Cknolls

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 16, 2008 -> 01:50 PM) I believe he's now also held more press conferences than Sarah Palin. And he has gotten more press coverage than the Chairman of Ways and Means who "didn't know" he had to pay taxes.

When Obama ran against Palmer, didn't he get a boatload of signatures thrown out? Kind of ironic a group he has been associated with is committing the same offense that he fought against.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 16, 2008 -> 12:48 PM) So Joe the plumber isn't a licensed plumber. Doesn't make $250k a year and isn't even registered to vote. Why does that make me laugh out loud. Is he a commercial plumber? Or residential? If the former, then he is in violation. If the latter then he is in compliance.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Oct 16, 2008 -> 10:13 AM) You specifically said "Toolbermann." So I take it that is a no on ABC and AP?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Oct 16, 2008 -> 10:07 AM) Seriously, why are you expecting objectivity from Olbermann? Did you miss ABC NEWS and the AP in the story? And do you think they will retract or correct for the record?

“There’s no question Western Pennsylvania is a racist area,” said Mr. Murtha, whose district stretches from Johnstown to Washington County. “The older population is more hesitant.” Who in their right mind would vote for this ass monkey?

The Times-Leader reports: The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton said allegations that someone yelled “kill him” when presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during Tuesday’s Sarah Palin rally are unfounded. The Scranton Times-Tribune first reported the alleged incident on its Web site Tuesday and then again in its print edition Wednesday. The first story, written by reporter David Singleton, appeared with allegations that while congressional candidate Chris Hackett was addressing the crowd and mentioned Oabama’s name a man in the audience shouted “kill him.” News organizations including ABC, The Associated Press, The Washington Monthly and MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann reported the claim, with most attributing the allegations to the Times-Tribune story. Agent Bill Slavoski said he was in the audience, along with an undisclosed number of additional secret service agents and other law enforcement officers and not one heard the comment. “I was baffled,” he said after reading the report in Wednesday’s Times-Tribune. He said the agency conducted an investigation Wednesday, after seeing the story, and could not find one person to corroborate the allegation other than Singleton. Slavoski said more than 20 non-security agents were interviewed Wednesday, from news media to ordinary citizens in attendance at the rally for the Republican vice presidential candidate held at the Riverfront Sports Complex. He said Singleton was the only one to say he heard someone yell “kill him.” “We have yet to find someone to back up the story,” Slavoski said. “We had people all over and we have yet to find anyone who said they heard it.” Well I for one will be tuning in to Toolbermann tonight to hear his retraction......Holds breath.....No bias......

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Oct 15, 2008 -> 12:56 PM) Will McCain bring up Ayers or Wright? What are some good words for a drinking game? Four more years.... George Bush...... 8 years of failed policy....... middle class......

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/15/voter...sentee-ballots/ If they voted, should they be prosecuted?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 14, 2008 -> 10:08 AM) So, is it time yet to admit that Secretary Paulson doesn't know any better than you or I do how to do his job? Let's just go over the last 2 or so key months. Paulson decides he's going to teach everyone a lesson and let Lehman Bros. fall. While this seems like a good idea on the surface, if you had any understanding at all of the Credit Default Swap interconnections between all of these firms, which you'd sort of expect maybe a SecTreas would learn something about, then you never let that happen because it will blow everyone else up. Suddenly, AIG blows up from these credit default swaps, and Merrill winds up in the hands of BofA. So you nationalize AIG, without having a clue how much they're worth or how over their head they are on those default swaps. They blow through $50 billion of the $60 billion bailout you give them in less than a month, and they embarrass you by holding fancy retreats on the public dollar. The market implodes suddenly after everyone realizes how over their heads they are on the Lehman bros. CDS linkages and how at risk they are over every other company they have them for. Paulson yanks a plan off the shelf for a gigantic bailout, 2 weeks after saying "no more bailouts for anyone" and pretends they intended to do that all along. Problem is, his bailout isn't targeting the new problem, it's pretending the CDS problem doesn't exist and trying to solve the mortgage problem. Oh, and his bailout package is so stupidly designed (no one gets authority but me!) that Congress scoffs at it and rejects the first attempt to pass it, with his own party leading the way on the rejection. Paulson goes before Congress and publicly says that everyone who thinks there's a better way of doing this bailout, buying equity in firms or using the money in different ways, simply doesn't understand the situation. He gets the bailout passed with an additional $200 billion in tax breaks thrown in as a sweetener, then sits around for another couple weeks trying to figure out what the Hell to do with the money he's been given. Meanwhile, the market tanks while he twiddles his thumbs trying to solve the mortgage mess, when it's not the mortgage mess that's driving the situation any more. Finally, Europe, led by Brown, figures out that Paulson isn't going to fix this, comes up with a trillion Euro bailout package of its own, the markets take a huge deep breath and say "Yay, someone is doing something right!" and then Paulson suddenly snaps to it and decides he's going to do exactly what he said he'd never do 2 weeks ago, again. I don't blame Paulson as much as the Fed. After the theft of Bear Stearns by JPM, the Fed had multiple employees in each bank and investment house on the street. They should have known enough about the counter-party risk to know if letting LEH go was smart.

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining that he was being taxed "more and more for fulfilling the American dream." "It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too," Obama responded. "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody Its not that I want to punish your success, I just want to give more of your money to people who pay no income taxes. If McCain does not mention this tomorrow night, he deserves to lose. And if he does and gets no traction from it, I think he may need to realize he is the 2008 version of Bob Dole.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 13, 2008 -> 06:07 PM) is columbus day a major holiday? i never get it off Bank Holiday!

West Palm Beach Congressman Tim Mahoney (D-FL), whose predecessor resigned in the wake of a sex scandal, agreed to a $121,000 payment to a former mistress who worked on his staff and was threatening to sue him, according to current and former members of his staff who have been briefed on the settlement, which involved Mahoney and his campaign committee. Mahoney, who is married, also promised the woman, Patricia Allen, a $50,000 a year job for two years at the agency that handles his campaign advertising, the staffers said. A Mahoney spokesperson would not answer questions about the alleged affair or the settlement, but said Allen resigned of her own accord and "has not received any special payment from campaign funds." Senior Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), the chair of the Democratic Caucus, have been working with Mahoney to keep the matter from hurting his re-election campaign, the Mahoney staffers said. A spokesperson for Emanuel denies that account, but said Emanuel did confront Mahoney "upon hearing a rumor" about an affair in 2007 and "told him he was in public life and had a responsibility to act accordingly." The spokesperson added that it was a "private conversation" that had nothin What is up with this district? FLASOXX? any thoughts?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 13, 2008 -> 01:33 PM) 1. When there are polls where there are consistently multi-hour lines to vote, because they didn't have enough machines, then they SHOULD be allowed to stay open late. That happened all over Ohio in 2004. 2. Why is it you think, since you seem to have a theory, that CLE and STL would be the problem areas? I sense sarcasm. Including early voting, how many days do voters have to cast a ballot? Seems like plenty of time to make a choice.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 13, 2008 -> 01:54 PM) So, if you are in a 401k at work, don't like the fund choices, and want to just transfer to some other provider's funds... you can transfer your 401k to an IRA at that other provider, without penalty... but you can never withdraw the money? I'm confused. Don't think you can opt out of work sponsored 401k plan. I would also think you would lose the benefit of employer match if any applies.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 13, 2008 -> 11:31 AM) PS: Here's the poll closing times for all the states. based on poll closing, we might have a pretty good idea of how this election will be going right after the first polls close at 6 and 6:30 central time. States include Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, and Ohio. If Obama wins any 2 of those states, it's almost a LOCK for him to win. And the fact that he wins two of those states probably means he'll win most of the other toss-up states as well. However, if he loses all 4, then we are heading right on into a potential electoral college tie. Now we all know that there will be whining about long lines and the requisite court order will be granted to keep the polls open for an extra 1-2 hours because people couldn't get their asses out to vote in the allotted timeframe. Where? Cleveland, St. Louis. to name a few.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 13, 2008 -> 08:20 AM) I saw nothing in the article about the Dems killing it. In fact, at that time, the GOP controlled the Senate, so it seems maybe it was the GOP who stopped it? Well you have 22 Rep. Senators named in and on the letter. Almost 50% of their caucus. So if you want to think that they stopped this, fine. Would you like to buy a bridge?

QUOTE (jackie hayes @ Sep 23, 2008 -> 11:08 AM) Oh, yes, Kevin Hassett. So I can just link to an Al Franken blurb to refute that? The Dems were sure powerful if they were able to kill something without having a majority. They even killed the House bill, then exercised mind control over Oxley to make him believe the WH did it. Pretty sneaky... And of course, Fannie and Freddie are the one and only cause of the subprime mortgage crisis. No proof needed. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28973 McCain should hammer Obama on this issue in the debate. 20 Repubs want reform and the Dems kill it on the floor of the Senate. Why Barry, why?

Support us but do not run against us. Wow. Veteran NBC political commetator Chuck Todd recently revealed a secret about how Senate Democrats view Al Franken: I have had multiple very high level Democrats on the Hill sit there with their fingers crossed. They are scared of Franken winning. More importantly they fear that if Franken wins then every liberal Hollywood type is going to say 'hey I can run for office too...'

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 10, 2008 -> 01:43 PM) But that won't stop Fox News and a few unnamed folks from obsessing about it like it's the end of the world, regardless of the total lack of logic behind any sort of actual vote fraud scheme. So why don't they change the way they do their voter registrations?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 10, 2008 -> 10:03 AM) No idea who she is but I can gladly say I have never turned on Fox News in the 14 years I have had DirecTv. Not even by accident. YOU subscribed to DIRECTV while RUPERT owned it? Shame on you .

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 10, 2008 -> 01:33 PM) It's like a reverse of yesterday. Too bad I waited until today to transfer more money into my trading account (won't clear until Monday). Oh well, gives me the weekend to research what I'm actually going to buy. The rally will lead to a test of the lows. Always does. 1974. 1987. both tested the lows 6-7 weeks later. FWIW.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Oct 10, 2008 -> 12:12 AM) Just look at AIG's insurance practice, they are a completely legit solid business. The Insurance Industry isn't even close to being a disaster. And let me just state that I say that based upon a s***load of knowledge of the insurance industry and the standards they have to abide by. Sure they insurance companies have taken part is some credit swaps and have plenty of Alt A investments. But they also have a s***load of regulations to ensure that the company has matched its funds to ensure that the assets pay out in a period where they'll be able to pay out the expected liabilities and on insurance type contracts those liabilities are pretty well set (you don't expect some massive fluctuation unless there is just a complete and utter run on "deaths"). Obviously Insurance companies do more than just Life insurance but the reality is all of there policies are based on a s***load of historical trends and than those payouts get matched with the assets on very conservative set-ups and this ensures you won't ever have another insurance collapse. Plus there are a lot of things which limit the types/risk of investments the company can have. If its a certain type of investment they may only be able to go up to a certain percentage of assets, etc. Trust me knolls, Insurance Companies aren't the next to blow up. I could see picking on people that did some shady stuff related to credit swaps but a typical insurance business is about as safe as it gets right now, although they obviously will have profitability issues in the short-term due to some of the investments they are in, but as those investments flux one way they'll likely see gains on there FAS 133 riders. Insurance companies match their liabilities(death,hurricanes,car accidents, surgery, etc.) against assets. So they own corporates, CDO's, etc. Their CDS is blowing out, their credit is getting killed and the credit downgrades have begun. Check their bond portfolio's to see if they are reliable in terms of ability toback annuities. AIG's was a sobering experience. In the end these are large bond portfolios with LEVERAGE, and LOADS of LEVEL THREE ASSETS, in many cases at least as much as shareholder equity.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Oct 10, 2008 -> 12:12 AM) Just look at AIG's insurance practice, they are a completely legit solid business. The Insurance Industry isn't even close to being a disaster. And let me just state that I say that based upon a s***load of knowledge of the insurance industry and the standards they have to abide by. Sure they insurance companies have taken part is some credit swaps and have plenty of Alt A investments. But they also have a s***load of regulations to ensure that the company has matched its funds to ensure that the assets pay out in a period where they'll be able to pay out the expected liabilities and on insurance type contracts those liabilities are pretty well set (you don't expect some massive fluctuation unless there is just a complete and utter run on "deaths"). Obviously Insurance companies do more than just Life insurance but the reality is all of there policies are based on a s***load of historical trends and than those payouts get matched with the assets on very conservative set-ups and this ensures you won't ever have another insurance collapse. Plus there are a lot of things which limit the types/risk of investments the company can have. If its a certain type of investment they may only be able to go up to a certain percentage of assets, etc. Trust me knolls, Insurance Companies aren't the next to blow up. I could see picking on people that did some shady stuff related to credit swaps but a typical insurance business is about as safe as it gets right now, although they obviously will have profitability issues in the short-term due to some of the investments they are in, but as those investments flux one way they'll likely see gains on there FAS 133 riders. Have you taken a look at Metlife lately. Only down $40 in a month. 75 million share secondary offering yesterday. Everything is A-OK.

Obama's "Fight the Smears" campaign website denies any ties to ACORN other than his representation of the group in a 1995 lawsuit: Fact: Barack was never an ACORN community organizer. Fact: Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity. Fact: ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack ran in 1992. As the Cleveland Leader points out, this is flatly contradicted by an article written by ACORN head Toni Foulkes, which was conveniently removed from the internet (a common practice in the drive to scrub all evidence of Obama's career prior to 2004) after it was quoted by Stanley Kurtz of the National Review and other sources, while the rest of the articles on the same site remain up: Obama then went on to run a voter registration project with Project VOTE in 1992 that made it possible for Carol Moseley Braun to win the Senate that year. Project VOTE delivered 50,000 newly registered voters in that campaign (ACORN delivered about 5,000 of them). Since then, we have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office. Thus it was natural for many of us to be active volunteers in his first campaign for STate Senate and then his failed bid for U.S. Congress in 1996. By the time he ran for U.S. Senate, we were old friends." This stuff has been out there in plain sight, yet still Obama denies it: As recently as March 2008, the Los Angeles Times also made reference to Barack Obama's involvement with ACORN: "At the time, Talbot worked at the social action group ACORN and initially considered Obama a competitor. But she became so impressed with his work that she invited him to help train her staff." (LA Times, March 2, 2008) It was also reported contemporaneously by the left-wing Chicago press: A 1995 Chicago Reader article on Obama stated "Obama continues his work largely through classes for future leaders identified by ACORN and the Centers for New Horizons." During the 2008 Democrat primary, the Obama campaign paid Citizen Services Inc., a subsidiary of ACORN, more than $800,000, a payment that Obama's campaign somehow managed to misreport to the FEC As of yet, we can only speculate about why Obama is lying about his involvement with ACORN, what other aspects of that relationship he has failed to disclose, and what other things have been conveniently "disappeared" from his Chicago past. + - See the following on ACORN's pervasive involvement in voter fraud: * * * * * * * * * *