Thursday, October 14, 2010

Davids Daily Dose - Thursday October 14th




1/  The Economy
An in-depth and sobering assessment of the US economy....for anyone who needs a reality check of where we are and what is the likelihood of this country lifting out of this slump. 
To save you reading this most interesting but depressing article, it's not good.....but if you want to be informed, and possibly protect yourself from making the wrong financial moves, read it.....

Born of a record financial collapse, this recession has been more severe than any since the Great Depression and has left an enormous oversupply of houses and office buildings and crippling debt. The decision last week by leading mortgage lenders to freeze foreclosures, and calls for a national moratorium, could cast a long shadow of uncertainty over banks and the housing market. Put simply, the national economy has fallen so far that it could take years to climb back.
The math yields somber conclusions, with implications not just for this autumn’s elections but also — barring a policy surprise or economic upturn — for 2012 as well:
¶At the current rate of job creation, the nation would need nine more years to recapture the jobs lost during the recession. And that doesn’t even account for five million or six million jobs needed in that time to keep pace with an expanding population.












2/  Amusing Gail Collins follow-up column on which state has the most awful political campaign, and Florida didn't win it again.....surely we have the finest attack ads?

Several readers from Maine pointed out that their Republican candidate for governor, Paul LePage, has homes in both Maine and Florida, each of which got tax breaks as the family’s principal residence.
“If elected (he leads in polls) will he be governor of both states?” one correspondent demanded.
No, gentle reader. Florida has its own governor’s race, where the leading candidate is a wealthy businessman who made history when his company was fined $1.7 billion for fraudulent Medicare billing. It has enough on its hands.
On the plus side, Florida might soon be able to bill itself as The Place Where Other States’ Officials Stash Their Loved Ones. West Virginia’s Republican candidate for the Senate, John Raese, has a house in Palm Beach where his wife lives with the kids, who attend local schools.
Raese is a very rich guy. (“I made money the old-fashioned way. I inherited it,” he told an interviewer.)













3/  How New York State has dug itself a very deep $200 billion hole by promising local government retirees free or highly subsidised health care for the rest of their lives after retirement, and this money pit of liability is just coming to light......how many other surprises are out there in this country? And why did these retirees get a deal that noone else in the country could ever dream of......they get their Medicare premiums AND the add-on plan paid for? This is BS......

Retiree health benefits in New York consist of an indemnity plan plus optional managed-care plans.
There is no central source of information, but Mr. McMahon found governments paying 35 percent to 100 percent of the premiums. Retirees can further reduce their share by paying their premiums with unused sick time.
The vast majority of the work force can start drawing benefits at age 55. When retirees turn 65 and join Medicare, their former employers reimburse their Medicare premiums and supplement the federal program.
The cost pressures are by no means unique to New York. States and cities across the country have promised retiree health benefits without identifying a way to pay for them, leaving taxpayers on the hook.













4/  Completely insane 6 minute video of a motorcyclist steaming through traffic in Moscow.....heart stopping.....never seen anything like it.......














5/  Texans have always been boastful, and the blowhards with big hats have been saying Texas has survived this economy better than the rest of the country. However this article says the Lone Star state is in the shit just like the rest of us......very interesting description of the Dallas real estate market.....

Take, for instance, foreclosures in the outer suburbs and blue-collar neighborhoods. As of mid-September, 10 percent of home sales in Plano this year have been foreclosed properties; in Rockwall and Rowlett, upward of 25 percent; Mesquite, a blood-curdling 45 percent.
But the numbers don’t tell the whole story, as with the Plano foreclosure whose listing describes these recent repairs: “replace carpet, repair all drywall holes-blemishes, remove all wallpaper, complete int. paint, replace missing light fixtures and door knobs, replace toilet seats, replace garage door opener, repair fence, gates, etc.” No, the numbers don’t speak to the anger of the dispossessed, the ones who vacate their homes in a scorched-earth rage.
The numbers don’t even tell the whole numbers story. Apparently, significant quantities of foreclosed and distressed properties change hands without ever being listed on the multiple listing service. And then there’s the increasingly popular Z sale, where the stated sale price — usually the original list price — is noted with a “Z,” indicating that the actual sale price is, well, something else. But that bogus Z price goes straight into the numbers machine that cranks out the statistical sausage of trends, median prices and comps that are supposed to tell us where the market stands.













6/  OK it's insane video day......this guy wants to break a sheet of plywood with his head, which he can do because "he believes in himself". Two very painful minutes.....














7/  The Koch brothers
They're famous internationally! Here's an article from the Guardian UK about this evil pair of bastards and how they have been quietly bankrolling extreme right-wing causes for years.....these are the faces of the oligarchy that runs this country.....

Until last summer, most Americans had no idea who the Koch brothers were, and it is very likely that even AFP members did not know they were bankrolled by one of the richest men in corporate America.
But a spate of attention – sparked by a Greenpeace investigation and aprofile in the New Yorker – has given the Kochs a degree of notoriety they are finding it difficult to live with.












8/  Florida's Amendment 4

Excellent Lauren Ritchie article on Amendment 4, and how the opponents of this sensible initiative are piling in the money to try to defeat it.....

The lies are starting to work.

A multimillion-dollar campaign financed by developers, builders, land speculators and others who stand to make fortunes from over-development is starting to convince Floridians that Amendment 4 will bring on Armageddon.

What a shame if development interests are able to obscure the truth with their wild and monstrously inaccurate claims that the proposed amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot will collapse the economy and cost taxpayers their last pennies.

I bet it'll be the cause of world hunger, too. Not to mention the collapse of morality in the Western world.



What has NOT having an Amendment 4 in place wrought? Urban sprawl documented in this photo essay.....
Fascinating, beautiful and disturbing photos of developments in SW Florida......the photographer has taken overhead shots of houses and subdivisions in various stages, from mature to just waiting for a house to be built.......I highly recommend having a look at this one.........




And why we need Amendment 4, part 467.........

After Amendment 4 rally in Bradenton,
the developer-politician hijinks begin
 
A protest and rally in Bradenton on Tuesday originally had a happy ending for opponents of a controversial project. But the day turned out to be a textbook example of why Florida needs Amendment 4, as a developer won a land-use change just hours after a vote that denied him the request.
 
More than 40 opponents of the Robinson Farm project rallied with Amendment 4 officials before the Tuesday vote, garnering coverage across the news media.
Here are three videos from the TV coverage:
 
After the Amendment 4 rally, county commissioners voted 4-3 to deny the controversial Robinson Farm land-use plan change.
 
End of story, right?
 
Wrong.
 
The TV cameras left and opponents went home, and then Florida's growth politics took over, as the Bradenton Herald reported today:
But long after opponents left the chambers, Commissioner Gwen Brown rescinded her vote. The commission then revoted, and the plan change passed 4-3.

“What happened today was politics as usual,” said resident Katie Pierola, who watched the end of the meeting on television. “I never knew they could do things like that.”
The commissioner who changed her vote admitted she did so after being approached by a representative of the developer during a break in the meeting:
 
Twenty-one of the 49 acres included in the Robinson Farms property is considered a high hazard area under the current county comp plan map. The entire area is high hazard in the new map.
 
Brown said Betsy Benac, of Neal Communities consultant WilsonMiller, approached her during a recess after the vote and showed her a hurricane evacuation map that featured the phrase “not to be used for land-use decisions” at the bottom.
 
Brown then asked county Planning Director John Osborne if the statement at the bottom of the map was accurate. Osborne said it was but that planners use the same type of map for land-use deliberations.
"This kind of re-vote shows the power of developers to get their way, even after the public has spoken and votes have been taken," said Yes on 4 campaign manager Mitch Kates. "It is disgusting, but it happens all over Florida every week. And Amendment 4 is the only solution, to give voters veto power over such bad developments that are approved only because of undue special interest influence."
 
Ironically, Tuesday was among Brown's last meetings as a county commissioner; she was defeated in the Democratic primary by an opponent who supports Amendment 4. 
  









9/  Random notes from the UK

We rented a VW Passat "Bluemotion", which when I booked it online did not say what this model is noted for - so it was a surprise to find it's a 1.4 diesel that gets about 65 mpg - yes, 65 mpg!!!.....wow......one of the interesting ways it gets such high mileage is when you stop at a light the engine stops, and when you put your foot on the clutch the engine starts again - a little disconcerting at first, but you get used to it. It's not the fastest car on the road but cruises nicely at 85.....
Needless to say this model isn't available in the US.....

We have been most pleasantly surprised by the wonderful food in the UK - in London we had Lebanese, Spanish Tapas, Indian, Belgian, Gordon Ramsay's tasting menu at Maze, gastropub British [code for expensive] and traditional English at assorted venues for lunches and dinner. In Wales we have had delicious home cooking a couple of times, but had gourmet pub lunches and other meals out which were excellent. The other notable thing is the taste of the vegetables over here....they taste like ours, but on steroids. Carrots are carrotier, beans are beanier if this makes any sense. We think it's because genetically modified foods are still forbidden in Europe, but Big Ag is working on it to get the evil seeds out there.....so if and when you visit Europe, just make a mental note to taste the veggies....it'll bring back memories.

The rich pay higher taxes here....yes there's grumbling, but there is also a basic sense of fairness in the UK and Europe that accepts a graduated tax structure....which is why there has been so much anger in Ireland and Britain about the bank bailout, when taxpayers helped the banks and the bank executives kept their huge bonuses going - it got to the fairness issue....and caused outrage, protests and forced government action to limit the bonuses. Interesting contrast to the US, where it's hard to get the average Joe to focus on this issue. Or any issue really.....

Central London has a congestion charge of GBP8 a day [$12.50], so if your car goes past a certain point a photo is taken and the car, not the driver, is tagged with an 8 pound fee. You can pay online or via your phone..........
They say it's cut traffic but it's still horrendous......

TV news - the lead story on both BBC and ITV is almost always real news.....no bodies. Not like the Fox News slogan - "if it bleeds, it leads"......

Well we're off Friday to the Mediterranean, so it's almost au revoir from the UK......both phase 1 [London] and phase 2 [Wales] have been great.....









10/  Music video - "Paramore" with "Careful"....live performance of this excellent song.....incredible drummer, ultracool singer.......love this band....does it show?










11/  Microsoft is introducing their own version of a smart phone to compete with the Apple and Android platform units. Whoop whoop. Trade in the I-Phone, here comes the big guy!

The big deal is it will combine the phone software with Microsofts' Zune music, the Bing search engine, OneNote software and X-Box gaming. Ever heard positive stuff about any of these? Me neither......so Mr. Gates I'm holding on to my I-Phone till you pry it out of my cold, damp fingers......

Windows Phone 7 has been in production for two years, and is the culmination of a long effort by Microsoft to assert itself in the smartphone market, which has grown exponentially over the last few years. Smartphones now account for 23 percent of all mobile phones sold in the United States, according to the research firm Nielsen. Apple’s iPhoneGoogle’s Android operating system andResearch In Motion’s BlackBerry have taken the lead in new sales, while Microsoft has lagged behind.








12/  Syria is running out of water......so WGAS you say, but we [the world] need to be concerned because if Syria gets in serious trouble who knows what they might do? Evil governments who get desperate can be very dangerous......
Oh and of course the four year drought has nothing to do with climate change....

The collapse of farmlands here — which is as much a matter of human mismanagement as of drought — has become a dire economic challenge and a rising security concern for the Syrian and Iraqi governments, which are growing far more dependent on other countries for food and water. Syria, which once prided itself on its self-sufficiency and even exported wheat, is now quietly importing it in ever larger amounts.
Illegal water drills can be seen across Syria and Iraq, and underground water tables are dropping at a rate that is “really frightening,” said Mr. De Schutter, the United Nations expert. There are no reliable nationwide statistics, and some analysts and Western diplomats say they believe the Syrian government is not measuring them.








Todays video - Classic Bud Lite commercials










Todays cowboy joke

A cowboy, who is visiting Wyoming from Texas, walks into a bar and
orders three mugs of Bud. He sits in the back of the room, drinking a
sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.
 
The bartender approaches and tells the cowboy, 'You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time.'
 
The cowboy replies, 'Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in
Arizona, the other is in Colorado. When we all left our home in Texas, we promised that we'd drink this way to remember the days when we drank together. So I'm drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for myself.'
 
The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there.
 
The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs and drinks them in turn.
 
One day, he comes in and only orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, 'I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.'
 
The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns in his eyes and he laughs.

'Oh, no, everybody's just fine,' he explains, 'It's just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church and  I had to quit drinking.'
 
'Hasn't affected my brothers though.'

           







 INSTALLING A HUSBAND

  Dear Tech Support,

 Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and
 noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance,
 particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated
flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

 In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable
 programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as
        NBA 5.0,
        NFL 3.0  and
        Golf Clubs 4.1.

 Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6
 simply crashes the system.

 Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3
 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

 What can I do?

 Signed,

 Desperate




 DEAR DESPERATE,

 First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment
 Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

 Please enter command:  ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to
 download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the  Guilt 3.update.

 If that application works as designed, Husband1.0  should
 then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and
 Flowers 3.5. 

 However, remember, overuse of the above application can
 cause Husband 1.0 to default to  Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy
 Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.

 Please note that Beer 6. 1 is a very bad program that will
 download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

 Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install
 Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will 
 eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

 In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the
 Boyfriend 5.0 program.
 These are unsupported applications and will crash
 Husband 1.0.

 In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does
 have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly.
 You might consider buying additional software to improve performance.

  We recommend:
        Cooking 5.5
        Hot Lingerie 7.7
        
Pole dancing 10.1 
            Weight Loss 240.125 &
        Unlimited and Uninhibited SEX 1.0

 Good Luck Babe!

 Tech Support

 







Todays blonde zingers

Q: Why did the blonde try and steal a police car?
A: On the back she saw "911" and thought it was a Porsche.


Q: What does Star Trek's Dr Bones McCoy say before he performs brain surgery on a blonde?
A: Space. The final frontier..........


Q: How do you make a blonde's eyes Twinkle?
A: You shine a torchlight in her ear.


Q: Did you hear about the blond Bear?
A: Got stuck in a hunter's trap, chewed off it's 2 paws and 1 leg, and was still stuck.


Q: How does a stereotypical blonde spell Farm?
A: E-I-E-I-O.


Q: How do you measure a blonde's intelligence?
A: Stick a tire pressure gauge in her ear.


To amuse a Blonde for hours, give her a sheet of paper with 'Please turn over' scribbled on both sides.

Q: What is the difference between a smart blonde and a UFO?
A: There have been sightings of UFOs.


Q: What do you call a blonde holding a brief case, up a tree?
A: The Branch Manager. 

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