Don’t worry, we’re not going to drag ourselves through the Glowball Warmening debate here.

This is just the economy. Nothing important.

I have a very disturbing email that came in this evening. It alleges out-and-out fraudulent reporting of home sales in one of the regional MLS systems. That is, prices paid that are in fact much lower than the “sold” prices reported in the MLS.

The person in question claims to have seen over 100 of these in his area. I have copies of two, and it appears, from the evidence that I have, that at least for those two the claim is accurate.

One in particular I was able to pull the auction data on. It “sold” under reserve, is listed as sold in the MLS at ~25% higher than the “sold” bid, and the premium is disclosed as 5%. This property also has a 90-day “anti-flip” provision on it, implying that the paper may be held by one of the GSEs. (It’s a nice-looking place, incidentally.)

The original writer warns that if you are working your way through any real estate transaction that involves using comparable prices (aka: 90% of real estate transactions), you need to check out the comps used for yourself. Do not believe anyone in the market area until you do or you could be paying way too much for your region/area.

Last week I was wandering around the rightosphere and saw this post at Drang’s.

It has occurred to me that it is quite possible that the two things that Barack Obama has done that piss me off the most are:

To get me thinking of myself as a Republican, instead of an independent who usually finds the Republican candidate/position less objectionable than any others, and

To turn this into a political blog more than, say, a guns and amateur radio blog.

I have seen quite a bit of this as of late and I stand here now to warn folks to think before they think. Or, to think after they think but before they hit “publish”.

Party politics is cultish, and cults are dangerous to the health of people and the nation.

Party does not stop someone from wasting your money.

Conservation or nepotism? Since 2007 Rogers has been promoting a bill which would provide federal grants to overseas wildlife protection for lions and cheetahs. Surprise! Rogers’ daughter is the grants administrator for the Namibia-based Cheetah Conservation Fund, and has been since—you guessed it—2007.

And politics will not stop the party from fighting against their loss of power.

A reliable source unaligned with either GOP senatorial campaign in Alaska, and positioned to know, confirmed for me last night that the Alaskan Republican Party (ARP) stepped up their efforts on behalf of Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the closing days of the election, going so far as to phone bank for her from the Alaska GOP’s headquarters on election day.

And

17,000 of the 24,000 absentee ballots in Alaska will probably be counted Monday. Given Joe Miller’s late surge, it may not help him. However, I am told by a number of people that given where those absentee ballots came from and his overall support in the areas, the odds remain in joe Miller’s favor.

But word is coming out of Washington that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, already in “cover their butts” mode, is intervening in Alaska to help Lisa Murkowski.

The Republican Party seems to be in fighting mood against those who would help them that they can’t even defend the votes of those who vote for their candidates in overwhelming percentages.

In Washington, politicians always like to release bad news on a Friday, as fewer people notice. Today, the Pentagon announced that it had granted the waiver requests of five states seeking to escape requirements to protect military voters.

They have not earned your vote and you should not let them assume that they have until they have at least made promises, even if you know they probably won’t keep them.

This is the first year of the Independent. Make them work for your vote and then make sure they know you are going to hold them too it before you give it to them again in 2012.

The Wife has always made the food for our gang of canines. It is pretty easy.

She hunts the dent and ding section of the canned food aisle for the canned vegetables, buys eggs in bulk and hard boils them or rice in bulk and steams it up. Since we grill more than most, when I fire up the box, I set some burger/lesser cuts of whatever was on sale for them on there as well.

Once all the ingredients are assembled, she mixes it all together and serves it up. Sometimes, I’m pretty sure the dogs eat healthier than I do. I also credit her canine cooking to Russell’s nearly 17 years of age.

However, the current mix includes both hard boiled eggs and creamed corn. I am warning you all, do not try this mix. I opened up the container this morning and just about fell over. It smelled more like ass than ass.

And why Libertarians don’t

Set aside nine minutes and watch this video from Reason TV.

Hit this link back to Reason if you’d like a little background.

And why it is not all all like Classical, or Paleo, Liberalism.

Here is one of those old links I mentioned last week.

Powerline put up a very good post on the topic of modern Liberalism. It includes a large number of links on Woodrow Wilson to FDR to our current President that you should snatch up a comfy seat and read all about.

Clint Didier, the third place finisher in Washington’s “Top Two” Senate primary last week, is refusing to endorse the Republican establishment pick and second place finisher, Dino Rossi.

As would I.

Clint Didier, the candidate Sarah Palin backed in the Washington state Senate race, today said he’s not yet ready to support Dino Rossi, the GOP victor in Tuesday’s primary.

“I want to endorse Dino Rossi; I really do,” Didier said at a Seattle press conference. But he said he came away from a long conversation with Rossi the evening before without the assurances he needed. “At this moment, I cannot endorse Dino Rossi,” Didier said.

Didier wants three promises from Rossi:

1 - Block any new federal spending.

2 - Oppose any new taxes on all income brackets.

3 - Introduce a copy of Ron Paul’s very foolish and not at all Libertarian “Sanctity of Life Act” in the Senate.

That is his price for his endorsement. An endorsement that Rossi cannot win without. I am pretty sure that Rossi knows this and every day he doesn’t acquiesce makes him weaker with the Didier crowd.

I only want the first two, and without them I don’t know what I’m going to do on election day. Am I “very likely” to end up inking the bubble next to Rossi’s name simply because he’s not Patty Murray? No. It is possible, but I want to think on it between now and then. I don’t want to vote for a Republican version of Murray simply because he’s not Murray. That is not what the 2010 elections are about.

And Rossi needs to figure this out soon. A large percentage of other Didier supporters I’ve spoken to locally aren’t as “flexible” as I am and will simply stay home or leave that area of the ballot blank.

Congrats to David on the new internet interface machine.

But dude,

What you very likely paid for that thing would pay for two quarters of my college tuition.

I do everything you described on an Athlon organized refurbished desktop that I bought 4 years ago for $299.

Enjoy, my man. But next time you go to the Apple store, wear a belt on your pants so they can’t get inside your underwear so fast. And make sure it has your name engraved on the back so there is a chance they’ll remember it.

They’ve actually gone to Texas

Illinois has lost out to Texas in a bid for a new Caterpillar plant.

Caterpillar Inc. said Thursday it chose Victoria, Texas, as the site for the new factory, which will make a line of excavating equipment, including some currently built in Aurora.

The new plant will employ about 500 when it opens in mid-2012. Aurora isn’t expected to lose jobs, however, because of Caterpillar’s recently announced plans to build hydraulic mining shovels there.

It’s the second time Caterpillar has shuffled some work from Illinois to Texas.

And will the bureaucrats in Illinois use this as a lesson on WHY large companies are choosing to manufacture their products outside of their state this time around?

Probably not.

How bad an idea was it to extend jobless benefits past 99 weeks?

This bad

In Bloomington, Ill., machine shop Mechanical Devices can’t find the workers it needs to handle a sharp jump in business. Job fairs run by airline Emirates attract fewer applicants in the U.S. than in other countries. Truck-stop operator Pilot Flying J says job postings don’t elicit many more applicants than they did when the unemployment rate was below 5%.

With a 9.5% jobless rate and some 15 million Americans looking for work, many employers are inundated with applicants. But a surprising number say they are getting an underwhelming response, and many are having trouble filling open positions.

“This is as bad now as at the height of business back in the 1990s,” says Dan Cunningham, chief executive of the Long-Stanton Manufacturing Co., a maker of stamped-metal parts in West Chester, Ohio, that has been struggling to hire a few toolmakers. “It’s bizarre. We are just not getting applicants.”

I’ll be the first to admit that over the nearly 11 years that I’ve been with my current employer, I’ve built up a reimbursement package that prices me out of my job field. If something drastic I were to happen, I would make more sitting at home on unemployment then I would starting out near the bottom again.

However, not only would it drive The Wife crazy to have me at home again, but I’d probably drive myself crazy. Especially since I wouldn’t be able to afford practice ammo for the duration and would have to pull from the reserves.

But others, apparently, don’t mind the life of leisure and ramen.

Finals are next week, Philosophy on Monday, and Math on Thursday.

So, I won’t be existing most this weekend. Only my coursework will. Other than an afternoon spent at the Mischief Maker’s Hot-Rod-A-Rama on Saturday, I’ll be “nose in book” for the duration.

Be good to yourselves and each other and I’ll see you on the other side.