From [apparently slow] Drudge Report:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration, The Associated Press has learned.

Two law enforcement officials said Tuesday the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), and insurer American International Group Inc. (AIG) Additionally, a senior law enforcement official said Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) also is under investigation.

This is the first good news from this bailout scheme. I’m glad to see our nation’s top law enforcement office, George W. Bush, is allowing this to take place. Keep up the pressure Bush.

Article

If I look at the picture real close I can see where my daughters car used to be parked at.

I actually think it is a legit question, and was-so after Hurricane Katrina for New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Personally I don’t give a crap if they build back there or not, but what I do care about is footing the bill for it. And it is not a matter of IF another storm, it’s a matter of WHEN the next storm hits it.

Dov

In Kansas?

Sis, my federal wild life agent told me they just closed the books on missing people from Katrina. Some were never found. She said it will probably take the same length of time to search, and solve missing people in the Galveston area. I think Bolivar should be made a park, in memory. No more building there. If one builds, one signs a contract stating sole responsibility for the residence is theirs. NO bail out. No rebuilding on tax payers in Wyoming’s money.

#5
AW

Wonder if they looked in Houston.

The same people biatching about having to help foot the bill to rebuild Galveston will be screaming the loudest that it’s not fair when Centerpoint etal charge them for the costs of Ike to the infrastructure.

Interesting comparison between destruction in Galveston/Bolivar and Greensburg, KS and the question of rebuilding. Perhaps a prime consideration would be the probability of ocurrence, recurrent destruction and to what extent. Greensburg was hit by an F5 tornado (so was Jarrell near Waco). Are tornadoes more capricious than hurricanes? They sure seem to be, and their destruction covers smaller areas. Hurricanes are tracked long before they make landfall, tornadoes virtually appear from nowhere, destroy, and vanish with very little warning.

Surely weather and climate folks and mathematicians have studied this question extensively, and it would be interesting to know what the current thoughts are. It seems to me that trying to compare the two situations falls into the apples and oranges category.

The small farming community of Barneveld, WI (pop. ~400) near Madison was completely destroyed by a tornado in the early 80s, and the water tower was all that remained standing. It struck in the middle of the night, and by God’s grace no one was killed. The town rebuilt with help from all over the country, pretty much old fashioned house-raisings. The only indication of anything unusual about the town now is all the buildings and homes look new and are pretty much similar architecture. I have not heard/read that Barneveld has been a subsequent victim of a tornado so it is presumably not a magnet for them..

Centerpoint in a press conference yesterday, was asked why they did not act under the study made in 05 that stated 4+ million should be used to remove tree branches along power lines. Centerpoint admitted that was a good question, but had no answer. They chose to not apply funds to the recommendation. Now, we pay for their decision. This is becoming a familiar pattern. Don’t spend the money, or as in Freddie and Fannie, spend the money recklessly, and the tax payer will pay for it. I don’t see those in charge of decision making suffering any consequences except in Enron. I wonder how much the Pres of Centerpoint gets paid.

I think if people who want to rebuild in hurricane or flood prone areas they should sign a waiver releasing all government agencies (and ultimately the taxpayers) from any responsiblities for rebuilding their property if it is destroyed in the future. If you can’t buy or afford insurance, then your on your own. Thru FEMA (aka the taxpayers), we will be picking up the cost for rebuilding homes where the owners didn’t have or get enough insurance to cover their losses. Why should anybody buy insurance if the federal government is there to bail them out?? I know there are instances where the government will not bail them out but the taxpayer shouldn’t foot the bill when it does.

my federal wild life agent

AW has a Federal Wildlife Agent?

Cool!

#9 - is it not true that many of the trees you’re talking about pruning or removing are standing on private property?

And the taxpayers are bailing out some financial institutions who possibly by poor management or by fraud made some bad investments. Here again, “big government” comes to their rescue. I hope the FBI investigates because the taxpayer cannot keep bailing out everybody. Whose going to bailout the taxpayer when they go bankrupt???

The reality is that unless you cut trees back far enough from power lines where they cannot possibly fall on the power lines (and oh, let’s factor in several years worth of growth, so maybe 200 feet or so), you will have problems in a forested area (such as Cypress) with power lines and trees. That’s not callousness on the part of Centerpoint, that’s just reality.

Ike was a huge storm that brought a lot of destruction to the Houston/Galveston area. It’s funny how otherwise conservative people act when it is THEM that is directly affected. Now all of a sudden, we’re talking about skewering businesses with poorly thought out, knee-jerk regulation.

It’s funny how otherwise conservative people act when it is THEM that is directly affected.

Exactly, although I would have used sad instead of funny.

#7 rivets

The same people biatching about having to help foot the bill to rebuild Galveston will be screaming the loudest that it’s not fair when Centerpoint etal charge them for the costs of Ike to the infrastructure.

You’re right. Centerpoint should have adequate insurance and other reserves to cover their infrastructure. The people who built homes and businesses in Galveston should have done the same. The City of Galveston should have done the same. What has happened to personal/organizational responsibility in this country.

btw - ditto for Baghdad on the Mississippi. Anyone who lives/builds anything below sea level, with North America’s largest river flowing through the area, immediately next to the Gulf of Mexico is stupid. Especially if they do not insure it.

LST is falling down on the job. People Magazine has scooped the vaunted editors and vast legions of reporters and has found out that Clay Aiken is gay.

wagonburner

In the blogging biz we call that a NWOR story.

Would love to see an October Surprise of indictments against at least some of those who looted Mae and Mac and those who protected the looters, umm reaching into the halls of Congress perhaps?

NWOR?

Who or what is Clay Aiken?

NWOR = Not Worthy Of Reply.

#19 adee
Especially seeing that one of the persons of interest was responsible at one point for vetting TOWBWF’s VP choices and another is/was a highly-placed economic advisor to said campaign.

How’s ya doin’, Squawk?

Seems to me that some regulation of the banking industry would have been better than this trillion dollar bailout. Is that a liberal notion?

I was guessing “Not Worthy of Reading.” A term I apply to rags such as People Magazine.

25 - It seems to me that the Federal Government shouldn’t have pressured the banking industry to make so many questionable loans to people who couldn’t afford to pay in the first place, thereby contributing to the current scenario.

Is that a conservative notion?

JimB & BigJ,

Sadly enough, it seems to me that where we are as a society now has moved beyond terms like conservative or liberal. It’s now a question of those who are willing to be positive and take personal responsibility and those who are not.

You guys both know I’m not a native of Texas. Despite the things I kid about, I’m very proud to call Texas home. Why? The git ‘er done attitude that I’ve perceived from most of the folks here is why. I love that. When times get a little bit tough and I see some Texans lose the git ‘er done attitude I admire so much it bothers me deeply.

We are Texans dammit! We do not whine or needlessly, fruitlessly complain. We get ‘er done in good times and in bad. I can’t control what others do, but I can control what I do and I intend to do it this and every day.

26 “not worthy of reading” is probably more fitting in this case. I’m just going off what I’ve seen of blog-cronyms in the past…

JimB
Doing OK, I can’t complain. Thanks for askin

izquierdo
#25
I am so proud of you!!!! Sniff sniff brings a tear to my eye to “hear” you say that.

HOWEVER The banking industry is regulated and most if not all the regulations that were written that allowed this mess was written by the Democrats.

Dittos Adee, Clay Aiken?

This is the first good news from this bailout scheme. I’m glad to see our nation’s top law enforcement office, George W. Bush, is allowing this to take place. Keep up the pressure Bush.

Article

And WTF was Congress?

Oversight is thier job, and legislation was introduced to require even more.

Oh yeah, now I remember.

Fannie and Freddie paid Barney Frank and Chris Dodd to block the egislation and look theother way.

And the Democrats in Congress blocked any and all attempts at reform.

What happened next was extraordinary. For the first time in history, a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets.

Different World

If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a blizzard of terrible mortgage paper fluttered out of the Fannie and Freddie clouds, burying many of our oldest and most venerable institutions. Without their checkbooks keeping the market liquid and buying up excess supply, the market would likely have not existed.

But the bill didn’t become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn’t even get the Senate to vote on the matter.

That such a reckless political stand could have been taken by the Democrats was obscene even then. Wallison wrote at the time: “It is a classic case of socializing the risk while privatizing the profit. The Democrats and the few Republicans who oppose portfolio limitations could not possibly do so if their constituents understood what they were doing.”

Mounds of Materials

Now that the collapse has occurred, the roadblock built by Senate Democrats in 2005 is unforgivable. Many who opposed the bill doubtlessly did so for honorable reasons. Fannie and Freddie provided mounds of materials defending their practices. Perhaps some found their propaganda convincing.

It’s almost as if the Democrats wanted this to happen.

Almost—

wagonburner on September 24th, 2008 at 8:31 am LST is falling down on the job. People Magazine has scooped the vaunted editors and vast legions of reporters and has found out that Clay Aiken is gay.

I’m almost as shocked as I was when we found out that Rosie O’Donnell was gay.

Almost—

#25 iz
At some point, regulation becomes virtually meaningless once it gets too onerous, requires actions that run counter to proper business practices, and/or is not enforced.

A case can be made that all of the above apply in the current financial market mess.

Rosie’s gay?

If anybody cares about poll numbers now, then how goofy if that poll that shows “BO” is better able to handle the problems of the economy than McCain. A follow up question to that poll should be: What qualifications or experience exhibited by “BO” makes you think he is more able to solve the economic problems. And remember, just saying so in his speeches does not count.

quierdo on September 24th, 2008 at 8:43 am Seems to me that some regulation of the banking industry would have been better than this trillion dollar bailout. Is that a liberal notion?

There was a chance for getting some REgulation.

Fannie and Freddie paid you Democrats enough money to make sure it ddn’t happen.

But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and Freddie, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd, have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the years.

Throughout his political career, Obama has gotten more than $125,000 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, second only to Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who received more than $165,000.

Clinton, the 12th-ranked recipient of Fannie and Freddie PAC and employee contributions, has received more than $75,000 from the two enterprises and their employees. The private profit found its way back to the senators who killed the fix.

There has been a lot of talk about who is to blame for this crisis. A look back at the story of 2005 makes the answer pretty clear.

Here’s the real problem we have right nor Izzy:

The people who took the money and then made sure no Regulatory Legislation was passed are the ones in charge of fixing the problem and investigating who’s at fault.

#36 robert
Hope! Change!

Best thing about Ike is getting back to nature. Ten days of no power. Pitched a Hobo Camp in the yard & slept outdoors. No city lights to interfere with star gazing or the full moon that spied in on me at 2:00 AM.

Then there was the box of Omaha Steaks Mom sent me that needed serious eatin’ since Mr. Freezer went dead. A grill lent out but never returned forced me to make a Hibachi from a lacquer thinner can pulled from a construction dumpster.

Soon as the Comcast Calvary arrives to repair what I sense to be the problem (but what do I know with my untrained eyes?) I’ll have cable again. Until then I’ll hijack some neighbors wireless ATT DSL signal like four other miscreants like myself have done.

(Interestingly, someone has labeled their connection “Free Public WiFi”. Learned people will know this hasn’t been established and I suspect nefarious ‘packet sniffing’ going on here. Folks, stay away from these)

Man, are computers weird or what? My computer shows wagonburners gravatar as a “pink do-nut”, the one in the Lab has “Homer Simpson”, I think.

Oh, man, what a dream!

Reply to No. 21: Clay Aiken is the runner up winner of American Idol in one of the past seasons. In a climate where it is now okay to be “gay”, he probably chose not to tell the public because it would probably have affected his record sales. He had a lot of girls swooning all over him when he was real popular but not as much now. I know this is probably more information than you wanted but here goes anyhow.

27jimb and 30 squawk34 wagon

I think there’s blame on both sides ……

“Gramm’s long been a handmaiden to Big Finance. In the 1990s, as chairman of the Senate banking committee, he routinely turned down Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt’s requests for more money to police Wall Street; during this period, the sec’s workload shot up 80 percent, but its staff grew only 20 percent. Gramm also opposed an sec rule that would have prohibited accounting firms from getting too close to the companies they audited—at one point, according to Levitt’s memoir, he warned the sec chairman that if the commission adopted the rule, its funding would be cut. And in 1999, Gramm pushed through a historic banking deregulation bill that decimated Depression-era firewalls between commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies, and securities firms—setting off a wave of merger mania.”

Here’s the complete article, and yes it’s from Mother Jones

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html

#39 dave
I changed it a couple of days ago. The cache on the “Lab” computer likely still has the old “Homer daVinci” one.

Super Dave on September 24th, 2008 at 9:04 am Man, are computers weird or what? My computer shows wagonburners gravatar as a “pink do-nut”, the one in the Lab has “Homer Simpson”, I think.

I think that has to do with the Clay Aiken ting.

#42 iz
First of all, you’re using Mother Jones as a source? It is so far to the left it makes TOWBWF look like John Birch.

Secondly, Gramm is one person and has been out of office for several years now. There are several Dems currently in office and holding high-level committee chairmanships that one could lay more blame with and who are the recipients of large amounts of campaign donations from the companies in question.

#40
BJ

Awesome! That just begs to have a Viking helmet painted on it.

#44 sarge
It has more to do with I couldn’t find a picture of a wagon on fire.

Oh, and donuts are food of the angels.

#40 bigj
If you get one that big, do you have to load it up with a proportionate amount of fuel, or do you just reduce the draft?

Why does SuperDave’s lab computer have LST on it? Research?

#41, Thank you kindly for the clarification Robert 1.

Earth may now carry on in its orbit. /Grin/

Funny, I see Wagonburner’s gravatar as Elroy Jetson!

Why is it that when Colin Powell and Madeleine Halfbright say the exact same thing that Sarah Palin in her interview with Charles Gibson, nobody seems to notice or care?

#51 jimb
Gotta keep people guessing…

If anyone can point me to a picture of a wagon on fire, I might go that direction.

Here’s a CG burning wagon (sorta cheesy):

http://guildwars.gameamp.com/modules/gallery/uploads/33324.jpg

Here’s a wagon I’d love to burn:

http://www.lovefords.org/78/pintobobcat/New_Folder/1978_ford_pinto_cruisesilver_001.jpg

izquierdo on September 24th, 2008 at 9:12 am 27jimb and 30 squawk34 wagon

I think there’s blame on both sides ……

Funny how you guys never see blame on both sidesuntil somebody shows you where the Democrats are at fault.

Even if it was true that Gramm started the ball rolling here (it’s not–he’s just a convenient villain due to his unpopularity from his stupid remark a few weeks ago), the folks who get in the way of keeping it from happening when it was obvious what was going on were the Deomcrats who blocked the Legislation that would have stopped it.

The figures given for the money given to Democrats are totals for the last 10 years. Most of that was given out in the last 5. Barack Obama got almost as much as Chris Dodd and he’s only been ther two years.

You want to blame a Republican who introduced legislation in a Congress that was still controlled by Democrats—who all voted for it—and a Democrat President who signed it into law.

I’ll blame the ones who had the least best chance to stop the whole thing.

I’ll blame the ones who had the least best chance to stop the whole thing.

Crimiony.

that should be the LAST BEST CHANCE.

#54 jimb
I’m looking for a “prairie schooner” type of wagon that my relatives were rumored to have had a thing against.

#40 That is a little bigger than my Weber - 14 feet !! You’d need to buy up all those broken telephone poles to keep that thing lit.

If “BO” is the great one that he professes to be then why doesn’t he release his economic plan that will save us all or is it that big a joke that he doesn’t want people to analysis it and/or heaven forbid, he DOESN’T HAVE A PLAN!! When are people going to quit listening and start damanding some substance to his speeches. I know he’s waiting for his handlers to provide that text for him TO READ at some campaign stop.

IF BO cares so much about all of us, he’d release the plan now. Not sit on it until he gets to be emperor (oops, president).

Either that, or, as you say, he’s a fraud with no plan.

#60 jimb

Not sit on it until he gets to be emperor (oops, president).

You were right the first time.

btw, McCain is a fraud without a plan too, but who needs a plan when you have Palin.

56 sarge

there’s blame on both sides.

sarge

here ya go….

“Freddie Mac had previously paid an advocacy group run by Davis, called the Homeownership Alliance, $30,000 a month until the end of 2005, when that group was dissolved. That relationship was the subject of a New York Times story Monday, which drew angry denunciations from the McCain campaign. McCain and his aides have vehemently objected to suggestions that Davis has ties to Freddie Mac—an especially sensitive issue given that the Republican presidential candidate has blamed “the lobbyists, politicians and bureaucrats” for the mortgage crisis that recently prompted the Bush administration to take over both Freddie Mac and its companion, Fannie Mae, and put them under federal conservatorship. ”
“But neither the Times story — nor the McCain campaign — revealed that Davis’s firm, the Washington, D.C. based lobbying firm Davis Manafort, continued to receive $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until last month-long after the Homeownership Alliance had been terminated. The two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told Newsweek that Davis himself approached Freddie Mac in 2006 and asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. The arrangement was approved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac’s vice president for external relations, because “he [Davis] was John McCain’s campaign manager and it was felt you couldn’t say no,” said one of the sources. [McLoughlin did not return phone calls].”

read the whole thing:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160561/output/print

#64 iz
Then why did the Dems vote down in committee legislation that would have addressed at least part of the problems in 2006?

See Panda Boy’s front page post.

700 Billion is just the start…

Hank Paulson and the Wall Street CEO gang are ballsy players…

(from) Mr. Risk Goes To Washington:
Hank Paulson’s profound understanding of risk and reward makes him the perfect pick for the Treasury

Cover Story, Business Week. June 12, 2006

Think of Paulson as Mr. Risk. He’s one of the key architects of a more daring Wall Street, where securities firms are taking greater and greater chances in their pursuit of profits. By some key measures, the securities industry is more leveraged now than it was at the height of the 1990s boom. It has also extended its global supremacy since then.

Goldman, under Paulson’s leadership, became one of the greatest and most profitable risk-taking machines ever built. Since 1999, when he took over as sole CEO, Goldman has competed with bigger rivals such as Citigroup (C ) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. by being aggressive, making smart gambles, and putting the company’s own money into deals. Paulson stresses Goldman’s willingness to take risks along with clients in the latest annual report: “Investment banks are expected to commit more of their own capital when executing transactions.”

The subject has become an obsession at Goldman: how to find profitable risks, how to control and monitor them, and how to avoid the catastrophic missteps that can bring down whole companies. That means taking on more debt: $100 billion in long-term debt in 2005, compared with about $20 billion in 1999. It means placing big bets on all sorts of exotic derivatives and other securities. And it means holding almost $50 billion in the piggy bank, enough cash and liquid securities to keep the firm going in the event of a financial crisis.

…and the rest of us (who are assuming the risk, but getting none of the rewards) are just losers…

prolly learned a lot from Ehrlichman:

Paulson was Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense at The Pentagon from 1970 to 1972.[7] He then worked for the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon, serving as assistant to John Ehrlichman from 1972 to 1973.

niiiiiice…

As my pops always says, we’re here to serve the ruling class in the big house on the hill…

Wow, those black helicopters are real… hey, get your hands off muffflupnmhdtythjjoiklhjjkarrrrrggggghhhh!!!!!@#$%^&*@!@!

65 wagon

Why is it so hard for some folks to accept? BOTH SIDES HAVE SINNED. Geez.

lefty #67;

I definitely blame bot sides. Republicans for some reasons embrace the Federal Reserve, like to print tons of new money to pay for stuff and stimulate the economy, buy into the notion that the government “has to” intervene with tons of new money to save the economy, and in no doubt the open borders policies practiced for years by Pres. Bush has amplified the subprime mortgage polemic situation. But leave no doubt that it has consistantly been democrats who has stood together to prevent any and al solutions presented to thwart our current financial problemsd created by Freddie, Fanny, and others.

#67 iz
I accept that. However, it appears to me that the sins of the Reps are sins of omission, while those of the Dems are sins of commission. Reps did not do or get done all that could have been done to mitigate the events we are seeing now. Dems actively fought against efforts to mitigate.

These are generalizations; there are bright spots on both sides as well as dark spots.

I wonder if this gentleman and most of those involved were, dare I say it, ILLEGAL.

Body found as Cleveland PD sought abducted mom, kids

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6017197.html

Izzy, Sarge is right. You only point out that BOTH sides have sinned when your side is stone cold busted. If you think they’re not, you only harp on Repubs.

71 jimb

good observation. You will probably agree, won’t you, that there is a dearth of criticism of your side here, no? I’m just trying to add some perspective not cause trouble.

Wow. You really think that folks don’t criticize repubs here? You must be drinking too much Chimay…

Bob hearts his UPS!

Power went out again about 20 minutes ago. Naturally I was in the middle of some server based work and would have lost it all had it not be for my good buddy Mr. UPS, whose LCD screen tells me have about an hour to fire up Mr. Generator.

73imb
not nearly as much as the Dems. Did you mention Chimay? Anybody seen hamous lately? He’s gonna owe me one after 11/4.

69 wagon

Bill White….a bright spot.

#48 - Like THIS?

Yo BigJ………hows about a fresh AOL straw poll post? (love to torment folks with em)

Stanley Kurtz’s first article on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and how TOWBWF & Bill Ayers worked together is in the Wall St. Journal today.

Last April, Sen. Obama dismissed Mr. Ayers as just “a guy who lives in my neighborhood,” and “not somebody who I exchange ideas with on a regular basis.” Yet documents in the CAC archives make clear that Mr. Ayers and Mr. Obama were partners in the CAC. Those archives are housed in the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago and I’ve recently spent days looking through them.

Partners is a bit stronger than “some dude down the street,” no?

The Daley archives show that Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers worked as a team to advance the CAC agenda.

Hmmm. “team”.

One unsettled question is how Mr. Obama, a former community organizer fresh out of law school, could vault to the top of a new foundation? In response to my questions, the Obama campaign issued a statement saying that Mr. Ayers had nothing to do with Obama’s “recruitment” to the board. The statement says Deborah Leff and Patricia Albjerg Graham (presidents of other foundations) recruited him. Yet the archives show that, along with Ms. Leff and Ms. Graham, Mr. Ayers was one of a working group of five who assembled the initial board in 1994. Mr. Ayers founded CAC and was its guiding spirit. No one would have been appointed the CAC chairman without his approval.

Sounds like TOWBWF & Ayers are kindred spirits at the very least.

CAC’s in-house evaluators comprehensively studied the effects of its grants on the test scores of Chicago public-school students. They found no evidence of educational improvement.

Sounds like they spent a whole bunch of money, ~$160million, and didn’t end up with a lot to show for it, except for indoctrinating the local youths. Maybe they were really organized, though.

The Obama campaign has cried foul when Bill Ayers comes up, claiming “guilt by association.” Yet the issue here isn’t guilt by association; it’s guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Mr. Obama was lending moral and financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle. That is a story even if Mr. Ayers had never planted a single bomb 40 years ago.

But the fact that Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist just makes this all the more damning. How many prior candidates for President have been even remotely associated with people who were acknowledged terrorists and attempted murderers whose close associates were actually convicted of murder?

#77 fishy
Closer. I’d like one out in a field somewhere.

#80 - Will Black & White work?

Reply to No. 79: I’m telling you there is more stuff to come out. Wait until it gets closer to election day. If the “BO” ticket hasn’t crumbled by the overexposure of “BO” or the BADen gaffes then “BO”s history will do him in. Gosh, to say McCain didn’t investigatge Palin before he chose her will be an understatement when the Dimwits realize the really didn’t investigate “BO”. The more “BO” crumbles, the madder HELLary will get because she knows it should be her as the Dimwit’s choice.

#80: I tried to find one as well. With the net how hard should it be? Well apparently it is darn tough. Must be the politically correct time we live in. How about Custer’s last stand? Found a great painting.

1. What isTOWBWF?

2. AW has a Wild Life agent. AW can also probably tell you about the Tick Nazis.

3. Phil Gramm’s amendment to the Commodities act sunsetted after 5 years.

4. Mother Jones is not a place I’d go to get the whole truth.

You can put a Marxist in a business suit and call him a community organizer or a Senator, but he’s still a Marxist.

TOWBWF = The One We’ve Been Waiting For

#83 canuk
Sure is. I’ve found many paintings. Some have both wagons and my relatives in them, but not on fire (wagons, not my relatives).

So:

TOWBWF = (Obama bin Biden X terrorist appeaser)² + (Marxist Ideology X Corrupt Influence Agents) ³ ÷ Liberal racists ± American Apathy

Is that the correct formula?

No, you need to multiply by liberal racists.

I think liberal racists are dividers.

jimb, my sis has been a fed Fish and Wildlife dept agent for 22 years. So, yes I have my own. :p

TOWBWF = The One We’ve Been Waiting For

Oh, I thought it translated to “The Obama We’ve Been Wanting to Forget”

At this point, I want to forget I’ve ever heard the name Obama.

Am I wrong, but don’t electric lines run along easements? I would think limbs need to be kept clear from easement line to easement line. After Rita, the study was done for Centerpoint and told them what they needed to do. They chose nothing, we get bigger bills. But, that’s the new American way. Take a gamble, make bad decisions and make others pay for them. Sickening.

#93 aw
In newer areas you are correct. In the older parts of town where there are lots of big trees (**coff** River Oaks **coff**), the residents pitched a collective fit when the utilities tried to prune the trees back away from the power lines. These residents are very well-connected to lots of high-power politicians.

In my mind, they’re reaping that which they have sown.

McCain suspends campaign to be in the senate to deal with the mortgage crisis.

Obama balks.

http://www.foxnews.com/

How the power gets put back on.

http://www.texas-ec.org/about_tec/press_releases/documents/TEC_RestoringPower.pdf

Here are some great IKE pictures if you haven’t seen them from the Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html

Later y’all, just back from being out of the country and have some things to do.

Hal is mad at me. McCain suspends his campaign on Fox. Some cool Ike pics on the Boston Globe site. Hal won’t cough up links.

A few minutes ago, Barack Obama responded to McCain’s request they both return to Washington, suspend their campaigns and work on getting the financial crisis solved on the Hill. Basically, Obama would not agree to suspend his campaign and said to McCain, “Call me if you need me”.

I don’t even know where to start with this moron.

Texpat, the childishness of Me first, Me first, I called McCain first at such and such time this morning is so childish. In fact, 1/4 of his response was about ” Me First” then, he says he’s in touch with those in Washington daily and if they need him they can call him. What a child! The largest crisis since the great depression and a debate is more important. Obama for what? dog catcher?

A new soap opera airs daily, ” As the democrats hand their heads” Each day is unscripted but full of errors. This drama is viewed by the public as a comedy. History is rewritten. Lies are given as facts, and everyone is labeled racist for one reason or another. ( Not referring to Nascar) The supporting actor may be forced to go home and shut up. The writers are confused and hurt by public scorn. It’s better than ” All in the Family meets the Jeffersons”

Oops that should be hand. Sorry, I should have edited.

#86 - How ’bout THIS ONE

More and more, it’s beginning to look like the state of Virginia has been conspiring to murder a man, simply to cover their own butts.

In January, heavily armed police executed an early morning “quick knock and announce” search warrant on the home of Ryan Frederick, who they suspected was growing substantial amounts of cannabis inside his garage. Duh! You can’t FLUSH a grow operation… And why not just wait until he was gone, and raid the garage?

Frederick, who had recently reported a burglary, claims he didn’t hear the announce, thought the bad guys had returned, and fired his weapon through the door as police were breaking it down. The bullet missed the vest of, and fatally wounded Chesapeake Detective Jarrod Shivers.

The plot thickens, according to Radly Balko at theagitator.com…

Police say an informant told them Frederick had an extensive marijuana-growing operation in his garage. They found only a few joints—enough for a misdemeanor.

I’ll have a more detailed look at the incredible recent developments in the case in a bit, but the short version is that the prosecution’s case against Frederick is unraveling.

Last June, I reported the possible existence of a second informant in the case, and in an interview, this informant told me that he and the other informant had broken into Frederick’s home three days prior to the raid. Such a burglary would have been illegal, and the police would have been required to note in their search warrant affidavits that the probable cause for the warrant had been obtained illegally (they didn’t).

Worse, last February this man told a reporter for the Virginian-Pilot (who then told me) that the police both knew about and encouraged the break-in, and in fact had encouraged informants to break into private homes in other cases for the purpose of collecting probable cause.

Of the little evidence that has been released so far by the state’s drug warriors, none points to a grow operation. So at this point, a LEO is needlessly killed, and the incompetent jerks who are really responsible for his death would like to kill a second person via the death penalty… Just so they can feel good about their stupidity.

Stupid, Stupid Drug War.

99, tex,

I dunno….I am confused by all these events. Consider this.

Simple

Apparently TOWBWF’s advisors have talked him in off the ledge and he’s now agreed to meet with McCain and President Bush, and possibly Congressional leaders at the White House tomorrow to devise a clever plan to forestall disaster until they are no longer on the scenerecovery plan.

What! You mean the ” call me if you need me” system of future presidential governance didn’t work? I wonder if the PBS poll had any influence on his decision.

You know it’s difficult to go back to even discussing this after “touching” on breast milk at Ben and Jerry’s. If B&J does decide to go that route, I’m going to see if they have any jobs in the quality control or production line supervisor areas.

I heard one of their new products will be called “Chesticles”.

The flavor is “Mama Knows Breast” or “Don’t Mess With Mother Nature.”

Wagon, will they advertise it as testosterone free ice cream?

Dunno.

You know how to make a hormone?

Punch her in the stomach.

Just heard that Bill Heard Chevrolet and Landmark Chevrolet are being closed down. Bill Heard Enterprises which own them are shutting down all their dealerships!

Ben and Jerry’s - Nature’s Very Breast

#112 tektite
They say why? Other than trying to sell Chevys?

#100 - AW

I’d be amiss if I didn’t jump in and say he doesn’t rate even that high on the food chain. My dogs just wouldn’t put up with that.

#114 - Wagon

Go here for the reason

#112 Tektite

Bill Heard Enterprises owns 13 of the hugest dealerships in America and they are closing them all down. Apparently, the overheads have risen to the point they can’t justify them anymore. Add in the fact GMAC is broke and raising the bar on who they make loans to and they got a big problem.

#117 cont’d.

The general manager of the big dealership they have in Florida said ” the era of the mega-dealership is over”.

Tektite

Also, in answer to your question last night, the big sweep on the accounts of all independent state agencies by the Legislature took place in 1995. It was the year before my Dad retired.

Too bad they can’t shoot that idiot for Lone Star Chevy. The one that dresses all western and talks all Texified. He’s the Lone Star Sheriff and he’s got the fake badge to prove it.

Ah..thanks Texpat! The jacking up of renewal fees took place like 1985 or 1987. Most engineering firms paid for their P.E.s fees but when the cost was jacked up many of them stopped and only paid for a few who would be the checker and