More Clarion-Ledger Economics and Hypocrisy

The Clarion-Ledger, a current expert on losing money, tries to give the state some advice on how to balance its budget by calling for an internet sales tax in a column written by Editorial Director David Hampton:
"As for the "tax-that-fellow-behind-the-tree" department, Mississippi ought to be seeking a way to tax Internet sales.
Internet sales should be taxed the same as if you bought the item down the street. Not only is it terribly unfair to local merchants, it cuts into vital state and local revenue from sales taxes....
I have my own list of taxes that should be raised and/or lowered. Sales taxes are too high; income and corporate taxes, too low....

Mr. Hampton, is it really fair for businesses such as NEWSPAPERS to enjoy a STATE SALES TAX EXEMPTION? While you are making a lists of targets for your tax hikes, why don't you lead by example and include your employer? If you want to close the loopholes, close your own first before you seek to burden the rest of us with higher taxes.

Hampton Editorial: Tax Thee Not Me

So who dumped Parkway Properties?

RIGHT before close Friday (12:59 PM), someone dumped over 94.000 shares of Parkway Properties stock, driving it down over a dollar a share, closing at $13.67. The high for Friday was $16.21 (This chart is interactive and is where I found the 94,000 figure, which does not appear in the above chart): http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=PKY#symbol=PKY;range=1d

Last week, JJ reported Parkway Properties cut its dividend in half from $2.60 to $1.30 a share and also that its share price dropped over 50% in October in an earlier post. At the same time the dividend cut was reported, Wyatt Emmerich penned an editorial in his newspaper, The Northside Sun, praising Leland Speed, the titan of Parkway and the construction in downtown Jackson as will as future projects. Is it a coincidence it was published at the same time there was a dividend cut?

However, back to the issue of Friday's trading of Parkway Properties stock. What exactly was going on?

Sometimes you can be too good.

Um, Marshall, did you get permission? You drew the Grinch so well that well, it looks like you should be paying them royalties or copyright fees. ;-)

Time To Get Drunk

It's that time of year and you know what it means: It's time for my award-winning egg nog recipe.

Ingredients: 1 cup bourbon, 1 cup brandy, 1 cup Tia Maria, 12 eggs, 1 quart cream, 1 quart half & half, 1/2 lb powdered sugar

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Directions: Separate eggs and combine booze and yolks and whisk in 1/2 lb of powdered sugar.

Store in fridge for 24 hrs. Keep the whites chilled also.

24hrs later, whip cream in large bowl until thick,then add half & half and the yoke/booze mix.

Add the egg whites and whip till frothy. Chill for a while before serving.

Iraqi Kid Makes Good

The Detroit Red Wings foreign scout flies to Baghdad to watch a young Iraqi play hockey in the new American sponsored league, and is suitably impressed and arranges for him to come over to the US .

Ken Holland signs him to a one year contract and the kid joins the team for the preseason.

Two weeks later the Wings are down 4-0 to the Blackhawks with only 10 minutes left. Mike Babcock gives the young Iraqi the nod and he goes in. The kid is a sensation - scores 5 goals in 10 minutes and wins the game for the Wings! The fans are delighted, the players and coaches are delighted, and the media love the new star.

When the player comes off the ice he phones his mom to tell her about his first day of NHL hockey. "Hello mom, guess what?" he says in an Iraqi accent. "I played for 10 minutes today, we were 4-0 down, but I scored 5 goals and we won. Everybody loves me, the fans, the media, they all love me."

"Wonderful," says his mom, "Let me tell you about my day. Your father got shot in the street and robbed, your sister and I were ambushed, raped and beaten, and your brother has joined a gang of looters, and all while you were having such great time."

The young Iraqi is very upset. "What can I say mom, but I'm so sorry." "Sorry? You're Sorry? !!" says his mom, "It's your fault we moved to Detroit in the first place!"

A Blast From the Past

There is supposed to be a KABOOM!!!

Have money, need hair.

One would think with all the gay activists and metrosexuals that voted for Obama and were in his campaign, someone could've gotten this guy a better wig.

Parkway Properties Cuts Dividend in Half

Dividend Daily reports:
"Parkway Properties (PKY) has cut its annual dividend payout from $2.60 to $1.30. The new dividend yield based on today’s closing stock price of $18.07 is 7.19%. PKY is not a recommended stock at this time, holding a Dividend.com Rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars."

No mention in The Clarion-Ledger or Mississippi Business Journal of the unprecedented divident cut. The Mississippi-based company has seen its stock price hammered in the last few weeks. See earlier post: Stock price down over 50%

For Your Amusement

Here are some nice comments from the Huffington Post about Obama's decision to retain current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates:

Nan2008 If Obama is the man for change, don't you think he should start by hiring HIS OWN. We want change not the SAME-O, SAME-O STUFF. And that means Nancy and Harry need to go as well. She tabled IMPEACHEMENT EARLY ON, WHEN DOES ACCOUNTABILITY START, IF NOT AT HOME WHERE AND WHEN? We elected him to do a job, if HE DOESN'T PERFORM AS WE ELECTED HIM TO DO HIS BUTT CAN FIND IT'S WAY OUT AS WELL. I don't care if he's the first Black President, he could be purple for all I care. The culture of corruption needs to end NOW, and the willingness to just go along is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

alainv If you havn't figured it out yet our elections are a sham and our presidents are simply figureheads for the military industrial complex and the corporate elite , otherwise known as the illuminate. Barrak was the best choice because he allows them to continue there agenda without fear of revolution witch may have ensued had the election gone the other way . These people are genious in there ability to know exactly how far they can go without a serious uprising by the masses of sheep who desperately want to believe that all is well .

SangZe I'm beginning to think we've been had once again.

thefed I voted for Obama and now I feel betrayed by his choices ...............I heard also that he is not closing gitmo and i feel if this happens ..........HE has not only conned us but betrayed the trust of the majority of the blacks who trusted and voted for the man who stood for change

piul05 Consistent with all the bad picks for foreign relations.No wonder Biden seems lost and without a role; everywhere he looks there is a militaristic hawk.Who's the next appointee? John Bolton?

InfoWarriorNY Obama has already killed the anti-war movement and the impeachment & accountability movement. These were conditions of the shadow gov't -- Peter Dale Scott's "deep state." Without his acquiescence to these (and a few others) the corporate controlled MSM would have annihilated his candidacy

geobushono Gates is BLOODY with the gore of the inconvient children he considers collateral damage. THAT is a big problem for me. How many warmongers, and right wing zealots are we going to have in this Cabinet?With all this effort with broad appeal, MY values are being cast aside to try to get another 2% in the 2012 Election.Send your checks to Riyad & Tel Aviv....they have The President's ear.

Nonamnesiac One can have a positive view of Gates only if one uses Rumsfeld as the yardstick. Gates is pro-torture, pro corruption (he's made no effort to recover the unaccounted for billions in Iraq and supports Blackwater and Haliburton unquestionably) and can be traced back to both the practice and the actual events of Iran/Contra.It's amazing to watch this guy Obama make choice-after-choice of the people who got us into the economic and international mess we're in and claim he's an agent of change. He's affirmed much of voodoo economics with the band of free-market, don't regulate choices he made for his economic team, many of whom personally helped transform the stupidity of Reaganomics from bad economics into a vehicle for them to personally become fabulously wealthy and then redefine policy to remove any obstructions to their becoming fabulously wealthy under the mantra of "deregulation". Even the so-called "bailouts" of the financial industry did not include enforced transparency, enforced accountability or any reregulation even though even Alan Greenspan admits that deregulation is a major cause of this calamity. But everyone's ready to trounce autoworkers because they bargained pensions and healthcare in a society that only provides a supplemtal pension (social security) and poverty-causing health care to its retirees if those workers had not negotiated pensions and health care.And now Gates, another let's-never-leave Iraq kind of guy. This is not change.

benndissed well ,i just got back from change. gov , and i feel better that i let barack know my disappointment in his hawkish picks for our nat. sec. team. i hope he listens and reconsiders. if not, i will campaign against confirmation for them. ending the war in iraq is one thing that doesn't need to be managed by those who supported and voted to authorize use of force there by bush.

LemonMeringue I too will give Obama the benefit of the doubt. However...We must hold him accountable. We will watch his back, but we will dog him and let him know what we, the people who elected him, want from this administration. I feel fortunate that a man such as he is willing to give up the life he knew to take on the hardest job in the world. I also believe that he owes us something. The peace movement worked very hard for him. The environmental movement worked very hard for him. The people who have been appalled at the abuses of the Bush administration worked hard for him. We worked hard for change and we expect to get it.

mach A bunch of Bush appointee apologists ---who'd of thunk it

FreedomUSA I want my old America back--shame on you Obama. You have duped many with your lies--"New Washington, new change." You seem to be a Washington conspiracy yourself.Wake up America!!!

Axlotl Hey, I have an idea; how about NO G*****N REPUBLICANS, or Republican appointees, in the new Democratic cabinet whatsoever?Screw this "bipartisan" stuff. Is he insane? If I wanted Republicans, Id' have voted for one, thank you very much.

larazon Bay Buchanan thinks Gates's a great pick. Maybe he can pick her as his WH spokesperson?

kentj All warmongers probably think Gates is a great pick. Why did we hold an election, when everything stays the same, especially that illegal and immoral Iraq war?

Alex02139 This is outrageous. I guess change we can believe in is nothing but a an empty slogan. Bush boy Gates, Bush boy Geithner, McCain boy Jones. Disgusting appeasement.

ProfessorGeorge First let me say that I enthusiastically supported Obama, but I sure hope that after what we've seen with the economic appointments and now Gates, that we all need to take our heads out of the sand and wake up to the fact that the love fest with Barack needs to come to an end fast. We progressives have had little to be overjoyed about and need to start putting the pressure on.

Steamboater Keeping Gates. What a mess. This is what you can expect from someone without cajones and it's going to happen again and again. We've already heard that Obama won't do anything, if he does anything at all, about DADT until 2010 and let the issue fester over and over until what happens will be another compromise. The war in Iraq and with Gates there especially will also fester. We're not getting out there. This whole election was sounds more and more like a scam every day.

Chillinout I don't know why Obama didn't nominate General MacAurthur, of Admiral Halsey. Nominating live people is NOT change I can believe in. I have already emailed the election board and told them I want my ballot back so I can change my vote. I suggest you all do the same

nogimmicks Sadly, appointment after appointment we see the same pattern.Obama = Bush (but younger and more eloquent). Policies and people are the same or worse (e.g. . Geithner could be worse than Paulson). Oh well, ... as the late George Carlin used to say "f*** hope".

biwee For someone who campaigned on "Change", it is strange to me that Obama's appointments are the same old, tired and ineffective retreads from past administrations. The "Change" was just a scam.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/19/robert-gates-obamas-defen_n_144874.html

Hehehehehe.

MADD's Enabler

Well now, Tricia Raymond, MADD's Executive Director and the Enabler-in-Chief (and Executive Director of SafeCity) was out in force yesterday, pushing for more tough laws on drinking and driving. "Enabler-in-Chief" you ask? Kingfish, what do you mean?

Well, Ms. Raymond was one of Frank Melton's field directors in his campaign and has been VERY quiet concerning Melton's little drunken binges (oops, make that alleged drunken binges). One would think the Executive Director of MADD would take a more aggressive public stand concerning a Mayor who is accused of being a drunk and tearing down houses while on a binge. Of course, that might mean not being able to have nice little press conferences with the chief. Its all about access and publicity.

Spatula City WILL be open Christmas Eve.

Make Newt RNC Chair

(Yes, I know he said he is not interested but I decided to write this anyway. Conservatives can always draft him when all else fails.)

There is no way to sugar-coat it: Republicans got their clocks cleaned in November. While crying is good for the soul, Republicans simply don't have time to engage in a national boo-hoo as Democrats plan their inaugural blitzkrieg. There are a multitude of reasons why Republicans lost : the economy, Iraq, Katrina, McCain's poorly-run campaign, and a Cassius Clay from Chicago who floated around Republicans with hope while he stung them with change.

Unfortunately, Republicans have shown little ability to learn from their mistakes, as country clubbing pork-barrel Custers lead them to defeat after defeat. The 2006 elections should have sent them a message, yet here they were again in 2008, losing with the same leadership, learning nothing while forgetting everything Reagan and Newt taught them. After 2006, no one was penalized, no one lost their jobs; these were Byzantine Emperors who thought the walls of Constantinople would forever hold the Turks at bay even as they fired their shiny new guns. The Greek Chorus of Republican hacks assure us Democrats will fumble the ball -the good ole rope a dope strategy will win, just be patient. The Chorus tells conservatives the American people will never support Obama's radical ideas, forgetting the times of FDR and LBJ when Democrats reshaped society as they saw fit while Republicans nearly ceased to exist.

What is needed now is steel. The steel of ideas. The steel to realize the political horizon for what it is, the steel to realize what must be done, and the steel to actually do it. Cannae was the worst defeat for the Romans as a young and hungry Hannibal slaughtered the best of Rome that day. The Romans didn't turn on each other. They banned mourning. No public discussion of Cannae was allowed. The Romans got tough, made hard decisions, got the right leaders, and eventually beat Hannibal on his own turf. Are the Republicans such Romans or instead are they the Jews before Titus- fighting each other while the legions storm the city?

If Republicans are to win, they must realize what is at stake: our country's soul. Will it be a country based on limited government, liberty, freedom, and the ideal that one can get ahead through hard work? There is a case to be made for a conservative message that is pro-growth, cuts taxes and spending, and keeps government out of the lives of Americans but that message has to be adapted to Americans who are frightened and searching for answers. As Russell Kirk pointed out, drastic change happens when times are unsettled and people are fearful. They seek reassurance from whoever offers them a positive vision and makes it seem he is fighting for them.

Democrats play for keeps and make no bones about it. The so-called experts say Obama will govern from the center (although the economy will probably limit his budget plans for quite some time). The Democrats will have to moderate their positions. Will they? Why should they? They WON! They won in their own way, on their terms, and are under no duty to govern from the middle. Some will say the Democrats will pay for making any radical changes at the polls. Such ostriches forget Democrats will instead seek to change the playing field so conservatives can't fight back effectively in future elections.

Here are five items one can expect from the Democrats:

1. The use of vague localism standards and the Fairness Doctrine to gain more control over the media.
2. The nationalization of the health care system. While Hillary failed in her attempt to take over 1/7 of the American economy, the Democrats are ready for a rematch and there are no Phil Gramms ready to say "this will pass over my dead body", as courage has been in short supply among Congressional Republicans all too often recently.
3. The temptation to place conditions on receiving bailout funds will prove too much for Democrats to resist, as they will leap at the chance to remake part of the American economy in the graven image of their collectivist ideals. Only a simpleton will think Democrats won't take advantage of the broad powers granted by Paulson's bailout bill. They will pressure recipient corporations to donate money to Democrats and threaten those that might contribute to Republicans to withhold bailout funds, thus forcing them into bankruptcy.
4. An aggressive use of the powers created by Bush to take further control over the educational system.
5. The appointment of radical judges who will share Obama's vision of the constitution as a document of "negative liberties".

The danger to Republicans is real: if they continue on their present course, they will wander in the wilderness for a generation or more as Democrats will use every trick they can think to beat Republicans while blaming them for every problem. People love freedom but also crave order. Limited government doesn't mean much when one watches New Orleans drowning on ABC. Cutting taxes for investors enrages Americans who are bailing out Citigroup while sending nearly half of their paychecks to the tax man. Twain wrote "Principles only have full force when one is well fed." The principles of liberty, freedom, and enjoying the vision that is America will mean little as American are more concerned with how well-fed they are.

Republicans can avoid such a fate by taking a first step right now: make Newt Gingrich the Chairman of the Republican Party. What Republicans need right now is a leader, a leader who commands respect, has the intellect to see the big picture, is a true conservative, and isn't afraid to take the fight to the enemy. One rarely gets in trouble when one hires the resume and there are no Republicans right now with a resume as strong as Newt's. There are talented and smart individuals at the state level. Katon Dawson of South Carolina is a fantastic fundraiser and a fighter. He gets it. Bobby Jindal is probably the most talented Republican leader today. Governor Palin is fiery and popular among conservatives. However only Newt has the whole package: experience, intelligence, steel, and clout as Republicans simply can not afford a Chairman who requires a two-year learning curve or one who seeks the position just to help his buddy run for President.

Newt understands what is at stake, probably better than any other leader in the Republican party. He knows what it takes to build a party as he built one while the Bob Michels were waving white flags. He stood against his party in 1991 when it betrayed conservative principles on the tax increase and did it again when Paulson pushed his socialist bailout. When the idea of Republicans winning the House was unthinkable, Newt made it his crusade. He stayed true to the course as he fought Democrats, the media, and even Republicans who saw conservatives as more of a threat then they did Democrats. Newt and his fellow young Turks went from being a joke to a minor irritation to a Tsunami that surprised everyone.

Newt gives Republicans the intellectual and moral courage they need to do revitalize the party as well as the conservative movement. Republicans fail to realize it is hard for them to call Obama a socialist when they have Marxist blood on their own hands as they stood behind Paulson's nationalizing of the banks ( soon to be other industries). Newt was one of the few Republicans who understood the bailout bill for what it was and how angry Americans were. What was Newt's advice to Bush? Tear up the bill and get some "Reagan Republicans around the table" and craft a new bill. Instead, Republicans ignored their past Champion only to get hit by Bush and McCain's not so-friendly fire. While Republicans mindlessly mouth the once-hypnotic phrase "following the ideas of Ronald Reagan", Newt actually discusses ideas, not just worn-out talking points.

Some will question the choice of Newt Gingrich as RNC Chairman, saying Republicans don't need a pit bull. While the RNC Chairman must be pragmatic, Newt understands in order for Republicans to be successful, they must negotiate from a position of strength and avoid becoming the Democrat-Lite Party. A Chairman Gingrich will whip state parties into shape, forcing them to contest Democrats even in Districts where they think they are safe. Some state parties have become a joke and need to be taken over by the national party as they are virtually useless and in some cases, a hindrance to the Republican party. While the Repub

Change inspires more change. Conservatives need to take back the Republican Party from country-clubbers who only want conservatives around when they need votes. Republicans need a warrior priest, not a REMF who prefers a spa to a battlefield. Aa Reagan said so famously, it is a time for choosing. The question is whether Newt and the rest of the Republicans will choose wisely.

Check out the Cartoons

There were some good ones today.

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Owners

A couple of us are looking at forming a club for Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Owners in Jackson. There are clubs in other cities. The breed plays well with each other compared to other dogs. This club could meet once a month at a place like Laurel Park where they can play. Email me at kingfish1935@gmail.com if interested.

Here are some clubs I found online from other parts of the country:
Bay Area Club
Northen Arizona Club
Houston Club
Southern Nevada
Cavaliers of the South Club

Buy Toaster, Get Free Bank

Kidnap Victim Sues George Bell, III

The woman who was kidnapped by George Bell III after he murdered her roommate sued Bell in Hinds County Circuit Court in September (Note: JJ waited to publish story as Bell was not served until recently).

In the lawsuit, she states:
"George Bell, III came into the Plaintiff's residence uninvited and abducted the Plaintiff at gunpoint whereby he took the Plaintiff to the Defendant's mother's house located at 4652 Trawick Drive, Jackson, Mississippi and held the Plaintiff against her will..."

The victim alleges aggravated assault, aggravated battery, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress were committed by Bell in his kidnapping of her (Mr. Bell already pleaded guilty to kidnapping the victim):
"George Bell, III abducted her at gun point and threatened to kill her, putting her in immediate apprehension of fear. That the actions of the Defendant, George Bell, III, were done for no apparent reason and without justification and in a grossly negligent, reckless, and intentional manner.....
The defendant committed an aggravated assault on the Plaintiff....
The defendant committed an aggravated battery on the Plaintiff...
The defendant committed false imprisonment against the Plaintiff...
The defendant intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the Plaintiff..."

The victim demands in the suit "compensatory, punitive, and any other damages.." The victim has not filed any actions against Robbie Bell at this time.

Copy of Lawsuit

Go ahead Obama, appoint Hillary

Look at what you are getting along with her:
"Late last week, as stories swirled around Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's possible jump to the job of Secretary of State, another longtime Clinton aide's name began to crop up: former journalist and Clinton back-room consigliere, Sidney Blumenthal.
Should Clinton accept the Secretary of State job, Blumenthal, it is believed, will move to Foggy Bottom as a counsel to the secretary, a post that will not require Senate confirmation..." The Return of Sid Vicious

Go ahead, appoint Hillary. You've no idea what you will be getting if she brings him on board. You will rue the day you nominated the Cattle Futures Queen to Secretary of State.

Dandy Don Nails the LSU/Ole Miss Game Perfectly

Veteran and highly-respected LSU blogger Dandy Don writes a great analysis on Ole Miss's thrashing of LSU yesterday:
"Coach Houston Nutt of Ole Miss had his team ready to play and Les Miles did not, and I think it is time for all Tiger fans to admit that LSU is not a very good football team at this time. LSU is poorly coached on defense and has major problems on offense at the quarterback position. I am not ready to say that Les Miles is a bad coach because LSU went 11-2, 11-2 and 12-2 the last three years before this season and you do not go 34-6 and be a bad football coach. I am ready, however, to say that there will have to be major changes made in the coaching staff at the end of this season....." http://www.dandydon.com/

Enjoy

Sound like anyone we know here in Jackson? Or Florida?

THIS is how you deal with pirates.

I'm sure the ACLU and Obamabots would scream bloody murder but who cares? Take a lesson from the Master when dealing with pirates:
"After a short stay there with Nicomedes, the king, in his passage back he (Julius Caesar) was taken near the island of Pharmacusa by some of the pirates, who, at that time, with large fleets of ships and innumerable smaller vessels, infested the seas everywhere.
When these men at first demanded of him twenty talents for his ransom, he laughed at them for not understanding the value of their prisoner, and voluntarily engaged to give them fifty. He presently despatched those about him to several places to raise the money, till at last he was left among a set of the most bloodthirsty people in the world, the Cilicians, only with one friend and two attendants. Yet he made so little of them, that when he had a mind to sleep, he would send to them, and order them to make no noise. For thirty-eight days, with all the freedom in the world, he amused himself with joining in their exercises and games, as if they had not been his keepers, but his guards. He wrote verses and speeches, and made them his auditors, and those who did not admire them, he called to their faces illiterate and barbarous, and would often, in raillery, threaten to hang them. They were greatly taken with this, and attributed his free talking to a kind of simplicity and boyish playfulness. As soon as his ransom was come from Miletus, he paid it, and was discharged, and proceeded at once to man some ships at the port of Miletus, and went in pursuit of the pirates, whom he surprised with their ships still stationed at the island, and took most of them. Their money he made his prize, and the men he secured in prison at Pergamus, and he made application to Junius, who was then governor of Asia, to whose office it belonged, as praetor, to determine their punishment. Junius, having his eye upon the money, for the sum was considerable, said he would think at his leisure what to do with the prisoners, upon which Caesar took his leave of him, and went off to Pergamus, where he ordered the pirates to be brought forth and crucified; the punishment he had often threatened them with whilst he was in their hands, and they little dreamt he was in earnest."
Plutarch's Life of Caesar

MELTDOWN!!!

http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/default.asp?b=6

GEAUX TO HELL OLE MISS GEAUX TO HELL!!!

OK, now that I've poured my bourbon and gotten that out of the way, here is my prediction. I think Ole Miss wins. Lee will probably throw another interception. Ole Miss is playing good ball and has shown improvement and more confidence every week. Meanwhile, LSU's defense has sucked all year for the most part as Miles refused to hire a proven defensive coordinator and instead promoted both his linebackers and defensive backs coaches to the position of co-defensive coordinators even though neither one had any DC experience at the 1A level. Defense plays soft zone too much, blitzes are predictable, players consistently out of position and play with poor technique. I think Ole Miss wins this one.

Zoo Blues

WLBT Story by Monica Hernandez

More evidence Jackson can't do anything right. One would think the Jackson Zoo would have learned its lesson in 2005 after some wild dogs killed most of the flamingos inside the Zoo but this being Jackson, learning from experience is something of an alien concept. How did some dogs get inside the zoo and kill some gazelles? Chris Mims, a Marketing Director at the Zoo, said "It's possible the dogs entered the zoo through the main gate during business hours and weren't seen". Clarion-Ledger Story

If that is the case, why hasn't anyone been fired? If the dogs got in through the front gate, then fire the person responsible? Has Frank Melton's habit of not taking responsibility for anything spread to the rest of Jackson's government? For a city that needs to improve its quality of life, this latest incident was just another example of what a joke city government has become.

Unfortunately, the amenities for the Jackson metro area have been lacking for some time even as a downtown building boom is taking place. There are few things outside of organized sports for families to do in Jackson. The reservoir, thanks to Bumbling Burwell, looks like a giant mudhole with NOTHING that adds to its recreational value (at least there was something when the Dock was around). There are no longer water parks, miniature golf, go-carts, or other activities for families to enjoy.

The Zoo is one of the few cultural icons in Jackson that draws visitors from around the state. The area around it looks like a wasteland and is not exactly the most desirable part of town to visit. Perhaps it is a bit much to expect Jackson to provide for the zoo all by itself. The Zoo is something that provides cultural value to the metro area, not just Jackson. Its one of the few attractions in the area for families that live several counties away from Jackson.

It might be time to look at removing the Zoo from Jackson's control and placing it under the direction of either the state or a board similar to the Pearl River Valley District where representatives from Hinds, Rankin, and Madison counties sit on the oversight board. Let the participating counties share in the revenues. The Zoo doesn't have to be at the world-class level of the Audubon Zoo or others but it should be something that does a better job than it currently does in representing Mississippi. Jackson AND the suburbs benefit from cultural offerings such as the Jackson Zoo.

Incompetence at WLBT.

What is wrong with this story?

African Investors Launch Bid to Buy Citigroup

Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating to purchase Citigroup after its value dropped below $5 a share this week.

The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently a $200 million Saudi Arabian oil tanker. The Somali pirates are offering up to $0.10 per share for Citigroup, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said earlier today. The negotiations have entered the final stage, Ali said. ``You may not like our price, but we are not in the business of paying for things. Be happy we are in the mood to offer the shareholders anything," said Ali.

The pirates will finance part of the purchase by selling new Pirate Ransom Backed Securities. The PRBS's are backed by the cash flows from future ransom payments from hijackings in the Gulf of Aden. Moody's and S&P have already issued their top investment grade ratings for the PRBS's. What is more intriguing and could make ensure success for the Pirates is the use of credit default swaps that will be issued by Citi for this deal. The swaps will be kept off of the balance sheets in a move approved by the SEC.

Head pirate, Ubu Kalid Shandu, said "we need a bank so that we have a place to keep all of our ransom money. Thankfully, the dislocations in the capital markets has allowed us to purchase Citigroup at an attractive valuation and to take advantage of TARP capital to grow the business even faster." Shandu added, "We don't call ourselves pirates. We are coastguards and this will just allow us to guard our coasts better."

Ouch!!!

Art Laffer of Laffer Curve fame and whom I greatly respect, unfortunately blows it on this one. I bet these guys are not laughing now. Ben Stein calls it an "unbelieveable buying opportunity". Stein calls subprime "a tiny tiny blip". Video is worth seeing.

We can hope

Thank you SB.

Roundup of Posts from Mish & Market Ticker

Mish rips Citi's claim short-selling is responsible for its slide in the market, wondering out loud why Citi is paying dividends when it needs capital while he scrutinizes some Citi statistics:
"Citigroup is blaming shorts when the short interest is under 3%. That's ridiculous. If Citigroup does not understand this, it is a sign of incompetence. If Citigroup does understand how ridiculous their claim looks (and is), that is additional support for the desperation thesis.
Note the dividend. Citigroup is paying a dividend when it is clearly in need of capital . Is that a sign of arrogance or incompetence? That Citigroup is in this mess in the first place is clearly sign of incompetence somewhere..." (Disclosure: The Kingfish once worked at Citi and can say you have no idea how badly screwed up the management of that company is.)
Citi's Incompetence Its a good analysis of Citi and Mish delves into the issue of over $600 billion Citi is keeping off of its balance sheet and how much of those assets might be toxic.

Mish also writes an interesting post about The Collapse of Treasury Yields and uses some strong language in describing the futility of the Fed's lowering interest rates and what kind of shape the economy is in:
"Any cuts by the Fed now are purely symbolic. The Fed Funds Rate is effectively zero. Remember the claim that paying interest on reserves would put a floor under the Fed Fund Rate at 2? Another Bernanke academic solution meets real world experience.....
A "cloak a declining inflationary environment” is not what we have. We have outright deflation not disinflation. Yes, we are mirroring Japan...."

Has anyone heard such vinegar from Cramer or Varney?

Over at The Market Ticker, Karl Denninger bulldozes ahead with his daily dose of unvarnished truth. Mr. Denninger states the economy and markets will not improve until:
"1. Paulson is fired and his policies cease.
2. We have transparency in balance sheets - for every firm on the exchange. No exceptions. All Level 3 asset mark models and assets identified - period.
3. Bernanke withdraws all his alphabet soup programs or is removed from office and his successor does, and the "crowding out" in the credit markets ceases.
Its that simple, and all three must happen before we will see any sort of sustainable bottom put in.
This doesn't mean we can't have "rip your face off" rallies - we both can and will.
But the market and economy will not bottom until the three things above are done, and the only way that is going to happen is when you make it happen...." Paulson Must Go

However, Mr. Denninger doesn't stop with Paulson but instead redirects his artillery towards conservative idol and so-called genius, Ben Stein who was last seen looking of for Mr. Buehler:
"Ben Stein needs to be locked up - or BBQd and eaten - for penning this article:.....
"Mr" Stein is an ass - and that's being polite.
This sort of "beggar thy neighbor" concept - that is, mass and intentional devaluation of one's currency (what else do you think happens if you "reflate" by throwing money around?) is precisely how we wind up with a hyperinflationary depression, which is far worse than a deflationary one.
Deflationary depressions are nasty business, but they are created by governments who attempt to stimulate economies beyond the point of reasonable credit and business growth, thereby guaranteeing a deflationary bust...."

He doesn't stop with Mr. Stein nor does he carry him for a few rounds but instead brings up his predictions from the beginning of this year:
"In fact I distinctly remember Mr. Stein being unabashedly bullish back in January of 2008. Indeed, here's what he said January 4th of this year:
'This isn't a development to strike terror into your hearts -- if you're a long-term investor, it signals a time to buy. (As I've said many times, if you're a short-term investor you can just skip my column.) The history of stock market investing is unequivocal on this point: When the market is low, when the economy is in a recession, it is -- in the long run -- by far the best time to buy.'
Such a wonderful record you have there Mr. Stein! Why, you'd only have lost what - 40% of your money listening to this buttclown (the SPX was at 1440, more or less, on the date that column was published, down ~125 pts from its top! That was a time to buy?!)..." Will Listening to Ben Stein Win you Money?

Ouch!

Our last stop is over at RedState where Blackhedd muses on the earthquakes in the bond markets today and how we are now in the realm of negative interest rates where under some scenarios right now insitutions are paying investors to borrow money. He finishes with a sobering statement: "we’re witnessing a temporary, short-lived effect. But it’s like a major volcanic eruption, or a nine-magnitude earthquake. It won’t last for a very long time, but it will produce a completely unpredictable amount of lasting damage.." Bond Market Earthquakes

The Fall of the Tribe of Hotty Toddy

And there arose to the north of Eden a tribe called the Hotty-Toddys, who were also called metros. And the Hotty-Toddys were very displeasing; they didst place centerpieces on their banquet tables, and didst exalt themselves much. And they didst glorify the southern kingdom of the past.

And for a brief time they didst enjoy success on the battlefield. But in the second year of the reign of John son of Joseph, a man named James, of the house of Meredith, of the nation of Cush, didst attempt to enter the seminary at Oxford. But the Hotty-Toddys despised and oppressed the Cush-ites, and refused him entry. But the Judges decreed that James must be allowed to enter. And the Hotty-Toddys rose up with great vengeance and furious anger, and didst burn their own city, and even slew two aliens in their midst. And the LORD saw that it was no good, and was much angered, and uttered a curse upon the Hotty-Toddys:

"THOU SHALT TASTE VICTORY ONCE MORE, THEN NEVER AGAIN SHALL THOU BE FIRST AMONG THY BRETHREN"

And after the following harvest, they didst enjoy their last great victory, then their warriors became lost in the wilderness. And a man named Elisha, who was also called Archie, didst attempt to lead them back to glory, but was wounded in the land of Eden and tasted not the fruits of victory. Then a great famine fell upon Oxford, until Eli son of Archie arrived upon a white horse. Eli led the Hotty-Toddys to many small victories, and girded his loins against an invasion by the warriors from Eden.

But Eli fell backwards*. And a great roar arose, and Johnny of the house of Vaught, the great king of the Hotty-Toddy past, didst ask "What be the meaning of this tumult?" For Johnny was a very old man, 93, and nearly blind. And the Hotty-Toddys cried in despair, "The invaders from Eden hath carried off the West championship! Our curse is still upon us, and the Heisman shall never come to the house of Manning."

And the LORD then caused a great delusion to fall upon the tribe of Hotty-Toddy, and they drove their general David from their midst, even though David had led them to victories for the first time in forty years. And they chose a recruiter of warriors from a western land, Bay Bay of the house of Yawyawyawyaw, because their delusion kept them from seeing he was a fool. And Bay Bay disdt tear his garments, and shout words none could understand. And the LORD loosed against the Hotty-Toddys bands of Cowboys, and Bulldogs, and even Commodores, who laid waste to Oxford. And the Hotty-Toddys continued to exalt Bay Bay, even as half his warriors disappeared from Oxford, and rued the days of Cutcliffe. And finally Les of Eden came to Oxford and destroyed it once and for all.

1 Samuel 4:3 Read more!

Only good song this band ever produced

Baton Rouge Business Report Newsfeed Added

I've added the newsfeed for Baton Rouge Business Report at the bottom of the center column of this page. BBBR is one of the leading local business publications in the country and has an excellent website.

Where is Mississippi Business Journal's feed? Well, I would have added them except for one problem: they don't have a newsfeed.

And So is Eastgroup Properties

(Left: Eastgroup Properties v. Sector Comparative Returns Right: Eastgroup Properties Share Price)

Eastover Group's stock prices is apparently taking a beating as well (see earlier post about Parkway Properties), losing nearly half of its value as it plunged from nearly $50 a share in late September to approximately $26 a share in October. The current price is $26 a share as well.

Stock Information from Bloomberg

EastGroup's Third Quarter Results/

Eastgroup's Website

Parkway Properties Getting Hammered.

(Chart on left: Stock Price of Parkway Properties v. Industry, Chart on right: Parkway Properties Share Price. Source: Bloomberg)

October was not good to Parkway Properties shareholders as the markets punished its share price as it plummeted from approximately $42 to $11 a share in the last four weeks. It currently trades around $12 a share.

Stock Information

Third Quarter Results

Coincidence?

So one of the killers of that little boy in Scott County was a Stephanie Bell.

What IS it about that name?

What is wrong with this story?

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20081119/NEWS/811190357/1001/news

Can you figure it out?

Lotus: Suffering from BDS

Apparently Obama isn't liberal, aggressive or radical enough for Lotus over at Folo. First, she complains about his apparent decision not to prosecute officials in our government who sanctioned tough interrogations of suspected or captured terrorists, ignoring the fact Obama has access to better information than she does, since he began receiving national security briefings this year. Hmmm....maybe Obama saw what was actually going on instead of what some rag of a newspaper thought was taking place with these prisoners. She even wrote how disgusted she was over the Democrats' failure to tar and feather Joe Lieberman today (although I'm sure she never had a problem with Jim Jeffords voting with the Democrats). However, she has a solution for the Bush gang:
"I can’t easily imagine prosecutions in U.S. courts of Cheney, Addington, Yoo, et al. (whom Bush is very apt to preemptively pardon anyhow). But at the end of an investigative process taking place outside the Obama Administration, they — and why not Bush himself? — need to end up facing the World Court at The Hague. And then the monsters need to rot in jail." Obama Is Too Soft

So if our duly elected and appointed officials, including Democrats such as Obama (whom she gushed over throughout the campaign) do not prosecute Republicans to her liking, she wants a FOREIGN POWER to seize our leaders and force them to submit to its jurisdiction and prosecution, placing them on the same level as......Goehring, Milosovic and Tojo. I should not be surprised at her anti-American stance as she once advocated publicizing the names of military and CIA interrogators who were used to question prisoners while completely blowing off any security concerns one might have for doing such a thing. (Surprise. The thread no longer exists.).
Such statements are not merely a case of someone expressing how strongly she thinks about an issue but instead crosses the line as she advocates foreign powers seizing and punishing our elected leaders, something in times past would be considered to be sedition. I don't like Obama. I didn't want to see him in office. I didn't like Bill Clinton. However, not for one second, regardless of what they do, do I want any foreign power or agency prosecuting them or claiming the right to punish them. The Roman Republic was doomed when the Lotuses in the Senate decided winning elections were not enough but instead decided criminalizing and prosecuting all political opponents was the preferred method of handling disputes. If one of our leaders does create a criminal act, that is something for American law and institutions to handle. Some things are bigger than a hatred for "all things Bush" and one of them is American sovereignty and freedom. We fought the American Revolution and suffered through numerous wars so we could remain free of foreign inteference and enjoy our liberty. If Lotus wants to play citizen of the world, she is more than welcome to forfeit her American citizenship and live by the ideals of the world.

Troops on Acid

Having a rocket launcher while on acid. Now that would be groovy.

What is missing in this story?

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/how_mississippi_voted_111208/
Anyone want to guess? I've posted the entire story in the comments section in case it is corrected but there is one very basic little piece of information missing here and given the tenor of the story, its omission is not accidental.

Answer: The story left out the actual results of the election while making it seem as if the Obama campaign lost a very close race in Mississippi. Since Mr. Lynch and Ms. Mott chose not to report what the vote actually was, here it is: McCain 57%, Obama 43% with over 160,000 more votes for McCain than Obama. This somewhat puts a different spin on the story as the article was the equivalent of a reporter not publishing the score of a 40-point Ole Miss loss while writing about the four first downs Ole Miss made and how good the team looked on those possessions and was about as credible. Final grade: D for effort, F for execution.

Nice to see Tupelo police are still idiots.

The Clarion-Ledger reported today merely having an open container of alcohol in the car will land you in jail if you are in Tupelo:
"When Cedric Robinson and his friend were pulled over by a policeman a few months ago, even though he was drinking a cold beer, Robinson didn't think he'd have a problem because he was a passenger. Robinson was wrong.
Because of an ordinance that prohibits open containers of alcohol in a motor vehicle on any public street or highway in Tupelo, Robinson found himself in jail." Go to jail. Do not pass go and don't take a drink either.

A little strict one would think although I'm sure the MADD Nazis are celebrating. There are good reasons for having open container laws but throwing someone in jail instead of just pouring the beer out and writing him a ticket is draconian, to say the least, especially if the driver can pass a blood-alcohol test. However, the Tupelo police want to make sure you really don't drink and um, walk:
"And don't get caught drunk walking.
Michael Harrison thought by walking home after leaving a bar instead of risking getting caught driving drunk he'd be saving himself a trip to jail.
But, even though he wasn't driving, Harrison was still guilty of a crime - public drunkenness. Because he wasn't aware of the law, Harrison said, he made a mistake he'll never make again. "I thought I was being smart by walking the couple blocks home instead of driving," Harrison said. "But I didn't know you could be arrested for walking drunk. That was my bad."
Harrison admits he was drunk and said the officer who arrested him was doing his job and was very professional."

This shows how warped the MADD Nazis and their police lapdogs in Tupelo have become. Don't drink and drive they say. So you are in a bar, realize had have a couple too many, and want to walk home so you don't endanger anyone. Sorry, you're going to jail. Of course, this IS Tupelo we are talking about, after all. These are the same badge-wearing thugs that strip-searched a teacher a few years ago. Remember the case? A parent whose little brat could do no wrong filed assault charges against a teacher (even thought the school district had investigated and cleared the teacher) . Fair enough as it is the parent's right to do so. However, the Tupelo police department didn't just arrest the teacher and let her bond out. No, they strip-searched and humiliated her then stridently defended their barbaric behavior when questioned about it by the media. Tupelo PD's thuggery caused such an outcry the legislature changed the law concerning how teachers were treated on such charges.

Nice to see Tupelo police are still a bunch of dumb rednecks with badges.

Was LSU stealing Troy's Signals?

Judge for yourself.

What do you think?

If Bush pardons EWE, he can geaux to hell and stay there.

Want to know what our beloved President is considering? Pardoning Edwin Edwards. The biggest crook in Louisiana since the Longs actually stands a good chance of getting out of jail after only 6 years. The BayouBuzz reports:

"Sources close to the Bush White House are reporting this morning that the President is considering commuting the sentence of former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards before his term ends on January 20. In fact, a decision may be made in the next few days. Edwards is serving a ten year sentence in a federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana. He began serving his prison term in October 2002. He will be eligible for parole in early 2011 at which time he will be eighty three years old.
Former Louisiana Governor Dave Treen, along with former U.S. Senators John Breaux and J. Bennett Johnston, combined forces to petition President Bush to commute his sentence. In fact, Treen has expressed confidence that Bush will act before his presidential term ends...."
EWE Goes Free?

Pardoning Edwards will place Bush on the same level as Clinton when he pardoned Mark Rich and some Puerto Rican terrorists. Edwards and his gang (many of whom went to prison) looted Louisiana for years. Setting Edwards free will be a spit in the face of the law abiding citizens of Louisiana who expect their government to protect them from silver haired, smooth talking wolves such as Edwards. If this is compassionate conservatism, I'd rather be a communist.

A peek into the mind of a collectivist

From The Jackson Free Press (of course):
"Being allowed to operate a business in a community is a privilege and comes with responsibility. The government is the manifestation of the will of a people. The people of a community have a right to require businesses locating in them to not destroy their shared environment, they have a right to deny them access to their children in certain circumstances, they have the right to require a base wage and benefit package, they have a right to require them to pay taxes for services they benefit from...and more if deemed appropriate by the people. This is not a radical assertion, but a reasoned approach taking note of the history of private enterprise in America. posted by daniel johnson on 11/16/08 at 12:23 PM" You Exist to Serve This Ship. Row Well and Live, 41

Wonder where I have heard this before.

November 6 appearance of Karl Denninger (The Market Ticker) on Kim Wade's radio show Audio

Kim Wade had Karl Denninger, http://www.market-ticker.org, and I on his radio show on WJNT on November 6. Here is the audio for the show that today. Mr. Denninger offers some very interesting analysis and the discussion was rather lively. Enjoy. The show starts at 9:10.



If it doesn't work, here is the link:
http://www.archive.org/details/KimWadeRadioShow110608

Kim Wade's web page: Kim Wade on WJNT, 1180-AM

JJ Has Changed.

Hope you like the new look after I changed the layout this weekend for Jackson Jambalaya. The old format was hard to read for many people and limited what I could publish. The three column format allows me to add more stuff and save you from scrolling a mile down the page to find items of interest. I've added a daily quote feature (I pick them out myself) and updated the feeds. I've added The Market Ticker, Mish (a finance/economic blogger), Redstate.com, The American Thinker, and The Clarion-Ledger. Just to show I'm not scared of different views as other publications in Jackson are, I've also included two more liberal blogs, Folo and Cottonmouth, in the regular feeds as well. Preaching to the choir does get boring, you know. Hope you enjoy the changes. KF

Tip for the Clarion-Ledger IT Guru

He recently wrote about Blackberries:
"The Web browser is better than in the past but still not up to iPhone quality. According to AT&T, you can download FireFox or Internet Explorer instead of the standard BlackBerry browser.." Blackberry Advice

Anyone who has a Blackberry usually downloads Opera, which is far superior to the BB browser. Pretty much common knowledge among Blackberrry users.

Sal and Phils

A friend of mine and I paid a visit to Sal and Phil's last night. It had been some time since I ate there so I was somewhat looking forward to our culinary excursion. I can safely say our experience there was a disappointment. The first clue should have been when we drove up at 7:30 on a Friday night as there were very few cars in the parking lot. This is usually a tell-tale sign about a restaurant in Jackson. Only a couple of tables had patrons. The staff was friendly enough and the facilities were clean.

The food was strictly average in quality. We ordered fried crab claws. They were somewhat dry with a little too much of a corn-meal taste to them (reminded me of hush puppies). My friend ordered the sweet shrimp. She only ate half of her order despited being very hungry as the shrimp were tough and not seasoned well. As she is a shrimp carnivorus maximus, I was surprised she ate so few of them as she nibbled on my french fries. I ordered the redfish and thought it was pretty good. Not dry, seasoned well, just right. The salads were fine although the salad bar was didn't offer much with few toppings available and only three dressings to choose from: Italian, Thousand Island, and Ranch.

The service was mediocre. Our food was brought to us almost immediately after we got our salads. We had several waiters. Had to ask for the silverware. Our waiter told us after serving our food we were getting another waiter as he had to prepare food for the next day. No big deal. Unfortunately, the next waiter starting pestering us literally every two or three minutes. It was pretty obvious he was trying to rush us off as he kept asking if we wanted the check (It wasn't even 9:00) and then kept rushing back every couple of minutes to see if we had it ready. I'm sure he wondered why he got a small tip.

Anyway, the grade for Sal and Phils is a C. Cleanliness was an A. Decor (for the type of restaurant it is) is an A. Food: Redfish B+, Shrimp: D. Service: C-. Prices: B.

Congressman Pickering: Please Resign

Dear Congressman Pickering:

Please resign and let Gregg Harper assume office several weeks early. This sounds harsh but frankly you failed your constituents recently when the bailout bill passed as you earned the distinction of being the ONLY Mississippian in the House or Senate that voted for its passage. Your constituents knew this was a bad bill as the calls to your office ran very heavily against it. Despite what they told you in emails and phone calls, you instead chose to support a bill that has been nothing but a disaster.

You violated your so-called conservative principles in allowing the Secretary of the Treasury to FORCE companies to sell shares to the government. While Americans are burdened by the costs of this bailout, a market meltdown, and a slowing economy, you chose to vote for sending money to the Chinese and other foreign banks instead of protecting your constituents. However, the worst part was you voted in lapdog fashion for a Treasury Secretary's lies that this bill going to be used for the purchase of toxic assets and mortgages by the federal government so that the markets could stabilize. Instead, the markets have plummeted and Paulson admitted lying to Congress and the American people.

As fewer and fewer people have any confidence in Paulson, it is time to start holding our representatives who voted for this debacle accountable. It sickens me that only a few left-wingers like Kucinich were grilling Paulson's stooge yesterday over his misrepresentations while most Republican congressmen sat on their hands. This is a Treasury Secretary who has helped his friend at the Fed send $2 trillion to the banks while refusing to tell us where our money is going. He lied to us when lobbying for passage of the bill. Paulson lobbied in 2000 and 2004 for the SEC to change its rules on leverage limits, which are the main cause for the market meltdowns. Every time Paulson has announced a new measure to cure the financial crisis, within a few days or weeks, he changes his story.

I remember when you announced your decision not to run for re-election that after the Democrats won in 2006, you said being in Congress " wasn't fun anymore" in a statement that was a far cry from what true conservatives such as Gingrich and Kasich would have said. In fact, Gingrich went on Fox News during the debate and gave you the blueprint: vote no, tear up the bill, start from scratch, get some real Reagan conservatives around the table, and propose a realistic plan instead of this joke. However, voting for socialism (and that is exactly what nationalizing banks and other industries are) while claiming to be a conservative is nothing but a betrayal of your campaign promises to us as well as your duty to represent our interests. We voted for a conservative defender, not a Bush-Paulson-Pelosi-Reid lapdog.

If you have mailed it in and refuse to apologize to your constituents for voting for this bailout mess, you should resign. There is going to be a lame-duck session and the Democrats are going to attempt to use this bailout package to further nationalize more of American industry. If you are not willing to fight for conservative principles and the best interests of the Third District as principled conservatives such as Congressmen McCotter and others have done, then you should resign and allow Gregg Harper to fight for us.

Its Saturday

Paulson LIED!!!

Paulson on the Loose

What were we told in September? We HAD to pass the bailout bill. Had to. What did Paulson tell us as he demanded we give him unprecedented power? We were going to use this bailout bill to buy toxic assets from financial institutions and stabilize the markets. If I heard it once I heard it a hundred times from the Treasury Secretary.

SOOOOOO....... what did he tell CNBC today?

"Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson defended his decision to change how the $700 billion financial bailout fund is used, telling CNBC that the spreading credit crisis forced the government to focus on injecting capital directly into banks instead of buying up toxic mortgage assets.

"By the time the process with Congress was completed, it was clear that we were facing a much more severe situation than we had envisioned earlier on," Paulson said in a live interview. "We have this limited pool of resources—big, but limited, $700 billion—and how do we use that, and get the maximum impact, and it's by putting capital in (banks)."

It took Congress all of FIVE DAYS to pass this bill? Remember? The bill was drafted on Sunday, died on Monday in the House, then was resurrected and passed on Friday (and investors smote the markets as they shewed their wrath at what had been done)

Does anyone believe Paulson? He promoted this bill by saying we had to buy these troubled mortgages and toxic assets KNOWING that was complete BS and he intended to do something else. Paulson's main talking point was how the bill would allow him to buy toxic assets.

Unfortunately, the media has said virtually nothing about this. Just another ho-hum news story. The American people don't care as they shrug their shoulders while the economy worsens. They act like slaves who have accepted their fate. Why shouldn't Paulson and his media accomplices treat Americans like slaves when they act like slaves? People need to wake up and start demanding true accountability or else they will deserve everything that happens because of this meltdown.

Honey-watching on a Dreary Friday

"From left, are Rebecca Bailey of Pearl, Kristen Cox of Raymond, Liz Raby of Itta Bena, Most Beautiful Kayla Latham of Florence, Victoria Scales of Pelahatchie and Coley Bush of Clinton." (credit: Clarion-Ledger)

Ms. Bush would've been my choice, followed by Ms. Latham, then Ms. Raby

Pot Meet Kettle

Pot Meet Kettle

200 Light-Years: Just a Short Lil' Hop

"Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning Hubble image of the region. Fantastic ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic radiation and shock waves from NGC 602's massive young stars have eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster's center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in the sharp Hubble view. The background galaxies are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602." http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081025.html

Ronnie Agnew: 6.5 = 25

Here is a recent statement made by Ronnie Agnew, Executive Editor of the Clarion-Ledger and recent award-winning journalist:
"Barack Obama does not deserve the pressure that is about to be thrust on him. But he asked for it, and now it is his to fix. We're a nation fighting two wars, facing hostility around the world, an economy that rivals the Great Depression, consumer confidence that is at record-low levels and an even lower view of Congress..."

Doesn't deserve it? Barack's a big boy. He DID run for the job. Assuming he took his job as Senator seriously, he knew what he was getting into when he decided to run for office. Did you see such sympathy for Reagan or Clinton when they ran for office in tough economic times? But poor little Barack. We don't want things too tough for the black guy. Its not fair. He doesn't deserve it.

However, that statement is not my favorite line in his column. This is: "an economy that rivals the Great Depression". 2+2=5 in Clarion-Ledger economics. So an economy with an unemployment rate around 6.5%, inflation under 4%, and GDP decline of around .3% last quarter (and 2.8% growth in 2nd quarter) is the equivalent of the Great Depression which had an unemployment rate of 25%? Its no wonder their editorials are so often off-base or wrong on facts when they don't even know basic history or economic literacy at the "state newspaper".

Market Ticker Guy will be on KIM Waaaaaaaaade Today

ll80 AM. Kim's pretty hot about Paulson lying (surprise) about the bailout bill. Denninger will be on the show today. Promises to be a good one. You can stream show at http://www.wjnt.com

Market Ticker: It Ain't Getting Better

Market Ticker: Fed has been printing money

I believe we may be days, weeks or (at the outside) months away from The United States reaching the point of no return in the mismanagement of this financial mess.
"We are dangerously close to investors worldwide coming to the realization that Ben Bernanke at The Fed has taken in "collateral" that is not worth anything close to what has been claimed - that is, that he's been lying all along.
In fact, if you remember back when Bear Stearns was first bailed out we were told there was little chance there would be any impairment on those so-called "assets" as a significant haircut had been taken - but The Fed has been quietly writing down the "assets" in "Maiden Lane", the Bear Bailout facility, without any significant announcement or discussion with Congress. (Yes, I know, Blackrock "claims" the collateral has been performing well on a cashflow basis. If all this is true, why can't we all see the details?)
Should investors around the world (and in the United States) come to believe that Treasury, The Fed and Ben Bernanke are liars, they would then be forced to conclude that they have in fact conspired to monetize a significant part of the bad paper "accepted" through the various facilities - which would mean The Fed has been "printing money" (despite telling you he had not in his latest Congressional testimony.) ...."
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/655-Last-Chance.html

Market Ticker: Fail!

"Out of the roughly $2 trillion committed thus far only about $450 billion of this money was actually passed through Congress - $100 billion in initial backstop for Fannie and Freddie, along with $350 billion for the first half of the TARP. Nearly all of the rest was committed literally by fiat in The Federal Reserve and Treasury without a bill in Congress, Congressional debate, or a vote.
We have discovered that Treasury, on its own initiative, changed tax policy in a fashion that will cost taxpayers another $150 billion, this beyond the TARP as well, without Congressional approval - this time as an "incentive" for banks buying up other banks.
Under The Constitution all revenue bills must originate in The House.
Congress is "afraid" to call this what it sure looks like to both me and many of them - illegal - for fear of scuttling deals that were done under the "TARP" of darkness....."
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/P2.html

Market Ticker: Liquidity Trap

"Ben pointed his liquidity gun at the market, pulled the trigger, and got......
CLICK.
Game's over Ben; you no longer have "liquidity" to shower on the market; there's no take-up.
Now we're left with either (1) doing the right thing or (2) Weimar Germany-style printing.
Oh, to Henry Paulson, who is lying once again on national TV this morning:
Shut the hell up.
You're full of crap.
You've prevented nothing. You have in fact lied to Congress about the purpose of your $700 billion "TARP", which has been used to buy up competitors and pay bonuses, and you changed tax policy without a vote of Congress in the dark of night, which you STILL haven't talked about in public. You didn't know what you were doing originally and it is obvious that you still don't.
In fact, Rick Santelli put it quite simply on television this morning in regards to what you did by holding up two pieces of paper:
BAIT (and) SWITCH
Your (and Bernanke's) continued cheerleading and falsehoods have destroyed business and consumer confidence. Every time you open your mouth the market tanks, because you still have not decided to tell the truth. "Securitizing credit" is a pointless exercise until the excessive debt is defaulted, as there is no demand for additional credit when the consumer is tapped out and businesses are failing.
You continue to talk about increasing credit in the system when the cause of the problem in the first place was excessive credit creation. ...."
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/656-How-Do-You-Spell-Liquidity-Trap.html

Market Ticker: Get the FBI

What would a day be without a post on The Market Ticker? Denninger blasts the government and the fed, the same parties who refuse to tell us who they gave $2 TRILLION to in their lil bailouts so far:
"We have an agency that has a federal charter and operates at the pleasure of Congress, and a branch of the executive, both of which made promises to Congress (and the American People) in the management of near $3 trillion dollars - or 1/5th, roughly, of the US GDP, and equivalent to the size of the entire federal budget ($3 trillion), yet exactly none of this has been fully disclosed, there are gifts being handed out all over the place, and some Congressmen have concluded that at least some of the actions taken thus far have been and are against the law.
Oh Mr. FBI Man! Where are you?...........
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/653-Now-THATs-Revolting-Or-Should-Be.html

Read the rest of his column. It was very informative as it discussed the government and AIG lying to us while AIG got ANOTHER bailout package, the Fed's refusal to disclose where $2 trillion is going, and how Paulson is buying worthless credit default swaps for 50 cents on the dollar.

Same Ole Same Ole

The Jackson Free Press reported on a little remark made in federal court yesterday:
"A visibly incensed Mark Blumberg, attorney for the prosecution, called the motion "without a doubt one of the most irresponsible pleadings I have ever seen in my career."
Well now, considering the motion was filed by Mr. John Reeves, he shouldn't be too surprised as any regular reader of this blog could have told him. Remember this post?

"Mr. Reeves has been before the Mississippi Supreme Court in the past as someone sent this case to me, IN THE SUPREME COURT OF MISSISSIPPI, NO. 96-CA-01018-SCTCONSOLIDATED WITH NO. 97-CA-00814-SCT; BILL McBRIDE v. MERIDIAN PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT CORPORATION AND THE CITY OF MERIDIAN.
In this case, Mr. Reeves was publicly admonished by the Mississippi Supreme Court after appealing the following decision by the trial court:On May 22, 1997, a subsequent hearing was conducted by the Chancellor on the City's Motion for Fees and Costs Pursuant to the Litigation Accountability Act of 1988. By Opinion and Judgment dated June 25, 1997, the Chancellor entered judgment in favor of the City against McBride's attorney, John R. Reeves, in the amount of $9778.93......
The Court, in affirming the sanctions against Mr. Reeves for filing a frivolous lawsuit, ruled: As an attorney and legislator, Mr. Reeves is aware of Litigation Accountability Act of 1988 and is expected not to file a lawsuit that is without substantial justification. He had every opportunity to research and insure that this claim had a hope of survival; he chose to file this suit and to pursue it even after he learned of the validation proceedings. Even if Mr. Reeves filed this suit with a hope of success, once he learned of the validation proceedings he should have voluntarily dismissed this suit..." http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/2007/12/reeves-might-want-to-be-careful-about.html

A Question for Frank

So if the allegations about Marcus Wright are true, why did Frank allow a known pervert to be around all the kids Frank keeps around?

Blackberry Tips

A Public Service Announcement from Jackson Jambalaya. I wish I had known about this video 6 months ago when I bought my Blackberry.

Spoiled.

The Face of a Loser

The American Spectator has a nice little story about Steve Schmidt:

"McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt explains that it's not his fault:
The moment that I will look back at as the moment deep in my gut that I knew, was September 29, when I was flying on a plane with Governor Palin to Sedona for debate prep, watching the split screen on the TVs . . . and it showed the stock market down seven, eight hundred points; it showed the Congress voting down the bailout package on the other side, and then, House Republicans went out and told the world that the reason that they voted against this legislation, allowed the stock market to crash, allowed the economy to be so injured, was because Nancy Pelosi had given a mean and partisan speech on the floor. And this was their response. And I just viewed it as beyond devastating, and thought that at that moment running with an "R" next to your name, in this year, was probably lethal.

Got that? House Republicans "allowed the stock market to crash," and that's why John McCain lost, rather than because of Schmidt's insistence on Sept. 24 that the candidate suspend the campaign, call for a postponement of the debate, and fly to Washington to push for the unpopular $700 billion bailout. Classic."American Spectator

Keep in mind Schmidt is on Red State's "Operation Leper" list: Operation Leper

Market Ticker: The Depression is ON.

Denninger of The Market Ticker opines the threat of a depression has become more real:
"It only took nearly a year and a half from when I started to sound the alarm before the evidence became incontrovertible and the media began to wake up: over a million jobs were lost, the market is down 40% (with a target of down 90% - halfway there on the road to hell!) and unemployment is in the process of skyrocketing.
But the voices calling for "more hiding of the truth!" have not ceased; indeed, the stridency of their screaming has gone parabolic..........
The greatest area of danger here is that The Fed is in fact trying to catch not a falling knife but rather a falling piano. The idea that The Fed can prevent a debt deflation of this magnitude is pure folly; even with expanding its balance sheet from $800 billion to over $2 trillion in less than a year and increasing its leverage to 50:1 (as of the most recent Fed report) it pales beside a housing market that has roughly $3 trillion of bad debt to be expunged - and that's just one sector of damage. ....."
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/651-Yes-We-Will-Have-A-Depression.html

James Jennings, the Mississippi Man in the Iron Mask, Sues Judge Houston Patton and Ed Peters

James Jennings filed a lawsuit against Hinds County Court Judge Houston Patton and former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters yesterday in federal court in Jackson. The lawsuit claimed Judge Patton illegally confined Jennings in order to "coerce him to forego a civil judgement" and that Peters engaged in a conspiracy with Patton to indict and prosecute Jennings under false pretenses.
Jennings' Complaint Against Houston Patton and Ed Peters

The nightmare for James Jennings began ( According to a finding of fact by the Mississippi Bar) "on September 24, 1993, as a judgement in favor of Jennings in the amount of $35,000 by Judge Houston Patton (p.4)...... Mississippi Bar's Finding of Fact

Jailtime for Jennings
Unfortunately, Jennings was unaware his ex-wife filed telephone harassment charges against him. On February 1, 1994, Justice Court Judge Clyde R. Chapman signed an order and mittimus to place Jennings in the county jail until a bond was posted.... (p.4) On February 11, Justice Court Judge Raymond Bates signed a warant for Jennings' arrest...... It should be pointed out Jenning's ex-wife then hired local attorney James Bell (remember him?). Jennings became the Man in the Iron Mask as Judge Patton sent Jennings back to jail without ever affording Jennings the opportunity to have counsel..... (p.6. He was imprisoned on March 5).

Ten days later, Jennings was still in jail. Bonds were refused, release orders were found, then revoked by judges. Jennings was tried in absentia. His new attorney was not allowed to represent him. Every legal trick in the book to keep Jennings in jail was used as he continued to rot in a Hinds hellhole. Finally his lawyer cornered Judge Patton on March 15. Ms. Pierce spoke with Judge Patton in the foyer of the Hinds County Courthouse and asked Judge Patton what it would do to get Jennings out of jail. Judge Paton replied "get the agreement (giving up his judgement of $35,000) signed." (p.9)

"It became clear to Ms. Pierce that in order for Jennings to be released he would have to give up his $35,000 judgement against Kenney. Mr. Kirstine (Jennings' other lawyer) drafted the agreement for Jennings to sign. Jennings at first emphatically refused to sign the agreement. After much protest, Jennings eventually signed the agreement and was then immediately released.

It is important to note that at no time during Jennings' incarceration was he ever charged or tried for any alleged conduct but instead was simply held in jail until he agree to give up his rightfully obtained judgement against Kenny. Jennings was apparently deprived of due process which would give rise to claims under 42 U.S. Code Section 1983." Jennings sat in jail for nearly two weeks as he became a pinata for Judge Patton and his judicial cronies.

Jennings later filed a complaint against Judge Patton with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance and hired Jackson attorney Keith Shelton to represent him in a Section 1983 action against the Hinds County Jurist. It should be noted the narrative for this ordeal is taken directly from the Mississippi Bar's finding of fact and is not just hearsay or some outrageous claim made by Jennings. (There are many more details, including some that are very juicy, but in the interest of presenting a story easier to follow, they have been omitted from this post. Please read the rest of the findings and accompanying affidavits).

The Empire Strikes Back
While discussing a possible settlement of the lawsuit, Judge Patton informed Jennings' lawyer, Shelton, he would settle if he dropped the complaint with the Commission. It is a pretty well established point of judicial ethics in Mississippi that once a complaint is filed against a judge or lawyer, it cannot be dismissed by the person who signed the complaint. The two sides agreed to a sum of $25,000 for settlement, with Judge Patton paying Jennings $5,000 up-front and the rest in installments. Meanwhile, Judge Patton contacted law enforcement and told them Shelton and Jennings were attempting to extort him, while neglecting to mention he himself was the subject of an ethics complaint filed by Jennings and a possible Section 1983 lawsuit.

Patton wore a wire to the meeting. He paid Jennings the $5,000 and both parties signed the settlement agreement. Shelton and Jennings were later arrested and then indicted. The charges were later dismissed as Hinds County Assistant District Attorney Robert Taylor (served from 1982 to 2006). Taylor stated Judge Patton deviated from the script he was given. Taylor said he didn't understand why they were indicted and said seeking the indictments "was an egregious error". Taylor testified to the bar "it's clear in retrospect we didn't get the complete story."

Taylor revealed some other important facts in an internal memo:
"After examining the transcript of the conversation, it was determined that Judge Patton had deviated from the script given to him in many material ways. Also, it was agreed the suspects had not said things which were quite incriminating enough. Everyone who reviewd the case at that time, agreed there now was no case against either Shelton or Jennings. I was not one of the persons who reviewed the case. I know that Tommy Mayfield, Ed Peters, and another Assistant did. Again, it was agreed there was NO CASE.
Then for reasons which are unclear to me, and will never be clear, the case against Shelton and Jennings is presented with the recommendation of this office that True bills (indictments) be returned as to both defendants for Conspiracy and Bribery. This was in fact done....
This case lacks, and has never had any prosecutive merit. The decision to send it on to the Grand Jury was an egregious error......" Robert Taylor Memo (Kingfish note: Do any of these names sound familiar? See The Robbie Bell Case Family Tree)

However, Taylor also testified his boss, Ed Peters (who was D.A. when Jennings was arrested and indicted), would indict defendants on a "dare" just to see if he could get away with it. It should also be noted Taylor was a partner of Tom Royals when Royals defended Peters in the NASA case in the 1970's. See Ed Peters: Do Leopards Ever Change Their Spots? Taylor stated he was not sure who indicted Jennings, as it could have been one of any number of prosecutors but that once he became aware of the flaws and misrepresentations in the case, he moved to dismiss it.

Jennings Files Complaint against Peters and Patton
The complaint states "Unbeknownst to Mr. Shelton and Mr. Jennings, the Defendant Patton had contacted the Hinds County District Attorney’s Office and falsely and maliciously claimed that Mr. Shelton and Mr. Jennings were attempting to bribe him. The Defendant Patton’s initiation of criminal charges against Mr. Jennings and Mr. Shelton did not constitute a judicial act. On, or about, April 16, 2008, Mr. Jennings and the Defendant Patton signed a settlement agreement and release which ostensibly resolved Mr. Jennings’ civil rights claim.

After consummating the settlement, the Defendant Patton left and Mr. Jennings and Mr. Shelton were arrested as a direct result of the false and malicious claim by the Defendant Patton that Mr. Jennings and Mr. Shelton were attempting to bribe him. The Defendant Patton in making a criminal complaint and preparing an affidavit which he knew was false and in withholding exculpatory evidence initiated a prosecution of Mr. Jennings without probable cause.

Mr. Jennings was indicted by a Hinds County Grand Jury on August 14, 1997, for the felony offense of bribery based on the false affidavit and/or the false testimony of the Defendant Patton. The false affidavit and/or the false testimony of the Defendant Patton invalidated the probable cause determination of the Hinds County Grand Jury.

The Defendant Peters was at all times relevant to this civil action the Hinds County District Attorney. The Defendant Patton and the Defendant Peters, pre-indictment, individually and in combination, fabricated evidence and withheld exculpatory evidence for the sole-purpose of prosecuting Mr. Jennings without probable cause.

The Defendant Peters, pre-indictment, also rendered eroneous and false legal advice to the police and others regarding the existence of probable cause to arrest Mr. Jennings based on the fabricated evidence and withheld exculpatory evidence for the sole-purpose of prosecuting Mr. Jennings without probable cause...."

Jennings requests the following remedies:
"1. actual damages in an amount to be determined by the trier of fact;
2. compensatory damages for emotional distress, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, humiliation, shame, loss of self-esteem, fear, embarrassment, and injury to reputation and professional standing which Mr. Jennings has suffered or may suffer in the future;
3. punitive damages;
4. reasonable attorney’s fees; and
5. reasonable costs;"

There is no record of service of process for Peters and Patton of the lawsuit yet. Credit must be given to the website FOLO, http://www.folo.us/, which originally published details of this nightmare in The Shelton Series. Sources have also informed Jackson Jambalaya a complaint was filed several months ago with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance against Judge Patton for his performance in this affair. The disposition of the complaint is not yet known at this time.

What if...........

Senator Cochran resigned in the next year or two, Haley appointed himself to be his replacement, and Phil Bryant became Governor?

That would make for some interesting conversation, wouldn't it?

Recording of Karl Denninger Appearance on Kim Waaaade

FINALLY! Here is a recording of the Kim Wade Radio show from October 13, 2008. Karl Denninger of The Market Ticker was our guest. It was a very good show as Karl gave a very penetrating analysis about the current financial meltdown.



The audio is available at http://www.archive.org/details/KimWadekarlDenninger The show begins around the ten minute mark. Before that is news and commercials.

Mr. Denninger was a guest on his show yesterday as well. The audio will be posted when it becomes available.

Listen to Kim Wade's radio show from 5:05-6:00 PM M-F: http://www.wjnt.com/

Note: Here are his 2008 predictions. Read them for yourself to see how accurate they are: 2008 Market Ticker Predictions

Obamabot Teacher

This teacher needs her ass beat. Repeatedly. And then kicked some.

Trustmark Seeks Government Bailout Money

What do you say? Forbes:

"Financial services company Trustmark Corp. said Thursday it will sell $215 million in stock to the U.S. Treasury Department as part of the government's bank bailout.
The parent of Trustmark Bank, which operates more than 150 offices in Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas, said it will issue nonvoting senior preferred shares to Treasury as part of the agency's Capital Purchase Program.
The program, part of its $700 billion financial rescue package passed in September, will see the government pour $250 million into stock purchases of various institutions.
In conjunction with the purchase, Treasury will receive warrants to purchase Trustmark common shares with a market value of $32.3 million. The exercise price will be the market price at the time of issuance, calculated on a 20-day trading average.
Treasury's purchase is expected to occur within 30 days.
Trustmark last week said its third-quarter profit fell 20 percent, as it increased the amount it set aside for bad loans nearly threefold. The number of loans it held that were past due over 90 days jumped 26 percent, and the number of loans it wrote off as going unpaid nearly tripled.
Shares closed earlier down 26 cents at $21.33.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press."
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/11/06/ap5660711.html?partner=email

By the way....

International shipping continues to freeze up:
"The wheels of international shipping are greased with "letters of credit"issued to buyers of bulk cargo by their banks. These guarantee the value of the shipment once it is in transit but before it is delivered. The problem is that the credit crunch, with the resulting liquidity problems in the international banking sector, is taking its toll on the availability of these entirely routine instruments. "We have the hugely worrying and unprecedented development where there are perfectly creditworthy shippers and receivers unable to open perfectly standard letters of credit," Mr Kerr-Dineen said.
Cargos are sitting on docksides because the finance is not available to ship them, with the gravest implications for the future. "This is a nuclear bomb in the freight market, and in world trade," Mr Kerr-Dineen said. "Liquidity has to return because if there is insufficient money to provide standard finance, world trade will be sharply cut back and economic growth will implode....
Against such a background, more recent concerns over the economic slowdown in both the East and the West have pushed users of commodities to run down their existing stocks, rather than buy in new supplies at what are still relatively inflated prices. (Does this little item need to be spelled out for you?)
These are all to some extent predictable economic adjustments, but a more sinister effect has been that de-stocking is masking the shortages caused by the dearth of credit. Mr Kerr-Dineen says there are around three months left before stocks run out.
"If the problem is not resolved, there will be no way in which even the sharply revised economic growth forecasts for 2009 will be met, because without normal trade economies cannot function. Ultimately, flour mills will run out of wheat and power stations will run out of coal," he said.
So far, the most significant problems have been confined to the bulk commodities trade. Manufactured goods have been are less affected because there is less reliance on letters of credit, said a source in a large container shipping company. Large shippers like Walmart or Nike do not need the letters because they are, in effect, sending to themselves. And even where trade is between companies, long-standing commercial relationships leave a lot more to trust than in the more volatile commodities market.
But firms using containers to ship bulk products such as bananas, meat or fish are feeling the pinch. "We are certainly seeing unusual delays in issuance of letters of credit for commodity trades," the source said.
Banks are charging more to issue the letters, and nervous traders are requiring guarantees, where historically trust might have been enough....."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/shipping-holed-beneath-the-waterline-995066.html

Earlier posts on International Trade Crisis:
TED Spread Improve, Shipping Slows
Update on International Shipping Slowdown
No Letter of Credit, No Shippin
Trade Slowdown
Letters of Credit Frozen: Bloomberg
Grain Piling Up In Ports
Economic Seizure?
International Trade Shutting Down?

Market-Ticker's Karl Denninger Will Be on Kim Wade's Show Today

5:05 to 6:00 PM. If the show a couple of weeks ago was any indication, the program should be very good today. Here are two of his posts from today:

More Bubblenomics:
"Cramer looked like he had a lemon in his mouth when I said "lock 'em all up"; he should, given that he's one of the people who would get locked up. His misdirection, as I see it, goes beyond just being a crappy analyst.
Anyone remember his call on Downey Savings and Loan (NYSE: DSL) last year? I do - well. Cramer's call was that it was going to $100 and/or was going to be bought out for $100.
Now let's look at what Downey really is. Downey is a financial institution that made loans which the borrower had no chance in hell of being able to pay back according to their original terms - "Option ARMs" in California.
Why is this important? Because this was the essence of the bubble...."
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/648-More-Bubblenomics-and-The-Big-Idea.html

Boiled Down: Credit Bubble:
"if you want to know why it happened - why the market did not step in and stop it, which everyone involved wrings their hands and laments - you need to look to only two decisions, and both of those decisions were made not by Congress but by executive fiat in the Bush Administration.
These were:
The decision to file suit to overturn state regulation of mortgage issuers, specifically targeting New York among other states, where state regulations required that "ability to pay" (and other anti-abusive lending provisions) be part of the underwriting decision. These suits barred states from clamping down on lenders who made loans to people who could not pay.
The decision by the SEC to lift broker/dealer leverage limits in 2004.
#2 is particularly outrageous because in 2000 Henry Paulson, then the head of Goldman Sachs, asked the SEC to lift those limits and was told "no" - The SEC at the time said that it believed that removing those limits was unsafe.
In 2004 Henry Paulson (two years before he came to Treasury) came back with the request a second time, and the request was granted in what was the culmination of a furious lobbying crusade by Wall Street firms......."
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/647-Boiled-Down-Credit-Bubble.html

Feel free to email me any questions you would like asked of Mr. Denninger, as I will be on the air, also(email info to the right. You can stream the show at http://www.wjnt.com.

The Palin Backstabbing Begins

Can anyone imagine this occuring in the Reagan, Bush (both)and Dole campaigns? The Guardian reports McCain telling the following joke about Palin:
"So now we know what John McCain really thinks of his running mate Sarah Palin – and that's not just because of the awkward body language between them during his concession speech in Phoenix, Arizona.
An exasperated McCain has told friends in recent weeks that Palin is even more trouble than a pitbull.
In one joke doing the rounds, the Republican presidential candidate asked friends: what is the difference between Sarah Palin and a pitbull? The friendly canine eventually lets go, is the McCain punchline.
McCain's joke is a skit on Palin's most famous line after she was picked as his surprise running mate. Palin delighted the Republican base when she said the only difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom was lipstick........"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2008/nov/05/john-mccain-sarah-palin

Jokes are jokes but seeing this story, the gossip about Palin spending sprees, and other insulting accounts about the Governor published in the media, shows a clumsy (fitting since they ran a clumsy campaign and can't even do a hack job propertly) attempt by a bunch of lilliputians trying to make themselves look good at the expense of conservatives such as Governor Palin. The Republicans lost- get over it and work hard to win on another day. This crap merely gives Democrats some entertainment while Republicans look stupid. Expect more gossip to appear in the media over the next few weeks. No one ever confused the Bush II and McCain campaign crowd with Reagan and Newt's. Can anyone imagine this happening under Tony Blankley or Lynn Nofzinger? Please.

Update: I just saw Carl Cameron's sleazy report on Fox News. Mr. Cameron's reporting outraged more than a few conservatives bloggers who are out for blood: Michelle Malkin, Ace of Spades,Redstate.com, and others. This isn't going away nor should it as some idiot staffers deserve to be punished and ostracized from the Republican party. Such cannibalism is a perfect example of the ineptitude of McCain's campaign as Rick Davis resembles Al Davis more than he does a top Republican strategist, with the same results. The difference between Rick/Al Davis and real pros such as Nofzinger, Atwater, Rove, Deaver, and even Meese is they ran campaigns that were tightly disciplined and didn't see conservative Republicans as the enemy. They followed Reagan's commandment to the letter while Rick/Al Davis and his minions seem determined to finish off the job for the Obama campaign. One can only imagine the glee of Emmanuel and company as they for once enjoy watching Fox News. McCain staffers: The Democrats best friends as they show they truly are bipartisan in nature.

Red State's Initial List:
Nicolle Wallace
Steve Schmidt
Mark McKinnon

Red State's Operation Leper
Michelle Malkin: McCain's Classless Cowards
Ace of Spades

Market Ticker: Valuations Were "Invented"

Denninger makes very good points this week:
"Over the last 20 years The Fed, FDIC, OTS, OCC and Congress have all conspired together with banks and other financial institutions in a loose confederation with one purpose above all others - to allow firms to literally invent valuations for their assets with no basis in or recourse to the real world of transactions. .....
I use as Exhibit "A" Wachovia bank, who in their latest quarterly report claimed a balance sheet net asset position of $50 billion dollars as of September 30th.
Yet just a very short time later (literally two days later) the board of Wachovia approved a deal for Wells Fargo to buy the bank for $14.8 billion in Wells Fargo stock.
One of two things must be true, if logic holds and nobody has committed an offense against common sense (and what should be an offense against the law):
The board intentionally allowed Wells Fargo to purchase the firm, in violation of their fiduciary duty to shareholders and the firm itself, at a discount of about 70%.
The value of the firm's assets declined by that same 70% in the space of two days.
Of course neither of those things is true.
The truth is that Wachovia's balance sheet assets were worth nowhere near $50 billion as of September 30th, and have not been for a long time.
Nor is this an isolated incident. National City was in the last few days acquired by PNC Financial on October 24th for $5.2 billion in PNC stock. But on September 30th, according to its financial statements, the firm had its shareholder equity was $17.2 billion, net-net, on its balance sheet.
....."
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/641-Legalized-Theft-and-Fraud.html

A Republican Congressman Gets It.

Republican Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, who led the fight against the bailout bills, makes some remarks that should be required reading for Conservatives in The American Spectator:
"Possessed of no vision, no principle, no purpose, and no appeal, we deserved our fate. ....
While our party has pretended otherwise, this is no ordinary time. It is a transformative time in the life of our free republic. The economic, social, and political turmoil of rapid globalization has created chaos and, thereby, fertile fields for the Left......"
http://www.spectator.org/archives/2008/11/05/now-seize-freedom/

Read the rest of it as he is one Conservative who "gets it" and realizes what the challenges facing the conservative movement are after yesterday's debacle. Republicans earned this loss fair and square and have no one to blame but themselves. What started in 1998 when Lott and his fellow Republican buddies congratulated themselves by signing so-called budget deals that hiked spending (angering the base so much they lost seats in Congress but they missed that signal) culminated with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House.

Congratulations

Well, Obama won tonight. Breaks your heart losing like this as I actually pulled the lever for McCain today. I had voted Libertarian in last four elections but voted Republican today. At least I can say I never voted for Bush, thank goodness. Having said that, I'd like to congratulate the Obama team here in town.

Obama earned the right to be on that victory stage tonight. He was a political Cassius Clay, combining a relentless drive with some incredible natural abilities as he took the fight to the Republicans. Yes, McCain had his chances but he was somewhat outclassed most of the time in this race. Sure, there is a strategy somewhere that might have worked but McCain had to overcome many things: a global financial meltdown, a Bush administration that wore out its welcome with everyone and is despised by liberals and conservatives alike, a Republican party that had little to offer voters, and an opponent that was told voters he wanted to help them build a different world than one currently on the wrong track. Obama showed an ability to learn from his mistakes, was aggressive, and in the fashion of Ronald Reagan, saw the big picture, giving people a reasons to vote FOR him.

Congratulations once again to the Obama team. You outworked and ran rings around the McCain team. Your man earned the right to be called President tonight and for the next four years, he will be President Obama.

Interesting observation about Gallup Poll

Gallup says Obama leads McCain among likely voters 55-44 percent. However, when examining the poll's demographics, these figures jumped out at me: "In the final poll, 38% of U.S. adults identified as Democrats, 34% as independents and 26% as Republicans. Among likely voters, the figures are 39%, 31% and 29%, respectively." 29%? How representative is this sample if it claims only 29% of the sample is Republican voters. http://www.gallup.com/poll/111703/Final-Presidential-Estimate-Obama-55-McCain-44.aspx

One expert emailed me the following comment about the poll: "It should be 34% at a dead minimum. 29% was what Pew Researchwas using and reporting a 15 point lead. They realized they were out inla-la land and revised there weighting to bring it down to 6 in just oneweek. Like McCain really gained 9 points that fast. Then Gallup goes and adopts their discredited model."

Just something I noticed tonight.

Take it for what it is worth.......

From Hillbuzz: "You can tell the Obama supporters on the street, though. They look really worried. Word’s spreading fast here that Obama’s going to lose.." Hillbuz

Fox News Reporter Said Obama Campaign

was not pleased with turnout in New Hampshire so was activating "backup volunteers". Fox was able to get video of this:

Want to Help McCain in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania Phone Bank

Obama Thugs Brandish Weapons at Poll

Bye-bye:




In Philadelphia.

Note: She can't help herself. Is she really that stupid? Is she really that much of a hack? Donna Ladd is over at the Jackson Free Press writing: "Funny. I remember white people spreading the tumor that the Black Panthers were going to be outside my school, Neshoba Central, when they integrated in 1970. Uh, it wasn't true then.
posted by ladd on 11/04/08 at 02:43 PM " Jackson Free Press Idiocy

Not true? What do you call the video? Friggin tool.

No Comment!

Thinking of Buying? Mish Says No.

Leading finance blogger "Mish" Shedlock opines now is NOT the time to buy in the market as the financial media has consistently missed the trends even now as it says now is the time to buy:
"MarketWatch, the Wall Street Journal, Hussman, MSNBC, and Barron's are all bullish on the stock market. That is pretty amazing optimism in the face of the collapse we have seen. Is such optimism warranted? Let's take a look and see........
It is stunning how ass backwards MarketWatch has things. Participating in those rallies is what is hazardous for your health because the biggest rallies are in bear markets. There were two 10% rallies in October yet the month finished down 15%. Any long term investor who caught both of them lost money.........
Should the S&P drop to 600 (and I think it will) that is approximately a 40% drop from here. Such a drop is worth avoiding no matter how many 10% rallies there are along the way....."
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/11/unrelenting-bullishness.html

Genius or Kook? I Report, you Decide.

Looooooon read on why McCain will win tomorrow from another blog. Pour a drink.

"The point of these election posts is to reveal the reality on the ground is very different than the reality in the ‘political analysis'......
Take to the bank, folks, Pennslyvania is turning red this election. I’ve been talking Pennslyvania for the last couple of election posts so might as well continue. Pennslyvania is the *special state* of this election, the state that everyone will be talking about after the election. In that regards, Pennslyvania is to 2008 as Florida is to 2000 and Ohio is to 2004.....
he Electoral College is not a game of geographical Risk. States move in groups almost as if there is an elevation to them........
If Pennslyvania goes red, you can bet there is no Obama ‘landslide’. This means Montana stays red, Indiana stays red, Ohio stays red (if Ohio turns blue and Pennslyvania turns red, that would be obvious voter fraud as Ohio is five points to the right of Pennslyvania), North Carolina stays red, and likely Virginia, Colorado and Nevada do as well. But losing Pennslyvania points to a bigger problem in the Rust Belt and puts McCain in the possibility of picking up Iowa as well as Wisconsin and Minessota. In other words, if Pennslyvania goes red, it shows that the national vote is at a ’sea level’ where the more reddish states are safely red............
The Undecideds *have* decided: they have decided not to declare their choice to pollsters.
The polls are way, way off this election cycle. Pollsters have admitted that this election has the highest ‘refusal to respond’ number. The ‘undecideds’ are people who don’t want to declare their choice. Why would they do that? If you belong to a Union, and they tell you to vote for Obama or ‘else’, you will not answer a pollster for it could be a union boss checking up on its members. PUMAs have declared their intention to lie to pollsters and they are organized. And there are many people who don’t want to declare ‘McCain’ because of being percieved as a ‘racist’.
Look, days away from the election and there are like 11% undecideds? No! This is not normal....
Projections are only as good as their inputs. With the high rate of people refusing to be polled (as admitted by pollsters), the high rate of people not willing to declare who they want to vote for (the undecideds), and the huge wave of junk Democrat registrations, you’re going to see the polls be way, way off.....
In the end, I expect McCain to win with around 300 + electoral votes and Republicans gaining seats in the House. To make this short, the reasons why is:
-Republican base is energized.
-Reagan Democrats are voting Republican which they haven’t really done since Reagan.
-PUMAs are going for MCCain.
-Many Democrats will refuse to vote for Obama. This ’soft’ blue support will appear throughout the country and will be the reason why Pennslyvania turns red.
I was in Washington DC during the election of 1994. The faces were completely shocked. Why were they so shocked? People in Washington DC and the Legacy Media are not connected to what is going on in the ground, especially in the ‘flyover’ country. In 1994, they were completely shocked by the results. The same will be true in 2008.........."
http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/

Here is an Obamabot in Action

For those of you who are too young to remember, Senator Menendez sounds exactly like the spokesmen that represented the Soviet Union and South African governments. Simply scary.

The Revenue Act of 1932

Revenue Act of 1932

Anything look familiar?

Thank You Mark Levin

Yes, the Great One linked my post about Obama's plans for the media on National Review Online. Thank you very much Great One. You can hear his show on local radio station WJNT-1180 AM in Jackson from 6:30-9:00 PM every night.

Mr. Levin's post on NR:
"Ramesh is quite right about Obama and the Fairness Doctrine. He has never said he would reject it if presented to him, and it likely will appear on his desk. But aside from the Fairness Doctrine, there are other ways to destroy talk radio, including one that Obama explicitly endorses — a local content rule issued by the FCC that would compel news/talk stations to air more local news and content. It would set up local committees, which would be controlled by ACORN-types, to give the impression of public input into programming. And he would reduce the life of a license from eight years to two years. This would be the backdoor way to kill nationally syndicated talk shows." 11/03 12:41 PM

National Review Post

My post on Obama seeking more control over the media: Democrats'Plans for Controlling the Media

McCain Landslide?

You're right. Kingfish is nuts. He's off his rocker. He's lost it. He's actually sober and doesn't know what to do. Well, I'm going to play the part of the loyal opposition and devil's advocate extraordinaire and post this little piece from another blog. JJ is going to have some fun today.

"Even more important is how few PUMA voters in these eleven states are required for a McCain-Palin landslide. If you add up the PUMA's needed column in the second table, you will see that only an extra 510,479 more PUMA's are needed to sweep the table. That is a mere 946,199 PUMA's spread across eleven states are needed to produce a McCain-Palin landslide.

Do you really want to tell me that there are not that many Hillary supporters who cannot vote for Obama-Biden in these eleven states out of 18,000,000 of them? Now who is drinking the Kool-Aid?Do I really think that that McCain-Palin will carry all of these states? No, because I am worried that there are not enough PUMA's in the western states, particularly New Mexico and possibly Colorado. What I will bet my 45 year reputation on is that McCain-Palin will win by at least 42 electoral votes. I will recalculate everything tomorrow and will undoubtedly up my estimate to around a 100 vote margin if the RCP averages continue to drop."
http://www.marstonchronicles.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=94&Itemid=118

More Stupidity on the Clarion-Ledger Business Page

This was an actual headline today on the front page of The Clarion-Ledger Business News section:
"High unemployment, slow consumer spending and social security are issues that will likely be on the top of the next president's agenda" http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20081102/BIZ/811020340/1005/biz

"High Unemployment"? 6.1% is considered HIGH unemployment? For comparison, Great Depression was 25%, 1981 recession was 11%, and the 1991 recession was 6.8%. Money magazine called the 1991 unemployment rate of 6.8% "relatively modest by historic standards". One would expect a so-called business journalist to know these facts but then again, we are talking about Gannett standards. It is up to you to decide whether such headlines are fearmongering or simple ignorance.

Obama on Coal

Obama defenders will say he was not talking about clean coal plants. Problem is, they don't exist. A study released by the right-wing shill Greenpeace said
"The earliest possibility for deploymentof CCS at utility scale is not expected before 2030." Greenpeace Study

I'll Put My Domestic Terrorist Up Against Ayers

any day of the week

The Bailout Socialism Expands

Kiss some more of the American economy goodbye. Paulson "is considering taking stakes in insurers as it prepares a new round of capital injections targeted at regional banks and other financial companies, a person briefed on the plan said."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=am_Kuglfa_k8


Told you this bailout was a bad deal.

Dear Mr. Obama,

If giving tax credits and cutting capital gains taxes for investing in so-called green technology is good because it will create jobs, spur development of said technology, and create new markets for American business, I just have one question: How come cutting capital gains taxes across the board isn't part of your platform?

There Is a Good Explanation For This Psycho:

She's goes to Texas A&M. Yup, she's an Aggie. No further explanation needed.

Now you know the REST of the story. This is The Kingfish, Gooday!

FINALLY Part of the Media Wakes Up

Still wondering how this financial meltdown occurred? Read this article by Bloomberg, probably the best one written by a major media outlet so far. The off-balance sheet assets and liabilities are what drives this crisis as balance sheets are not trusted anymore by financial institutions.

Bloomberg:
"The bankers were warned that a Financial Accounting Standards Board plan would force trillions of dollars back onto balance sheets, requiring cash reserves to soar. Their business of pooling and reselling assets had dropped 47 percent in the first six months of the year, and the industry couldn't afford another setback. (Never mind this accounting trick is what caused the meltdown in the first place.-KF)....
Efforts by lobbyists have delayed FASB decisions and kept key parts of the American financial system beyond the reach of regulators. Their victories included ensuring that over-the- counter derivatives stayed unregulated and persuading the Securities and Exchange Commission to let investment banks' broker-dealer units reduce capital requirements. That allowed them to increase borrowing and magnify profits. Bank watchdogs also didn't move to tighten mortgage-industry standards until after the collapse of the subprime market.
Today, a road snakes from the foreclosed homes of California and Ohio to the capital cities of Europe, where politicians and bankers have struggled to contain a widening credit crisis by pumping hundreds of billions of euros into the financial system. The road was paved with decisions like ones by FASB that allowed banks to keep shifting assets into blind spots outside the view of shareholders and industry overseers. (Remember KF telling you it was about the transparency, not the liquidity or interest rates?)

Think it was all Bush's fault because the SEC changed the leveraging limits in 2004 for investment banks (limit of 12:1 was removed completely)?
"That same year (1998) Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt opposed an attempt by Brooksley Born, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to study regulating over-the-counter derivatives. In 2000, Congress passed a law keeping them unregulated...." That started the ticking of the time bomb.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&refer=home&sid=aYJZOB_gZi0I


By the way, it should be asked if Citi is insolvent:
"Citigroup Inc. reported that it had $1.18 trillion in off- balance-sheet holdings as of June 30, including $828.3 billion in qualified special purpose entities, or QSPEs, a type of trust that is supposed to be beyond a lender's control."

What do you think will happen if a large portion of Citi's off-balance sheet asses are garbage?

Note:
Leverage: the ratio of borrowed funds to each dollar of equity capital held.

More Obama Brilliance: Blame the Farmers for Everything

The Chosen One spake:
"In a recent interview with Time magazine, Obama cited an article written by Michael Pollan, a professor and longtime critic of U.S. farm policies. As Obama described it, Pollan's article was about "the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil."
Obama told Time: "As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector ... and are partly responsible for the explosion in our health care costs because they're contributing to Type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in health care costs."
http://www.twincities.com/ci_10869817?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com

Instead of giving bread and circuses to the voters, Obama is starting to become a circus.

REMF Alert: So-called Conservative Experts

Robert Stacy McCain writes an interesting peice in The American Spectator on the criticism by so-called conservatives of Governor Palin:
"George F. Will, Ken Adelman, Frank Fukuyama, David Brooks -- these are just a few names on the list of eminent experts who have declared that Sarah Palin is what's wrong with the Republican Party.
Even if we were to add all their prestigious names to the list, however, it wouldn't be nearly as long as the line of people who stood in the cold wind of Pennsylvania to see Palin this week.
The line outside the Heiges Field House at Shippensburg University was already growing long by noon, more than two hours before the doors opened for a Tuesday rally that wasn't scheduled to start until 5 p.m. And two hours after the doors opened, the line still stretched down the sidewalk, around the Luhrs Performing Arts Center, all the way along Cumberland Drive past the baseball field and uphill to Grove Stadium. .......
None of her critics in the commentariat could ever draw such a crowd or generate such enthusiasm, and yet they do not hesitate to proclaim that she is "not close to being acceptable in high office" (Adelman), that her selection as John McCain's running mate is "irresponsible" (Fukuyama) and even that she "represents a fatal cancer to the Republican Party" (Brooks).
Popularity as a pathology? What Brooks and the others are saying is that these people who spend hours in the cold October wind for a chance to see Sarah Palin are too stupid to know what's good for them. "Listen to us," say the political experts.
YES, THE EXPERTS always know best..........
Experts, you see. And at nothing are they more expert than evading responsibility, a task that requires scapegoats. So the unpopularity of the Republican Party has nothing to do with the policies the experts urged and the politicians the experts supported. Rather, it's the provincial hockey mom who is to blame......"
http://www.spectator.org/archives/2008/10/31/stickin-with-the-hockey-mom

By the way, most of these experts called for attacking Iraq and later backed off of their earlier positions when the going got rough. Typical REMF's.