Jeffrey C

Perhaps its because Im a businessman, but I rhink Trumps description of his bankruptcies is really bad. He is basically saying "Yeah I was the captain of the Titanic and yeah we hit an iceberg but it doesnt really matter because I got on the first available lifeboat."

All of the people that believed in him and invested in him were just suckers in his own mind. He doesnt care that he screwed them and actually has the nerve to brag about it. Honestly I find this attitude to be a much bigger problem than the iceberg itself.

Any Trump voters want to explain why they think he will treat you any better than he treated his investors?

Cruz gets elected. Then a group of extemely liberal congressmen convince Dem leaders to force a shutdown unless some leftwing idea not supported by anywhere near a majority is implimented. Say its "no pipelines anywhere" or a shutdown? How does he handle this? Does he just cave and say the president is powerless against a couple of committed congressmen? I seriously doubt that. Why does he think Obama would act any differently? What do his supporters think hed do in this situation? What do you think he should do? Why pick a pointless fight that is just going to hurt everyone without any gain?

I'm going to give an employee use of a pickup truck. He will drive it for business all day long. I'll let him drive it for personal use evenings and weekends. Can I deduct all miles using the 55 cent/mile rule or only the ones during the day? The logic would be that even his personal use is still a business expense since it could be seen as a perk in lieu of salary and the car maintenance expenses will be picked up by the business.

I have to admit I didn't see this coming.

One of the side effects of the foreclosure crisis is that mortgage companies lost an absurd amount of money. If you give somebody a $400k mortgage, they default, you resell the foreclosure for $350k, the mortgage investor loses $50k. There is no way around that.

I thought one of the side effects of the real estate bust would be that investors would learn that mortgage backed securities weren't quite the risk free investments that they were made out to be.

I thought a side effect would be that less people would be willing to buy MBSs and that they would demand more return to make up for the extra risk.

It seems to me that anybody that gives a mortgage right now is tying up their money for 30 years with a 5% maximum rate of return and a high risk of more foreclosures. It doesn't seem worth the bother.

It especially doesn't make sense with the stock market as depressed as it is.

If the US enters an economic recovery, some stocks will provide extremely high rates of return from their current levels. MBS will provide 5%.

If the US goes into an extended depression, some of these stocks will go bankrupt, but many more mortgages will default as well.

In other words, MBS provide all of the risk with none of the upside.

Obviously, people are buying them because mortgages are being offered with really low rates.

Why?

I run a small investment partnership. I see a number of potential companies that I would like to meet with in China.

I'd like to find somebody with good English skills and a car that would be willing to drive me around the country and translate for me.

Does anybody know how to arrange this kind of a service?

Any idea on how much it would cost?

Both for the fee to the translator and my own expenses

I'd like to stay in 2 star hotels (something like a Super 8 or a Days Inn---clean and safe, but not fancy)

I can leave out of Beijing or Shanghai. We'll probably cover about 2000 miles by the time its done.

This story really upsets me. A white woman said that a black man mugged her, held her down and carved a B in her face when he found out she was a McCain supporter. She has now admitted to the police that she made the whole thing up. Why would she do this? So people could blame black people in general and Barack Obama in particular for crime. Its an extreme and sick example of race baiting.

She has admitted she made the whole thing up.

My question. Why the f%$k are there quotation marks around the word confesses on Fox's main page?

This really pisses me off.

http:\\www.foxnews.com

I see that Rush Limbaugh claims that Colin Powell endorsed Obama purely because he is black. Powell actually laid out quite a few very good reasons why he is planning on voting for Obama over McCain. Limbaugh ignored all of them and apparently thinks that Powell puts race above all else.

Well, he is planning on voting for McCain. Is race the only reason for doing this? After all, he is white and McCain is white. If Powell is only voting for Obama because he is black, then it stands to reason that......

During the 1990s, Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party.

The AIP wants to secede from the union and wants Alaska to be recognized as a separate and independent country by the UN.

McCain's slogan is "Country First"

Palin said I agree, but didn't tell him what country...

Never got around to actually doing anything with it, but she registered a company named "Rouge Cou"...French for red neck. Real classy

http://www.adn.com/oil/story/198109.html

Go to http:\\www.fec.gov, click on individual search and enter in Sarah Palin.

Right up until she was elected governor, Palin's career was housewife. She spent only 1 year at the oil commission.

Her part time gig as mayor of a 6000 person town ended in 2002.

As far as I can tell, she has only had a full time job for 2 1/2 years in her entire life and she may very well be the President of the United States next year.

Everybody on here is saying its no big deal McCain embarrassed his wife by suggesting she participate in a "beauty contest" that involves large amounts of nudity, simulating fellatio on a pickle and all sorts of other degrading acts.

No big deal. Its just a joke. Lighten up. Thats what bikers do.

Honestly, how quickly would you be freaking out if Obama had said that? How many times would we be hearing about it on the news?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/08...

Seriously, would it really be no big deal to the religious right if this was Obama.

Everybody has been referring to McCain's "joke" at the Sturgis rally.

Can you explain what is funny about it?

How does that represent "family values"? Or respect towards women?

Is this a part of the plan to get disillusioned Hillary feminists?

Or to energize conservative Christians?

If a candidate saying "In addition to my comprehensive energy policy, you should consider getting a tire gauge" is open to serious scrutiny and ridicule, how is this not fair game?

This is disgusting.

McCain obviously has no respect for women.

He would ask his wife to appear in something that is straight out of Hustler magazine.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/mc...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/05/mccain-su...

I don't understand how any conservative Christian could vote for him.

Is this good Christian family values?

McCain suggests that his wife compete in a beauty contest that looks like something out of Hustler magazine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4X6XqNeF...

Here is some clips of last year's contest (warning: Explicit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVQHJd_3J...

Here is the Pickle Licking competition (warning extremely explicit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTh69_HPF...

Now, I know some of you might say that "he didn't know what was involved." Frankly, how could he not? If you hear that there is a beauty contest for a bunch of drunk and rowdy bikers and you don't at least ask a couple of questions before volunteering your wife as a contestant, you are way too naive and too stupid to be president.

He "joked" by saying that Chelsea Clinton was fathered by Janet Reno.

He "joked" about women being raped by apes

He "joked" that his wife should perform degrading acts in front of drunk and rowdy bikers.

Seriously, if McCain didn't have some idea of what the "beauty contest" entailed, shouldn't his entire advance team be fired for incompetence.

I mean its not like not knowing that Czechoslovakia is two different countries or that Iraq and Pakistan don't share a border or even the difference between Shiite and Sunni.

Any logical person could think "hey a beauty contest for a bunch of rowdy bikers....that might turn into something a little degrading to women"

You can say its just a sense of humor, but isn't it a little disturbing how his sexist and misogynistic his sense of humor is.

Last time, I included a link to the Huffington Post.

I did this because it included the videos from last year's event and McCain asking his wife to be in this year's contest.

A lot of you didn't seem to believe the story.

Well here is the link to the exact same story on ABC News.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/mc...

You would think that if the story actually included a video, you would believe the video, but I guess not.

Anyway the videos are on YouTube if you want to look them up yourselves. McCain did ask his wife to appear in the Miss Buffalo Chip, a "beauty competition" that is extremely degrading to women. Among other highlights, it forces women to perform simulated fellatio on pickles.

You could argue that McCain didn't realize that a "beauty competition" at a biker rally was likely to be degrading to women, but then I would argue that just proves how clueless and out of touch he is.

I ask again. Is this what the religious right means by "family values"?

For those of you that are saying he didn't know it was topless,

Are you serious?

Have you ever been to a biker party? I have and even if he didn't know it was topless, he should have been able to figure out that a wet t-shirt competition was far more likely to be included than an evening gown category, that the talent portion was more likely to include a "pickle-licking contest" than the typical magic acts.

Is this what McCain means when he wants to run on family values?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/05/mccain-su...

I've been trying to understand the GOP's latest attack plan. Obama is presumptuous. He is going over there, talking to foreign leaders, acting like he is already the president. Isn't he arrogant? Isn't this the worst thing in the world?

The thing that doesn't make any sense at all about this argument is that all candidates try to "act presidential". All candidates do the exact same things. McCain himself has already made several high profile foreign trips. Arrogant is a word that definitely describes McCain. Come to think of it, it describes all presidential candidates. How can anyone think that out of 300 million people, you are the best one to lead and not be a tad arrogant? So what makes Obama different?

Then I realized. There is a certain segment of racists that don't even think of themselves as racist. "Some of their best friends are black." As long as blacks "know their place", they are fine with blacks. They just hate it when blacks act all uppity.

It strikes me as if this latest attack is little more than a code word appeal to those sorts of people.

What is the best and fastest way to get the knowledge?

I know this seems like an odd request but I have my reasons for wanting to own one.

Should I go to a trade school and spend a year learning the textbook way to fix cars?

Should I go to a current shop and offer to work for a very low rate in order to get the experience of working in a real shop?

Is there an accelerated course?

I envision my time as an owner focusing more on the business management, advertising and supervisory parts of the job, not the actual fixing of cars. I don't want to overtrain and learn the technicalities of every potential repair, but I would like to learn the basics and the ability to know what equipment to purchase, what techs to hire, etc. without being taken advantage of.

What route would you take?

How long do you think it would take to get the knowledge?

How much do you think it would cost (not the shop itself, just the training)?