I'm in the Smokey Mountains in TN this week, yup, strange to be back in the ol' USA. One thing that greeted me for sure here is what I expected - a sea of for sale signs! "Vacation condos!"... "Taking reservations now!"... that kinda thing
I can say, here's my observations from 48 hours back in the States:
* Fox News is sickening. Want to see obvious, disgusting jingoism in action? Then look up at the upper left hand corner of the Fox News screen at the waving American flag under the Live symbol. Now ask yourself why that's there.
* People in TN are very, very, very large
* There seems to be even more retail than I remember. Best Buy, Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Sams Club, you name it. I wonder what they'll do with all the closed stores in the next few years - tear 'em down?
* Man, things are cheap here. My contact solution is 25 cents on the dollar versus the price in London.
* My grandma who lives in Florida is talking about having to sell her place because the insurance is up 60%, the condo fees up 100% and taxes going through the roof. Yup, I told her to cash out and rent
* What, no Cricket scores?
Cheers - talk amongst yourselves here and post article links - I'll try to keep up
July 24, 2006
HP'ers gonna need to take the lead
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57 comments:
Go back to Europe. We have too many drama queens already.
WHAT!? MSM is almost entirely leftist and FOX utters a conservative word and are labeled as EVIL. HAHAHA.
Were is all of that understanding and 'perspective' you lefty's claim to have?
Conservative Fox News certified gasoline now on average above $3.00/gallon. Lessee what liberal, left wing, tax-and-spend natural gas is this winter.
What the hell is your problem with a waving American flag?
You are a socialist and an atheist for sure, why don't you just acknowledge that you're another America-hating, evolved from monkeys, sex with anyone or anything entitlement-minded liberal who worships at the church of victimhood and get it over with already.
I agree with your sentiments on the housing situation, and no it's not Bush's fault, just the fault of idiot's who got caught up in the real estate hype (same idiots who lost it all in the dot com bust). Yes, the interest rates were pushed down, but so what, that's doesn't mean you have to act stupid and pay more for property than it's worth, JUST BECAUSE the low rate of interest lowers your carrying cost.
It's like blaming all you can eat buffet restaurants because the fat-asses who eat there, don't know when to stop eating.
America-lovers, visit...
Therightbrothers.com
Keith,
I agree w/anonymous one. It's obvious that you are rooting against America now. It's sad that your own misfortune and timing has lead to your utter bitterness against your own country.
Go back to Europe!
When has a Wal-Mart EVER closed? Never. When will one? Can't say, but this predicted collapse of retail is not backed up by anything. Retail is a management problem, nothing else.
Coincidentally, I had someone from Cali describe to me this weekend, that Tennessee seemed "non-diverse". Tough weekend for that state, depending on your tastes.
Isn't TN a nice place. I was flying over the area yesterday and am still amazed at how open parts of the USA are. It is dry in North AL but somehow the farms in TN are still green. I suppose a person could actually make a living off the land there. Cattle, corn, maybe a little moonshine.
Keith, you are just rationalizing. Nothing wrong with that as long as you recognise it for what it is. FOX only looks extremeist when compared to the rest of the MSM. The Fourth Estste has been so liberal for so long your perspective has been distorted. Cricket and Rugby scores are easily available on ESPN and the internet. If you think things are cheap here I suggest you purchase a prescription medication rather than a bottle of sterile salt water.
Metihinks ye doth protest overmuch.
Wal-Marts have closed before. Not often it does happen.
I agree with anony about this not being Bush's fault.
I like Fox news too just as little as the rest of the stations.
I'm glad they don't show cricket scores on TV. Everything in this country that is foreign seems to be at a premium to domestic products. A typical yuppie thinks Ford sucks and the only good wine and cheese is from Europe. I am tired of hearing baseless stereotypes against American products.
more conservitards visit this site these days...welcome to the real world anonopussy's
Keith,
give a lowdown on what is happening in Europe.
Do you believe the TSWHTF there as well ?
I've seen real estate prices increase 100% in a certain south European country. Things don't look good world wide.
Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da....
Keith,
You can see from the comments how many of us "Mercins" have not one clue about what goes on in the rest of the world.
Not one goddamned clue.
Cricket scores?
Cricket??
You'll be asking for the moon on a stick next, mate ;-)
The World Cup barely made a blip over here, and most Americans think cricket is a type of insect...
Cricket scores?
Cricket??
You'll be asking for the moon on a stick next, mate ;-)
The World Cup barely made a blip over here, and most Americans think cricket is a type of insect...
>>> RE Lots of big box stores
Been building for sometime, I remember Florida being ground zero for big box stores and strip malls.
This is a part of the reason you find things cheap here. The american retail distribution mechanism is relatively efficient (from the providers perspective) compared to Europe and Japan. Big box stores give economy of scale, and force prices down overall. The biggest whiners about WalMart are the ones who have to compete with their prices.
Of course there are other factors such as the currency issues you faced in Europe, and how american retail is currently dependent of customers driving their cars to the big box stores for efficient distribution, as opposed to having the goods delivered to the smaller local retailer as in Europe.
>>> American Flag on Fox
SINCE WHEN DOES AN AMERICAN FLAG BEING SHOWN IS A SIGN OF BIAS!
Boy, the MSM (and the blog author) as so left biased that showing an american flag waving during a news show is considered bias. No one complains when CNN shows people burning flags and denouncing america...
I'm a flag waving deist who doesn't like organized churches.
So, one can be politically centric (or right leaning) without needing to tout the bible. The Boy Scouts, which I was a member of many decades ago, was a flag waving non-denominational organization where religious beliefs were not discussed and everyone could attend their own services w/o being an outcast or getting labeled unAmerican.
Welcome back to the Land of Opportunity. America still is more free and offers more opportunities than Europe. Ask the millions of student's in France about opportunity, they riot trying to ensure that they eventually will get government jobs!
To those who've said, "I've never seen a Walmart close", not completely true. Walmart uses local governments to subsidize them with tax cuts and once those tax breaks run out they end the lease on the building and will move a few blocks away to the next suburb that will offer them incentives to locate there hoping for a future return on sale's taxes!
New media? All are biased. I just took a trip to southern Louisianna to see for myself what Rita and Katrina did and you know what? Those areas worst hit were Cameron and Vermillion Parishes and the Mississippi coast and who does the news focus on? New Orleans. Even the small power outage they just had featured in the NY Times (I was there when it happened) only hit about 8 city blocks (mine included) and lasted less than 30 minutes. Most of the New Orleans tourists ever visited are up and running an other than a few trees with haircuts people who had never visited NO before wouldn't have known they had a storm. Of course the real disaster in NO was the breeched levees from years of neglect and corruption.
We spoke with many, who happened to be white, and they complained about getting no help from FEMA or anyone else. In Cajun country we asked, "Looks like you didn't get much damage here?" And they said, "We did but we didn't wait around for the government to help us, we cleaned up ourselves." The propaganda machine just uses the poor blacks in the 9th ward as tools to bash the US and the Bush administration.
Yes, the poor areas and a few rich areas around the lake were flooded. Disaster? Yes, but many of those homes shouldn't have been there in the first place. And if you had ever driven around NO before Katrina, most of those destroyed neighborhoods were already hell holes of decay and poverty and the best thing that could have happened was the flood. Of course now the crime of that area has been exported around America. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the serial killers in Phoenix came from those hell hole neighorhoods since the first killings started right after Katrina.
And the poor blacks in NO beat up Hispanics who stand on the street cornors wanting to work complaining they are taking jobs away but then won't do the work when the contractors come to hire them.
Yes, propaganda by all the press. Where is all the positive articles that shows NO up and running and a large area that wasn't impacted by the storm? Where is the positives about any disaster or war? Even now Israel is blamed for Hezbollah's actions.
And Keith you should recognize by now that a lot of things from rent to cars to gas to food to taxes to home prices are cheap compared to Europe. Where is your perspective on that?
looks like most fools on this thread don't see the point - that fox news puts the american flag on their homepage 24x7 so that they'll be seen as the "patriotic" channel
they're a business model, perfectly executed, using patriotism to get and keep viewers
just like the republican party, the part of big business, uses patriotism and religion to get voters
it is what it is
What you see is what you get. Your readers are largely chickenhawk knuckledraggers, bravely fighting the global war against terror in their basements, until their mothers call them for dinner. They blog big, but are scared shitless of turning on the TV and finding actual, factual news--something you won't find on Fox, or on any American TV station. We're too skeert (whimper).
A top guy in the Iraq government just announced, "Iraq as a political project is finished." Meaning, continued civil war and partition. Guess he watches too much American leftie media.
Snort.
"the boyscouts in tn. which i attended only once was like a kkk front group."
Hmm.. my northern Den mother was a black woman, herself. Is this another regional divide?
Hmm.. my northern Den mother was a black woman, herself. Is this another regional divide?
i cant say if it was regional, but
we used to have klan marches every year in nashville. still do i think.
a kid`s dad down the street was a member, so we used to drop him off at the corner, when we gave him rides, so his dad doesnt see him with us.
I spent 4 years in london, ( including 2 years as a marine guard attached to the US embassy--that aside is for all you flag waving jingoist butt wipes that never served your country other than serving your fat faces more macdonalds).
it is always interesting to come home to the USA after being overseas for a period of time and see how much things have changed. Not for the better. we sink, slowly but surely, into a facist corporatist swamp.... and the jingoist keep yelling: yeah! we are number one. and of course, I have to agree. (and also that they are probably number 2 as well).
there is a shit storm coming people, and it does not care which side you are on, we are ALL going to suffer. enjoy the fruits of your labors, such as they are. its a tasty treat that will last a long time.
My two cents. . .
I am a pretty right wing capitalist who feels that the cause behind the real estate bubble is the same as always - GREED. . .it is fine with me, but greed and stupidity are what makes making money easy for those of us with an IQ above 100. Anyone with a calculator could have predicted that Pets.com could NEVER make its market cap selling cat litter over the internet. . .I bought crap internet companies, waited for them to double, then sold. . .I NEVER believed the hype. When the housing prices started getting out of sync with rental income, I knew the end was near. I owned rental property from the 1980's and from the day I bought, I was in a cash-flow positive situation. Buying anthing in 2005 would put a person in a negative cash flow - that simple. So, I am NOT against America (I love living in San Diego and watching #76 The Ronald Reagan Aircraft Carrier sail in). . .but I always love to see stupid people get creamed. I have been stupid in my life too, but I learned some hard lessons.
Love the picture for this post.. I agree with everything you said in this post, it's AMERICAN of you to actually criticize the present order. Funny how things have inverted in the last couple of years between ponds.
Haha, I love all the flag waving "patriotic" rhetoric your post caused. It IS patriotic to criticize the present order. From what I've read Keith offers a critique of what he's seeing in the US since he got back. What's so bad about saying our country is on a collision course with destruction due to our hyper consumerism, obesity problem and foreign policy mypopia?
An economic Rodney King says...
"If we can all become poor together and in peace, it can work out"
Just my two cents
I do believe the USA has become nothing but a corporate fascistic state- that was the goal of Reagan 26 years was it not? But the amount of extremism now is scary.
In the state of Connecticut we will have a Senate primary (Democratic) August 8th- from the Hartford Courant today another Democrat has turned against Joe Lieberman
here is what he said-
No More Joe
`Dead Wrong' On The War And Defense Of Bush, White House Excesses
By IRVING STOLBERG
July 23 2006
Joe Lieberman and I have been friends and colleagues for 38 years. We ran for and won seats in the Connecticut legislature as a team of reformers in 1970. He was my state senator and I was his state representative. He rose to Senate majority leader as I became speaker of the House. With others, we formed the Caucus of Connecticut Democrats, a progressive coalition, to further the causes of peace in Vietnam and justice at home.
I have supported him in every election he has had - until now. This year I am supporting Ned Lamont to unseat Joe. Almost four decades of friendship with Joe has made this a wrenching decision for me.
As Joe points out, his record on a number of issues, such as the environment, is good. But on the two biggest issues of our times, he is dead wrong.
His blind support of the Iraq war, begun illegally and a continuing catastrophe, is monstrous.
And his defense of an incompetent president, a vice president who fits the dictionary definition of fascism and an extremist administration that has perpetrated torture, illegal eavesdropping and a general shredding of the Constitution is insulting to the people who elected him in the first place.
Joe's constituency is not Bush and Cheney; it is the progressives and moderates, the blacks and Hispanics who gave him his start in politics. We feel he has betrayed us by becoming "Bush's favorite Democrat."
His announcement that he will not support the winner of the Democratic primary but will seek election as an independent if he loses the primary seems to put self above principle. I thank Ned Lamont, a good and decent man, for giving the people of Connecticut a real choice. We need someone who will confront the Bush-Cheney evils of lies, manipulation and incompetence, which have done us so much harm at home and abroad.
This year I shall vote for Ned Lamont.
Irving Stolberg served two separate terms as speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives in the 1980s.
Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant
Hey all you condo flippers out there,come on squeal like a pig for me WEEEWEEEWEEEWEEEWEEE!!!!
Last ANON:
That was friggin hilarious!!!! I almost fell out of my chair. LMAO.
Keith!! Whats wrong with the American flag? I am here at a militarty base (U.S.Airforce) and wish instead of defending your right to be an piece of human excrement, I could round self hateing so called Americans like you and kick you out!! That flag means alot to alot of people and many people have died for it. If you hate the goverment thats fine but to hate the flag is to hate the poeple of this country! Go to China and enjoy.
"I am here at a militarty base (U.S.Airforce) and wish instead of defending your right to be an piece of human excrement, I could round self hateing so called Americans like you and kick you out!!"
...Like they say here in Amerika..
better you than me my friend. You should have enlisted for the local govt as a cop instead. At least you get to beat up innocent people and then go home toyour fat wife for some lovin everynight.
"Keith!! Whats wrong with the American flag?"
Folks, why is this so obvious to me and so not obvious to so many of you?
Please listen to this, with open eyes
There's nothing wrong with the american flag or being patriotic. I love the american flag. I love my country. I love the military.
But I HATE a news channel and a political party who use the american flag 1) to make money and 2) to fool the people
You are being taken as suckers. As fools. Fox News uses the american flag on their home page to make you think they're the TV news channel of patriotism. The republican party uses the american flag (and the cross) to make you believe they're the party of country and god.
No tv news channel should affiliate itself with the leaders of the country, or a political party. They should independently report the news. If they do cross that line, it's propaganda, pure and simple.
No political party should be allowed to say they're the party of god. That's the taliban. That's hamas. No political party should represent itself as the party of patriotism, whereas the other party is evil and anti-country.
If you don't see this, you are a sucker, you are a fool pure and simple, and your puppetmasters have achieved their goals.
the brakers pulled
the fuse has blown
the peakers win
when all is known
Wal-Marts have closed before. Not often it does happen.
Read somewhere that WalMart shut down a few stores, several years back.
Reason: Some local union orginazied thier workers. So the only legal way to BUST THE UNION out... was to close down otherwise profitable stores.
A FEW EXAMPLES WERE SET... The message to employees, "join a union, and you shall lose your job".
[* My grandma who lives in Florida is talking about having to sell her place because the insurance is up 60%, the condo fees up 100% and taxes going through the roof. Yup, I told her to cash out and rent]
Help your grandma out you cheap prick!
I would rather be a sucker and watch a channel with an American flag which reports the news in a style I like. I would watch it even if there was no flag. Fox is better than those condecending stuffed suits on CNN who without a doubt hate America. I dont watch because fox has a flag you idiot. Its an American channel not a panty waste European channel.
Its an American channel not a panty waste European channel.
Owned by an Australian.
Nice try, Priscilla.
(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
(i) The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever.
That's what the problem is. Guess you neocons are too busy peeing on the constitution and bankrupting the country to know that.
Obviously, many HP readers here have trouble distinguishing the meaning of the American flag itself and the commercial, jingoistic, self-righteous USE of it employed by Fox News.
[sigh]
That's what happens when one watches too much Fox News. One's intelligence just evaporates and gets lost in self-righteous, joingoistic nationalism. Oh, and commercialism too.
>>>>No tv news channel should affiliate itself with the leaders of the country, or a political party. They should independently report the news. If they do cross that line, it's propaganda, pure and simple.
But its OK for the NY Times to associate its self as the anti-leaders of the country media, and associate with the left wing side of the democratic party?
I don't care if Fox is a business model or not, its good to have a news organization which does not filter everything through a left wing bias.
I suspect Keith got totally brainwashed by BBC (yeah, the sample of un-biased media of European impotents). Keith was never smart before anyway, now he just hit the bottom. Check your IQ buddy...
Help your grandma Keith!
Considering some of the comments here, does anybody NOT think the right wing americans are totally whacko?
does anybody NOT think the right wing americans are totally whacko?
The Christians
Keith, you do realize that "Deliverance" was based on Carter's Lake in Georgia not the Smoky's in Tennesse?
Stereotypical ignorance of the U.S. South doesn't bode well for your other generalizations or assertions.
Keith, you will never get it, but FOX news is not in the News business, they are in the business of celling commercials, blockhead. Admit it, you are obcessed with FOX, you hate it but still watch it... because other channels are much worse...
From today's Drudge cabe rating (viewers)
FOXNEWS O'REILLY 2,693,000
FNC HANNITY/COLMES 1,801,000
FNC BRIT HUME 1,648,000
FNC SHEP SMITH 1,559,000
FNC GRETA 1,491,000
CNN COOPER 1,128,000
CNN KING 1,097,000
CNN ZAHN 890,000
CNN DOBBS 784,000
CNNHN GRACE 460,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 369,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 365,000
Eat it Keth and mind your business... And who cares what you think?
I really wish Earth could be attacked by aliens so us humans could join together as one race to defeat the invaders...
Sigh...
My grandma who lives in Florida is talking about having to sell her place because the insurance is up 60%.
Keith,
Tell her to vote for Randy Johnson for CFO of Florida, He is taking on the Insurance Industry.
Here is a Cartoon for your pleasure:
http://tinyurl.com/ksawr
Also, go to the Short Insurance Reform Topic One and Two on this page. Please. (:
http://www.johnsonforcfo.com/audio_video.aspx
To anon who wrote:
"Eat it Keth and mind your business... And who cares what you think?"
If you don't care, why are you responding to it with today's Drudge cable rating (viewers).
I don't believe those numbers. I think they are just manipulated BS. If they were true, the support for the Iraq war and Bush can't be as low as the various polls are showinig, given the Fox's extreme and brain-washing support of both.
why would tell Keith to mind his business on HIS BLOG!?
Have you nothing better to do? Go to the O'Reilly site and bask in its glow then, you lardbum.
You can always make yer own blogsite you know:
"Lardbums for Caustic News Reporting"
whaaahhh! mind your own business!!!
WHAAAHHHHH!
I liked the George Clooney's response - a perfect sample of average American intelligence...
Do you feel better, angry boy?
Still obsessed with FOX?
Keith, get back to the Housing issues (your true business here), please don't touch political subjects, they dramatically lowers IQs of some readers :-)
A fantastic blog yours. Keep it up.
If you have a moment, please visit my airfare search site.
I send you warm regards and wish you continued success.
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