I have windows ME on an ancient laptop but still TPM is the only site that elects the crazy formatting in my post. So be it! Am I right that that there is no preview function in reader blog entries. Different, eh what?

Posted at June 4, 2008 8:32 AM in response to McCain's is a one-note campaign: "more war"

Now that's a silly comment.

Posted at May 31, 2008 7:03 AM in response to Obama Campaign Winning Today's Spin War With McCain Over Iraq?

Back up for a second. Take a common sense look at McCain.
This is an old man from a multi generational military war command family. He gets his facts muddled. He loves to say we're winning. He loves command. He loves war. He has no goal for leaving Iraq.
Leaving Iraq is the goal Mr. McCain. Reducing the sounds of battle and reducing the adrenalin rush to old warriors is America's goal.
You can ignore or muddle the facts in your drum and fife vision Commander McCain but winning in Iraq is to leave.
Leaving is only surrender if fighting is your blood call intruding on common sense inteligence.
Thanks for your years of service; your ability to lead clearly has passed.

Posted at May 31, 2008 7:01 AM in response to Obama Campaign Winning Today's Spin War With McCain Over Iraq?

I like phrases like "saner issue-framing posts."

Posted at May 29, 2008 12:31 PM in response to Obama to McCain: "John, my America is not losing."

"Obama trusts common man"
was the newspaper's headline for my published Letter to Editor in the Berkshire Eagle. It was similar to all the discussions here, that his diverging from pandering pooh passing as policy was significant.
Obama showed that he respected the electorate's common sense, including blue collars.
My letter provoked thirty some responses. Many respondees certainly didn't like 'Barry Hussein' but when I asked them by blog name if they thought the 'gas tax rebate' idea was useful or gimmickry none of them argued its merits.
Although it's obvious there's some latte-black animosity toward Obama, the fact that he takes principled (correct) stands even in heated situations is being recognized and will turn some votes his way.

Posted at May 7, 2008 9:02 AM in response to The Gas Tax Holiday: A Rare Teaching Moment in American Politics

Obama has to wade through spin is subject of below post written BEFORE debate. Also, what is difference between ABC's debate technique and media coverage of Paris or Brittany's un pantied lower cleavage?

None!

Obama shows trust and respect for voting public: Hillary not so much
.
Obama has embarked on a profound sociological and political gamble. He gambles by offering the electorate a deep respect by quietly and firmly telling truths. His campaign, to a degree unparalleled in normal campaigning, constantly and repetitively gambles that voters of all stripes, indeed, can handle the truth. It must be at times agony to watch the 'gotcha' spin from opponents and the press while waiting to see if the American citizenry can make intelligent decisions faced with a cacophony of spin.

So far the voters have proved Obama's respect for them to be well placed. They have showed their common sense by ignoring mindless spin battles and continuing to vote increases in Obama's winning lead primary numbers.

Posted at April 18, 2008 8:20 AM in response to Obama Criticizes Debate, Says Hillary "Looked In Her Element"

I've felt for years that our whole governance was like a corporation that did not have a "Mission Statement."
If one listens to the Obama family they are saying that an American family that works (2 persons I guess) 40 hours a week should have all the basics.
They should have food, housing, clothes, reasonable vacations, health care and access to higher education. That I would say to "My Friend" John McCain is a game plan.
By daring to speak uncomfortable truths one can define the mission and define the weaknesses. Only so can one begin chipping away at America's ills.
Good decisions take considerable time to conceive and implement. Barack seems quite unique that he has the patience to see plans slowly unfold, including sticking with consistency and honesty as a political message even in the face of the drivel jawed pundit class.

Posted at April 15, 2008 7:41 PM in response to Obama shows trust and respect for voting public: Hillary not so much

Merci. Let's hope for a good debate. I hope his casual humor flumoxes the grasping Hillary a time or two. She was booed the other night when she dissed him. That can't boost her confidence.

Posted at April 15, 2008 7:30 PM in response to Obama shows trust and respect for voting public: Hillary not so much

Aha. Thanks for your amiable agreement. Thirty percent of the media absolutely know that 'bittergate' is pundit characters seeking political caricatures and that they are blithely not discussing the issues.
The formatting was not mine. It spontaneously happened when I hit submit and I never read it at that time.

Posted at April 15, 2008 7:27 PM in response to Obama shows trust and respect for voting public: Hillary not so much

Zero equity commodity accounts for sale

Buying and Selling Housing Accounts as a Commodity
.
What Greenspan (and Paulson) euphemistically call 'mis pricing risk' by the nation's financiers is more aptly described as their collective purchasing of 90% to 100% leveraged commodity accounts.
At the end of the day, homes are a commodity. There are laws regulating the purchase and financing of commodities; there are strict margin requirements and lots of bold print that purchasing a commodity carries a high degree of risk, to wit, you may lose your shirt.
Having thought about this for a moment, the question becomes who in their right mind would set out to purchase someone else's commodity position which had little or no equity, just the position holders' promise to pay interest on the borrowed funds?

Buying and Selling Housing Accounts as a Commodity . What Greenspan (and Paulson) euphemistically call 'mis pricing risk' by the nation's financiers is more aptly described as their collective purchasing of 90% to 100% leveraged commodity accounts. At the end of the day, homes are a commodity. There are laws regulating the purchase and financing of commodities; there are strict margin requirements and lots of bold print that purchasing a commodity carries a high degree of risk, to wit, you may lose your shirt. Having thought about this for a moment, the question becomes who in their right mind would set out to purchase someone else's commodity position which had little or no equity, just the position holders' promise to pay interest on the borrowed funds.

If you are a bank that has access to buyers that accept the premise that housing always increases in value, then by all means, create or buy this type of commodity mortgage account, warehouse them and resell them. It's a business plan. I package and sell, you package and sell, just be mighty careful when the music stops because at that point the bankers own these crap assets that they intended to sell off to others. Merrill Lynch got caught and burned warehousing several billions.
Gold is a commodity which has the flavor of always going up but yet there are margin requirements. Housing, given that the number of buyers always increases and they ain't making any more land you know, seems a sure bet "over time." Near term however it's a commodity, subject to rises and falls due to interest rate changes, recessions, speculative fevers and inflation.
The banks, etc are idiots for placing their firms' equity in jeopardy by creating and holding no equity housing accounts. It's not wholly new however. The banks crashed with excess lending to REITs, Latin America and experienced some hemorrhaging from the tech bubble.
But. And this is a huge but as we head into an election year. Imagine if Mr. Bush had wooed America into placing social security assets into private accounts (because the stock market always goes up ye brethren.)
What would have occurred is that the housing speculation bubble would have lasted considerably longer as Wall St. packaged and sold retail strips of near worthless housing accounts to the nation's social security network.
At least recognize in this last greed driven market bubble or market fever fiasco that the finance industry has wiped out its net worth repeatedly over the last forty years. Keeping Wall Street's mitts off of Social Security should now perhaps be a subject for a constitutional amendment.

Posted at April 3, 2008 10:56 AM in response to Caught Lying to Zippy