patrick.net

We certainly are learning about how astoundingly bad government can be lately…

speaking of which, dubya has taken a shellacking from hugo chavez and mahmoud ahmadinejad in the un recently -- they are interesting times when a claimed born again christian is accused of being the devil...

Comrades, the graphic Patrick chose clearly illustrates how the masses must fight against domestic reactionaries and Yankee Imperialists and their running dogs.....

*slap* I've got to stop spending so much time reading that little red book my son sent me from China..

At least Chavez never sanctioned torture, diverted tax dollars to private military contractors or attacked another country without provocation. Plus, it is fair to say that Chavez has done more for the poor in the US (subsidized heating oil for poor new yorkers) than Bush has done (diddly squat).

I say this partly in jest. But seriously, for all his faults I think Chavez (or even Castro for that matter) is probably less toxic than Bush, Cheney et al.

"Of course, you don’t see cronyism or nepotism with the Bush-Lockheed Martin-Texaco-Halliburton revolving door cartel in the free wheeling open market US of A… "

This precisely why we do not want to give the government more power. It is odd that you justify adding more economic power to the government by using examples of a government abusing its existing power.

If the banks could not sell housing loans to gov agencies designed for this purpose, and the banks had to take the risks themselves, there would have been no housing bubble. Down payments would have been required and borrowers would be qualified. Gov interference created the environment for the speculator and FB.

HARM,

The "catalog, one stop shopping" model you introduced is pretty much what *George has feared for some time. Major banks getting involved in retailing RE would basically spell the end for small, independent local shops. On one hand this would a tragedy. The Walmart effect if you will.

On the other hand, NAR, CAR, legions of largely unregulated MB's have proven difficult if not impossible to regulate. The proof here sir is in the pudding.

Take for instance a newly minted rookie realt-whore fresh out of "boot camp". They studied (not much granted) and covered their chapter on ethics and no sooner than they get their first sale than some "senior broker" or branch manager is showing them how "the system" really works! What appraisers to avoid, how to get around inspections, which MB's to use to get marginal clients to qualify. I could go on but you get the idea.

The REIC will fight the "new beginning" tooth and nail. In the end, they will lose. Their half hearted effort at self regulation has failed miserably. Their self serving charter will become the focus of the FB/homeowners ire. At that point all of the economic reasons and well intentioned (but faulty) tax policies won't matter in their minds. Only getting back at those "that put them in this position" will matter.

It's not only the end of the housing boom, it's the end of the Cartel (TM).

Bush is a terrible president, weak leader, and has hired some of the worst foreign policy advisers since the 1800s.

Ahmadinejahd denies the Holocaust occurred and believes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be factual. He has repeatedly called not only for the extermination of Israel, but also of all unrepentant Jews, which means all of them in context.

Chavez is documented to use tactics like kidnapping and torturing wives and children of political enemies. Didn't he also arrest pretty much every domestic reporter who dared write or speak anything critical of him? And he uses Cuban security because he's under constant threat of internal assassination because of his strongarm tactics with his own military.

I'm not so sure there's a moral equivalency here, but I do agree that they all three suck. We are living in a time with absolutely no leaders. That's the real problem.

Randy,

True, all three suck. But the reason I might give Chavez the edge over Bush has to do with context. Chavez is the leader of a small country with a history of political instability and dictatorships. Bush is President of a large, overwhelmingly powerful country with a long history of open, democratic institutions and expanding civil rights. Yet they wind up at around the same place.

Bush has tried to undermine the press through covert propaganda campaigns, he has undermined the political process through a variety of means (see Florida, '00, Ohio, '04, etc.), he has sanctioned torture, alienated the world community, started a war without provocation, etc., etc... Chavez has basically acted like a thug who is trying to hold on to power. Sort of like a gang leader/mafia don.

Hard to say who is worse, but I think you need to consider the context. Otherwise, you would have to say that Jefferson was a worse president than Bush because he had slaves. At least Bush doesn't have slaves. But within his historical/political context Jefferson was quite progressive.

Take your pick It's the lesser of three evils. I will say that it was funny as hell to see the UN general assembly applaud when Chavez was trashing Bush. It is evident that the world hates GB's arrogance he does have a aura of unapproachability. That "my way or the highway" thing. It's pretty clear he is not well thought of in alot of the world. He has undone thirty years of diplomacy. Hopefully we don't have to endure this much longer mid term elections coming up. I think the GOP is done in 08 alot of folks are pissed off economically and are sick of Iraq.

Glen

I certainly agree that Bush is a much greater disappointment in proportion to the damage caused. I was referring to the tendency people have to drawing moral equivalency to character. I also don't think that comparing people across time/eras is at all relevant.

But Bush has given us all the legacy of decades of global instability, when he had a golden opportunity of unprecedented global solidarity laid before his feet. Bush & his team continually compare the situation now to WWII. Ok. Compare Bush's leadership to the heroic leaders of WWII. That's the difference: how a leader responds to crisis and how a politician responds to crisis. One engages in strategy, plans for victory, builds solidarity across partisan divides, strengthens alliances, and does what is in the interest of the people. The other figures out how to win the next election, grabs for more power, and tries to get more of his own party entrenched, all while driving a stake of fear through any hope of broad cooperation.

Who are our alternatives? I see absolutely no one on the horizon for 08. McCain? He is too principled, and will get eaten alive by his own party. Didn't they run the anti-McCain-because-he-has-a-black-love-child ads during the 00 primary? Hillary? Give me a break. Is it even worth it to vote anymore anyway? Unless you live in one of 2-3 states, your vote is mathematically and statistically irrelevant.

Sellers are bitchin' and moanin' about "pushy" buyers. Waah, waah!

http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2006/09/19/ap3028315.html

When I was in school in Japan I literally had Japanese students laugh and say very derisively “Clinton is your President!”

what about the outgoing japanese president!!?? he loved elvis....

Different Sean Says:

what about the outgoing japanese president!!?? he loved elvis….

What do you mean? Did you see Koizumi's Elvis impersonation when he visited Graceland? That guy is cool! The shrub is just a dork.

SFWoman,

I believe there are ample mistranslations to both extremes. I try to cross-compare US & UK reported stories with what I read in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and on FAZ.net. There has been no shortage of outrageous "missed translations" which were picked up in Farsi - German translations but ignored by Farsi - English translations. Of course, the Germans are a bit keen to counter any Holocaust deniers, for obvious reason.

You'd think that US/UK MSM would at least pick up mainstream Euro reports of stuff Amadinejahd has said, especially since it would help Bush's "cause". But the 20-odd times he's proposed rounding up all the Jews (note, not all the Israelis, but all Jews) and relocating them to Germany have been all but missed in English MSM. He also has stated that every Jew is a Zionist, all Zionists should be killed, and anyone who doesn't actively work to exterminate Zionism and Zionist peoples is "Satanic" (no direct translation). Oh yea, everyone in the US and Europe is either a Zionist or a Muslim, except surprisingly, the Russians.

Iran imposed a ban on the network and its reporters Monday after CNN misquoted the president as speaking of developing "nuclear weapons" when he actually referred to "nuclear energy."

Funny. It was directly translated in German press as Kernteilmaterialien, which roughly means "nuclear component materials".

Is Farsi that ambiguous?

This precisely why we do not want to give the government more power. It is odd that you justify adding more economic power to the government by using examples of a government abusing its existing power.

i am suggesting govt should deliver affordable housing through a variety of means. the measure of their success woudl clearly be that they deliver housing at much less than market rates. this would be very easy to measure, i would think. if they couldn't do it, then it would be obvious and self-defeating.

once, under the new deal, this would have been possible. given the way fema responds to crises like new orleans, perhaps it's not possible any more -- perhaps too many americans are too corrupt and indifferent and economically self-interested to deliver a workable solution... altho NYC has committed to creating 165,000 affordable places over the next 10 years...

Another MSM pity story about sellers unable to unload - talk about deer in the headlights!

http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/22/real_estate/help_home_for_sale_young_ballanco/index.htm?postversion=2006092212

The MSM routinely portrays disfavored foreign leaders as loopy or dangerous if they meet two criteria: (1) leader of a country with large oil reserves; and (2) openly hostile to the US.

I am not saying that Amadinejad, Chavez or Saddam Hussein, for that matter, deserve our respect. But we should at least think critically about the views spoonfed to us by the MSM.

Why do dangerous and oppressive regimes like Musharef in Pakistan, the Saudi royals and Putin get a pass from the MSM? They are apparently just much better than Chavez and Amadinejad at playing us for fools. And Bush and his cronies fall right into the trap every time. Amateurs.

"We're planning on starting a family someday," says the 30-year-old Young, who builds simulation software for a defense contractor. "We wanted a bigger home - with a pool."

The new house cost $562,000 so they were really counting on profits from the old place to help. They had paid $167,000 for their current four bedroom, two-and-a-half bath, 2,861 square foot contemporary that they bought new, on the last day of 2002.

i see, this 30 year old is 'planning on starting a family someday' (nothing happening yet), so he, right now, needs a much bigger house than his current 4 br, 2½ bathroom mcmansion, one that costs 4 x his original house. you see, each and every new infant will require at least 3 bedrooms to spread out in... that's assuming he survives the economic darwinism test first... what a wanker...

DS:

Culture often comes from the top of an organization, and works its way downward. Maybe it's just a case of "like hires like", but it's a very real phenomena. An administration that is interested only in profits and playing soldier is not going to be effective on the domestic front.

At the root of the issues most have with "big business" and others have with "big government" is usually corruption. That makes it easy for defenders on either side to say "it's only a few bad apples, the system itself is fine". (Or is that used only for communism?)

Hence, regulations, the bandaid solution. It means that we don't /need/ to punish the guilty, because now there's a Regulation. Eventually, enough regulations add up that people can say "look at how much all these unnecessary regulations are costing us", and then deregulation happens. (Wonders when SNL will run their old "we're the phone company" skit again.)

The solution to regulation is proper enforcement of existing laws, which mean tackling corruption on the government side. My suspicion is that this is best done by placing competing interests in a position to police each other. (Wait... isn't that a recipe for gridlock?)

Why do dangerous and oppressive regimes like Musharef in Pakistan, the Saudi royals and Putin get a pass from the MSM?

a) Threat of escalation of nuclear war over Kashmir.
b) Threat of loss of 90% of Europe's and Japan's crude, probably resulting in very unfavorable results.
c) How can you threaten Russia, the only nuclear, modern military with largely self-sufficient resources other than the US? Didn't that scenario already play out the last half of the past century?

I don't think Bush's cronies are dumb, or amateurs. To the contrary. I think they are overconfident professionals who've lost touch of pragmatic reality. Most of their strategy looks stellar on paper. Just doesn't work out so well in practice.

Is Farsi that ambiguous?

i dunno. i had dinner with two iranian women tonight, i'll ask them ;)

Re: Young & Ballanco

I wonder who took the photos for the article? The way he included the backyard fencing and neighbor's house in the koi pond pic, and the way the garage snout blocks out the front entrance just makes the place look oh-so-appetizing.

DS and requiem,

So true! Reading that article, especially with that smarmy "couples" shot of the two of them, it seemed like a weird cross between a real estate add and one of those Jerry's kids telethon-like pleas for help.

they both need a good slapping....

Randy,

There are choices beyond Hillary (Lieberman Lite and way too polarizing, her alleged suitability mainly pushed by the DNC and GOP operatives) and McCain (sold out in 2004, too old). I’m actually quite hopeful about the long term prospect of the Democratic Party. They’re working to build grass root organizations and pushing for a lot of moderate well intended people into office. I like Mark Warner for ’08 so far, but I’m open to any pragmatic results-oriented Progressive who hasn’t yet sold out.

I’m with Glen on this. Different countries will produce different kinds of leaders. Sometimes there will be a significant deviation towards the good (TR and FDR) and sometimes there will be deviations towards the awful (Pol Pot). Iran and Venezuela has a pair of poor leaders, but Bush is a standard deviation further out on the wrong side than those two. Furthermore, as a leader of a far larger and much more powerful country, he is capable of doing much more damage.

"Talk about deer in the headlights"

skibum, you mean putting a koi pond with a little Japanese style bridge leading to a 12 sq. ft. area where the fences meet in the corner of your lot DON'T "add vale"?

I love this stuff! Let's keep it coming. Sellers were SO abusive on the way up, let's see how well they handle the downturn. Paul McCulley (PIMCO) was just on CNBC and seemed to feel we could see rates trending down as early a Q1/07? Whatever. It should be obvious now that there will be sellers pain. They know that. It's unavoidable. Rate reductions in 07 will be too little too late for many FB's.

SQT,

Considering that the Japanese had been voting the same (increasingly corrupt) LDP into power for 50 years and its PMs still visit a racist shrine every year, I’d say that’s the kettle calling the pot black. I think you were also there when there were some wrangling over US bases in Japan.

SFWoman,

Great article. I don't know what's with young people nowadays. If you want to have kids you should be: living as frugally as possible, upgrade your job skills as much as you can and save as much money as possible. Not buy a McMansion you can't really afford on for the non-existent infants.

let's see some pics of their new $562,000 place, poor little saps... i think they probably traded up to something like this to get the pool and extra rooms for the nonexistent urchins...

For most FB's (fascinating pol. discussion btw) it boils down to DTI and appraisal value. Some might have enough income (but not the "right" appraisal) others will have the appraisal (but simply not enough income) to support ANY further debt. Cash out? Forget it.

So when the F A N T A S Y is over and the re-sets and attendant damage control PPT measures are implemented just who is it exactly they will be saving? Who was it that described it like a neutron bomb? The houses will be left standing but all the people will be dead.

DinOR,

Yeah, that koi pond really gives one a sense of zen serenity...as you meditate in front of your neighbor's McMansion! Did you read that other link I posted a bit earlier? Just as bad.

Anyhow, what kind of family were these people planning to start, so that it can't housed in a 2,861 sqft home? The wife has got to be close to 30, so she's only got 10 good breeding years even if she starts now.

iranians are sharp, sophisticated, and excellent chess players...

Bush is a history major from Yale, I believe. Did Yale teach him anything about the definition of a sovereign nation? Oh, I forogt I saw a footage on youtube when he was struggling to explain what a sovereign entity was to a panel.

Perhaps in Bush's mind, the US of A is the only sovereign nation on earth, oh I stand corrected, the Bush admin is the only sovereign admin on earth, we the people of US of A are his subjects.

I don't really care what Ahmadinejad said in the UN. At worst, Ahmadinejad is openly stating his long standing position on Israel and using the speech to shore up his domestic stature. Iran is a long distance away from Israel and Israel is in no real danger of extermination.

The Iranian regime is also plenty oppressive to its Muslim citizenry. Young women are still being killed for premarital sex, even when that premarital sex was coerced or outright rape.

But what I mainly care about is what Iran is doing with nuclear program. Unfortunately, the news there is also quite bad.

skibum,

You're kidding right? Of course I read it and I'll go you one better!

"Home Buyers Getting Pushy" should be the sub-title to patrick.net!

(You know that is one way Patrick could generate some revenue)

Unlike most RE guru programs and seminars that cost thousands and are the product of ONE mind; get the collective bargaining skills from thousands for ONE DOLLAR! (Click Here for Ultimate House Buying Bargaining Skills Now!)

So this might be an acceptable time to voice my long held opinion that the world would be a better place if the Jews were given a small Latin American country as a homeland instead of Israel.

Speaking of excellent chess players, I think Musharef just declared "checkmate" on Bush. Very clever.

In 2001, Musharef was a pariah. He had overthrown a democratic regime in a military coup. He was potentially a danger to India. Etc. The world community condemned the coup and sanctions were in place on Pakistan. Then 9/11 happened and Bush decided he needed to strong-arm Musharef for help in the "war on terror." Musharef goes along with it publicly, without mentioning the Bush bullying tactics. Bush makes public appearances with Musharef and gives him an implicit endorsement.

Bush was hoping to be discreet about his strong-arm tactics. But by now, five years later, the whole world knows that the Bush admin. is a bunch of bullies. After securing Bush's public support, Musharef chooses to make a very public statement (true or not--probably true) about Bush's backroom bullying. Now Bush needs to backpedal.

It is very hard for Bush to deny Musharef's accusation because Bush has very little credibility--especially when it comes to being a bully. But if Bush admits it, then he just further shows that he is every bit as much of a bully as everyone already thinks he is.

That koi pond article is priceless, by the way.

George,

I only saw the ad once but if ever there was a person that embodied all things boomer Dennis Hopper is it! From a free spirit in "Easy Rider" to corporate sell-out (combined with much drugs and random sexual partners he's the perfect pitch-man for Ameriprise!)

Wow, UN speeches, foreign translations, Presidential comparisons, petro-dollar diplomacy and nuclear proliferation. We're all over the topic map today!

This just about summed it up for me:
We are living in a time with absolutely no leaders. That’s the real problem.

I have yet to see one "likely" Presidential candidate for '08 that has real character and I would actually want to vote for (which is pretty much the true aim of our Beloved Two-Party system I suppose). Hillary has zero credibility thanks to caving/pandering on Iraq, BK bill, Patriot Act, etc. McCain? Much the same --plus shilling for the guy who smeared his reputation in '00. Perhaps Badnarik or Feingold will consider running. of course if they do, they'll probably get swift-boated if the polls show either has a chance of winning.