Kent Conrad’s Bad Decision

An ongoing federal investigation is raising some concerns over Countrywide mortgage practices. While I am very concerned about Countrywide’s involvement in this potential scandal, I believe Sen. Conrad when he says he wasn’t aware of the special treatment. I think it is very reasonable to assume that he thought he was getting the rate that he deserved. Even assuming he was told he was a VIP, would this give him any reason to think that Countrwide was trying to buy some influence? I don’t know his credit score but I can assume it’s pretty high. People with High Credit scores get VIP treatment, should he always question whether he’s getting the VIP treatment he deserves for his credit score or his Senatorial standing. If he leases a car should he question his rate, how about not having to put a deposit down on a Cell phone, his credit limit, credit card rates etc.? It seams plausible that he had no knowledge of any impropriety.

“They said they frequently made exceptions, especially for good customers, and I was a very good customer,” Conrad said.

I think that the fact that he gave the proceeds to habitat for humanity as soon as he was made aware of them let’s us know a little about his character. Sure it was done mainly for political reasons, but he made an attempt at amends. Not to mention he picked a very appropriate charity. Sen. Conrad has a history of being a pretty honest senator and I find it hard to believe that he would knowingly abuse his position.

On the flip side…I do think that more investigation is required. Since both of the Senators involved (Dodd & Conrad) both hold key positions in relation to the Mortgage industry (Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), head of the Senate Banking Committee, and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who chairs the Senate Budget Committee) this could be very serious. I’m a firm believer in giving people the benefit of doubt, but there should definately be more investigations conducted.

In the current political climate it is hard to tell what is really going on. I think until investigations are over people should consider current politicians innocent until proven guilty. Or at least as innocent as a politician can be.

Here’s NBC’s Story http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27452151#27452151

Any Excuse to throw up Some AC/DC

That act and the music that goes with it — more than a dozen studio albums of strict blues-riff grammar, lewd vocal snarl and bull-elephant charge — have made AC/DC one of the biggest bands in the world. Their 1980 album, Back in Black, has sold 22 million copies in the U.S. alone. Over the past two years, AC/DC are second only to the Beatles in U.S. catalog sales, and they’ve sold a combined 23 million albums and DVDs worldwide since 2003, when the band moved from its longtime label, Atlantic, to Sony Music. And AC/DC’s new Columbia album, Black Ice, their first studio release in eight years, is poised to be the bestselling rock album of 2008. Advance shipments by Wal-Mart, the album’s exclusive retail outlet, to its stores reportedly totaled 2.5 million copies.

Jan 17, 2009, Fargodome…Sold Out

The Phantom will see you there

More details about the suspected plot to assassinate Obama come trickling in

Apparently the skinheads are afraid again. *Two white supremacists allegedly plotted to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, federal authorities said Monday.

2 Men were planning on killing 88 people, 14 of which were to be beheaded. Apparently the numbers 88 and 14 have some kind of special meaning in this group of wacko’s.

*”Both individuals stated they would dress in all white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt,” the court complaint states. “Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt.”

Top hats and tuxes? Once again showing that there was some quality planning here. I mean really, did they think that by the second heinous action that a description of skinhead in tuxes wouldn’t have made them a little hard not to stop?

*Sheriffs’ deputies in Crockett County, Tenn., arrested the two suspects — Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark. — Oct. 22 on unspecified charges. “Once we arrested the defendants and suspected they had violated federal law, we immediately contacted federal authorities,” said Crockett County Sheriff Troy Klyce.

Will this be the first of many stories that haunt this future president, or is he doomed to suffer the same fate as Benazir Bhutto. Are we really living in a country as unsafe for our Leader’s as Pakistan?

We are currently in what is my least favorite time of every olympiad: the presidential and other other major election times.

Time for attack ads, mostly untrue, unkeepable promises, and out and out lies. Little actual information.

Recently we in the Red River Valley had a supposed treat: a visit from Sarah Pahlin’s husband, who, of course wasn’t really doing any campaigning, but he did want us all to know how much of a “Constitutionalists” he is. He’s referring, of course, to the supposed second amendment right to bear arms, which many would have us believe the constitution guarantees each and every one of us. The only problem with Mr. Pahlin and the like is that they never tell us what the second amendment actually says. They speak of something like “right to bear arms,” likely never saying the same thing twice and let it go at that.

For the record: “A well organized and disciplined militia being essential for the national defense, the right of The People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Now, I am not arguing for gun control, I’m just examining some people’s political position. Note a few items of interest in the above: 1) The second amendment is about a militia. Does Mr. Pahlin have trouble joining the Alaska National Guard? 2) The amendment mentions the People, as in “We the People” or the “right of the People to peacably assemble(in the first amendment)”; 3) there is no mention of firearms.

Now, I am not taking a position on individuals owning firearms: it is unlikely that any jurisdiction in North Dakota would pass a law outlawing such. It is true that according to several statistical studies the moment we obtain a gun for our own protection, the chances of our being killed or injured in a violent incident is increased. The reason is simple: people that commit such acts, according to the TV show “Evil” have brains that work differently than normal people, and the don’t view us as people, but rather objects. But I digress.

Recently, the US Supreme court(a body which almost eight years ago I lost all respect for) struck down a Washington DC law that forbade the owning of sidearms. They specifically did not strike down all such laws as unconstitutional. But, for the sake of argument. lets assume they had. Then I want to know if the second amendment guarantees me the the right to keep nuclear hand grenades in my house.

Obviously this last would be absurd, but how to we make such determinations? Well, maybe we should look at the writings of the people who wrote the constitution. I’ve done that, but it was a long time ago. Seems to me that the reason for the second amendment is to keep the government from hiring a private army, which they started doing in the late 60’s during the Viet Nam era.

The point of all this: don’t believe politicians: I have two letters in my files from then Senator Mark Andrews, one saying the second amendment guarantees me the right to own a gun. and another saying it doesn’t.

Fear the Letefisk



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No one can complain of a shortage of information about the Great Financial Meltdown. The biggest growth industry today is words: A whole new vocabulary has spread from board tables to kitchen tables. Superannuated whiz kids planting cabbages to offset their newly straitened means can blame their troubles on collateralized debt obligations, special investment vehicles, credit default swaps. Subprime mortgage holders find themselves censured for a new and virulent disease called toxic debt.

But what is in even shorter supply than credit is an economic theory to explain why this financial tsunami occurred, and what its consequences might be. Over the past 30 years, economists have devoted great intellectual energy to proving that such disasters cannot happen. The market system accurately prices all trades at each moment in time. Greed, ignorance, euphoria, panic, herd behavior, predation, financial skulduggery and politics — the forces that drive boom-bust cycles — only exist offstage in their models.
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Who Said The 1990s Didn’t Rock?

Democrats also are lining

up behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan to bring lawmakers back to Capitol Hill after the Nov. 4 election to work on a second economic relief plan. The idea is “give the middle-class and the average citizen the same kind of relief that we try to give the financial sector,” said Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Top Democrats are suggesting a $150 billion measure that would extend jobless benefits, provide more money for food stamps and finance and some construction projects such as rebuilding bridges and roads. Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the second-ranking House Republican, said he would help on a plan “that makes sense” but is not laden with huge public works projects or bailouts for states that overspent on social programs. Read More Here

Who was the big loser? In an historic fortnight that had already underscored his erratic nature, John McCain.

The fact that Palin was able to string her sentences together last night – which she couldn’t manage to do in her unscripted interviews with Katie Couric — shows only how low McCain has strapped his presidential quest.

Sarah Palin’s task was an impossible one: to demonstrate that she is ready to be president of the United States. McCain put her in that impossible position; and her performance — all prep and no depth — demonstrated the bind he has put himself in.

Yes, he “energized the base” with his Hail Mary pick of Palin as a running mate. But he also demonstrated cynical disregard for the requirement of stable governance were he to be elected president, and then — through his incapacitation or death — Palin be called upon to exercise the powers of the presidency.

Just how scary a notion that is went on full display last night: She appeared to lack any semblance of the requisite depth, knowledge, or sense of history we should expect in a president or vice president; then she sought to excuse it by saying, “I’ve only been at this for five weeks.”

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While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand had been caught in a gate while working with cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually, the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President.

The old rancher said, ‘Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.’

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was.

The old rancher said, ‘When you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a post turtle.’

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor’s face, so he continued to explain.

‘You know she didn’t get up there by herself, she doesn’t belong up there, she doesn’t know what to do while she’s up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there in the first place.’

Fargo ND, “Biden needs to be ready for two Sarah Palins: the smiling one and the attacking one. Actually, she is pretty good at doing both at the same time. Joe should not go after her at all, but only after McCain. And while he is doing it, Joe cannot adopt a posture of being aggressive toward her or, worse, condescending. He attacks McCain only on the economy — the GOP ticket’s weakest spot. As he does so, Biden talks about his blue-collar background.”

Stuart Stevens on Palin: “She should be very aggressive, but primarily toward Obama. She should try to drive a wedge into the Democratic ticket by playing back Biden’s own critical, dismissive words about Obama from the primary season. She would not be well served going after snarky debating points. Voters know she can tweak Obama with her gleeful combativeness. That kind of thing plays better to Republican audiences than to a national one. She shouldn’t be delivering lines to the faithful.”
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