Sunday, February 22, 2009

Bend Godfather: "Doctrine of Bend Exceptionalism, Dead"

I think Bend reached a seminal point in it's collapse last week.

One of the Boss Hogg's of Bend, if not The Boss Hogg, declared Bend non-Exceptional.

Through the Looking Glass With John and Bill

In his Sunday column, Bulletin Editor John Costa talks to three of Bend’s biggest movers and shakers to find out why the Bend real estate market went belly-up and how to keep it from happening again. They offer a number of ideas. Some of them make sense; one is just crazy.

Developer Mike Hollern blames the Doctrine of Bend Exceptionalism – the peculiar notion that Bend is so special that it’s immune to outside economic forces. “We were overwhelmed by the amount of money pouring in,” Hollern told Costa. “We thought that we were different from the rest of the country. It turned out that we are not so much [different].”

This really is astounding. It's more or less a declaration that all we have done, all that we have thrown our energy, time, and vast, Vast quantities of money at all these years, is actually Harming Us.

The PR & Marketing Industrial Complex of Bend is Dead.

Now I don't want to say that I originated the idea that holding ourselves above all others was a bad Idea, but I'll admit that I mentioned it once or twice:

A Prayer for Bend

And speaking of bullshit pieces, thank you Baby Jeebus for the Bulletin piece basically printing that this place is a deluded bunch of drug-addicts, by printing this quote from Sandy Henderson, new head of the perennial money-losing BendFilm: 'You know what, there’s got to be Prozac or something in the water, because everybody is happy.’

It's called
KOOL-AID Sandy, and it will soon render your mind whithered & useless...

Take off the Beer Goggles, and Start ta Chewin'

The Bulletin is a prime conspirator in Boss Hogg's little pump-n-dump scheme, but sadly it is too late for that, as the idiotic RiverWild "auction" proved.

NO ONE is buying the Kool-Aid anymore.


The ass-ugly imploding nature of Bend's RE market is clearly visible in high-relief for all to see, and no amount of bullshit shoveled into the locals gullets will change that.

They've done it a million times before to good effect, and the Bulletin still believes that we can "market our way out of anything", but obviously we cannot.

IT IS OVER.


Bends Mayor Arrested and Jailed For Embezzlement

"The softness in our real estate markets has worsened in the past quarter, putting increased pressure on cash flows of developers and builders of new homes and subdivisions," said Patricia L. Moss, CEO.

"While we are disappointed in reporting this action, we feel strongly that it is prudent to be assertive in recognizing the heightened risk in this segment of our loan portfolio."

She added, "Despite the immediate cost of these steps, Cascade remains a solidly profitable and well-capitalized institution serving some of the best growth markets in the nation.

I am confident that the long-term strength of our markets and our experienced management team will enable us to effectively navigate this downturn in the real estate cycle."


You see Moss, despite being slapped upside the head with Reality, is still is bobbing for apples in the Kool-Aid vat.

Extinct Species Found In Bend Oregon

Local banks, that only months ago declared themselves fit as a fiddle financially & almost completely IMMUNE from the collapse... LIED. They were firmly planted in some Kool-Aid fueled hallucination where they were exempt from reality.

The Cult of Bend

You hold an auction, that gets press coverage FAR & WIDE, you actually get a hard-core contingent of buyers to show up, they actually BID on these shithole, shoddy tubs of shit you call "homes", and you say they are trying to STEAL THEM?

This comes back to a point I've written about several times on here, despite it's unpopularity, the idea that Bend is a town that has been indoctrinated & brainwashed into thinking that WE ARE GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE.

Not the "Jew Thing", but that as a town we are better than "The Rest". We deserve better. Hell, we deserve THE BEST, and by God, we'll wait until our dying day to get it.

This is a mindset cultivated DAILY by ALL BEND MEDIA.


EVERYTHING IS BETTER IN BEND. ESPECIALLY THE PEOPLE. AND IF WE ARE GREAT, SO ARE OUR HOMES, AND THUSLY THEY CANNOT & WILL NOT GO DOWN IN PRICE. PERIOD.


Q1 2007 Numbers
There's also the acknowledgment that Bend is 75% overvalued... BUT, there's also floated the idea that What Applies To The Rest Of The Country Does Not Apply To Bend.

This is my Gods Chosen People thesis
, an attitude reflected in Jonestown before they all killed themselves by pounding down a little Kool-Aid with an arsenic chaser.


So, yes, I think I may have mentioned it once or twice, that the worst thing that could happen to this place was this carefully cultivated & continuously reinforced idea that Bend Is Better. I, and others on this blog, have repeatedly said that Bend Is Not Better.

Bend is Not A Flint, MI. It's Not Cleveland. But neither is it Aspen.

Bend is a regular place. With regular people. Regular, if not low-paying, jobs. Regular.

But we were fed the Kool-Aid, and were made to think we were God's Chosen People, and what applied elsewhere, did not apply here.

And the Boss Hogg's, like Hollern & Smith, as well as all of Bend media did all in their power to perpetuate this myth, that we are better, that we deserve The Best.

And they accomplished this to fantastic effect. The Kool-Aid was drunk far & wide, and almost no one is immune.

So why is Hollern turning on his own?

He's turning on the very PR/Marketing Industrial Complex that he & other God Fathers of Bend helped establish. Why is he turning on COVA, Costa, the Bend Visitors Bureau, EDCO, Roger Lee, Alana Audette, and the vast hordes of minions that run this factory, all to the assumed benefit of him & others like him? Why?

Because, as I suggested 2 years ago, it is Killing Bend. It's killing this town. It's killing Hollern. It's killing his business. It's killing everything.

The Doctrine of Bend Exceptionalism is the worst man-made disaster that will ever afflict this town.

And Hollern is 100% responsible.

Well, that's not true. Costa is also responsible. The Incredible Hulce is responsible.

No. That's not true. The Incredible Hulce is actually retarded, and cannot be held accountable for her actions.


No, the blame lies with the vast hordes of Realtors, Hometown Newspaper Editors, RE developers, contractors, builder associations, and everyone else who lied to line their own pockets. And in this place, 2-3 years ago, that was almost everyone.

But Hollern has seen the light. Maybe he's seen this blog, who knows. But Yarrow & Ironhorse have to be some pretty unmistakable thorns in his side, that Exceptionalism does Not Sell Houses. Not in a downturn. Exceptionalism actually grinds the gears of industry to a halt.

Look at all the listings in Bend: Most are still Wildly Overpriced. Nothing is moving when credit goes away, and you then have to rely on local incomes to actually move product. And Bend has lousy incomes.
Bend IS Exceptional!

Look at these 2 graphs of national housing stats, and you see that Bend is exceptional: We are still Wildly Overvalued.

Nationally, prices have fallen back to 120 months of rent. I know that most Eastside Bend STD's are still well above 200X rent!

Nationally, prices have fallen to 3.2X median incomes. Even after the incredible 40+% plunge in local medians, homes in Bend are still almost 4X median family incomes, a level that was just barely hit nationally at the absolute top of the housing bubble.

In Bend, we'll probably fall back to 80-100X rent for homes. That means medians on the Eastside may go below $100K.

If we go back to 2.4X median family income, and incomes remain constant (a fairly dubious assumption), then Bend medians will fall to around $140K.

The End of an Era. The End of Exceptionalism.

To that end, here are the hard numbers:

National recession takes its toll locally

Some parts of the regional economy are stabilizing; others are not

By Jeff McDonald / The Bulletin
Published: February 22. 2009 4:00AM PST

Central Oregon’s economy took a severe hit from the national economic collapse in the fourth quarter of 2008, and as it moves forward there is no single remedy for recovery, according to a University of Oregon economist who authors a quarterly business index for The Bulletin.

The national recession hit Central Oregon in the form of skyrocketing unemployment claims, continued weakness in housing and depressed visitor activity, said Timothy Duy, adjunct professor of economics who authors the Central Oregon Business Index.


The index provides a seasonally adjusted look at the region’s economy based on nine economic variables, including Deschutes County building permits and Central Oregon housing units sold, Bend lodging tax revenue and unemployment claims.

The index dropped to 145, down 1.8 percent from the previous quarter and 7.2 percent from the same quarter in 2007, according to the report. It is the fifth consecutive quarter the index has declined.


The trajectory of the index, rather than its numeric value, is more important for understanding the health of the economy, Duy said.

Already, the last five quarters are showing a steeper decline than the recession at the beginning of the decade, he said.

The index weighs data from Central Oregon’s economy dating back to 1997.
Some things are stabilizing because they couldn’t get any worse,” Duy said.

“But I don’t think the employment outlook is stabilizing. I don’t think the forces of the national picture are stabilizing. I don’t think foreclosures are stabilizing.”


Tourism and the region’s employment were especially hard hit in the fourth quarter, bringing home to Central Oregon a national economic crisis that froze credit and tightened consumer spending.


Lodging revenues, adjusted for inflation, contracted to levels last seen in 2004, Duy said.
Home sales appear to have stabilized at around the 200-homes-sold-per-month mark with 183 homes sold in Deschutes County on a monthly, seasonally adjusted basis during the quarter.

By comparison, there were roughly 250 monthly sales in the preboom era and a bubble high of 560 monthly sales in second and third quarter 2005, according to the report.
Building permits remained depressed.

A monthly average of 56 permits were issued during the quarter, according to the data.
If you are an economy that is geared to build 600 homes per month and you are only building 50, you are essentially at zero,” Duy said.

On a brighter note, median days on the market declined significantly, likely a result of falling housing prices, he said.


“There is some evidence that home sales have stabilized at relatively low levels,” he said. “This suggests the possibility that some bottoming is occurring.

However, the reason that home sales are stabilizing is that prices are coming down to realistic levels.”


Also clouding Central Oregon’s economy was an increasingly bleak jobs picture.

Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties posted monthly unemployment rates that were among the state’s highest in the fourth quarter.


Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties reported 11.3 percent, 13.3 percent and 14 percent unemployment, respectively, in December, according to the Oregon Employment Department.


Unemployment claims for Deschutes County shot up to a seasonally adjusted average of 4,133 per month in the fourth quarter from 3,032 in the third quarter, according to Duy’s data.


Nonfarm payrolls, meanwhile, remained steady, which is unlikely to continue in the first quarter of 2009 due to the high number of jobless claims, Duy said.


Duy’s report was completed before revised data was released earlier this month by the Oregon Employment Department that showed a much gloomier picture of job growth in the region.


In previous reports, Deschutes County’s employment picture remained soft, with 0.9 percent job growth in 2008. But the revised data posted Feb. 12 on the agency’s Web site, www.qualityinfo.org, showed a 3.9 percent job loss in the county and monthly job losses dating back to December 2007, said Stephen Williams, the region’s economist and a Salem-based usability analyst for the Employment Department.

December 2007 marked the official start of the recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.


Almost every industry in the county lost jobs in 2008, Williams said.
“It shows the picture that people are feeling,” Williams said.

“This finally reflects the sense of what’s going on in the community.”


Construction was hardest hit in the county, losing 2,000 jobs in 2008.

The job losses brought the county’s construction employment down 25 percent, or down to 6,070 jobs, about equal with its 2004 numbers, Williams said.


Manufacturing lost 240, or 9.6 percent of its jobs, in 2008, while professional and business services lost 300 jobs, or 3.9 percent.


The only sectors to gain jobs were education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government, Williams said.


The new data was “astonishing,” said Roger Lee, executive director of Economic Development for Central Oregon, which promotes business recruitment and retention.

He was skeptical about the state’s employment data, which changed from only one month of job declines in 2008 to every month showing job declines back to December 2007.


“When you go from modestly positive numbers to fairly severe ones, that’s a shock,” said Lee, who called the fourth-quarter economic collapse “historic” in its scope.


“It came down to the collapse of the credit markets, which trickled down locally to the aircraft industry,” he said, referring to layoffs locally at Cessna Aircraft Co. , which started to take effect in January.

“We had been projecting growth for 2009. But all of a sudden the credit crunch came along and Wall Street had its issues.

People did not feel nearly as wealthy as they once did.

Overall, the wealth of the nation has taken a … dive.”


Lee predicted a slow recovery, contingent upon a revival of the credit markets. “2009 is going to be largely a contractionary year,” he said. “But I think the region will start to emerge in 2010.”

Duy was not surprised by the revised data, saying job losses would be reflected in declining payrolls in the next index.


The region’s economy will stabilize with small increases of activity across multiple industries, he said. “There is no magic bullet for the region’s recovery.”


December was an “absolutely brutal month” for Central Oregon tourism, said Alana Audette, president and CEO of Central Oregon Visitors Association, which promotes tourism for the region.

Room-tax collections for the city of Bend and Deschutes County dropped 28.6 percent and 18.6 percent, respectively.


It was a wake-up call for the industry, which expected bad but got much worse, Audette said.


“We were doing OK and it’s not that we didn’t see it coming,” she said. “But December was the month where we learned that weather plays a tremendous role in our success as a visitor destination. The state was seeing a lot of layoffs, and combine that with brutal weather conditions … that made accessing our destination very difficult.”


Realtors are hopeful the region hit bottom in the fourth quarter.

2008 was a painful year for the region’s Realtors, builders and mortgage professionals and has resulted in a thinning of the ranks of real estate brokers, said Wendy Adkisson, principal broker with The Garner Group Realtors and Development LLC, in Bend.

Adkisson is on the Central Oregon Association of Realtors board.


The number of licensed Realtors in Central Oregon dropped from about 2,129 in January 2008 to 1,477 on Feb. 19, a 30.6 percent decline, according to Central Oregon Association of Realtors.


Those brokers who are still active are seeing sales pick up as prices decline.


The first quarter of 2009 is on pace to match the first quarter of 2008 in sales, Adkisson said. “We’re just excited to be even.”

Median sales prices, which were $396,000 in Bend in May 2007, have fallen to $227,500 in the first 1½ months of 2009, according to data from the Central Oregon Association of Realtors. That’s a decline of 42.5 percent.

“The truth is we have taken a huge hit from our highest price point,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to swear that we are at the bottom, but I think we’re at a trough.”


At least half the 2009 sales have either been short sales, in which a home is sold for less than the amount owed on it, or sales of bank-owned property, Adkisson said.

We’re down inventory-wise because for the most part we’ve got sellers who are realistic about where they need to be if they want to sell,” she said.

“You can buy a nice house for $150,000. That may be a blessing for all of us.”


After the downturn, Central Oregon — and the rest of the country — will emerge looking very different, Duy said.


“There is a tendency for people to think that their boom was somehow unique, but the growth that occurred the last five to six years was fueled by credit intertwined with an asset bubble,” Duy said.

“We’re moving to the other side of that. You have to think what the world’s going to look like in the absence of that credit growth. Even when you get to the other side of this, you won’t have the factors that were responsible for this surge in consumer spending.”


Jeff McDonald can be reached at 541-383-0323 or at jmcdonald@bendbulletin.com.


The End of an Era

Pretty bleak.

But what's funny, is you can still smell a whiff of hope there. A whiff of, "We'll be back to bubble times again, if we just believe!"

Of course that's ludicrous. And Duy, for once, hit's the nail on the head in his final sentence: We're in uncharted waters here. Bend has Never, in modern history, faced an economic climate like it does now.

You can see why Hollern sees Bend Exceptionalism as the New Enemy. Exceptionalism doesn't sell houses. Exceptionalism doesn't sell anything. We're looking at the complete destruction & meltdown of this place, and The Doctrine of Bend Exceptionalism (ie Drinking The Kool Aid, We Are God's Chosen People) is the root primary cause.

RIP: The Doctrine of Bend Exceptionalism.

OK, some final ideas. I find myself over at Jesse Felders My Back Pages blog fairly often, and I think it's fair to say that he is Up on the stock market.

And maybe for good reason. For the First Time In Modern History, the DJIA is DOWN over 50% from it's peak. We came close in the 70's. But I don't think we made it to -50%.

Even some unquestioned dogma is starting to look shaky:

A Bigger Bargain Than Buffett Bought


One of the complaints people made about Warren Buffett's investments in financial companies last year was that regular investors weren't able to secure similar terms for their own portfolios.

In 2008, Buffett invested in companies like Goldman Sachs and General Electric receiving preferred stock that pays a dividend of 10% and warrants to purchase common stock at a set price.
Well those people should take a second look. Right now, regular investors can secure terms even better than the Oracle of Omaha.

GE common stock currently trades at a 50% discount to the strike price on Buffett's warrants AND currently pays a dividend yield significantly greater than 10% (this may be reduced in the near future, however, to help maintain GE's AAA credit rating).


People are starting to question Buffett and whether he's lost his touch.

People are starting to question "Buy & Hold" as a philosophy.

This only happens after severe losses. And it has ALWAYS been a Great Harbinger of a Time To Buy.

And I largely agree with Jesse on a lot of points, and I actually do think that stocks can & will represent value someday.

But I'm starting to wonder just how long that will be. I think I'm a lot like Felder, in that I and much of the Vast Contrarian Stock Buying Contingent in this country, people that think they're smarter than the herd, just may have it wrong. Terribly Wrong.

I know I have. My IRA is a shriveling prune of investment crap at this point. And I bought well off the highs.

I think we're looking at our Black Swan moment. The time when we say It's Different, and unlike the past 20X when the herd all said this, this time it actually IS DIFFERENT.

Look at Japan. After topping out near 40K, the Nikkei today sits near 7,400, or down 81%.

Sometimes IT IS DIFFERENT. Sometimes Buy On The Dip is a TERRIBLE IDEA. Even when it's a historic dip. Even when it's a down 50% dip. Buying the Nikkei at 20K, 50% off the top, would have been buying a historic dip... and a TERRIBLE IDEA.

I'm wondering if my own predilection to buy in the DJIA 5,000's will be usher in yet another round of punishment. Because I agree with Felder: When compared to historical markers of value, the US Stock Market is plumbing historic lows.

But that's exactly the nature of Black Swan events: They blow away historic expectation. They're something you've never seen before.

And I've said it before: This will end worse than anyone thought possible, even me.

OK, I'll leave it on an Up Note, as always!
I believe in Exceptionalism!

506 comments:

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IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

In previous reports, Deschutes County’s employment picture remained soft, with 0.9 percent job growth in 2008. But the revised data posted Feb. 12 on the agency’s Web site, www.qualityinfo.org, showed a 3.9 percent job loss in the county and monthly job losses dating back to December 2007, said Stephen Williams, the region’s economist and a Salem-based usability analyst for the Employment Department.

Can someone tell me what the fuck this means?

They revised data back for ALL of 2008?

WTF?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

I'll give Hollern this: He is a pragmatic bastard.

He realizes that this whole Exceptionalism bullshit is the real root cause of why the gears of industry have ground to a halt in Cent OR. The vast majority of listed homes are still 100% too expensive.

And exceptionalism is WHY people will not lower their prices, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the market has completely disintegrated.

The lingering effects of Exceptionalism will destroy this place & push unemployment to 20-25%.

I think todays piece, with all it's attendant Bad News (which Costa would NOT have been even thought about publishing a year ago), is the start of a New Era. An Era of The Emperor Has No Clothes. An Era of Pessimism. An Era of Take Anything You Can Get.

THIS will actually be what revives this place. Ultimately. Not now. But in 10... 15... 20 years. It'll be a generational thing. They'll have to expunge the mindset via DEATH.

Anonymous said...

Talking about death, ...

Clinton and Geithner Urges China to Keep Buying US Debt

Voice of America - 1 hour ago
By VOA News US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged China to keep buying US debt and to work with Washington in combating the global economic crisis.

Anonymous said...

Think about this moment the leader's for the 'free world' kow-towing to the chinese to buy US debt.

Who would have guess, Who could have guessed??

Anonymous said...

Who would have guessed the home sales could go so low in Bend.
So far this month the SFR sales stand at 36 total sold. To catch up with Jan 09 we need to sell 29 more units. Feb 08 we sold 56 units @ $293 k Median. This months median stands @ $207k.. Yea, it did go above @200k. We'll see if it stays. I think you would have to go back to the early 90's to see such a small number of units selling.
Good to see our broker membership is down 30%. The slice of the small pie will be larger for those still working.

Anonymous said...

Good post homer. Regarding your question about un-employment revision, go re-read BraveNewWorld or 1984, both books of lots references of how totalitarian governments spin negatives into positive.

The approach in the USA is to report the negative with a positive, and then quietly revise with the negative, and of course the 'real journalists' like the BULL ignore the revision, because its not news anymore.

With regards to the stock market, shit the banks are still not honest about their worthless assets. GM has a negative net-worth if you consider the debt burden of the GM-ACCEPTANCE, and the fact that ALL the fucking pension obligations were looted 20+ years ago, and replaced by paper IOU's. The bank problems and US-Auto problems can be extrapolated to almost all US business.

Pick & Choose ever so carefully, today it is not about finding 'value' its about avoiding negative assets. US history is full of times where the stock market went south for decades. I think most of us have long agreed here on a DOW of 4,000 at the least, if not lower is on the horizon.

Recall the Great Depression, sure it went down in 1929, then 1932 got bad, folks in 1936 all said the bottom was there, and in 1938 the entire bottom fell out, again denial was still present, it wasn't until 1942 and WWII that the country found jobs, and the stock market still was idle.

I despise the stock market have done so since the early 1980's. I feel its better to start your own businesses and manage your own money. I think the stock market was like our real estate, they had to bring in poor people to buy homes for zero-down, that is how they perpetuated the boom, so EVERYONE moved up, in DEBT. The stock-market is/was the same everybody got into the stock-market since the 1980's because of 401k, or just day-trading,... but they ran out of suckers after DOT-COM. The suckers ain't coming back after the 50% haircut. To me the stock-market is also generational, it will take years for amnesia to do its thing, just like housing.

We damn near go to 70% of folks 'owning homes', I think it will fall below 50%, home-ownership is a fucking lead-weight around the neck of most people.

That said its like the stock market 'smart people' can play, a young kid who likes to fix shit can always BUY homes for cheap, and rent them out, and have the renter pay them off and this kid can retire young with 15yr fixed mtgs. With really no fear of 'losing' your pension, cuz these days everybody is going to lose their pension.

Like CALI the next shoe to drop, and the US government is the incredible government pension debt, to me this is why the US needs to CHINA to fund the US public employee's, which are in effect cops that make elite of ameriKKKa safe, the CHINESE aren't stupid, and they're going to pull the plug, HRC & Geithner are fucking assholes, and the Chinese will start calling the shots on how the USA finances its totalitarianism.

Anonymous said...

Of course, there are a few of us here because the place IS exceptional. I've lived all over the world. I could live in Aspen or Hawaii or Paris, but I live in Bend. There more than a few of us around.

Perhaps the myth is that there are or ever could be enough of us elitist exceptional bastards to really affect the economy.

Don't drive everyone away; we need a few people to mow the golf courses.

Anonymous said...

'You know what, there’s got to be Prozac or something in the water, because everybody is happy.’

There is (or was) a national cult of mindless optimism in America, and nowhere was it more deeply entrenched than in Bend, Oregon.

Maybe people have learned something from our national and local economic debacle. Maybe they have learned that it's okay -- in fact, it's even a good thing -- to look at the possible downside of a situation as well as the upside. That those who look honestly at both sides are not "gloom-and-doomers" but realists. And that you cannot wish away reality or make things happen by wanting them to happen.

Maybe they have learned these things. But I wouldn't bet on it.

Anonymous said...

"I could live in Aspen or Hawaii or Paris, but I live in Bend."

Which begs the question: WHY???

Anonymous said...

ISPs worry that Net safety bills would outlaw e-mail CNET News

Bill Would Require ISPs to Retain Data for Two Years PC Magazine

###

New PUG bill floating, that would require ALL ISP's to keep ALL logs of what everybody does on the NET for two years, shit every little podunk ISP like bendbroadband would have to have NSA like storage facility's, besides given the NSA already stores this shit anyhow, why not just give local law enforcement access? Nope can't do that, instead every local ISP has pay for law enforcements tools.

Law enforcement want's this shit, they should pay for it, and do what NSA does put equipment near all major pipelines.

Two years will become infinite, think about that these folks will know everything you have ever said during your online life, and know every site you have ever visited. Psychological experts at trials will be using this data to prove 'intent'....

Totalitarianism & Fascism, .... Who would have guessed?

If the NAZI's want this shit, they should pay, and not put the burden little ISP's.

The local cops use the analogy of TELCO keeping phone-logs, and use that as example of how easy and powerful is the tool. This is essentially true, so why in the fuck doesn't LAW enforcement just put in data recorders with their own nickel on the pipe?

No they can't do that, they want to be able to selectively FINE small biz $10k for incident for not 'complying', to me this how the internet as we know will become censored is that these burdens will simply force ISP's to shutdown selectively much of what we currently take for granted.

Today the PUG's are being blamed for the legislation, this laughable given the DEM majority.

When the PUG's were in power they passed totalitarian bullshit, and when the DEM's are in power they will pass totalitarian bullshit.

The burden and costs of making all this fucking data available to law enforcement will also be passed to the user, thus only the rich will be able to afford REAL internet.

Anonymous said...

"I could live in Aspen

[ more bend than bend, yuck ]

or Hawaii

[ quite nice, but still a small island, gets tiring ]

or Paris

[ again, nice especially if you speak french, but the urban thing is tiring as nature is so far away ]

, but I live in Bend."

[ Bend is a good 'basecamp' a place to keep your toyz, but NEVER spend the majority of your time here, try to spend some in paris, or hawaii, or mexico, ... Italy, ... anywhere but bend, or portland, or seattle, or san-fran ]

Anonymous said...

hbm said...
"I could live in Aspen or Hawaii or Paris, but I live in Bend."

Which begs the question: WHY???



If you have to ask, this is not your place.

Please move away Bruce. Soon.

Anonymous said...

When did the recession begin?? Dunc says august-07, US gov says dec-07, ....

I saw the drop May 2007, actually it was a plummet to almost zero, there was a little blip of INTL in early 2008.

To me the recession started in May 2007, that's when my CORPORATE CUSTOMER quit issuing Purchase Orders.

Seen this before in 1992, seen this before in 1982,...

My CPA said it would come roaring back in 2009, and he said that summer 2007. Now he's not talking anymore at all on the subject.


Yes, I get so damn tired of ALL these experts like the Forbes article the other day with these people talking about Bend that have been here months, and some even as much as 1-3 years. It's like they NEVER talk to anybody that was here in 1983 and saw the real Bend.

Things will come back, some kind of new equilibrium, but I too agree that DUY is 100% correct, it will NOT come back to Bend, like Verizon closing shop, or Les Schwab selling to a major, and Suterra losing its Cali contract to poison people. It wasn't just calis that came here and bought real-estate, corporations bought the kool-aide as well, and came here and setup shop, and they have gotten bit and hard, like Verizon, they setup shop to ride the growth curve, and now the writing is on the wall, that the area will collapse in population, the corporations are pulling out at light speed.

The job loss will accelerate, for Dunc, things will remain static, he'll be one of the few open businesses in downtown Bend, there will always be people on I97, that will walk downtown Bend to stretch their legs, they'll stop and buy a book from dunc or linda....

I have long predicted that Bend would return to 1983, but that is the BEND that always preferred, so to me this is all very, very, very good.


Bend went to shit in 1986 in my mind, that's when the traffic became like Beaverton, OR, ... That's when crossing I97 on foot became suicide. A slower, quieter Bend, ... Who could have guessed?

Anonymous said...

So does 'greshams law' apply to BB2, hbm argues that on the sore-eye,

Greshams-Law is the adage that bad-money, drives out good-money, ok fine. Some have applied this to sociology, where rotten apples will drive away the good apples.

Ok, somebody cite me an example of a good-apple that has EVER been @BB2, and don't say BEM, because he got his life back in the fall of 2006, before HOMER took over BB2.

There has NEVER been a good-apple @BB2, we're all bad-apples, so thus hbm is wrong about the application of greshams-law to this group.

What about applying this law to Bend? How about it hbm? Does all the bad christians, fraud, bad-cops, crooks, does it drive out the good people???

Where there ever good people in BEND?? I think not.

Anonymous said...

Replying to DUNC, about this weeks letter to editor in the SORE about cops out of control in BEND...

Who do you think wrote it? What was his point??

This to me is an old story, something that goes back to perhaps 2002, when the city told the cops their #1 priority was making things pretty for tourists. Today @BB2 I talked about how Bend is disneyland, that everything in this town was a placed prop, like the flower pots downtown.

Bend cops are an un-bridled horse, what does one expect when a town is ran by whores and the almighty real estate dollar is all that matter's?? Surprised anyone that the police-captain himself got caught with his dick in the RE cookie jar??

So who wrote the letter? What is his agenda, it wasn't me dunc, cuz I know a lot about cops, just like marge I have been around cops a lot of my life.

1.) Like Blade Runner: There are cops and little people, always been that way, in just about all citys, there are no mayberrys.

2.) If you can't be a cop, marry a cop.

3.) There was no city-cops prior to 1890's they were created by corporations at the turn of the last century to break unions. Modern police are a means to protect the ruling class from the people at the people's expense. Anyone expect that the cops become cynical. So long as city-cops don't fuck with the ruling class, they're free to do as they wish.

4.) Rule #1 in cop world is to cover your ass, and make it to pension. Rule #2 is to cover other cops ass so they make it to pension. Rule #3 is to fuck everyone else.


Yes, Bend's cops are out of control, but every fucking element of the city is out-of-control; Is this news?? Why did you find this interesting?? Why did you play the game "Hey Bilbo guess what story in the SORE you might find interesting??" Did you write it?? Do you know who did??

Does anybody here agree with the story? Is it topical enough for dunc to make a subject, or only for me to guess, and add my two cents??

Now Ned Flanders before you make me angry, tell me what you think? Make a subject out of this if you find it interesting, I don't very much bash cops, and I have done it once a couple of summers ago over the god-damn $500 dog-off leash tickets, every cop in town down at the river writing the fucking tickets, all the while Knife-River tandem dump-trucks ran 50mph in the 20mph, but like the guy in the SORE said, the cops in Bend go after easy pickin's.

Anonymous said...

I'll give Hollern this: He is a pragmatic bastard.

*

You missed a few key points on this review of that latest HOLLERN/BULL story.

1.) That by way of giving the $10M of free land to the BULL in 1998, in effect HOLLERN owns the BULL.

2.) The fact is HOLLERN didn't really talk in this latest revelation, his lawyer talked for him, this has not been seen before, usually we get this great pragmatic fodder from HOLLERN, the fact that a lawyer is now the interface between the BULL & HOLLERN to me is a point of historic inflection.

3.) Last year the city bought $5M of land from the BULL, land that the city didn't need, and money that the BULL(COSTA) needed to stay open in 2008/2009.

I think HOLLERN is starting to distance himself from the BULL.

I thin that BP's revelation this week about the BULL promoting candidates, and financing PAC's, and selling editorial space to Metolius promoters has even PISSED off Hollern.

I think that HOLLERN is now at the point of saying "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH". If HOLLERN wanted to destroy Metolius years ago he would have, but he didn't.

I think today that COSTA is completely out of control, like a Noriega, or Saddam. Costa is using the BULL to destroy Metolius for MONEY that he then funnels to his PAC's which then select candidates who will then BUY more worthless land from the BULL.

I predict that HOLLERN will pull the plug on the BULL, just like we all know that CACB will get its plug pulled by FDIC.

Anonymous said...

What I find even more astonishing is The Bull's statement in an editorial last week that the insane rate of growth during 2004-2006 was "unsustainable."

This from the very people who were doing their utmost to sustain it as long as possible.

Anonymous said...

"HBM, Why do you still live in Bend???"

Stuck here until my wife is ready to retire and we can sell our house. Bend was a nice place until it was trashed by insane, out-of-control growth. Now it's kinda like San Jose with junipers instead of palm trees.

*

HBM, I completely agree, but I would call BEND, Beaverton-OR with junipers, yeh san-jose a real fucking cali shit-hole, but hey in the last 20 yrs they covered the whole place with concrete, I remember back in the 1960's when the whole place was all dirt, then it was like Bend, dirt&palm-trees, compared to our dirt&juniper-trees.

Today Bend is quickly becoming all concrete (cali malls and churches ).

Anonymous said...

I would like that we put together an official list of taboo subjects on BB2.

I have found two.

1.) We can never talk about bend being a cali jeebus-freak satellite.

2.) We can never talk about Suterra.

Are there any other subjects that are taboo?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Good to see our broker membership is down 30%. The slice of the small pie will be larger for those still working.

Exactly. This initial blowout of 1/3rd is Great News for the Ultimate Survivors. Unfortunately, it means cuts to the bone for those who remain. It'll be several years before being a broker in Bend is even remotely a moneymaker again.

Anonymous said...

I have yet to see a complaint about photos of flat chested females. I guess that must be taboo

Anonymous said...

I have long demanded photos dick, any dick small or big, and homer has refused. Go figure.

Anonymous said...

Taboo subjects of conversation.

The photo's are all censored by homer. He obviously didn't get enough milk as a child.

Anonymous said...

Very slow today.

Outrage exhaustion?

I mean there's tons of news, at least a dozen company's have announced they're pulling out.

Has it gotten so bad, that folks don't even want to joke about how fucked bend is??

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

There has NEVER been a good-apple @BB2, we're all bad-apples...

Hmmmm... I dunno.



I don't think it bears repeating that I have been, am, and will be very negative on the Cent OR economy. For a long time.

But is that being a "Bad Apple" or just facing up to the facts? I feel like I need to blowback on the MINDLESS OPTIMISM of all other Bend media.

And there's been a lot of "self-labeling" here, that we are de facto Bad Apples because we did not go along with the Kool-Aid.

This blog & it's utterly negative outlook have been largely proven correct. Does that make us Bad Apples?

No... it's just what happens when you are completely surrounded by exceptionalism for so long, and you are in a tiny minority.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Outrage exhaustion?

Yup. The realization that with Merenda, Volo, and deep... we're also going to lose the little stuff that made Bend what it was.

Sweetheart Donuts, and the vast hordes of mom & pop businesses that have silently expired over the past year.

Anonymous said...

BB2 has largely been about 'what is wrong with Bend'.

I want Bend to be fixed, and BEM also has used my 'AA' analogy, that you can't fix something until you admit there is a problem.

Given that 24/7 we only focus on Bad-Bend, why would a goody two shoes BENDER even want to visit this site?? Or should we have some kind of fucking HBM fairness monitor that says for every BEND-BASH, there has to be a pro-bend topic??

Nobody like the bearer of bad news. But NOBODY is forced to visit this site, not even hbm.

Anonymous said...

How the Web Was Captured by Sauron E-mail
User Rating: / 0
PoorBest
Written by H. Bruce Miller
Friday, 20 February 2009

In a post delightfully headlined “Death by Moron,” blogger Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle rips into the trolls, orcs, goblins and other repugnant Tolkienesque life forms that infest Internet forums.

“Here is my strange confession: I miss my hate mail,” he begins. “It's an odd thing to admit, but in a perverse sort of way, I actually miss the wretched river, the rancid flow of puerile, nasty, sickeningly homophobic email I used to receive on a regular basis from the ultra-right and the Christian right and the Mormon right and the Bush-impaired whenever I would post a friendly, pointed column full of tangy liberal attitude. Which is, of course, all of them.”

Where did the hate mail go? It turned into hateful commentary on websites, of course. And it’s more wretched, rancid, nasty and sickening than ever.

“I was, for years, an enthusiastic advocate of the egalitarian, free-for-all, let's-level-the-playing field aspect of the Web,” Morford writes. “More voices! More feedback! More participation! Bring it on!

“Not anymore. As I've mentioned before, I now tend to agree with ‘West Wing’ creator Aaron Sorkin, who said, ‘Nothing has done more to make us dumber or meaner than the anonymity of the Internet.’ Hyperbole? Not by much.”

He goes on to observe, as The Eye also has, that the anonymity of the Web “tends to bring out the absolute worst in people, the meanest and nastiest and least considerate. Something about not having to reveal who you really are caters to the basest, most unkind instincts of the human animal. Go figure.

“Thoughtful discourse? Humorous insight? Sometimes. But mostly it's a tactless spectator sport. It's about being seen, about out-snarking the previous poster, about trying to top one another in the quest for … I'm not sure what. A tiny shot of notoriety? The feeling of being ‘published’ on a major media site? Or is it the thrill that can only come from hurling a verbal Molotov at the Great Satan of "corporate media," and then running away like a snorting 8-year-old? All of the above?”

Bend, despite its rep as a nice, friendly small town, is far from immune to this sort of thing, as even five minutes spent randomly reading the comments on the BendBubble2 blog will demonstrate.

One of the most disheartening side effects of the troll infestation is that a sort of Gresham’s Law applies to Web discussions: Bad comments drive out good comments. The trolls drive away participants who have something worthwhile to say.

As Morford puts it, “the coherent voices are, by and large, increasingly drowned out by the nasty, the puerile, the inane, to the point where, unless you're in the mood to have your positive mood ruined and your belief in the inherent goodness of humanity stomped like a rainbow flag in the Mormon church, there's almost no point in trying to sift through it anymore. The relentless nastiness is, quite literally, sickening.”

The solution, Morford says, is easy: Don’t allow anonymous posting. Require everybody who wants to participate in on-line discussions to identify him- or herself.

But that’ll never happen, he concedes, because those anonymous posters generate website traffic, and heavy traffic is what the advertisers want to see. They don’t care about quality, only quantity.

The only hope Morford holds out is the slim one that the novelty of anonymous posting will wear off “relatively soon.” The Eye, alas, cannot share his hope. The human capacity for nastiness has no limits.
Comments (4) >>
reader999 said:
BendBubble2 blog is run by an admitted bigot. Bigotry requires a lack of understanding of the world and that blog attracts the like-minded. I stopped looking at it long ago when the bigotry became revealed.

Smart bloggers attract smart readers. Bigoted bloggers don't; the intelligent stay far away.
February 20, 2009
Sauron said:
hbm, This is quite hysterical, because your one of the top five commenter's over at BB2, your considered to be one of the guys.

Anybody interested in lord-of-the-rings, and bend proper can learn the real story at

bendbubble.blogspot.com/2007/06/hobbits-tale-of-bend-or-how-i-learned.html

This site contains the complete history of Shire Bend, going back to even before the Bulletin or Source.

BB2 is not ran by an admitted bigot, his only admission is a sense of humor, that is missing from most of Bend.

Anonymous said...

Sweetheart Donuts, and the vast hordes of mom & pop businesses that have silently expired over the past year.

*

Yeh, I have not lost a favorite yet, but it will come, its amazing all along Galveston everything near bruce's wifes bike-shop is empty and for lease.

All along where Franklin Crossing, everything is for lease.

Newport seems to have a lot more functional biz, anybody know what will become of the video store?

I guess I have had a loss, since that video stored closed across from newport, I haven't rented a video once. I'll not go into block-buster too fucking cali. I only visit 'indy' video stores.

Went to the 14th bash for BBC last night packed, when the music was done at 11pm, walked around, blacksmith was packed 'disco', Summit was packed 'disco'. A few people at silver-moon, but it was hip-hop.

The band at BBC only played about 1-1/2 hrs and ran away from the cold, the sore had billed the music as 8-midnight.

In historical context the kids are having a good time, you couldn't move in either blacksmith or summit after 11pm.

I never even noticed that vegas-style disco room to the left of the bar before, I go to blacksmith for happy-hour sometime, but its not my favorite. They have obviously re-invented themselves the whole place was 100% disco and packed with kids. Sort of had the feel of an elite club. Summit was more of the 'real bend' type of folk, when the music ended at BBC most those folks drifted over to summit.

I'm just giving the report, cuz there's isn't usually much news here in this forum about BEND.

Lastly 'winterfest' really sucked dick, oh yea the music fri&sat @9pm was ok, but rest of it SUCKED.

But for the slowness of BEND and our talk of doom&gloom, I can tell you folks there were 1,000's of kids partying like hell all over downtown last night.

Anonymous said...

The novelty of anonymous posting will wear off “relatively soon.” The Eye, alas, cannot share his hope. The human capacity for nastiness has no limits.-hbm

*

It just never ends, I mean you guys rake me over the coals for repetition, but these fuckers just hate free-expression.

Of course my gut tells me that HBM is like DUNC, they like to play the fucking devils advocate, which just drives me crazy, cuz I feel its a childish practice, just say what you want to say, and don't use fucking code.

This shit is no different than the bend-newbie, anonymous has been around forever. Graffiti is an example going back to cave-men.

Nobody can tell the tribe the truth without being an outcast.

Like todays topic of good people versus bad people.

Good people say good things, and drink the kool-aide,...

Bad people say "The emperor has no clothes"

It's always been this way.

The ruling elite hate to be told their idiots, and want to hang the messenger, the messenger wants to be anonymous, to live another day.

The solution is SIMPLE, if you don't like anonymous sites, then stay away.

The majority of sites are controlled, moderated, and censored, so you fucking ninny's already have your paradise.

If I couldn't spew vile&bile here I would be spraying graffiti all over Bend every night. You can't shut up pissed off people.

Anonymous said...

This blog & it's utterly negative outlook have been largely proven correct. Does that make us Bad Apples?

*

Homer, what about this perpetually labeling you as a 'bigot', an obvious attempt to discredit the messenger.

Anonymous said...

Fire this morning at Gregg's Grill at Smith's Mill. Four fire engines and street closed off. Will be interesting to find out the cause or if accident or deliberate. If they are able to open later today, the good news is that the menu will feature 2 for the price of 1 on blackened salmon!

Duncan McGeary said...

Only three bids on the Putnum Pointe condo's.

Any bets about how many of those 3 follow through? How many actually get a loan?

No worries.

Now it's first come, first serve.

You know for all those 'affordable' people who make over 70k a year and want to live with low rent neighbors....

Or will they be low rent neighbors?

I'm confused.

"affordable?" Maybe this word doesn't mean what I think it means...

Anonymous said...

Marge,

Is it easy to pull the % of sales that were short, and the % that were bank sales?

I think we have gotten to the point where this stat is going to be as much of an indicator as price as to what's going on.

Much of Cali had topped out a bit over 50% as foreclosure sales, and the highest I saw peaked around 70%. The numbers I have seen for Bend include short sales so aren't directly comparable. I am curious of we will peak over 70%.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Fire this morning at Gregg's Grill at Smith's Mill.

What? Are you shittin me?

That is a straight up insurance fire, if that is true.

Greg's Grill is/was doomed.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Bend, despite its rep as a nice, friendly small town, is far from immune to this sort of thing, as even five minutes spent randomly reading the comments on the BendBubble2 blog will demonstrate.

AWESOME! I'M FAMOUS!

But that’ll never happen, he concedes, because those anonymous posters generate website traffic, and heavy traffic is what the advertisers want to see. They don’t care about quality, only quantity.

You got that shit Dead Right, hbm!

Man, with all the notoriety, fame & vast sums of money I've made off this blog, you know I have been doing this shit for 2 DAMN YEARS so I can FINALLY CASH OUT. Lamborghini's & Whores!

Dude.

I mean, you are simply bamboozled by the idea of 100% FREE PRESS & 100% FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, that you cannot fathom that anything not run by Switzer/Costa can be newsworthy or worthy of consumption by the general public.

And in some measure you may be right.

But look at your bile-ridden shit. You've been on an anti-Smith bender for so long, you don't realize when to quit.

Dude, I said from DAY 1 that 100% OPEN COMMENTS was not perfect. But neither is 100% MODERATED, like BendBB, tSW or the Bully. All have problems.

But AT LEAST THERE ARE COMMENTS HERE.

NONE AT THE BULLY.

NONE AT TSW, many times.

Are they all nuggets of fucking GOLD? Fuck no. Never said or thought they were.

But You saying that an entire spectrum of UNMODERATED THOUGHT is 100% INVALID cuz of some asshole malcontents is 100% FUCKING RIDICULOUS.

You know what's FUCKING GREAT ABOUT THIS BLOG? One THING:

YOU CAN FUCKING ANSWER WITHOUT FEAR OF MODERATION, OR BEING TOLD THAT YOUR STUPID FUCKING RANT DOESN'T PASS MUSTER BY ME OR SOME OTHER MINDLESS DUMBFUCK.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

And you might start to suggest that BUSTER is the PRIMARY VIOLATOR, what with his endless fuckin profanity, and crazyass bullshit.

And to some extent, I'd agree.

BUT. That stupid lying alki motherfucker jumped on the Juniper Ridge bandwagon LONG AGO, when it was 100% OFF THE RADAR of damn near everyone in town. No one gave a fuck about JR.

Hence was born Brucey.

Hence was born Infrastructure First.

Hence was born a LOT OF DIGGING on our beloved City Council.

And hence was born on of your recent posts, and quite a bit of other media attention.

Was Buster the root cause of it ALL? Fuck... I dunno. I think it's presumptuous to suggest this blog has changed shit.

But it made me think about it. Made Brucey think about it. Made YOU think about it. Maybe not WHOLLY. But a little.

Just enough to reach a few people & make them DO SOMETHING.

All from an INGLORIOUS ASSHOLE.

Threads of life, man. Shit works in weird ways.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

And printing something about the fucker in TSW only eggs him on brutha.

You're ASKING for it!

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

hbm panties in bunch by "blue steel"

That's some good shit down in the comments.

Anonymous said...

"Woe unto those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness"... Isaiah 5:20

"The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists." J. Edgar Hoover

At the end of the 19th Century, the Catholic church organized massive resistance to Illuminati Jewish domination of national life. The Illuminati instigated World War One partly to crush and punish a recalcitrant Europe.

Lenin defined "peace" as the end of all forms of resistance to Communist (i.e. Illuminati Jewish) despotism.

After WWI and WWII, the League of Nations and the UN both promised world government to prevent war. Indeed, Illuminati globalists always promise this--but we don't realize they are blackmailing us. They start the wars in the first place.


The Elders of Zion vowed to harass the nations with corruption and strife until they accepted their "Superstate" (i.e. world government tyranny.)





"The recognition of our despot may also come ...when the peoples, utterly wearied by the irregularities and incompetence - a matter which we shall arrange for - of their rulers, will clamor: "Away with them and give us one king over all the earth who will unite us and annihilate the causes of disorders - frontiers, nationalities, religions, State debts - who will give us peace and quiet which we cannot find under our rulers and representatives." (emphasis mine, Protocols of Zion, 10-18)




Of course, this also applies to the current economic depression. Right on cue, Henry Kissinger, CEO of the NWO, tells us: "the alternative to a new international order is chaos." The "E" in CEO stands for Extortion. "Please Mr. Kissinger, give back our prosperity. We'll agree to anything."

We are in the eighth inning of a long term conspiracy and must shake off our complacency. This is not another recession; it is a final life-and-death power grab. A satanic cult, the Illuminati, has subverted all nations and religions and now is moving to consolidate its power. Our "leaders" (including Obama) belong to this cult. From their past record (in Russia & China), it is possible to predict the future: Conditions will deteriorate. There will be civil unrest. An assassination or some other contrived terror will result in war or martial law. Anyone who has expressed opposition to their agenda, -- patriots, Christians, "anti Semites" -- will be put into concentration camps and possibly murdered. The war and suffering will be such that the masses will accept the Illuminati's sugar coated tyranny. I hope I am wrong.

The Illuminati were founded by Cabalistic Jewish bankers like the Rothschilds who used "anti Semitism" to brainwash and empower other Jews as their agents. But, as we have seen, they will sacrifice these Jews to achieve their aims.

They are Freemasons --both Jews and non-Jews-- who want to hog all the world's wealth, cull the human race, enslave it mentally and spiritually, if not physically. They have been conspiring for thousands of years and we have the honor of seeing their final victory. They are a hydra headed monster-operating under many facades but today the main ones are socialism, communism, liberalism, feminism, zionism and neo conservatism.

In a future article, I will discuss their record in Red China, so their diabolical character is clear. Today I describe the Catholic church's opposition to the Illuminati. For centuries, until after World War Two, Catholicism was the bastion of Western civilization and main obstacle to Illuminati world control.

Recently, the Vatican opened their secret archives and revealed their centuries-long struggle to arrest the Illuminati (i.e. Masonic) Jewish stranglehold on European politics and culture. Jewish historian David Kertzer documents this struggle in his book "Popes Against the Jews"
(2001) which of course he spins as the church's role in creating anti Semitism. Nevertheless the book is a treasure trove of valuable information including a graphic account of the 1840 "Damascus Affair," the most famous instance of satanic Jewish human ritual sacrifice. (pp.86 ff.)

The salient points are 1. a prominent Italian Capuchin monk, father Tommaso was ritually slaughtered (and blood drained) by prominent cabalist Jews. 2. They confessed and led authorities to his identifiable remains and clothing. 3. The Rothschilds sent a delegation of prominent English Jews to Damascus and pressured all concerned to say the confessions were extracted by torture. 4. The Pope, Gregory XVI, had reliable intelligence and refused to knuckle under. Nor did any future Pope. They also had the testimony of a Moldavian priest, a former Jewish rabbi, who described and explained all the rituals, including the use of Christian blood in Passover matzoh. (92)

When a new ritual murder was reported in Hungary in 1899, the official Vatican newspaper L'Observatore Romano issued this warning "not to all Jews but to certain Jews in particular: Don't throw oil on the fire...Content yourself with the Christian's money, but stop shedding and sucking their blood." (163)

Obviously these instances of human ritual sacrifice are relatively rare. The masses of Jews are not satanic and genuinely want assimilation. Only satanists among them engage in this practice. Nonetheless, all Jews are implicated by denials and cries of "blood libel." Satanists --Jewish or not--engage in human ritual sacrifice. The Illuminati do it regularly. In addition, they have been doing it to the human race for centuries by virtue of war.

While Jews are not satanists, their leadership, the Illuminati bankers are. In 1913, Illuminati bankers went to great length to whitewash the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Atlanta Georgia by Leo Frank, the head of the local B'nai Brith lodge. They even bribed the jury and the governor. (See the account in Michael Jones, The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit, p. 707-729)

For these Illuminati Jews, lying and deception are the norm, what they call "magic." They have convinced their fellow Jews that anti Semitism is a sickness of the gentile mind, a delusion, when in fact it is resistance to the satanic Illuminati agenda. Ordinary Jews will be sacrificed when the going gets tough unless they take a stand against their "leaders."

The naivete of Jewish intellectuals is well illustrated by Kertzer himself. He portrays Vatican opposition to Masonic Jewish control as an old reflex born of prejudice, envy and fear of change. Yet, he relates that both Bismark and Metternick, the Austrian Chancellor, were in the Rothschilds' pocket. Metternick depended on them for loans to keep his government afloat as well as "when members of his own family needed financial help." (80)

Kertzer quotes voluminously from Catholic newspapers: "The Jews will be Satan's preferred nation and his preferred instrument...The Jew Freemasons govern the world...in Prussia of 642 bankers, 550 are Jews and in Germany, in Austria and in some parts of the Orient, the word invasion is no exaggeration to express their number, their audacity and their near-irresistible power." (172-3)

Wherever they live "the Jews form a state within a state," an Italian monk wrote in 1825. Unless Christians act quickly, the Jews will finally succeed in reducing the Christians to be their slaves. Woe to us if we close out eyes! The Jews' domination will be hard, inflexible, tyrannical..." (65)

In 1922, the Vienna correspondent for Civilta Cattolica wrote that if present trends cotinue, "Vienna will be nothing but a Judaic city; property and houses will all be theirs, the Jews will be the bosses and gentlemen and the Christians will be their servants." (273)

Like most Jewish intellectuals, Kertzer is incapable of seeing the viewpoint of people his masters wish to despoil. He treats Catholic grievances as delusions and naively argues that Freemasonry was just another social group. (p.174) His book was partly sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Americans are not stupid and eventually will figure out that the Rothschilds and their agents are responsible for the Depression and Obama is their creation and puppet. They will discover that the Illuminati has waged war on humanity for centuries and the media and education system are a farce. They will recognize the out sized role played by Jews in enacting this diabolical agenda. Hopefully, they will also see the critical role played by non-Jewish satanists. For example, the Illuminati Skull and Bones was founded at Yale in 1832 but didn't admit Jews until the 1950's. Their members undermined American life from inception.

Now is the time for people to decide where they stand, with the Illuminati and the "peace" of slaves, or with their fellow citizens and freedom.

As Leonard Cohen wrote in his song, "The Future"--"I've seen the future baby and it is murder."
---

Related: Stopping the Globalist takeover of America

"Battle Brewing Between US States and Federal Gov't."

Europe Blames Jews for Financial Crisis



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Comments for "Extortion! The Real Reason for War and Depression"
Linda said (February 22, 2009):


think this is exactly how the Grand Chessboard stands.

Part of the mythology of the Elders of Sion is that when Moses received the Law and the Covenant upon Sinai, the 70 Elders stood at a distance and received the gnosis of the Law - later codified in the Talmud.

The prophets of Israel emphatically reject this fable.

"But judgement shall be revealed as water and justice as a mighty torrent. Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, O Israel? But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch and the image of your idol the Star (of Chiun / Seal of Solomon) which you made to yourselves." Amos 5:24-26. St Stephen the first martyr for the Saviour of men, Christ Jesus (Yashuah: Salvation) also declared this prophecy against the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:43

And the Church still declares this 'home truth' to the Elders, their Masonry and indeed their entire matrix and apparatus.

The mandate of Human Genus (Pope Leo XIII) still stands: "Let us expose Freemasonry as the enemy of God, the Church and of our nation." And to the Italian bishops he wrote in 1892: "It is necessary to fight Freemasonry with those weapons of divine faith which in past ages vanquished paganism."

Commenting upon this mandate, Msgnr Jouin (Dec 8, 1930) wrote "The papacy and Judeo-Masony are both so fully conscious of the diametrically opposed parts that they are playing , they assume this [opposition] must issue in the political, economic, intellectual and religous future of individuals as well as nations."

And Freemasonry understands this. "The fight taking place between Catholicism and Freemasonry is a fight to the death." Bulletin of 1892. The Grand Orient of France (p. 88) from Memorandum of the Supreme Council No. 85 (p. 48)

All references from www.destroyfreemasonry.com.

In a few days, the Ordo Templi Orientis and the Templar elite of the Elders and their Chosen will be hosting the annual Cross Qrtr Orgy of Light at the Public Shrine of the Great Owl of the Chaldees (Molech). This abomination will occur at the Shriner Auditorium in 'the City of the Angels'. And Mt Hermon (which is Sion) at the 33rd degree parallel on the border of Ur in Syria is exactly where they fell.

Their celebrity star cult in all its vulgarity will be illuminated in 'a thousand points of light' for the rubes of the global village. They will bestow the Oscars (an effigy of a Knight of the Temple - this would be the 3rd Temple) on those persons whose productions have rendered to the Kabal the greatest services in terms of conditioning the sheeple and creating the mind games and constructs that will interpret the scripts the Cryptocracy will stage in their political, military, economic theatres in the coming year. Kind of a preview, if you will.

Their actual grove: The Bohemian Grove is closed to non members. This is where the initiates personally offer the blood rites. It is the non-initiate blood rites that will play on the world stage.

I think the Dark Knight Scipt will be the one to watch. This is a major development in terms of shifting mass consciousness into the idea of evil is good.

"Woe unto those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness"..."for they have rejected the Law of the Lord of Hosts and they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel." Isaiah 5:20;24


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lindsay said (February 22, 2009):


have a few more quotes for you:

"Democracy is the road to socialism." Karl Marx
"Modern Socialism is inseperable from political democracy." Elements of Socialism, pg 337.
"The view that democracy and Socialism are inwardly related spread far and wide in the decades which preceded the Bolshevist revolution. Many came to believe that democracy and Socialism meant the same thing, and that democracy without Socialism or Socialism without democracy would not be possible." Socialism, Ludwig von Mises, pg 67.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Someone in DRW is selling their COCK.

Bewert said...

Re:...corporations bought the kool-aide as well, and came here and setup shop, and they have gotten bit and hard, like Verizon, they setup shop to ride the growth curve, and now the writing is on the wall, that the area will collapse in population, the corporations are pulling out at light speed.

###

Verizon bought Unicel (actually Rural Comm) and is closing their little 50 person call center and offering to move anyone that works there to Albuquerqe or Phoenix, to the huge Verizon call centers. Word from a kid whose mom works there...

Bewert said...

Re:
I want Bend to be fixed, and BEM also has used my 'AA' analogy, that you can't fix something until you admit there is a problem.

###

Now there is an exercise. A 12-step program for Bend. Starting point--AA:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Bewert said...

OK, first pass:

1. We were powerless over our greed, the need to develop and flip.

2. Came to believe that a power greater than us, like the FDIC, could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God and the FDIC as we understand Them.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves and our balance sheets.

5. Admitted to God, to the FDIC, to ourselves and to other human beings the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God and the FDIC remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Them to remove our shortcomings, toxic assets and SDCs.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, deceived, and screwed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, including paying back goods and monies I stole, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God and the FDIC as we understood Them, praying only for knowledge of Their will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other greedy bubbleheads and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Bewert said...

Re: Hence was born Brucey.

###

I'll admit that's true. JR came on my radar as becoming a fuck-up and in some way I cannot remember I ended up here.

Four years and counting in Bend this month. And Trudy's starting to have second thoughts about the city, so you may be fucking stuck with me.

BTW, T's birthday tomorrow, and I talked her into going to Deschutes locals night.

Bewert said...

Re: As Leonard Cohen wrote in his song, "The Future"--"I've seen the future baby and it is murder"

###

Ah, the only sane line from that rant.
Leonard is one of my favorites. When you are suffering, he toughens your ass up. The Future.

It's truly fucking dark--heart in your throat, nightmares of being chased by lunatics with knives dark.

I love it. I've buried myself to it. And come out stronger on the other side.

"You don't know me from the wind, you never will, you never did..."

Truth.

Bewert said...

A great version from Canadian TV: The Future

And here is some Leonard that is not so dark: Closing Time. Good for spinning along.

It amazes me how all these videos get five star ratings. Cohen may have hit a chord long after his prime.

Anonymous said...

But look at your bile-ridden shit. You've been on an anti-Smith bender for so long, you don't realize when to quit.

Anti-Smith? Which Smith is that? Bill Smith? What have I written critical of him other than the post this week? And I wasn't attacking him personally or in general -- just saying he got it wrong about the bubble being caused by not building enough houses.

I worked with Bill for years on the Old Mill District project. I really like the guy -- diehard Republican though he is. I keep hoping he'll see the light someday.

Homey, there are times when you are remarkably lucid and other times when you are just plain batshit crazy.

Anonymous said...

Verizon closes Bend Office, and stock goes up!! The market ain't dumb.

AT&T, Verizon are havens amid decline

MarketWatch - Feb 20, 2009
By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. both rose in Friday trades as large telecom stocks mostly resisted selling pressure afflicting the rest of the US market.
STOCKS NEWS US-Goldman Sachs upgrades both AT&T and Verizon Forbes

Bewert said...

My favorite beat yourself stronger soundtrack: Start with Cohen's The Future

Then Eminem Lose Yourself to get you through the pain.

Then recovery with Marley's Redemption Song

And then start start cranking it up again with Santana's Put your Lights On...

Anonymous said...

Homey, there are times when you are remarkably lucid and other times when you are just plain batshit crazy.

*

Don't worry homer, I completely agree and so does everybody here. HBM has had a hard-on for Frozen-Foods Smith for fucking ever, and even now when he's no longer a US senator HBM still likes to suggest that Smith is running Orygun.

One thing about HBM that I have noticed, and I'm sure everyone else as well, but he NEVER admits being wrong, he's always right, sort of fucking weird, like right now, Bill Smith, yeh Hollerns little gopher, HBM never writes about BOSS HOGGS in Bend, well he did this week, only cuz he could use the BULL as fodder on the 'dear john' story.

I love being wrong, it means I'm learning shit, I expect you folks to call me if by off by 10E-24 in accuracy.

So yes, homer is right, HBM is fucking obsessed by FrozenPugSmith, and has been so for years, regarding Bill Smith, HBM don't fucking with the people who control the SORE, 'winterfest' is one of Swizters main revenue, and it was in OLD-MILL, and that be LORD-SMITH sacred ground. Yeh, the SORE is going to shit on bill smith, yeh the SORE has ever shited on Bill Smith.

This is standard OP of HBM, change the subject insult, but NEVER fess up that the fucking BB2 wackos are correct.

For years 98% of all SORE-EYE HBM posts have been beating up on stupid fucking PUG's, and they're all essentially correct, but my lord there are some stupid fucking progressives, and you never see HBM fuck with them.

HERE on BB2 we fuck with everyone, there is NOBODY sacred!!! Is there?

Anonymous said...

I worked with Bill for years on the Old Mill District project. I really like the guy -- diehard Republican though he is. I keep hoping he'll see the light someday.

*

That statement says MORE about HBM, than about anything else.

It's why HBM ain't really a pussy like dunc, or bp,

See HBM brown-noses "works" for the biggest fucking flip&switch MOFU's in BEND. He's fucking PROUD-MARY of it to boot.

Sort of like saying "I worked for HITLER, yeh he did some bad shit, but he paid well".

To me the SORE is an integral part of the BULL. The SORE is a mirage of left, and the BULL is a mirage of RIGHT, all owned&controlled by the same People, e.g. HOLLERN&Co.

Who tells COSTA how to wipe his ass? Smith. Who keeps the switzer empire alive?? Smith&Moss.

HBM worked for the BULL for years, and now works for the SORE where he gets to play 'progressive'.

The BULL ain't right, and SORE ain't left. They both fit together like a puzzle to sell real-estate, and bait tourists, especially the SWITZER-SORE empires with the dozens of EVENT's that reel in dead fish ( older calis ).

To me the HBM focus on FrozenFood Smith was always an attempt to keep peoples eyes off of BEND, so that the SORE would never have to talk about Suterra, Jeebus Freaks running Bend, ... or any other taboo fucking subject.

Don't get me wrong, I like HBM, I like everyone. I see good in hall.

But the SORE has an agenda, and its NOT to educate, or provide news, ... these days the SORE has to survive, ... just like the BULL, does the SORE have any HOLLERN land to sell the city???

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...


Homey, there are times when you are remarkably lucid and other times when you are just plain batshit crazy.



It's part of my charm. Bitch.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

JR came on my radar as becoming a fuck-up and in some way I cannot remember I ended up here.

Story of my life.

Anonymous said...

>>>Marge,
Is it easy to pull the % of sales that were short, and the % that were bank sales?<<<

If I had a calculator at home it would be easier. So I will give you the raw numbers.
Feb 09 to date 42 sales. 12 Short sales and 13 bank owned. Must be around 70% roughly.

I want to fix Bend also. We just need to finally admit it it truly broken. Greg's Grill was certainly broken.. Hope the insurance CO. finds the truth there.
Actually, I am not so sure Bend is anything but BENT, as we move forward into different and old times, it may not be so bad.
For the old timers things may become more familiar. The exception will be the numerous empty homes (STD'S).. Not sure how we will deal with 3k+ empty homes for several years.
As medians go down below $150's this year, life in a home will make more sense.
I hope we can salvage what is left of the town. Actually, I hope someone burns down the whole OLD MILL Dist. Go Gregg.
You all seem to focus on really complicated and bullshit issues, some that have some inane way of having something to do with Bend(Bruce).
We need to fix Bend from the tires up. But until all the tires are flat there will be no fixin.

Anonymous said...

Someone wrote:

"I would like that we put together an official list of taboo subjects on BB2.
1.) We can never talk about bend being a cali jeebus-freak satellite."


OK, let's talk. Bend is a boomtown (BEM's words). A boomtown (think Phoenix, LA, Atlanta, Orlando) depends on growth. Its whole economy is centered around endless GROWTH. People move in all the time. People leave their roots and family far behind.

It's exciting to move to a new place, but you feel disconnected. You want something more. Isn't there more to life than just mass consumption of houses, cars, clothes, food?

These MEGA churches are designed for people new to town. They make people feel that they have a PURPOSE.

They teach MORALITY for the young-ins.

They provide COMMUNITY and a SENSE OF PLACE that these newcomers are missing.

So you should not be surprised to see rapid growth of MEGA churches in a place like Bend, a place that is 80% based on Pyramid Scheme like growth, as its only industry.

*

Go look at NON-boomtowns in Oregon. Like Albany, Corvallis, etc. They have STABLE populations. Their economies DON'T have anything to do with population growth.

GENERATIONS of families live in these towns. There's not a lot of need or reasons to move elsewhere.

Do you see MEGA churches in these mid-sized towns? Nope, nada, nein, niet.

*

Mega churches are in some sense themselves a Pyramid Schemes -- dependent on growth -- and typically based on an extremely charismastic pastor (think Ted Haggard!).

When you hear each month that "50 more people have joined" it convinces you that you're on the right track.

*

Stable communities without a lot of inflow / outflow don't need mega churches.

And remember -- Oregon is actually the most "unchurched" state in the nation.

That's partly because we aren't a "growth" place like Las Vegas or Phoenix, but also because as an eccentric state (environmental fetish, no pumping your own gas, legal suicide option) we tend to attract the WEIRDOs that aren't into conventional religion (well, save Bend, which as you note, is an extension of Southern CAli).

Anonymous said...

I counted no less than three phony 'busters' today.

My work is done. Well for today.

Anonymous said...

Letter to dunc, about the subject of doing stupid, ...

I just wanted to say about dunc's note today about 1983, note 'whose' 1983? Mine? Duncs?

I have always noted the blind-men and the elephant here, dunc says he bought his store in 1986, WTF was he doing in 1983? I was climbing almost every weekend @smith rocks, that is the Bend area that I saw, and knew.

For me I was making the most money I had made in my entire life in high-tech, Bend was my base, but not where I made my money.

HOMER has a rule here, "We don't do stupid", in Ned's post he cites bullshit figures, and try's to bait buster, but I feel its just fucking 'stoopid' what's the point 30% of what?? Duy already said today that RE medians are down 50%, yeh I have been saying that for months, and we know that its going to $150k, yeh, and NCC said we were 70% over-valued 2 yrs ago.

DUNC, we aren't even near the fucking bottom, don't tell me about 1983, whose fucking 1983 mine or yours? I don't know what your were doing then? Were you hurtin? I sure wasn't I was living like a pig & getting different pussy every night in 1983, I was spending most my weekdays in PDX, SEA, or SF going out to clubs every fucking night and fucking different women every fucking night. Driving a fucking Mercedes. I somehow cannot accept the fact that MY 1983 in BEND and yours is the same. I'm a high-tech computational physics expert, I cannot imagine that your 1983 was the same as mine, my field was exploding with new Cray computers, and I was an expert in the Oil Biz.

But I'll give you some fucking BENCHMARKS.

1.) When the only place to eat & drink downtown is D&D that be 1983 equiv.

2.) When we get a nice little family HW store back downtown, and its a real main-st downtown like it used to be that's 1983.

Regarding all your fucking metrics about how fucking BIG Bend is ... BULLSHIT, they're all leaving. Bend doesn't have to lose that much in order to back like the early 80's.

People will quit spending money, CACB will fold, the whole nation will look upon Bend as the epicenter of fucking stupidity and jeebus-freak BIG-CHURCH, BIG-TIT moronity.

This town will get back to basics, and all the fru-fru bullshit will fucking end, cuz a depression is coming.

But the 1983 is like the fucking elephant and the blind-men, you haven't told me what you were doing in 1983, but I know I was living like a king, while everyone else was un-employed, so I basically was at the elephants EAR, and I thought it was a fan.

Let me guess, I don't know shit about your education, but you were a struggling guy, writing sci-fi novels, and working on comic strips for dark-horse probably making min-wage, ... your 1983 was probably more like living under the elephants ass where he dropped shit, again I don't know cuz you haven't told us, ... pleeze do, I know very little about your life pre-1986.


I love you dunc, but like yesterday playing the fucking guessing game about an article in the SORE, or today's bait about numbers and 1983, get to the fucking point dunc.

We don't do stupid.

Still love you.

I concur with the DUY quote today, Bend is going down, and its NOT coming back as YOU have known in the recent past. Most employers will leave. Bend will return to a place where people with money play, and all other serve those people. Especially given that Bend's resources were long ago extracted.

Bend doesn't invest in its 'fun' MT-B is dead, ... everything in BEND is dying, and while I doubt they'll destroy Metolius, they may, and thus even the tourists will quit coming, because as HBM eloquently says, "we're just san-jose with junipers".

Anonymous said...

Stable communities without a lot of inflow / outflow don't need mega churches.

*

Mega churches are the UGLIEST cyst on CALI, especially South-Cali. Orange County, ... tower-of-power, chuck smith, ... endless fucking HUGE fucking churches, all bought the most valuable RE in the pre-day, and sat on it tax-exempt, ...

Just like BEND, we should put the fucking mega-churches in JR, or Millican, not in the most valuable area of Bend, so that fucking PONZI child fucking jeebus hypocrits can creat mega-tax free empires.

Hell yes it works in Bend, just like it works in Cali, but now that they're not coming ....

Like the article the other day from Redmond about churches dying, and the only fresh blood & money they get now is from old farts.

I think mega-churches is a bellwether, you know that you have made it .. like Santa Ana, or Costa Mesa cali, with giant tents of christians, or TV evangelists getting got fucking children. You know BEND has made it when the mega-churches are flourishing.

Anonymous said...

So you should not be surprised to see rapid growth of MEGA churches in a place like Bend, a place that is 80% based on Pyramid Scheme like growth, as its only industry.

*

Not surprised, old enough to have seen ALL of South Cali go from strawberrys and oranges to mega-cock churches.

See the same people doing the same thing to Bend, but here its junipers to mega-cock churches.

It needs to be discussed, its all part of BP's 12 steps.

Anonymous said...

Got to go night-night to quote bp, but one mention about HBM's plug for BB2 on the sore-eye.

Hey homer he's sending you people and he's demanding you go legit.

The trouble of course is legit means registration and censorship.

I really think we need to opposed legitimacy, we need to be fucking pirates. Like Homer says today, look at the BULL zero comments, and 90% of the time HBM has zero comments, why? Well he gets them now by luring us over to his site, which generates buzz, and god forbid in the DYING PRESS they need buzz.

We don't need to be LEGIT, and we don't need the SORE or the BULL.

Lastly, I have always said, we're just dogs that piss on a rock, and nobody cares, it self-delusion that thinks any of this matters, this site go disappear and its google-cache in a nano-second, its one of the reason for the bend-moron mirror.

Nobody cares, but for some twisted reason, hbm always cites BB2, and is in effect telling folks that this is where 'bad bozy' go to talk about Bend, agenda who fucking knows, but its all fucking meaningless just like piss on a rock, it only has meaning to other dog's.

Anonymous said...

"churches dying"

Their revenues may be dropping -- since their members are hurting -- but if anything I expect that churches will grow stronger during the bust years. When people are suffering, you want a place to go that lifts up your spirit.

Unless you are a poor sap who was big time 2 years ago, but now humbled -- driving a new Tahoe, but with no work and no prospects, and underwater like hell.

The other thing to watch is whether the population goes down. If people start leaving in droves (can this NOT happen?) then you'll see a fall in attendance.

Anonymous said...

>Feb 09 to date 42 sales. 12 Short sales and 13 bank owned. Must be around 70% roughly.

So that's about 60% distressed sales, but only 31% as foreclosure sales. I expect by summer we should have closer to 50-60% as foreclosure sales, with another 20-25% as short sales. It's not that the number of short sales will go down much - they will probably go up, but the number of bank owned properties that will sell is going to up significantly.

Much of California hit 30% foreclosure sales 14-18 months ago, which is what we have been saying we lag them by. The question I have is will Bend be more like a San Diego and Sacramento where the max so far has been 45% foreclosures, or will we be like Stockton that maxed out around 65%.

Either way, most of those places hit their peak % as foreclosures so far almost a year ago, and are STILL going down.

Anonymous said...

FYI, "The Doctrine of Bend Exceptionalism" is my phrase, not Hollern's.

Anonymous said...

Comrade Greenspan wants us to seize the economy’s commanding heights.

O.K., not exactly. What Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman — and a staunch defender of free markets — actually said was, “It may be necessary to temporarily nationalize some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring.” I agree.

The case for nationalization rests on three observations.

First, some major banks are dangerously close to the edge — in fact, they would have failed already if investors didn’t expect the government to rescue them if necessary.

Second, banks must be rescued. The collapse of Lehman Brothers almost destroyed the world financial system, and we can’t risk letting much bigger institutions like Citigroup or Bank of America implode.

Third, while banks must be rescued, the U.S. government can’t afford, fiscally or politically, to bestow huge gifts on bank shareholders.

Let’s be concrete here. There’s a reasonable chance — not a certainty — that Citi and BofA, together, will lose hundreds of billions over the next few years. And their capital, the excess of their assets over their liabilities, isn’t remotely large enough to cover those potential losses.

Arguably, the only reason they haven’t already failed is that the government is acting as a backstop, implicitly guaranteeing their obligations. But they’re zombie banks, unable to supply the credit the economy needs.

To end their zombiehood the banks need more capital. But they can’t raise more capital from private investors. So the government has to supply the necessary funds.

But here’s the thing: the funds needed to bring these banks fully back to life would greatly exceed what they’re currently worth. Citi and BofA have a combined market value of less than $30 billion, and even that value is mainly if not entirely based on the hope that stockholders will get a piece of a government handout. And if it’s basically putting up all the money, the government should get ownership in return.

Still, isn’t nationalization un-American? No, it’s as American as apple pie.

Lately the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has been seizing banks it deems insolvent at the rate of about two a week. When the F.D.I.C. seizes a bank, it takes over the bank’s bad assets, pays off some of its debt, and resells the cleaned-up institution to private investors. And that’s exactly what advocates of temporary nationalization want to see happen, not just to the small banks the F.D.I.C. has been seizing, but to major banks that are similarly insolvent.


The real question is why the Obama administration keeps coming up with proposals that sound like possible alternatives to nationalization, but turn out to involve huge handouts to bank stockholders.

For example, the administration initially floated the idea of offering banks guarantees against losses on troubled assets. This would have been a great deal for bank stockholders, not so much for the rest of us: heads they win, tails taxpayers lose.

Now the administration is talking about a “public-private partnership” to buy troubled assets from the banks, with the government lending money to private investors for that purpose. This would offer investors a one-way bet: if the assets rise in price, investors win; if they fall substantially, investors walk away and leave the government holding the bag. Again, heads they win, tails we lose.

Why not just go ahead and nationalize? Remember, the longer we live with zombie banks, the harder it will be to end the economic crisis.

How would nationalization take place? All the administration has to do is take its own planned “stress test” for major banks seriously, and not hide the results when a bank fails the test, making a takeover necessary. Yes, the whole thing would have a Claude Rains feel to it, as a government that has been propping up banks for months declares itself shocked, shocked at the miserable state of their balance sheets. But that’s O.K.

And once again, long-term government ownership isn’t the goal: like the small banks seized by the F.D.I.C. every week, major banks would be returned to private control as soon as possible. The finance blog Calculated Risk suggests that instead of calling the process nationalization, we should call it “preprivatization.”

The Obama administration, says Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, believes “that a privately held banking system is the correct way to go.” So do we all. But what we have now isn’t private enterprise, it’s lemon socialism: banks get the upside but taxpayers bear the risks. And it’s perpetuating zombie banks, blocking economic recovery.

What we want is a system in which banks own the downs as well as the ups. And the road to that system runs through nationalization. -- Paul Krugman

Anonymous said...

SALEM — State and federal scientists are investigating a mysterious drop in groundwater levels in the triangle between Redmond, Prineville and Powell Butte.

One mile south of Redmond, for instance, they’ve seen water levels underground decline nearly 20 feet in the last 15 years.

If that trend looks to continue, it would be “troubling,” said Doug Woodcock, a Salem-based groundwater manager with the Oregon Water Resources Department.

And depending on where the new study points the finger, he acknowledged, it could reignite debate over a touchy subject: how water is managed in the Deschutes area.

“Basically, what we’re trying to get a read on is, how solid (is) our management in this basin?” he said.

To let developers build and farmers grow, the state’s Deschutes groundwater mitigation program requires users to purchase water rights to offset the effect their activities might have on the Deschutes River and its tributaries.

However, if the new study suggests that the program is not protecting underground water supplies, then it could lead to tighter rules, according to Kimberley Priestley of the group Water Watch of Oregon.

“I would think it would be of interest not only to the state but to developers,” she said of the study. “If we’re seeing declines, then that could bring a whole new layer of management.”

A July 2008 U.S. Geological Survey document said that some of the area’s well-water declines are because the basin started receiving less rain in the 1950s. However, it added, many wells “in the more developed parts of the basin appear to show declines larger than what would be expected due to climate alone.”

If that is true, then it could have “important implications” for the Deschutes groundwater mitigation program, the document said. -- The Daily Bull


Groundwater levels declining ... hmm, could it possibly have anything to do with the additional water being pumped out of the ground to keep all those new lawns and golf courses green?

Who could have known? Who would have guessed?

Anonymous said...

Like Homer says today, look at the BULL zero comments, and 90% of the time HBM has zero comments

It's true we don't have as many comments on our site, but we have more people commenting. You and Homer write about 80% of the comments here. The rest come from me, tim, lavabear, bruce and marge. Basically there are only seven or eight people who comment here, and two of them write the great bulk of it.

Anonymous said...

I was living like a pig & getting different pussy every night in 1983, I was spending most my weekdays in PDX, SEA, or SF going out to clubs every fucking night and fucking different women every fucking night. Driving a fucking Mercedes. I somehow cannot accept the fact that MY 1983 in BEND and yours is the same. I'm a high-tech computational physics expert, I cannot imagine that your 1983 was the same as mine, my field was exploding with new Cray computers, and I was an expert in the Oil Biz.

And now you're a bitter old drunk with Tourette's who spends every waking hour on this site posting obscene, whacked-out rants. What happened? Some kind of brain trauma?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

The rest come from me, tim, lavabear, bruce and marge....

And you.

tim said...

The Greg's Grill fire seems to have been due to delayed maintenance issue.

$200k and they expect to be back in business in a few days.

Grease and creosote had built up in the ventilation system. This is the "other" kind of fire we'll be seeing more of (besides insurance fraud).

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

It's true we don't have as many comments on our site, but we have more people commenting.

And this blog has never been about pure quantity of comments. I don't really care if there are 9 or 900. Big deal.

It's about anyone who might have something of value to say, can. Maybe they don't. Who knows. You as the reader get to figure that out, not me or some other douche.

That's it. I'm not in competition with TSW or whoever. The comments are open... that's the diff.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

$200k and they expect to be back in business in a few days.

See, I've heard "several hundred thousand" in damage, and also "$38,000"...

Hmmmm...

Anonymous said...

Good article today in the WSJ about newspapers dying, and what they're doing about it.

Problem the #1 thing that got me back involved in this shit is the COMPLETE fucking FAILURE of the BULL&SORE to report the news.

It's their fucking fault they have competition. I have been begging the BP & TT ... for a long time to start an ALT paper in Bend online, hell even the CSM is now online only. Call it the 'Bend Gazette' just DO-IT.

The truth be told the BULL&SORE are terrified and thus their repetition about 'non-real urnalists', truth be told everything that the SORE does is reactionary, and everything the BULL does is selective.

The rules of "REAL JOURNALISM" are quite old, ...

1.) Tell the Truth and RUN. -

2.) A newspaper should have no friends.

The BULL & SORE have had their little monopoly here for 10+ years, and have enjoyed their POWER as king-maker, as witnessed by COSTA's picking & choosing who will hold city council, and funding his own PAC.

The repeat message of how BULL got free land from HOLLERN, and then forced the city to buy that land, everytime we talk about this shit it causes their anus to cringe.

'Exceptionalism' is the keyword this week, HBM thinks he's 'exceptional', Costa thinks he's exceptional. I think APU said it best they're just losers in a tower with paper-sword holding off the masses that are mad-as-hell, and they KUNTS are very afraid.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Interesting piece in The Bully today:

Drop in groundwater perplexes scientists

Excerpt:

While it isn’t affecting them now, he said, “In five or 10 years, who knows?”

He contacted the state water department about the issue, and was told that officials are working on it already.

Limbeck is keeping an open mind, but suspects the rapid pace of development in recent years is largely to blame, saying, “There’ve been quite a few large wells put down in the Powell Butte area.”

Limbeck thinks Brasada Ranch is one possible contributor to the problem. But Mark Kerns, an Avian Water Co. manager who helps supply water for the development, disagrees. He said the development has barely started to pump due to the slow economy.

Anonymous said...

Groundwater levels declining ... hmm, could it possibly have anything to do with the additional water being pumped out of the ground to keep all those new lawns and golf courses green?

Who could have known? Who would have guessed? - hbm

*

Thanks for getting us back on TRACK, hell let's look at Neuman's place up @ Highlands @ Broken-Top, quite typical. They're on well's big well's 6" wells and they run the sprinklers 24/7, see all these resort, developments are on well water, and they run it 24/7 for free to have paradise. I pick on Summit-1031 Neuman cuz he's fair game, his place is for sale. In the spr,sum,fall I ride by his place on the way to phils on my mtn-bike almost everyday, and its always the same 24/7 the sprinklers are going, I'm not talking about the common areas, I'm talking around these homes.

The model I have described above is how ALL these resorts operate, and highlands is the ONE without a golf-course, 24 new golf resorts in the Bend area, all on well-water ( under ground water kunts ), ... out in the fucking desert.

Thanks for bringing this up HBM, who would have guessed that this area would run out of water, or see its water table drop to zilch like out in the mid-west.

KUNTS dont' care, but once water drops to say 200, 300+, then the water gets alkaline or salty tasting, then becomes worthless. Thus at the current rate eventually when the water table hits this zone these people will be killing their plants rather than watering them....

WHO WOULD HAVE FUCKING GUESSED??? That if you brought in millions of people, and 100's of resorts that everything would have gone to shit?? Who would have known??

It's like metolius, that basin is small, that little head-water is small, its not really the 600 acre golf-course thats the killer, its the 4,000 resort homes all pumping well-water that fucks the ground-table.

Well the golf-course is fucked also, but they at least use computers and irrigate at night, or according to need, but home-owners @ resorts they just let the shit run 24/7 cuz its 'FREE'.

Drives me fucking crazy, cuz I have had lots of wells.

Anonymous said...

A newspaper should have no friends.

Hallelujah, Buster and I agree on something.

Bob Chandler used to say: "If a newspaper isn't pissing somebody off it's not doing its job."

That's an old-fashioned journalistic value. Somewhere around the 1970s-1980s, newspapers got the strange idea that their job was to keep everybody happy with fluff pieces, "news you can use" and "positive" spin. Don't tell people what they need to know -- tell them what they want to hear.

This works for a while, but eventually people figure out the paper is useless and stop buying it.

Anonymous said...

And now you're a bitter old drunk with Tourette's who spends every waking hour on this site posting obscene, whacked-out rants. What happened? Some kind of brain trauma?

*

Hey I go mtn-biking everyday spr/sum/fall, and xc-ski everyday in winter, what do you do about your tourettes??

Old?, yes.
Bitter?, no.
Pissed @ the BULL&SORE?, yes.
Like 'dirty words'?, yes.

Sorry, hbm but my wife doesn't let me say 'fuck' verbally, so I guess this is how I let loose. On that note on saturday night at the BBC 14th bash, I spent most the night talking with young girls, and was amazed at how every word was 'fuck' and they were spitting ( we were outside by the fires ). Women who say 'fuck' turns me on, I wish my wife wasn't suck a fucking 'nanny' like hbm.

Whacked out brain? That's a good one coming from a kind who expends his creative energy defending the 'dark side'.

Obscene? If its so vile&bile why does hbm spend so much of his valuable BULL/SORE time here??

You know hbm, for a princeton english major, the cut&pasted paragraph above, could have been written by a teenager, why don't you just try to be more informative, and quit using adolescent spitballs for your 'trolling'??

Essentially what HBM does about 80% of the time is TROLL, he provokes the BUSTER ( which ain't hard ) or some other KUNT, and then runs, ... but then every once in awhile he posts good shit about the ground-water problem ( I hope he talks about this in the SORE-EYE ).

HBM a 'troll' is someone who provokes outrage in a another person. My reason for posting is to debate the Bend economy, and the stupid shit that the ruling class does to us.

You on other hand are a troll, if I were to post at the sore-eye 24/7 with shit-balls antagonizing you, that would be trolling, I don't, and the reason is I find that to be the league of 15 yr old boyz that haven't yet discovered pussy.

Anonymous said...

Don't tell people what they need to know -- tell them what they want to hear.


*

Yeh, worked real well, pick up todays WSJ and read the story about how newspapers that are surviving are doing it.

You have hit the nail on the head, the essence is PEOPLE will NOT pay to hear what they want to hear.

People will PAY to hear what they don't know.

Who could have guessed? Who could have known??

NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO CREATE A NEW NEWSPAPER IN BEND.

It AIN'T going to come from the BULLorSORE.

tim said...

>>See, I've heard "several hundred thousand" in damage, and also "$38,000"...

"Examining the scene, Kettering said the initial damage figure of less than $40,000 was boosted considerably when they determined the fire had spread to nearby structural members in the attic."

Anonymous said...

This works for a while, but eventually people figure out the paper is useless and stop buying it.

*

I thinks its like the perfect storm, or perfect wave out in the ocean.

You got a depression, shoppers fatigue, and TV ad fatigue, look at papers 80% sunday inserts, and everybody tosses that shit.

So papers became simply conduits for advertising product, editors became facilitators in making advertisters happy, the end-user was considered to be a potted-plant, that was to be watered and fed-shit.

HBM, this shit started in the 1920's that when paid advertising and modern marketing began.

There has ALWAYS been real newpapers like the WSJ with NO ad's, or the FT (UK), I get both, and have done so for 40+ years.

SO the BULL has hit a fucking wall, the people are sick on consuming, and easy-money is gone. Nobody reads cuz they all watch TV. The BULL doesn't report the news, so intelligent people don't subscribe.

I have many times argued this point with the Bpussy, and TT(apu) knows what I mean.

When I was a kid I took journalism is high-school, and they taught us how to set lead type, on those machine as big as a frieght train, we had one of those beasts in my high-school. They taught us that the first paragraph should say "WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHAT, & WHY"

Today you only get where, when, and what.

The pussy has told us even he doesn't care about who or why.

BEND needs a real newspaper and BAD, and I essentially agree with you HBM, that it shouldn't provided by drunks that cuss, but this is what happens when YOU the press create a vacuum.

Don't like BB2?? Then do something about it HBM, you and pussy create a real newspaper, and I'll crawl back into my hole.

Bewert said...

http://bend-gazette.blogspot.com/

First pass. I'll try to update daily. Tomorrow will be an updated cross-post from the JR blog on campaign finance.

And add links, pics, etc. to personalize it to our beautiful little base camp.

Anyone else want to post some news just email me at bewert over at gmail and I'll add you to the author list.

Anonymous said...

Drop in groundwater perplexes scientists

*

FUCK YOU BULL.

Nobody is perplexed.

You fucking PR&PROMOTED these fucking resorts, and they all run un-metered, water 24/7 turning the fucking desert into paradise around their home.

How much water? 500 gals an hour avg per home is what I have seen in my time. Do the numbers on these remote homes, again even highlands is well-water, most of these out of city limit places are well-water.

'perplexed'? Only the BULL is perplexed. The trouble is that there is NO fucking auditing of the WASTE.

If I were KING of deschutes COUNTY I would demand random auditing on well heads, and figure out how much water these fucking homes were wasting, then you could extrapolate the data, and do some figuring.

Right now its easy for the BULL to hide the problem with words like 'perplexed' cuz the figures are unknown, but I know them cuz I know the usage, I know people that have these homes, and I know the water systems, and I know how they work cuz I have installed them on my own properties.

Trouble is 'well water' is ran by the state 'water master', and that is where the problem has to be managed. Now that salem recognizes that the water table is dropping, what they'll do is BAN all new 'well water' permits.

OK, fine its over siberian resorts are fucked, no more water permits means no more homes.

Just like in NORTH CALI, where that developer built the $200M development, but failed to secure water.

The FUCKERS at the BULL just PR&MARKETED siberian-resorts and everybody was told we had unlimited water, and we don't, and now all these pre-existing lots at Brasada, prongy, ... where-ever they need wells, will NOT GET a fucking permit,

'Perplexed', NO, HELL NO, cuz I know here in BEND I wade DEEP SHIT manufactured by the BULL&SORE

Bewert said...

BTW, for you older single guys, T's friend Tracy is coming along tonight. She's much more conservative than us, but an excellent skier, ex-Div. 1 racer, and still single since her ex-USAF husband dumped her shortly after moving here several years ago. Oh, and she bought a carbon frame road bike last year and is now smitten with ripping around on it. But she's rather provincial in many ways...

Anonymous said...

http://bend-gazette.blogspot.com/

First pass. I'll try to update daily. Tomorrow will be an updated cross-post from the JR blog on campaign finance.

*

BP, I haven't looked yet, but try to put it into newspaper format so that the storys are tiled, and people can choose, I hate that linear thing like BB2,

It probably for editing and placement purposes best for there to be one format/editor, I'm sure if you bully TT, or marge, or hbm, you could get content, how about it HBM here's your chance to write about stuff that the SOREorBULL would never let you write.

Does blogspot.com even have a newspaper format?? They all seem to be these linear 'diary blogs', which don't really fit, we need to have tiles that are topical for news, politics, environment, real-estate, ... and make sure the 'nofollow' is removed from the template before you even begin.

Another thing about tiling would be the current city-hall meeting column, somehow so that people could navigate at a glance from the home-page, sadly you probably got to roll-your-own, there must be a 'free content' provider 'blog' somewhere that offers newspaper format??? I like the front-page of the WSJ very much, I think they have the best format, take a look at their home-page.

Bewert said...

Re: BEND needs a real newspaper and BAD, and I essentially agree with you HBM, that it shouldn't provided by drunks that cuss, but this is what happens when YOU the press create a vacuum.

###

You really want me to moderate the comments?

Of course, not too much cussing in the posts is necessary. And no pics of big tits. Only of things that we are spending our precious tax dollars on, good or bad.

Bewert said...

Re: BP, I haven't looked yet, but try to put it into newspaper format

###

I'll try, but it's linear for now. I'll look around. I have my own server I can host it on as well, if needed.

Anonymous said...

I'll try, but it's linear for now. I'll look around. I have my own server I can host it on as well, if needed.

*

These days it might be best to use a newpaper template on your own host, and tie in haloscan for comments, I think the main problem is finding the newspaper-template. I'm sure they're around. The problem with linear is that nobody is going to visit a site 10 times a day, and thus stuff is always pushed down the stack.

It would be nice to have something that would fill up say weekly, and then a new issue would effectively purge, but it easy to fall back to old.

Perhaps somebody here know?? HBM what 'engine' does the SORE use for their online paper?? I'm sure its a standard engine, and not written from scratch.

Anonymous said...

Viewing the sisters-nuggest homepage as source in html, ...

" 1up! Software ( www.going1up.com ) News Site Software 5.0"

It would be good to find a site generator that is free, most hosting services supply this software, but you have your own home-server bp? or do you pay for provider??

Anonymous said...

This open one looks good - campsite.

Open Source Newspaper/Magazine Software for Web Publishing
Campsite is a web publishing system that can bring your newspaper or magazine content to the online world. It is often used by media organizations who also have a printed version of their publication, and enables them to increase their revenues with online subscriptions and ads. There are many systems that might seem similar to Campsite, but it is the only open-source system designed to work in the same style of newspapers and magazines - for example, with multiple journalists, editor review, issue publishing, and subscription management.

Anonymous said...

You really want me to moderate the comments?

*

Yes, hbm is correct, what we need is BB2 without the drunks, and cussing,

Not so much moderation, but 'rejection' where you would tell the submitter, that his publication wasn't ready, that way your not the editor.

Hey its your paper, but I don't need to tell you shit, your JR site is already 'real journalist' kosher,

I do think the comments should be free-for-all just like bb2, ...

But the editorial should be 'professional' just like you have done @jr-info

Just my opinion, again its your paper, but it can't be KUNT/FUCK on the home-page,... but I think you already know that.

Just like HOMER controls the publishing here, he controls the home-page, but comments are free for all.

If you don't have home-page control, then somebody that doesn't know what they're doing can fuck up your site.

On the other hand, take a look at indymedia.com, they are open publishing, and if something is offensive, it gets sent to the 'toilet stall' which is an interesting concept, because the 'toilet stall' becomes the place where people can have un-censored news.

So yeh, it would be best, especially if your busy to let people publish, allow them to publish anonymous, and don't require email or tracking, and then if they Post bullshit, ... then just move it to the 'toilet stall', but make the 'toilet stall' entry public on the home-page so people can go there to see the 'bad shit'.

The real problem is NOT to do the BENDBB thing where shit just gets deleted to the bit-bucket and bend-gone, because everything is important, otherwise the person wouldn't have written it.

Bewert said...

Re: but you have your own home-server bp? or do you pay for provider??

###

Pay for a virtual server running debian linux.

Anonymous said...

http://portland.indymedia.org/

BP study the above, and note the far right has the publishing, I'm sure you can use 'campsite' to implement this type of format, anybody can publish, and that is critical cuz the good stuff in BEND will only come from anonymous.

See very bottom of the right column, they have the "compost bin", that is where the NON-POLITICALLY correct shit is sent. The good stuff :>

That way nothing is deleted, and those in the know, get to goto the good area.

On the other hand this format lets YOU the EDITOR keep the vile&bile off your home-page.

Anonymous said...

On another note if you have time, you could just contact 'indymedia.org' and have them set you up a bend.indymedia.org, but I think they're politics would not let you be neutral.

It's best to be INDY and do what you do, and NOT be beholden to anybody, or any group.

Bewert said...

campsite looks promising

Bewert said...

Re: The FUCKERS at the BULL just PR&MARKETED siberian-resorts and everybody was told we had unlimited water

###

The story I heard is that the water would just percolate back down to the water table after greening the lawn. On my lawn, it just "percolates" to the street and evaporates...

Bewert said...

Re: The pussy has told us even he doesn't care about who or why.

###

I care, but why is the answer that always pisses people off. They declare that your "why" is your opinion.

But I'll try to stick it in there.

Also, I'll spend the $25 and join the Media Bloggers Association. If huffingtonpost bloggers get a seat in the White House Press Room, the I should get a fucking seat at our City's Executive Sessions.

Someone from the BULL was at the last Council meeting (I didn't recognize him but I'll ask Erin) and when he realized that they had cancelled the Exec Session he left. Erin joked with him about "only coming for the Exec Sessions" and he stated basically that they were where the interesting stuff happened...

Bewert said...

Re: I thinks its like the perfect storm, or perfect wave out in the ocean.

###

More like a rogue wave, one of the giants that appears out of nowhere from the harmonic confluence of a bunch of regular waves moving at different speeds.

Anonymous said...

The story I heard is that the water would just percolate back down to the water table after greening the lawn.

Most of it is lost through evaporation, and whatever does percolate back down would be contaminated with fertilizers and pesticides.

Anonymous said...

FUCK YOU BULL. Nobody is perplexed.

Duh ... we pumped the water out of the ground and the water table went down.

Who would have known? Who could have guessed?

Anonymous said...

Sorry, hbm but my wife doesn't let me say 'fuck' verbally, so I guess this is how I let loose.

Your wife tells you you can't cuss and you obey her, as if you were a little boy? Damn, you ARE pussy-whipped. I don't see how you have any room to make that accusation against anybody else after this admission.

Anonymous said...

Whacked out brain? That's a good one coming from a kind who expends his creative energy defending the 'dark side'.

How the FUCK do you figure I'm "defending the dark side"? There's nobody else in the Bend media who writes more critical stuff about out-of-control growth and the GOB power structure than I do.

And I put my fucking NAME on it, because I have a pair of BALLS.

Your talk about me somehow being in league with Costa and Hollern etc. is just so much whacked-out psycho bullshit.

Anonymous said...

HBM what 'engine' does the SORE use for their online paper??

I have no idea. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

The FUCKERS at the BULL just PR&MARKETED siberian-resorts and everybody was told we had unlimited water

The only resource that's unlimited around here is the bullshit spewed by the developer/builder/realtor axis.

Anonymous said...

>HBM what 'engine' does the SORE use for their online paper??

Joomla

Anonymous said...

Your wife tells you you can't cuss and you obey her, as if you were a little boy? Damn, you ARE pussy-whipped. I don't see how you have any room to make that accusation against anybody else after this admission.

*

JEEBUS XMAS with Presents HBM, you your fucking self has said, the ONLY reason you stay in this shit-hole is that your wife has a job, and that when she done, you done.

ME&YOU are both pussy-whipped!! The ALT is?

p.s. I know I'm hard on you, like I'm hard on the pussy, but your coming around, from the dark-side, now that you see the dark-side is coming down, you have decided to change flags, before the shit hits the fan and fingers start pointing.

The SORE has very much been a part of the COVA machine.

I know its just your employer. Goebbels used that excuse also.
( Godwin speaks ).

Anonymous said...

The story I heard is that the water would just percolate back down to the water table after greening the lawn. On my lawn, it just "percolates" to the street and evaporates...

*

Remember ALL this is the town that believes in perpetual motion machines.

This is jeebus town that believes that the UNIVERSE is 4,000 yrs old.

This is the town that thinks that 'scientists' are "Perplexed".

Blogger fodder has never been better.

I have NO FUCKING doubt that the BULL & COAR, & COBA don't believe in evaporation, or carbon warming.

Then the BULL is dying, and is no longer getting AD dollars, and nobody is paying to be told dumb shit, and COSTA scratches his ass wondering what is wrong with his biz model.

Will not people PAY to be fed shit, and watered??

Anonymous said...

Most of it is lost through evaporation, and whatever does percolate back down would be contaminated with fertilizers and pesticides. - hbm

*

Fucking eh, that's heresy hbm, your going to rot in Bend Jeebus hell, your not talking english or BULL today, your talking science, did BB2 finally open your eyes???

p.s. good shit, make sure you post this issue on the sore eye, also did you see on the sisters-nugget that there was a damn riot Feb 17, of over 300 people in opposition to the METOLIUS FUCK engineered by COSTA.

Anonymous said...

The only resource that's unlimited around here is the bullshit spewed by the developer/builder/realtor axis.

*

DEJA-VU, back to BP's capstone 'micro turbine' butt-plug power generator.

Now if bruce could just sell 10k devices to the 'axis' this city could sell surplus energy.

Full circle, now even hbm is seeing the light of the Capstone miracle.

Anonymous said...

BP,

Yes, I think that 'campsite' would be a great engine, ... some more ideas.

1.) Another reason NOT to use blog is that GOOGLE doesn't treat it as news, once you setup a real news site with news and add-url for google-news, then when anybody search "Bend Oregon" news, bendgazette.com will be #1!! Thus we'll control the fucking NEW, cuz nobody else in this fucking town knows what they're doing.

2.) Yes, use campsite.

3.) Use the indymedia.org model, where 'obscene' (hbm) material can be sent to the 'compost bin', of course that's where you'll find me, in the shit.

4.) Grab the domain early.

5.) I think that like the indymedia.org model, you control format and content on left as the editor/manager, but then you let other's post as whatever, dunc could use his name, but the GOOD stuff will come anonymous from pissed off cops, realtors, firemen, and pissed off city-staff.

6.) If the shit is vile&bile, or not backed by evidence, then it goes to compost bin ( I call the toilet room ), but I think at this point most folks understand the 'compost bin' metaphor, just make sure access is visible on the home-page.

It wouldn't be hard to get the fucking media ass in this town, as the 1/2 dozen of us are mostly computer experts, and we work for free. Our competition doesn't know what the fuck they're doing.

Anonymous said...

I care, but why is the answer that always pisses people off. They declare that your "why" is your opinion.

But I'll try to stick it in there.

*

Well that's funny cuz when I studied journalism, they said 'why' had to be in the first paragraph.

Who, what, when, why, where, ... how, ... You knew by the first paragraph if you wanted to keep reading.

OPINION?? Its all fucking opinion, but its starts the fucking DEBATE.

WHY IS COSTA pushing to have METOLIUS destroyed? HBM even asked that 'why' We can guess, we can all piss on the rock, and like twain says in the end 'truth' is stranger than fiction, cuz fiction has to make sense.

Personally I think COSTA is being PAID to use editorial space to SELL jeebus-pug Bend boondoggles. Just my opinion, prove me wrong.

'Who' is important, WHO is behind the COSTA, he's just a sock puppet,..

Like the COBA - COAH story, its fairly fucking obvious, scientifically improbably that COAH got 1,000 out of work contractors to optionally give $50/each to an 'affordable housing' pool. So WHO really did provide the money??? Let's name names!

With an real BEND newspaper and proper marketing, we can get pissed off insiders at COVA, COAR, and COBA to talk, as anonymous.

Anonymous said...

News you won't read in the BULL:


2/17/2009 12:56:00 PM
Hearing brings out opponents of resorts

By Jim Cornelius
News Editor

Nearly 300 people crowded the commons at Sisters High School last Wednesday night for a public hearing on a proposal that would effectively ban destination resorts in the Metolius Basin.

The sentiment of the crowd was overwhelmingly in favor of keeping resorts out of the basin, but there were strong voices raised in favor of letting the land-use process move forward.

The state Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) called the hearing before a subcommittee of the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) to hear public testimony on a draft designation of the Metolius Basin area as an "Area of Critical State Concern" (ACSC).

That designation, requested by Governor Ted Kulongoski in December, would prohibit large-scale development in the basin itself and significantly restrict it in zones closely surrounding the basin.

Two projects are proposed in areas mapped by Jefferson County for siting destination resorts. One is "The Ponderosa," on more than 3,000 acres along Green Ridge, partly inside and partly outside the basin proper. It proposes 2,500 home sites, lodging facilities and at least one golf course.

"The Metolian" is proposed inside the basin on 628 acres with 180 lodging units and 450 home sites. Instead of the usual golf course and other destination resort amenities, The Metolian is conceived as an "eco-resort" offering educational and recreational activities in the natural environment of the area.

Opposition to destination resorts and comment in favor of a restrictive ACSC designation was polite but ardent. It can be summed up in testimony from Greg McClarren, president of the activist group Friends of the Metolius:

"There are places that should not be developed and the Metolius is one of those truly special places that should be preserved for all future generations."

Testimony came from all over the state, with many people recalling childhood trips to Camp Sherman and the Metolius. Several people testified that the impact of many more people living and recreating in the area would change the character of local communities and degrade the natural environment.

"The impacts on the communities of Sisters and Camp Sherman will be unbelievable," said Robb Reavill of Bend. "A concentration of population from 2,500 homes descending into these communities in the summer will destroy the peacefulness of Camp Sherman and exacerbate the traffic problems in Sisters."

But not all those at the hearing see negative impacts.

Jerry Bogart, a member of the Sisters City Council, said that "although located in Jefferson County, well-planned resorts in the Metolius Basin that mitigate or avoid adverse impacts will have positive economic impacts on the City of Sisters."

Bogart also expressed concern about the use of a state designation to overrule Jefferson County's comprehensive planning and mapping process.

"For LCDC and the governor to now step in and force this (ACSC) issue while Jefferson County is opposed reeks of undue state interference," Bogart said. "It sends a horrible message to local governments about their right and obligation to resolve local issues at the local level."

(The Sisters City Council has not taken a formal position on the ACSC designation; the previous council had supported Senate Bill 30, which would have banned resorts in the area).

Jefferson County expressed its opposition to the state designation in strongly worded testimony.

"If three years of land use process on one plan amendment can be ignored and trumped by the state, the stability of our land-use system, including citizen participation and local government authority, will have been catastrophically compromised.... we believe this subcommittee and the full commission should require a clear showing of likely damage to the region before taking action to suspend the rule of law in Jefferson County."

Shane Lundgren, developer of The Metolian echoed concerns about the integrity of the land-use process, then went on to defend his project:

"...Following the Oregon laws, we designed The Metolian based on the guidelines of the Destination Resort Statue. We have taken a minimalist approach to the density, and on-site recreational facilities, but again there are criteria that we had to meet in order to comply with the rules set forth to us."

Lundgren argues that The Metolian represents an innovative approach that has attracted attention from "green" investors all over the world and could act as a model of sustainable development in Oregon.

"The opportunity for The Metolian to enhance and restore the environment is real and it is now," he said. "My vision is that in 100 years there will be a well funded, well educated legacy of people who are part of this place. My nightmare is that there be a dilapidated, financially (distressed) community, mostly consisting of summer cabins on leased land."

Lundgren also noted that he and his family have lived in Camp Sherman for decades and care deeply about the future of the Metolius Basin.

"It is somewhat offensive when people who have had a summer cabin for a few decades, or recently moved to Metolius Meadows lecture as if we didn't have any understanding of how special this place really is," he said.

But most of those testifying are opposed to any large-scale development, arguing that it threatens a fragile hydrological system that supports vital fish and wildlife populations.

Tom Davis of Sisters, a retired hydrologist and engineer, noted that the Fly Creek sub-basin near Green Ridge "is one of two known locations where you have pure native redband DNA."

Davis argues that allowing developments to mitigate water use and impacts is gambling with irreplaceable natural treasures.

"They are very, very special and I would hope that we would not gamble them away," he said.

One local fisherman expressed his fears for the future of the legendary flyfishing waters of the Metolius Basin if destination resorts are allowed to go forward.

"I don't think it's the right thing to do for the environment and I don't think it's the right thing to tell our children," he said.

The hearing in Sisters was the first of a series, which continues in Madras on February 26 and March 11 at locations yet to be determined.

For more information, visit www.lcd.state.or.us; click on "Metolius Basin Project" in the menu on the right.

Bewert said...

To submit your testimony on the Metolius clusterfuck:

http://www.lcd.state.or.us/LCD/metolius_river_basin_acsc.shtml#SUBMITTING_TESTIMONY

###

Picked up bendgazette.com and am setting up campsite on my server. It's based on LAMP.

Anonymous said...

"I don't think it's the right thing to do for the environment and I don't think it's the right thing to tell our children," he said.

*

That's what I mean BP, its why you need to have a paper, and not focus just on JR, JR is just a boondoggle, but the good fight that will make you famous and loved in BEND, is to stand up for protecting what is left of the stuff that people came here for in the first place.

This should be #1, telling the fucking jeebus freak cocksucking pug's NO MORE destroying what's left.

The funny thing is most these dumb fucking pugs are fishermen, they just are fed so much shit that they think that lack of water and herbicides are good for fish, cuz costa & limbaugh tell them so.

Anonymous said...

The CSM ( christian science monitor ) recently dropped print, its now ONLINE ONLY.

BP as editor & chief of the BendGazzette.com Bend leading paper they can't keep you out of exec-session.

Anonymous said...

Epicenter of the implosion!

Sweetheart Donuts Goes Under!!!

Holy fuck!! This place was pumping out at least 2 donuts a day for the last 20 years.
What to do with the massive facility left vacant? (all 250 sqft of it)
We're in deep shit now once the massive repercussion of layoffs hit. (all one)

He retired!!

Bewert said...

FYI--anyone needs a new watch they are clearing out Timex's at Fred Meyer at 70% lowest marked price. I just picked up a sleek one at about 90% off for $23.

Bewert said...

Re: BP as editor & chief of the BendGazzette.com Bend leading paper they can't keep you out of exec-session.

###

I'll probably have to buck up and join a couple of professional journalism associations as well.

Trudy is trying to talk me into taking classes but it seems to me I am doing a decent job at the JR blog right now. HB, what do you think?

Anonymous said...

"We're in deep shit now once the massive repercussion of layoffs hit. (all one)"

Yeah, right, who cares?

On the behalf of Ray, a Big Fuck You, too.

Anonymous said...

Trudy is trying to talk me into taking classes but it seems to me I am doing a decent job at the JR blog right now. HB, what do you think?

###

What does anyone think?

Even portlandhousing.blogspot.com has added your site, your a recognized member already.

Just don't push google to enable your news.google status until real content is there and real news, if they deem you ain't news you'll be black listed.

"juniper-ridge-info.blogspot.com"

106 hits on google just for referencing, you have already proved you can imitate 'real journalists', 'classes' would only be useful if you wanted to get a real-job in the field, but honestly if you have setup news sites, and popularized them, and made them viral, that these days is way more valuable on the resume, than a COCC class.

Anonymous said...

I'll probably have to buck up and join a couple of professional journalism associations as well.

*

A better bet would be to go to the library and read some George Seldes.

Think like 'Elvis' who responded in 1956 on why he shakes his ass when singing, ... "These days to make money or your self famous, you got to be different".

Belonging to good ol-boy clubs, and carrying their credentials is NOT how you'll make sure self famous in 2010.

Like the feminists say, "Good girls NEVER make history".

Anonymous said...

1. ^ Georgre Seldes - Seldes Remembrance Committee, publiceye website

[edit] Bibliography

* You Can't Print That! (1929) ISBN 1417939095
* Can These Things Be! (1931) ISBN 1228972858
* World Panorama (1933)
* The Vatican: Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow (1934)
* Iron, Blood, and Profits (1934)
* Sawdust Caesar (1935)
* Freedom of the Press (1935)
* Lords of the Press (1938)
* You Can't Do That (1938)
* The Catholic Crisis (1940)
* Witch Hunt (1940)
* The Facts Are... (1942)
* Facts and Fascism (1943)
* 1000 Americans: The Real Rulers of the U.S.A. (1947)
* The People Don't Know (1949)
* Tell the Truth and Run (1953)
* The Great Quotations (1961)
* Never Tire of Protesting (1968)
* Even the Gods Can't Change History (1976)
* Witness to a Century (1987)
* The Great Thoughts (1985) ISBN 0-345-40428-9
* The George Seldes Reader (1994) ISBN 1569800073

Anonymous said...

BP, TT, HBM, HOMER, MARGE, Ned Flanders, ... This is all you need.

#

George Seldes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Feb 3, 2009 ... George Seldes (16 November 1890 – 2 July 1995) was an influential American investigative journalist and media critic. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Seldes - 35k - Cached - Similar pages
#
George Seldes: Tell the Truth and Run

Eighty years a newspaperman, George Seldes was a noted foreign correspondent who became America's most important press critic. Through Seldes's encounters ...
www.brasscheck.com/seldes/ - 5k - Cached - Similar pages
#
A Brief Biography of George Seldes
The story of George Seldes is the story of the Twentieth Century. ... Because of his insistence upon writing the truth, George Seldes has been ignored by ...
www.brasscheck.com/seldes/bio.html - 30k - Cached - Similar pages
More results from www.brasscheck.com »
#
Books by George Seldes
Lords of the Press - 1938 - 430 pages
Witness to a Century: Encounters with the ... - 1988 - 548 pages
You Can t Print That the Truth Behind the News ... - 2004 - 475 pages

Anonymous said...

. Because of his insistence upon writing the truth, George Seldes has been ignored .

*

Yep, and 'truth' also got him blacklists by Joe McCarthy.

"Tell the TRUTH, but be ready to RUN like hell".

That's why its NICE to be anonymous, I'm too old to be running all the time.

Anybody that wants to know about 'real journalism', what is was really about, what it really meant, and where it went, read Seldes.

Bewert said...

RE: I'll probably have to buck up and join a couple of professional journalism associations as well.

*

A better bet would be to go to the library and read some George Seldes.

Think like 'Elvis' who responded in 1956 on why he shakes his ass when singing, ... "These days to make money or your self famous, you got to be different".

Belonging to good ol-boy clubs, and carrying their credentials is NOT how you'll make sure self famous in 2010.

Like the feminists say, "Good girls NEVER make history".

###

I mean for the purpose of getting credentials. That way I can go to court for Exec Session access if I get denied again.

Bewert said...

Probably these two if I'm going to be serious about it:

http://www.mediabloggers.org/
http://www.journalists.org/

tim said...

I'm stunned that people believe the water would go back down into the ground. Most of the mass of the grass is water. And why does the water need to be applied day in and day out? Because the leaves evaporate it.

That's the different between a lawn and a desert plant. Desert plants hold onto the water like crazy. Lawns evaporate it. If that weren't the case, the lawns would be stronger than the desert plants. Stop watering the damned lawn and tell me if that's true.

I don't think people believe this "percolates back down into the ground" shit. They just say it so they can keep doing it.

tim said...

In summary, grass sweats--it doesn't piss.

tim said...

Aside from BB2's new property and price change posts, BEBB has really dried up. Not a terrible thing, as I think BB2's posts are the raison d'être for that board.

Anonymous said...

HOMER THIS IS THE FUCKING NEWS OF THE DAY ... AMEX IS NOW PAYING PEOPLE TO CUT UP THEIR CARD ...

POLTGEIST .. THEY"RE COMING AND THEYRE HERE DUNC's worst fucking nightmare, ... overnight the fucking credit card goes away, ... cash society, .. who would have guessed????

AmEx Offers Some Holders $300 To Pay And Leave

CNNMoney.com - 1 hour ago
By Aparajita Saha-Bubna and Lauren Pollock American Express Co. (AXP) is offering a $300 incentive for customers to cancel their accounts as the card issuer and payments processor grapples with surging loan delinquencies and reduced card-member ...

Anonymous said...

DOW 7100 and dropping like a rock, ...

HELL DOW 4000, but then how low??

Want a good bet? A $20 gold piece in 1900 buys 1/2 of what it does today in one oz of gold @ $1k, and thus $2,000, compared to $20 100 years ago, that's 100X in dollar loss.

What is the REAL VALUE of the stock-market today in worthless dollars? Say compared to gold??

1932 @41, 2010 @4000, ... imagine that!

Anonymous said...

Aside from BEBB's new property and price change posts, BEBB has really dried up. Not a terrible thing, as I think BB2's posts are the raison d'être for that board.

*

It's BEBB apu, not bb2, ...

RDC fucked himself with is IP monitoring, and you used to be a hall monitor over there? What happened?

tim said...

Yeah, crap. I meant bendbb and bebb. Too many goddamned b's in Bend Blogging.

tim said...

>>RDC fucked himself with is IP monitoring, and you used to be a hall monitor over there? What happened?

If someone spends time writing a post that gets deleted, or posts in a thread that gets deleted, that person has very little incentive to keep posting.

It happened to me. I was posting in a thread that got axed. That's a waste of my time. I'm not willing to operate under those conditions.

tim said...

Same reason I hate Source board and stopped posting there. When I feel deletion is arbitrary and unpredictable, I lose the desire to post.

They can do what they like, but they'll do it without my participation.

Anonymous said...

Same reason I hate Source board and stopped posting there.

$$$

Yep, me too, I don't even bother, HBM says its switzer, but hell its HBM's sore-eye blog.

Yep, waste of time to comment, only to see it disappear, what's worse is when they leave the trivial dribble, that's really hard. They seem to like the inane blather comments that like 'Senator Smith is stupid' that shit will stand all day, but mention that the SORE controls all of the BEND events in partnership with Bill Smith, and paid for by MOSS-MDU, and that shit gets deleted.

Imagine that??? Who would have guessed?

I have never in my fucking life tried to post a comment at the BULL. Has anyone??

tim said...

>>I have never in my fucking life tried to post a comment at the BULL. Has anyone??

Haha. I just clicked on "sign up" and got this: "Unable to find web object file 'custservice/web/web-subscribe-online/login.html'"

Anonymous said...

Same reason I hate Source board and stopped posting there. When I feel deletion is arbitrary and unpredictable, I lose the desire to post.

*

Maybe BENDBB & HBM are the same person?? I mean arbitrary deletion?? WTF? Its truly childish.

It's there little 'FUCK YOU' to the opposition where they control there will world, trouble is MOST people only put up with that shit once, and ERGO the SORE just lost a reader.

Then the SORE&BULL wonder why they're BIZ MODEL is going the way of the Bend Dinosaur.

FUCK YOUR READER/CUSTOMER best way to build a biz in a depression.

Like the fucking AD's on the BULL/SORE 'viewers' AD's pay for VIEWERS, what does the BULL/SORE do? They drive viewers away, and the advertisers go away, ... who would have guessed.

Anonymous said...

Miss quoted home sales.

>>Feb 09 to date 42( the correct # is 37) sales. 12 Short sales and 13 bank owned. Must be around 70% roughly.<<<<

So it is over 70%.

tim said...

Marge, keep your calculator with you. 25/37~=0.68.

Bewert said...

Re: Marge, keep your calculator with you

###

Marge, Windows includes a calculator under All Programs->Accessories

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the info.

Bewert said...

BTW, I love your personal logo of Marge Gunderson ready to fire. Just for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJOwQJsFi9I

One of my favorite movies of all time.

Bewert said...

BTW, this is the scene where Mike admits to buying six Bend SDCs :)

Bewert said...

Rush is running scared.

My guess is that the next time the Pugs get into the White House we will see a serious effort to limit internet publishing access to those who can "afford". In a way not exactly egalitarian.

Anonymous said...

Me so fucking horny, so now its down to apu, marge, and smithers.

Help, find me a life.

Anonymous said...

Rising Star = Game Over

a few more people out of work and another empty building...that sucks.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Rising Star = Game Over

a few more people out of work and another empty building...that sucks.


I'm just curious when Mountain Comfort & Cascade Design Ctr (on auto row) will call it quits. Rest assured, both will.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...


My guess is that the next time the Pugs get into the White House we will see a serious effort to limit internet publishing access to those who can "afford". In a way not exactly egalitarian.


Dude, in 20 years we won't have to worry about that. It'll all be digital delivery.

Bewert said...

Re: Dude, in 20 years we won't have to worry about that. It'll all be digital delivery.

###

Yes. But who gets to be the publisher?

Fox and CNN?

Or you and me?

Anonymous said...

I'm just curious when Mountain Comfort & Cascade Design Ctr (on auto row) will call it quits. Rest assured, both will.

AUTO ROW? Where the fuck did you come from? Portland? Cali? Take your stupid trendy names and go back to where you came from.

Anonymous said...

Bruce, it's simple.

Liberals need better media leaders. While the NYT is falling apart in power and quality, the Wall Street Journal is digging in and getting ready to take them down.

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashrm.htm

Liberal talk radio has been an absolute embarrassment, with spin-offs from Air America and spinoffs from the spin-offs, all of them run by idiots. Self-inflicted wounds.

What liberals need to do is get their act together. The only reason you attack the conservatives so much is because the liberals are falling down on the job, media-wise. And that's an internal problem.

Settle down, your guy one. He's bailing out like crazy--that's what you ought to be worried about. Pay attention.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Take your stupid trendy names and go back to where you came from.

Uhhhh, settle down. I'm sorry Cascade Design Ctr is going down, and I'm sure you've sunk a lot into it... but it's going down.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

AUTO ROW? Where the fuck did you come from? Portland? Cali?

No to both. It's called HIGH SCHOOL, where 4 letter words abound. I actually learned to READ. Sorry, 4 letter word there, so you're probably getting confused and angry.

OK, here are some alternatives:

CAR ROAD
CAR PLACE
CAR EAST
CARS
OVER THERE
EAST OF ME

Sorry, could not get it down to 3 letter words. Just keep working on that GED, and pretty soon it'll all be clear.

LavaBear said...

>>>OK, here are some alternatives:

Auto Utopia.
We got cars.
No Money Down Drive.

LavaBear said...

Did Cracker Ass get some TARP? Up 30% to a whopping $1.41. Off the dollar menu.

Bewert said...

I'm talking simple access to publish, not the quality of what is published. There is a huge push to "control" the Internet for security reasons.

Libs have a problem being blowhards that spout things that simply are not true. Rush, Hannity, and O'Reilly don't, they can scream lies for those that want to believe. The Times problem is that it can't be critical of our special relationship with Israel, and this led it to be a leader in publishing neo-con lies.

And the Journal just published an op-ed by Rush. That marks the true start to the Murdoch era. 'Nuff said...

But access for the little people, for the Jesus General's and BB2's of the world, is going to be the real battle going forward. The little guys with heart and a cause scare the powerful.

Anonymous said...

>>Libs have a problem being blowhards that spout things that simply are not true.

The biggest problem with liberal radio is the business people running it.

Bewert said...

Now that idiot Dem from Portland trying to put a $50 a barrel is truly an idiot.

Bewert said...

...tax on beer...

Bewert said...

Vehicle Boulevard

Anonymous said...

Local real estate symposium brings a ‘reality check’

By Andrew Moore / The Bulletin
Published: February 24. 2009 4:00AM PST

A wholesale recovery in Bend’s real estate market is likely a ways off, but those that accept the difficulties may be better positioned to take advantage of opportunities, according to a few of the speakers at the 2009 Real Estate Forecast Breakfast held Monday at The Riverhouse Hotel & Convention Center in Bend.

Wendy Adkisson, the principal broker with The Garner Group in Bend, said her office has been busier in the first two months of this year than in the first four months of 2008, leading her to think that 2009 could be “the end of the worst of it.”

“I don’t want to say 2009 is a recovery year, but we’re hoping it will be marginally better than 2008 and (we’ll be) starting to see growth from there,” said Adkisson after the event.

The annual breakfast, organized by the Bend Chamber of Commerce, caused an uproar among some last year when one of the speakers, real estate appraiser Dana Bratton of the Bratton Appraisal Group in Bend, facetiously called for a recovery by April 24 of that year.

Adkisson, speaking after the event, said this year’s breakfast was “more conservative.”

“It was less about predictions … and more of a reality check, seizing the opportunities that are here today,” said Adkisson.

Bill Valentine, a wealth manager who owns and operates Valentine Ventures LLC in Bend, said in his address to the more than 300 guests that he doesn’t expect there to be material improvement in the real estate market for the next three years.

Valentine — who predicted a national real estate bubble in 2006 — said that he hopes his prediction is wrong. But he encouraged those in attendance to plan as if that were the case.

“You need to balance optimism with pragmatism,” said Valentine.

Bruce Kemp, the principal broker with Compass Commercial Real Estate Services of Bend, said the government’s ongoing passage of stimulus bills is not likely to lead to quick economic recovery. Reminding the audience of the wisdom in the parable about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish, Kemp said the stimulus bills amount to giving people fish and don’t do enough to incentivize the business growth needed to grow the economy. As a result, Kemp believes the stimulus bills are likely to lead to inflation that will affect the economy “with a vengeance” for the next decade.

Kemp said that real estate brokers should consider advising clients to purchase commercial real estate, which is a traditional hedge against inflation. He also recommended buying land, though he said banks are generally loath to make land loans in the current economic environment.

“So it has to be in cash, but if you can afford to hold it for five years, you will likely see the greatest (investment) returns,” said Kemp.

Steve Scott, a Realtor in Bend since 1974, drew on some of his experiences from his years as a Green Beret during the Vietnam War era to motivate the real estate professionals in the audience. Scott implored the audience to “stay alert to stay alive” and advised them to understand bad news but not internalize it.

“Make sure your expectations are in line with reality because you can fix it if you understand it,” said Scott. “You have to understand where you are to get to where you want to go.”

Scott also suggested some financing ideas that could help real estate brokers, such as promoting seller financing in some cases as an alternative to traditional loans underwritten by banks.

Valentine also offered words of encouragement for the gathered audience, stating that the more people can accept current valuations and market conditions, the better time they will have in getting on with their personal and professional lives.

“We will get through this as soon as we admit where we are,” said Valentine, before discussing the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

“I truly believe the next three years will be terrible, but if you can accept that, (you’ll be OK),” said Valentine, who added that doesn’t think the current downturn resembles anything like the Depression of the 1930s.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Home prices off record 18.5% in past year, data show

By Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch
Last update: 10:36 a.m. EST Feb. 24, 2009
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) --

Underscoring the widespread weakness in the U.S. housing market, home prices in 20 major cities dropped 2.5% in December from the prior month and were down a record 18.5% from the final month of 2007, according to the Case-Shiller home price index published Tuesday by Standard & Poor's.

Years of appreciation have been wiped out, with average home prices standing at levels similar to those seen late in 2003. Prices in eight of the areas are down more than 20% from the prior year. For the original 10-city index compiled by Case-Shiller, prices fell by a record 19.2% for the year, and by 2.3% in December.

"There are very few, if any, pockets of turnaround that one can see in the data," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's.

"Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path, with all of the 20 metro areas reporting annual declines, and eight of those now with negative rates exceeding 20%," he said.

Prices have fallen in all 20 cities compared with last month and a year ago. The largest declines in December and for the year were in Phoenix, with price drops of 5.1% and 34%, respectively. Las Vegas prices are down 33% from the prior year, and San Francisco prices are down 31%.

"Obviously these are the regions that saw the largest build up during the boom so it isn't surprising to see them hit the hardest on the way down," said Dan Greenhaus of the equity strategy group at Miller Tabak. "The unfortunate reality is that the 'way down' is impacting people who were either prudent in their housing choices or simply not involved at all to begin with. But as long as home prices continue to decline, and they should, prospective buyers have reason to stay on the sidelines."

Read why you should stay on the housing sidelines in 2009.

Read why now is a good time to buy a house.

Elsewhere Tuesday, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that prices on homes sold across the U.S. fell 8.2% in the fourth quarter from the year-earlier period and slid 3.4% from the third quarter. Prices have tumbled 10.9% from their April 2007 peak, FHFA said. The government survey, which reviews a broader geographical area than Case-Shiller, only covers conforming mortgages.
The White House recently unveiled a plan to help 9 million "at risk" homeowners modify their mortgages, and committed $75 billion of taxpayer money to back the initiative.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

There is a huge push to "control" the Internet for security reasons.

I think you're doing some demonizing of the other side. The idea that all RePug's are bloodthirsty lunatics out to take over the World is probably less accurate than you might think.

GeeDub doesn't AT ALL represent my political ideologies, despite the fact he is in my party.

Anonymous said...

Who's to say the stock market won't drop to 5000 or lower? - dunc

###

It will go to DOW 4000, and it may not return in your lifetime.

Want to make money?? Invest in yourself.

Buy your own building, and rent it to some idiot who will run a comic shop to the ground, and then re-cycle, ... with another idiot.

Thirty years ago my CPA told me to stay away from ALL IRA's and tax scams, they all tie up your money, most people draw early and get screwed ( pre 59 ), then when they do get old they get screwed when they don't withdraw, sure you can beat the system if you watch your dot's and cross your t's, but I'm an advocate of living your life and to HELL with the IRS tax code.

It's fairly clear that jesse, rdc, homer, ... are brokers, and thus need to have IDIOTS churn the stock market.

The greatest fortunes have been made in real estate.

The stock market is a rigged game, unless your doing new issues and selling paper to idiots. Unless your a broker and selling stock to idiots.

In the 1940's there was stock market book called "Where are the customers yachts", funny there wasn't any, but the brokers and stock houses the boss-hogg of the market ( like made-off ) all had yachts, ... funny then, funny now.

The great-depression saw the market collapse from 1929 until 1950, 21 fucking years. A whole generation stayed away from the beast.

AMNESIA.

Same today, if 911 2001 was the dot-com 1929, this amnesia will be at least 2021, which is about right for the begin of the next BULL.

AMNESIA.

Will dunc even be alive? Will most of the trades even be on the exchange? Today just picking companys that will survive is difficult.

Real Estate is 'REAL' don't forget it.

Today still most US stocks have paper IOU's backing their pension obligations ( think us auto ), 'mark to market' has not even begun, because the market is a DEN of liars, jess&rdc are a perfect example, just like our REHO's that pumped & dumped BEND RE.

Good luck.

DUNC tell us what PAIN you felt in 1983?? Did you even have a job?? What were you doing during that recession? Afraid?

Anonymous said...

No to both. It's called HIGH SCHOOL, where 4 letter words abound. I actually learned to READ. Sorry, 4 letter word there, so you're probably getting confused and angry.

HUH?

Yeah, HIGH SCOOL. Having read your stuff, that sounds about right.

Anonymous said...

There is a huge push to "control" the Internet for security reasons.

*

The 'huge push' is by the PUGS and the reason is to 'protect the children'.

I think it was 'emma goldman' who said in the 1920's, "every time I hear the MEN say 'were here to protect the women&children', I say HIDE".

Quite laughable that PUG's want to control the NET, in the name of protecting the children, when in FACT throughout US history PUGS like GayEdgarHoover were the biggest collectors of porn of all time. Look at Limbaugh, he's a copy of fatty-arbuckle, who went to prison for sticking a bottle up his boyfriends ass.

Anonymous said...

Two big bills going around right now, about NET

1.) First would require ALL ISP's to store ALL data for two years,... I see that one becoming infinite.

2.) Second is that all ISP's would be legally liable for the content of any email, that would in effect cause ISP's to deny TCP port 25/110,... given that it would be the only safe way to protect their liability from what their 'customer' sends to one another.

Big_Brother seems to be putting the SHIT on the ISP's, most of which are small in community's, and can't possibly store all 2yrs of data for all customers, but the COPS are demanding this be done for the reason of forensics. Of course once every ISP has the data and any cop shop can login in and preview the 'data', then there will be lots of fishing going on, ... like bank-accounts, ... history shows that when cops have access to personal data, that they always sell it on the open-market.

This is all of course bullshit, cuz actual people that really do BAD shit, know about PGP and how to use it on their email/browsing, so its only the common idiot that will be monitored.

Anonymous said...

. The idea that all RePug's are bloodthirsty lunatics out to take over the World is probably less accurate than you might think.

*

Well it is a simple fact that the PUG's HATE 'freedom of expression'.

The PUG's have always hated the 'aclu'.

The pug's have always promoted the continuous expansion of the prison-industrial-complex, who want absolute surveillance 24/7 on all ameriKKKans.

Since the 1960's I have always said that dArpa-NET TCP/IP would have people typing in their own dossiers. Sure enough.

Look at BEND, all the ASSHOLES in BEND are PUG's ( costa, ... moss, smith, ... )

LavaBear said...

>>>Look at BEND, all the ASSHOLES in BEND are PUG's ( costa, ... moss, smith, ... )

Can't we all get along? Today of all days the idiot pugs and libs should put the rhetoric aside and join the rest of us. It is a high Holiday you fuck nuts.

Bewert said...

This one's for Butter. Very creative body painting at Mardi Gras.

Anonymous said...

Cracker Ass bitch back in toilet, looks like they were back buying their own stock, or somebody ran up a squeeze, ... covering shorts??

No CARP today.

Anonymous said...

Truth is a funny thing, and most don't want the damn truth.

They want fiction, they want miracles, and they want easy answers.

Since the 1980's MOST USA corporations, ... like GM, GE, ... MOST didn't make money on product, US auto had been making 5% ROI on autos back in 1980's, and they found out in early 1980's that they could do 15% ROI on credit cards and loans. Auto found they could make more on credit than on manufacturing, and so did GE retail, so did everyone, ...

For 25 years credit was how people made money, lots of money, and the Stock Market loved the 15% ROI, that's 3X price right there on EPS ratio.

Then along comes the credit confidence collapse, and the entire house of cards collapses.

Bush paid for the IRAQ war by looting the social-security trust-fund and filling it with IOU's.

GE,GM,FORD, ... et-al got CASH to loan in the 1980's ... from 'borrowing from pension obligations' and filling with IOU's.

Today the problem with the Auto-Union is NOT big-auto BK, nobody gives a fuck, the problem is that PENSION obligation money is BEND-GONE. So the unions want OBAMA to use US taxpayer dollars to make good on 100's of billions of obligation. Yeh, right.

The stock market is FUCKED for years to come, the entire CREDIT scam is over for a long time. Sure they would like to 'fix' banking first, .e.g. put the credit-humpty back on the wall, but humpty is good and broken, and 'confidence' matters.

Like yesterday with HRC begging the Chinese to keep buying T-Bills, today even our BEST 'AAA' paper is look like 'bbb' by the rest of the world.

People like me bitched like hell in the early 1980's when this CASH to IOU conversion of private companys took place, two guys name 'Barlette & Steele' even wrote a book called "America, what went wrong' ( won a pulitzer for Philly reporting ) back in 1988 about the rape of the US PRIVATE pension system, what's most interesting is that it was financed by KKR, that used our own ORyGUN-PERS ( public employees union Oregon ) money to seed the KKR buyouts, so they could buy companys for almost zero down, and then raid the pension cash with IOU replacement, and then use that pension cash to buy more companys. So successful that KKR went on to become the #1 junk-bond firm in the world.

KKR made so much money that for almost ten years OR-PERS got a 15% return on public pension, it made Salem so fucking content that in the early 90's that passed a LAW guaranteeing PUBLIC employees a min of 8% FOREVER !!!! ( that didn't last long ) ...

Everybody loves a winner, so now its 25 yrs later, and the chickens are coming home to roost. Names like GM&GE are worthless, as well as FORD, and most of fortune 500 USA.

Nobody likes the truth, but its been there all along.

The funny thing today, given that PUBLIC-UNIONS robbed private-unions for the past 20+ years is that while states like cali go BK, is that there will be a call to bail-out public union obligations, ... but nobody will care, just like today, nobody cares that DETROIT big auto employees stood by and LET their pension cash be stolen years ago.

Malcolm-X always called this shit, "Just a case of chickens coming home to roost".

All is a ponzi US stocks, and BEND-RE, ...

Chickens are back, and for a long time.

Bewert said...

You know things are fucked up when

Poll: Politicians trusted more than business leaders on economy

By Paul Steinhauser
CNN Deputy Political Director

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Call it a sign of the times. A new national poll indicates that when it comes to dealing with the economy, Americans have more confidence in the White House and Congress than Wall Street, the banks or auto executives.

And that may be one reason why a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday suggests the public opposes plans to provide more taxpayer dollars to banks and major domestic automakers.

Thirty percent of those questioned said they're confident Wall Street will make the right decisions to help the country overcome the current recession. Slightly fewer -- 28 percent -- said they had such confidence in bankers and financial executives. And 26 percent said they're confident that auto executives will make the right economic decisions.

But 53 percent of those questioned said they have confidence in Republicans in Congress making the right calls regarding the economy. About 66 percent said they have confidence Democrats, who control Congress, will make the right economic decisions. And 75 percent said they think President Barack Obama will make the right moves when it comes dealing with the recession.

"You know times are tough when Republicans have more confidence in a Democratic president than they do in bankers or Wall Street investors, but that's what the poll is showing now," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Among Republicans, 37 percent say they are confident in Obama's ability to make the right economic decisions, but only 31 percent of Republicans feel that way about Wall Street."

"Labor union leaders don't fare badly either," said Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst. "Nearly half the public has confidence in them. But Wall Street investors? Bankers and financial executives? Auto company executives? No more than 30 percent have confidence in them.

"Right now, Americans trust political leaders more than business leaders. That's new and it has consequences."...

Anonymous said...

Let me understand. Businessmen lobbied the politicians to do what they wished, they did so, and now the public likes politicians more than businessmen??

Someone isn't asking the right questions.

How about tossing both party's out.

How about asking the people who are going to get the bill, fort the politicians 'spending frenzy' the businessman's extended credit party.

Great fodder for the pussy and CNN, trouble is confidence of congress is about as high as BUSH at low. The confidence of OREO is down 20 pts in a month, and will be below 50 by March.

Who is worse pols or biz? That's like saying who is worse foxes or wolves?

So fucking what.

Things will simply keep getting worse until all the people who caused the problems are flushed from the system, and that will take years.

Anonymous said...

Yep, its going to get real good in the future around here. Old Soros has no reason to lie, he's set, controlled by nobody.


Soros sees no bottom for world financial "collapse"


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis.

Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union.

He said the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September marked a turning point in the functioning of the market system.

"We witnessed the collapse of the financial system," Soros said at a Columbia University dinner. "It was placed on life support, and it's still on life support. There's no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom."

His comments echoed those made earlier at the same conference by Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who is now a top adviser to President Barack Obama.

Volcker said industrial production around the world was declining even more rapidly than in the United States, which is itself under severe strain.

"I don't remember any time, maybe even in the Great Depression, when things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world," Volcker said.

Anonymous said...

Good graph in todays WSJ pg c12,

From 2006 to 2008, "US corporate debt in default" has gone from $10B to $450B,

45X not bad, don't even think about 2009 it will be in the trillions,

Remember this all represents complete loss to investors.

How do you spell 'confidence' when in the fucking hell will it return??

Who in the fuck is going to LOAN $$$ to US corporations?? Ah, yes the government, nobody else will touch US toxic Corp's.

Ah, but keep hyping and selling their stock to the street.

Anonymous said...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis.

Well, as a certain old and dear friend of mine always used to say when things looked hopeless: "There's always the river."

Anonymous said...

GeeDub doesn't AT ALL represent my political ideologies, despite the fact he is in my party.

He may not represent YOUR ideology but he represents the ideology of the Republican Party from time immemorial -- enrich the rich, fuck everybody else, keep the country is continually at war to fatten the "defense" contractors.

Things the Republican Party has been against: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, Head Start, health care reform, the minimum wage, the right to unionize, anti-child labor laws, the 40-hour work week, anti-trust laws, the Pure Food and Drug Act, etc., etc., etc.

Things the Republican Party has been for: tax cuts for the 1-percenters, war.

There is NO PLACE in the Republican Party for a person of intelligence, honor and decency. None. Be an independent, be a Libertarian, be a Flat-Earther, but don't be a Republican.

Bewert said...

Sullenberger, a 58-year-old who joined a US Airways predecessor in 1980, told the House aviation subcommittee that his pay has been cut 40 percent in recent years and his pension has been terminated and replaced with a promise "worth pennies on the dollar" from the federally created Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. These cuts followed a wave of airline bankruptcies after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks compounded by the current recession, he said.

"The bankruptcies were used by some as a fishing expedition to get what they could not get in normal times," Sullenberger said of the airlines. He said the problems began with the deregulation of the industry in the 1970s.
...
The reduced compensation has placed "pilots and their families in an untenable financial situation, ... I do not know a single professional airline pilot who wants his or her children to follow in their footsteps."
...
Sullenberger's copilot Jeffrey B. Skiles said unless federal laws are revised to improve labor-management relations "experienced crews in the cockpit will be a thing of the past." And Sullenberger added that without experienced pilots "we will see negative consequences to the flying public."

Sullenberger himself has started a consulting business to help make ends meet. Skiles added, "For the last six years, I have worked seven days a week between my two jobs just to maintain a middle class standard of living."


###

HuffPo

Bewert said...

Wow, CACB was on a wild ride today, from 1.10 to 1.60, back down to 1.13, and then closing at 1.47. Kind of like a penny stock being manipulated...

Anonymous said...

Fairly interesting take that OBAMA has been handed the greatest power grab in USA story, will he run with it or stumble? Will he bring change, or Keep status-quo?


From Debtor nation to National Socialism

Feb 24, 2009

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Americans are beginning to absorb the sobering reality that the country's financial system is falling under government control. But how did we get here?
Chart of DJIA
What's happened to our economy and financial system is a once-in-a-lifetime event. We all sense what's happened, but in order to gauge how far we're fallen, we need to see the numbers.
Here are a selected few:

*
For the year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA:

DJIA, , ) is down 19% already this year, and off nearly 49% from its high.
*
Home prices have fallen for 28 consecutive months, and the S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price Index is off 19% in just the past year.
*
Wall Street -- brokers and firms of all sizes -- has lost about 100,000 jobs, more than 10% of its total workforce, during the last year. The national unemployment rate for all industries stands at 7.6%.
*
The best measure of our economic health, our gross domestic product, fell 3.8% in the fourth quarter, the fastest rate of decline since 1982. Business investment fell 19.1%, according to the Commerce Department.

We've been through this before. The stock-market crash of 1929 may be more familiar to us, but the current climate reminds history buffs more of 1837. In that panic, Americans lost faith in banks after an epidemic of real-estate speculation. Nearly half the nation's banks failed.
History is repeating itself. As a society, we put too much faith in credit and speculation, and not enough in the value of savings.
This is nothing new. The idea of profit without work is as old as money.
Where we are
As a consequence, there's been a power shift from Wall Street to Washington. In a symbol of how times have changed, remember that it was less than two years ago that the biggest issue surrounding regulations was how to eliminate them.
Since then, we've found out not only that we didn't have enough regulation but that the regulation we did have was woefully inadequate.

Now, the new administration has been asked by the country to create a new blueprint for the marketplace. To repeat a point I made Jan. 20, no new president in the modern era, save for Franklin Roosevelt, has been handed an opportunity like this to remake almost every part of the market.


The Obama administration will decide everything from who lives and dies to what rules the survivors will play by. See earlier column.
Job No. 1 on the agenda is fixing the banking system by valuing toxic assets.
Valuing assets has been the rub at the center of this crisis since it erupted 18 months ago. Once we assign a value to the unknown -- whether it be 50 cents on the dollar, nothing on the dollar, or a dollar on the dollar -- we will have turned the corner on the banking crisis and the economic crisis.
Though we're just getting used to the idea of nationalization, the big banks have had their decision-making processes nationalized for months now. Safe to say the decisions made at big U.S. banks like Bank of America Corp. (BAC:

BAC 4.73, +0.82, +21.0%) and Citigroup Inc. (C:
Citigroup Inc
News , chart , profile , more
Last: 2.60+0.46+21.50%
4:00pm 02/24/2009
C 2.60, +0.46, +21.5%) are being handed down from the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department.
We've also discovered that there aren't any smart guys anymore.

There's no more Bill Millers able to beat the S&P 500 Index year after year. Jimmy Cayne, who was Wall Street's first billion-dollar CEO at Bear Stearns Cos., is out of a job, and his firm has collapsed. He's not alone. A dozen CEOs and chairmen have been ousted from financial firms in the last two years.
Even Warren Buffett has lost his touch: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA:
Berkshire Hathaway Inc
News , chart , profile , more
Last: 79,900.00+4300.00+5.69%

BRKA 79,900.00, +4300.00, +5.7%) is down 22% from its high.


For all of the system's problems, lavish rewards and misplaced responsibility, our stubborn belief that some people can outsmart the market did give us one thing we don't have now: confidence.
Today, investors have no faith in their existing leaders. The image of the sophisticated Wall Street tycoon is gone. Combined with those great alleged-Ponzi-scheme artists Bernie Madoff and Robert Allen Stanford, investors have gone from a false sense of security to a paralyzing fear of an unpoliced and, worse, predatory marketplace.
Where we're going
In a way, that lack of confidence will extend to the marketplace in the future. Strategists and analysts say we can expect six to 12 months of worsening market conditions and more credit tightening. Those strategists and analysts have been wrong. Certainly, they don't deserve our blind faith, but it's not hard to see those circumstances playing out.
In that climate, it's easy to see U.S. banks that pose a threat to the system either being nationalized or broken up, if not both. Expect to see government intervention with the auto industry, too.
For investors, taking risks in the markets is no longer going to be an option available to all players. Already, hedge funds are finding margins hard to come by, and trading desks at big firms are shrinking.
The ability to trade with other people's money is going to come at a premium.

But make no mistake: There will be winners in all of this. There are opportunities. Investors will find the next technology or model that will profit amid the lull.

For the business of Wall Street it may be small firms, well-run banks like BB&T Corp. (BBT:
BB&T Corporation
News , chart , profile , more
Last: 16.88+2.08+14.05%
4:02pm 02/24/2009

BBT 16.88, +2.08, +14.1%) or Wells Fargo Corp. (WFC:
Wells Fargo & Company
News , chart , profile , more
Last: 13.05+2.02+18.31%
4:00pm 02/24/2009

WFC 13.05, +2.02, +18.3%) , or hedge funds that seize the day. Maybe it'll come in private equity. Rest assured someone on Wall Street is working on a new model right now.

It may take a long time to get there, but the long-term future looks brighter. End of Story

Anonymous said...

The stock-market crash of 1929 may be more familiar to us, but the current climate reminds history buffs more of 1837.

In that panic, Americans lost faith in banks after an epidemic of real-estate speculation. Nearly half the nation's banks failed.

[ CONFIDENCE MATTERS. It really is/was real money. ]


History is repeating itself. As a society, we put too much faith in credit and speculation, and not enough in the value of savings.

[ Yep, ... Play now pay later, but is it really over?? ]

This is nothing new.

The idea of profit without work is as old as money.

[ Never been hard to separate a fool from his money. ]

Anonymous said...

For all of the system's problems, lavish rewards and misplaced responsibility, our stubborn belief that some people can outsmart the market did give us one thing we don't have now: confidence.

[ There's that word 'confidence' why do they call it a 'confidence' scam? ]

Today, investors have no faith in their existing leaders. The image of the sophisticated Wall Street tycoon is gone.

Combined with those great alleged-Ponzi-scheme artists Bernie Madoff and Robert Allen Stanford, investors have gone from a false sense of security to a paralyzing fear of an unpoliced and, worse, predatory marketplace.

[ Yep, the post 1980's 401k was looted under your fucking nose, and you came back for more. The HOMER's, and RDC's, and Jesse's, such sold and sold the market, but it was always worthless paper. ]

Anonymous said...

Michael Silverstein, the self-appointed poet of Wall Street, provided multiple stanzas from his own pen that attempt to make art of today's economic tragedies. Here's my favorite below; the rest can be found at on his Web site. Go to Silverstein's site.
"Their quantity of earnings is not strained / A droppeth in their comp'ny's stock, though brutal, / Toucheth not those above; comp here's twice blessed; / It bloateth in good times and when sales tank; / It's embedded for the embedded; it rewards / Enthroned execs better than a crown ..."
Others chose to update the classics. A reader who goes by the handle "FrancSwiss" modified a famous line from "Henry V": "The first thing we do, let's kill all the bankers and politicians and take over the Federal Reserve Banks."
"Runningstops" wrote "neither a borrower or lender be -- but trade puts and calls."
But the most appropriate line may have been the one from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" recited by "ParisianRefugee": "Lord, what fools these mortals be." End of Story

Anonymous said...

#
Keep your hands off your traditional IRA or 401(k) until the very last moment. "You'll not only have to pay taxes on those withdrawals, but you'll also pay penalties," says Mr. Houston. "You'll lose all of the compounding interest and yield. Plus, the probability of you replacing those dollars down the road is pretty remote, since the tendency for most is to spend instead of replace."
#

People quite often like 'dunc' yesterday going on about IRA's ( or equiv ), but the government has it setup very nice, for BAD economy's people will TAP this money, and end up PAYING MORE tax, rather than had they never put money into these tax-traps.

Just a fact and something to think about, when the 'experts' start talking about what they're doing with their money.

If there's ANY chance in hell that you'll need the fucking money, don't put it into an IRA (or equiv).

Bewert said...

Update on BULL campaign ad:

Hi Bruce,

I haven't forgotten you. This is the scoop so far. I spoke with Troy Reinhart, treasurer for Bend Business PAC, this morning. He seems to have forgotten the details of what transpired last October, so he said he would contact Jennifer High, who is the one who enters the transactions into Orestar for the committee. She was supposed to call me today. However, she has not, so I am planning to send an email to her before I leave today. I will forward it to you. I have an email address for Jennifer but not a phone number.

This much I know - According to Mr. Reinhart, the Bend Bulletin did get paid for the ad. Therefore, this transaction (491087) cannot be an in-kind contribution from the Bend Bulletin. I am still trying to find out who wrote the check.

Nancy Ferry

Bewert said...

I have to admit that "forgetting the details" of the largest transaction in an organization's history is rather "interesting"....

Bewert said...

Anybody that knows Jennifer High, please forward me her phone number.

Anonymous said...

Jennifer High

( Looks like Roseberg/Umpqua connection, to COBA, IMHO )

Expenditure/Account Payable Filed Date : 08/30/2007 01:19 PM
Transaction Sub Type : Cash Expenditure Exam Letter Date : 09/13/2007
Payment Method : Check Check : 201
Amount : $317.84 Aggregate : $367.84
Interest Rate : Repayment Schedule :
Description : Hotel for Campaign School $195.80 and Wage Reimbursment Jennifer High $122.04
Agent : Process Status : Complete
Purpose : Travel Expenses (need description); Wages, Salaries, Benefits

Address Book Information
Address Book Type : Business Entity
Name : Central Oregon Builders Association
Address : 61396 South Hwy. 97 Suite 203 Bend OR 97702

Anonymous said...

Jennifer High at 541-672-1277.

Bewert said...

Thanks for that number. I forwarded it to the SoS.

More, from the SoS:

Dear Ms. High:

Re: Bend Business PAC (6024)

This is Nancy at State Elections. I spoke with Mr. Reinhart today concerning the political committee, Bend Business PAC. There are some issues that need clarification concerning past transactions and he did not have all the answers. He said he would contact you to call me, but I did not hear from you so I am writing this email. Here is a copy of the email I sent him yesterday:

"Dear Mr. Reinhart: A citizen in Bend has emailed questions to me pertaining the Bend Business PAC's financial transactions. He questioned the in-kind contributions to the four city councilors from Bend Business PAC for newspaper advertising in the amount of $1,000 each. I looked at all four of the city councilor committees and they have correctly reported the in-kind transaction from your pac. However, I am somewhat confused by how you reported the $4,000 transaction. You have reported this as a $4,000 contribution to Bend Business PAC (transaction 491087). Who actually paid for the ad? Did you write a check out to the Bend Bulletin or to the Iverson Group to pay for the ad? Did anyone pay for it? Did the Iverson Group pay for it and not charge your pac? Did the Bend Bulletin run the ad and not charge anyone? Please let me know what actually happened so I an ascertain whether this transaction is reported correctly. Also, I noticed that there have been no transactions in your committee since the end of October 2008. Is this correct? Has there been no activity, not even bank charges? Send an email to my attention or call me at 503-986-1518. Thank you. Nancy Ferry"

When I spoke to Mr. Reinhart today, he said that the Bend Bulletin did get paid for this ad. Therefore, it cannot be an in-kind contribution to your committee from the Bend Bulletin. I can help you amend the transaction but I need to know what happened first.

Also, I noted that you are not listed as an alternate transaction filer or a data entry person for this committee. That is something we need to fix as well and probably update the statement of organization.

Thank you for your consideration,

Nancy Ferry

### and ###

I just forwarded you a copy of the email I sent to Jennifer High. Let's see if I get a response. The only phone number listed on the statement of organization is for the Bend Chamber of Commerce. Yet when I called there I was told that Troy Reinhart works for NW Quadrant Wealth Management/Bill Moore and Associates, and they gave me a totally different phone number. But I do have addresses and if we need to do a formal investigation, I will get what I need.

Nancy

Bewert said...

I'll call Ms. High myself in the AM, but right now I'm going to take my sorry sick ass to bed early.

Bewert said...

Google: Phonebook results for 541-672-1277

GE High (541) 672-1277 210 Barberry Ln, Roseburg, OR 97471

Hmmm....

Bewert said...

Andy High - Director of Government Affairs, Central Oregon Builders Association

As Director of Government Affairs with COBA, Andy is responsible for tracking the counties of Harney Jefferson, Crook and Deschutes, and the 27 cities and special disctrict that fall within those counties. He represents the building community before government and actively promotes home ownership opportunities throughout Central Oregon. He has worked for Senator Gordon Smith’s 2002 campaign and for Oregon House Majority Leader Tim Knopp. In 2004 he began work in the private sector until 2006 when he assumed his current position with the Central Oregon Builders Association. Andy was born in Klamath Falls, Oregon and is a graduate of Western Oregon University. He and his wife Jennifer reside in Bend with their 20 month old son.

###

Now it's making sense.

Anonymous said...

Think about Umqua, and Roseberg.

Think about Ford one of the richest people in Oregon. Majority stock holder in Oregon's chosen bank "Umqua Bank".

For owns billions of dollars of old growth in SW oregon.

Umqua Bank owns tons of non-performing assets in BEND, think about sending in their own hit men whose job is to 'fix Bend'. What better way than to load city hall.

Think about Smith, of Pendleton, NE Oregon richest man in that part of the State, working with Ford the richest man in SW Oregon. All for the common good of the party.

Where did the $100k that COBA/COAR got to feed the recent election come from? I would be Ford of Umpqua Bank.

Anonymous said...

Ford owns billions of dollars of old growth in SW oregon.

Bewert said...

Daily update is up at http://bend-gazette.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

It's laughable that Andy High is doing Jeebus's work over in Roseberg ( FORD/UMQUA-BANK/ROSEBERG LUMBER COUNTRY), and at the same time COBA suggest he lives in 'BEND'. Quite laughable. Especially since his phone number is listed for Roseberg.

...

The Oregon Catalyst - Entries from September 2007
Roseburg is considering a new tact on stopping roadside sign-wielding panhandlers. ... by Andy High Tuesday, September 25. 2007 ... both of the Republican High Tech Task Force, called for immediate action to permanently ban taxes on ...
www.oregoncatalyst.com/index.php?/archives/2007/09.html -

Anonymous said...

YEP NO BETTER PERSON TO RUN CITY-HALL & FRONT for one of the richest men in ORYGUN (FORD), who just happens to have lost his arse in BEND-RE. NOTE BP, with UMPQUA-BANK you have 'entered' bank-mob hit country, your on thin ice.


Now is a good time to buy a home! Digg Now is a good time to buy a home! Technorati Now is a good time to buy a home!

by Andy High Tuesday, September 25. 2007
Are housing consumers suffering from some form of “market psychosis”?

During the recent boom years in 2003-2005, sellers were calling the shots – dictating prices and terms to multiple bidders who were knocking down their doors in many markets.

Today, with the real estate market slowing in many parts of the country, all the market fundamentals show that buyers are now in the driver’s seat. Consider the facts: prices are competitive, interest rates are very affordable, there are plenty of homes in all price ranges to choose from and sellers are ready to bargain.

So why are many prospective home buyers having second thoughts?

Anonymous said...

Response to Andy High's stupid fucking rhetorical question ... ( PUG THINK )


Honestly, I think many people aren't buying due to the stagnation. Many people bought homes to live in but also as investment, then they rolled their equity into car, vacations, boats e.g. toys....

You can't do that anymore so many people are opting for renting. The above is also a huge reason for the current foreclosure rates. Many people don't have the equity left in their homes to refinance to a conventional loan, anyone who has ever done a refi knows that you can use your equity to do so.

This is a good time to buy a home if your reasoning is to live in it, if not it might be worth renting and saving the extra housing costs. Such as Insurance, upkeep, sewer, water and sanitation (many rentals offer those as part of rent) etc....
#1 CRAWDUDE on 2007-09-25 09:46 (Reply)
Ah the usual high-pressure sales pitch. First, I never bought into the line of “tax savings “and “throwing away money by renting”. There is some times where the most prudent thing to do is to rent and remain finically sound than to buy in to the market and end up over ones head as so many during this sub prime fiasco.

Thee also other issues once that are close to me. First, there are our friends at Metro. Thanks to their Stalinists urban growth planning there, no options for a single persons like me. Housing prices here in Portland are astronomical I cannot find anything under 300,000 for a real house with a degree of privacy. Other option the Metro Stazi are shoving down our throats in the Tansaborne /Hillsboro area are nothing more than Communist East German block hosing with more prettier fronts. No way I am going to live in a Row House and the no sense in buying a condominium or mobile home due any finical benefits are lost due to HOA rents and falling values. The most prudent thing here is for me to pack up my gear and get the heck out of Ore-gone
#2 Richard Brown on 2007-09-25 09:51 (Reply)
i'm a single person and i bought a home in march in a 'up and coming neighborhood' seeing very quick improvements and changes. i paid 225k for a 2100 sf classic home with a 5200 sf lot that has a completely private yard. 1100 sf main floor, 300 sf finished attic, 700 sf basement. its in good, move in ready condition. the homes are out there and available now, but it does take some searching to find them.

but again, metro and the ugb has a minimal impact on prices. the entire country saw housing go skyward and out of control. many many cities without land use controls saw prices sky rocket. seattle, spokane, tri-cities, boise, all in the west, all saw double digit appreciation increases. small communities in oregon without UGB's have seen prices soar. there are so many factors that caused it. the UGB may be an easy target because its talked about so much, but it really has a minimal impact on the prices.
#3 Captain_Anon on 2007-09-25 10:17 (Reply)
There are a couple reasons I don't care for Metro or the UGB but housing prices aren't one of them. The UGB guarantees the houses most people can afford will have little or no yards to them, downtown you are actually zoned to build on 2500 sq, ft.....yikes!

I actually bought a small house on a huge lot 7 years ago, anticipating the artificial land crunch. Heck, my lot is worth almost as much as what I paid for everything.

I personally don't see a problem with sprawl, usually the only ones who I ever hear are opposed to it are in towners who want everyone/thing scrunched together. Whether that's a good thing or not I don't know, probably just a matter of opinion.

I'll sit in this house 4 ten more years, retire, make a huge profit on it's sale and boogie to another place. Right now I have enough equity to buy twice the house as I want back in Minnesota and still have some left over. In ten years I should have enough to buy the house there and a condo in Florida (for the winter).............hey, wait a minute I DO LIKE THE UGB! In fact we need a smaller one!
#3.1 CRAWDUDE on 2007-09-25 10:32 (Reply)
I lived in Rick creek areafor 10 years all I am seeing is open spaces plowed over for Condos and Row Houses. There once was a farm at Willow Creek Station not it all apartments and condos. Even the large houses do not have any privacy. I can stand between two homes and stretch my arms and touch the walls.

Five Years ago my sister bought the mirror image of the same home my former pastor bought in the Tri-Cities, she paid 170,000 but the pastor paid 270,000. I believe the UGB and metros centralized planninghas a lot to do with it.
#3.2 Richard Brown on 2007-09-25 13:39 (Reply)
I lived in Rock creek area for 10 years all I am seeing is open spaces plowed over for Condos and Row Houses. There once was a farm at Willow Creek Station now it all apartments and condos. Even the large houses do not have any privacy. I can stand between two homes and stretch my arms and touch the walls.

Five Years ago my sister bought the mirror image of the same home my former pastor bought in the Tri-Cities, she paid 170,000 but the pastor paid 270,000. I believe the UGB and metros centralized planning has a lot to do with it.

Edited
#3.2.1 Anonymous on 2007-09-26 08:28 (Reply)
Your ignorance of real estate and economics once again shines forth. Congratulations, however, on a good buy.
#3.3 Ted Kennedy's Liver on 2007-09-25 15:51 (Reply)
http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/19/real_estate/steep_home_price_drops_coming/index.htm?postversion=2007091915

Check out this article and then tell me it's a good time to buy. The housing market is NOT nearing the bottom. Even NAR officials and homebuilder CEO's have been saying that there's a good possibility that the market won't recover until '09.
#4 E.P. on 2007-09-25 10:51 (Reply)
I wouldn't buy right now unless it was a very good deal.
#4.1 CRAWDUDE on 2007-09-25 11:05 (Reply)
If you are an unsophisticated investor buying a house as an investment, it is not a good time to buy. Sophisticated investors can make money in any market because they know it's about terms, not price, and they do not let emotion enter into the deal.

If you are buying a house to live in, it's always a good time to buy, as long as you plan on living there for at least three years.
#5 Ted Kennedy's Liver on 2007-09-25 15:55 (Reply)
I noticed the author couldn't help dragging out that "small down" nonsense. What planet are you on? The mini down payment deals are no longer being written. Lenders are demanding income and asset documentation, clean credit reports, and decent size down payments.
#6 Bad Boy Brown on 2007-09-27 18:15 (Reply

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