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Posts by sydneysider

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  • Obama: Man of the World (Obama says muslim call to prayer "one of the prettist sounds on earth at su

    02/21/2012 4:31:58 PM PST · 1 of 17
    sydneysider
    He goes on to say that "he got into trouble for making faces during Koran study classes" while he wasa kid in Indonesia for four years" that "obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first rate accent"...Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset". Later he goes on to say that he does not remember if his family was Sunni or Shite. Any questions????
  • Presidential contender Cain thrills at Milton pub

    10/02/2011 11:01:34 PM PDT · 46 of 48
    sydneysider to justsaynomore

    I was at the rally, Cain got the big crowd all fired up. One old guy was waving a walking CANE / CAIN in the air. I thought that moment was kind of prophetic. There was a very reasonable mix of young and old and my sense was that Cain is catching on with a broad mix of the local community and folks who are not traditional republican types.

    A LOT of folks had bought his book and there was a long line that stayed behind for an autograph. No-one is really perfect, but I find Cain extremely likeable and way ahead of all of the other canned politicians.

  • The T. Boone Pickens Earmark Bill (Ron Paul Co-Sponsors Taxpayer Boondoggle)

    05/14/2011 6:48:25 PM PDT · 39 of 91
    sydneysider to JimmyMc

    This IS a very good idea, aand it will have a major impact on our import of foreign oil, especially for use as diesel fuel. We consume 3 million barrels per day utilized for diesel consumption, much of which goes into long haul transportation.

    This type of legislation will have a substantial impact on reducing oil imports.This will spur industrial development, that is conversion and maintenance of diesel trucks to run on compressed gas and build out of a supply system along major freeways at truck stops. On a run from Atlanta to Miami which is 660 miles or 1,320 miles round trip consumes 1,320 miles @ 8 mpg = 165 diesel gallons at US$4.00 per gallon = $660.00. Compressed gas will probably shave this by several hundred dollars. Spot nat gas is currently priced at half the cost of diesel fuel per energy equivalent, so cannot guess the retail price BUT it will be much cheaper than foreign oil AND it will be very stimulative to local gas production and transportation fleets. Assuming you get 10% penetration of transport fleet within the first year you save 109,500,000 barrels and shave US$10.95 billion annualized, that is paid out to foreign oil sources PLUS you create tens of thousands of good paying, home grown jobs across the country.

    This is NOT like building windmills or solar panels. IF we convert half the fleet in 5 years we save 547.5 million barrels or around $55 billion per year on our oil bills PLUS the kick in effect on smaller vehicles takes hold, where cars and small trucks switch over. Again assuming similar penetration rates on smaller vehicles we end up with total cuts on imports approaching several million barrels per day within the first year or two. This will have a major impact on reducing oil prices.

  • Donald Trump's Crazy Las Vegas Speech: The Best Quotes

    04/30/2011 5:50:49 AM PDT · 83 of 112
    sydneysider to paulycy

    Trump is a battle wagon that has suddenly appeared on the political battle field and is blasting verbal mortar shells and direct hits right into the heart of the Obama re-election effort.

    This has thrown the Dems for a complete loop and discombobulated the Obama reelection effort. They expected a number of very polite Republican candidates to play by their version of the Marquis of Queensbury Rules. Most of the current crop of intended Repub candidates went along with this idea, following in the steps of McCain’s failed Presidential effort.

    They stand tall and out in the open. like the old British red coats on the field of battle, waiting for the first media /Dem blast of buckshot to mow them all down. They have been doing this for years, and know nothing better. Their generals are mostly clueless.

    Who cares if Trump is a redcoat or blue coat. He has come onto the battlefield with new and better technology and he aims to keep blasting at the enemy lines until they turn and run in confusion. The release of the purported birth certificate is the first sign of enemy collapse. One of our local radio stations in Atlanta at AM640 found that a poll they took showed that their listeners thought that the birth certificate was a fake by a margin of 75%. Not what the White House expected, and more fun to watch.

    His speeches are full of direct hits, I do not care for the swearing, but listen to the thirty minute speech from Vegas he gave, and it was filled with direct hits. The crowd loved it. Especially when he got around to the fact that he wanted to re-open U.S. industry to manufacturing its hi-tech in the U.S. and not in China.

    I was personaly involved in the first Australian effort to establish a foreign majority owned joint venture in China in 1999. Before that time the Chinese would only provide a maximum of 49%. We were a small company and sucessfully launched a metals recovery plant near the North Korean border in 1999. It should have developed into a huge business but was stolen from us by Chinese officialdom. We produced high grade metal concentrates that were sold to metal refiners. The Chinese stopped the shipments and claimed that our paperwork was faulty, effectively shutting us down, leading to ruin. Then they reopened the plant under their own management using all of the technology they stole.

    The sale of U.S. technology and building of hi tech plants by U.S. companies in China will lead to the same result. The U.S. is currently selling its technological crown jewels to China for a pittance. That is why there is massive endemic unemployment across the USA. That is why Trump will ask folks like Apple and GE to move their stuff back to the USA before they completely loose it.

    This is only the first round in a battle that will play out over the next eighteen months. Trump is like the first full blown charge into the enemy camp. Let him continue the drive, as it is a lot of fun watching. He is clearly making the current administration look like fools. As Obama’s poll numbers continue to sink, his support will continue to evaporate and we will have a clear run to control of all three branches of government. And that will be another battle to be fought later in the campaign probably with a lot of other folks leading the charge.

  • Scotland's wind farms 'often able only to boil 6,667 kettles'

    04/06/2011 6:54:24 PM PDT · 5 of 37
    sydneysider to Army Air Corps

    This article does not make sense. 1 MW of power is sufficient to power approximately 1,000 U.S.homes. So 20MW is enough for 20,000 homes, not a small bunch of steaming kettles.

  • Some lenders try to sell foreclosed homes without holding titles

    12/17/2010 9:05:28 AM PST · 27 of 29
    sydneysider to CodeToad
    We were put into foreclosure by my “purported” bank and managed to pay up all of the late payments and fees to pull the home out of foreclosure. At the time the foreclosure process started the bank was not secured on the title. Several days before the foreclosure sale date they registered a Deed of Assignment that was dated and signed in 2003. This deed assigned the mortgage to a bank that did not exist on the date of the deed. It only came into existence in 2007 and not 2003. So is clearly false on its face. I searched my records and found three assignment notices from loan servicers that covered the period from 2003 to 2004, so not only is the assignment in question, so is the information sent by the loan servicing companies.

    To address this issue I sent a section 6 RESPA notice to my current loan servicer. This brings the matter under Federal law, and the bank has 20 days to answer and 60 days to fix the problem. I asked them to explain (1) how a deed dated in 2003 could carry the name of a bank that did not exist at that time (2) to explain the discrepancies in the loan servicing notices that clashed with the dates on the funky deed of assignment (3) provide a chain of title for the assignment of the note, which I will search thru SEC records of trust assignments (4) produce my original “wet ink” mortgage document that we signed in 2003 and provided to the original mortgage company. (5) explain why the deed of assignment is detached from the mortgage, the assignment is made up of two pages with the descriptive part of the assignment (totally unsigned) and the second page which is dated and signed (looks very suspicious.

    We live in a non judicial state that provides very little protection to a homeowner, as is typical in many other states. I checked this with my State Attorney Generals Office where a legal officer told me that there was no protection for homeowners claiming fake deeds on their title. He told me that the banks are doing whatever they want, without any serious consequence. IMHO this issue is very prevalent, there are probably large collections of these funky deeds registered in very large numbers across the land.

    I now have “clean hands” meaning I am fully paid up on my mortgage and will be looking for a way to “clean up” the title to my home. The first step is to see what the mortgage service provider says in reply to my RESPA notice. I think that anyone with a mortgage needs to do a title search at their county courthouse to see if all of their mortgage assignments are correct and in place AND then send a RESPA notice raising any suspicious issues AND asking to see the original wet ink mortgage.

  • Wells Fargo to Amend 55,000 Foreclosures

    10/28/2010 9:51:42 PM PDT · 19 of 44
    sydneysider to TopQuark

    This gets even more complicated. Last year I had a heart attack and my income / self employed collapsed. I went thru a loan modification at the end of the year that reduced my payments. Now I am confronted with the fact that this loan modification may be bogus because I do not know who owns the mortgage at the time the loan was modified.

    In many cases, homeowners were simply rolled by fake assignments and thrown out on the kerb. The sub prime mortgage holders defaulted several years ago. Now the banks are dumping on decent families that have been unemployed and cannot get work. They could work out forbearance plans with these folk, but they do not want to do this. Now the middle class is rising up and attempting to mount a defense. This is a very bad time to hold shares in the major banks, they will be decimated. The federal government is complicit in all of this, they have completely destroyed the secondary market for finance of home purchases. This is a major contributor to the “drag” on home prices.

  • Wells Fargo to Amend 55,000 Foreclosures

    10/28/2010 9:34:15 PM PDT · 11 of 44
    sydneysider to TopQuark

    The banks have a massive legal problem on their hands. Many of the previously filed foreclosures contain documentation that is factually incorrect, to be blunt, they have filed documents that contain lies. These include fabricated documents filed to cover up missing assignments of mortgage,that also include fraudulent signitures.

    This now affects everyone. To-day I went to my local county courthouse and searched the title to my home. Seven years ago I refinanced my mortgage and found a registered copy of that mortgage. Since that day I was advised on at least four accasions that the mortgage had been sold / assigned to a new investor. This triggered correspondence back to me advising me that my payments would go to a new loan servicer. I complied with all of these requests. The four assignments of mortgage were never registered against my title and now I am confronted with the cold hard fact that I now need to hire a lawyer to clear my title. The missing four assignments put me in a position where I need to confront the party who is taking my payments and ask him to verify his right to receive my monthly payments.

    In many previous cases the mortgage companies have fabricated, back dated and fraudulently signed these assignments to clear up this issue. In my case it is apparent that they need to find these four or possibly more assignments and register them. I will be forced to carry out a forensic investigation of all of the assignments to make sure that they are valid. I will have to do this because I am on notice that many thousands / hundreds of thousands / possibly millions of these documents are floating around courthouses of America. Once you commit a fraud on the court it is set in legal concrete and cannot be undone.

    Now everyone will be forced to make a trek down to the courthouse to investigate their mortgage registration. This is not a simple question of correcting a gramatical error like mispelling a name , date or address. It is straight out fraud. In my case their is a high probability that the four missing assignments may point to fraud on the investors that bought my loan. By failing to register the assignment they only got an unsecured or equitable interest in the loan. This creates all sorts of legal hazards to various investment funds holding my note. At this point I can renege on my payments, declare bankruptcy and they have no legal recourse against they security they were promised.

  • GA Senate Press Release on President's classroom speech

    09/04/2009 1:35:47 PM PDT · 6 of 11
    sydneysider to Atom Smasher

    At least one Fulton County School (Georgia) has sent a letter home to-day with each student . The letter states that the school will not show the Obama PR on Tuesday. It will be recorded and reviewed by the teaching staff to examine its suitability for student review at a later date. There will also be an “opt out” letter to be given to parents if they choose not to have their child exposed to the material later on (if the school decides to use it within some educational context).

  • Navy makes history in Freedom of Entry Parade

    03/15/2009 7:51:04 AM PDT · 6 of 10
    sydneysider to rabidralph

    Thank you for posting these photos of my home town. Some years ago I was back in Sydney downtown on Anzac Day Morning watching the Diggers march past, it was a big parade headed by a vetern from Galipoli. He was in a jeep at the head of the parade (just before they started to march) and close to one hundred years of age. I ran up to the front of the parade and gave him a hug. He told me that he was very underage when he signed up for military duty in WWI and that his family were in the steel business in the USA. I told him that I lived in the States and I stood there and cried in the middle of the street.

    Many nations were featured, some U.S. warships were in port and they sent a marching band to the parade, you could hear them from a distance as they approached, as each country has a different sound and style to their notes and steps. A loud roar went up from the crowd as they swept past. Aussies have always honored their best friends from across the pond.

    At the end of the parade a Polish unit of irregulars marched by. My folks were orginally from Lithuania and I joined into their group. As I looked at their uniforms and medals I realized that they were all ex-Soviet markings and medals on Polish uniforms. These guys were all now living in a proud and free country and celebrating this fact, the incongruity of the markings did not matter.

  • New immune treatment may control AIDS virus

    05/02/2008 10:40:25 PM PDT · 10 of 18
    sydneysider to TChad

    Melbourne also has a very interesting and very small publicly listed biotech called Benitec Australia Ltd (ASX BLT) see http://www.benitec.com who are working with Dr John Rossi at the City of Hope Hospital in California. They are running a patient HIV trial at the hospital using gene silencing technology. This is a new frontier in medicine and involves a process that can “turn off” “bad” cells in the body (my rough laymans translation of the process which also involves removing the patients blood to infuse it and return it to the patient). Dr Rossi is reporting postive results from these very early trials in various papers that have and are being presented in the USA. The technology has applications in a wide variety of illnesses.

  • Live Thread: Obama/Clinton Debate CNN 8pmET (Hillary's last stand)

    02/21/2008 5:46:26 PM PST · 756 of 1,801
    sydneysider to maica

    They were NOT mortgages. Hilary was smarter than that. These contracts were lease purchase agreements. That means the poor victims had no equity but were tenants (with few legal rights). The odds were hi that someone would miss or be late on a payment resulting in eviction. The way the scheme worked was that IF u made ALL of your lease payments on time u received legal title to the land being leased. Thus they could recycle the land to a new victim via this lease arrangement.

  • Fury as the hostages sell stories

    04/08/2007 8:04:18 AM PDT · 41 of 57
    sydneysider to MarkL

    This has turned to high farce. The British navy has arrived at its Gilbert & Sullivan moment a la HMS Pinafore which was a light operatic piece for public enjoyment. These events poor scorn on the bravery of every man who served under the English flag or its long lost Commonwealth. On Wednesday Australia celebrates its Anzac Day which was borne on the cliffs of Gallipoli at great cost and bravery and directed most tragically by the British (Churchill’s military failure).

  • Webb says he did not give aide his gun

    03/27/2007 12:35:41 PM PDT · 36 of 222
    sydneysider to IslandJeff

    Some democrats hide cash in the freezer others carry guns. Sounds like a very organized gang to me.

  • Rules of engagement dooms British Marines (PC runs amok!)

    03/26/2007 1:12:09 PM PDT · 9 of 37
    sydneysider to SMARTY

    They should have given the English marines night sticks just like the bobbies in London used to carry around. Then they should have been dressed up like the caper cops from the 1920's comedies, they might have been able to laugh their way out of this situation. We have arrived at a situation where high farce governed by Monty Python Rules patrols a major world flash point.

  • 7/22 Middle East Live Thread

    07/22/2006 7:39:37 AM PDT · 583 of 2,478
    sydneysider to Lizarde

    IMHO then the Israeli's are on the ground and face to face with the Syrian re-supply routes and very close to Damascus which is the "heart of the problem". No need to go into Beruit where the Hezbullah can get into hand to hand fighting. The Hezbullah are also pinned down in their bunkers and very stretched out.

  • 7/22 Middle East Live Thread

    07/22/2006 7:18:41 AM PDT · 523 of 2,478
    sydneysider to Lizarde

    After looking at a rather detailed map of Lebanon IMHO the Israeli offensive operation is aimed at the Bekaa Valley. Maybe they plan to by-pass the "Maginot Line" the Hezzies have established at the border AND leave Beruit while taking control of parts of the Bekaa Valley. They may be planning some sort of alliance with the Christians in the North.

    Imagine if they started re-supplying elements of the Lebanese Army that are opposed to the Hezbullah presence. Could get very interesting in the next few days.

  • Prosecutor Fitzgerald, Where's the Beef?

    10/29/2005 11:03:04 AM PDT · 10 of 68
    sydneysider to smoothsailing

    If one thinks about the way Prosecutor Fitzgerald managed his rather immpressive caseload and won a very substantial number of convictions, think about this (1) Fitzgerald has thrown this whole case into the public domain where it deserves a through hearing (2) The case against Libby is mostly built around "he said / she said" and on its face is speculative, something that a good defense counsel will tear into and raise very substantial doubts in the minds of jurors (3) a lot of characters who have lied about the facts in this case, and did not figure in Fitzgeralds commentary or were peripheral to it will have to raise their hands in court and swear an oath to tell the truth and face the consequences of their earlier deception.

    The whole nation will be exposed to this spectacular parade of the good the bad and the ugly and it will not be pretty. IMHO Libby will get off and there will be plenty of exposure focussed on activities in the State Department, CIA, media and Democratic party. A secret investigation within a Grand Jury could never get the response that a daily blow by blow account in an open court room will produce. The media will be forced to report the facts as they are spoken and televised, substantially depriving them of the ability to twist the facts to suit their political agendas.