The bubble keeps bursting. The mortgage market is only about 1/2 way through the "bust". Sub-prime mortgages were just the first wave, but we are about to feel the next wave ~April 2009. Where sub-prime is soooo 2008, the "Option ARM" and "Alt A" loans will hit in 2009 when their "teaser rates" go up....right around April 2009. Interest rates, the teaser rates, of ~1% are getting rdy to go up to [possibly] 15%. Watch this and learn...

Wake up and become educated. Let's face the reality, our country is bankrupt.

Give me sound money or give me death!

I'm wondering where MY bailout is. You know for the average, hardworking, penny saving, living below their means Joe. I've been saving and paying my debts down to nearly nothing, and what do I have to show for it? Well, granted I'm gonna be in a lot better financial situation in 2009 than many others, but my 401k has lost 50% this year because of this whole sub-prime mess. It's not my fault that people can't be responsible and understand the terms of their mortgage, and when they can't make the payments it eventually trickles down to me! I'm losing money in mutual funds because the banks are losing money because Mr. Spenda-lota-ca$h can't figure out that there's no such thing as "free money" (unless you are the US Gov). I'm waiting on my 401k bailout.

I haven't made any bad financial decisions in the past few years, yet I'm being hit hard. I can only be glad that I have many, many more years until I can actually start using all the money that I'm losing in my 401k. What about an extra tax break for us responsible citizens that did not cause this mess? Perhaps the IRS could makes a little note on our 401k's that evaluates our current financial involvement in the crisis, and if we meet certain criteria, cut us a break? "Let's see Mr. Desh, you have not contributed to this mess, so all of the money that you invested from 2005-(end of crisis) will not be taxed when your 401k expires". This sounds reasonable enough to me.

Well, well, well, I must say that I have a newly found respect for Fred Thompson. Where was all of this rational thinking when he was running for the presidency?

Ok, this made me LOL!

Link: http://www.twincities.com/opinion/ci_11130293

By Rod Dreher

I didn't vote for Ron Paul in the Republican primary (I was a Mike Huckabee man), nor did I write him in on Election Day (I penciled in farmer-poet Wendell Berry). But no Texan this year did more good for conservatism and his country than the congressman from the coast.

Lord knows there was no Republican in the 2008 campaign who talked straighter.

Dr. Paul — he's a physician — never had a chance, of course. He is too peculiar in his opinions and doesn't know how to spin like a TV slick. What he had was ideas, integrity and authenticity. On the most critical challenges facing America, Paul was more right than the well-funded GOP regulars who bigfooted the campaign trail.

His best moment came in a May debate aired on Fox News. Paul asserted that too much U.S. meddling in the Middle East invites terrorist blowback — a conclusion shared by the 9/11 commission and former CIA Osama bin Laden unit chief Michael Scheuer. Rudy Giuliani pounced, accusing Ron Paul of trying to blame America for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But Paul's point — lost on the demagogic New York mayor — was simply that America should rethink its role in Iraq and the region. "We don't understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics," he said in the debate.

Who can doubt it today, given an Iraq war debacle conceived and executed by a president and an elite team blinded by ideology? The Iraq war did deep damage to our military, our economy and our prestige -- and it has destroyed the Republican Party's credibility on national security issues.

Ron Paul, who has always stood against U.S. imperial overreach, was right about the Iraq war. And that's not the only thing he saw that most Republicans did not.

His libertarian economic views are far from mainstream. For example, he's against income taxes, period, and believes the U.S. should go back on the gold standard. Eccentricities like this keep him from being taken seriously.

But the truth is, if U.S. economic policy looked a lot more like Ron Paul's ideal than what we've had these past decades, the nation wouldn't be tottering on the financial abyss. Paul has long argued that an economy built on easy credit, insatiable consumption and deficit spending is a time bomb. He backs a national economic model based on savings, investment and production.

An economy that depends so heavily on government intervention to keep it afloat is one that creates of necessity an ever more powerful state. The nationalization of the banking sector only increases the power of the central government and decreases liberty. Paul warned for years against what we're seeing happen today. But nobody — including me — listened to the old crank.

How much better off would America be today if we had? We'll never know. Poor us.

It's not true, really, that nobody listened. Paul had a relatively small but intensely devoted following and raised astonishing amounts of campaign cash for his outsider presidential bid. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm didn't amount to much of anything in the primaries. So much for the Ron Paul Revolution, right?

Maybe not. The same GOP establishment that mocked and reviled Paul now lies shattered. Who believes in this Republican Party anymore? The party destroyed itself with its own unprincipled recklessness, both in foreign and fiscal policy. And it has ruined its reputation among the young — the most ardent of Paul's supporters, incidentally — who are far more likely to identify with the Democrats.

Out of this destruction, some creative young conservatives may rise up and decide to take back the Republican Party. Perhaps they'll run against the overweening power of the federal government and in favor of decentralizing power (but unlike today's Republicans, they'll actually mean it). Maybe they'll fight for an America that lives responsibly, within its natural limits both overseas and at home. And maybe, just maybe, they might make the Republican Party worth following again.

If that day comes, it will be thanks to the lifelong labors of Ron Paul and his 2008 campaign based on ideas. If those ideas germinate into genuine reform and restoration of sanity in our government, America will look back on Paul as a gift from Texas.

And having once given the nation George W. Bush -- and given him to our countrymen good and hard -- we Texans sure as hell owe them one.

Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, Communications Center, Dallas, Texas 75265. His e-mail address is rdreher@dallasnews.com.

I love how our government and government-controlled media love to scare us. I mean, why else would you force fear down so many sheeple throats with crap like this and this and this? Nothing more than fear mongering imo. The only positive side of this is perhaps we will remove troops from around the world and position them at home in the US (where they should be) to actually protect OUR soil. Ah, but this is not the plan.

A representative for the U.S. Northern Command told ABCNews.com that 15,000 trained military troops will be stationed inside the United States by 2011, ready to respond to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive incidents.

"These troops are not designed to be first responders," said spokesman Mike Kucharek. "They are designed to be in place to supplement the state and local efforts."

Of the 15,000 troops, Kucharek said that 5,000 will be active-duty troops and the remaining 10,000 will be a combination of reserve forces and National Guard.

Sigh. Here are 2 quotes to tickle your brain:

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

- Hermann Goering (Hitler's right hand man and top adviser)

"To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve."

- John Ashcroft (defending the Patriot Act)

Pretty cool!

ECU - check
D00K - check
WF - check
UNC - check

Yep, looks like we are the "State Champs" in NC football, and after the win against Miami it looks like the Wolfpack are going to a BOWL! Granted, it's gonna be a crappy bowl, and possibly the new EagleBank Bowl in Washington DC, but it's still a bowl!! Any post season play is better than sitting at home watching other teams play. I was lucky enough to go to the game with Amanda, Zane and Ksu, and it was TERRIFIC! Granted the temp was ~50F and it rained on and off, but when your QB throws for 2 TDs and runs one in himself you can't even feel the rain anymore. I will have some pics up from the game very soon!

Also, keep an eye on Russell Wilson. This guy is going places.

Wilson also extended his school-record streak of 226 passes without an interception, the longest in the nation. In his past eight starts, Wilson has thrown 16 touchdown passes with no picks.

Already breaking Phillip Rivers records....