grindmonkeh

Make sure YOU are registered to vote: http://www.votersunite.org/info/RegInfo.asp

Oh, one more thing...

Maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick maverick.

Roger W. Ferugson, Jr. (CEO of TIAA-CREF) just e-mailed shareholders to let us know that CREF "is on a solid footing." I can't wait to see how the Equity Index fleshes out in returns/losses...and even more so the Guaranteed Annuity. Good times. I'm half-considering raising my monthly allocations. What's the worst that could happen, right?
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From Forbes.com Bad News for the Bailout:
"The secretary and the administration need to know that what they have sent to us is not acceptable," says Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The committee's top Republican, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, says he's concerned about its cost and whether it will even work.

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

I laughed a lot when I read that.

From a contrasting standpoint, an interesting story from the Wall Street Journal calls Paulson's plan possibly "the greatest deal ever."

Everyone from The Wall Street Journal to David Letterman to the NBC Nightly News are giving McCain a severe lashing today. Luckily for John, his Vice Presidential nomination is doing GREAT with public relations...

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

Section 8 of the 700 billion dollar bailout legislation proposed by Henry Paulson.

HA! I just found this link in Trabellenguas's's's journal...

Subject: REQUEST FOR URGENT CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

funneh.

Not really.

"Main Street is Toast."

In initial and pre-implosion conversations I've stated that this and the rest of our gigantic debt is all just an imaginary number. Make believe money. Only now they've put it into context...you and I are going to pay for what amounts to a huge loss from others' capitalistic gambling. It's no longer a game without rules for investment and numbers of lore for American citizens. Right now the GOP is haggling for CEO pay in the bailout...ensuring that these gamblers will still get paid...from our tax dollars. The rest of the world is about to stop seeing our debt as an imaginary number as well. The price of our dollar is about to plummet. The banks will be fine post-bailout...we'll be bent over and fuct.

For one, the price of gas is bound to sky rocket as the value of our money on a global market for oil takes a huge hit. Gas prices have been dropping lately, and even while I can't find any direct point of reference for this from the news in the past week, the following explains how the impending decrease in the value of our dollar is going to effect the price of gas...


The steep increase in the price of crude oil in the United States remains a headline issue, along with the falling US dollar. The drop in the dollar has caused concern in oil-producing countries which use it as the economic basis for the commodity, and often their currency. The chart below shows the spot market price of crude oil per barrel (BBL) in US dollars and in euros from 2001 to today. The price of oil has grown faster relative to the dollar than to the euro. Yet, a portion of the rise in oil prices is due to the fall of the value of the dollar. The graph also shows the number of barrels of crude oil per cost of an ounce of gold, demonstrating the parallel growth in commodity pricing.
If the US dollar had remained strong in the global economy, oil might, in theory, be around $65 per barrel. However, oil is priced in dollars, and oil prices continue to rise. The impact of increased oil prices can not be ignored in the US economy, and, in turn, can further weaken the dollar. Resource economics is a complex feedback loop where today’s resource boom is driven by many external factors. This complex system bears watching by all geoscientists. - The American Geological Institute (http://www.agiweb.org)

See the connection...dollar weakens in our economy...oil/gas gets more expensive because our dollar on the world market is worth even less. Hopefully I'm wrong. That happens too.

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Barack Obama: Reforming Washington
Green Bay, Wisconsin - Sep 22, 2008


I highly recommend that those who are going to vote spend some time looking over factcheck.org. I also assure you that every Obama ad that has been misleading is picked apart just as thoroughly as any Republican ad...and there are several.

I posted this many moons ago, but this is a great explanation of why everything is so fucked up in Imaginary Money Land - http://www.businesspundit.com/sub-prime/

One thing you've got to say about Will Ferrell (other than he slurps a big one), is that he has a good sense of humor about criticism.



Da Da Da dot da dot Da.

My fantasy football team got SERIOUSLY SMOKED this week. I'd trade Marvin Harrison for Marvin the Martian right now. Antonio Gates has been completely underwhelming as well. Like an idjit I started Chad Pennington, who couldn't even throw for a TD.

I partially blame AOL's Fleaflicker league. It sucks and blows. It listed Romo as 'questionable' with a chin injury...and whereas Yahoo! would have a link with TONS more information on this, AOL has no resources at all associated to their League tools. In the same 'breath' I have to mention that it auto-drafted Cedric (no longer in the NFL) Benson to my team even after I pulled his ass to the bottom of the draft preference list (since I had him on my team last year and he was terrible)...do you think that they could possibly remove players that are NO LONGER IN THE NFL from the draft? (And possibly draft by my order of preference?)

Anyhow...if you're into Fantasy Football then avoid AOL's Fleaflicker as it's all-around bad. Not that I should have to tell anyone to avoid AOL anything...except our league commissioner apparently.

Have a look at ninjacat.


I wonder how I've killed three hours of my workday without accomplishing anything productive.

AW FUCK. I just flipped ze chili on my favorite brown shirt.

I'm now faced with the decision on which shirt to wear to class...
EXHIBIT A:

From September 2008

Aw fuck.

or the FREE shirts I've accumulated over the summer from our glorious U.
EXHIBS B & C:

From September 2008

blast.

DA BEARS.

I finally rid of the cassette tapes that have been in my work locker for 12 years.

Just say it...

I swear that Gabe from Penny Arcade walked by Charasan and I today.