Can the former radical college professors turn me into a Newt Gingrich?

The Underground Railroad

Fortunately, I headed for higher ground about 14 months ago so my losses have all been to inflation.  My wife, however, only moved 50% of hers so her quarterly shows about a 12% loss over the calendar year.  I tried to tell her that she was my retirement plan.  Maybe that's why she turned so mavericky.

the part that's in the stock market: -52% since jan 1.

got/getting hammered, and the next sob who tries to tell me it's the dems fault is gonna get dope slapped.

the revolution will not be televised...Peace

accomplishment. From the NYT:

By ERICA GOODE and SUADAD AL-SALHY
Published: October 10, 2008
BAGHDAD -- Hundreds of Christians are fleeing Mosul in the wake of a string of killings that appear to be singling out Christians in the northern Iraqi city, where many had taken refuge from persecution in other parts of the country.

At least 11 and perhaps as many as 14 Christians have been killed in Mosul since the end of August, according to government officials and humanitarian groups. The victims have included a doctor, an engineer, two builders, two businessmen and a 15-year-old boy, who was shot dead in front of his house. In the last week alone, seven Christians were killed.

On Friday, a pharmacist was shot to death by a man who pretended to be an undercover police officer and asked for the man's identification card, said Khisroo Koran, deputy governor of Nineveh Province, which is in northern Iraq. Mosul is the province's capital.

John McCain will never mention this kind of terrorism.

I can only hope that Barack Obama will.

Interestingly, there's a note that the Fund Manager has the right to liquidate the accounts and put it all into money market if they feel the threat is strong enough. Never noticed that before.

One of the benefits of being (relatively) poor is that you can't lose much (relatively). I have no investments. I've got some savings in a bank. I get my federal pension check, from the old federal pension.

Lots of people around me are getting slammed by this or that, but I'm okay (relatively). It doesn't get below freezing around here and I've got my bridge to sleep under picked out.

There's loss and then there's, 'Just Shoot Me'. Imagine being the guy at the tiller who just rammed
the Maltse Falcon Amazing amazing yacht

I threw the statement right into the garbage. Not even opened.

"Some men see things as they are and say why - I dream things that never were and say why not." George Bernard Shaw.

1- You are forced to cash out now or in the next six months.

2- Your 401(k) or IRA mutual fund(s) go belly up.

3- Your 401(k) or IRA administrator goes belly up.

In other words, it's only a loss when it ceases to be a paper loss.

50 states, 210 media market, 435 Congressional Districts, 3080 counties, 192,480 precincts

I just received my absentee ballot! Yippee!!!!

I just voted for Barack Obama & Joe Biden; Donna Edwards; YES on early voting and HELL TO NAW on slots.

I feel GREAT about my votes. My only disappointment is in effing O'Malley for even letting slots get this far. I think, unfortunately, that it will likely pass. People think it's free money and will cure all our ills. But it will not. Besides, who are all these people we will attract when WV, DE, and PA have slots?

It's bad enough I'm practically around the corner from the damned football stadium! Now, if this passes, I'll likely be practically around the corner from some effing slots.

I'm not pleased at the prospect.

Presumptuous is the new uppity.

I do feel a little sorry for the kids, but not one iota for Sarah. And again, WHAT was the McCain campaign thinking sending her back to Philly? Seriously, WTF? Just because she's a "hockey mom" all hockey fans will love her? How insulting.

What pension?  I'm disabled.

As an independent game developer and artist, I'd socked money away: a $10,000 T-bill rolling over, a Keogh Plan, IRA, a few mutual funds, Money Market Account, savings account, and a couple of stocks that I liked.  Nicely diversified.  The T-bill balanced the techy stocks, the short term money balanced the almost untouchable trust.  At the science fiction conventions, we talk about the business of being an artist (or writer, etc.)... and I was giving talks about how to set up retirement plans.

I wasn't depending upon Social Security, and knew that I couldn't rely upon any company to provide a pension.  But I could always work (do artists ever retire?), and tuck a bit away.

Unfortunately, I worked too hard and too damned many hours.  Days without sleep.  Collapse.  The funny thing is that the company I was working for at the time HAD a health plan.  They folded.  You can go from middle-class to zero in a few months if you have thousands of dollars of medical bills.  I sold all my assets trying to make monthly bills, because I thought that I would get back on my feet again.  It didn't occur to me to declare bankruptcy.  I have to confess to being in denial about being disabled.  After 8 years of this migraine, I've accepted the fact.

So, Johnny McCain in his 7 houses and 13 cars wants to cut Medicare?  I can't even afford prescriptions... with premiums rising by double digits every damned year... and barely keep PG&E from turning off the power.  Medicare puts the rented roof over my head and one hot meal a day on the table.  If that gets cut... I'm on the street.  An elderly woman with cat and begging bowl.  Trash in the gutter, to be swept aside.

So, I have no sympathy for those executives from AIG getting pedicures at the spa and Wachovia employees going for an Aegean cruise.  NONE.  Greedy fat-cats going to go party on our dollars!  They took the billions in bailout money and like all con-men they'll be back for more... and it isn't going to help average hard-working Americans at all.

The transfer of wealth in this country is almost complete.  The richest 1% will own everything, and the rest of us will be impoverished serfs living at their whim.

The bailout, giving the Treasury Secretary unlimited power to further reward the rich for gambling and greed, is only an obvious part of the transfer.  The symptoms go much deeper.  Politics itself is part of the problem.  I doubt that politics can solve it.

So, to answer your question, I have no investments to lose.  I'm more worried about what will have to be cut to pay for the bailout.  Cutting money for seniors, children, injured veterans, and the disabled... so that bankers and hedge-fund managers can continue to splurge?  Whose bright idea was this?  A grifter and his shills!  And Congress (most of them millionaires) went along with the induced and totally artificial panic.

:pfffffft!:

We the People spoke up against the bailout.  Congress didn't listen.  They didn't listen to us on Iraq, either.  Bin Laden struck at the financial institutions because he understood that in America, money matters more than honor or accomplishment.  The military has almost bankrupted us, and this bailout surely will!

If I were President, the first thing I'd do is pull out of Iraq.  2 years of that war roughly equals the bailout.  Go through the military budget with a heavy hand.  No rods-from-god space platforms.  No microwaves, sonics, robots, droids, drones.  No no-bid contracts on speculative whimsies.  Put all that off for 2 years, to be revisited if necessary.  Kill every last mercenary contract.  Cut the superfluous spying agencies.  Get the military back to basics.  Take care of the soldiers, especially those who sacrificed all to a war based upon lies.  We are unprepared to defend ourselves, thanks to Bush's excellent adventure, and powerpoint programs are not going to rebuild the brigades.

Next, examine the State Department.  Stop construction on the bloated and over-sized embassy. Cease paying millions to the Lincoln Group for propaganda.  Cut the spying agencies, here, too.  Cease any and all mercenary contracts.  If our soldiers are the finest in the world... pay them and use them.

The NSA?  How many spying agencies and wasteful programs do we really need!  Getting the CIA out of the torture business means that we could sell those black sites and rendition planes.  The Total Information Awareness program burrowed further undercover.  Find and cut all funding for every last bit of domestic spying, datamining, and storage.  America is not a Police State.

Foreign aid must be pruned of deadwood.  Why are we giving billions of military aid to rogue nations such as Israel and Pakistan!?!  They are not our friends.  We ought to build hospitals and libraries here, first, but we can share those things which make the world a more civilized place.  Offer them clothes we make and books we print and rebuild our factories.

The Republicans want to sell off the National Parks and Monuments... the public lands... to the miners and loggers and ranchers for fast and cheap profit.  Bad idea.  That is our future and our heritage.  As much as I'd love to own the Yosemite, places like that belong to all of us, not the dam' developers.  However, IF they cut the military budget, I'd accept a moratorium in the acquisition of new public lands for the same 2 year period.

The other agencies will have to tough it out.  The Department of Justice might need more money for a complete scouring and rehiring of competent people... and for the trials.

The only other option is to raise taxes on the richest 5%: raise them high enough to cover the wars and the bailout and any domestic emergencies (hurricanes, wildfires, etc.).  The longer the President and Congress waits before cutting the military, the more likely that the rich will have to be taxed, and taxed hard.