Happy Halloween

Neil Young - Vampire Blues

The song is "Vampire Blues" from the classic 1974 release On The Beach . Some of the figures cited in this video are a bit dated (they're even worse now), but it's still striking how well the song fits with the images. Boo!

Control of Congress

According to the gamblers at Tradesports, the GOP has about a 1 in 3 chance of retaining the House, and a 72% or so chance of keeping the Senate.

A Word To The Wise

The Engrish site is always amusing.

Pandora Internet Radio

Rate music, and it'll figure out (and play) what you also may like.

Very cool. Also check out Music Plasma .

Q: So How Much Is Berkshire Hathaway Worth, Anyway?

A: A lot (but overdue for a pullback).

278,000 American Weapons Missing in Iraq, Give Or Take A Few

Oops.

Example #43,992 of the incompetency of the Bush Presidency...

Hundreds of thousands of military weapons sent to Iraq for use by Iraqi Security Forces are missing and presumed in the hands of insurgents who use those weapons to kill Iraqi civilians and American soldiers, a government report admits.

Heckuva job, Rummy!

SOTD: Dirty Vegas - Simple Things

Dirty Vegas - Simple Things

Thank You, Republicans, For Saving Us From Online Poker

They haven't caught Osama yet after five years (but roughly 47 "number two" men in Al Qaeda have been taken out, along with habeas corpus). The Gulf Coast is still a mess. Freedom is not so much "on the march" as it is "crawling from the wreckage". North Korea has the bomb, Iran is on its way. Congressman are turning over a new page (literally).

Have no fear, however, because the party of less government interference in our lives has rescued us from our greatest threat: online poker.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 was rammed through Congress by the Republican leadership in the final minutes before the election period recess. According to Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), no one on the Senate-House Conference Committee had even seen the final language of the bill. The Act is title VIII of a completely unrelated bill, the Safe Port Act, HR 4954, dealing with port security. It can be found on pages 213-244 of the Conference Report.

Since the government's main concern, of course, is preventing underage and problem gambling, they naturally exempted horseracing and state lotteries, once again displaying the sort of cynical hypocrisy that has been the hallmark of this Administration. I was particularly impressed with how they stuck this law onto a port security measure! It's almost as if they are involved in an ongoing game of one-upmanship to see how much they can get away with before we revolt.

Nouriel Roubini's Blog

If you get tired of Larry Kudlow and the CNBC cheerleaders, this economist is a rarity - he actually is right sometimes.

Reading List : The Great Risk Shift

Heard the author today on the radio...I'll have to check it out soon...

"...shows that the decline in economic security is the major economic issue of our time, far more important than the occasional recessions and blips in the unemployment rate that preoccupy so many economists. This book powerfully illuminates the real scope of the problem." --Robert J. Shiller, author of Irrational Exuberance

The Dixie Chicks Ad NBC Doesn’t Want You To See

Yeah, the media is so liberal that they ban innocuous ads like this one...

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/27/dixie-chicks-advertisement-nbc/

In a related note, the US now ranks 53rd in World Press Freedom, right behind the Dominican Republic, Ghana and Namibia, but still ahead of Kuwait (for now). USA! USA!

Mortgage Fraud

The housing bubble will make the Nasdaq bubble look quaint. There's the fraud...

...In the Denver metro area alone, more than 1,000 homes sold for at least 110 percent of the original asking price in the 18 months ending in June, according to research derived from real estate listings by Jon Goodman, a Boulder real estate attorney, and Alison Eibner, a vice president of Metro Brokers Realty Oasis...

And the funny financing

The Dow vs. Gold

Housing Panic

"You can't go anywhere without hearing people talk about "the real estate bubble." Such talk drives me to distraction, and I'll tell you why. It's because there is no real estate bubble. Bubbles are for bathtubs." - Kendra Todd, Donald Trump The Apprentice Winner and mental giant.

I think we're somewhere between denial and fear.

Pat Tillman

Hopefully we all remember Pat Tillman, the NFL player who left millions behind to enlist (along with his brother) in the Army Rangers after 9/11, and who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004.

Pat's brother Kevin, who served with him in Afghanistan, has written a sad commentary on where this administration has led us. (Bill O'Reilly fans will probably want to skip this).

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/

Sophie Marotis

You heard it here first - she's a great singer. Now if only they'd release her album in the US.

http://www.sophiemarotis.com/

Mash-Up of the Week

Mash-Ups are when two or more songs are combined. Here's Chris Isaak and Ce-Ce Peniston. Very cool.

http://viprhealthcare.typepad.com/Mashuptown/EzK_Finally_A_Wicked_Game.mp3

SOTD: FC Kahuna - Hayling

Hafdis Huld of Gus Gus on vocals.

BSOTD

The 10 Worst Congressmen

Only 10? From Rolling Stone.

SOTD: Ms. John Soda - Number One

Ms. John Soda - Number One


"...a very lush electronica-pop sound..."

Reading List: Chain of Command - The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib

Not the most current read (2004), but author Seymour Hersh is a real journalist.

http://www.amazon.com/Chain-Command-Road-Abu-Ghraib/dp/0060195916

Forsakencraft.Com

I mentioned this site earlier but it really is a gem if you want to see what is going on in the not-so-prime southern CA real estate market space. Plus he's pretty funny.

For example, how about this house for only $500,000?

http://www.forsakencraft.com/mainframe.html

Neo-Cons & Think Tanks

Bill nails it again.

Into the abyss of Baghdad

Tragic.

..."Please, please, I must show these photographs to President Bush," Rasheed pleads in desperation, as we sit in a bombed-out palace along the Tigris, once the elegant domain of Saddam Hussein's wife, now the command center for an Iraqi army battalion. "President Bush must know what is happening in Baghdad!"...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-baghdad23oct23,0,804080,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

SOTD: Zero 7 - Destiny

Internet Operationing Instructions

How to Leave For A 2-Week Vacation

Real Estate Will Always Go Up Won't It?

This house, brand spankin' new, was originally listed for over $5 million.

Anyway, it was auctioned off last Saturday and went for $3,050,000 (+8% commission).

OK, ok, this was a pretty (i.e., extremely) pricy house...what's going on in the slightly less expensive inland empire you ask? Don't ask. Don't click on the next link either....

http://www.forsakencraft.com/mainframe.html

SOTD Friday: Flunk - Six Seven Times

Flunk is a great chill-out band.

Price Inflation is only 2.7%, right?

From http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_1395428.html

Analyst Rob Carnell of ING Financial Markets says that inflation concerns have been mitigated by the release of the US CPI data for September.In a research note published this morning, the analyst mentions that the core CPI for September rose 0.2% sequentially, with the three-month annualised rate of core CPI inflation declining from 3.8% during May to 2.7% at present. The inflation risks being faced by the US are low, in view of the 0.5% sequential decline in the headline inflation rate during September, ING Financial Markets says.

So the gub'ment says inflation is running around 2.7%? Is anything you pay for up only 2.7% over last year? The government numbers are a lie. The true inflation rate is more like 9% or 10%, as John Williams' Shadow Gov't Statistics site (and real-life experience) shows:

http://www.shadowstats.com/cgi-bin/sgs/data

America's Dumbest Congresspeople

...from http://www.radaronline.com

SOTD: Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back & Forth

Trippy indie electronic trip-hop.

Hobbits Influence US Foreign Policy

This guy is actually a real Senator. From the Buck's County Courier Times...

Embattled U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said America has avoided a second terrorist attack for five years because the “Eye of Mordor” has been drawn to Iraq instead. Santorum used the analogy from one of his favorite books, J.R.R. Tolkien's 1950s fantasy classic “Lord of the Rings,” to put an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq into terms any school kid could easily understand.

“As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else,” Santorum said, describing the tool the evil LordSauron used in search of the magical ring that would consolidate his power over Middle-earth. “It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S.,” Santorum continued. “You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States.”

Umm....hobbits?

Countdown Special Comment: Death of Habeas Corpus

Who would have thought that it would be an ex-sports reporter who would turn out to be the most courageous and patriotic American in the media today?