Friday Nite Country Music

I came here looking for something I couldn't find anywhere else
Well I don't wanna be nobody just want a chance to be myself
I've done a thousand miles of thumbin' yes I've worn blisters on my heels
Tryin' to find me something better on the streets of Bakersfield
You don't know me but you don't like me you say you careless how I feel
How many of you that sit and judge me ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
[ guitar ]
Spent some time in San Francisco spent a night there in the can
They threw this drunk man in my jail cell I took fifteen dollars from that man
I left him my watch and my old house key I don't want folks thinkin' that I'd steal
Then I thanked him as he was sleeping and I headed out for Bakersfield
You don't know me...
How many of you that sit and judge me ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

"I took fifteen dollars from that man
I left him my watch and my old house key I don't want folks thinkin' that I'd steal"

Heck given the price of Bakersfield housing $15 sound expensive. ;-)

You Wanted Pictures

Make that a double cheeseburger. It has taken two weeks for the scars to look this good. No matter what you may think, you didn't want to see them before this. Above is the scar from removal of my radial artery. This and about three feet of leg vein along with the rerouting of the mammary artery are busy keeping my heart pumping. Quadruple bypass is like walking out in front of a truck and depending on a team to put you back together. Worse the medications are so powerful my liver is too busy with them and the post-surgery tissue repairs to allow any wine for weeks if not months. Will I live longer? Likely but regardless it sure will seem longer.

Branded As Liars

That didn't take long. The threat of $6.5 Billion in emergency health care improvements for state inmates is already being implemented. The poor appointee Kelso has come away from meetings with Legislators with the opinion that they are petulant lying children. Well duh. You heard it here first but now the issue is front page headlines in this morning's LATimes:

SACRAMENTO -- A court- appointed receiver vowed Thursday to raid California's depleted state treasury for billions of dollars as the state Senate's minority Republicans blocked -- for the second time in three days -- his plan to build prison medical beds.

The developments threatened to severely worsen the state's fiscal crisis while setting up a showdown with federal judges who have declared the standard of healthcare in state prisons to be unconstitutional.

First a little correction. The Republicans didn't block, they assert that the court cases are not yet resolved and Kelso is jumping the gun.

Doesn't matter. The money isn't there.

Duane And A Common Sense Proposal

Our old friend Duane LeGate is quoted in this CNN Money report:

Lenders are taking much longer than necessary to approve short sales, according to Duane LeGate, of House Buyers Network, a short sale specialist.

...
"There was a much greater chance of success with these in the past," said LeGate

...
Coldwell Banker CEO Jim Gillespie agrees that short sales are taking too long to complete. And he speaks from firsthand experience; a short-sale offer he made on a house in Marin County, Calif. in late fall didn't win approval until April.

There's a difference between deliberate speed and what we are seeing now with the banks. The lenders just plain old do not want to take their medicine making the illness all that much worse.

[Hat Tip to a long time reader.]

We're Special

Who is "we?" And why are we special? We are zip codes 93010 Camarillo and 93023 Ojai. We special because we are the only places in Ventura County to see price gains.

DQNews has the LATimes table data. (Scroll to the bottom.)

Now don't get carried away. These are just statistical anomalies. /and that is my point. Month to month for small samples or even large areas have a lot of built in noise. Even things like 5 Fridays in any one month can overwhelm discernable trends. Wait, we'll have another set next month.

Told Ya So

USAToday:

AVONDALE, Ariz. — A modest housing tract, set amid pecan trees here in suburban Phoenix, faces big problems: About 40% of its homeowners aren't paying their association fees, leaving neighbors with higher assessments and reduced services.
"We're looking at a very deep hole," says Kent Miller, president of the Los Arbolitos Homeowners Association in Avondale. "I don't know how we're going to get out of it. We've put liens on all the (delinquent) properties, but it doesn't do any good."

Told ya. HOAs are joint and several obligations. Everyone is liable for everything. Now is the time for viligance. Oftentimes the developer or people on the HOA board know city council members. Don't let the HOAs get dissolved and the obligations subsumed by the municipality.

Stupid Cogs

Reed said higher education officials are not advocating for larger cutbacks in healthcare or services for children and the elderly. Rather, he said, lawmakers should consider a proposal by Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill to eliminate about $2 billion in tax credits and also levy sales taxes on a variety of services.

"California as a state has got to increase its revenue," he said.

Beware any time a politician says 'got to.' Clear indication that you don't got to.

Reed was afraid to admit higher education officials are advocating larger cutbacks in healthcare or services for children and the elderly. He said, lawmakers should consider a proposal by Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill to impose $2 billion in new taxes and also levy illegal sales taxes on a variety of services.

"California as a state has got to increase its revenue," he said.

Said the state employee with a salary dependent upon increased revenues.

The servants have become the masters.

Yes

Want pictures? Ewwww...