Casualty

If you say something is or is not going to happen, you'd better be right... AIG's (AIG) Martin Sullivan became the latest "we will not need to raise more capital" casualty tonight being replaced by former Citigroup banker Robert Willumstad, who was already AIG chairman, effective immediately.. Sullivan joins Merrill Lynch's (MER) Stanley O'Neal, Citigroup's (C) Charles Prince, Bear Stearns' (B

When Magen David Adom Chairman Dr. Noam Yifrach told Foreign Ministry officials that he had received an entry visa for Indonesia, he was told that entering the country wouldn't be the problem."They told me, 'We're sure you'll be able to go in,'" he said with a smile. "It's getting back out that we're concerned about."Indonesia, which is home to the largest Muslim population in the world, has no of

World of Wonder offices are right on Hollywood Boulevard so they're first to check out the action there. Today Holly Hunter got her star on the Walk of Fame and a crowd was assembled watching her give a sincere thank-you speech. Halfway through it, there was a big disturbance as a group...

by Rep Ron Paul This week, as the American economy continued to suffer the effects of big government, the House attempted to pass two multibillion dollar “emergency” spending bills, one for continued spending on the war in Iraq , and one increasing spending on domestic and international welfare programs.  The plan was to pass these two [...]

Most of the time the War on Drugs is just costly and worthless, but sometimes it kills good people. This time the blood is on the hands of the University of Washington Medical Center and Swedish Medical Center. Tim Garon was a Seattle guitarist, who described his style as Acoustic Funk Americana. Being a snarky punk, I tend to describe it as above average hippie chord plucking, but he was greatly appreciated on the PNW caffeine circuit. Tim was also one of two lead singers for Nearly Dan, a decent Steely Dan tribute group. I don't have a quality clip of Nearly Dan, so here is a hysterical Steely Dan video, which could only be improved upon if viewed stoned: Most recently Tim teamed up with T Bone Wolk, of the SNL band, to produce two albums, Silence of her Heart, and Drunk in the Ar

Sadly, we've lost a couple of birds who were startled into the studio windows at the wrong angle or too high a speed. This female cardinal was one of them. I used a regular pencil then went over parts with some watercolor pencil and finally, a little water.

905 Rodeo Rd. Asking Price $575,000 ::: Sq-ft 1,631 Purchased Price $628,000 ::: Lot Size 0.26 acres Purchased Date 09/01/2004 ::: Beds 2 Days on Redfin 11 ::: Baths 2 $/Sq-ft $353 ::: Year Built 1950 20% Downpayment $115,000 ::: Area North Arcadia Income Required $143,750/yr ::: Type SFR Est. Payment* $2,907/month ::: MLS# H08056514 *Estimated monthly payment assume 20% down, 30-yr fixed @ 6.50% “This 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home has Hardwood Floors and Fireplace. Dinning room has a great view with an elegant touch for hosting. This home has a huge front and backyard excellent [...]

It was the glittering world première of a new British film and the country's top celebrities slipped into their gladrags ... except for Lily Allen. Wearing a dress that seemed more like baggy hospital gown than a sleek red-carpet frock, the pop star arrived with her younger brother Alfie for the the Flashbacks of a Fool première. Family affair: Lily Allen and her brother Alfie at the

If there was a satisfaction guaranteed clause with LaraÂ’s procedure, she should be requesting a full refund. Hopefully the new look is only temporary and sheÂ’ll be able to return to having facial expressions once again. Poor Priscilla wasnÂ’t so lucky. If her appearance last night on Dancing with the Stars is any indication, she is hard pressed to make Popular: 21 hours 53 minutes ago source: (bittenandbound.com)

Sadly and unnecessarily, Easter Sunday marked a horrible milestone in the War in Iraq: The 4,000th American military casualty since the beginning of the war five years ago. Now I don't often ask for prayer publicly, but I do hope those who pray will do so for the quick resolution of this senseless war — and I hope we can all pray the casualties from now on are minimal. One death in this war was too much — and now we've hit this awful number. May our leaders have the courage to find a way to safely and quickly end this bloodshed.

With Iraq essentially dropping off the radar due to drastically lower coalition casualty rates, I thought it would be a good time to reiterate the continuing true human cost of what America has unleashed with Bush's illegal, immoral, supposedly-preemptive war.Iraqis are still dying in droves as the ethnic cleansing continues, albeit at a reduced rate, across the country. Here's a list compiled by iCasualties showing just the atrocities reported over just the last seven days;12/14/07BAGHDAD - Two dead bodies were found in western Baghdad, police said.202 12/14/07KIRKUK - Gunmen posing as Iraqi army soldiers killed one civilian in a drive-by shooting near the city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, an Iraqi military source said.101 12/13/07BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed one civilian and wounded five others including two policemen in the Waziriya district of northern Baghdad, police said.101 12/13/07BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed a contractor working with U.S. forces in

There is yet another casualty of the real estate market fallout - Alliance Title. According to a message at one of their branch offices, Alliance Title closed it's doors at 5PM yesterday (Thursday). The company web site was disabled and messages left at the company headquarters were not returned. Alliance Title is (was) headquartered in Silicon Valley and employed over 2,000 employees at 200 branches. All closings that they had on the books and escrow accounts are being transferred to Financial Title Company, a sister company, in the areas where that company has offices. First American Title is taking over closings and escrow accounts in other markets. Alliance Title's business model revolved around hiring experienced settlement agents from other title companies. The settlement agents would bring their existing pipe-line of real estate agents and those agents' transactions over to Alliance Title. It seems that, as the market turned and agents' business went down, so did the numbe

MENTAL STATUS: "Rushed". Trying to get everything ready so I can head out the door to my mom's house. Going to paint some more today.Before I go, I have a sad Christmas story to tell you. Tragic, really.My little girl had a Secret Santa workshop at her school yesterday. For one dollar each present, the children can buy their family members a gift for Christmas. I sent her to school with $2--one for my gift and one for her father's gift.Later that day, she rushed off the bus to greet me with the biggest smile ever and said, "Happy Christmas!" as she lifted up her bag of presents to me. It was so sweet. Truly.After we walked home, she couldn't contain it any longer and told me to open her gift now. (She was so happy and excited. Which makes the story all the more heart wrenching). So, I reached into the bag and pulled out a large blue coffee mug. It was quite pretty and perfect for me, since I like nothing better than a big cup of coffee in the morning, but when we looked at it closel

...Through August 2007, those figures show, 18,832 suspected insurgents had been reported killed, 5,196 injured and 119,752 arrested by U.S. and coalition forces.In 2007, the figures show, coalition troops arrested an average of around 100 suspected insurgents each day. Military officials have said both the increased casualty and capture figures are attributed in part to the "surge" and more aggressive tactics by units throughout the country.Wait a damn second!!! According to liberal kooks and congressional democrats, the "surge" was a total and complete failure! What the hell.. they won't believe this either. What do you expect from a bunch of people who have the nerve to call a decorated General a liar?

I hate casualty departments almost as much as Kyle really really really really hates banks. The last time I went to casualty was to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. I sat there for five hours with a fractured metatarsal before storming off home. I had done something to my foot in karate and it had been very sore for three weeks. This time, I was fed up enough with this injury that I decided to go to casualty after work today. At the casualty reception, I was asked for my details and for information about my injury. The nurse filled in a duplicate form and I was told to wait. The form had ‘Deaf, please shout’ written across the top. Grrr. I waited and waited. And waited. People came and went. It was bedlam. This foreign lady sat next to me and started telling me all about her pet dog and how it would alert her to the phone and doorbell. She explained she had too much wax in her ears, she’d had it removed, and is still deaf. She wanted to know how my Hearin

This morning, the Pentagon conducted a press briefing with Brigadier General Joseph Anderson, the Chief of Staff of Multinational Corps-Iraq. In a video linkup from Camp Liberty in Baghdad, General Anderson addressed a number of issues--chief among them, the reported killing of a "high level" Al-Qaida commander--Tunisian national Abu Usama al-Tunisi--near Musayyib, Iraq on September 25 in a targeted strike by U.S. warplanes . According to General Anderson: "Abu Usama al-Tunisi [was] a close associate...(read more)

Since South Florida’s raucous real estate party ended, the hangover has taken different forms — sales plunging, foreclosures rising, lawsuits flying. Now, a Hialeah condo conversion company has gone bankrupt in one of the biggest bankruptcy cases yet to come out of the soured housing market. Read more… Puig, a [...]

CLINT Newton was looking for some kind of assurance during a conversation with Newcastle coach Brian Smith a fortnight ago that he had a future at the club. He didn’t get one. More the opposite. What he was left with was a distinct impression he was "no longer required". So Newton made the toughest decision of his career. He chose to walk away, telling teammates of his decision during an emotional meeting at the club’s more…

Originally posted October 3, 2006 Address: 9 Stonegate, Irvine, CA 92602 (Northpark) Plan: Plan 1 - 1980 sq ft - 3/2.5 MLS: S457264 DOM: 28 Sale History: 7/22/2005: $954,000 Current Price: $969,900 This SFR built by Shea Homes in the Rutherford tract in Northpark Square looks like a nice, cute starter home. Too bad the pricy Irvine RE market means you have to pony up almost $1 million for a starter home. Question for Northpark experts: What is Bella Rosa? Is it a part of Northpark Square? The seller purchased this property in July 2005 for $954k. From what I can gather, there were two loans taken out: one for $763,000 and a second for $190,800. Add those up and what do you get?? One FB with a classic 100% financed purchase (okay, okay, they DID put $200 down)! Fast forward one year and it seems the flipper may have to sell because of a possible job relocation (for those with MLS access, see the Private Remarks). If sold at the asking price and taking into consideration 6% in

Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kansas) admitted today the cleanup after the devastating tornado that wiped Greensburg off the face of the earth is slowed because the Kansas National Guard is short in personnel and equipment because of the war in Iraq.Kansas should have 70%-80% of the equipment needed to send the National Guard to respond to events such as this one, but currently Kansas only had about 40% according to the Governor.It's sad that we here in the United States cannot attend to our own people and help out our own when they face disaster, because all of our energy and equipment is getting blown up in Iraq.Where are the priorities?

The age of decadence.  I think that’s now how I will refer to my days at New Century.  This installment in the series is going to be a little fun if nothing else.  None of what I am about to write is either embellished or untrue.  It’s almost laughable how true it is…  I think it was our 2nd year when we attended our first New Century national sales conference.  This was NOT President’s Club - this was a general conference with no production requirements to attend.  As a matter of fact some internal staff was included.  The reason for clarifying this is because a prudent company would never have put on such an extravagant and costly display as did New Century for this event. Here’s the deal.  We all boarded flights bound for Miami where we stayed overnight on the Norwegian Cruise Line ship Princess of the Sea (or some stupid name like that I can’t remember).  Anyway, we got to the ship, sat through some stupid sexual harrassment seminar the whole time I thinking

The age of decadence.  I think that’s now how I will refer to my days at New Century.  This installment in the series is going to be a little fun if nothing else.  None of what I am about to write is either embellished or untrue.  It’s almost laughable how true it is…  I think it [...]

I never thought I would receive the response that I have when I began writing about the topic of life at New Century.  The subject obviously strikes a chord with a lot of people.  The comments I have received are almost all thought provoking and insightful.  Some people have suggested I submit a manuscript to a publisher.  Others suggest I write more detailed accounts siting actual incidents of fraud and impropriety.  Others focus in on the sexual harrassment issue.  What I believe is most important is to focus on what can be learned and what action can be taken to correct mistakes.  My views on this subject are both simple and ‘out-of-the-box’.  They are ideas that have been forming over time - dating back to the last market shakeout in the wake of the S&L bailout.  But I won’t be writing about these topics in this post.  I’ll leave them for the next one. What I will write about is a subject that nearly everyone discounts or altogether omits when discussing the i

I never thought I would receive the response that I have when I began writing about the topic of life at New Century.  The subject obviously strikes a chord with a lot of people.  The comments I have received are almost all thought provoking and insightful.  Some people have suggested I submit a manuscript to [...]

I never thought I would receive the response that I have when I began writing about the topic of life at New Century.  The subject obviously strikes a chord with a lot of people.  The comments I have received are almost all thought provoking and insightful.  Some people have suggested I submit a manuscript to a publisher.  Others suggest I write more detailed accounts siting actual incidents of fraud and impropriety.  Others focus in on the sexual harrassment issue.  What I believe is most important is to focus on what can be learned and what action can be taken to correct mistakes.  My views on this subject are both simple and ‘out-of-the-box’.  They are ideas that have been forming over time - dating back to the last market shakeout in the wake of the S&L bailout.  But I won’t be writing about these topics in this post.  I’ll leave them for the next one. What I will write about is a subject that nearly everyone discounts or altogether omits when discussing the i

I never thought I would receive the response that I have when I began writing about the topic of life at New Century.  The subject obviously strikes a chord with a lot of people.  The comments I have received are almost all thought provoking and insightful.  Some people have suggested I submit a manuscript to [...]

I left off as Jeanine and I had discovered our region manager had an open-fly policy. So here he was married, having an ongoing affair with a young woman in our office who without a doubt got more favorable treatment than anyone else and was laughingly held up as an example of success.  And it didn’t stop there.  At least three other women in the time we were there had affairs with our region manager.  Some of you reading this might call this heresy, or maybe retribution on my part.  Call it what you want, it’s the absolute truth and any New Century alum reading this cannot argue that fact.  They wouldn’t anyway. I can only sight the three additional affairs as these are the only confirmed cases.  Credible rumors abounded in our region about numerous other trists that as I look back had put my wife and I right back where we did not want to be.  For those of you who have never been exposed to this kind of environment, it is without doubt a hostile intolerable situation.  B

This post is the first in a series covering my days as an Account Executive at New Century Mortgage.  It also includes some preceding events relative to the story line.  I began this post by jotting down some notes.  As I began to write, I couldn’t believe what I was putting down on paper.  Fraud rings, FBI investigations, abusive brokers, rampant sexual harrassment and favoritism, and way too many other bad memories to list in this first paragraph. As I began to write I also began to question myself.  Why was writing this important enough to take time away from my schedule?  Why would anyone want to read it?  What lesson can be learned?  The answer is simple - and stems from one word.  Greed.  Greed is not good.  Greed is bad.  Nothing good comes from greed.  And if there is one thing I know after spending nearly four years in the subprime lending industry it is this simple truth - in subprime lending greed, before all else, was the underlying doctrine. So let me begin

In the New York Times, the Pentagon manipulated the casualty totals on their website, reducing the figure from 47,657 to 31,493. Excerpt from the article below: The old method lumped many problems under the label "casualties," including illnesses, minor injuries and injuries from accidents, as well as wounds sustained in combat. But the public may assume that every casualty is a war wound, Dr. Kilpatrick said, so the site was changed to avoid misunderstandings. On Monday, the bottom line of the Defense Department's Web page on casualties in Iraq listed a total of 47,657 "nonmortal casualties" By Tuesday, the same page no longer showed a total for nonmortal casualties. The bottom line is now "total — medical air transported," and the figure is 31,493. The new total excludes 16,164 troops who were wounded but did not require medical air transport because their injuries were minor. The total does include combat wounds, nonhostile injuries and diseases serious enough for

The IRS defines a casualty loss as the damage, destruction or loss of property resulting from an identifiable event that is sudden, unexpected or unusual. In general, a sudden event is an event that happens instantly. If you wake up one morning and notice, all of a sudden, that you have wood rot under your bathroom sink due to a slow leak, the IRS would not consider that event a "sudden" event,

If you do your own research on stocks, probably you'll come along reading Citgroup PortfolioStrategist, weekly, so the report said on February 22 that insurers are releasing reserves from recent “hard market” years at a faster pace than in previous cycles and focus on insurers that were able to maximize premium growth during the hard market years of 2003-05.Selection:ACEXLREACGLHCC

'On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II', will be made into a movie ... most likely with a shorter name. The book tells the story of black soldiers accused of lynching an Italian POW. Many were convicted, but all sentances were later ...