America bails people out everyday..why is this any different?

According to Webster, bail out is simply defined as a ”relief from financial distress”.  So aren’t the millions of Americans that file Bankruptcy every year guilty of being bailed out?  Why is it ok that Americans who make bad financial decisions and have their debt wiped out (at the expense of other taxpayers) but it’s not ok when big business needs help?

Sure, it’s a little different in that a consumer who files Bankruptcy doesn’t receive an infusion of money.  So then lets compare it to the Welfare System instead.  You can’t tell me that the Welfare System isn’t bogged down with those that have made bad decisions and now can’t support themselves?  The Gov’t ”infuses” them with money to “relieve financial distress”.  The difference is the Gov’t will make money off this bail out & it’s temporary.  There are Americans who stay on Welfare forever & the Gov’t makes NOTHING off of them.  These Americans don’t need to pay it back or contribute in any way to society as a “thank you” to the Gov’t & taxpayers for bailing them out in their time of need.

I am more outraged at our Welfare System than this bail out. 

An overwhelming amount of Americans are against it because they don’t understand it.  These businesses are not arbitrarily getting large sums of cash from taxpayers to pay their multi billion dollar salaries or shareholders.  The Treasury will buy the company’s bad debt for pennies on the dollar to infuse operating expenses into these companies.  The Treasury will hold onto this debt until the market improves and most likely sell this debt again for much more than they paid for it.  The sale of these loans may also happen very quickly as we don’t know how this will have an effect on the economy.  The estimated $700 billion price tag may not even be felt by the American people.

So lets put it in perspective.  The Treasury is acting like an investor, taking advantage of these businesses for their own benefit.  What Americans should be concerned about is if the Treasury is able to sell this debt and make money, how is the money going to be distributed? 

And let’s not forget, if the Treasury owns these mortages then they may very well restructure these loans to help consumers avoid foreclosure.  This is almost a must because housing prices will not stabilize or improve unless foreclosures are under control.

As much as I don’t like the idea of it either, it’s a must.  Money is damn near impossible to get right now (trust me, I know because I’m trying to buy a house).  The list of why banks need to lend now is enormous but in a nutshell: Banks need to start lending again so buyers can buy houses, businesses have access to capital to grow & stay afloat and people can buy cars.  None of that can be done if banks fail. This is simply Welfare for Financial Institutions.

Joe Biden, the new Dan Quayle

Biden: “When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on television…”) FDR was not in office at the time of the 1929 crash and his “fireside chats” were on the radio. (Katie Couric completely ignored this so either she’s a dumb ass or didnt want to draw attention to Biden’s inaccuracy)

Biden: “It’s the Patriotic thing to do (paying higher taxes)”

Biden: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,”

Biden: You don’t know my state. My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state is the eighth largest black population in the country. My state is anything from a northeast liberal state,”

Biden:”you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

Biden: tells wheelchair bound Sen. Chuck Graham to “stand up” “Chuck, stand up, Chuck, let ‘em see you. Oh, God love you, what am I talking about?”

Let’s revisit some of Dan Quayle’s more memorable quotes:

“We don’t want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward”

“The future will be better tomorrow”

“For NASA, space is still a high priority”

“I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix”

and the most famous of them all…the misspelling of potato

Dan Quayle was ridiculed by the media and public yet we hear nothing about Biden’s blunders.  Some of the above statements aren’t even blunders but sound down right racist to me. 

People make mistakes and candidates are no different but if you’re going to criticize then make sure you criticize fairly and equally.

The Messiah visits Jacksonville. Are we off the D-List?

J-ville is quite the place to be lately.  Word has gotten out.  American Idol held auditions here in August.  John McCain was here last week.  Of course that meant Barack Obama was not far behind.

I really wanted to go see McCain but 8am was a little early for me. I was enticed by the pancake breakfast at 6am but still a tad bit early.  Those hours of the morning were fine for most McCain supporters because they could attend and still be on time to their job or take a small portion of the morning off.

Obama was also smart.  He spoke around 1:30ish on a Saturday ensuring that a good portion of his supporters would be home from the club by then and could roll themselves out of bed (albeit probably with a hangover).

I thought about attending just for shits & giggles but if I wanted to see a display of crying, fainting and swooning I would go to a Jonas Brothers concert.  I watched it on Fox News instead.  I swear I saw a “Marry Me Obama” sign in the crowd.

They “claim” there was 20,000 people there to which I say “bullcrap”.  They had to close the park where he spoke because it was filled to capacity.  Many people remained outside the park and lined the streets because you could hear his speech even outside the park gates. 

They interviewed one pissed off supporter who stated they should have had it at the Stadium (Jacksonville Municipal Stadium).  She should have been slapped from that reporter.  Doesn’t she know it’s football season and nobody, N-O-B-O-D-Y is privileged to that stadium other than the Jaguar players and fans.  That’s sacreligious. Besides, I don’t want some ObamaManiac sweating in MY seat. I paid good money for my seat.

Bullsh*t item of the day: Palin invitation revoked

We all know how Hillary Clinton cancelled her appearance at the anti-Iran rally upon learning that Palin was also going to be there. Now Palin’s invitation has been revoked because organizers don’t want it to appear a partisan event.

This is just wrong on so many levels.

Obama & McCain jointly attended 9/11 events.  Granted, not *exactly* the same but this is not a time for pettiness.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a whack job and we need to stand together against him. I can’t really find fault with the organizers as they are trying to keep it a balanced event.  However,

Rally organizers stated they would not disinvite Palin if Obama or Biden would attend in Hillary’s place.    Obama managed to rally in Colorado & then fly to CA for his Hollywood fundraiser but he can’t get his ass to NY for this rally?  It’s crystal clear where Obama’s loyalties lie.

Housing crisis hits (my) home

First, it’s not really a crisis.  See how I used an inflammatory word to invoke a panic like response to get you to read (that would assume that someone other than myself is reading this).  The media makes money by getting people to buy their publications.  They can’t get the money if they can’t get the readers.  Anyway, that’s not what this post is about. I’ll write about the economy later.

I said earlier that people probably won’t belive the stuff that happens to me.  I swear it’s not made up.

We are trying to take advantage of the down market & buy a house.  We want to stay in the neighborhood. We found a house a mile away, negotiate an offer, apply for the mortgage.  DENIED! WHAT!!!???  I own a real estate company so I’m not a newbie.  My partner owns a mortgage company.  We were preapproved FHA.  Well, some cranky underwriter who thinks she’s god *feels* that we are attempting a foreclosure bail out (the house is in preforeclosure).  WHAT????!!  I guess they can’t understand why we would want to buy a bigger house, with a pool & garage, on a larger lot with more square footage in the same neighborhood we chose to buy in a few years ago because we like it.  That makes absolutely NO SENSE!  What makes more sense is that we would take every last penny of cash we have (have to put 3% down plus closing costs-roughly $20,000) to buy a house from someone in our neighborhood so they can rent back from us. 

What makes it worse is this bitch led us on for 2 weeks making us jump through hoops & still denied us. She even accused of me of lying on the application & concealing that I owned investment property in my maiden name of XXXXXX.  Well, my maiden isn’t XXXXXX and I don’t own any other property. WTF??!!

Well, we are still trying to get a loan so keep your fingers crossed for us.  We really love the house (yes, we plan to occupy it).  We should know today.

I need an outlet

 

I’ve had friends & family pushing me to blog because the public just won’t believe the crap that happens to me and it supposedly would make for entertaining reading. I’ve tried and failed because I was putting too much pressure on my blog attempts (what should the blog name be? I don’t have a catchy slogan. will anyone read? what should I write about? should I stick to a theme? what will they think? etc).  It was far too stressful. I have an (almost) 3 yr old & run a business so I have enough stress in my life. 

That changed the other night when my husband told me I was too involved in this election.  I am very passionate about it & get worked up at times.  He is very invested in it too but he says I’m obsessed.   I also don’t have any real hobbies other than bitching at my husband (which isn’t really a hobby as it is a way of life) so I have made a commitment to blog!  I know you are thoroughly thrilled.  Who the hell am I talking to right now anyway?

I’m not all politics – very far from it although I’m sure most of my posts right now will be election related.  I’m really just fluff with some strong opinions. I love reality tv but will flip between Bravo & Fox News.  I’m still a little concerned with not having a catchy slogan so I’m open to suggestions.