ObamaKare

Didn’t watch it but read the transcript. Here’s what I see: mandatory insurance for all, which just goes one more step toward forcing people to toe the government line – hardly surprising coming from this socialist, and more bullshit. Look at this quote:

The only thing this plan would eliminate is the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud, as well as unwarranted subsidies in Medicare that go to insurance companies – subsidies that do everything to pad their profits and nothing to improve your care. And we will also create an independent commission of doctors and medical experts charged with identifying more waste in the years ahead.

The man claims that most of the cost of his (still undetailed) “plan” would be paid for by this recapture of dollars currently being lost to waste and fraud, so ask yourself this: when has any administration, any Congress, reduced the costs of any program by this (or any) technique? 

And then ask yourself, why doesn’t Obama detail the hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud and waste that he has discovered and tell us what, specifically he is going to eliminate? 

Finally, ask yourself why our mainstream media pretend that this man is serious?

No contracts today, but some sales data

41 Stonebridge nee Hooker Lane: $1.590 million. Purchased $1.555 2003. Assessment: $1.490

11 Juniper: $4,000,000. Purchased 2002: $4.3 million. Assessment: $3.5 million

48 Byfield Lane (new). $5.150 million. Original price (2007) $7.5 million. Assessment: $4.12 million

143 Otter Rock: $4.5 million. Bought 2007: $4.7 million.

407 Sound Beach Ave (new): $3.250. Original price (2008): $3.995 Assessment: $1.96 (must have friend in assessor’s office)

What’s the Democrat position on lottery winnings?

“Take it all, I don’t deserve it”

The gentleman to the left, one Jimmy Gomez, stacks chairs at Madison Garden on the midnight shift. Or he did until yesterday, when he learned that he’d won $168 million in the NY State Lottery. I congratulate Mr. Gomez on his good fortune but, as I understand the Democrat position, his new wealth is both excessive and an undeserved windfall and thus deserving of being redistributed to his former friends who still reside in poverty. I do hope that he voted for Obama last fall.

Didn’t know the Peanut King was no longer with us

Done in by attack rabbit?

Skull found in Georgia rewrites history of early man.

Isn’t it adorable? The children still believe in Santa Claus!*

A house came on today – 1966, redone (beautifully, I’ll add, but still with a 1966 exterior) in 2004, and priced at $4.3 million. It sold in a flash for full asking price of $3.9 million in 2006 so I guess I can understand the pricing reasoning here, but it’s my experience that house prices have declined since 2006, not increased, and with an appraised value of $1.9, it seems almost quaint to think that someone paid just about $4 million for this house just three years ago.

* Morticia to Gomez as Puglsey and his sister build a bonfire in the fireplace

Governor Rell makes Dr. Freund look like a man of steel

Our new school superintendent has managed to offend nearly everyone, conservative, liberal and indifferent, by coming out against the Obama speech, then being for it, then against it with conditions and now for it again, but his vacillating is as nothing compared to our Republican Governor’s handling of the Democrat’s budget. After wringing her hands and sniffing into her hanky, she finally let it pass without her signature while promising to use her line-item veto to slash it by a full $8 million from the Democrat’s profligate spending. Now, on the advice of her Attorney General, she’s given up on even that token cut because the AG says she has no authority to exercise a veto on a bill she didn’t sign.

I don’t care about the legalities here – it makes no difference whatsoever since the Governor, faced with $37 billion in proposed spending could only find $8 million to trim. She might just as well get down on all fours and bark, “take me”.  Who the hell does she think will vote for her next election, grateful Democrats? My guess is that she just can’t stand not being liked, a quality admirable in a grade school class president and absolutely infuriating in a chief executive.

“Exotic” loans will continue to drag down prices

Housing bears have been warning of this for months, but now that The New York Times has discovered it, it must be real: Adjustable, no amortization loans are scheduled to start resetting at higher interest rates and the borrowers won’t be able to afford them.

It was a “buy now, pay later” strategy on a grand scale, meant for a market where home prices went only up, and now the bill is starting to come due.

With many of these homes under water — worth less than the loans against them — many interest-only mortgages will soon become unaffordable, as the homeowners have to actually start paying principal. Monthly payments can jump by as much as 75 percent.

The Mollers owe so much more than their house is worth, and have so few options, that they are already anticipating doom.

“I’m praying for another boom,” said Mr. Moller, 34. “Otherwise, we’ll have to walk.”

Keith Gumbinger, an analyst with HSH Associates, said: “This is going to be the source of tomorrow’s troubles. The borrowers might have thought these were safe loans, but it turns out they bet the house.”

After three brutal years, evidence is growing that the housing market has turned a corner. Sales in July were the highest in a year, and August gives signs of having been even better. In nearly all major cities, home prices are now rising.

Celebration, however, might be premature. The plight of the Mollers and many others in a similar position is likely to weigh on any possible recovery for years to come.

Experts predict a steady drumbeat of defaults over much of the next decade as these interest-only loans mature. Auctioned off at low prices, those foreclosed houses could help brake any revival in home prices.

Of course, before you lose sleep over the plight of these homeowners, consider this quote:

“Everyone out here always preached to me, ‘Buy real estate. It’s the best investment you’ll ever have,’ ” said Mr. Moller, who grew up in Iowa. “Then all this stuff started crumbling and I was like, ‘You’re kidding me.’ ”

Moller in effect “invested” by buying stock on 100% margin and now complains about the result. No sympathy.

Bernie Yudain: Republican clambake at Tod’s Point

The old war horse reminds us that this Sunday the Republicans will be at Tod’s Point mixing martinis, gorging on 3 3/4 lb lobsters and generally laughing at the poor. What worries me about both political parties holding fund raisers at Tod’s is the disenfranchisement effect of our new ordinance banning registered sex offenders from the park. Maybe the candidates can wait at the gate while party stalwarts ferry them food.

UPDATE: Frankie Fudrucker has informed me that the far-seeing Democrats, anticipating just this difficulty, have switched their fund raiser this year to Pinetum, in, naturally, Cos Cob. No worries, mate!

When can we expect a movement to reform state spending?

A spokesman for ObamaCare was on NPR just now, explaining the urgency of a reformation of our medical system because “costs have doubled in ten years.” Fair enough – that’s a real problem, but Connecticut has quadrupled state spending in twelve twenty-two years.   I think we should address the problem of out-of-control looters in Hartford before trying to reduce the pay of surgeons and nurses.

Wanna go broke? Buy real estate

Well that’s a little broad, but turns out the rich are declaring bankruptcy in record numbers, dragged down by their multiple real estate “investments” – first and second homes, for folks like you.

“Real-estate is an incredible thing on the downside,” said Jason Green, a bankruptcy attorney based in Washington. “Equities can only go to zero. Property can go well below zero,” because of ongoing expenses such as property taxes, insurance and maintenance on primary residences, vacation homes and investment properties.

Maybe, instead of moving to Alpine, I should join the U.S. Marshals

They’re the ones who sell off seized assets and right now, they’re busy with the Madoff properties.  Bloomberg profiles a woman who works for the Service, unloading the inventory which runs the gamut: “We go from crack house to penthouse”, she says. Surely Walter’s cottage falls somewhere in there, and a little local knowledge could really add value. Plus, I might get to wear a cool metal star on my chest.