Image of the day

Captured by
Michael Scherman

Lagoon and Triffid Celestron C6 Hyperstar4

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

August 10, 2008 01:47 PM Forum: Investment Discussions

USD is kicking butt - why?

Posted By Paul Kammueller

I would not attach too much currency significance to particular military movements, as these have not had so much impact up to this point. There are much more direct economic & financial reasons.

A good part of it has been due to other currencies 'catching up' to the dollar's fall as the market is increasingly discovering that the rest of the world's economy is not entirely insulated from U.S. financial troubles. So the fall of other currencies is manifest by a rise in the dollar. The other side of that coin is the commodity rally breaking as the market realizes the danger that a worldwide recession poses to near-term commodity demand. So as commodities fall, the relative value of currency compared against it goes up.

Some of it could also well be technical, as massive shorting of the dollar forces a lot of buying to cover if any rally occurs, and there may have been massive shorting when the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crisis came to light.

August 12, 2008 10:38 PM Forum: Politics

Why Obama will not win

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Oh brother -- the old "he's too liberal" line? Can't they find some new material? Conservatives say that about every dem candidate. Every. Single. One. They're SUPPOSED to be liberal!

The irony is that every single election, without fail, the right-wing pundits say "Joe Blow is the most liberal candidate in history" while the liberal wing of the dem party bemoans the fact that their candidate isn't liberal enough so they go vote Green or whatever.

August 13, 2008 01:48 AM Forum: Politics

Re: Was Hillary doomed to lose the primary?

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Jim Babcock said:
I am obviously from the right, but also would rather have Hillary over McCain or Obama. McCain is not loved by the right, and many of us would have crossed for Hillary.

You don't expect anyone to believe this. You had more shrill posts about Hillary 6 months ago than anyone. Every post of yours was Hillary Bill Monica impeach blah blah blah.

She might have won some moderates, but no R would have crossed over for her. Zero.

August 15, 2008 03:06 AM Forum: Politics

McCain the Hypocrite

Posted By Paul Kammueller

McCain's foreign policy advisor was a lobbyist for Georgia. So he pretty much has to take a hard line siding with Georgia. I'm not defending what Russia's done by any means, but the situation has its complications and his campaign is in an awkward spot where they probably could not have been objective whatever the circumstances. At the very least there are some thorny conflicts of interest in play.

August 15, 2008 11:53 AM Forum: Politics

How the Fraud Will Win Ohio!

Posted By Paul Kammueller

It may provide some countermeasure to the purging of registered voters from the voter rolls that occurs just before the election. The caging list this year will be huge. And the so-called 'absentee ballot' they get I wonder about. Kind of sounds like those 'provision ballots', voting placebos that generally don't get counted. Sounds like a psychological tool to get dems comfortable with the biases that have been legislated into Ohio's system.

September 5, 2008 02:09 AM Forum: Politics

Jim Babcock

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Oww, geez! I just logged in and saw this! Yup I think all our thoughts are with Jim and his family, despite all our differences -- get well soon!!

September 6, 2008 11:08 PM Forum: Investment Discussions

Buy and hold?

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Michael Koons said:
I'm starting to think it is a cracked concept. The S&P and Dow get shuffled every year with the dogs kicked out and the shining stars put in, and still this is the result. I'm starting to look for oversold financials next week starting with ALD and NLY. 2 mid players with big dividends and a nice track record. I think the index funds are too diluted for the big picture I'm seeing for my money.

I'm a little confused by your last statement, what do you mean by 'too diluted'...?

September 6, 2008 11:11 PM Forum: Investment Discussions

Fannie and Freddie

Posted By Paul Kammueller

Michael Koons said:
I'm looking for international support at around the 10.000 level.

What is it you're talking about that's hitting 10.0 here? 10.0 whats?

As for Fannie and Freddie, it now looks likely they will go straight to $0.

September 14, 2008 08:25 PM Forum: Politics

Scared of Palin

Posted By Paul Kammueller

I'll admit it, I am too. Before the Palin pick, I knew that while I preferred Obama, I probably could have lived with a McCain presidency. Palin changed all that. I think she's hand-picked by the religious right and the oil lobby and is the one thing that convinced me that that it IS actually possible to come up with a ticket that is as bad as, and even conceivably worse than, what we've been ruled under for the last 8 years. That's NOT an easy feat. I went from being able to live with either outcome to the sudden realization that McCain absolutely MUST not win.

September 15, 2008 04:19 AM Forum: Politics

Conservative v. Liberal Election Scale

Posted By Paul Kammueller

I do not think it is a question of 'scale' -- all the varied political principles cannot fit onto a one-dimensional line with numbers. You need a 2 or 3-dimensional scale at least to map where everyone's 'positions' are. On the right some are religious fanatics, some are militarists, some are libertarian and some authoritarian. On the left you have pro-choice types, pro-labor types, environmentalists, etc. The interests are too varied to simply assign a number of 1 to 10 on some combo, IMHO. I mean, they're all over the place.

The left has their elites, yes, but the right has theirs too.