Sure would be nice if Jehovah would jump in and save the Gulf, it's not much to ask, is it?
purplesofa
JoinedPosts by purplesofa
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The Witnesses are freaking out
by Sour Grapes ini still go to a few meetings a month just to keep members of my family happy.. the witnesses seemed to be getting all worked up about how close the end.
it sorta feels like the 1975 era only 35 years later.
the brother who gave.
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Do you send note cards?
by purplesofa ini have been kicking this around for a long time, .
having note cards of my art printed and try to sell them.. before i put money into it and get stuck with a thousand cards, .
that i personally could not send in my lifetime.
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purplesofa
I'm putting some stuff up at cafepress, but looking to print and sell to gift shops in my area. My sis will do the same for me in Florida, which is probably a better market than where I am.
Thanks JO,
purps
Does anyone use online printing companies????
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Our Southern Friends- Are you Pissed about the Oil Spill? I Know I Am ...... !
by flipper in......... and i live out here in northern california !
i mean , they go to all that humungous labor, build a huge box to put over the oil gushing out and wham 5,000 ft. deep it gets clogged with ice crystals.
now they are talking about a couple other alternatives in the news- all the while today haliburton, bp, and other reps are meeting with federal officials getting into a pissing match and fight over who is responsible for the spill ?
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purplesofa
A price hike like we saw before with an already hurt economy, I think, is just what we need to push financially strapped people over the edge that aren't already.
America does not seem to be very smart, we have had all kinds of warnings to get off the oil, we won't until we come to a grinding halt and are forced to.
purps
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Do you send note cards?
by purplesofa ini have been kicking this around for a long time, .
having note cards of my art printed and try to sell them.. before i put money into it and get stuck with a thousand cards, .
that i personally could not send in my lifetime.
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purplesofa
I have been kicking this around for a long time,
having note cards of my art printed and try to sell them.
Before I put money into it and get stuck with a thousand cards,
that I personally could not send in my lifetime
I would like to know if any of you send out
cards?
I talking about note cards, where you write a little something on
it.
I do not. Well, I haven't in a very long time.
Thanks in advance,
purps
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233
Our Southern Friends- Are you Pissed about the Oil Spill? I Know I Am ...... !
by flipper in......... and i live out here in northern california !
i mean , they go to all that humungous labor, build a huge box to put over the oil gushing out and wham 5,000 ft. deep it gets clogged with ice crystals.
now they are talking about a couple other alternatives in the news- all the while today haliburton, bp, and other reps are meeting with federal officials getting into a pissing match and fight over who is responsible for the spill ?
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purplesofa
Dick Cheney was the one who in 2003 exempted US oil companies from using acoustic switches (required in Brazil and Norway and used voluntarily by BP on all their wells around Britain).
Cheney subsequently held a series of "private" meetings with oil industry executives where the entire oil & gas regulatory structure was rewritten as a part of his new energy policy. They were the only ones who got input - no public hearings, agency personnel or scientists to get in the way.
That's also when the oil industry was exempted from the Clean Water Act and the RCRA hazardous waste regulations. They were taken almost entirely out of the jurisdiction of the EPA and regulation was given to the Minerals Management Service (MMS).
And then, in 2008, the US Inspector General found that at least 1/3 of the personnel at the Minerals Management Service's "Royalty in Kind" program (which receives oil in lieu of cash from oil & gas companies as payment of their royalties) were paid off with drugs, sex, cash and other graft in exchange for leniency toward the companies. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/10/AR2008091001829.html)
It takes a new administration a long time to unwind this type of deregulation, unless they want to do it by executive fiat like Bush & Cheney did, with no public hearings, scientific input or agency oversight.
This spill is not an "unforeseen disaster" - it's a natural consequence.
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Our Southern Friends- Are you Pissed about the Oil Spill? I Know I Am ...... !
by flipper in......... and i live out here in northern california !
i mean , they go to all that humungous labor, build a huge box to put over the oil gushing out and wham 5,000 ft. deep it gets clogged with ice crystals.
now they are talking about a couple other alternatives in the news- all the while today haliburton, bp, and other reps are meeting with federal officials getting into a pissing match and fight over who is responsible for the spill ?
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purplesofa
There is some good comments at this link http://world-news.newsvine.com/_news/2010/05/12/4272463-dead-dolphins-wash-up-in-gulf-oil-role-unclear
Have a good day, purps Dead dolphins wash up on coast; oil's role unclearBy JANET McCONNAUGHEY and BRIAN SKOLOFF (AP) – 15 hours ago
HORN ISLAND, Miss. — Federal wildlife officials are treating the deaths of six dolphins on the Gulf Coast as oil-related even though other factors may be to blame.
Blair Mase (MACE') of the National Marine Fisheries Service said Tuesday that the carcasses have all been found in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama since May 2. Samples have been sent for testing to see whether a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico helped kill the dolphins.
Mase and animal rescue coordinator Michele Kelley in Louisiana said none of the carcasses has obvious signs of oil. Mase also said it's common for dead dolphins to wash up this time of year when they are in shallow waters to calve.
The Associated Press found dolphins swimming and playing in oily waters off Louisiana last week.
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Our Southern Friends- Are you Pissed about the Oil Spill? I Know I Am ...... !
by flipper in......... and i live out here in northern california !
i mean , they go to all that humungous labor, build a huge box to put over the oil gushing out and wham 5,000 ft. deep it gets clogged with ice crystals.
now they are talking about a couple other alternatives in the news- all the while today haliburton, bp, and other reps are meeting with federal officials getting into a pissing match and fight over who is responsible for the spill ?
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purplesofa
I watched some of the questioning on C-span today,
While they are worried about pointing fingers at who is to blame the oil still spills out.
I applaud all those that are fighting to keep it off the shores and worrying about the blame later.
purps
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Woah Frannie!
by purplesofa inhttp://online.wsj.com/article/sb10001424052748703880304575236030191182938.html?mod=wsj_commodities_rightmoreinmarkets.
fannie mae needs $8.4 billion more in aid after first-quarter lossby nick timiraos .
fannie mae asked the u.s. government for an additional $8.4 billion in aid after posting an $11.5 billion net loss for the first quarter, the latest sign that the bailout of the mortgage investor and its main rival, freddie mac, is likely to be the most expensive legacy of the u.s. housing-market bust.. fannie's losses reflected continuing weakness in the housing market and would have been worse without accounting changes that reduced its deficit.
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purplesofa
Fannie Mae Needs $8.4 Billion More in Aid after First-Quarter Loss
By NICK TIMIRAOS
Fannie Mae asked the U.S. government for an additional $8.4 billion in aid after posting an $11.5 billion net loss for the first quarter, the latest sign that the bailout of the mortgage investor and its main rival, Freddie Mac, is likely to be the most expensive legacy of the U.S. housing-market bust.
Fannie's losses reflected continuing weakness in the housing market and would have been worse without accounting changes that reduced its deficit. The quarterly loss was an improvement from the $23.5 billion loss for the year-ago quarter and marked the 11th consecutive quarterly loss for the Washington-basedfirm.
The company has now racked up losses of nearly $145 billion, or nearly double its profits for the previous 35 years. While many of the nation's biggest banks have repaid their government loans and some are back to racking up big profits, red ink continues to gush from Fannie and Freddie because of their huge exposure to defaulting home loans.
In recent weeks, the Treasury pointed out how private-sector banks, insurers and even auto makers have repaid loans under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. But red ink continues to gush from Fannie and Freddie because of their huge exposure to home loans.
"Everyone's trying to sweep it under the rug, but there's a very large embedded loss that hasn't been fully realized yet," says Kenneth Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. "Someone's going to have to write a check, and it's very large."Unlike many financial companies, they lack profitable sidelines that could be sold off to help dig themselves out of their holes.
The government's tab for Fannie will climb to $84 billion, while Freddie's stands at $61 billion. The government took control of both companies in 2008 through a legal process known as conservatorship as rising losses threatened to wipe out their thin capital reserves.
Fannie's losses have surpassed Freddie's because its $3 trillion book of loan guarantees is nearly one-third larger than Freddie's. Delinquencies are higher at Fannie because the firm more aggressively dialed up its appetite for riskier loans at the peak of the housing boom.
Despite their losses, the firms are helping to stabilize the housing market. Fannie, Freddie and the Federal Housing Administration provided guarantees or insurance for 96.5% of the home mortgages that originated in the first quarter, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade publication. The companies also play a central role in the Obama administration's loan-modification effort designed to avert foreclosures.
Losses at Fannie and Freddie continue to grow because the firms must set aside more capital to cover anticipated losses as mortgage delinquencies rise. The Treasury kicks in more capital every quarter if revenues can't meet those financial needs. Unlike many financial companies, the firms are exposed to a single asset class, holding nearly $5.5 trillion in mortgages and loan guarantees. Also, they lack profitable sidelines that could be sold off to help dig themselves out of their hole.
Fannie's capital hole would have risen by $3.3 billion without new accounting rules that took effect on Jan. 1.
The firm's losses were driven by deterioration in its $3 trillion book of loan guarantees, which accounted for a $12.5 billion loss.
One possible signal that losses will slow in the coming months: Fannie said 5.47% of its loans were 90 days or more past due at the end of March, down from 5.59% in February and the first monthly decline in nearly three years. That has stemmed in part from efforts to modify loans and from an uptick in liquidating delinquent loans through foreclosure. The company said Monday that credit losses could decline this year from record highs last year as delinquencies begin to level out.
The company's loan-loss reserves fell to $61 billion from $64 billion three months ago, even as its pool of nonperforming loans grew to $224 billion from $217 billion.
"If I was the government, I would plead with Fannie or Freddie to reserve far more than they are right now," given the prospect of future home-price declines, said Anthony Sanders, a real-estate finance professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
But the terms of the government conservatorship, which require Fannie and Freddie to pay an annual 10% dividend on their Treasury draw, could create an incentive to reserve more conservatively. Fannie had to pay the government $1.5 billion in dividends last quarter. "They don't want to raise the reserve levels because in a sense it doesn't matter and it could be perversely damaging to them," says Mr. Sanders.
"They don't want to raise the reserve levels because in a sense it doesn't matter and it could be perversely damaging to them," Prof. Sanders says.
In its filings Monday, in the coming monthsFannie said it wasn't likely to repay that its debt to the Treasury for the "indefinite future."
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Initial Analysis Of The Times Square Bombing Attempt
by leavingwt ininitial analysis of the times square bombing attempt.
and so it is with target new york.
it is entirely possible, nay likely, that the recent times square car bomb was placed at the doorstep of the viacom building's main northeast entrance because of the south park controversy.
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purplesofa
Sorry, took it down as the thread went on to the miranda issue, but will repost, I am a bit out of the loop these days.
purps
Shahzad on U.S. Travel Security List Since 1999
Posted by CBS News Investigates 46 comments- Share 930
TECS is a major law enforcement computer system that allows its approximately 120,000 users from 20 federal agencies to share information. The database is designed to identify individuals suspected of or involved in violation of federal law.
CBS News Exclusive Picture of Shahzad
The system has been recently called inefficient by members of Congress. In late March, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Susan Collins of Maine criticized the system in a letter to DHS, writing that, "Current functionality does not allow interoperability among databases, fast searching of information, modern interfaces for users of the system, or sufficient security to protect critical terrorist travel data."
A modernization of the system began in 2008 and is expected to be completed by 2015.
Editor's Note: an earlier version of this story referred to Shahzad's name appearing on a Department of Homeland Security travel list from 1999 to 2008. That list was part of the Traveler Enforcement Compliance System (TECS), which was managed until 2003 by the U.S. Customs Service which become part of the Department of Homeland Security.
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Initial Analysis Of The Times Square Bombing Attempt
by leavingwt ininitial analysis of the times square bombing attempt.
and so it is with target new york.
it is entirely possible, nay likely, that the recent times square car bomb was placed at the doorstep of the viacom building's main northeast entrance because of the south park controversy.
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purplesofa
nevermind
hi e1