Sunday, February 1, 2009

Cascade Bancorp Seized By Regulators

I think one commenter put it best, we're seeing "The End of Days".

Over 2 years ago, when I picked up BEM's mantle, and started this blog, I only knew a few things:

  • We were at or near the top of the biggest Bubble of all time
  • Bend was one of the most heavily participating cities in the country
  • It would all end badly
But a lot of people like OR economist Tim Duy were still saying that things "could be" OK, or they might not be completely "OK", but there will be nothing catastrophic.

But I think the World is coming around to this blog & it's commenters way of thinking, that this thing is going to be disastrous. That this thing will redefine Moore's Law, and everything that can go wrong will go horribly wrong. And a whole bunch of stuff we never even thought about in the early days, will also go wrong.

Because if there is one thing we're all learning, implosions don't go "according to plan". "Project Management" won't help you during a catastrophe. Neither will Positive Thinking. In fact, positive thinking which leads to positive action can hurt you BADLY in many ways in our current circumstances.

And of course, that is exactly what we are seeing. Jay Audia being a prime example, among others. THIS is Not the time to be "Optimistic". We've got a ways to go.

And from the headline, you can see I've "taken a page" from The Bulletin, and put a somewhat misleading headline on this weeks post. Well, sorta, kinda. As the Bulletin always does. We will see CACB seized by bank regulators, sooner or later. NOW is the time to extract your funds. NOW.
CACB, 5 days

CACB is finally having it's Day of Reckoning; a time when we all realize that this Big Behemoth that represents our Diabolical Corporate Levaithan, is really just a decent sized fish in a very, Very small pond. CACB, while Big To Bendites, is Dogshit on a Shingle to the rest of the World, and the banking federales will have no compunction about swooping in and closing this beast one lovely Friday Morning.

In fact this past Friday, the FDIC saw fit to close 3 middling banks, but there was one point of interest in these closures: When shuttering the Magnet Bank in Salt Lake City, the FDIC found itself unable to find anyone willing to simply assume this business:

Utah's MagnetBank closed without an acquirer

FDIC shuts down three banks in one day amid ongoing credit crisis
By John Letzing, MarketWatch
Last update: 6:42 p.m. EST Jan. 30, 2009


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Federal regulators closed three banks in a single day Friday, as the ongoing credit crisis showed no signs of abating.

Utah's MagnetBank became the fourth bank failure of the year, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was forced to directly refund depositors after being unable to find another institution willing to take over its operations.

That marked the first time the FDIC has been unable to find an acquirer for a failed bank in nearly five years, according to FDIC spokesman David Barr. "This bank did not have an attractive franchise value, and not many retail deposits or core deposits," Barr said. The FDIC had conducted an extensive marketing process for the bank's assets, he said.

Salt Lake City-based MagnetBank had total assets of $292.9 million as of Dec. 2, and
$282.8 million in total deposits. "It is estimated that the bank did not have any uninsured funds," the FDIC said in a statement.

The FDIC later said it has also closed Maryland-based Suburban Federal Savings Bank, and Florida's Ocala National Bank.

Suburban Federal had total assets of roughly $360 million as of Sep. 30, and total deposits of $302 million, the FDIC said in a statement. Tappahannock, Va.-based Bank of Essex agreed to assume all of the failed bank's deposits, the FDIC said.

Ocala National had $223.5 million in total assets as of Dec. 31, and $205.2 million in total deposits, the FDIC said. Winter Haven, Fla.-based CenterState Bank has agreed to assume all of the failed bank's deposits.

The closures mark the fourth, fifth and sixth bank failures of 2009, bringing the total to 31 since the start of the credit crisis.

The FDIC can almost always find someone willing to take over a banks operations. Almost Always. It's like getting the customers for free. All the bad stuff is wiped out. You just get a whole bunch of customers for almost nothing, and since they are free, you can cherry-pick and get rid of the crap, by imposing onerous fees, etc.

What will be interesting to see, is if they can find a buyer for poor, sad little Cracker Ass Cracker Broke. Let's face it, CACB does have a decent presence in this dust-ridden shithole. But that's about it. What we're seeing with Magnet Bank in UT is just the beginning; banking seems to be a business model that is again on the brink of complete failure.

We saw this in the early 90's. Of course, we saw it en masse during the Depression. Banking is a business model that simply is compelled to undo itself.

To become big, you must take risks & leverage to the hilt. You must participate in the bubble du jour, you must. Or you won't get big. But once the soup goes cold, you face calamitous implosion. And you are once again a nobody.

Unless. Unless you can convince someone that you are Too Big To Fail. Then you receive Corporate Welfare, your corpse has new life breathed into it, and you go on your merry way, doing as you've done before, driven towards ever-larger temporary Bubble-fueled successes and subsequent Taxpayer-fueled failure-bailouts. Always becoming Ever Too Big To Fail.

Which is where we are writ large. We've done this so often with banks, that it has now spread to autos. But NOT one auto maker. It's the industry that is failing. Like banks. It's the whole edifice that is crumbling. We can't move to another part of the cliff face & be safe, the whole thing is crumbling.

And so shall pass our "Civilization". America. This crazy 200+ year experiment seems to be itself collapsing. Like Krugman says: This isn't cyclical, this is structural. There is a fundamental flaw that seems to have rendered Unbridled Capitalism as a system with no fundamental equilibrium point. The pendulum swings. But the force of the feedback mechanism (Greed) is rendering the entire structure supporting the pendulum, unstable.

We've exceeded the engineering specs of capitalism. hbm may be right: Unbridled capitalism undoes itself. This got me to reading Marx:

Political economy

Marx argued that this alienation of human work (and resulting commodity fetishism) functions precisely as the defining feature of capitalism. Prior to capitalism, markets existed in Europe where producers and merchants bought and sold commodities. According to Marx, a capitalist mode of production developed in Europe when labor itself became a commodity—when peasants became free to sell their own labor-power, and needed to do so because they no longer possessed their own land. People sell their labor-power when they accept compensation in return for whatever work they do in a given period of time (in other words, they are not selling the product of their labor, but their capacity to work). In return for selling their labor power they receive money, which allows them to survive. Those who must sell their labor power are "proletarians". The person who buys the labor power, generally someone who does own the land and technology to produce, is a "capitalist" or "bourgeois". The proletarians inevitably outnumber the capitalists.

Marx distinguished industrial capitalists from merchant capitalists. Merchants buy goods in one market and sell them in another. Since the laws of supply and demand operate within given markets, a difference often exists between the price of a commodity in one market and another. Merchants, then, practise arbitrage, and hope to capture the difference between these two markets. According to Marx, capitalists, on the other hand, take advantage of the difference between the labor market and the market for whatever commodity is produced by the capitalist. Marx observed that in practically every successful industry input unit-costs are lower than output unit-prices. Marx called the difference "surplus value" and argued that this surplus value had its source in surplus labour, the difference between what it costs to keep workers alive and what they can produce.

Capitalism is capable of tremendous growth because the capitalist can, and has an incentive to, reinvest profits in new technologies and capital equipment. Marx considered the capitalist class to be the most revolutionary in history, because it constantly improved the means of production. But Marx argued that capitalism was prone to periodic crises. He suggested that over time, capitalists would invest more and more in new technologies, and less and less in labor. Since Marx believed that surplus value appropriated from labor is the source of profits, he concluded that the rate of profit would fall even as the economy grew. When the rate of profit falls below a certain point, the result would be a recession or depression in which certain sectors of the economy would collapse. Marx thought that during such a crisis the price of labor would also fall, and eventually make possible the investment in new technologies and the growth of new sectors of the economy.

Marx believed that increasingly severe crises would punctuate this cycle of growth, collapse, and more growth. Moreover, he believed that the long-term consequence of this process was necessarily the enrichment and empowerment of the capitalist class and the impoverishment of the proletariat. He believed that were the proletariat to seize the means of production, they would encourage social relations that would benefit everyone equally, and a system of production less vulnerable to periodic crises. In general, Marx thought that peaceful negotiation of this problem was impracticable, and that a massive well-organized violent revolution would be required, because the ruling class would not give up power without struggle. He theorized that to establish the socialist system, a dictatorship of the proletariat - a period where the needs of the working-class, not of capital, will be the common deciding factor - must be created on a temporary basis. As he wrote in his "Critique of the Gotha Program", "between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat."[24] While he allowed for the possibility of peaceful transition in some countries with strong democratic institutional structures (such as Britain, the US and the Netherlands), he suggested that in other countries with strong centralized state-oriented traditions, like France and Germany, the "lever of our revolution must be force."[25]

Marx has a fairly compelling arguments here. The decline of Unions, the rise of vast capitalist fortunes. A lot seems to be going according to Marxist plans here.

But there is one problem with the Marxist thought of 150 years ago, and today: We have lowered the barrier to capitalist entry so low, that everyone is a Capitalist Proletariat.

Realtors. Graphic Designers. Web engineers. Even traditional employees. How many people do you know who have held their current position over 10 years? I never have.

Marx said that politicos & proletarians would ultimately revolt against capitalism. But who do we revolt against? The division is so unclear, that like a terrorist cell, it's hard to figure out who the enemy really is.

So we are headed towards something. I almost feel a sense of melancholy, watching as my beloved Capitalism dies a slow torturous death. Will it arise someday for my kids? Maybe. But it seems clear to me, that during the remainder of my working productive years, something will take its place.

I don't think it will be straight up Marxist Communism. But it will be governmentally managed. The Invisible Hand will be cuffed. We'll become more like Italy or (gag) France. We'll bleed the patient with leeches to ensure This Never Happens Again. Cure worse than the disease, as is the way in circumstances like this.

Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Nobody told me there'd be days like these
Strange days indeed, strange days indeed

... most peculiar mama

Moving on....

I've found myself headed towards the business listings on craiglist. The Bulletin will not tell us The Bad News of small and middling businesses closing, and so we have to rely on the businesses themselves. And many will either come right out and tell you that they are closing their doors:

The Children's Boutique on Kearney Ave is going out of business!

everything is for sale, even the fixtures.

I have two cash registers, credit card machines, slatwall, tagging supplies and more.
come by and see what we have. Last day Feb 10th

The Children's Boutique
325 ne Kearney
(across from Taco Bell)

385-1168

Or you can sift through the vast picked-over carcasses of your favorite ex-retailer. There's a lot of stuff there. If you have a urgent fundamental need, you can get pretty good deals there. Not great, cuz after all, This Is Bend.

But people like Dunc, and other survivors can outfit the current shop at fairly decent prices.

Of course I raise my usual caveat: Don't Buy Anything Unless You Absolutely Have To. We are in what Krugman calls a deflationary spiral. Cash is becoming worth more, the stuff we bought on the way up like homes, cars, fake titties, Hummers, Volo, City Council Seats, CACB shares, botox, and the rest is becoming worth-less. OK, I can't resist re-prodicing a short reprint of Krugmans Dead On Analysis:

Nobel economist: 'Not your father's recession'

Krugman has a recurring economic nightmare involving a syndrome called a deflationary trap, something that could conceivably last a decade. "This has me very frightened," he says, "and it's just starting to get under way."

Deflation, the opposite of inflation, means that prices fall -- which might strike shoppers as a good deal. But as prices drop, consumers hold onto their money in hopes of even better bargains.

Reduced demand sends prices lower, triggering a downward spiral as factories close, employment shrinks and loans default. Pay cuts mean that homeowners, who thought rising incomes would reduce the bite of their mortgages, instead see their house payments effectively increase, boosting their debt load.

Japan suffered a lost decade or more to deflation after its 1980s economic bubble burst. Krugman says the current recession has disturbing parallels.

During Inflation, your money becomes worth-less, and so it is best employed in real goods. Holding cash simply impoverishes you. Deflation is the opposite: Holding onto your money and not spending it increases your wealth. It is the unfortunate side-effects that collapse the economy.

And spending DOES NOT REVERSE THE PROCESS. Same as holding cash during inflation doesn't STICK IT TO THE MAN or some such. You can't "reverse" deflation by spending. It's not an Entity, it's a state.

This brings me to my final thought: BEDROCK. Seems like people are starting to wonder if there is a "base" to this collapse. Is there a bottom. Will we ever stop falling?

I guess Great Minds Think Alike as Dunc had a recent post on this topic:

It's the psychology, stupid.

To follow up on the previous post, I'm starting to look at the psychology of the consumer again.

While I wouldn't put in the dire terms that Buster put in the comments, there is a fine line between having a wounded consumer and a mortally wounded consumer. To my mind, it's better to be informed and skeptical, but not panicked.

Last night, I began wondering about all those people who have secure jobs, or relatively secure jobs. This is probably the majority, even the vast majority of consumers.

But they've cut back, nevertheless. It's a natural response. But most of them are still coming in and getting their favorite comics, or buying a book, or pulling the trigger for a toy that wows them.

What would be very dangerous is if they didn't just cut back, but stopped spending altogether.

I think that's what all the stimulus package talk is all about. Maybe Buster is right, and little of it will reach Bend in truth. But as long as the 'impression' is out there that SOMETHING is being done, I believe that the consumer will continue to be careful, but not stop altogether.

Obama is a plus, because he holds out the potential for improvement. The stimulus package is a plus, because it looks as though something is being done. The bail-out -- god help me -- is a plus, at least psychologically -- because it keeps the Big Bank Fails headlines out of the paper.

On street level, I saw the immediate impact of Bears, Sterns going down. Then the even bigger impact of Lehman brothers, and Bernie Madoff was the nail. I suppose, Murphy being a tricky bastard, that I should expect at least one more real eye-opener, and hope the psychology doesn't turn permanently bearish.

The underlying conditions are stark, but I can deal with them as long as there isn't another total shift in psychology.

People will start asking this question: What is Bedrock in the American Economy? Where is the bottom? What is fake & what is real? For every Madoff, how many non-shysters are there? Are there any? Is Buffett real? Who can I trust? Can I trust anyone ever again?

Where's the Bedrock? There IS Bedrock in this country. OK, I sound pretty alarmist on here, I know. It's in large part because we are collectively being over-pacified by the local media, and someone needs to don some clapboards to raise awareness.

But even in a place like Bend, people have to eat, they need to sleep largely under a roof, they need clothes. There is a ROCK BOTTOM here. I don't think we'll end up like Fossil or worse.

But where is The Bottom? I don't know folks, but it seems to be that those who went up the most will fall the farthest. And No Where Went Up Farther And Faster Than Bend Oregon. No Where. And we've already seen that things are far worse than anyone thought possible even 1 year ago. A year ago McPain had a chance.

So when I and others in the comments talk about this town going back to 40-50,000 people, homes reverting back to $125K, and unemployment going to 20-25% (or more), this isn't panic-mongering; its just a reversion to Bends Bedrock. Its base. A place where people eat, drive, dress, work and otherwise live simply. It's not bad. It's our bedrock.

I'll end with a Bully piece about how bad this is already for select locals. And remember: This is the price we are paying for having as a community CHOSEN to have a 24 month unbridled Greed-fest primarily for those at the very top of our local socio-economic stratum. This is it. The hangover will affect everyone and will linger for a decade or longer. Was it worth it?

Meet the people behind the numbers

By Story by Lauren Dake Photos by Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Published: February 01. 2009 4:00AM PST

Department of Human Services employees say they’ve never seen anything like it. Every month, the number of people seeking assistance rises. In December, 10,636 families in Central Oregon received food stamps. Statewide, they are calling it an emergency. But in Central Oregon, they are looking for an even stronger word. With a 29.5 percent increase in families receiving food stamps in December compared with December 2007, the tri-county area is the hardest hit in the state, when measured by the increased request for food stamps. Many families and individuals are seeking help for the first time in their lives, others are finding they need more. Below, a few of those people agreed to share their stories.

Jeff Johnson

Jeff Johnson’s chicken Parmesan dinner expired 22 days ago.

In about a month’s time, he went from buying fresh foods at the grocery store to getting free, slightly expired food.

A recent divorce came at a time when the 45-year-old, self-employed residential and excavation construction worker was experiencing slow times.

The Bend resident went from living in a 2,552-square foot, five-bedroom, three-bathroom home on 40 acres, to a 35-foot fifth-wheeler in his church’s parking lot.

Now, the man who lives in a $42,000, 2006 Weekend Warrior, which he bought with visions of traveling the state with his family, is answering questions he never dreamed someone would ask him.

“How are you meeting your basic needs?” asked Department of Human Services employee Sue McDonald — a stranger to Johnson.

His face flushed, Johnson shared the story of his first visit to the food bank, of living behind his church, of borrowing $20,000 from his parents.

“Do you have any income?” she asked. The answer was no.

She asks about assets.

“It’s kind of hard driving a 2006 Chevy pickup to a food bank,” he said.

He tried for military benefits but was told by officials in the Veterans’ Affairs office he was 33 days short of continuous active duty to qualify.

On Wednesday, he decided he needed more help than he could get from the food bank and applied for state assistance for the first time in his life.

McDonald gave him a list of resources, places to go for transitional housing, for clothes, for extra food.

“Food stamps weren’t intended to carry anyone through today’s economy,” McDonald told him. “They don’t last a month.”

In 2006, Johnson’s gross annual income was $170,000. His house, then appraised at nearly $1.2 million, was $70,000 away from being paid off.

“There have been slow stretches during the last couple of winters,” Johnson said. “But not like this. This is just incredible.”

It’s an odd feeling, Johnson said, to own expensive goods that aren’t worth anything. He tried selling his tools at Trade-N-Tools, where you can trade tools for money. But he quickly found out he wasn’t the first one with the idea; the place was inundated, he said.

He was never irresponsible with money. He planned ahead. He had a savings account, but that was wiped out by lawyer’s fees.

His parents, who also live in the area, are using their savings to help their son.

“I grew up with parents that never took vacation; we drove a station wagon with a red-front fender. It was all mismatched and had snow tires on it year round,” he said, adding he intends to pay back every dime his parents have given him.

Although Johnson never dreamed he would be in this position, he said, he’s being proactive about surviving. “There’s just no income. I just can’t get any money …” he said. “But it’s easy to find people in worse shape than me.”

Joel Hall

Joel Hall would like to leave Bend — but he can’t.

“There are more job opportunities elsewhere … But I can’t afford leaving,” he said. “The economy’s impact on a small town like this …”

When he first moved to the area, in 2005, 37-year-old Hall worked for the Bend-La Pine School District as a teaching assistant.

He has a bachelor’s degree in education from California State University- San Marcos.

Hall was laid off from that job. He was laid off from Flatbread Pizza. He’s been a bartender but was laid off there as well.

"It was tough five years ago finding a job in this town,” he said. “Now, this town that seemed to explode for a while, it’s just imploded.”

He’s getting by teaching snowboarding a few hours on Mt. Bachelor. But that’s only about two hours a week. And he hasn’t received unemployment benefits yet, because he’s been told it’s a four- to six-week wait.

“In the meantime, there’s no income,” he said while waiting in line for food stamps on Wednesday. He’s dressed in all black, with The North Face sneakers. He’s clutching an issue of National Geographic magazine. “I wouldn’t be standing in this line if that wasn’t the case.”

Hall has moved in with a friend to reduce expenses.

“Thank God I have good friends,” he said. “But they are losing their jobs, too, and they have educations. They are lawyers …”

Maybe, he said, it’s time for a career change.

“I would like to get into a field that can withstand this stuff,” he said, mentioning health care as a possibility.

Wednesday was his first time applying for food stamps.

“I never though there would be this many people here,” he said, after waiting in line for about 40 minutes. “But it seems to be hitting people from all directions.”

Although Hall said he’s determined to stay optimistic and keep his head up, it was a difficult decision for him to visit the DHS office.

“I’m totally embarrassed,” he said. “I didn’t want to come down here and wait in this line. But six weeks with no income … I check Craigslist and the paper all the time. There’s just not much out there.”

Kris Hakkila

As soon as Kris Hakkila, 44, of Bend, noticed his work drying up, he started applying for jobs.

He has yet to hear from anyone. In December alone, he sent out 40 résumés, looking for jobs at flooring manufacturing companies or as a project manager on different jobs — without a single call back.

“Not a thing, not a letter, not a call,” he said. “You just know they are being bombarded with applications.”

And so, on Wednesday, the self-employed hardwood floor contractor applied for food stamps for the first time.

His sentiments echoed many others at the DHS office.

“I’ve been through tough times,” he said. “But never this bad before.”

Along with his wife, who works as an assistant to a financial broker, Hakkila has two daughters, 14 and 17.

“All our money is going to pay our bills,” Hakkila said. “Soon, we’ll have absolutely nothing.”

Two years ago, his business was bringing in around $60,000. He has a job lined up in March, but other than that his income is close to zero.

He’s never even thought of applying for food stamps before. And he waited until there were no other choices.

“You know, it kind of sucks,” he said.

Karen Albert

Nearly every weekday morning, Karen Albert took the Les Schwab Tire Centers shuttle from Prineville to her office at the company’s new headquarters in Bend.

But last Friday, she decided to drive her own car.

An hour into her workday, at 8 a.m. her boss called Albert into an office. The human resource director was waiting.

“They told me they were letting me off due to the economy,” she said.

The 48-year-old didn’t see it coming.

“They told us they were done with layoffs.”

Albert was one of 25 people laid off a couple of weeks ago. Earlier this month, the company also laid off about 25 people.

“I just called my daughter and cried,” Albert said.

Since she drove her own car, she didn’t have to wait until her shift was over for the shuttle to arrive and ride home with her former co-workers.

“That was lucky,” she said. “I’m trying to find the blessings in all of this.”

She drove home and cleaned the house.

“And then I went online and applied for unemployment benefits,” she said.

Albert worked for the tire company — Central Oregon’s second-largest private employer — for five years.

A single mom with no other income, Albert immediately thought of her two children, ages 21 and 19. Her daughter, the oldest, has rheumatoid arthritis. And her youngest, a son, is a wrestler in college.

On Wednesday, Albert sat in the Prineville office filling out an application for the Oregon Health Plan.

“Amy can’t go without medical coverage, and my son is on the wrestling team,” she said. “If I don’t have coverage, I don’t care, but they need to be covered.”

Albert said she’s hoping the insurance coverage will be the only assistance she needs.

“I was raised in a family where you don’t ask for help. You take care of yourself,” Albert said. “So it’s rather humiliating. But you do what you have to do to take care of your family.”

Mona Meeds

Mona Meeds didn’t want her children to know.

But she mentioned food stamps while speaking to her husband, and her children heard.

“I didn’t want them to be embarrassed,” said the 31-year-old mother of four.

“If I hadn’t mentioned the Oregon Trail card, they wouldn’t know,” she said.

The Oregon Trail card is a debit-like card that makes food stamps available electronically.

When it became harder and harder for her husband, who owns his own heating and cooling business, to find work, Meeds knew she had to apply for help.

“The work just isn’t there,” she said. “During the housing boom, there was so much work.”

She applied for food stamps and signed her children up for the free and reduced-lunch program.

Without the aid, she’s not sure what would happen. Savings are gone, and her husband continues to take jobs farther and farther away from Prineville.

Even though she is constantly on the move, picking up and dropping off her children, ages 5, 11, 14 and 15, she applied for a job at Rite-Aid.

“It’s the only job I’ve seen posted,” Meeds said. “But they didn’t call.”

Four years ago, the family built a home and had money in the bank.

“Now, I try not to think about it,” she said.

Her children took the news well.

“I told them Dad doesn’t have much work and we’re getting assistance. When it gets better, we’ll get off of it,” she said.

With Crook County’s unemployment rate recently reaching 14 percent, Meeds said her children took it well, in part because they are familiar with tough times.

“They took it better than I thought,” she said. “They have a lot of friends that are having hard times too.”

Keshia Yaw

Keshia Yaw sat in the Department of Human Services office in Madras on Wednesday, waiting for her mother to pick her up.

“I know what I’m going to do,” said the 18-year-old single mom from Warm Springs. “I’m going to find a job, work on scholarship forms, get re-accepted to COCC (Central Oregon Community College) and transfer to Portland State.”

Maybe, she said, she would study something in the medical field.

Although, she doesn’t like asking for help, Wednesday was the first step in realizing her goals.

A blue folder, full of information, was on the table in front of her. Inside was information on how to receive cash assistance from a program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The cash grants are $647 a month for families of four that earn less than $795 a month and have less than $2,500 in assets.

More than money, she’s hoping the program will help her get a job. The goal of the temporary assistance program is to create self-sufficiency for participants. To receive benefits, job searches are mandatory. And the individual must participate in the services available — such as job training classes that help with résumés.

Yaw lives with her mom, who receives food stamps and disability. She doesn’t have her driver’s license. It was too expensive, so any job needs to be near home.

“I don’t like it, depending on other people,” she said.

Yaw wasn’t the only young face at the Madras DHS office on Wednesday. Vicky Higgins, the operations manager, said her office serves a large teenage population.

In 2007, the office helped nearly 40 homeless teenagers.

“The biggest increase is those people who have never asked before,” Higgins said. “But the teen population is really increasing, too.”

Basilio Gomez

For the past 12 years, Basilio Gomez has worked at Bright Wood, in Madras.

He’s no stranger to the economy impacting the hours he works.

When times are good, the forklift driver is guaranteed 40-hour workweeks at the wood remanufacturing company. But lately it’s impossible to work enough hours to support his wife and four children.

On Wednesday, the 44-year-old applied for more food stamps and filled out the paperwork to put his two older children, ages 12 and 11, on the Oregon Health Plan.

The younger two children are already covered through the plan.

He has insurance through the wood manufacturing company, but the deductible is too high.

“It’s bad this year,” Gomez said.

Jaimie and Dave Crockett

Since September, Jaimie Crockett, 25, of Jefferson County, has been taking her résumé to any grocery store and gas station she can drive to.

“I’m trying to find anything,” she said.

Her husband, Dave, 36, was demoted from a salaried to hourly position at Bright Wood, Central Oregon’s third-largest private employer. During a recent week, he only worked 16 hours. He’s been with the company for 14 years.

The couple waited Wednesday in the lobby of the DHS office in Madras for an appointment with a caseworker, who will explain how to apply for food stamps.

Dave never imagined it would come to this point.

“A couple of years we went through this at Bright Wood,” he said. “But that was for a month.”

The couple has two daughters, ages 7 and 2.

“This is horrible,” Dave said. “I’ve never had to ask for help for anything.”

In September, Dave was bringing home about $3,000 a month. The money went to house payments and groceries. Last month, his income was $1,000.

Although Jaimie doesn’t like it, she has an easier time asking for help.

“I’m willing to do whatever to put a roof over our kids’ heads,” she said.

Dave is also studying accounting at Central Oregon Community College, so there are student loans to pay. He’s hoping it’s a recession-proof job.

As the mortgage payments pile up, the hardest part, Jaimie said, is not knowing if they will be able to stay in their house.

“We need to have a safe, comfortable place for our kids,” Jaimie said. “And that’s in jeopardy. If I didn’t have kids, it would be different.”

They are hoping the food stamps can alleviate some of the grocery bill costs so they can put more money toward paying off their house.

“I just kept thinking we could do this on our own,” Dave said.

But they couldn’t.

“We tried to put it off, but it caught up with us,” Jaimie said. “We couldn’t think about it anymore; we just had to do it. So here we are.”

(Kudos to The Bully for running this piece. Credit where it's due.)
Post over.

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Anonymous said...

Kind of like a guy who needs his Viagra. Droopy?

###


You can call BP a lot of things, but not droopy, at city hall we call him erect, stand up guy, perky, ...

Anonymous said...

Spring is here, and I'm outta here.

*

You DUMB MOTHER FUCKERS. SPRING is here NOW, I'm outta here now, and when spring is over in BEND ( May ), I'll come back to Bend, until then I'm fishin in Canada.

Anonymous said...

I'm outta here now, and when spring is BEGINS in BEND ( May ), I'll come back to Bend, and perhaps by July we'll have summer in Bend.

I would rather be on a boat in Big-Bay, BC, than in the freezing-fog in Bend.

Anonymous said...

Obama’s Nervous, And For Good Reason
by Connie Hair
02/06/2009


President Barack Obama, during remarks yesterday at the Department of Energy, was clearly uncomfortable in having to come out of the closet as a socialist. The sharp downturn in public support for his $1.2 trillion “stimulus” spending bill has forced Obama to spend his Presidential honeymoon political capital in its defense. The President came off a bit testy in his remarks upon finding himself in unfamiliar waters, apparently perturbed at having to shield his party’s blatant, in-your-face lurch to the left.

“Now, I believe that legislation of such magnitude as has been proposed deserves the scrutiny that it has received over the last month,” Obama said in his remarks. “I think that's a good thing. That's the way democracy is supposed to work. But these numbers that we're seeing are sending an unmistakable message -- and so are the American people.”

Yes, the American people are sending an unmistakable message. They don’t like the bill. The latest Rasmussen poll Wednesday had support for Obama's “stimulus” spending bill at a mere 37%. They’re melting the phone lines at the Capitol with their discontent. Further, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not release the full bill for scrutiny by Congressional Republicans or the American people a month ago, as Obama indicated, but barely two weeks ago. Until that time, House Republicans were only allowed to read parts of the bill and consequently weren’t given the time to discover and even begin to reveal to the public the full scope of what was in this spending orgy until it was actually on the House floor for debate.


Back to the speech: “The time for talk is over,” Obama proclaimed. “The time for action is now, because we know that if we do not act, a bad situation will become dramatically worse. Crisis could turn into catastrophe for families and businesses across the country.”

After barely two weeks, the time for talk is over? The arrogance in that statement is breathtaking given the magnitude of the consequences of this Congressional action. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) summed it up nicely when he told me Wednesday, “The atmosphere of arrogance here from Democrats is that they think the American people are just too stupid to spend their own money to stimulate the economy.”

Democrats are talking about spending on their pet projects over one trillion dollars in money this country will either have to borrow or print -- that one trillion dollars is in addition to the over one trillion dollar deficit already projected for this year and to the omnibus spending bill that will add another half-trillion in spending this fiscal year. That doesn’t include what will most assuredly happen when the Treasury Department under the leadership of Timothy Geithner, tax cheat, demands more TARP money or the sky will fall yet again.

With all due respect, Mr. President, the only urgency in your attempted government takeover of the economy is that the longer it sits in the bright daylight for all Americans to see, the stronger the gag reflex from the stench.

Senate Adjourned Without Vote

After threatening to go all night if that’s what it took to get a vote on the “stimulus” spending bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) proclaimed just after 8:30 p.m. that the Senate would “stop legislating for the night” but would return Friday at 10:00 a.m.

There were many speeches in defense of restraint in spending, sanity and a free market economy from Republican senators yesterday. Most notably, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) brought common sense onto the floor of the Senate in an effort to expose more of the “stinky stuff” in this bill.

“I will not agree to any unanimous consent until the next 15 amendments that I’ve got have a scheduled time to be brought up so the American people can hear of all of the stinky stuff that’s in this bill,” Coburn said at one point when fighting to get his amendments scheduled. “We have had votes both voices votes and recorded votes on less than 20 amendments, and we’re told by the Majority Leader that we have to finish up so we can get to conference. This bill ought to have 1,000 amendments on it if we’re truly going to do the work of the American people. We ought to debate this bill line by line. … The idea that we can borrow more money that we don’t have to spend on more things we don’t need, and ignore the wisdom of the average American citizen on how best to spend their money, is insane.

“And yet we’ve spent two-and-a-half days -- that’s all we’ve spent so far on a $1 trillion bill, two-and-a-half days and 20 votes -- and now we are told by the Majority Leader we need to hurry up. Hurry up is what’s got us in this trouble. We need a methodical explanation to the American people for every line that is in this bill. … So let’s fess up. We don’t know what we’re doing. A $1 trillion bill was cobbled together in four weeks with earmarks like crazy throughout it for every special interest group that’s out there so we can look good to certain of our buddies, and especially the ones that give us campaign contributions. That’s what describes this bill … You cannot fix a problem until you know what the problem is. And the problem is us. We created this mess.”

Amen, Dr. Coburn. Amen.

Anonymous said...

Now here is the quote of the Month. It's amazing that Obama is more Bush than Bush, hurry up, just like Paulson, we got to have the stimulus now!! No time to think and study.


“And yet we’ve spent two-and-a-half days -- that’s all we’ve spent so far on a $1 trillion bill, two-and-a-half days and 20 votes -- and now we are told by the Majority Leader we need to hurry up. Hurry up is what’s got us in this trouble. We need a methodical explanation to the American people for every line that is in this bill. … So let’s fess up. We don’t know what we’re doing. A $1 trillion bill was cobbled together in four weeks with earmarks like crazy throughout it for every special interest group that’s out there so we can look good to certain of our buddies, and especially the ones that give us campaign contributions. That’s what describes this bill … You cannot fix a problem until you know what the problem is. And the problem is us. We created this mess.”

Anonymous said...

The presidential on-the-job-training period for Obama has begun

February 6, 7:11 AM
by John Kinsellagh, Boston

For President Obama, the long two year period of grandiloquent speechifying has ended; it is now time to govern. Now that he has reached the pinnacle of political power, for his gullible, easily duped or mesmerized followers, who chose to overlook his spectacularly thin resume and lack of substantive experience, comes the painful revelation: the emperor has no clothes. What is amazing is not that the inexperienced Obama is floundering, it is that his media enablers are surprised by the former community organizer's initial blunders.

In part, this is due to the fact that the Obama presidency isn't so much about competence or the implementation of a particular governing philosophy, as it is about the manifestation or realization of an idea. And, that concept or idea is an infinitely elastic one: for African-Americans it represents justifiable pride and vindication; for those suffused with liberal white guilt, it enables them to feel good about themselves, and for left-wing congressional Democrats, the election of a politician whose actual voting record is that of a die-hard liberal, has instilled in them the mistaken belief that they now have a mandate to impose, by stealth, their governing preference for Scandinavian Socialism.

Obama himself has done little to clarify or bring meaning to these multifarious aspects of his political identity. Post-Inauguration, he continues to project the persona of remaining above the contentious fray of politics and managing the competing demands from divergent constituencies. This strategy may have served him well during the election campaign, but it will prove inimical to his attempts to effectuate his policies as the nations Chief Executive. His posture of absolute support for Tom Daschle despite prior knowledge of his glaring tax problems, is indicative of one who felt that his privileged and unprecedented exemption from criticism or scrutiny from the press, which he enjoyed throughout the campaign, would continue indefinitely.

In this regard, Obama's deficiencies are most apparent on the Stimulus bill. To govern is to chose, to cajole, to persuade, and when necessary, to arm-twist recalcitrant members of your own party. Governing entails more than vacuous sermonizing and empty sloganeering. It requires more than resting on the laurels of adulation from a frenzied media.

From the onset, Obama was AWOL in terms of active participation in crafting the Stimulus Bill. He decreed in December to members of his own party, that he wanted a package by January. He then completely removed himself from the process and instead, handed off the ball to a San Francisco liberal who, in conjunction with her left-wing colleagues, took the ball and ran with it.

Perhaps Obama felt that he could easily step in after the fact, using his often-touted mystical powers as a Uniter and a Reconciliator and magically bring all the warring political factions together. Instead, by removing himself from the process, he has created a conflagration. He let the liberal genie out of the bottle, and it won't be so easily coaxed back in. He now finds himself in the frantic position of being a harbinger of doom in order to facilitate the passage of this monstrosity through the Senate.

The more the stimulus bill is exposed to the light of day, the more it's farcical provisions resemble a Monty Python skit. As the frivolous mind-numbing, non-stimulative nature of its contents are disclosed and public support for the stimulus bill plummets, all Republicans need do is sit back and enjoy the unfolding spectacle.

The lesson for Obama? Nature and politics both abhor a vacuum.

Bewert said...

It's fucking funny how the Pugs are screaming about the lack of bipartisanship right now. The same Pugs that used to lock out Dems from conference committees when they had the power.

###

Re: The more the stimulus bill is exposed to the light of day, the more it's farcical provisions resemble a Monty Python skit.

###

Instead of spouting some BS by "John Kinsellagh, Boston Republican Examiner", why not look at the actual bill, and give us an example. Or are you too lazy?

Elections have consequences. Deal with it.

It's funny how you deleted "Republican Examiner" from the name tag on the original article. Nothing shows your slant as well as that little cut.

Does the word Republican embarrass you somehow?

Bewert said...

Fake hbm, a hollow shell of the real one...

Bewert said...

Gallup:

February 5, 2009
Public Support for Stimulus Package Unchanged at 52%
Seven in 10 favor some type of stimulus legislation


Of course, if you get your news from Limbaugh, O-Reilly, and Beck, you would think Obama is on the verge of being tarred and feathered for making America a communist nation. Or as Beck put it yesterday, "...I’m going to show you how these things happening today line up with some of the goings-on in history's worst socialist, fascist countries."

Funny thing, considering BushCo has bought far more bank preferred stock than Obama. Can't let facts get in the way of stupid rants, though.

Bewert said...

Re: double-digit national unemployment

###

Farther down in that new unemployment report:

U-6 Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers:

Jan. 2009 15.4%

###

Here in Bend, it's probably closer to 25%.

Did you see all the free TV time the return of Merenda received? Anyone want to bet if it's still here 12 months from now? (I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but $15 to $30 plates are not real popular right now...no matter how much you want to believe)

Anonymous said...

Phony hbm posts: "Obama’s Nervous, And For Good Reason by Connie Hair"

And what does Connie Hairball or any other right-wing shill have to offer? Nothing but the same trickle-down bullshit they've been peddling for 30 years.

Herbert Hoover tried sitting with his thumb up his ass while the country slid into the Great Depression. Turned out not to have been such a good idea.

It's the Republicans who should be nervous. They're the ones getting their economic advice from Flush Rimbowl. And if the stimulus bill fails and the country does fall into the abyss, they are FINISHED as a political party for the next 50 years.

Anonymous said...

PS: Tom Coburn ("Dr. No") is the retarded Okie who never wants to spend federal money on ANYTHING.

Well, unless it's a trillion-dollar war.

Anonymous said...

Did you see all the free TV time the return of Merenda received? Anyone want to bet if it's still here 12 months from now? (I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but $15 to $30 plates are not real popular right now...no matter how much you want to believe)

Concur. I just put up a post about this on my blog: http://www.tsweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3875&Itemid=66

Anonymous said...

I'm outta here now, and when spring is BEGINS in BEND ( May ), I'll come back to Bend, and perhaps by July we'll have summer in Bend.

LOL! You got THAT right!

And even in July you need to wear a sweater if you're going to be out after dark. This place is TOO FUCKING COLD for my aging bones.

Anonymous said...

Ahem:

Republicans Opposing Pay Caps for Bailed-Out Bankers

Wall Street bankers, with their $18 billion in bonuses, private jets and gaudy conferences, are causing headaches for the GOP.

President Obama has proposed capping compensation for executives at banks that take taxpayer bailout money at $500,000. Republicans hate the idea -- a position that puts them uncomfortably on the side of people currently about as popular as armed burglars and subprime mortgage brokers.

Senate Minority Leader Jon Kyl (R-AZ) blamed the "tone deaf" bankers for creating the political environment that allowed Obama to call for a cap.

"Because of their excesses, very bad things begin to happen, like the United States government telling a company what it can pay its employees. That's not a good thing in America," Kyl told the Huffington Post.

"What executives have done is troubling, but it's equally troubling to have government telling shareholders how much they can pay the executives," said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL).


Uh, Mel, if WE THE TAXPAYERS are putting up the bailout money, WE ARE the fucking shareholders!

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said that he is "one of the chief defenders of Obama on the Republican side," but "as I was listening to him make those statements [about executive pay], I thought, is this still America? Do we really tell people how to run [a business], and who to pay and how much to pay?"

Another fucking stupid inbred Okie. Yeah, they've done such a SWELL FUCKING JOB of running their businesses, haven't they? You dumb fuck.

Fuck all Republicans and the horses they rode in on. They don't give a shit about the cost of the stimulus bill -- what pisses them off is that some money might end up in the hands of actual WORKING AMERICANS instead of with the fucking economic parasites they adore.

Obama should come out and say exactly this (minus the obscenities, of course) on Monday night.

Anonymous said...

The Republican strategy is smart -- cynically and diabolically so. They're negotiating to get the stimulus bill watered down to the point where it will be ineffective, and Obama and the Democrats are stupidly playing along with them in a misguided attempt to be "bipartisan." Then the Republicans will all vote against the stimulus anyway. And THEN when the watered-down stimulus package fails to revive the economy they'll point the finger at Obama and say: "See? We TOLD YOU his socialist plan wouldn't work!"

It is ALL POLITICS ALL THE TIME with these fucking bastards and they couldn't care less what happens to the economy or the country. Democrats should tell them to shove it, stop negotiating and ram the thing through the Senate. If it doesn't get a single Republican vote, fuck 'em.

Anonymous said...

Good points (real) HBM.

Hey inflation bugs:

Ask yourself:
Can I buy more with a dollar today than a year ago?

How about:
gasoline, housing, clothes, airline tickets? Are you paying attention?


If so, this is called DEFLATION.

How can there be DEFLATION, you ask, when there has been a massive printing of dollars?


Because aggregate consumer demand and business demand has SHRUNK like nobody's business.

No demand = Lower prices = Deflation.

The fear is that we're about to enter a period of massive deflation and stagnation (no jobs).


Here's some (hopefully) useful and non-partisan perspective:


Depression economics: Four options
By J. Bradford DeLong

WHEN an economy falls into a depression, governments can try four things to return employment to its normal level and production to its 'potential' level. Call them fiscal policy, credit policy, monetary policy and inflation.

Inflation is the most straightforward to explain: The government prints lots of banknotes and spends them. The extra cash in the economy raises prices. As prices rise, people don't want to hold cash in their pockets or their bank accounts - its value is melting away every day - so they step up the pace at which they spend, trying to get their wealth out of depreciating cash and into real assets that are worth something. This spending pulls people out of unemployment and into jobs, and pushes capacity utilisation up to normal and production up to 'potential' levels.

But sane people would rather avoid inflation. It is a very dangerous expedient, one that undermines standards of value, renders economic calculation virtually impossible, and redistributes wealth at random. As John Maynard Keynes put it, 'there is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose...'

But governments will resort to inflation before they will allow another Great Depression. We just would very much rather not go there, if there is any alternative way to restore employment and production.

The standard way to fight incipient depressions is through monetary policy. When employment and output threaten to decline, the central bank buys up government bonds for immediate cash, thus shortening the duration of the safe assets that investors hold. With fewer safe, money-yielding assets in the financial market, the price of safe wealth rises. This makes it more worthwhile for businesses to invest in expanding their capacity, thus trading away cash they could distribute to their shareholders today for a better market position that will allow them to reward their shareholders in the future. This boost in future-oriented spending today pulls people out of unemployment and pushes up capacity utilisation.

The problem with monetary policy is that, in responding to today's crisis, the world's central banks have bought so many safe government bonds for so much cash that the price of safe wealth in the near future is absolutely flat - the nominal interest rate on government securities is zero. Monetary policy cannot make safe wealth in the future any more valuable. And this is too bad, for if we could prevent a depression with monetary policy alone, we would do so, as it is the policy tool for macroeconomic stabilisation that we know best and that carries the least risk of disruptive side effects.

The third tool is credit policy. We would like to boost spending immediately by getting businesses to invest not only in projects that trade safe cash now for safe profits in the future, but also in those that are risky or uncertain. But few businesses are currently able to raise money to do so.

Risky projects are at a steep discount today, because the private-sector financial market's risk tolerance has collapsed. No one is willing to buy assets and take on additional uncertainty, because everyone fears that somebody else knows more than they do - namely, that anyone would be a fool to buy. Although the world's central banks and finance ministries have been devising many ingenious and innovative policies to stimulate credit, so far they have not had much success.

This brings us to the fourth tool: fiscal policy. Have the government borrow and spend, thereby pulling people out of unemployment and pushing up capacity utilisation to normal levels. There are drawbacks: the subsequent dead-weight loss of financing all the extra government debt that has been incurred, and the fear that too rapid a run-up in debt may discourage private investors from building physical assets, which form the tax base for future governments that will have to amortise the extra debt.

But when you have only two tools left, neither of which is perfect for the job - credit policy and fiscal policy - the rational thing is to try both, at the same time. That is what the Obama administration in the United States and other governments are attempting to do right now.

The writer, a former assistant US treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, is professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley.

Anonymous said...

I assume most people on the board have seen the 47 minute video "Money as Debt." If not, go grab a coffee and watch: Money As Debt on Google Video

The video says there would be no money if there were no debt. Money is CREATED by debt, so the inverse is true: Money is DESTROYED when debt is destroyed - either paid off or written down.

If this is the case, and consumers now are having credit lines taken away, credit card limits lowered, mortgages going away due to foreclosure, stock losses... etc..., then it makes sense that money is actually being destroyed every day. This is money that while only existed on paper was money that the banks then "had" on their books to loan out. That money is gone. (don't reply until you have watched the video).

What I want to know is how much money has "disappeared" on paper from our economy.

How does the amount of money spent for the stimulus package compare to this?

Is it possible that we won't see massive inflation when this is done because the stimulus will actually put less money into the economy than the disappearance of credit removed?

Anonymous said...

Concert promotion isn't paying so well these days. Cameron Clark received NODs today on both of his properties - primary and "investment".

We know Bend Living was fucked, but it bears mentioning that Kiki Cutter received an NOD this week as well, not on her primary.

Bewert said...

Today from Obama:

The President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board

Chairman
Paul Volcker

Staff Director and Chief Economist
Austan Goolsbee

Members
William H. Donaldson, Chairman, SEC (2003-2005)

Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., President & CEO, TIAA-CREF

Robert Wolf, Chairman & CEO, UBS Group Americas

David F. Swensen, CIO, Yale University

Mark T. Gallogly, Founder & Managing Partner, Centerbridge Partners L.P.

Penny Pritzker, Chairman & Founder, Pritzker Realty Group

Jeffrey R. Immelt, CEO, GE

John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers

Jim Owens, Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar Inc.

Monica C. Lozano, Publisher & Chief Executive Officer, La Opinion

Charles E. Phillips, Jr., President, Oracle Corporation

Anna Burger, Chair, Change to Win

Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO

Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Dean, Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley

Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics, Harvard University

LavaBear said...

>>>The President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board

You know Bruce I'd feel better if they had on there:

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Doomsday Blogger, Bend, OR.

Not a one of the fuckers has actually walked down a main street with an objective eye in years. You don't become CEO of whatever and have a clue what the people are feeling in the real world. Just looks to be more of the same. CEO's, academia big wigs, yadda yadda yadda. They all wear the same sun glasses.

tim said...

>>And even in July you need to wear a sweater if you're going to be out after dark. This place is TOO FUCKING COLD for my aging bones.

Yeah, but it's only February and today I was out in a tee shirt. Hasn't been a bad winter at all.

Bewert said...

Re: Not a one of the fuckers has actually walked down a main street with an objective eye in years.

###

I agree. There are a couple of token girls from "Change To Win" and "La Opinion". on the other hand, Volcker resonates deeply with me. Obama getting him to agree to even do this is huge.

And on the Obama White House work ethic:

Bewert said...

Late nights, long hours in Obama White House

Bewert said...

I hope I didn't drive you all off.

Anonymous said...

You have..driven us off..

Bend is the key subject.

Anonymous said...

Yawn....

BP still around???? Yawn.....

Yawnnnnnn..... hmmmm, is it Sunday yet?

Back to sleep till then.....

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzorrrrrrrrrrrre

Anonymous said...

Uh oh, kevin and Tammy Sawyer are under investigation by the FBI. No more Sawyer five. Another casualty of the Bend Bubble.

Anonymous said...

The picture of the big-boobed girl was taken in Moscow, at the All-Russia Exhibition Center. The tower in the background is Ostankino, the Moscow TV tower. The bulge in the middle (of the tower, not the girl) is a restaurant.

Anonymous said...

You cannot fix a problem until you know what the problem is. And the problem is us. We created this mess.

Since this was spoken by a Republican, he is absolutely right.

When are the Republicans going to offer something other than obstructionism, delay and denial? The only thing they know how to do is to croak "Tax-and-spend! Tax-and-spend!" like obsessive-compulsive parrots.

Anonymous said...

We know Bend Living was fucked, but it bears mentioning that Kiki Cutter received an NOD this week as well

Maybe it's time for her to launch a new publication titled "How to Get the Hell Out of Bend." It would fly off the newsstands.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but it's only February and today I was out in a tee shirt. Hasn't been a bad winter at all.

We usually get a false spring in late January-early February. Then winter comes back and hangs around until June. Actually mid-June. As I've pointed out in columns in the past, Oregon doesn't get consistently nice weather until the Portland Rose Festival is over. I wish they'd move the fucking thing to March.

Bewert said...

Surprise, late Bend council pick: Oran Teater

Posted: Feb 6, 2009 07:20 PM

Last Updated: Feb 7, 2009 12:54 AM

3-3 tie becomes 4-2 vote; outraged Clinton calls it 'slap in face to public'

By Jennifer Burns and Barney Lerten, KTVZ.COM

Bend has a new, seventh city councilor - and it didn't take a toss of the coin or a costly special election, only a turn to the past of sorts: a surprise but very familiar compromise candidate.

Councilors convened in a special emergency meeting at 6 p.m. Friday - just an hour after notice to the media, and six hours before the 30-day time limit set in the City Charter - and decided on a 4-2 vote to place former councilor and mayor Oran Teater in the position.

Councilors had been split down the middle on two of three finalist candidates, Don Leonard and Cliff Walkey, threatening to send the matter to a special May election estimated to cost $13,000. Even a proposal to use a coin toss instead, as was done to fill a vacancy 16 years ago, came to the same 3-3 tie Wednesday night

To avoid one embarrassment or the other, they put Teater in the seat.

Mayor Kathie Eckman and councilors Jeff Eager, Mark Capell and Tom Greene supported Teater's appointment, while colleagues Jim Clinton and Jodie Barram opposed it.

After the vote, Capell said, "I think the community wanted us to get this figured out and settled for ourselves."

Eckman told her new colleagues she'd gone so far as to beg her former colleague to take the seat.

"I am the one that talked to him, begged him, pleaded with him to please reconsider," she said.

Three of the councilors say they knew about the new name thrown into the running before the meeting was called, but the two no votes came from outraged councilors, saying the decision would lead to a further loss of confidence by the voters.

Clinton was stunned by what happened, and made no secret of his distaste for the turn of events.

"I don't see why it's in the public interest to have a back room deal to cook up a special meeting," he said.

The four that voted yes said it was necessary to save the city from the costly special election, or the coin toss that some said would be embarrassing.

Capell said, "The community will be pleased that we got this settled and now we're ready to move forward."

But it's a resolution that may create lingering animosity at future council meetings.

"It's a slap in the face to the people, to the public," Clinton said, "because this was thoroughly discussed at at least two city council meetings, open to the public, with notice to the public."

Teater was not at City Hall for the contentious meeting, but later told KBND Radio a return to the council was "not something I was looking to do at all."

"My concern was, I didn't want us taking this to an election," he told the station (the full transcript of Friday night's interview is available at http://www.kbnd.com/). "In economic times like this, spending $13,000 on an election is crazy, especially for the guy who just got laid off."

Teater said he called several friends before deciding whether to seek another council term.

"A couple of them told me it was a stupid idea," he told KBND. "I also had some people say for you, personally, it may not be the best thing, but for the community, it may be a good thing, and maybe get people off the dime and get the council off the dime. And for that reason, I said okay, I would do it."

Teater said the budget crunch is the top issue, and the answer is simple: "Live within our means. And you have to make cuts, and they are not easy. What is essential? It's just like living in your own home."

###

It's finally time to finish my Bendover Opus.

Bewert said...

Former Bend mayor will fill council seat
Councilors break deadlock with choice from outside original pool of candidates
By Scott Hammers / The Bulletin
Published: February 07. 2009 4:00AM PST

The deadlock that has split the Bend City Council in its effort to fill a vacancy has been broken.

At an emergency meeting Friday night, councilors selected former mayor and councilor Oran Teater to fill the vacancy created when Chris Telfer left the council after her election to the state Senate. In a 4-2 vote, Mayor Kathie Eckman joined with councilors Jeff Eager, Tom Greene and Mark Capell in supporting Teater’s selection, with councilors Jodie Barram and Jim Clinton opposed.

The meeting came just hours before the 30-day clock that began with Telfer’s resignation was to have expired, which would have required the city to fill the vacancy through an election in May.

As of Wednesday, an election appeared unavoidable, when the council split 3-3 on selecting either Don Leonard or Cliff Walkey, the two finalists remaining from the 14 candidates who applied to fill the vacancy.

Capell, who had sided with Barram and Clinton earlier in the week in supporting Walkey, said he wasn’t comfortable spending the estimated $13,000 it would cost for the city to stage an election. It would be irresponsible for the city to begin the process of drawing up budgets with only six councilors, Capell said, adding that people around the community had told him they wanted to see the council settle the dispute over the vacancy.

Teater, 62, was electted to the City Council in 1996 and served eight years. He served as mayor the final two years. He currently is on the city’s Juniper Ridge Advisory Board and the OSU-Cascades Board of Advisors, and he is a member of the Oregon Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors.

Capell said Teater would be ready to take on the duties of a city councilor from the first day on the job.

“He’s intimately involved with Juniper Ridge, he has a financial background, he knows city budgets, he knows much of the staff,” Capell said.

Barram and Clinton strongly objected to scheduling a meeting on short notice to select someone who hadn’t even been on the list of candidates. Eckman called the 6 p.m. meeting less than an hour after calling Teater to convince him to accept an appointment.

“Basically, what’s going on here is crap,” Clinton said, calling the process a “slap in the face” to Leonard, Walkey and the other candidates.

Barram said she was willing to participate in an emergency meeting to stage a coin toss to decide between Leonard and Walkey, and would even consider changing her vote to support Leonard. A last-minute meeting to select an entirely new candidate “smacks of backroom dealing,” she said.

Eckman said she wasn’t comfortable using a coin toss to decide between the two finalists. She said she felt Leonard’s decision to campaign for the council — he unsuccessfully challenged Clinton in November — made him a more suitable candidate to fill the vacancy.

“I didn’t want it to go to a chance,” Eckman said. “Even though both people were good, I wasn’t comfortable with Cliff on the council.”

Contacted after the meeting, Teater said he had some reservations about accepting the appointment. Teater works as a financial adviser, and he said the down stock market has kept him busy with his clients. Eckman’s assurances that she would work to reduce the number of council meetings helped convince him, he said.

Teater said the council was out of options short of holding an election.

“I just thought it was inappropriate that we run a new election,” he said. “Spending $13,000, for the guy that’s unemployed, for the guy that just got laid off, that’s a lot of money. It’s a silly expenditure, and I think we just needed to get people off of dead center.”

Teater said it’s too soon to know if he’ll run for re-election in 2010.

Bewert said...

After a Bitter Fight...Bend City Council Fills Empty Seat

/6/2009 - Bend
by Matt McDonald

An emergency meeting of the Bend City Council, trying to break a deadlock over whom to appoint to the final council seat, turned nasty.

"Basically what's going on here is crap," said councilor Jim Clinton.
"It just smacks of back room dealing," said councilor Jodie Barram.
"I have to turn that back on you because you did the same thing," said Mayor Kathie Eckman.

Without a decision by midnight, the seat would have to be filled through a special election in May. That would cost the city around thirteen thousand dollars.

"I make a motion that we appoint Oran Teater," said councilor Mark Capell.

But wait, Teater didn't even apply for the position. In fact, the council spent the last month whittling fourteen applicants down to two, Don Leonard and Cliff Walkey, a decision almost made by the flip of a coin on Wednesday night. The suggestion of Teater wasn't welcome by councilors Clinton and Barram.

"It's a slap in the face to the people who applied for these positions....It's a slap in the face to the public....It's just like a very very obvious power play," said Clinton.

Barram said it smacked of backroom deals between the other four councilors.

"I'll take a bit of an exception to that Jodie because there was no meeting."

Hurt feelings or not, the political process comes down to votes.

"All those in favor of of the motion say aye.
(aye by Eckman, Eager, Capell and Green.)
"No"
(no by Clinton and Barram).

By a four to two margin, Oran teater will fill the vacant seat on the Bend City Council.

Anonymous said...

This is pretty sad:

In over their heads, artists selling works to keep their home

By Andrew Moore / The Bulletin
Published: February 07. 2009

Illustrating the recession’s trickledown effect, Tumalo artists David and Lisa Wachs are selling the art from their home studio Sunday, hoping to earn enough to keep from selling their farm.

The two prominent landscape painters — David’s iconic, large-format paintings of basalt columns can be found in the lobbies of the Bend Police Department and the Bank of the Cascades’ Old Mill District branch, as well as the Bend Brewing Co.’s dining room — need cash to stay current on payments for the 20-acre Tumalo farm they’ve owned for 15 years.

David Wachs readily admits the two are in over their heads, victims of the economy’s downward spiral and the bubbly sense things could only get better — optimism that crashed head-on into a recession. Hanging in the balance is their farm and the 3,800-square-foot custom home they built three years ago. It’s bigger than they planned. The house grew bigger after their mortgage broker goaded them into a loan where they only had to state their income rather than document it, Wachs said.

“We are some of those stated income loan people, who built this beautiful house with the assumption business would continue to grow and everything would be great, but it didn’t (grow),” Wachs said. “Slowly, things have been tightening up over the last two years — really tightening up — so we’re kind of in a bad spot.”


Of course I can't have too much sympathy for them because they didn't HAVE to overstate their income to get a bigger mortgage than they could afford. They just swallowed the Kool-Aid and "assumed" that things would just keep getting better and better forever. But I can't absolve the mortgage broker of blame either.

Anonymous said...

Whaat about Tammy Sawyer?

Trumor or Rumor?

Bewert said...

Bend police captain on leave amid FBI probe

Posted: Feb 6, 2009 06:30 PM

Focus on firms operated with wife; tenant losing sleep over situation

By Victoria Adelus, KTVZ.COM

Bend Police Capt. Kevin Sawyer has been placed on administrative leave as the FBI investigates one or more businesses Sawyer and wife Tami have been operating, the police chief confirmed Friday.

"I am aware of an investigation going on by the FBI into the finances of a business or businesses that Captain Sawyer is associated with,"said Police Chief Sandi Baxter.

Sawyer and his wife Tami are reportedly associated with several businesses, including The Sawyer Five, Genesis Futures LLC, and Starboard LLC.

There's no word yet on which business is the center of the investigation, but news of the investigation comes amid signs of trouble involving at least one of the Sawyers' companies.

"I don't need any more problems - I have enough issues in my own personal life," a tenant said Friday.

The Bend resident and tenant, who asked to remain anonymous, says she's been paying rent to Genesis Futures, her property management company, for about eight months.

"They looked me right in the eye and assured me absolutely no problems," she said. "So I've been feeling like we were doing okay. And, last night it was just devastating."

Thursday night, she says she got a knock on the door, ad a man gave her a notice of default. She says he told her landlord had missed several payments.

"He just said the property hadn't been paid for the last six months," the tenant said.

She says her neighbor across the street got the same notice.

According to a court affidavit, Genesis Futures LLC has a negative worth of more than $300,000.

"It's just been a really rough time," the tenant said. "We aren't sleeping too well right now."

Kevin Sawyer says he has no comment on the situation. NewsChannel 21 also tried to contact the Sawyers' attorneys, but were unable to reach them.

It's not known if Genesis Futures LLC is a part of the FBI investigation.

"When I first heard there was an FBI investigation going on, I thought, this is serious," the tenant said.

Baxter says the police department is just as anxious as everyone else to hear the outcome.

Tami and Kevin Sawyer are also connected to several outstanding civil cases.

NewsChannel 21 will be following this FBI investigation very closely and will report an information as soon as it becomes available.

###

This city is unbelievable.

Bewert said...

Lot's of comments on that story:

http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=9804747

Bewert said...

2009-004934 IMAGE
DOC TYPE: Notice of Default & Election to Sell DATE REC: 2/4/2009 1:56:28 PM
REFERENCES: 2007-013804
DIRECT: LSI TITLE COMPANY OF OREGON LLC TRUSTEE INDIRECT: SAWYER, KEVIN T
SUBDIVISION: WESTBROOK VILLAGE PHASE II LOT: 12


2009-004771 IMAGE
DOC TYPE: Notice of Default & Election to Sell DATE REC: 2/3/2009 2:49:16 PM
REFERENCES: 2007-013795
DIRECT: LSI TITLE COMPANY OF OREGON LLC TRUSTEE INDIRECT: SAWYER, KEVIN T
SUBDIVISION: WESTBROOK VILLAGE PHASE II LOT: 25

Anonymous said...

We're having another one of those fucking patented Bend inversions.

God, this place sucks.

Anonymous said...

This city is unbelievable.

This town has a long tradition of looking the other way at or tacitly condoning criminal behavior as long as those doing it are "nice guys." When I first came here in the mid-1980s, Warren Klug, the manager of The Inn of the Seventh Mountain, was charged with diverting company funds to his own use. All I heard from the locals was what a terrible shame it was and what a "nice guy" and fine "Christian" he was.

He was a fucking CROOK, that's what he was. But in this town that's okay as long as you wear a suit and keep your shoes shined and belong to Rotary.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a major change in City Hall.

Teater & Capell are the only people in council with patience to listen. Leonard just wanted to sell propane to the BAT-BUS fleet.

Teater fought his way into Juniper-Ridge, and now he'll gracefully shut it down, or at the very least start putting 'light on the cockroach'.

Sad that some fucking 'stated income' artists bought 10X more home than they could afford? Selling their fucking 'art' to 'keep the farm', bullshit. When is personal adult responsibility begin? What about the single mother of four, that can't find a job, or can't make enough for childcare?

Bend is a County of Idiots.

There should be no fucking sympathy.

Merenda? Just like Broken-Top restaurant its all about the 'employees' these fuckers can't find jobs, and so they'll 'buy the biz', jodie denton didn't just walk from Bend he ran, the employees had tried to buy-out, but he wanted 'out'. So yes this year will be the year where coke-whores and coke-pimps run the high-end Bend restaurant, and sell cocaine on the side to the few remaining high-enders to make Bend work. Here is my prediction by xmas 2009, it will be METH that will be sold and consumed at Merenda. The scabs on the HO's will be apparent.

Sad? No, its Bend.


Signing off from up north where spring has begun.


Read some of the PUG stuff above about OREO its true, read some of the DEM(BP/HBM) stuff about OREO its hope&change. I hate DEM's & PUG's, but now that the PUG's are out, they're telling the truth, and its the DEM's that are the liars. The most boring thing about HBM/BP is that they protect their team no matter how stupid they are, all of us here BASH PUG's, cuz PUG's are freaks, but DEM's are just like AIPAC, Scientology, or Mormon's - they all protect one another, and now they want to steal $930B from the general taxpayer to fund their pet-projects, so fucking what. Sad?

Marge is right, stick with BEND.


The Bend police department Flipping? Imagine that? Our own cops drinking koolaide and buying STD's. Now with an FBI investigation, this is how all bubbles end. Read popular delusions and madness of the crowds.

"A Primer on Money" (US CONGRESS 1962 ) is the only book you need about money, to understand what the US dollar is, fuck VIDEO, if you must watch TV you don't belong on this BLOG.

Anonymous said...

Merenda Is Dead -- Long Live 900 Wall E-mail
User Rating: / 3
PoorBest
Written by H. Bruce Miller
Friday, 06 February 2009

Jody Denton’s showplace downtown restaurant, Merenda, has folded, but it’s being reborn as “900 Wall.” Can it survive in its new incarnation?

Duncan McGeary of Pegasus Books, who has seen a hell of a lot of downtown businesses come and go, gives it a fighting chance: “Shed most of the most onerous costs, and the place might have chance. It's still awfully big [6,000 square feet], but … the fact that it's being bought by the former manager [Mike Millette] bodes well.”

According to KTVZ’s account, the new restaurant also will have the same executive chef and some of the same menu items, although the management “will make up a more approachable menu, with more seafood and beef dishes, staying Mediterranean but with a Northwest flair and affordable prices.” It’s supposed to open by April 1.

The Eye wishes 900 Wall nothing but success. It stands on the most important corner of downtown, and it would send a terrible message if that prime space was boarded up. It’s also good to see a quality locally owned restaurant there instead of a chain operation like the Old Spaghetti Factory (gag) or the Olive Garden (double gag).

We have to say, though, that we think 900 Wall’s chances of lasting a year are slim. Entrée prices of $14 to $30 certainly are affordable by Portland standards, much less LA or NYC standards, but could be a little steep for what is still, basically, a blue-collar town. Plus, of course, we’re staring down the throat of a bear of a recession, with double-digit unemployment in Central Oregon already.

The Eye fears that Merenda and other glitzy “upscale” restaurants that popped up in this town in the past seven or eight years – Volo, Deep, The Blacksmith, 38 and others – were founded on an illusion: that Bend has a deep pool of rich retirees, tech-savvy telecommuting Yuppies and second-home owners who, combined with the tourists, would keep those places afloat. All the real estate, development and construction money that was sloshing around during the carefree bubble days kept that illusion alive. But that money is gone now – and tourist numbers are way down.

That leaves the locals, and there just ain’t that many of them who can afford to pay $100 or more for a restaurant meal three or four days a week. So our guess is that the better-known, more established fine-dining restaurants (we’re thinking Pine Tavern) probably will survive, and maybe a couple of the new ones.

Which ones? If The Eye knew that, we could make enough money to retire rich … in Hawaii.
Comments (6) >>
Olde-Tymer said:
Interesting analysis, though there seems to be little distinction being made between Volo and Deep (outlandishly beyond the pale in pricing) and Merenda, which had an attainable happy hour and was comfortable to be at even for folks of moderate means. I suspect also that Jody Denton's failure had almost everything to do with the Deep boondoggle (this is what happens when chefs get bored) and far less to do with Merenda.
February 06, 2009
Bend native said:
This article said it all, we wish 900 Wall the best, but with a menu with prices starting at $14.00 they really do need to rethink their vision of reviving another "glitzy upscale" eatery.

Bend is and will continue to go back to basics, with the economy going down(been there done that). Bend is a town that is on survival mode, meaning the locals who are now becoming the majority are out in force. We know that the "bubble" days are over and it's time to get "real", this means not spending $100.00 a pop on eating out.

Wisdom would say that 900 Wall will need to compete with several "upscale" restaurants and come down on prices in order to survive. They can't assume people will flock there just because they are reviving a dead Merenda, there is a reason Merenda died.
February 06, 2009
Karl said:
They should have re-named it Merendebt:)
February 06, 2009
Lydia said:
As said above, I wish them the best. Certainly there are quite a few folks here, still, who want to pay those prices. Who knows if there will be enough? Personally, Merenda's DID not, and 900 Wall WILL not reflect the real, down to earth Bend-ite who is here for an authentic lifestyle. Their prices and fare will remain outside my budget and my taste.
February 06, 2009
HBM said:
By lumping the Blacksmith in with Deep, Volo and 38 I might have given the impression that it too has closed. It has not. Sorry if anybody got the wrong idea from that.
February 06, 2009
HBM said:
Lydia, it's not the dollars alone that deter my wife and me from dining out more often at "upscale" places -- it's an aversion to ripoffs. $9, $10 or $11 for one glass of wine? Ten bucks for a salad that could have (maybe did) come out of a bag bought at Costco? Come on!

Bewert said...

Re: We're having another one of those fucking patented Bend inversions.

###

Hey, you haven't seen a REAL inversion until you been in one in SLC that sits so low it requires headlights at noon :)

Anonymous said...

>>We're having another one of those fucking patented Bend inversions.

>>God, this place sucks.

Goddamn, Eeyore. What a fucking whiner. An attitude like that will put you int he grave. Stop being such a fucking bummer.

Anonymous said...

Lydia, it's not the dollars alone that deter my wife and me from dining out more often at "upscale" places -- it's an aversion to ripoffs. $9, $10 or $11 for one glass of wine? Ten bucks for a salad that could have (maybe did) come out of a bag bought at Costco? Come on! - hbm

*

See there is common ground, on most issues HBM is a tired monotonous boor, but here in this case he's correct $10 for a glass of wine from a wholesale $5 bottle $10 for a handful of bagged 'costco quality' greens, that cost penny's wholesale. People are paying to be BE SEEN, the trouble is HELOC is dead, Credit-Card is dead, and Bend is Dead.

I think astro-lounge has it right $4 food that you can share, and $3 drinks, that a couple can go out & dine for $10, and leave a little tip. There is NO point to go to Merenda-3 and to watch Coke-Ho's in action, and spend $100, and then go home hungry. No point.

How many of these $100 suckers are there? The same people who buy $100 gram's of coke and snort them in the bathroom in one line. Where the fuck will this money come from? Crime? It's all I can see, these Merenda joints will be where Bend's Russian mafia hangout and spend money, stolen money, while the REAL retirees ( people with money ), go to D&D or astro-lounge for $10 two-fer dinners, and marge knows what I'm talking about.

The kids in BEND have no money, and a few retirees, who didn't buy excessive housing have money, who are these people with money? Are you talking BLEDSOE & the VOLO club? Or Broken-TOP club? The people in BEND who will spend $100 for a couple glasses of wine, and finger-food is too fucking small to support a dozen high-ender places in BEND, but see the essential truth here is our 1,000's of BEND RESTAURANT workers have no place to go, so they'll try and 'invest' in losers and I'm telling you they'll do a DE-LOREAN, which is fund the BIZ with cocaine dollars, cuz that's the only way to keep a bad business alive.

Anonymous said...

Hey, you haven't seen a REAL inversion until you been in one in SLC that sits so low it requires headlights at noon :)

*

BP, please put your mormon under-wear over your head, and return to SLC, we are so tired of you talking about SLC. Pleeeeze, its almost as boring as Obama or Gaza.

Anonymous said...

An attitude like that will put you int he grave.

This "attitude" business is greatly overrated. I'll make my point with an anecdote:

One day the playwright Samuel Beckett, a notoriously gloomy pessimist, was walking through a London park with a friend. It was one of those rare beautiful English summer days -- sun shining, birds singing, children playing.

"It certainly is a beautiful day," isn't it?" Beckett's friend said.

Beckett replied that yes, it was a rather pleasant day.

"Makes you glad to be alive, doesn't it?" the friend said.

"I wouldn't go THAT far," Beckett said.

Samuel Beckett died in 1989. He was 83.

Stop being such a fucking bummer.

Stop living in denial, Little Mary Sunshine.

Anonymous said...

I guess I am a bad Bend consumer. The only places I have eaten in downtown are the D&D, NY Subs, Pine Tavern and a few years ago McKenzies, Deschutes and Pat and Mikes. My old favorite was Kayos on S 97 for a special night out..

I am really bummed if Sawyers played a ponzi in Bend. Once the money disappears, I guess you do stupider and stupider things to keep moving losses forward..

Anonymous said...

Goddamn, Eeyore. What a fucking whiner. An attitude like that will put you int he grave. Stop being such a fucking bummer.

*

At least the sore-eye tells the truth on a few subjects, god knows he's incapable of writing real articles or doing real reporting, but bitching about weather, now how is that going to piss off the boss-hoggs that own Bend?

HBM is a frustrated old fart, who should have left years ago, who should have sold his house at top of the market, ... But here he sits stuck in Bend. Kissing ass where need be, and kicking puppy's that can't fight back.

All of this blog is cynical and negative, can't handle that, then you don't belong here.

Now when is HBM going to DEMAND that the RNC return the stolen 1031 money to the suckers? When is HBM going to write about the real reason that HOLLERN forced Switzer to move winterfest from downtown to old-mill? ??? There are 100's of story's that HBM could write, but he'll stick to bashing dead pug's, puppy's, and the weather, rather than losing his fucking position of 'power' at the SORE. Gawd forbid if HBM lost his sore-eye, and had to create his own fucking 'real blog'.

Duncan McGeary said...

"Lot's of comments on that story:"

The tongue is a terrible tool. Anonymous.

Heh, heh.

Title of my next blog.

Anonymous said...

I guess I am a bad Bend consumer. The only places I have eaten in downtown are the D&D,

*

The problem is that Bend eatery's, and especially the expensive ones aren't any good.

Stocatto the best of Bend's Italian sucks, like HBM say's they're all using 'bagged costco lettuce', nothing is fresh, everything is tired and frozen, were in the fucking desert.

Want good food dining? Then go to SF, PDX, or SEA, otherwise cook at home in Bend.

I mean I have money to waste, and there is NO restaurant in BEND that I want to go to other than Deschutes, ... pizza-mondo ain't bad, but home-made pizza is way better. Blacksmith sucks, even happy hour $8 for 3 taco's that cost 10 cents to put together. Then you have 38, or any of Bend's wine bar's selling Bruschetta ( toasted stale bread with tomatoe ) for $10 for a finger serving, and its just bad shit.

BEND is one thing, all dining in BEND is about the non-existent tourist, and they all know the sucker is only coming once, and never again, like TOOMIES the worst fucking THAI on the planet, how that fucking place has stayed in biz for 20 years is mind-boggling.

BEND DINING SUCKS, and the only people who don't see this are the 1,000's of restaurant wage-slaves that have to work in these hell-holes.

More power to them, if they want to use their own money and credit to feed the beast that is Shitty-Food in Bend.

Bewert said...

Turns out Clinton was informed of the "Emergency Meeting" 40 minutes before it started, and they refused to tell him what it was going to be about.

Anonymous said...

HBM is a frustrated old fart, who should have left years ago, who should have sold his house at top of the market

Well, Buster, ya got THAT right. Better yet I shoulda never moved here.

Duncan McGeary said...

Tami Sawer, P.C.

Broker, CRS, GRI

Tami Sawyer is not easily defined. Tami is energy. Tami is creativity. Tami is about combining energy, creativity, experience and gut instinct, along with friends, family and investors to reach and exceed financial goals and expectations. Big or small, every project Tami touches is handled with the utmost care and attention.

Tami is one of Central Oregon's most recognized and successful real estate agents. Nearly 20 years ago she chose the real estate field and was the top agent at Century 21 within 2 years. Over five years ago, Tami joined the professional brokers at Coldwell Banker to further her career. To achieve her goals of becoming more than just top broker, she assembled a top-notch team of real estate professionals; better known to clients and customers as The Sawyer Five.

This team, The Sawyer Five, is the backbone of Tami's success as a broker, developer, and property manager. Each person is more than an employee, they are part of the team, part of The Sawyer Five family, and all have one common goal, to be the best at what we do and do it with those we enjoy on a personal level as well. The Sawyer Five focuses on the buying, selling and marketing of Central Oregon Real Estate for our clients. The team vision is summed up by "synergy that sells", meaning that we are more than the sum of our parts.

To build upon the Team's success, Tami surrounds herself with the most successful people in each related industry. The best lenders, the best contractors, the best clients and the best of friends and family; together, they do amazing things for clients and the community.

Beyond residential real estate sales and development, there are two other parts to Tami's business success. One of these is named Genesis Futures LLC. This company manages over 40 of Tami's personally owned residential rental properties. Here in Central Oregon, she has 2 vacation rentals that are used for a variety of things; vacation rentals of course, for visiting friends and family, and for people who might just need a hand up, a little help to get back on their feet.

Another ingredient to Tami's success is Starboard LLC. This real estate ventures company was founded with Tami's desire to help others. This is where the friends and family really get involved and become part of The Sawyer Five family. This company buys, sells, and develops real estate both locally and across the US. These projects are funded by a group of investors (some of which never thought they would ever be able to be part of these types of projects) consisting of friends, family, builders, professional associates and more. Each purchase and development is extensively researched, reviewed with community leaders, city officials and others who can offer knowledge, foresight and expertise. All this combined with the current and historical data analyzed and considered ensures success!

More so than just numbers, this group is brought together by their feelings about Tami. They have seen her grow and succeed and they believe in her abilities. For many of these people, their financial involvement with Tami has changed their lives. People who thought they would still be working are now able to retire, those with financial goals but no idea how to reach them have invested in Starboard and exceeded their goals. Tami's investors are loyal and are always there to support new opportunities and reap the rewards!

Tami Sawyer is not just a broker, a property manager, a developer or a real estate leader. Tami Sawyer is success; in business, in life, in family and in her community. She is married, the mother of 4 daughters and has 2 grandsons to celebrate. She loves to garden, camp, work out, ski, and enjoy the beauty of the Central Oregon outdoors.


I really should let her speak for herself, but....my,god.

Sociopathic and maniacal!

Duncan McGeary said...

I think Dale Carnegie would tell her to tone it down a bit.

Sheeesh.

Anonymous said...

Tami Sawyer is not just a broker, a property manager, a developer or a real estate leader. Tami Sawyer is success; in business, in life, in family and in her community.

To borrow a somewhat outdated but magnificently appropriate expression:

"Gag me with a spoon."

Many people drink the Kool-Aid, but this woman drowned in it.

Anonymous said...

More and more I am becoming convinced that "positive thinking " is, for many people, an addiction as powerful as heroin or nicotine. And it is an addiction our society and culture actively foster. Indeed, anybody who is NOT addicted risks being ostracized.

There's a whole vast industry devoted to selling "positive thinking" -- books, tapes, seminars, videos, workshops, etc. etc.

Think about it for a minute: If everything about life was so fucking terrific, would we need to spend so much time, money and effort convincing ourselves that it is?

Anonymous said...

hbm,

You can be honest about the economy, crooks, losers, idiots, and jerks.

But complaining about weather is lame-ass. Enjoying your family, your friends, and mother nature.

Bewert said...

Quiet time. Are people becoming overwhelmed? Or is it just a sunny afternoon.

Anonymous said...

It was a good day for a road bike ride to Smith Rock and back.

And other than the Sawyer 5, Oran Teater, more store closings downtown (En Vogue is 'for sale'. good luck with that), and a lack of ranting by buster.. what is there to talk about

Bewert said...

How is the dust level to the north?

Anonymous said...

We were all out enjoying the beautiful day. Except for hbm, of course, who was muttering and cursing at the classic inversion.

Anonymous said...

We were all out enjoying the beautiful day. Except for hbm, of course, who was muttering and cursing at the classic inversion.

Actually, when the sun came out this afternoon my wife and I went for a stroll in Drake Park. It was indeed a beautiful afternoon. Almost made me glad to be alive. ;>}

Anonymous said...

Good article in the current New Yorker about the Florida real estate bubble and bust. Basically Florida is Bend writ large -- a giant Ponzi scheme, a whole economy based on nothing but endless growth. Didn't work there, didn't work here. But they'll keep trying.

Bewert said...

The Conscience of a Liberal
Paul Krugman

February 7, 2009, 5:36 pm
What the centrists have wrought

I’m still working on the numbers, but I’ve gotten a fair number of requests for comment on the Senate version of the stimulus.

The short answer: to appease the centrists, a plan that was already too small and too focused on ineffective tax cuts has been made significantly smaller, and even more focused on tax cuts.

According to the CBO’s estimates, we’re facing an output shortfall of almost 14% of GDP over the next two years, or around $2 trillion. Others, such as Goldman Sachs, are even more pessimistic. So the original $800 billion plan was too small, especially because a substantial share consisted of tax cuts that probably would have added little to demand. The plan should have been at least 50% larger.

Now the centrists have shaved off $86 billion in spending — much of it among the most effective and most needed parts of the plan. In particular, aid to state governments, which are in desperate straits, is both fast — because it prevents spending cuts rather than having to start up new projects — and effective, because it would in fact be spent; plus state and local governments are cutting back on essentials, so the social value of this spending would be high. But in the name of mighty centrism, $40 billion of that aid has been cut out.

My first cut says that the changes to the Senate bill will ensure that we have at least 600,000 fewer Americans employed over the next two years.

The real question now is whether Obama will be able to come back for more once it’s clear that the plan is way inadequate. My guess is no. This is really, really bad.

###

One economist's view. My guess is Obama will be able to come back if necessary. But we are in uncharted waters here. This meltdown is beyond the '30's due to the incredible exposure in "creative" derivatives.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
It was a good day for a road bike ride to Smith Rock and back.


Great! Just as long as you and the other little saddle fags stay way to the right, in single file.

tim said...

If it's too small to work, can we perhaps just skip the stimulus plan?

Anonymous said...

"If it's too small to work, can we perhaps just skip the stimulus plan?"


Good thought.

I personally think a better route would be some sort of minimum health care coverage.

Take the burden off of businesses. Business hires fewer workers when it has to pay for health care for that worker and his family.

A single payer system would also eliminate some of the tremendous costs associated with the current system -- where private insurers spend all their time trying NOT to cover your claim.

*

For those of you worried about "socialized" medicine you probably don't have to worry -- I don't we're going to see much progress on this front.

But at least I think there's a new policy that covers children . . . ?

Anonymous said...

How is the dust level to the north?

*

DUst? Its those continual field fires to the north around MadrAss all winter that make it suck up north.

Anonymous said...

For those of you worried about "socialized" medicine you probably don't have to worry -- I don't we're going to see much progress on this front.

*

Yes, I thought that was funny, the exact quote was "Without Daschle, there cannot be a health-care reform", only daschle you see can fix health-care, and only geithner can fix the US dollar. Its rather odd that blatant crooks and tax cheats are given 'waivers' for their exceptionalism, but when folks really started digging DEEP into daschles 'consulting' gig, he decided to exit and quick! Hypocricy is SO FUCKING thick in this OREO crowd.

The way its going, the only person that will come out CLEAN is HRC "Hillary Rotten Cunt". Bush is gone, Bend-Gone, but hbm&bp will continue to focus on the twisted-shrub. Blago will sing or write a book, and so will Rezko, OREO will go down as the most turn-coat false expectation prez ever. Just wait for a major event like KATRINA, this guy is hands off on everything, he's never done a fucking thing in his life for fear of failure. He never even voted on anything for fear of sending a 'concrete signal'. All things to all people, an empty suit to all DO-ers.

So there you have it with health-care, "If we can't have Daschle, then health-care reform is dead, cuz he's the only one that knew how to fix it".

I think we're going to hear a lot of this shit from OREO, guy 'X' is the only one, and guy 'X' is dirty. Good story in fridays WSJ about Joe'papa'Kennedy. During the depression they let him run the SEC! Why? FDR said "It's best to let a crook catch crooks", I think that will be the basis of the ENTIRE fucking OREO management philosophy.

Expect to soon see BLAGO running the AG, and REZKO running HUD. OREO is doing the old CLINTON 'Teflon' nothing the left sticks, and he disses all right-wing rhetoric as LIMPBaugh, ... OREO is dellusional, he once was considered intelligent, now he can be seen as a 'hear no evil, think no evil, do no evil', but have evil men surround him and do his 'evil'.

Look today BIDEN is NOW running INTL affairs and ISRAEL, biden is now the fair & objective 'change' to the middle-east that OREO has promised us, OREO is too busy with DOMESTIC, and has handed off INTL to BIDEN, HRC will get what BIDEN don't want.

It's going to be lots of fun watching OREO go down, most liberal & progressive media have completely given up on the fucking ASS-HOLE.

Reminds me a few years ago of the movie the "Candidate", Robert Redford I think, and after they won it was "Now what do we do"??

The OREO ain't a leader. His council are the exact same people who have been running the USA since the 1970's, it looks like 'change' and 'hope' need to be deferred until another few generations.

Dunc 'ned flanders' said back in Aug-08 that OREO would fix Bend's economy. Well its now rather clear that at BEST OREO might use taxpayer treasure to BUY MOSS toxic waste, but that will not fix Bend.

Expect NOTHING from the OREO, other than 'professional criminals', who hold waivers to be calling the shots. This government is going to be incredible, to have issued 'waivers' means that all around the OREO are Praetorian. A whole new level of citizenry, where some are NOT even affected or subject to the 'laws of the land'. So far is the only 'change' that OREO has brought that I can see. Even the SHRUB didn't carte-blanc issue 'waivers' to his criminal staff. Bush was a retarded jeebus-freak, but OREO is a black man in an empty white mans suit.

Even the WSJ called the OREO's CEO pay-cap promise a 'joke' as it was full of loop-holes. Nothing will come, but OREO will continue to pander to the stupidest US citizenry.

Anonymous said...

The Bully's Perspective section today has a piece by one Anita Shlaes rehashing the familiar right-wing argument that the New Deal prolonged the Depression. Shlaes opens with the touching story of a 13-year-old who killed himself in 1937 because of his family's poverty. Implication: In four years, FDR's policies had failed to revive the economy.

What Shlaes glosses over with barely a mention is that FDR in 1937 made the mistake of listening to conservatives and cut federal spending in a misguided panic over the deficit. This brought on the "mini-Depression" of 1937. The problem was not that the New Deal programs didn't work, but that they were not tried for long enough.

So what's Shlaes' prescription for today? Yep, you guessed it ... more TAX CUTS!

"The president has already put forward a big tax cut for lower earners. He might offer a commensurate one for higher earners. He might expand the tax advantages he is currently offering to companies — wider expensing of losses, for example — and make them permanent. A discussion that permits the word “trillion” might also include the possibility of bringing down U.S. corporate taxes, taxes on interest, dividend and capital gains — again, permanently."

These right-wing bastards are utterly shameless.

Anonymous said...

Buster, I'm starting to come around to your way of thinking on Obama. I'm beginning to wonder if, to quote Gertrude Stein, "there's no there there." Frank Rich really lays into him in today's NYT.

I guess I won't see another authentic progressive president in my lifetime.

Anonymous said...

"These right-wing bastards are utterly shameless."
===

These hbm fags are utterly shameless. and worthless.

I want my new rack of titties.

More titties and less hbm worthless crap.

Bewert said...

If we are going to cut taxes, why not do it where we will see an immediate benefit, one that will put more dollars in workers and small business owners pockets twice a month?

Why not deeply cut taxes on those making less than $100,000/year, and immediately send out new IRS withholding schedules?

And for an even greater impact--why not temporarily halve the FICA withholding for both employees and small employers? At least until we are out of this recession.

Anyone who recently filed their 941 will know exactly what I'm talking about.

These simple actions would immediately put hundreds of millions of dollars directly into the pockets of those living paycheck to paycheck, twice a month, from where they would be spent.

Duncan McGeary said...

Yep, Obama's been there, what? 16 days now and he hasn't fixed everything.

Total failure.

Bruce and HBM, you're as big of ninnies as Buster and Paul-doh.

Bewert said...

Dunc, I was going to say the same thing...I just listened to Mike Pence(R-NV) complain about how much the federal deficit has grown in the last eight years, as if it's Obama's fault.

Hello? Mike--you and your party controlled both houses and the presidency during that growth in the deficit.

Dunc, if you had to pay less withholding and FICA match every three months, would you maybe have kept your employee? Would it make a difference in your calculations?

Duncan McGeary said...

"Dunc, if you had to pay less withholding and FICA match every three months, would you maybe have kept your employee? Would it make a difference in your calculations?"

Probably not. I was well south of the numbers that made any sense of having a full-time employee, but north of the numbers that make sense of a part-time employee.

But I'd promised Pat work through the summer, and kept him into the fall, when it became abundantly clear that the economy was tanking.

I don't believe in cutting a wage once it's in place, and Pat didn't want part-time work, so....

I'm just taking advantage of not having an employee for the next few months, so I can get a firm grasp on the store and what the future holds.

Personally, I wish they'd spend every cent of the Stimulus on infrastructure and R & D.

Bewert said...

He can hang up his keys with his head held high
By John Stearns, business editor, / The Bulletin
Published: February 08. 2009 4:00AM PST

You don’t last 30 years in the used-car business in a small town if you don’t treat people right.

Greg Gibson strove to do just that from his lot on south Third Street in Bend, where he’s sold vehicles since 1979. Now, at 69, he’s putting the brakes on a 47-year career selling vehicles, trying to clear out his lot by month’s end.

Quittin’ time has come a little earlier than Gibson planned — the economy has hastened his exit from selling cars.

“It is absolutely the toughest time I’ve seen in the car business,” Gibson said.


That’s saying something for a guy whose car-industry tenure stretches back to 1962, with 17 years spent between Portland and Coos Bay dealerships before setting up shop locally in what was then a sleepy spot south of town.

“It was really boring for the first couple years,” Gibson said from the small house that serves as his office overlooking the lot for Greg Gibson’s Auto Mart Inc. just north of Badger Road. “I was a mile out of town. Everybody told me I was crazy for moving so far out.”

Gibson, however, conducted business the best way he knew how, and customers responded. He sold multiple vehicles to people, including an estimated 20 to 30 to one family.

“I don’t think you could stay in business if you weren’t as honest with people as you could possibly be,” Gibson said.

He encouraged customers to take a vehicle to the mechanic of their choice if they had questions before buying. He’s kept small toys in the office as giveaways for children.

He sold a lot of cars. He made a lot of friends.

One, Bert Neighbour, visited Gibson on Tuesday.

Neighbour, a professed “car-aholic,” met Gibson in 1980 and bought cars from him over the years. His three children washed vehicles for Gibson and swept pine needles from the lot.

He called Gibson “a really kind-hearted, honest person,” words you like to hear in business.

Neighbour ran Gibson’s lot for six weeks when Gibson had heart surgery in fall 2007, shortly after Neighbour retired. Neighbour sold four cars and six metal buildings, a side business Gibson operates from the lot. Three cars were sold to previous customers of Gibson, which speaks to the person he is, Neighbour said.

Gibson hit one bump in the ’80s when a woman sued him, unhappy with a car she bought. He hired his friend Mike Dugan, a private-practice lawyer then and Deschutes County’s district attorney today, to defend him. Dugan knew the car business — his father ran a Klamath Falls Chevrolet dealership for about 50 years. Some allegations were dismissed and a jury found Gibson not guilty of the others, Dugan said.

“Maybe people think used-car salesmen are just one step above lawyers and maybe that’s one of the reasons I felt closely connected to him,” Dugan said. “Everybody hears the horrible stories, but we don’t talk about all the great stories” of dealers like Gibson and others like him.

“In my opinion, Greg was probably one of the most honest people I know,” Dugan said. “Greg wouldn’t tell you anything unless he believed it to be true. Greg absolutely exemplified the best in a businessman that you can see.”

Gibson might have soured on the industry after an experience at his first dealership in Portland in the ’60s. He worked his way from salesman to fleet manager, selling vehicles to governments and businesses. But he said he wasn’t paid a $5 commission for each of more than 900 fleet vehicles he sold — a loss of about $5,000, a lot of money then for a guy in his 20s. He quit.

He enjoyed the car business too much to give up, eventually managing a Coos Bay dealership before moving to Bend where he endured by doing it right. He’s been there long enough to see Jake’s Truck Stop rebuilt across the street, torn down, then replaced by Gottschalks and a mall.

Now the car lot that is his home away from home is about to become a memory. He’ll keep his hand in the car business as a licensed auto appraiser, working mostly for attorneys in bankruptcy cases.

He’ll miss the people at his lot, though, and their stories, like the guy he sold a Toyota truck to more than 15 years ago who visited last week and said he’s still driving it.

What worked for Gibson all these years was simple, really.

As he said, “You try to be fair to the public and if you are, then your reputation will follow you.”

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