More Tale Of The TARP

News of the release of documents detailing the shenanigans of the particular parties involved in perpetrating the 700 billion dollar fraud bank bailout, or Troubled Asset Relief Program, came out last week and didn’t really get the attention it was due, what with the Pretendident-as-Solomon’s first “Split the Fetus” tour stop at Notre Dame, and his fingernail clinging, bus undercarriage-headed Speaker of the House, Nasty Pancake’s, more-serious-because-chicks-have-a higher-standard, CIA never lies, and all going on.  The Freedom of Information documents obtained by Judicial Watch show that TARP, (or, as I’m sure it is known in certain circle jerks, the Rape of They, The Sheeple, those willing, clueless, hopium-addicted, changeling co-conspirators, who managed to both bend over and grab all of our collective ankles, while forcing everybody’s, theirs included, hands up in a “reach for the sky” surrender gesture at the same time, by electing the Chicago Robbin’ Hood whose vig to the Merry Band of Banksters who he fronted for was due) is  the cross-party, cross-administration, shady scummy scam we’ve all known it to be all along.  From Politico:

Oh, No! Not ANOTHER News Conference!

President (Can’t I Just BE My) Waffles Obama is going to subject us to yet another boring Reading of the TelePrompTers From On High on his unremarkable 100th day of equivocating, even though his spawn of Tom Arnold Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs claims the day has no special significance.  Yep, typical ObaLogic.  None.

“It’s an arbitrary day in which presidents are measured. We get that. We’re playing along,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday.

Gibbs said Obama and almost everyone in the White House agrees with “a huge majority” of the American people “that the 100th day is not a ton different than the 99th, the 101st or the 123rd.”

Politico, the Blog Up The President’s Butt, is reporting that the public is by and large, waiting for this upcoming speech with bated breath according to some poll they found.

The rate of one news conference a month seems to sit well with the public, which likes to see Obama on TV, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll released this week.

More than half of the public, or 59 percent, say the president is on television about the right amount of time. Just 28 percent say he’s on too much, and only 10 percent would like to see him on the tube more often.

Dueling AstroTurf

Tea Parties are as surely a Republican-based AstroTurf operation as is Obamania a Democratic one.  And, just as Axelrove’s AstroTurf Army is sponsored by a faction of the Democratic Party, so is the Tea Party representative of a Republican faction.  There is no need, or likelihood, of an officially sanctioned, top down ordered dictate, fake grassroots can be planted without the permission of the leadership and later incorporated into the larger philosophy.  Thus, those who want to lay the blame at the feet of the party higher-ups just might be missing the point, as well as giving the opposition cover.

Glimmers Of Hopium

Soooo, the bestest, most groovalicious, hippest hipster of a Pretendident to ev-ah don a pair of RayBans and hightail it to Hawaii on vacation, says he sees “glimmers of hope” in our economic forecast?  No shit?  Duh-uh-uh-uh-uhuh-uhhhh.  A guy who gets to give billions upon billions of dollars of other peoples’ money to his buddies as payback, should be seeing bright, blinding fucking horizons of brilliant white light and rainbows, gloriously shining down upon herds of albino unicorns leaping and frolicking across pristine fields of blooming white poppies, if you ask me.   Hell, the man just got back from an otherwise wasted, Rock Star Feel Good European Tour in time to fly in a pizza chef from St. Louis for a pizza party celebrating pissing in the faces of his hometown, world famous pizzerias, and get a free dog on his way to church for the first time in a year.  Must suck to be him, huh?

From The Depths Of The Department Of “Duh!”

Boy, oh, boy, reading the news can destroy lickety-split any sense of confidence unintentional proximity to residual whiffs of Hopium might inspire.  Not that I’ve been so influenced, but I can certainly sympathize with the unfortunate souls who might have been unduly charmed by the relentless barrage of happy-hopeyness from the Changelings of Obamedia, only to have any semblence of Obamaptomism dashed by actually reading past the Headlines of Hype.  Take, for example, today’s Wall Street Journal piece by Fox Business News’ Stuart Varney, who seems bewildered, nay, dare I say it, shocked, that the recent reluctance of the Obministration to accept repayment of TARP funds by banksters not exactly in league with the Big Bank Mafia means that (horrors!) the ObaHoods want to control the banks!  Duh?!  I mean, really, Stu, I’m no London economist, and I saw that weeks ago!  Sheesh, you don’t need fancy degrees to tell you that if you want to control things, first ya gotta grab hold of the banks!  Like I said, duuuuuh!

Coupla days ago, Newsweek ran an article claiming that Obama’s telephone buddy, Warren Buffet was the real architect of certain aspects of the bailout, not his Doogie Howser-esque Boy Wonder, Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner, tax cheat (TTTG,tc).  Holy cannoli, Batman!  Who coulda figured that one out, huh?!  Double-dog duh-uh-uh-uh-uuuuhhhh!  In September, I wrote about Obama’ Bailout Buddies and, the second name mentioned besides Goldman Sachs’ own Treasury Secretary, and Obama telephone pal, Henry Paulson was, you guessed it, you super smart PUMAlicious devil, you, Warren Buffet.   Ta dahhhh!  Gee whiz, when even I can see this stuff, what’s taking the smartest guys in the media so long to see the handwriting on the mirror that’s right in front of the nose on their faces?  Riddle me that one, Batman, whydoncha?

Giggles, Gimmicks And Gaffes

As I watch the ill-prepared Pretendident try to advance his fauxgressive, pseudo-centrist, Republican-lite brand of quasi-liberal mishmosh of an ill-conceived agenda further along on the nightmare road to his own personal Jonestown that he seems so hellbent on guiding us, I can’t help but be furious at the KoolAid addicted juveniles who gleefully and cluelessly helped whoever tapped the hologram of an illusion that masquerades as the reality that is supposed to be Obama, to be the president that finally drives the country into the ground.

What the hell were you thinking?

Did you really believe that a guy who can’t remember where he is, or how many states there are, or whether he’s a Muslim or not, much less his own 4 year old, twice-daily repeated stump speech without a TelePrompTer, could actually guide this country to peace and prosperity?  A man barely in the Senate long enough to figure out where his office, let alone the bathroom  was, is suddenly going to be able and savvy enough to, what, wave a magic wand, kiss the nation’s boo-boos and make them all better?  Is that what you thought while you watched his “what she said,” “I agree with you, John,” debate performances?  Really?  No shit?

Underestimate Obama At Everybody’s Risk

While conspiracy theorists and other befuddled Americans are searching for hidden agendas to justify, or at least, explain, the media-driven election of an inexperienced junior Senator who can’t form complete sentences without the use of a TelePrompTer, they’re missing the all-too obvious agenda staring them dead in the face.  Whoever funded and formulated Barack Obama’s meteoric rise from obscurity to omnipresence is bound and determined to totally revamp the country’s policies, programs, and policy-making procedures, as we’ve known them.   This is not cosmetic surgery we’re talking here; a little nip here, a tuck there.  This is fundamental, foundational, systemic change, according to their dictates.  If you’re not on board with every element of the sweeping  “change” they have in mind, well, that’s just too damned bad.

The Press-ident and his backers want the economy to fail.  That’s the only way his policies to this point make any sense at all.  He has said he wants the population angry, outraged, even, so that he can push his agenda through under his budget umbrella.  The economic system we live under must collapse, so that a new one can be put in place.  With it, healthcare, education, housing, energy and other core elements of out national foundation will experience profound systemic “change.”

Psssst! They’re All Lying!!!

When it comes to Barack’s Bailout Bonanza Brouhaha, everybody responsible for the current “outrage” about the debacle is lying their head off through their perfectly capped teeth.  Case in point, The Dodd Amendment supposedly “snuck” into the stimulus bill that allegedly restricted the bonuses to be paid executives employed by companies receiving government handouts.  First, the amendment was there, then it wasn’t.  Dodd said he didn’t change it, then he said he did. The exact sequence of events seems deliberately fuzzy.  What, exactly did Dodd do, and when did he do it?

By February 4, Obama had angrily shaken his finger at “shameful” Wall Street executive excess and had issued new rules regarding their future compensation that even he, via MSNBO, admitted were “symbolic.”

The limits would not apply retroactively to any bank that received money from the first half of the $700 bailout allocated by Congress. For example, the restriction would not apply to such firms as American International Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., and Citigroup Inc., that already have received such help.

But Obama touted the broad symbolism of his action.

February 10, the International Herald Tribune noted that the toothless language was all Geithner’s:

Who’s Shuckin’ ‘n’ Jivin’ Now?

While there are many tangled webs to unravel in the current Obama Drama Bailout Brouhaha, one man seems to have had a pretty clear eye on the situation all along.  New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Clintonite once accused of demeaning Barack Obama with the use of the phrase “shuck and jive” in a sentence only marginally related to Sir Nose in the Air, has been yelling and screaming about the unfair Wall Street bonuses since at least October.  And, everybody knew it.

During the primaries Hillary Clinton supporting Cuomo, during a radio interview, said:

“It’s not a TV crazed race. Frankly you can’t buy your way into it,” Cuomo said, according to Albany Times Union reporter Rick Karlin. He then added, “You can’t shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press don’t work when you’re in someone’s living room.”

No Strings Attached Means No Strings Attached

Watching CNN this morning and listening to talking head after talking head egging on commentator after commentator responding to outraged viewer after outraged viewer, I’m struck by the ease with which my fellow Americans can be manipulated into gleefully relinquishing their common sense.   Of course, this tsunami of indignation is just the latest episode of Barack’s Blameless Bailout Brouhaha, part whatever of the ongoing ObaDrama.

You see, first, the Candidate Once Known As Inevitable, in the immediate wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse that served as a catalyst to the current crisis, stood back and let his then-opponent commit to a position, only to assess, evaluate, formulate, mock and dismiss it, thereby gaining Sheeple points without actually countering, or even addressing it.  Once his then-opponent was on the ropes, The American Idol boldly, yet, appropriately shyly, stepped into the fray, marketing himself as the voice of reason, willing to listen and adjudicate between the warring factions negotiating the wisdom of propping up crippled companies on a government crutch.  While that maneuver gained the Chicago Calculator even more Sheeple points, public resistance to idea of pouring government money down incompetently run, failing companies’ drains, threatened to upset the Ocean Parter’s best laid plans.   The Preppie Prevaricator then, feigning reluctance, went before Congress to plead the case for the bankers, for the good of the people, introducing his now-famous, and oft-used, “crisis to a catastrophe” line.

The Sheeple went wild.  ObiWanNaBePresident had saved the day.  Of course, having been in daily contact with the architects of the frequently renamed “don’t call it a bailout, it’s a recovery plan, TARP rescue,” then- Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson and his Boy Wonder, then-Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve and Obama’s mama’s boss’ kid, Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner, tax cheat, (TTTG,tc) the Obamessiah knew full well that the “bank bailout” would be divided between the two banksters and would soon stretch to include the world’s biggest government owned insurance company, too.

AIG Outrage Bamboozle

There’s a lot to be mad at about the nation’s current financial situation, but most of it is not quite what the yammering yakkers in the media would like for you to focus on.  The faux-rage being directed at the Biggest Beneficiaries of the Bailout Bonanza, American Insurance Group (AIG) is classic Obacratic Obfuscation by misdirection.  The simple fact that AIG has exploited the government for one hundred seventy billion dollars is more than enough to justify the country’s growing national fury.  The fact that they are contractually obligated to spend less than one tenth of one percent of that money on executive bonuses is not.  In fact, it’s a lot like a parent who loans their basement-dwelling 30 year old who won’t move without a loan for a down payment on a house of his own, getting p.o.’ed because the kid took his girlfriend to the movies on her birthday.

The brouhaha is being fueled by Obacrats doing their media massage and Congressional grandstanding thing in an obvious ploy to shift the blame from their shoulders for acquiescing to Wall Street’s extortion demands in the first place.  Their hope is that the short memoried public will forget just how involved Treasury Secretary Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner, tax cheat (TTTG, tc) then Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve, was in engineering the original AIG bailout following  the Lehman Brothers collapse, as well as then Senator Alfred E. Urkelbama’s (what, me do something?) much touted input into the original, unpopular TARP passage at a critical point in the primaries.

What’s In A Name?

Wanna hear something strange?  The President I love to hate, Alfred E. Urkelbama (What, me do that?) and I actually have a lot in common.  We’re both nominally “black,” (though, I didn’t grow up in Hawaii, I don’t have a white parent, and I don’t try to mute or exploit my blackness at other black people’s expense  for personal gain, but other than that…) and, like him, I don’t like labels.  Okay, so that doesn’t exactly qualify as “a lot” in common, but it is more than I thought, and “a lot” more than I really want to admit.  I really don’t like the guy, okay?

Other than a recent declaration that President Black Obama considered himself a “New Democrat,” assumedly aligning his political ideology with a faction of the same Democratic Leadership Council he once defiantly, uncategorically, denied, Oblahblah has consistently resisted being pigeon-holed.  This is understandable, given his early primary and caucus appeals to Republicans to crossover and support, vote for, and donate to him.  I mean, what do you call a guy who does that?  “Opportunist” if you’re kind, “traitor” if you’re not?

I’m not.

It also makes sense that he would reject the label, “liberal,” even if his philosophy leaned that way, (which, I’m not hardly sure of) since Republicans have made that term synonymous with “rabid Democratic champion of the shiftless and unworthy.”  Who, besides Jesus, would want to be thought of like that, huh?

Okay, We’re All Officially Stupid

This is not really a political post, except it is.  While reading the news online, I came across this innocent-looking little piece, with an innocent-sounding title, Kids Prefer Veggies With Cool Names.  Considering that self-explanatory title, the article that follows is predictable.  You want your little crumb crusher to eat his mashed zucchini, call it Rocket Fuel:

“Cool names can make for cool foods,” says lead author Brian Wansink of Cornell University. “Whether it be ‘power peas’ or ‘dinosaur broccoli trees,’ giving a food a fun name makes kids think it will be more fun to eat. And it seems to keep working – even the next day,” Wansink said.

That seems innocent enough, maybe a little intuitive; even obvious, right?  I mean, haven’t parents been doing stuff like this ever since Brussels sprouts were discovered ?  Where the theory gets disturbing is when the researchers applied the theory to adults:

Similar results have been found with adults. A restaurant study showed that when the Seafood Filet was changed to Succulent Italian Seafood Filet, sales increased 28 percent and taste rating increased by 12 percent. “Same food, but different expectations, and a different experience,” said Wansink, author of “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.”

Now, these guys were talking about food, but we’ve seen a lot of the same thing in politics, lately.  Remember, “don’t call it a bailout?”  How about, “it’s not really nationalization?”  It’s not surprising that anybody interested in “marketing” and “branding,” like people who sell arugula and the presidents who love it, would resort to manipulation to sell their product.  What’s disturbing is that it’s so damned easy.  You’d think more sophisticated and clever techniques would be required to sway public opinion away from their natural instincts.  At least, I’d like to think so.  After all, I may have to eat my vegetables, but I don’t have to like the ones Mom’s pushing today.  And I’d  also like to think that I have enough sense to know that I’m not going to like squash any better if you call it ice cream.  It would be even better if I could be sure I wasn’t the only one who felt this way.

Man, we are so screwed.

From The Ground Up

Looks like Obama the Candidate was really serious about “change.”  As we all know, “change” was the buzzword of the 2008 campaign season, promoted constantly, incessantly, annoyingly by Barack Obama, and picked up on by all of his opponents in self defense.  But, while everybody else was just spouting campaign rhetoric; after all, whenever one administration replaces another, you’re going to get “change,” Obama seems to have been serious as a heart attack without health insurance about it.

Conventional wisdom and common sense would indicate to even the densest among us that in order to achieve the “true change” Obama promised to bring to the “old ways of Washington” in his determination to “remake the country,” the country in question, as in any renovation, would need to be torn down to the studs.  And, it appears Obama is well on his way to completing Phase One.  At least, according to George Soros.  Reuters reports that Soros, speaking at a Columbia University dinner, echoed the sentiments of the speaker before him, Paul Volcker, head of the president’s new Economic Advisory Board, when he said the world as we know it is well on its way to irrevocable destruction, economically speaking:

Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis.

Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union.

He said the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September marked a turning point in the functioning of the market system.

“We witnessed the collapse of the financial system,” Soros said at a Columbia University dinner. “It was placed on life support, and it’s still on life support. There’s no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom.”

Hmmm…isn’t that what Rep. Paul Kanjorski said, and all the Obots went, “Pfssshh, yeah, right“?  And, if I’m following all this correctly, doesn’t this mean that the economic event that lead to Paulson’s TARP (don’t call it a) bailout and propelled a curiously over-funded Obama from a hotly contested, tied competition into the White House virtually unopposed, is also the catalyst of global financial ruin?  What say the Obots, now?

Well, they can’t say Obama leads by example.  Or, maybe he does, since people not paying bills, for one reason or another, is a big part of the mess we’re in.  Obama doesn’t seem to want to pay his bills, either, at least not the one to his adopted home city for the Bashapalooza they threw for him on Election Night.  The Chicago Sun Times has the details:

Chicago has yet to recoup the $1.74 million cost of President Obama’s victory celebration in Grant Park — despite a burgeoning $50.5 million budget shortfall that threatens more layoffs and union concessions.

“The Democratic National Committee has not yet paid us,” Peter Scales, a spokesman for the city’s Office of Budget and Management, said Thursday after questions from the Chicago Sun-Times. “We’re reaching out to them this week.”

I guess South Side Slick expects the city to just hang on for the stimulus money since there’s probably pork aplenty to cover.  And, now that the Illinois legislature has done its part in kicking Rod Blagojevich to the curb, the state qualifies for its share.  There’s probably a bonus for breaking harmless little Roland Burris‘ heart by stomping on his dreams and jackbooting him out of the Senate job he dearly wanted, foolishly embraced and would be out of in a minute anyway.  One way or another, Chicago will be paid; either they’re headed under the bus, or somebody will “deliver an envelope,” if you get my drift.  Obama takes care of his own, it’s the Chicago Way.

Of course, the Obama Way means nobody has to pay their bills; he’s hellbent on seeing to it that everybody at least has a house, regardless of whether they can afford it, or not.  He unveiled his big, stock market tanking housing plan to help out the lender-seduced buyers who jumped off the deep end into houses that now have them underwater, and financially back up those lenders for going along with the program with government money, if they feel like it, unless they’re Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Since that’s the only way the greedy lenders can get the up front bailout money and back end insurance, I have a feeling they’ll probably play along.

For those pretty much destitute-from-the-jump folks just given over-priced houses by lenders, basically for free, just to get the right numbers on the paper those bankers were going to turn right around and sell for even more worthless computer bits and bytes signifying nothing, even though everybody knew they’d never be able to pay it back, Obie has sicced ACORN on the problem on the QT.  All those folks have to do is make like Wild West expansioneers and just squat on their homestead, since Obie’s got their back with the bailed out bankers, no matter what.  Besides, the original mortgage has probably been through so many grubby banksters’ hands, the guys trying to foreclose probably couldn’t produce the necessary paperwork if they wanted to.  If the system gamers get cold feet, or the banker on the low end not hip to the deal tries to lock them out, a quick call to Obie’s ACORN enforcers will bring the strongarm crew to help you gain access to your now completely free house.  Of course, like all Dons, Obie’s three steps removed, especially since he got Rep. Marcy Kaptur to sell the plan to the clueless for him.

Don’t be fooled by the “hold bank executives feet to the fire” rah-rah coming from the administration, either.   The whole “salary cap” thing is bogus all around, being nothing but re-election theater as it is.  Team Obama and his money man, Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner, tax cheat (TTTG,tc) tried to quietly tiptoe out of the whole TARP-related “take my money, play buy my rules” dramatic ploy, but Congress realized they need votes too, so they snuck it back into the stimulus bill.  And, even though it sounds like “Ooooooh, we showed those bad bankers,” anybody who believes there isn’t enough wiggle room in the provisions to drive a fleet of private jets, and Daschle limos through, is a hopium head, and deserves the no grease screwing a-comin’.

Same for anybody who really believes Obie’s gonna close Gitmo; I’ll believe it when I see it, since the Obama patented “clear myself ahead of time” review panel he commisioned, this time through the Pentagon instead of White House counsel like the brush-Blago-off-the-shoulders one, says everything at Gitmo is Geneva convention compliant and thus, hunky dory.  So, why close it?  Look for him to rescind his exec order sometime in the coming year, on the sly, like he’s extending those Bush policies.  Shhhhhh.

So, while Obacrats raise Democratic in-fighting to a new art form, using definitions of “what is is” as a time tested, media approved bludgeoning tool against their brethren-on-the-outs in the case of David (Caroline wasn’t my first choice) Paterson and Roland (but I didn’t give him any money) Burris, the Teflon TelePrompTer Reader can continue happily fronting for the banksters, robbing the world blind, fighting wars, and tearing the country to the ground, so he can remake it in his own image with a clean slate.  Like he, and his wife, told you he would.

All the while, remaining more popular than Jesus in the process.  Like Dee Dee Myers told us he was.

And, the wheels on…oh, hell, you know the rest.

Best Little Whorehouse On Wall Street

Can you say “double standard?”  Kristin Davis, escort service CEO (madam) who provided companionship by the hour to former governor Elliot Spitzer, and whose “little black book” is revealing the peccadilloes and services purchased to indulge them of some of the country’s biggest big ballers, surely can.   And she is indignantly proclaiming it loudly to anybody who’ll listen, like ABC News:

Wall street lawyers, investment bankers, CEOs and media executives often used corporate credit cards to pay for $2,000 an hour prostitutes, according to the madam who ran one of New York’s biggest and most expensive escort services until it was busted last year.

But prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office chose not to pursue any of the corporate titans, says Kristin Davis, who pleaded guilty last year to charges of running a prostitution business that used more than a hundred women.

“Used?”  Not “employed?”  There is a difference, ya know.  Whatever one thinks of the morality of the profession, there’s not a lot of difference between a madam and a CEO, or a call girl and a consultant.  Which is pretty much Davis’ point.  Either it’s a crime to indulge in prostitution, or it isn’t.  Can’t sell what nobody will buy, after all.

However, the larger point is that these poor, misunderstood, stressed out titans of industry were getting their ashes hauled using corporate credit cards that were billed for services such as “computer consulting” and “roof repair.”  Which is fraud:

Davis says one CEO ordered her to send him invoices for “roof repair on a warehouse” to disguise the payment for prostitutes from corporate funds.

“That is fraud,” said former New York prosecutor Sid Baumgarten, who told 20/20 the district attorney should have investigated the men.

“Not necessarily just for the patronizing but for the use of these business records and credit cards to see what kind of fraud or tax fraud was being used. And if so, that is a major offense,” Baumgarten said.

When ABC News contacted that CEO, he said he used his corporate card to pay for the escort service to entertain clients, but that there was no sex involved.

Davis, who can plausibly be called an entrepreneur in her own right, operated a multi-faceted organization providing a variety of services, (I’d bet the farm sex was indeed involved in all of them) until the Fed crackdown on Elliot Spitzer took her down with him:

Davis operated her escort service as a prostitution conglomerate, with five different “brands” over a four year period, each with its own “price point” and websites.

At the high end was an escort service called Carlyle Trust, mimicking the name, but not connected in any way, to a prestigious investment firm. Davis said she recruited top fashion models who charged up to $2,000 an hour for clients of Carlyle Trust.

Her lower cost services charged $400 an hour for a “body rub,” she said.

The “best little whorehouse on Wall Street” was located just a few blocks from the New York Stock Exchange, in apartment 3A at 136 William Street.

Davis operated three other “in-call” locations in the mid-town area of Manhattan.

The escort business took in as much as $200,000 a week, Davis estimated.

This is where the story gets strange.  Davis’ reputation seems to have been trashed, then, somewhat rehabilitated since the Spitzer investigation first revealed that he used her services as well as those of Mark Brener, the proprietor of the Empire Club and employer of Ashley Dupree, the woman Spitzer allegedly violated the Mann Act with by transporting her to Washington for sheet sweating, possibly on the taxpayers’ dime.  Brener was sentenced Friday to 30 months in prison for conspiracy to commit prostitution and money laundering.  Curiously, Spitzer was never arrested or prosecuted though he was forced to resign as Governor, and the Federal investigation against him was dropped 2 days after the November national election.  Probably just a coincidence.

A March 26 New York Times article reporting Kristin Davis (not the Sex in the City actress, btw) does not mention Spitzer, and charcterized her as a “woman accused of running a large prostitution ring.”  Subsequent reports, mainstream and otherwise, began to detail Davis’ involvement with the kinky governor who developed crushes on “consultants” and whined and tried to bully them into allowing him to “ride bareback.”  Davis herself was soon being described as everything from “trailer trash” to “tranny.”  Web articles here, here, here, here, and here get increasingly bitchy.

By December of last year when she was “freed” after being sentenced to 90 days, time served, and relieved of the almost $500,000 she ws arrested with, Davis, though still referred to as a “buxom blonde,” was back on her way to relative respectability.  By January of this year, Gawker was posting her opinion of celebrities’ sex worker potential.  February 6 brought us Davis’ tell all book, though the contents of her “little black book” were hinted at as early as March of last year.  Among those contents, partially verified by ABC, were these, re-printed here from the Raw Story:

* a vice president of NBC Universal (owned by General Electric)
* the part owner of a Major League Baseball team who “loves Kelsey”
* the CEO of one of the country’s largest private equity firms who met “Cameron” at the Peninsula Hotel
* a major New York real estate developer who, according to the list, “will come to the door wearing women’s panties”
* a partner at the Wall Street law firm Cravath Swaine Moore “looking for a party girl to come fully equipped” and spent a total of $20,000
* an investment banker from Lehman Brothers who saw “Kelsey and Keely together” and later saw “Aria and Skyler at the same time”
* an investment banker at JP Morgan Securities who “loves Brooke” and spent $41,600
* an investment banker at Goldman Sachs who “only wanted all-American girls” and spent $27,000
* a managing director from Merrill Lynch who saw “Lana” using the name “Nataly”
* a managing director from Deutsche Bank “who called about seeing Nataly again”

Spitzer, whose identity as Mark Brener’s, not Kristin Davis’, Client Number 9, was leaked to the media and confirmed by a “person briefed on the case,” took a big hit to his reputation as the “Sheriff of Wall Street,” an appellation earned from his efforts as New York State Attorney General to reform the financial industry, though some say those efforts didn’t go far enough.  In light of the allegations of impropriety, and his subsequent resignation 2 days later, Wall Street took delight and unabashedly celebrated his predicament, while trashing his previous accomplishments.  Some sources even began to go so far as to dismiss Spitzers triumphs as hollow victories.

As AG, however, Spitzer’s efforts were initially welcomed by industry watchdogs.  Salon even called him “Wall Street’s Worst Nightmare.”  So, what happened?  Some speculate that the leak of his implication in the Federal investigation and possibly even the investigation itself was tantamount to a political “hit” orchestrated by forces furious with the governor’s reform efforts against companies like Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs and AIG, among others.

Lost in the allegations of hypocrisy leveled at Spitzer for his indulgences with prostitutes while self-righteously prosecuting prostitution rings to the fullest extent of the law, was the fact that he had set his reformer sights on industries other than pimps and money-changers.  According to Business Week, in December 2002, Spitzer served notice to the Hyde Park crowd:

Who’s to blame for expensive prescription drugs, pollution, and the biased research coming out of Wall Street? Try pinning the rap on the University of Chicago.

At least that was New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s attempted in a Dec. 4 speech to financial-services executives at the annual Banker of The Year dinner. At the banquet, which was held in New York’s Helmsley Palace, Spitzer blasted the University of Chicago for encouraging recent market excesses with a philosophical curriculum that teaches less regulation is always good for capitalism. The audience listened respectfully, but many, especially the University of Chicago alums, privately voiced their disagreement with Spitzer’s thesis later in the evening.

As a voice of laissez-faire economics, the University of Chicago has shaped much of the dialogue over market regulation in recent years, starting with Ronald Reagan’s Administration in 1980. Free markets, the theory goes, will correct most excesses by making it impossible for those guilty of bad behavior to survive. “They’ve said that intervention by…government is wrong,” Spitzer said. “But they haven’t taken into account that markets can have structural flaws.” Contacted by BusinessWeek Online for a reaction, University of Chicago professor of business and economics Kevin Murphy said Spitzer’s interpretation of the schools position was simplistic. Says Murphy: “I think we have better things to do than beat up a straw man.”

Hmmm…Bear Stearns, University of Chicago, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Wall Street…straw man?  2002?  Didn’t Rod Blagojevich say something about prescription drugs?

I know what you’re thinking, but, nah, couldn’t be.  This is a story about prostitutes and double standards, remember?  Doesn’t have anything to do with bailouts and presidents.  Who was on Kristin Davis’ list, again?

Obama Suggests You Pray

No wonder President Black Obama’s administration is in such a rush to establish an official office of We Suggest You Pray.  Besides the Teflon TelePrompTer Reader’s ever-increasingly less pretty speeches, that’s all they got.  While some may harbor concerns about that whole “separation of Church and State” thingy, I say, you might just want to hold off on passing judgment on that one.  At some point in the very near future, we just might all welcome a National Soup Kitchen and government subsidized homeless shelters on Army bases.  Because, the bankers will soon have all our money, and our president is in a George Bush-on-the-way-to-Iraq type hurry to give it to them.

Despite the fact that many of the poor people sleepwalking with the shade on the light (to paraphrase Steely Dan) by choice are dreaming happy thoughts and giving high-fives to His Awesomeness for his hand-on-hips, get tough, hand spank of those greedy Wall Street CEOs, none of the CEOs in question are losing any sleep at all.  The Obamessiah has decreed from On High that absolutely, positively, no body, ya hear me? nobody, not one single, solitary, money-grubbing, nogoodnik of a scummy bank CEO on the friggin’ planet will, shall, or might get a penny, shekel, farthing or ducat over $500,000 per anum if they take the government’s “extraordinary assistance.”  Got that?  Good.  And don’t you ever forget it, either.  Yawn. From Bloomberg, the president:

“For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis is not only in bad taste, it’s a bad strategy, and I will not tolerate it as president,” Obama said yesterday.

Yet none of the new rules will apply to any firm until it negotiates an extraordinary deal with the federal government to remain solvent.

Uh, see, (ahem) the, uh, “bailout” money they already got?  Yeah, well, here’s the thing, that’snotaffectedbythenewrules.  Seems like all the banks and financial institutions that have already been “bailed out” are exempt from the new rules; unless and until one of them tries to get some more government money they don’t really need.  And even then, there’s wiggle room aplenty on that salary cap thing, as any sports fan could have told you from the start.  Now, I know I gave you two things to chew on in this paragraph, one, some banks didn’t really need the bailout money they took and two, wiggle room.  Let’s start with the wiggle:

In addition, some executives may be compensated for the potential reduced salaries with restricted stock grants, which may result in huge paydays after the bank repays the government assistance with interest.

“They’re just allowing companies to defer compensation,” said Graef Crystal, a former compensation consultant and author of “The Crystal Report on Executive Compensation.”

The restrictions are “a joke,” he said, because “if the government is paid pack, you can be sure that the stock will have risen hugely.”

Now the sizzle, fuh shizzle.  Since the new rules only apply to those banks that come back for more of the gazillions being allocated for them, firms like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Chase should be among those most properly chastened by the Jr. President’s bitch slap, right?  Ha.  They didn’t need the money in the first place, and won’t be coming back.  Let’s take them in order, according to Bloommie.  First, Morgan Stanley:

For some firms, the rules are insignificant. Morgan Stanley is among companies that don’t expect the restrictions to affect their business because they foresee no need for additional government help.

“We have one of the highest Tier 1 capital ratios among financial services firms, so we do not anticipate the need for additional government capital,” said Mark Lake, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley in New York, when asked about the new restrictions.

Next, Goldman Sachs:

Goldman Sachs said yesterday it wants to repay $10 billion it got from Treasury under the TARP to signal the firm is healthy and to escape limitations that came with that infusion of money. “Our financial condition is sound and, subject to approval from regulators, we hope to repay TARP money as soon as practicable,” said Lucas van Praag, a spokesman for New York- based Goldman Sachs.

Lastly, JP Morgan:

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Feb. 3 that the firm didn’t need capital and didn’t ask for TARP funding. The lender accepted the $25 billion it received from the first capital injection at the request of the government and to help stabilize the banking system, he said.

Get that?  They didn’t need the money, the government made them take it!  Ho, ho!  You fools!  And now, Iceberg Lettuce, President Pimp, is frantically waving his arms and shouting, “Hurry, hurry, the ship is sinking, get in!”  And all his bitches in the media are working overtime to inform you of the truth while making it seem like a lie, much like a sneaky mom hides the kids’ peas under the mashed potatoes knowing that by the time the kid figures it out, he/she will have consumed a healthy enough amount.  And, who knows, the kid might even like ‘em, right?  On the other hand, they might hate them, and even if they don’t, they might feel so betrayed upon learning of their own mother’s subterfuge that they never eat peas or trust their mother, or any other woman, again.  But, let’s not think about that right now!  We’ve got to do what’s best for the kids!  Right?  Right?  Right?!?!

Oh, and I guess that whole Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan big Obie donors thing is just a coinkidinky, huh?  And Jamie Dimon being on the NY Fed Board of Governors is probably meaningless.  And, Henry Paulson (formerly of Goldman Sachs, Midwestern Division) and Jamie Dimon both having Chicago connections is just a fluke, too?  And, Barack Obama being a faith pimp for votes since his community organizing days probably has nothing to do with the new Office of Holy Crap!

Obama traces his own religious awakening to his days working as a community worker in Chicago and said that both secular and faith groups working to improve people’s lives were vital in the deep economic recession.

Sleep well, clueless ones; the screaming you hear in your heads is just an audio illusion.  And, if you should awaken, try not to rock the boat; we’re taking on water at an amazing clip as it is.  Just…pray.  Or, lay back and think of England.

Trying To Follow The Money

Like a lot of bloggers, and everybody else on the planet, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the subtleties and nuances of the sledgehammer hitting us on the head that is our current global financial crisis.  What I’m finding out through countless hours of reading, mind-numbing video watching, and research is terrifying; not so much because evil entities are out to screw us all into the poor house, hell, we already knew that.  What’s enough to make you run screaming to the nearest asylum demanding the first place in line of their express self check-in, is the fact that the vast majority of the earth’s inhabitants, including those in charge, have no fucking idea what the hell they’re doing.  Don’t believe me?  Watch this:

Most of us believe that somehow the government with its Treasury Department and the Office of This and That, and Secretary of Such and Such, and the Federal Reserve Bank, and all the other robbers and crooks in the financial sector will ultimately work together to figure this thing out and save us from catastrophe somehow.  Nuh-uh.  Ain’t gonna happen.  These are the guys screwing us and each other every time we bend over to pick up the crumbs they scatter.  And they like it with no grease.

Earlier I theorized that the banking industry might have hand-picked Black Obama to do it’s bidding; in fact, given that they so heavily invested in his campaign and so many players in this whole mess are such prominent satellites in his orbit, one might even speculate that the bailed out banker boyz engineered his “historic” stage managed campaign and set off the money meltdown pyrotechnics on his behalf.  Run, go get my tinfoil hat!  They might be listening!

It’s hard not to feel a little crazy when you read newspaper article after newspaper article, blog after blog providing fact after fact that more than suggest that the suspicions you’ve held since the beginning about the strangely successful political career arc of a community organizer/school tacher cum president in six easy steps are tame.

Start with the obvious; who benefits?  Who would get the most out of a unified “bipartisan” presidency?  Where’d the money come from?  The millions a freshman senator from Chicago was able to raise after 2 years in office and a speech, where’d it come from?  Who would have that kind of money to invest, and would they throw it away on a sucker bet?  Hardly.  So, who would invest that kind of money, money that seemed to mysteriously generate itself just in the nick of time whenever it was needed?  Dazzlingly staggering amounts of money seeming to drop out the ass of a guy whose failure to get the city of Chicago to take asbestos out of a hellhole made him tuck tail and run out of town to try to learn how to get something done?  Could there be some sort of connection between those bailed out and those who we know propped the new president up?

In looking into the simple question, “who owns the Federal Reserve?” a lot of names came up of people affiliated with the Obama administration and campaign.  Coincidence?  Maybe, but, I’m not sure there’s that much coincidence in the world.  And given all the hide-in-plain-sight realities of the Fed’s interesting history and practices, conspiracy theories don’t seem quite so far-fetched.  That so many questionable situations would converge around one man at one point in time is astonishing, and bears investigation.  I suggest, as many of my commenters have, starting with Logistic Monster’s Fed page, there’s a lot of stuff there, not necessarily connected to Obama, but, conclusions are for each person to draw for themselves.  Another site provided by Daily Puma’s Alessandro Machi is worth a look.   I provided a few Fed related links in my earlier post, and would appreciate readers’ input after following them.  There’s something here, folks, and I’m not sure I can find it all by myself.   But questions about where Obamania came from, who’s behind the sudden orchestrated rise of an obscure politician, and what, if anything, it all has to do with how the world we live in turns out, shouldn’t be swept under the rug just because he’s president now.  We need to keep looking at all sides, everything we can get our hands on, pro and con, and figure out the truth.  If there is something there, letting bygones be bygones is what the culprits are betting on.  Hell, if it turns out just to be a tin foil hat party, so be it.  At least it’s not an Obama 2.0 stimulus house party scam sham.

And, just to give you an idea of what kind of juicy tidbits are floating around in cyberspace just ripe for the pickin’ after some good huntin’, here’s a nugget from an August 8, article about what Obama’s corporate backers might want in return.  All the usual suspects, JP Morgan Chase, USB AG, Google, etc., are there, but National Amusements?

What could a theatre chain want from a potential Obama administration that could inspire over $350,000 in donations? Don’t be misled. National Amusements has long been media mogul Sumner Redstone’s vehicle of choice when making campaign contributions. Through the company Redstone owns controlling interests CBS, Viacom (which owns MTV, BET), Paramount Pictures, and Dreamworks. Look for National Amusements to ask for looser regulations from the FCC regarding television ownership that prohibits cable television stations from also owning broadcast stations in the same market. Beyond the six figure donation, Redstone can donate “in-kind” with favorable press to the Obama campaign – look for the media maven to ride out his agenda to the fullest extent possible.

Huh.  Amazing what you can find on the internet nowadays, ain’t it?

Mr. Obama Changes Washington

President Black Obama came into office on a promise to “change the ways of Old Washington,” a promise which seemed to delight his deluded followers and hard-boiled cynics alike.  The hopium-hooked contingent met every TelePrompTer read call and response exhortation of hopeful change with, “Yay, Hope!”  “Yay, Change!” “Booooo, Old Washington!”  while the politically cynical dismissed the whole thing as predictable, inconsequential, campaign rhetoric (drivel; meaningless babble designed to persuade the gullible.)

Well, ha ha on you.  Seems Mr. Obama meant exactly what he said; he gon’ change Washington; in fact, he seems to be determined to remake the executive branch in his image.  By appointing “czars” and “advisers” whose authority ostensibly supersedes that of cabinet appointees, Slick is apparently aggregating unprecedented executive power, which, when done by George Bush was universally condemned as a Bad Thing, but now seems to be a Very Good Thing.  From Politico:

President Barack Obama is taking far-reaching steps to centralize decision-making inside the White House, surrounding himself with influential counselors, overseas envoys and policy “czars” that shift power from traditional Cabinet posts.

Not even a week has passed since he was sworn in, but already Obama is moving to create perhaps the most powerful staff in modern history – a sort of West Wing on steroids that places no less than a half-dozen of his top initiatives into the hands of advisers outside the Cabinet.

Who needs a “shadow government” when you can have a czar-filled uber one?  Besides, if you’re going to “change” stuff, doncha just gotta “remake” it, too?  Like, say, people who lobby Congress for a living have been screwing up the country all by themselves, okay?  So, if you’re the new black president who’s been telling people at KoolAid rallies that very thing for a couple of years, the first thing you’d do is kick those black hat wearing bad guys straight to the curb, right?  Right?!  Answer me, dammit! (1…2…3…whoohwhooh whooooo…)  Okay, I’m better.  That kind of attitude rubs off, though.  Anyway, Black Obama came into office swearing lobbyists would have no place at his table, uh-uh, oh, no, lobbyists couldn’t work for the executive branch and still lobby, no way, no how.  No, sireee, Bobbo.  He made that perfectly clear.  Didn’t say anything about lobbying Congress, though.  No matter, anyway, he took it right back.  Just ask Jake Tapper:

Two days after introducing what he heralded as the most sweeping ethics rules in American history — ones that would “close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely” — President Barack Obama today waived those rules for his nominee for Deputy Secretary of Defense, William Lynn.

Until last fall, Lynn was a registered lobbyist for the defense contractor Raytheon.

“After consultation with counsel to the president,” said Director of the Office of Management of Budget Peter Orszag in a statement, “I hereby waive the requirements of Paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Ethics Pledge of Mr. William Lynn. I have determined that it is in the public interest to grant the waiver given Mr. Lynn’s qualifications for his position and the current national security situation. I understand that Mr. Lynn will otherwise comply with the remainder of the pledge and with all preexisting government ethics rules.”

Roolz?!  Who needs “roolz” when they have POWER?  Wanna know what you can do with your freakin’ “roolz?”  That’s what the lobbyists say, according to AP:

President Barack Obama’s ban on earmarks in the $825 billion economic stimulus bill doesn’t mean interest groups, lobbyists and lawmakers won’t be able to funnel money to pet projects.

They’re just working around it — and perhaps inadvertently making the process more secretive.

edit

The result, as The Associated Press learned in interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers, lobbyists and state and local officials, is a shadowy lobbying effort that may make it difficult to discern how hundreds of billions in federal money will be parceled out.

Hey, that “slap the hand of those bad, bad lobbyists” stuff sounded good at the time.  And, now we know just how strong Obie’s word is; when it comes to keeping promises about doing Bush-like stuff he snuck into the program, he means it.  But, when it comes to stuff he told you he was going to do for sure, no kidding, buckaroo, well, he’s gonna do it, but…

The more things change, the more they stay the same, only different, Obie-style.  Plus, you’ll be glad to know, about that bailout?  We’re flush.  Kinda makes you wonder why we need one.

Aaannndddd, the wheels…

The Ones To Watch

While everybody’s obsessing over The President of the Perpetual Press Conference’s Very Big Most Impressive First Day of sternly issuing orders for people to get around to doing stuff later right away, and do-overs, I’ve been watching developments concerning the sneaky Peetes that are flying under the radar to all our detriment, and one that’s flying crash bang into the radar, and the tower, and everything else in his way, like the big jet in “Airplane!” presumably just for the hell of it.

First, Barack the Magnificent (He Is) is getting journalistic high fives for announcing in one of his many press conference/availability/chance to be on camera and talk again, yay! thingies, that he, fer sher, was gonna tell those people to start looking right now into closing Guantanamo Bay sooner, rather than later because, they do bad stuff to good prisoners there and you can’t do bad stuff to good prisoners anywhere else ‘cuz waterboards are not portable, and besides if you could, and you did, you’d have to sell tickets and let us all watch.  So, I guess now all they’ve gotta figure out is how to make it look like the people they’re holding because they feel like it are going to get a fair trial whenever they get to their new digs, ‘cuz that’s important to some people.  We know they’re going to figure out what it is they should be most concerned with figuring out within a year, ‘cuz Obie said so on His Very Big Most Important First Day and he wasn’t smiling ear to ear, which is a long way for him.

Anyway, the  TelePrompterReaderInChief also spouted proudly that the people who started working for him yesterday, would now get the salaries they had agreed to start with from now on.  Again, the Propped Up President is getting major media style points for cutting the salaries of people who haven’t even started yet, which sends a “fart in the wind”  belt-tightening message to Big Business, so, it must be as important as knowing that when he signs one of these executive order thingies we know he did it himself after talking to his lawyers.

Another thing he promised was that lobbyists can’t work for him as lobbyists, and people who work for him can’t lobby, which is the same thing, but different, and which I guess is a big deal for the few guys willing to give up their lucrative lobbying jobs to take a pay cut before they even start a crappy government job they never wanted anyway since Obie’s show order doesn’t stop lobbyists from…lobbying, and doesn’t say anything about the firms they work for, as far as I know, and, it’s limited to the executive branch, and they have to take another pay cut on Day One.  But, like the pay cut thing, Barry’s Boyz knew it was coming which gave people who aren’t even lobbyists on his staff like David Axelrod, time to give up not being a lobbyist in advance.  Whew!

But, while all this is going on, the more evil aspects of Obalization are going on right under our noses.   Timothy Geithner, the Teflon Top Trainee’s staunchly defended choice for Secretary of the Treasury, and tax cheatWHOA! Did I just type that the President of the United States, though referred to derisively, seriously supports a tax cheat who only ‘fessed and paid up when he found out he was up for the job, for Secretary of the Fucking Treasury?  Yup,uhdee-ud.   ‘Cuz, he dee-ud.  And the Finance Committee approved him after he blamed Turbo-fucking-Tax, and are now sending him to the fucking United States Senate for rubber stamp approval, and this makes sense?  Obviously, the reason WeaselBoy has not backed down is he knows they can’t make him since he’s the only one who knows where the bailout money went ‘cuz he’s part of the reason one was needed.  And, he’s not telling where the rest of the bailout money is going until they give him the fucking keys to the fucking vault.  Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt.  Since everybody is supposedly too busy basking in the afterglow of two, count ‘em, two administrations of the Official Oath of Office for the obscenely expensive price of one to pay any attention, the flufferMedia can obey orders and largely ignore it, or otherwise minimize it, too.

On another sour note, the Let ‘Em Eat Cake Crowd has been quietly preparing to stick it to the ever-increasing ranks of the poor for the benefit of the Pretender President’s vaunted “Middle Class.” (insert celestial Hallelujahs here)  Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education and Shaun Donovan, HUD Secretary, can now go about the business of kicking under-performing kids out of inner city schools and tearing them down (the schools) while militarizing the wild, out of control kids without fathers so the test numbers look good once you get rid of the really stupid and bad ones, (the kids) and tearing down government subsidized housing and replacing it with mixed income housing with 33% available for about 5 % of the now homeless people you kicked out of the projects since gazillions of people live in the projects and only googobs of “mixed income housing” can go up at one time, respectively.

Who knows, maybe one day, one of those homeless militarized kids will become so good at surviving the warfare of the streets, or XBOX 360, that he, or she, will figure out a way to kill zap all the bad guys humanely before you have to take them to Guantanamo Pelican Green Bay or someplace and read ‘em Elizabeth Alexander poetry until they beg for waterboarding.

Aaaannnnnddd, the wheels on the bus go…

Governing By Popular Opinion

President-elect Barack Obama’s personal news network MSNBO, says the Prom King President wants you to tell him how to run the country, specifically by having holiday, “how to fix health care” house  parties. And, oooo goody, Tom Daschle just might attend yours and report back.  How fun, huh?

In between the tree trimming and gift-giving, President-elect Barack Obama is inviting Americans to spend part of the holiday season talking about health care — and report back to him.

As he gears up for major health reform legislation next year, Obama is encouraging average Americans to host informal gatherings to brainstorm about how to improve the U.S. system.

The sessions, which could take place at a party, over a Menorah-lighting or at the annual Christmas cookie bake-off, are to be held Dec. 15 to Dec. 31. Former senator Thomas A. Daschle, Obama’s point person on health, will attend at least one and prepare a detailed report, complete with video, to present to the next president.

Why?  Well, because, he wants health care reform to pass this time, unlike Evil Witch Worthy Of Groping, Hillary Clinton’s botched and bungled failed attempt, that’s why.

By seeking broad public input early in the process, the incoming administration hopes to avoid some of the mistakes of President Clinton’s failed initiative 15 years ago, said Daschle, who is also Obama’s choice for secretary of health and human services.

You remember, don’t you guys? Everybody knows that the reason we haven’t been enjoying affordable health care  these past fourteen-fifteen years is because Hillary Clinton, with her hubris, the witch, didn’t have sense enough to ask us for permission and suggestions.  Makes you wonder why America’s TelePrompTer Idol would even ask his precious donors to help retire that cow’s debt, especially after all the time he’s been over-milking them for his own benefit.  I mean, really, how much money is all these soon to be unemployed “small donors” even capable of generating?  They’ve got the DeaNC, the DSCC, the DCCC and all the other Democratic election entities facing a shortfall to bail out too, for Goodness’ sakes.  And, let’s face it, it’s gonna be a while before the new Lord of the Thieves will be able to put ‘em all to work fixing potholes and installing computers in schools and stuff.

It makes you wonder though, why bother with government programs and whatnot at all?  Since the people who voted for the Community Organizer-In-Chief are so smart and have so much money to throw around, why not just tap the database, unload all the country’s problems on them and let ‘em donate and suggest us all out of crisis?

Oh, that is what he’s doing.

There’s your “change you can believe in.”

Bail This Out!

Why should the federal government spend one dime of taxpayer money bailing companies out of jams of their own making?  Whatever happened to “you made your own bed…”?  Whether we start with the reverse Robin Hoods of the real estate/housing/mortgage-gouging Ponzi schemers in the “lending” industry and all the attendant theives in their RICO caliber conspiracy, or focus on the “Big 3″ automakers now singing, “waaah, waaah, waaah,” in unison and harmony in front of Congress, the fact remains that they knew long ago that if they kept doing what they were doing, they’d end up where they are.  Duh.

Supposedly, because of the ACORN-inspired Community Reinvestment Act “requirement” that the lending institutions lend money to poor people, the put-upon bankers just had to issue “zero down,” 100% financing, double mortgages to anybody who came through the door, and encourage them to pay too much for houses they couldn’t afford, since they could always take out another “home improvement” loan to replace perfectly good ceramic tile countertops, plain Jane white appliances, and linoleum tile floors, with the far superior granite countertops, super slick stainless steel appliances and chi-chi slate/terrazzo tile or other hip, urban flooring, in order to further inflate the already inflated home prices and pass them on to the next newly stiffed potential homeowners they were assured they would be able to sell their over-priced “investments” to in the very near future at a nifty, hefty profit.  Now, these poor, put-upon “lenders” are so surprized that the bottom has fallen out of these “sound lending principled” scams, since of course, they couldn’t “see this coming,” (I mean, who could?) that they just gotta have a gazillion dollars of taxpayer money just to get by.  And, it stands to reason that if these “lenders” can no longer afford to “lend” at the same super-inflated rates they were enjoying so much profit from, well, then, nobody can loan anybody any money to buy anything.  Right?  So, it naturally follows that, the big, bad auto companies, who have lending arms of their own, at least one of which was involved in home loans, and, who aren’t predisposed to loaning money to people to buy their own product anymore, just have to make up the shortfall with taxpayer bailout money.

Bite. Me. Hard.

“Nobody’s buying our cars anymore, waaah.  They want smaller, fuel-efficient foreign cars.”  Bullshit.  According to a Reuter’s blog article today, Americans aren’t buying anybody’s crap:

Unfortunately, neither loans nor the companies’ promises address the basic problem:  Americans just aren’t buying cars, whether GM, Toyota, Ford, or Nissan.

Consider the November sales data, showing GM ’s sales down 41% from a year earlier, Ford’s down 30%, and Chrysler’s down 47%.  Foreign brands were hurt, too: Toyota down 34%, Honda 32%, Nissan 42%, Hyundai 40%.

The truth is, there is no “out.”  The financial industry scammed the public and now that all the co-conspirators are caught with their pants down and their hands elbow deep in the cookie jar, they want to scream “victim” so they don’t get the spanking they deserve.  Union concessions, private jet sales, and other “belt-tightening” measures amount to spitting in the ocean.  Until the housing market prices begin to more accurately reflect their value, everybody will continue to lose money and try to blame eveybody else.

Either bail everybody, including homeowners, out, or let ‘em eat cake shit ____ (fill in the blank with the expletive you prefer.)

Who Stole All Our Cookies From The Cookie Jar?

Who is responsible for our current economic crisis?  How come nobody “saw it coming?”  Because everybody involved is a one of an equally culpable bunch of lying thieves, that’s why.  On October 2, I wrote a post called “Bailout, Misdirection and Lies,” one of a series claiming that anybody with access to Home and Garden TV should have seen the housing crisis coming years ago, since the network features a treasure trove of information about home buying, renovations, and all manner of real estate and home improvement transactions, nearly all of which have been “no money down,” 100% financing, double mortgage deals regardless of the income level and/or credit-worthiness of the purchasers.  First time buyers, home flippers, vacation home purchasing retirees and any and everybody else was encouraged to buy more house than they could afford, take out additional home improvement loans, rennovate, redesign and redecorate these over-priced, too large homesteads, only to put them back on the market in short order at even more inflated prices.  Anybody with any sense could spend a few hours watching HGTV and see the government sanctioned bank pirates’ Ponzi scheme they were promoting, wittingly or un-, develop right before their very eyes.

But, nobody knew nuttin’.  Now the Associated Press is “breaking the news” that indeed everybody knew everything, and did it anyway:

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

“Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories,” California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

In an article full of schoolyard finger pointing, AP reports that some, like Comptroller of the Currency, John C. Dugan, have been trying to sound the alarm since 2005.  While that is true, it is not news.  In my “bailout” post, even I provide the Dugan quote to which AP refers.  From a Sept. 27, 2005, Washington Post article about an American Banker’s Association convention at which Alan Greenspan, along with Dugan, issued warnings, I quoted:

Dugan reinforced Greenspan’s message to the banking industry, expressing concern that “looser underwriting standards and the more widespread penetration of riskier mortgage products have raised questions about how these loans will fare in the event of a rise in interest rates or a softening in house prices.”

While I don’t expect AP to read me, doesn’t anybody read the Washington Post?  What’s the point of this “breaking news” blame game bullshit that doesn’t pass the smell or laugh test?  Whose ass are they trying to cover?  The Republicans didn’t do anything, the Democrats didn’t do anything, the bankers, regulators, brokers, nor the buyers did anything at all to get out of the way of the approaching train barreling down the tracks they insisted upon having a block party on.  Now they want to stand in the middle of the tracks saying, “It wasn’t my idea,” “he did it,” “I just heard the music and stopped by for the free food,” and all other manner of copouts, denials and lies, knowing that they can, since they hold the controls to the mechanism that switches the train to the track we’re standing on before it derails completely, taking everybody out but them.

Screw Fuck ‘em all.  They’re all crooks.  Whether they’re bankers, elected officials, regulators, realtors, contractors or any of the other runaway train riders, conductors or engineers, they should all be prosecuted to the fullest under existing RICO laws.  Because if this is not a criminal conspiracy of the highest order, there’s no such thing.

UPDATE: We are now officially in a recession, and have been since December, 2007.  They just decided to tell us that, though.

Obama Without Hillary? Dull As Dishwater

After days and days of speculation, allegations, accusations and just plain gossip about Barack Obama’s pending “official” appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, today – nuttin’.  Result?  Dull as dishwater news.  Who cares if Hannity and Colmes split up?  Colmes might as well have never been there in the first place.  We already knew who Obama was going to name as economic advisers; big freakin’ deal.  So, some guy is taking Jo(k)e Biden’s old job.  Nobody’s gonna miss Jo(k)e, nobody even thinks about him until he says something stupid.  That’s why he’s veep.  Duh.  Yeah, yeah, bailouts, stocks up, Bush sucks, blah, blah, blah.  Where’s Hillary?

Okay, CNN is reporting that Bush’s scriptwriter says Obama will “own” Hillary if she takes the SOS job.   And, we should care what he thinks because…?  He’s a flippin’ Canadian neocon for Goodness’ sakes.  Fat lot I care about his opinion.

Let’s face it, Obama needs Hillary, and so do we.  Without her, Barack Obama’s presidency will be a snoozefest.  He’s boring.  They can write about his exciting, historic, rousing campaign until they’re blue in the face, the fact is, the primary campaign was only exciting when Hillary was in it.  It has always been the conflict between Barack and Hillary that made things interesting.  When she dropped out, we were stuck with unevenly matched, dueling TelePrompTer readers in the Obama/McCain powder puff slugfest, until Sarah Palin gave the media a new female subject to kick around.  And, though she provided a few giggles for news junkies, she’s no Hillary, not by a long shot.

The bottom line is, Hillary makes everybody sit up and take notice.  Love her or hate her, without her, Obama’s screwed.  The American people can tolerate a lot of things; incompetence, corruption, condescension, arrogance, etc., are all fine. We’ll even take goofy.

But bore us and you’re toast.

When Do The Training Wheels Come Off?

Straight from the office of the president-elect, the official announcement of the financial team you’ve been hearing about for weeks now!  Okay, so, either the tight ship run by the No Drama Obama Bestest Campaign/Transition Team Ever has sprung an “iceberg to the Titanic” sized leak, or, today’s chance to stand behind the shiny new podium with the cool seal was entirely gratuitous.  But, who cares?  He spoketh!  Now, if we could just figure out who he taketh orders frometh, we’d have a much better handle on just how screwedeth we areth.  Because, like The Man says, it’s going to get (much, much) worse before (we can even think about) it gets better:

With the economy in crisis, President-elect Barack Obama urged the new Congress to pass a quick economic stimulus bill, pledged help for the troubled auto industry and blessed the Bush administration’s bailout of the financial industry.

Even so, he conceded, “The economy is likely to get worse before it gets better,” a downbeat forecast, delivered 57 days before he takes the oath of office and as Americans headed into the year-end holiday season.

Barring swift action, “most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year,” he said, urging the newly elected Congress to act quickly on his plans after opening its session on Jan. 6.

I know, I know, nothing new was revealed during the desperate attempt to appease the stock market by reannouncing financial team coming out party, but, didn’t seeing our Junior President In Training standing up there behind his big-boy Fisher Price podium looking just cutely adorable make you feel better knowing that he’s going to be an absolutely darling world leader when he grows up, and the training wheels and braces come off?

Obama made his comments as he unveiled the top members of his economic team, beginning with New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner to be his treasury secretary. Geithner, 47, is a veteran of financial crises at home and overseas and has worked closely with the Bush administration in recent months.

Obama chose Lawrence Summers as director of his National Economic Council. Summers was treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton.

Obama said his newly minted economic team offered “sound judgment and fresh thinking” at a time of economic peril.

He expressed confidence the nation would weather the crisis “because we’ve done it before.”

Obama also announced two other members of his economic team in the making: Christina Romer as chair of his Council of Economic Advisers, and Melody Barnes as director of his White House Domestic Policy Council.

Isn’t that sweet?  And so smart of him to offset the sexism of Summers by appointing two chicks.  You just wait until the training wheels come off.   It’ll be, “look Ma, no hands!” before you know it.  And on that day, in our moment of shared national parental pride, we can look back at the photo above and blame ourselves be fulfilled.

Spreading The Wealth To Who?

Some say Barack Obama has a “socialist agenda.”  I have no idea what that means, let alone if it’s true.  In this video, he talks about the “redistribution of wealth.”

In this one, he talks about a “Civilian National Defense.”  The longer video with the entire speech can be found here, for context, with the money quote coming about 16:42.

He also talks about AmeriCorp, damned near compulsory “volunteering,” putting old people to work, and making kids work off their college loans.  And who can forget Michelle Obama’s words?

“Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zone . . . Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual – uninvolved, uninformed.”

Yet, how do you then account for his financial backing from people like Penny Pritzker, JP Morgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and William Daley, both of whom are on his finance team and who I have written about here, here, here,and here, among others.  Earl Ofari Hutchinson, in a piece for the Huffington Post, lambasted Obama and McCain equally for their part in the finacial crisis, given the amount of money both have recieved from prime players, though Obama has gotten far more, which can be validated here, here, here,and here.

When Obama talks about “spreading the wealth around” is he really talking about “redistributing the wealth” to the “middle class,” or is he talking about restructuring the financial industry to the benefit of the big money donors who bankroll him?

Socialism?  Capitalism?  Redistribution?  Restructuring?  Screw-up?  Screwed?

SNL Unbanned

Found it!

more about “SNL Unbanned“, posted with vodpod

h/t Pat Dollard

Sorry Senator Obama, I Just Don’t Like You

I don’t like you Senator Obama, and I never have.  Unlike millions of my fellow Americans, I was completely unimpressed with your 2004 convention speech.  As an African American woman who grew up around lots of intelligent, articulate black people, I didn’t see anything special about you, or anything you said.  Or should I say, anything you read, since it was obvious to me you were reading from a TelePrompTer.  In fact, when you spoke of your Kenyan father and white mother from Kansas and how the fact that they got together and made you meant that America was a special place, or however you phrased it, I was annoyed.  “Here we go again,” was my first thought, since I’ve met a lot of seditty black people who thought that since they were light-skinned, or college educated, or from another country, or half white, or whatever, that they were “better” than other people, especially blacks, just because they were “different.”  But you’re not any more “different” or “better” than anybody else, and your birth doesn’t make you “uniquely American.”  You’re just hustling white people who don’t know your game any better.

In the primaries, I freely admit I supported Hillary Clinton.  Because. She. Was. The. Best. Candidate.

PERIOD

But, I watched you game the caucuses, blatantly courting Republicans and Independents and anybody else suffering from Clinton Derangement Syndrome, calling her divisive, mocking her perfectly legitimate comments about racial issues as “unfortunate,” and in Pennsylvania, actively encouraging those delusional CDS sufferers to help you game the system with your “Democrat For A Day” ad.  I didn’t like you for that.  I didn’t like your surrogates inappropriately dropping the race card left and right, either, and when you made your minstrel-esque “I’d have to see him dance” comment about Bill Clinton’s honorary black man status, I think I began to hate you.  See, I understand the damage stereotypes can cause, and watching a black man use such a trite one for his own political gain, and get away with it, pissed me off.

It was by no means the last time you worked my nerves, by a long shot.  Dissing your pastor, calling black men irresponsible “boys,” telling Hillary Clinton she was “likable enough,” saying you were confident you could get my vote, brushing your own bad performance off your shoulders, as if you should only be expected to answer questions you’ve been properly coached on, and all the other smug, arrogant, uppity (yes, uppity) things you’ve said and done make me dislike you so much that my sphincter clinches whenever I’m too slow to get to the remote, and thus forced to listen to your annoying, nasal voice.

You told some reporters in Virginia today that people will like you once they get to know you:

“I think that it’s just a matter of people getting more familiar with me and knowing what my track record is.”

You keep saying that, but it’s just not true.  I’ve been to your website; I refuse to read any of your books, because, like I’ve said, I don’t like you, and the thought of spending the time it would take to complete the drivel I’m sure you write, in your virtual presence, makes me physically ill.   I have, however, forced myself to listen to you read your proposals in public, over and over again, and all I can say is, so what?  I don’t believe anything you say since you say so many different things depending on who you’re talking to, and who wrote your speech.  I’ve heard you described as far left, liberal, centrist, corporatist, and Bush’s twin, and with a minimum of research, one can find validation to back up every one of those allegations.

Listen, I admit I’m no political science major, or activist, or even an overly political person in my normal life, but you, Senator Obama, scare me.  I’m just a voter, but there are things about you that have never made sense.  Where do you really get your money?  How does an undistinguished junior Senator raise the kind of cash you claim to?  How did it start?  Even if I bought the “small donor” crap, which I don’t, who gave you the start up money you needed to fleece the little guys in the first place?

Some people say your a Socialist, some go so far as to imply that you have Communist leanings.  I don’t know about any of that, but there are things about you that concern me.  If you are a Socialist, that in itself would be a problem because all my life I heard socialism is the bridge to communism, and communism is anti-American.  That’s about all I know about that, and pretty much, all I care to know.  That being said, some of your campaign tactics creep me out.

I was going to write about how disturbing I find your Camp Obama stuff, but the good people over at The Real Barack Obama beat me to it, and did it better than I could ever hope to.  Using Alinsky-style tactics to build “grassroots support” bothers me, because from what little I’ve read about Mr. Alinsky, he sounds like he was a nut.  In my opinion, he didn’t advocate community organizing, he taught community agitation.  That’s dangerous, and I want no part of it, or of anyone who would encourage those kinds of actions on his behalf.  Teaching people to “get in the faces” of skeptical voters they wish to convert is a recipe for a beatdown and should not be rewarded, as far as I’m concerned.

“If they bring a knife, we bring a gun.”

You said that, Mr. Obama.  That statement alone should disqualify you from holding any office, anywhere.  That’s B-movie thug talk, not the level of discourse expected of the country’s Diplomat-in-Chief.

I don’t really care if the guys you hang around with are repentant or unrepentant terrorists as much as I do about the mega-buck financiers on your team whose companies have given you so much money and are getting so much out of the 700 billion dollar government bailout and corporate bank restructuring that’s been going on lately.  Does any of this have anything to do with the election, and what are you supposed to do for them in return?

The bottom line is, Barack, I have never liked you, and nothing you’ve done since I first became aware of you has changed my mind at all.  In fact, everything you do reinforces my deeply held, heartfelt desire to see you defeated as resoundingly as any unqualified, inexperienced TelePrompTer reader has ever been trounced.  And since such a woefully under-prepared person has never before run for president, it is my hope that your loss is also unprecedented in scope and scale.

You see, Senator, no matter how many times you assert otherwise, I just don’t like you.

And, I’m not alone.

Wall Street Successfully Extorts Government

Claiming imminent global economic disaster, the nation’s financial industry held a gun to the country’s head and demanded 700 billion dollars, or they would stop loaning money to each other.  It worked:

With the economy on the brink and elections looming, Congress approved an unprecedented $700 billion government bailout of the battered financial industry on Friday and sent it to President Bush for his certain signature.

In news more closely related than people are paying attention to, Wells Fargo is throwing a monkey wrench in government plans to restructure the banking industry.

A battle broke out for control of Wachovia Friday as Wells Fargo signed a $15.1 billion agreement to buy the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank, while Citigroup and the federal regulators backing its earlier deal insisted that Citi’s takeover bid go forward.

The surprise announcement early Friday by Wachovia Corp. that it had agreed to be acquired by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. in the all-stock deal — without government assistance — upended what had appeared to be a carefully examined arrangement and caught regulators off guard.

Already this year the government has been involved in the aquisition of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual by JP Morgan Chase, whose CEO Jamie Dimon and Midwestern Group chairman, William Daley are both advisers to Barack Obama’s campaign.  Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, Bank of America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch, and the Federal Reserve rescue of AIG seem to indicate that the financial landscape being bailed out today bears little resemblence to the one that caused the crisis.

But that’s just one little ol’ taxpayer’s take on things.

Bailout BS, Misdirection And Lies

ACORN Caused The Housing Crisis!  Democrats To Blame For Mortgage Meltdown!  Bank Industry Didn’t See This Coming!

Those and other, similar headlines are total bull shit.  ACORN may be a lot of things, but a community service organization, no matter how large and nefarious, simply cannot generate trillions of dollars worth of debt.  Democrats do deserve a share of the blame for the whole mess, they’re just as guilty as the Republicans, the only difference being the modus operandi of the criminals, not the level of criminality itself.  And, if the bank industry didn’t see this coming, they are some lousy bankers.

Let’s say all of the things that have been alleged in all the viral videos and indignant blogs are true.  You’re still missing the bigger picture.  The housing market was flooded with product at the same time that product was being over-valued and massive loans were extended based on that inflated valuation, across the board. USA Today reported in July about the problem in Miami:

Yet, even seen in the most favorable light, the Miami area is still suffering from the rampant speculation that triggered overdevelopment and galloping home prices, followed by a collapse of the mortgage market. What followed was a surge of foreclosures and short sales, in which owners, with a lender’s agreement, sell a home for less than the value of the mortgage and thereby avoid foreclosure.

Therefore, gazillions of dollars worth of second and third mortgages, and renegotiated mortgages were extended based on nothing.  If a home is worth 100,000 dollars, but appraised at 200,000 dollars, 100% financing means that somebody just took out a loan for 100,000 dollars worth of air.  And everybody, from the realtors, to the mortgage holders and all the other credit rapists in between, knew it.

The housing boom that began in 2000 and lasted a full five years looked certain to set up homeowners for a better retirement. Median home values rose dramatically and millions of Americans felt much wealthier because of it.

The problem was that for many their newfound wealth was only on paper. Only homeowners who got the money out by selling their homes actually built wealth.

From USA Today, 7/27/05:

Sharply rising home prices are making a risky housing market even riskier. Six hot markets now face a greater than 50% chance of price declines the next two years, says a study to be released today by PMI Mortgage Insurance.

Rapid price escalation has outpaced income gains and rent increases, making homes less affordable and increasing the odds of a price correction, PMI found.

edit

“Certain markets … are getting riskier,” says Mark Milner, PMI’s chief risk officer. “Prices can’t keep going up at the current rates of appreciation. It doesn’t have to end badly, but it is pretty clear there will be a flattening out.”

edit

PMI economist Marco Van Akkeren says the use of exotic mortgages, such as interest-only loans and those that allow borrowers to pay lower monthly payments for an initial period, is creating greater risks for buyers and inadvertently pushing prices even higher. If interest rates rise, “Affordability is going to be much more of an issue,” he says.

The Washington Post, September 27, 2005:

U.S. home sales and prices surged again last month, an industry group reported yesterday, as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that the growing use of riskier new mortgages could result in “significant losses” for lenders and borrowers if the market cools.

And some cooling is likely, Greenspan suggested in remarks delivered via satellite to the American Bankers Association convention in Palm Desert, Calif., repeating his view that “home prices seem to have risen to unsustainable levels” in certain local markets.

edit

One driver behind price appreciation, Greenspan said, is the popularity of new types of mortgages that enable many borrowers to buy houses at prices they could otherwise not afford — and that may be hard for some borrowers to repay if interest rates rise and home prices stabilize or fall. He mentioned as examples interest-only mortgages, 40-year mortgages and “option ARMS” — adjustable-rate mortgages that permit borrowers to decide how much to pay, how long the loan term should be, and when they can convert between a fixed rate and a variable rate.

“These products could be cause for some concern both because they expose borrowers to more interest-rate and house-price risk than the standard 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage and because they are seen as vehicles that enable marginally qualified, highly leveraged borrowers to purchase homes at inflated prices,” Greenspan said.

The article goes on to warn about the consequences of issuing so many “exotic” loans (approx. 1 in 5) at inflated prices, but doesn’t mention ACORN, the Community Reinvestment Act or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at all.  In fact, another analyst, U. S. Comptroller of the Currency, John C. Dugan, speaking directly to the banking industry, echoed Greenspan’s concern:

Dugan reinforced Greenspan’s message to the banking industry, expressing concern that “looser underwriting standards and the more widespread penetration of riskier mortgage products have raised questions about how these loans will fare in the event of a rise in interest rates or a softening in house prices.”

The banking industry, in concert with the real estate industry, deliberately took advantage of the public for fun and profit.  Period.  Now that the debt has come due, the bankers are resorting to extorting the government to cover their asses, and everybody else wants to point fingers and assign blame away from the guilty guys who grease the wheels on their gravy train.  And the gullible public gets screwed again.  By everybody.

h/t: Uppity Woman

Topsy-Turvy Political World Spinning Off It’s Axis

Don’t tell me I’m crazy; it’s the freakin’ political world that’s gone nuts.  The media is so in the tank for a “politician” who wants to “remake America“, who supports a Civilian National Security Force, has little kids singing creepy songs in praise of his name, while adults chant like supplicants possessed, that they ignore his complete lack of experience, questionable associations and miles-long list of incomprehensible gaffes while they excoriate another politician for her more extensive resume,  though she’s not even running against him.  Meanwhile, the guy running with this “politician” is so known for sticking his foot in his mouth that even their political allies call him stupid.

If that’s not bad enough, if elected, this “politician” would preside over a country undergoing a complete restructuring of it’s banking industry, a country that is about to bailout Wall Street with 700 billion dollars plus of taxpayer money.  This comes after re-naming the “bailout” a “rescue” in an attempt to placate disgruntled voters who expressed their displeasure to lawmakers, only to seem to change their minds after the overloaded House website was shut down.  Makes you wonder how Congress got the message.

Yet, nobody mentions the other bailouts, like the one in March for JP Morgan Chase, or the 630 billion the Fed pumped into the global financial market Sept. 29, or the other 630 billion dollar government spending bill, including 25 billion bucks for automakers, that Bush signed Tuesday.  And, heaven forbid anyone from talking about monies paid to Congress by companies involved in the big bailout, or question donations to the “politician” benefiting most with voters from the country’s economic troubles, even when those donations come from the same banking industry whose executives advise him, like Jamie Dimon and William Daley (Chicago mayor, Richard’s brother) of JP Morgan Chase.  If you’re not going to ask about those guys, you certainly won’t pay attention to donors to the “politician” like Mr. Good Will or Mr. Doodad Pro.  Naaah, everything’s fine.

Even a couple of documentaries about voter fraud the “politician” might have committed wouldn’t matter.  He is The One, he must not be questioned!  Even people he has trashed and accused of horrible things will bow to him and do his bidding.

So, while I may seem to be a tad irrational in my daily ranting about this “politician,” I assure you, I am not.  In a society gone mad, when the deck seems stacked against you, and the other side is just as bad, insanity is relative, anyway.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Chicken And Egg Bailout Philosophy

Look, as I’ve said many times before, I’m no economist.  But, I’m not stupid, either.  According to reports, the new conventional financial wisdom is that Americans must support the bailout bull bill, or the credit crunch will get so bad that we won’t be able to get mortgages, car and student loans, etc.  Obama, from AP:

“This is not a plan to just hand over $700 billion of your money to a few banks on Wall Street,” the Illinois senator said.

Without a rescue for the financial sector, ordinary people will soon begin to suffer, Obama said.

“If we do not act, it will be harder for you to get a mortgage for your home or the loans you need to go to college or a loan you need to buy a car to get to work,” Obama said.

Who can afford those things now?  Isn’t Detroit trying to get 25 billion or so from the government for it’s own auto industry bailout?  Per Newsweek:

With just two weeks in the current session of Congress left to land potentially life-saving federal loans, Detroit’s car companies and Michigan’s congressional delegation were in a state of chaos. Michigan lawmakers trying to sell the deal to a skeptical Congress were frustrated by what they saw as a lack of effort from the automakers, several congressional sources tell NEWSWEEK. Auto execs were annoyed that they were being lumped with the Wall Street bailout crowd, which didn’t help Detroit’s plea for $25 billion in low-cost federal loans to see it through its cash crisis. The acrimony came to a head in a tense conference call Sept. 11 involving 25 power brokers in Washington, D.C., and Detroit, including some of the Big Three CEOs, according to Congressional sources. As congressmen and their staffers debated the minutia of how to craft the legislation for the loans, the CEOs on the other end of the line kept asking everyone to speak up. “We were very much in the weeds, which is not a good idea with a conference call of 25 people,” says Rep. Dave Camp, a Republican from Midland, Mich. “It’s been difficult to get consensus [with the carmakers]. It’s been very frustrating.”

Frustrating?  Tell me about it.  Time has an interesting, myth-busting piece that’s worth a look here.  Seems to me, though, the fact that nobody can afford houses, cars and credit is what lead to people defaulting on existing loans in the first place, so it’s hard to see how opening up the lines of credit is going to change things for the better.  But, like I said, I’m no economist.

And I’m not getting any of the 700 billion, either.

*UPDATE: I missed this earlier.  Breitbart says Detroit got it’s money in the Pentagon package.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

What Do We Need A Bailout For?

Bloomberg.com is reporting that the Federal Reserve is pumping billions into the “global financial system:”

The Federal Reserve will pump an additional $630 billion into the global financial system, flooding banks with cash to alleviate the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.

The Fed increased its existing currency swaps with foreign central banks by $330 billion to $620 billion to make more dollars available worldwide. The Term Auction Facility, the Fed’s emergency loan program, will expand by $300 billion to $450 billion. The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are among the participating authorities.

AP-Yahoo News says that the move came before the House voted down the bailout bill:

The Fed action came hours before the House defeated a $700 billion financial bailout plan, ignoring urgent pleas by Bush and Bernanke to move swiftly.

snip

By pledging to provide “a very large” cash infusion, the Fed hopes the actions will “reassure financial market participants.”

Sept. 24, the House approved a 630 billion dollar spending bill according to OhMyGov.com:

Yesterday, the house passed an Omnibus Bill that would give the Pentagon its biggest budget ever.   Media attention on the massive Wall Street bailout has allowed the omnibus spending bill to move through Congress with relatively little scrutiny.  The spending bill, which passed 370-58, was fueled by a need to keep the government running past the Oct. 1 start of the new budget year. Passage also was greased by 2,322 pet projects totaling $6.6 billion.

The bill calls for $488 billion for the Pentagon and another $40 billion for the Department of Homeland Security. The bill wraps together a record Pentagon budget with increased funding for Gulf Coast hurricane relief, provides a multi-billion dollar bailout to US auto manufacturers, and increased health care funding for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a major victory for Republicans, Democrats capitulated and agreed to lift the offshore drilling ban. The legislation, which the Senate is expected to approve and send to President Bush for his signature, is flying under the political radar compared with the White House’s contentious plan to bail out Wall Street.

The administration also succeeded in blocking Democrats’ efforts to extend unemployment insurance, increase food stamp payments and help states deal with shortfalls in their Medicaid budgets.

WTF?  The Orlando Business Journal says gas prices (remember those?) are going…down?

Even with supply problems in areas of Georgia, Tennessee and the western half of the Carolinas, motorists are likely to see retail gas prices inch down a bit this week, AAA said Monday.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the refineries along the upper Texas Gulf Coast and western Louisiana that were most affected by hurricanes Gustav and Ike are in varying stages of operation. Four refineries remain off-line due to no power; five are in the process of restarting; and nine others have begun production at reduced capacity.

snip

“There is still a lot of uncertainty in the market with the U.S. government’s $700 billion bailout situation unresolved. Nevertheless, it is likely retail gasoline prices will drop this week,” Bly said.

Randy Bly is the director of community relations for AAA Auto Club South.

It’s a good thing I don’t really have any commentary to offer about what this all means to the bailout or the election, ’cause I gotta rush out and get measured for my tinfoil hat.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Bailout Bill Fails

Looks like the House of Representatives has rejected the bailout bill, according to MarketWatch:

The U.S. dollar pared its gains Monday after reports that the U.S. House of Representatives surprisingly voted against a proposal to prop up financial institutions being dragged down by losses on non-performing debt.

CNN Money reports:

What was supposed to be a 15-minute vote stretched past the half-hour mark as leadership scrambled for support. Investors who had been counting on the rescue plan sent the Dow Jones industrial average down as much as 700 points while watching the measure come up short of the necessary support, before rebounding slightly. The key stock reading was down more than 500 points.

The measure needs 218 votes for passage. Democrats voted 141 to 94 in favor of the plan, while Republicans voted 65 to 133 against. That left the measure with 206 votes for and 227 against.

AP-Yahoo News says Republicans are placing the blame on Nancy Pelosi:

Several Republican aides said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had torpedoed any spirit of bipartisanship that surrounded the bill with her scathing speech near the close of the debate that blamed Bush’s policies for the economic turmoil.

Without mentioning her by name, Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., No. 3 Republican, said: “The partisan tone at the end of the debate today I think did impact the votes on our side.”

snip

“We could have gotten there today had it not been for the partisan speech that the speaker gave on the floor of the House,” House Minority Leader John Boehner said. Pelosi’s words, the Ohio Republican said, “poisoned our conference, caused a number of members that we thought we could get, to go south.”

Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the whip, estimated that Pelosi’s speech changed the minds of a dozen Republicans who might otherwise have supported the plan.

Barney Frank, however, disagrees:

“Well if that stopped people from voting, then shame on them,” he said. “If people’s feelings were hurt because of a speech and that led them to vote differently than what they thought the national interest (requires), then they really don’t belong here. They’re not tough enough.”

But hey, ol’ Barn’s got his own credibility issues:

Here, Henry Paulson, on 60 Minutes, seems to prove my point that they should have seen this coming.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Credit Con and Bailout Bull

Yeah, what he said!  Dennis, that’s exactly what we want to know.  Why are we jumping on this before anything has really happened, other than some predatory financial…well, predators have made a bunch of predatory moves?  Smells like a con job to me.  Not even a good one, like the modified pyramid scheme the bankers and Wall Street guys are pulling, where “confidence“  is being bandied about as the whole reason we have to rescue a deliberately exploited system, like “confidence” is not what “con” is short for.  And, yeah, it’s a pyramid scheme.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission website:

In the classic “pyramid” scheme, participants attempt to make money solely by recruiting new participants into the program. The hallmark of these schemes is the promise of sky-high returns in a short period of time for doing nothing other than handing over your money and getting others to do the same.

Why does the current mess qualify?  Because it’s based on credit, not real estate or any other tangible product.  Not only that, it’s credit often-times extended based on nothing other than “good faith,” if that.  We’re being told that because a bunch of bankers loaned money to people they shouldn’t have, if Wall Street doesn’t get all our money, right now, they won’t loan each other any more.  Not only is it a pyramid scheme, it’s extortion, Blazing Saddles-style.  Congress’ manufactured hysteria is a con, too, only more juvenile.   They’re worse than a teenager who runs over the neighbor’s cat in the family car and uses it as an excuse to badger his parents for one of his own.  It’s more like a prom date whining, “Ooo, ooo, it really hurts!  Ya gotta kiss it, or it’ll fall off!”  Just like I’d say to that prom date, I say, “Sounds painful, but what’s it got to do with me?”  From today’s Washington Post:

“A vote for this bill is a vote to prevent economic damage to you and your community” by stabilizing financial markets and renewing the flow of credit, Bush said, attempting to undercut arguments that the proposed legislation bolsters Wall Street at taxpayers’ expense. “This is a bold bill that will keep the crisis in our financial system from spreading through our economy.”

And while we’re pacing to and fro, fretting and debating the merits of using taxpayer money to bail out the people who issued bad loans at inflated prices to taxpayers, we’re not supposed to pay attention to the people behind the curtain doing this:

The legislation comes amid great upheaval in the nation’s financial system. On Monday morning, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which insures deposits at failed banks, arranged for the sale of the banking assets of Wachovia (WB, Fortune 500), the nation’s No. 4 bank holding company, to Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) for $2.2 billion in stock.

That follows three weeks of other shocks: the Treasury Department’s seizure of mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500); Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing; rival Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) purchase by Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500).

In addition, the Fed bailed out insurance giant American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500), loaning it $85 billion in return for a nearly 80% stake. while Washington Mutual (WM, Fortune 500), the nation’s largest savings and loan, became the largest bank failure in history. 

See my post below for info on some of the people on Barack Obama’s financial team who are chin-deep in this bs on the profit side.  And, then, just for fun, compare which of these companies gave oodles of dough to Barack Obama and/or John McCain.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Either Way, You’re Getting Screwed

Coffee or tea?  Black or with cream?  Sweet or dry?  On the rocks or neat?  Gay or straight?  At the end of the day, whether you take the Republican or Democratic side of the questions surrounding the bailout comes down to, “how do you like it?”  Because, either way, you’re getting screwed.

There are no clean hands regarding the economic meltdown we face.  While there are certainly fingers to be pointed at the people who put the loopholes in the system, the fact is, both sides have inserted themselves in those loopholes and moved in and out of them until they reached satisfaction, if you get my drift.  It all boils down to how you prefer to be financially raped, with flowers, candy and GHB, (Democrats) or taken by brute force (Republicans).

Either way, you’re getting screwed.

And, who is Jamie Dimon, and what does he have to do with all this?

Whaddaya Mean, Ya Didn’t See It Comin’?

When the talking heads, politicians and pundits talk about the “economic crisis,” the “housing bubble,” “sub-prime loans” and “bailouts” why do they always act surprised?  Don’t these people watch TV?  I admit freely, I’m no economic expert; though I have owned properties before, I haven’t been a homeowner for years, for a number of personal reasons.  But I’m not stupid.  Which you would have to be not to have seen this coming years ago.  And you don’t have to be a CNBC junkie either, Home and Garden tells you all you need to know.

For years, I’ve been watching homebuying shows where people too easily purchased too much house for too much money.  There you have it, the whole housing bubble in a nutshell.  Nothing complicated about it.  People on these shows from every socio-economic class got 100% financing on homes with too many bedrooms and bathrooms, huge yards, lavish kitchens, “bonus” rooms, outdoor living space to rival other people’s indoor living space, offices, pools, and closets you could set up shop in.  And the “experts” didn’t “see it coming?”

Then there were the “flippers.”  Nobody, it seems, can buy a house, fix it up to their tastes, for their purposes and just live in it.  Nope, uh-uh, no way.  For one thing, if they do, they’ll never be able to sell it, and selling it is the only reason to buy it.  Get it?  First, somebody else has to buy it, (at 100% financing) “renovate” it, which could mean anything from applying fresh paint to ripping up floors and knocking down walls, then sell it at a profit.  Then the people who can’t afford it, buy it to live in it, and have to pay too much for stuff they probably don’t even want (at 100% financing).  Then, they can get another loan to redecorate it the way they want it, laying new floors and putting walls back up, and end up not being able to pay for any of it.  Well, duh.  Yet, nobody knows nuttin’.

Right.

Of course, that doesn’t take into account the fact that by the time the new suckers buyers get it, the mortgages have already been sold a gazillion times to people who make money buying and selling mortgages on houses they’ve never even seen.  And we’re supposed to believe that this whole economic crisis is the fault of the little guys who just want to own a home, but are the ones getting screwed royally, nine ways to Sunday, by people they’ll never meet?

Puh-leeze.

Who’s gonna bail them out?  Why should they trust anybody when everybody lied to them?  “The housing market is sound.”  “Real estate is always a good investment.”  “Always buy as much house as you can afford.”  “Interest rates are steady.”  “You can always refinance.”  “God’s not making any more land, ha, ha, ha.”  Ha, ha, hell.  “The check’s in the mail” and “I won’t come in your mouth” are more trustworthy statements than those.

Now, everybody’s money is in jeopardy, whether they fell for the schemes or not.  And taxpayers are supposed to trust the government to bail them out of their individual economic crises with their tax money by bailing out the very people who put them in this predicament in the first place at the same time?  What’s wrong with this picture?  Who cares if some CEO gets his ridiculous salary or not when all the rest of the mortgage-moving scam artists are flying under the radar with everybody’s money in their pockets?  And why is everybody focusing on the big banks and lenders when the whole damned system is corrupt?  Realtors, builders, E-Z Credit ripoff artists, contractors, banks, mortgage holders, investment brokers, escrow holders, home-improvement stores, and all the rest of the corporate rapists, big and small, had a jolly good time thugging the electorate for the past few years, but nobody in a position to do anything about it “saw it coming,” so now they all want to point fingers and shrug shoulders and look pitiful until we all pitch in to help them out in order to save ourselves?

Pardon me if I’m having a hard time giving a shit.

Ya shoulda seen it coming.

Don’t you have a frigging TV?

Try HGTV, (or HRC) you might learn something.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal