TARP II. Or... BOHICA!!!

[Tommy Allison]

Title: Banks need an even bigger bailout!!!! (BOICA ALERT!!!)
Source: Reuters
URL Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE50Q71520090127
Published: Jan 27, 2009
Author: Kevin Drawbaugh


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Major U.S. banks are still hemorrhaging red ink, despite massive taxpayer aid, and President Barack Obama is under pressure to take a high-stakes political gamble -- asking for another bailout.
Whether he would get one from a skeptical Congress is unclear, given the wide dissatisfaction with the first bailout, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, a $700 billion fund to stabilize the banks and Wall Street.
The political danger of backing another aid package was vivid on Thursday when the House of Representatives voted 270-155 against releasing a second allotment of $350 billion to the TARP. The money will be released, nonetheless, because the Senate previously voted not to block the funds.
With the most recent TARP vote as a backdrop, analysts said that, if Obama sought more bailout money and Congress approved it, financial markets and bankers would certainly be pleased.
But lawmakers who voted in favor of such a program could pay a high price with voters in elections two years away.
And if the new president requested more money and Congress rejected him, the markets might plunge like they did last year when the Bush administration's initial TARP funding request was defeated, although it was later approved.
Neither outcome looks too rosy for Obama and congressional Democrats, leading some analysts to conclude that "TARP II" may not be on the cards.
"There would be tremendous political risk as Obama could lose the vote. That would spook markets even more and could make conditions worse. That is why we see this as a very last resort," said Jaret Seiberg, financial services policy analyst at investment firm Stanford Group Co.
"At this point, we do not expect Congress to enact a TARP II bill. Instead, we believe Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp) will find creative ways to recapitalize the banks ... Still, one cannot rule this out if conditions get worse than expected."

 

[Tommy Allison]

Title: Ex-Lehman (Brothers) boss "sold" $14 million house to wife for $100
Source: London Times
URL Source: http://business.timesonline.co.uk
Published: Jan 28, 2009
Author: (unknown)


The disgraced chief executive of Lehman Brothers transferred ownership of a $14 million Florida mansion to his wife for $100 in a possible attempt to move assets beyond the reach of infuriated investors of the collapsed bank.
Richard Fuld, who led the 158-year-old investment bank to its demise last September, sold the beach-front house to his wife, Kathleen, for $100 (£72) on November 10, according to Marin County real estate records.
The couple had previously jointly owned the Jupiter Island property, which was valued at $13.75million when they bought it in March 2004.
Cityfile.com, the New York website that uncovered the secret sale, speculated: “Could Fuld be worried about the flurry of lawsuits from incensed shareholders and creditors?”
The 3.3-acre property is one of five luxury homes owned by the Fulds, who spend most of their time at their eight-bedroom mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Mr Fuld has been named in at least one lawsuit filed by San Mateo County seeking damages for the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The Californian local authority lost $150 million on its investment in the Wall Street bank.
Lawyers were divided yesterday over whether the decision to move the mansion into Mrs Fuld's name was an attempt to put assets beyond the reach of investors who intend to sue the former chief executive for compensation. Some lawyers cited Florida's unusually generous home protection laws, which could save the Fulds from losing their house in the event of a lawsuit or bankruptcy.
To take advantage of these rules the couple would have to prove that they resided in Florida, which could be difficult because of the amount of time they spent in New York. Also, if a court decided that Mrs Fuld did not pay enough for the mansion, the transfer would be deemed to be “fraudulent conveyance” that would render the move void, lawyers said.
However, Barry Nelson, an attorney who specialises in asset preservation, said that the mansion would have been protected from creditors under Florida law even if it had remained in joint ownership. “As long as the acquisition of the property was not a fraud on creditors, which it wasn't because it was bought when the bank was doing well, and the debt is only his, not hers, then the property would be protected,” Mr Nelson said.
Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the 62-year-old banker, whose combative nature earned him the nickname The Gorilla, has become the symbol of everything that was wrong with Wall Street.
Even after overseeing America's largest bankruptcy, Mr Fuld has refused to admit responsibility for the fate of Lehman Brothers. Questioned by a congressional committee last October, Mr Fuld said that he felt
“horrible about what has happened to the company” but insisted that financial regulators and Congress should share the blame for the demise of the bank.
Mr Fuld also insisted that all his decisions in the months before the bankruptcy were “both prudent and appropriate” given the information that he had at the time.
He was paid $22 million in 2007 but did not receive any bonus or severance payment when he left Lehman Brothers last year. Henry Waxman, a Democrat Congressman, calculated that Mr Fuld had collected $480 million in compensation in eight years at the bank - a figure that Mr Fuld disputed, pointing out that he had taken home $300 million.
According to reports, Mr Fuld was running on a treadmill in the bank's gym, on the day he announced that Lehman Brothers was bankrupt, when he was punched in the face by an irate employee.
Mr Fuld's attorney did not return calls for comment yesterday.

 

[Tommy Allison]

Title: Exxon Mobil sets profit record - Nation's No. 1 oil company reports larger than expected jump in 4Q
Source: domer
URL Source: http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/30/news/companies/exxon_earns/
Published: Jan 27, 2009
Author: CNN


Exxon Mobil sets profit record Nation's No. 1 oil company reports larger than expected jump in 4Q income to cap record year. By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer January 30, 2006: 2:41 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Exxon Mobil Corp. set U.S. records for annual and quarterly profits Monday as it easily topped fourth-quarter earnings forecasts.
The nation's largest oil company reported net income in the fourth quarter of $10.7 billion, or $1.71 a share, compared to $8.4 billion, or $1.30 a share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, Exxon Mobil (Research) earned $10.3 billion, or $1.65 per share, topping a consensus forecast of $1.44 a share from analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call. It also topped the record for quarterly profits it set in the third quarter, when it earned $9.9 billion.
Shares of Exxon Mobil gained 2 percent in early-afternoon trading, helping to take the Dow into positive territory.
For the year the company earned net income of $36.1 billion, or $33.9 billion excluding special items. That's up 31 percent from the $25.9 billion it earned on that basis year earlier.
Exxon Mobil's 2005 net income for the year comes to $1,146 a second. That per-second profit is enough to pay for gas for the average American vehicle to be driven 10,294 miles, at current gasoline prices.
While oil and gasoline prices in the fourth quarter were down from the levels seen in September, that barely dented Exxon Mobil's top line. Revenue for the quarter was $99.7 billion, up from $81.9 billion in the year-earlier quarter, and down only 1 percent from the $100.7 billion in revenue in the third quarter. Full-year revenue came to $371 billion, or just over $1 billion a day.
The Exxon Mobil earnings statement was almost defensive about the record profit.
"There is a great deal of public interest in global energy prices," said a statement attributed to Exxon Mobil Chairman Rex Tillerson. "We recognize that consumers worldwide want and need reliable supplies of affordable energy -- to fuel their vehicles, light and heat their homes and run their businesses. Our strong financial results will continue to allow us to make significant, long-term investments required to do our part in meeting the world's energy needs."
Henry Hubble, Exxon Mobil's vice president of investor relations, told analysts and investors during a conference call that the company had returned about $23 billion to shareholders in 2005 through dividends and share repurchases. The company raised its dividend to 32 cents in the first quarter from 29 cents in the fourth quarter. The company has increased its dividend for 29 consecutive years.
"Our earnings reflect our ability to capture the strong industry condition. More importantly they highlight the things we do exceptionally well," Hubble said, detailing work to deliver strong operating margins and its investment strategy.
Fadel Gheit, oil analyst with Oppenheimer, said the company beat expectations by recovering faster than expected from the hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast near the end of the third quarter and by posting strong margins in its refining and marketing units, the side of the oil business that can often be squeezed by higher oil prices.
Despite the company record cash flow and a strong cash position on its balance sheet, he doubts the company will use any of its wealth to buy other companies as some competitors have done. Company officials have said they don't want to buy oil assets at current prices but Gheit said he thinks there are also political reasons behind their reluctance.
"That would invite unnecessary and unwanted scrutiny of Exxon," he said.
As to the Exxon Mobil's earnings record, First Call could not definitively say what was the largest annual profit on record. But it appears the previous mark was held by Media One, the cable television operator that eventually became part of Comcast. It posted net income of $26.3 billion in 1998.
But most of that profit came from accounting of a split between cable and telephone units that took place over the year. Media One's income from continuing operations that year came to only $1.4 billion.
The largest operating income before this year may well have been Exxon Mobil's $25.9 billion in 2004.
Earnings up across Big Oil Of course Exxon Mobil isn't the only oil company reporting sharply better results. The 12 U.S. oil companies in the S&P 500 that have reported fourth-quarter results have seen an average of a 48 percent rise in earnings excluding items in the period, according to First Call.
The list includes most of the large U.S. oil companies, including No. 2 Chevron and No. 3 ConocoPhillips (Research). But it does not include major foreign-based oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell (Research) or BP (Research), which both have extensive U.S. operations.
The oil companies in the S&P are expected to see full-year earnings of $96.5 billion, when combining reported results and forecasts for the companies yet to report. That also would be up 48 percent from a year ago. And the profit growth is not nearing an end, with analysts surveyed by First Call looking for 15 percent growth in earnings at those companies in 2006.
Strong oil earnings in the third quarter prompted calls in some quarters of Congress for a so-called "windfall profit" tax on oil company earnings, as well as a joint hearing of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees into earnings from big oil. Lee Raymond, who retired as Chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil in December, was one of five executives from big oil called to testify.
The various windfall profit tax proposal by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., failed on when offered as an amendment in the Senate in the fall. Gheit said he doesn't believe that there will be much revival of the talk of a windfall profit tax now despite the new record profit.
"People don't look at oil profits, they look at prices at the pump," he said.
The average price of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline retreated from the post-Hurricane Katrina record high of $3.057. But after oil and gasoline prices are rising again, with the AAA average showing a nearly 7 percent gain over the last month.
Sheraz Mian, oil analyst for Zack's, agreed the lower gasoline has reduced the pressure for a tax on oil companies, but he's not convinced the companies are out of the woods yet.
"I would not completely rule out noise on this in the next few weeks," he said. He agreed with analysts who see even higher oil profits ahead in 2006. Both he and Gheit have a buy recommendation on Exxon Mobil shares, with Mian having a $70 a share target price.
"We don't see '05 as the peak. We believe '06,for now, looks to be better," he said.

 

[Tommy Allison]

Title: BUBBA'S POCKETS FULL OF FOREIGN BENJAMINS ☪ COLLECTED $6M IN FEES FROM OTHER COUNTRIES
Source: NY Post
URL Source: http://www.nypost.com/seven/01272009/news/politics/bubbas_pockets_full_of_foreign_benjamins_152282.h
Published: Jan 27, 2009
Author: CLEMENTE LISI



Former President Bill Clinton pocketed a whopping $6 million in speaking fees last year - collecting the loot mostly from foreign companies, according to documents.
Financial documents filed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton show that $5 million of her husband's $5.7 million earnings from those speaking engagements came from a host of foreign sources, including Kuwait's National Bank.
All Obama administration officials are required to complete a detailed disclosure of their personal earnings, including spouse and children, which is updated annually.
Clinton also earned cash speaking in Canada, Mexico, Germany, Portugal, India and Malaysia, according to the documents obtained today by the Associated Press.
In a separate disclosure filing, Bill Clinton released the list of donors to his William J. Clinton Foundation last month after his wife was tapped by President Obama to serve as his secretary of state.
The list showed that a slew of desert-dwelling donors gave big to Clinton.
For example, the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia alone gave as much as $35 million to the nonprofit.
In all, more than 200,000 individuals and groups gave to Clinton's foundation - for a total of nearly $500 million.
The list was made public after critics claimed there could have been conflict-of-interest headaches for Hillary.
For years, Clinton had steadfastly kept his donors' identities top secret - even as Hillary campaigned for president and watchdogs called for transparency.
The largest gifts, either to fund his presidential library or global poverty-fighting charity initiatives, came from the Saudis.
Friends of Saudi Arabia, a government-sponsored agency that fosters ties between the kingdom and the US, gave $5 million on top of the direct $10 million to $25 million from the kingdom itself.

 

[Tommy Allison]

Title: Obama Urges GOP to Keep Politics to a Minimum on Stimulus (Bill is 95% PORK-does NOT benefit economy
Source: FOX
URL Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/27/house-republicans-express-skepticism-bipartisan-backing-s
Published: Jan 27, 2009
Author: staff


President Obama said he respects philosophical differences with Republicans but wants to keep politics to a minimum so they can get the economy back on track.
President Obama's meetings with House and Senate Republicans resulted in a mutual desire to find solutions for the economy that are not ideologically driven, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.
"I do think there is a genuine sense of cooperation that is involved in the meetings. I think we will have Republican support for this bill," he said, noting that the negotiations with Republicans on tax and spending policies aren't over. "I don't think today was the beginning or the end or just part of that process."
Gibbs did not say what the president was considering coming out of suggestions offered by Republicans, but not one item can fix the economy. Confronted with the scenario that maybe only a dozen Republicans would support the bill that is expected to face a vote Wednesday, Gibbs said, "We'll take what we can get."
He added that the process will keep moving after the vote.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill earlier in the day, Obama said he understands the concerns of House Republicans but the massive economic recovery package he has proposed is aimed at getting the country out of the ditch it's in and on the right track.
Obama said he is "absolutely confident" that compromises can be reached, "but the key right now is to make sure we keep politics to a minimum."
"There is some legitimate philosophical differences with parts of my plans that the Republicans have, and I respect that. In some cases, they just may not be as familiar with what is in the package as I would like. I don't expect 100 percent agreement but I do hope that we can all put politics aside and do the American people's business right now," he said.
House GOP leaders said they were pleased with the conversation with Obama. Several said they still had the message -- listen to our suggestions and use them.
"The door of our conference will stay open to this president," said GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence.
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said the problem for Republicans isn't negotiating with the president, who has "serious intent," but working with House Democrats.
"We are hopeful that (the president) can impose upon Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi to adopt the same attitude (as him) because frankly it has not been forthcoming whatsoever. There have been no meetings with Speaker Pelosi and Republicans. There have already been three between the president and Republicans in the House," he said.
"We have yet to see one Republican proposal included in this plan," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington before the meeting.
Obama said the "statistics every day underscore the urgency of the situation." He said Americans want to go back to work, gain energy independence, better schools and stronger infrastructure and they want all of it done "wisely so that we're not wasting taxpayer money."
Obama added his proposal is "just one leg in a multi-legged stool." He also wants Congress and his administration to develop tighter regulations, more controls on the release of money to help shore up financial institutions and greater coordination with other countries.
Of chief concern to Republican leaders is the amount of spending and the tax approach outlined in the proposal being considered by lawmakers this week. Many Republicans remain skeptical of provisions they say don't match the talk about job creation.
"We have concerns that the plan that House Democrats are going to bring to the floor will not work," said House Minority Leader John Boehner before the meeting. "And at the end of the day, our big move today will be to ask the president to help us. Help us make this plan better so that it will put Americans back to work."
Boehner said afterward that he thought many in the conference and the president himself "enjoyed the conversation."
Louisiana Sen. David Vitter said before the meeting that he plans to tell Obama that he likes the approach that he's offered, but doesn't see that being followed on Capitol Hill.
"It's line after line after line of favorite liberal spending programs and it amounts to a big government bill not a job creation," Vitter told FOX News.
But Republicans did not offer any of their own changes to the Senate package that was voted out of the Appropriations Committee Tuesday morning on a largely party line vote of 21-9. All the Democrats on the panel approved the bill while 9 Republicans voted against it.
Of the four Republicans who voted for the nearly $830 billion package, three -- Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Kit Bond of Missouri -- made it clear they were just voting to move the process along, reserving the right to oppose the bill in the end on the floor.
On the House side, Republicans rallied the rank-and-file to oppose measures that they say include too much spending and not enough tax incentives. Several pointed to examples of $4 billion for community development groups and millions more for the National Endowment of the Arts. More than 200 amendments had been sent to the House clerk on the legislation headed for debate on Wednesday.
The version sent to the Senate calls for about $190 in assistance like Medicaid to the states and an extension of unemployment benefits; about $365 billion for infrastructure and science; and $275 billion in tax provisions. The Senate was also expected to add a patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax, which hits middle class taxpayers hardest. That would cost $70 billion or so in 2009, which would bring the total package to about $900 billion.
According to the Congressional Budget Office about $608 billion, or 73 percent of the $830 billion, would be spent in 2009 and 2010. The quicker the money gets spent, the more stimulative it is, say economists.
The Democratic version in the House calls for about 64 percent to be spent in the first two years. Pelosi has said she thinks Congress can get a bill to the president's desk by the President's Day recess next month.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen said that lawmakers who say no to the recovery plan are going to have to explain to constituents "why at this critical point in our history ... why they didn't support the economy."
He added that Democrats have included net operating loss and energy tax provisions preferred by Republicans and suggested that Obama has worked overtime to get GOP support.
"So it's unfortunate that the signs that we are hearing indicate that Republicans aren't giving this as good a look as I would have hoped," he said.
Neither Republicans nor Obama have indicated where they may be willing to make changes to the legislation, but both sides have said they don't have any "pride of authorship" of the huge package.
In a sign that Obama is willing to compromise, the president told Democrats to jettison from the package family planning funds for low-income people. Republicans have criticized the provision as an example of wasteful spending that would neither create jobs nor otherwise improve the economy.
"He asked them to take it out he established a set of principles for spending to boost economic growth over the course of a two-year period and the contraceptive funding was not part of those principles," said Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton. Burton said the contraceptive funding issue had become a "lightning rod" and that without it the large bill had a better chance of winning bipartisan support.

 

[Stillborn]

Were you able to read all that and not put your fist through your monitor?

I just read " Banks need an even bigger bailout!!!!" and almost did.


K, read about Clinton getting 6 billion in speaking fees. And Hilary etc. I'd pay that much to hear them shut up, if I had it.

 

[Tommy Allison]

I read pretty voraciously, as I am of the mind that we are chronicling the end of our Country.

The betrayal, treason, and out right treacherous nature of the so called leadership in this country should not be countenanced. The Boomer Generation of politicians has betrayed this nation in a way that the Nazis and the Russians never could.

What is worse, is that they tell us daily that it's for our own good, but it's really only for the good of those who control every dime on the planet. There is to be a two tiered society. The uber elite, and the rest of us. You should read up on how Social Security is used as a means of profit for the Banking Community. How we're all little investments. Our money makes someone else very rich, and we are given a pittance of what is actually paid in if we are successful.

 

[pixelsmith]

Welcome to the North American Union and the Amero.

 

[Killerclown]

Welcome to the North American Union and the Amero.

It looks like in the UK we'll get forced into the Euro.

The disgraced chief executive of Lehman Brothers transferred ownership of a $14 million Florida mansion to his wife for $100 in a possible attempt to move assets beyond the reach of infuriated investors of the collapsed bank.
Richard Fuld, who led the 158-year-old investment bank to its demise last September, sold the beach-front house to his wife, Kathleen, for $100 (£72) on November 10, according to Marin County real estate records.

It's interesting that while poor people lose their houses and are dumped out on the street, the wealthy can hang on to their homes using such dishonest tricks. As for bailouts they are fundamentally wrong in a capitalist country because they support unsustainable business practices at the expense of the tax payer.

Here in England things are even worse - the government has actually said that they will prevent any bank going bust by backing their assets using the treasury.

Rather than giving money to the banks - it should instead pay back taxpayers money directly to the taxpayer. This would allow the irresponsible banks to fail and create a disincentive to stop it happening again. As always ofcourse, the government steps in to support big business and the person that gets screwed is the taxpayer.

The worst thing is once we're out of all this in 5 or 10 years people will forget what happened - and will start the whole cycle again.

 

[Tommy Allison]

Title: $335,000,000 FOR STD PREVENTION IN ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL
Source: Drudge
URL Source: http://drudgereport.com/flashsb.htm
Published: Jan 28, 2009
Author: Drudge


$335,000,000 FOR STD PREVENTION IN ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL
Wed Jan 28 2009 09:58:30 ET
Democrats may have eliminated provisions on birth control and sod for the National Mall in the "job stimulus" -- but buried on page 147 of the bill is stimulation for prevention of sexually transmitted diseases!
The House Democrats' bill includes $335 million for sexually transmitted disease education and prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
In the past, the CDC has used STD education funding for programs that many Members of Congress find objectionable and arguably unrelated to a mission of economic stimulus [such as funding events called 'Booty Call' and 'Great Sex' put on by an organization that received $698,000 in government funds.]
"Whether this funding has merit is not the question; the point is it has no business in an economic plan supposedly focused on job creation," says a stimulated Hill source.
Developing...

 

[Tommy Allison]

Title: Studies find mercury in much U.S. corn syrup
Source: Reuters
URL Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28877253/
Published: Jan 27, 2009
Author: Reuters


WASHINGTON - Many common foods made using commercial high fructose corn syrup contain mercury as well, researchers reported on Tuesday, while another study suggested the corn syrup itself is contaminated.
Food processors and the corn syrup industry group attacked the findings as flawed and outdated, but the researchers said it was important for people to know about any potential sources of the toxic metal in their food.
In one study, published in the journal Environmental Health, former Food and Drug Administration scientist Renee Dufault and colleagues tested 20 samples of high fructose corn syrup and found detectable mercury in nine of the 20 samples. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here
Dufault said in a statement that she told the FDA about her findings but the agency did not follow up.
Dr. David Wallinga, a food safety researcher and activist at the nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, said he followed up on the report to find mercury in actual food.
Slide show
Get a taste of food safety A Daryl Cagle editorial cartoon roundup of the latest scandals surrounding the safety of the food supply.
msnbc.com "When I learned of that work, I said that is interesting but we don't just go out and eat a spoonful of high fructose corn syrup," Wallinga said in a telephone interview.
"We went and looked at supermarket samples where high fructose corn syrup was the first or second ingredient on the label," he said. These 55 different foods included barbecue sauce, jam, yogurt and chocolate syrup.
"We found about one out of three had mercury above the detection limit," Wallinga said.
‘Dubious significance’ The Corn Refiners Association challenged the findings.
"This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance," the group said in a statement.
Wallinga and colleagues said they believed the mercury got into the food during manufacture, at plants that use mercury-grade caustic soda produced in industrial chlorine plants, although his team was unable to show this.
"Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two reagents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years," Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, said in a statement.
Wallinga said the studies were based on samples taken in 2005, the most recent available.
Many studies have shown that fish can be high in mercury. Wallinga said consumers should know about other potential sources so they can limit how much they eat. "The best mercury exposure is no exposure at all," he said.
"Even at low levels methylmercury can harm the developing brain. The last thing we should intentionally do is add to it," Wallinga added.
He said his team did not test foods that did not contain corn syrup to see if they were also high in mercury.

 

[Tommy Allison]

It looks like in the UK we'll get forced into the Euro.




It's interesting that while poor people lose their houses and are dumped out on the street, the wealthy can hang on to their homes using such dishonest tricks. As for bailouts they are fundamentally wrong in a capitalist country because they support unsustainable business practices at the expense of the tax payer.

Here in England things are even worse - the government has actually said that they will prevent any bank going bust by backing their assets using the treasury.

Rather than giving money to the banks - it should instead pay back taxpayers money directly to the taxpayer. This would allow the irresponsible banks to fail and create a disincentive to stop it happening again. As always ofcourse, the government steps in to support big business and the person that gets screwed is the taxpayer.

The worst thing is once we're out of all this in 5 or 10 years people will forget what happened - and will start the whole cycle again.

I've noticed that since Ireland has rejected the EU, and the Euro, their currency and economy has tanked HARD.

Take the mark, or you can't buy and sell.

The Boomer Generation, is the greatest generation of traitors this world has ever seen, and the funniest thing, is that apparently their parents never taught them about one damned thing they fought against during either world war.

 

[pixelsmith]

Mercury is good for you. "they" said so on TV.

 

[Tommy Allison]

Title: Senator Warns White House Will 'Create Crisis' & 'Panic' to Push Stimulus★Sen. DeMint, R-SC, critici
Source: Business & Media Institute
URL Source: http://businessandmedia.org/articles/2009/20090127165919.aspx
Published: Jan 28, 2009
Author: Jeff Poor


Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., criticizes mainstream media for not reporting loads of pork in proposed legislation.


Is the new Obama administration taking cues from the Bush administration to get Congress to act? It certainly seemed that way to, South Carolina’s junior Republican senator, Jim DeMint.
DeMint, speaking Jan. 27 at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., explained the Obama administration will “create crisis and widespread panic” just like its predecessor in order to get Congress to act expeditiously.
“I’ve been around long enough to know whenever someone tells me I have to make a decision right now, my response is no,” DeMint said. “That clears it up right away and I think more and more the Bush administration and now this administration knows that they’re not going to get a quick reaction out of Congress unless they create crisis and widespread panic. And that’s going to be their M.O. to get Congress to act.”


Another senator, James Inhofe, R-Okla., explained the Bush administration used a similar tactic, under the direction of former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, to get the $700-billion TARP bailout bill passed by Congress back on Oct. 4, 2008.
DeMint said some Republicans now regret they voted for the TARP package, even though there is no way to gauge what might have happened had it not been passed.
“I think there’s a lot of buyer’s remorse among Republicans who voted for the bailouts of all kinds last year,” DeMint said. “And, it’s hard to prove that, some of them are saying, ‘It didn’t work out so well, but it’d been a lot worse if we hadn’t.’ It’s hard, it’s hard to argue that unless you know anything about how business works.”
“And then it’s obvious that what we did was inject a whole lot of uncertainty into the marketplace,” DeMint said. “So no, I don’t think there’s discord because of that, uh, and I really don’t blame my colleagues. If you got the President and the Secretary of the Treasury coming in saying, ‘The world economy is going to collapse next week if we don’t do something.’”
DeMint criticized the mainstream media for not conveying the message that some congressional Republicans are trying to spread about this package –that it’s filled with big-government wasteful spending projects that will do little to “stimulate” the economy.
“Well, it’s a good question and a lot of us are saying that,” DeMint said. “It’s not being picked up at all by the mainstream media and that’s why again, we’re going to have to take our message through you to the people, Rush Limbaugh, anyone who will talk about what’s really in the bill. We don’t need to make it up. It’s like they’re in a different reality. They’re talking about a bill, that when you look at it, there’s no resemblance to what they’re talking about.”
DeMint said it will take grassroots efforts to put the brakes on this stimulus package and he admitted he has seen it from constituents that are concerned about the bailout culture in Washington, D.C.
“So if we can just get the truth to the American people, or just a segment of the American people, I think you’ll, you’ll see a groundswell of anger, again because there’s, there’s a real fatigue out there on these bailouts,” DeMint continued. “I think even people who are normally not that political are coming up to me and they just sense that we’re running this country into a ditch. I’ve never seen people so anxious and so – well, I mean they grab my arm. They’re no longer single issue people. They just say, ‘Thanks for fighting. What can I do?’ I’ve heard that at least a hundred times. That’s – we just need to let people know the truth and think that they’ll get engaged.”

 

[Tommy Allison]

 

[pixelsmith]

obama info here: YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

lots of information here:
YouTube - AnonymousCommentator's Channel

some here do not like youtube. try and glean what you can from it.

 

[Tommy Allison]

This shit right here, is why my child will NEVER go to a public school. We're talking about FIRST GRADERS. Read this shit, and realize that your children cease to be children, and become part of the proletariat the second they enter their programming institution. Talk about prison for your mind...





Title: Milwaukee first-graders offer ideas for Obama
Source: Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
URL Source: http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/38309429.html
Published: Jan 26, 2009
Author: Alan J. Borsuk


What do you want to see President Barack Obama do in his first 100 days in office? Here's how 20 first-graders at Hartford University School, a public school tucked into the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, answered that question.
There probably won't be much talk at the White House in coming weeks about better prices for toys, but Obama could certainly do worse than listen to some of the ideas - or to keep in mind why some answered the way they did.
1. Give us more jobs.
2. Lower the price of gas.
3. Give us more money.
4. Love everyone.
5. Lower the prices of food.
6. Lower the prices of video games.
7. Take away guns.
8. Make it easier to go to college.
9. Stop wars.
10. Make it easier to see a doctor.
11. Help people.
12. Stop people from selling drugs.
13. Stop people from smoking.
14. Stop people from killing each other.
15. Give toys better prices.
16. Give houses and cars bulletproof windows.
17. Fix the streets.
18. Fix traffic.
19. End all slavery.
20. Give us more money for field trips.

 

[Zandroid]

 

[pixelsmith]

the bush administration is alive and well within obamanation.

 

[Zandroid]

the bush administration is alive and well within obamanation.

shoveling out the doo doo takes time