Just a note before I start with today’s entry, I’m aware that thewoodedglen.com is down.  I should be able to get it fixed tomorrow. 

 So when I opened my Yahoo! email last night, I saw that the Fed (namely Paulson) is against a bailout for the automakers.  Honestly, this makes me crabby.  It was so imperative that we bail out Wall Street, for the “trickle down” effects.  The banks needed the bail out so that they could keep lending… uhh yea, they’re tightening the lending standards so much that if you don’t have perfect credit, you cannot borrow anything!

 Which leads to the problem that the “Big 3” automakers are having.  They can’t get the credit they need to advance money to their suppliers, so they are close to declaring bankruptcy.  Ultimately, this will mean more than 3 million people out of work.  That’s the people who work directly for the automakers, their suppliers and the various support companies.  A friend of mine in MI is looking at the possibility of losing her job because the company she works for deals with GM. 

Yet, Paulson doesn’t want to bail out the automakers.  Anyone who is against unions is saying that it’s the fault of the UAW.  Uhh yea, ok, the unions are the reason that the automakers have been focusing on the SUV’s and Hummers.  When reading a different article today, I saw an interesting opinion article on the bailout.  I agree with the author of the article, in the long run, it will be cheaper to bail out the automakers.  Otherwise, when they declare bankruptcy, we’ll have to pay unemployment benefits to these 3+ million employees who will be affected by the bankruptcies.

http://suicidegirls.com/news/politics/23423/ (suicidegirls.com is an adult themed website, but they have some interesting articles at times, additionally, you will find that the language could stand to be improved)

Some of the comments in the article point out a few other things that should be considered.  If GM declares bankruptcy, then a Chinese based company could “inherit” the technology they’ve developed, including the plug in technology for an electric car.  Then we’d have to apply to this Chinese company to be able to use the technology in our cars.

I was lucky, no one said a word either way at my work, even though I’m in a very Republican state. I expected to hear a lot of sour grapes, but I didn’t hear anything.

On the other hand, some online friends of mine are upset. They think that Obama’s tax plan is going to make the economy tank worse. My feeling is that any changes he makes to the tax code are going to have to go through congress. The Democrats don’t have enough of a majority to push anything through without the support of at least a few Republicans.

People are talking as if the president has the sole power to make our country great or break it down. We have a system of checks and balances for a reason. Plus, though our government may affect others impression of our country (ie France, Australia or the UK), we are all able to make changes to make things better or worse. Each time people demand that our government work on other energy sources, we have a say in how our country operates. No, it’s not as much power as we used to have, but people have chosen to not do as much to curb our government and this is where we’ve ended up. We need to learn to band together and take back our rights as citizens.  Our country was founded on an idea.  That idea is still there, even if we don’t all agree on everything.  The whole point is to find a common ground and go from there.

I read in the comments for one of the blogs I read regularly that some people in Indiana said that the KKK would have something to say about Obama’s presidency.  Let’s hope their wrong.  We need to be united now, not divided.  The recent election was very divisive, not only between the parties, but within the Republican party.  We need to get past that.  We are all Americans.

I was talking to a friend of mine in MO last week.  She said that she’s been getting a lot of robo-calls from the Republican party.  At least one of these robo calls was recorded by Rudy Giuliani.  According to her, all of the robo calls have been nasty, mud slinging packs of lies.  Each of these robo calls has reaffirmed who she wants to vote for, and it’s not McCain. 

Another friend of mine is seriously worried about race issues if Obama wins.  She’s afraid that the KKK or the Neo-Nazis won’t like having a black president and will be out to assassinate him.  I can see that… especially after the recent arrests of those two idiotic redneck skinheads.  If he ends up assassinated, we may find the country divided like they were after OJ was accused of killing his ex-wife, or after the Rodney King tape was released. 

What I find even scarier is what’s happening in my own town.  There have been complaints that people are destroying Obama/Biden signs, that’s not the bad part.  That happens a lot during election years.  What’s disturbing is that the people who are stealing these signs are supposedly yelling racial slurs, and keying these peoples cars.  Then you have similar reports in other areas of signs being stolen and cars with McCain/Palin stickers being keyed.

Then I find myself wondering… McCain doesn’t say he’s a Christian, but Palin says she is.  From what I’ve seen of her behavior, she’s not being a very good Christian role model.  No, it’s not up to me to judge.  However, from what I know of the Bible, Christians are not supposed to talk or act like she is. 

I don’t know why, but a certain member of my husband’s family never ceases to amaze me with her behavior.  Tonight, she wanted my husband to drive her to McDonalds, even though he told her he didn’t have time before he had to leave for work.  She followed him into the bedroom as he was trying to get dressed, and she woke up my 3 yo with her repeating her demand for him to give her a ride.  She got mad because my hubby wouldn’t bring her to McDonalds.  She also told him that another member of the family is having marriage troubles, and she was smirking the whole time because she doesn’t like that person’s wife.  How, immature. 

 I really need to learn to get past her behavior.  She just doesn’t think about anyone else, not even her own daughter, that’s just how she is.  Kinda like when I’m talking to members of my family about other members of my family, I’ll say that’s just how she is, or that’s just how he is.  But their behavior isn’t selfish, more stubborn and set in their ways. 

Email from OK Senator Coburn (Opens in a new window)

Well, after several weeks, I got an answer from OK Senator Tom Coburn about the bailout bill.  Jim Inhofe, who is the Republican incumbent for the senate has a political ad saying that he voted against the bill (of course the ad is attacking the guy running against him, but that’s another matter entirely). 

 I found it interesting that Senator Coburn stated why he voted for the bill, and he says that we should be pointing fingers at Congress for the issues that have lead up to the need for the bailout.  I thought the email was a good read and others might like to see what a Republican senator thought about the bailout.  Granted, some of what he said seems to be regular political rhetoric, but the rest is interesting.

Because there has been too much focusing lately on the economic problems. 

Funny Videos

http://www.naturalnews.com/024461.html (Opens in a new window)

Research is showing that younger and younger girls are having problems with body image. In the above article, it’s suggested that girls get a poor body image from their mothers.  Women who go on crash diets and focus entirely on losing weight or how fat they think they are, even the innocent or not so innocent little comments to their kids about not eating too many sweets because they’ll get fat?

That’s damaging to a girl’s self image.  My ex’s daughter had self image issues.  Her aunts used to tell her that if she didn’t watch what she ate, she’d end up as fat as her father was.  Because of this, she had eating issues.  She’d chew on the same bite of food for up to 5 minutes at a time, or hide the food in her cheek instead of swallowing it.  I always felt bad about yelling at her for this, but I didn’t know how else to handle it.  In the meantime, when she was at our house for the weekend, he and I tried to make sure she didn’t sit in front of the tv all the time like she did at home.  Of course, it meant she needed to be constantly entertained because she didn’t know how to entertain herself without sitting in front of the tv. 🙁

I look at my daughter now, and listen to her.  I know I’m unhealthy and need to lose weight, but I don’t see her reflecting this in her own body image.  I put her hair up in the morning and she runs to tell her daddy that she looks beautiful.  She’s always wanting to look at herself in the mirror.  She will also freely tell anyone that’ll listen that I’m beautiful.  I guess in a way I am, when seen through the eyes of a little girl who looks up to her mommy and wants to be like her.

I try to keep her active and eating balanced meals.  I know this is something I’ll have to work at as she grows, I know I need to work on it for myself too.  I need to start being more active and eating healthier foods.  I will soon have 2 kids under 5, and I want to be there for them.  Since my husband chooses not to take care of his diabetes, then I need to do everything I can to make sure I stay healthy for these kids.  I also want to be around for my older son.  He graduates this year, but he still needs his mom. 

All of us need to focus on the good in ourselves instead of the bad.  So, maybe I’m not good at standing up to people who disagree with me.  I am still a geek.  I still know computers, and I still like science fiction.  That doesn’t meant that I’m a bad person.  You have to weigh all of your good and bad traits.  Focus on the good ones, work on improving the bad ones. 

 As for me, once the baby is born, I’ll be focusing on getting healthy for all three of my kids.

I know I said before that the CEO of the company I work for gave a “state of the company” presentation last month or the month before.  He spoke about how our company is not affected by the economic downturn, that the company’s sales are still increasing.  Since we sell to stores like Sonic (and that’s one that he gave as an example), the company’s sales will continue to increase. 

 However, according to Forbes, same-store sales for Sonic were positive for franchised drive-ins, but negative for partner locations, leading to an overall negative same store sales outlook.  They’re also blaming softening consumer spending and increased prices.  Hmmm… that doesn’t sound too positive for the company I’m working for 😛

Let’s add to this whole situation with more interesting news in the disconnect between perception and reality.  The company I work for offers downpayment assistance for first time homebuyers.  To get this assistance, we have to complete a homebuyer workshop put on by the local community development office.  At this workshop, they were saying that we have a negative unemployment rate in this city, that we are importing workers because there aren’t enough people here who need a job. 

Another benefit the company offers is an interest free emergency loan once a year.  For example, if you get a cut-off notice for your electric bill, then you can get a loan to pay it, and they’ll take the money out of your paycheck.  However, to defeat the purpose of it being an emergency loan, they are now running out of money before it actually becomes available.  I was asking about it at the beginning of September, and they said they were out of money until October 7.  I called and asked on Friday, and they said they were out until November 7, but I had to fill out an application now if I wanted money in November.  Umm yea, that makes sense… I always understood it to be an emergency loan.  Obviously things aren’t going as well here in town as was implied by the homebuyer workshop.

To make it even more interesting, at the homebuyer workshop, they fully admitted that there is an affordable housing shortage here.  With what the companies in town pay, most people can only afford houses that cost under $60k or so… all of which get snapped up almost as quickly as they’re put on the market.  For rentals, it’s almost impossible to find one that’s under $700 a month, which is out of the price range of most of people in town. 

Yea, the forecast that we’re not going to be affected by this downturn is wrong.  I know we’ll get through it.  It’s just going to be a rough ride for awhile.  There’s always a plan in what happens, we just need to wait and see what it is.  In the meantime, I just find it ironic that so many company executives seem to think that things aren’t as bad as they are for their employees.  That’s the real disconnect.

Ok, in my post last night, I said that I was curious what other opinions were on the bailout (now being called a rescue by much of mainstream media).  Today, I opened my email to find this link to Dave Ramsey’s website.  Well lol I guess I need to open my email more often, I’ve gotten 3 links to this site from 3 different people since Tuesday. Dave Ramsay’s Plan  As he is one of the financial gurus I trust, I really think he might have a good answer to what’s going on.

 I’ve said it before, I have to say it again.  Bernie Sanders is the most honest and straightforward person I know of in Congress.  No, he’s not the best public speaker (he constantly refers to his notes), but he makes a lot of sense and seems to be the one person in this whole deal that is remembering that Congress answers to US not the other way around.  Check out what he had to say about the bailout. 

 A dear friend of mine asked me to post again because he didn’t like the story about breastmilk in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Hehe 

So it looks like they may have passed a bailout bill finally.  They only had to work on it for about 1.5 weeks.  That’s not bad for our Congress, where everything has to be partisan.  After all, who cares what needs to be done, let’s vote along the party lines.  Bah! 

 I’ve been doing a lot of reading about whether we really need this bailout plan.  I’ve also been asking a lot of questions, and reading everything I can find on what’s going on.  My brother and his wife both work for WaMu.  I was worried about them when I heard about the buyout, but I’ve been told that they just have another employer right now.  Which is odd… a dear friend of mine works for Wachovia, which has also been bought out.  But apparently Citibank is getting rid of a lot of the jobs at Wachovia, whereas JP Morgan Chase is keeping a lot of the jobs at WaMu. 

What I’m confused about is how this bailout plan is going to help.  I mean it’s not going to do anything for the rising food and gas prices.  All it’ll do is help the companies that were so involved in this greed scam that they’ve been losing a lot of money with the foreclosures.  It’s not going to help those that were convinced that they needed a bigger loan than they could afford, or those that lost their jobs because of the slow down in house sales.  It seems more like it’s just going to help a few people in concentrated areas… like New York City.  It’s not going to help those who are losing their jobs because their employer was just bought out (like WaMu or Wachovia). 

I see several thoughts on this bailout.  Many people say that the bailout is going to cause the value of the dollar to drop even further.  That our currency is going to be in a free fall against all other currencies, which is going to cause an economic collapse, and that other countries are going to think that if we get too far into debt, we’ll just print money to get out, making the dollar even more worthless.  It’s possible… it even sounds plausible.  If you go to http://naturalnews.com they have a lot of speculation on this possibility.  The authors at Natural News also seem to think that both our government and big pharma are going to become obsolete once everything plays out.  They figure that people aren’t going to have the money to pay for their drugs, which means the pharmaceutical companies aren’t going to have an income.  They’ll be the next to go. 

Many others say that this bailout has to happen.  The world markets are in chaos over what is happening in the US.  (I do have a link, it’s on my other computer, I will try to copy it over tomorrow).  That’s a daunting thought.  We have to put ourselves further into debt because everything is so intertwined.  It’s possible a lot of other countries are going to have problems if we don’t do anything.  There’s no reason that the rest of the world should have to suffer,  just because a few – or a lot – of people in the US became greedy and wanted more than a simple modest return on their investments, or those who treated their houses like ATMs, or those who overspent what they could honestly afford and used the equity in their homes to cover their poor budgeting and credit card debt, or even those who cooked the company books to make it look like the company was earning better than they actually were.

Then there’s the portion that think that no matter what we do, we’re sunk.  We can put $700 billion into keeping these businesses afloat, but if you look at the 777 point drop in the Dow on Monday, that’s $1.1 trillion.  How much of a drop in the bucket is $700 billion?  Not much if you ask me.  Kinda like putting the US further into debt for a “stimulus package” that didn’t jump start the economy like the shrub said it would. 

I’ll admit, I don’t own my own home, my job isn’t affected by this whole situation, and gas prices here in OK are hovering around $3.15 as of yesterday.  The city I live in pretty much has a negative unemployment rate — if you want to work, you can find a job.  I was silly enough to check my 401(k), where I saw that the balance dropped $100 between last Wednesday and yesterday (Tuesday).  Today it was up about $40.  I guss that means I shouldn’t check it so often.  I’ve been tracking it the last few weeks by printing out the statement every Wednesday. 

According to the CEO of the company I work for, we aren’t even going to be affected by the economic “downturn.”  I’m not sure how much I believe him, if it gets too bad, people are going to stop eating out altogether, and more than half our business is to sell to companies like Sonic, or to small cafeterias like one of my brothers runs in Florida.  Basically, what the CEO said is that people are stepping down in the type of place they eat out.  If they used to eat out at upscale restaurants, they’ll step down to family dining types like Applebees, and so on.  He said that so far, it’s only the ones that could only afford to eat out at cheap or fast food type restaurants that have totally cut back on eating out at all.  I disagree, but that’s just from personal experience.  A year ago, we would eat out once a week at places like Applebees, now we don’t eat out at all if I can help it.  It’s just too much money to pay someone else for food that isn’t as good as homemade. 

So, if you go by the trickle down theory, the bailout plan is supposed to help all of us.  I haven’t yet figured out how, but am willing to hear suggestions on this.