HOW STUPID can President Obama be?
HOW ARROGANT can a leader be?
Well, following the succesful conclusion (victory) of US & (genuine!) coalition forces after Gulf War-1, President George H.W. Bush (Sr.) enjoyed a STRATOSPHERIC 80%+ approval ratings. But by November 1992, Mr. Bush couldn't even muster 45% of the popular vote, albeit in a 3-way election with Arkansas Democratic Governor Bill Clinton stealing much of Ross Perot's "BUSH DEFICITS ARE KILLING the American Economy" thunder and winning the 1992 presidential election.
Which is exactly the point. IT ONLY TAKES the American public ONE YEAR to TURN on even the most admired politicians. This pattern was REPEATED of course in _1994_, when Americans considered the Bush-1 Recession to no longer be the Bush-1 Recession, but to BE THE CLINTON/DEMOCRAT RECESSION, and showed entrenched, insular Senate House leaders the door, the Democrats losing the 1994 election to back-bench bomb-thrower Newt Gingrich's "Contract on America" radical right-wing agenda (elitism) masked as populism - the Republican Party's main electioneering theme (besides "moral values" and other reactionary issues like gun ownership and minority-bashing, gay-bashing, government bashing themes.)
SO here we are, the 4th month of the Obama administration, and UNDER HIS WATCH, CHRYSLER corporation is DECLARING BANKRUPTCY, and if it comes back in business, it will be as a subsidiary of.. FIAT Motors !!!
But far more troubling than the bankruptcy of one troubled auto-maker, is the LOOMING FORECLOSURE CRISIS of... ANOTHER 1.6 MILLION homeowners in the coming year!
NOT including the LOOMING REAL-ESTATE crisis!
NOT including the looming CREDIT CARD crisis!
Mr. Obama's ENTIRE Economic Policy', such as it is, is focused on THE BIG BANKS who CREATED this CREDIT BUBBLE and resulting BUST.
For an entire decade, the Wall Street executives and bankers took it as their "right" to SHOUT for ever lower Fed Reserve interest rates to fuel their over-hyped profits and "asset" valuations, This approach to "finance" exploded in a hypobolic curve, with the "financial geniuses" such as LAWRENCE SUMMERS and ROBERT RUBINS presiding over the DEREGULATION of those financial markets - both under the Clinton Democrat White House, and the Bush-Cheney "Loot the Treasury" White House.
To begin with, PHIL GRAMM had been at the EPICENTER of the Savings & Loan DEREGULATION debacle that led to Bush-1 LOSING re-election in 1992, despite the tremendous advantages of the incumbency, and Gulf-War victory.
#2. Former ALCOA Chairman PAUL O'NEILL, Bush's first Secretary of Treasury, had WARNED Americans that not only were Bush & Cheney determined to INVADE IRAQ from "day one" of the new Bush administration (January 2001), but that they were also DETERMINED to LOOT the US Treasury, with surplus-debilitating DEFICIT SPENDING.
#3. PAUL KRUGMAN had been warning about the Republican's CHRONIC DESIRES to BREAK the US Treasury, at least two full years before the majority of Americans had even heard of George W. Bush - by 1998, Krugman was in a full-throated roar that Republican "TAX CUTS FOR RICH" deficit-spending economics were going to engineer a NEW American economic crisis.
#4. And of course we, Americans, had been there before: PHIL GRAMM, DICK ARMEY, and Enron KEN LAY had ALL been TEXAS ECONOMICS PhD's, who had all been touted as "The New Coming of America's Economic Greatness" - immediately before they PRESIDED OVER Economic DISASTERS.
Well, here it is the 101st day of the Obama administration - and today the US Senate SHOT DOWN the CREDIT CARD REFORM, and MORTGAGE "CRAM-DOWN" consumer protection bills - and President Obama WAS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN.
AWOL on THE FIGHT of the Decade, Mr. Obama TAKES IT AS HIS RIGHT to DISBURSE HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of US taxpayer dollars (trillions) - TO the very big banksters who created this DEREGULATION economic nightmare - without a SINGLE AUDIT or explanation, and he joins his Emanuel/Rubin/Summers/Geithner big banksters team in saying "SO WHAT?" to the looming 1.6 MILLION American homeowners FACING EVICTION in 2009, even as the Big Banksters soak up BILLIONS of dollars that SHOULD be going for mortgage relief.
(Note: a FORECLOSED HOME _DEVALUES_ all the OTHER homes in the neighborhood, as well - BILLIONS MORE middle-class EQUITY VANISHING into the FORECLOSURE accounts of the Big, insatiable banksters.)
FOR SHAME.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
COWARDLY Senate Demorats OWNED by Big Banks; Pelosi's Congress OWNED by AIPAC; Obama White House OWNED by GOLDMAN-SACHS...
On the MSNBC "Ed Show", host Ed Schultz says that Republican Rep. Michelle Bachman is "the gift that keeps on giving" for Ed's "Pyscho talk" radical right-wing talking points segment.
Well, that is just an entertaining (though, in case of the thousands of potential Timmy McVeigh's out there in Amerika land, potentially dangerous) sidelight of the Ed Show, the far more important story being Ed's blockbuster announcement that a prominent, Leading US Senator - no less than the Senate's #2 Democrat, Senator DICK DURBIN of Illinois (widely credited with being a major, early force in encouraging Barack Obama to run for president) had decalared that "THE BANKS _OWN_ the US SENATE."
We now have the audio of Senator Durbin's comments -
http://progressillinois.com/2009/4/29/durbin-banks-own-the-place
- and we know from other sources that Senate Majority "Leader" HARRY REID is INDEED IN THE POCKET of the Bankers, he REFUSES TO PLAY HARDBALL and RAISE HELL until the BANKRUPTCY REFORM BILL is passed.
And of course President Obama is ENTIRELY IN THE POCKET of... GOLDMAN SACHS, his ENTIRE "economics" team is NOTHING but Wall Street Banksters (most of them directly from Goldman Sachs, including Rubin, Summers, Gensler, Patterson, and others, and while Tim Geithner never was on the Goldman-Sachs payroll, his "job" as Chairman of the NY Fed. Reserve Bank was to keep his two Goldman-Sachs mentors - Rubins & Summers - happy, by DISHING OUT TENS of BILLIONS of created-out-of-thin-air Fed dollars to the Big Banks, of which GoldmanSachs was first in line.
The GOLDMAN-SACHS OWNERSHIP of the obama White House is SO blatant - that at tonight's "100 Days" press celebration, President Obama DID NOT HAVE TO ANSWER ONE lousy "where did our BAILOUT TRILLIONS of dollars go?" question!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/bankruptcy-bill-may-be-gu_n_192907.html
And then there is this "oldie but goodie" - ancient history from all of last week, Robert Naiman discussing the JANE HARMAN scandal tacitly illustrates - that THE ISRAEL LOBBY has a COMMANDING HOLD on the INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE of the US Congress, and the LEADERSHIP of the US Congress itself!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/jane-harman-weighs-in-on_b_189803.html
Needless to say, not only is President Obama's CHIEF OF STAFF Rahm Emanuel AN INVESTMENT BANKER who WHOLLY SUPPORTS the GOLDMAN-SACHS "DEREGULATION, and GET THE TAXPAYERS to BAIL OUT THE BANKERS" agenda, but Emanuel is also an unabashed, ferverent "ISREAL FIRST!" supporter, who during the 1991 Gulf War with Iraq, signed up as a civilian volunteer for the Israel army (IDF)!
The sad distillation of the post: THE US SENATE is OWNED by BANKERS; of which GOLDMAN SACHS is far and away the most powerful;
The OBAMA WHITE HOUSE is ALSO OWNED by the Goldman-Sachs bankers; President Obama his HANDING TRILLIONS to the Bankers - and the American taxpayers aren't even getting LOUSY RECEIPT, much less a SINGLE lousy AUDIT, for their TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars;
and the PELOSI CONGRESS is OWNED BY THE ISRAEL (aipac) LOBBY, which has DE FACTO CONTROL of the ENTIRE US 'INTEL' apparatus;
and, as if all the above isn't bad enough, the RIGHT-WING INTERESTS, of which BANKERS and FOREIGN COUNTRIES are mega-pillars, have SO THOROUGHLY CORRUPTED American democracy, that THE UNITED STATES can NOT EVEN DETERMINE a SENATE VICTOR, SIX god-damned MONTHS after the election of November 2008!!
THANKS FOR NOTHING, you right-wing DICTATORSHIP, ELECTION-STEALING, TREASURY-LOOTING -enabling #*$!$#)#&^$s!
Arianna Huffington gives voice to the "WE did NOT vote for BANKERS and the ISRAEL WAR LOBBY" American voters:
"Bank Bailouts Could be Obama's ACHILLES HEEL" (FATAL flaw) -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/arianna-tells-katie-couri_n_193324.html
Well, that is just an entertaining (though, in case of the thousands of potential Timmy McVeigh's out there in Amerika land, potentially dangerous) sidelight of the Ed Show, the far more important story being Ed's blockbuster announcement that a prominent, Leading US Senator - no less than the Senate's #2 Democrat, Senator DICK DURBIN of Illinois (widely credited with being a major, early force in encouraging Barack Obama to run for president) had decalared that "THE BANKS _OWN_ the US SENATE."
We now have the audio of Senator Durbin's comments -
http://progressillinois.com/2009/4/29/durbin-banks-own-the-place
- and we know from other sources that Senate Majority "Leader" HARRY REID is INDEED IN THE POCKET of the Bankers, he REFUSES TO PLAY HARDBALL and RAISE HELL until the BANKRUPTCY REFORM BILL is passed.
Banks Lobby On Course To Gut Bankruptcy Bill(Needless to say, ALL the HAPLESS, PATHETIC, CORRUPT Senator Reid would have to do, is HOLD UP BAILOUT BILLIONS from being given to the bankers, and they would come begging to him like a starving dog - but instead, feasting on the NO-STRINGS ATTACHED taxpayer billions, Reid is instead at the mercy of those ferocious, junk-yard Bankster attack dogs & their hired DC lobbyist minions.)
by Ryan Grim, Huffington Post
April 29, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/bankruptcy-bill-may-be-gu_n_192907.html
The bankruptcy reform bill that passed the House weeks ago amid much fanfare is on course to be gutted by the Senate Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told the Huffington Post Wednesday that he wasn't sure the bill had enough votes to overcome a GOP filibuster and that its key provision -- cramdown -- may have to come out.
And of course President Obama is ENTIRELY IN THE POCKET of... GOLDMAN SACHS, his ENTIRE "economics" team is NOTHING but Wall Street Banksters (most of them directly from Goldman Sachs, including Rubin, Summers, Gensler, Patterson, and others, and while Tim Geithner never was on the Goldman-Sachs payroll, his "job" as Chairman of the NY Fed. Reserve Bank was to keep his two Goldman-Sachs mentors - Rubins & Summers - happy, by DISHING OUT TENS of BILLIONS of created-out-of-thin-air Fed dollars to the Big Banks, of which GoldmanSachs was first in line.
The GOLDMAN-SACHS OWNERSHIP of the obama White House is SO blatant - that at tonight's "100 Days" press celebration, President Obama DID NOT HAVE TO ANSWER ONE lousy "where did our BAILOUT TRILLIONS of dollars go?" question!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/bankruptcy-bill-may-be-gu_n_192907.html
And then there is this "oldie but goodie" - ancient history from all of last week, Robert Naiman discussing the JANE HARMAN scandal tacitly illustrates - that THE ISRAEL LOBBY has a COMMANDING HOLD on the INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE of the US Congress, and the LEADERSHIP of the US Congress itself!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/jane-harman-weighs-in-on_b_189803.html
Needless to say, not only is President Obama's CHIEF OF STAFF Rahm Emanuel AN INVESTMENT BANKER who WHOLLY SUPPORTS the GOLDMAN-SACHS "DEREGULATION, and GET THE TAXPAYERS to BAIL OUT THE BANKERS" agenda, but Emanuel is also an unabashed, ferverent "ISREAL FIRST!" supporter, who during the 1991 Gulf War with Iraq, signed up as a civilian volunteer for the Israel army (IDF)!
The sad distillation of the post: THE US SENATE is OWNED by BANKERS; of which GOLDMAN SACHS is far and away the most powerful;
The OBAMA WHITE HOUSE is ALSO OWNED by the Goldman-Sachs bankers; President Obama his HANDING TRILLIONS to the Bankers - and the American taxpayers aren't even getting LOUSY RECEIPT, much less a SINGLE lousy AUDIT, for their TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars;
and the PELOSI CONGRESS is OWNED BY THE ISRAEL (aipac) LOBBY, which has DE FACTO CONTROL of the ENTIRE US 'INTEL' apparatus;
and, as if all the above isn't bad enough, the RIGHT-WING INTERESTS, of which BANKERS and FOREIGN COUNTRIES are mega-pillars, have SO THOROUGHLY CORRUPTED American democracy, that THE UNITED STATES can NOT EVEN DETERMINE a SENATE VICTOR, SIX god-damned MONTHS after the election of November 2008!!
THANKS FOR NOTHING, you right-wing DICTATORSHIP, ELECTION-STEALING, TREASURY-LOOTING -enabling #*$!$#)#&^$s!
Arianna Huffington gives voice to the "WE did NOT vote for BANKERS and the ISRAEL WAR LOBBY" American voters:
"Bank Bailouts Could be Obama's ACHILLES HEEL" (FATAL flaw) -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/arianna-tells-katie-couri_n_193324.html
Senator Dick Durbin: "THE BANKS OWN the US Senate" - are OBSTRUCTING & Killing FORECLOSURE RELIEF
ON this 100th Day of the Obama presidency, as the majority of "liberal" leaning news organizations and reporters are celebrating President Obama's 61% positive approval rating, Senator DICK DURBIN went on the "Ed Show" on MSNBC, were show host Ed Schultz QUOTED Senator Durbin from an earlier radio interview, Ed Schultz quoting Senator Durbin as saying "THE BANKS OWN THE US SENATE."
This is of course a TERRIBLE INDICTMENT of the US Senate, and of the ENTIRE US government and political process - ESPECIALLY in a day and era when THESE SAME BANKS WOULD BE BANKRUPT, and bankers would rightly be UNEMPLOYED - BUT FOR TRILLIONS of dollars of TAXPAYER-subsidized BAILOUTS.
WHICH, to this day, we do NOT get a GOOD ACCOUNTING OF - the Bankers and their CORRUPT allies in BOTH the "Democrat" & Republican parties, ASSIST the Bankers in KEEPING THE TOTAL AMOUNTS of US TAXPAYER BAILOUTS, SECRET !!
And now the SAME BANKERS are making their BOUGHT & OWNED SENATORS _OBSTRUCT_ Bankruptcy Reform and foreclosure relief!
We have said here 1,000 time how Mr. Obama's ENTIRE "economics"/financial team is composed of - FAILED BANKERS, from ROBERT RUBIN who presided over the BANKRUPTCY of Citi-group last year, to LAWRENCE SUMMERS who, as President of Harvard, PRESIDED OVER THE CRASH of Harvard's Endowment, to TIMMY GIETHNER, who was the Federal Reserve banker (NY branch director) just 2 or 3 behind BEN BERNANKE, presiding over the meltdown on the ENTIRE US ECONOMY.
And the above list doesn't include President Obama's Chief of Staff, RAHM EMANUEL, who traded a senior advisor position in the Clinton White House in 1998, for a position at Chicago 'boutique' Investment Bank WASSERSTEIN PERELLA, where Emanuel used his 'Democrat' DC INSIDER connections to HELP POWER THROUGH "Merger & Acquisition" deals - more commonly known as LEVERAGED BUYOUTS, which almost always see bankers using HUGE "LEVERAGE" to take over companies, usually resulting in wholesale firings and layoffs. Emanuels "genius" is in his timing - he made a killing participating in the LBO/M&A deals when they were still in vogue, but getting out of that business in time to avoid the current financial & economic meltdown.
But it is still an open question, "WHO DOES EMANUEL OWE HIS ALLEGIANCE TO?" - the Bankers with whom he "earned" EIGHTEEN MILION DOLLARS, and lifetime financial security, in just 2 1/2 years closing "M&A" takeover deals; or the clueless canon-fodder American working public, who voted President Obama into the White House and the "Democrat" Party into the majorities in both House & Senate.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
This is of course a TERRIBLE INDICTMENT of the US Senate, and of the ENTIRE US government and political process - ESPECIALLY in a day and era when THESE SAME BANKS WOULD BE BANKRUPT, and bankers would rightly be UNEMPLOYED - BUT FOR TRILLIONS of dollars of TAXPAYER-subsidized BAILOUTS.
WHICH, to this day, we do NOT get a GOOD ACCOUNTING OF - the Bankers and their CORRUPT allies in BOTH the "Democrat" & Republican parties, ASSIST the Bankers in KEEPING THE TOTAL AMOUNTS of US TAXPAYER BAILOUTS, SECRET !!
And now the SAME BANKERS are making their BOUGHT & OWNED SENATORS _OBSTRUCT_ Bankruptcy Reform and foreclosure relief!
We have said here 1,000 time how Mr. Obama's ENTIRE "economics"/financial team is composed of - FAILED BANKERS, from ROBERT RUBIN who presided over the BANKRUPTCY of Citi-group last year, to LAWRENCE SUMMERS who, as President of Harvard, PRESIDED OVER THE CRASH of Harvard's Endowment, to TIMMY GIETHNER, who was the Federal Reserve banker (NY branch director) just 2 or 3 behind BEN BERNANKE, presiding over the meltdown on the ENTIRE US ECONOMY.
And the above list doesn't include President Obama's Chief of Staff, RAHM EMANUEL, who traded a senior advisor position in the Clinton White House in 1998, for a position at Chicago 'boutique' Investment Bank WASSERSTEIN PERELLA, where Emanuel used his 'Democrat' DC INSIDER connections to HELP POWER THROUGH "Merger & Acquisition" deals - more commonly known as LEVERAGED BUYOUTS, which almost always see bankers using HUGE "LEVERAGE" to take over companies, usually resulting in wholesale firings and layoffs. Emanuels "genius" is in his timing - he made a killing participating in the LBO/M&A deals when they were still in vogue, but getting out of that business in time to avoid the current financial & economic meltdown.
But it is still an open question, "WHO DOES EMANUEL OWE HIS ALLEGIANCE TO?" - the Bankers with whom he "earned" EIGHTEEN MILION DOLLARS, and lifetime financial security, in just 2 1/2 years closing "M&A" takeover deals; or the clueless canon-fodder American working public, who voted President Obama into the White House and the "Democrat" Party into the majorities in both House & Senate.
Bob Herbert HITS IT OUT OF THE PARK: Obama gets a FAILING Grade, for Addressing Catastrophic UNEMPLOYMENT....
Today marking the much applauded (in "Democratic" circles, anyways)
"100th Day of the Obama administration,"
Bob Herbert's op-ed not only knocks-it-out-of-the-park... but is also a well-timed home run that salvages some much needed HONESTY from WHAT HAS BEEN a MAJOR MEDIA WHITEWASH of Obama's POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC FAILURE:
- the FAILURE to make a more positive impact on RISING UNEMPLOYMENT, & INCREASING LAYOFFS and job losses.
Should we point out that "Hitler looked good... in the early (WWII) war years, IF you did not look at his millions of victims," too?
Clearly, up until now, President Obama has been Riding the Wave... he has BENEFITED from the CORPORATE MEDIA PROPAGANDA machine that spent the past 8 years WHITEWASHING and COVERING-UP major scandal, failure, and abject, in-your-face CORRUPTION stories for the Bush White House, from Bush's CLOSE TIES to ENRON FRAUD, to Dick Cheney CONTINUING TO HOLD HALLIBURTON defered stock options - which went up in value with every NO-BID, NO OVERSIGHT contract that Cheney handed his "former" company.
For example, the Washington Post became famous during the Nixon impeachment days for RELENTLESSLY INVESTIGATING the LINKS between President Nixon and his ILLEGAL, "spy on the Democratic Party" Watergate burglers and (ex-) CIA "plumbers," among many other Dirty Tricks sponsored by and commissioned by President Nixon's re-election campaign. (Which of course was given the nickname "Committee to Re-Elect the President," or C.R.E.E.P. by determined Nixon critics.)
But, fast forward to George W. Bush's presidency, the Washington Post COULD NOT BOTHER to ask about - much less relentlessly investigate - "WHAT was it that CONVICTED BRIBER OF CONGRESS _JACK ABRAMOFF_ discussed with President Bush and the Bush White House, on his MANY VISITS and CALLS to the Bush White House?"
You can hardly ask for a better example of the WASHINGTON POST's INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION, than that it REFUSED to inquire what CONVICTED FELON Jack Abramoff was asking of the Bush White House, in the months and weeks before he was indicted and convicted for BRIBERY !!
THAT is the INSTITUTIONAL BIAS that is making Mr. Obama look good in his "First 100 Days" - the Corporate Media notion that the LITTLE PEOPLE who are FIRED, LAID OFF, and run out of unemployment insurance, JUST DON'T COUNT !!
Here's the NEW YORK TIMES joining GOLDMAN SACHS in GLOATING about "BILLION DOLLAR BONUSES!" the Christmas of 2006 - as BOTH the Times, and Goldman-Sachs, IGNORE the looming and building FORECLOSURE Crisis, that ALREADY by December 2006 was seeing THOUSANDS of American families EVICTED FROM THEIR HOMES, "Huge Profit at Goldman Brings Big Bonuses"
BUT! Even by December 2006, Goldman-Sachs "PROFITS" were NOT as "profitable" as it appeared, for even by early 2007, Goldman-Sachs and the other New York mega-banksters were PROPPING UP their balance sheets - and ARTIFICIALLY INFLATING their "assets," executive bonuses, and fraudulent "profits" - by a process that we call "back door bailouts" - the FED BANKS pumping HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars of money into the Big NY banks, by the process of LIQUIDITY INJECTIONS and other "newly created mechanisms."
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/7483/Fed-Heads-Back-to-the-Well-Will-It-Run-Dry
THIS is EXACTLY what TIMMY GEITHNER was doing when he was Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York - he was dishing out TENS upon HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of created-out-of-thin-air "dollars" into the bank vaults of those large banks which own the _PRIVATE_ Federal Reserve banks - a magic creation and disbursement of HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars to the electronic bank vaults of Citi bank and Goldman-Sachs and Chase and Bank of America, that MADE their profits look solid, but were in fact CREATED by FED RESERVE FIAT out of thin air!
And it is PRECISELY for this reason - that Timmy Geithner was GOOD at GIVING AWAY FREE MONEY - that President Obama's top advisors - ROBERT RUBIN, LAWRENCE SUMMERS, and RAHM EMANUEL (ALL "investment bankers," if you consider 'mergers & acquistions' takeovers using insane LEVERAGE levels, and other forms of casino gambling, to be "investments") - insisted that President Obama select Tim Geithner to be his Treasury Secretary - Since the days that Geithner was first Rubin's, and then Summers', protege when Geithner worked at Treasury under then Treasury Secretaries Rubin & Summers, Geithner's REAL job has been to do WHATEVER MAKES GOLDMAN-SACHS, CITI, and the Big Banks happy.
While the above linked, exceptionally informative article talks about:
"the Fed Reserve has 'injected' ONE TRILLION DOLLARS in [to] the financial system" in just the 9 months preceeding March 2008
(i.e. long after the Goldman-Sachs BONUS BILLIONS of Christmas 2006),
it also notes the "'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' crowd believes the Fed is merely postponing and prolonging the pain by delaying the inevitable comeuppance for Wall Street's debt and derivatives binge."
The Big Bankers' "DEBT and DERIVATIVES BINGE" under President George W. Bush has been replaced by a Wall Street
"BAILOUTS and SOCIALIZED WELFARE BINGE"
since President Obama took office 100 days ago!
All the above just the back-story to Mr. Herbert's KNOCKOUT PUNCH conclusion of his today's op-ed marking THE SINGULAR, DISMAL FAILURE of the Obama administration: IF President Obama had spent HALF as much time, energy, and money propping up EMPLOYMENT, with REAL, IMMEDIATE JOBS SPENDING, instead of pouring TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars down the WALL STREET BANKSTERS black hole of "DEBT, DERIVATIVES, & BONUS BINGES" - THOUSANDS of American families NOW FACING CATASTROPHE would still be employed, and adding to the economic numbers, instead of detracting from them.
==================================
WORKERS FORCED TO WALK the PLANK by PRESIDENT OBAMA and his GOLDMAN-SACHS BANKSTER team: RAHM EMANUEL, Robt. RUBIN, LAWRENCE SUMMERS, Gary Gensler, Neal Wolin, Mark Patterson, former "Senator from the credit-card state" (and current VP) Joe Biden, et al:
Workers Walk the Plank
by BOB HERBERT, NYTimes op-ed columnist
April 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/opinion/28herbert.html
The EMPLOYMENT ISSUE is _NOT_ BEING ADDRESSED with the LEVEL OF URGENCY that is warranted. [by PRESIDENT OBAMA's finance-"economics" team]
For all the TALK of green jobs, there is NO LARGE-SCALE creative EFFORT to turn this employment debacle around. There is no crash program on anything like the scale needed, for example, to rebuild the rotting infrastructure — a big-time potential source of jobs.
The FINANCIAL INDUSTRY IS SEEN AS ESSENTIAL, but MILLIONS of AMERICAN WORKERS ARE NOT. THEY are EXPENDABLE.
IF as MUCH ATTENTION, energy and resources [MONEY!] were given to the effort to put Americans back to work as has been given to putting the banking industry back on its feet, you’d have fewer Champagne toasts on Wall Street but a lot more high-fiving in family homes across the country.
====================================
Note: Sam Stein, at HuffingtonPost.com in his "Top 10 Least Known Obama 100-Day Achievements," credits the Obama administration with getting the transportation sector infrastructure (roads, highways, bridges) spending out-the-door and on the way swiftly:
Obama's First 100 Days: 10 Achievements You Didn't Know About
by Sam Stein, HuffingtonPost.com, Apr. 29, 2009a
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/obamas-first-100-days-10_n_192603.html
1. Obama administration has... appropriated $19 billion in the stimulus package to help implement an electronic medical record system.
3. Transportation: Since the passage of the economic stimulus package in mid-February, the Obama Department of Transportation has approved 2,500 highway projects. The movement of stimulus money out the door has been as swift as it has been effective: $9.3 billion has been spent in all 50 states. Touting its impact, DOT officials say 260,000 jobs are expected from this investment. And with competition for contracts fierce, the department is set to approve even more projects than previously envisioned. "There will be more money for additional transportation projects," said the official.
4. Education: Maligned for its handling of the financial and banking crises, the Obama Treasury Department has nevertheless implemented policies with real qualitative and quantitative impact on debt-burdened families. Chief among those was a $2,500 tax credit to help offset the cost of tuition (among other expenses) for those seeking a college education. Nearly five million families are expected to save $9 billion, according to Treasury officials
7. Cities: Through the Recovery Act, DOJ secured $2 billion for Byrne Grants, which funds anti-gang and anti-gun task forces. The money, cut during the Bush years, is expected to have massive ramifications on inner-city crime and violence.
--------------------------------------------------
BUT! Mr. Stein inadvertently seconds our own criticism of Obama's first 100 days , writing: < The money is PALTRY compared to the HUNDREDS of BILLIONS set aside for an overhaul of the health care system in the budget. >
Not only are the above monies "PALTRY" compared with the HUNDEDS of BILLIONS poured in to prop up the FRAUDULENT, NO audit balance sheets of the Big Banks, but here, too, Mr. Obama's "INVESTMENT BANKER" team defers to the BIG MONEY operators - the Obama "Health Care 'reform' plan does NOT focus on SINGLE PAYER, which means it will be GIVING BILLIONS of TAXPAYER dollars to the VERY INSURANCE COMPANIES and HMOs who have created DOUBLE-DIGIT health-care INFLATION, and "FOR PROFIT" DENIAL OF COVERAGE to patients when they face catastrophic illness, over the past decades.
"100th Day of the Obama administration,"
Bob Herbert's op-ed not only knocks-it-out-of-the-park... but is also a well-timed home run that salvages some much needed HONESTY from WHAT HAS BEEN a MAJOR MEDIA WHITEWASH of Obama's POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC FAILURE:
- the FAILURE to make a more positive impact on RISING UNEMPLOYMENT, & INCREASING LAYOFFS and job losses.
Should we point out that "Hitler looked good... in the early (WWII) war years, IF you did not look at his millions of victims," too?
Clearly, up until now, President Obama has been Riding the Wave... he has BENEFITED from the CORPORATE MEDIA PROPAGANDA machine that spent the past 8 years WHITEWASHING and COVERING-UP major scandal, failure, and abject, in-your-face CORRUPTION stories for the Bush White House, from Bush's CLOSE TIES to ENRON FRAUD, to Dick Cheney CONTINUING TO HOLD HALLIBURTON defered stock options - which went up in value with every NO-BID, NO OVERSIGHT contract that Cheney handed his "former" company.
For example, the Washington Post became famous during the Nixon impeachment days for RELENTLESSLY INVESTIGATING the LINKS between President Nixon and his ILLEGAL, "spy on the Democratic Party" Watergate burglers and (ex-) CIA "plumbers," among many other Dirty Tricks sponsored by and commissioned by President Nixon's re-election campaign. (Which of course was given the nickname "Committee to Re-Elect the President," or C.R.E.E.P. by determined Nixon critics.)
But, fast forward to George W. Bush's presidency, the Washington Post COULD NOT BOTHER to ask about - much less relentlessly investigate - "WHAT was it that CONVICTED BRIBER OF CONGRESS _JACK ABRAMOFF_ discussed with President Bush and the Bush White House, on his MANY VISITS and CALLS to the Bush White House?"
You can hardly ask for a better example of the WASHINGTON POST's INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION, than that it REFUSED to inquire what CONVICTED FELON Jack Abramoff was asking of the Bush White House, in the months and weeks before he was indicted and convicted for BRIBERY !!
THAT is the INSTITUTIONAL BIAS that is making Mr. Obama look good in his "First 100 Days" - the Corporate Media notion that the LITTLE PEOPLE who are FIRED, LAID OFF, and run out of unemployment insurance, JUST DON'T COUNT !!
Here's the NEW YORK TIMES joining GOLDMAN SACHS in GLOATING about "BILLION DOLLAR BONUSES!" the Christmas of 2006 - as BOTH the Times, and Goldman-Sachs, IGNORE the looming and building FORECLOSURE Crisis, that ALREADY by December 2006 was seeing THOUSANDS of American families EVICTED FROM THEIR HOMES, "Huge Profit at Goldman Brings Big Bonuses"
BUT! Even by December 2006, Goldman-Sachs "PROFITS" were NOT as "profitable" as it appeared, for even by early 2007, Goldman-Sachs and the other New York mega-banksters were PROPPING UP their balance sheets - and ARTIFICIALLY INFLATING their "assets," executive bonuses, and fraudulent "profits" - by a process that we call "back door bailouts" - the FED BANKS pumping HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars of money into the Big NY banks, by the process of LIQUIDITY INJECTIONS and other "newly created mechanisms."
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/7483/Fed-Heads-Back-to-the-Well-Will-It-Run-Dry
THIS is EXACTLY what TIMMY GEITHNER was doing when he was Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York - he was dishing out TENS upon HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of created-out-of-thin-air "dollars" into the bank vaults of those large banks which own the _PRIVATE_ Federal Reserve banks - a magic creation and disbursement of HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars to the electronic bank vaults of Citi bank and Goldman-Sachs and Chase and Bank of America, that MADE their profits look solid, but were in fact CREATED by FED RESERVE FIAT out of thin air!
And it is PRECISELY for this reason - that Timmy Geithner was GOOD at GIVING AWAY FREE MONEY - that President Obama's top advisors - ROBERT RUBIN, LAWRENCE SUMMERS, and RAHM EMANUEL (ALL "investment bankers," if you consider 'mergers & acquistions' takeovers using insane LEVERAGE levels, and other forms of casino gambling, to be "investments") - insisted that President Obama select Tim Geithner to be his Treasury Secretary - Since the days that Geithner was first Rubin's, and then Summers', protege when Geithner worked at Treasury under then Treasury Secretaries Rubin & Summers, Geithner's REAL job has been to do WHATEVER MAKES GOLDMAN-SACHS, CITI, and the Big Banks happy.
While the above linked, exceptionally informative article talks about:
"the Fed Reserve has 'injected' ONE TRILLION DOLLARS in [to] the financial system" in just the 9 months preceeding March 2008
(i.e. long after the Goldman-Sachs BONUS BILLIONS of Christmas 2006),
it also notes the "'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' crowd believes the Fed is merely postponing and prolonging the pain by delaying the inevitable comeuppance for Wall Street's debt and derivatives binge."
The Big Bankers' "DEBT and DERIVATIVES BINGE" under President George W. Bush has been replaced by a Wall Street
"BAILOUTS and SOCIALIZED WELFARE BINGE"
since President Obama took office 100 days ago!
All the above just the back-story to Mr. Herbert's KNOCKOUT PUNCH conclusion of his today's op-ed marking THE SINGULAR, DISMAL FAILURE of the Obama administration: IF President Obama had spent HALF as much time, energy, and money propping up EMPLOYMENT, with REAL, IMMEDIATE JOBS SPENDING, instead of pouring TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars down the WALL STREET BANKSTERS black hole of "DEBT, DERIVATIVES, & BONUS BINGES" - THOUSANDS of American families NOW FACING CATASTROPHE would still be employed, and adding to the economic numbers, instead of detracting from them.
==================================
WORKERS FORCED TO WALK the PLANK by PRESIDENT OBAMA and his GOLDMAN-SACHS BANKSTER team: RAHM EMANUEL, Robt. RUBIN, LAWRENCE SUMMERS, Gary Gensler, Neal Wolin, Mark Patterson, former "Senator from the credit-card state" (and current VP) Joe Biden, et al:
Workers Walk the Plank
by BOB HERBERT, NYTimes op-ed columnist
April 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/opinion/28herbert.html
The EMPLOYMENT ISSUE is _NOT_ BEING ADDRESSED with the LEVEL OF URGENCY that is warranted. [by PRESIDENT OBAMA's finance-"economics" team]
For all the TALK of green jobs, there is NO LARGE-SCALE creative EFFORT to turn this employment debacle around. There is no crash program on anything like the scale needed, for example, to rebuild the rotting infrastructure — a big-time potential source of jobs.
The FINANCIAL INDUSTRY IS SEEN AS ESSENTIAL, but MILLIONS of AMERICAN WORKERS ARE NOT. THEY are EXPENDABLE.
IF as MUCH ATTENTION, energy and resources [MONEY!] were given to the effort to put Americans back to work as has been given to putting the banking industry back on its feet, you’d have fewer Champagne toasts on Wall Street but a lot more high-fiving in family homes across the country.
====================================
Note: Sam Stein, at HuffingtonPost.com in his "Top 10 Least Known Obama 100-Day Achievements," credits the Obama administration with getting the transportation sector infrastructure (roads, highways, bridges) spending out-the-door and on the way swiftly:
Obama's First 100 Days: 10 Achievements You Didn't Know About
by Sam Stein, HuffingtonPost.com, Apr. 29, 2009a
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/obamas-first-100-days-10_n_192603.html
1. Obama administration has... appropriated $19 billion in the stimulus package to help implement an electronic medical record system.
3. Transportation: Since the passage of the economic stimulus package in mid-February, the Obama Department of Transportation has approved 2,500 highway projects. The movement of stimulus money out the door has been as swift as it has been effective: $9.3 billion has been spent in all 50 states. Touting its impact, DOT officials say 260,000 jobs are expected from this investment. And with competition for contracts fierce, the department is set to approve even more projects than previously envisioned. "There will be more money for additional transportation projects," said the official.
4. Education: Maligned for its handling of the financial and banking crises, the Obama Treasury Department has nevertheless implemented policies with real qualitative and quantitative impact on debt-burdened families. Chief among those was a $2,500 tax credit to help offset the cost of tuition (among other expenses) for those seeking a college education. Nearly five million families are expected to save $9 billion, according to Treasury officials
7. Cities: Through the Recovery Act, DOJ secured $2 billion for Byrne Grants, which funds anti-gang and anti-gun task forces. The money, cut during the Bush years, is expected to have massive ramifications on inner-city crime and violence.
--------------------------------------------------
BUT! Mr. Stein inadvertently seconds our own criticism of Obama's first 100 days , writing: < The money is PALTRY compared to the HUNDREDS of BILLIONS set aside for an overhaul of the health care system in the budget. >
Not only are the above monies "PALTRY" compared with the HUNDEDS of BILLIONS poured in to prop up the FRAUDULENT, NO audit balance sheets of the Big Banks, but here, too, Mr. Obama's "INVESTMENT BANKER" team defers to the BIG MONEY operators - the Obama "Health Care 'reform' plan does NOT focus on SINGLE PAYER, which means it will be GIVING BILLIONS of TAXPAYER dollars to the VERY INSURANCE COMPANIES and HMOs who have created DOUBLE-DIGIT health-care INFLATION, and "FOR PROFIT" DENIAL OF COVERAGE to patients when they face catastrophic illness, over the past decades.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Ed Schultz SINGLE-HANDEDLY whips Dems to LEAD America in SINGLE-PAYER Health-care...
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
It would be NICE if Democrats REALLY WERE "LEADERS" on the issues & policies that the AMERICAN PEOPLE want, deserve, and need, but the sad fact is that under the tender mercies of the Democrats, not only did Republicans push through TAX-CUTS for BILLIONAIRES... in time of expanding wars! - but it was most certainly NOT the Democrats who STOOD UP for SOCIAL SECURITY, it was GRASS-ROOTS VOTERS who shot-down the Bush-GOP "PRIVATIZE Social Security" efforts, thank god.
Just to back up our contention, PRESIDENT OBAMA himself, has taken up where BUSH left off - talking about "REFORMING" Social Security!
With LESS THAN 1% ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS, the American people do NOT want "SOCIAL SECURITY 'REFORM'" - they want federal (congressional) legislators to KEEP THEIR GREEDY, cowering, LOBBYIST-subservient mitts OFF of workers' Social Security.
NOTE: Here's how STUPID and PATHETIC the COWERING DC Democrats can be:
IF RUN CORRECTLY, Social Security is NOT a TAX, but a form of SAVINGS (deferred savings) AND an disability insurance plan.
The foundation of "FREE MARKET CAPITALISM" is that you get what you pay for (or invest in), but when critics ASSAIL Social Security, they are IMPLYING that it is a REDISTRIBUTION of wealth. That is true ONLY for retirees who live long past their actuarial averages, but for the majority of Social Security recipients, it is either the DEFERED SAVINGS of a PENSION plan, or the insurance payout for disability.
DEMOCRATS can NOT make these simple arguments, because they don't even try to!
They, like much of the American public, have been CONDITIONED by THREE DECADES of BACKLASH to post-Vietnam & Civil Rights protest, the well-funded Right-Wing corporate media has had MONOPOLY CONTROL of the American 'news' media, and has had 20+ years to refine and polish their misleading (and often demagogue) media message.
THAT is why it is up to Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz, and other OUTSIDE of Washington commentators NOT affiliated with the "Democratic" Party, to SPEAK UP for what the DEMOCRATIC Party SHOULD be advocating!
Democrats TAKE ORDERS and DICTATION from THESE IDIOTS?! Arlen Specter "Defection" a plus for Dems... BUT shows their SUBSERVIENCE to GOP agenda..
Today, the huge political news was that REPUBLICAN SENATOR Arlen Specter "DEFECTED" today from the Republican Party, and, at the wooing of Vice President Joe Biden, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, and (__?__) has joined the Democratic Senate Caucus.
But the single most informative tidbit we have seen or heard about the Specter defection was tonight on Chris Mathews' MSNBC "Slobber-Ball" talk show (sigh, "Hardball" 'news' show) - where they played a clip of Senator Specter announcing his defection today....
And specter said, that if REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS had not FORCED Repub. Senator Lincoln CHAFEE to SPEND A FORTUNE fighting a right-wing "CLUB FOR GROWTH" challenger in the GOP primary, Chafee could probably have WON his re-election bid in 2006... and the Republicans would STILL HAVE CONTROLED THE SENATE leading into the 2008 elections.
Whether the GOP would have retained a Senate Majority after the 2008 election, and Senator Specter would have retained his Senate Chairmanship after 2008, is conjecture, yet none-the-less Specter did rattle off a good exposition of INCUMBENT Republican Senators who were DEFEATED or FORCED TO SPEND A FORTUNE fighting off Right-Wing "CLUB FOR GROWTH, THERE IS NOT TOMORROW, MONEY is the ONLY Holy quantity in politics" lunacy.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT HERE, is that "CENTRIST" and "Blue-Dog" and "righty" "Democrats" CONTINUE TO TAKE THEIR ORDERS from the FAR-RIGHT "loony" WING... of the REPUBLICAN Party!
Including of course "Democrat" Senator MARY LANDRIEU, who today joins fellow "Dem" Senator EVAN BAYH... in "expressing deep skepticism" about the new BANKRUPTCY REFORM Bill working its way through Congress...
... WITH SENATOR LANDRIEU standing up for one of the most MISTRUSTED groups in America today, the BANKERS who are opposed to the bankruptcy reform bill!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/two-key-dems-express-pess_n_192400.html
WHY are Democrats - Landrieu & Bahy just the most obvious examples - STILL TAKING DICTATION from the disintigrating remnants of the KARL ROVE Right-Wing REPUBLICAN PROPAGANDA MACHINE??
- who, on ISSUE after ISSUE after ISSUE after ISSUE - banking deregulation and Stock-market oversight, the notion that "TOUGHER FUEL MILEAGE" requirements woud bankrupt the auto-companies, torture and surveillance and offshore tax-dodges for billionaires - hold positions that are DEEPLY UNPOPULAR and wrong for America.
But the single most informative tidbit we have seen or heard about the Specter defection was tonight on Chris Mathews' MSNBC "Slobber-Ball" talk show (sigh, "Hardball" 'news' show) - where they played a clip of Senator Specter announcing his defection today....
And specter said, that if REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS had not FORCED Repub. Senator Lincoln CHAFEE to SPEND A FORTUNE fighting a right-wing "CLUB FOR GROWTH" challenger in the GOP primary, Chafee could probably have WON his re-election bid in 2006... and the Republicans would STILL HAVE CONTROLED THE SENATE leading into the 2008 elections.
Whether the GOP would have retained a Senate Majority after the 2008 election, and Senator Specter would have retained his Senate Chairmanship after 2008, is conjecture, yet none-the-less Specter did rattle off a good exposition of INCUMBENT Republican Senators who were DEFEATED or FORCED TO SPEND A FORTUNE fighting off Right-Wing "CLUB FOR GROWTH, THERE IS NOT TOMORROW, MONEY is the ONLY Holy quantity in politics" lunacy.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT HERE, is that "CENTRIST" and "Blue-Dog" and "righty" "Democrats" CONTINUE TO TAKE THEIR ORDERS from the FAR-RIGHT "loony" WING... of the REPUBLICAN Party!
Including of course "Democrat" Senator MARY LANDRIEU, who today joins fellow "Dem" Senator EVAN BAYH... in "expressing deep skepticism" about the new BANKRUPTCY REFORM Bill working its way through Congress...
... WITH SENATOR LANDRIEU standing up for one of the most MISTRUSTED groups in America today, the BANKERS who are opposed to the bankruptcy reform bill!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/two-key-dems-express-pess_n_192400.html
WHY are Democrats - Landrieu & Bahy just the most obvious examples - STILL TAKING DICTATION from the disintigrating remnants of the KARL ROVE Right-Wing REPUBLICAN PROPAGANDA MACHINE??
- who, on ISSUE after ISSUE after ISSUE after ISSUE - banking deregulation and Stock-market oversight, the notion that "TOUGHER FUEL MILEAGE" requirements woud bankrupt the auto-companies, torture and surveillance and offshore tax-dodges for billionaires - hold positions that are DEEPLY UNPOPULAR and wrong for America.
The CIA, the WASHINGTON POST, and the ISRAEL WAR & big finance LOBBY - JOINED at the hip....
ho humm. Writing that "the radical-right Wing Israel War Lobby" (i.e. the LIKUD Party, which prayed for, incited, and applauded THE ASSASSINATION of Prime Minister Rabin in 200_) is SYNONYMOUS with the NEW YORK TIMES and WASHINGTON POST, is sort of like writing "the sky is full of air, and the ocean is full of seawater."
If you need a real source to expose a few tidbits of this vast ocean of fact, here's an excellent one -
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/031509.html
- by a "Washington Insider" who helped to break the "IRAN-CONTRA" scandal (i.e. "ILLEGAL Republican/Isreal-lobby WARS in Central & South Ameica, beyond the oversight or even knowledge of Congressional approval") back in the earl 1980s.
(note: The US Constitution SPECIFICALLY grants the power to declare and fund war to the US Congress - NOT to the ISRAEL, the war-lobby or right-wing Republican War-Party.)
Well, SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE, and, today, nearly THREE DECADES LATER, the ISRAEL LOBBY and the Republican WAR-PARTY, STILL take it as "their right" to dominate and control the US government, especially where FOREIGN WARS are concerned.
(In this case, if EXPANSION of US wars in Mideast and even WITHIN the borders of the former Soviet Union are TEMPORARILY on hold because of the American public's REJECTION of the Republican STRANGLEHOLD on Congress, the Senate, and the White House (and the vast majority of the US judiciary, corporate America, and state and local governments) in 2006 and 2008 elections - then there is ALWAYS the CIA RUNNING COVERT WARS, BEYOND the view of Congress, which is any even - "Democratic" Party not-with-standing, STILL, ALSO owned by the Israel War-Lobby.)
(note: Even the nominally "opposition" "CHANGE!" candidate Barack Obama White House is now, and was IMMEDIATELY, DOMINATED by the AIPAC neo-cons, in the person of _Chief of Staff_ RAHM EMANUEL and the Obama Goldman-Sachs dominated financial/"economics" team, among others, including AIPAC- & banking-friendly VP former Senator from-the-credit-card-state Joe Biden.)
===============================================
CIA and the Washington Post: Joined at the Hip
Written by Melvin A. Goodman
Monday, 27 April 2009 00:00
By Melvin A. Goodman
http://www.pubrecord.org/commentary/867-cia-and-the-washington-post-joined-at-the-hip.html
Under the stewardship of Fred Hiatt, the editorial and op-ed pages of the Washington Post have gradually moved to the right. Post editorials and op-eds have defended the decision to go to war in Iraq; opposed any improvement in bilateral relations with Russia; refused to acknowledge Israel’s misuse of military power in the Middle East; and lobbied against the need for investigation of the detention and interrogation programs of the Bush administration.
As part of the campaign to prevent a rigorous examination of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (read: “torture and abuse”), the Washington Post's editorial pages have been particularly protective of the Central Intelligence Agency and its senior leaders--the ideological drivers for torture and extraordinary renditions policies. These CIA leaders, particularly deputy director Steven Kappes and acting general counsel John Rizzo, are not trying to protect the reputation and mission of the CIA; they are trying to protect themselves.... (continued)
http://www.pubrecord.org/commentary/867-cia-and-the-washington-post-joined-at-the-hip.html
If you need a real source to expose a few tidbits of this vast ocean of fact, here's an excellent one -
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/031509.html
- by a "Washington Insider" who helped to break the "IRAN-CONTRA" scandal (i.e. "ILLEGAL Republican/Isreal-lobby WARS in Central & South Ameica, beyond the oversight or even knowledge of Congressional approval") back in the earl 1980s.
(note: The US Constitution SPECIFICALLY grants the power to declare and fund war to the US Congress - NOT to the ISRAEL, the war-lobby or right-wing Republican War-Party.)
Well, SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE, and, today, nearly THREE DECADES LATER, the ISRAEL LOBBY and the Republican WAR-PARTY, STILL take it as "their right" to dominate and control the US government, especially where FOREIGN WARS are concerned.
(In this case, if EXPANSION of US wars in Mideast and even WITHIN the borders of the former Soviet Union are TEMPORARILY on hold because of the American public's REJECTION of the Republican STRANGLEHOLD on Congress, the Senate, and the White House (and the vast majority of the US judiciary, corporate America, and state and local governments) in 2006 and 2008 elections - then there is ALWAYS the CIA RUNNING COVERT WARS, BEYOND the view of Congress, which is any even - "Democratic" Party not-with-standing, STILL, ALSO owned by the Israel War-Lobby.)
(note: Even the nominally "opposition" "CHANGE!" candidate Barack Obama White House is now, and was IMMEDIATELY, DOMINATED by the AIPAC neo-cons, in the person of _Chief of Staff_ RAHM EMANUEL and the Obama Goldman-Sachs dominated financial/"economics" team, among others, including AIPAC- & banking-friendly VP former Senator from-the-credit-card-state Joe Biden.)
===============================================
CIA and the Washington Post: Joined at the Hip
Written by Melvin A. Goodman
Monday, 27 April 2009 00:00
By Melvin A. Goodman
http://www.pubrecord.org/commentary/867-cia-and-the-washington-post-joined-at-the-hip.html
Under the stewardship of Fred Hiatt, the editorial and op-ed pages of the Washington Post have gradually moved to the right. Post editorials and op-eds have defended the decision to go to war in Iraq; opposed any improvement in bilateral relations with Russia; refused to acknowledge Israel’s misuse of military power in the Middle East; and lobbied against the need for investigation of the detention and interrogation programs of the Bush administration.
As part of the campaign to prevent a rigorous examination of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (read: “torture and abuse”), the Washington Post's editorial pages have been particularly protective of the Central Intelligence Agency and its senior leaders--the ideological drivers for torture and extraordinary renditions policies. These CIA leaders, particularly deputy director Steven Kappes and acting general counsel John Rizzo, are not trying to protect the reputation and mission of the CIA; they are trying to protect themselves.... (continued)
http://www.pubrecord.org/commentary/867-cia-and-the-washington-post-joined-at-the-hip.html
America as a Nation of LIARS & INCOMPETENTS: We Accept Minnesota's UNFINISHED Senate Election Count as "Acceptable" !!
JUST HOW STUPID, HOW CORRUPT, HOW VENAL, and HOW INCOMPETENT has American society, and America's "leadership" (and specifically the "leadership" of the two major politcal parties, the "Democrats" and the Republicans) become over the past 2 decades - ???
SO stupid, SO venal, SO incompetent, and SO corrupt, that we Americans, in the year 2009, are expected to take as "SITUATION NORMAL - THAT's HOW IT IS!"
that FIVE, almost SIX MONTHS after the conclusion of the Senate election races of 2006, WE STILL HAVE NOT RESOLVED THE WINNER of Minnesota's election race between uber-Neo-Con warmongering police-state Republican Liar NORM COLEMAN, and his neo-con-lite Democratic Party opponent (former comedian, author, and talk show host) Al Franken!
AMERICANS, and their political "leaders," and the corporate press-media liars and propagandist, take it as "SITUATION NORMAL" that American in the first decade of the 21st century CAN NOT RESOLVE A CLOSE ELECTION,
because Republicans feel that they are ENTITLED to shout, whine, scream, moan, cry, & pout every time they lose a close election... even though this century, and this milenia, started with REPUBLICAN George W. Bush and Dick Cheney supporters labelling Al Gore after the (stolen) November 2000 elections as the "SORE LOSER-MAN"!
And, INSTITUTIONALLY, the COWARDLY, CORRUPT, COMPLACENT, and Neo-Con dominated (Israel lobby, war-lobby, police-state lobby, and big-finance lobby) "Democrat" Party, STILL has NO ANSWER to REPUBLICAN ELECTION THUGGERY besides "patience" and letting serial vote-recount lawsuits wind their way through a corrupt "conservative" Federalist Society (Republican) dominated courts & legal-challenge apparatus!
THAT IS HOW IT IS in America: as BOTH parties move towards AUTHORITARIAN, MONEY-PARTY DOMINANCE of ALL sectors of government, media, industry, and especially the financial thieves and robber-barons who DOMINATE American society at the apex of the big-finance web, the CHARADE that America actually is a DEMOCRACY, FALLS APART under the INABILITY of America to find a winner in close elections, IF Republican THUGS can claim a shred of a right to STEAL an election!
The above just the prelude to this article about ONE specific aspect of America's INSANELY CORRUPT psuedo-democracy, our ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES which are RIFE with FRAUD.
The cowardly, complacent, INSTITUTIONALLY CORRUPT "Democrat" "Leadership" SIMPLY CAN NOT MAKE a persuasive argument that America SHOULD DO BETTER than serial REPUBLICAN ELECTIONS HIJACKINGS, because the Democrat "LEADERS" Like NANCY PELOSI, HARRY REID, JAY ROCKEFELLER, CHUCK SCHUMER, Joe Lieberman, and JANE HARMAN, are FAR CLOSER to the AIPAC (Israel) LOBBY, to the BIG MONEY LOBBYISTS and donors, and to the AUTHORITARIAN "war-on-terror" POLICE-STATE LOBBY
(i.e. - TO THE REPUBLICAN AGENDA!) than they are to working-stiff Americans ROBBED of their votes (in some critical states, counties, & voting precincts), EVERY election cycle!
(Note: California "Democrat" Congresswoman JANE HARMON, long suspected of HELPING the BUSH-CHENEY Re-ELECTION of 2004 by lobbying the NEW YORK TIMES to WITHHOLD PUBLICATION of the Bush administration's ILLEGAL SURVIELLANCE story UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION was over, is now the center of attention re those same NSA wiretaps on her own conversations! And specifically, that she was actively WORKING WITH AGENTS OF the ISRAEL GOVERNMENT, in order to secure THEIR SUPPORT for her bid for the CONGRESS INTEL COMMITTEE CHAIR after Democrats won the majority in the 2006 election!)
So - while IRELAND can go BACK to PAPER BALLOTS, to insure _democratic_ and ELECTION AUTHENTICITY, AMERICANS - the self-proclaimed WORLD LEADERS - can NOT run an election without the BIG-FINANCE and WAR-LOBBY claiming a VETO power over ANY election close enough for them to WHINE and CRY about !! !
===================================================
Irish REJECT E-Voting, GO BACK TO PAPER
The Irish government has given up on e-voting and is moving back to paper. The cost of continuing with the failed system is too high, and the crisis-stricken country is too cash-strapped.
By Jon Stokes
updated April 24, 2009
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/irish-reject-e-voting-go-back-to-paper.ars
Ireland's decision that it can't bear the continued costs of e-voting is merely the latest in an ongoing string of such decisions, in which [US] states like OHIO and FLORIDA have said that it's just too expensive to limp along with what is, in essence, A FAILED, POORLY PLANNED, [INACCURATE, UNRELIABLE!] large-scale IT infrastructure deployment. Few governments that scrap their existing e-voting systems go all the way back to paper like Ireland, though. In the case of Florida, for instance, the state moved totally to optical scan machines (AND THEN IT STILL MANAGED TO SCREW UP AN ELECTION). [!!!]
------------------------------------------
BEING AN AMERICAN in 2009, means being in a country that CLAIMS to "LEAD" in "freedom" and "democracy" - but CAN NOT RUN accurate and honest elections without hysterics and running to the CORRUPT, "FEDERALIST SOCIETY" (right-wing Republican) dominated CORRUPT US Courts system for every close election !!
(Just to repeat the final link in the above article, here is that link again:
EVEN IN 2008, after the state of Florida had a DISGRACEFUL electoral-vote count in Florida District 13 in 2006, where over 18,000 votes were registered as "undervotes," (i.e. almost certainly not counted correctly - the "undervote" tallies for similar-sized districts was always below the low 1,500 range) - AGAIN, in 2008, the ENTIRE ELECTION OUTCOME for one judicial race was in dispute, nearly THREE-THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED votes were NOT counted in a mandatory vote recount, after the first tabulation declared one candidate the winner by just 17 votes.)
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2008/09/floridas-latest-e-voting-crisis-likely-due-to-human-error.ars
SO stupid, SO venal, SO incompetent, and SO corrupt, that we Americans, in the year 2009, are expected to take as "SITUATION NORMAL - THAT's HOW IT IS!"
that FIVE, almost SIX MONTHS after the conclusion of the Senate election races of 2006, WE STILL HAVE NOT RESOLVED THE WINNER of Minnesota's election race between uber-Neo-Con warmongering police-state Republican Liar NORM COLEMAN, and his neo-con-lite Democratic Party opponent (former comedian, author, and talk show host) Al Franken!
AMERICANS, and their political "leaders," and the corporate press-media liars and propagandist, take it as "SITUATION NORMAL" that American in the first decade of the 21st century CAN NOT RESOLVE A CLOSE ELECTION,
because Republicans feel that they are ENTITLED to shout, whine, scream, moan, cry, & pout every time they lose a close election... even though this century, and this milenia, started with REPUBLICAN George W. Bush and Dick Cheney supporters labelling Al Gore after the (stolen) November 2000 elections as the "SORE LOSER-MAN"!
And, INSTITUTIONALLY, the COWARDLY, CORRUPT, COMPLACENT, and Neo-Con dominated (Israel lobby, war-lobby, police-state lobby, and big-finance lobby) "Democrat" Party, STILL has NO ANSWER to REPUBLICAN ELECTION THUGGERY besides "patience" and letting serial vote-recount lawsuits wind their way through a corrupt "conservative" Federalist Society (Republican) dominated courts & legal-challenge apparatus!
THAT IS HOW IT IS in America: as BOTH parties move towards AUTHORITARIAN, MONEY-PARTY DOMINANCE of ALL sectors of government, media, industry, and especially the financial thieves and robber-barons who DOMINATE American society at the apex of the big-finance web, the CHARADE that America actually is a DEMOCRACY, FALLS APART under the INABILITY of America to find a winner in close elections, IF Republican THUGS can claim a shred of a right to STEAL an election!
The above just the prelude to this article about ONE specific aspect of America's INSANELY CORRUPT psuedo-democracy, our ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES which are RIFE with FRAUD.
The cowardly, complacent, INSTITUTIONALLY CORRUPT "Democrat" "Leadership" SIMPLY CAN NOT MAKE a persuasive argument that America SHOULD DO BETTER than serial REPUBLICAN ELECTIONS HIJACKINGS, because the Democrat "LEADERS" Like NANCY PELOSI, HARRY REID, JAY ROCKEFELLER, CHUCK SCHUMER, Joe Lieberman, and JANE HARMAN, are FAR CLOSER to the AIPAC (Israel) LOBBY, to the BIG MONEY LOBBYISTS and donors, and to the AUTHORITARIAN "war-on-terror" POLICE-STATE LOBBY
(i.e. - TO THE REPUBLICAN AGENDA!) than they are to working-stiff Americans ROBBED of their votes (in some critical states, counties, & voting precincts), EVERY election cycle!
(Note: California "Democrat" Congresswoman JANE HARMON, long suspected of HELPING the BUSH-CHENEY Re-ELECTION of 2004 by lobbying the NEW YORK TIMES to WITHHOLD PUBLICATION of the Bush administration's ILLEGAL SURVIELLANCE story UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION was over, is now the center of attention re those same NSA wiretaps on her own conversations! And specifically, that she was actively WORKING WITH AGENTS OF the ISRAEL GOVERNMENT, in order to secure THEIR SUPPORT for her bid for the CONGRESS INTEL COMMITTEE CHAIR after Democrats won the majority in the 2006 election!)
So - while IRELAND can go BACK to PAPER BALLOTS, to insure _democratic_ and ELECTION AUTHENTICITY, AMERICANS - the self-proclaimed WORLD LEADERS - can NOT run an election without the BIG-FINANCE and WAR-LOBBY claiming a VETO power over ANY election close enough for them to WHINE and CRY about !! !
===================================================
Irish REJECT E-Voting, GO BACK TO PAPER
The Irish government has given up on e-voting and is moving back to paper. The cost of continuing with the failed system is too high, and the crisis-stricken country is too cash-strapped.
By Jon Stokes
updated April 24, 2009
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/irish-reject-e-voting-go-back-to-paper.ars
Ireland's decision that it can't bear the continued costs of e-voting is merely the latest in an ongoing string of such decisions, in which [US] states like OHIO and FLORIDA have said that it's just too expensive to limp along with what is, in essence, A FAILED, POORLY PLANNED, [INACCURATE, UNRELIABLE!] large-scale IT infrastructure deployment. Few governments that scrap their existing e-voting systems go all the way back to paper like Ireland, though. In the case of Florida, for instance, the state moved totally to optical scan machines (AND THEN IT STILL MANAGED TO SCREW UP AN ELECTION). [!!!]
------------------------------------------
BEING AN AMERICAN in 2009, means being in a country that CLAIMS to "LEAD" in "freedom" and "democracy" - but CAN NOT RUN accurate and honest elections without hysterics and running to the CORRUPT, "FEDERALIST SOCIETY" (right-wing Republican) dominated CORRUPT US Courts system for every close election !!
(Just to repeat the final link in the above article, here is that link again:
EVEN IN 2008, after the state of Florida had a DISGRACEFUL electoral-vote count in Florida District 13 in 2006, where over 18,000 votes were registered as "undervotes," (i.e. almost certainly not counted correctly - the "undervote" tallies for similar-sized districts was always below the low 1,500 range) - AGAIN, in 2008, the ENTIRE ELECTION OUTCOME for one judicial race was in dispute, nearly THREE-THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED votes were NOT counted in a mandatory vote recount, after the first tabulation declared one candidate the winner by just 17 votes.)
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2008/09/floridas-latest-e-voting-crisis-likely-due-to-human-error.ars
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Obama and Holder IGNORE the LYNCH-MOB PROSECUTION of DON SEIGELMAN....
NEW: http://www.politicalprosecutions.org/ Just after we wrote the below comment, "President Obama & Eric Holder IGNORE the POLITICAL LYNCHING of former Alabama Dem. Governor by KARL ROVE on behalf of the Bush-Cheney White House"; we ran in to THIS website and video: detailing how in the 8 years of the Bush-Cheney White House, Karl Rove got REPUBLICAN JUDGES to try DEMOCRATIC Party officials charged with amazingly fine-print criminal charges... and in case after case after case after case, the REPUBLICAN JUDGES found the DEMOCRATIC Defendents GUILTY - just as LERUA CANARY, the WIFE of KARL ROVE's FRIEND and CAREER REPUBLICAN ACTIVISTS William (Bill) CANARY - tried Democratic Governor DON SIEGELMAN, before a REPUBLICAN JUDGE in Alabama....
KARL ROVE TRIED TO SET UP AN AMERICAN DICTATORSHIP, and there are up to 3,500 - THREE THOUSAND+ VICTIMS - of Rove's Political JIHAD - and Mr. Rove is himself CONTEMPTUOUS of the law, SCORNING a Congressional Subpeoena for MONTHS.
http://www.politicalprosecutions.org
It's pretty bad when the NEO-CON NEW YORK TIMES: LIES-TO-WAR, WHITEWASH TORTURE, TAX-CUTS FOR RICH in-time-of-war, KANGAROO COURTS for FEMALE privates charged with "abuse" WHILE the president & vice-president openly BRAG about their 'right' to TORTURE PRISONERS TO DEATH...
.... when the NY Times has an opportunity to get on a moral soap-box and chide the administration to SEE TO JUSTICE...
...but in the case of this "REVIEW the DON SIEGELMAN CONVICTION by KARL ROVE's FRIENDS in the Republican-dominated ALABAMA US ATTORNEY's OFFICE" op-ed, the NY Times is doing exactly that.
Indeed, the Times notices that President Obama's Attorney General, ERIC HOLDER, has recently DROPPED ALL CHARGES against former Alaska Republican Senator TED STEVENS... but thus far, Mr. Holder and Mr. Obama REFUSE to SEE TO JUSTICE in the DON SIEGELMAN case.
and the PROOF of the POLITICAL LYNCHING nature of the Siegelman conviction is EASY to ascertain: Siegelman was CONVICTED of "PUTTING A CAMPAIGN DONOR on an Alabama medical/health-care oversight board."
BY THAT STANDARD, EVERY Republican who has ever held Executive office in the past 100 years should be doing TWENTY YEARS IN PRISON!!
The OBAMA/HOLDER DOUBLE STANDARD of "justice" re the Don Seigelman case is also apparent in another, equally important area (as if you could have an issue 'more important' than POLITICAL LYNCHINGS of a rival, popularly elected state executive officer):
and that is, that MARTHA STEWART was SENT TO PRISON by the BUSH-CHENEY Department of "Justice" and SEC for SELLING A LOUSY $55,000 of ImClone stock - that Mrs. Stewart had EVERY RIGHT TO SELL, at ANY TIME, on ANY 'TIP', from ANYONE, because she had NO, ZERO _fiduciary connection_ to ImClone company.
The CHARGE the insanely CORRUPT Bush FBI, SEC, and DoJ eventually won Stewart's conviction on was "LYING TO FBI & SEC investigators."
BY _THAT_ STANDARD, the ENTIRE BUSH ADMINISTRATION should be doing LIFE in prison! Bush SENIOR ADVISOR (and concurrent VP Cheney _CHIEF OF STAFF_ I. Lewis 'Scooter' LIBBY was CONVICTED - of PERJURY and OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, by a SYMPATHETIC Washington DC jury - and never saw a day of jail time!
Needless to say, BY THE STANDARDS of the MARTHA STEWART CONVICTION, THREE-QUARTERS of Wall Street's Big Bank executives SHOULD BE IN PRISON, for the perjurous ACCOUNTING and FRAUDULENT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS that have created this economic crisis, with at least TWELVE TRILLION DOLLARS of "real" American investor savings, pension funds, and equity (not to mention home values) - "REAL" money invested by working Americans using their salaries and paychecks - that has VANISHED IN TO THIN AIR.
====================================================
Which, of course, leads to the question, "WHY are HOLDER and OBAMA OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE re a SWIFT REVIEW of the LYNCH-MOB PROSECUTION of Don Seigelman (to repeat, CONVICTED of something that EVERY Republican governor and president does 1,000 times in each & every term of office), and "WHERE are the SWIFT PROSECUTIONS and INDICTMENTS for FINANCIAL FRAUD over the economic crisis and market meltdowns?"
AND THE SHORT, SIMPLE ANSWER is that Obama and Holder are BEHOLDEN TO their "BIG FINANCIAL BACKERS" - they do NOT want to expose the Siegelman LYNCHING, and they do NOT want to PROSECUTE FINANCIAL FRAUD and CORRUPTION, because their WALL STREET and specifically GOLDMAN-SACHS bankers DON'T WANT THEM TO.
(And that of course includes RAHM EMANUEL, Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, and whoever else it is in the Obama White House whispering sweet nothings into Mr. Obama's ear.)
(And, NO, the BERNIE MADOFF prosecution DOES NOT COUNT! He pleaded guilty in a PAINLESS non-trial, so his family would be able to continue to control the MILLIONS of dollars that will make his prison term far easier to bear.)
Mr. Obama & Mr. Holder agree with the "WASHINGTON ESTABLISHMENT 'consensus'" - ONE Standard of "justice" for KARL ROVE, GOLDMAN-SACHS, and Republican TORTURE lawyers & high officials, another ENTIRELY HARSHER standard of PUNITIVE "justice" for "UPPITY WOMEN" like Martha Stewart, and "UPPITY Liberal Democrats" who have the temerity to win high office in an uber-"red-state" FORMER SLAVE STATE, as Don Seigelman had the political talent and savvy to win the Governor's race in VERY "RED" state Alabama, boosting him to NUMBER TWO on the GOP HIT LIST in 2002...
....just behind Minnesota Democratic SENATOR Paul Wellstone, who "conveniently" DIED in an "airplane accident" just as he was about to WIN RE-ELECTION in 2002, and just before he would become THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE to the pending Bush-Cheney-PNAC IRAQ WAR, in the entire US Congress & political world.
NOTE to Mr. Holder & Mr. Obama: the Cardinal Rule of Washington is "POWER: USE IT, or LOOSE IT." LETTING Republicans GET AWAY WITH MURDER, while watching as your friends, supporters, and voters are intimidated with impunity, IS NOT a WISE application of power.
The Siegelman Case
NY Times editorial board (unsigned editorial)
April 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/opinion/25sat4.html
Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent decision to drop all of the charges against Ted Stevens, the former Republican senator from Alaska, because of PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT [note: AG Holder and the DoJ have NEVER EXPLAINED exactly what that "prosecutorial misconduct" was, besides the generic, "prosecutors withheld information from the defense." Since the ENTIRE Ted Stevens prosecution was based on his getting HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars of FREE home remodeling, the question is: "WHAT could the prosecution have POSSIBLY hid from the defense?"!!] raises an important question: What about Don Siegelman? A bipartisan group of 75 former state attorneys general has written to Mr. Holder asking him to take a fresh look at the former Alabama governor’s case. He should do so right away.
Mr. Siegelman was CONVICTED in 2006 on DUBIOUS CORRUPTION CHARGES [springing from his 1st term as Alabama Governor ending in 2002]. He spent nine months in prison [BURIED by the judge in a "NO COMMENTS ALLOWED" punitive incarceration] before being released on appeal, and he faces years more behind bars. He has long insisted that the case against him was politically motivated and that prosecutors engaged in an array of professional and ethical violations.
Many aspects of the case require further scrutiny. United States Attorney Leura Canary is the wife of a prominent Republican political operative who was a strong opponent of Mr. Siegelman. Her office prosecuted Mr. Siegelman. Ms. Canary said that she recused herself from the prosecution, but questions have been raised about whether she actually did.
Mr. Siegelman’s supporters have long argued that he was targeted by the Justice Department because he was Alabama’s leading Democratic politician and stood a good chance of once again being elected governor. A Republican lawyer in Alabama, Jill Simpson, has said that she heard Ms. Canary’s husband, William Canary, say that he had discussed the prosecution with Karl Rove, the senior White House political adviser..... (continued at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/opinion/25sat4.html)
NOTE: THIS IS THE NEW YORK TIMES saying "Mr. Siegelman was convicted in 2006 on "DUBIOUS... charges" and "Siegelman’s supporters have long argued that he was TARGETED by the Justice Department because he was Alabama’s leading DEMOCRATIC politician and stood a good chance of once AGAIN BEING ELECTED elected governor" !!!!
NOT the so-called "liberal" New York Times... the "PRO-WAR, PRO-STOLEN-ELECTIONS, PRO-KANGAROO-COURTS for FEMALE PRIVATES, WHILE the president & vice-president ASSERT THE 'right' to TORTURE PRISONERS, PRO-WALL Street LOOTING of the US Treasury" New York Times!!
KARL ROVE TRIED TO SET UP AN AMERICAN DICTATORSHIP, and there are up to 3,500 - THREE THOUSAND+ VICTIMS - of Rove's Political JIHAD - and Mr. Rove is himself CONTEMPTUOUS of the law, SCORNING a Congressional Subpeoena for MONTHS.
http://www.politicalprosecutions.org
It's pretty bad when the NEO-CON NEW YORK TIMES: LIES-TO-WAR, WHITEWASH TORTURE, TAX-CUTS FOR RICH in-time-of-war, KANGAROO COURTS for FEMALE privates charged with "abuse" WHILE the president & vice-president openly BRAG about their 'right' to TORTURE PRISONERS TO DEATH...
.... when the NY Times has an opportunity to get on a moral soap-box and chide the administration to SEE TO JUSTICE...
...but in the case of this "REVIEW the DON SIEGELMAN CONVICTION by KARL ROVE's FRIENDS in the Republican-dominated ALABAMA US ATTORNEY's OFFICE" op-ed, the NY Times is doing exactly that.
Indeed, the Times notices that President Obama's Attorney General, ERIC HOLDER, has recently DROPPED ALL CHARGES against former Alaska Republican Senator TED STEVENS... but thus far, Mr. Holder and Mr. Obama REFUSE to SEE TO JUSTICE in the DON SIEGELMAN case.
and the PROOF of the POLITICAL LYNCHING nature of the Siegelman conviction is EASY to ascertain: Siegelman was CONVICTED of "PUTTING A CAMPAIGN DONOR on an Alabama medical/health-care oversight board."
BY THAT STANDARD, EVERY Republican who has ever held Executive office in the past 100 years should be doing TWENTY YEARS IN PRISON!!
The OBAMA/HOLDER DOUBLE STANDARD of "justice" re the Don Seigelman case is also apparent in another, equally important area (as if you could have an issue 'more important' than POLITICAL LYNCHINGS of a rival, popularly elected state executive officer):
and that is, that MARTHA STEWART was SENT TO PRISON by the BUSH-CHENEY Department of "Justice" and SEC for SELLING A LOUSY $55,000 of ImClone stock - that Mrs. Stewart had EVERY RIGHT TO SELL, at ANY TIME, on ANY 'TIP', from ANYONE, because she had NO, ZERO _fiduciary connection_ to ImClone company.
The CHARGE the insanely CORRUPT Bush FBI, SEC, and DoJ eventually won Stewart's conviction on was "LYING TO FBI & SEC investigators."
BY _THAT_ STANDARD, the ENTIRE BUSH ADMINISTRATION should be doing LIFE in prison! Bush SENIOR ADVISOR (and concurrent VP Cheney _CHIEF OF STAFF_ I. Lewis 'Scooter' LIBBY was CONVICTED - of PERJURY and OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, by a SYMPATHETIC Washington DC jury - and never saw a day of jail time!
Needless to say, BY THE STANDARDS of the MARTHA STEWART CONVICTION, THREE-QUARTERS of Wall Street's Big Bank executives SHOULD BE IN PRISON, for the perjurous ACCOUNTING and FRAUDULENT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS that have created this economic crisis, with at least TWELVE TRILLION DOLLARS of "real" American investor savings, pension funds, and equity (not to mention home values) - "REAL" money invested by working Americans using their salaries and paychecks - that has VANISHED IN TO THIN AIR.
====================================================
Which, of course, leads to the question, "WHY are HOLDER and OBAMA OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE re a SWIFT REVIEW of the LYNCH-MOB PROSECUTION of Don Seigelman (to repeat, CONVICTED of something that EVERY Republican governor and president does 1,000 times in each & every term of office), and "WHERE are the SWIFT PROSECUTIONS and INDICTMENTS for FINANCIAL FRAUD over the economic crisis and market meltdowns?"
AND THE SHORT, SIMPLE ANSWER is that Obama and Holder are BEHOLDEN TO their "BIG FINANCIAL BACKERS" - they do NOT want to expose the Siegelman LYNCHING, and they do NOT want to PROSECUTE FINANCIAL FRAUD and CORRUPTION, because their WALL STREET and specifically GOLDMAN-SACHS bankers DON'T WANT THEM TO.
(And that of course includes RAHM EMANUEL, Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, and whoever else it is in the Obama White House whispering sweet nothings into Mr. Obama's ear.)
(And, NO, the BERNIE MADOFF prosecution DOES NOT COUNT! He pleaded guilty in a PAINLESS non-trial, so his family would be able to continue to control the MILLIONS of dollars that will make his prison term far easier to bear.)
Mr. Obama & Mr. Holder agree with the "WASHINGTON ESTABLISHMENT 'consensus'" - ONE Standard of "justice" for KARL ROVE, GOLDMAN-SACHS, and Republican TORTURE lawyers & high officials, another ENTIRELY HARSHER standard of PUNITIVE "justice" for "UPPITY WOMEN" like Martha Stewart, and "UPPITY Liberal Democrats" who have the temerity to win high office in an uber-"red-state" FORMER SLAVE STATE, as Don Seigelman had the political talent and savvy to win the Governor's race in VERY "RED" state Alabama, boosting him to NUMBER TWO on the GOP HIT LIST in 2002...
....just behind Minnesota Democratic SENATOR Paul Wellstone, who "conveniently" DIED in an "airplane accident" just as he was about to WIN RE-ELECTION in 2002, and just before he would become THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE to the pending Bush-Cheney-PNAC IRAQ WAR, in the entire US Congress & political world.
NOTE to Mr. Holder & Mr. Obama: the Cardinal Rule of Washington is "POWER: USE IT, or LOOSE IT." LETTING Republicans GET AWAY WITH MURDER, while watching as your friends, supporters, and voters are intimidated with impunity, IS NOT a WISE application of power.
The Siegelman Case
NY Times editorial board (unsigned editorial)
April 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/opinion/25sat4.html
Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent decision to drop all of the charges against Ted Stevens, the former Republican senator from Alaska, because of PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT [note: AG Holder and the DoJ have NEVER EXPLAINED exactly what that "prosecutorial misconduct" was, besides the generic, "prosecutors withheld information from the defense." Since the ENTIRE Ted Stevens prosecution was based on his getting HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars of FREE home remodeling, the question is: "WHAT could the prosecution have POSSIBLY hid from the defense?"!!] raises an important question: What about Don Siegelman? A bipartisan group of 75 former state attorneys general has written to Mr. Holder asking him to take a fresh look at the former Alabama governor’s case. He should do so right away.
Mr. Siegelman was CONVICTED in 2006 on DUBIOUS CORRUPTION CHARGES [springing from his 1st term as Alabama Governor ending in 2002]. He spent nine months in prison [BURIED by the judge in a "NO COMMENTS ALLOWED" punitive incarceration] before being released on appeal, and he faces years more behind bars. He has long insisted that the case against him was politically motivated and that prosecutors engaged in an array of professional and ethical violations.
Many aspects of the case require further scrutiny. United States Attorney Leura Canary is the wife of a prominent Republican political operative who was a strong opponent of Mr. Siegelman. Her office prosecuted Mr. Siegelman. Ms. Canary said that she recused herself from the prosecution, but questions have been raised about whether she actually did.
Mr. Siegelman’s supporters have long argued that he was targeted by the Justice Department because he was Alabama’s leading Democratic politician and stood a good chance of once again being elected governor. A Republican lawyer in Alabama, Jill Simpson, has said that she heard Ms. Canary’s husband, William Canary, say that he had discussed the prosecution with Karl Rove, the senior White House political adviser..... (continued at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/opinion/25sat4.html)
NOTE: THIS IS THE NEW YORK TIMES saying "Mr. Siegelman was convicted in 2006 on "DUBIOUS... charges" and "Siegelman’s supporters have long argued that he was TARGETED by the Justice Department because he was Alabama’s leading DEMOCRATIC politician and stood a good chance of once AGAIN BEING ELECTED elected governor" !!!!
NOT the so-called "liberal" New York Times... the "PRO-WAR, PRO-STOLEN-ELECTIONS, PRO-KANGAROO-COURTS for FEMALE PRIVATES, WHILE the president & vice-president ASSERT THE 'right' to TORTURE PRISONERS, PRO-WALL Street LOOTING of the US Treasury" New York Times!!
Friday, April 24, 2009
We Helped KILL Pontiac....
We're not proud of the fact, be we (your humble staff here at DemNation] were among the millions of American auto-buyers who recently purchased a car... but did not buy a GM model. And if we had purchased GM, we would have tended towards Pontiac, because in days gone by we've had Pontiac Firebirds, LeMans, and a 1974 Ventura, as well as other GM models in those body-style catagories. The Ventura was Pontiac's Chevy Nova-sized "small car" for that era, both the 1974 Ventura and Chevy Nova were built like anvils, ever bit as rock-solid as the larger Chevelles and GTOs, but smaller and lighter... and thus potentially faster on the drag strip. Our 1974 Ventura came equipped with a Pontiac factory equipped V-8 "small-block", but Pontiac "small-block" engines in those years were nearly as big as Chevy's full-sized "big-block" engines (think Burt Reynold's Trans-Am 455 cubin inch monster motor from the movie "Smokey & the Bandit"), and while not the best euro-sport handeling machine, the Venturas were... built like anvils, and like other muscle cars of the era, it is no suprise to see them at auto shows, pumping out 300+ hp 35 years later. GM _COULD_ build rock-solid autos 35 years ago, and GM factory workers can still build to any quality that management specifies.
BUT over the past 2 decades, General Motors has INTENTIONALLY made QUALITY & durability a DISTANT PRIORITY in its auto marketing corporate plan.
Chevy has finally bumped its new car warranty coverage up to 100,000 miles "powertrain limited warranty" - but right there in the promo, "LIMITED warranty"- is the FINE-PRINT that could leave customers on the hook for hundreds and thousands of dollars for repairs - EVEN AS THEY ARE MAKING PAYMENTS on their new car loan! (When auto warranties say "POWERTRAIN" coverage - they almost certainly EXCLUDE electrical problems... even when the "powertrain" is 100% dependent on an electrical item!)
Which is EXACTLY why we purchsed one of the cars with a FOUR year BUMPER-TO-BUMPER warranty.. as listed right in GM's own Chevey warranty web-site!!
http://www.chevrolet.com/warranty/
Simply put, GM management has LESS confidence in the 4th (and even 5th) year quality and durability of their products than other car manufacturers. At a time when auto loans are typically not FIVE years, but now SIX years (from 60 months to 72 months) - that means that GM management wants people to MAKE "new" CAR PAYMENTS, LONG after THEY must bear the burden for any parts failure of their GM product!
Which is exactly why we purchased a made-in-USA import car - because $20,000 is a lot of money, to ask the buyer to be responsible for poor quality or durability of a new car, just 36 months of driving down the road.
GM factory WORKERS _could_ produce that quality, IF GM management RELENTLESSLY IMPROVED the quality and durability of every part, wear item, and system of their cars.
That is a COMMITTMENT that General Motors executives and managers have INTENTIONALLY _NOT_ made over the past 2 decades. And it is the reason that Pontiac and Saturn are being killed off, and American consumers purchase millions of foreign cars every year.
(And, needless to say, GM executives THOUGHT that they were part of the "IN CROWD" of BANKERS and OIL MEN as recently as two years ago, when the stock-market (Dow Jones average) nearly hit 14,000 - GM execs STUPIDLY donating MILLIONS of dollars to corporate lobbyists who SUPPORTED the Bush-Cheney-ENRON-EXXON-GoldmanSachs $4/gallon+ oil prices. When those OUTRAGEOUS gas & oil prices immediately preceeded the financial MARKET MELTDOWNS of 2008, GM executives were left HIGH & DRY by their "Big Finance" friends - who, in the case of CITI-BANK, infamously flew in to Washington to walk away with TWENTY BILLION DOLLARS of NEW BAILOUTS from the (insanely CORRUPT) Obama adminsitration, while the Auto execs were PILLORIED for asking for $15 billion to keep REAL PRODUCTION LINES open.)
==================================================
GM to pull the plug on Pontiac
The brand credited with originating the muscle car will no longer be part of GM's future, according to a source.
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com senior writer
April 24, 2009
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/24/autos/pontiac_obit/index.htm?postversion=2009042414&eref=rss_topstories
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors is preparing to announce that the Pontiac car brand, once marketed as GM's "Excitement division," will be killed off, according to a source familiar with the decision....
In its most recent "viability plan" - which will be updated to reflect this new brand cut - Pontiac was not named as one of GM's four "core brands." Those are Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac. But Pontiac was also not to be killed or sold off, as were Saturn, Saab and Hummer.
Instead Pontiac was to continue on as a "niche brand" focusing on just a few models.
BUT over the past 2 decades, General Motors has INTENTIONALLY made QUALITY & durability a DISTANT PRIORITY in its auto marketing corporate plan.
Chevy has finally bumped its new car warranty coverage up to 100,000 miles "powertrain limited warranty" - but right there in the promo, "LIMITED warranty"- is the FINE-PRINT that could leave customers on the hook for hundreds and thousands of dollars for repairs - EVEN AS THEY ARE MAKING PAYMENTS on their new car loan! (When auto warranties say "POWERTRAIN" coverage - they almost certainly EXCLUDE electrical problems... even when the "powertrain" is 100% dependent on an electrical item!)
Which is EXACTLY why we purchsed one of the cars with a FOUR year BUMPER-TO-BUMPER warranty.. as listed right in GM's own Chevey warranty web-site!!
http://www.chevrolet.com/warranty/
Simply put, GM management has LESS confidence in the 4th (and even 5th) year quality and durability of their products than other car manufacturers. At a time when auto loans are typically not FIVE years, but now SIX years (from 60 months to 72 months) - that means that GM management wants people to MAKE "new" CAR PAYMENTS, LONG after THEY must bear the burden for any parts failure of their GM product!
Which is exactly why we purchased a made-in-USA import car - because $20,000 is a lot of money, to ask the buyer to be responsible for poor quality or durability of a new car, just 36 months of driving down the road.
GM factory WORKERS _could_ produce that quality, IF GM management RELENTLESSLY IMPROVED the quality and durability of every part, wear item, and system of their cars.
That is a COMMITTMENT that General Motors executives and managers have INTENTIONALLY _NOT_ made over the past 2 decades. And it is the reason that Pontiac and Saturn are being killed off, and American consumers purchase millions of foreign cars every year.
(And, needless to say, GM executives THOUGHT that they were part of the "IN CROWD" of BANKERS and OIL MEN as recently as two years ago, when the stock-market (Dow Jones average) nearly hit 14,000 - GM execs STUPIDLY donating MILLIONS of dollars to corporate lobbyists who SUPPORTED the Bush-Cheney-ENRON-EXXON-GoldmanSachs $4/gallon+ oil prices. When those OUTRAGEOUS gas & oil prices immediately preceeded the financial MARKET MELTDOWNS of 2008, GM executives were left HIGH & DRY by their "Big Finance" friends - who, in the case of CITI-BANK, infamously flew in to Washington to walk away with TWENTY BILLION DOLLARS of NEW BAILOUTS from the (insanely CORRUPT) Obama adminsitration, while the Auto execs were PILLORIED for asking for $15 billion to keep REAL PRODUCTION LINES open.)
==================================================
GM to pull the plug on Pontiac
The brand credited with originating the muscle car will no longer be part of GM's future, according to a source.
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com senior writer
April 24, 2009
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/24/autos/pontiac_obit/index.htm?postversion=2009042414&eref=rss_topstories
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors is preparing to announce that the Pontiac car brand, once marketed as GM's "Excitement division," will be killed off, according to a source familiar with the decision....
In its most recent "viability plan" - which will be updated to reflect this new brand cut - Pontiac was not named as one of GM's four "core brands." Those are Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac. But Pontiac was also not to be killed or sold off, as were Saturn, Saab and Hummer.
Instead Pontiac was to continue on as a "niche brand" focusing on just a few models.
Finally! A BIG, FAILED BANK brought up on FRAUD charges! Wells-Fargo SUED for DEFRAUDING CA customers of $1.5 BILLION
FINALLY!! A BIG, BANKRUPT (but for bailouts), FAILED, Bailed-out Bank BROUGHT UP on FRAUD CHARGES.... WELLS FARGO accused of DEFRAUDING CUSTOMERS for $1.5 BILLION by the California attorney's office.
Here's how LA Times reporter Martin Zimmerman reports California Attorney General Jerry Brown's allegations:
By Martin Zimmerman, LA Times
April 24, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wells-fargo24-2009apr24,0,7337766.story
Here's how LA Times reporter Martin Zimmerman reports California Attorney General Jerry Brown's allegations:
Wells Fargo subsidiaries sold auction-rate securities "on the basis that they were like cash and people could get their money back in eight days," California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said. "But they were not like cash and people can’t get their money back even after many, many months, and they’re mad as hell.”Wells Fargo Accused of Securities Fraud in [CA] State Lawsuit
Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown says the banking giant's subsidiaries told buyers that $1.5 billion of risky auction-rate securities were safe. Wells says it tried to help customers when the market collapsed.
By Martin Zimmerman, LA Times
April 24, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wells-fargo24-2009apr24,0,7337766.story
The state of California accused Wells Fargo & Co. of FRAUD Thursday for the company's role in an investment meltdown that has been compared to the Bernard Madoff scandal in magnitude.
- - - Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown sued three Wells Fargo investment subsidiaries, alleging they COMMITTED SECURITIES FRAUD by telling California investors that $1.5 billion of risky securities sold to them were as safe as cash.
- - - The securities "were sold to customers on the basis that they were like cash and people could get their money back in eight days," Brown said in an interview. "Now, it turns out they were not like cash and people can't get their money back even after many, many months, and they're mad as hell."
The lawsuit, filed in state court in San Francisco, seeks to recover the money invested by about 2,400 Californians in what are known as auction-rate securities marketed by the Wells Fargo subsidiaries...Wells Fargo accused of securities fraud in state lawsuit
Thursday, April 23, 2009
LET the BIG, FAILED, FRAUDULENTLY run banks CRACK UP... the way they WOULD HAVE, but for HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of _SOCIALIZED_ taxpayer Bailouts...
Top Economists: We Must Break Up Big Banks to Save the Economy
by Alex Floum, Economic Policy Examiner
April 22, 2009
The following top economists and financial experts believe that the economy cannot recover unless the big banks are broken up in an orderly fashion:
#1. Nobel prize-winning economist Jospeph Stiglitz, MIT economics professor Simon Johnson and Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/21/news/too.big.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009042112
(and see this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124034036512839857.html
#2. The Congressional panel overseeing the bailout
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJJ_MkIv9VvA&refer=home
#3. The head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29774555
#4. The leading monetary economist and co-author with Milton Friedman of the leading treatise on the Great Depression, Anna Schwartz
http://www.kansascityfed.org/speechbio/hoenigPDF/Omaha.03.06.09.pdf
#4. Economics professor and senior regulator during the S & L crisis, William K. Black
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/transcript1.html
#6. Leading economist, Nouriel Roubini
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adEHS6CD6q4Q&refer=home
#7. Well-known economist, Marc Faber
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g7Ln2wc4Ww
#8. Nobel economist, Ed Prescott
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/economicsunbound/archives/2009/03/harsh_predictio.html
[Alex Floum continues] - This is not a political issue, and I don't have a dog in the fight in terms of conservative versus liberal perspectives on the financial crisis.
This is solely a question of what may be necessary from an economic perspective.
[Mr. Floum adds] - Contrary View: Treasury Secretary Geithner [career PROTEGE of Clinton Treasury Secretaries and GOLDMAN-SACHS BANKERS Robert Rubin & Lawrence Summers] believes that the big banks should be saved.
===========================================================
by Alex Floum, Economic Policy Examiner
April 22, 2009
The following top economists and financial experts believe that the economy cannot recover unless the big banks are broken up in an orderly fashion:
#1. Nobel prize-winning economist Jospeph Stiglitz, MIT economics professor Simon Johnson and Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/21/news/too.big.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009042112
(and see this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124034036512839857.html
#2. The Congressional panel overseeing the bailout
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJJ_MkIv9VvA&refer=home
#3. The head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29774555
#4. The leading monetary economist and co-author with Milton Friedman of the leading treatise on the Great Depression, Anna Schwartz
http://www.kansascityfed.org/speechbio/hoenigPDF/Omaha.03.06.09.pdf
#4. Economics professor and senior regulator during the S & L crisis, William K. Black
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/transcript1.html
#6. Leading economist, Nouriel Roubini
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adEHS6CD6q4Q&refer=home
#7. Well-known economist, Marc Faber
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g7Ln2wc4Ww
#8. Nobel economist, Ed Prescott
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/economicsunbound/archives/2009/03/harsh_predictio.html
[Alex Floum continues] - This is not a political issue, and I don't have a dog in the fight in terms of conservative versus liberal perspectives on the financial crisis.
This is solely a question of what may be necessary from an economic perspective.
[Mr. Floum adds] - Contrary View: Treasury Secretary Geithner [career PROTEGE of Clinton Treasury Secretaries and GOLDMAN-SACHS BANKERS Robert Rubin & Lawrence Summers] believes that the big banks should be saved.
===========================================================
Economist: America Is Just Like An Emerging Market, [RULED in DICTATOR FASHION like a 3rd-World Banana Republic] - Wall Street Oligarchs & All
by Julie Satow, at HuffingtonPost.com
April 23, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/simon-johnson-on-america_n_190697.html
America may be more like an emerging market than we realize.
That is the analysis by an increasingly vocal and influential professor at MIT, Simon Johnson. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Simon Johnson, the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, just like the emerging markets he has spent his life studying, the U.S. has created a system whereby Wall Street "oligarchs" have monopolized and cannibalized the economy. At the same time, Washington regulators have been rendered ineffective, seduced by their aura of wealth and power.
Johnson's solution is, in part, to use anti-trust laws to break up these too-big-to-fail institutions, and for regulators to intensify their oversight of the smaller banks that result.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
"Democratic" TREASON: "Dem" Rep. JANE HARMAN URGED NY Times NOT to run "ILLEGAL SURVIELLANCE" story... thereby HANDING Election 2004 to Bush....
JANE HARMAN: YET ANOTHER "Democrat" Congress-critter in the TRAITOR JOE LIEBERMAN mold.
We don't even know where to start regarding Rep. Harman's PUTTING THE INTERESTS of the ISRAEL ("aipac") LOBBY _over_ and ahead of the NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS of the UNITED STATES... but will start with this link, which points out that by URGING the JEWISH-OWNED NEW YORK TIMES _NOT_ to publish the ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING and WHOLESALE SURVIELLANCE story in the fall of 2004, Rep. Harman ROBBED TENS of MILLIONS of _Democratic_ voters, activists, donors & supporters of a LEGITIMATE CAMPAIGN ISSUE to be used by Democrats against the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign... by SQUELCHING public discourse of that "ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE" issue in the pages of the "paper of record," Ms. Harman and the Times THEREBY ENABLED the Bush-Cheney campaign THEFT of Ohio's electoral votes in election 2005 (Ohio's electoral votes "counted" on computer servers... housed in Tennessee, the SAME servers that the Republican Party used to run their 2004 campaigns and data-banks)- and thus ENABLED the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign to STEAL the presidential election of 2004.
TIME AFTER TIME, the "inside-DC" "Democrat" PARTY ARE IN LEAGUE with the ISRAEL LOBBY, the WAR LOBBY, the TORTURE LOBBY, the SURVEILLANCE lobby, the BIG FINANCE, telecom, banking, credit-extortion, and anti-union lobbies.... ENTIRE SWATHS of the "Democrat" "leadership" POSE as "DEMOCRATIC," but RULE as RIGHT-WING, PRO-WAR, POLICE-STATE REPUBLICANS.
And this story also illustrates how THE ISRAEL LOBBY - A FOREIGN POWER - is IN LEAGUE, IN BED with, ALL the above anti-DEMOCRATIC, DICTATORIAL, CONCENTRATION-of-POWERS-in-the-RULING-class issues.
Needless to say, finding America's press, media, Congress, & government SUBSERVIENT to a desires & interests of a FOREIGN NATION is outrageous, disturbing, and un-American:
We don't even know where to start regarding Rep. Harman's PUTTING THE INTERESTS of the ISRAEL ("aipac") LOBBY _over_ and ahead of the NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS of the UNITED STATES... but will start with this link, which points out that by URGING the JEWISH-OWNED NEW YORK TIMES _NOT_ to publish the ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING and WHOLESALE SURVIELLANCE story in the fall of 2004, Rep. Harman ROBBED TENS of MILLIONS of _Democratic_ voters, activists, donors & supporters of a LEGITIMATE CAMPAIGN ISSUE to be used by Democrats against the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign... by SQUELCHING public discourse of that "ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE" issue in the pages of the "paper of record," Ms. Harman and the Times THEREBY ENABLED the Bush-Cheney campaign THEFT of Ohio's electoral votes in election 2005 (Ohio's electoral votes "counted" on computer servers... housed in Tennessee, the SAME servers that the Republican Party used to run their 2004 campaigns and data-banks)- and thus ENABLED the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign to STEAL the presidential election of 2004.
TIME AFTER TIME, the "inside-DC" "Democrat" PARTY ARE IN LEAGUE with the ISRAEL LOBBY, the WAR LOBBY, the TORTURE LOBBY, the SURVEILLANCE lobby, the BIG FINANCE, telecom, banking, credit-extortion, and anti-union lobbies.... ENTIRE SWATHS of the "Democrat" "leadership" POSE as "DEMOCRATIC," but RULE as RIGHT-WING, PRO-WAR, POLICE-STATE REPUBLICANS.
And this story also illustrates how THE ISRAEL LOBBY - A FOREIGN POWER - is IN LEAGUE, IN BED with, ALL the above anti-DEMOCRATIC, DICTATORIAL, CONCENTRATION-of-POWERS-in-the-RULING-class issues.
Needless to say, finding America's press, media, Congress, & government SUBSERVIENT to a desires & interests of a FOREIGN NATION is outrageous, disturbing, and un-American:
Representative Harman 'Urged' [NY] Times To NOT Publish Wiretapping Expose
by Jason Linkins, HuffingtonPost.com
April 21, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/21/representative-harman-urg_n_189451.html
< One of the major points of intrigue in the unfolding Jane Harman/wiretapping scandal, is whether or not Representative Harman did, as Congressional Quarterly contends, play a role in helping to keep a New York Times expose on wiretapping out of the paper until the 2004 election is over.
From CQ:
According to two officials privy to the events, Gonzales said he "needed Jane" to help support the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which was about to be exposed by the New York Times.
Harman, he told Goss, had helped persuade the newspaper TO HOLD THE WIRETAP STORY before, on the eve of the 2004 elections....
Friday, April 17, 2009
Obama's BLATANT CORRUPTION becomes.. MORE blatant! Hires as "Auto Czar" Bankster UNDER INVESTIGATION for KICBACKS !!
President Obama's self-destructive dependence on (and apparent AWE for) the BANKSTERS he has chosen to LEAD his administration's efforts at economic recovery - has long ago crossed the line from poor policy to blatant corruption.
Now, with Mr. Obama INSISTING on his choice as "CAR CZAR" to oversee the pending BANKRUPTCY DEMOLITION of.. General Motors and Chrysler! - Mr. Obama has picked.... A WALL STREET banker UNDER INVESTIGATION for "KICK-BACKS"!!
Clearly, the new president sees his first three months in office as a Hollywood PR tour to pump up the release of a new movie. In Hollywood productions, the making of a movie is the hard work, and the selling of the movie is show business. Which may be 'hard work' of itself, but will not change the results of the product, that is, the movie which is already 'in the can.'
Mr. Obama seems to think that WINNING the White House was the hard work, and now, everything else being just SHOW BUSINESS, it matters NOT that he is GIVING TRILLIONS of TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO the big Wall Street banks, WHILE UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE, HEALTH-CARE INSURANCE, PENSIONS, SAVINGS, and even life-insurance policies are being HAMMERED for MILLIONS of Americans. Yes, public-works and infrastructure investment spending will create jobs, restore some spending, and, hopefully, move the economy in a modern, forward direction, as the US interstate highway program - THE BIGGEST single GOVERNMENT SPENDING (= "socialism") PROGRAM in WORLD HISTORY - once powered STEADY GROWTH in the American economy from the 1950s straight through to the 1990s.
But Mr. Obama INTENTIONALLY IGNORING the millions of Americans facing economic hard-times, as he HANDS HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars to BANKERS - with NO oversight, AUDITS, or even acknowledgment of the BAILOUT TOTALS - is simply astounding.
For all his TALK about "my campaign is funded by millions of small donors, I do NOT need to rely on BIG donors," Mr. Obama has made the BIG BANKERS the CENTER of HIS ENTIRE White House universe.
===========================================
by Jonathan Berr
Posted: April 17, 2009
http://247wallst.com/2009/04/17/obama-needs-a-new-car-czar/#more-31058
Why did the Obama administration name investment banker Steven Rattner as the head of auto task force knowing that New York prosecutors were investigating whether he had a role in a kickback scheme at New York state’s pension fund?
To be bure, Rattner, co-founder of the Quadrangle Group, and the firm have not been charged with a crime. The pay-to-play scam was allegedly done through intermediaries. Nonetheless, the investment banker took some actions that, as the Wall Street Journal notes, raise some troubling questions....
The fact that the Obama administration knew about the investigation but chose to ignore it anyway is pretty disturbing. Rattner was given an important job to save the auto industry at a critical time for the economy. The last thing the American people need is a distraction like this one.
For the good of everybody, Rattner should give up his fledgling career in government service. He certainly does not need the money.
Now, with Mr. Obama INSISTING on his choice as "CAR CZAR" to oversee the pending BANKRUPTCY DEMOLITION of.. General Motors and Chrysler! - Mr. Obama has picked.... A WALL STREET banker UNDER INVESTIGATION for "KICK-BACKS"!!
Clearly, the new president sees his first three months in office as a Hollywood PR tour to pump up the release of a new movie. In Hollywood productions, the making of a movie is the hard work, and the selling of the movie is show business. Which may be 'hard work' of itself, but will not change the results of the product, that is, the movie which is already 'in the can.'
Mr. Obama seems to think that WINNING the White House was the hard work, and now, everything else being just SHOW BUSINESS, it matters NOT that he is GIVING TRILLIONS of TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO the big Wall Street banks, WHILE UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE, HEALTH-CARE INSURANCE, PENSIONS, SAVINGS, and even life-insurance policies are being HAMMERED for MILLIONS of Americans. Yes, public-works and infrastructure investment spending will create jobs, restore some spending, and, hopefully, move the economy in a modern, forward direction, as the US interstate highway program - THE BIGGEST single GOVERNMENT SPENDING (= "socialism") PROGRAM in WORLD HISTORY - once powered STEADY GROWTH in the American economy from the 1950s straight through to the 1990s.
But Mr. Obama INTENTIONALLY IGNORING the millions of Americans facing economic hard-times, as he HANDS HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars to BANKERS - with NO oversight, AUDITS, or even acknowledgment of the BAILOUT TOTALS - is simply astounding.
For all his TALK about "my campaign is funded by millions of small donors, I do NOT need to rely on BIG donors," Mr. Obama has made the BIG BANKERS the CENTER of HIS ENTIRE White House universe.
===========================================
Obama needs a new car czar -
[His current "Car Czar" in an INVESTMENT BANKER, NOT a Car person, and is UNDER INVESTIGATION for "kicbacks" !!!]
by Jonathan Berr
Posted: April 17, 2009
http://247wallst.com/2009/04/17/obama-needs-a-new-car-czar/#more-31058
Why did the Obama administration name investment banker Steven Rattner as the head of auto task force knowing that New York prosecutors were investigating whether he had a role in a kickback scheme at New York state’s pension fund?
To be bure, Rattner, co-founder of the Quadrangle Group, and the firm have not been charged with a crime. The pay-to-play scam was allegedly done through intermediaries. Nonetheless, the investment banker took some actions that, as the Wall Street Journal notes, raise some troubling questions....
The fact that the Obama administration knew about the investigation but chose to ignore it anyway is pretty disturbing. Rattner was given an important job to save the auto industry at a critical time for the economy. The last thing the American people need is a distraction like this one.
For the good of everybody, Rattner should give up his fledgling career in government service. He certainly does not need the money.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Obama - in first 3 months - DESTROYS the Credibility, & Promise, of his own administration....
Newer: Nobel Prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz:
"White House Ties to Wall Street Doom Bank Rescue"
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahnPchOxZMh8&refer=home
New: just after posting the below rant, we stumbled on the Bloomberg story: "Fed Shrouding $2 Trillion in Bank Loans in ‘Secrecy,’"
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aS89AaGjOplw&refer=home
OF COURSE IT IS NOT "the Fed" which is "SHROUDING HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of Fed BAILOUT dollars to FAILED BANKS in Secrecy" - is is MR. OBAMA's _own_ administration, making SHREDS of then Senator Obama's pledge for open & transparent accounting - much less of something so vital tothe heart and soul of America as how TAXPAYER DOLLARS are SPENT for economic RECOVERY.
----------------------------------------------------
We can not over-emphasize how high our hopes were for the Obama administration.
And, having "read between the lines" about the many 'disconnects' between what the American newspapers (media), government, and elites SAY, with what they are actually doing, from the time that Nixon & Kissinger & the US Army (& Air Force) were running a "SECRET WAR" in.. CAMBODIA in 1971, to the Iran-Contra wars within a half decade of the end of the Vietnam war, to Reagan & Bush's invasions of Grenada & Panama (respectively), to Reagan & Bush's arming & sponsorship of Iraq all through the Iran-Iraq war years (when the United States _TURNED on a DIME_ going from fear & loathing of the Iraqi dictator & his Soviet supported military, to active support of same after the Iran Islamic-dominated revolution) -
- having spent the past 4 decades "READING BETWEEN THE LINES" of what the United States government CLAIMS it it doing, and what it really IS doing....
.... we have to say, "NOTHING the Cheney-Bush administration ever did completely suprised us - not Bush Sr., Cheney, Rumsfeld, & the US military "establishment" selling _WMD PRECURSOR TECHNOLOGIES_ to Iraq in the 1980s, NOT then HALLIBURTON Chairman & CEO DICK CHENEY treacherously SELLING (via European subsidiaries) Halliburton oil-drilling equipment to Iraq... BEHIND THE BACKS of the US billion-dollar-per-year Sanctions on Iraq... certainly not the Bush-Cheney Republicans STEALING THE ELECTION of 2000 (and 2004 as well) as "Democrat" "LEADERS" ROLLED OVER and PRETENDED NOT TO NOTICE - we weren't even all that surprised when, after 9-11, ANTRHAX ATTACKS were sent to DEMOCRAT ONLY SENATORS - just by sheer happenstance THE TWO SENATORS most in the way of Dick Cheney's lust to get the un-P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act passed - nor were we even all that surprised when SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE - Again THE ONE SENATE Democrat WITH THE moral authority and persuasive ability to DERAIL the MARCH TO WAR that Cheney and his CIA/DoD "Black Ops" types were so clearly LUSTING for - when Senator Wellstone's aircraft fell out of the sky, in a basically unexplained aircraft accident (NO, there was NOT heavy icing that night) -
... none of the above were completely out of the realm of "empirical model of the radical-right war-state agenda".....
HOWEVER, NEVER in a million years, could we imagine that SENATOR Barack Obama would VOLUNTARILY MAKE HIMSELF the WHOLLY OWENED SUBSIDIARY of GOLDMAN-SACHS, as soon as he became President!
NOR could we POSSIBLY IMAGINE that a President-Elect Obama would search the length and breadth of America to find... THE BEST TALENT to get America OUT of the nightmare "DEREGULATION and DEFICIT SPENDING RECESSION" that the Bush-Cheney administration & Republican Congress got America in to - and that of ALL the talent in America, Mr. Obama would... SELECT LAWRENCE SUMMERS, ROBERT RUBIN,and TIM GEITHNER to lead his economic recovery!!!!!!
To repeat for the one-millionth time, HERE are GEITHNER, SUMMERS, and Rubin's "QUALIFICATIONS" from last year:
#1. as an executive who "earned" $125 MILLION working as a TOP executive for CITI-Group, Roberty Rubin (who, before he was Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, was CHAIRMAN of _Goldman-Sachs_) - PRESIDED OVER DISASTER, Citi-group DESCENDING INTO BANRUPTCY last year, SAVED ONLY by the BAILOUTS which Rubin's fellow Goldman-Sachs EX-CHAIRMAN (and Bush's then Treasury Secretary) Hank Paulson's $700 BILLION dollar TAXPAYER BAILOUTS, a HUGE CHUNK of which went to Goldman-Sachs & Citi....
#2. TIMMY GEITHNER - a Rubin & Summers PROTEGE at Treasury when Rubin & Summers were Secretaries (of Treasury, Summers taking over when Rubin left for Citi-group) - "TOPPED" MR. Rubin in the "catastrophe" department last year, while Rubin presided over the bankruptcy of just one company, GEITHNER, as CHAIRMAN of the largest, most important, most vital US Fed Bank, PRESIDED OVER THE MELTDOWN of the ENTIRE US banking & financial industry, again, BAILED OUT _ONLY_ by Hank Paulson's oh-so-generous dispensing of TAXPAYER HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars...
#3. LAWRENCE SUMMERS "merely" got himself..... RUN OUT OF THE HARVARD PRESIDENT'S office! No easy feat, given the legendary arrogance of the Boston Brahmins who rule America's oldest college. But NOT before Summers FIRED the Quantitative Analyst who informed his office that the HARVARD MANAGEMENT COMPANY was INVESTING IN RISKY DERIVATIVES... which they had NO idea of the total risk of!!
SINCE Mr. Summers left his little perch at the very apex of all of American acadamia.... HARVARD's ENDOWMENT has PLUMMETED into the abyss!
OUT OF ALL the people in America he could have choosen to head his economic team, THESE were the Three Stooges Mr. Obama selected to lead America's recovery.... three OVER-PAID, OVER-PROMOTED HACKS who are as responsible for DIGGING AMERICA INTO that financial ditch, as ANYONE short of HANK PAULSON and BEN BERNANKE and George W. Bush themselves!!!
This is shaping up to be a DISASTER - for the Obama administration, and thus for a Democratic opposition party in America - on the very order of Vice President AL GORE's DISASTROUS choice of JOE LIEBERMAN to be his VP running mate, Lieberman not only a Republican-Lite" MORAL SCOLD during the Clinton Impeachment, but Lieberman was a full-blown "WAR WITH IRAQ, NOW!" PNAC neo-con, from THE MOMENT that Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Jebby Bush SIGNED the Kristol-Kagan "Iraq war blueprint" in June 1997 & Jan. 1998 !!
And the entire above Rant - "Senator Obama PLEDGED CHANGE... but GAVE US the VERY GOLDMAN-SACHS BANKSTERS who CREATED THIS CRISIS" - is merely a prelude to today's news, "SENATOR OBAMA _CEDES_ CONTROL OF THE CIA TO... DICK CHENEY, who spent TEN YEARS in exile from being in the (official) US military establishment betweent leaving as Bush-1's Secretary of Defense in 1991, to becoming the most powerful Vice-President in US history in 2001 - well now, ONLY THREE MONTHS out of the White House, Mr. Cheney has been GRANTED FAR MORE INPUT INTO THE CIA and "BLACK OPS" operations by the US Government (many of which are of course "OUTSIDE" of "official" US government sponsorship; see "Mission Impossible", the self-burning assignment orders) by Mr. Obama's DEFERENCE today to the TORTURE & War-Crimes senior bureaucrats at the agency.
As we said, we can see "Black Ops" agents SABOTAGING LIGHT AIRCRAFT (in South & Central America, and Africa, that is something of a highly refined specialty)... we can "see" Mr. Cheney AIDING and SUPPLYING America's enemies... but we NEVER thought we'd see a President Obama PUTTING LAWRENCE SUMMERS RIGHT BACK IN POWER, after he was RUN OUT OF HARVARD on a rail!
"White House Ties to Wall Street Doom Bank Rescue"
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahnPchOxZMh8&refer=home
New: just after posting the below rant, we stumbled on the Bloomberg story: "Fed Shrouding $2 Trillion in Bank Loans in ‘Secrecy,’"
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aS89AaGjOplw&refer=home
OF COURSE IT IS NOT "the Fed" which is "SHROUDING HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of Fed BAILOUT dollars to FAILED BANKS in Secrecy" - is is MR. OBAMA's _own_ administration, making SHREDS of then Senator Obama's pledge for open & transparent accounting - much less of something so vital tothe heart and soul of America as how TAXPAYER DOLLARS are SPENT for economic RECOVERY.
----------------------------------------------------
We can not over-emphasize how high our hopes were for the Obama administration.
And, having "read between the lines" about the many 'disconnects' between what the American newspapers (media), government, and elites SAY, with what they are actually doing, from the time that Nixon & Kissinger & the US Army (& Air Force) were running a "SECRET WAR" in.. CAMBODIA in 1971, to the Iran-Contra wars within a half decade of the end of the Vietnam war, to Reagan & Bush's invasions of Grenada & Panama (respectively), to Reagan & Bush's arming & sponsorship of Iraq all through the Iran-Iraq war years (when the United States _TURNED on a DIME_ going from fear & loathing of the Iraqi dictator & his Soviet supported military, to active support of same after the Iran Islamic-dominated revolution) -
- having spent the past 4 decades "READING BETWEEN THE LINES" of what the United States government CLAIMS it it doing, and what it really IS doing....
.... we have to say, "NOTHING the Cheney-Bush administration ever did completely suprised us - not Bush Sr., Cheney, Rumsfeld, & the US military "establishment" selling _WMD PRECURSOR TECHNOLOGIES_ to Iraq in the 1980s, NOT then HALLIBURTON Chairman & CEO DICK CHENEY treacherously SELLING (via European subsidiaries) Halliburton oil-drilling equipment to Iraq... BEHIND THE BACKS of the US billion-dollar-per-year Sanctions on Iraq... certainly not the Bush-Cheney Republicans STEALING THE ELECTION of 2000 (and 2004 as well) as "Democrat" "LEADERS" ROLLED OVER and PRETENDED NOT TO NOTICE - we weren't even all that surprised when, after 9-11, ANTRHAX ATTACKS were sent to DEMOCRAT ONLY SENATORS - just by sheer happenstance THE TWO SENATORS most in the way of Dick Cheney's lust to get the un-P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act passed - nor were we even all that surprised when SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE - Again THE ONE SENATE Democrat WITH THE moral authority and persuasive ability to DERAIL the MARCH TO WAR that Cheney and his CIA/DoD "Black Ops" types were so clearly LUSTING for - when Senator Wellstone's aircraft fell out of the sky, in a basically unexplained aircraft accident (NO, there was NOT heavy icing that night) -
... none of the above were completely out of the realm of "empirical model of the radical-right war-state agenda".....
HOWEVER, NEVER in a million years, could we imagine that SENATOR Barack Obama would VOLUNTARILY MAKE HIMSELF the WHOLLY OWENED SUBSIDIARY of GOLDMAN-SACHS, as soon as he became President!
NOR could we POSSIBLY IMAGINE that a President-Elect Obama would search the length and breadth of America to find... THE BEST TALENT to get America OUT of the nightmare "DEREGULATION and DEFICIT SPENDING RECESSION" that the Bush-Cheney administration & Republican Congress got America in to - and that of ALL the talent in America, Mr. Obama would... SELECT LAWRENCE SUMMERS, ROBERT RUBIN,and TIM GEITHNER to lead his economic recovery!!!!!!
To repeat for the one-millionth time, HERE are GEITHNER, SUMMERS, and Rubin's "QUALIFICATIONS" from last year:
#1. as an executive who "earned" $125 MILLION working as a TOP executive for CITI-Group, Roberty Rubin (who, before he was Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, was CHAIRMAN of _Goldman-Sachs_) - PRESIDED OVER DISASTER, Citi-group DESCENDING INTO BANRUPTCY last year, SAVED ONLY by the BAILOUTS which Rubin's fellow Goldman-Sachs EX-CHAIRMAN (and Bush's then Treasury Secretary) Hank Paulson's $700 BILLION dollar TAXPAYER BAILOUTS, a HUGE CHUNK of which went to Goldman-Sachs & Citi....
#2. TIMMY GEITHNER - a Rubin & Summers PROTEGE at Treasury when Rubin & Summers were Secretaries (of Treasury, Summers taking over when Rubin left for Citi-group) - "TOPPED" MR. Rubin in the "catastrophe" department last year, while Rubin presided over the bankruptcy of just one company, GEITHNER, as CHAIRMAN of the largest, most important, most vital US Fed Bank, PRESIDED OVER THE MELTDOWN of the ENTIRE US banking & financial industry, again, BAILED OUT _ONLY_ by Hank Paulson's oh-so-generous dispensing of TAXPAYER HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars...
#3. LAWRENCE SUMMERS "merely" got himself..... RUN OUT OF THE HARVARD PRESIDENT'S office! No easy feat, given the legendary arrogance of the Boston Brahmins who rule America's oldest college. But NOT before Summers FIRED the Quantitative Analyst who informed his office that the HARVARD MANAGEMENT COMPANY was INVESTING IN RISKY DERIVATIVES... which they had NO idea of the total risk of!!
SINCE Mr. Summers left his little perch at the very apex of all of American acadamia.... HARVARD's ENDOWMENT has PLUMMETED into the abyss!
OUT OF ALL the people in America he could have choosen to head his economic team, THESE were the Three Stooges Mr. Obama selected to lead America's recovery.... three OVER-PAID, OVER-PROMOTED HACKS who are as responsible for DIGGING AMERICA INTO that financial ditch, as ANYONE short of HANK PAULSON and BEN BERNANKE and George W. Bush themselves!!!
This is shaping up to be a DISASTER - for the Obama administration, and thus for a Democratic opposition party in America - on the very order of Vice President AL GORE's DISASTROUS choice of JOE LIEBERMAN to be his VP running mate, Lieberman not only a Republican-Lite" MORAL SCOLD during the Clinton Impeachment, but Lieberman was a full-blown "WAR WITH IRAQ, NOW!" PNAC neo-con, from THE MOMENT that Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Jebby Bush SIGNED the Kristol-Kagan "Iraq war blueprint" in June 1997 & Jan. 1998 !!
And the entire above Rant - "Senator Obama PLEDGED CHANGE... but GAVE US the VERY GOLDMAN-SACHS BANKSTERS who CREATED THIS CRISIS" - is merely a prelude to today's news, "SENATOR OBAMA _CEDES_ CONTROL OF THE CIA TO... DICK CHENEY, who spent TEN YEARS in exile from being in the (official) US military establishment betweent leaving as Bush-1's Secretary of Defense in 1991, to becoming the most powerful Vice-President in US history in 2001 - well now, ONLY THREE MONTHS out of the White House, Mr. Cheney has been GRANTED FAR MORE INPUT INTO THE CIA and "BLACK OPS" operations by the US Government (many of which are of course "OUTSIDE" of "official" US government sponsorship; see "Mission Impossible", the self-burning assignment orders) by Mr. Obama's DEFERENCE today to the TORTURE & War-Crimes senior bureaucrats at the agency.
As we said, we can see "Black Ops" agents SABOTAGING LIGHT AIRCRAFT (in South & Central America, and Africa, that is something of a highly refined specialty)... we can "see" Mr. Cheney AIDING and SUPPLYING America's enemies... but we NEVER thought we'd see a President Obama PUTTING LAWRENCE SUMMERS RIGHT BACK IN POWER, after he was RUN OUT OF HARVARD on a rail!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Obama CORRUPTION: PRETENDS NOT TO NOTICE, big banks HIKING RATES, FEES, & FINES for customers, despite BILLIONS of taxpayer "bailout" dollars...
Here we go again! Any day now, we should see the Obama administration - (the Emanuel-Geithner-Rubin-Summers et al, ad naseum crew) - HANDING OUT black DEATH's HEAD UNIFORMS...
...So intent are they in HELPING the Big Banks & hedge-funds EXTORT American consumers, that it is only a matter of time before they skip the niceties, and go straight to "concentration camps," where they can REALLY shake down their victims, er, "customers," for everything they own.
by David Enrich and Marshall Eckblad
April 13, 2009
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25326845-36375,00.html
THE US committee overseeing federal banking-bailout programmes is investigating the lending practices of institutions that received public funds, following a rash of complaints about increases in interest rates and fees.
Since the Troubled Asset Relief Program was launched in October, banks bolstered by _CAPITAL INFUSIONS_ [of HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of TAXPAYER dollars] have __boosted charges on a wide range of routine transactions, hiked rates on credit cards and continued making loans criticised as predatory by consumer advocates.__
The TARP funds are intended to open lending spigots and make it easier for people to borrow money.
Last week, for example, Bank of America told some customers that interest rates on their credit cards will nearly DOUBLE to about 14 per cent. The bank, which got $US45 billion ($62.6 billion) in capital from the US Government, also is imposing fees of least $US10 on a wide range of credit-card transactions.
Citigroup, another recipient of government cash, is trying to entice customers to borrow at high rates.
“You could get $US5000 today,” Citigroup's consumer-finance unit wrote in fliers mailed to customers. THE ADS DON'T DISCLOSE that the loans often carry annual interest rates of 30 per cent." [THIRTY PERCENT!] AS USUAL, the Neo-Con lite "Democrat" Congress, and NOW the 'new' OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, are "IN" on this LOOTING, PLUNDERING, & PILLAGING of hapless American workers, taxpayers, & consumers.
This is "REAL" money going straight to the FRAUDULENT banksters, executives, and greedy shareholders who WOULD BE BANKRUPT, if not for TRILLIONS of dollars of taxpayer bailouts.
...So intent are they in HELPING the Big Banks & hedge-funds EXTORT American consumers, that it is only a matter of time before they skip the niceties, and go straight to "concentration camps," where they can REALLY shake down their victims, er, "customers," for everything they own.
Bailed-out banks face probe over fee hikes
by David Enrich and Marshall Eckblad
April 13, 2009
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25326845-36375,00.html
THE US committee overseeing federal banking-bailout programmes is investigating the lending practices of institutions that received public funds, following a rash of complaints about increases in interest rates and fees.
Since the Troubled Asset Relief Program was launched in October, banks bolstered by _CAPITAL INFUSIONS_ [of HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of TAXPAYER dollars] have __boosted charges on a wide range of routine transactions, hiked rates on credit cards and continued making loans criticised as predatory by consumer advocates.__
The TARP funds are intended to open lending spigots and make it easier for people to borrow money.
Last week, for example, Bank of America told some customers that interest rates on their credit cards will nearly DOUBLE to about 14 per cent. The bank, which got $US45 billion ($62.6 billion) in capital from the US Government, also is imposing fees of least $US10 on a wide range of credit-card transactions.
Citigroup, another recipient of government cash, is trying to entice customers to borrow at high rates.
“You could get $US5000 today,” Citigroup's consumer-finance unit wrote in fliers mailed to customers. THE ADS DON'T DISCLOSE that the loans often carry annual interest rates of 30 per cent." [THIRTY PERCENT!] AS USUAL, the Neo-Con lite "Democrat" Congress, and NOW the 'new' OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, are "IN" on this LOOTING, PLUNDERING, & PILLAGING of hapless American workers, taxpayers, & consumers.
This is "REAL" money going straight to the FRAUDULENT banksters, executives, and greedy shareholders who WOULD BE BANKRUPT, if not for TRILLIONS of dollars of taxpayer bailouts.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Krugman: Obama CONTINUES to DIG HIS POLITICAL CORRUPTION GRAVE.... MASSIVE FRAUD of FAKE "Stress Tests" (non-audits) PAPER-OVER MASSIVE DEBTS....
Krugman and a small handful of other economists & banking experts continue to shout into the wind - the "wind" of VAST, ABJECT LIES & CORRUPTION blowing out Wall Street & Washington (the lobbyists who own the US government, the administration, the US government itself); in Congress, and in the US (corporate) media as well: Obama's Geithner-Summers-Emanuel-Rubin (ad naseum) 'economic crew' Essentially telling the American public that "the FAILED BANKS ARE SOLVENT" - when in fact they are NOT Solvent!
This is FRAUD on the order of, not only the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of Taxpayer Dollars poured down the black-hole of sheer fraudulent bank & financial accounting...
...but, additionally, the MILLIONS of dollars of "investigation" & "publicity" Obama has poured personally poured into his Timmy-boy Geithner "STRESS-TEST" scam - is MILLIONS of dollars of routine (taxpayer) government spending that is now also SHEER FRAUD!!
In the "Alice-In-Wonderland" "Mad-Hatter's Tea Party" that is the 'Democrat'/Rethuglican Neo-Con dictatorship in Washington, DC, the millions-of-dollars of ABJECT FRAUD (bureaucratic costs) of the Geithner/OBAMA "STRESS TEST", is MORE OF AN IN-YOUR-FACE INSULT to the American people, than the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS (actually trillions of dollars) they have been forced to shell out to prop-up the failed banks ('bailouts')in the first place.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/12/krugman-on-stress-tests-s_n_185947.html
Or to repeat the above in one simple sentence of plain english:
"OBAMA is now a full-charter member of the NY-Washington-Israel KLEPTOCRACY:
For HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of American TAXPAYER DOLLARS SHOVED DOWN THE GoldmanSachs/Citi/Wall St. BLACK HOLE of massively FAILED BANKS, the stupid, lemming, enslaved American public DOES NOT GET ONE LOUSY AUDIT."
Fortunately there are still a few honest experts who refuse to drink the NeoCon economic destruction kool-aid. But now the insanely corrupt Obama-Geithner-Emanuel-Rubins 'economics team' has convinced the traditional Republican corporate/financial cheap-labor authoritarians AND the "Liberal Obama Lefties" to give the administration & Financial crooks a huge WHITEWASH / FREE-PASS on hundreds of billions of dollars of massive financial fraud.
The New York Times sole other honest commentator, Frank Rich, backs up Krugman's assessment that the the Geithner-Rubin-Summers OBAMA 'economic team' is THE EMBODIEMENT of WALL STREET CORRUPTION and kleptocratic, financial dictatorship tendencies: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12rich.html
Jeffrey Sachs also seconds the "Geithner-Summers-OBAMA Plan IS SHEER FRAUD" -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/the-geithner-summers-plan_b_183499.html
William K. Black supports Rich & Krugman's analysis: the Geithner-OBAMA "stress tests" ARE SHEER FRAUD & DECEIT;
America is now effectively a ONE-PARTY DICTATORSHIP, RULED by Wall Street's insanely corrupt, entitled banksters who OWN the US government, and both parties, in Washington DC:
This is FRAUD on the order of, not only the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of Taxpayer Dollars poured down the black-hole of sheer fraudulent bank & financial accounting...
...but, additionally, the MILLIONS of dollars of "investigation" & "publicity" Obama has poured personally poured into his Timmy-boy Geithner "STRESS-TEST" scam - is MILLIONS of dollars of routine (taxpayer) government spending that is now also SHEER FRAUD!!
In the "Alice-In-Wonderland" "Mad-Hatter's Tea Party" that is the 'Democrat'/Rethuglican Neo-Con dictatorship in Washington, DC, the millions-of-dollars of ABJECT FRAUD (bureaucratic costs) of the Geithner/OBAMA "STRESS TEST", is MORE OF AN IN-YOUR-FACE INSULT to the American people, than the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS (actually trillions of dollars) they have been forced to shell out to prop-up the failed banks ('bailouts')in the first place.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/12/krugman-on-stress-tests-s_n_185947.html
Or to repeat the above in one simple sentence of plain english:
"OBAMA is now a full-charter member of the NY-Washington-Israel KLEPTOCRACY:
For HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of American TAXPAYER DOLLARS SHOVED DOWN THE GoldmanSachs/Citi/Wall St. BLACK HOLE of massively FAILED BANKS, the stupid, lemming, enslaved American public DOES NOT GET ONE LOUSY AUDIT."
Fortunately there are still a few honest experts who refuse to drink the NeoCon economic destruction kool-aid. But now the insanely corrupt Obama-Geithner-Emanuel-Rubins 'economics team' has convinced the traditional Republican corporate/financial cheap-labor authoritarians AND the "Liberal Obama Lefties" to give the administration & Financial crooks a huge WHITEWASH / FREE-PASS on hundreds of billions of dollars of massive financial fraud.
The New York Times sole other honest commentator, Frank Rich, backs up Krugman's assessment that the the Geithner-Rubin-Summers OBAMA 'economic team' is THE EMBODIEMENT of WALL STREET CORRUPTION and kleptocratic, financial dictatorship tendencies: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12rich.html
Jeffrey Sachs also seconds the "Geithner-Summers-OBAMA Plan IS SHEER FRAUD" -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/the-geithner-summers-plan_b_183499.html
William K. Black supports Rich & Krugman's analysis: the Geithner-OBAMA "stress tests" ARE SHEER FRAUD & DECEIT;
America is now effectively a ONE-PARTY DICTATORSHIP, RULED by Wall Street's insanely corrupt, entitled banksters who OWN the US government, and both parties, in Washington DC:
Friday, April 10, 2009
When "Centrist" Dem. Senators Tell Obama he is TOO IN-BED with BIG BANKSTERS.... you have crossed in to "Mad Hatter's Tea Party" territory....
Then Senator Obama PROMISED Americans "CHANGE" when he was campaigning for President, but since becoming president, on THE ISSUE that underscores the entire state of America this 2008-2009... America's ECONOMIC CRISIS - President Obama appears to be SO BLATANTLY IN BED with the BIG BANKSTERS who RULE Wall Street, that EVEN THE SUBSERVIENT, OBEDIENT to big-money DEMOCRAT SENATORS have announced their concern!! We can't possibly emphasize enough how BOTH parties in the Senate - Democrat AND Republican - are OWNED by the Big Financial companies, many of whom would be BANKRUPT if not for the Bush-Paulson-Pelosi 700-BILLION-dollar BAILOUTS of September 2008, followed by President Obama's OWN 800-BILLION-dollar bailout of March 2008. And of course the DEMOCRAT Senators VOTED FOR those HUNDEREDS-of-BILLIONS of dollars of NO OVERSIGHT bailouts.
Even the BOUGHT-and-PAID-for corporate "Democrat" SENATORS are becoming concerned about JUST HOW BLATANTLY Mr. Obama has BETRAYED his pledge to "CHANGE" the way those Banksters & Financial predators who landed America IN THIS ECONOMIC CRISIS do business.
by Michael Hirsh, Newsweek, April 10, 2009
http://www.newsweek.com/id/193360
Not long ago, a group of skeptical Democratic senators met at the White House with President Obama, his chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. The six senators—most of them centrists, joined by one left-leaning independent, Vermont's Bernie Sanders—said that while they supported Obama, they were worried. The financial reform policies the president was pursuing WERE NOT GOING FAR ENOUGH, they told him, and the people Obama was choosing as his REGULATORS, were NOT going to CHANGE THINGS fundamentally enough. His appointed officials and nominees were products of the very system that brought us all this economic grief; they would tinker with the system but in the end leave Wall Street, and its practices, mostly intact, the senators suggested politely. In addition to Sanders, the senators at the meeting were Maria Cantwell, Byron Dorgan, Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin and Jim Webb.
That March 23 gathering, the details of which have gone largely unreported until now, was just a minor flare-up in a larger battle for the future—one that may already be lost. With the financial markets seeming to stabilize in recent weeks, major Wall Street players are digging in against fundamental changes.
Even the BOUGHT-and-PAID-for corporate "Democrat" SENATORS are becoming concerned about JUST HOW BLATANTLY Mr. Obama has BETRAYED his pledge to "CHANGE" the way those Banksters & Financial predators who landed America IN THIS ECONOMIC CRISIS do business.
Wall Street Digs In
by Michael Hirsh, Newsweek, April 10, 2009
http://www.newsweek.com/id/193360
Not long ago, a group of skeptical Democratic senators met at the White House with President Obama, his chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. The six senators—most of them centrists, joined by one left-leaning independent, Vermont's Bernie Sanders—said that while they supported Obama, they were worried. The financial reform policies the president was pursuing WERE NOT GOING FAR ENOUGH, they told him, and the people Obama was choosing as his REGULATORS, were NOT going to CHANGE THINGS fundamentally enough. His appointed officials and nominees were products of the very system that brought us all this economic grief; they would tinker with the system but in the end leave Wall Street, and its practices, mostly intact, the senators suggested politely. In addition to Sanders, the senators at the meeting were Maria Cantwell, Byron Dorgan, Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin and Jim Webb.
That March 23 gathering, the details of which have gone largely unreported until now, was just a minor flare-up in a larger battle for the future—one that may already be lost. With the financial markets seeming to stabilize in recent weeks, major Wall Street players are digging in against fundamental changes.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Pres. Obama as a FOOL & SUBJECT FOR PARODY... by a PRO-OBAMA Dem. website!!
We consider Mr. Mark Karlin and the website he created and publishes, Buzzflash.com, to be one of the great websites on the web.... one of THE BEST portals to GOOD INFORMATION available to mankind anywhere on the globe at this moment.
(And we could have used the words "good information available to COMMON man", as if the Elites had super-secret zillion-dollar BETTER information sources... however, this is strictly NOT true.
Readers of information OPENLY AVAILABLE on the web & in better 'news' magazines COULD HAVE SEEN the RECESSION coming; could have seen the CONSEQUENCES for Phil Gramm's twin DEREGULATION ATROCITIES of 1999 and 2000 coming
(the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Commodity Futures Modernization Act, respectively, put VAST SWATHS of US financial markets BEYOND SEC oversight); and indeed, if "common" Americans had seen THIS simple CBS news TV & on-line article in July of 2001, "Ashcroft Flying High"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml
and CONNECTED the dots to the SIMPLE FACT that OSAMA bin LADEN & Al Qaida had NOT been PUNISHED seven full months into the Bush administration for the suicide-bomb TERRORIST MURDER ATTACK on the USS Cole from October 2000 (October 2000, that is - while Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Colin Powell, and other Republican military & foreign-policy "experts" were BANGING THE DRUMS for "national security" alleged "superiority" over the Democrat Clinton-Gore administration)-
- Cheney, Bush, Rice and crew thus GIVING AL QAIDA a FREE PASS for 9 CRITICAL MONTHS, a FREE PASS to ATTACK AMERICA until the 9-11 hijackings actaully went down in September 2001)
-- IF Americans had seen the SIMPLE CBS news & on-line article,
"ATTORNEY GENERAL GETS PRIVATE JET, CITING 'THREAT ASSESSMENT'"
(but LEAVING the word "TERRORIST" _out_ of "______ Threat Assessment")...
... then EVEN ORDINARY AMERICANS could have understood that a TERRORIST THREAT of the type 9-11 would prove to be was in the summer of 2001 an IMMMINENT threat to Americans and especially vulnerable airline passengers!
That is, _OUR_ information & 'intel' sources WERE BETTER than those available to VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY, the former DEFENSE SECRETARY who was the Victor of Gulf War-1 vs Iraq in 1991, but who in 20001 DID NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING to PROTECT AMERICANS from a KNOWN TERRORIST THREAT!
Well, in the TOPSY-TURVY world that is STUPID, SELFISH, violent, war-mongering, NEO-CON DEMAGOGUE DOMINATED America, we have to detour 5 paragraphs just to explain that THE INFORMATION available ON THE WEB, is EVERY BIT AS GOOD as the TRILLIONS-of-dollars of information available to the US leadership, high command, military, intel, & business elites!
(Either that, or DICK CHENEY is a TREASONOUS TRAITOR, for ALLOWING the Al Qaida terrorists to HIJACK those planes on 9-11, which of course is actually the case.)
Well, Back to Mr. Karlin & Buzzflash.com.... and their latest editor's commentary,
http://buzzflash.com/articles/node/8168
which is an UNINTENTIONAL PARODY of the GREED, ARROGANCE, & STUPIDITY of PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA himself !!
As we have said before, Mr. Karlin is a relentlessly Democratic editor & publisher, and he is from Chicago, the power-base of President Obama's political machine; and as an influential voice in Democratic politics - with articles read, written, and posted by Democratic Representatives & Senators appearing in the pages of Buzzlfash - we are reasonably certain that Mr. Karlin has met fellow Chicago Democrat powerbrokers RAHM EMANUEL, DICK DURBIN, and other members of the Democratic Party elites... including then Illinois Senator Barack Obama himself.
And Karlin & Buzzflash are STILL _STRONG SUPPORTERS_ of President Obama and his administration today.
Which makes the latest Buzzflash editor's commentary so astounding...
Mr. Karlin is REDUCED to PARODY, trying to explain, without being condemnatory, that the OBAMA WHITE HOUSE is actually a NEST OF VIPERS, of RIGHT-WING FINANCIAL PREDATORS who CREATED THIS ECONOMIC CRISIS !!
ALL that is missing is a THRONE for uber-Right-Wing Republican PHIL GRAMM to sit in command of all he surveys at the Obama White House, Gramm LORD & MASTER of all he survey's there _in Obama's house_!
...Phil Gramm the LORD & MASTER of the economic DEREGULATION policies (atrocities), that President Obama and his ENTIRE ECONOMICS TEAM are DEFENDING to this very day!!
...And. WORSE! (as if HARBORING the financial CORE "give no strings-attached billions to bankers!" of his WORST political ENEMIES, WITHIN his OWN house weren't bad enough),
...Obama & team are PROPPING UP those _Lord Phil Gramm_ DEREGULATION ATROCITIES with HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of TAXPAYER DOLLARS... TO THIS DAY, WITHOUT A SINGLE AUDIT of ANY of the Gramm-Paulson-Rubin-Summers BANKING FOLLIES, three full months into the Obama presidency, and actually THREE TRILLION DOLLARS of US taxpayer money SHOVED OUT THE DOOR, and into the gaping waw of the Big Banks' financial black-hole - without Mr. Obama INSISTING on a SINGLE investigative, much less forenzic, much less criminal financial audit, of a single FAILED bank or (AIG) financial institution !!!!!
And, as we have said here 1,000 times before, Barack Obama's ENTIRE ECONOMIC TEAM are INVESTMENT BANKERS or i-bank LOBBYISTS... MOST OF THEM directly from GOLDMAN-SACHS!!
RAHM EMANUEL an INVESTMENT-BANKER from Chicago "boutique" investment bank WASSERSTEIN-Perella... "a boutique" investment bank in that it is a Goldman-Sach wannabe, a kinder, gentler, smaller, cuter & fuzzier version of Goldman-Sachs, BUT TIED IN to Goldman's FINANCIAL & POLITICAL CLOUT in the same way that (DUH!) RAHM EMANUEL is now TIED IN to FORMER Goldman-Sachs CHAIRMAN, ROBERT RUBIN, in the OBAMA WHITE HOUSE! (DOUBLE-duh!)
(Which, btw, is EXACTLY why RAHM EMANUEL was HIRED at Wasserstein-Perella, immediately upon leaving the Clinton White House in 1998, in the first place... to PROVIDE the POLITICAL (& thereby legal) MUSCLE to POWER THROUGH Wasserstein-Perella's MERGERS & ACQUISITON deals, LBOs (leveragaged buy-outs) - -
- the kind of deals where a taken-over company is FORCED to FIRE half of its workers, in order to PAY OFF the BANKERS' FEES, interest, & loans of the (often predatory) LBO!!
Yep, uber-Democrat political "fixer" (and now Obama's chief SKULL-CRUSHER, ENFORCER, and Gate-keeper) RAHM EMANUEL, was in the exact same line of work as the "GREED IS GOOD!" financial hit-man GORDON GECKO, portrayed by Michael Douglas in the 1987 Oliver Stone masterpiece movie, "Wall Street"!
(Note: in the "fact is STRANGER than Fiction" catagory, Stone's movie, with Douglas' Gordon Gecko character doing an LBO HOSTILE TAKEOVER of fictional "BLUE STAR AIRLINES" using Blue-Star's employee "OVERFUNDED PENSION PLAN" as the basis for the cruel LBO, WITH the INTENTION of BREAKING UP Blue-Star after it is taken over and thus WIPING OUT the pension fund; actually PRECEDED Texas Air Holdings company Chairman FRANK LORENZO taking over real-life US major airline company EASTERN AIRLINES, and BLEEDING IT DRY from inside out, to pay off the LBO bankers & their loan-shark credit-extortionist backers.)
(A year or two later, Eastern Airlines finally succumbed to bankruptcy.
The week that Eastern finally DECLARED BANKRUPTCY as a result of Lorenzo's vampire LBO deal, the vast majority of Eastern's employee homeowners had to _put their homes up for sale_ the SAME week, adding MIAMI to the list of cities that were Victims of the Bush-1 Recession & Real-Estate collapse.)
(Which financial collapse also featured Cent-Trusts' Chairman DAVID PAUL dining in an executive dining room high atop the palatial CenTrust Tower, surrounded by rare master's artworks, using solid gold silverware... all purchased by David Paul at company expense, before his CenTrust bank collapsed in IGNOMY & BANKRUPTCY.)
The BUSH-2 RECESSION of 2008, which will soon be called the OBAMA Recession of 2009, is INDEED A VERBATIM REPEAT of the late 1980s & early 1990s recession, AMERICANS TOO STUPID & PROPAGANDIZED to make the VERY SIMPLE CONNECTIONS between PHIL GRAMM's DEREGULATION of the Savings & Loan era (David Paul's Centrust BANKRUPTCY, Charles Keating's massive $2 billion-dollar Licoln Savings & Loan BANKRUTCY; Neil Bush's SILVERADO Savings & Loan BILLION dollar BANKRUPTCY, etc.) leading to MASSIVE, system-wide ECONOMIC & FINANCIAL FAILURES of the early 1990s...
....and the SIMILAR PHIL GRAMM BANKING DEREGULATION ATROCITIES of 1999 and 2000, leading DIRECTLY to the present Bush-2/Obama RECESSION of 2008-2009, featuring _ONCE AGAIN_ FAILED, BANKRUPT, POLITICALLY CONNECTED huge BANKS, duh!
Which little detour into "GREED IS GOOD," "Gordon Gecko as preview & parody of Frank Lorenzo & Eastern Airlines," DAVID PAUL and the ingominous collapse of CenTrust, and CHARLES KEATING and the $2 BILLION collapse of Lincoln S&L (in 1980s dollars) - ALL made possible by PHIL GRAMM's financial "DEREGULATION" ATROCITIES allowing Banksters to LEVERAGE HUGE money to take-over even PRODUCTIVE companies -
- the above detour into a little "BACK HISTORY" of the PREVIOUS economic crisis unfortunately taking us away from PRESIDENT OBAMA's CURRENT ECONOMIC TEAM, which is _entirely made up of_ "investment" Bankers & Lobbyists, including the above-mentioned Chicago huckster RAHM EMANUEL, and Obama's "TOP ECONOMICS ADVISORS" LAWRENCE SUMMERS and ROBERT RUBIN... BOTH of whom spent the ENTIRE later half of the 1990s, PUSHING President Clinton & the Democrat Senate to APPROVE the SECOND ROUND of PHIL GRAMM's BANKING Deregulation ATROCITIES (the above-mentioned GRAMM-LEACH-BLILEY Act and Commodity Futures 'Modernization' Act of 2000)...
... which (to repeat) DEREGULATION ATROCITIES 1999 & 2000 leading DIRECTLY TO _THIS_ CURRENT economic crisis 2008 & 2009!!
Which (to repeat) economic crisis featured & was led by the COLLAPSE of HUGE SWATHS of the nation's "Top" Financial institutions, LEHMAN BROTHERS, Bear-Stearns, and WASHINGTON-MUTUAL ALREADY IN THE GRAVEYARD, and Rubin's CITI-bank, JPMorgan-CHASE, Bank-of-America, & Summers, Rubin's, Gary Gensler's, and Mark Patterson's (ALL current top Obama officials) GOLDMAN-SACH _ONLY_ SAVED from the financial GRAVEYARD, ONLY by (former GOLDMAN-SACHS Chairman, and then Bush's Treasury Secretary) HANK PAULSON's $700 BILLION no-oversight, NO STRINGS ATTACHED taxpayer _socialized_ BAILOUTS that Paulson EXTORTED from "Democratic" Speaker NANCY PELOSI & her CLUELESS, cowering, COMPLICIT 110th Congress in the last weeks of September 2008!!
Those TAXPAYER SOCIALIZED BAILOUTS coming ONLY AFTER Paulson at Treasury, Bernanke at the Fed, TIM GEITHNER (Obama's current, woefully useless Treasury Secretary) presiding as Chairman of the NY Fed Reserve Bank (one of twelve PRIVATE "fed" banks which make up Bernanke's "FEDERAL RESERVE BANK System"), and ROBERT RUBIN as a $115-million+ executive at Citi-group - all PRESIDED OVER DISASTER last year!
All the above (except for Bush's guy, Paulson), who PRESIDED OVER DISASTER last year, are now the CORE and CENTER of President Obama's current "Economic-Financial Team" !!
Hence what is so amazing about Mr. Karlin's current commentary. Karlin is still an undiminished Obama supporter, but one can easily see the frustration in his editorial:
....but notice that Mr. Karlin's (entirely justified) criticisms of Obama economics advisor Lawrence Summers, come only as a side or sub-text to Mr. Karlin's more forceful criticism of Washington Post so-called "MODERATE" columnist RICHARD COHEN, who in DEFENDING Summers, is actually providing a PERFECT expression of the Washington Post's skill in PACKAGING extremely RIGHT-WING "Neo-Conservative" ("neo-con")pro-war and financial elitist policies, agendas, and talking-points in to a "kinder, gentler, fuzzier, moderate" package... thereby leading MILLIONS of _deluded_ Americans into thinking that the Washington Post is actually a "liberal" newspaper!
Now we would just hope that Mr. Karlin devotes some jouralistic intensity to the other, larger half of the equation... NOT that the POLICIAL LIARS & COWARDS of the Washington Post are ARROGANT, ENTITLED, RUTHLESS, warmongering authoritarian ELITISTS who subltly defend their fellow Neo-Con elitists who are PLUNDERING the US economy & treasury.... but that PRESIDENT OBAMA is himself HARBORING those Neo-Con LOOT, PLUNDER, PILLAGE, and MISINFORM tendencies in his OWN White House!
And in handing out HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to THEIR OWN banks & financial allies (Rubins, alone, DIRECTLY CONNECTED to BOTH Goldman-Sachs AND Citi-group), Mr. Obama is actually handing out HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of dollars of Future DONATIONS to his POLITICAL ENEMIES, the PHIL GRAMM, BILL FRIST, TRENT LOTT, Jeff Sessions, John Boehner, New Gingrich, Dick Cheney _REPUBLICAN_ DEREGULATION crowd, the blatantly "Deregulation" ECONOMIC HIT-MEN, vampires, and job-killers who don't need to make a PRETENSE of joining the "Democratic" Party!
Bonus: Paul Krugman, the VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS who for TEN long, lonely years PREDICTED that the combination of BUSH TAX-CUTS FOR RICH (deficit spending) AND _DEREGULATING_ vast swaths of the Financial Markets, WOULD LEAD TO ECONOMIC COLLAPSE... saying of OBAMA's Banksters LAWRENCE SUMMERS and TIM GEITHNER "They are smart guys... just ask them, they'll tell you."
(And we could have used the words "good information available to COMMON man", as if the Elites had super-secret zillion-dollar BETTER information sources... however, this is strictly NOT true.
Readers of information OPENLY AVAILABLE on the web & in better 'news' magazines COULD HAVE SEEN the RECESSION coming; could have seen the CONSEQUENCES for Phil Gramm's twin DEREGULATION ATROCITIES of 1999 and 2000 coming
(the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Commodity Futures Modernization Act, respectively, put VAST SWATHS of US financial markets BEYOND SEC oversight); and indeed, if "common" Americans had seen THIS simple CBS news TV & on-line article in July of 2001, "Ashcroft Flying High"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml
and CONNECTED the dots to the SIMPLE FACT that OSAMA bin LADEN & Al Qaida had NOT been PUNISHED seven full months into the Bush administration for the suicide-bomb TERRORIST MURDER ATTACK on the USS Cole from October 2000 (October 2000, that is - while Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Colin Powell, and other Republican military & foreign-policy "experts" were BANGING THE DRUMS for "national security" alleged "superiority" over the Democrat Clinton-Gore administration)-
- Cheney, Bush, Rice and crew thus GIVING AL QAIDA a FREE PASS for 9 CRITICAL MONTHS, a FREE PASS to ATTACK AMERICA until the 9-11 hijackings actaully went down in September 2001)
-- IF Americans had seen the SIMPLE CBS news & on-line article,
"ATTORNEY GENERAL GETS PRIVATE JET, CITING 'THREAT ASSESSMENT'"
(but LEAVING the word "TERRORIST" _out_ of "______ Threat Assessment")...
... then EVEN ORDINARY AMERICANS could have understood that a TERRORIST THREAT of the type 9-11 would prove to be was in the summer of 2001 an IMMMINENT threat to Americans and especially vulnerable airline passengers!
That is, _OUR_ information & 'intel' sources WERE BETTER than those available to VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY, the former DEFENSE SECRETARY who was the Victor of Gulf War-1 vs Iraq in 1991, but who in 20001 DID NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING to PROTECT AMERICANS from a KNOWN TERRORIST THREAT!
Well, in the TOPSY-TURVY world that is STUPID, SELFISH, violent, war-mongering, NEO-CON DEMAGOGUE DOMINATED America, we have to detour 5 paragraphs just to explain that THE INFORMATION available ON THE WEB, is EVERY BIT AS GOOD as the TRILLIONS-of-dollars of information available to the US leadership, high command, military, intel, & business elites!
(Either that, or DICK CHENEY is a TREASONOUS TRAITOR, for ALLOWING the Al Qaida terrorists to HIJACK those planes on 9-11, which of course is actually the case.)
Well, Back to Mr. Karlin & Buzzflash.com.... and their latest editor's commentary,
http://buzzflash.com/articles/node/8168
which is an UNINTENTIONAL PARODY of the GREED, ARROGANCE, & STUPIDITY of PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA himself !!
As we have said before, Mr. Karlin is a relentlessly Democratic editor & publisher, and he is from Chicago, the power-base of President Obama's political machine; and as an influential voice in Democratic politics - with articles read, written, and posted by Democratic Representatives & Senators appearing in the pages of Buzzlfash - we are reasonably certain that Mr. Karlin has met fellow Chicago Democrat powerbrokers RAHM EMANUEL, DICK DURBIN, and other members of the Democratic Party elites... including then Illinois Senator Barack Obama himself.
And Karlin & Buzzflash are STILL _STRONG SUPPORTERS_ of President Obama and his administration today.
Which makes the latest Buzzflash editor's commentary so astounding...
Mr. Karlin is REDUCED to PARODY, trying to explain, without being condemnatory, that the OBAMA WHITE HOUSE is actually a NEST OF VIPERS, of RIGHT-WING FINANCIAL PREDATORS who CREATED THIS ECONOMIC CRISIS !!
ALL that is missing is a THRONE for uber-Right-Wing Republican PHIL GRAMM to sit in command of all he surveys at the Obama White House, Gramm LORD & MASTER of all he survey's there _in Obama's house_!
...Phil Gramm the LORD & MASTER of the economic DEREGULATION policies (atrocities), that President Obama and his ENTIRE ECONOMICS TEAM are DEFENDING to this very day!!
...And. WORSE! (as if HARBORING the financial CORE "give no strings-attached billions to bankers!" of his WORST political ENEMIES, WITHIN his OWN house weren't bad enough),
...Obama & team are PROPPING UP those _Lord Phil Gramm_ DEREGULATION ATROCITIES with HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of TAXPAYER DOLLARS... TO THIS DAY, WITHOUT A SINGLE AUDIT of ANY of the Gramm-Paulson-Rubin-Summers BANKING FOLLIES, three full months into the Obama presidency, and actually THREE TRILLION DOLLARS of US taxpayer money SHOVED OUT THE DOOR, and into the gaping waw of the Big Banks' financial black-hole - without Mr. Obama INSISTING on a SINGLE investigative, much less forenzic, much less criminal financial audit, of a single FAILED bank or (AIG) financial institution !!!!!
And, as we have said here 1,000 times before, Barack Obama's ENTIRE ECONOMIC TEAM are INVESTMENT BANKERS or i-bank LOBBYISTS... MOST OF THEM directly from GOLDMAN-SACHS!!
RAHM EMANUEL an INVESTMENT-BANKER from Chicago "boutique" investment bank WASSERSTEIN-Perella... "a boutique" investment bank in that it is a Goldman-Sach wannabe, a kinder, gentler, smaller, cuter & fuzzier version of Goldman-Sachs, BUT TIED IN to Goldman's FINANCIAL & POLITICAL CLOUT in the same way that (DUH!) RAHM EMANUEL is now TIED IN to FORMER Goldman-Sachs CHAIRMAN, ROBERT RUBIN, in the OBAMA WHITE HOUSE! (DOUBLE-duh!)
(Which, btw, is EXACTLY why RAHM EMANUEL was HIRED at Wasserstein-Perella, immediately upon leaving the Clinton White House in 1998, in the first place... to PROVIDE the POLITICAL (& thereby legal) MUSCLE to POWER THROUGH Wasserstein-Perella's MERGERS & ACQUISITON deals, LBOs (leveragaged buy-outs) - -
- the kind of deals where a taken-over company is FORCED to FIRE half of its workers, in order to PAY OFF the BANKERS' FEES, interest, & loans of the (often predatory) LBO!!
Yep, uber-Democrat political "fixer" (and now Obama's chief SKULL-CRUSHER, ENFORCER, and Gate-keeper) RAHM EMANUEL, was in the exact same line of work as the "GREED IS GOOD!" financial hit-man GORDON GECKO, portrayed by Michael Douglas in the 1987 Oliver Stone masterpiece movie, "Wall Street"!
(Note: in the "fact is STRANGER than Fiction" catagory, Stone's movie, with Douglas' Gordon Gecko character doing an LBO HOSTILE TAKEOVER of fictional "BLUE STAR AIRLINES" using Blue-Star's employee "OVERFUNDED PENSION PLAN" as the basis for the cruel LBO, WITH the INTENTION of BREAKING UP Blue-Star after it is taken over and thus WIPING OUT the pension fund; actually PRECEDED Texas Air Holdings company Chairman FRANK LORENZO taking over real-life US major airline company EASTERN AIRLINES, and BLEEDING IT DRY from inside out, to pay off the LBO bankers & their loan-shark credit-extortionist backers.)
(A year or two later, Eastern Airlines finally succumbed to bankruptcy.
The week that Eastern finally DECLARED BANKRUPTCY as a result of Lorenzo's vampire LBO deal, the vast majority of Eastern's employee homeowners had to _put their homes up for sale_ the SAME week, adding MIAMI to the list of cities that were Victims of the Bush-1 Recession & Real-Estate collapse.)
(Which financial collapse also featured Cent-Trusts' Chairman DAVID PAUL dining in an executive dining room high atop the palatial CenTrust Tower, surrounded by rare master's artworks, using solid gold silverware... all purchased by David Paul at company expense, before his CenTrust bank collapsed in IGNOMY & BANKRUPTCY.)
The BUSH-2 RECESSION of 2008, which will soon be called the OBAMA Recession of 2009, is INDEED A VERBATIM REPEAT of the late 1980s & early 1990s recession, AMERICANS TOO STUPID & PROPAGANDIZED to make the VERY SIMPLE CONNECTIONS between PHIL GRAMM's DEREGULATION of the Savings & Loan era (David Paul's Centrust BANKRUPTCY, Charles Keating's massive $2 billion-dollar Licoln Savings & Loan BANKRUTCY; Neil Bush's SILVERADO Savings & Loan BILLION dollar BANKRUPTCY, etc.) leading to MASSIVE, system-wide ECONOMIC & FINANCIAL FAILURES of the early 1990s...
....and the SIMILAR PHIL GRAMM BANKING DEREGULATION ATROCITIES of 1999 and 2000, leading DIRECTLY to the present Bush-2/Obama RECESSION of 2008-2009, featuring _ONCE AGAIN_ FAILED, BANKRUPT, POLITICALLY CONNECTED huge BANKS, duh!
Which little detour into "GREED IS GOOD," "Gordon Gecko as preview & parody of Frank Lorenzo & Eastern Airlines," DAVID PAUL and the ingominous collapse of CenTrust, and CHARLES KEATING and the $2 BILLION collapse of Lincoln S&L (in 1980s dollars) - ALL made possible by PHIL GRAMM's financial "DEREGULATION" ATROCITIES allowing Banksters to LEVERAGE HUGE money to take-over even PRODUCTIVE companies -
- the above detour into a little "BACK HISTORY" of the PREVIOUS economic crisis unfortunately taking us away from PRESIDENT OBAMA's CURRENT ECONOMIC TEAM, which is _entirely made up of_ "investment" Bankers & Lobbyists, including the above-mentioned Chicago huckster RAHM EMANUEL, and Obama's "TOP ECONOMICS ADVISORS" LAWRENCE SUMMERS and ROBERT RUBIN... BOTH of whom spent the ENTIRE later half of the 1990s, PUSHING President Clinton & the Democrat Senate to APPROVE the SECOND ROUND of PHIL GRAMM's BANKING Deregulation ATROCITIES (the above-mentioned GRAMM-LEACH-BLILEY Act and Commodity Futures 'Modernization' Act of 2000)...
... which (to repeat) DEREGULATION ATROCITIES 1999 & 2000 leading DIRECTLY TO _THIS_ CURRENT economic crisis 2008 & 2009!!
Which (to repeat) economic crisis featured & was led by the COLLAPSE of HUGE SWATHS of the nation's "Top" Financial institutions, LEHMAN BROTHERS, Bear-Stearns, and WASHINGTON-MUTUAL ALREADY IN THE GRAVEYARD, and Rubin's CITI-bank, JPMorgan-CHASE, Bank-of-America, & Summers, Rubin's, Gary Gensler's, and Mark Patterson's (ALL current top Obama officials) GOLDMAN-SACH _ONLY_ SAVED from the financial GRAVEYARD, ONLY by (former GOLDMAN-SACHS Chairman, and then Bush's Treasury Secretary) HANK PAULSON's $700 BILLION no-oversight, NO STRINGS ATTACHED taxpayer _socialized_ BAILOUTS that Paulson EXTORTED from "Democratic" Speaker NANCY PELOSI & her CLUELESS, cowering, COMPLICIT 110th Congress in the last weeks of September 2008!!
Those TAXPAYER SOCIALIZED BAILOUTS coming ONLY AFTER Paulson at Treasury, Bernanke at the Fed, TIM GEITHNER (Obama's current, woefully useless Treasury Secretary) presiding as Chairman of the NY Fed Reserve Bank (one of twelve PRIVATE "fed" banks which make up Bernanke's "FEDERAL RESERVE BANK System"), and ROBERT RUBIN as a $115-million+ executive at Citi-group - all PRESIDED OVER DISASTER last year!
All the above (except for Bush's guy, Paulson), who PRESIDED OVER DISASTER last year, are now the CORE and CENTER of President Obama's current "Economic-Financial Team" !!
Hence what is so amazing about Mr. Karlin's current commentary. Karlin is still an undiminished Obama supporter, but one can easily see the frustration in his editorial:
"At first, we thought [Washington Post "moderate" i.e. "neo-con-lite" columnist Richard] Cohen’s column was a SATIRE, until we realized that he was sincerely indignant that anyone should question the motives of Larry Summers [OBAMA's CURRENT ECONOMICS ADVISOR], a promoter in the past of the DEREGULATION of the finance industry that caused a 2 trillion dollar drain on the taxpayers.We can not top Mr. Karlin's ironic, understated frustration - what is close to a masterpiece of satire - of just how CLUELESS and IGNORANT President Obama is at HARBORING THE NEST OF VIPERS who are in the process of DRAGGING DOWN his OWN administration into a cesspit of FINANCIAL FRAUD and outright CRIMINAL THEFT from American taxpayers...
When Summers is finished with his White House stint, he’ll find some way – whatever restrictions there are – to benefit from the service that he is currently providing to the river boat gamblers who bet our economy at the casino and lost. For Summers, this isn’t public service; it’s an investment in his future earnings."
....but notice that Mr. Karlin's (entirely justified) criticisms of Obama economics advisor Lawrence Summers, come only as a side or sub-text to Mr. Karlin's more forceful criticism of Washington Post so-called "MODERATE" columnist RICHARD COHEN, who in DEFENDING Summers, is actually providing a PERFECT expression of the Washington Post's skill in PACKAGING extremely RIGHT-WING "Neo-Conservative" ("neo-con")pro-war and financial elitist policies, agendas, and talking-points in to a "kinder, gentler, fuzzier, moderate" package... thereby leading MILLIONS of _deluded_ Americans into thinking that the Washington Post is actually a "liberal" newspaper!
"A risible case in point is the April 7th column of veteran Washington Post journalist Richard Cohen, who makes the ludicrous argument that hedge fund multi-millionaire and Wall Street protector Larry Summers is a victim of harsh attacks. Cohen’s main contention is that Summers is serving us at great sacrifice to his personal fortune."We congratulate Mr. Karlin on his near-masterpiece of Political Satire, and for actually noticing the Washington Post's "LET THEM EAT CAKE," "The _Washington RULER CLASS_ must NOT allow the gates to be opened for the common-rabble" rutheless Neo-Conservative bias.
Now we would just hope that Mr. Karlin devotes some jouralistic intensity to the other, larger half of the equation... NOT that the POLICIAL LIARS & COWARDS of the Washington Post are ARROGANT, ENTITLED, RUTHLESS, warmongering authoritarian ELITISTS who subltly defend their fellow Neo-Con elitists who are PLUNDERING the US economy & treasury.... but that PRESIDENT OBAMA is himself HARBORING those Neo-Con LOOT, PLUNDER, PILLAGE, and MISINFORM tendencies in his OWN White House!
And in handing out HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to THEIR OWN banks & financial allies (Rubins, alone, DIRECTLY CONNECTED to BOTH Goldman-Sachs AND Citi-group), Mr. Obama is actually handing out HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of dollars of Future DONATIONS to his POLITICAL ENEMIES, the PHIL GRAMM, BILL FRIST, TRENT LOTT, Jeff Sessions, John Boehner, New Gingrich, Dick Cheney _REPUBLICAN_ DEREGULATION crowd, the blatantly "Deregulation" ECONOMIC HIT-MEN, vampires, and job-killers who don't need to make a PRETENSE of joining the "Democratic" Party!
Bonus: Paul Krugman, the VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS who for TEN long, lonely years PREDICTED that the combination of BUSH TAX-CUTS FOR RICH (deficit spending) AND _DEREGULATING_ vast swaths of the Financial Markets, WOULD LEAD TO ECONOMIC COLLAPSE... saying of OBAMA's Banksters LAWRENCE SUMMERS and TIM GEITHNER "They are smart guys... just ask them, they'll tell you."
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