Go ahead and go to sleep, we know it’s gonna get boring up in here. Let’s just hope Schiefer isn’t as ridiculous and stupid as he was four years ago when he moderated.

McCain makes sure to point out that Americans are innocent in this economic crisis. Innocent victims. Some, yes. Some, not so much. And I really bristle at being called a victim. McCain also wants to buy mortgages and negotiate with the “victims” who took those mortgages to make them affordable. Um, I’m against that. If you signed the contract and you can’t afford to pay it, you’re out. Foreclosed. Sorry, I don’t hate you or anything, but when our house didn’t sell for the full amount of the mortgage, we took out another loan for $19,000 and sent that money to the mortgage company. Yes, we’re still paying our own debt, so you don’t have to. Everyone else should do the same. It’s called personal responsibility.

AWESOME! MCCAIN IS BRINGING UP JOE THE PLUMBER! Let me just say, Joe the Plumber, I love you and want to kiss your feet or bake you a pie for that redistribution of wealth soundbite. Mwah.

Hey, Senator Obama, guess what?! The reason those payroll taxes won’t go up a bit is because under your plan, no one will have a freaking job! It’s simple math. Guess what else?! I’m not sure tax breaks for the oil companies are a bad thing. You increase their taxes, you increase our gas prices. Again you’re having trouble with the simple math. Great job on this guy, Harvard!

Good question from Schiefer on what cutbacks to make so their budgets don’t add trillions. Let’s see if Barack will answer the question this time. Of course, he’s speaking in generalities. “Programs that work, we keep. Programs that don’t work, blah blah blah.”

McCain: “Spending freeze across the board. Yeah, it’s a hatchet, and *then* I’ll get out the scalpel.”

LOLOLOLOLOLOL. It’s easy to please me tonight if you just go off script, or at least say a well-scripted zinger and make sure you pull it off. McCain: “Senator Obama, I am not George Bush. If you wanted to run against George Bush, you should have run for president four years ago.” ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM!

“You have to tell me one time when you have stood up against your leaders on any issue.” Well, he did vote for murdering babies when he was in state senate in Illinois, and even most of the democrats are against that one.

Every time McCain brings up global warming and how he’s all for wasting money on that crock of crap, I feel like he’s kicking me in the nuts, and I don’t even have nuts.

McCain is kicking Obama’s hind parts on the whole campaign rhetoric thing. Obama: “100% of your ads have been negative.” How is a campaign ad negative if all it does is tell the truth? Just wondering. “Please stop talking about all the evil people I’ve built my career around and talk about the issues.”

McCain: “I watched the Arizona Cardinals defeat the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.” That’s it. I’m voting for Obama. Obama: “Congratulations.” That’s it. I’m voting for NO ONE. RON PAUL! I will, of course, need his views on the Dallas Cowboys before I can donate to his campaign, though. And with Romo out, this election is up for grabs. Although… now he can go vote in Nevada like ACORN wants him to!

Yes! “There have been some things at your rallies, too, Senator Obama, in fact, some t-shirts that people are wearing…” (profanity and disgusting displays of inhumanity in link)

Oh heck yeah. “Your campaign gave $832,000 to ACORN.” Ooh, Ayers, too, but I’m sure Obama has his prescripted answer ready. McCain hits back with facts, Obama snows with bullcrap.

Obama: “Yeah, Sarah Palin is good on the special needs kids, but autism needs funding, and your across-the-board spending freeze will mean that baby Trig will get left behind.” That’s not what he said, but you know where he was going.

Blah blah blah, nothing exciting here. McCain slams Obama on “unilaterally” renegotiating with Canada on free trade. “Canada said, ‘We’ll sell our oil to China, then.'” McCain is doing well here.

Did Obama just say he wants to enforce unfair trade agreements? Anyway, he says we need to prop up the automakers but make sure to hamstring those evil oil companies.

“Obama doesn’t want free trade with our greatest ally in [South America — Colombia], but he wants to sit down with Hugo Chavez, who is funding FARK, without precondition.” What? Are you saying Obama is a contridiction unto himself? NO. I will never believe that. HOPECHANGE!

Great comment from erod: “if insurance companies can’t discriminate on the basis of preexisting conditions, why would anyone get insurance before they got sick?”

I think it’s funny that McCain is now calling Joe the Plumber “my buddy Joe the Plumber.” It’s cute.

Obama: “Uh, I can talk to Joe too. Where’s my bracelet? Uh. Uh. Uh. Tax increases for everyone except my friend… uh… Jim… John… whatever.”

Wait, what? Did McCain say that insurance plans that include transplants are gold-plated Cadillacs? I get the cosmetic surgery thing, and I get it if he means hair transplants (sorry, Biden), but organ transplants? Those people are the sickest people and need insurance more than anyone.

LOL, McCain accidentally called Obama “Senator Government.” I’m now voting for McCain! Sorry, Ron Paul.

Great answer from McCain on the Supreme Court appointees. Basically he says it’s not about a judge’s view on Roe v. Wade. It’s about a judge’s qualifications. I was afraid he wasn’t going to mention that they need strict constructionism as a qualification, but he finally did. And he said that judges who legislate from the bench are bad.

Obama: “Abortion is a difficult issue. And it is a moral issue.” And what about murdering babies that have already been born, or ones that are on their way out of the vagina? McCain brought this up, and when he did, he should have mentioned that partial birth abortion means that the baby’s brain is sucked out while it is being born. A live human being, brains sucked out.

Education. I’m so glad Frank and I agree on homeschooling. Obama says he doubled the number of charter schools in Illinois. Did he do that while he was on that education thingy with his terrorist friend Bill Ayers?

McCain: “And I’m frankly surprised you didn’t pay attention to that.” “Spending more money isn’t always the answer.” That’s right. Why do I want to pay some teacher who is required to “teach to the test,” indoctrinate the kids, and dumb down the education so the smartest kids are forced to stoop to the level of the dumbest kids? Especially when I’m an accountant, my husband is an engineer, and together we are freaking insanely smart. Oh, and we can indoctrinate our kids to our own beliefs rather than radical left beliefs pushed by the NEA. Kthx.

The twelve-year-old boy in me is giggling, because McCain said “new direction.” Say it out loud, you’ll giggle too.

Closing statements: Senator McCain loves you, America. Senator Obama wants to beat Bush in November.

I’d say Schieffer did a better job than any of the other moderators this year. And yeah, I realize I spelled it differently each time, but one of them has to be right, so I’m fine with that.

No mention of Wright or Rezko from McCain. Shame on him.

We’re members of the community.

Didn’t we come off sounding like reasonable, non-partisan people? I was totally thinking, “Well, some of these retards only watch CNN and MSNBC and get half the story. I watch Fox News, listen to talk radio, and read a ton of blogs, so I am enlightened.”

BTW, I’m still working on the post about that debate, but if you know me, you know I like to tell the whole story, so I’m not quite finished.

Frank’s so nervous his stomach is in knots.

“Hey, can I call you Joe? Thanks!” Hahaha.

Who cares about what Senator Biden says unless he’s a total jerk, right? Sarah does well with her first question, and I’m so glad she pointed out that McCain was shouting about Fannie and Freddie two years ago, but she should have been harder on the attack.

Second question: not answered, because Biden wants to respond, and in her response to his response, she is charming and winking.

Third question about whose fault it is. Governor Palin missed a huge opportunity there to point out the Democratic congressmen involved with Freddie and Fannie, and I won’t forgive her easily for that. She did straighten out Biden on the thing about the American workers being strong (I’ve heard that one before, and I’m kind of okay with it, but let’s just be serious — it’s spin, nothing more).

Biden is on about deregulation. NAIL HIM ON THE GOVERNMENT REGULATION THAT PUT US IN THIS SITUATION. I’m sorely disappointed she’s not going on about it. Yes, reduce taxes, great. Yes, keep mentioning the small business, but hit him on the CRA! Do it now!

Biden: Socialism is fairness. Palin: You like redistribution of wealth! Government needs to keep out of our pockets and our way, because we see what a great job they do running things, right? Good job, Sarah! I will soon forgive you for not bringing up the Fannie/Freddie thing and the CRA.

Palin is engaging Biden directly, and that’s exactly what she needs to do to pull him into a mega-gaffe. He looks tireder tonight than Fred Thompson ever did in the debates, so he’s bound to crack or fall asleep soon.

Palin sounds like a genius on energy. Joy Behar will probably switch to saying her earrings were wrong since she can’t call her dumb. Wait, who am I kidding? Behar would call Einstein dumb if he disagreed with her on anything (and he WOULD, because he’s freaking EINSTEIN). The earrings are classy and simple, by the way. If she were wearing those soul-crushing giant hoops, we’d be so over.

Gwin is asking what promises each candidate won’t be able to keep because of the bailout. Biden: We’ll have to slow down on foreign aid. Sorry, Darfur. You’re stuck out. Gwin asks Palin what promises she won’t be able to keep. “Well, I haven’t made a lot of promises, because I’ve been at this, what, five weeks?” Hahahahaha.

She’s had a lot of good lines so far.

Oh, I’ve now been informed that Frank is also blogging this. His is probably funnier.

Biden’s going on about how awesome Palin is for windfall profits taxes. Was her deal really a windfall profits tax? I ask because I don’t know.

Biden: “I would explain this, but it gets complicated. Too complicated for you chicks to understand, so we’ll skip it.”

Biden just made me curse, and I blame him (and the devil) for my dirty mouth. Bankruptcy judges allowed to adjust mortgage principal and rates? Bull crap.

Palin says she thinks climate change is partial human partial natural. Biden thinks it’s 100% man-made. Well, the penguins in Antarctica thank us, because as the polar ice gets smaller, Antarctica gets bigger. So you choose: polar bears or penguins? Vicious beasts that chase you on lost islands, or flippy little tuxedo-wearing sweethearts?

Hey, what constitution does Joe Biden read? I think I must have a defective copy.

Palin answered the gay marriage question (notice how not one of the three people up there would say “gay”?) very well, and came away from that question as well as she could have. Both sides happy. I mean, I’m rabidly conservative, and I was happy with it. And with the other side opposed to gay marriage as well, she’s no worse off with the libs than they are. Except that she’s not the Messiah or that old guy running with him.

“That’s a white flag of surrender you’re waving.” Ok, I forgive your earlier stuff.

Good answer from Palin on nuclear Iran v. unstable Pakistan. And pointing out the difference between a president sitting down with Ahmadinejad and lower level diplomats sitting down.

Palin on Israel v. Palestine says two states, blah blah blah. What she should have said was, “Well, for one, we can stop giving money to the Palestinians, because they hate us and cheered when we got attacked on 9/11.”

LOL. “Too much looking backwards to prove that you’re about change.” Or something like that. She basically said, in more words, “Bush isn’t on the Republican ticket.”

Yay! She made me cheer in pointing out what Obama said about Afghanistan. “Reckless, reckless statement.” IOW, “Obama is a propagandist for the enemy. Go Barry!”

I love Biden’s math skills. Seven years in Iraq. [Ahem. First off, he said seven years in Afghanistan, and I was trying to riff on that. Second, um, we have been in Afghanistan seven years, so his math is working fine.]

I love Biden’s loud sigh while Palin corrects him on McClellanMcKiernan. (I don’t know what he said, but I’m sure Hot Air has the link.) I also love how Palin looks at him like she’s about to ground his little kid butt if he doesn’t stop with the sighing, and she keeps right on talking.

How is Biden going to help in Darfur if he’s cutting back foreign aid for all those entitlement programs?

I’m glad she pointed out that the bill in Alaska hasn’t passed yet, because otherwise people would have been peeing their pants tomorrow. “She’s talking about a bill that hasn’t passed! Gotcha! Teacher!? Did you hear?!”

How will a Biden presidency differ from an Obama presidency? Not much, because I love him!

Palin: Well, yeah, we disagree on things. What do you expect with a team of Mavericks? Yes, I do disagree with him on ANWR, and I’m gonna keep pushing him on that. She winked again. I love her again.

I’m interested to see how Tina Fey plays her this week. She’ll probably overemphasize the winking, because that’s all she’s got.

“Say it ain’t so, Joe, there you go again!” “You prefaced your whole comment with ‘The Bush Administration.'”

For all the hubbub about Gwin Ifill’s conflict of interest, she has been very fair tonight, IMAO. I’d let her moderate another one, if she promised to perform like this.

Palin: “My ‘what does the vice president do’ comment was a lame attempt at a joke, and so, too, was yours, Joe [re: I don’t want to be vice president], and nobody got it. Nobody got mine either!”

Palin: how do you respond to lack of experience? Please mention Obama’s lack of experience. Pleeeeeease. She’s not. She’s going on about her own executive experience and also her experience as a real person. We represent equality, freedom, equal rights. Oh, by the way. Forgot to mention earlier. I was really glad when she mentioned that Iran and other threats kill women’s rights.

Biden: how do you respond to lack of discipline? By blahdeblahdeblahing and spinning, yo!

Palin: McCain has had to take on his own party. AND WE HATE HIM FOR IT! (That was me on that last part, not The Other Sarah.)

Shout out to Anne in the comments! Thanks!

Frank, did you call Palin precious? I’M PRECIOUS!

I don’t know what Biden just got all upset about. He was talking for soooooo loooooonnnnng. When will he stop? Now he’s trying to prove that he knows court cases. Snore.

LOL, Biden’s talking about being all bi. (Partisan.) McCain’s so bipartisan that we can’t stand him! He works with the other side way too much, but whatevs. Hopefully he’ll actually appoint good judges and we can hate him less.

Palin’s closing statement is first: I’m glad to get to talk to America without the tools of the main-stream media filtering everything I say. Suck it, MSM!

Biden: I’m tired. Can we go home yet? Where’s the bar?

This week Obama has been jabbing at McCain, saying that The One didn’t need to return to Washington to take care of the financial crisis (“call me if you need me!”) because he could “multi-task,” unlike his elderly, decrepit opponent. But when McCain was telling his bracelet story last night, maybe Barack should have used his masterful multi-tasking skills to read the bracelet on his own wrist while he listened to McCain so the cameras wouldn’t have caught that embarrassing moment.

References to Obama as “articulate.” Once by someone planning to vote for him, and once by a McCain supporter. Now THAT’S racist.

Until I get bored or the sushi rice is ready, whichever comes first.

We’re watching this bad boy in HD so we can see how long Barack’s nose grows during his answers, how much baggage Lehrer is carrying under his eyes, and how many times McCain grimaces at one of the many stupid things Obama will say.

Lehrer quotes Eisenhower. “We must achieve both security and solvency,” blah blah blah. Where do the candidates stand on the socialism plan? Obama can’t think of a better time to talk about the country. That’s all he does is talk, ever. “Present!” 1) We have to have oversight. “700 billion dollars potentially is a lot of money.” I guess it depends on inflation? 2) Taxpayers, when they’re putting their money at risk, need to have the possibility of getting that money back. Yeah, like the *possibility* we have of getting back what we’re putting into social security? Oh, plus we should get back gains if there are any. Let’s all just wish in one hand and wet in the other and see which one fills up first. 3) None of the money should pad CEO bank accounts or pay for golden parachutes. And 20% to ACORN for all! 4) Help homeowners, because the root problem is the foreclosures. Really? I thought the root problems were greedy people borrowing more than they could pay back and the government passing anti-capitalist laws that forced banks to make bad loans. Maybe it’s just me. I really don’t like this guy.

That was the longest 120 seconds EVER.

McCain gets to answer. Platitudes, best wishes to his dearly beloved friend Senator Kennedy, more platitudes to the host. He’s pleased about the bipartisan meeting yesterday and all the negotiations. The plan has to have transparency, has to have oversight, has to have the option for loans to failing businesses rather than the government taking them over (YES). Yes, I went back to Washington, and I’m not sorry. This isn’t the beginning of the end, this is the end of the beginning of the crisis, and we have to help America financially, partly by reducing our dependence on foreign oil. SarahK would also like to add that any Americans left jobless after this whole nightmare should get their pick of jobs currently held by illegal aliens.

Break for making sushi, brb.

Lehrer not happy with responses. Are you in favor of the plan or not? What plan, Lehrer? It’s defunct!

Obama wants to ask questions about how we got here in the first place. Holy crap, I should not be allowed to listen to him lie his way through debates. He’s saying that regulation would have helped. Regulation was a freaking HUGE PLAYER IN THIS! McCain doesn’t hit Barack nearly as hard as he should. Obama responds with more regulation and more and more. SarahK’s brain explodes. Lehrer tells Obama to speak directly to McCain, and Obama says his name but won’t look at him, because he’s scared he might pee his pants. McCain: we have to fix the system. Main Street paying penalty for excesses and greed on Wall Street. Stricter interpretation, consolidation of regulatory agencies (what?? Smaller government? You fascist!).

Ok, sorry, was rolling sushi. Highlights from when I was listening in the kitchen: Senator Obama, a good number of people making over $250,000 are small business owners who employ a lot of people and need to keep some of that money invested in the business so they can afford to keep those employees. Also, lots of LOL moments at Barack’s talky-talk. “I’m not doing earmarks right now.” But um, you’re running for president. McCain doesn’t do the earmarks even when he’s not running. And yeah, he opposes Bush and conservatives a *lot*, which is why we pretty much hate him. I don’t remember all of the LOLs I was guffawing over, but they were many. I will try to continue typing while I eat smoked salmon rolls. You wish you were me.

Ok, we’re behind, so McCain is just now pwning Barack on the war, in case you’re wondering where we are. And so Barack is going and talking about how wrong it is for us to be in the war in the first place. He, apparently, doesn’t understand that we’re not debating whether we should be in Iraq. That debate happened like almost six years ago. Yes, Obama, let’s go take the Iraqis’ “surplus” (fact check, please?) so they can flourish as a democracy with no money. McCain tells him the next president won’t have to worry about why we got in the war because, you know, we’re already there.
Continue reading ‘That debate thing’ »

Love the rimless glasses, Clay. Where’d you get them? Because I really really want them.

Did he make a wish first?

The condescension coming from the left and/or the media (it’s hard to tell which is which) about Sarah Palin simply reading a speech has me ready to go shoot a moose and eat it tartare in response. That was the first thing Mort Kondracke said last night after she had delivered her zing-filled, zesty speech: that of course, she didn’t write it, but she did a great job reading it. At least one other pundit on the Fox roundtable touched on her not writing the speech, before Brit Hume finally asked if that were fair to point out that she didn’t write her speech. After all, he pointed out, all politicians have speech writers, and all politicians read the speeches that someone else wrote. I mean, Duh. Do you think Barack wrote his rhetoric-filled speech full of fluff? Right. Get back to me when Barack makes up a sentence composed of five words or more, and he can’t have used the words hope or change anywhere in the sentence. I won’t hold my breath.
Mark Halperin gives her an A+ on last night’s speech. Then he condescends. “She read the teleprompter like a champ, with fine, varied pacing and conversational projection.” Read the teleprompter like a champ? Cram it, loser. You wouldn’t say such things if she were an old Washington insider or a man from the Ivy Leagues. You’d talk about what an amazing speech she gave, and no one would speak of teleprompters and the great ability to read something someone else wrote.

Frank received a letter from the RNC yesterday. Simply seeing a letter from those clueless losers makes me collapse in fits of giggles, because I know they’re going to ask for money, and the answer is always a resounding “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Anyway, y’all know where this is going, so I’ll just get started.
First, the date:

Wednesday Morning

Hey, that’s today’s date (well, it was this morning)! Seriously, what kind of date is “Wednesday Morning”? We get those roughly fifty-two times a year. I’m starting to think they recycle these letters. Dear Mr. J, blah blah blah, ah.

I don’t want to believe you’ve abandoned the Republican Party

I don’t want to believe the Republican Party’s abandoned me either, but I also didn’t want to believe that they killed off Captain America or that Buffy broke up with Spike. Lousy do-gooder.

but I have to ask… Have you given up?

Um, duh? Has any conservative not given up?

Our records show we have not yet received your Republican National Committee membership renewal for the critical 2008 presidential election year.

Presumptive much? Your records should also show you have not yet received our Republican National Committee membership renewal since about 2004, when the Republicans started acting like they didn’t win that election and started being like Democrats with the spending and the hating conservatives.

As the Treasurer of the RNC, I know our Party’s success depends directly on grassroots leaders like you.

What? The Treasurer wrote this letter? Why don’t you just get the RNC Historian to write to us so we know just how important we are?

So I am surprised and concerned especially because I know how generously you supported President Bush and the RNC in the past.

And after that generous support, imagine our surprise when President Bush and the RNC started screwing us every chance they got! (Except lately, with the oil thing, but he should have done that ages ago.)

You helped to advance our vision for America and elect Republicans at all levels of government.

Hey, we accept no credit/blame for anyone but the conservative one. Or two. There are two, right? Please tell me there are two.

Mr. J, I know other things come up, and perhaps you’ve just been delayed in renewing your membership. If that’s the case, I understand.

I hope you also understand that we hate you and would moon you from the back seat if we passed you on the highway.

But we’ve not heard from you this year — and I hope you haven’t deserted our Party.

Party with a capital P. They’re important.

Your generous financial assistance and active involvement are more important than ever as we work to elect a new Republican president and Congress.

But we asked for a conservative president and Congress, not Republican ones. Sorry to nitpick.

There is so much at stake. The Democrats are determined to put a liberal like Barack Obama in the White House,

The Republicans are determined to put a liberal like John McCain in the White House, so your argument would have gone better if you’d called Obama a socialist.

expand their narrow majorities in the U.S. House and Senate, and push our country to the Left [again with the capitals?] with their agenda of high taxes, big government and weakened national security.

Big government and weakened national security. That reminds me of this one time when the president passed every bill the big government Democrats put in front of him and this other time when John McCain decided that sovereign borders have nothing to do with national security. Good times.

Continue reading ‘Fish in a Barrel – A Letter from the RNC’ »

Check it. I found this at HuffPo.
“Pain of Foreclosures Spreads to the Affluent” is the name of the NY Times article. Wait. Let’s stop right there. Last I heard, all of the foreclosures were because the evil mortgage people tricked the dumb poor people into taking mortgages they can’t afford to pay. Are you telling me that the rich people were “tricked” too? I’m guessing all of these rich folks feeling the heat from the mortgage companies — they’re all either trust fund babies or pro athletes, right? Because people smart enough to become affluent couldn’t ever be “tricked” into taking these mortgages.
I know it’s not possible that people knew what they were getting into when they signed their papers (because some people do actually read a piece of paper that is going to put them in debt for 10, 15, or 30 years), because the media tells me that the evil mortgage companies did it.
Let’s read the article together, shall we? We’re in Greenwich, Connecticut.

On Stanwich Road, for example, a house worth $2.6 million is close to going on the block. On Hettiefred Road, the owner of a 2,720-square-foot, four-bedroom colonial featuring a luxury kitchen, swimming pool and tennis court, has been threatened with foreclosure for months. Several dozen other owners in Greenwich have received foreclosure notices this year.

Oh. Oh. So we’re talking about a house that is “close” to going on the block and another that has been “threatened with foreclosure.” And people who have received foreclosure notices. All of that would suck, yes, but are the affluent of Greenwich really feeling the pain of foreclosure? I would think the pain of foreclosure is when you’re actually, um… foreclosed upon, and you have to move out quickly and have a hard time finding a place to stay because no one wants to rent to you when you just defaulted on your loan for whatever reason.

But there is a difference from most other communities. Auctioning off such homes is a far greater challenge here than elsewhere, as affluent but cash-squeezed owners often find ways to delay losing their homes, sometimes by coming up with just enough to make last-minute payments avoiding a final sale — for a while, anyway.

Come again? I thought the article was going to say that auctioning off such homes is a far greater challenge in Greenwich because the homes are outrageously expensive and people don’t want to pay so much for a house. But no. Auctions are a “greater challenge” there because people are able to make their payments. Oh noes!

Just ask John Thygerson, who parked his Jeep sport utility vehicle in front of the empty house on Hettiefred Road on the flawless spring day last Saturday.
As a foreclosure auctioneer, he was scheduled — for the third time since January — to sell the house. But the owner, a construction business owner who has fallen on hard times, made a last-minute mortgage payment and the foreclosure was postponed yet again.

Poor John Thygerson! Postponed yet again! Poor guy just wants to foreclose on a house on a flawless spring day, and the evil homeowner made a payment!

So Mr. Thygerson was there to shoo prospective buyers off the property, nod at inquisitive neighbors and stake out a new spot for a fourth set of foreclosure signs after the first three had been mysteriously torn down.

Here’s a clue to your mystery: The owner did it. Case solved. And poor guy, having to shoo off prospective buyers. Work is hard.

“We never had a case that had gone through three separate sales attempts,” he said, still dazed that the auction failed to take place. “Greenwich being Greenwich, foreclosures are a rare occurrence.”

And there you go. The pain of foreclosures is hitting the Greenwich affluent because… foreclosures are a rare occurrence. Those poor people in Greenwich who aren’t being foreclosed. I’d just go ahead and off myself if I were them, being able to make their mortgage payments and keep their homes and all.

Rare, perhaps, but not unheard-of, as the housing industry collapse starts to claim victims among the affluent. Personal traumas like business reversal, illness and divorce play a role. There’s no real pattern, with people as diverse as builders, restaurateurs and poker players at risk of losing their homes.

What? The evil mortgage company isn’t at fault? I don’t follow.

But even the most financially stressed of Greenwich homeowners have generally been able to ward off actually losing their homes.

Well, that’s just awful. People keeping their homes.

In the last 30 days, none of the three Greenwich properties listed for auction were actually sold.

Terrible, that.

In Greenwich, foreclosure filings were made against 100 homes last year, according to RealtyTrac. That translates into less than half of 1 percent of Greenwich’s 24,511 households, compared with a rate higher than 1 percent nationwide.

Note, that’s the number of filings, not the number of actual foreclosures. This article is doing such a great job of showing me how painful it is to not lose your house due to wealth.

By 2007, the Connecticut Economic Resources Center reported, the median household income had risen to $122,849, with many homeowners earning far more.

I’d hope they’re earning far more if they’re buying multi-million-dollar homes.

The tearing down of existing homes to make room for new ones has continued despite the mortgage crisis that began last summer. And while prices and sales volume are dropping, Greenwich is not suffering as badly as nearby towns.

Greenwich is growing and building and not suffering as badly as nearby towns? I’m sorry, I missed how this article is about what the title says?

Through April 23 this year, 160 co-ops, condos and single-family homes sold for $290,000 to $30 million. That compares with 240 sales, from $385,000 to $12 million, for the period in 2007, according to the Greenwich Multiple Listing Service.

Just curious, are you comparing apples to apples? Was the $30 million sale a 10,000 sq. ft. house while the $12 million house is only 4,000? You can’t just throw stats out without the important supporting information or they mean nothing.

Still, lawyers working on Greenwich’s early foreclosure cases predict that most will never reach the auction stage because their homeowners almost always have other options.

Did Harvey write this?

As for the four-bedroom colonial that just avoided going on the block, Zbigniew Skwarek, the 41-year-old owner, came up with his own money to postpone the auction. Court records show he stopped paying on his mortgage on Feb. 1, 2007. But three days before the scheduled auction, he said, he gave his lender a check for $50,000.
Mr. Skwarek may not live in one of Greenwich’s most coveted neighborhoods. But like many residents here, he owns other properties, including an apartment in Greenwich and a home in Florida, and he can tap into that equity.

Now, there’s your problem. The poor rich guy who didn’t lose his house even though he didn’t pay his mortgage for over a year owns another apartment nearby and a house in Florida? He couldn’t have sold something to make his payments? Maybe he just forgot that he had three mortgages and only remembered the other two. I’m crying for him, really.

“I don’t want to lose this house,” Mr. Skwarek said in a telephone interview.

Then make your payments. Sell something else. We can’t have it all, dude.

Mr. Skwarek rented out the house after he divorced his wife, Renata, in 2004, because, he said, it felt too big to live in alone. But last year, he said, his renters, John and Arline Josephberg, stopped paying their monthly rent of $10,000.

Oh, it’s the renters’ fault! Of course! And if it’s too big to live in alone, maybe you should sell it. Do you really not want to lose the house if you don’t even care to live in it?

But public records show that Mr. Skwarek had trouble paying his bills even before he rented out his home. Court documents show that he also owes construction and supply companies more than $200,000 for unpaid bills on his home.

Good grief. I don’t even think I can make it through the rest of the article. The title suggests we’re supposed to be sad, but all I’ve read is that people are keeping their houses and/or are deadbeats.

He has a felony conviction for not paying wages to his workers and a misdemeanor for issuing a bad check.

Who gave this guy a mortgage?

Vincent Scorese, who owns a house next door and also faces the risk of foreclosure, moved out and rented out his home after he went through a divorce. He said that as a builder he became overextended and found it difficult to make his mortgage payments on the five properties he owns in the area. So he has put them all up for sale.

Finally, someone with sense. He can’t afford his mortgages, so he’s selling his five houses.

Mr. Skwarek says he is eager to hold onto his home, especially because it represents the culmination of his longstanding immigrant dream. Mr. Skwarek said he grew up outside of Warsaw and studied construction in Germany, France and Britain.

And studying not paying his bills in America.

Mr. Skwarek has still not figured out how he will hold on to his home. He will try to rent it again, he said. If that doesn’t work, he plans to move in and rent out his apartment. He remains optimistic that foreclosure will never happen and that his lender will help him find a way to escape his financial trap.
“They want to work with people like me,” he said.

People who haven’t paid them even the price of a steak dinner in over a year.

Mr. Thygerson, the auctioneer, agrees that he may never get a chance to do his job.

I hope he doesn’t work on commission.
Cross-posted from Mountaineer Musings.

Be fearful. I guess Princess Obama wasn’t prepared to sustain losses in debates, and since he was faced with actual questions instead of fluffy pillows, satin sheets, and appeasement last week, he’s decided the best strategy for winning the election is to turn tail and run away. I’d hate to see the scurrying if he were to actually break a nail.
Captain Ed:

Even worse, after last Wednesday, it looks like a retreat. Obama got a bloody nose, and suddenly he doesn’t want to appear on national TV, even up against a cupcake like Katie Couric. The strategy may be sound, but only if one has no confidence in Obama’s ability to stand up to tough questioning. In fact, his withdrawal from the debate appears to be an admission of exactly that.

No surprises there. It’s basically the same as his war strategy. When things don’t go our way for a while, let’s give up and leave. I would say that Obama’s political strategy actually leaves us better off (opposite of what his war strategy would do, obviously), but unfortunately, the people voting for Hopey McChangerson just want sunshine-and-rainbows speeches. They don’t care about things like issues, character, patriotism, and balls.
Cross-posted from Mountaineer Musings.

Frank’s not allowed to post stuff today, because I’m making him clean my pots and pans. I want them shiny!
Also, I love Idaho! There are mountains here! They’re white. I think that’s from snow.
By the way, I don’t like Democrats. And off-leash aggressive dogs.