Celestial:

Tushana:

Cheryl48:

Woke up this am to three houses on my street with tax foreclosure signs from Wayne county taped to their fronts....

I remember someone posted about what it means as far as time limits and evictions and such.... does anyone remember?

Very sad.  Cheryl I think it was zipty.  I remember the discussion...maybe Laura.

When you go driving, you can see like every other, or every third house up for sale. Or not even for sale. Some people just up and left their homes, and two good vehicles in the drive. Very nice homes, but the grass hasn't been mowed, so you know they had to leave, for whatever reason. I guess their eyes were bigger than there paychecks. Its really sad, but most the time I wished I had the $$$ to buy.

I have seen the cars exactly as you have described.  I find it irresponsible behavior ....these were luxury cars...high end...and I cannot believe these people for one moment realistically believed they could maintain a mortgage and the car notes.  They knew they could walk away and let others eventually end up responsible for thier greed!  It isn't just the CEO's and the political parties! Many people bought into this illusion....I am still for going after and prosecuting all those greedy CEO's and those involved in the mortgage fraud.  At the same time I am not in support of bailing out all those who were irresponsible in maxing out their credit.

TUSHANA;  Agree with you for now. You ha e s]]]\\\\---WhooW! What happened? N0 0ne would let me type anything,

I would like to thank everyone , especially keo10 for their well wishes concerning my sister. Don't know if I explained here, but she had some ulcers in her esophagus so bad , her esophagus narrowed where she could not eat. She became dehydrated and very anemic, her metabolism slowed down to a life threatening degree. She may be coming home in 2 weeks. I am very thankful she survived . I am also thankful for this beautiful day and God bless the United States of America. We will survive.

rvtwitty:

I would like to thank everyone , especially keo10 for their well wishes concerning my sister. Don't know if I explained here, but she had some ulcers in her esophagus so bad , her esophagus narrowed where she could not eat. She became dehydrated and very anemic, her metabolism slowed down to a life threatening degree. She may be coming home in 2 weeks. I am very thankful she survived . I am also thankful for this beautiful day and God bless the United States of America. We will survive.

rvtwitty -- I'm so sorry to hear about your sister. God bless you too for giving so much of yourself by taking care of her. It is a great sacrifice on your part and to give so freely is a testament of the love that you and your sister have for each other.

Tushana:

Celestial:

Tushana:

Cheryl48:

Woke up this am to three houses on my street with tax foreclosure signs from Wayne county taped to their fronts....

I remember someone posted about what it means as far as time limits and evictions and such.... does anyone remember?

Very sad.  Cheryl I think it was zipty.  I remember the discussion...maybe Laura.

When you go driving, you can see like every other, or every third house up for sale. Or not even for sale. Some people just up and left their homes, and two good vehicles in the drive. Very nice homes, but the grass hasn't been mowed, so you know they had to leave, for whatever reason. I guess their eyes were bigger than there paychecks. Its really sad, but most the time I wished I had the $$$ to buy.

I have seen the cars exactly as you have described.  I find it irresponsible behavior ....these were luxury cars...high end...and I cannot believe these people for one moment realistically believed they could maintain a mortgage and the car notes.  They knew they could walk away and let others eventually end up responsible for thier greed!  It isn't just the CEO's and the political parties! Many people bought into this illusion....I am still for going after and prosecuting all those greedy CEO's and those involved in the mortgage fraud.  At the same time I am not in support of bailing out all those who were irresponsible in maxing out their credit.

We have become a sesame street society. Everything must be NOW. What ever happened to saving for something instead of instant gratification by borrowing money that never was real? It was all an illusion -- the large McMansion, the luxury cars, the fine clothes ... Now we all must pay for it, which just isn't right. There is no personal responsibility for getting into debt, making errors in judgement. It will happen again, maybe not in my lifetime, but until people have to pay for their mistakes the behavior will surface again. I'm a firm believer in the Jefferson Papers and the free market theory. Once someone, in this case the government, takes over we loose a little freedom -- even if the "take over" is to protect us from our own behavior. Our freedoms are slowly being eroded.

The world has gone mad. When I was in early adulthood you didn't even IMAGINE owning a home until you had saved 20 percent of the selling price. So, you saved your pennies and bought a low priced starter home then eventually built up enough equity to trade up to something better. All this changed in the early 90's. People bought homes with little or no money down, interest only loans etc. People borrowed against their mortgages for 125% of the value of their home on the speculation that their home would just keep increasing in value. Everyone thought the housing bubble would continue forever. But it popped. It;s a mess now. The stock market is in the pooper and our homes are worth much less than we paid for them. The government has no money, we are 9 TRILLION in debt. So, the government is borrowing another 700 billion from the banks and giving it to the banks to "rescue" them. After all is said and done the banks will charge the government interest on the 700 billion they were given. By the way, where do you think the banks got the money? China maybe?

My own personal opinion is that we are not in a recession. We are entering a deep depression. I would advise you to take your worthless paper money out of the bank, convert it to Gold Bullion or Newport cigarettes or any other useful commodity, stick it in a safe in your home and wait for the eventual run on the banks.

But...then again...I thought MTV would go nowhere the first time I saw it.

Is Kwame still in Texas on vacation? Why Texas? Please forgive me, I have been out of the loop for some time.

When is he supposed to be back and when does he start serving his sentence? Where are his wife and bratty lil kids going to live?

Sorry if this has all been covered before. I'm too old and lazy to search through the messages and I want sesame street  gratification dammit! lol I loved that phrase.

Economics in Beer Terms:
 
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all
ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes,
it would go something like this:

Cool, hyper grandkids went back to parents. Its hard to watch/take care of the grandkids, when everything hurts. I've had a couple of major operations, and the outlook isn't the best, but I would like a poll. I was ok with Dr. Kevorkian's (sp) reasoning before he was put away (went to prison). I don't understand how in the heck Congress can make you live, if you're going to live in pain the rest of your life. HOW do we as honest Americans ask that this be put to vote by us? I really don't even think there should be a vote. Why shouldn't we be able to live and die as we choose? I don't mean living high off the hog as Kwame did, but you know. And I don't mean being irresponsible, killing your self because you caught your boyfriend with someone else. THE QUESTION!!! Rather than live in so much pain, shouldn't I be allowed,,,,, just to choose wheather I want to live that way?

Laura56:

rvtwitty:

I would like to thank everyone , especially keo10 for their well wishes concerning my sister. Don't know if I explained here, but she had some ulcers in her esophagus so bad , her esophagus narrowed where she could not eat. She became dehydrated and very anemic, her metabolism slowed down to a life threatening degree. She may be coming home in 2 weeks. I am very thankful she survived . I am also thankful for this beautiful day and God bless the United States of America. We will survive.

rvtwitty -- I'm so sorry to hear about your sister. God bless you too for giving so much of yourself by taking care of her. It is a great sacrifice on your part and to give so freely is a testament of the love that you and your sister have for each other.

Most of my family worked for the Federal Government. My parents worked for FHA and my mom eventually for the Defense Department. I have a cousin currently in Homeland Security. 3 of my aunts worked for the Atomic Energy Commision. My uncle was the senior comptroller for the US. Another uncle went to West Point. My sis worked over 30 years at the Tank Arsenal. We bleed red, white, and blue. Duty, Honor, Country. But family comes first. The customs and spirit of an American family spanning several generations, those are my roots.  We had great leaders to get us through wars and lean years. We need a dedicated level of government servants to get this city, state, and country out of a horrible mess. This mess created by greed and apathy. I do not see Obama or McCain as the answer. It will be another 4 years until someone decent will seek office. Hang on to what you have folks. It is going to be an even bumpier ride. Putting Kwame in jail is a start to ridding this area of slime. We have to keep after the crooks and seek justice.

If you had purchased $1,000 of AIG stock one year ago, you would have
$42 left.

With Lehman, you would have $6.60 left.

With Fannie or Freddie, you would have less than $5 left.

But if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all of the
beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would
have had $214.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily
and recycle.

It's called the 401-Keg.....

---

Get Real

Have another beautiful day...I hope you were all out yesterday enjoying the weather!

Tushana:

Have another beautiful day...I hope you were all out yesterday enjoying the weather!

Good morning Tushana, and everyone else!! I hope that everyone was outside yesterday too, I sure was!! Today through Tuesday night are suppose to be gorgeous too. I hope everyone gets outside as much as possible because it won't be long and we'll be thinking 40 degrees and rain isn't too bad!!

get real:

If you had purchased $1,000 of AIG stock one year ago, you would have
$42 left.

With Lehman, you would have $6.60 left.

With Fannie or Freddie, you would have less than $5 left.

But if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all of the
beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would
have had $214.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily
and recycle.

It's called the 401-Keg.....

VERY FUNNY!!!! Thanks get real.

The ironic part of all of this is most people own stock in their 401k or other retirement plan and can't touch it or for many accounts have no say on the investment. So we can't take it out to make it safe. The money was never real, it was just numbers. All we know is that the numbers are less -- the impact hasn't really hit. If it had, there would be a real uprising!!

This sounds like a great idea to me what do you think about this type of representation?

Council district plan floated

Lansing lawmakers emphasize Detroiters would make decision through referendum.

David Josar / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- A movement is gaining ground among Lansing lawmakers that could result in City Council members being elected from specific parts of Detroit instead of representing the entire city.

State Rep. Bert Johnson, D-Detroit, said he is trying to determine whether there is momentum to try to pass legislation again that would initiate a referendum to institute a council-by-district. Outgoing state Rep. Steve Tobocman, D-Detroit, said he's also had discussions with people in recent weeks from unrelated political camps that have raised the possibility of changing the way the city elects council members.

"The chance of the city going to district has probably never been higher," said Tobocman, who lives in southwest Detroit.

Given the turmoil this year surrounding former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the City Council's efforts to oust him, Detroiters are "interested in change," Tobocman said. Johnson echoed Tobocman, and added that no matter what happens, this won't be Lansing forcing its will on Detroit, as many residents believe was done in 1999 when the elected school board was replaced with one appointed by the mayor and governor.

"The final decision is going to be made by Detroiters," said Johnson, who was elected in 2007.

Johnson said he is not sure whether a switch would best be brought by a direct referendum that requires circulating petitions or by passing state legislation that would trigger the ballot question.

But Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said: "This is about Detroit. We can't have people in Lansing telling us what to do." State lawmakers, as they tried to do in 2002, can pass legislation requiring a referendum of city residents to change how they elect council members. The process can also be changed if city residents, on their own, sign petitions authorizing a referendum.

Watson declined to give her opinion on changing the election process, but said the city should do what the people want.

Detroit is the only major U.S. city to not have at least some council members elected from specific parts of the city.

In Detroit, the top nine vote getters citywide win in the City Council race, and the candidate with the most votes is designated City Council president.

Most council members live in and around key neighborhoods, including Palmer Woods, Rosedale Park, Sherwood Forest and downtown Detroit. As a result, many parts of the city, such as growing southwest Detroit or East English Village near the Grosse Pointe border, have no council representative living there.

Tobocman noted that he represents roughly 95,000 citizens in the state House and wonders how one council member is able to know all the issues that affect the city, which is roughly 10 times the size of his district.

"How are they going to know about a spike in crime in all the neighborhoods? Or about a local problem?" he said. "It's tough."

But making the switch may not be easy.

This year, former state Rep. Lamar Lemmons III launched a petition drive in an attempt to get the council elected by district, but the effort petered out, and he was unable to collect the 57,000 signatures needed to make it to a ballot.

The idea of switching back to a district election system, which ended in 1918, has come up every few years in Detroit but has gone nowhere. A referendum triggered by the state Legislature was to go before voters in 2002, but the City Council sued to block it because it did not originate from residents.

The court ruled that the state House and Senate needed a two-thirds vote in both chambers to force the referendum on the city, but the vote fell fewer than 10 short in the House. There was enough support in the Senate.

Some residents are hungry for the change.

"It is a good thing," said James "Jack Rabbit" Jackson, president of the Jefferson-Chalmers Homeowners Association. "It will make our council more responsive to the needs of the area.."

Staff Writer Santiago Esparza contributed to this report.