patrick.net

I'm with Sylvie. The illegal alien problem will only be solved through the pocketbooks of the businesses.

You fine businesses 100k per illegal per year, and it'll clear up quickly.

Randy H Says:

> We won’t hear from all those who didn’t. (I’ll be most
> impressed if anyone posts and declares, without shame,
> that they paid someone else to scrub their toilet for
> them. It’s sorta like ma$turbating. Amazingly, no one
> does it when asked.)

I pay people to clean vacant apartments, but almost always do a little cleaning myself when I inspect them to make sure they are “rent ready”. Just last month I noticed a toilet had some kind of scum in it and when I couldn’t brush it off I used an old trick my Dad taught me and I poured in a little pool acid and cleaned the bowl before I ran out to get some fresh air (I’m pretty sure that you will die if you breath enough of the fumes from pool acid, but there is no other cleaning product that works as well to make the bowl sparkle)….

P.S. My parents have never paid anyone to clean their home (even after parties) and I’ve never paid anyone to clean my home (unless you count the dinners for girlfriends who were trying to impress me with how domestic they are)…

I said:

> Most liberals feel sorry for the illegals and
> don’t want to send them home.

Then CB Says:

> I would have to say this is a misconception, if you
> look at Chronicles (sfgate.com) online polls, most
> issues are voted overwhelmingly liberal (capital
> punishment, anti-war sentiments), support for allowing
> the illegal immigration stauts quo never is very high
> even among the sfgate voters.

The SF Gate polls are a joke, since every now and then a way right or way left newsgroup or BLOG posts a link and a ton of people from outside the area vote. There is not a single elected official in San Francisco that has come out saying we need to arrest illegals. Anyone that came out with a tough immigration stance voted out of office by the liberals who feel sorry for the poor immigrants (and who don’t want to lose the lady that cleans their toilets for $5/hr cash).

Just last month DA Kamala Harris (who feels so sorry for poor people that she only sends 4 out of 100 people arrested to prison vs. 40 out 100 for the San Diego County DA) sent out a press release that said that despite the “Federal” crackdown on illegal immigrants the “City” and “County” of San Francisco is reaffirming is “Sanctuary City” status and will do nothing to any illegal….

I don't care what it takes, I want our borders secure. I would like to see an adequate legal immigration policy where sufficient numbers of Mexicans are allowed in as residents who are not eligible for social services, but can become citizens after 5 years. Illegal immigratin is a horrible situation where people are exploited and live in squalor because they live in fear of discovery.

My position on housing is that immigration (legal or illegal) does not lower housing prices. Obviously immigrants for the most part don't move to the nice neighborhoods but they do move to the spillover neighborhoods which increases those values in turn increasing the nicer area prices.

It does however, contribute to crime and blight probably because it creates an underclass who live in a black market economy and society. Legalizing entry for the desireable ones will help this situation by allowing some sort of control over who comes in. Two things I would propose is English only in this country, you would have to be proficient to enter as a resident. The other thing would be to make it a real crime with a 10 year federal sentence to be an illegal alien.

LOL

ROFL

LMFAO

LMFAOROLF

I'm glad to see that admitting to masturbating is far more socially acceptable than admitting you pay someone to clean your toilets.

I believe the answers just about as much. I'm sure there are people with means who clean their own toilets from time to time, like after a bad round of family flu. There are days men don't masturbate too, on just about as rare occasion.

I didn't use the word hire, although that should carry a criminal charge as well. Specifically there needs to be a serious deterrent to being here illegally. Deporting does not work, a stiff jail sentence is the only thing I can think of to clenase the problem here. There should be a six month amnesty to declare themselves as here illegally, and then have that time to straighten out their affairs and then they have to leave. They can file whatever court papers they want, but at the 6 month mark they need to leave, and would have to pursue their case from overseas. At their expense they need to come back in on a visa if they wish to make court appearances. I want a fair, reasonable, sensible system.

The other thing would be to make it a real crime with a 10 year federal sentence to be an illegal alien.

Do you want to overwhelm the already-overwhelmed prison system?

I am a practical person. Sending illegals to prison will not work. We should make it extremely difficult to stay underground instead.

There should be a six month amnesty to declare themselves as here illegally, and then have that time to straighten out their affairs and then they have to leave.

No one will declare themselves illegal.

How about a six month grace period for them to pay a penalty (say 25K per head) for a conditional status? If they cannot afford to pay, they can be issued loans.

US mortgage crisis forces homeowners to take refuge in their cars

This vehicle?

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/gmc-pad.htm

Well, you can live in your car but you cannot drive your house.

All hail Peter P!

I should have put in a tongue-in-cheek when I said that. :-P

Does anyone else have a problem with www.zillow.com ? My computer crashes whenever I use it - especially if I try more than 1 comp.

Peter P Says:

Who determines what is considered wrong?

"Someone must. The cost of not making such determinations is higher than that of making wrong determinations occasionally.”
_____

Actually, quite a brilliant and honest assessment.

Huh?

Either way, I do not care.

At least I am not someone who is afraid of making moral judgments.

Michael Holliday posted:

“It’s an old saying in social services that most people are one to six paychecks away from being homeless. But if you can’t make your mortgage, it’s more like a month or two,” said William Wise, of the relief agency St Vincent de Paul”

I hear this quite a bit and last time I asked I don’t remember seeing a response. Is there anyone out there who will be sleeping in their minivan with the wife and kids of they don’t get a paycheck for a month or two?

How about a six month grace period for them to pay a penalty (say 25K per head) for a conditional status? If they cannot afford to pay, they can be issued loans.

How about, pay the fine or go to jail, or get out and if we catch you again it's 10 years. Pick your poison, I'm fine with any of them.

I don't believe in being able to just buy your way out of a crime though, and I think my original idea would not overwhelm the jails since only a portion of the 10 million would risk it.

Does anyone else have a problem with www.zillow.com ? My computer crashes whenever I use it - especially if I try more than 1 comp.

Works fine for me.

I hear this quite a bit and last time I asked I don’t remember seeing a response. Is there anyone out there who will be sleeping in their minivan with the wife and kids of they don’t get a paycheck for a month or two?

Unless I send money in such a case, many of my family back in Ohio would be.

Peter, we are definitely in agreement on a guest worker program. I believe that should be very easy to apply for. I also believe, and would like to see, 'alien' driver's licenses to help with uninsured drivers. That too should carry an extra penalty for aliens who drive without insurance.

I consider myself practical as well, but I must take issue with your original challenge that we can't be tough because we would overwhelm the system. Firstly that is basically a departure from my and I guess the majority's value system to not prosecute criminals because it is too much trouble. Secondly, as I said but to clarify more, I believe in cases such such as this; once you make a very public example and people actually see someone in shackles going to a federal penitentiary 90% will toe the line.

Uncle Bob long since sold the cows to pay the debts, as you put it earlier. They have no reserve that isn't provided by the government either as agricultural subsidies or direct aid.

Ahah! An illegal from Ohio!

The page on it is sized too big for my computer…so that I can’t see the comps…or the squiggle with the 4 numbers on it so that I can get the taxed amt. Don’t quite know how to fix it…

Change your screen resolution.

Try increasing it, it should shrink the image.

since only a portion of the 10 million would risk it.

You want to bet on that?

We need strong enforcement, not draconian punishment for the selected few.

Jailing employers who knowingly hire illegals would be more appropriate.

But again, the mess is a message: the system is broken.

I consider myself practical as well, but I must take issue with your original challenge that we can’t be tough because we would overwhelm the system.

Oh we should be tough after providing a reasonable alternative, namely the guest worker program. I just have a problem with stuffing people in the prison system, which is expensive as hell. I propose caning!

I saw a link on this page that said debt is slavery. I happened to have that thought today as I am often pondering strengths and weaknesses of living in a free society. Today I had a revelation that someone who loses 100K on a recourse home loan will basically be a serf for the rest of his life. (assuming no bankruptcy protection, many people won't be able to file because you can only do it every 7 years, and the debt in between bankruptcies can't be discharged anyway.)

LILLL, congrats! You now have an excuse to buy a new computer! :)

I was so happy my old laptop broke.

"Oh we should be tough after providing a reasonable alternative, namely the guest worker program. I just have a problem with stuffing people in the prison system, which is expensive as hell. I propose caning! "

In the end then we agree that there should be a penalty scary enough to force compliance. The goal is definitely to have as few people go to jail, definitely not my intention. I would even buy into the guest worker program as a way of implementing my 6 month registration plan. Then that puts a nice control point in the system. Declare yourself or become a criminal --> 6 months to get out or within 60 days apply for a guest visa which requires proficiency in English. The guest visas can be good for a year, but if you are denied, you have to be out of the country 6 months from the date of your declaration. Who can argue against the concept (not nitpick the details but in general)?

We can even impose a fine if they choose to apply for the visa but that would deter compliance. Impose the fine if they are here after 6 months, and if they are caught here again then 10 years.

Here in San Diego it has already nose dived.

Are open houses really generating traffic in SF?

CurrentOwner says:

Hey, u guys really think the market is going to crash in 2007 now? Prices are up pretty hefty in the city already. Have you gone to any open houses in SF? It’s like a mob scene!

The laughs never quit coming this evening. I did see a home in Larkspur went $200K UNDER asking after only 23 days on market. Sure, even at $1m it was probably overpriced by a good $300K, but hey, that's nearing halfway towards normalcy.

Any "mob scenes" you're seeing are almost assuredly frauds orchestrated by desperate, idle realtors who think they're being clever. I know those "madhouse bidding sprees" in Mountain View turned out to all be fake.

Maybe an enterprising lawyer out there can find some poor recent home buyer who got duped by a coven of realtors pulling off this scam and sue their asses off for fraud? Just an idea.

Realtor numbers show 7.5% YoY declines in N County which is scaring the pants off of the FBs. Some of the coastal areas are still way overpriced but are starting to look like 2003 2004 era prices. Pacific Beach is back to 2004 levels.

Current:
That's the real constraint. Lenders clamping down has been the main cause in the downturn scenario.

I was invited to join a class action against Radio Shack because of secuirties issues but I never owned stock in Radio Shack. I did shortsell Accredited Home Lenders for a nice profit and laughed when I got an invitation to participate in that class action lawsuit because the day I made a real killing was the day the stock lost 60%. I guess the lawyers are filing lawsuits everytime these stocks drop. What's even funnier is that the lawyers file the lawsuit, AND THEN go and look for lead plaintiffs. Isn't it supposed to work the other way around? Man this is coming to a head.

Lill, I sold a house 2 years ago for 440. 2 Novembers ago the new owners tried to flip it, unsuccessfully. It has been for sale ever since, and it is now a bank owned house asking $429, and it is now nowhere near being competitive with nicer homes in the high 300s.

DOM 62 and counting…perhaps it will be the first shortsale of the neighborhood. If it goes to the bank…I may try to buy it back for 700k?

Probably wouldn't recommend that.

We have a maid come in and clean the house every other week. I still clean the toilets on the weeks she doesn't come, since going two weeks without cleaning is just too long. I was campaigning for every week, but my wife talked me into every other.

I justify it to myself by saying that it gives me more time to spend with my daughter, which is true. Maybe that doesn't qualify as "without shame" though.

I have only been doing this for five months, but it is nice to not have to spend half of each Sunday cleaning the place.

We pay her $15/hr though, not $5 and she is legally allowed to work in the US.

Where are you GC?

We have a maid come in and clean the house every other week. I still clean the toilets on the weeks she doesn’t come, since going two weeks without cleaning is just too long. I was campaigning for every week, but my wife talked me into every other.
You lived in a Berkeley coop?! (or maybe that is where you picked up this regimen?) I feel like a total slob now :-(
Where are astrid and SFWoman? I feel like they represent the two warring halves of my brain on the immigration debate.
FAB, more stories from you childhood please. Tell us about the time you passed out while cleaning a rental house toilet with pool cleaner acid and then your father kicked you out of the house for a night because he thought you were sleeping on the job... Question(s), are you a landlord full time or do you have a day job (sorry, I don't believe I have picked this up from your posts)? Do you think this downturn will afford the same opportunities as the early nineties crash? Do you own properties directly or do you have a LLC?

What’s even funnier is that the lawyers file the lawsuit, AND THEN go and look for lead plaintiffs. Isn’t it supposed to work the other way around? Man this is coming to a head.

contains the seeds of its own destruction...

Where are astrid and SFWoman? I feel like they represent the two warring halves of my brain on the immigration debate.

and what are their view on frequency of cleaning toilets? we've forgotten about the traditional custodians of this venerable task :P