International Falls Daily Journal - Business News - Comments

Congratulations...its good

paradox — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:13:41 -0600

Congratulations...its good to see businesses grow! However, I must say, the name of this salon is slightly misleading.

A few years ago I brought 3 of my friends up for a fishing trip. We stopped at SuperOne for groceries prior to heading up the lake. Upon leaving the parking lot, one of my single friends noticed your shop. With hope and enthusiasm he asked whether 'Northern Exposure' was a topless bar. He was rather disappointed to learn it is, in fact, a hair salon.

Your savior is gathering

paradox — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:37:46 -0600

Your savior is gathering around him an administration with people that would love to see the paper industry consolidate and shrink in the name of environmentalism. So, I'm not sure why you are so optimistic for 'our little town'.

This current mess is one created by lots of people. The democrats (mandating sub-prime loans to unqualified buyers), republicans (failing to enforce stricter regulation when they had a majority), greedy corporations, and the general stupidity of all Americans who lived beyond their means.

I-Falls is just fly-over country to our 44th president.

This news is another

Thomas L. Johnson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:24:08 -0600

This news is another reminder of how vulnerable we all are in this global economy. Paper is considered a supply whose demand is directly tied to business activity. As activity slows, consumption of supplies lessens and the need for purchases goes down and Boise starts to close down paper machines, sadly right at the beginning of the holiday season. [If I am not mistaken, the old Insulite closed its doors in the immediate pre-Christmas period].
Workers all over the world will feel this slowdown. In China, there are fears that millions of workers, left unemployed because Americans are scaling back on holiday purchases like toys and clothing, will cause social upheaval. Without safety nets, workers suffer first and suffer most.
So it is heartening to know that our 44th president is gathering around him some of the best economic minds in the world -- I still awaiting the phonecall -- to work on a real issue -- not some overblown global war on terrorism.
In the meantime, we need to hope and pray that the slowdons affecting our little hometown are short-lived aand that those affected will not be ignored as we celebrate the end-of-the-year holidays.

Sounds like someone just put

roj2000 — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:35:13 -0500

Sounds like someone just put another nail in the I-Falls coffin lid!! Sure the Falls Airport is a "summer market". A market, that provides a "jumping off point" for those tourists needing access to the various recreation/flying services in Fort Frances, Ont. Too bad they aren't flying in to visit the beautiful (under used) VNP! WAKE UP I-Falls, and start finding ways to divert those folks passing you by, on their way across the border!! Why can't I-Falls be a "summer destination" once again? I know why, but it's probably too late now. But, think of the quiet peace and tranquility of camping by yourself in VNP!! It's so quiet, you can almost hear the terrorists sneaking across the Border, while the agents sit sipping coffee at the Int'l bridge.

I cashed mine and put it in

roj2000 — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:40:26 -0500

I cashed mine and put it in the safe under my bed, with the "other" excess cash I have on hand. As of yesterday, it had not lost much value. Now my 401K, that's a different story. But, what goes down, will go back up. My Military retirement will be getting a boost Jan 1st, but go ahead and send me another check, before Obama takes Office. That will be the last stimulus check this hard working American will see for a LONG TIME!! Those Americans who don't work, and still get tax refunds will be getting lots of checks, come Jan 21st, 2009. Enjoy them!!

Shame on the Koochiching

SS_Vet — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:24:44 -0500

Shame on the Koochiching County commissioners for not jumping onboard with this proposal from Mr. Kruse. International Falls has the opportunity to potentially stimulate the local economy by bringing in a federally funded facility to the area. Sure the "local" nursing homes don't get paid the type of wages that VA staff does, but when you can bringing more jobs to the area how can you even think about turning them away? They money the staff would earn has more potential to go into our local economy than if we don't act, and this facility gets located outside our county. This VA nursing home would draw veterans from not only our county but all counties, which again, has potential to draw MORE people to our declining city. International Falls needs to jump at every chance it gets to have economic growth. So let a veteran from outside this county decide to spend the rest of thier honorable life in VA nursing home here, instead of per say Silver Bay, Fergus Falls or even Minneapolis. If it makes it easier for the family to not have the burden of traveling so far to see thier loved one, thats worth it alone. So county commissioners get your heads in the game and stop being so insecure about the "local" nursing homes, there is plenty of non veteran, local, aging population, to keep the "local" nursing homes in business with great health care. Remember your able to do what you do today, because these veterans did what they did for us. Don't make a veterans family member move half way across the state to take advantage of a benifit they deserve. Would you like to have to drive from International Falls to Silver Bay to go see your loved one??? Do the right thing and let Mr. Kruse do great things for International Falls and Koochiching County before its too late!!

Having no money, as in

Anton1965 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:41:42 -0500

Having no money, as in broke, and living in a shack built in 1904, I feel I have some expierence in talking about money matters, even those money matters on a national level.

The first thing I would have to say is the 700 billion dollar, whatever it is to be called this day, is not and was not and never will be a bail out for anybody nor is it any stimulus package of any kind. The current "regime" thinks that all we have to do is generate cash flow, even if that cash flow actually doesn't do any thing of a practical sense and thats all that is required to move our brand of captalism along.

Secondly the last 700 billion dollars has not gone any where the second 700 billion is going, into the pockets of somebody who is clever enough to get it.

Thirdly,this is going to get a lot more worse then I think you can imagine. Even to the point of doing away with the dollar and using the scrip the government has already printed.

Anton------you make total

six-shooter — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:22:37 -0500

Anton------you make total sense cuz your using common sense. You don't need a Teflon tongue to make your point. To survive you must know how to survive. You can't eat gold or a sweet portfolio. I'm thinking about putting in a root cellar and we keep reloading the shells. Best to ya man.

On a few things we agree,

Thomas L. Johnson — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:07:19 -0500

On a few things we agree, JS, and privacy is definitely one of those things. Without a doubt, the first six years of the republican majority resulted in a curtailment of personal privacy. We are reminded of that everytime we fly or even when we cross the border to go to Fort Frances. The Patriot Act was an attempt to close down the openness that is so essential to a free people.

My problem with the people you are sending us to on this quest is that many of them are as closed down. This guy, Griffin, for instance, is a pure ideologue. There are only two types of systems, open or closed. Closed systems take in nothing from the environment and generally fail to respond correctly to change. Cults are like that; so are ideologues.
The problem with the Bush group was not necessarily that they were evil. It was that they closed down, refusing to admit information from the environment in areas like WMD's, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib . . . Bush, as a man of strong conviction but little or no curiosity, had no problems defining himself as the Decider. Just like David Koresh or your Griffin fellow. Richard Nixon was like that in his wire taps, office break-ins, wholesale arrests or protestors. Fortunately, we get to change regimes because we are fundamentally an open society, even when despots try to close us down. My fundamental problem with people who assume that there are vast right wing or left wing or masonic or jewish or banker's conspiracies is that they imagine that their truth is necessarily the truth. Conspiracies don't do that well in an open society because someone like Seymour Hersh will write about the Tonkin Gulf hoax or the CIA murder of Allende or Abu Ghraib and the cat is out of the bag. And that, my friend, is where the cat should be -- out of the bag.

And on the issue of

Joespoon04 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:19:23 -0500

And on the issue of government now allowed into the privacy of the people in ways we've NEVER seen before, so many smug American morons say, "Well, what are you hiding?"

In response to those people, I just want to ask them what their address is, the names and ages of their kids, their physical descriptions, and what time those children get home from school.

Don't want to answer me about private stuff like that? You know what I'd say if I were government and a mindless American drone like them?

"WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?!!!"

Privacy is privacy. I don't trust government with my information just as I don't trust a stranger with my kids, for no other reason than that it's none of their business. And everyone knows that the chances of corruption and immorality in government is the same as in the populace at large.

Thomas, There used to be a

Joespoon04 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:29:07 -0500

Thomas,

There used to be a balance of power between the three branches, but the executive has assumed broad powers that people have gotten used to and assumed are normal. For instance, Karl Rove was charged with contempt for not shoving up at a House Judiciary Committee in July, but when a few noble citizens saw him and attempted a citizens arrest, they themselves got arrested and Rove walked free, even though a normal course of justice would see Rove in jail or in court somewhere. Meanwhile, the executive has either lied to the American people so often or outright refused to answer their questions, that the famed Vincent Bugliosi (the prosecutor of Charles Manson), released a bestselling book based upon his ongoing research into the lies that got us into Iraq. It's called, "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" and it can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Prosecution-George-W-Bush-Murder/dp/159315481X

A lot of us remember what the rule of law was like before "the gloves came off" after 9/11. Back then, in the good old days, we had a 4th Amendment that prevented unlawful searches and seizures. The phone and telecom companies can now listen to your phone and my phone without warrants or fear of retribution, the FBI can execute searches based on whims, and disgustingly flawed digital databases can be pulled out after the fact and touted as a rationale for executing a search or seizure. Meanwhile, over a million American citizens (journalists, anti-war protestors, children, etc.) are on a "no-fly list," the Department of Homeland Security is a monstrous waste of taxpayer dollars and has significantly diminished the liberties and dignity of the American people.

Lots of journalists who covered the protests at the DNC and RNC were arrested and charged with felonies. That's a 1st Amendment violation. Thanks to the Supreme court, the 2nd Amendment now has a 150+ page addendum declaring what kind of guns can be owned by whom, who can issue permits for those guns, and what the downrange delivery of those weapons can be. We've now got battle-hardened troops alongside domestic police forces, which is a direct violation of Posse Comitatus. The police state has grown by leaps and bounds because of this Administration, America has been bankrupted by this Administration, America's reputation has been irrevocably ruined by this Administration, illegal wars against the emotion of fear have been declared by this Administration, and the American people pound their chests and roar whenever given a command to start hating.

A lot of people in the country and the world consider Bush not just incompetent or stupid. A lot of people consider him an outright traitor to both the constitution and human decency. What this administration has done has been to declare war on the desire for freedom in the souls of men. This is not a jokey, ha-ha kind of elitist disdain for some dumb shmuck who fell into the Presidency and made some mistakes. Lots of sensible people are seeking to get this Administration prosecuted for TREASON, FRAUD, EMBEZZLEMENT, SUPPRESSION of documents, BLACKMAIL, TORTURE, MURDER, and CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

And it's not even a leftist argument; I'm not a leftist; I have such disdain for people so terrified of shadows they readily and eagerly give up their liberty for "security." This is a Constitutional argument. The Administration has committed TREASON against the documents that made this country great for over 200 years.

You think I'm joking? These people should be tried for their crimes. And when found guilty, they should be get the harshest sentence that conviction entails. I cannot abide a Nazi. And Bush, Cheney, et al have certainly proven themselves to be that. They're TRAITORS to the Republic.

Period.

How many standard deviations

Thomas L. Johnson — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:21:14 -0500

How many standard deviations away from normal does one have to become before he actually believes that a president of the USA could even consider "taking over." It's plausible as a movie plot or as a Nazi strategy, but even a crackpot like Naomi Wolf has to recognize that the power in our system is derived from the system, the balance of three sources of power and not from the executive branch. The fact is, the world is not waiting to try and hang this incompetent duo; it is just waiting to try to forget them and move on.
The more logical scenario sees the new Treasury people moving into the administration before Obama's inauguration so that the Paulsen and Cox crew can move back into private life, where they can get wealthy and forgotten.

By the way, guys, you know

Joespoon04 — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:02:13 -0500

By the way, guys, you know how I had linked above to a lecture Naomi Wolf gave about the ten steps any would-be despot takes to take control of a country, and how we have every single one in place except the last, which is martial law?

Well, that's in the works as we speak. We've now got a battle hardened brigade being deployed alongside police forces domestically:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/army.unit/index.html

I'm serious; I don't think Bush is going to leave. Whether it's a fake terror attack, bird flu, an economic Depression, a nuke at Houston refineries, a tied electoral college result, or a contested election that kicks the decision to the Supreme Court again, I think Bush will stay. Doesn't he HAVE TO stay? Would he and Cheney so willingly give up the office and go into the hands of a world who wants them tried and hanged?

I don't think so. My bet's on martial law and no elections.

Welcome back, Anton. I'm

Thomas L. Johnson — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:16:40 -0500

Welcome back, Anton. I'm going to take Joe's side in this one, however. Although I don't agree with his conclusions -- buy golds or else -- I do agree with his focus. Your carrots and jam -- and I enjoyed that jam you gave me, thanks -- as essential as they are, cannot hold any value beyond their nutritional value. And they will not gain in value over time, particularly those beans, unless the infrastructure including the electrical grid continues to function.
What Congress voted on last week, and the topic of this blog, is the continuance of that infrastructure in a climate where a lot of people made a lot of bad decisions. It would be nice to imagine that the government could've solved the problem by giving us each a few packets of seeds, but we are no longer an agrarian barter--based society. Thank goodness.
So while Joe is turning his assets into gold, and you seem to be arguing for biomass, I'm going to be the guy who puts several hundred dollars a month into the markets. I still believe that our economic engine has the ability to create wealth and it will start functioning better once we get the current group of wizards out of the engine room.
Because if we turn into an agrarian, barter-based economy, Anton, you are going to have to harvest a whole lot of beaver pelts to get back to your favorite Gasthaus in Nuremberg anytime soon. And International Falls will not be the best place in the world to live -- rutabaga season is just too short.

Amen to Anton, In light on

BearsPass64 — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:34:34 -0500

Amen to Anton,

In light on the current state of affairs, the economic system that provided a basis for our investment in the stock market is "no longer" the driving force for market predictions. We used to view production, quality, employer/employee loyalty, profitability as methods to determine which stock investments were to be of value. Not today....this market is all smoke and mirrors in regard to values....we are going back to the basics...I feel sorry for those retirees that are banking on the 401k vs annuities for retirement planning.