Lunch With Freinds.

I had lunch with and old friend from high school today. I must say that it brought back a flood of memories for me. In High school she was kind of like a therapist to us misguided souls who roamed the halls of our alma mater. I'm glad we got back in touch because she is someone who really knows how to listen and give feed back on matters of great importance to the trivial. Think Sigmund Freud with a paint brush, and a much hotter body.

I am always interested when I see folks from my youth who I have lost touch with, just to see how the years between have changed them. I'm glad to say that Kimbo is still the same free spirit person that she was all those years ago, to quote George Harrison.

I hope it's not another 17 years before we see each other again, as a 45 minute lunch is not sufficient for the conversations that must be explored.

One Has To Wonder....

Citigroup layoffs trump global economic plan

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER – 5 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Another round of massive layoffs at Citigroup and more bad financial news Monday led investors to shrug off the lengthy action plan from world leaders designed to address a sagging global economy.

Citigroup said it will cut about 53,000 more jobs in coming quarters as the banking giant struggles to deal with massive losses from deteriorating debt.

Citigroup has announced another round off layoffs to the tune off 53000 employees. This begs the question; were these people really needed in the first place? The answer is obviously no. Mind you I doubt these were skilled workers to begin with, mostly white collier types who sit in front of a computer screen all day. Which will make it a lot harder for these people to find work. This country seems to have an abundance of college graduates with cushy jobs that require little or no experience or skills just a piece of paper that says you went to college. I would venture a guess that very few of these former employees have any real world skills they could take with them to a another job. I doubt they could set up a 3rd shift production line at the tire plant, or fix a motor drive on a conveyor belt if it went out.

"So Mr. Jones I see you were with Citigroup for the last five years, how are your heat exchanger trouble shooting skills. Well if a sitting in front of a computer reading spread sheets position opens up I will give you a call."

There is an old saying not sure who said it and I paraphrase, "Success is going to come knocking at your door one day, only you might not recognize it because it will be dressed in overalls and covered in grease."

30 Years Ago This Month Another Great Man Brought About Change

It was 30 Years ago this month Reverend Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple dispatched over 900 of his followers to the great beyond by mixing Kool-Aid and cyanide together. Jim was a great orator who along with his charisma could have entire crowds in tears just with his words. I am so glad that we don't have any public figures today that have this kind of power of people that they just blindly follow, and believe every word that comes out of his mouth. It would definitively be a shame if that person was elected president of the most powerful country on the face of the earth.
Jim Jones preyed on the poor, weak, and down trodden to amass his power over them. Promises of no financial worries, were made to them. they were told to give up all there possessions and money to the church and the church would take care of them. I am just so glad that this could never happen in this day and time.

And So It Begins

We are starting to see just what kind of people "The One" is going to surround himself with. This from IDB:

Another Brick In 'The Wall'?

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, November 11, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Transition: Jamie Gorelick may be back, this time as attorney general. It was her "wall of separation" that that left us blind pre-9/11. And let's not forget her admirable service at Fannie Mae.

"Not many people can claim to have been at the center of arguably the greatest financial disaster and greatest national security disaster in American history. But Gorelick, said to be on the short list for attorney general by the New York Times, can. Surely that qualifies her for further government service.

Gorelick earned an estimated $26 million serving as vice chair of Fannie Mae from 1998 to 2003. In 1998, according to the Washington Post , Gorelick received a bonus of $779,625, despite a scandal in which employees falsified signatures on accounting transactions to manipulate books to meet 1998 earning targets.

In 2003, she got a "Friends of Angelo" sweetheart mortgage deal from Countrywide Financial for almost $1 million. Her $960,000 mortgage refinancing in 2003 was handled through a program reserved for influential figures and friends of Countrywide's chief executive at the time, Angelo Mozilo.

Countrywide's loans on preferential terms to influential figures are the subject of a federal grand jury investigation in Los Angeles, according to people involved in the inquiry. So Gorelick is in fact under investigation by the department she might soon be running.

On March 25, 2002, BusinessWeek quoted Gorelick as saying: "We believe we are managed safely. Fannie Mae is among the handful of top-quality institutions." One year later, government regulators accused Fannie Mae of improper accounting to the tune of $9 billion in unrecorded losses. This keen financial oversight set the stage for the financial meltdown to follow.

Before Fannie Mae, Gorelick was deputy attorney general in the Clinton Justice Department and architect of the policy that established a wall between intelligence and law enforcement, making "connecting the dots" before 9/11 a virtual impossibility.

Gorelick was the author of a 1995 memo that helped establish what former Attorney General John Ashcroft testified was the "single greatest structural cause" for Sept. 11, which was "the wall that segregated criminal investigators and intelligence agents."

"Government erected this wall," Ashcroft said. "Government buttressed this wall. And before Sept. 11, government was blinded by this wall."

Gorelick later was a member of the 9/11 Commission, a participant in the very events being investigated. At the commission hearings, she pummeled Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, not with questions but with accusations of malfeasance, asking Rice why her office failed to "connect the dots."

Gorelick made the accusations knowing that she herself issued the memo ordering the FBI to erect a legal wall between itself and the CIA, preventing them from sharing information, making it impossible to collect the dots, much less connect them. She should have been a witness, not a panel member.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, who in 1998 brought an indictment against bin Laden and a deputy, Mohammed Atef, for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, wrote two scathing memos to Attorney General Janet Reno on the wall Gorelick built with Reno's approval.

On June 13, 1995, White wrote Reno: "The most effective way to combat terrorism is with as few labels and walls as possible so that whenever permissible, the right and left hands are communicating."

According to a New York Post report, White was so upset after Reno and Gorelick refused to tear down Gorelick's wall barring information-sharing between intelligence and law enforcement that she wrote a second, still-secret memo, saying their wall hindered law enforcement and could cost lives.

In this time of financial crisis and war on terror, it would be more than a little ironic if an old Clinton crony, someone who played a detrimental role in both, would be rewarded again with a key role in government. Maybe it's true that the more things "change" the more they remain the same."

If this is the kind of scum that "The One" is going to put in charge then what hope do we have?
I will say it again, we are all doomed.

So When Can I Start Making Fun Of President Huggy Bear?

Would someone please let me know when the moratorium on making fun of President Huggy Bear (or Shaft, or Link from The Mod Squad I still have yet to decide) is over? I have a lot of material to get of my chest. Sooner or later this guy is going to need to be knocked off his pedestal. So far though he still seems to be off limits. Since he was elected I have yet to hear one joke from the late night shows or any other comedian. What is going on? Is this man some kind of sacred cow that cannot be touched? please don't tell me they think they are going to get 4 years of mileage out of Bush/McCain/Palin jokes. It reminds me of the Muslims who want to behead people for any mention of Muhammad. No matter what you may think of the man, messiah, savior, the one, he is still just a politician. Which means he is a few links lower than a child rapist on the food chain of life. Or, are they scared? After the whole Imus fiasco of 2007, the last thing, Letterman, Leno, or Stewart want is to have to kiss the bare asses of Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton on live TV.

More importantly, will the subjects be able to tell the emperor that he wears no clothes? When he does fuck up will the media report it? Or is this guy gonna get a free pass for the next four years? So far it's looking like it's gonna be a long honeymoon. But sooner or later, we are gonna have to pull out, wipe up, rip the bag off her head, and look the girl we picked up at closing time at the bar in the eye. And her taxi is not showing up for 4 more years. And guys as we all know this can be awkward.

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day. If you have a chance take time out to thank a veteran for serving our country.

RIP USA

The American dream died tonight. We will soon be slaves to the all powerfull Obama and his repressive government. I was not expecting it to be the landslide it turned out to be. The silver lining, if there is one, is that The Obama and Bidden will no longer be US Senaters. So that is good. Obama has basicly promised to punish the "rich" and the "corupt corperations". Unfortunaly we work for the "rich" and "corupt corperations". Massive unemployment awaits us in the next year. Obama, acording to his words seems hell bent on expanding a class of people that is completly reliant on the government for every want and need they have. We are doomed. I guess I will just continue to bitterly cling to my guns.

The Home Stretch

Well we are down to the last 24 or so hours of the longest campaign on history. Obama with all his money still cannot get his lead past the margin of error in the polls. This election is going to be a precinct by precinct battle. Will Obamas thugs be able to get enough deceased people, felons, and illegal aliens to the polls to put him over the top. Did ACORN sign up enough people multiple times to make a deference? Can the Democrats suppress enough of the military vote as they always try to do, to give Obama the votes he needs.

There will be many problems at the polls tomorrow. Voting machine malfunctions, people trying to commit fraud, as well as just plan ignorance of the process. Thousands of lawyers for both sides of the battle are already hunkered down and ready to litigate. Riot cops in some inner city ghettos are preparing for the worst.

We should know who the Supreme Court will decide should be the next president by Thanksgiving.

We will possible be entering a new chapter in the history of the United States. This chapter starts out with "change" and "hope" and ends with us swimming in a cesspool of third world socialism.

Over the past year I have yet to make an endorsement for president. I have just been vehemently against Obama. I would now like to encourage everyone to vote for Bob Barr for the next president of the United States. Or if you have the option write in a candidate of your choice.

This is the United States, the greatest country on earth, we deserve better the these two candidates. Arm yourselves America it's going to be a dangerous four years.