We went down to Ada to visit Jon's on Saturday for Dylans big number two birthday...

In case you didn't know the bedlam game, osu vs ou was yesterday...

WE WON... 

YES, ALL OF OKLAHOMA WON... BECAUSE IT WAS A GOOD GAME....  AND IN THAT WE CAN ALL BE PROUD.

and if your team lost, I'm sorry, and if your team won, congrats!!!

but in the end... All of Oklahoma can be very proud this am of the good game, and how it presented Oklahoma football to the rest of the nation... some of the best this season with two great teams.

yes, WE won!!!  We Oklahoman's!!

Marvin doing what Marvin does best.. haha

he lays like this for hours at a time...

not sure the name of this grass, but in the wind.. it is alive with movement...

something pretty and red.....

ummmmmmmmmmm good things are coming round.....

Lately the sky is full of these monsters at daylight and sunset... all over the wheat west of our home...

ophs.. maybe this might not be a good cross breeding program.. haha..

Saw this puppy take a pigeon out of the sky about 2pm.. in flight...

and now the ole hawk is sitting there waiting on the pigeons to fly this evening.. while I smoke some chicken and turkey..

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Great Grandma Moffat's...

Everyone was full, sassy, and we had tons to eat....  what a wonderful thing, the family together at Thanksgiving...  or these days.. the family together for any reason is wonderful since all are so very busy with all the extra things in life...  Happy Thanksgiving to one and all...  

her and Grandpa M were hungry and ready to eat...

Isabella was excited about going to Great Grandma's for lunch...

May you and yours have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Reese

Borrowed from Craig's Corner... great photo of Mr. Reese... haven't we all had a tractor at sometime in our lives...  well, ok, some of us did.. haha..

and on and on and on... seems the folks who got us into the mess, are being assigned to lead us out of it...

on our farm, we have chickens and dogs. They get along, well sort of, except for one, ole Jagger. Now ole Jagger will kill a chicken inside of a minute or less...  so you know what we do? We tie him up, put him in doggie jail when the chickens are out because we know what he will do, he has proven this many times over....

and so it seems to me the right place for those who got us into these hard times is JAIL... what do we do... why we put them in charge of getting us out of the mess they made... hum... common sense here for just a second... says using ole Jagger... if we put him in charge, there would be NO chickens...  so if we put these idiots in charge... will there be no USA economy??  

my humble opinion of Mr. B. Hussein Obama was simple and it has not changed one bit. Simply close your eyes and listen to the man and his words. There was NOTHING between the ears. If you wondered what a Hillary Administration would look like, take a look at his "New" idea folks... all left over folks who in some way are tied to the mess in wall street and all former Clinton aids...  with the exception of two big time appointments, one of which is a carry over. The man has zero common sense, and a true opinion of how high his self worth is... he leads by saying "I know, I said, I did, you're done"! The anointed one, the killer dog, is leading us to slaughter by gathering more killer dogs around him...  but hey... America voted but the one thing they missed was that usually one votes for someone who has a plan, and has the experience and wisdom to called "Leader" of the free world. Our President. This time America got caught up in the "anointing" effect of voting for a popular speaker and big time smuzzer who makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy while actually saying nothing... the ole fashioned con artist, and we all will pay the price of their mistake.

According to IMUS, the following article is required reading... and it really is well put, written by a big time B. Hussein Obama supporter. 

All Fall Down

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I spent Sunday afternoon brooding over a great piece of Times reporting by Eric Dash and Julie Creswell about Citigroup. Maybe brooding isn’t the right word. The front-page article, entitled “Citigroup Pays for a Rush to Risk,” actually left me totally disgusted.

Why? Because in searing detail it exposed — using Citigroup as Exhibit A — how some of our country’s best-paid bankers were overrated dopes who had no idea what they were selling, or greedy cynics who did know and turned a blind eye. But it wasn’t only the bankers. This financial meltdown involved a broad national breakdown in personal responsibility, government regulation and financial ethics.

So many people were in on it: People who had no business buying a home, with nothing down and nothing to pay for two years; people who had no business pushing such mortgages, but made fortunes doing so; people who had no business bundling those loans into securities and selling them to third parties, as if they were AAA bonds, but made fortunes doing so; people who had no business rating those loans as AAA, but made a fortunes doing so; and people who had no business buying those bonds and putting them on their balance sheets so they could earn a little better yield, but made fortunes doing so.

Citigroup was involved in, and made money from, almost every link in that chain. And the bank’s executives, including, sad to see, the former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, were clueless about the reckless financial instruments they were creating, or were so ensnared by the cronyism between the bank’s risk managers and risk takers (and so bought off by their bonuses) that they had no interest in stopping it.

These are the people whom taxpayers bailed out on Monday to the tune of what could be more than $300 billion. We probably had no choice. Just letting Citigroup melt down could have been catastrophic. But when the government throws together a bailout that could end up being hundreds of billions of dollars in 48 hours, you can bet there will be unintended consequences — many, many, many.

Also check out Michael Lewis’s superb essay, “The End of Wall Street’s Boom,” on Portfolio.com. Lewis, who first chronicled Wall Street’s excesses in “Liar’s Poker,” profiles some of the decent people on Wall Street who tried to expose the credit binge — including Meredith Whitney, a little known banking analyst who declared, over a year ago, that “Citigroup had so mismanaged its affairs that it would need to slash its dividend or go bust,” wrote Lewis.

“This woman wasn’t saying that Wall Street bankers were corrupt,” he added. “She was saying they were stupid. Her message was clear. If you want to know what these Wall Street firms are really worth, take a hard look at the crappy assets they bought with huge sums of borrowed money, and imagine what they’d fetch in a fire sale... For better than a year now, Whitney has responded to the claims by bankers and brokers that they had put their problems behind them with this write-down or that capital raise with a claim of her own: You’re wrong. You’re still not facing up to how badly you have mismanaged your business.”

Lewis also tracked down Steve Eisman, the hedge fund investor who early on saw through the subprime mortgages and shorted the companies engaged in them, like Long Beach Financial, owned by Washington Mutual.

“Long Beach Financial,” wrote Lewis, “was moving money out the door as fast as it could, few questions asked, in loans built to self-destruct. It specialized in asking homeowners with bad credit and no proof of income to put no money down and defer interest payments for as long as possible. In Bakersfield, Calif., a Mexican strawberry picker with an income of $14,000 and no English was lent every penny he needed to buy a house for $720,000.”

Lewis continued: Eisman knew that subprime lenders could be disreputable. “What he underestimated was the total unabashed complicity of the upper class of American capitalism... ‘We always asked the same question,’ says Eisman. ‘Where are the rating agencies in all of this? And I’d always get the same reaction. It was a smirk.’ He called Standard & Poor’s and asked what would happen to default rates if real estate prices fell. The man at S.& P. couldn’t say; its model for home prices had no ability to accept a negative number. ‘They were just assuming home prices would keep going up,’ Eisman says.”

That’s how we got here — a near total breakdown of responsibility at every link in our financial chain, and now we either bail out the people who brought us here or risk a total systemic crash. These are the wages of our sins. I used to say our kids will pay dearly for this. But actually, it’s our problem. For the next few years we’re all going to be working harder for less money and fewer government services — if we’re lucky.

Paul's Elk Hunting Photos ...

Paul and friends went elk hunting in Colo. couple of weeks ago and took some photos.. 

the links to the photos are below:

http://moffatfamilyblog.dotphoto.com/CPListAlbums.asp

or

http://reddirtdiaries.dotphoto.com/CPListAlbums.asp

obama hussein appointed Geithner to head his econ. team... wow... where was he when things went south??

Where was Geithner in turmoil?

By Andrew Ross Sorkin

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama unveiled on Monday an economic team with deep experience handling economic crises. But does the man at the center of this star-studded cast, Timothy Geithner, the nominee for Treasury secretary, have the chops to take the nation in a new financial direction?

That is what a number of Wall Street chieftains are quietly asking, even after the stock market surged with relief after his nomination.

One reason Obama gave for nominating Geithner was his "unparalleled understanding of our current economic crisis, in all of its depth, complexity and urgency." More important, he suggested, "Tim will waste no time getting up to speed. He will start his first day on the job with a unique insight into the failures of today's markets — and a clear vision of the steps we must take to revive them."

Geithner is clearly a 47-year-old wonder boy.

A graduate of Dartmouth, he has a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, did a turn with Henry Kissinger's consulting firm, a stint in the Clinton administration and, for the last five years, has been the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

He will effectively lead the team Obama has chosen to mend a crippled economy. That's important because they won't just be debating economic theory — they will be making deals Wall Street-style, negotiating billion-dollar bailouts and restructuring entire industries on behalf of their client, the taxpayers.

But Geithner's involvement in several ultimately ill-fated efforts to buttress the American financial system is the very reason some Wall Street CEO's — a number of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of piquing the man who regulates them — question whether he's up to the challenge.

"We have only two things to say about Tim Geithner, who we do not know: AIG and Lehman Brothers," said Christopher Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics. "Throw in the Bear Stearns/Maiden Lane fiasco for good measure," he said, referring to the site of the New York Federal Reserve, where many rescue discussions took place.

"All of these 'rescues' are a disaster for the taxpayer, for the financial markets and also for the Federal Reserve System as an organization. Geithner, in our view, deserves retirement, not promotion."

Ouch.

"He was in the room at every turn of the crisis," said another executive who participated in several such confidential meetings with Geithner. "You can look at that both ways."

While Henry Paulson Jr., the current Treasury secretary, has taken a drubbing for the changeable nature of the government's efforts to bolster the financial industry — some of which clearly contradicted each other — Geithner has managed, for the most part, to remain unscathed. He's been widely praised as a bright, articulate out-of-the box thinker who is a bailout expert, to the extent anyone can truly be an expert at fast-changing emergencies.

Behind the scenes, Geithner was the point person for weeks of sleep-deprived Bailout Weekends. It was Geithner, not Paulson, for example, who put together the original rescue plan for the American International Group.

And, of course, Geithner also oversaw and regulated an entire industry whose decline has delivered a further blow to an already weakened American economy. Under his watch, some of the biggest institutions that were the responsibility of the New York Fed — Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and most recently, Citigroup — faltered. While he was one of the first regulators to smartly articulate the potential for an impending disaster, a number of observers question whether he went far enough to stop the calamity.

Perhaps what has most people on Wall Street stirring is Geithner's role in the fall of Lehman. At the time of its bankruptcy, he, along with Paulson, appeared to be the most vocal in supporting the government's refusal to bail out the firm, according to people involved in various meetings. With hindsight, many in the financial industry blame a deepening of the global financial crisis on the government's decision to let Lehman crumble.

Perhaps not surprisingly, there have been moves afoot in recent weeks by some in the New York Fed and Obama team to put distance between Paulson and Geithner, whose salary was $398,200 last year and who will take a pay cut to $191,300 in his new role.

These include the suggestion that Geithner was not in league with Paulson over Lehman; that Geithner pressed to save the firm from bankruptcy; that he was a lone voice on the subject and was overruled by Paulson and Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, on this issue.

The validity of this new claim is hard to verify. The New York Fed declined to comment.

Many executives suggest it may be a bit of revisionist history. "If that's true, he did a good job of hiding it," said one executive who spent the weekend at the New York Federal Reserve the weekend of Lehman's fall.

Paulson has only praise for Geithner. "I have the highest regard for Tim — his judgment and creativity have been critical to designing and implementing the necessary actions we've taken to protect and strengthen our financial system," he said.

Let's hope he's right.

Did you see who obama hussein picked for his economic team??

former Clinton admin players.. trained by Robert Rubin, who is leading Citibank down the trail to bankruptcy... wow... how lucky can we be to relive another failed administration... oh well, to each his own.. maybe like bill ... obama hussein will put an intern in each of our offices too?  wonder what other stupid moves await us. We are getting it rammed down our throats from the very start... can you imagine picking for a VP a man who failed to get past go when he ran for President? America said NO to the dumbie then and now it's OK???  and on and on and on... everyday is a new day, but the change we are promised is not new...

if you think things are going to get better, here is food for thought. Chris Dowd and Bernie Frank are the two who lead us into this mess... which started on Clinton's watch...   now Obama hussein is using these two and other Clinton retreads to lead us through our worst times... wow... talk about the wolf watching the hen house...  

Next thing you know, bill ayers will be our new homeland security chief...  and the Chaplin for the US Senate will be the rev. wright....  and we will not find the flag needed anymore under obama huessin...  all we will need to do is salute him.. sound familiar??  then using the incoming first lady's words from the past...   "we will finally be proud to be Americans!" and of course, Sunday mornings at church with the President will be replaced by workout in the gym, much more important to improve ourselves than to give praise and glory to our maker and the principle of which this country was founded on... our faith in God... In God we trust will be gone, the pledge will be gone.. pride in our country will be a thing that will be going next too. 

OK... sorry ...  I know, give change a chance...   but at what price? what price?? 

If the press would have done their part and exposed this nightmare for what it is, we might be finding folks who can lead based on success and not failure... who might not change the system as much as get rid of some of the old hanger-oner's... like Dowd and Frank... and others who need to go. 

I remember the day of the towers falling... how lucky we were to be in the hands of President Bush. The pride in my country going to the ends of the earth to catch them... and you know what, I still am proud of him and his leadership. He has done the right thing. History will remember him more fondly then the late night TV shows. The real scarey thing is that he just might be the last President we have from some time we can be truly proud of. His faith never wavered, in his faith, in his belief in America, and his word was bond, and never changed. The character traits we honor in our heros!! During the last 8 years, one thing was for sure. The world knew who was in charge, and did not have to wonder. Most of the time, if they had any questions regarding our stance, all they had to do was to remember who was in charge. In a sense it was nice to know our President was disliked by most abroad...  This meant to me, he was standing up for America, and making us proud! 

no cowering down and joining in with other countries. We were the leaders... 

but hey.. just one ole man's opinion... and we all have them. 

Jake just called ....

sign of the times we are in...


We all love the 1.56 cent a gallon gasoline...

but the other side of this deal...

Now folks, OK has an economy that has as it's top dog, energy, and next is ag... and both are hurting.. so look out, we all may find times getting hard and harder...

The housing market here is still top of the world and going strong, but in a few weeks, I bet it slows way down too... hold on to your hat, stop that extra spending, and get ready to take advantage of some great deals that will become available soon...

so says one who has seen it before.... and didn't do the above...

so it goes in Stillwater, OK on this 24th day of November, 2008.

Do you need a welder? I know where there is one for hire... and he is an easy keeper. He is fully insured and bonded for up to two million... and has all his own equipment, and understands working early and staying late... even is certified to weld on all thickness and all structures... 4 years in the business...

thanks to family..

Ann and I celebrated our 36th Anniversay together with most of our family on Friday evening. We decided to let Mr. Rib Crib cook dinner and brought it out to our home ... Heather picked up a cake,too, (and I still owe her for that, sorry Heather, I forgot till now) so we could enjoy everyone's company. We also got to see Paul and Friends Elk Hunting photos from Colorado they took the week before while hunting Elk there. Phil and family, Heather and family and Jake and family made it by. I don't know about others, but I do know Ann and I truly enjoyed the special time spent with each other and family. And as a bonus we also got to enjoy watching and spending time with Austyn, Andrew, Madison, and Isabella. My my how they are growing up so fast. 

What a wonderful and gracious and special gift you gave to Ann and I just by sharing an evening with us. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. 

the evening was truly "PRICELESS"!

and on board the new truck is my good friend Craig.

Craig is operating the pumps on the truck I believe... I am sure there are names - correct names- for all of this but I am sorry I don't know them.

for those who read this and don't know....

The Perkins Fire Dept is a voluntary fire dept. They are all volunteers and do this to help and aid the community against fire. Because of their efforts, and the hard work and long hours they put in, they have some of the best equipment in the Southwest, and some of the best trained on any fire dept, regardless of the type of fire dept. They are professional in every sense of the word. They train hard and work hard, and their familys suffered too... when the guys work regular jobs and fight fires and have a dept like this, it takes many many hours of hard work that comes only from devotion to it and love of community and wanting to truly make a difference in todays world. ( and as a bonus to the community, Perkins, OK. enjoys low cost fire insurance for it's citizens... )

I am proud to call Craig my friend! and I am proud of all his and many others hard work to make the Perkins Fire Dept. the best.

here you can see the "dumping station" they used to unload fast and get more water to the fire... plus the new Perkins Fire Dept truck in action...

a very fast way to dump into the station and then get on road for more water.