Left Turn on Bird Street

Just when will $4/gal. gas hit Elk Grove, Northern California?

That is the question many of us are asking ourselves on a day where ExxonMobil recorded record profits (again) as we dish out $40 and more to fill our gas tanks.

Many people we talk to seem to think Memorial Day will be the time when the $4 barrier is broken throughout Northern California.

Well at one Sacramento area gas station it has been within one-tenth of a cent of $4 for several days now. This station happens to be located at the Reed Ave. exit and I-80 in West Sacramento.

Obviously they are taking advantage of their location to extract a few more pennies per gallon from unsuspecting travelers. Most local stations are hovering around $3.90/gal.

Nonetheless, hold tight because $4/gal is coming to a gas station near you.

Meet Douglas Gawadzinski

Who, you may ask is Douglas Gawadzinski?

Gawadzinski is an FAA employee, civil servant if you will, pulling down a cool $100,000 a year. Gawadzinki is at the center of the unfolding FAA Southwest Airlines scandal.

Gawadzinski, has been fingered as having an oh so cozy relationship with the very industry that he, as a servant of and for the people, is charged with monitoring. While his name will undoubtedly be a footnote in history, his story is revealing of the times we now live.

Over the last 30 years or so, the American public has been smacked over the head time after time and told that deregulation is primarily for their benefit. As this case illustrates, deregulation really means killing consumer protection - in this case flight safety.

The fact that this case has made it the public eye is amazing. How many other "civil servants" are out there tucked away in some department of some federal agency that are looking out not for the people, but the industry they are supposed to monitor?

By the way, I wonder how many bags of peanuts and drink tokens Gawadzinski has received from Southwest?

Bird & Fortune on subprime: why it collapsed, where it is going

Meanwhile an update:

More than 8,000 staff will face the axe at Bear Stearns worldwide once the stricken US investment bank is acquired by JP Morgan next month, as fears mount that the credit crunch could keep downward pressure on share prices throughout 2008.
[…]
Job losses at Bear Stearns are just the thin end of the wedge, as experts warn that redundancies across the global financial services industry are rocketing. The Experian research agency predicts that the total tally in 2008 could hit 180,000.

In New York alone, 12,700 jobs have already been lost this year, primarily in mortgage-related work as the US housing market nosedives.

Citigroup says it expects to lay off a further 2,000 people in addition to the 4,200 it announced in January. Source

'People who don't know what they are doing will buy anything'

As you flip through the pages of the Elk Grove Citizen, you will certainly notice that while there are fewer business and real estate business ads there are whole lot of foreclosure notices.

For those who don't really understand the mortgage mess, this video from what could be called an Australian version of the Daily Show attempts to explain the unexplainable, as Donald Rumsfeld might say.

Clarke and Dawe explain how 'corporate debt offering' contributed to the sub-prime mess.

As they said of the so-called wizards of Wall Street, 'People who don't what they are doing will buy anything.' You might add 'and leave the rest of us with the tab!'

When 'Moral Hazard' applies to Wall Street, not the streets of Elk Grove

For some time now, five yearsto be exact, LToBS has warned about the impending mortgage mess brought on by the Federal Reserve and the loose-lending practices encouraged by the Bush administration in wake of the 9-11 and post internet bubble recession.

Recently as two weeks ago our companion site (ElkGroveNews.net)urged the Elk Grove (Calif.) City Council to scream and holler, do something, anything, to help the hundreds of people in Elk Grove losing their homes to foreclosure. While we realize the Elk Grove City Council can't affect the prospects of most people in foreclosure (or for that matter give a damn about what this site says), there are things they could do to help matters. More on this later.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has effectively bailed out Bear Sterns after a bank run with it's guarantee funneled through JP Morgan Chase. Of course this has been done after tens of thousands of hard-working American's have lost their homes and many thousand more face an uncertain future.

Elk Grove and the entire Sacramento region are at the forefront of this unfortunate trend. To bad Elk Grove Blvd. runs through town and not Wall Street.

One of the arguments against helping out homeowners is the so-called 'moral hazard' of bailing out homeowners from bad decision making. This is the same logic that Herbert Hoover applied at the onset of the Great Depression.

"It’s not government’s job to bail out ... those who made the decision to buy a home they knew they could not afford," President Bush has said.

Of course when the players involved in a bailout are well-healed-fat-cat-cigar smoking-Gucci-shoe wearing investment bankers on Wall Street, the rules are different. The Fed and the Bush administration have justified this action based on a sort of domino-theory that if Bear Sterns collapsed it would lead to meltdown of the whole system.

Perhaps. But why has the Fed and Bush administration ignored the plight of average homeowners? If we applied the same logic to investment bankers that the government has applied foreclosed homeowners, there would be no Bear Sterns bailout.

The ghost of Herbert Hoover still haunts the government.

Let's get back to the political leadership of Elk Grove. So just what can they do?

With a general election just around the corner, why not pressure our member of congress, Dan Lungren, to support a government bailout of homeowners in the same magnitude of the Bear Sterns bailout.

They could present their concerns at Lungren's forthcoming town hall meeting in Elk Grove. Grandstanding? Yes, but if it is done to serve the needs of Elk Grove citizen's and not real estate developers what harm can it do but put the problem front and center.

I doubt any member of our city council has the courage to stand up and force at least one hard-boiled Bush loyalist, Lungren in this case, to insist on a government bailout. Gary Davis, where are those Democratic ideals (you know, fighting for the small guy and not Richistan real estate developers) of yours or are you more interested in preserving your butt for higher elected office?

Perhaps Katherine Maestas can 'Cowboy Up' and make this an issue in her bid for city council. Sophia Scherman is a firmly established Republican and by associating her with a group of know nothings Republicans in Washington DC who will bail out the big cats while regular folk flounder, particularly here in Elk Grove, she can win a seat on the city council and push our member of congress for some help. Heaven knows Sophia won't threaten her stature with Republicans in seeking help for Elk Grove or for that matter the entire nation.

Whatever the outcome, let's hope somebody, anybody, on the city council can speak truth to power.

Now here is novel idea – perhaps Elk Grove community activist and the city council can focus on a real problem

While the Elk Grove, Calif. City Council contemplates whether or not to pass an anti-gang ordinance (they will in the yet another case of political pandering), here is something that if they and community activist really want to help out citizens and curtail crime should focus on - why not organize and help people save their homes from ‘loan sharks’ like Countrywide Mortgage.

That’s exactly what a group of vocal activist has been able to do in Cleveland. Oh.

Seeing mortgage giants like Countrywide prey on working-class home-owners (read not ‘flippers’ or so-called ‘investors’), Cleveland based East Side Organizing Project (ESOP) has successfully battled the Calabasas, Calif based lending giant.

Interestingly, ESOP started over 10 years ago to help parents with safety issues around schools. Seeing that its membership and participation drop starting in 1999, they soon discovered families were losing homes to foreclosure and sprung into action.

According to the AP story, ESOP was able to apply pressure to lenders and advocate for home-owners;

One after another, the group squeezed and cajoled eight companies and their subsidiaries into signing pacts giving it direct access to a single executive with the authority to restructure problem loans. The companies have agreed to cut interest rates and waive penalty fees and past-due balances.

Last year, ESOP — one of four groups that counsel homeowners referred by Cuyahoga County's foreclosure rescue program — says it got mortgages reworked for about 1,500 homeowners, most already in foreclosure.

So what does this mean for Elk Grove?

While many sincere civic-minded people as well as the current city council are focusing their efforts on reducing crime with the unconstitutional magic bullet, also known as the ‘anti-gang ordinance,’ perhaps a better deterrent to crime in Elk Grove would be to keep houses occupied with owners. Nothing attracts crime more than empty homes with broken windows and dead grass.

Community activist, why not use that energy and talent and target it at the white collar gangs that have put Elk Grove home owners and the whole community in real peril which will result in real crime. Don’t waste your efforts on some Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld like vague threat of imminent street gang violence.

As for the city counsel, why not call out these lenders who are squeezing real Elk Grove homeowners from your collective bully-pulpit?

Ultimately public safety funding will be threatened by a city financial crisis brought on by empty and derelict homes and diminished sales tax revenues brought about by the foreclosure meltdown. It is already happening to the Elk Grove Unified School District and the Cosumnes Community Services District.

Now isn’t that a real and measurable threat?

Do you five council members have the courage to call these predators out and go to bat for your constituents or are you so snug in bed with big-business that will you turn a blind eye?

And finally a word for candidate Katherine Maestas.

Here is a free campaign idea. Seeing as you have not come forward with any initiatives yet, why not take this and run with it?

Why not say that if elected, you will use your position as a member of the city council to push the City of Elk Grove to go after lenders like ESOP did? If they can succeed, why can’t the city?

It would be a sea change to see a council member who is more interested with homeowners than some Mercedes-driving-Gucci-shoe-wearing real estate developer. Also you can bet Sophia Scherman wouldn’t have the courage to stand up for the small guy.

At least Berry showed up

It's that time of the year again - For the Razzies.

This years big 'winners' were Eddie Murphy and Linday Lohan

Long time readers of this blog may remember when Halle Berry won a Razzie a few years ago. Well for old time sake, here is a link to that story.

At least Berry was able to eat her humble pie with humor. As for Murphy and Lohan, they didn't make the show.

Congressman having it both ways

Congressman Dan Lungren likes having it both ways.

As a self avowed fiscal conservative, one would think he would be against the widespread use of earmarks, aka, pork.

Well he is, except when it helps him buy some votes as it surely will in the small South Sacramento County community of Galt, CA.

Good thing for the people of Galt. They get a new interchange (at least it's not a bridge to nowhere) and it is a way better use of funds than the War on Iraq.

But just how are we going to pay for all these earmarks? Perhaps by using the money we are pouring in Iraq on infrastructure instead.

'It wasn't me! It was the other dude!'

Consider this headline:

Rogue trader, acting alone and unnoticed at low level loses bank $7 billion

Yeah, right -- which brings to mind this cinematic bit.

Early in “Jaws” two boys surface in wetsuits. One is wearing a wooden shark fin. It’s a nighttime prank to scare people.

When the two see a Coast Guardsman pointing a rifle at them, the smaller one points finger at bigger boy and says, “He made me do it.”

Yeah, right.

Was the audience expected to believe that? No. That’s was what was funny about it the scene.

Everyone knows bad boys lie. Everyone knows they try to weasel out of trouble by blaming others.

Only here, the bank management points to a low-level employee and says, “He made us lose it.”

Lawyers call it "The Other Dude Defense."

As in the suspect telling the cops, "It was wasn't me! It was the other dude!"

World markets decline further, fingernails chewed on Wall Street

Stock prices plummeted worldwide Monday, amid heightened fears of a US recession. While over the course of last week US financial markets suffered the worst fall since 2002, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping by 5 percent, many Asian and European indices dropped by a similar amount in just one day. It was the biggest one-day fall in world stock markets since September 11, 2001. Industrial stocks fell together with financial, suggesting that the US credit crisis, hitherto confined mainly to the banking and mortgage sectors, is spilling over into the real economy worldwide. WSWS

The scorecard so far:

-- India’s Bombay Stock Index plunges 7.4%
-- Brazil’s Bovespa shrivels 6.6%
-- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng off 5.5 percent
-- Shanghai Composite descends 5.14%
-- Japan’s Nikkei off by 4%
-- Filipino, S. Korean, Aussie marts also off

And now it’s 9:15 a.m. on the East Coast. Let’s see what’s happening there.

Wall Street was closed for the holiday

Today, stock markets panicked around the world. Took a nose dive.

One London trader, Jaweid Afsar, of Securequity, said the day's events were "very, very nerve-racking". The FTSE turned into a red blur during what Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG Index, described as an "incredible day of trading" as Europe faced the repercussions of severe Asian losses overnight.

Meanwhile in Frankfurt a dealer described how a "mass sell-off" across Europe was following the US jitters. "Pure panic is ruling here," he said.
Christoph Lindner, a trader at Baader Bank, agreed. "This is awful," he said. "This is a Black Monday."

"I was sitting here between 9am and 2pm, and in principle the only thing I got was sell orders," said Stefan Kaiser, a trader at the Frankfurt brokerage NM Fleischhacker. He added: "Getting drunk won't help because there'll be more of the same tomorrow." The Independent/UK

All was quiet in New York, however. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, you see. Stock Exchange closed.

Ah, but there is tomorrow. Tomorrow will be Tuesday. And the NYSE will be open again. Then the end will be written plain. Maybe like another Tuesday of not so long ago.

In the interests of journalistic fairness and balanced viewpoints...

...here is a musical editorial comment in, uh, support of George W. Bush's presidential orders -- both the ones he announced publicly and the ones that eventually leaked out too late to do anything about them.

All these decisions, some say, were, uh, er... I just can't bring myself to say it, so let's let The Right Band do it:


I mean, a reporter's gotta do what a reporter's gotta do, right, Dan?

So, now for the balanced part:


See? Our editorial integrity preserved.

Ironically enough, "TRB" was the signature byline of the semi-mythical semi-mythological editorialist for The New Republic magazine, a publication long considered a liberal opinion journal from the early parts of the 20th century when it hosted writers ranging from George Orwell to Hannah Arendt to Reinhold Niebuhr until it was bought out by conservatives who then used TNR's well-earned respectability to cloak the nefarious agenda of its new stable of writers that included Michael Ledeen, Fred Barnes, Irving Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and many others of the neocon ilk who were and are even worse.

Or, now that I think of it, maybe it is not ironic. Maybe it is a Whole as seen by its Parts.

Soylent Green is the answer…

…to this eco-enviro problem. Escarole-eating GOPers have more food value than those of us in the starving classes, which is why Republicans are called the "Have-mores."

Always remember, being rich also means being rich in vitamins and protein:

As levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rise in the 21st century, the nutritional value of many major food crops could decrease, according to a study conducted at Southwestern University.

Max Taub, an associate professor of biology at Southwestern, did a "meta-analysis" of previous research that had been done on the effect of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide on the protein concentrations in barley, rice, wheat, soybean and potato.

His study found that the crops had significantly lower protein concentrations when grown in atmospheres containing elevated levels of carbon dioxide. Potatoes showed a nearly 14 percent decrease in protein, while the grain crops of barley, rice and wheat showed reductions of 15.3 percent, 9.9 percent and 9.8 percent respectively. The protein decrease in soybeans was much lower, at 1.4 percent.

"This is just one more example of the impact global changes could have on us," Taub says. He notes that the impact will be felt the most in poorer countries, where people rely more on plant products for protein. ScientificBlogging

Mitt wins Nevada...Perhaps this performer helped!

Mitt Romney won big in the Nevada caucus today. No surprise with it's large Mormon concentration.

Perhaps this performer, a drag queen singing "praises" to the former Massachusetts's governor her own version of "Wedding Bell Blues" helped Romney corner the adult entertainer segment of Nevada!

Finally! The press is growing some

After what seems to be eternity, reporters covering the presidential campaigns, are growing some balls.

In this case it is AP reporter Glen Johnson who question Mitt Romney on his claims that he has no Washington lobbyist on staff, which of course he does!



(Thanks to

A few thoughts from the Right Side of Bird Street

Every now and again in this upside world of ours, one needs to cross over and take a look at things from the other side.

In this case, let's take walk across the street and look at things from The Right Side of Bird Street.

First of all, here is a video Tom found on YouTube from the self-proclaimed favorite son of Michigan, Mitt Romney. As a native of the Great Lake State, I must say this is pretty funny. Kudos to the producer. Have a watch:

Thanks to lots of cross-over voters in Michigan, we will have a few more weeks of Republicans killing one another.

On a more ominous note from the Right Side of Bird Street is finding yourself in partial agreement with conservative populist, Pat "Peasants with Pitchfork" Buchanan.

In a posting on his blog, Buchanan correctly describes the economic situation we find ourselves in now:

We are thus in the position of having to borrow from Europe to defend Europe, of having to borrow from China and Japan to defend Chinese and Japanese access to Gulf oil, and of having to borrow from Arab emirs, sultans and monarchs to make Iraq safe for democracy.

We borrow from the nations we defend so that we may continue to defend them. To question this is an unpardonable heresy called “isolationism.”

And the chickens of globalism are coming home to roost....

America, to pay her bills, has begun to sell herself to the world.

While I do not agree with everything Buchanan says in his "Subprime Nation" posting, he does raise great points regardless of whether you are on the Right or Left Side of Bird Street.

Recession is here baby - Or is it stagflation? Or a depression?

While all the politicians and economist talk about the possibility of recession, let me tell you from the here in the trenches, we have been in one for about two or three months now.

Economist and politicians are great for telling us when a recession started five or six months into one. They are just to far removed from the action to know the reality on the ground.

First there is the real estate bust. Speculators and major financial institutions who financed them and regulators (including the Bush administration, Congress and Alan Greenspan)who turned a blind eye and artificially drove the prices up can take credit for a major part our woes. Most of the growth over the last few years can be attributed to the housing bubble.

If you want evidence the country is in a recession, just try looking for a job. A look at Monster, Careerbuilder, HotJobs or Craigslist today compared to two or three months ago will show the number of jobs listed are way down. Trust me on this one.

What makes this recession more troubling is evident when you go grocery shopping. Prices on food are up, way up, even at major discount grocers such as WinCo.

As someone who has done grocery shopping on a large scale for years, prices have taken a big jump in the last six months. Everything from processed and fresh vegetables, meat, bread, milk, eggs and other staples have gone up. Most of this is probably due to oil prices.

So we find ourselves in a recession with inflation. What I find most amusing about this is how the government tries to spin this.

They say if you strip out health care, oil prices and food increases, inflation isn't that bad. What bullshit!

In other words, we are in a state of stagflation much like the early 70's.

All of this reminds me of what a friend told me years ago about the difference between a recession and a depression.

A recession, he said, was when your neighbor is out of work. A depression is when you are out of work.

I guess we are in a depression!

'There you go again...' Change and the screwing of the average guy

Going once, going twice, sold to the candidate with the most money!

Now for sale on e-bay, an overused and abused word - Change!

As we pointed out last week, this word is being tossed around like a bong at Grateful Dead concert.

So the key to whoever wins this election is who can convince the most voters they represent change.

Or in another words, who can spend the most money generated from large corporate donors who don't want any change (unless is entails deregulation of say worker or environmental protections laws) to convince voters they are the agent of change.

Of course the winning candidate, Republican or Democrat, will be funded by multi-nationals who want nothing changed that will benefit ordinary people and therefore nothing will change. Now that's what I call a real screw!

Doolittle dumped; Ose, Oller set to duke it out?

It's official, scumbag Congressman John Doolittle has "retired" from congress. It has been speculated Doolittle's retirement is preceding a criminal indictment stemming from the on-going Jack Abramoff scandal.

As reported here a few days ago, ultra-conservatitive former state sentator Rico Oller has strong hinted he would seek to replace Doolittle in Washington.

The latest wrinkle in this quick developing political parlor game has former congressman Doug Ose entering the race. Seems like certain memories die hare and that certainly is the case for Ose.

When Ose made good on his promise to vacate his seat (now held by Lungren) after three terms, it was Lungren, Oller and Ose's sister Mary would sought the GOP nomination. Oller ran a particularly nasty campaign against Mary Ose.

Now with the chance to extract some revenge on Oller, the entry of self-storage magnate Doug Ose will make for very good political blood sport.

The devil must be grinning

A motion calling for the disestablishment of the Church of England appeared on the House of Commons order paper today - bizarrely numbered 666, the number associated with the Antichrist.

Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester, one of the signatories, said: "It is is incredible that a motion like this should have, by chance, acquired this significant number.

"This number is supposed to be the mark of the Devil. It looks as though God or the Devil have been moving in mysterious ways.

"What is even stranger is that this motion was tabled last night when MPs were debating blasphemy."

This is referred to in the Book of Revelations: "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred, three score and six."

* House of Commons motions tabled by backbenchers very rarely get debated. They are normally tabled simply to gain publicity for a cause. The Independent/UK

What no one's mentioned so far as I know is that web site addresses that begin with "www" are all part of this same scheme.

The addresses coded with is part of the whole scheme, for "www" is merely "333" laid on its side. So something from a sideways "333" to another sideways "333" adds up to a "666" message on sitting on its backside.

It's all part of a plan. Or, rather, The Plan. A plan which is set to end December 21, 2012 -- or 12-21-12 -- the day Mayan astronomers calculated all the stars and planets will come into alignment in a repeated 39,000 year cycle. Notice that that particular number is three expressions of the digits 1 and 2 which add up to "3" which would make it really "3-3-3." Moreover, note that it took two steps to calculate that number, and that twice "333" is "666" and there you have it.

The end of the world squared.

So, remember. Here at LToBS anything can be made out of something, or nothing (depending) which may be the true answer to the energy and power crisis.

And, if we don't think we are here, where else might we be?

Thus it follows (as the night, the day) that if we are there and not here, when IT happens, we therefore have nothing to worry about because we'll ipso facto, be someplace else when it does.

Exaggerations of the truth from parents and politicians

As a parent who has helped raise five kids, I have a certain warm spot for politicians who tell exaggerated stories to anyone who will take every word they say as Gospel.

I have done this with my children through there years. Over the course of time I have fine tuned my exaggerations. Since I was never in the war, much less the armed services, I have regaled my children with tales of my musical lyrics exploits.

I have explained in great detail of how it came to be that I wrote the lyrics of songs dating back to the late 50's. The first lyric I claim to have written was the lyrics for the song "Tequila!"

After Tequila, I entered my early 60's "surf" era and wrote the lyrics for "Wipe Out."

The 70's saw two different movements I was involved in. The first was the funkadelic movement in the early part of that decade. I wrote the lyrics for the Average White Band's huge hit, "Pick up the pieces."

In the late 70's when disco was all the rage, I wrote the lyrics for "Do the Hustle," perhaps my crowning achievement. (watch the video below, Filipino prisoner do a great line dance to my lyrics!)

So when politician make exaggerated claims like they will reform health care (Barrack), bring the troops home from Iraq (Ron Paul), go after corporate robber-barrons (John Edwards) or fix the potholes on your street (loc al opol-hack Rico Oller), just remember they are tell the sames lies, or excuse me, exaggerations we tell our kids.

After all, to them we are nothing more that little children hanging on their every word. So what if we reneg, they'll still love you!

The most overused word in any campaign

You can say your read it here first. Or at least last week.

There comes a point in most campaigns where candidates pull out the "C" word - change, that is. We pointed it out last week. (See our posting from last Thursday, Did Iowa prove any thing, below)

Since then, I can't tell you how many times I have heard it used by candidates, and more significantly by the major media.

Here are a couple examples from just the last few hours by ABC News and NPR.

We have just completed one primary and already the word is being used like a gay whore at a Republican party conference. Enough already!

While I'm at it, here are a few more words, sayings or words being tossed around by the various candidates that are really grating:

Obama: Hope. Enough said.

McCain: "Friends" or "My friends." He has been using this since 2000.

Romney: "Silver medal winner," as in second place. Fortunately a few more "silver medals" for Romney and we won't have that one "to kick around anymore!"

Doolittle's timing for possible announcement not surprising

As has been reported over the last couple days, it is widely expected that embattled California congressman John Doolittle is expected to announce his "retirement" this week.

Doolittle's announcement is likely to happen before he is indicted on corruption charges stemming from the Jack Abramoff scandal.

More interesting is the timing of the expected announcement. Doolittle is expected to announce his "retirement" tomorrow morning - the morning after the all-important first in the nation primary in New Hampshire.

While Doolittle's departure is more than welcome, how typically weaselly of him to announce it on a day that this story will be buried by news of Obama's historic primary victory.

What a chickenshit!

Why Huckabee's 'Fair Tax' support will die

While stealing a glimpse of CNN today, I caught an interview with Mike Huckabee who was explaining his support of the so-called "fair tax."
A replacement for our current taxation scheme, the "fair tax" is simply a national sales tax.

While there would be big winners (high wage earners and those who are not big consumers) and losers(lower income earners) with a national sales tax, I have to at least applaud Huckabeee for discussing different ways of funding the government.
Unfortunately for Huckabee, the "fair tax" will never see the light of day for several reasons. One major obstacle is Wall Street. With Wall Street firms collecting very hefty "fees" from 401-k plans, which help lower income taxes, I doubt they would support something that would deprive them of their hard earned fees and year-end bonuses.

The bigger hurdle, and it's a big one, is congress and multi-national corporations. With a tax code that is something like 66,000 pages, the tax code is a bonanza for big business and congress. These two institutions would be loath to give up the power that comes with writing tax codes that reward friends and punish enemies.

Nice try Huck, I really mean it, but it ain't gonna happen.

Rico Oller; Doolittle's heir apparent?

Embattled California Congressman John Doolittle may finally succumb to pressure from the national GOP to withdraw from the race for re-election to the 4th congressional seat. Facing possible criminal charges surrounding the Jack Abramoff scandal and a stiff battle from Democrat Charlie Brown, who barely lost in the last election in a solidly conservative district, this report says that Doolittle will bow out of the race sometime this week.

The good news is the California may finally be rid of Doolitte.

The bad news, his heir apparent, former California state senator and assemblyman Rico Oller, makes Doolittle look like Tip O'Neil.In a district such as California's 4th, Oller will surely be a popular choice.

I have interviewed Oller several times through the years for the local rag I formerly wrote for and was astounded with his ultra-conservative views, particularly in a state like California.

If Oller does enter the race, this won't be his first stab at running for congress. In 2004 Oller ran against Congressman Dan Lungren in the Republican primary for the 3rd California congressional district. Lungren won because he was the more moderate of the main candidate.

However, the 4th district in famously ultra-conservative and might be good fit for Oller brand of politics.

New Hampshire next - does it really matter?

Now that Iowa is done for another four years and New Hampshire is just around the corner, we should know in the next 11 or days who will be the nominees to run for the privilege of heading our country.

The two candidates who represent real change, Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, don't have a chance of winning. It should be noted though that Paul has assembled an interesting assortment of supporters who could influence, at least in the short-term, the rhetoric of the campaign.

In the end though, money will trump all else.

In the major media, second place winner John Edwards has already been declared dead-in-the-water in New Hampshire.

Why?

Not because of the ideology of his campaign. No it is because he has much less money than Clinton and Obama.

As I have said before, nothing is going to substantially change in this country until there is a catostrophic economic collapse. Perhaps millions getting their food from the dumpsters outside the gated communities of the rich.

Let them eat our table scraps!

So it goes. Money in politics, mostly from multi-national corporations, will continue to shape all aspects of our life.

So for all you people out there who think a new administration is going to 'change' things, don't be to disappointed a couple years from now when the only 'change' you is the continued steady decline of your economic lot in life.

Did Iowa prove any thing?

Call me a cynic. It's all right.

With Huckabee's and Obama's victories tonight in Iowa, both candidates framed their victories as the omnipresent "change" mandate.

For Obama, it went something like this:

"They said this day would never come," he said. "They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided -- too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose." He continued, "We are one nation. We are one people. And our time for change has come." One day, he said, the American people will look back on the 2008 Iowa caucuses and say, "This is the moment when it all began."

Check out the video featuring Obama. Amongst tne first words out of his mouth are, of course, 'change.'


The same Washington Post story notes:

But Huckabee, like the Democratic winner, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), cast himself as a fresh voice for change in Washington.

So just what does 'change' actually mean?

Does it mean we will see an end to the robber baron era that we find ourselves in? Does it mean that Wall Street hedge fund managers will now pay regular income taxes instead of the lower capital gains taxes on their multi-million dollar wages? Does it mean that the grip of the two-party crony system that is so firmly entrenched here will give way to third, fourth or fifth political parties?

Impossible.

So while we entertain ourselves with the rest of the primary season illusion, just remember that regardless of who the two main candidates are come November, nothing will really change until we 'peasants with pitchforks' make it happen.

God I need a stiff drink or two!

Belated (or is it just terribly early?) Christmas Letter

You get them every year. Letters from people you barely know with tales of their wonderfully bright and talented children, last summer's Tuscan holiday and the fulfilling careers they have.

In truth, the kids are just average, the Tuscan holiday was actually a set at some Branson, Mo., theatre and they have dreadfully boring jobs that they keep because they pay the bills.

What this all means to this posting, I don't know, but below find my family Christmas letter.



Back to 'regular' topics tomorrow!

Perils of parts discovered

Cribbed from Apostropher

That time of year again to listen to LToBSs' special Christmas Show

Originally produced and broadcast in December, 2003 our tale (click here) involves two plucky kids convincing Santa to give up his perch at the Bar, fight off the Wal-Mart Santa and give the kids want they want at the local downtown department store. Great listening for the whole family.

Merry Christmas from LToBS!

Magical mystery tour:
Economy stagflates, 'shadow banks', collapse predicted

Amidst mounting losses by major US and European banks and extraordinary measures by central banks to avert a financial meltdown, a dramatic increase in US inflation has further roiled global markets, raising the specter of a slide into “stagflation”—economic slump combined with sharply rising prices.

That would be the worst such situation since 1973, WSWS says. Then it goes on to detail some of the knee-busting numbers including this:

The head of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization warned Monday that the world food supply is dwindling rapidly and food prices are rising to historic levels. There is a “very serious risk that fewer people will be able to get food,” particularly in the “developing world,” said Jacques Diouf.

In the US, dairy prices were up 14 percent in the past year; meats, poultry, fish and eggs, 5.4 percent; cereal and baked products, 5.2 percent; and fruits and vegetables, 4.5 percent. Researchers at Iowa State University predict that soaring corn prices—in part the result of the diversion of corn to ethanol production—will push retail prices for meat up by 7.5 percent and raise egg prices by 13.5 percent over the next year.

Meanwhile, WSWS says, banks and the governments that regulate them in theory only scramble madly to hide the collapse.

Writing in the Financial Times on Monday, Wolfgang Münchau said of last week’s coordinated central bank action: “The idea was that a coordinated response would reassure the markets, but it had the opposite effect. It turned out that market participants are not infinitely stupid. They know by now that this is not a liquidity crisis at its core. If it had been, it would be over by now.

“It is a fully fledged solvency crisis that has arisen because two giant and interlinked bubbles burst simultaneously—one in property, one in credit—leaving banks and investors on the brink of bankruptcy, some hanging on by their fingertips.”

Fresh developments over the past week have substantiated this diagnosis. Last week, Vikram S. Pandit, the new chief executive of Citigroup, the largest US bank, announced that the bank would bail out seven affiliated investment funds, bringing their $49 billion in assets onto Citi’s balance sheet. This move will inevitably result in further write-offs of billions of dollars in subprime mortgage-linked investments that have essentially collapsed.

In the process three major banking institutions, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and UBS have been forced to write off subprime mortgage-related losses and sell off parts of themselves to Asian and Middle Eastern interests.

From any angle and according to many who are paying attention, the essentially crooked system is collapsing and contracting at the same time, like those freeze-dried commodities sucked into vacuum-sealed plastic bags.

Most estimates place the total write-down of subprime-linked assets thus far at $90 billion, and many analysts predict that, before the dust settles, $400 billion will have gone up in smoke. According to Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius, a loss on this scale could result in a reduction in lending of $2 trillion.

The Financial Times, commenting Monday on the accelerating financial crisis, wrote of the collapse of the “shadow” banking system. “A plethora of opaque institutions and vehicles,” it wrote, “have sprung up in American and European markets this decade, and they have come to play an important role in providing credit across the financial system. Until this summer, structured investment vehicles (SIVs) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) attracted little attention outside specialist financial circles. Though often affiliated to major banks, they were not always fully recognized on balance sheets. These institutions, moreover, have never been part of the ‘official’ banking system: they are unable, for example, to participate in today’s Fed auction.”

The newspaper went on to quote Bill Gross, head of Pimco Asset Management Group, who recently wrote: “What we are witnessing is essentially the breakdown of our modern-day banking system, a complex of leveraged lending [that is] so hard to understand. Colleagues call it the ‘shadow banking system’ because it has lain hidden for years, untouched by regulation yet free to magically and mystically create and then package subprime loans in [ways] that only Wall Street wizards could explain.” -- WSWS

All the bailouts being talked about are designed to save the big big boy swindlers, not the common man, a.k.a., “chumps” and “losers.”

Meanwhile Frank "Grimey" Grimes get fired up over gift giving

Listen to guest host Frank Grimes lay into the fat-cats who poision our toys and get rich while the rest of us get crushed. You can also catch LToBS on KQRP, 106.1 fm in Salida, Calif., aka, Partytown.com

Ebenezer Scrooge meets Rocky Middle Class

Scrooge, it could be said had money, alas no friends. Scrooge has a pro-business government. Middle Class has no friends, demanding kids and a government that is about to turn the AMT on him any minutes now. Listen as Rocky laments life ala George Bailey. Only problem, Rocky is not likely to get the support Bailey had because they are either incarcerated or can't afford the gas! So much for the glorious future! Click the "download at the right corner and then select the http download and it will play right away.

The trouble with 'stuff'; worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch

Just click on this and you will get an education regarding the invidious corporate loop that keeps you subservient to the ruling class.

Listen to the latest LToBS program

Thanks to our good friend and long time associate, Frank Grimes, Left Turn on Bird Street is back in the radio business.

Well sort of.

Thanks to "Grimey," as Grimes like to be called, a new LToBS has been posted on Radio4All. Here is a direct link to the show. Have a listen and let "Grimey" know what you think.

Mitt Romney and the anti-Mormon cartoon

Received this as an e-mail from Alternet about a cartoon posted on YouTube.

Can't say who produced this cartoon, but one can guess the Religious Right is behind it. As you watch the video, take note of the gentlemen at the end of the cartoon/video. Looks like they stepped right out of the late 70's.

The original CSI[clean-up] guy way before the TV series came around

Thom,

I am sure you remember interviewing and writing about this guy when we worked at the Daily Recorder over 10 years ago. I think I even sold him a few ads. What a ghastly ad that must have been!

This story would have been better around Halloween. Of course, we were way ahead of the rest of the pack. In this case you beat them by 10 years!