Arkansas Blog

When John McCain said he didn't know much about economics, that was one time he certainly told the truth.

Here is a quotation about McCain's plan to buy home mortgages:

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/McCain_mortgage_buyout_too_expensiv_10082008.html

"The McCain 'American Homeownership Resurgence Plan' would buy mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage servicers, and replace them with fixed-rate loans.

"Such mortgages would enable families to stay in their homes, it said.

"The McCain plan would be available to mortgage holders who are living in the house as a primary residence, and who can prove their creditworthiness at the time of the original loan."

It appears that Senator McCain doesn't know what a mortgage is, possibly because he's never bought a house with a mortgage as security and made installment payments.

Crash course in real estate purchasing, 101:

A mortgage is a "death pledge" to pay a debt. "Cross my heart and hope to die if I don't pay this money back."

You don't GET a mortgage from a bank. You get money from a bank. You borrow it; they lend it. You get a loan. You GIVE a mortgage to the bank. The person who gives the mortgage is the mortgagor. The person who receives the mortgage is the mortgagee.

As security for the loan, you pledge the property the bank lends you the money to buy. You sign a promissory note for the money-promising to pay it back. And you give the bank a mortgage on the property, pledging the property as security for the loan. If you don't pay the money, the bank takes the property. That's what the mortgage is all about.

The confusion probably results from the common (and erroneous) expressions, "I need to get a mortgage to buy a house," or "I applied to the bank for a mortgage." One needs to get a loan to buy a house and applies to the bank for a loan, in exchange for which one gives a mortgage as security.

So, my questions: How is this going to apply to "mortgage holders who are living in the house as a primary residence" and how does McCain propose to "buy mortgages directly from homeowners"? The people living in the houses are not the "mortgage holders"; they are the mortgage givers. The homeowners don't own any mortgages; they've already given their mortgages (pledges to pay) to the bank. The bank owns the mortgage.

The homeowners aren't going to get any money out of this proposal. All it can do is reduce the amount of money the homeowners owe the banks. The banks are still the ones who're going to profit from this plan.

Sky Pilot,
Watch Olberman, there's a 9:00 pm show on cable-MSNBC. McBush has already flipped on mortgage repurchases once today. I'm sure the Daily Show will fry it tonight.

Today, McBush is back to using plants in the audience to bring up the "terrorisk" Bill Ayers/Sambo connection just so McBush doesn't have it pinned on him so as BHO-Sambo would not drag up details of the Keating Five.

BTW it's about time for sidney, or Citizen Journal to do a sleazy hit and run post like all desperate people do. Expect references to unAmerican activities.

Did you mention the presidential market share prices today Max?

Well in case you haven't here they are.

BHO ............0.807

McCain........0.185
as of Oct 8, 11:59:59pm

at .185 McCain has suffered his largest one day drop since the nominations ended.

Previous day price was .... .235

Elwood: Thanks for the heads up on Olberman on cable-MSNBC but I'm one of those frugal guys who doesn't invest in cable. There's more than I REALLY want to watch on what I get by an aerial antenna.

Great blog by astronomer Phil Plait calling John McCain out for his ludicrous planetarium "overhead projector" jab during in the most recent debate:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/08/mccains-planetariophobia/

Sen. McCain, your campaign's motto is "AMERICA FIRST! " Really? If AMERICA is to remain FIRST in the new world economy we need to be able to compete with Russia, China, and India in education, science and engineering. How many children are receiving a thorough and comprehensive science education in the schools due to the pressures placed on school board to water down science education in favor creationism/intelligent design nonsense? How many of those children will not be inspired to become astronomers, astronauts, engineers, doctors, lawyers, or even Navy aviators when the Adler Planetarium projector is broken during their visit there? Sir, let's get you campaign's motto straight: "AMERICA THIRD!"

Sky, if you have hi-speed internetz connection click on my blue name. You will find today's
Olberman show.

Keith Olberman is worth the price of cable or satellite TV. He is as smart as a whip, never afraid to tell it like it is and one of the funniest persons on TV save maybe Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Elwood: On hi-speed Net -- have that. Thnx.

Great video on McCain's household help - click blue name.

Warning: one expletive at end.

Rachel Maddow is outstanding, too, and follows Olberman every night.

I got embarrased today. Went in for my annual physical. Had Norma on my mind. Do the clicky.

Starguy: Not to be argumentative, but I'm not sure you know what it's like to live on Social Security.

Cable (etc.) is a needless and unaffordable luxury.

Just received this Email. Anyone know about it?

>>REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public today
REMINDER.... all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing
companies tomorrow and you will start to receive sale calls.

.... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:
888-382-1222.
It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your
time. It blocks your number for fiv
e (5) years. You must call from the
cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a
different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON
TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.. It takes about 20 seconds.
or go to www.donotcall.gov
<<

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Strange how all politics are local.

The LR city board is preparing to give Welspun pipe a private driveway that currently is a public street, Frazier Pike. In the DemGaz LR notebook, two of the 20 notified neighbors voiced opposition in person. Well, unfortunately for those two neighbors, they don't represent millions of dollars. Our city leadership only respects money (and how to get more), and to that end, voted to give Welspun everything they asked for. One problem though...they didn't have a proper quorum to make the passage legal. Of course, our city board will vote (in one of their upcoming meetings with enough members present) to give Welspun a portion of an entire street. Along with that, an intersection will be removed so that the public can no longer use that street.

It's things like this that show the true colors of our elected leaders. Follow the smell of the money, that in and of itself tells a lot about these folks.

And if any of you board folks read this, please vote no. That's a public street, not Welspun's.

Understand Sky. Do try to catch Keith when you can via the Internet. I like to think of him as the antidote to Rush Limbaugh (whom Keith refers to as "Comedian Rush Limbaugh").

Sellercreek: I agree wholeheartedly abou Rachael M. Beatiful smile and mind. She is quicly becoming one of my favorites.

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McCain's Absentee Ballot Mailer Fiasco Spreads - Could Disqualify Some Voters

Reports from around the country advise that John McCain's campaign has sent confusing or incorrect absentee ballot request forms to voters in ten states at least.

Affected so far are Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon (reported by blogger, not confirmed) Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin so far. In each state, the mailers have a different error, in any of these cases, the voter could be disenfranchised by the error.

bluename for Black Box voting story.
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Cartoon clicky

Max, You did a fine job yaking it up with the Democratice women..it was nice to finally meet you!!

Sorry, I mean Democratic

The Nikkei down 225. Dropped 6% in the first few minutes of trading

Financial Markets: The Fuse Is Lit
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2008/10/financial-marke.html

The inverted pyramid of credit derivatives, insurances against bond failures, that sit on top of collateralized debt obligation which sit on top of bad loans is now really threatening to crash down on the financial system.

The failure of Lehman Brothers triggered 'credit default events' on bonds Lehman had issued. On Friday an auction will clarify what holders of Lehman bonds might get payed out of the bankruptcy assets. The difference of that value to the face value of the bonds will then have to be payed out by those who sold insurances in form of Credit Default Swaps on Lehman bonds to other parties.

The fuse is now lit and its is only so long. The only way to stop the danger of an exothermic CDS chain reaction in the financial markets is by executive or legislative means: Declare All Credit Default Swaps Null And Void.

In light of the horrible showing on Wall Street today...here is one of my favorite quotes.

On a regular basis, you need to check and see if you still have all the things money can't buy.......

elwood,
That's a hoax that's been around for at least two years. Snopes.

eL,

Can't recall which one, but a couple of people "objected/called you out" for using Sambo earlier today. Would you mind clarifying what you intend - I think I know (wrote it there), but...

THANKS!!
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"Sambo" is how Palin referred to BHO. She said "Sambo beat the Bitch!" after it was
announced that Barack had won the Demo nomination over Hillary.

And since Palin is the surrogate R presidential nominee, today, I love sayin'
"Sambo will beat the bitch."

That's right the most white woman in Alaska, Sarah and a pure wasp from Arizona,
both states once populated by very dark people, are finding a very different America,
where two of the most white people around are getting their asses kicked by a Negro.
But, it's not because he's a Negro, it's because he has better ideas and has better judgement
than two of the most white people in America. So I say Sambo in celebration, while
Gov Sarah Palin said it as a racial slur.
Sambo will beat the bitch.
.
Got it?
.

JUST as I thought - whomever was objecting read disrespect/racism into your using Sambo. I said NO...

GOT it!!! ;>)
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here, listen to Kevin Krate tell the same story, but more black. on blue.

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oops. The name is Kevin Craft.

Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama
Published by Luke Rosiak on August 14, 2008 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)

During World War II, soldiers crouching in foxholes penned letters assuring their sweethearts that they'd be home soon. Now, between firefights in the Iraqi desert, some infantrymen have been sending a different kind of mail stateside: two or three hundred dollars -- or whatever they can spare -- towards a presidential election that could very well determine just how soon they come home.

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul.

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Anyone else notice that the farther behind McCain slips the less we hear from Strangelove, Don Key, severus and the rest?

AETN
my source for the unvarnished truth... no special coloration of the news, just the pure news
-David Pryor, Little Rock

I don't mean to be rude, but anyone know how much news AETN has produced on Senator Mark Pryor in the last 6 years? Stacked end to end, would it last longer than a rerun of Friends? I sorta doubt it....and there's the problem. We get no news and we're not curious enough to ask why. So no information voters go vote for the familiar name each election.

This time it's going to say:

Pryor

Kennedy

Maybe they'll think Richard Pryor and John F. Kennedy and you know Arkansas isn't going to go for a black man representing us. I'm glad Rebekah's last name isn't Schmidlap.

I'm worried about the state of our Union. With the falling markets and all the hate that is swirling around this election, I have some concern that Darth Cheney will try to seize this as an opportunity to declare martial law. There was the very recent mention that some of our military units are being trained to combat domestic violence or unrest. Why would that be happening at this particular time when our military resources are spread so thin around the world? I hope I'm just being paranoid, but I think this is a time when we all need to keep our eyes and especially our minds open!

You're not paranoid, RYD.

Watch. Listen. Stay informed.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5987804&page=1

ABC News got an exclusive on the government eavesdropping activities of phone sex and other conversations between average Joe Six Packs' and Hockey Moms' conversations overseas. You see, there's no reason for you to be in the Middle East (except maybe a war) and if you're there, we the people better monitor your phone conversations to see what you are up to. But that's ok. We got to hunt the terrorists. Remember, Republicans are for privacy except when you are on the phone in the Middle East or in a bedroom with a member of the same sex (or maybe even opposite sex if they can use it against you) or at a doctor's office about birth control. Did I miss any exceptions? Oh yeah, Republicans are all about privacy except when they perceive you as a threat or enemy because you voice opposition to them. Did I miss any exceptions? Um, maybe what privacy they are for can be rephrased more simply. I'll let you work on that and get back to me.

But, I know, I just don't understand. I just don't get it. Yes, I know, our civil liberty to expect privacy should be totally trampled for the sake of our national security. Yes, I know, the terrorists are going to attack and then I'll be whining again. Silly me, I'm such a fool for being critical of this administration. I just can't help myself. Democracy without these and other liberties just don't seem to be the same kind of Democracy I grew up with. But hey, that's just me.

Anyway, I think this story will have some leg.

Finally a major paper is suggesting the possible death of capitalism. When the average man in the street knows that you can't go on forever with people making huge sums of money buying things they don't need without paying for it and then selling it hours later for a profit you collect. Our economy has for many years been a house of cards all interdependent on no one asking questions and everyone playing the game like good children.

We are not a 'Christian' people, we are a 'greedy, gluttonous' people, and I suspect the days of making a living without doing anything or producing anything may be at an end. The cards have fallen out of the basement of our card house and all the others are blowing in the wind.

It's too late for the older generation, but I hope my children and grandchildren learn to grow food, conserve and make a living by their own honest labor because the experiment of unfettered capitalism minus all those onus regulations that just impede business, is OVER!

If I hear one more Republican mention getting government 'off the backs of business', I think I will puke. Some businesses will produce quality products and sell for a reasonable price, while maintaining a healthy bottom line, but many, if not most, will milk a dime from every item, use shoddy and cheap methods and materials, cheat, lie, pad the bottom line, and just hope to get by without scrutiny. As the Republicans love to say about phone taps and spying on citizens - you have nothing to fear from those intrusions if you aren't doing anything wrong. So too, business has nothing to fear from honest, minimal regulation if they aren't intending to cheat and operate in a fashion that will eventually bring down the banks.......

Norma B. in about 40 or so years......

clicky at my name.