Chip's Blog

I think everyone has their @#!$ in a bunch abut the proposed bailout of the auto industry, and the ripple effect that is being caused by
Congressional gamesmanship and indecision.  Yesterday, you saw a bunch of frustrated angry Representatives lashing out at a group of beleagered, yet well coiffed auto industry CEO's.

I think it's pretty much a consensus that folks think arriving seperately at these hearing in corporate jets was a mistake.  I, for one, don't think so.  I think they did it on purpose.  I think it was their press offices who leaked that story to the press, and I think they thought it up amoungst themselves.  I also thing that these guys are purposely submarining their own bailout.  Here are some of the reasons why:

1.  The multi-billion dollar bailout does nothing to solve the structural problems they have in their companies.

2.  The bailout sells not a single car or truck, and they need sales to be profitable.  It also doesn't raise long term revenues in any fashion/has no positive effect on "the bottom line" in the future.

3.  The bailout does nothing to reduce costs, a necesary component of fiscal health and future solvency in this climate of consumer frugality.

What are their real long term structural financial problems:

1.  They have, each, outmoded and non/under-performing car lines that need ot be cut/consolidated.  This is the only thing they might do alone.

2.  The are "swaybacked" under the weight of contracts negotiated, in better times, with the UAW (United Auto Workers) that have created huge salaries for simple factory work, coupled with engorged pensions and insurance costs.  These are now contractually mandated.

3.  They are saddled with working under the second most repressive corpore tax structure in the world.  In short, their profits have been redistributed by th egovernment, causing them to have limited cash reserves, or worse, it has dissuaded them from even developing cash reserves that could be called profits and taxed.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that a bailout will do noting to correct any of these issues.  It prolongs and delays an inevitable reality....that reality being called insolvency.

Now within the bailout rhetoric, they are laboring under the weight of publically fed and publically swallowed misinformation:

1.  If no bailout is effectuated, there will be massive layoffs and landslide unemployment.  Ummm...most GM, Ford and Chrysler cars are assembled in Mexico and Canada.  The layoffs will effect them (foriegn workers), not our workers.  The joke here being that OUR auto workers are assembling Toyotas and Hondas....and these companies are not part of the plan.

2.  Without the bailouts, the "Big 3" will immediately go out of business.  There will be a snowballing economic and employment effect from them closing their doors.  Dealerships, repair shops...so on ...so on.  Unh Unh, they would, instead, file for Chapter 11 protection (from their creditors) and be forced to restructure.  As part of that restructuring, union contracts would be opened to renegotiation by law, the only way they can legaly be opened for renegotiation.

So, who really profits from the bailout?

1  Not the "Big 3".  It does nothing to solve their structural problems.  It simply delays a demise preordained now, yet makes them look more the culprit for having taken the taxpayers money.

2.  Not the American worker.  He's already got his job, and will keep it or lose it either way.

3.  Not the CEO's.  No one is going to tolerate them getting big severences or big payouts from a "bailed out" company.  The jets prove that.

So who profits from the bailout?

The Union leadereship profits from the bailout, folks.  Plain and simple.  If you look behind the scenes at who funded all those "anti-Bush" ads, those ads that had no "And I Approved This Message" at the end, you will see it was private Democratic organizations that were not subject to Campaign Finance Laws.  They were heavily funded by the unions, folks, just as they were here in THIS state when "ThePatriotMajority.com" ran all the filthy anti-Healey ads.

Your tax dollars were about to be spent paying back the Union officials and the union coffers from which the election was bought..

I'm so sorry...you drank the koolaid...lie down now and sleep... 

Ok.  Here we go again.  Just when I think my beloved HDTV is safe, out comes the windex..I spit my coffee again this morning.

Today, I see Keba Arnold reporting on the Mass Turnpike Authority's plan to raise the tolls a buck east of 128, and look at the Ted Williams Tunnel.  All this as Duh-val Patrick is eyeing the dissolution of the Authority and assigning functions to Mass Highway and MassPort.

I wrote elsewhere that I wanted to see where the hacks were hidden.  No plan of this nature will fly in Massachusetts unless there is adequate provision to employ the less than brilliant and/or less than motivated neices and nephews of Beacon Hill.  Period.  I mean where else will Uncle Fred get a cushy job with the equivalent skill set of the night clerk at Christy's Market (chosen because Christy Mihos was on the Turnpike Authority Board, was fired by then Gov. romney, and reinstated by court order after suing to get his job back), yet paying 4 times what Mihos pays HIS cashiers.

Now I get it.  Thanks Keba.  It wasn't part of your report, but even  a senile old geezer like me from Podunk, MA is sophisticated enough to see through this.  The fix is in.

I just knew it.  Duh-val had to be playing "Hide the Hack".  I knew it!!!  You theiving little hack-magnet.

On the day that Sal DiMasi said they might even act on Patrick's plan, the Turnpike Authority Board will vote a toll increase, for that section of the Pike that is being turned over to MassPort.

And Uncle Buttface, and Aunt Ain'tBright will have their cashier's jobs that pay 75 large to MassPort.  And it will be funded by the toll increase....

Hide the Hack.....

Well, Lavanchy, you've done it again.  Thursday morning and I was washing coffee off the screen of my beloved HDTV....I spit out my french vanilla coffee.  I don't think by the way you said it that you understood the import of what you reported, but it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Remember reporting about the plan coming out of Barney Frank's office to give billions to GM (et al)?  That is the "white bread" part of the report.  That is what evenyone is expecting and hearing out of Washington.  Bail out this...Bail out that...

But did you listen carefully the words you read off the teleprompter after that?

"and the government would receive back equity in the companies"....."and the government would receive back equity in the companies".....  I ask you this, rhetorically:  What form of government begins by the acquisition of industry by government?

And in response, I offer a "copy and pasted" definition from "The Random House Dictionary":

2...(often initial capital letter) a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.

Any one else feel the shiver?

Well, it's been 7 days since Barack Obama was elected President of the Untied States.  He ran on a campaign, one of the central platforms being, tax cuts for the middle and lower classes, funded by tax increases for businesses.  Everyone jumped on that bandwagon.  What a wonderful idea, rob the rich and give to the poor.  An American Robin Hood....

Yesterday, President-elect Obama met with President Bush.  Jennifer Loven, Associated Press White House Correspondent is reporting today that President-elect Obama has made clear in that meeting his support for an immediate bailout of the US auto industry.

For details: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081111/bush_obama.html>

How does this sit with you?  First off, I've never agreed with any bailout plan.  It is, and has been, my belief that we need to allow the free market to regulate industry and business.  It has also been my belief that our government has no business giving my money to a company.  If I wanted GM to have it, I'd buy a damned car from them....

But what is most troubling is that, at face value, it appears our President-elect has gone back on his central campaign promise a mere 7 days after being elected based, in large part, on it.

Opinions?

Contrary to popular belief, all votes were not cast by 8 PM Tuesday when polls closed.  Other votes began at that time.  In the last 48 hours, we have seen voting of a different kind.

You see...Wall Street votes after Main Street.  And vote they did in the last two days...landslide defeat for investor confidence in our new President.  Now, as most of you know, I was not an Obama guy.  But frankly, I was watching the market the week before the election, as polls showed up to a double digit Obama lead, gain significantly and consistently.  I began to question my assumptions.

I began to think that maybe the financial world was looking for the sort of policies Obama promised.  I began to ask myself why and what new forces were operating.

Then the "bell rang" on Wednesday, and as of last night, the Market had fallen a1,000 points or 10% in two days.  Major companies were predicting layoffs, or warning of upcoming poor earnings.  The votes were cast, losers lead gainers by a score of about three to one. 

Now, there are alot of possible factors here.  In fact, we have been in an economic downturn, caused by inflationary trends most arguably caused by the dramatic increase in petrochemicals we experienced.  But even the most grim of analysts would argue that with fuel prices dramatically down (under two bucks a gallon for regular unleaded in places), consumer prices will follow.  The historical decrease in consumer purchases in October pales by comparison to the outlook for the next few months.

But layoffs by major corporations are the bellweather for their belief things will not get better in the immediate future.  It is naive to think that a corporation the size of Fidelity, as an example, just decided on a single plan for layoffs, impulsively, yesterday.  Their board had a series of proposed plans in front of them for consideration.  That is the way business works.

Guess what, folks...they had a plan for a McCain Presidency, based on his economic policies, and a plan for an Obama Presidency, based on his economic policies.  You have seen the Obama plan unveiled.

Yesterday, my son was called into a "shop meeting" where all employees of his company were warned of impending tightening of belts.  They were informed that their predictions for the immediate future were not good, and that they were immediately suspending all overtime, and instituting more rigid policies of oversight.

And most importantly, the executives made clear that they were not hopeful for the immediate future, because the business climate was expected to be hostile under the new President.

Batten down the hatches, Mateys...the sea is rough in front of us.

I arrived at the polls this morning bright and early, 7:10 to be exact.  As I exited my vehicle, our Police Chief was walking toward his parked on the Common.  He's an old friend who has been with me at some of the most wonderful, and the most trying times of my recent adult life.  I know him; I like him: I respect him.  He is every bit what the common man would want in his or her police chief.  He is tough when you need tough, and full of compassion when the situation dictates.  That fact that his political beliefs mirror mine doesn't hurt!!!

He was shaking his head and we chatted a bit.  Expressed our joint and mutual distain for candiates who promise the opposite of what they've done, and our even greater disrespect for people who fall for it.

He knew who he was voting for, and I'm sure he knew where the "X's" would fall on my ballot.  At the end of our conversation, I asked him for his thoughts on Question 2, the referendum vote to essentially decriminalize the possession of marijuana.  He looked and me and simultaneously we walked away from Town Hall and the polling place.  When we had reached 150 feet, the legal limit for campaigning, he began, but not without a sly smile.  Two old war horses had just obeyed the letter of the law.... 

He said, "Chip, I voted against it.  It does nothing but change the rules for the drug dealers, and make our jobs more complicated.  No one gets busted for a small amount of pot anymore; you know that.  If the average police officer catches a kid with a small amount of pot, it is dropped to the ground, squashed with a booted foot, and a call is made to a set of parents.  NOW, if I catch a guy with ten little baggies of marijuana, it becomes a different story  That's not personal use.  You don't have to be J. Edgar Hoover to know he's dealing.  And I land on him like a ton of bricks.  This referendum will just change dealers packaging...."

It was a short 150 foot walk back to Town Hall.  I carried with me a diffferent opinion on Question 2, and my vote changed virtually on the doorstep of the polls.

Thanks, Richie...for being Chief and for being so damned smart!!!

I wrote on this concept during the Patrick/Healey race for Governor.  It's time to write it again.

I feel so deeply abandoned today, but the decision by General Powell to endorse Barack Obama over Senator McCain.  When you listen carefully, General Powell says the fulcrum on which his decision was made was on McCain's choice of a Vice Presidential running mate.  It is the choice of Sarah Palin that made his decision.  He stated that he feels she was unready to lead.

Now, what is the real difference in qualifications between Governor Palin and Senator Obama.  They each have two years in their present job...they are each of the same age.  Governor Palin has a history of balancing budgets and turning a profit.  She has a history of returning tax money to her constituents, and negotiating with "Big Oil".  She has a history of holding an executive level job as well as a couple of public offices.

Senator Obama has authored NO legislation, lead no campaigns to reduce taxation, held no executive jobs and negotiated with no one.  In fact he voted consistently to maintain present tax levels or raise them.  His only other job was as lawyer to a community organization headed by an admitted and unrepentant domestic terrorist.

One has to ask oneself, how can this be the pivotal issue?  I think I know why:

Sexism grows in the fields left fallow from racism.  The only other explanation is that General Powell made his choice based on race, and I can't make myself believe that.  I have respected him for years.  It's hard enough admitting to myself he's that sexist....

America is more sexist than racist.  And 51% of our population is female..

Every now and then my sleep is interrupted by intriguing thoughts.  Last night was one of those nights.  I think "Sunday Night" (in this instance it was deferred to Monday night due to the holiday...) is frequented more often (is that redundant?) because I get more sleep over the weekend....but I digress....

I was thinking of two issues last night.  Those were "earmarks" and Question 1.  I was thinking mostly about Question 1 and what it would mean if it passed.   I really don't think folks would get the satisfaction they expect.  I think people are expressing their umbrage at the waste in government and our elected officials penchant for spending in ways we never would in our private lives.  Our representatives don't use the same economic rules on Beacon Street that we do on Main Street.....

And we've been listening, during the Presidential fiasco, to talk about who votes for earmarks.  You know, who has the political ability to bring home the money that should have stayed at home in the first place?  By buying dumbassed stuff no private citizen would ever consider funding if he were spending his own money...

Then a solution hit me:

Reverse the earmarks!!!

What would it be like if we were given just one more page on our income tax form?  What if that page allowed us to set the priorities for spending?  What if those priorities carried with them the force of law?  How cool would that be?

Here's how it would work.  We would be allowed to dictate how much of our tax dollars would be allocated for each of a few general areas of government.  (I assume a certain percentage would have ot be set for debt service on pre-existing government debts but...)  Let's say we could allocate a percentage of our money to national defense, domestic security, foriegn aid, education, welfare, medicaid, research into illnesses, roads and bridges, etc..

Then, the exact dollar amount in each category would be set, and our elected officials couldn't spend above that level...ever...ever...without a declaration of war.  Even natural emergencies would require a new vote by us or cuts elsewhere...the development of a "rainy day fund"....

What if a similar plan were put in place in Massachusetts, doing away with national security and foriegn aid, and adding in housing the homeless, and caring for our mentally ill?

I'm thinking I'd be alot happier on April 15th....ya,,that's the ticket!!

Earmark the mothers....

OK, NOW I'm p*ssed!!!  They've finally done it.  I have to clean half drank coffee off my dashboard and my windshield.  Here I am, sitting at the mailbox as I am every morning at 7:00 AM, retrieving the mail from the day before.  Nothing of consequence...usual junk mail.  I admit it, my only friends are direct marketers...I get love letters from banks.  If credit card offers were lovers, I'd be Bill Clinton.  "Aaahhh did not have sex with that financial institution!"

Now, I've been acutely aware for a week or so that there is a "disconnect" between what I hear on the news, and what I experience in real life.  Everyone on TV is telling me there is a credit crunch.  Because of the subprime mortgage issue, credit money has dried up.  Yet I can't go to my mailbox without an offer for a credit card or a loan.  Now, I'm here to tell you that, although Okie Dokie and I are comfortable, we are anything but the "Gates Family".  (In fact, our house would be more likely called the "Bates Motel" than the "Gates Motel", but that is a story for a Halloween blog!!).  SO...what do I believe?  TV or my mailbox?

So, this morning I have the usual...Chase wants to give me a credit card...I can transfer my balances with no interest for 6 months...I'll pass.  we don't have balances.  At my age, I can barely keep my balance so I don't need a bank  to take it!!!

Then there is CountryWide (remember them...the FIRST to get in trouble?) who wants to re-mortgage my home.  No thanks...I'll stick with doing "it" with my wife.  I'm good...

Then....THEN....I open this envelope from "Third Financial".  It's an offer for a freakin' sub-prime second mortgage.  Holy WeeWee, Batman...That ain't "bank sex"....these guys are out to rape a whole new group of citizens!!!!  Thanks but no thanks...

So...when I get home...out comes the Armor-All...I have coffee to clean up....

Ok folks…here comes the Bailout Plan from the blog couple.  Designed by the old guy with the grey beard, questioned and tweaked by the pretty woman.  Developed over coffee in the living room of the daughter of an Air Force Master Sergeant and the son of a chicken farmer.  Simple roots/simple plan.

Let’s just forget about the corporations.  Our damned government has no business supporting failed businesses.  That’s why Congress was overwhelmed with calls yesterday that shot down the plan.  No one wants to give money to companies that have given $240 million packages to CEO’s like Franklin Raines.

First, what is the big economic problem created if we do nothing?  People who own stock in those companies lose what the have?  News flash everyone, those companies have already tanked.  Folks have already lost their money.  Sorry, but if you buy stock in dumbassed companies, you’ll lose your shirt.  The stock market will tank?  News flash everyone, it already has.  So what?  It’ll go up, even if we do nothing.

Really there are only two problems I can see:

1. Corporate execs will lose their high paying jobs.  Ummm…they deserve to!!!
2. Some amount of foreclosed property, and some amount of non-foreclosed property goes into legal limbo.

Let’s look at #2.  What happens to the mortgages of the people who owe money to AIG, or Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac or whomever?  When these corporation go “@#!$-up”, who owns the mortgages?  No one?  Now, I’m well aware that I really don’t own my home.  Countrywide Homeloans owns most of m home.  I won’t own it completely until Countrywide discharges my mortgage.  If Countrywide goes out of business, they don’t exist to discharge my mortgage, therefore I can never legally own it!!  Guess what?  I can never legally sell it either!!!  So one of the ramification of this financial crisis is that a large percentage of our homeowners, even the ones paying, will lose the ability to own what they already think they own!!!

Solution:

Don’t bail out the corporations.  Create a government agency.  Pass legislation that assumes the mortgages of any bank/lending institution that goes out of business.  Do not give a dime to the bank, take the mortgage, lock stock and barrel.  If the loan is in good shape, give the homeowner a new address, and a new envelope.  Allow him/her to pay his mortgage like he always has.  If the mortgage is in foreclosure proceedings, stop them.  Offer a re-written mortgage at a reduced interest rate amortized over 50 years   Make it affordable, yet still financially attractive t the taxpayers.  If they default on that, throw their asses out and sell it/re-mortgage it to another deserving hard working low income person (read well…hard working).  One time mortgages/one time houses/one time program.

The Proceeds:

1. Invest 33% of the proceeds in the Social Security Trust Fund.  Reward the hardworking people who made this country great, and already paid their mortgages.  2.  Invest 33% in direct pay down of national debt, especially to China.  3.  Use 33% to “Fair Up” the plan (see next section).

“Fairing Up” the Plan:

At face value, this plan rewards the folks who don’t pay their bills at the expense of those who do.  As my wife so cogently pointed out-UNFAIR.  Use 33% of the proceeds to give mortgage tax deductions to the people who are paying their normal mortgages.  Give NO tax deductions to those who are getting special “bail out mortgages”.

Comments?

As some of you may remember, my most consistent incarnation in real life has been in the mental health profession.  In my practice, I get a few different types of people who are referred out of groups in the community.  I get a bunch of alcoholics, because I am a recovering one.  I get a few veterans too.

Recently, I got an emergency call from the Clinic Director asking me if I could find time to see a gentleman who was presenting in what seemed to be an emergency situation.  The Director was concerned because 1.  He said he was a veteran and 2.  He was saying he had been poisoned by Saddam Hussien.  He said, "Chip, this one's right up your alley."  (For the record, the Clinic Director had, in one of HIS previous incarnations, a career in the Air Force.)

I "made time" and saw him the next day.  It was not the easiest interview I'd ever done.  This man did not give informatin freely and evaded a number of my questions.  Everyone else had said he was psychotic (delusion of being poisoned by Saddam) and may have suffered for PTSD if his service claims were even close to valid.  Everyone was skeptical of what he told them about his "TS clearance"  (Top Secret). As the interview went on, it became clearer and clearer to me that he was, in fact, giving valid information.  The more I probed the more details slipped out that would validate his claims, not as boastful statements, but as simple truisms from a man who was one of the "Quiet Professionals" who so valiantly serve us.  It was also clear that the evasions he was doing with me were simply the professional residue of having to keep secrets.  He was proud of the fact that he still did keep those secrets. As he grew to trust me as a person who understood, he gave more information (yet politely steering the conversation away from sensitive areas) and spoke with pride for his service, and gratitude that he could still fly around the country free to visit his former comrades in arms.  But his career had ended in Stuttgart in a way he was deeply saddened about.

The more he spoke, the less "psychotic" his words sounded.  He did not speak of any traumatic events that had unduly upset him.  He did suffer from significant medical issues, including deep pain in his leg, hip and elbow he attributed to the huge number of parachute jumps he'd made during his career (not uncommon to have guys like him with service like his have leg problems from "jumps".  The elbow WAS a bit of an anomaly...)  He reported huge memory lapses that troubled him deeply.  He'd become depressed and despondent because he was decaying physically and mentally.  That had been the grist of his issues that surfaced in Stuttgart.

I conferred with another friend who had experience with Gulf War vets.  This just didn't add up for me.  Something was amiss.  Every hair was standing up on the back of my neck, and I couldn't find a comb....

I heard these words: Gulf War Syndrome.  My friend spoke of concerns that it may even have been caused by the innoculations given to soldiers prior to deployment. Many theories exist, including oil well fires, nerve agents and biological weapons used by Saddam.  The causes are unclear, but the symptms are pervasive.  I'm going to give you a hyperlink to go to Wikipedia on this one.  It actually contains valid empirical data from studies done:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_syndrome

Here's a quickie:

Excess prevalence of general symptoms:[7]

Symptom   U.S.   UK   Australia   Denmark   Fatigue 23% 23% 10% 16% Headache 17% 18% 7% 13% Memory problems 32% 28% 12% 23% Muscle/joint pain 18% 17% 5% <2% Diarrhea 16% 9% 13% Dyspepsia/indigestion 12% 5% 9% Neurological problems 16% 8% 12% Terminal tumors 33% 9%

Here's another fact:  the rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) amoungst Gulf War Veterans is significanly less than any previous war running between 2 and 6 %.

Here are the possible causes:

1.  Depleted Uranium  We used depleted uranium to harden our artillery shells to enhance their armor peircing qualities.

2.  Side Effects of the Early Anthrax Vaccine  The earliest anthrax vaccine we used was experimental and may have caused/contributed to GWI

3.  Chemical and/or Biological Weapons  Numerous soldiers, including the one I'm talking about have reported having t protect themselves with maks and suits when  the "litmus paper" turned color....

Why have I gone to such lengths to write this?  From one glaring experience?  Because the last thing we need to do to our heroes is to ignore their suffering like we did not so many years ago to Vietnam vets who suffered from cancers caused by our use of the defoliant "Agent Orange".

We, as a nation, are better than that.

I sit in my living room and watch with wonder our government once again try to dilute the consequences of stupidity.   What we experienced over the last decade or so was a failure, on the part of our economic institutions, to excercise appropriate restraint in their lending practices.  A week never went by that I didn't receive at least three calls, unsolicited, from mortgage lenders who wanted to sell me a "new and better" mortgage.  Now, we had/have a fixed mortgage on our house at 5.75%.  Not too shabby.  At each call, I'd strongly and forcefully tell the person who made the "cold call" the terms under which I'd do business (les than 5.75, no points or closing costs fixed for 30...) and each time , my wife, who has more manners than I do, would scold me for being to brusk.  I didn't see myself as being brusk, I saw myself as excercising economic restraint against promises of reduced monthly payments and better products.  I was being told I could have more fun if I consumed more.

Looking back on this time societally, I think the analogy of Economic Alcoholism fits well.  We were drunk with new and creative mortgages.  People who otherwise couldn't afford homes drank freely from the keg of mortgage bootleggers who made their livings by selling mortgages.  The situation was unrestrained by common sense, and has recenty staggered under the pall of bad loans.  Just recenlty, we have seen economic institutions like Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and now Lehmann Brothers "hug the commode" of economic failure and puke their economic guts out.  Economic drunkenness.

So, what do we do as a society?  Do we allow the drunk to suffer the consequences of his excesses?  Do we allow him to be caught and disciplined for his behavior?  Nope..we sure don't.

We bail them out like the kind, well intentioned and co-dependent wife bails out her drunken husband.  We are re-creating the likelihood of economic excess in our corporations with bailout plans, just as sure as the wife who calls her husband's boss and says he's sick when he's pukin' up Jack Daniels.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a man with 22 years of sobriety (Thank God and the Fellowship), I'm here to tell you it don't work with drunks, and it won't work with corporations.  There is nothing like the natural consequences of human behavior to help shape it.  Let the unrestrained corporations fail, and let the temperate ones prevail.  Capitalism cures Economic Alcoholism, not Government Co-dependence.

OK, Doomsday Dudes, here it is.  Remember the predictions about $5.00/galon heating oil?  Remember the predictions of $5 or $6 a gallon gasoline prices?  Remember the panic to buy...r the panic of HOW we'd buy...the oil to heat our homes this winter?  Maybe...just maybe.

Now, let's put this in context.  And important context it is.  Isn't there a hurricane bearing down on Houston?  Aren't there refineries in Houston?  Aren't there oil rigs pumping nice dark Gulf crude?  Aren't they threatened by the hurricane?  Yes they are, but it had no impact!

Let's back up the bus.  More context please.  Drum roll...didn't OPEC just cut production for the express purpose of raising prices?  The envelope please....Yep.  They did. My oh my...Oil went down below $100 a barrell in spite of these supply-side issues!!!

Know why?  Investors think supply will go up.  Know why?  Investors think we're gonna pump!!  Know why?  Republicans are pumpers, and this tells ya they are winning.

....Bill Belechick secures his place as the most prescient coach in NFL history.  Has it occurred to anyne else that the simple act of drafting Matt Cassel was, statistically dubious at best?  He ran only a handful of plays his entire college career, and hadn't started a football game since his senior year in high schook in 1999 (That's right folks, the last freakin' millenium!!)

And yet, taking over for injured Tom Brady last week, he threw 18 for 23 with over 150 yards and one touchdown.  He hit Randy Moss for a 51 yard strike.  He "general'ed" a running game that put two backs over 50 yards in 10 carries each (Yep, that's over a 5 yard a carry average for both Maroney and Morris.).

Now, I'm a season ticket holder.  I live with a woman who would take your life for insulting the Patriots.  I go way back....

But what is this saying about the Patroits organization?  This is scarin' me!!!  Bill, I'm impressed.