FamGuyToday by Aunty Fox

As I watched Bush answer questions after he spoke this morning, I realized, again, how obvious it is that this guy is being prompted by his earpiece. He says 8 words, waits, says 8 or 9 more, and pauses. Sooo, curious guy that I am, I Googled 'Bush earpiece', as I had before, to get a clip for my blog. What was interesting, to me, MANY of the clips that used to be there, showing Bush OBVIOUSLY relying on his prompter, and some real embarassing gaffs, had been removed. Yes, REMOVED (Including my favorite one, where Bush touches his ear, looks to the side and says to no one, "No, let me finish, I can answer that"). No explanation, on several clips, just a label saying, "This clip removed". HUH? Who removed them. There are still some there. But not nearly as many as there were. I wonder what's going on????

because I've been sick. Not violently ill, but just plain listless, butt dragging, no energy, sick and tired of being sick and tired case of the BLAHS. Excuse me now, after all this exertion, I have to rest....

As it became obvious to state regulators how serious the situation was getting, with all the 'relaxed', and new 'lack of' rules in the mortgage business, they tried to pass laws to protect consumers and the entire system. In fact, in a unprecedented move, all 50 Atty's General of the states banded together to face the issue. BUT, instead of assisting them, the Bush officials in Washington, resurrected an obscure law from 1863, The National Bank Act, which gives the Federal govt power to overrule state laws, to prevent any action from being taken, and effectively blocked any and all efforts to fix the mounting problems. SOOO, as with Big Oil, a select few, in the mortgage and loan business, made obscene profits, while the economy of the country was sold, 'down the river'. As our national economy rushes toward a major depression, based on the collapse of the housing industry, spurred on by $100/barrel oil, be sure to thank King George and his appointees for

at Legacy Ridge, and came upon an ALBINO hawk, eating a freshly killed seagull. Couldn't believe it, but asked the desk people, and they said YES, they have had an albino red-tailed hawk, there, for several years, but, "Please keep it quiet, because we don't want to disturb him He has a regular red-tailed girl friend, now, and we're hoping for babies." Cool. Can you imagine what an advantage that would be, to be an albino hawk, and cruise into a flock of seagulls? Too easy....

The old Storage Tech campus was sold to Conoco-Philips, for $60 million, as their new HQ for Renewable Energy Research. Over 1000 BIG paying jobs, right here in the neighborhood (3 miles away). Gotta be fantastic news. THANK YOU big oil company. All real estate is local, and I think this helped our local real estate BIG TIME. They are gonna knock the whole thing down and build state of the art facilities. Good news for the home team... This just in. Today's Rocky Mntn News, in the lead Business Section article, predicts, MANY thousand actual jobs at the facility, with an overall job creation of 18,000 NEW jobs. Sweet! Maybe I can get a job....

It used to be, until the last few years, you had to actually save up for a house payment, and put down approx 10% of the actual appraised value of the house. Then it was 5%. Then the Bush appointees got into the act. Then 0% down would get you a house. Not content with reaping HUGE profits, the rules were changed again. You could actually buy a house, put NOTHING down, and finance up to 125% of the value of the house. If that wasn't bad enough, you didn't have to PROVE any of the income or assets that you claimed. You could also re-finance with the same (lack of) rules. Here in Colorado, gangs within prisons bought entire (nice) neighborhoods under these rules. All of a sudden we have a huge percentage of homeowners with NO equity, or negative equity in their houses. The actual loans were packaged, and repackaged and sold as collaterol to banks and investment companies. All along the way brokers, agents and the $$ people were getting huge kickbacks and commisions. It became obv

As those who know me best, realize, I have been preaching about a housing meltdown, and the problems it will cause, for a couple of years now. You may also have realized I am not a big fan of George Bush. What I am gonna do here, in the next few posts, is tie the two together. In my humble opinion, nothing fuels the American economy like housing. From raw materials and labor in all forms to build it, the service industry to market, sell and finance it, the huge amount of manufacturing it takes to furnish the finished house, and the taxation upon it to finance local government and education, and it is unparalleled in it's scope. Throw in the American dream of home ownership and the fact that it is most people's largest investment and you can began to see the importance. In a normal economic environment, this investment grows through inflation and the gradual payment on principal. It acts like a piggybank for larger purchases and emergencies by refinancing when necessary.

It happened again. CROX reports great numbers, profits for the quarter up over 84%, for the year, over 99%, best operating margins in the industry, by far, foreign sales tripling, and it gets slammed. The official reason, some analyst had predicted .44/share profit. CROX predicted '41. Actual earnings, .45/share. SOOO, because they only beat by a penny, (someone elses' guess), it gets killed. THE REAL REASON it got taken down... Last time, it was because of naked shorting, an illegal practice, of hedgefunds, who have shorted the stock, looking for poor performance, but when it doesn't happen, calling in huge 'sell' orders, on stocks they don't own. Millions of shares. They actually own some, but not near as many as they sell. Once the stock is way down, they gradually replenish their inventory. It is complicated to prove, but can be done. It is the job of the SEC to enforce laws against naked shorting, but they more or less say, the practice is too wide spread,

is gonna tell alot about CROX, I think, because they report earnings after the close. Could be good, or could be bad, or could be neutral. I just bet quite a bit, Friday, at $31.80, that they are gonna go up. PLUS, what I already had. OK, feel free to laugh at me if it doesn't work, BUT, I'm thinking they are for real. (Hopefully!!!) Update--- If anyone finds an extra ass out there, please return it to me, as I LOST mine, today.

Disturbing videos on TV of meat packing company abusing cattle that couldn't even stand, then slaughtering and selling them as beef. The worst thing? All those big black and white cows are 'dairy cattle' that only get slaughtered when they are too old to milk. Yuck. Makes our ground elk look REALLY good.

Mike M, (won't use his last name 'cause he doesn't want to get on Bush's hit-list), who likes W about as much I do, sent me a link from Keith Olberman, another huge Bush fan. A sample--- "You are a liar, Mr. Bush, and after showing some skill at it, you have ceased to even be a very good liar," he declared Click: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Olbermann_Bush_panoramic_invasion_of_privacy_0215.html if you want the whole story. Thanks, Mike, and I won't give up your full name, unless I get water-boarded or something.

in the Rocky Mntn News today, and I love the title. NON-FICTION--THE BUSH TRAJEDY, about the father-son relationship, which lies at his spectacular, avoidable flame-out. Explains why W was intent on being an instantaneous 'decider', who refuses to change his mind or revisit his choices, to differentiate himself from his father who was known as being 'prudent'. It tells how Karl Rove and Dick Cheney would always frame choices to maneuver him into their points of view, by pointing him toward being the antithesis of his father. The Iraq War was sold as being 'Bold, and Game-changing", playing into the military's and oil company's wishes. SOOO, again we see how this puppet was used to fulfill the wishes of the military-industrial complex. Not that there is anything NEW in this book. Was pretty obvious to some of us....

with me, and a lot of voters is her unwillingness to say she would get us out of Iraq quickly and her inability to admit her mistake on voting for the war in Iraq in the first place. On a recent episode of "Meet the Press", she claimed that her 2002 vote was not actually a vote for war, but rather a vote to use the 'threat' of force against Saddam. To which Tim Russert replied, "The title of the act was ,"The Authorization for Use of Military Action Against Iraq Resolution." Hmmm? Seems pretty obvious to me, Hillary...

"The race between Barack and Hillary could be decided by the voters of Texas. Texas!! Which is a real comfort. When it comes to providing smart politicians, Texas is the place you wanna be." Right on, Jay...

knowing that W, that compassionate conservative, is worried about my safety and is spending only about $50 million to shoot a failing satellite out of the sky. Hope his buddies in the satellite shooting business can enjoy the $$$. The odds are approximately 1,000,000,000,000,000 to 1, of it hitting anyone, but he's worried for us, although it has NEVER been a problem before. He is obviously a very compassionate man, but don't ask one of the several hundred thousand or so that he has killed or wounded in Iraq. They may have a different agenda.. Anyway, thanks George. for spending my $$ in such a good way. I feel SO much better with you in charge....

While trying to refute those who claim the Bible is 100% literal and infallible, one of my favorite contententions is that there is 'no way' Noah's arc actually happened. I mean, the fact that there is NO evidence, in geology, of a world wide flood, the many animals, etc, in areas that were never connected to Mt Arrarat by a land bridge, and who CAN'T SWIM. The fact that if it was salt water used to do the flooding all fresh water fish would have died, and vice versa. The sheer, impossible size the arc would have had to have been to contain all those animals, birds, reptiles, bugs, etc, and all the FOOD they would have needed, and so on. BUT, an argument I have never heard, but would like to put out there, IS. Let's say it is all true, and 40 days later the arc finds a piece of dry ground, a total stretch, I think, but go with me. OK, THEN what does everything eat?? Water would have detroyed all the grass for the grass eaters and all the animals for the carnivores a

but read in the paper this morning, how a reader was disappointed in KOA's right wing programming spending too much time discussing if Chelsea was gonna have a big butt like her mother's. I guess if you're avoiding what your boy has done in Iraq and to our economy, you gotta talk about 'something'.

One of the few people in Bush's administration, if you count Alan Greenspan, the (former)Federal Reseve Chairman, who actually know what he was talking about, had a few words to say last night. After saying he thought the country was headed into recession, he also said---- The collapse of the housing market, sour mortgage investments and much harder-to-get credit are weighing heavily on the economy. Foreclosures have hit record highs, and banks have racked up multibillion-dollar losses. Greenspan said he thinks the housing market will continue to erode until the cause of the deterioration ends. “Where all the problem is coming from is the continuous marking down of the value of those subprime securities,” he said. “Until we stabilize the price level of homes ... you’re going to continuously get loss estimates” from banks and other financial institutions. When might the housing crisis hit rock bottom, Yergin asked. The country still has “a long way to go,” Greenspan responded. Smar

My sweetie had a bottle of champagne and a ride to a one hour massage lined up for me when I got home. We then went to The Village Tavern, for steaks and wine. As I said, I'm a 'lucky guy'. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it...

how GM (General Motors) managed to lose $38 Billion last year, after comments by their CEO, Bob Lutz, who was quoted as saying, "I think that global warming is a total crock of sh*t." With a brilliant mind like that at the helm, I can understand why they are getting left in the dust of the automotive world. Bob Lutz, big time Republican, in case you couldn't tell....

This is one of my favorite pictures of 'my girl', as it brings a good memory, as well as being a good picture. Lucky guy, huh? Love ya, honey...

that I hear, say that a one time shot of $$, next summer, won't do any long term good for the economy. HOWEVER, it may give us a temporary blip on the charts, about election time, after people go a short lived spending binge, buying TV's and I-pods, etc., made in China. SOOOO, we could either use the money to create jobs, by doing much needed infrastructure, bridge and hiway work accross the country, OR, have a quick blip in time for the elections. Guess which our fearless leader chose??? Like he's gonna develop a brain at this point in his life????

because we (or I) am/are a sissy. Live shot from the mountain, Sat morning. Looks terrible, huh? http://keystone.snow.com/mtninfo.camslg.asp?camera_id=4

We had planned to ski this weekend, but the weather is just too bad. The tunnel and hiway finally opened, but traffic is gonna be real nasty for quite awhile. Plus, tomorrow is gonna be cold and windy. Am too much of a wuss, these days, to brave those conditions. I prefer to think I am 'smarter'. Anyway, the ski trip is put off for a while. Is gonna be a great ski season, but no need to rush it. Am gonna wait for the 'blue sky, sunshine' days. Call me a sissy, I don't care...

hits all-time low, in the new Associated Press Poll. 30%. My question is, who are these people? The 30% that think he's doing a good job? What the hell are they thinking????

head for the mountains today, but Eisenhour Tunnel and I-70 are closed from Idaho Springs to Vail. Even when they do open it is gonna be a long slow drive up to the condo. Rather wait here, than stuck in a car on the hiway, though....

to head up to the mountains for some skiing. Seems impossible, I know, that I could have a child 33 years old, BUT, it's true. Nate turns 33 tomorrow, on Feb 8th, and we are going to the condo at Keystone. We were gonna leave tonight, but there's a big storm blowing in, and we'd be right in the middle of it, at night, in the mountains. SOOO, we're gonna put everything back a day, and hopefully hit some powder. On the slopes, not the roads. That's the plan, anyway.

as I watch the Nuggets getting beat in overtime, how much I like the Dill Pickle flavored 'Spitz', sunflower seeds. Great B-ball game, and really good seeds..

running back in the country, Darrel Scott, a Californian, announced today that he is coming to CU. The BEST in the country, gonna be a Buff. Yahoo! I like what it says for the program. Should help recruiting all around, and return us to the glory days. Way to go, coach Hawkins...

featuring Save a Blade. Just resharpen your expensive razors instead of buying new ones. Resharpen each razor 40-50 times! Save Big $$$!! SOOOO, I thought, I don't need to pay for their high priced gadget, plus S&H. Got one of my used 3-blade razors, shaved part of my face, then used a foam sanding block, the small side, to sharpen the blades. Smart huh? Pulled the blade down my unshaven side and, WOW! Seems even sharper than new. Can't even feel it cutting. BUT, after a few swipes, I noticed it WASN'T cutting. Not at all. No wonder it was so smooth. Anyway, back to the drawing board. Good idea, needs a little work.

that just because Bush has so royally screwed things up, that the Dems can win the White House. Anyone who thinks the Democrats are a lock to win in November has somehow forgotten about Karl Rove, the right-wing radio network, the hanging chads of 2000, the Swift boat debacle, the intimidation of black voters in Florida, the long lines of Democratic voters standing forlornly in the rain in Ohio, the easily programmable Diebold voting machines, and on and on. When you consider the power, and therefore the $$$ involved, you can see why it's gonna be such a fight. Without such manipulation, we never would have had Bush, act 2, but we got him. So, beware...

for uniting the country. NEVER, has there been such an interest in voting. And the reason? CHANGE!!! We have seen Bush, and everyone wants CHANGE! Thanks George, you made a bunch of people politically active. We want CHANGE. and it's all because of you, George. You da man...

for profit. All-time. In the world, all time. Exxon Mobil, in one quarter, made 11.7 billion dollars, and over 40 billion for the year! Before Bush, the oil guy, started making the rules, you couldn't have the BIG OIL companies merge, and you didn't have them making energy policy for the country, for obvious reasons. Creates monopolies and takes away competition and raises prices. But now we got Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips and the BPI conglomerate. AND Bush has made sure they pay NO TAXES. ZERO, on huge, obscene profits. Think his contributors made a wise investment? Never mind it is wrecking our economy. He and his friends have won. Game over. We will be paying for his friends' profits for generations to come. Thanks, George...