Mark F. Barnes

At this point in time, people have taken their eye off the ball. Everyone is looking for blame and not for solutions. There is some major house cleaning going to be going on in the financial world. Also in the same sense, there are going to be a lot of paper rich people, that are going to brought back to reality, that they were only pretending to be what they wanted everyone else to think they were. The motivation to all these excesses was driven by one thing, greed! Banks, Mortgage Brokers, Housing Speculators, and John Q Public, all were out their gambling that the bubble was never going to burst, that the housing market would continue to rise forever, and got caught with their pants down. Just for argument's sake, there are primarily three primary perpetrators in this corruption, and they all should be held accountable for all their wicked ways. First and foremost, the lack of oversight by the SEC/Government or whatever you want to call it, was a primary cause, and they should be held accountable. Next, the lending institutions who abused the system should not be allowed to profit from its demise; they need to pay for their mistakes. And the mortgage buyers who speculated on higher housing prices at the expense of moderating risk are also to blame; they should not be given a pass for their mistakes either. I am not saying we necessarily need more regulation, but there needs to be some, and what there is needs to be enforced. Oversight turning a blind eye to what was happening, is the worst culprit of all. Now, many of those same perpetrators (Namely the big banks) are trying to force the hand of Congress, by pulling in markers they bought and paid for over the years, and by imposing fear into the system instead of trying to help fix the problem, they are just as guilty as all the rest, of creating. And as negotiations become more and more heated, they tend to run for cover, under the pretense of fear of collapse. Fear is the driving factor in this never ending down spiral we are caught in currently. Fear that the banking system will collapse, fear that housing prices will collapse completely, fear that the market will crash, and fears that come election time they, being these congressmen, better have made the right decisions by 2010, are weighing on the minds of these so called policymakers, how they are going to keep their jobs come election time. These fears can cloud judgment just like greed did initially. Stop being afraid of what lies ahead and start being proactive. First off, we need to accept, that the bubble has burst, and the economy is going to continue to weaken over time, based on the diminishing demand for investments. And everyone needs to understand, "This cannot be stopped!!!!". Therefore, accept that the economy will be under pressure, expect it to continue contract, and accept the fact that people will indeed lose jobs along the way. With that understood the direction of Congress should be to lessen the burden on the taxpayer, and soften the blow of a weakening economy as best as possible. Instead they are concentrating on propping up the crooks that put them in office, funded all their lavish lifestyles, and hold vaults full of dirt on all of them, on both sides of the isle. What they need to do is, do their damn jobs for the people they are suppose to represent. This means, specifically, taking control of government debt. Excessive debt by our Government has directly caused many individuals to feel that they too can incur excessive amounts of debt without concern. Reality hits hard, and it is hitting now. Take control of the debt burdens of the country. By country I mean John Q Public, you want to bail somebody out, bail out people that have been responsible, and done the right thing, and are just faceless victims, in this crime. Now this seven hundred plus billion dollar turd, that they pushed through Congress, does not guarantee that banks will begin to lend to each other though, and that's because risks still exist. Those risks need to be dissolved in order for the banking system to continue. Instead of continuing to just throw money at the banks, with nothing coming in return, the need to come up with a some sort of security bond, or insurance, between the banks. The US Government would guarantee the monies and the risk of default between the banks operating in our banking system would be completely removed from the equation. This would hopefully force banks to start lending again. It's really no different than printing money we do not have. They also have got to find a way to separate the good institutions from the bad ones. This is going to cause a huge contraction in the banking world, but right now it is badly needed. This also would reduce the volume of lending activity overall, but it would also allow the system to operate. A contraction in the system is required, a reset as some people like to put it, and it will happen regardless of, whatever the current administration does, or whatever the eventual accepted proposal ends up being, in his grand master plan. Pumping money in is just prolonging the eventual pain that is to be. Band-aid on a bullet hole is the term tossed around a lot. It's pretty much just that. It's not rocket science to figure which banks are good and which are not. The good one's need to be given these securities against lending, then if they have a failure, they will be seized and sold on the open market, the taxpayer recoups it's losses immediately from the liquidation and the system continues to roll. The bad banks need to fold up their tents, and proceed straight to the bankruptcy line, and reconcile in bankruptcy court. In part this would work no different that the buyouts of WAMU by Chase and Wachovia by Wells Fargo. Both of those were bought out because they had a lot of good assets, I have mixed feelings on CITI Group, they have a lot of shaky paper. Some Banks will fail, and they should be allowed to fail. The shareholders and bondholders of those banks will be impacted, and they should be. The good assets of the banks who fail will be absorbed into sound financial institutions and a more stable, reliable, and powerful banking system will come out of all of this. This will take time, but in the end the integrity of our banking system will be much more than it is today. More defaults and foreclosures will occur, we need to accept that. In many cases greed forced the hand of ARM loans and other creative loans which are now causing the system to fail. Those persons who engaged in these risky loans, with full knowledge of the risk, should be blamed as well. Politically, none of this would sit well with some members of Congress, but you know what, tough nookies. Shady politics is what got us into this mess to begin with, and who give a damn what they think anymore. If your local Congressman, was really doing his or her job, it should be a great thing to pursue.And if their constituents took aggressive loans based on the ability to make a quick buck and they were left holding the bag, taxpayers should not be forced to bail them out. But as it stands right now, this is exactly what we are doing. We are covering the asses of the very cowards, that dug this hole we are in, with money we earned, with our sweat and blood. And these politicians are playing with it like it's frigging Monopoly money. They have got to force a reset or contraction in the banking system, to get us moving in the right direction. But it's not going to happen in the direction we are headed currently. We need to weed out all these paper millionaires and make the paper billionaires, be actually the millionaires they truly are. We need some serious house cleaning done, and the people that actually played the game straight will survive. And those that got in over their heads, well, they just need to get used to a less lavish lifestyle. I am prepared to face 1987 again, because that is where we are headed currently. We are far from seeing the end of this tunnel, best get used to it. Edited for Red

Well that's just where we are headed with all this "Bailing Out", excuse me, "Stimulus Spending", oh wait, "Economic Reconciliation".

Well looking for a small spike this morning, then another dump, oh joy!

Luck is not a factor in me being born in the US. My Great Great Great Grandfather Samuel F. "Gransir" Barnes came to the North Carolina Colony in 1755, at 20 years old, from the caves in the Highlands of Scotland, after his family lost everything in the Battle of Inverkeithing, and was forced to the highlands and live in mud huts and caves, and die off slowly due to influenza, fever and plague. Gransir took a job on a sailing vessel in return for his passage to the colonies. Gransir toiled on a sailing ship for several months to get me here, I don't call that luck. He worked in the tobacco fields and learned the Dairy business as a sharecropper. He loaded up his family, (Nine Boys and their family in wagons and came to Texas in 1833 from Iredell County NC, by the lure tales by James F. Perry of the Spanish land grants of the Austin Colonies, where he was heading back to. He had come out to Iredell County to trade for dairy cows, of which Iredell County was plentiful with. Gransir traded James Perry 8 cows of the 16 he owned to take him in his family to Texas, in search of all this free land spoke of. Traded half his wealth to trudge 1200 miles to settle in Brazos County Texas at 98 years old, in a wagon pulled by mules. Not knowing what was waiting for him on the other end, and not even knowing if he'd actually live to see it. He lived to be 106 by chance and is buried in the Boonville Cemetary, next to his wife, that joined him 3 years later. All nine of his sons were granted land grants, (1 section of land) in return for their service in the Texas Army. Three sons joined a Ranger Company, the rest served in the regular Militia. My Great Great Grandfather may have been lucky no to have been killed in the Battle of the Sabine, when he was shot in the back, and since he carried a horseshoeing hammer in his ruck, the 50 caliber ball spared him, and only left him with the definite impression of a farrier's hammer on his lower left lumbar region. But I really don't think that had any involvement in gaining any wealth by luck. After the Independence of Texas, all the brothers returned to Brazos county, where they established the only business they knew, the dairy business. Two Brothers decided to continue Rangering, and the rest along with their kids established the Barnes Creamery, which to this day still operated on Dilly Shaw Tap Road. No luck, just hard work and determination. If you have read my blog, it will explain that I left that dairy at 16 to find my own way.....and as Paul Harvey would say....."that's the rest of the story." No luck involved, just a lot of hard work. Now I can sit around and discuss frivolous crap with some people who have no clue, and some that do.

I don

I own the Company, I can screw off when I feel like it.

Dead on the money Hwy6, when the war broke out, every able person was either in the Military or in Civil support services. Rosie the Riveter was the new poster child for the economy. Professional housewives, had to go into the work place to fill the void, left behind by all the men in Military service. It's a no brainer. And you are correct, a wait of more like 6-8 years is more realistic with the mess we are in. If it were not for the War, the Great Depression would have last possible another 6-8 years than it did.

California is throwing in the towel, legalize weed, tax it, and if you're still broke after that, nobody will care, as long as they can sit around on the couch and watch cartoons and eat Cheetos.

Does anyone really have any faith in the FDIC these days? How can they insure money they do not have the capital to back it up with? Insurance is nothing more that a piece of paper saying you are insured, whether you are actually are or not is yet to be seen. Why do you think they are going to keep bailing out these banks? They can't let them go under, they can't back up all that FDIC insurance they have been claiming to be having all these years. What are you going to do, sue the government for your money? You might as well sue the guy passing out the chronicle at the corner of 1960 and I45. You will get the same amount out of either one.

If anyone doesn't think the current administration isn't jumping for joy that Limbaugh is trying to throw his hat in the ring, is really out of tough. Limbaugh will do nothing but split the party into two parts. People that have a clue that he's a grandstanding, media whore, that is looking out for no one except himself, and those who are sheepish enough to think he has any answers. The Democrats are jumping for joy as long as he has a camera in his face. The current administration has no chance what so ever of fixing this economy in four years, and know with out help, they are out of a job again. People are already seeing that change was not what they thought it was. Obama's rock-star number have been slipping since the day he took the oath. http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-D...b-Approval.aspx Another four years in this direction and they will be packing up the Whitehouse for the next President. And anyone that will realistically look at the shape we are in, no matter what is done by whatever side, there is no quick fix to this, and to think it will turn around in a year or two, is a pipe dream. Sure we need government spending reform, and we are going to also have to renovate the entire system to get that. Do you think it is going to happen? Hell no. You have not got enough honest members in either party to bring about that much change. And does it look like any reform going on at this point in time? Nope, same old story, pork, pork, and more pork, from both sides. A four trillion dollar budget for next year, that's not going to fix it. Rush Limbaugh can scream and holler till he drops dean from a stroke, and nothing is going to change. The people who make the rules are the ones screwing the people. Do you actually think that all of a sudden, all these crooks in DC are going to have some great revelation overcome them, and all of a sudden they start doing what is right? You really have go to be kidding if you think it for one minute. They would put themselves out of work, if they actually did the right thing. People need to take some self responsibility, quit putting yourself in debt to your eyeballs. If you can't afford it, you do not need it, period. Quit crying that someone made you do it, or that you had no choice. You have plenty of choices, quit spending all your money. If your bills are too high, quit buying things on credit. If you can't pay your electric bill turn off the lights and A/C. Lived plenty of years without them before. Can't afford groceries, grow a garden, folks did it for years. Learn to do without, it's simple, just do it. Quit spending money that is not absolutely necessary, cut up your credit cards. Get yourself a check card and spend it only if you have it to spend.

Jim they ran the limited sportsman up until 1982 when it became the Busch Series, as far as I know.

Paul began his wrestling career in Madison Square Garden on October 25, 1932. Paul had wrestled in Texas in January '42, soon after Pearl Harbor. and stayed until May. He fought in Germany during the war. Immediately following the war he headed back to Houston to pick up his career where he had left off. He stayed about seven months. and really liked Houston, and liked and trusted Morris Sigel, the promoter. He started out his broadcast career in Houston on KLEE in 1948 when he was handed the mic by Bruce Layer, who had to make a mad dash for the restroom due to complications during a ringside radio broadcast. (KLEE was before the Hobby's bought them out and it became KPRC). He took the TV broadcast over when KLEE aired in 1949. When Houston Wrestling they kept getting bumped for other KPRC programming, Sigel took it to Channel 13 in 1954, and it stayed there until 1967 when Paul took over the reigns as the head man, after Sigel's death in December of '66, they were off the air for about three months, while all the paperwork was worked out from the buyout from Sigel's widow. But when they came back on air on Ch 39, Paul took them to the forefront, because he used his career on the mat to lure in wrestlers from all over the world (Paul wrestled in the South Pacific for years prior to WWII), to Houston, and had a reputation as an honest promoter that always paid his people. And that was the reason he got so much talent to come to Houston, because they never had to worry about getting paid, Sigel had much the same reputation, so it wasn't a hard sell. Houston had a long wrestling history going way back before WW I. Between 1915 and 1923 there were matches at irregular intervals. In those days many wrestling matches were often held for private bets between the contestants. About 1925, Julius Sigel, brother of Morris, started promoting in Houston's City Auditorium. Soon they had top wrestlers coming to Houston on a steady basis. Friday night was the night they chose to hold the matches.

Absolutely correct TJ Paul brought Houston Wrestling to the forefront on Channel 39, and gave Mack his first spots on TV. Remember Paul Bosch, the Houston Wrestling promoter advertising ear rings for a jewelry company. He claimed they even made his ears beautiful. I think they were clip-ons. Now men prefer the pierced type. Before Paul it was Bruce Layer (sp?) broadcasting wrestling matches, a lot less colorful than Paul. Paul use to hang out down at the old Lamar Motel and Drink Coffee all the time, really a nice guy.

Another Icon lost to the time clock........

Sorry Typo on the 10-key..... Bryan, So how long do you get to keep blaming Bush and really put it where it belongs? 2010? 2011, 2012? Get real........... Do you you honestly think these trillions they are dumping like water, into the people who caused the majority of this, is really having a positive effect on the economy? Really now......... Yeah Crunch , life on your end really is getting iffy is it not? Hope they treat you kindly whatever happens. At this rate we will be in 1987 by 2010

There it is folks 6935 and falling.......... Lowest since 1987

It's looking like an ugly Monday

Don't forget most electricians have a four hour minimum. None the less the install sounds very high, perhaps, the electrician is not fully understanding what it is you want done. He could be thinking you are wanting something more complex done. Or it could possibly be he's trying to avoid the work because of his current load, and doesn't want to flatly turn you down, so he threw out a price he figured you would turn down and if you wanted it that bad he'd be willing to do it. You never know, it's done every day in all lines of work, I know I do it when it's something I'd rather not do, but if they are willing to pay enough, anything is possible.

You being a geologist you really can't go wrong with Exxon, Shell or El Paso. I would pass on Devon, because of some serious financial issues they are having currently, and sometimes it seems they make moves like their decision making process involves a Ouija board. At Exxon you would be working for a personal friend named Mike Zimmerman, really a nice guy, great rock man and very low keyed. He's been with Exxon for close to 30 years lives near me over on Lake Conroe. If you take a job at El Paso, you would be working for Rene Decou, (Pronounced Renny Day-Coo), and you could not work for a finer man on earth, I've know Rene for about 30 years. He is one of they best Rock guys I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Now when it comes to bells and whistles, in the rock department, Shell is it hands down. They have all the cool toys, Virtual Geo 4D, Virtual Source Monitoring, and many multi axis visual aids, Some very sharp people to work with, Jorge Lopez, Albena Mateeva, Audrey Bakulin and Rodney Calvert are some of the best out there, and a low key atmosphere to work in. They also are big on continued education and push for you to keep going in school. Weigh out your offers and pick your flavor.

This should be funny, the paper-m

That is EXACTLY correct, it's ALL ABOUT THE M-O-N-E-Y. Has been for close to 30 years. The schools get huge payouts for the big games, something like $17.5 million to each team, for top five bowl games. (BCS Championship, Orange, Rose, Sugar, Fiesta). The Cotton Bowl Game (not the stadium) is trying to get back in that class of game. It'll never happen in the old facility. Jerry Jones has to put butts in seats, as many times as he can. High School Championship games, Cotton Bowl, Superbowl, Pro Bowl, TX vs. OU (2011 and beyond), Ark vs. Texas A&M (Oct. 3, 2009). If there's a game in D/FW that has any potential to sell tickets, Jerry Jones is going to host it, you can bank on it.

They still call the "Orange Bowl" the "Orange Bowl" don't they? It's changed stadiums three times.

Changi Airport Singapore, just a first class establishment. Great amenities, clean facilities, polite and respectful personnel. If you have a long layover, it is the place you want it to be.

You ever been to Mexico on New Years Eve? It's like WWIII at midnight. Funny you are just now noticing it in Houston, it's been an issue for years, long as I can remember it's been going on.