Friday, January 05, 2007

Human History... Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter. >> >> The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: Liberals and Conservatives. >> >> Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early human were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed. >> >> Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement. >> >> Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girliemen. >> >> Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy and group hugs and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided. >> >> Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass. >> >> Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. >> >> Another interesting revolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat. >> >> Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, and generally anyone who works productively. >> >> Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living. Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. >> >> Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get MORE for nothing. >> >> This ends today's lesson in world history: It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it. >> >> A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers, and to more liberals just to tick them off.

28 comments:

Thelastword2 said...

I found this to be a little humorous and somewhat analogous to how things really are. Are the Liberals the manipulators and taxers of production and are Conservatives the producers?

Anonymous said...

Experts: Housing Slump to Worsen in 2007

MoneyNews
Friday, Jan. 5, 2007


NEW YORK -- Economists predict that the current housing slump will persist into 2007 and further damage the economy, reports The Associated Press. In fact, they say the nation's economy could grow at the slowest pace in five years.

The housing slump will lead to layoffs in housing-related industries such as construction, real estate agents, mortgage brokers as well as furniture and appliance manufacturing and sales.

According to the AP, economists at Goldman Sachs estimate job losses directly related to housing's correction would total more than 1 million over the next two years.

Those layoffs will likely knock 1 percentage point off the nation's gross domestic product in 2007 compared to 2006. The current GDP is 3.3 percent, based on analyst estimates. A 2.3 percent growth rate would be the slowest since the economy grew by 1.6 percent in 2002 — when the nation was emerging from recession.

The 2.3 percent growth estimate indicates that economists aren't expecting a recession in 2007.


Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight, tells the AP that he predicts the economy will grow at a 2.3 percent rate in 2007.

Behravesh points out that "the recession in the housing market does not seem to have had much of an impact on the consumer. The bad news on housing has been offset by good news on wages, jobs and the stock market."

However, David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, notes that there are many risks to growth in 2007: "Betting that nothing goes wrong could turn out to be a bad bet. It wouldn't take much of a disruption in the Middle East to send oil prices back up again."

A return of higher oil prices could send the U.S. consumer packing.

Anonymous said...

Suit alleges massive mortgage scam

By: CHRIS BAGLEY - Staff Writer

A network of scam artists convinced unwitting investors to buy houses using questionable loans and then backed out, leaving the investors on the hook for as much as $5 million apiece, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Riverside County Superior Court.

Temecula attorney Richard Ackerman filed the suit against Jovane Investments on behalf of an anonymous client, who he said was duped into buying five houses in and around Murrieta in early 2005.

The purchases allegedly relied on mortgage loans brokered by Stonewood Consulting Inc., Ackerman said. Stonewood isn't named as a defendant in the suit, but the company and its president appear to be at the center of tangled web of financial advisers and family members who were involved in the alleged scheme, he said.


Stonewood representatives did not immediately respond to e-mail messages or to calls to the company's Murrieta office and its president's cell phone.

According to the suit, the anonymous plaintiff is stuck with 10 loans and payment obligations of more than $20,000 a month, far beyond her ability to pay.

All told, the alleged scheme involved as many as 400 investors and an estimated $1.2 billion of property, Ackerman alleged in the complaint.

The district attorney's white-collar crime division began to investigate the matter late last year, Kelly Hansen, a senior supervisor in the office, said Friday. Hansen declined to comment on the specific case, but said it is one of 19 cases of alleged mortgage fraud the division is pursuing. Mortgage-fraud scams are particularly common when real estate values are already skyrocketing, as they were in Riverside County from 2003 through 2005, Hansen said.

The alleged scam worked like this, according to Ackerman and another attorney whose clients were involved: An investor would buy two, three or as many as eight houses within days of each other. Stonewood would apply for loans on behalf of the client, typically for two loans totalling 20 percent to 25 percent more than the appraised value of each house. The investor would pay the seller close to the asking price, typically $450,000 to $600,000. Jovane Investments would then pocket the excess cash, often $100,000 to $120,000.

Part of that money would be used to make regular mortgage and tax payments on the houses, the attorneys said. It seemed to be a great deal for the investors, the suit alleges, so they would bring in friends and family members. Most were middle-class professionals with annual incomes of $40,000 to $70,000, and many of them were nurses at Rancho Springs Medical Center, Ackerman said.

The cash from each new round of loans was used to cover the regular mortgage and tax payments on the last round, giving the arrangement the form of a classic "pyramid" scam, Ackerman said.

Aside from Jovane, the suit names Sunburst Financial Systems Inc., Oetting Enterprises and several lenders as defendants. The suit also cites payments among the defendants and other parties, including Stonewood Consulting and Hendrix Montecastro, Stonewood's chief executive; and his mother, Helen Montecastro, whom Ackerman said is a nurse at Rancho Springs. Ackerman said he expects to add additional defendants to the suit.

Ackerman said he was still trying to understand the exact relationship among the various participants. But financial documents and recorded telephone calls indicate all were involved, he said: The monthly mortgage payments came from Oetting Enterprises, known most recently to be based in Palm Desert; Jovane Investments was listed on one typical mortgage application as a securities firm managing $96,000 in a clients' assets, Ackerman said.

Sunburst is licensed to do business in Riverside County as Jovane Investments, according to county records. Sunburst is registered to a Chris Oetting of Palm Desert, according to state records.

Investors had no written guarantees that Oetting Enterprises would continue to make the monthly mortgage payments, said Ashley Abano, a San Diego attorney retained by two families that bought houses in the arrangement.

Things began to come apart in the fall, Abano said, when Oetting Enterprises simply stopped making payments on most of the loans. One of the families had taken out loans on eight investment properties and refinanced their own house, Abano said. The family received nine notices of default since mid-December, he said.

In most cases, the families put up little or none of their own money, the attorneys said. But several already have seen their credit ratings plummet, and several are in danger of being evicted from their own homes, the attorneys said.

Banks and other lenders can typically cover part of a defaulted loan by taking possession of the house and selling it.

"The lenders are the biggest victims of all," Ackerman said.

An investor with four, five or six mortgages who attempts to buy another house on credit would set off red flags among lenders, Ackerman noted, especially if he or she had no proven income from renting out the properties. But because most of the loans were completed within days of one another, they hadn't appeared on credit reports by the time the lenders checked, Ackerman said.

Ackerman's own client chose to sue anonymously after she received nonspecific threats over the telephone. Ackerman said he would apply for class-action status next week, a move that would allow him to represent numerous other investors who aren't already aware of the lawsuit.

Abano said he hadn't reviewed the complaint Ackerman filed, but might recommend that his clients join the suit after doing so.

Chris Oetting couldn't be reached for comment. Hendrix Montecastro didn't immediately respond to messages left on his cell phone and at Stonewood's office Friday afternoon. Helen Montecastro also could not be reached.

Stonewood's attorney, Bill Sauls, was in meetings Friday afternoon and couldn't be reached, according to another attorney in his San Diego office, who acknowledged the firm had received the lawsuit. Ackerman said Sauls has denied that Montecastro and Stonewood are involved with Jovane, a claim Ackerman rejected.

A San Diego financial adviser said three of her own clients were involved in the operation. Including investors known to the adviser, to Ackerman and to Abano, the alleged scam took in at least a dozen investors with two to three dozen properties.

"The total number of loans affected by Jovane-related activities is likely in the hundreds, if not thousands, within the Temecula/Murrieta area," the complaint filed Friday alleges.

Depending on the number of properties involved, and depending on how heavily the properties are concentrated in individual neighborhoods, the alleged scam could levy a big blow to local real estate values, according to Ackerman and one prominent real-estate agent.

Large numbers of empty, foreclosed homes in a neighborhood can make it difficult for the banks to sell them for close to the amount of the mortgages they issued. The empty homes for sale can also force other sellers to slash their prices.

Ackerman estimated that renters occupied half or more of the investment properties, but said they were not paying nearly enough to cover the mortgage payments.

Rising numbers of foreclosures last year have already begun to undercut the market, economists, analysts and real estate agents have said.

In Riverside County, one notice of default ---- the first step in foreclosure proceedings ---- was issued for every 330 residents in September, according to RealtyTrac, an information provider. That rate has been rising for more than a year and is now the highest rate in the state.

Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.

Voteoutrepublicans said...
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Voteoutrepublicans said...
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Anonymous said...

Lastword2 could you please consider banning Voteoutrepublicans from your blog? He is like a disease that kills debate on blogs. Jeff Kleiner/Voteoutrepublicans serves no purpose other than to frustrate other users and dominate with endless one sided posts that are full of propaganda lies. Ban the cancer and expand your users or this blog may die like the other ones Kleiner has infected.

Anonymous said...

I would like to second anons post at 8:55p. The above mentioned person has managed to turn off meaningful dialogue and participants from previous blogs, dems and reps alike. It will continue to happen as long as he has access to other peoples blogs. Good luck.

Voteoutrepublicans said...
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Voteoutrepublicans said...
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Anonymous said...

Freedom of speech does exist but on blogs there is also the freedom to exclude jerks. It could be said that campagn finance reform and limits on lobbists also reigns in free speech. All free speech is not considered equal. Nuke voteoutrepublican's cancer and raise the level of this blog. One fact is for certain: Participation and variety on this blog and others took an extreme nosedive when Jeff Kleiner became voteoutrepublicans and the debate died and became a string of Kleiner posts.Pretty boring. Let him practice his free speech somewhere else. The purpose of a blog is to maximize participation and Jeff Kleiner's style does the opposite and the blog record backs up this fact.

Anonymous said...

Freedom of speech does exist but on blogs there is also the freedom to exclude jerks. It could be said that campagn finance reform and limits on lobbists also reigns in free speech. All free speech is not considered equal. Nuke voteoutrepublican's cancer and raise the level of this blog. One fact is for certain: Participation and variety on this blog and others took an extreme nosedive when Jeff Kleiner became voteoutrepublicans and the debate died and became a string of Kleiner posts.Pretty boring. Let him practice his free speech somewhere else. The purpose of a blog is to maximize participation and Jeff Kleiner's style does the opposite and the blog record backs up this fact.

Thelastword2 said...
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Anonymous said...

So how do we now know that anyone posting on here lives in Murrieta?

Voteoutrepublicans said...

I was kind of surprised by the string from 1/5/07 that you were a liberal on social issues and a moderate on economic and then post a biased comment complimenting conservatives as being hard workers and liberals the users. I should have known MT wouldn't turn this blog to someone else. Maybe you are MT. But you are also a liar.

I have never thought about threatening anyone so safety issues are lies. However, my house and cars have been egged a few times. All of this can be proved through police reports I got for insurance purposes.

But here are other facts. My name is Casey Ryan Kleiner aka/voteoutrepublicans. My dad, Jeff Kleiner Sr. doesn't post often. We own four Murrieta properties in our family trust and I live in one on Elizabeth Lane, he lives in one off of Clinton Keith. We have two other rental properties on Elizabeth Lane. My Uncle lives in Corona. So you published lies. Good for you.

But you and I will know youre a liar and thats enough for me.

My Father is also CEO of a medical device company in Irvine where I serve as VP of Operations. Hardly, men who have jobs that support the livelihoods of 450 workers. Hardly people who would use violence. Both of us have served our country honorably.

We fight as hard as we can against unethical people, including those that are corrupt, and those that tell lies.

None of what you said was true. We tell the truth about your ideology. There are facts, taken from the headlines to support our talk.

You established principles and broke your own rules, allowing our last name to be published preventing me from alluding to others. Thanks MT, now you are a proven liar as well as someone that doesn't understand life or who is the right person at the right time.

Anonymous said...

The Last Word II, I don't understand the rules of your blog. If you don't live in Murrieta, you can't post? Do you have to own a home? How about minimum salary qualifications?

Anonymous said...

TLW2: just a quick note tonight to tell you that you are doing a terrific job. You spend time posting current issues and I hope you will advertise your blog to friends and family. Without the negative rantings and ravings and without the attacks directed at former bloggers who held a different political view, your blog should take off. Thanks!

Voteoutrepublicans said...

I want my last name pulled of your site as of today or I'll be in court tomorrow for defamation of character and discriminating on the rules of this blog, where you state that you will not allow personal information. You yourself posted personal information MT about me.

Now, townhall.com for this string. What a great indicator of who you really are. Remember, I will have our company lawyer, investigate this, and sue your pants off. Also I will begin a daily attack on the MWRF in both the Califorian and the PE. Your choice. I can always use the extra money it will bring. You have 24 hours.

Anonymous said...

Is Tanya still running this site?

Voteoutrepublicans said...

I just wanted to remind you after a disscussion with our Corporate attorney on libel. The attorney says that you must be able to prove that your statements that Jeff Kleiner is a safety risk to the community and he in fact is the poster. You must be able to prove that he is not a resident of Murrieta. You must also prove that your statements, which because they are in printed media, are actually true. Defamation in the printed media is libel. As a Vice President, and my Father a CEO of a company where our reputation is held as a viable asset and can be damaged and lost profits assessed we will be suing for the loss of profits and for mental anguish. Remember, these guys are already on retainer and the company interests are involved. Please Tanya remove our names from this blog site and any reference to us.

JustMy2cents said...

If this blog is supposed to focus on Murrieta and Murrieta issues how come the majority of subjects have nothing to do with Murrieta? HD ran a Murrieta focused blog, but that too looks to have died on the vine because of VOR, Bill (aka VOR), Rholmgren, BlogProphet, etc. I'm not sure monitoring posts will acheive the results hoped for, especially if they aren't posted in a timely manner.

Voteoutrepublicans said...

Just for the record, I updated family photos for all you ladies. If you ever see me on the street, don't bother to talk, unless you want to tell me that Bush s the right man at the right time. LMFAO

Thelastword2 said...

The person(s) banned from this blog requested that any reference to them be deleted. Your request is granted and good bye.

Anonymous said...

Sounds to me VOR wants his cake and eat it to. He has ruined and overtaken this and previous blogs and nixed open discussion. He has attacked and named the same people over and over again for their political view. He was the rudest blog participant. Now he wants nobody to mention his name? Now he wants his own blog and promises to keep it "clean"? What bull.

Thelastword2 said...

I would rather let this blog die than have the banned person on here again. I am on the verge of not even allowing any more speculation about him on here either. Let's move on and that person can do whatever they want somewhere else. He is now irrelevant here.

voteoutrepublicans said...
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Anonymous said...

Does anyone have any information on the Fry's prospect?

Anonymous said...

I see on the agenda for the 16th that Chevron at Margarita Square is still going through with their appeal for alcohol sales on site. The neighbors in the area submitted a petition against the idea, and Calvary came and spoke against it as well. The planning commission asked Chevron representatives if they had been aware prior to leasing the site of the code requirements restricting alcohol sales close to schools and churches and they acknowledged that they had been aware of it.
Going forward on this when they knew going in they would not be allowed to sell alcohol, and they are attempting to proceed against the wishes of the surrounding residents seems like a bad business tactic to me.
If they knew the rules going in, there is no reason to give them permission. Particullary since it would set a bad prescedent and many businesses next to schools would then be able to come forward and demand like permission.

Anonymous said...

9:14 - I had heard Fry's was a possibility to take over the current Walmart when the Super walmart is built.