Happy Thanksgiving

In spite of the mess that mad king george has made of our country - we still have a lot to be thankful for....

I am thankful for my son, my blog readers, my friends and neighbors and my pets. [And the gorgeous day we are having for a late November in the pacific northwest.....]

Another whoda thunk it

Two pre-Thanksgiving news clips:

Dark moods?

Americans enter the holiday season in a dark mood, with economic worries, security fears and a lack of confidence in government fueling growing pessimism, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

The Reuters/Zogby Index, which measures the mood of the country, fell for the third consecutive month, dropping from 96 in October to 94.9 on new growth in the number of Americans dissatisfied with the economy and pessimistic about the future.

Think maybe it has to do with this news clip?

The plunge [stock market] came as investors remain frightened and uncertain about a credit crisis that does not show any signs of easing. Freddie Mac, considered a backstop for the mortgage industry, said yesterday that it lost $2 billion last quarter because of increased foreclosures tied to subprime mortgage defaults. Oil prices flirted with the symbolic $100-a-barrel level in overnight trading. Markets in Asia and Europe dropped sharply as investors questioned whether the United States economy will slow more than expected.

Gee if Rummy were still around - we'd have one of his who could have guessed stupidities.

Instead we have only my sarcastic "whoda thunk it"

Another one admits to lying

Why is it that persons leaving the employ of this administration can only tell the truth AFTER they leave?

I do wish we had some new rules about lying to the public when you are being paid by that very same public!

Who is today's "truth" teller? Why it's pretty boy McClellan:

In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, McClellan recounts the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame.

"There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes, according to a brief excerpt released Tuesday. "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."

Fuller article here: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

More bad news about foreclosures

CNN news had an article today about an area of Cleveland where the number of empty houses due to foreclosures are being looted for the siding, plumbing and anything that can be sold quickly.

Full CNN Cleveland article: http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/16/real_estate/suprime_and_crime/index.htm?postversion=2007111908

And just so you know - this is happening all over the country - even in wealthier enclaves like Northern Virgina. All thanks to mr 24% and the go-along-to-get-along Congress... The empty houses can be used by criminals or for dumping garbage, thus making the neighborhoods less appealing and of course then values go down and nothing sells - making it harder for the remaining homeowners to leave as they can not sell and making it very unpleasant for them to stay.

So the subprime mortgage mess is affecting many communities - and reading the market news - it's causing problems in financial markets as the banks are reeling from the bad loans....

Gee - whoda thought voting for mr 24% would have had this effect? [she says sarcastically]

Are you a renter?

If so, you may wind up being "collateral damages" in the mortgage mess brought on by the shrub's banking buddies. The housing foreclosures across the country are resulting in the evictions of those renting those houses - even if they [the renters] never missed a rental payment !

Why? The investor owners are not paying the mortgage. And why is that? They were allowed to overextend themselves in the booing low interest rate hosing market..and now everyone is paying a price for that.

From The New York Times

“This is an explosion,” said Judith Liben, a lawyer at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. “This isn’t business as usual. These are investors that overleveraged themselves, and the renters are collateral damage in the mortgage crisis.”

Full article HERE

Even if you are a home owner, all those foreclosures in your neighborhood, which are usually left empty, are inviting crime, lowered hosing values and an inability to sell should you choose that route for yourself.

Another mess created by the "we hate government" crowd in D.C. - they hated regulations so they removed them and we all pay the price for his cronies' corporate greed...we win - everyone else loses" is the "game" they play - they simply do not care about "collateral damage" - on the home front, in Iraq or in Afghanistan.....