Where Are My Keys?

Get the feeling this may come back to bite us at some point?

I'm glad we got rid of a terrorist, but he was a U.S. Citizen, assassinated by the U.S. Government, without due process.  Is this the top of a slippery slope?

Who decides?

I bet I know the answer..

Solyndra Executives refuse to answer if they received bonuses after the Company began to fail.

One topic of deep concern to federal attorneys is the accuracy of Solyndra's financial statements. According to a report Thursday by Bloomberg, a focus of a federal investigation into the firm's behavior is whether it lied to Energy Department officials in order to secure additional financing after the company started to fail.

Friday's filings note that Solyndra executives refused to say "whether financial information submitted or represented to investors, creditors, and others was accurate."

According to the governmet, the executives have also refused to say when they determined the company was in financial trouble, and "whether the company paid management bonuses after management realized the company's poor financial condition."

"Such topics lie at the core of the information that [Solyndra] must disclose," the court filing said.

A spokesman for Solyndra has not replied to an email and phone calls seeking comment. In a separate filing earlier this month, Solyndra wrote: "The company is not aware of any wrongdoing by Solyndra officers, directors or employees in conjunction with the DOE loan guarantee or otherwise."

You know that famous quip about Socialism?

You know, where you eventually run out of others people's money?  Here's how it turned out in Portland:

Panera Bread's noble experiment in pay-what-you-want retail has been successful at its first two restaurants in St. Louis and Detroit, taking in about 80% of the retail price of the food they serve. They serve as shining reminders of the fundamental goodness of people. In the Midwest, anyway. Until recently, the third free-will restaurant in Portland, Oregon was faltering, not attracting enough paying customers and losing money.

It turns out that the down-and-out in Portland like to eat free food and linger. For hours on end. While the point of the eatery is to help people out, the experiment was never intended as a homeless shelter. The business model depends on attracting customers who will pay retail for their meals, and some who will pay a little extra. There's a difference between a restaurant with a diverse clientele and a day shelter with paintings of bread on the walls, and the restaurant began to resemble the latter.

"We had to help them understand that this is a café of shared responsibility and not a handout," Panera founder Ron Shaich told the Portland Tribune. "It can't serve as a shelter and we can't have community organizations sending everybody down."

Portland café has now hired a "community outreach manager," who will gently prod diners who have overstayed their welcome to leave.

Watch the Brewers..

Rick Reilly likes the team's chances this postseason:

But this year is different. This year, we have the Milwaukee Brewers. If you can't root for the Brewers, your rooter is busted.

The Brewers are a foamy phenomenon. How could a team with a smaller television market than Raleigh-Durham win the NL Central for the first time in 29 years?

This is a team whose three most famous members are stuffed sausages. How could a team with a comedian for a play-by-play guy get so seriously good?

Because it's Milwaukee, where baseball is actually fun.

The Brewers are a rolling carnival in metal spikes. One day this year, their stud left fielder, Ryan Braun, fell flat on his face between third and home and was tagged out. The next day, there was a body outline on the grass, a present from his teammates.

One night, their center fielder, Nyjer Morgan, smashed a walk-off double, only he didn't know to walk off. He thought it was the eighth inning.

Glad to see a pro like Reilly is jumping on the bandwagon.  Regular readers were alerted to the Brew Crew back in April, when someone made this prediction:

Connecticut wins tonight, meaning not only am I the Champion of the WAMK Bracket Buster tourney, but I become the first 2-time, and first back-to-back winner.  Last year I won by 1 point, this year 3.  Paulie comes in second, and depending how UConn does in the final, the other place fall into line.

To add to my hardware on the mantel, I also won the other bracket I was entered in, against some of the other dads in the little Duper's class.  I easily captured that crown, with a 20-point win.  Prior to the games today, I was in the 96% percentile at Yahoo!, as I post this, those figures are updating.

Want some advice?

If you are near a sports book, lay a few dollars on the Milwaukee Brewers to win the World Series.  Trust me.

You guys laid your bets, right?

What a great day!

 

Can't say I'm surprised about this..

1 in 5 mortgages that got an Obama mortgage modification is in redefault.  Good to see "our" money went to bail out folks that have once again proved they shouldn't have been homeowners to begin with.

One in five homeowners whose mortgages were modified under a program aimed at reducing foreclosures defaulted again within a year after their payments were cut, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency reported today.

Twenty percent of modified loans were at least 90 days delinquent within a year in the second quarter, according to the Comptroller's "Mortgage Metrics Report." Delinquencies for loans 30 to 59 days late increased 0.4 percentage points to 3 percent from the previous quarter,

"Foreclosures may continue to increase in future quarters as a large number of foreclosures work through the process and alternatives to foreclosure are exhausted," the Comptroller, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department, said in a statement.

Along the lines of foreclosure, comes this from the guy that "turns the lights out" after your home gets taken back by the bank:

When a lender forecloses on a property, one of the first things he does is send somebody out to see if there is a house still standing and whether there’s anybody living there. That’s my job. Sometimes the houses are crack dens or meth labs, sometimes the sites of cock- or dog-fighting operations, sometimes the backyard is filled with pot. And sometimes the house is a waterfront mansion in a gated golf community worth well over seven figures. Variety is the rule.

Some people have been expecting me. Some claim they never knew they were foreclosed on or tell me that they have worked something out with their lender. Some won’t tell me a thing. If nobody is home, I have to determine where they are — at work, on vacation, in the Army, in jail, in a nursing home, dead or moved away. It isn’t easy.

Many lenders are willing to negotiate with the occupants instead of taking them to court. In exchange for surrendering a property in reasonably clean condition with the furnace still hooked up, the kitchen not stripped and the basement not intentionally flooded, the lender will cut the occupants a check. When I explain that the lender is offering them money to leave, sometimes they tell me that they haven’t slept for months, not knowing if tomorrow would be the day when somebody kicks in their door and throws their kids out on the lawn. You can hear the release of a massive weight in their voices. It isn’t much, but at least it’s something.

Read the whole thing.

I'm torn here.

I truly feel sorrow and compassion for the decent, hard-working people that are having/have had their lives turned upside down after losing their job, and then losing their home.  They played by the rules, had a bad turn, and are now forced to face a new reality.

I don't feel bad for those people that lied about their income, those that bought more house than they could afford, and those people that were "tricked" into getting an adjustable rate mortgage.

Reading about the mortgage "closer" in the second link breaks my heart for the people in the first group.  If "we" hadn't wasted time in D.C. on legislation that did nothing to help the overall jobs picture, the mess we find ourselves in now wouldn't be as bad.

2012 can't come soon enough.

I think we need a little more sunlight on Governor Perdue..

First she said we should consider stopping elections, and now we learn her politically connected allies get sweetheart deals.

A state lawmaker and a group of Democratic political donors with ties to Gov. Beverly Perdue are poised to sell land at a handsome profit for a tire plant that's being lured with $100 million in state and local incentives, according to public records reviewed by The Associated Press.

As North Carolina's chief executive, the governor is a key decision maker in large incentives deals involving state money. She also helps appoint the board members of a foundation that's been asked to provide part of the tire plant's package. Perdue's campaign has received more than $52,000 from five men with an ownership stake in the Brunswick County industrial park proposed for the new facility.

The governor's son, Garrett Perdue, is also a lawyer and site-selection consultant for an influential law firm that a county official said was advising the tire company. The firm, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, does not disclose which projects the younger Perdue works on, citing attorney-client privilege.

What will we learn about her next?

 

Funny, isn't it?

 

Suddenly, some on the Left are worried that images that are critical of the President disrespect the office.  Where were those "concerned citizens" a few years ago?

You reap what you sow, Lefties.  You were the ones that started this whole "trend".  You didn't seem to mind these types of First Amendment displays when Bush was in office, and I'm sure you won't mind when President Palin gets elected next November.

 

I wonder if she wore her $42,000 bracelets?

Michelle Obama is just like you!  She shops at Target!

 

Now go donate money to help her husband keep his job.

No word if FLOTUS is in trouble with MoveOn.org for crossing into enemy territory.  Our democracy is not for sale, you know.

 

Pretty smart scam..

I get a call on my cell from an "unavailable" number.  I answer, as sometimes my clients show up that way on my phone.  It's an automated call from Wells Fargo, notifying me that there has been a technical problem with their computer system, and it has temporarily rendered my debit card as inactive. 

The good news is, I can reactivate my card over the phone, in just a few minutes.  To begin the process, I just need to enter the last four digits on my Social Security number. 

Of course at that point, I hung up.  Because I don't have a Wells Fargo debit card.  But what a great way to get folks to voluntarily offer up their SS number, debit card number, and most likely a PIN.

After I hung up, I kicked myself for not staying on.  I could have given a bogus SS number, like 1234, and then checked out the next steps in their process.

Gotta stay sharp, folks.  The criminals are getting smarter!