallery. Earlier, Intel, Microsoft. It's endless right now.

Anonymous said...

>>>So, BEND yes smoke & mirrors creates our phony economy, then all the morons from CALI came and got trapped, then its gets thicker than shit of CALI-SHIT heads, and then eventually the winds ( recession ) blows them all out.<<<<

Still hoping to hear of more leaving.. Is it possible for this to become a smallish town again? I know we will have to bulldoze the STD'd and replant some trees (not sneezey juniper).
The best thing the city can do is give away JR and stop the bleeding. That is going no where fast. Greedy bastards in the City need to stop dumping ANY money into it. The State will never let the traffic dump onto 97. The county/state did us a big favor by giving away an albatross they would need to feed. Hell, give it to the Parks dept, with the sdc's they can build a nice pathway thru it.
The problem with so much negative discussion is, that trying to find a constructive way to improve Bend is so far off.. The politicos need to know we ARE going down and the experience needs to happen before we can rebuild. Many people need to go BK and leave. When we are down to bare bones and have real homes prices, we can start to get well. Until we hit rock bottom nothing will change. The RIP list will be long but slow to grow.
The bloggers can rip each other new ones all day long and nothing will change.. Not yet. Til then just keep pissing on this rock and wait.

Bewert said...

Re: The best thing the city can do is give away JR and stop the bleeding.

###

Margie, they hope to make money out there some day. Lot's happening right now. Unfortunately, it's just jobs moving from one part of the region to JR.

Anonymous said...

Margie, they hope to make money out there some day.

*

BP, they are making money, at $12M/yr most going to knife-river, aka MDU, aka MOSS-CACB, they're making a ton of money, and if they default on the loans the money is long gone, and Wall-St can have JR.

Follow the MONEY, this is the only racket in Bend worth playing.

Lastly, read the budget above note that new-permits are down 60%, but up 25% in 2010, the city plans on a tidal wave of building in 2010, but how are they going to get rid of the 20k of dark-matter sitting empty??

Bloggers don't matter shit. The big boyz continue to make BIG money, knife-river, moss, ... bloggers can rip each other to shit, and or wail their asses off at the holy-wall with coherent solutions and it will not mean shit.

This is BEND, everything is quid-pro-quo, all has already been settle, everything is a done deal.

It's a company town, get over it, and move.

Anonymous said...

The politicos need to know we ARE going down and the experience needs to happen before we can rebuild.

*

The politico's fear NOTHING, they know that they'll be cared for with the BEST pension of PERS money can buy. They'll all give one another special 'garzini' consulting jobs like kuratek has, and it will go on forever.

There is $40M or more floating around this town, and another $20M year in debt financing, all for the taking,...

Never feel sorry for those who run this city, they know exactly what they're doing.

Look at Garzini, has been feeding the pubic trough for so many years, and double dips from so many countys, citys, and states that its a nightmare just to read his resume, ... 'Run your city like a business" - Garzini, ... yes and that is what they're doing, Bend is being ran just like a Made-Off Hedge-Fund.

Anonymous said...

The bloggers can rip each other new ones all day long and nothing will change.. Not yet. Til then just keep pissing on this rock and wait.

*

Piss, and piss and more piss. But, But do never hold your breath for HBM to do a story about Suterra, or RNC and Summit-1031 money, ... there are 1,000's real interesting storys' about Bend, do you folks realize that the SORE has never once even mentioned Summit-1031!!

IT's a mob-town, ran by the boss-hogg and he's got all his little sluts and Ho's running around making BIG $$$ like MOSS pulling down over $1M/yr on various boards, ... prior to 1995 she was nobody, same for Bill Smith, nobody until Hollern brought him to Bend to do Old Mill, ...

Then you got KURATEK, and his bud's, and Garzini, they just bring them in to BEND, experts in 'federal block grants'. So now we got a FED bus system, ...

All we can do is make fun of each other, and laugh at our rulers, that's it, anything else is delusional. If you want to do something 'real' then start your own newspaper and compete with the SORE.

This town needs real news, but sadly nobody can survive in biz in this town without sucking dick, even DUNC ned flanders cock sucker at large, is a kiss ass to the status quo, ...

It's the nature of all small company towns.

Enjoy the show, and don't take your self serious.

LavaBear said...

>>>Never feel sorry for those who run this city, they know exactly what they're doing.

And here is where you and I differ my friend. I'm 99.9999% sure they don't know shit. Haven't got a clue what they are doing. Driving everything and everyone straight towards bankruptcy, themselves included.

tim said...

Yes, it is a sort of fatigue. People will become numb to anything. Remember in the 70s when old people on fixed income started eating pet food because of inflation? At first, it was news. Later, it was, "Oh. More old people eating pet food."

Note that Microsoft didn't say just "5000." It said 5000 plus 5000 contractors. Over 18 months.

How do you think everyone there feels for the next 18 months when every Friday that comes around could be the last?

Pretty shitty. Microsoft won't even be able to fire the worst because the mediocre and best will be the ones leaving.

MrBruce said...

Finally a word from our sponsor.

###

Another War, Another Defeat but Obama keeps his promise
By John J. Mearsheimer. Editorial comment by Axis of Logic
Jan 22, 2009, 17:46

Editor's Comment: Mearsheimer's analysis below clarifies the recent events that culminated in Israel's bludgeoning of the people of Gaza over the past few weeks. It also dismantles President Obama's speech today at the U.S. State Department. Obama repeated the lies that the attacks on Gaza were a defensive move on the part of Israel and blamed the slaughter on Hamas "terrorists" firing rockets into Israel. He stated, "the terror of [Hamas] rocket fire aimed at innocent Israelis is intolerable" and ...

"Hamas has launched thousands of rockets at innocent Israeli citizens. No democracy can tolerate such danger to its people, nor should the international community, and neither should the Palestinian people themselves, whose interests are only set back by acts of terror.

Not once did he speak about Israel's massive destruction and maiming, killing and displacement of thousands of Palestinian civilians. Regarding Gaza, he focused only on the threat of Hamas to Israel which of course is fictional. He vowed, "the United States and our partners will support a credible anti-smuggling and interdiction regime, so that Hamas cannot rearm". He concluded by saying that his regime would achieve peace and a 2 state (i.e. no-right-of-return) "solution" by dealing only with Israel, Egypt and the nearly defunct Palestinian Authority/Fatah, now headed by the traitorous Mahmoud Abbas, one of the most hated men among Palestinians and populations throughout the Arab and Muslim world.

Obama was flanked by Bill Clinton's old Zionist war party, newly appointed Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, VP Joe Biden, his new envoy to Palestine, former Maine Senator, George Mitchell and his envoy to Pakistan-Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke. Obama is keeping the promises he made during his campaign to Israel, AIPAC and other Zionist lobbies. John J. Mearsheimer debunks the fabrications of Obama, Israel and the corporate media and sets the record straight in his excellent analysis below.

Viva Hamas! Power to the Heroic Palestinian Resistance!

- Les Blough, Editor

Another War, Another Defeat
By John J. Mearsheimer
American Conservative

January 23, 2009

The Gaza offensive has succeeded in punishing the Palestinians but not in making Israel more secure.

Israelis and their American supporters claim that Israel learned its lessons well from the disastrous 2006 Lebanon war and has devised a winning strategy for the present war against Hamas. Of course, when a ceasefire comes, Israel will declare victory. Don’t believe it. Israel has foolishly started another war it cannot win.

The campaign in Gaza is said to have two objectives:

1.
to put an end to the rockets and mortars that Palestinians have been firing into southern Israel since it withdrew from Gaza in August 2005;

2.
to restore Israel’s deterrent, which was said to be diminished by the Lebanon fiasco, by Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and by its inability to halt Iran’s nuclear program.

"It is part of a broader strategic goal: the creation of a 'Greater Israel'."
But these are not the real goals of Operation Cast Lead. The actual purpose is connected to Israel’s long-term vision of how it intends to live with millions of Palestinians in its midst. It is part of a broader strategic goal: the creation of a “Greater Israel". Specifically, Israel’s leaders remain determined to control all of what used to be known as Mandate Palestine, which includes Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians would have limited autonomy in a handful of disconnected and economically crippled enclaves, one of which is Gaza. Israel would control the borders around them, movement between them, the air above and the water below them.

The key to achieving this is to inflict massive pain on the Palestinians so that they come to accept the fact that they are a defeated people and that Israel will be largely responsible for controlling their future. This strategy, which was first articulated by Ze’ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s and has heavily influenced Israeli policy since 1948, is commonly referred to as the “Iron Wall.”

What has been happening in Gaza is fully consistent with this strategy.

Let’s begin with Israel’s decision to withdraw from Gaza in 2005. The conventional wisdom is that Israel was serious about making peace with the Palestinians and that its leaders hoped the exit from Gaza would be a major step toward creating a viable Palestinian state.

According to the New York Times’ Thomas L. Friedman, Israel was giving the Palestinians an opportunity to “build a decent mini-state there—a Dubai on the Mediterranean,” and if they did so, it would “fundamentally reshape the Israeli debate about whether the Palestinians can be handed most of the West Bank.”



"So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day." -Arnon Soffer,
Israeli Demographer

This is pure fiction. Even before Hamas came to power, the Israelis intended to create an open-air prison for the Palestinians in Gaza and inflict great pain on them until they complied with Israel’s wishes. Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharon’s closest adviser at the time, candidly stated that the disengagement from Gaza was aimed at halting the peace process, not encouraging it. He described the disengagement as “formaldehyde that’s necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.” Moreover, he emphasized that the withdrawal “places the Palestinians under tremendous pressure. It forces them into a corner where they hate to be.”

Soffer, a prominent Israeli demographer who also advised Sharon, elaborated on what that pressure would look like.

“When 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day.”

In January 2006, five months after the Israelis pulled their settlers out of Gaza, Hamas won a decisive victory over Fatah in the Palestinian legislative elections. This meant trouble for Israel’s strategy because Hamas was democratically elected, well organized, not corrupt like Fatah, and unwilling to accept Israel’s existence. Israel responded by ratcheting up economic pressure on the Palestinians, but it did not work. In fact, the situation took another turn for the worse in March 2007, when Fatah and Hamas came together to form a national unity government. Hamas’s stature and political power were growing, and Israel’s divide-and-conquer strategy was unraveling.

To make matters worse, the national unity government began pushing for a long-term ceasefire. The Palestinians would end all missile attacks on Israel if the Israelis would stop arresting and assassinating Palestinians and end their economic stranglehold, opening the border crossings into Gaza.

Israel rejected that offer and with American backing set out to foment a civil war between Fatah and Hamas that would wreck the national unity government and put Fatah in charge. The plan backfired when Hamas drove Fatah out of Gaza, leaving Hamas in charge there and the more pliant Fatah in control of the West Bank. Israel then tightened the screws on the blockade around Gaza, causing even greater hardship and suffering among the Palestinians living there.

Hamas responded by continuing to fire rockets and mortars into Israel, while emphasizing that they still sought a long-term ceasefire, perhaps lasting ten years or more. This was not a noble gesture on Hamas’s part: they sought a ceasefire because the balance of power heavily favored Israel. The Israelis had no interest in a ceasefire and merely intensified the economic pressure on Gaza. But in the late spring of 2008, pressure from Israelis living under the rocket attacks led the government to agree to a six-month ceasefire starting on June 19. That agreement, which formally ended on Dec. 19, immediately preceded the present war, which began on Dec. 27.

"Jerusalem began to prepare the propaganda campaign to sell the present war months before the conflict began."
The official Israeli position blames Hamas for undermining the ceasefire. This view is widely accepted in the United States, but it is not true. Israeli leaders disliked the ceasefire from the start, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the IDF to begin preparing for the present war while the ceasefire was being negotiated in June 2008. Furthermore, Dan Gillerman, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, reports that Jerusalem began to prepare the propaganda campaign to sell the present war months before the conflict began. For its part, Hamas drastically reduced the number of missile attacks during the first five months of the ceasefire. A total of two rockets were fired into Israel during September and October, none by Hamas.

How did Israel behave during this same period? It continued arresting and assassinating Palestinians on the West Bank, and it continued the deadly blockade that was slowly strangling Gaza. Then on Nov. 4, as Americans voted for a new president, Israel attacked a tunnel inside Gaza and killed six Palestinians. It was the first major violation of the ceasefire, and the Palestinians—who had been “careful to maintain the ceasefire,” according to Israel’s Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center—responded by resuming rocket attacks. The calm that had prevailed since June vanished as Israel ratcheted up the blockade and its attacks into Gaza and the Palestinians hurled more rockets at Israel. It is worth noting that not a single Israeli was killed by Palestinian missiles between Nov. 4 and the launching of the war on Dec. 27.

As the violence increased, Hamas made clear that it had no interest in extending the ceasefire beyond Dec. 19, which is hardly surprising, since it had not worked as intended. In mid-December, however, Hamas informed Israel that it was still willing to negotiate a long-term ceasefire if it included an end to the arrests and assassinations as well as the lifting of the blockade. But the Israelis, having used the ceasefire to prepare for war against Hamas, rejected this overture. The bombing of Gaza commenced eight days after the failed ceasefire formally ended.

If Israel wanted to stop missile attacks from Gaza, it could have done so by arranging a long-term ceasefire with Hamas. And if Israel were genuinely interested in creating a viable Palestinian state, it could have worked with the national unity government to implement a meaningful ceasefire and change Hamas’s thinking about a two-state solution. But Israel has a different agenda: it is determined to employ the Iron Wall strategy to get the Palestinians in Gaza to accept their fate as hapless subjects of a Greater Israel.

This brutal policy is clearly reflected in Israel’s conduct of the Gaza War. Israel and its supporters claim that the IDF is going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, in some cases taking risks that put Israeli soldiers in jeopardy. Hardly. One reason to doubt these claims is that Israel refuses to allow reporters into the war zone: it does not want the world to see what its soldiers and bombs are doing inside Gaza. At the same time, Israel has launched a massive propaganda campaign to put a positive spin on the horror stories that do emerge.



"Israel targeted a university, schools, mosques, homes, apartment buildings, government offices and even ambulances"

The best evidence, however, that Israel is deliberately seeking to punish the broader population in Gaza is the death and destruction the IDF has wrought on that small piece of real estate. Israel has killed over 1,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 4,000. Over half of the casualties are civilians, and many are children. The IDF’s opening salvo on Dec. 27 took place as children were leaving school, and one of its primary targets that day was a large group of graduating police cadets, who hardly qualified as terrorists. In what Ehud Barak called “an all-out war against Hamas,” Israel has targeted a university, schools, mosques, homes, apartment buildings, government offices, and even ambulances. A senior Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, explained the logic behind Israel’s expansive target set: “There are many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel.” In other words, everyone is a terrorist and everything is a legitimate target.

Israelis tend to be blunt, and they occasionally say what they are really doing. After the IDF killed 40 Palestinian civilians in a UN school on Jan. 6, Ha’aretz reported that “senior officers admit that the IDF has been using enormous firepower.” One officer explained, “For us, being cautious means being aggressive. From the minute we entered, we’ve acted like we’re at war. That creates enormous damage on the ground … I just hope those who have fled the area of Gaza City in which we are operating will describe the shock.”

One might accept that Israel is waging “a cruel, all-out war against 1.5 million Palestinian civilians,” as Ha’aretz put it in an editorial, but argue that it will eventually achieve its war aims and the rest of the world will quickly forget the horrors inflicted on the people of Gaza.

This is wishful thinking. For starters, Israel is unlikely to stop the rocket fire for any appreciable period of time unless it agrees to open Gaza’s borders and stop arresting and killing Palestinians. Israelis talk about cutting off the supply of rockets and mortars into Gaza, but weapons will continue to come in via secret tunnels and ships that sneak through Israel’s naval blockade. It will also be impossible to police all of the goods sent into Gaza through legitimate channels.



"there is little reason to think that Israelis can beat Hamas into submission..."

Israel could try to conquer all of Gaza and lock the place down. That would probably stop the rocket attacks if Israel deployed a large enough force. But then the IDF would be bogged down in a costly occupation against a deeply hostile population. They would eventually have to leave, and the rocket fire would resume. And if Israel fails to stop the rocket fire and keep it stopped, as seems likely, its deterrent will be diminished, not strengthened.

More importantly, there is little reason to think that the Israelis can beat Hamas into submission and get the Palestinians to live quietly in a handful of Bantustans inside Greater Israel. Israel has been humiliating, torturing, and killing Palestinians in the Occupied Territories since 1967 and has not come close to cowing them. Indeed, Hamas’s reaction to Israel’s brutality seems to lend credence to Nietzsche’s remark that what does not kill you makes you stronger.

But even if the unexpected happens and the Palestinians cave, Israel would still lose because it will become an apartheid state. As Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently said, Israel will “face a South African-style struggle” if the Palestinians do not get a viable state of their own. “As soon as that happens,” he argued, “the state of Israel is finished.” Yet Olmert has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and create a viable Palestinian state, relying instead on the Iron Wall strategy to deal with the Palestinians.

There is also little chance that people around the world who follow the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will soon forget the appalling punishment that Israel is meting out in Gaza. The destruction is just too obvious to miss, and too many people—especially in the Arab and Islamic world—care about the Palestinians’ fate. Moreover, discourse about this longstanding conflict has undergone a sea change in the West in recent years, and many of us who were once wholly sympathetic to Israel now see that the Israelis are the victimizers and the Palestinians are the victims. What is happening in Gaza will accelerate that changing picture of the conflict and long be seen as a dark stain on Israel’s reputation.

The bottom line is that no matter what happens on the battlefield, Israel cannot win its war in Gaza. In fact, it is pursuing a strategy—with lots of help from its so-called friends in the Diaspora—that is placing its long-term future at risk. __________________________________________

Anonymous said...

The only thing I spell when I go outside into the fog is fear.

Anonymous said...

Lava say's people who run this city don't know what they're doing, ... hmmmm

City Staff or City Council?

City Staff know exactly what they're doing, as little as possible, and counting days until they get the best retirement public funds can buy.

City Council? Eckman is married to the richest doc in town, she knows everybody who is anybody in this town. Mark Capell is married to the family own the Knife-River (Hap-Taylor Franchise) he knows all about what's going on, ... Freidman&Johnson ran BEND HOA, ... hell the people in city-hall on council don't get paid shit, they don't do this shit for love of city.

A boss hogg has got to do what he must, its a small town, its not pretty, but it works, and as long as the taxpayer pays for promotion(COVA), and so long as $12M/yr or more can be passed to MDU/Knife-River, then a lot of people will be well fed, and they know exactly what they're doing.

Look at Suterra, not a peep, and imagine after 25 years at that location by the DMV the fucking POLLUTION, whoever uses or buys that location will be DEQ hell forever, ... and then they're going to JR, which is on well-water, and they'll pollute that, but nobody cares, cuz this is the ONLY people, I mean suckers they could find that wanted JR, ...

Everything the city council approves has a reason, lava thinks its all happenstance, ... nope, and they all have NOTHING to worry about, Eckman and hubby are rich, and Capell's father is/was a Bend RE tycoon downtown, ... all these people are set for life, and they know exactly what they're doing, ... Eckman is a butterfly that just moves around and wants to keep busy, ... but she knows what's going on, and who and what makes this town run.

Anonymous said...

Driving everything and everyone straight towards bankruptcy, themselves included.

*

100's of US towns have GONE BK, its not the end of the world, all saw it coming, like I have written, FAT CATS do very well in BK, 'consultants' like KURATEK & GARZINI actually flourish in BK, ...

Many US city's have BK'd, and so fucking what the BULL will write "who could have known", that's it, ... Orange Co BK'd a few years ago, so fucking what, ...

Nobody cares lava, and that is different than not knowing what's going on.

Bewert said...

Re: Finally a word from our sponsor.

###

I would love to know who is so fucking intent on following me around. New day, new name.

What is fucking scary is LB is right--they don't fucking have a clue. Go talk to Eckman. She's from fucking la-la land. The only one with a clue is Sonia, and they keep her jumping hoops to make it look better than it is.

And it's just going to get worse. The fucking NOD and deed in lieu numbers are simply fucking stunning. I haven't seen this kind of carnage in my life.

Anonymous said...

Almost all the people who run Bend city hall are sitting on tons of personal cash.

They'll do just fine, during this recession.

Remember that city-council don't pay shit in BEND, its a job for somebody who is rich, or 'kept' like Eckman. It's not for working people.

Bend is essentially a town ran by 'Gentlemen' and 'Gentlewomen'.

Anonymous said...

Go talk to Eckman. She's from fucking la-la land.

*

You must be asking the wrong questions BP, first of all they known your a gadfly, they probably think your retarded at this point.

They don't respect you. Everybody in this town knows Eckman, and she didn't get handed 'mayor' for being an idiot, hell she runs 'money mommas' the biggest hedge-fund in the city, never less that 10%/YR ROI for all time ever, ...

If you think Eckman or these people are dumb, its because perhaps playing dumb around you is a safe bet.

Anonymous said...

The fucking NOD and deed in lieu numbers are simply fucking stunning. I haven't seen this kind of carnage in my life.

*

Because your an idiot, newbie, grifting, carpet-bagger, ...

But all these people YOU accuse of being stupid have seen this before in the 1980's.

They see you as a paranoid freak, while they're rolling up their sleeves and getting RICHER from the opportunity, ....

LavaBear said...

>>>Everything the city council approves has a reason, lava thinks its all happenstance

I don't even remotely think it's happenstance. I'm pretty sure they all *think* they are trying to do the right thing in one way or another. But I'm sure that what they do is utterly misguided and stupid. You see grand schemes and Machiavellian plots. I see a bloated stupid government trying to do what it does....going bankrupt.

Anonymous said...

from the CURRENT TS Weekly "Dining Guide" - for old times' sake.


Deep
821 NW Wall St. Ste. 100.
Bend, OR

323-9841

Leave it to Jody Denton (Merenda) to hit Bend with another restaurant that just can’t seem to miss. Sushi and Japanese-influenced dishes make up the extensive menu with some captivating variations on classic dishes. Although sushi abounds here, it is the hot dishes that really set this restaurant apart. The preparation of the Sweet Miso Black Cod makes what is often thought of as a lowly fish, rise to royalty. The calamari dish is a far cry from the greasy, chewy snacks some of us may be used to and the lacquered short ribs are a perennial favorite. Don’t miss the Peruvian-style ceviche or the Fire and Ice kunamoto oysters on the cold menu. It’s hard to find a dish that is not fabulous at this metropolitan spot, which has a city-slick atmosphere. Sit back enjoy some of the amazing house drinks and the overhead water features while taking in some of the best Japanese food in Bend. Standouts: The servers’ knowledge of food and saki pairings.

Bewert said...

1980's were not anywhere near this bad. At least where I was. I got out of college in Dec. 1983, and had a job in a city I had just moved to within two weeks.

Maybe here. Maybe the ones with the real power want stupid in charge.

You're right about the respect thing. I get a lot from staff, from people that are relatively new like John James, chair of the JRMB, but none from the longtimers, like Oran Teater. Capell seems to have come around over time. And I've come to respect him a lot more just in the last few weeks.

But like the Finance Committee thing--I am fucking qualified. Simple as that. And I didn't even get the simple courtesy of being told who was chosen. I got to read it in a one-paragraph blurb in the paper.

Bewert said...

It's getting to be quite the pissing match around here. Maybe Anonymouse who just labeled me a known gadfly can tell me why Costa is going against Eckman and the builder clan:

Council should pick Tom Pickell

We don’t hand out a prize for courage and honesty. But if we did, we’d have to give it this week to Bend City Councilor Mark Capell, who, by the way, should be mayor. More about that later.

Capell has found himself in the middle of a tense standoff over the selection of a seventh council member. He and his colleagues interviewed the three finalists for Chris Telfer’s recently vacated seat on Wednesday. All three candidates are very well qualified for the position. They are Don Leonard, who ran unsuccessfully against Jim Clinton last fall; William “Cliff” Walkey, who helped shape the new UGB as a member of Bend’s Planning Commission; and Glen “Tom” Pickell, who served for six years on Bend’s budget committee. His name, by the way, rhymes with Capell, not pickle.

Following the interviews, the council deadlocked. Three councilors, newcomers Jeff Eager, Kathie Eckman and Tom Greene, chose Leonard; and Capell, Jim Clinton and appointed newcomer Jodie Barram chose Walkey. Capell’s vote might seem odd, as he and Clinton frequently disagree on substantive matters that come before the council. But his explanation makes sense.

The three elected newcomers ran together as a group, explained Capell, and they voted as a group at the council’s recent annual meeting. So far, he said, “all I see is a bloc.” Capell acknowledged that he’ll probably end up agreeing with the newcomers more often than with Clinton on the issues. Still, he said, he’s worried about the perception that the existence of a powerful council bloc would create.

Choosing Leonard could further that perception. Like the three elected newcomers, Leonard received thousands of dollars from the building industry last fall. But choosing Walkey, said Capell, would “balance out the council in terms of viewpoints on issues.”

Eckman immediately objected to Capell’s characterization of council dynamics, but recent history speaks for itself. At the council’s recent annual meeting, the three elected newcomers acted every bit like the bully bloc Capell fears. Temperamentally, Capell is ideally suited to serve as Bend’s mayor. Yet at that meeting, the new bloc — with the disappointing assistance of Telfer — selected Eckman as mayor. She’ll probably be a fine mayor, but those present at the meeting witnessed a gratuitous power play that left the best candidate on the sidelines.

If Eckman and her colleagues don’t want to be thought of as a voting bloc, we know just how they can make that happen: Quit acting like one.

As for Capell, he deserves credit for placing himself in an uncomfortable position for the public good and for explaining exactly why he’s doing it.

But what now? The council appears deadlocked on Telfer’s replacement, and the question will go to voters unless councilors make up their minds soon. The best option — a compromise, no less — came from Eager, who said he’d be willing to support Pickell. Greene and Eckman followed suit, and Capell seems to have an open mind. The matter will be settled at a future meeting, when Bend residents will discover which councilors are willing to compromise and which are not.

To characterize Pickell as a compromise candidate, however, is to do him an injustice. Frankly, he stole the show during Wednesday’s interview session, and we suspect the council would have considered his candidacy more seriously if its members hadn’t been locked into their Leonard vs. Walkey standoff strategy.

Pickell is just the sort of person the council needs now. He is trained as an accountant and has extensive private-sector experience in financial planning and economic development, among other things. During his stint on the city’s budget committee, in fact, Pickell pushed city officials to engage in long-range financial planning. Had he been on the council during the shrug-and-spend phase that preceded the recession, he would have provided some much-needed adult supervision. His expertise will be no less valuable as the city struggles to make ends meet in the coming months, and as it decides how to budget when the economy rebounds.

Bend’s councilors can cross their arms, do nothing and spend thousands of dollars on an election to replace Chris Telfer. That’s their prerogative. But if they want to show their constituents that they’re capable of acting like grown-ups, they’ll compromise and pick Tom Pickell.

Anonymous said...

But you haven't enjoyed anything until you have enjoyed man-made fog

I believe that's called "smog."

NY Times had an interesting story today about the smog problem in Boise. They get a lot of inversions there too.

LavaBear said...

>>>smog problem in Boise. They get a lot of inversions there too.

And the best part of Boise's inversions are when you get the fresh sent of the Simplot's processing plants from Caldwell hanging in the air. Make your eyes water.

Bewert said...

Re: Bruce likes that you let him play with you and lets you throw your poop on him.

###

Dunc, who the fuck is Bilbo in the real world?

Bewert said...

Re: Happy yet?

###

I was going to say I actually mostly agree with my namesake/nemesis, and then he went and stated something stupid the next post...

But I still wonder why do you keep using my name to post?

Bewert said...

Why are you fucking picking on me in particular?

What the fuck. I'm just one more dog pissing on this rock.

Bewert said...

Re:

Tribal chiefs are expected to raise the issue of US drone attacks, which have killed civilians as well as armed fighters, and provoked considerable anger in the region.

###

Now that is an understatement.

Obama is under huge pressure from the status quo. If public pressure rises enough, he will get some space to actually change things.

Has anyone else been following Olbermann's interview with the NSA guy Tice about how ALL communications in the US are monitored?

Bewert said...

RE:
Al Jazeera's correspondent in Pakistan, Kamal Hyder, said: "The attacks are the first since President Barack Obama took office and announced his special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan and, more importantly, on the eve of tribal chieftains meeting the president of Pakistan."

###

Hate me, but AJ is one of the best news agencies going right now. Way better than AP. McClatchy is good here in the US. And MSNBC has been getting better and better.

This is the shit from old movies aka Kurt Russell in "Escape From New York", robot drones bombing and killing people. If there was anything that broke our constitution, this is it.

Anonymous said...

I believe that's called "smog."

*

HBM, your right on the mark, what is being 'sold' as 'fog' or 'freezing fog' in Bend, is in actuality 'freezing smog'.

No 'fog' was harmed in polluting Bend.

Then you got all the damn 'field burning' up in MADR-ASS this time of year, that just add's to the shit.

Anonymous said...

Temperamentally, Capell is ideally suited to serve as Bend’s mayor. Yet at that meeting, the new bloc — with the disappointing assistance of Telfer — selected Eckman as mayor. She’ll probably be a fine mayor, but those present at the meeting witnessed a gratuitous power play that left the best candidate on the sidelines.

*

Yes, everybody knows this, and yet everyone remains silent and went along with Eckman.

Eckman blackmailed Telfer, who should have stood down, and that would have kept Eckman out.

In the past years as councilor Eckman while a lovable gal, in many ways like our Palin, and attractive, but well like power bitch, who will make everyone's life wonderful if she don't her way. Well she got her way, and now what they call a 'bloc' is really a 'Survivors' Fuck-a-thon, where everybody will now fuck each other.

Poor Capell the only one in their that actually likes doing that shit.


I still would like HBM or some kunt to follow up on the 'blackmail'. It's commonly known to all within council, that Eckman has goods on everyone in town.

Anonymous said...

BP,

I don't know where to start on your rhetorical question about Costa not supporting Eckman.

I wrote about this 2-4 weeks ago and ALL you kunts didn't fucking get what was going on, why do I have to repeat myself??

Capell's father is a rich man that owns a lot of downtown. Also by marriage Capell is related to HapTaylor( knife-river aka MDU aka MOSS-CACB ). Eckman is the wife of a very rich Bend doctor, he pays 100% of all her elections for the past 20+ years. People like Eckman, she is personable like Palin, she is a PUG like Palin, she is attractive ( well when she was younger ), ... Me thinks she saw Palin move from mayor of wasilla to governor to VP, that she said "I can do this".

Last few times Eckman was in Council she got bored and dropped out, now shes trying to do a PALIN as quick as she can. She thinks she is Palin.

This is all fine, but what about Bend? Capell cares about Bend. Eckman cares about Rush Limbaugh.

Now is not the time for a person of unlimited political ambition to be running Bend for her own personal grandstand.

I could go on, but I'll wait for intelligent questions.

"Follow the black-mail of Eckman on Telfer folks, that's where the real story is".

Bewert said...

Re: I still would like HBM or some kunt to follow up on the 'blackmail'. It's commonly known to all within council, that Eckman has goods on everyone in town.

###

So why not out yourself, anonymouse?

Anonymous said...

Tribal chiefs are expected to raise the issue of US drone attacks, which have killed civilians as well as armed fighters, and provoked considerable anger in the region.
###
Now that is an understatement.

...

The OREO is dangerous for this reason, like the shrub he has to prove he's tough, so he'll continue to bomb where ever he pleases. A new war will officially be fought in Paki to protect Afghan.

The OREO will make his full transformation to OR-BOMB-EO in the coming months.

Noticeable today Musharaff is back who says that if he is put back into power he'll get MORE USA dollars, as afghan gets MORE, with PAKI having nukes its critical that the USA have a puppet government in PAKI.

Afghan will be isolated. Iraq will be used to lob bombs on towards PAKI.

Anonymous said...

Why does the B-PUSSY get 'angry' with the term 'gad-fly', the first rule of war is know know thyself and thy enemy.

On many occasions all here have pointed out to the BP that he's a city hall gad-fly.

In order to talk with Capell and known him, spend less time talking about 'Ewert', and more time listening, and asking the opinions of all. Privately, get to know how each thinks.

Privately you can position yourself so that each thinks your like them, that Eckman thinks your a PUG, if you spout out too much in public, everyone is going to ignore you, diss you, and feed you shit. Which is right now what your getting. Sonia listens to you, because nobody else listens to her.

Besides the PUSSY has over a year to put his name on the ballot, he ain't serious about shit.

Give Eckman credit, she puts her hubby's money on the line, and wins elections. Most people don't like her ideas, but everybody likes her as a person.

Bewert said...

Christ, I'm watching ABC news right now, and it's just weird about some fucking terrorists that might cause a car crash sometime...

Bewert said...

Re: Give Eckman credit, she puts her hubby's money on the line, and wins elections. Most people don't like her ideas, but everybody likes her as a person.

###

And you are still Anonynouse.

Bewert said...

Can't even type--still Anonymouse.

Scared cat in the corner. It would be helpful if you outed yourself.

Anonymous said...

BP,

I have told you a million times to put your fucking name on the ballot.

With regards to you not getting picked for 'finance' remember most people have to pay their dues and spend years running for office, I keep telling you Eckman's been around for 20+, your nobody BP, that's why you need to RUN, note in the COSTA article that just having your name on the ballot creates cred, so now you have been on this blog for damn near 1-1/2 years, and you still haven't put your name on the ballot, or filed your fucking complaint, ... then you wonder why nobody takes you seriously.

We have told you what to do a 1,000 times, and then tonight you do this self pity fucking thing, ...

It's "DUNC" boring BP.

Anonymous said...

I'm watching ABC news right now,

*

BP pls kill your TV, get your gun and shoot the TV.

The TV will rot your brain if it has already not done so.

Bewert said...

Re:
The TV will rot your brain if it has already not done so.

###

Yes, it may. But don't you want to know what the general populace is seeing?

Anonymous said...

Scared cat in the corner. It would be helpful if you outed yourself.

*

Homer says that the Koreans are going to kick his door down cuz he's the most intelligent and powerful blogger in the USA (sic).

So we mix it up, everybody is everybody, homer isn't always homer, dunc isn't always dunc, and we all here play everyone else.

Outing yourself has no useful purpose other than to sell comic books, or promote your 'EWERT', but just put the fucking 'Ewert' on the ballot or shutup about city-hall.

Anonymous said...

So long do you think before BP agrees that OREO is fucking BUSH-2 asshole? Anybody want to place bets on how long it takes? How many baby's OREO has to kill before the BP admits his boy is BUSH W-2.0.

MrBruce said...

Milk & Cookies time, my wife say's it story time.

Bewert said...

RE: I have told you a million times to put your fucking name on the ballot.

###

Yes. Newbie or not.

Bewert said...

Time for me to change names yet again.

What the fuck, asshole. Who are you?

LavaBear said...

I want some TARP

Anonymous said...


Obama: Quit Listening to Rush Limbaugh if You Want to Get Things Done
FOXNews - 1 hour ago
Obama warned Republicans to quit listening to Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats, during a White House discussion on his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.

What's next? Quit reading Mein Kampf??

Anonymous said...

LavaBear said...

I want some TARP

*

Lava, I just want to say, that strictly from an HL Mencken point of view, ALL poly-tick-ians, are louses, so yes, you right the people running Bend are idiots, but the people in voted them IN are bigger idiots, and thus that makes the people that run Bend geni-asses.

But I still hold that compared to the loser renters morons on this blog, the city council are Einsteins.


Long ago brother HL Mencken said ...

"A politician is no different than you or me, they just know how to get elected by pandering to a group by stealing from group A and transferring to Group B. Thus all elections are advanced auction of stolen goods". - HL Mencken

Anonymous said...

Time for me to change names yet again.

What the fuck, asshole. Who are you?

*

Bewert WHO THE FUCK are you??

You for 1-1/2 years have bored us to tears, and HANK & Co have gone out of our way to tell you how to run and win orifice in this miserable little desert shit-hole, and you have preceded to remain a kept-man.

If I were mother bewert, I would consider retro-active abortion.

That's extreme, but jeebus xmas BP, there is NO fucking excuse for your fucking LAZINESS.

Let's see, its OK to threaten the 'city council' with an ethics complaint for failure to purchase 100K capstone buttplug generator's, ... that's ok, but god forbid putting your name on the fucking ballot.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it may. But don't you want to know what the general populace is seeing?

*

No not really, ... let me guess? Porn, game-shows, .. Porn, game-shows, .. Porn, ...

No thanks but I don't need to see what the bamboozled class is being fed, thank you very much BP.

Anonymous said...

"You for 1-1/2 years have bored us to tears, and HANK & Co have gone out of our way to tell you how to run and win orifice in this miserable little desert shit-hole, and you have preceded to remain a kept-man."

====

I am gone the whole week, and I check in to see my name taken in vain...
... so I am clueless about the conversation (no time to wade through the BS), but I will add my $.02...

The Pussy is a gadfly (blood suckin insect) who buzzes around the CC mtgs, and then reporting here on what is going on there. And then claiming they are all screwed up, and breaking the Exec Session laws, blah blah blah. And then bragging about how he is going to bust chops and file an Ethics Complaint against their evil deeds.

But he never does anything of the sort... except just talk about it. I tried to help the Pussy; but he really does not want any help. He only wants to talk about shit; not do any shit.

Somebody on this rock not only talks about investing; but also does it as well. Talk and deeds are good. Talk alone is shit.

Pussy is all talk, not deeds. Pussy is shit.

Anonymous said...

Who the fuck are you?

###

I am your father.

I am your mother.

I am your lover.

Hank speaks the truth.

Anonymous said...

Microsoft is CLOSING/SHUTTING down 'game studios' that effects BEND big time, most of the small less than 50 people shops in this "BEND SHIT HOLE" are Game-Studio contractors, there are 1/2 dozen of them and now they're all gone. The pain, I'm telling you people its going to get frightening, most of these geeks are armed to the teeth, and have only known six figures incomes since leaving college.

***

Microsoft Shuts Down 'Flight Simulator' Game Studio
PC Magazine - 18 hours ago
by Brian Heater and Mark Hachman As the rest of the tech world scrambles to assess the implications of the recently announced 5000 layoffs at software giant Microsoft, news has come in that might potentially spell the end of the company's nearly ...

Anonymous said...

"most of these geeks are armed to the teeth"

You got that right!

Sharks with laser beams and shit.

Anonymous said...

MDU MOTHER MOSS SAY's "WHERE MY CACB CARP?" $67M how long will that keep CACB stock above zero, if used for authorized 'buyback'?

Applications for publicly held lenders were due Nov. 14 and from privately held banks Dec. 8. The Office of Thrift Supervision said about a third of lenders it regulates applied for as much as $50 billion from the bank-rescue fund. The agency received 268 applications as of Nov. 19, or 32 percent of the regulated industry, for the program.

PARTICIPATION PENDING:
INSTITUTION AMOUNT NOTES
Cascade Bancorp $67.4 million Applying for TARP.

Anonymous said...

Hey KUNT's let's talk bankruptcy of Bend for real? Or is that asking too much?

First you need to go where nobody has gone before.

Anonymous said...

Vallejo City Bankruptcy

The City of Vallejo filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on May 23, 2008. At this early stage, we do not know the effect, if any, on CalPERS member benefits. CalPERS is carefully monitoring Vallejo’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy. We will provide regular updates on this page on the status of this important case if and when we have information of interest to members.

Vallejo is the first major city in California to file a bankruptcy case. Municipal bankruptcies are very rare. The filing allows Vallejo to use the federal bankruptcy process to readjust its obligations with its creditors, including its obligations under its collective bargaining agreements with its union employees. Because municipal bankruptcies are so rare and because there is a California statutory scheme governing the relationship between municipal employers and their employees, the process for adjusting Vallejo’s obligations under its collective bargaining agreements in bankruptcy is uncertain.

Anonymous said...

The above is the from the CALI website for vallejo, the first city in cali to go BK in this cycle, and so fucking Bend.

Note there paramount #1 issue is RETIREMENT, not the tax payer, not the city services, but making sure that all prior city workers keep getting those retirement checks that even 'made-offs' no longer get.

See 'government' fed,state,local is only about retirement. Calpers is much like ORYGUN PERS, so how goes cali so goes orygun.

MrBruce said...

What is MOST fascinating about Vallejo, is the first thing they did when they filed CH-9 is raise the city-manager salary from about $180k/yr to over $300k/yr, 'stress' they say, so rule#1 in in city BK, is never assume that BK hurts those 'close' to government. The real issue is WHO? Does it hurt? ...

Anonymous said...

>>Microsoft is CLOSING/SHUTTING down 'game studios' that effects BEND big time, most of the small less than 50 people shops in this "BEND SHIT HOLE" are Game-Studio contractors, there are 1/2 dozen of them and now they're all gone.

Um, what? I know tons of tech in town. Off the top of my head I know of one guy who lost his game job about six months ago. There are two other small groups I know about and they are still going. There is, of course, Sony, and they are still going, too. I know other tech contractors who have gotten the ax recently, but none were games.

Now Sony, I worry about, Just the other day Stringer said he's not just going to cut from the ailing electronics biz, but the cuts are also going to move into entertainment. All of Sony Bend could get lopped off in one hit. Of course, that's always been the concern, and they've made it so far. Cross your fingers, because that's one of the few high-paying jobs in town, and a lot of them bought houses long ago, and eat out at restaurants, shop down the hill at the Old Mill, and buy expensive cars at the dealers in town. It would be a bigger deal than people realize.

Other than Sony, there have only been a handful of small game houses here.

As for Microsoft, they are cutting 5000 internal and 5000 contractors. Yeah, terrible time to be a contractor in Bend.

Anonymous said...

As far as I know there were NO Microsoft game contractors here.

BUT, it's not just Microsoft shutting down small game divisions. Note that EA is doing it too. This is the scariest time I can remember in videogames.

MrBruce said...

See Dunc has a thread today/yesterday about 'potholes', and BK, and we have long said Bend will BK, but so fucking what? Who cares?

Essentially city will always get money, from property taxes, even now with so much going back to the bank, the city is actually better off, cuz the banks pays, while under-water folk don't pay.

City, especially our city is MOSTLY about off-budget 'EMPIRES'; The BUS-EMPIRE ( propane purchases ); JR burning over $12M/yr since 2006, and now on target to do this forever. Pushing anybody it can into the black-hole, ... Knife-River(MDU-MOSS/CACB) getting all the money, who cares? Its borrowed money, on a BK all that money would be lost by the investors who bought the bonds.

So BEND today is held together by 'glue' a glue of MUNI debt, once BEND goes BK, the financing is over, and then the layoffs of BEND's most HOLY companys collapse.

Like the City purchase of land from the BULL, given them for free by HOLLERN $5M ( debt bond ), then last year Hap-Taylor sold the city land for $4M ( debt ).

The current theory of Bend is to use TARP money to float through the recession and keep all of BEND's most 'sacred' folks ( KR,brooks,cacb ) alive during the storm. Will it work? Probably not, but who cares?

The worst thing that will happen is that 'investors' ( OLD FARTS LIVING ELSEWHERE ), lose their principal for buying Bend Bonds, but who cares? All this bad-debt is going to get bought-up by the FED taxpayers.

See CITY,STATE,FED is the largest ponzi scheme in the world, and its all designed to keep feeding the public retirement system.

Oh, yes services, there will always be enough money for cops, and fire, and pot-holes, ... but that is NOT why people run for public office, people run this city to get rich, MOSS gets $200k/yr from MDU for directing business @JR to knife-river, that's is what makes this city work. But so what if the city goes BK? Then MOSS can loan the city money @18% interest because they have bad credit, and then MOSS will put CACB in the black, see its in EVERYONES interest to BK Bend, it actually makes the boss-hoggs richer.

Yes, its all 'stupid' but stupid works, and stupid has made a lot of people in BEND very rich.

So, in summary why worry? Everything will be fine, the rich get richer, and in ten years nobody will care, and the few that remain can tell newbies about old-times, just like US that knew Bend in the 1980's talk now, but who cares? The newbies now think these times are different, but they aren't, its always the same. Back in the 1980's everybody worked for 'TIMBER' computer jobs were with LP,GP,... all of PDX, everybody in ORYGUN lost their job, but we all survived. So fucking what.

Bend will BK, but everyone will make a ton of money, the lawyers and cpas will get a ton of work. So fucking what?

Anonymous said...

There are a 1/2 dozen in-direct game contracting companys in Bend, and they all have less than 50 employees.

Most of them will NOT tell you who their client is, but I know a lot of these people, and their client is MS.

Bend is fucked.

Anonymous said...

POST y2k much of software as 'sales' died, and game kept going on, parents buying titles for $50, and kids playing their PS2's or whatever, been going on since the late 1980's like boom times, ...

Adults bought PS3's, and of course XBOXES, and X360's, but finally like all crap its game-over.

If & when the credit-card ends, and we know it will then all title sales will end, and all box sales will end. The BIG game folk see it coming. Its over. It's been over for software in general for years, all my Hardware friends got laid off a few years ago, SW 5+ years ago, yes games kept going, especially here in Bend where contractors who know physics could help people optimize, ... but now its all over, the consumer is toast.

Like I said most of these kids have ONLY known six figure incomes since college, and now they're going to be a like 2001 web-site developers sitting in coffee shops staring at the walls.

Bewert said...

What’s Going Up

January 24, 2009 4:00 am
What’s Going Up, Work continues Thursday on the future home for Colorado Cat Clinic, which plans to move into this new building in NorthWest Crossing by midyear.

What: Colorado Cat Clinic

Anonymous said...

HOMER here is one for you, ... When city of Bend bans its public-dole employees from reading IHTBYB @work, you know you have hit big time, on the BK of Bend.

####

2 blogs off-limits to Vallejo city workers

San Francisco Chronicle
August 27, 2008

Vallejo's city manager has barred city employees from reading two local blogs that focus on the city's descent into bankruptcy.

City Manager Joseph Tanner on Monday added the Vallejo Times Herald's local news blog and the Vallejo Is Burning Web site to the list of Internet addresses employees cannot access from city computers.

"We blocked these because they are political in nature," Tanner said. "We blocked them because one is an anti-bankruptcy site and the other is a rag of a newspaper."

Vallejo filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in May, facing a $16 million deficit and no money in reserve. Its labor unions have been contesting the filing, saying the city is trying to dodge its contract obligations. A federal bankruptcy judge is expected to rule next week on whether the city is insolvent and can proceed with reorganizing its finances.

Marc Garman, editor of the volunteer-run Vallejo Is Burning site, said he wasn't surprised that Tanner barred city employees from reading his site at work. The site, at www.ibvallejo.com, is also called the Vallejo Independent Bulletin.

"People have been kind of up in arms, but it seems like a fairly common practice," Garman said. "I do commend him for not singling out one particular site."

Vallejo Is Burning gets about 60,000 hits a day, about 15 percent of which come from the city of Vallejo server, Garman said.

"It does seem a little quieter now," he said.

Ron Rhea, publisher of the Vallejo Times Herald, had no immediate comment on the issue.

The Times Herald and Vallejo Is Burning join a list of pornography, social networking, gambling and hate sites that are already banned.

Anonymous said...

"You for 1-1/2 years have bored us to tears, and HANK & Co have gone out of our way to tell you how to run and win orifice in this miserable little desert shit-hole, and you have preceded to remain a kept-man."

====

I am gone the whole week, and I check in to see my name taken in vain...
... so I am clueless about the conversation (no time to wade through the BS), but I will add my $.02...

The Pussy is a gadfly (blood suckin insect) who buzzes around the CC mtgs, and then reporting here on what is going on there. And then claiming they are all screwed up, and breaking the Exec Session laws, blah blah blah. And then bragging about how he is going to bust chops and file an Ethics Complaint against their evil deeds.

But he never does anything of the sort... except just talk about it. I tried to help the Pussy; but he really does not want any help. He only wants to talk about shit; not do any shit.

Somebody on this rock not only talks about investing; but also does it as well. Talk and deeds are good. Talk alone is shit.

Pussy is all talk, not deeds. Pussy is shit.

Anonymous said...

Remember KUNTS Bend Lag's CALI by 18 months, ...

Local governments sweat; markets in free-fall; More cities on the brink of fiscal void

By Robert Lewis
November 21, 2008

When the city of Vallejo filed for bankruptcy protection in May, the logical question was: Is this a sign of things to come?

Now two more California cities -- Rio Vista and Isleton -- are considering bankruptcy protection as an op-tion as they face large budget shortfalls and staggering debt.

While experts caution against ringing the alarm bells just yet, they do say tough economic times could push municipalities already on the brink over the edge.

"I think it's quite possible municipal bankruptcies could become somewhat more common but will still be very rare," said Jason Dickerson, budget and policy analyst at the state's Legislative Analyst's Office. "There are more municipalities that will look at what it means."

Cities, counties and other governing bodies across the state are reeling as budget projections many considered to be conservative at the start of the fiscal year, July 1, are proving to be wildly optimistic as the housing slump is affecting property tax revenue and sales tax receipts are well below last year.

Many municipalities not only are looking ahead to cuts next year but also are actively trimming expendi-tures to fix shortfalls in the current fiscal year's budget.

"California cities are like the rest of the country and rest of the state, really struggling right now," said Eva Spiegel, spokeswoman for the League of California Cities.

Rio Vista is facing an $816,000 deficit in its general fund budget for the current fiscal year and a $1.6 million deficit in its sewer fund, said Hector De La Rosa, the city manager. While officials and the City Council are looking at other cuts and ways to save money -- hiring freezes, work furloughs and increased fees, among others -- bankruptcy protection is an option.

"There are some benefits to Chapter 9 bankruptcy," De La Rosa said. "It holds off creditors until the city has time to get a plan in place."

On Wednesday, Isleton's city manager said if his city couldn't borrow $1 million by Jan. 1 to pay off $950,000 in years of accrued debt, he would urge the City Council to seek bankruptcy protection.

If both cities file a bankruptcy action, they would become just the third and fourth cities in California to do so since 1980. Vallejo filed for bankruptcy protection in May.

The best way to get out of bankruptcy protection -- or avoid it in the first place -- is to cut expenditures and raise revenue, said Marc Levinson, lead bankruptcy attorney at the firm representing Vallejo.

"It's not rocket science," he said.

The problem is municipalities have little control over the markets, voters don't want to raise taxes, and large expenditures -- pension obligations, health care costs and collective bargaining agreements -- limit a city's options, he said.

"I'm surprised not every city is discussing (bankruptcy)," Levinson said. "It's absolutely horrible out there."

That doesn't mean the state will suddenly see a spike in municipal bankruptcies, said Bob Leland, Fair-field's director of finances.

That city is expecting a $5 million to $6 million budget shortfall next year. But like most municipalities, Fairfield should be able to fix its budget with cuts and reserve funds.

Cities that do opt for bankruptcy filings "often have issues that are so unique you can't really extrapolate," Leland said.

Vallejo spent an inordinate amount of its budget on public safety salaries and benefits; Isleton has had years of debt that added up; and Rio Vista has had problems with its sewer system for decades.

While Vallejo's bankruptcy filing could encourage other cities to at least consider filing bankruptcy as an option, such a move still carries a stigma, said Dickerson, the budget analyst.

"Bankruptcy is a really big deal," he said. "It's a mark of shame."

It also means a municipality might have trouble borrowing money in the future as wary lenders worry about getting repaid, Dickerson said.

Keenly aware of the drawbacks to filing for bankruptcy protection, Rio Vista officials are looking at all other options, but times are tough, said De La Rosa, the city manager.

"A lot of municipalities are going through the same situation Rio Vista is going through," he said. "For those communities that do not have healthy reserves, they will look at all options."

Anonymous said...

As far as I know ... If I don't know, then it doesn't exist

##

Shit thats the BEND quote of the day!! and its only 9:30AM

Anonymous said...

Hey Ma, Are We Bankrupt Yet?

Written by H. Bruce Miller
Friday, 23 January 2009

If The Bulletin plays the story on its front page, it must be official: Bend is broke.

Well, just about. The paper reports this morning that the heads of city departments told the city council yesterday that they’ve slashed spending as deeply as they can.

“There’s no fluff left in our budget,” the story quotes Community Development Director Mel Oberst as saying. “We’ve eliminated all our overtime, and as a result of [reduced revenues from] our service level, we’ve spent down all our remaining reserves.”

Later in the story, Finance Director Sonia Andrews says that if the city doesn’t find some new revenue sources it will be running a $4 million to $9 million deficit by 2013.

And here’s what may be the most interesting part: According to The Bulletin, Andrews said the city “started dipping into its reserve funds, which are used to provide a cushion for emergency situations, years before the economy took a major downturn. As a result, she said, many departments don’t have much wiggle room left.”

That has a lot of people muttering (or screaming) “WTF???” including downtown merchant and blogger Duncan McGeary. “Methinks they don't understand the words ‘reserve’ and ‘emergency,’ he writes.

“I predict that the city council will let Bend go bankrupt before they raise fees,” McGeary continues. “Indeed, I predict they'll delay or lower fees. I predict they'll keep pushing Juniper Ridge. I predict they'll keep the Bend buses rolling. I predict I'll have to replace my shock absorbers [because there’s no money to fix potholes] and get another lock on my door [because there’s no money to hire enough cops].”

While The Eye agrees with McGeary that the city has displayed fiscal irresponsibility of eye-popping magnitude, we don’t think all its financial ills can be blamed on Juniper Ridge and Bend Area Transit, or even on the recent real estate bubble and subsequent bust. The root of the sickness is that the Good Old Boys who run the show here and the politicians they control have put all their eggs in the basket of GROWTH, GROWTH, GROWTH for the past 20 years instead of developing a balanced and sustainable economy with a solid base of living-wage jobs, and when the basket of growth fell all the eggs broke.

So what’s the new city council majority going to do now? Our guess is that they will follow the advice of the GOBs and prescribe more GROWTH, GROWTH, GROWTH as the cure. And McGeary’s right: They will sacrifice essential city services before even thinking about (horrors!) increasing fees on builders and developers.
Comments (3) >>
a guest said:
Builders and developers are already burdened with heavy fees (15% of the cost of a residential home), beurocratic tape and stagnant sales. The City has portrayed poor spending habits and bad financial decisions. The City should not be involved with Juniper Ridge they should leave development up to the private sector. This is what happens when our Government is not held accountable because the rest of us are too busy trying to make a living.
January 23, 2009
Ten Bears said:
I think it's been pretty thoroughly demonstrated, at least for those of the capacity to grasp such, that "growth" is a perpetual motion machine bound by the laws of nature to fail. Again. And again.

Been through 3 booms and 3 busts here.
January 23, 2009
HBM said:
Bears, you're right. But the psychology of boom-and-bust keeps us trapped in a perpetual boom-and-bust cycle. During the boom times everybody is so terrified of another bust that they're unwilling to restrain or manage growth in any way for fear of bringing it on. Of course the bust comes anyway, and in the end we're no better off than we were before the boom -- in fact this time we will be worse off, because we allowed a lot of development to occur without the infrastructure and public services to support it or adequate means to supply said infrastructure and services. We have more roads than we can plow or repair, more neighborhoods than we can adequately police, more kids than the schools can hold, etc. This in turn causes our quality of life (which, for most people, means good schools and safe streets rather than lots of mountain bike trails) to deteriorate, which makes recovery harder because fewer people want to live here.

Anonymous said...

Vallejo's city manager has barred city employees from reading two local blogs that focus on the city's descent into bankruptcy.

LMAO!!! That's hilarious! Those folks in Vallejo are even deeper in denial than COAR and COBA are.

Anonymous said...

Ok, JR & BAT(BUS), its NOT the cause of the BK, but just MAYBE had aber-pussy (mayor) not been working on 'castles in the air'(Thoreau) had they focussed on basics, then BEND wouldn't be FUCKED (BK).

JR is about MUNI debt keep knife-river and MOSS flowing with CASH. BUS is about Leonard selling billions of dollars of propane to the city, so these are in fact 'good' things in terms of 'jobs'.

In and of itself JR&BAT(BUS) didn't kill Bend.

The problem, is like Kathy Eckman, beautiful people who just want growth, and to build, and to grow, and to build, and sell, and promote, and talk shit, like 'money mommas' making 10%/yr ROI forever (her company), like MADE-OFF, whenever you hear that shit RUN, and now she's mayor.

The problem is of BEND is that only crooks run for public office, because working people are too busy making a living.

Vallejo went BK, because in good-times they over-paid cops,fire, ... city-hall and city-staff, and then when things went south, the budget imploded. Bend is the same, during the good times we paid for everything from COVA to Movies to Source Events and Promotion ( Swizter, Costa ). It all works fine during a BULL market bubble, but it all fails during a bust.

Today we have EDCO, CORA, COBA, ... all calling the shots, but these are all vampires that feed on the blood of the working, Bend really was NEVER a working town post MILL days, so Bend hasn't been a working town for over two generations.

Bubble's will continue, its not the end of the world. The media leads what we have, and the media is still a bunch of out of town hustlers and promoters.

Soon the city will BK, and they'll quit paying the debt load, and then there will be NO more Knife-River make-work projects at JR ( cost? $800k/acre to clear rock at JR ). Then un-employment will sky-rocket to over 25%. Depression is here now, but you ain't seen nothing yet.

All of Bend is Alice in Wonderland, even the 'good old boys' of Chamber of Commerce. Too much money was made, and now they're too drunk to even notice that the 'castle in the air' is coming down and hard.

Anonymous said...

Vallejo declared bankruptcy, and the little town of Lincoln — declared the fastest-growing city in America two years ago — cut 43 jobs last week, including a dozen police officers and firefighters.

Well BEND is the #1 appreciation in the USA, and anybody that doesn't seen it coming down and hard, between now and xmas 2009 is fucking rip-van-winkle.

Budget balancing acts Print E-mail
Written by The Editorial Board
Friday, 23 January 2009

Budget remedies require a willingness to make tough decisions, with everything on the table — including wages and benefits for city employees.


If governing in times of prosperity is easy and the true tests are adversity, then this is a huge opportunity for leadership everywhere.

The city of Tracy faces a $7.8 million budget deficit, and young Mountain House may need to chop a half a million in expenses this year.

The good news is that both towns are addressing the issue.

The bad news is that we can forget easy. We’re all going to feel what’s coming.

Already, Tracy has approved cuts and cost reductions that may whittle down about half of our shortfall for the year. In the short term, there will be a reduction of subsidies to the Grand Theatre and the city-run airport, contracted street tree maintenance, new fees for the fire department and increased fees for developers. Job vacancies won’t be filled, except in police and fire departments and at the sewage treatment plant.

So far, library hours and the Joe Wilson Pool have been spared the ax, and the city has rejected tax increases and layoffs.

But it doesn’t take a consultant to know that more needs to be done to avoid future deficit spending.

First off, the city can’t let up on its work to bring jobs to town.

Second, it needs to assure the community that its operations are as lean as they can be. Can departments work more efficiently? Can operations be streamlined?

One productive area to explore would be staff pay and benefits — including medical coverage, vacations, sick time and holidays. Employees and their unions should share in the sacrifices that taxpayers are going to be forced to weather.

Another idea is to get the public involved. In San Diego, the mayor put out a request for money-saving suggestions and is considering ideas from opening coffee bars in libraries to changing trash pickup to biweekly, reducing lighting in city buildings and creating a burial section for pets in the city cemetery.

Tracy, with its $30 million in reserves, isn’t as bad off as some cities, of course. Vallejo declared bankruptcy, and the little town of Lincoln — declared the fastest-growing city in America two years ago — cut 43 jobs last week, including a dozen police officers and firefighters.

We’re ahead of the game by comparison.

Still, there’s lots more to be done before we rest easy.

Anonymous said...

I think a public dialogue needs to be opened on the question of whether Bend needs to be, should be, or even CAN be, a big city.

For many years the local movers and shakers have been pursuing a megalomanic vision of Bend growing into a city of 100,000, 200,000, half a million, whatever.

But looking at it objectively, rather than through the COAR/COBA/Chamber/Bulletin distorting lens, there seems to be no rational reason for this little former logging town in the middle of nowhere to have a population of 100,000, or even 75,000. Now that the timber is gone we have no natural resources to sell. Because of the cold climate and the short growing season we never have been and never will be a major agricultural hub. There's no particular reason for major manufacturing facilities to locate here.

The only engines we have to propel the local economy are tourism and speculation-driven growth. But speculation-driven growth is unsustainable, and tourism doesn't provide enough decent jobs to support an economy of 75,000 people.

So assuming that Bend is always going to be a tourist town with a smattering of small manufacturing and high-tech employers, what would be the optimal and practical size for Bend? 50,000? 30,000? Why can't we set a realistic target and aim for that, instead of blindly following a policy of "get as big as possible as fast as possible"? In the long run I believe we would have a better, more livable and more prosperous city, although not such a big one.

Anonymous said...

MUNI-DEFAULT is what I see of BEND, and this is being played like an orchestra, TEAM-MOSS JRMB, isn't such being 'stupid' its FUCKING CRIMINAL what MDU/MOSS is doing with BEND CREDIT RATING.

Muni Bond Default Parade Plays On
Jack Colombo, 01.15.09, 05:30 PM EST
Distress continues to bedevil the muni bond market, and the rest of the year looks even tougher.

To look at current municipal default statistics, your first reaction might be that we have erroneously displayed the corporate defaults for 2008. However, 2008 would have been a record year even without Jefferson County, Ala., and its $3.8 billion sewer bond issue default. The town of Vallejo, Calif., added $280 million as it became the first municipal Chapter 9 bankruptcy in over a decade that affects bondholders.

Other notable 2008 defaults were the Las Vegas monorail issue ($451 million) and a $709 million issue whose only collateral was a gas supply agreement with Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEHMQ - news - people ), which filed bankruptcy six months after the deal was made.
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Municipal and corporate bond defaults are rising but this could spell opportunity for huge profits by bold investors. Click here for guidance in Distressed Debt Securities newsletter.

While housing-related issues are always a principal source of defaults, at least in numbers, 2008 proved to be a bumper year, with 62 issues totaling $1.2 billion. That's more than the total for all defaults in either of the last two years. The outlook for 2009 is for even worse to come, at least in terms of numbers of defaults.

The wave of defaults in housing-related issues in California and Florida can be expected to accelerate. Expect further defaults by small municipalities in California and elsewhere. Also vulnerable are sales tax dependent issues everywhere and "feel good" projects that depend on private or public support. The latter are vulnerable to the weak economy and, in the case of ethanol projects, a change in the underlying economics.

The federal government may well step in to provide indirect support to the states through municipal bond guarantees for issuers who otherwise couldn't sell more debt, which may postpone into future years some of the grief building up. However, no such help will be coming for the thousands of bond issues backed by corporate sponsors or a home builder with empty lots and incomplete infrastructures.

Special Offer: Banks are issuing preferred stock with yields of 10% and higher. Nice yields, but don't get suckered into buying bad paper. Click here for Forbes-Lehmann Income Securities Investor.
Comment On This Story

Not helping is the cloud still hanging over the bond insurers. Their ability to provide coverage for new issues is in doubt, as is their ability to backstop deals previously insured and now in trouble. All in all, it looks like a busy year for this newsletter.

While municipal defaults broke all-time records in 2008, they pale in comparison to the massive volume of corporate defaults. The total of $157.56 billion easily broke the previous record year of 2002 when $107.9 billion in defaults was recorded, although that took 93 defaults. Setting aside the $127.5 billion contribution by the Lehmann Brothers default, the total for the year would still have made it the third largest year on record. While 2009 looks like it may challenge 2002 in terms of the number of defaults, we probably will not see a new dollar record even if General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) files a pre-packaged bankruptcy.

Bewert said...

Re:...and the other is a rag of a newspaper."

###

Now that's even funnier than the Cat Clinic.

Anonymous said...

Yes, in Vallejo, CA 'just like Bend' they huffed and puffed up the market, and one paper turned, like our 'SORE' an became a pariah. But we're a long way off, the SORE still refuses to comments about 1031, Suterra, ... and a ton of other stuff, ... Like MDU/Knife-River/JRMB MOSS Getting $200k/yr while on JRMB and sending $12M/yr to KR, ... The SORE is not even yet close to a 'rag'. A real newspaper must have no friends, and the SORE is still Switzer&Costa, best of friends.

MrBruce said...

COVA wins again, $498M/yr forever Bend tourists, and the Bend BRAND win's GOLD, and BEND BRANDING AT ITS BEST !!!

Bend, Oregon Advertising Firm Wins Gold in International Branding ...
MediaSyndicate (press release) - Jan 21, 2009
Bend, OR, January 21, 2009 -- tbd, a full-service advertising agency, today announced that it has won a Gold Award in Branding from Graphis, ...

MrBruce said...

To look at current municipal default statistics, your first reaction might be that we have erroneously displayed the corporate defaults for 2008. However, 2008 would have been a record year even without Jefferson County, Ala., and its $3.8 billion sewer bond issue default. The town of Vallejo, Calif., added $280 million as it became the first municipal Chapter 9 bankruptcy in over a decade that affects bondholders.


###

This is where a CERTAIN PUSSY, keeps EVERYONE off the BALL the CITYofBEND ain't about the budget, or general FUND, its about like here, little tiny fucking VALLEJO taking in $300M of OPM, and spending it on their friends.

Ditto for BEND, $100's of MILLIONS of USA pension fund money is being spent to keep the BEND MACHINE HUMMING, and there is NO way in hell this DEBT will ever be repaid.

KEEP YOUR EYES on the BALL KUNTS.

Anonymous said...

So assuming that Bend is always going to be a tourist town with a smattering of small manufacturing and high-tech employers, what would be the optimal and practical size for Bend?

##

The high-tech in BEND is dead hbm, and same for the manufacturing.

It's all over.

There will be next to no jobs in Bend by xmas of 2009.

Anonymous said...

There are no XBOX teams in Bend. At least as of two years ago. I know because I was involved in the launch of the XBOX and still have contacts. Possibly there are individual contractors writing code for other teams.

It's possible there are teams in Bend doing PC stuff like Solitaire and Pinball. If so they are still outnumbered by other groups which are funded out of Eugene's Garage Games.

MrBruce said...

I think a public dialogue needs to be opened on the question of whether Bend needs to be, should be, or even CAN be, a big city.

[ I thought we were a resort? But then DUY says that a resort has to be small. WTF is BEND? It seems that BEND is like OREO all things to all people, and nothing to nobody. ]


For many years the local movers and shakers have been pursuing a megalomanic vision of Bend growing into a city of 100,000, 200,000, half a million, whatever.

[ sure why not, the early birds all become billionaires, trouble of course is hair-lips rarely get rich in the long term in the real world. ]


But looking at it objectively, rather than through the COAR/COBA/Chamber/Bulletin distorting lens, there seems to be no rational reason for this little former logging town in the middle of nowhere to have a population of 100,000, or even 75,000. Now that the timber is gone we have no natural resources to sell. Because of the cold climate and the short growing season we never have been and never will be a major agricultural hub. There's no particular reason for major manufacturing facilities to locate here.

[ Well HOLLERN knew post 1991 there was another bubble coming, BEND is a bubble town, cycles will always continue limitation being amnesia and easy-money. ]

The only engines we have to propel the local economy are tourism and speculation-driven growth.

[ the little engine is PUBLIC TAXPAYER DEBT COVA that runs the growth engine of Bend. ]

But speculation-driven growth is unsustainable, and tourism doesn't provide enough decent jobs to support an economy of 75,000 people.

[ Who cares easy-money will go on forever, and now that OREO will print $2 TRillion, and just gave $60M to MOSS-CACB-MDU, Bend will soon be awash in easy-money. ]


So assuming that Bend is always going to be a tourist town with a smattering of small manufacturing and high-tech employers, what would be the optimal and practical size for Bend?

[ Bend will always be a place on I97 where people stopped to get gas, now with the bypass, why even stop in BEND? High-Tech, its gone HBM, small manufacturing, fuel is going up, peak-oil has passed, BEND will never be competitive EVER. ]

50,000? 30,000? Why can't we set a realistic target and aim for that, instead of blindly following a policy of "get as big as possible as fast as possible"? In the long run I believe we would have a better, more livable and more prosperous city, although not such a big one.

[ Because GET-RICH-QUICK, and sell and RUN is the BEND USA WAY. Do it slow, and nobody gets rich. BEND is a ponzi scam, and ponzi's only last until the the last fool has been fleeced, its NOW over, and amnesia takes a generation, before idiots and MONEY return to BEND. ]

Anonymous said...

BULL FUCKING SHIT.

There are 2-4 XBOX-360 private contracting physics firms in BEND that I know of.

They don't hire local, they're all skiers, and you have to grad from a top school even to interview.

They all do contract work.

Your never heard of them, because your obviously a tier-9 developer.

Anonymous said...

Those services teams are not development teams. They write libraries. And I don't think they are contractors for Microsoft, are they?

Besides, XBOX360 projects are not being stopped. It's still profitable.

Anonymous said...

The game-sw biz is so much like the web design biz of 1999, they would hire anybody, ... trouble is most product never comes to market.

I know tons of kids that work in games, with no education, and they have been making $100k/yr for 10+ years, I always told them it wouldn't last, well its here now.

Very few people in the game sw biz have phd's in math&physics and understand computer science, very fucking few. If your one of those your fine, but all the people without education will be cleared out. EVEN at MS they're laying off very few in MS R&D, its the people with NO education, the warm bodies that are getting laid off.

Money was just thrown at games during the last 20 years, and whatever didn't stick to the walls lost funding.

Hell subscription based gaming on the internet is huge, 10k gamers paying $20/mo, is real real money, and tons of VC's fed anybody with an idea, and now it BEND-OVER.

Anonymous said...

Those services teams are not development teams. They write libraries.

*

Software is fucking software, the end market is plummeting.

MS is pulling the plug.

They have seized the market, XBOX is now king, and MS has seen the growth is DEAD, Bend Dead, now its time to sell the shit to some loser, and move on.

Anonymous said...

>>Very few people in the game sw biz have phd's in math&physics and understand computer science, very fucking few. If your one of those your fine, but all the people without education will be cleared out.

This is not true. You typically only need one guy on a team who knows physics. And that guy usually relies on a library or previous code. The most important people to have on a team are not people with degrees but people who have been reliably shipping successful games. It's the software engineering that matters. You need 10 guys who can have the experience of working with and debugging other peoples' code for every guy with a PhD. Three of the most successful guys around here running game divisions that are still going don't have a relevant degree.

LavaBear said...

>>>I think a public dialogue needs to be opened on the question of whether Bend needs to be, should be, or even CAN be, a big city.


The whole Bend is Aspen thing has always struck me as absurd. For one, I've spent some time in Aspen and frankly we aren't Aspen. Two, why would we ever WANT to be Aspen? A bunch of billionaire's second homes, some working poor to service the rich and what? They've priced out everyone else. To me we should of promoted Bend as the next Boulder not Aspen. The half assed COCC + OSU is silly at best. If we would of at least tried to create a real University then we'd have a shot at Boulder or Flagstaff or something. Now we are left with crappy empty sub divisions rotting in the desert.

Bewert said...

Re: >>>I think a public dialogue needs to be opened on the question of whether Bend needs to be, should be, or even CAN be, a big city.

###

Bend is/should be the regional center for medical, higher ed and government. That's where it was heading when the RE bubble took over. 50,000 or so. Trying to turn it into a city of 100,000 or more is as silly as trying to turn Juniper Ridge into Celebration, FL. Not that it's stopping the movers and shakers around here.

tim said...

Saw a family moving out of a huge house today. Yeah, U-Haul, of course. They come in with a moving company and drive themselves out when the money is gone.

This house has been for sale for awhile. At some point, you just gotta go, even if the house isn't selling.

Anonymous said...

They come in with a moving company and drive themselves out when the money is gone.

Good observation. That's another reason why the stats from moving companies that The Bull quoted the other day about 2/3 of moves being into Central Oregon give a distorted picture.

Anonymous said...

To me we should of promoted Bend as the next Boulder not Aspen.

Yes.

Anonymous said...

Bend is/should be the regional center for medical, higher ed and government.


###

BULL FUCKING SHIT MR. PUSSY

St-Charles is the worst fucking Hospital in the State. Get a second opinion, recall they even KILLED Freidman a local golden.

Higher-Ed? COCC? Send the pussy back to UTAH so he can fuck moron 48 yr old's going on 14 in the brain.

Government? You be talking like Deschutes Co, has something that say Malheur doesn't??

PUSSY - GO TO BACK TO UTAH.

BEND is a BIG fuckin zero, always has been, always will be, its where the rich play at say Black-Butte or Pronghorn, but nobody ever did business here, unless there is an RE gold rush, and when it deflates every fucking time Bend goes back to its former self.

NEVER go to St Charles except for emergency, always get a second opinion in PDX, at a dozen good hospitals over there.

John Day, OR has more going on for old people than Bend.

MrBruce said...

Meat is back on the table boyz.

###

Obama’s Third War
By William Cook

“Become more human, and humans will love you.”

Text of the Gospel of Phillip, 143

Ben Heine/ MWC NEWS

Predictably, the United States Senate and House of Representatives voted to support Israel’s carnage in Gaza thereby handing the new President yet one more war to contend with, one unhappily more dangerous to America than those in Iraq or Afghanistan. That may seem to be, on its face, a strange thing to say unless one understands that we are in Iraq fighting for Israel and, with this vote, our Congress has indebted itself to the Israeli forces that govern the United States (as Ariel Sharon said long ago), forces that will use endangerment of Israel as leverage to attack Iran and Syria, countries already in their military sites since 1992.

Our Senate’s indebtedness is unanimous; while 20 in the House abstained and five voted against the resolution, all the rest voted to support. The reasons offered: Israel has a right to defend itself even though we do not know where Israel is: that is, Israel has yet to define its borders and remove itself from occupied territories; and the rockets fired over the last 8 years must stop, even though Israel, with one shell in Gaza, killed 43 at the UN school, twice the number killed by rockets in 8 years. But logic, international law and international opinion, and fundamental moral law cannot sway our Congress; money can and does. Obama may have a Senate majority and a Democratically controlled House of Representatives, but he cannot respond to the desires of the American people for change – no more wars – nor to the United community of nations that have voted with their feet against the actions of the Israeli government in open and defiant dissent against their governments in London, Ireland, Scotland, Europe and through out the Arab world including Jordan and Egypt. Our Representatives represent Israeli wishes and policies not those of the American people; the people voted overwhelmingly for change not the continued support of Israel represented by these votes or the appointments made by Obama as advisors.

Ironically our “only democratic ally” in the mid-east, as constantly reiterated by our main stream media and talking heads, has locked the media out of Gaza in order to isolate truth to its Public Relations campaign begun the day it invaded Gaza three weeks ago. Consequently, Americans receive their news from those that decided to break international law and their own responsibilities as an occupying force under the Geneva conventions. No truth, no morality, only raw force serves this Zionist nation beholden only to itself and those it owns, including our Congress. Yet the news gets out. The people of Gaza transmit the truth by phone cameras and a handful of Al Jazeera journalists that report from the killing fields. These pictures inundate the Internet and even a European press on occasion.

Contrast the reality of the coverage with that provided to Americans. In Sderot, the little town used by Israel to portray its misery, devastation, and ultimate demise at the hands of the “terrorists,” the citizens have taken to the hillside overlooking Gaza -- binoculars, sunglasses and beach chairs in tow -- to watch the rain of Israeli terror by air, sea and land on an imprisoned people. (Shashank Bengali, “Israelis, sipping Pepsi, watch bombardment of Gaza town,” 1/5/2009, McClatchy). Are they in danger? Perhaps, although they do have bomb shelters and warning sirens, something that the people of Gaza do not have. And as I have noted elsewhere (in Counterpunch, 1/5/2009), they have been bombarded on average with 2 rockets per day for 8 years. Twenty three have died over these 8 years, an unsupportable number killed by meaningless use of force. Nonetheless, this has become the rationale for Israel’s current killing that now approaches 1000 half of whom are children. Disproportionate? Not to our Representatives.

Now consider what we are not shown, an image that the western media finds “pornographic,” “irresponsible journalism,” “too graphic,” “too emotional” for public consumption; yet the rest of the world sees these images, hundreds and hundreds of them. This alone should give our representatives pause to reflect on how their subservience to the barbaric behavior of Zionist Israel plays out in the world that is not controlled by American corporations or complicit congressmen. You can go here . There you will see the head of a little girl looking forlornly though vacant eyes, mouth still open, completely buried from the neck down in rubble from her crushed home; indeed, too graphic, too emotional to contemplate, just another unnamed casualty of war where death happens … unfortunately, and “we’re sorry.” This appeared in multimedia, a Norwegian site, where you can also hear Sven Egil Omdel, the Director, explain why he decided to publish the photo even though it is against policy: “It is (the publication) a conscious provocation and we have two reasons for it: Israel keep (sic) all western journalists away from the war in Gaza. … The most important reason for us to show this face, is that the Arab world sees pictures like these from Gaza every day. Not a single still, but hours and hours of TV images of hospital floors full of small, dead bodies. Four year olds, two year olds, seven year olds, newly borns – These pictures represent the war in Gaza for millions of muslims – and we wonder why the hatred against Israel and the west grows? (translation)” This now is Obama’s war whether he wants it or not including the 3000 tons of ordnance being shipped now to Israel by the United States to supplement what they are currently using in Gaza.

Americans must understand the timing of this “war” that is not a war but a slaughter of caged people that have no where to hide, no where to go and even then, when following IDF orders, find themselves in a building targeted for destruction, their destruction. Deceit governs; racism motivates; hatred compels and greed for others’ land is the bed rock of action.

Why now? For two years, during the election campaign for the US Presidency, Israel imposed a siege on Gaza, a calculated act of slow, insidious decimation of the people planned in 2004 (www.infoimagination.org) to ultimately compel the Palestinian people to submit to Israeli dominance, without a state, without an army, without freedom of ingress and egress, unclassified and wholly dependent on Israel. Included in that strategy was the need to complete “Securing the Realm,” the document drawn up by our faithful Neo-Con “servants” that drove the policies of Bush’s administration and called for regime change in Syria and Iran in addition to Iraq. During the political campaign, while press coverage crowded out virtually all other news, the Zionist forces destroyed the infrastructure of Gaza, began the locking down of gates and the slow but methodical destruction of Gaza’s economy. Simultaneously they sought, but failed to get in time, Bush’s approval of attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites. Now, as the days of the Bush reign of terror ends, they are desperate to force Obama into a continuation of absolute and unquestioned support of Israeli policies in the mid-east. With the Congress in hand, with the vote made public in America and its continued commitment made known to the world, they believe that hey have locked Obama in a prison not unlike that surrounding Gaza.

What now? Reflection on the past few years, since 2005 to present, especially in the United States, makes possible this observation: the people of the United States and the people of Israel no longer see eye to eye on matters of mutual concern and, indeed, have already expressed that reality in fact. What do I mean? Beginning with the Downing Street memo and the disclosures of Richard Clark and Ambassador Wilson, the ability of the main stream press to hide the truth from the American people could no longer hold. As 2005 evolved, more and more disclosures unraveled the lies protected by the “fair and balanced reporting” of the corporate owned and controlled media. Fair and balanced was neither fair to truth nor balanced. To put two items on a scale, one for, one against, does not present truth or a balanced report. It simply shows two different perspectives, one for and one against. But as facts and documents became available to the American people, items available over the prior years on various Internet publications, the American people reacted by throwing out Bush supporters in the 2006 and 2008 elections and Bush support eroded into the mid-twenties.

They wanted “change” promised from the start by Senator Obama and mimicked eventually by most of the other contenders to the throne. Change meant getting out of Iraq immediately and return to a government that had a concern for America, including less absolute and blind support for Israel. The vast majority of the American people do not accept the disproportionate and cruel invasion of Gaza by Israel. As more and more pictures and videos become available on the Internet, especially the recurring images of savagery on You Tube, the American people are traumatized by the horror, especially the uncountable number of deaths of children. Our representative government does not represent the American electorate; it represents only scared politicians who depend on AIPAC money, men and women who fear for their political seats regardless of what their constituents believe and want.

By contrast Israeli citizens are faced with an election that has all three contenders fighting to convince the electorate that he/she is the one that will inflict more force to subjugate the Palestinians to Israeli will. The focus of this campaign resonates around the war monger Benjamin Netanyahu; both Livni and Barak must demonstrate that they are better leaders to take Israel against the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Iranians. Israel’s future is one of continued war which means in turn continued American billions to sustain their ambitions against their perceived enemies. They do not talk of “talk” with neighbors, only unending war against those that oppose the Jews. One does not speak of Israel as a state or government when “victimhood” is needed to induce unyielding support for the Israeli governments need to acquire more land and control the regimes of its neighbors, one must turn to the bias against Jews that is world wide and endemic. Sympathy cannot be rung from criticism of a government’s policies.

Horribly, the invasion of Gaza can be viewed quite accurately as a campaign war where Livni and Barak have made evident to the electorate that they will use force to ensure Israel’s right to dominate the area regardless of international pressure and opinion, international law or international justice. They know they can do this because they have control of the American Congress and administration including the veto power of the United States in the Security Council. World opinion means nothing. The Israeli electorate, with modest exception, does not want change.

Ultimately, it’s AIPAC’s will against the American citizens’ expressed desires as they voted for this man of change. Who will win? Will the blatant exposure of Israeli violence and mercilessness, in pictures and videos, turn the tide? Can Israeli hacking of Internet sites like that done to The Palestine Chronicle and the attempted erasure of sites that contain the pictures and videos described above stop the flow of sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza and quell the building animosity that has arisen world-wide against the cruelty employed by Israel in its savage destruction of Gaza?

Will Obama turn to diplomacy, as he preached when a candidate and, thus doing, fulfill the truth enunciated by Phillip, “Become more human, and humans will love you”? Will he turn to negotiations with those engaged in these brutalities, to stem the violence? Will he recognize the impossible absence of the democratically elected Hamas government from deliberations with Israel over Gaza? How absurd. Will he reconsider the bribery that Bush employed to keep Egypt and Jordan in collusion with Israel despite the agony the people of Egypt and Jordan experience as they watch their people die in Gaza? Will he seek justice by returning to the resolutions of the UN that demand Israel return to the borders of 1948 or 1967, to leave the occupied lands of Palestine including East Jerusalem, to recognize the right of return of the refugees, to realize that Palestinians have a right to their state just as Israel has a right to its, something recognized by Hamas though never recognized as true by our main stream press. (Guardian, 1/12/2006 and Ynet, 1/30/2006). Will Obama seek peace that America might be free of its entanglement with a rogue state that blindly leads America into the darkness of unending conflict and death? Will he demand of Israel that its support from America depends of its recognition that it can only survive if it lives in harmony with its neighbors not out of fear but out of brotherhood? Will he suggest that the Israelis consider a diametrically opposite road to peace, one that understands “People will love you if you become more human”?

MrBruce said...

TEAM OREO SAYS NOW IS THE TIME TO START BURNING BOOKS ...

Teacher proclaims Twain, Lee and Steinbeck irrelevant in Obama age
guardian.co.uk, UK - Jan 23, 2009
Photograph: Reuters/CORBIS An American English teacher has called for novels which use the word "nigger" to be removed from the high school curriculum now ...

MrBruce said...

Zionist Jews- Godfathers Of Terrorism

Saturday, 24 January 2009


Palestine, the land of Palestinians, is located in the heart of the Middle East and Jerusalem where Masjid Al Aqsa, Islam's first Qibla is located, has been its capital since time immemorial. At the turn of last century Palestine was a province of Turkey's Ottoman Empire. It was a place where violence was unknown and one seldom heard people speak loud leave alone using a bad .Violence raised its ugly head in all its fury, with the advent of Jewish migrants to set up under the combined conspiracy of Jews and European colonial powers a Jewish racist state in Palestine to destabilise the Muslim Middle East.

Turkey was defeated during World War 1 and Palestine was brought under the British Mandatory Authority. The Arab rulers, including the Saudis, sided with Britain during the war on a promise that Palestine would be given freedom after the war. However, instead of freedom Britain helped the Zionist Jews to drive out the Palestinians from their lands and homes and set up a separate state for migrant Jews.

Under this conspiracy, actively implemented by the British Mandatory Authority, Jews who had not even seen the place were brought in from Russia, Middle East and other areas to Palestine where even around 1990 about 95 percent of the population were Palestinian Arabs who owned ninety percent of the land.

The Palestinians were alarmed and worried at the rapidly growing numbers of violence-prone migrant Jews who started provoking them. For example, while the peaceful Muslims in Jerusalem were celebrating the Prophet Muhammad's ( PBUH) birthday on 16 August 1929, the Jewish migrants hoisted the flag of the Star of David on the Wailing Wall and roused communal hostility against the Muslims by provocative slogans. This led to armed confrontation resulting in the arrest and the execution of many Palestinians in what was later called the "Tuesday of Blood".

The British Mandatory Authority trained migrant Jewish youths in warfare skills and provided them with sophisticated arms ,tanks and planes while Arab homes and even mosques were searched for arms;
Arabs who had penknives with them were arrested like criminals and punished. The British hanged Arabs who dared to oppose the arrival of Jewish immigrants on the lampposts of Jerusalem as a means of crushing the protest. Therefore, the British crime against the Muslims did not start with Tony Blair's partnership in George Bush's crusade against Islam and Muslims under the guise of war on terror.

In the midst of this calamity, migrant Jews established terrorist brigades such as Hagana, Stern and Irgun under the leadership of Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir. Later these Jewish terror gangs embarked upon a bloody campaign of manslaughter to terrorise the Palestinians, drive them out from their homes and grab their lands while the powerful and well-organised international Zionist propaganda machine deceived the world by justifying these crimes as they are now doing to camouflage their barbarity in Gaza. Thus began organised Jewish violence that still reeks with the blood and butchery of the innocent hapless victims of the region.

On 22, July 1946, Menachem Begin and his gangs planted bombs in the basement of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91- 25 Britons,41 Arabs and 17 Jews. While echoes of this explosion were still being heard, there began a wave of violence which ruthlessly devastated the region from which it has not been able to recover to date.

It was this same Menachem Begin,"Godfather of terrorism", who was later accepted by the champions of human rights in the West as the respectable Prime Minister of Israel and was even awarded the coveted Nobel Prize for Peace.His partner in crime against Palestinians Yitzhak Shamir who led the Jewish terrorist group Stern too became the Israeli Prime Minister.He proudly recalled later his notorious killings in Jerusalem to drive Palestinians out to establish the Zionist State of Israel.

These Zionists committed a series of reprehensible massacres against the Palestinian Arabs who were forced into exile by the millions.The US supplied, as it does even today at the cost of American taxpayers,the Israeli Zionist terror gangs with weapons and other means of destruction such as a huge quantity of TNT that was shipped to Tel Aviv.The Zionist terrorists, using a British police vehicle, exploded a barrel of TNT among a crowd of Arabs at the Hebron Gate Market place in Jerusalem killing twenty Arabs and wounding seventy others.

Designed to destroy the Palestinian resistance, Menachem Begin went on a murderous rampage and within a week butchered hundreds of innocent Palestinian men, women and children ­ 100 in the derailment of Haifa Cairo express and 254 in Deir Yassin, a village a few miles off Jerusalem.The Deir Yassin massacre has been one of the most barbarous crimes ever committed against humanity and could be coupled with the infamous "My Lai massacre in Vietnam".

After dropping seven bombs on this small Arab village of Deir Yassin of 775 people Begin gunned or bayoneted 254 of its unarmed men, women and children of all ages including ninety-year- old Hajj Ismail Attich and the eighteen-month-old baby Mohammed who was butchered on the bosom of his mother. The mutilated bodies of the victims were thrown into a well in the village. Of the 254 victims were 22 pregnant mothers, a woman teacher by the name of Hayat Balabse who wore a Red Cross badge and was tending the wounded when she was butchered, a blind man, Mohammed Khalil Mustafa, and his wife, Latifa Mustafa, who was trying to lead him to safety when the attackers slaughtered both. The women, girls and the children who survived the holocaust were rounded up at dawn by Menachem Begin and his gangs and then loaded into Lorries to Jerusalem where they were paraded through the Jewish streets, jeered and spat upon. Menachem Begin pronounced this wholesale murder a "victory" and boasted about his crime as a memorable day in Jewish history.

Panic overwhelmed the Palestinians who began to flee in terror even before they clashed with Jewish forces. Haganah carried out merciless attacks on other fronts. All the Jewish forces proceeded to advance through Haifa like a hot knife through butter. The Arabs, unarmed and unorganised, fled in panic shouting "Deir Yassin".

Commenting on this massacre, renowned historian Arnold Toynbee said in his book "A Study of History": "The evil deeds committed by the Zionist Jews against the Palestinian Arabs that were comparable to crimes committed against the Jews by the Nazis, were the massacre of men, women and children at Deir Yassin which precipitated a flight of the Arab population in large numbers from districts within range of the Jewish armed forces, and the subsequent expulsion of the Arab population from districts conquered by the Jewish forces between 15 May 1948 and end of the year. The blood at Deir Yassin was on the head of the Irgun; the expulsion of Palestinians after 15 May 1948 was on the head of all Israelis."

According to Moshe Menuhin, the real war "fait accompli" was precipitated at Deir Yassin by Menachem Begin and his terror gangs on April 9, 1948 ­ massacre, panic and the exile of the Arabs.
The irony is that Begin was not even a Palestinian. He fled his native Poland to the Soviet Union where he was sentenced in 1940 to a Siberian labour camp for his Zionist activities. Released a year later, he joined the Allied war efforts when Begin's Polish army in exile unit was sent to Palestine under British Mandate, in 1942. He abandoned the army uniform in late 1943 and launched a war of ambush and sabotage against the British Authorities in early 1944. The British, condemned Begin as a terrorist and put a price of 10,000 Sterling Pounds on his head for all his crimes.

In the same cold-blooded vein Irgun, Stern and Haganah terror gangs massacred people in a number of other villages. On 14 April 1948 all the people including those from the village of Nasiruddin, except forty fortunate ones who managed to escape, were butchered to death by the bestial, blood-lust Irgun-Stern gangs.On 2 May 1948, carnage on the people was committed in the area of Mazraat El Khoury, overlooking Tiberias by Haganah gangs.
The bodies of many slain women and children were mutilated and a number of old people were beheaded and their limbs cut off. Young people were roasted alive when the Haganah locked them inside a house and set it on fire before the few surviving old people were finally set free by the Haganah .They advised Palestinians to tell their story to the Arab world and sarcastically asked the Arab states to come to their rescue. A mosque was blown up on 6 May, 1948 over the heads of villagers who were locked in by the Zionists at Al Zeitoon, Safad. The entire population of Beit Drass in Gaza was wiped out on 13 May 1948 in another savage attack by the Zionists similar to Deir Yassin massacre. There the pregnant women were bayoneted in the womb; bodies of others atrociously mutilated and all the houses in the villages were finally dynamited. This illustrates the Zionists' bestial and brutal inhumanity to its best.

Menachem Begin admitted the heroic resistance of the Palestinians in Jaffa as the Zionists paid dearly losing considerable lives before they took over Jaffa. In his book Revolt Menachem Begin said that it was the attacks on Arab towns and villages that caused panic among the Arabs who had to abandon their homes and lands and started fleeing into neighbouring countries as refugees. Some Palestinian Arabs left out of fear while others were either expelled or forced to leave due to oppression or after their homes were destroyed. Palestinian refugees, in many instances, were physically expelled from their homes and villages.

The Zionists also caused the exodus of Arabs from Palestine, through loudspeakers installed in armoured cars, and sarcastically asserted that the road to Amman was open. Another method used was the mass destruction of their homes and villages. For example, two residential quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem, Magharbeh and Saadiyahs, were razed to the ground to establish a parking ground in front of the Wailing Wall.

Since then the Palestinians, driven out of their homes and lands, have been suffering in the refugee camps for more than seventy years. Tired mothers and hungry and sick children still hope in vain that the UN would settle their problems and let them return to their homes again. They still have the keys to their houses and the deeds to their lands now occupied by immigrant Jews. About a quarter million Palestinian Arabs took refuge in neighbouring countries. Visiting a refugee camp more than fifty years later, in 1990, the former British Foreign Secretary Waldergrave described the conditions there as appalling ­ thanks to his country.

In the midst of the Zionist violence and the Palestinian bloodbath, the state of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May, 1948 over a much larger part of the country than that was allotted to the Zionists even by the UN Partition Resolution. What actually emerged as the Jewish State was anything but the "state" planned for under the partition plan. It was the upshot of brute force created in violation of the principles of the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the very resolution under which the Israelis now claim sovereignty. Minutes after the proclamation of the Zionist state, recognition came from the White House in the USA followed by the Soviet Union, which played a crucial role in the creation of the Zionist state.

The Arab armies were to enter Palestine on that day to rescue what remained of the land and its people. But, as it is the case even today, despite billions of dollars worth of arms, the neighbouring Arab countries were hardly in a position to do anything without the fear of colonial intervention. Therefore, between Palestine and their seats of power, these rulers opted for power and abandoned the Palestinians as they had done even today when they abandoned the Gaza Palestinians who were roasted and toasted by the Zionist Jews.

In his preface to Palestine Diary by Robert John and Sami Hadawi historian Arnold Toynbee had this to say on the British treachery and betrayal: "If Palestine had remained under Ottoman rule, or if it had become an independent Arab state in 1918, Jewish immigrants would never have been admitted into Palestine in large numbers to enable them to overwhelm the Palestinian Arabs in this Arab people's own country. The reason why the State of Israel exists today, why millions of Palestinian Arabs are refugees is that, for thirty years, Jewish immigration was imposed on Palestinian Arabs by British military power until the immigration was sufficiently numerous and with tanks and planes of their own".

Rejecting the idea of a Jewish state, Albert Einstein, the world- renowned scientist said "the state idea is not according to my heart. I cannot understand why it is needed. It is concerned with narrow-mindedness and economic obstacles. I believe it is bad. I have always been against it." Commenting further on the Jewish question Einstein said in his book Out of My Later Years, "I should much rather see a reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from practical considerations, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state, with borders, an army and a measure of temporal power no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain."
The Arab states appealed to the UN and other bodies, of course in vain, to find a peaceful solution. Sixty years later today the Arab rulers are still turning to these very same hostile UN and other forces for solutions to their problems.

The UN Mediator Count Bernadette arrived in Jerusalem in June 1948, the day after the four-week truce became effective in the 1948 war, to inspect thousands of Palestinian refugees in the nearby town of Ramallah, announced his plan for a peaceful solution to the Palestine question. His plan was to create an Arab-Jewish confederation that would cover the whole of Palestine, but with a much smaller portion allotted to the Jews than by the UN partition scheme. The Zionists did not like the idea and to lay it to rest once and for all, they killed Count Bernadotte himself.

Using heavy artillery, 300 Zionist troops attacked the Arab village of Qibyah in the Ramallah district on the midnight of 13 October, 1953. On the following morning the bodies of seventy of its inhabitants, including old men, women and children, were found under the debris of the dynamited houses. The Arabs' demanding imposition of sanctions on Israel and payment of compensation to the victims' families by the perpetrators of the crime, was rejected by the big powers in the UN Security Council.

Three years later on 29 October 1956, the Zionists killed 49 Arabs in the village of Kafr Kassim. Israel referred to the massacre as people having been injured by the frontier guards. At 4.30 PM on that day, Zionist Frontier Guards informed the Mukthar of the village to inform the people that a curfew would be imposed from 5 PM to dawn. Mukthar Wadi Ahmed Sursur told the Zionists that about 400 villagers worked outside the village and he could not inform them as time was short. The Frontier Guards promised Mukthar that all men returning from work would be allowed to pass. However, a bitter fate awaited the villagers when they did return from the day's work as the Zionist gangs massacred them in cold blood without any rhyme or reason.
On the eve of the 1956 war against Egypt by the combined forces of Britain, France and Israel to expropriate the Suez Canal, the Israeli forces made a number of reprisal raids on its northern Arab neighbours in a series of cover up moves to hide their real intentions of a blitz on Egypt. The biggest of these was in Qalquilya in Jordan where, according to UN observers, 48 Arabs were killed. But the mobilization was so large it could no longer be kept a secret. The Zionist troops invaded Sinai, destroyed the Egyptian bases and defeated the Egyptian army before reaching the Gulf of Aqaba so that Israeli warships could use the Red Sea.

In a well calculated war Israel ,backed by the US and Europe ,attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan in June 1967 and
captured Sharm el Sheikh and occupied the Gaza strip, Sinai Peninsula, West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights .

On 11 June 1967 the cease-fire became effective between Israel and the Arab states. Arab hopes and aspirations were shattered and the Palestinians, languishing in the refugee camps, were thoroughly disillusioned not knowing where to turn to. As the Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Dayan arrogantly said "I don't want any Arab in my Jewish State" the Zionist troops began committing atrocities on the civilian population of Jerusalem from June 5 to 8, 1967. In her book "War in Jerusalem", Sister Marie Theresa, who rendered great assistance to the victims described in the following detail the crimes committed by the Zionist Jews;

"Her convent sustained a direct hit during the Israeli raids as a dozen severely wounded and strangely burnt persons lay with their abdomens open and their arms torn out. The arm of one of the women had to be amputated. All had faces riddled with deep burns that made holes in their skins. They said nothing, not even groaning, but gaped with their black eyes fixed and aghast. The Israeli planes had chosen for their targets, some of the poorest quarters of the Old City like Bab Zahreh and Bab Hottah, knowing very well how crowded they were and that there was no military gain to be scored by such savage raids.

Sister Theresa added "we run to the hospital to bury the dead piling at the entrance. The stench was so horrible in the heat that we have to wear masks. We walk in maggoty pools of blood. In the midst of our despair at not being able to find a vehicle for carrying the dead, a Jew arrives to ask about a dead man. To our surprise, we find that the requested man's body is embalmed, he was English and his rich family had paid for the embalmment. An Israeli ambulance was coming to pick it up. Nothing however for the bodies of the rest! One by one we carry them away with utmost care all the time because the limbs were coming off.... as we approached the Muslim cemetery, a car came up with Moshe Dayan, the Chief Rabbi and Levi Eshkol in it. Jews applauded and the motorcade drove in triumph toward the Temple.

During her visit to the Muslim cemetery, Sister Marie Theresa saw a man "bury his wife and daughter... and massacred children whose skulls broke open". Upon leaving the place there were a number of Israeli girls who were bursting out with laughter and looking very intoxicated with victory, as they carried revolvers in their hands".
"In Bethlehem, Israeli cars with amplifiers warned the inhabitants in Arabic that they had two hours to leave their homes and flee towards Jericho and Amman, otherwise their homes would be bombed."
"We drove slowly in search of the dead woman who was seen in a ditch the day before. Eventually we spotted her and got down to find that she was still clasping the two loaves of bread she had gone out to fetch for her children during the battle. We dug a hole under a rock and buried her in it together with her loaves. We started off again. Three kilometres further on, we came upon two wounded Arabs who had been in that same place by the road for the past three days. Many Israeli vehicles had passed, but none bothered to stop. We carried them to the hospital in Jerusalem".

Back in Jerusalem, these companions of Jesus were shocked by the cruelty of the Jewish invaders. "With curfew imposed everywhere the Arabs cannot move or work and the families ran short of food. The second wave of Israelis consisted of thieves, looters and sometimes murderers, but the third is even worse for it appeared to be driven only by the thought of death and destruction according to a systematic plan. In the evening Father Paul sees Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Chief of Staff, without any use. "Anguish grips us like a beast that chokes and wrings the heart. The war is over, but we have been too close to the slaughtered lamb. That fifteen-day-old baby. I think of myself as still holding it to me, bruised and blood-smeared all over. When I wake up during the night, scenes pass through my head and I want to scream. Father Paul was so overwhelmed he could not do a thing".

These were only a handful of incidents to quote, as the list grew longer and longer. In his book David and Goliath, Ernest Trost tells a story which sums up the Israeli attitude quite well.

"An American, an Englishman, a Frenchman and an Israeli are on the menu of a cannibal banquet. Before they are put in the pot, each one was granted a last favour by the cannibal chief. The American asks for a hotdog, the Englishman for a glass of whisky, the Frenchman for a pretty girl. The Israeli says; I would like somebody to give me a kick up the backside. Rather surprised, the chief sends for his strongest warriors who take great delight in acceding to the Israeli's request. The Israeli lands a little way off, draws two pistols from his pockets and opens fire on the cannibal chief and his men. The others, panic stricken, run away. The American, the Englishman and the Frenchman run over to him and asked why he did not use his gun earlier. The Israeli replies with a smile, "We Israelis never fight unless we are attacked".

While the 1956 Zionist aggression was carried out in collaboration with France and Britain, in June 1967, the US was the partner in crime with the Jews against the Arabs. There was jubilation everywhere in the capitals of Europe and the US. Britain and France were happy that this time the Zionists successfully avenged, on their behalf, their set backs in the 1956 aggression against Egypt.

Israel occupied and razed more than 400 Palestinian villages between 1948 and 1967 and established exclusive Jewish settlements in their place. There was hardly a word about this too. Almost six months later, the UN managed to pass a resolution No 242 in November 1967, which did not recognise the rights of the Palestinians to return home or statehood; instead stated that Israel should have secure and recognised boundaries.

Later the Zionists and their Western masters exploited the growing rift between Yasser Arafat's PLO and Jordan's playboy King Hussein and used Hussein to crush the PLO by killing about 30,000 Palestinians in the streets of Amman in September 1970. South African-born Zionist Foreign Minister Abba Eban threatened military action to protect King Hussein when Syria tried to intervene and stop the carnage in Amman. Since then King Hussein became the sweetheart of the West, which affectionately described him as the plucky little king who was given a grand political funeral when Israelis brought in world leaders to Amman.

In 1982 Menachem Begin and his Defence Minister Ariel Sharon invaded Lebanon to drive out the Palestine Liberation Organisation which established its base there after being expelled from Amman .Israel thought that they could not control the West Bank and Gaza as long as the PLO was alive and the Palestinians would derive their political will from it. Most Arab dictators too wanted to see the demise of the PLO, as they are helping Israel to destroy Hamas in Gaza now.

Prominent journalist and historian Peter Mansfield said that "anyone now doubting that Menachem Begin, his cabinet and his generals are not a danger to the world peace on the same scale as Hitler and Mussolini is beyond comprehension. After massive air raids Israel has launched a full scale invasion of a neighbouring country, slaughtering hundreds of civilians and terrorizing the population. It has brushed aside UN peace keeping forces and contemptuously dismissed the UN itself. Only South Africa can bear comparison, but beside Israel it appears cautious and restrained.
The attitude of the US is exasperating almost beyond endurance. The familiar pattern which we saw after the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor and the annexation of Golan Heights is already repeating itself - initial condemnation followed by back tracking. It is no surprise that millions - not only Arabs and Muslims - are convinced that the Americans connived with the Israeli invasion , telling them to go ahead and not to bother about US public disapproval, because it would not be given any teeth.

As Beirut was bombed by air, land and sea, as they are now doing in Gaza, people throughout the world watched the wanton act of destruction unfolding beneath the relentless gaze of television. Within five days 8000 people, 2000 of them in Sidon alone, were killed by the invading Israeli forces and on June 12 and 13, about 400 Lebanese civilians, most of them women and children were blasted to death in their apartments. Hundreds of corpses were buried in one mass grave, now known as Martyr's Square, in Sidon alone.

British journalist with conscience Robert Fisk who covered the war said in his book Pity The Nation that most of the victims were Muslims and on the edge of Sabra, the Muslim cemetery was so crowded with dead from the Israeli raids that corpses were being buried thirty feet deep in mass graves, one on top of the other.
The bodies in decay are disgusting. The smell of human remains in 100 degrees of heat nauseating and it contradicts our most deeply held values - love, beauty, gentleness, health, cleanliness, hygiene and life. Both physically and mentally that stench was the manifestation of our fear and revulsion. When we first walked down the stairs of the Sidon elementary school, where refugees from
Tire found shelter, were bombed by the Israelis on June 7 night, we faced the smell of those men, women and children killed. Why did they die here? How could such an abomination have taken place? If terrorism was a Katyusha attack on Galilee that killed, one, five even ten people what did this charnel house represent?"

This was not an isolated incident throughout Israel's savage air raids as the Red Cross estimated at between 1,500 and 2,000 civilian fatalities in Sidon alone. According to the Red Cross, by the end of first week of the occupation 9,583 people were killed and 16,608 wounded. During the second week, the number reached 14,000, mainly civilians, killed and 20,000 wounded. A total of 12,000 men, women and children were killed in Tire, most of them in the Palestinian refugee camps at Rashidiya, Bourj Al Shemali and Al Bass. Nevertheless, the most horrific toll of casualties was in the Muslim areas of West Beirut where 2,461 were killed by the Israeli raids that also killed hundreds of others in many villages along the Litani River.

The air raids and massacres continued with Israel which, by then, had about 100,000 soldiers with 1,300 tanks in Lebanon, demanding complete surrender of the PLO whose forces were trapped in Beirut. As if the carnage by air raids were not enough the Jews began using, the US supplied destructive cluster bombs against West Beirut where the mournful exodus of citizens continued. No food was allowed in and the Israeli troops even grabbed baskets of food from Muslim women and threw them into the ditch. According to Robert Fisk, Phalangist militiamen grabbed two bottles of water from a 65 or 70 year old woman, smashing them saying "F...k your sister" in front of four Israeli soldiers, who laughed.

Describing the Israeli cruelty even in hospitals Dr. Amal Shamma of the Beirut Hospital said "after the Zionists fired phosphorus shells in West Beirut on 29 July, I had to take the babies and put them in buckets of water to put out of flames. When I look them out half an hour later, they were still burning. Even in the mortuary, they smouldered for hours". Journalist Jim Muir described the invasion as an Israeli American double act, working in partnership, with the Americans trying to reap the fruits of the Israeli invasion.

American envoys continued to press for the PLO capitulation, as they were trying to force the Hamas to do now, which Israel demanded. Washington joined the Israelis in promoting an extraordinary misinformation campaign suggesting the PLO collapse was imminent.
Condemning the barbarous invasion three prominent Jewish figures, Nahum Goldman, Philip Klutznick and Pierre Mendes, said Israel would not be able to liquidate the PLO or solve the Palestine question. Describing the US as the real villain they pointed out that the main responsibility for chaos in the Middle East was with the US because of its military and economic aid to Israel. Former US President Jimmy Carter accused Secretary of State Alexander Haig of giving the green light for the Israeli invasion.

The PLO leaders, as pointed out by Robert Fisk, spoke savagely of the moral cowardice of the fellow Arabs, as they are even today, who failed to react throughout the Israeli carnage? The so called radical Arab nations that had broadcast appeals to mobilize the masses on Palestinian's behalf failed to send their men or arms to support the cause for which they had fought four wars with
Israel. The Arab nations with their existing regimes were "as still as the grave", as they are today, and they accepted the Israeli blows only with written - verbal condemnation.
In 1976, Christian militiamen stormed three Palestinian refugee camps in East Beirut. Syrian troops intervened and entered Beirut as part of an Arab Deterrent Force. Instead of offering protection late Syrian President Hafez Al Asad's forces massacred about 30,000 Palestinians during this operation in Tel Al Zaater. In the melee, the Israeli-backed Christian militiamen massacred the entire population of Sabra and Chatila refugee camps despite the written assurances of US envoy Philip Habib and European countries ensuring the protection of the Palestinian civilians. Phalangists involved in the massacre said in Beirut that "pregnant women will give birth to terrorists; the children when they grow up will be terrorists".

Robert Fisk, accompanied by two more journalists Loren Jenkins, an American, and Tveit, a Norwegian, who visited the camp on September 18 morning had this to say of the mass killing;
"All of us wanted to vomit. We were breathing death, inhaling the very putrescence of the bloated. There were women lying in houses with their skirts torn up to their waists and their legs wide apart. Children with their throats cut, rows of young men shot in the back after being lined up at an execution wall. There were babies - blackened babies because they had been slaughtered more than 24 hours earlier and their small bodies were already in a state of decomposition - tossed into rubbish heaps alongside discarded US army ration tins, Israeli army medical equipment and empty bottles of whisky. When we drove down to Chatila we had seen the Israelis on top of the apartments in the Avenue Camille Chamoun but they made no attempt to stop us. Walking across the muddy entrance of Chatila we found that these buildings had all been dynamited to the ground. There were cartridge cases across the main road and Israeli flare canisters still attached to their tiny parachutes. Clouds of flies moved across the rubble, raiding parties with a nose for victory.

Down the lane way there laid a pile of corpses: young men whose arms and legs had been wrapped around each other in the agony of death; all had been shot at point blank range through the cheek, the bullet tearing away a line of flesh up to the ear and entering the brain. Some had vivid crimson or black scars down the left side of their throats. One had been castrated, his trousers torn open and a settlement of flies throbbing over his torn intestines. The eyes of the young men were all open. The youngest was only twelve or thirteen years old and the bodies began to bloat in heat. On the other side of the main road we found the bodies of women and several children. The corpse of the middle aged women lay draped over a pile of rubble. One lay on her back, her dress torn open and the head of a little girl emerging from behind her. Another child lay on the roadway like a discarded doll, her white dress stained with mud and dust. She could not have been more than three years old and her head been blown away by a bullet fired into her brain. One of the women also had a tiny baby to her body and the bullet that had passed through her breast had killed the baby too. Someone had slit open the woman's stomach, cutting sideways and then upwards, perhaps trying to kill her unborn child. Her eyes were wide open, her dark face frozen in horror.

They saw a young woman lying on her back as if she was sunbathing in the heat and the blood running from her back was still wet. The Israeli backed murderers who raped and knifed the woman have just left. Between September 16 and 18 more than 2,000 men, women, children and the aged were massacred in Sabra and Chatila. While the slaughter was going on inside the camp, as quoted by Robert Fisk, outside the entrance to Chatila on Friday at 4 pm James Pringle of Newsweek asked militiamen of Haddad's forces what was going on inside the camp. The gunman replied simply and in English "We are slaughtering." Pringle first thought it was a joke only to realise the horror within hours.

As confirmed later the massacre was committed by the Christian allies ­ uniformed, armed, trained, paid and fed by Zionists Jews as their own creatures. Some wearing Phalangist insignia and others dressed in the uniform of Haddad's militia they were, about thirty, brought in at number one runway at Beirut airport, 24 hours before the massacre, on Thursday September 16, by the Israeli air force Hercules transport aircraft. The Israelis under Ariel Sharon, as admitted later, who controlled the camps, let the killers inside who began to knife and cut the throats of women and children in Chatila and later started sniping with rifles at anyone who moved out of doors. But the real massacre began with mass killings on 17 September Friday afternoon watched from the nearby stadium by the Israelis and Ariel Sharon. Most of those murdered were secretly and hurriedly buried in mass graves beneath the golf course between Chatila and the airport with bulldozers brought well in time for the purpose to cover up the crime. The other bodies found in Chatila were buried near the entrance to the camp amidst great grief and nauseating stench.

Shocked by the crime many countries asked how the Jews who have suffered so terribly under Hitler could be so heartless to commit such atrocities. Although Israel was responsible for the slaughter as an occupier Menachem Begin whose government was accused of "blood libel", living up to his old reputation and terrorist qualities, announced, "No one will preach to us moral values or respect for human life, on whose basis we were educated and will continue to educate generations of fighters in Israel".

Israel's Kahan commission's flawed report on the massacre, condemned Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon, Eitan, Drori and other Israeli officers, concluded that Ariel Sharon should bear personal responsibility- for this genocide .Sick of Begin's crimes even the Israelis came out on demonstrations demanding his resignation while Professor Yeshayahu Leibotvitz of the Hebrew University, the Editor of Encyclopaedia Hebraica said "the massacre was done by us. The Phalangists are our mercenaries exactly as the Ukrainians and the Croatians and the Slovakians were the mercenaries of Hitler, who organised them as soldiers to do the work for him. Even so we have organised the assassins of Lebanon in order to murder the Palestinians".


As a result of the Israeli invasion, almost 17,825 people were killed between June 4 and September 1982. Ariel Sharon, a man of blood whose history of terror stretches back to the early 1950s when he ran a commando squad which slaughtered 69 Palestinians in the village of Qibbiya and who is known for his lead role in the carnage of Palestinian civilians in villages such as Kafr Kassim, Deir Yassin and other places decades later, was directly and indirectly responsible for this massacre. He did not end his crimes there.

In September 2000, Ariel Sharon triggered off the Palestinian uprising now known as Al Aqsa Intifada, entered Masjid Al Aqsa compound in Jerusalem accompanied by around 2,000 Israeli armed forces provided by Ehud Barak who, as prime minister, slaughtered stone throwing Palestinian men, women and children.

Ehud Barak's suggestion for dealing with the Intifada demonstrators was to "cut off their body parts". By any reasonable reckoning, he was a war criminal, destined only to exile and disgrace. His best friends are mentally deranged people such as Avigdor Liberman who openly advocates setting Beirut on fire, launching missiles at Tehran, destroying the Aswan dam and recapturing villages already handed back to the Palestinians. Despite all his criminal background, Ariel Sharon was elected as prime minister by the people of Israel in an overwhelmingly sad reflection on the part of the Israeli voters. The Western leaders went all out to set up international war crime tribunals to bring to book criminals such as former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic for Srebrenica massacre and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for his infamous "Caravan of Death, but it has been business as usual with Ariel Sharon the man held personally responsible for the largest massacre of civilians in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

It is a comedy of fact that Ariel Sharon" a villain of peace and architect of man massacre" was accorded a red carpet welcome as a" Paragon of Peace" at the White House by President George Bush-the big bully and a buccaneer of peace.

Receiving Ariel Sharon later at his private ranch Bush offered specially prepared chocolate wrapped in paper designed with the motif of the Israeli flag. Billions of dollars of United States' tax payers' money regularly flow annually to help the Zionist entity besides unstinted political, diplomatic, economic and military backing to continue its crime against neighbouring countries and their people. Tony Blair received Sharon at his office as a respected and dignified leader. Both Bush and his wife Laura prayed for Sharon's early recovery when he suffered a serious stroke. This shocking behaviour of both Bush and Blair demonstrated to the world the brutal control the Jews exercise over the Anglo- American political establishment and political leaders, especially Bush and Blair who shamelessly claimed that they were fighting a war against global terror.

Sharon was given a free hand by Western leaders to kill Palestinians at will on a daily basis, destroy Palestinian homes, evict Palestinians from their lands and build thousands of homes for Jews. When the Zionists continue to kill innocent Arabs and shed their blood, the leaders in the West turned a blind eye. But they were outraged when a Palestinian killed a Jew who was occupying his house and land. Almost all Western leaders screamed and condemned such executions as acts of terror and describe Palestinians as terrorists. No Western leader has ever described Jewish crime and bloodshed in the Middle East as a form of terrorism.

In the midst , in a spotless democratic election held in January 2006 the Palestinians elected with overwhelming majority Hamas, known for their commitment to the Palestinian cause and pursuit of peace with dignity. This election was held under the supervision of former US President Jimmy Carter who described it as free and fair,
This budding democracy in Gaza alarmed Israel, the US and their European and Arab collaborators who wanted Hamas crushed at any cost. Arabs dictators were alarmed that their own people may demand democracy. Israel introduced inhuman measures to collectively punish the Palestinians for electing Hamas. Israel, backed by US and Europe, stopped all donations and cut off the flow of all money to starve Palestine into submission. The Arab regimes too joined this financial blockade knowing very well the misery they were causing to the Palestinians who needed this money to keep body and soul together.

The task of overthrowing the Hamas government was entrusted to Mahmoud Abbas who was bribed, armed and even given arms training by the US through Egypt proving to the world that the US claim to promote democracy is a farce.

Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery said "the message of Jews, the US and Europe to Palestinian is that you will reach the brink of hunger, and even beyond, if you do not surrender. You must remove the Hamas government and elect candidates approved by Israel and the US. You must be satisfied with a Palestinian state consisting of several enclaves, each of which will be utterly dependent on the tender mercies of Israel'.
In the midst of this gloom and while the world was busy watching the 2006 World Cup Football Championships, Israel's latest Fuhrer Olmert turned Gaza into a yet another slaughter house aimed at crushing Hamas and the flourishing democracy there. As usual, the Western media failed to highlight the Palestinian sufferings and there was deafening international silence.

As expected, the US gave a free hand while spineless Europe called for restraint. India, once the champion of Palestine, virtually abandoned the Palestinians and embraced Israel and established a Delhi-Tel Aviv-Washington axis. The Arab leaders who counted on Indian support watched as helpless spectators. It was business as usual for China with Israel while the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed his concern at the excessive use of force by Israel and the need to preserve Palestinian institutions and infrastructure.

Unable to bear the suffering, Hamas demolished the towering iron and concrete border wall that Israel erected since 2003 and broke open the Rafah border allowing hundreds of thousands to burst out and shop for desperately needed supplies in Egyptian border towns. In this unbelievable movement of joy and freedom they traveled by
car, truck on the foot and on donkey cart and the highway was jammed with packed taxis and pick-up trucks whose beds were filled beyond capacity and racing from Egyptian Rafah to al-Arish. Some journalists have called it a huge "jail break" and Gazans felt a deep exhale of relief joy — both rare commodities in this forsaken land.

Israel continued to tighten its economic blockade to starve Palestinians and force them to rise against Hamas. The situation deteriorated to such an extend that on 9 December 2008 Dr. Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinians Territories, forcefully insisted on the need to protect civilian Palestinian population from being collectively punished by Israeli policies that amount to a Crime Against Humanity.

The UNHRC harshly reprimanded Israel for its policies and called for an end to their "cruel, inhuman and degrading" punishments. Falk insisted the UN International Criminal Court investigate into Israel's atrocious crimes and those Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law."

As a result Richard Falk who was on his way to the Palestinian occupied territories to carry out his officially mandated functions was detained at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv where he was forced to spend 20 hours in a small room before being put on a plane bound for Los Angeles. Falk's mobile phone was confiscated to prevent him from contacting other officials of the United Nations before his deportation.

The detention of Richard Falk meant a clear violation of UN immunities, which protect UN envoys and their activities. Falk had been invited by the Palestinian Authority to visit the occupied territories to check the numerous and continued human rights violations by Israeli authorities. The civilized world and its institutions cannot continue to turn a blind eye while Israel commits all kinds of awful crimes against the Palestinian people. Many politicians in the West have been taking a cowardly approach on Israeli atrocities due to their fear of the Zionist lobbies in their respective countries.

Even in the face of Dr. Falk's and the UNHRC's findings and conclusions Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the other Arab regimes and the feckless Arab League, all remained silent .

The situation continued to deteriorate when Israel intensified its blockade and Egypt once again closing the Rafah border crossing. Condemning the terrible conditions of Palestinians former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, told the BBC during the first week of November 2008 that it was "almost unbelievable" that the world did not care about what she called "a shocking violation of so many human rights. Their whole civilization has been destroyed, I'm not exaggerating .It's almost unbelievable that the world doesn't care while this is happening."
It was under these circumstances, using US supplied latest bunker buster missiles,F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopter gunships, Israel, in the latest of its war crimes against Palestinians on 27 December 2008 dropped around 100 tons of bombs on1.5 million defenseless and starving Palestinian population killing mercilessly 220 men, women, children and the aged besides wounding hundreds.This ruthless and senseless carnage continued unabatedly at the time of concluding this document on 9 January 2008 when the death toll chalked up to 760.

Television footages of scattered dead bodies of innocent little babies, beautiful small children , teenagers, brothers, sisters, parents and the aged ,some lying in a pile ,some being carried away by distraught rescuers and the wounded writhing in pain and reciting verses from the Quran. These pathetic sights melted the hearts of people all over the world- irrespective of religion, language, nationality and colour.

But, they failed to kindle the conscience of the ruling elites in the West and the Middle East as well, because they were party to this crime that was marketed well in advance by Israel Foreign Minister Tizipi Livni ­ a woman who justified this massacre. Israeli justification for this genocide is that Hamas firing rockets into southern Israel which in fact was the land of Palestinians grabbed by the Zionist Jews. However, these rockets are nothing more than slingshots against Israel's military might and the Palestinians use them out of sheer desperation to highlight their just grievances.

As expected and as usual the most detested and despised US President George Bush, soaked in the blood of almost two million Iraqis, Afghans, Palestinians, Somalis and other Muslims, blamed Hamas. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown whose affection towards Jews has been too strong to condemn their crimes, was rather silent .After all it was British treachery and conspiracy that created racist entity of Israel whose crime records during the past three quarter century have been common knowledge.

President elect Barack Obama too failed to speak out despite growing pressure sending his own message-"Silence Speaks of Complicity". After all, he must be grateful to the Jewish lobbies and corporate conglomerates that brought him to power. A British columnist pointed out "Britain's Prime Minister Brown and his predecessor, now peace envoy Blair, both self-confessed Zionists, have given their undying support to a terrorist state (Israel) and steered Britain's foreign policy on a course that has earned the opprobrium of civilized people. Our Foreign Office went so far as to say they were "deeply concerned" then spouted the mantra: The only way to achieve a lasting peace is through peaceful means".Reiterating this, another columnist pointed out that this killing spree could not have happened without the tacit approval of America, Britain and the EU. The political pea-brains that direct the pro-Israel western alliance were partying, gorging themselves on Christmas fare or binge-shopping while this massacre of hungry women and children and their despairing men folk in Gaza was being planned and executed.

It has become clear on the fourth day that the Jewish carnage was planned executed by Israel in close coordination with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the PA. According to subsequent reports they were backed by neo con fascist Bush and Cheney in their drive to cause problems to the incoming President Barrack Obama.Some reports disclosed that, though the PA President Mahmoud Abbas slammed this as "barbaric" and "unnecessary "for months he and his top representatives have waged a quiet but intensive campaign requesting Israel to target Hamas in Gaza just before his term in office is scheduled to expire on Jan. 9.

Hamas leaders have repeatedly warned that they will not recognize Abbas after January ninth. Instead, they will launch a major campaign to delegitimize the PA president and install their own figures to lead the Palestinian government. Abbas,
collaborator with the Zionists, expected a large-scale Israeli military campaign in Gaza to distract Hamas from undermining his rule. He has been fully backed by Israel, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak,
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Jordan's Abdullah.
Hamas accused the Palestinian Authority of planning to return to Gaza Strip with the help of Israel and was coordinating his moves with the Egyptians and the Saudis. A report by Palestine Information Center stated that Mahmoud Abbas has ordered his officials in Ramallah to set up an "emergency room" comprised of commanders of the PA security forces and the interior minister, to prepare for reassuming office ­perhaps over the blood, flesh, dead bodies and the sufferings of Palestinians and destroyed infrastructure of Gaza.

Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas representative, disclosed that members of the cell were
told to gather information about Hamas leaders' secret hideouts and pass them on to Israel obviously to kill them. He said number of retired Fatah officers sought permission from Abbas to defend Gaza. However Abbas did not respond. This is the lowest depth to which Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestine Authority that served the Israelis more than the Palestinians, has descended.

In fact after months of persecution of Hamas in the west Bank, PA security forces, in cooperation with Israeli forces, launched the biggest ever crackdown in late October 2008, swept through villages, town and refugee camps , arrested Hamas men on the basis of a list provided Shin Beit ­Israel's domestic intelligence, subjected them to severe beatings and ridiculed them for their Islamic life and practices. Their target was to destroy Hamas' political, economic, social, educational and cultural infrastructure.

During a scandalous meeting between Israelis and the PA Security Chiefs in Beit El , near Ramallah, Palestinian General Diab al Ali, known as Abu Fatah, reportedly told the Israelis that " we are allies, not enemies. We have a common enemy, it is Hamas". When the details were published even sources within Fatah called him a traitor and demanded that his sacking.

Meanwhile London-based daily al-Quds al-Arabi reported on Sunday 28 that Egypt collaborated with Israel in this massacre to deal a blow to Hamas. Egyptian Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman deceived Hamas into believing that Israel would not launch an attack on the Gaza Strip in the near future.

Citing sources close to former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, Al Quds reported, "Egypt told Hamas on Friday evening that Israel had agreed to begin talks on a ceasefire and would not attack Gaza before these talks ended. Egypt's assurance persuaded Hamas not to evacuate its security compounds in accordance with routine procedures in place after any threats by Israel. Suleiman also convinced a number of Arab leaders that Israel was intending to launch only limited operations into the Gaza Strip to mount pressure on Hamas ahead of signing a new ceasefire agreement".

In a heartless move Hosni Mubraka declared that he would keep the Rafah crossings with Gaza closed until Mahmud Abbas regains authority over the territory. Mubarak came in for strong criticism from the Arab and Muslim world for not fully opening its border with Gaza to enable Palestinians to purchase their essential items including food and medicine. However, George Bush thanked Hosni Mubarak for his role in facilitating the latest Israeli slaughter of innocent Palestinians. This was the shameful role of Hosni Mubarak, more a Zionist stooge than an Arab leader, who has become a source of humiliation to the Arabs and Muslims in general and the Egyptians in particular.


Two days before the carnage Mubarak held talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni triggering off charges of collusion that led to attacks on Egyptian diplomatic missions both in Beirut and the Yemeni port city of Aden.

Meanwhile it is common knowledge that Israel also had the blessings of Saudis whose long secret links with the Zionists have now come to open with their Islamic mask falling. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have been puppets of Americans and the Zionists who rule America and one should not forget that these countries were hand in glove with the Zionists, America and Europe in all their designs and destructions against the Arabs and Muslims.

In one of the most humiliating decisions in the history of Islam ,Saudis rolled red carpet to receive George Bush, number one enemy of Islam, Muslims and humanity, though he should not have been allowed to step into the soil chosen by Almighty Allah to raise our beloved Prophet Muhammed ( Pbuh) and reveal the final message of Islam for the salvation of human beings. Once Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Abdullah were bought over the entire, Middle East was neutralized, enabling Israelis to kill the Palestinians at will. The result was the deafening Arab silence.
Yet the sights of death and destruction struck close to the hearts of brutally oppressed Egyptians who accused Mubarak's regime of taking a spectator's position while the blood of the Palestinians continues to be shed in the Gaza Strip. They asserted, "Arab governments are complicit in what happens to the Palestinians. These governments assisted Israel tighten its grip on the dispossessed Palestinians and kill them."

"Mubarak and Tzipi Livni have agreed on the genocide of the Palestinian people," read one banner. "Mubarak is an accomplice in attacks against the Palestinian people," read another.

As pointed out by the World Socialist sources the hypocritical and lying reports of the pro Jewish Western media, which shamelessly described Israel's aerial blitz against apartment blocks, police stations, universities, mosques and office buildings as an act of "self defense," while equating the occupied with the occupiers and ineffectual homemade rockets with US-supplied F-16s, Hellfire missiles and "smart bombs. No Arab country has condemned this dastardly Jewish crime against Palestinians .Eleven days later, the Arab foreign ministers met with great reluctance, more as a public relations exercise, on Wednesday 31. Knowing the Arab dictators well, the expectations were extremely low when 22 Arab countries met .In fact the Arab populace knew well that it was unlikely that the league would agree to any concrete measure despite widespread protests across the Arab world.
As expected, the Arab League meeting decided to refer the matter to United Nations knowing very well that already a related UN Security Council Resolution was blocked by the US on Sunday 28. The US Security Council only managed to issue a 'non-binding' statement that called on Israel to voluntarily end all its military activities in the besieged region. One should not forget that US has so far vetoed over 40 anti-Israeli resolutions sought by the council since 1972. Since 2004, Washington has prevented the adoption of four other resolutions that called for Tel Aviv to halt its operations in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile reports also started to emerge on numerous websites that Saudi Arabia and Egypt tried to delay the so-called Arab summit to provide Israel with sufficient time to destroy Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal has reportedly put pressure on Gulf Cooperation Council countries to postpone the summit while the Saudi state-run news agency had earlier quoted Saud al-Faisal as saying that the GCC had not made a decision on a call for an emergency meeting on Gaza.

Meanwhile there emerged reports that Abdulla of Saudi Arabia has reportedly told President George Bush during a telephone conversation that he would not ask Israel to stop bombing Palestinians in Gaza.

In a sheer traditional display of Saudi hypocrisy, Abdullah called on Palestinian factions to unite against their common enemy when he received a delegation from the International Union for Muslim Scholars, IUMS, led by Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi. The question is who the enemy is when there were reports of Saudi collaboration in the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. As usual, Al- Qaradawi praised Abdullah for his tremendous support for Islamic causes and for endeavoring to unite Muslim ranks. Perhaps al- Qaradawi was not aware that the Abdulla was hand in glove with Israel in slaughtering the Palestinians.

The immediate question is to save the Palestinians before thinking of unity.The need of the hour was for immediate concrete measures to stop the Israeli genocide. Instead displaying sheer hypocrisy and treachery at the opening of the Cairo meeting, Amr Moussa, General Secretary of the Arab League, called for an immediate meeting of rival Palestinian factions as a diversionary ploy.

Responding, the Iranian President Ahmadinejad warned that setting up committees and making speeches would not be an adequate response to the offensive that has killed nearly 400 Palestinians.


"If the Arab League does not want to do anything today, when does it want to act? Aren't these oppressed Palestinians Arabs? So, when should the capacity of the Arab League be used? The Arab League should act quickly," said Ahmadinejad who also criticized the United Nations' failure to rise up to its responsibility and save the Palestinians.

These are the crime records of Zionist Jews with whom the Arab rulers were competing to establish good relations. What a shame?
The Arab rulers have become collaborators with Israel to slaughter their own people to help implement Zionist Jewish evil designs on the Middle East.
Sixty years later today Israel has emerged as the only lawless racist entity of its kind, living up to its illegitimate birth, threatening not only the Middle East, but also the entire world. There is one thing common to all Zionist leaders- from Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yitzhak Rabin to Olmert, Ehud Bark and Tzipi Livini - they are all soaked in Palestinian blood and even the entire perfume industry in the world will not be able to purify them of their sins.
War crimes or human rights violations committed by the major powers or their allies in particular are always treated with impunity, not necessarily according to different yardsticks and standards and go unpunished. The prospects are certainly not encouraging in the case of Israel, which has long been allowed by its Western sponsors to violate a string of UN Security Council resolutions, while other states in the region are subjected to lethal sanctions, and bombing attacks for their transgressions.

The state of Israel is a unique in the sense this is the only case in known history where:

· Sons of the soil, Palestinians, who lived there for more than 4,000 years, were killed and kicked out at gunpoint to languish as refugees in abject poverty to accommodate Jews who hade not even set eyes on this land.

· Jews from any part of the world could settle down in the occupied Palestinian lands, only because they are Jews, whereas the Palestinians, driven out of their homes and still holding the keys to their houses and title deeds for the lands were not permitted to return.

· The United Nations violated its very charter by recognizing a state for these migrant Jews while depriving the sons of the soil, the Palestinians, a home and state on their own lands from where they were driven out.

· History of Zionism has become nothing but a history of crimes, conspiracies, bloodshed, murders, massacres and lawlessness.

· Israel - The only entity in known history that repeatedly elects mass murderers and war criminals as prime ministers.

· The only entity that has caused unprecedented damage to the image of righteous Jews.

· The only entity where a Rabbi, Jewish priest, supposed to follow in the footsteps of the Prophet Moses and occupying Palestinian land could proudly say that the lives of one million Palestinians are not worth a fingernail of a Jew and gets away with it.


Western leaders dare not utter a word against the Zionists and their crimes, as they are well aware of the disastrous consequences. The international Jewry will react promptly and ruthlessly, bring out their skeletons from the cupboards, disgrace and finish them off once and for all. Just to cite two cases were the plight of former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldhiem who later became Austrian Chancellor and failed to please the Zionists and the former US President Bill Clinton, who was disgraced by the scandalous sex liaison with Monica Lewinsky, when he tried to negotiate peace between Israel and Palestinians was not to their liking.

The situation is such that the leaders of the West and even the Middle East simply need to listen to the dictates of international Jewry which brutally controls the economy, finance, industry, media, entertainment and thereby the politics, political establishments and politicians and rule as the invisible force behind the throne in the entire West and thus the world. The philosophy is "toe the line, turn a blind eye to their crimes to survive and thrive. Or else stand up to Jewish crimes, face their wrath, suffer in disgrace and ruin your life".
Sixty years of Zionist Jews' crime records have proved beyond doubt that they are not normal human beings with normal human feelings and respect to the feelings of others. Instead they have become heartless and merciless people hell bent on, usurping others basic rights, grabbing others lands and harming others under various pretexts and that too in the most brutal manner which may even make Hitler shy.
One should not forget that the Zionism was described United Nations General Assembly Resolution as a "form of racism". There is no place for thousands of years of cherished human values in their philosophy For example, Rabbi Yaacov said that "one million Arabs were not worth a Jewish fingernail. Reiterating this Israeli Prime Minister said in 1988 that "Palestinians would be crushed like grasshoppers... heads smashed against the boulders and walls while Menachem Begin described the Palestinians as "beasts walking on two legs". These are the Jewish leaders accepted by the so-called civilised West.

What is appalling is that even some Arab leaders, ignoring the suffering Palestinians and their legitimate cause, opted to recognise and deal with the Zionists while some developing countries, including giants among them, have conveniently dropped the Palestinians in their rush to embrace and deal with the Zionists!

Now that the whole world including leaders in some Muslim countries too have turned against Muslims where do we Muslims stand and what do we do to save ourselves from future carnages? Ends

TRUTH HAS COME AND FALSEHOOD HAS VANISHED
"Invite (all) to the way of the Lord With wisdom and Beautiful preaching And argue with them in ways that are Best and most gracious" Peace Be Upon All Of You. Latheef Farook

Anonymous said...

Oh, the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block.
I'd ask him what the matter was
But I know that he don't talk.
And the ladies treat me kindly
And furnish me with tape,
But deep inside my heart
I know I can't escape.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Well, Shakespeare, he's in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells,
Speaking to some French girl,
Who says she knows me well.
And I would send a message
To find out if she's talked,
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from the train line.
She said that all the railroad men
Just drink up your blood like wine.
An' I said, "Oh, I didn't know that,
But then again, there's only one I've met
An' he just smoked my eyelids
An' punched my cigarette."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Grandpa died last week
And now he's buried in the rocks,
But everybody still talks about
How badly they were shocked.
But me, I expected it to happen,
I knew he'd lost control
When he built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the senator came down here
Showing ev'ryone his gun,
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son.
An' me, I nearly got busted
An' wouldn't it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered beneath a truck.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the preacher looked so baffled
When I asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines
Stapled to his chest.
But he cursed me when I proved it to him,
Then I whispered, "Not even you can hide.
You see, you're just like me,
I hope you're satisfied."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the rainman gave me two cures,
Then he said, "Jump right in."
The one was Texas medicine,
The other was just railroad gin.
An' like a fool I mixed them
An' it strangled up my mind,
An' now people just get uglier
An' I have no sense of time.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

When Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon,
Where I can watch her waltz for free
'Neath her Panamanian moon.
An' I say, "Aw come on now,
You must know about my debutante."
An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb.
They all fall there so perfectly,
It all seems so well timed.
An' here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Anonymous said...

A fucking 10,650 word rant about Zionism -- Jesus H. Christ on a Crutch!!!

Homer, you have GOT to do something about this insanity of putting up book-length copy-and-paste posts. Nobody reads the fucking things anyway except the loonies who post them.

If I want to read a fucking book about Zionism I'll go to Barnes and Noble or Amazon and fucking BUY one.

Sheesh.

LavaBear said...

Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice.



I sure know a lot of people around this town where that is exactly it. Problem is they can't afford the answer.

Anonymous said...

For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence, on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day.

I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people.

- John F Kennedy on 27 April 1961 warning of secret societies and Zionism

Anonymous said...

Seriously, I appreciate Bruce M et al on posting the Zionistic essays. Folks in Bend, especially the ones who lost 1031 monies need to hear this. This is the main issue of our times and I hope someone gets off their ass and informs others.

Anonymous said...

RUSH: I got a request here from a major American print publication. "Dear Rush: For the Obama [Immaculate] Inauguration we are asking a handful of very prominent politicians, statesmen, scholars, businessmen, commentators, and economists to write 400 words on their hope for the Obama presidency. We would love to include you. If you could send us 400 words on your hope for the Obama presidency, we need it by Monday night, that would be ideal." Now, we're caught in this trap again. The premise is, what is your "hope." My hope, and please understand me when I say this. I disagree fervently with the people on our side of the aisle who have caved and who say, "Well, I hope he succeeds. We've got to give him a chance." Why? They didn't give Bush a chance in 2000. Before he was inaugurated the search-and-destroy mission had begun. I'm not talking about search-and-destroy, but I've been listening to Barack Obama for a year-and-a-half. I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed.

If I wanted Obama to succeed, I'd be happy the Republicans have laid down. And I would be encouraging Republicans to lay down and support him. Look, what he's talking about is the absorption of as much of the private sector by the US government as possible, from the banking business, to the mortgage industry, the automobile business, to health care. I do not want the government in charge of all of these things. I don't want this to work. So I'm thinking of replying to the guy, "Okay, I'll send you a response, but I don't need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails." (interruption) What are you laughing at? See, here's the point. Everybody thinks it's outrageous to say. Look, even my staff, "Oh, you can't do that." Why not? Why is it any different, what's new, what is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails? Liberalism is our problem. Liberalism is what's gotten us dangerously close to the precipice here. Why do I want more of it? I don't care what the Drive-By story is. I would be honored if the Drive-By Media headlined me all day long: "Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails." Somebody's gotta say it.

Were the liberals out there hoping Bush succeeded or were they out there trying to destroy him before he was even inaugurated? Why do we have to play the game by their rules? Why do we have to accept the premise here that because of the historical nature of his presidency, that we want him to succeed? This is affirmative action, if we do that. We want to promote failure, we want to promote incompetence, we want to stand by and not object to what he's doing simply because of the color of his skin? Sorry. I got past the historical nature of this months ago. He is the president of the United States, he's my president, he's a human being, and his ideas and policies are what count for me, not his skin color, not his past, not whatever ties he doesn't have to being down with the struggle, all of that's irrelevant to me. We're talking about my country, the United States of America, my nieces, my nephews, your kids, your grandkids. Why in the world do we want to saddle them with more liberalism and socialism? Why would I want to do that? So I can answer it, four words, "I hope he fails." And that would be the most outrageous thing anybody in this climate could say. Shows you just how far gone we are. Well, I know, I know. I am the last man standing.
I'm happy to be the last man standing. I'm honored to be the last man standing. Yeah, I'm the true maverick. I can do more than four words. I could say I hope he fails and I could do a brief explanation of why. You know, I want to win. If my party doesn't, I do. If my party has sacrificed the whole concept of victory, sorry, I'm now the Republican in name only, and they are the sellouts. I'm serious about this. Why in the world, it's what Ann Coulter was talking about, the tyranny of the majority, all these victims here, we gotta make sure the victims are finally assuaged. Well, the dirty little secret is this isn't going to assuage anybody's victim status, and the race industry isn't going to go away, and the fact that America's original sin of slavery is going to be absolved, it's not going to happen. Just isn't, folks. It's too big a business for the left to keep all those things alive that divide the people of this country into groups that are against each other. Yes, I'm fired up about this.

Reasons number 249 and 50 why I'm not a Republican. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has been chosen to introduce Vice-President-elect Biden at a bipartisan dinner in Washington on the eve of the immaculation. Biden was one of Hagel's closest friends in the Senate. "Bipartisan dinners also held that night honoring McCain and Colin Powell. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina will introduce McCain at a dinner." So all these Republicans are being honored on the night before Obama is immaculately inaugurated, as though they're part of the Obama administration. Our presidential candidate is being honored. I can understand liberals honoring their losers, but I just -- (tearing up story)

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

Ron Brownstein, National Journal, used to be the Los Angeles Times, on PMSNBC this afternoon with Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, she said, "Ronald Brownstein, you've written about the blue wall and the politics of this, what Democrats have been able to achieve in the last election. Obama is right there in Ohio, which is one of the critical states."

BROWNSTEIN: Democrats have now won, Andrea, 18 states for at least the last five elections consecutively, plus the District of Columbia, 248 Electoral College votes. They haven't won that many states over that long a period since Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. They also now hold, if Franken maintains his lead, 33 of the 36 Senate seats in those 18 states, over two-thirds of the House seats, two-thirds of the governorships. They have built their strongest Electoral College base since the days of Roosevelt and Truman, and that is an important foundation for Obama. It's going to be very difficult for Republicans, I think, to systematically challenge Obama and the Democrats over time if this much of the country is virtually off-limits for them.

RUSH: The Democrats own the country. There's nothing anybody can do to stop it. We should just lay down and accept it.

Anonymous said...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

"Obama is Losing a Battle that he Doesn't Know He's In." This is in the UK Guardian. The UK Guardian is a socialist publication. The writer here, named Simon Tisdall. Now, I don't know if Simon Tisdall is a token conservative writer at the Guardian, but nevertheless the Guardian, ladies and gentlemen, is a leftist extremist rag.

"Barack Obama's chances of making a fresh start in US relations with the Muslim world, and the Middle East in particular, appear to diminish with each new wave of Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza. That seems hardly fair, given the president-elect does not take office until January 20. But foreign wars don't wait for Washington inaugurations. Obama has remained wholly silent during the Gaza crisis. ... But evidence is mounting that Obama is already losing ground among key Arab and Muslim audiences that cannot understand why, given his promise of change, he has not spoken out. Arab commentators and editorialists say there is growing disappointment at Obama's detachment -- and that his failure to distance himself from George Bush's strongly pro-Israeli stance is encouraging the belief that he either shares Bush's bias or simply does not care."

Al-Jazeera is giving Obama grief. What does this tell us? If the Guardian is writing this, it tells us that interests in the Middle East expected a president who would be less friendly to our ally, Israel, and now that he won't speak out and stop what's going on, they're having second doubts about him. They are saying, "Where is this change?" And our media is wringing its hands, "Oh, my God, he's inheriting a mess in the Middle East." What president has not inherited a mess in the Middle East? Ask yourselves a question, folks. Why is Israel attacking Gaza? Actually that's not even the question. Why is Israel responding to attacks? Why are they firing rockets into Gaza? Ask yourself that question.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Democrat Party and liberalism is built on myth after myth after myth. There is no foundation of reality whatsoever. I got caught myself. I asked you a question right before the break. I said, "Ask yourself a question," going back now to Obama and his problems in the Middle East, a bunch of Middle Eastern countries and leftist newspapers in the UK, they don't believe Obama is being silent. They thought Obama was going to come out and be harder on Israel than Bush has been, and he won't say a word about this. They say he's losing credibility in the Middle East because of this. And I asked you to think of something. Why did Israel attack Hamas and Gaza? And right as I went to the break I slapped myself, 'cause that's not what happened. But if you didn't know any better and all you read was the Drive-By Media, you woke up one day last week and you read that Israel had attacked Gaza. The truth is that the Hamas organization has been launching rockets into Israel in voluminous numbers for six months, while the Israelis have been pretending to be the Republican Party and figure out the response to it. They've been arguing among themselves, "Well, we better make sure that whatever we do the world still loves us."

But finally after six months they couldn't take it anymore so they started returning fire. Israel no more attacked Hamas than we have attacked Iran. Yet that's how the Drive-Bys portrayed it. But let me ask the question again and forget the truth here for just a second. Let's assume, just to make the point, let's assume what is not true. Let's say that one day, out of the clear blue Israel did attack Hamas in Gaza. A question for you in the Drive-By Media: Why do you think Israel would attack Gaza? Is it for their national treasure? Is it because Israel wants all of the scientific discoveries that are being made by Hamas intellectuals? Is it because Israel wants that sand pit of territory? Israel was more than happy to give it away, so why the hell attack? What's there that you want? You want the oil deposits? There aren't any. Do you want the golf courses? There aren't any. Do you want the major economic infrastructure? There isn't any. Do you want the sanitation plants? There isn't any. Why attack? The Israelis left Gaza years ago. They gave Gaza to the Gazantas; they gave Gaza to the Hamas; they gave Gaza to the Palestinians. Why do you think Israel attacked Gaza? God gave you a mind. The fact is they didn't attack Gaza. Israel is finally defending itself.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Zbigniew Brzezinski Tuesday, last Tuesday, December 30th, on Joe Scarborough's show in the morning, Scarborough says, "What does Obama need to do coming into office to open a new chapter in the Middle East peace process?"

BRZEZINSKI (heavily accented): Well, he has to be aware of the fact that by now it must be eminently clear to everyone that the parties to the conflict will never reach an accommodation on their own. I mean, if we haven't learned that after all of these years and after all of the suffering that the people involved have been exposed to, they will never learn. And, you know, we're dealing with a very serious problem right now. It's a problem which has a moral and a political dimension. The Hamas people have provoked Israel. There's no doubt about it. And they have harassed Israel, there's no doubt about it. But does that mean that the punishment has to be on that scale?

RUSH: Now, ladies and gentlemen, Zbigniew Brzezinski is a former national security advisor to Jimmy Carter. In the seventies Carter met with Brzezinski first thing every morning to get a lowdown on what's going on in the world. Brzezinski is considered one of the best and brightest. Zbigniew Brzezinski is considered one of the most intelligent. He is looooved and respected and admired and envied for the power of his intellect in Washington, DC, and in foreign policy circles. However, what he just said here is embarrassingly naive and dumb. He admits that Hamas "provoked Israel," that they "harassed Israel... no doubt about it. But does that mean that the punishment has to be on that scale?" Meaning, "Does Israel have to fight back this hard? Does Israel have to fight back this hard?"

And then he said earlier, "It is eminently clear to everyone that the parties in the conflict will never reach an accommodation on their own." Now, what he means by that is, we have to step in there and determine winners and losers, which is what we have been doing diplomatically since 1948 or 1949, and this problem has never gone away! This problem is never going to go away until Israel wins this, and here's the danger of what Israel is doing. You remember in 2006 they went into Lebanon and they didn't finish it off? No matter Israel does, the world media (including ours) is going to destroy them for it. So they might as well end this. Now that they've got ground troops and tanks in there, they may as well rout Hamas; there will be no peace until there is victory.

That is what is common sense. That is what is world history. Peace is not the result of doctors, nurses, words, clean water, toothbrushes, Habitat for Humanity building rickety houses that collapse in ten years. Peace is the result of victory: one side winning and one side losing. As long as these ceasefires keep happening before the termination and culmination of events, this process will continue. So here we have the brightest guy in Washington, brightest foreign policy guy, Israel used disproportionate force. No. What are they supposed to do, launch the same number of rockets and make sure those rockets don't hit any targets? Or hit very few targets? We must have a proportionate response? This is lunacy, and it is under the guise of brilliance! Proportionate response? Okay, let's have a proportionate response to Hitler. Let's have a proportionate response to Saddam Hussein. Let's have a proportionate response to Pearl Harbor. When does anything ever end in that regard? It never does. Of course, diplomats kind of like that: things never ending. One more Zbigniew Brzezinski. Joe Scarborough finally said to him, "So what does Obama do, [Zbig]? How does he step in? We saw what he said before AIPAC earlier this year. Does he stand up to Israel and say, 'Stop the bombing?'"
BRZEZINSKI: Look, first of all, he is not president aaaand he cannot act until he becomes president. We -- we -- we don't have a duopoly in the White House. So I think for the time being he simply has to bide his time. Now, once he's president he has to face the fact that we're dealing with a massive crisis in the Middle East -- and the crisis is getting worse, it's not getting better. The peace process is in shambles. There was an effort made under Clinton, which got aborted after the elections in Israel. Then we had eight years essentially of a lot of posturing, a lot of talking, but no engagement.

RUSH: (laughs) My God. Again, Zbigniew Brzezinski. That's what passes for brilliance. (interruption) Now, Snerdley, I didn't say he's bright. I'm calling him ignorant, shortsighted, and not nearly as smart as he and everybody else thinks he is. It's inside the Beltway they think he's brilliant. It's inside the foreign policy establishment they think this guy is a five-star diplomat, understanding world crises and how to solve them. He had four years with Jimmy Carter. He's been advising others to do so. The problems never change. However, this business, "The peace process is in shambles"? Everybody has said that for the last 50 years! It's always been in shambles. What president, in recent history, has not inherited a shambles in the Middle East? I don't recall this concern in the past.

I don't recall the media being all concerned for George Bush when he inherited the mess left him from Bill Clinton. But beyond that, folks, try this. Try inheriting a presidency where terrorism and Al-Qaeda was ignored for two full terms (thank you, Bill Clinton). You inherit a presidency after that and then you suffer an attack on our home soil for the first time since Pearl Harbor. You watch on live television as 3,000 of your fellow Americans are slaughtered, and then you have to defeat an unknown enemy while keeping the country safe -- all without the benefit of a functional relationship between the CIA and the FBI; while lacking any understanding who attacked, why they attacked, how they were funded and having no clue how to quickly rout 'em out because they were hiding in countries supplying most of our oil.

And if you screw up just once, if you miss just one attack -- like the one where ten jets were set to explode over our country -- the world's economy goes into the toilet. Our enemies are emboldened to try again and again and again and again. As for Obama, it's "Poor little Obama. Poor little Barack. What a mess he's inheriting! It's such a blow to his hopes for peace." Well, as for Obama's mess in the Middle East, Zbig, at least Afghanistan is not run by the Taliban today. Iraq isn't run by Saddam Hussein, and Iran's role in funding Hamas and Hezbollah is now clearly defined and understood. Iran's economy is on the brink of collapse, thanks to low oil prices. Obama inherits all of this, and these low oil prices have significantly weakened Russia and Venezuela. Hugo Chavez just announced today that he's ending the free oil, the free heating oil for people in the Northeast. He's ending it. The oil price is too low.

Now, if you want to start crying tears, Zbig, let's go back and cry tears for the virtual foreign policy incompetence and inattention that he inherited from Bill Clinton; versus the pretty clear road Obama has thanks to George W. Bush. This Gaza thing is not a mystery. If Israel doesn't wipe 'em out, just wipe 'em out... Look, the Saudis aren't going to do anything. You know, the Middle East -- the Saudis, the Egyptians, a number of others -- they want Israel to wipe 'em out. Hamas is Iran, and Iran is Saudi Arabia's enemy. That's why you're not hearing a whole bunch of protests from the usual suspects in the Middle East. Hamas, Hezbollah, that's Iran, and they threaten everybody. You'll never get vocal support from the Middle East states for Israel, but they're not going to be sad if Israel cleans that place out and wipes Hamas out.

END TRANSCRIPT

LavaBear said...

>>> This is the main issue of our times

Nope. The 1031 deal is merely a symptom of the real problems. And the Zionist essays are an attempt to distract from discussing the real issues. So you should get of your ass and do what you can to stop the distraction. That is if you cared.

Anonymous said...

I was riding on the Mayflower
When I thought I spied some land
I yelled for Captain Arab
I have yuh understand
Who came running to the deck
Said, "Boys, forget the whale
Look on over yonder
Cut the engines
Change the sail
Haul on the bowline"
We sang that melody
Like all tough sailors do
When they are far away at sea

"I think I'll call it America"
I said as we hit land
I took a deep breath
I fell down, I could not stand
Captain Arab he started
Writing up some deeds
He said, "Let's set up a fort
And start buying the place with beads"
Just then this cop comes down the street
Crazy as a loon
He throw us all in jail
For carryin' harpoons

Ah me I busted out
Don't even ask me how
I went to get some help
I walked by a Guernsey cow
Who directed me down
To the Bowery slums
Where people carried signs around
Saying, "Ban the bums"
I jumped right into line
Sayin', "I hope that I'm not late"
When I realized I hadn't eaten
For five days straight

I went into a restaurant
Lookin' for the cook
I told them I was the editor
Of a famous etiquette book
The waitress he was handsome
He wore a powder blue cape
I ordered some suzette, I said
"Could you please make that crepe"
Just then the whole kitchen exploded
From boilin' fat
Food was flying everywhere
And I left without my hat

Now, I didn't mean to be nosy
But I went into a bank
To get some bail for Arab
And all the boys back in the tank
They asked me for some collateral
And I pulled down my pants
They threw me in the alley
When up comes this girl from France
Who invited me to her house
I went, but she had a friend
Who knocked me out
And robbed my boots
And I was on the street again

Well, I rapped upon a house
With the U.S. flag upon display
I said, "Could you help me out
I got some friends down the way"
The man says, "Get out of here
I'll tear you limb from limb"
I said, "You know they refused Jesus, too"
He said, "You're not Him
Get out of here before I break your bones
I ain't your pop"
I decided to have him arrested
And I went looking for a cop

I ran right outside
And I hopped inside a cab
I went out the other door
This Englishman said, "Fab"
As he saw me leap a hot dog stand
And a chariot that stood
Parked across from a building
Advertising brotherhood
I ran right through the front door
Like a hobo sailor does
But it was just a funeral parlor
And the man asked me who I was

I repeated that my friends
Were all in jail, with a sigh
He gave me his card
He said, "Call me if they die"
I shook his hand and said goodbye
Ran out to the street
When a bowling ball came down the road
And knocked me off my feet
A pay phone was ringing
It just about blew my mind
When I picked it up and said hello
This foot came through the line

Well, by this time I was fed up
At tryin' to make a stab
At bringin' back any help
For my friends and Captain Arab
I decided to flip a coin
Like either heads or tails
Would let me know if I should go
Back to ship or back to jail
So I hocked my sailor suit
And I got a coin to flip
It came up tails
It rhymed with sails
So I made it back to the ship

Well, I got back and took
The parkin' ticket off the mast
I was ripping it to shreds
When this coastguard boat went past
They asked me my name
And I said, "Captain Kidd"
They believed me but
They wanted to know
What exactly that I did
I said for the Pope of Eruke
I was employed
They let me go right away
They were very paranoid

Well, the last I heard of Arab
He was stuck on a whale
That was married to the deputy
Sheriff of the jail
But the funniest thing was
When I was leavin' the bay
I saw three ships a-sailin'
They were all heading my way
I asked the captain what his name was
And how come he didn't drive a truck
He said his name was Columbus
I just said, "Good luck."

Anonymous said...

To me we should of promoted Bend as the next Boulder not Aspen.

*

Boulder is near a fwy, Boulder has long had a university, Boulder is near a large city, and Boulder has long been center of the book publishing and distribution world, being near the geo USA center.

BEND-OR is NONE of these things, BEND-OR is a little desert shit-hole in the middle of no-where eastern-oregon.

Bend is NOT fucking BOULDER.

What is BEND, Ketchum, ID, or McCall, ID; just another little gas stop in the middle of no-where, with no freeways for over 100 miles, which is great if you really were a resort.

Fucking Boulder is a suburb of Denver, CO.

Bend is no fucking Boulder.

The UNIV of OR is broke, there will be NO Universitys built in ORYGUN for the next 20 years. Period.

Bend is COCC, a shitty little 2yr trade-school for high-school dropouts.


Bend is Burns, OR.

Anonymous said...

Nope. The 1031 deal is merely a symptom of the real problems. And the Zionist essays are an attempt to distract from discussing the real issues. So you should get of your ass and do what you can to stop the distraction. That is if you cared.

*

1031 was created to FUND (AIPAC) Zionism.

Made-Off sent a ton of money to AIPAC.

The looting of our times, the $1-2 Trillion dollars that Obama is about to spend will largely go to PRO AIPAC people. The chosen ones, gods chosen people.

The Bankruptcy of Bend, 100's of Millions of dollars of debt to be defaulted, widows robbed of their pensions, but where did the money go?

Destroying the US dollar, bring the US to its knees. Why?

MrBruce said...

It was like the mindset of a lottery winner who goes out the day after he finds out he has a winning ticket and runs up all his credit cards and buys a new car, new house, etc. before the lottery check comes in. That's how most people would act. - BEM

###

That's fine and dandy BEM. But your only looking at the tail on the elephant.

The real BEAST is the 100's of millions of MUNI debt the city has taken on, debt that MUST be repaid as interest, DEBT that MUST be defaulted on as there is no possible way for the entire budget to pay back this debt.

Some people like you argue that City-Council is stupid, or hysterical, ... I disagree, I use words like fraud, criminal, theft. Intensional stealing.

To this day MOSS sits on the JRMB board, and directs Knife-River to get the business of developing JR, but MOSS also sits on the MDU board who owns Knife-River and pays MOSS $200k/yr. But MOSS is also the Bank of BEND, and got $60M in TARP from uncle Bush.

There is NOTHING stupid or hysterical going on, just apologists for grand larceny.

The City just bought $5M worth of land from the BULL, land it got from HOLLERN for free, the city didn't need the land, but with MUNI debt they in effect pulled $5M out of the air, and gave to the BULL to keep them in Biz. The City last year bought land from Hap-Taylor for $4M, same deal MUNI-DEBT, ... goes on, and on, and on. Real MONEY is handed out to the big boyz, ... all debt, all easy MUNI money, that is off budget, but EVENTUALLY it has to be paid back, or was the DEFAULT (BK) planned all along?? I think so.

Anonymous said...

Bend Economy Man said...

It seems insane that they dipped into reserve funds DURING the boom, right? What were they thinking?

I'll tell you what they were thinking: they were thinking that Bend is growing so fast that revenues can only go up. They were only worried about "keeping up with growth" and making the town attractive and ready for further growth. They thought that the town was only getting more upscale, property values only going up - they really sincerely thought this.

It was like the mindset of a lottery winner who goes out the day after he finds out he has a winning ticket and runs up all his credit cards and buys a new car, new house, etc. before the lottery check comes in. That's how most people would act.

But I have to think that some people, maybe me, maybe Dunc, even if we saw that we have the winning lottery ticket we'd wait 'til the check clears to start spending a bunch of money.

Counting chickens. Another way to put it.

Anonymous said...

Who could have guessed? Who could have known? Good people doing stupid stuff? We all got hysterical.

Hell yes, I myself took out a $300M loan using BEND's credit, and then hired Knife-River to move rock, all $300M, what do I have to show for it? Nada nothing, but hell I kept the boss hoggs payroll floating for ten years.

Gotta make the town attractive, got to flatten all those rock outcroppings, and cut down all those Junipers, got to make Bend look like Merced, or Bakersfield where people are coming from.

No malice, or criminal intentions all good intentions.

Oh, I did get back $200k/yr from MDU, for services rendered, but it had nothing to do with Knife River.

Anonymous said...

Same for Made-Off there was no malice or crime, he really did pay people 15% on their money APR year after year, ... its just that when the economy got bad and no new money was coming in, he could match the redemptions, not his fault.

COUNTING CHICKENS? FUCK YOU

Today's Bend is A case of chickens coming home to roost.

Bend is a town of fraud, ran by frauds, for frauds, and of frauds.

LavaBear said...

>>> But MOSS is also the Bank of BEND, and got $60M in TARP from uncle Bush.


According to the latest release of TARP funds the only Oregon Banks on the list are Umpqua and Capital Pacific.

MrBruce said...

Western leaders dare not utter a word against the Zionists and their crimes, as they are well aware of the disastrous consequences. The international Jewry will react promptly and ruthlessly, bring out their skeletons from the cupboards, disgrace and finish them off once and for all. Just to cite two cases were the plight of former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldhiem who later became Austrian Chancellor and failed to please the Zionists and the former US President Bill Clinton, who was disgraced by the scandalous sex liaison with Monica Lewinsky, when he tried to negotiate peace between Israel and Palestinians was not to their liking.

MrBruce said...

MDU MOTHER MOSS SAY's "WHERE MY CACB CARP?" $67M how long will that keep CACB stock above zero, if used for authorized 'buyback'?

Applications for publicly held lenders were due Nov. 14 and from privately held banks Dec. 8. The Office of Thrift Supervision said about a third of lenders it regulates applied for as much as $50 billion from the bank-rescue fund. The agency received 268 applications as of Nov. 19, or 32 percent of the regulated industry, for the program.

PARTICIPATION PENDING:
INSTITUTION AMOUNT NOTES
Cascade Bancorp $67.4 million Applying for TARP.

MrBruce said...

COUNTING CHICKENS? FUCK YOU

Today's Bend is A case of chickens coming home to roost.

Bend is a town of fraud, ran by frauds, for frauds, and of frauds.

*

This is why the AIPAC story, and gaza Bend story are so similar. In Gaza you have a complete fucking holocaust, and nobody cares. In Bend you have a complete criminal fraud, and nobody cares.

In fact if you read dunc & bem closely you'll see that they hate to have the the city-council be called crooks, they prefer to call them 'stupid' or naive, or in a bubble hysteria, but never criminal.

Bend is a Fraud, and Israelis are mass murderers, and BEND money subsidizes the genocide in Gaza.

LavaBear said...

>>>Cascade Bancorp $67.4 million Applying for TARP.

Just so I'm straight...above you said "got $60M" and now you are saying applied for? I'd hate for you to just be making shit up that isn't true or stretching the truth to suit your theories.

LavaBear said...

>>> they prefer to call them 'stupid' or naive

You need to add me onto that list. I know a couple of them personally and can attest they aren't anywhere close to smart enough to pull off petty crime let alone fraud. I actually think HMB and BEM combined got it right. They all collectively agreed if we could just get to 100k or 200k population we'd be fine. Push growth because we gotta get bigger to keep the ponzi scheme alive. But that is the limit to their abilities. To suggest any of them or all of them have this grand scheme to do fraud is giving ALL of them way too much credit that I'm not willing to do. They don't deserve the backhanded compliment.

Anonymous said...

Ok guys don't ask me why I've wasted my time sifting through the clerks recordings, but here goes:

From 1/01/09 to 1/23/09 we have had 84 induvidual properties deeded back to the banks in lieu of foreclosure, some of these were multiples on a single filing but again because I have so much time to waste I counted each induvidual tax lot and or seperate property that was deeded back. Some of these single parcels I counted as one were actually development parcels that haven't been split yet, so there lies many more potential lots for the future.





Loving the multiple Bruces and HBM's these days. AIPAC is always great, BTW Mark Neuman, Brian Stevens, Lane Lyons and I had a bonfire today with hundred dollar bills, they burn surprisngly well we drank a shitload of PBR's too. He said the money ain't goin to the Jews.







SP (the real one)

LavaBear said...

>>> In Bend you have a complete criminal fraud, and nobody cares.


Bend is a tiny little pimple on the ass of this thing. Amateur hour at best. Go down to SoCal, Vegas or PHX and you will see what the true professionals did. It ain't pretty. I think California alone is going to bankrupt our country. True professionals did that one.

LavaBear said...

Hey SP -

Can you educate me on the lieu of foreclosure? So they don't show on the NOD's stats but do the show on other Foreclosure stats?

Anonymous said...

>>Can you educate me on the lieu of foreclosure? So they don't show on the NOD's stats but do the show on other Foreclosure stats?<<<


Lava,
they show up under "deed" then you have to hand pick through them, the giveaway is that the bank is on the right hand column and the person deeding (losing) is on the left (the position where the bank usually is) When you search under "last name" put %bank% this way you get any deed recorded with a bank involved. You will see a lot of trustee's deeding property back to the banks under this search as well (the result of foreclosure). There are a couple interesting ones with WaMu and the fed receivership moving things to JP Morgan. I also noticed Oran Teater aqnd the wife picked up a piece of property from a foreclosure at Bend Country Club. It looks like most of the deed activities is between banks.








SP

Anonymous said...

"are"









sp

LavaBear said...

>>>they show up under "deed"

Thanks SP. I had been looking for a deed in lieu or something similar. This is a bit more tedious than the NOD's but I agree it's going to be just as important going forward as people just saying fuck it.

ps. I had a theory that the Hank that keeps busting Bruce's balls was Oran Teater but I doubt it now.

Anonymous said...

Old Vern "hotshot" Palmer gave a bunch of shit back to liberty in there as well. I think a $Million$ or so worth of shit.



I think after we get through 2009, 2008 is going to look like a kiddie ride, this shit is getting worse by the minute. My question is, how long until the banks just start dumping this shit? They're going to have to at a certain point.





SP

Anonymous said...

You fuckers talk about 'reserves', and 'general fund', and that Bend don't MATTER, but remember KUNTS we're BEND, I know you would rather talk about AIPAC, or bruce's pussy, or anything BUTT debating Bend. The two things that will sink Bend is writing COD bets to get cash, and defaulting on all the fucking Muni-Bond debt the city has taken on to give MILLIONS to boss-hoggs. That interest MUST be paid, but can't be paid, and thus the city will default.

Vallejo, CA is just 100k people, slightly bigger than BEND, and they went down with almost $300M in muni-debt, how in the fuck? Can a city borrow so much fucking money for pet projects?? Will they did and so did Bend, like our round-abouts, ... all to keep Knife-River busy-busy.


***

Muni Bond Default Parade Plays On
Jack Colombo, 01.15.09, 05:30 PM EST
Distress continues to bedevil the muni bond market, and the rest of the year looks even tougher.

To look at current municipal default statistics, your first reaction might be that we have erroneously displayed the corporate defaults for 2008. However, 2008 would have been a record year even without Jefferson County, Ala., and its $3.8 billion sewer bond issue default. The town of Vallejo, Calif., added $280 million as it became the first municipal Chapter 9 bankruptcy in over a decade that affects bondholders.

Other notable 2008 defaults were the Las Vegas monorail issue ($451 million) and a $709 million issue whose only collateral was a gas supply agreement with Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEHMQ - news - people ), which filed bankruptcy six months after the deal was made.


Municipal and corporate bond defaults are rising but this could spell opportunity for huge profits by bold investors. Click here for guidance in Distressed Debt Securities newsletter.

While housing-related issues are always a principal source of defaults, at least in numbers, 2008 proved to be a bumper year, with 62 issues totaling $1.2 billion. That's more than the total for all defaults in either of the last two years. The outlook for 2009 is for even worse to come, at least in terms of numbers of defaults.

The wave of defaults in housing-related issues in California and Florida can be expected to accelerate. Expect further defaults by small municipalities in California and elsewhere. Also vulnerable are sales tax dependent issues everywhere and "feel good" projects that depend on private or public support. The latter are vulnerable to the weak economy and, in the case of ethanol projects, a change in the underlying economics.

The federal government may well step in to provide indirect support to the states through municipal bond guarantees for issuers who otherwise couldn't sell more debt, which may postpone into future years some of the grief building up. However, no such help will be coming for the thousands of bond issues backed by corporate sponsors or a home builder with empty lots and incomplete infrastructures.

Special Offer: Banks are issuing preferred stock with yields of 10% and higher. Nice yields, but don't get suckered into buying bad paper. Click here for Forbes-Lehmann Income Securities Investor.
Comment On This Story

Not helping is the cloud still hanging over the bond insurers. Their ability to provide coverage for new issues is in doubt, as is their ability to backstop deals previously insured and now in trouble. All in all, it looks like a busy year for this newsletter.

While municipal defaults broke all-time records in 2008, they pale in comparison to the massive volume of corporate defaults. The total of $157.56 billion easily broke the previous record year of 2002 when $107.9 billion in defaults was recorded, although that took 93 defaults. Setting aside the $127.5 billion contribution by the Lehmann Brothers default, the total for the year would still have made it the third largest year on record. While 2009 looks like it may challenge 2002 in terms of the number of defaults, we probably will not see a new dollar record even if General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) files a pre-packaged bankruptcy.

Anonymous said...

Vallejo, CA is just 100k people, slightly bigger than BEND, and they went down with almost $300M in muni-debt, how in the fuck? Can a city borrow so much fucking money for pet projects?? Will they did and so did Bend, like our round-abouts, ... all to keep Knife-River busy-busy.

Here people like BEM&DUNC say its the dipping into 'reserves' and chicken's, in Vallejo 'They' blamed it on paying the cops too much, like Bend the city is composed of PRO LIARS ( dunc&bem ), but the truth is what sent Vallejo-Ca into the toilet was $300M in DEBT, and Bend is close to the same shit hole, and everybody ignores it, because then they would have to ask "Where did the 100's of millions go?".

Anonymous said...

We know $5M went to the BULLetin. Imagine that who would have guessed?? I wonder if that has anything to do with the fraud?

MrBruce said...

Bend is a tiny little pimple on the ass of this thing. Amateur hour at best. - lava, the pussy brain

###

Yes, lava change the subject, point to somebody with bigger problems, how very APOLOGIST of you.

The BPUSSY is an apologist for the city, you are, dunc is, bem is, tim, every fucking one of you KUNTS is an apologist. You say they are 'stupid', like Hank say's the its bruce that's stupid, these people have pocketed millions of dollars of CASH, on deals that had NOTHING to do with real-estate, and that ain't stupid.

Bend ain't amateur hour. We're #1 in appreciation for four fucking years 2004-2007 in a row, that didn't happen by dumb fucking luck, it was engineered by COVA. Why in the fuck do you think that BEND PR&MARKETING just got GOLD for 'branding'. Bend is a fucking Brand.

So this late in the hour we hear...

1.) They're amateurs,
2.) They're stupid,
3.) They're chickens in the pot, ...

All fucking BULLSHIT, this town is a MOB town, this town is ran by PROFESSIONAL CROOKS, and HOLLERN brought them ALL in post 1960's after he came. Not to say that HOLLERN had to do any 'theft' as he owned the town, but filling the town full of 'pros' insured continual bubbles and lots of fraud, and deceit. Then post 1990 they brought in dozens of the 1031 boyz who setup shop and did BEND-MADEOFF, the biggest fucking 1031 ORG in the PNW.

The ONLY fucking reason that Vegas, &PHX are bigger storys than BEND, is that they have already gone down, and Bend hasn't even started going down.

Lava is a dick-head apologist pussy. I have lost all fucking respect.

MrBruce said...

Loving the multiple Bruces and HBM's these days. AIPAC is always great, BTW Mark Neuman, Brian Stevens, Lane Lyons and I had a bonfire today with hundred dollar bills, they burn surprisngly well we drank a shitload of PBR's too. He said the money ain't goin to the Jews. - st-paddy


###

Of course the money isn't going to the Jews, the Jews have NOTHING to do with AIPAC.

AIPAC is MOB going all the way back to the 1920's setup by Walter Annenberg. They made a movie about this mob, it was called "Once upon a time in America".

S-1031 was a Zionist ( christian zion ministry front ), but it had NOTHING to do with money going to Jews.

Anonymous said...

>>>Cascade Bancorp $67.4 million Applying for TARP.

Just so I'm straight...above you said "got $60M" and now you are saying applied for? I'd hate for you to just be making shit up that isn't true or stretching the truth to suit your theories.


*

Let's get this straight, your saying BEM is right, then on that basis MOSS would have spent the $60M before she even got her TARP lottery check, applying for the TARP, is just as good as booking it as a recievable.

Why do you KUNTS want to have it both ways? BEM pulls a straw-man ( lotter winner ) out of his ass, but MOSS just won the lottery by application.

BUTT, now this is where it gets interesting, ... given that MOSS has a TEXAS-RATIO of over 30, is it too late to feed the dead?? Butt USING BEM logic, I can guarantee you all, that MOSS spent the $60M the day she applied for the TARP(CARP).

MrBruce said...

Ok guys don't ask me why I've wasted my time sifting through the clerks recordings, but here goes:

From 1/01/09 to 1/23/09 we have had 84 induvidual properties deeded back to the banks in lieu of foreclosure, some of these were multiples on a single filing but again because I have so much time to waste I counted each induvidual tax lot and or seperate property that was deeded back. Some of these single parcels I counted as one were actually development parcels that haven't been split yet, so there lies many more potential lots for the future.

***

St-Paddy, Just dump all the data. Why do you fucking KUNTS talk about the shit, and then sit on the SHIT, dumb what you found here and let other peruse, and between us all maybe something will be made of it.

Often when you mix shit & morons, you can get more shit & morons.

MrBruce said...

They'd rather spend money on Juniper Ridge and Bend buses than basic fire, police and road services.
- dunc pussy

###

The people who have to beg on their knees for campaign cash ( not Eckman, as hubby pays ), have to pay back the master. That be Knife-River. Thus the gig in city hall to insure your political career is to perpetually create giant mega $10M or more public works projects, that you can borrow MUNI Debt.

Running for office is about collecting taxes, and paying for cops and firemen. That is a fucking myth.

Running for office is about borrowing 100's of millions of MUNI debt, and seeing that the majority of that money funnels back to your sponsor.

Anonymous said...

On the note of MOSS & AIPAC, one of the major nationwide fronts of AIPAC is called 'xxx good government', if you do a search on contributions, you'll see that MOSS gave $2k to 'xxx good government'.

MrBruce said...

Apology rules this town.

Even in Vallejo, CA the media blames to this day to the public that the reason for BK is that city-hall over-paid the cops.

When in fact the reason for the BK, is that the city with $300M in muni-debt got to the point where the teeter-totter had more on the interest payment side, than the service side, but the media doesn't want to talk about that. But if you google 'city muni default' you can find its a big story on wall-st, where all the muni is written. But on main-street its top-secret.

Pay no attention to any of this, there is only ONE brain in BEND, there are no elections, and for all time collectively everybody in city-hall and city-staff had one goal, to increase the population from 100k to 200k to 1M.

That is a big fucking LIE.

Not everyone in BEND has the same goals. The city is made of up of dozen's of boss-hoggs all trying to keep their own pig trough full of pork.

HBM & COSTA would like nothing more than the history of Bend to say that collective hysteria is why we went BK. That is the BIG LIE.

Anonymous said...

>>St-Paddy, Just dump all the data. Why do you fucking KUNTS talk about the shit, and then sit on the SHIT, dumb what you found here and let other peruse, and between us all maybe something will be made of it.<<

I explained how to do it above,
again:

go to :

http://recordings.co.deschutes.or.us/search.asp

type in the year, upper left corner of screen

open search field "deed"

under last name put %bank%

press search button

peruse til your heart is content buddy.


Hey Bruce, your stalker is a lazy fucker.







SP

Anonymous said...

Israeli PM in war crimes pledge

Any Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes in the Gaza Strip will be given state protection from prosecution overseas, the country's PM has said.

Ehud Olmert said troops should know Israel would keep them safe after they acted to protect their country.

Palestinians say 1,300 people died during the offensive, and UN officials want independent probes into whether war crimes were committed.

Meanwhile, a Hamas delegation is in Egypt for talks on cementing a truce.

Israel ended its military operation in Gaza on 18 January, and Hamas declared a ceasefire hours later.

No formal framework for a lasting ceasefire has yet been agreed.

While Israel says it requires Hamas to end weapons smuggling into Gaza and rocket attacks on Israel, Hamas has demanded that Israel lift its economic blockade of the territory.

Soldiers 'safe'

In Israel, Prime Minister Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting that soldiers who had put their lives on the line for their country need not fear prosecution for war crimes overseas.

"The commanders and soldiers that were sent on the task in Gaza should know that they are safe from any tribunal and that the State of Israel will assist them in this issue and protect them as they protected us with their bodies during the military operation in Gaza," he said.

Israel's military tactics have come under intense scrutiny as evidence has emerged of the high numbers of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza.

Among complaints made by human rights groups are accusations of indiscriminate firing and the use of white phosphorus shells in civilian areas.

Israel has admitted using white phosphorus in Gaza but says it did not break international law in doing so.

White phosphorus is legal for creating smokescreens in open battleground. But rights groups and journalists say it was used in crowded civilian areas.

The weapon sticks to human skin and will burn through to the bone.

Truce talks

In Cairo, delegates from Hamas met Egyptian intelligence officials on Sunday as they sought to bolster the week-long calm in Gaza.

Representatives from Fatah, the main rival Palestinian faction, were also due to attend the talks.

The talks came as Hamas said it was beginning a programme of cash handouts to Palestinians in Gaza whose homes were damaged by the three weeks of Israeli bombardments.

There was no word of the substance of discussions in Egypt with Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief who brokered a previous six-month truce between Israel and Hamas.

Mr Suleiman held talks with an Israeli envoy on Thursday.

In a statement, Egyptian state media said Hamas and Mr Suleiman discussed "Egyptian efforts to consolidate the ceasefire, reach a [permanent] truce, reopen Gaza crossings and resume Palestinian national dialogue".

Israel and Egypt closed their borders with Gaza when Hamas seized control of the territory in mid-2007.

Anonymous said...

I explained how to do it above,
again:

go to :

http://recordings.co.deschutes.or.us/search.asp

type in the year, upper left corner of screen

open search field "deed"

under last name put %bank%

press search button



If under "party type" you select indirect you don't have to see ones where the bank is a seller.

And Buster, I posted how to do this days ago. No need to dump it. The data is all there for anyone who isn't a lazy fuck.

Bewert said...

Re: CACB and $67M TARP funds

###

They already have $45M, and have a shelf offering looking for up to $60M more. Here is the S-3 filed on Dec. 19, 2008.

This prospectus is a part of a registration statement that we filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or “SEC,” using a “shelf” registration process. Under this shelf registration statement, we may sell, either separately or together, senior debt securities, subordinated debt securities, common shares, preferred shares, purchase contracts, units and warrants, in one or more offerings. In addition, we may offer to our existing shareholders subscription rights, which may or may not be transferable, to purchase additional shares of our common. We may use the shelf registration statement to sell, in one or more offerings, up to $60,000,000 of any securities registered, in any combination, in any offering amount, in addition to the $44,815,502 (which amount includes the shares of common stock reserved for issuance under the Warrant at the exercise price of $6.77 per share) of Series A Preferred and the Warrant we previously issued to the U.S. Treasury in a private placement and the 863,442 common shares reserved for exercise of the Warrant, which are also included in the registration statement and may be sold hereunder.

Bewert said...

FYI:

City of Bend

Financial Strategy Session Day 2

Friday – January 23, 2009

North Fire Station - Training Facility

8:00-10:00am Presentation of Financial Strategy Needs
Transportation Utility Fee/Gas Tax

Bewert said...

Re: City debt load

###

About $120M. We have $8.2M reserved for debt service.

2007-2009 Biennial Budget, see pages 90 and 91.

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