Proud member of the Firebagger Lefty blogosphere!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Where are the Albuquerque Journal endorsements?

The title says it all - where are the endorsements?

We are a bit over 8 days or 201 hours till the polls open Nov. 4th and the Journal still hasn't endorsed anybody? My bets were on:
McCain
Udall
White
They would endorse Udall because they knew he would win and Pearce is dead meat. The other two are just the default choices for the Journal. They always endorse Republicans except when they are really, really hopeless - for example Pearce.

Maybe they don't like their choices - guess its not a good year for a Republican paper.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

La Raison d'entre for the bailout bill

So, the Bushies lied once again - that's to be expected. Nobody but the perma stupid crowd should be surprised.

From yesterday's NYT, found via TPM, an article by Joe Nocera gives the real reason for Paulson's bailout bill - it's to finance the consolidation of the US financial industry into a few large chosen banks. As Nocera notes:
In point of fact, the dirty little secret of the banking industry is that it has no intention of using the money to make new loans.
Here "the money" refers to the money contained in the bailout bill.

All was revealed during an Oct. 17 conference call for JPMorgan Chase employees when the following question was asked:
“Chase recently received $25 billion in federal funding. What effect will that have on the business side and will it change our strategic lending policy?”
Amazingly, one of the executives actually answered the question honestly:
“Twenty-five billion dollars is obviously going to help the folks who are struggling more than Chase,” he began. “What we do think it will help us do is perhaps be a little bit more active on the acquisition side or opportunistic side for some banks who are still struggling. And I would not assume that we are done on the acquisition side just because of the Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns mergers. I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way and obviously depending on whether recession turns into depression or what happens in the future, you know, we have that as a backstop.”
Nocera goes on to explain:
Read that answer as many times as you want — you are not going to find a single word in there about making loans to help the American economy. On the contrary: at another point in the conference call, the same executive (who I’m not naming because he didn’t know I would be listening in) explained that “loan dollars are down significantly.” He added, “We would think that loan volume will continue to go down as we continue to tighten credit to fully reflect the high cost of pricing on the loan side.” In other words JPMorgan has no intention of turning on the lending spigot.

It is starting to appear as if one of Treasury’s key rationales for the recapitalization program — namely, that it will cause banks to start lending again — is a fig leaf, Treasury’s version of the weapons of mass destruction.

In fact, Treasury wants banks to acquire each other and is using its power to inject capital to force a new and wrenching round of bank consolidation. As Mark Landler reported in The New York Times earlier this week, “the government wants not only to stabilize the industry, but also to reshape it.” Now they tell us.

Indeed, Mr. Landler’s story noted that Treasury would even funnel some of the bailout money to help banks buy other banks. And, in an almost unnoticed move, it recently put in place a new tax break, worth billions to the banking industry, that has only one purpose: to encourage bank mergers. As a tax expert, Robert Willens, put it: “It couldn’t be clearer if they had taken out an ad.”

Friday delivered the first piece of evidence that this is, indeed, the plan. PNC announced that it was purchasing National City, an acquisition that will be greatly aided by the new tax break, which will allow it to immediately deduct any losses on National City’s books.

As part of the deal, it is also tapping the bailout fund for $7.7 billion, giving the government preferred stock in return. At least some of that $7.7 billion would have gone to NatCity if the government had deemed it worth saving. In other words, the government is giving PNC money that might otherwise have gone to NatCity as a reward for taking over NatCity.
Next Nocera says:
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to feel as if we’ve been sold a bill of goods.
Well that's two of us.

Nocera then concludes with a conversation he had with Senator Chris Dodd:
Late Thursday afternoon, I caught up with Senator Dodd, and asked him what he was going to do if the loan situation didn’t improve. “All I can tell you is that we are going to have the bankers up here, probably in another couple of weeks and we are going to have a very blunt conversation,” he replied.

He continued: “If it turns out that they are hoarding, you’ll have a revolution on your hands. People will be so livid and furious that their tax money is going to line their pockets instead of doing the right thing. There will be hell to pay.”

Let’s hope so.
Its nice to think that "There will be hell to pay" but, based on previous experiences, I seriously doubt it. The Washington establishment, both Dem and Republican, are way too owned to ever do much about another big bank atrocity.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Sweet Home Alabama - welcome to the surreal state

Perhaps the ultimate version of this song. Its really, really real - love the "dos", the shoes, and the chicks on stage. Checkout the expressions of the choir members, they either seem to be simply amazed or amazed and yucking it up at the same time. Also, don't miss how the lead singer and choir pronounce "AlaBama" - very cool.

The Leningrad Cowboys backed by the Red Army Choir.
While I'm not sure what Lenin or George Wallace would think I'm absolutely sure Lynyrd Skynyrd would approve.

Found via naked capitalism.

Monday, October 13, 2008

"their God is bigger than you"

Here you equals the Christian God
From a McCain rally in Iowa, found at TPM. This has to be watched to know how sick these people really are.


Here's my transcript of this clip:
"I'd also add Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November because there are millions of people around this World praying to their God, whether its Hindu, Buddha, Allah that his opponent wins for a variety of reasons and Lord I pray that you would guard your own reputation because they are gonna think that their God is bigger than you if that happens. So I pray that you would step forward and honor your own name in all that happens between now and the election day."
This is so wrong and so sick I can't even begin to dissect it. From my brief readings of the King James version of the Bible I am reminded of the following:
  • Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
  • Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
These people are using God for their purposes not following the Bible to achieve its purposes. One wonders who exactly they are worshiping these days!?!

A P.S. on this - I never realized that God had an ego - its news to me that that God cares one way or the other what anybody thinks. That's a concept that should put the Theologist into a tailspin for years to come!

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Truth!!!!

Truth and from a Republican no less .......

From Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican:
"It forces innocent taxpayers to bail out government policies and Wall Street mistakes. It asks the American people to take a leap of faith and trust people who have consistently misled them, ..."

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

raping america

Guess its just one indignity piled upon many others but what the US Senate did tonight makes me sick.

The Bushies have succeeded in taring the Democrats with the same shit that has covered the White House for so long. To make matters worse the Democrats were willing participants. The Dems have no excuses now - they along with their Republican friends are blameable for all that will come. May Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the other Democratic Bush sycophants that so willingly came to Wall Street's aid burn in hell for what they have done to the United States and the Democratic Party.

Anybody that actually believes the citizens of the United States will ever see more than a few pennies out of that 700 billion that the American people will soon owe is simply out of their minds. Wall Street has already figured out 7,777 different ways to steal it all.

Below is a list of the filthy bastards that have helped Wall Street rape the USA yet again. I'm sad to see Obama on that list - guess he's just another shill for the corporate world after all.

Akaka
Alexander
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Brown
Burr
Byrd
Cardin
Casey
Chambliss
Clinton
Coburn
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Dodd
Domenici
Durbin
Ensign
Feinstein
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Hutchison
Inoye
Isakson
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Kyl
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson, NE
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Schumer
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Voinovich
Warner
Webb
Whitehouse