Posted by Pete on May 9, 2009 · 2 Comments
If there was one thing you could always say about President Bush, it is that he always stood on his principles and values. He had an enormous amount of integrity and did not compromise any of those things for political expediency. He firmly believed every move and decision he made was based on what was best for the American people. He did not rely on polling data or popularity statistics. President Bush’s firmly held beliefs in a post 9/11 world are what guided him.
Now President Obama, on the other hand, stands on his teleprompter. As he has “navigated” his way through the first 100 days in the Oval Office, we have yet to really see the characteristics of integrity or doing what is right by the American People. At least two of his cabinet members should have been tossed; Turbo Tax Tim Geithner and Secretary Napolitano, both of whom have embarrassed the Oval Office and outraged the American people. If he really stood on principle and integrity they would have been gone.
President Obama showed signs of this early in the election cycle when he said he would accept public financing of the campaign, but when the primary season was over and he was the nominee, he opted out of the system and continued to collect just shy of 3/4 of a billion dollars, most of which is untraceable. That in itself goes against the Open Government Act by fully disclosing all donors.
President Bush walked his talk after the campaign. He worked with the Democratic leadership, showing bipartisanship on the budget, FISA, immigration and other issues. The only thing he would not compromise on (thank goodness) was a troop withdrawal time table. Democrats tried in vain to force his hand as the Obama backing MSM flooded the evening news night after night with each road side bomb image they could find. Very little attention was paid to the success we were having, only the carnage. This unwavering stance against a timed withdrawal was significant because he did not want give the emboldened insurgency a window in which to “wait it out”, and to prevent these politicians from micromanaging commanders in the field. True, there was pressures to change strategies in order to combat this issue, and the administration did just that; they initiated the “surge”. And guess what, it worked! Now Mr. Obama on the other hand has shown about as much bipartisanship as Iran has shown cooperation with the UN….Uh that would be none! The GOP has been completely shut out of the administration, being told to basically shut up and sit down because “we” (the Dems) won. So much for a new era of cooperation and open government.
What people fail to realize in Iraq, is that not only did we rid the world of a very evil dictator, who’s atrocities are well documented (so in fact there is you weapon of mass destruction), shut down Dr. Germ Rihab Taha (who was identified by UN weapon inspectors specifically), the mission also brought stability to the region as a whole.
If you look back, Moamar Kadafi quickly and quietly ended their rebellious ways and cracked down on terrorists in Libya. Syria also became much more user friendly, and cooperative. So there were broader positive effects.
Mr. Obama who was not a Senator when the Congress initially authorized action in Iraq, on the campaign trail he waved the “No More War” flag like the checker flag at the end of a car race. The election was soundly anti-Bush, and all the rhetoric that goes with that. ‘When he is elected president, we will be out of Iraq in 16 months at the most. There should be no confusion about that’.
Well as you all know, the mission (and I am not complaining about this) remains on target and is, in fact, in a winding down phase. We have consolidated much of our operations to specific areas in Iraq, handed over control and security operations to the Iraqi Army and Police force in many areas, continue to train and equip those forces so when we do leave, there will be stability and peace inside the borders. Mr. Obama’s rhetoric got him into the White House, but the reality of the situation on the ground in Iraq dictated his actions. And if the people who were so hell bent on completely ditching the quote “Bush Doctrine” (as Charlie Gibson tried to nail Sarah Palin with) they would have realized that this notion of up and run out of Iraq was not plausible in the least.
President Bush was thrust into a situation that day in September, unbeknown to America or our intelligence agencies. We went from a 20 plus year time of relative peace and suddenly thrust into war, against an enemy that does not belong to a nation or state, but operates in the shadows among innocent people whom they will sacrifice without any hesitation. Yes, mistakes were made. But this nation was kept safe, and still is, by those policies President Bush put into place.
Now we have a floppy fish in the White House. Yes he was thrust into an economic situation that has not been pretty. However, Mr. Teleprompter as not shown us anything except he is bent on a socialistic agenda and that he changes his word like we change underwear.
Now Mr. Obama wants to openly (yes there is that word open again) and without preconditions, have talks with these nations that simply hate the United States. Iran, who is pursuing nuclear weapons and calling for the destruction of Israel, North Korea, who has nuclear material but can not build a delivery vehicle, Venezuela, who just yesterday seized American Owned and Operated energy sites and equipment, and Cuba, where money can now flow freely without using a 3rd and 4th party intermediary. Oh yes lets not forget Mexico. Yet, another apology from Mr. Obama and Secretary Clinton for causing the drug war along the boarder.
Mr. Obama and his economic team have showered the coffers with billions and billions of dollars in order to prop up the economy. Thus far, nothing. New jobless filings hover around 600K and overall, 6.5 million people are out of work, and counting. Now that Chrysler and GM are making significant cuts, that is going to go up more this year. Not only does that effect line workers in the auto plants, but spills out to the suppliers and peripheral businesses that support them.
Mr. Obama, first week in office broke the most basic of his campaign pledges, saying that the practice of earmarks and pork spending would immediately come to and end. Say what? The first two things he signs into law are pork laden wasteful bills that did nothing. The Stimulus package, which failed to stimulate the American people, was shoved through the congress by the new Dem Majority in the middle of the night in which no one was even able to read. And what was in there (Mr. Dodd)? Bonuses for the executives at AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac!!! Next he signed an Omnibus bill that contained over 9000 earmarks, again pushed through on a Dem freight train in the middle of the night.
Now the administration continues to politicize national security doctrine as the administration stammers on what our evil interrogators did to terror suspects. This emboldens the enemy, teaches them our techniques so now they can prepare for what little we actually do. The September 10th mentality of the administration puts us in jeopardy. Many of the policies that Mr. Obama so vehemently touted against remain in effect. The naval prison at Guantanamo Bay was ordered closed yet remains open as Obama plans where to send its inmates; the president has yet to establish a coherent policy on Iran — following in the Bush administration’s footsteps and while American troops are being removed from Iraq, most will stay in place until 2010.
It is important to note that all the enhanced interrogation tactics that we used actually yielded crucially important intelligence that helped keep this country safe,” with the eight years of safety on the home front since Sept. 11, 2001. Even though congressional leaders claimed to be left out of the loop on these techniques, it was revealed that the same Dem leaders, who bewitched President Bush, were duly informed of those methods. But as Dems, true to color, they pretended to take the moral high road, and were thus outed as hypocrites using this issue for political expediency.
Obama’s own Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, wrote an internal memo last week citing the “high value” information about Al Qaeda’s operations yielded by tactics such as water boarding, but its morality has been called into question by human rights monitors and many others both in and out of the Obama administration.
So therein lays the conflict with this administration. Integrity, direction, political expediency, governing by polling data, and letting Nancy Pelosi write its budget a mere 3 Trillion and some change.
So we as Americans have to wonder, where the transparency, openness, and new era of cooperation is. Yeah, that is right, so sorry, we lost.
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Filed under Bailouts, Budget, Congress, Double Standards, Foreign Affairs, Legislation, National Security, Obama Administration, Pelosi, Politicians, Stimulus, Teleprompter, Treasury, War on Terror · Tagged with 9/11, AIG, Al-Qaeda, Chrystler, Democrats, Dennis Blair, detainees, earmarks, enhanced interrogations, Fannie Mae, FISA, Freddie Mac, Geithner, GM, GOP, Guantanamo, Immigration, Iraq, Iraq security forces, Mexico, Moamar Kadafi, NAFTA, Nancy Pelosi, Napalitano, North Korea, Obama, omnibus bill, Open Government Act, Oval Office, President Bush, public financing, Republicans, stimulous bill, TARP, Teleprompter, troop withdrawl, U.N., Values, Venezuela, Waterboarding
Posted by Pete on May 9, 2009 · 2 Comments
As GE Stocks continue to hover at historic lows, GE announced that it is launching a new medical development program called ‘Healthymagination’ at a cost of about 6 billion dollars. One of the main objectives of the program is to assist the Obama Administration’s goal of digitizing everyone’s medical records for instant access.
In their announcement, GE said it will draw upon its divisions to include GE Capitol and NBC Universal, both of which are losing entities in the GE brand name.
Now in order to counteract these losses GE has received money and guarantees from the government :
GE Chairman and CEO of General Electric, Jeffry Immelt, not only secured FDIC debt coverage on up to $139.0 billion in bonds outstanding as of Sept. 30, that mature by June 30, GE also tapped the Federal Reserves commercial paper funding facility for almost $5.0 billion in late October. GE became a bank holding company in order to qualify for TARP funds. Shares of GE Stock fell about 4.5% for the week ending 8 May 09.
Tom Daschel, the Health and Human Services nominee who withdrew because of tax trouble, is serving on the GE Healthymagination advisory board. As you may recall, this was Barack Obama’s first choice for the HHS post. So where is the conflict of interest alarms? Why was Vice President Cheney run up and down flag poles for being on the board of Halliburton prior to becoming VP? Where are the alarmists who screamed bloody murder about President Bush and Exxon? Tom Daschle has Mr Obama’s ear, and this venture represents a huge steak in his health care initiative. It once again proves beyond a reasonable doubt that transparency among administration officials is as clear as Mississippi River water.
GE Capitol in 2008 experienced 7.2 billion in credit losses alone. Combine that with the unprofitable entities of NBC (MSNBC, and CNBC) and you begin to get the picture that GE is not very healthy under Mr. Immelt. In what was once a healthy company with share prices hovering around $50.00, the company now stands to lose its credit rating of AAA and Investment rating from stable to risky.
NBC Studios, MSNBC, CNBC, are currently all rating losers. So why does GE not shed the fat? Because they stood in line behind the Obama Campaign, and thus are not being treated like Chrysler and GM? No change at the top for GE (which in Chrysler’s Case, was for pure political expediency) and no forfeiture of unprofitable divisions? As it stands, NBC Studios will develop, produce and air, segments related to this initiative and MSNBC will air a new health related program for Healthymagination. Why are there no salary cap instructions for NBC talking heads like Brockaw, Matthews, or Olbermann? Oh, yeah, they were the only ones who got tingly feelings up and down their legs at the mere mention of Mr Obama.
But again the question is, where does all this money come from, and can GE, who has lost share value and siphoning money to GE Capital, afford 6 Billion dollars? We have to wonder about the potential huge ethical questions here as Barack Obama owes NBC for all of their unwaivering support, and GE’s push into Mr Obamas healthcare initiatives. How much of the bill is the taxpayer going to be responsible for?
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Filed under Bailouts, Budget, Health care, National Security, Obama, Politicians, Stimulus, Treasury, Wall Street · Tagged with Barack Obama, Ethics, GE, GE Capital, Health care, Healthymagination, MSNBC, NBC, NBC Universial, TARP, Tom Daschle, Transparency, U.S. Government
Posted by CrabbyCon on May 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I don’t know what to make of this but it seems like a pretty big deal. Will it be pushed under the rug or become a thorn in the side of those involved? You be the judge.
Whether the story is bigger than Watergate or not, it is definitely a scandal of huge proportions.
To sum it up, on April 23, 2009, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sent a letter to Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Chris Dodd; Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank; SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro; and Chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel Elizabeth Warren.
The letter outlined how former Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke forced Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch – even though Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and the board of directors tried to pull the plug on the deal after it turned out that Merrill Lynch was far deeper in debt than it had admitted.
In the words of Attorney General Cuomo himself:
Immediately after learning on December 14, 2008 of what Lewis described as the “staggering amount of deterioration” at Merrill Lynch, Lewis conferred with counsel to determine if Bank of America had grounds to rescind the merger agreement by using a clause that allowed Bank of America to exit the deal if a material adverse event (“MAC”) occurred. After a series of internal consultations and consultations with counsel, on December 17, 2008, Lewis informed then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that Bank of America was seriously considering invoking the MAC clause. Paulson asked Lewis to come to Washington that evening to discuss the matter.
Bank of America’s attempt to exit the merger came to a halt on December 21, 2008. That day, Lewis informed Secretary Paulson that Bank of America still wanted to exit the merger agreement. According to Lewis, Secretary Paulson then advised Lewis that, if Bank of America invoked the MAC, its management and Board would be replaced.
Meanwhile Ken Lewis has been sacked as chairman of the board at Bank of America… even though he might well have been the only conscientious and honest player in this scheme. And now the sharks have started to turn on each other: according to Cuomo, Paulson “largely corroborated Lewis’s account” and informed the attorney general’s office that he “made the threat at the request of Chairman Bernanke.” The latter has so far chosen to keep his mouth shut.
The key factor here is not that the Devious Duo forced Bank of America into a merger it didn’t want to commit to. Granted, that’s an unheard-of interference of government in the free market, but we’re quite sure that the Powers-That-Be could sweep it under the rug by invoking the “greater good.”
No, the part of the story that could really break ‘Al’ Paulson and ‘Don’ Bernanke’s necks is the failure to inform the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as Bank of America’s shareholders, of the extent of toxic waste Bank of America was forced to accept. That’s fraud, pure and simple.
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Filed under Bailouts, Congress, Corruption, Economy, Media, Politicians, Treasury, Wall Street · Tagged with Andrew Cuomo, Bailouts, Bank of America, Barney Frank, Bernake, Chris Dodd, Corruption, Democrats, Economy, Elizabeth Warren, Mary Schapiro, Media, Merrill Lynch, Paulson, Scandal, Toxic Assets, Treasury
Posted by CrabbyCon on May 6, 2009 · 2 Comments
Typical government growth. Print money, act like a savior, don’t produce, take to give, create absolutely no value in distributing money.
Take for example the fact that for the first time in history, the highest revenue for states has been federal aid. This is unsustainable growth and will redefine the role the federal government plays. This means that the growth of government is imminent and there will be less freedoms for state constituents. I also see this as irrational and illogical spending practices; how can you spend money that comes from taxpayers’ pockets (the federal government) which will go back into the pockets of taxpayers (the states and its citizens) this doesn’t make sense to me – it just seems so circular and redundant. It will actually take more money from the pockets of those forgotten men and women paying for this spending bonanza, since many of those payments will be in the form of welfare checks or redistribution, to those who don’t pay taxes to begin with.
In a historic first, Uncle Sam has supplanted sales, property and income taxes as the biggest source of revenue for state and local governments.
The shift shows how deeply the recession is cutting. Federal stimulus money aimed at reviving the economy and a sharp drop in tax collections have altered, at least temporarily, the traditional balance of how states, cities, counties and schools pay for their operations.
The Democrats on Capitol Hill can’t get enough of their spending habits. They are trigger happy at the printing presses and believe that doling out more “Benjamin’s” will solve all the ails of the volatile U.S. economy. The sad fact is that this spending, which will require repayment somehow, by future generations, will only further drive down the economy in the long run. This is Jimmy Carter redux and we will see a public sector that is out of control, squashing the private sector and stagnating our economic growth (those things that actually do produce and retain value). Our GDP is estimated to grow at one of the slowest rates worldwide, much like Japan in the 90′s and we could see ourselves sitting at a DOW max of only 9K for years to come. This also doesn’t take into account the inflation that will ensue due to this irresponsible lending of taxpayer money. My guess is we will be waiting in gas lines miles long and will see interest rates close to 17% in the next couple of years…
Lie #1. “The financial crisis is behind us.”
Lie #2. “The government is fixing it.”
Lie #3. “Big banks are too big to fail.”
Lie #4. “Your insurance is safe and guaranteed.”
Lie #5. “The economy is starting to recover.”
Lie #6. “Your stocks will come back.”
We’ve just seen the biggest bogus stock market rally in our lifetime, built on the most blatant pack of lies we’ve ever heard:
Wall Street and Washington say the financial crisis is behind us. But the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just trashed that theory faster than a high-speed paper shredder.
They say big banks can’t fail. But behind the headlines, key Fed officials are now admitting that the “too big to fail” doctrine is, itself, failing.
I interject here to point out that Minneapolis Fed’s Gary Stern actually sounded the alarm long before “too big to fail” became “too much to handle.” But since when does the Fed listen? Even amongst itself? Pathetic.
The reality here is that the Fed does not and cannot have a handle on the very economic unraveling it created. It’s impossible. Meanwhile, the respective PR campaigns of the White House, the Treasury, and the Fed are hard at work convincing you otherwise. Everything is OK. We’re fine. The stock market is on a roll. Hey, don’t look over there, check out Susan Boyle!
It doesn’t matter whether they tell us the truth or not (I think we know they’re full of it anyway) because we’re still suffering. That should be proof enough that this rally is a lie, this recovery line is a lie, and all these rainbows and unicorns are manufactured to keep “crowd control” from becoming a national security concern.
Could you imagine what would happen if America collectively woke up one morning and realized that their “wealth” was really just worthless paper?
The more the Fed and the government prints the more worthless that paper becomes. We are experiencing a bear market rally based on voodoo economics, lies, and spin. You can only cover something up for so long until reality and the truth shines through.
So here are some examples of some additional spending by the government:
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives will seek passage in coming weeks of $94.2 billion in emergency money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other programs, including $2 billion more to prepare for an influenza pandemic.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, outlining the legislation for reporters, also said the legislation would include $2.2 billion to fund some C-17 airplanes for the Pentagon. But it will not address future purchases of a refueling tanker airplane sought by the Air Force.
I thought liberals were for peace and against war? What were all those “coexist” bumper stickers about? I guess war is ok if it’s a liberal president.
The Obama administration wants the United States to spend $63 billion over the next six years to fight global diseases and provide more aid for prenatal and postnatal care, children’s health and fighting tropical diseases.
“We cannot fix every problem,” Obama said in a written statement Tuesday. “But we have a responsibility to protect the health of our people, while saving lives, reducing suffering, and supporting the health and dignity of people everywhere. America can make a significant difference in meeting these challenges and that is why my administration is committed to act.”
How about we worry about our own country while Americans are suffering and are jobless before spending more money abroad for other things that will not stimulate our economy.
The initiative, announced by Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew, continues an effort begun under President George W. Bush to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
But I thought Obama was going to be the anti-Bush? I guess some of what he did wasn’t all that bad eh? Bush is very well liked and respected in Africa – as a world leader, he has provided the most aid to that continent. I believe he spent too much money, so I do disagree with some of it, but I think that it was a nobel cause and he did it for the right reasons.
We also continue to pay for and subsidize banks, who are continuing to ask for more money this week. Bank of America is doing so poorly, there is a chance that it may be dropped from the S&P 500 index. The subsidizing is unsustainable.
The results of the government’s stress tests on banks, to be released in a few days, will not mark the beginning of the end of the financial crisis. If we are to believe the leaks, the results will show that there might be a few problems at some of the regional banks and Citigroup and Bank of America may need some more capital if things get worse. But the overall message is that the sector is in pretty good shape.
This would be good news if it were credible. But the International Monetary Fund has just released a study of estimated losses on U.S. loans and securities. It was very bleak — $2.7 trillion, double the estimated losses of six months ago. Our estimates at RGE Monitor are even higher, at $3.6 trillion, implying that the financial system is currently near insolvency in the aggregate. With the U.S. banks and broker-dealers accounting for more than half these losses there is a huge disconnect between these estimated losses and the regulators’ conclusions.
More voodoo economics and lies to the American people – this is the biggest ponzi scheme our nation has ever witnessed!
Democrats aren’t the party of Wall Street?
The Fed has also announced that it will buy up more U.S. Treasuries – what on earth is going on? Do we even live on earth anymore?
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Filed under Bailouts, Congress, Double Standards, Economy, General, Legislation, Media, National Debt, Obama, Obama Administration, Politicians, Socialism, State Issues, Stimulus, Treasury, Wall Street · Tagged with Bailouts, Congress, Economy, Forgotten Man, house, Media, National Debt, Obama, Obama Administration, Politicians, Spin, State Issues, Stimulus, Unsustainable Growth, Wall Street
