We get a lot of traffic at the Republican election HQ. Everyone asks for yard signs and bumper stickers with Palin name on them. We have made a couple of resupply runs down country, but cannot keep up with demand. Most of the time they have to settle for a plain "McCain" sign, of which we still have a goodly number left over from the primary.
Palin is wildly popular up here. Although surely Palin was nominated to appeal to women, in actual fact she is immensely appealing to men as well. The men walking into HQ uniformly admire Sarah, saying a woman that cool and that tough is just what the country needs.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Sarah Palin Debate
I watched it. Sarah was great. Poised, confident, feisty, and speaking some real substance. Biden was smooth, but his words just sounded good with no real substance behind them. I guess 30 years experience allows one to reel off platitude upon platitude without skipping a beat. I'll score it even. Sarah did not crush Biden, but heh, you can't have everything. Biden keep quoting damning "facts" which need some serious fact checking. For instance Biden repeatedly rapped John McCain for a "$4 billion tax break for Exxon Mobil". I never heard about that one. I do know Biden voted for the last "energy bill", and we all know that was a package of goodies for the oil business.
I thought Gwen Ifill's questions were poor, that pastor at Saddleback had much better ones. For instance "What decision do you regret the most". That's a job interview classic, which gives a dumb jobseeker an invitation to confess to bad stuff. Sarah at least knew the standard response for that one. Or "Which situation is worse, Iran or Pakistan". Hell, we all know the answer to that one, both are disasters with no good solutions in sight.
I thought Gwen Ifill's questions were poor, that pastor at Saddleback had much better ones. For instance "What decision do you regret the most". That's a job interview classic, which gives a dumb jobseeker an invitation to confess to bad stuff. Sarah at least knew the standard response for that one. Or "Which situation is worse, Iran or Pakistan". Hell, we all know the answer to that one, both are disasters with no good solutions in sight.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Children for Obama, on U Tube
The kids are cute, but the level of political indoctrination is kinda creepy.
Playing the blame game
Why is Wall St in trouble? At root, too many non performing mortgages. Too many mortages granted to borrowers who couldn't afford to keep up the payments. And/or too many mortgages granted that were more money than the property is worth. Used to be, banks only granted mortgages with monthly payments less than a third of the lender's income, and in amounts less than the value of the property. Banks were careful lending money, lest they lose it.
Then Fannie and Freddie came along to buy mortgages off the banks, the risk to the bank went away. Once sold, the bank is out of jail free, the loan can go into foreclosure and it's no skin of their nose. Fannie and Freddie bought more and more mortgages and then started buying sub prime mortgage bonds. They borrowed money all over the world and poured it into shaky mortgages. House sales, house prices and housing starts went up. As long as they could sell mortgages to Fannie and Freddie, the banks kept making them. In short, Fannie and Freddie's willingness to buy mortgages and sub prime mortgage bonds created the bubble.
Way back in 2005 a bill to put a cap on Fannie and Freddie's borrowing power went up the Hill. It was supported by Paul Volker, Alan Greenspan, John McCain, the Wall St Journal, and the Bush administration. It was opposed by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, and failed to pass. If it had passed, we wouldn't be where we are now.
In short, an attempt at regulation was defeated by the very democrats calling for more regulation today.
Fannie and Freddie used to make massive campaign contributions. Barney, Chris and a certain Barack Obama were the top three recipients of this largess. You get what you pay for.
Then Fannie and Freddie came along to buy mortgages off the banks, the risk to the bank went away. Once sold, the bank is out of jail free, the loan can go into foreclosure and it's no skin of their nose. Fannie and Freddie bought more and more mortgages and then started buying sub prime mortgage bonds. They borrowed money all over the world and poured it into shaky mortgages. House sales, house prices and housing starts went up. As long as they could sell mortgages to Fannie and Freddie, the banks kept making them. In short, Fannie and Freddie's willingness to buy mortgages and sub prime mortgage bonds created the bubble.
Way back in 2005 a bill to put a cap on Fannie and Freddie's borrowing power went up the Hill. It was supported by Paul Volker, Alan Greenspan, John McCain, the Wall St Journal, and the Bush administration. It was opposed by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, and failed to pass. If it had passed, we wouldn't be where we are now.
In short, an attempt at regulation was defeated by the very democrats calling for more regulation today.
Fannie and Freddie used to make massive campaign contributions. Barney, Chris and a certain Barack Obama were the top three recipients of this largess. You get what you pay for.
Election Headquarters in Littleton
So we got open. We have banners, signs, bumper stickers and a store front. The location is close to ideal, center of Main St Littleton. Good foot traffic. The McCain Palin signs are flying out the door. The just "McCain" signs, left over from the primary, just don't have the attractiveness of the McCain Palin signs. This reinforces my view that picking Sarah Palin was one of McCain's best decisions.
It's autum leaf season up here, and the number of out of state tourists is impressive. Fully a third of the walkins at the HQ are out of staters. They all ask for signs, saying that they are unobtainable back home. One advantage for being a battle ground state. It's also impressive just how many tourists we get and from so far away (Texas, California, Ohio) Although Littleton is a fine north country small town, it lacks the amenities of say, Boston. All we have to draw tourists is the fall foliage, the Franconia notch scenery, and the up country ambiance. It's pleasing that such simple things draw so many tourists.
Had a reporter from the local paper (Littleton Courier) drop in yesterday, looking to write up a story. Naturally, we were overjoyed at the prospect of publicity. We chatted with him for as long as he could stand it, named names, gave him everything thing we could remember or think of. The reporter then mentioned that he had just come from the Democratic election HQ just up the street, and the democrats had told him they were not authorized to speak to the press and he would have to contact Concord or Manchester. Hmm. Are these democrats a political party or an underground conspiracy?
It's autum leaf season up here, and the number of out of state tourists is impressive. Fully a third of the walkins at the HQ are out of staters. They all ask for signs, saying that they are unobtainable back home. One advantage for being a battle ground state. It's also impressive just how many tourists we get and from so far away (Texas, California, Ohio) Although Littleton is a fine north country small town, it lacks the amenities of say, Boston. All we have to draw tourists is the fall foliage, the Franconia notch scenery, and the up country ambiance. It's pleasing that such simple things draw so many tourists.
Had a reporter from the local paper (Littleton Courier) drop in yesterday, looking to write up a story. Naturally, we were overjoyed at the prospect of publicity. We chatted with him for as long as he could stand it, named names, gave him everything thing we could remember or think of. The reporter then mentioned that he had just come from the Democratic election HQ just up the street, and the democrats had told him they were not authorized to speak to the press and he would have to contact Concord or Manchester. Hmm. Are these democrats a political party or an underground conspiracy?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Republican Election Headquarters in Littleton NH
It all started last week. The Grafton County committee chairman called a meeting of the "North of Franconia Notch" republicans. He spoke of the need to get out the vote up here. Some thing caught fire, and the dozen of us sitting round the table decided to open a storefront Republican HQ in Littleton. Things move fast. There was an empty storefront, right in the center of town. Money was raised, publicity sought. Had a work night to get it going last night. People and tables and ladders and vacuum cleaners appeared. The lights work, toilet flushes, the store window is full of campaign signs. Grand opening is Saturday. 4 PM.
To bail or not to bail, the $700 billion question
Watched the TV to see if Wall St was going to get $700 billion in my taxes and everyone else's taxes. A vast waste land. Fox talked about McCain canceling/postponing Friday's debate and what Obama thought about that. Endless campaign chitchat of little interest. A complete lack of information on the bailout. Like how many votes does it have? What are the terms? What amendments are the democrats pressing for. Does any Congress critter support the administration proposal? What happens if we do nothing? What do business leaders, labor leaders and academics think? Fox is beyond clueless.
The president came on at 9PM. He should have said "Cough up $700 billion or the Great Depression comes back". Trouble is, people would take him seriously and start selling every stock they own. So he couldn't say that. In fact, TV viewers ought to remember that responsible officials, in being responsible, will minimize the trouble lest they make it worse. Sen Chuckie Schumer pushed IndyMac bank into bankruptcy a couple of months ago with just a memo badmouthing their financial position. Of course Chuckie isn't a responsible official.
It's clear to me that the real issue is how much cash to put into the banks. All the talk about the evils of bad mortgage backed securities clogging the system is just talk. The banks are out of money. Paulsen wants to pour tax dollars into the banks to keep them afloat. To make things look a little better, he calls it "buying illiquid assets", but illiquid is a nice way of saying worthless. So it gets down to giving the banks a big Christmas present.
The original proposal was Paulsen becomes Santa Claus, with the power to decide who gets how much. Nice deal for the Treasury Secretary. On the other hand, he will do a better job than the pork loving Congress. Far as I can see, Congressional calls for "oversight" really mean Congress wants to hand out the money to their special friends, rather than letting Paulsen do it.
The bailout would be more palatable to us taxpayers if the senior management of the bailed out firms got hurt. Like no bonuses, ever, put the company jet on E-bay, cancel all severance (golden parachute) payments, stock options, and other goodies. Trim retirement benefits back to Social Security levels. Top management salaries reduced to $1 a year. No salary in the entire company to exceed $100K. Companies claim they pay top salaries to attract top talent. Any company dumb enough to buy sub prime mortgage securities doesn't have top talent. Might as well save a few big ones by skinning them down to the bone. Besides, I enjoy a little payback as much as any other man.
The president came on at 9PM. He should have said "Cough up $700 billion or the Great Depression comes back". Trouble is, people would take him seriously and start selling every stock they own. So he couldn't say that. In fact, TV viewers ought to remember that responsible officials, in being responsible, will minimize the trouble lest they make it worse. Sen Chuckie Schumer pushed IndyMac bank into bankruptcy a couple of months ago with just a memo badmouthing their financial position. Of course Chuckie isn't a responsible official.
It's clear to me that the real issue is how much cash to put into the banks. All the talk about the evils of bad mortgage backed securities clogging the system is just talk. The banks are out of money. Paulsen wants to pour tax dollars into the banks to keep them afloat. To make things look a little better, he calls it "buying illiquid assets", but illiquid is a nice way of saying worthless. So it gets down to giving the banks a big Christmas present.
The original proposal was Paulsen becomes Santa Claus, with the power to decide who gets how much. Nice deal for the Treasury Secretary. On the other hand, he will do a better job than the pork loving Congress. Far as I can see, Congressional calls for "oversight" really mean Congress wants to hand out the money to their special friends, rather than letting Paulsen do it.
The bailout would be more palatable to us taxpayers if the senior management of the bailed out firms got hurt. Like no bonuses, ever, put the company jet on E-bay, cancel all severance (golden parachute) payments, stock options, and other goodies. Trim retirement benefits back to Social Security levels. Top management salaries reduced to $1 a year. No salary in the entire company to exceed $100K. Companies claim they pay top salaries to attract top talent. Any company dumb enough to buy sub prime mortgage securities doesn't have top talent. Might as well save a few big ones by skinning them down to the bone. Besides, I enjoy a little payback as much as any other man.
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