Bob Nightengale has reported for USA Today that Manny Ramirez will be back with the Los Angeles Dodgers for 2 years. Great to see he won’t be on the sidelines. I’m sure many Sox fans (and AL East fans in general) are glad he won’t be in pinstripes. He hit just under .400 for the Dodgers last year and should have plenty of motivation after the extended wait for a contract. Could he hit over .380 in the NL, maybe .400.. we’ll see.

A great way to save on auto parts.

Http://AutoPartsHD.com

The site has great deals and links for Auto Parts, searchable by year, make and model.

Plus, great deals on car electronics and GPS. 

Most of the top items are 50% off retail. Many sell and ship through Amazon with free second day shipping.

Auto repairs are frequently expensive so if you can save on the parts that’s all the better.

Washington Mutual, the failed financial institution bought by Chase, is telling troubled homeowners that they, “are not participating in the government bailout, not reducing mortgage debt, not writing down any mortgages.”

So all the loyal taxpayers out there can rest assured that Chase took the government billions and will not be helping any of the WaMu homeowners who want to remain in there home and try to pay the market price for there home.

What the f#%* ?

So if you owe $850,00 on a home that is now worth $400,000 you will not get any relief whether it is because  of a bad loan, or predatory loan, or a tumbling real estate market. Washington Mutual and Chase would have the home go to foreclosure and sell for 200,000 instead of re-writing the mortgage at the proper appraised value.

The economy has been a complex pyramid scheme for some time now.

Let get back to the basics to save this country.

Banks have been calling loans early, at the first 31 days late moment, to try and flip and cash out their equity. Despite the fact that this leads to losses in the long term it boosts the cash reserves. Rather than waiting 15-30 years as the borrower pays back the loan and interest they are calling in the loans at the first sign of trouble and selling the properties at a loss. Because it adds more cash (an at loss sale at 50 cents on the dollar is still more cash than one months payment or many months payments for that matter.)

This is why Congress needs to help the small businesses that are in trouble. Not rely on the big banks to do so.

The bailout plan failed to pass the house. Despite claiming the plan would pass, House Republicans didn’t back the bill. Many Democrats didn’t back the bill either. While Senator McCain took credit for joining the parties and rescuing the bill, the bill didn’t pass. So he rescued, I’m not sure.

The credit crunch continues. Maybe we need a simplified “New Credit” plan that will inject the needed credit to people that need it, rather than using money to buy “old, bad credit.”

Another mark to show the need for a new third party in America, maybe the “American Party” or “Reform” that could really put the country first and hold the other two sides accountable.

Nothing changes the fact that the economy needs an injection of credit, can we at least get that done.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson worked for President Nixon. Dick Cheney worked for President Nixon.

Treasurer Paulson is asking for autonomy in has provided a 3 page plan to spend up to 1 trillion of our tax dollars with no accountability.

3 page plan, in your face autonomy, ties to Nixon, errr, Cheney, not sure about you but this sounds like the ingredients of another disaster.

Any bailout plan involving public funds should have accountability, oversight and ownership equity for the public. Country first anyone?

During her campaign for Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin bragged about 

getting a D in her economics class. Since we are in the worst economic times

since the combo of WW II and the Great Depression it is nice to see Senator McCain put country first with a D Economics student on board a heart beat away as they say.

I’m an undecided, independent voter and this news is troubling to me. College level Macro Economics is not rocket science and a poor mark in this class would show a general misunderstanding of the overall economy. Not to say she couldn’t have learned since. 

Of note, a student who gets a C or below in any Graduate level class will not qualify for a masters degree. So we can be certain that Senator Obama graded B or better at the hardest schools in the country.

The Olympic Games are over and we are now faced with another overload of reality shows (thanks I’ll pass).

We’ll be looking back to these games as the turning point on various levels for the rest of our lives. 

It’s when a generation of kids, the world over, decided that they wanted to be gymnasts and follow in the footsteps of the amazing American duo of the graceful Nastia Liuken and daring Shawn Johnson, Sandra Izbaza of Romania and Yang Yilin of China.

These girls performed at such a high level at these Olympics. I’m sure there will be many kids aiming to win Gold in Gymnastics at the Olympics.

Obviously pools the world over will be getting a work out as kids will want to be like Mike all over again. This time it will be Michael Phelps instead of Michael Jordan (he’s still amazing but most of todays kids never saw him at his peak.) 

Mr. Phelps defied the odds and won an Olympic record of 8 gold medals. I’d been hearing about the Spitz record of 7 every 4 years of my life when the summer olympics were on tv. It will be amazing to see if anyone will ever break this record.

The attitude of all these athletes set them apart and will help the accomplishments become part of the folklore of the Olympic Games. The desire to compete mixed with the will to train all coming together to win by the smallest of margins.

Way to go Shawn, a gold medal winning Olympic champion. All the hard work and positive attitude payed off.

Nastia and Shawn were amazing at the Olympics, sure to inspire the next generation of great American gymnasts.