Sure, we can tell if it is snowing on Mars, but we cant communicate with our elected representatives.
I finally got House.gov to load and this is what came up;
Write Your Representative
The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of email traffic. The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittently available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience.
I am sure they do, but I bet they would like it better if we would all just shut up and go away.
I know what you are thinking, the Presidential debate was last week and you are just now getting to it. Well, between actually having something resembling a life this past weekend and the ongoing melt down of our financial markets, I have been a little busy, so back off.
Now, as I was saying, there was nothing better Friday night then coming home from work, downing a few cold ones, and watching politicians posture and pose for my amusement. Some one once said, “If you want entertainment, go to a circus. If you can’t afford the circus, go see a politician.”
When I had finished watching I was left with several impressions.
First, I thought Jim Lehrer, was going to jump up on stage, put the candidates shoulder to shoulder, and pound their heads together to get them to speak directly to each other. Neither candidate seemed willing to even look at the other, let alone argue a point.
Next was there body language. McCain started very tense, but loosened up as the debate went on. Obama started open, but seemed to close up as things went on. No advantage there either.
I am not going to grade either candidate on substance, because, there is no point in getting excited about what either of them has to say, seeing as how it is all smoke and sunshine, with very little substance.
What did surprise me though, was the way they came across. McCain was more the kindly older uncle, putting his arm around Americas shoulder, explaining that yes, things are fucked up, but let me tell you how we are going to fix them. Obama came off as the young upstart, like a teenager who is assured he knows more then his parents.
Now that McCain has painted himself into a political corner with his response to the failure of the bailout to win passage, it seems a moot point to score last Fridays debate as a win for McCain.
Thursday night is where the real fun starts. Sources say Palin is holed up with a gang of advisers cramming for the Vice Presidential debate. I don’t know if it is going to do her much good.
Our friends in Congress are really showing their true colors, friends.
With just five weeks to go until the elections, it seems no one wants to shoulder the risks involved in pushing through the financial bail out bill.
With the markets, both here and abroad, in a free fall, lawmakers on both side of the House of Representatives voted down the latest incarnation of the bill just minutes ago.
At the close of trading, Wall Street, which was in a nose dive before the vote, ended up with a 650 point loss.
Listen, I don’t think the bailout is the best way to to fix this thing, but something has to be done to shore up confidence in our monetary system before we experience a global meltdown.
If congress and the senate don’t get their shit together and hammer out something both sides can at least live with in the next day or two, I say we vote out every incumbent in every election across the nation. This crisis, in a very short time, is going to start hitting us little people on Main Street in a very real way, and if these career politicians don’t stop worrying about their own precious jobs and start taking a “we are going to fix this no matter what” attitude, people are going to start losing jobs and businesses will have difficulty making payrolls.
Now, all of you up there on Capitol Hill had no problem passing an emergency spending bill a few days ago, that contained a $25 billion dollars in loan guarantees to the god damn auto industry, who, all by themselves, should have been able to see the handwriting on the walls and tightened their own ships. Now we, the American taxpayer, are fronting their R&D costs so that they can make fuel efficient and alternative fuel cars.
If you can just up a give that much to people who should have been able to see their troubles coming, what the hell are they teaching in business schools these days, besides consumer rape 101, why the hell can’t you save Joe Six Pack?
I’m telling you all right now, GET IT DONE.
If anyone out there has any interest at all in saving their retirement, their job and their children’s future, I strongly suggest you contact your elected officials and tell them to get off the stick.
On a creepier note, I just tried to link to House.gov to give you all a link to use to contact them, but it appears to be down. Here is the link anyway. If someone has a different one, please post it in the comments.
When I can say I met an incredible woman, had a fantastic meal, and met some interesting people, all in a place I have never had the opportunity to explore, well friends, that is an Angry Jew Saturday Night.
My guide for this little adventure was an online friend who goes by the handle of Littleone. Now, Littleone and I have been talking online for a few weeks now. She lives down in Salem, the state capitol, about an hours drive south of me.
Surprisingly, I have never spent much time in our states capitol, you would think a political junkie like me would be persona non grata there by now, so I jumped at her offer to meet her for dinner and to wander around downtown.
As it was her town, she selected the restaurant, a place called Venti’s in downtown Salem.
Now as any military man will tell you, the key to any successful operation is intelligence so I did a little online recon and found their website. The selections looked good, and reading their blog, I knew they took their cooking seriously.
I pretty much had made my choice of what too order after reading the description of the Moroccan spiced beef. I love Moroccan food, so anything inspired by that cuisine has to be good by extension.
So Sunday afternoon I headed down south, with just a little of the trepidation that goes with taking an online relationship into the real world. Lets just say my experiences, as I have written about before, have not been, well, lets call a spade a spade, good. I have encountered everything from blatant false advertising to ladies more in need of modern psycho-pharmaceuticals then myself, and that’s saying something, but I had really enjoyed my text and IM conversations with Littleone, so I was willing to take the chance.
We met in front of the restaurant, and I was pleasantly surprised. She is a tiny, full figured woman with an open face and an infectious grin and a barely suppressed energy that you just know at first meeting is going to be a challenge to keep up with.
As usual, I hid my nervousness with an endless stream of one liners and banter, and to my shock and surprise, she not only kept up, but she got in a few good shots of her own. In no time, we were riffing like a long time comedy team, and cracking each other up to no end.
This was going to be fun.
Now of course, being the techno dweeb that I am, I must have forgotten to save the notes I took on our experience at Venti’s, so you will bear with me, as I am doing all this from memory, and anyone who knows me can tell you, very little good ever comes from that.
When it came time to order, you place your order at the counter and your food is delivered to your table, I went for the Moroccan beef while Littleone ordered a Teriyaki chicken bowl. A man in chef togs came out from the open, well appointed kitchen and asked if I would like to try a new dish, a cherry/orange chicken.
New Dish?
Oh Hell yes!!!!
As I had all ready paid, I told the girl behind the counter and to not worry about the 85 cent difference in the price of my new selection.
Littleone and I adjourned to a nearby booth and went about to getting to know each other, and in a short time our food was delivered.
My first impression was WOW. The presentation was art full, not at all what I expected. The place looks like a typical rice bowl, quick food and my plate looked like it had come out of a four star, white tablecloth place. It only got better from there. As Tom, the chef, was explaining to me that I was the first paying customer to try the dish, I fell in love at first bite.
The cherry/orange sauce was tart/sweet and complicated. It went perfectly over the chicken. I was in heaven. Tom explained to me that it was a reduction of cherry, orange juice, orange zest and balsamic vinegar. There may have been other ingredients, but again, damn this addled brain of mine. I told Tom that I had come in to try the Moroccan chicken, but was glad he had suggested the dish to me. Tom disappeared back into his domain and reappeared a few minutes latter with a full order of the Moroccan beef.
Another incredibly presented dish, with the flavors of exotic spices tingling my tongue.
Does it get any better then this?
I had the opportunity to sit with Tom and talk about his background as a sous chef for a variety of prestigious area restaurants. I swear I took great notes, but my cell phone ate them.
I will say that the food and service at Venti’s was beyond reproach and they take their food seriously. If you are going to be taking in the night life in Salem, Venti’s is a great place to start.
As for Littleone and me. Well we had a great time hanging out, talking, laughing and getting to know some of the characters that populate Salem’s street scene. It is defiantly my kind of town and she is my kind of woman. I don’t know if this is going to lead anywhere beyond a partner in crime, but I am sure looking forward to finding out.
Stay tuned for details.
Venti’s Cafe is located at 325 Court Street in Downtown Salem. Hours are Monday through Saturday from 11 am to 9 pm.
OK, this gets complicated, so see if you can keep up.
The Dodd Bill was basically killed by Republican Conservatives who wanted “more protections for taxpayers” then the bill contained.
So, this morning, I am watching news highlights from CNBC.com and came across this story.
Sorry for the hot link, I couldn’t embed it.
ACORN?
What the hell is ACORN?
So I decided to do a little hunting.
I started with the actual bill itself. Now, section 5d of the bills states;
TRANSFER OF A PERCENTAGE OF PROFITS.
DEPOSITS.Not less than 20 percent of any profit realized on the sale of each troubled asset purchased under this Act shall be deposited as provided in paragraph (2).
USE OF DEPOSITS.Of the amount referred to in paragraph (1)
65 percent shall be deposited into the Housing Trust Fund established under section 1338 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Regulatory Reform Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4568); and
35 percent shall be deposited into the Capital Magnet Fund established under section 1339 of that Act (12 U.S.C. 4569).
Sounds reasonable.
That is until you look closer at the Housing Trust Fund and The Capitol Magnet Fund.
OK, now if you go to the National Housing Trust Fund website, they dived up their money as follows;
…25% of the funds each year must first go to a reserve fund at the Treasury to offset scoring problems.
…The remaining 75% of the funds will be divided between the Housing Trust Fund, which gets 65%, and a new Capital Magnet Fund that gets 35%.
OK, just to be clear.
The Treasury makes $1000.00 profit on the sale of bailout related debt.
Of that, $200 gets divided up with $130 going to the Housing Trust Fund and $70 goes to the Capitol Magnet Fund. The Treasury takes another 25% off the $130 leaving $97.50. Now, it gets divided again with The Housing Trust Fund getting $63.375 and $32.125 going to The Capitol Magnet Fund.
Still with me?
Now both of the funds give money to groups promoting affordable housing for low income families. With ACORN receiving a large chuck from both.
“ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.”
In essence, it is a Democratic Political Action Committie.
Its 3 am. The Happy Atheist and I have been enjoying our traditional Friday morning post Thursday shift drinks.
Washington Mutual is gone, toast, taken over by The FDIC and sold to JP Morgan Chase. The governments bail out of Americas financial markets has imploded. A victim of partisan politics and conflicting points of view. McCain and Obama can not decide whether or not they are going to debate tonight.
The Asian markets are in turmoil, Wall Street is set to open in a few short hours, to what is sure to be the most devastating day since after September 11. The Happy Atheist is predicting a 300 point drop. Me, I think that is way conservative.
So here we are, on the brink, and CBS News gives us 7 minutes of coverage before moving on to Senator Stevens Corruption trial.
WHAT THE FUCK?
Listen, the government is doing what it always does, which amounts to absolute dick. The Happy Atheist and I have mulled this over and over the course of several beers and perhaps one too many shots of tequila have come up with what we think is the best course of action available to us.
AMERICA
Take Friday Off!!
Serious.
Close the markets and everyone go out, get laid, get drunk, spend a little money, hug your children, wax your car.
Have some freaking fun .
Then on Monday, lets all get back to work putting America back on track.
We need clear heads, not that mine is at the moment, to weather this crises and it is obvious we are all a little stressed out.
Well, the movers and shakers are stressed, the gas pumpers and sales clerks, all of whom I can only assume are getting their news from either me, or CBS, have not got a clue what is really going on.
So, for once, I am advocating Washington take a day off to regroup, and the rest of us will mind the store till you get back.
I have to thank Reader Ken for sending me a link to the Official John McCain Multi-Tool, pictured here. For all the details about this innovative product, click here.
