livendive

I mostly agree with you, and find the following statement ironic: Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Nope, but he was the chief of one of five banks that chose to encourage and heavily invest in those loans despite knowledge of their risks. It's not the actions of the individual homebuyers that placed the national economy at risk. It takes LOTS of such bad loans, distributed across lots of markets to pull that off. And that's exactly what Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch gave us. Paulson is stepping in to save exactly two of those companies, one of them being his last and most profitable employer, Goldman Sachs. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Your analagous scenario doesn't make sense. The companies stupid enough to give $30k in credit card limits to someone making $30k/year ought to bear some of the responsibility for their own poor choices. By contrast general aviation should bear zero responsibility for the actions of a drunken thief, especially if he's not even a member of "general aviation". Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

McCain arranged for this first and most prominent debate to cater to his strongest polling point. Events of the last two weeks made it obvious the subect would drift into topics on which Obama polls best, and on which McCain has admitted he's not particularly strong. So, he found a way to punt while spinning it otherwise. If he were sincere, he'd have headed for DC days ago, not sometime the day before the debate. It's pretty obvious to anyone who actually looks. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I've not gotten the impression that there's particularly partisan bickering going on that would trigger such a close vote. It mostly seems like, "Fuck Bush, what do we do that'll get us elected/re-elected." Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

How about, "I would not go to the guy who created this mess, because, well, he created this mess." As for who confirmed him? It was the GOP controlled Senate, and on a short schedule at that. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I've said before that I don't really understand the ramifications well enough to speak in definite terms, but I'm more inclined to agree with you than I am the banking industry and most of these politicians. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

24 views and no comments? Am I really the only one who sees corruption here? He's pushing what's probably the biggest welfare program in our nation's history, to save his own company! This adminstration has been VERY good for a) the oil companies, b) Halliburton, and c) Goldman Sachs (if this bailout goes through). I don't want to be one of those crazy conspiracy theorists, but maybe I'm becoming one anyhow? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I think he was advocating no bail-out, but you're free to interpret as you wish. I made no commentary, I simply relayed a different politician's view on the subject for those here who might not be on his email distribution. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Received in email today Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Doesn't it strike anyone else as "odd" that the guy Bush tapped to run herd on all these bailouts and to save these banks was one of the very same overpaid CEOs who ran these companies into their current position? Paulson's compensation in his seventh year as CEO of Goldman Sachs (2006) was 16.4 million dollars. So Bush thinks he ought to be in charge of saving them with our dollars? Wow! Apparently his appointment as Treasury secretary was the ultimate golden parachute! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

You raise a good point, and I guess the distinction I see is a difference between someone who bought a home to live in and someone who bought a home to make a profit on. I also suggested we only allow them to restructure their loans to an interest rate appropriate for their credit. If they just flat-out bought too much home for their income and credit rating, I say let them sell & and buy something smaller or lose it and go back to renting. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I ain't buying it, not even a little bit. I wish I had more time this evening to explain why, but suffice it to say that this smacks of a get-out-of-jail-free card, without even much smoke and mirrors dressing it up. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Source OK, I agree with the first and third bullets, and the first half of the second bullet, but the part I struck out really pisses me off. Who in the fuck decided that the people who took out loans they couldn't afford are "innocent"? Granted, I don't know the details of the aid they're pressing for, but the very concept of calling them "innocent" is bullshit. They're at best naive, but by no means "innocent." I think those who were trying to buy themselves a family home should get some opportunity to rework their loan with reasonable interest rates for their credit rating. Those who were simply trying to invest in real estate and make a killing off of those trying to buy a family home? Fuck 'em. All should be considered guilty, and those with more than one home should take their losses all the way down to that one they need. Edit to add: and those who were investing in bonds backed by such loans? Fuck them too...let 'em eat it, and I don't care how far in either direction they camped from the "retirement" line. Obama's still got my vote, but too much rhetoric like this will cost him it. Do people realize how much money we are talking about here? This country has existed for over 200 years and has accumulated some debt in the process. But over the last 3 decades, it's increased exponentially and now we're talking about adding 10-25 percent to it in one fell swoop because some people got greedy and others got stupid. Kiss my fucking ass if those people are "innocent"! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Nope, not I, nor anyone I know (tandem students have an excuse). Then again, I might not notice it as much as you, as footbouncing doesn't bother me to nearly the extent mouth-breathers and open-mouth chewers do. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

What he said. My divorce was of the standard military variety...when I got back from overseas my wife wanted one. Note the differences here: we were married, my name was on the birth certificate, and the child had lived with me/us for the first 6 months of her life (I was gone the second 6 months). I still had to work my way through a visitation plan like described above, i.e. up to 8 hours, 3 days per week, until that was the "norm" in my daughter's life, after which we expanded to include overnights, and eventually weekends. One thing working in my favor in this regard was moving to where my ex-wife lived, that is...within a block and a half of her. So each day my daughter would go for a walk with one of us, either with her mom to my house or with me to her mom's house. Unfortunately it doesn't sound like this is feasible in this case, unless your friend is willing to move to LA. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I've got a brand new Vaio FW190 with a 320 gig 5400 rpm HD. I've was planning on buying a 320 gig Black Scorpion (7200 RPM) and an enclosure, ghosting the current HD to the new one for the OS & add-on programs, then using the stock HD inside the enclosure as my external HD. The problem is all the enclosures I looked at specified maximum HD sizes and were limited to like 250 gig. I thought 2.5" was 2.5", regardless of data density, but there's got to be some reason they limit the size. Any idea what that reason is? Or what'd be a good enclosure for my plan? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

So Jan Meyer hates "girl" and "chick" and you hate "female". Howzabout if he just calls you "the old ball and chain"? "the old lady"? "the fun police"? As for the OP...your best bet now seems to be getting more blowjobs out of her. Even if that doesn't stop the money problems, at least she can't bitch about them when her mouth is full. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'm planning to get a Blackberry Storm, hopefully around the first of November. It's OS is version 4.7, and versions 4.6 & better are reported to have resolved the javascript issues. Also, its full QWERTY touchscreen interface with "haptic feedback" is supposed to be substantially better than the iPhone. If it were me, I'd plan to use the Blackberry as a standalone product. If it turns out that the typing interface isn't good enough for your daily report, you could get a portable keyboard for just that one thing (bluetooth folding, and mini-USB roll-up versions are easy to find). Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I don't think most people would consider me "the far left." I'm ready for a leader who acts like one. A leader who doesn't say stupid shit like, "Bomb, bomb, bomb...bomb, bomb Iran" on camera. A President who makes me proud rather than embarasses me. Obama ain't perfect for me on policy stuff, he's just less unattractive than McCain. But on character and leadership ability, I'd consider him FAR better than McCain. Remember what McCain did to his first wife? How's that for character? On the leadership end of things, I'll admit that I don't think McCain would be as awful as Bush, but does ANYONE believe that fake smile of his?! It's almost as bad as that smirk of Bush's. Blues, Dave well if Obama gets elected i hope he is better at taking care of us than he helps his half brother. Given that I haven't talked to my own half-brother in over 20 years, and I don't expect Obama to "take care of me", I'm not too worried about it. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Did you see this in the proposed text of the bailout? or this Man that's a really lot of dollars! Source Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Hey look, a chance for Republicans to laugh at a gaffe by a Democrat. I think the Democrats are pretty worn out on such things after the last 8 years. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I don't know enough about it to say definitively one way or the other, but my gut feeling is to not like it. I think some sort of response is probably necessary, but I'm not getting the impression that this is the right one. The people and companies who decided to take on such risk should bear the biggest brunt of this. The taxpayers should, at worst, appease the risk of future losses, along with sharing the potential for future rewards. The present day losses should be the responsibility of the gamblers. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

What he said. Yuck the fankees! They got no soul. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

After you've got a good canopy, loosening the lower straps makes almost everything better (the only exception being in the unusual event you later find yourself without a good canopy, e.g. a relatively high canopy collision). One thing I say on the subject to every TI who will listen is that they should be loosened, not disconnected. It's perfectly normal to need to disconnect them to loosen them, but after that they should be reconnected, or at least tucked away between the student and the instructor. You wouldn't think it would take a rocket scientist to figure out that a dangling hook in close proximity to where the dangling bottom loops of the toggles go could have ugly consequences, but we are talking about tandem masters here, and I can't count the number I've seen come in configured just like that, even after I've explained my own scare with such a practice. So knowing that you'll likely ignore me just like every other TI does, I'll still tell you...stow that shit or you'll die! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)