Laughter is good

The President makes a good stand up comedian

Classic

Bank Stress Test explained

General Motors is reporting a first-quarter loss of $6 billion. It also says it spent $10.2 billion more cash than it took in. The nation's biggest domestic automaker faces a June 1 government deadline to finish a restructuring plan or go into bankruptcy protection.
Any bets about GM heading straight to bankruptcy in June?
We already got chumped by Chrysler-- $7.2 billion "write off" in their bankruptcy of bailout money.

The government released results of stress tests given 19 of the nation's largest financial firms. The tests were to gauge whether the banks would need more capital to survive a deeper recession. Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America may need billions more.

Isn't that special???

Dear Mr. President

They have a free preview of the book in the making titled "Dear Mr. President" ~ collection of kids letters & drawings for President Obama from all over the country.

Click here to get there!

Crazymaking News briefs

Hokey Pokey

Politicians are beginning to do the Hokey Pokey- taking their *right foot out* & putting the left foot in, like Arlen Specter.
While he's turning himself about (from republican to democrat- he may have danced himself dizzy, when he publicly spoke out in favor of Loser Norm Coleman (R), and voted with the GOP block on his first vote from the other side of the aisle, voting with the GOP, even though he'd just switched sides.

Now the dems are in favor of stripping him of his Senate Seniority & let him into the party as a freshman newbie.
Political games, Arlen, apparently, that's what it's all about!

See Condi Rice.

See Condi Rice speak with the children.

See the children give her hell about torture.

See Condi tap dance around the topic of torture.

Way to go kids!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bristol Palin is the new Ambassador of Abstinence!

Do what she says- not what she does!

The Ambassador does not want to talk about her personal life.... making a baby, legal battles over custody, she just wants the world to know abstinence is the safest way to go!


So if unwed teen parent Palin is the Ambassador of Abstinence, what next?

George Bush will be the foremost authority on Constitutional Law???


Rim Shot!

GOP Surviver

OUTWIT • OUTLAST • OUTPLAY • OUTTA HERE

Bailing bailing

Kiss it goodbye. 

$7.2 billion dollars in taxpayer money for the Chrysler bailout~ gone. 

CNN reports:

"This revelation was buried within Chrysler's bankruptcy filings last week and confirmed by the Obama administration Tuesday. The filings included a list of business assumptions from one of the company's key financial advisors in the bankruptcy case.

Some of the main assumptions listed by Robert Manzo of Capstone Advisory Group were that the Treasury would forgive a $4 billion bridge loan given to Chrysler in the closing days of the Bush administration, a $300 million fee on that loan, and the $3.2 billion in financing approved last week by the Obama administration to fund Chrysler's operations during bankruptcy.

"The reality now is that the face value [of the $4 billion bridge loan] will be written off in the bankruptcy process," said the official, who added that the 8% equity stake that Treasury will be receiving as part of the company's reorganization is meant to compensate taxpayers for the lost money.

"While we do not expect a recovery of these funds, we are comfortable that in the totality of the arrangement, the Treasury and the American taxpayer are being fairly compensated," said the official.

The company filed for bankruptcy Thursday as part of a deal with the federal government, unions, some lenders and Italian automaker Fiat to keep the company from being shut down.

The Obama administration official said that other money being made available to Chrysler, such as the $4.7 billion that will go to the company as it exits bankruptcy, will be a loan that the government expects to be paid back. In addition, that loan will be secured by company assets, unlike the previous loans to Chrysler.

According to the filing, the company's financial advisor also foresees the need for an additional $1.5 billion loan from the Treasury Department by June 30, 2010.

Lori McTavish, a spokeswoman for Chrysler, said some of the assumptions made by the company have changed since its bankruptcy filing on April 30. But she could not say specifically if the company still hoped for the additional federal loan in 2010.

"The content of the document needs to speak for itself. We are simply not in a position to comment," she said."

Major banks and hedge funds that loaned Chrysler $6.9 billion were offered only $2.25 billion to settle those loans by Treasury. While major banks accepted the offer, hedge funds rejected it, forcing the company into bankruptcy.

He said the fact that Chrysler isn't paying what is owed should be a warning that the $15.4 billion loaned to General Motors by Treasury since December, as well as any bankruptcy financing it might need, is also at risk.

"Certainly there are red flags," he said." 

Certainly there ARE red flags. As for that Chrysler spokeswoman who is "not in a position to comment", well of course you are not in a position to comment. What are you going to say really? Suckers!  

Unlike the notorious bank robbers like Baby Face Nelson, John Dillinger, or the early twentieth century Willie Sutton, when asked why he robbed banks, he was famously reported as answering "Because that's where the money is."  Now in the 21st century, any one wanting to make a heist of large sums of money knows better than to go to a bank-- they are failing-- they go the the Government- they hit the Federal Reserve. 

Although they arrived in private jets, dressed in their fancy suits & ties, they came to ask for money. The people's money- and lots of it. Although there was much grandstanding, and the good argument that not only would the demise of the big three take down so many other businesses - dealers, mechanics, suppliers, etc, but the country would lose an entire industry. 

How powerful could a superpower be, if it could not even make it's own vehicles?

All good questions, but none of the fundamental questions were being asked, such as:

• What caused US carmakers to fail?

~ They totally missed the boat on Hybrids & fuel efficient vehicles at the time fuel soared to an all time high. 

• Why are the foreign car makers more successful?

~ They made a better product. Consumer reports, and resale values were generally better.  The vehicles had a much longer engine life. 

They made decent cars at affordable prices. 

• Even to this day, the new car write up section in the Saturday paper featured a Dodge truck that gets 13 miles to the gallon. 13 miles to the gallon in the 21st century? 

~ My 15 year old  Dodge vehicle gets 18 miles to the gallon. They are going backwards in terms of fuel efficiency. 

Dave Letterman discusses electric cars with Elon Musk, CEO of the Tesla electric car manufacturer.
Dave does not mice words...when he says GM's VOLT--getting 40 miles to the charge electric car as "crap".

The generation 2 EV1 electric cars GM made in 1996 could get 75 to 150 miles to the full overnight charge.
But the new Volt will get 40 mpg. & cost $35,000 or more.

These two US automakers are not so much victims of the economy, but more victims of going backwards.
Victims of not keeping up. Victims of thir own lack of vision to change with the times.
In GM's case, they failed to respond to consumer feedback. Even ex CEO Rick Wagoner said if he could turn back time, they would never have gotten rid of the EV1 electric vehicle.

He's right. If GM had a decent, affordable electric car when gas prices were at $4.50 per gallon, they would have had a hard time keeping those electric cars in stock. Kind of like the Toyota Prius.

So here are my recommended solutions:

No more bailout money.
Give generous rebates for people buying electric vehicles (like they did when the Hybrids first came out).
Let consumers get a break for buying "green"cars.
Help save the planet from toxic emissions, and let the company make their money with volume sales.
Reward the company that comes up with the most efficient & affordable vehicles with more generous rebates and tax break incentives.

Since General Motors does not seem to get it either, I'd be willing to say it is only a matter of time before GM is filing for bankruptcy too. Let's stop throwing billions in the garbage if a forced reorganization is what is really needed.

This should be a wake up call for Ford as well. Maybe they should team up with Tesla & literally, get electric cars on the road, en masse. Functional cars that get at least 100 miles to the charge.
The government needs to also make a change to new building codes that require an electrical hook up in garages, for future electric vehicles- as well as solar panels.

Let the automakers who are in tune with meeting consumer demand, and making not only reasonably priced vehicles, but of good quality. win.

swine flu update

The CDC is now reporting 403 confirmed cases in the US. Oregon has 15 confirmed cases. 

The good news is the number killed by it remans unchanged. The flu is behaving like a "normal" flu strain & not deadly. 

But they do warn us of a potential boomerang effect of it returning with a vengeance in the fall. 

Meanwhile, they need to get cracking on a vaccine. 

If this was a test drill of the system, the CDC sure has been slow to the draw on updating information. If this were an actual pandemic, they would have needed to update information much faster. They only have one lab in Atlanta??

This seems woefully inadequate. 

Honestly.....

Thanks to Maui Girl at Mauigirl's Meanderings for this "Honest Weblog" award!

As part of the award, there is a meme.

These are the rules:

1.You must brag about the award √
2.You must include the name of the blogger who bestowed the award on you and link back to the blogger √
3.You must choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. √
4.Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog.√
5.List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. √
Then pass it on with the instructions!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh! an award~ for moi? I appreciate other bloggers throwing me a bone & encouraging me to tap out thoughts & perspectives.
I love the forum to be able to shout out about whatever you damned well please, and not have to hope for some editorial poobah to approve your article or be restricted to 250 words maximum. It almost sounds like I am bragging!

So here are my 10 honest things about myself!

1. I think I am addicted to blogging. Sure I read the news & current events, but I more savor the comments & opinions about the news. I find myself reading yet another blog into the wee hours. I love that people can really speak their minds & there are some very talented people with sharp minds and quick wit. I appreciate the snark & sarcasm, and consider it a high form of art & intellect, or just plain being a smart ass. True free speech often yields the truth.

As an aside, I am not inclined to Twitter for a few reasons. I'm not much of a follower. I have so limited time to do what I want & need to do, another online distraction would be too much. Plus any program with the word *twit* in it, is kind of a turn off.

2. The corporate structure in many workplaces really is inhumane. The more time I spend there, the more I wonder how I am able to tolerate the intolerable?

3. The current economy scares the hell out of me, because so many people are struggling before things really get worse. I do think we had a small sampling, but bigger dominoes are about to fall, and the ripple effect will be more of a tsunami.
For the record, I totally blame the Bush administration for the demise.

4. I am an activist at heart. I really believe in the Power of the People, and wish our country would realize if we banded together, we could force changes. Non violently of course.

5. I am a "dog person", and miss having a dog. (Ours grew old & needed to be put down). The main breadwinner lost his job (along with 2200 co workers), so financially it is not practical, but I admit, I check the Animal Shelter web sites often, and my heart melts when I look at those sweet puppy faces. Yet I know to properly care for an animal, takes a fair amount of coin.

In time, I hope to bring a 4 legged one as a part of our family. 

6. I have eschewed doing enough physical exercise, and for this I must atone.

7. I consider myself to be a bit of a news junkie. I like in depth stories & focus more, and pretty much try to ignore the garbage outlets, like Fox, Limbaugh & a host of other talking heads w/o brains. They are not worth my time, pretty much echo the GOP talking points, and would fail any journalistic measure of quality. I also find it interesting to listen to the same story or topic as told by foreign media. Sometimes it does not even sound like the same story.

8. I drive a 1994 model vehicle, and I am holding out for an electric vehicle. Do you hear that Big three auto makers?
I would like to buy an affordable electric vehicle, sometime soon. I'm guessing Toyota will beat them to the punch, as they did with the Hybrids.

9. I work in the travel industry, but don't really make enough money to be able to travel.

10. I have been married for 21 years. I admire the husband for putting up with me. I can be moody, opinionated, stubborn, difficult, but then again I can be entertaining, quick witted, compassionate, helpful, and very focused. As a double Virgo, I like to plan ahead, think things through, and love nature. No wonder I married a Virgo (just by chance, mind you). We have some very different interests and directions, but also blend well. 

He should probably win some kind of award for putting up with me!


Now on to the 7 to the other blogs part....

Do check out these cool blogs ~

Ketchup is a vegetable

Welcome back to Pottersville

Watergate Summer

Dada's Dally

Pulp Friction

Hysterical Raisins

Take Your Medicine

I'm not even going to try to comment on each one, other then to say check them out ~ you won't be disappointed!



Whew! These meme things are time consuming.
In fact this may be my last one.

Will the Meme stop here??? 

Tune in to find out the answer.....

Kent State massacre

Today is the anniversary of that awful day in history when 4 students were killed & 9 injured by the National Guard overreacting to War protestors. We need to remember them and this time in history so we don't become complacent.



Ohio ~ CSNY
The band put this song together quicky in response to the massacre. The 45 record came in a sleeve with the bill of rights printed on it. Wiki has a write up about it here.