Politics
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- DrBombay0
- hell has no fury like a woman skoien
BonSeff - The Guitar Hero controller as weapon really ties the story together, haha.harlequino
- Seriously, what's with Republicans and prostitutes?TheBlueOne
- haha wtf is in the water in Illinois? Are all politicians there completely insane?tommyo
- hell has no fury like a woman skoien
- ukit0
- ********0
Does Barack appear on Leno tonight, or tomorrow night? Should be FUN!!! Poor Timmy. Left back at the Treasury to "work it out". LOL!
- ********0
By the way, concerning the AIG bailout and bonuses, it should be noted that each name below took six-figure campaign donations from AIG. Should THEY be paid back?
1) Dodd
2) McCain
3) Obama
- ukit0
I don't understand why everyone is so worked up over the AIG thing, but the media has yet to publish a single real story about the role Goldman Sachs played in the bailout(s).
Hank Paulson - Former CEO of Goldman Sachs
Josh Bolten, Bush's Chief of Staff - on the board of Goldman Sachs
Neel Kashkari - Ex VP, Goldman Sachs
Liddy, head of AIG - Ex Goldman Sachs
Geitner's Chief of Staff - Goldman Sachs lobbyistPretty much every decision along the way has been made by people with direct ties to the same company. And BTW Goldman had a huge investment in AIG.
- +1********
- ... and I understand that Merill paid BILLIONS in bonuses before they went TKO.********
- +1
- ********0
... and I understand that some $30B of the AIG bailout money has already flowed to banks in London and other non-US concerns. OUCH!
- robotron3k0
I wonder if Man U will give back their $100 million in sponsorship??
- tommyo0
"President Obama will not pursue a proposal that would have allowed the VA to charge private insurance companies for the treatment of veterans with service- and war-related injuries. The proposal raised the ire of prominent Democrats on the House and Senate Veterans Affairs panels. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was the first to publicly announce Wednesday afternoon that the president won’t pursue such proposal."
WTF?! Why the hell did he introduce this piece of shit in the first place?? Sooo let me get this straight. If you're in the military, and you get wounded then, if you had it, your private insurance would get dinged first...for your combat related injuries. In what way does this make sense? This is to save a reported .. let me check with the article .. $530 million?!?! With all the 'billion' dollar words floating these days this is where they want to cut the 'national deficit in half in four years.' Very distasteful.
- Can you post a link to the proposal?TheBlueOne
- From a source you guys won't feel dirty reading from: http://www.huffingto…tommyo
- no way it will pass. I love when Tommy get teh OUtR@G3DrBombay
- I don't know why anyone would propose thisukit
- DrB, doesn't matter that it won't pass ... the administration somehow thought this was a valid idea, which is scary.tommyo
- Jon Stewarts take: http://www.thedailys…tommyo
- TheBlueOne0
Huh, well it seems as if it was a preliminary proposal, so I'm not sure it's worth the amount of outrage generated, however it does seem a tad tone deaf (and by "a tad" I mean "horrifically") and there's no way that would pass in the end. Another misstep of Obama's that I find disturbing.
Still like the guy, and compared to the alternative we were faced with it was a no brainer, but he's far more centrist than I'd like. But I knew he wasn't going to be a "socialist lefty" as much as so many on both moderate left and far right wanted him to be.
I wonder, is FOX joining in this outrage though? I mean they've done nothing but shit on the Veteran's Administration for the last 8 years. I'm sure if Bush had come up with this bit of turd they'd be all over it, promoting it as a "free market solution to bloated government"...
- nice redirect. stay on target though, we're talking about this adminisrtation...zenmasterfoo
- I thought we were talking about this veterans proposal...TheBlueOne
- we are, but this is an Obama idea..not anything to do with Bush, his administration, the years he was there, etc.zenmasterfoo
- tommyo0
Well, I mean I agree .. out of the two party candidates we had, he was the one even I felt most comfortable with as well, albeit 'skeptical comfort' would be a better characterization. I still like his candor and ability to provide an image of transparency to a position that desperately needed it.
However, this last month and a half have not been impressive in the slightest. Cabinet appointments going awry, the hefty stimulus bill no one read but still voted on, Geitners gaffs, The Dodd Amendment (not that big of a deal but still worthy of some attention), this wounded vet thing seriously blows my mind. Now I read today, which I still don't give much credit to considering the sources, that the administration is working at getting rid of pilots being able to carry guns. There is a little too much egg in the vicinity of faces right now in what should be a somewhat magical honeymoon period, especially for a president who ran with a message of 'hope.' Not that some of this egg wasn't expected due to our current situation. But I would consider some of the eyebrow raises, avoidable. The messages coming from Washington, both sides of the aisle, leave me scratching my head a little more than I thought I would be.
As far as FOX, I have no clue. About the only person on there I can stomach is Shepard Smith and I actually love his show. However, I couldn't see anyone parading this as a good idea, Bush proposed or not. I think you might be reaching a bit on that one my friend.
- why would you bring up the pilots carrying guns thing?DrBombay
- Why not? Don't you think this would be a mistake if true?tommyo
- No, has a pilot been trained with that gun? Half those guys fly drunk and shit :)DrBombay
- Uh, DrNotAwake, they go through rigorous training programs, which Obama has recently cut funding for. I do ..tommyo
- appreciate how your logic always contains quippy stereotypes and an overall ability to be completely ignorant.tommyo
- Use sky marshalls. What are we, Israel?DrBombay
- It was a joke, bubble head.DrBombay
- Good...I almost blocked you again. Which you don't want. Last guy I blocked became impotent.tommyo
- cock blockerDrBombay
- I gots the black magic blocking abilities. If only Barney Frank would sign up on QBN. *rubs hands together menacinglytommyo
- McConnell is the guy I love to hate.DrBombay
- and BOEHNER!!!!DrBombay
- BOEHNER?? This guy?
http://blog.comicwon…tommyo - hahahaha.DrBombay
- ukit0
I think he deserves some slack...I'm amused at how the media switched from declaring him a leftist radical to corporate sellout in the space of a few days.
By the way...in spite of everything you mentioned...the guy is still popular. Poll shows he would beat the Republican candidate by 20 points right now even after all the shit that's gone down.
- 20 point margin basically means the other guy doesn't win a single stateukit
- I agree. But suggesting plans like the wounded vet insurance are going to burn through his political capital quickly.tommyo
- Yeah, I don't really get it...I thought Obama was FOR government insurance:)ukit
- haha I know right .. that's what I'm saying about all the 'head scratching' I've been doing. Odd choices.tommyo
- TheBlueOne0
Well, tommy, I know we disagree with the stimulus package, but that's because I'm a keynsian and you're more of a Hayek/Friedman libertarian person, but I am very disappointed with Obama's handling of the banking/financial side. I'll grant him the benefit of the doubt that he can see some things we can't and does things for political reasons as well, which just come with that job no matter who holds it, but there's a fundamental underlying difference of principles I have underlying it all...he's far too pragmatic and corporate for my tastes, and really feel this is going to blow up in his face. However, it might just blow up no matter what anyone does at this point...we'll see...maybe he IS being smarter than we can see. The only thing that can tell us so is time.
By the way, this looks like a great read, just listened to an interview with the author last night:
- Well at the very least we'll know if, what I'd classify as, over involvement by the gov is a viable solution. I'd rather a ...tommyo
- more hands off approach but that's just my personal opinion. I just see all this involvement as causing unforeseeable future ...tommyo
- issues. There really isn't too much precedence that's been set in this realm. Of course, my uneducated opinion.tommyo
- the government has to regulate the financial industry though. That is pretty apparent, no?DrBombay
- Yup, well oversight more than regulate but yeah. Which they failed to do on those credit default swaps. YAY Gov!tommyo
- ********0
Obama is simply not at all who you think he is, and he's doing harm to the country, already.
- So says the high school dropout.DrBombay
- No. he isn't who YOU think he is.Mimio
- Is he a corporatist or a socialist?DrBombay
- Harm has been done to the country. It wasn't Obama who did that.TheBlueOne
- ..and he's pretty much exactly who I thought he was - a centrist hiding in lefty rhetoric.TheBlueOne
- Canned Libertarian Response: All governments do more harm than good to their countries. :Ptommyo
- nice one tommy.DrBombay
- I'd say the jury is still out. He was a pretty left wing guy when he was younger.ukit
- "All governments do more harm than good to their countries." Live in a country without a government.TheBlueOne
- just towin the line. hehe :Ptommyo
- :DTheBlueOne
- TheBlueOne0
Personal factoid: Until fairly recently, the US Treasury Secretary Geithner and I would buy morning coffee in the same shop. But he's selling his house up here in the NY 'burbs, and he hasn't been around here for the last few months much anyways.
- And I'll bet he tried to skip out on the sales tax on that coffee too! knuck knuck knuck! No but really, that's kinda cool Brian.tommyo
- I never crossed paths with him, but I knew he drank there. So oddy enough does Nassim Taleb, the Black Swan guy...TheBlueOne
- Here's his house, by the way:
http://www.luxist.co…TheBlueOne - It's actually a pretty modest house compared to some of the monstrosities around here..TheBlueOne
- designbot0
Fed to pump another $1 trillion into U.S. economy...
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009…- God Damn the Federal Reserve. Fuck you Ben Bernanke. Fuck you.tommyo
- tommyo0
On a side note, and without any political relevance. I had no clue who Rihanna was until this whole Chris Brown (who I had no prior knowledge of either) situation. God damn she's really pretty.
K I'm done with this tangent.
- TheBlueOne0
Lengthy quote here, but only bc I agree with it:
"Even President Obama says it's not just the bonuses; it's the entire "culture" on Wall Street that's the problem. But what is the culture he talks about? When the government puts trillions of dollars into Wall Street financials without taking them over outright, it's safe to say the government becomes part of this culture. Washington always had and still has the ability to write laws and regulations for the way business is conducted anywhere in the economy, including Wall Street. It seems logical, then, to look at those politicians who today provide us, through the media, with the loudest outraged protests over the bonuses and see where they were when the whips came down.
Where were Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner and Barack Obama back in September, and where are they now?
Frank was, and still is, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Kind of hard to feign complete innocence when you're that high up in the hierarchy. Frank has at the very least seen the AIG bail-outs, with all its terms, including retention pay and bonuses, pass by without protesting loud enough. His overall performance is so weak that he shouldn't these days cry blue murder over AIG's bonuses. Instead, Barney Frank should draw the conclusions that are an integral part of a functioning democracy, and resign.
Christopher Dodd is and was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Dodd's overall performance is far from convincing, but he did try to amend Geithner's third AIG bail-out a few weeks ago to include clear and even retroactive limits on fees and bonuses at the firm. Because of that, I'm torn here, and inclined towards giving him the benefit of the doubt. Still, people like him have been around fo a long time in Washington, for decades, and they should have acted much sooner. A few bail-out amendments are far outweighed by being an accomplice to secretly slushing public funds to Wall Street. Still torn. Note that Salon.com figured out that Dodd's protests were waved aside by Geithner and Larry Summers, and that both are now trying to blame him for his amendments not being included in the bail-out. That's professional spinning for you.
Ben Bernanke has been an active part of the entire three-part AIG bail-out history. Since the Federal reserve is not a government agency, it's hard to unseat him, but I'd be surprised if Bernanke is not made the fall guy for many things, as anger grows, before Christmas.
Timothy Geithner carries the main responsibility for all three phases of the AIG drama. As chairman of the New York Federal Reserve, it was his task to write the documents. It may well be possible that he had Wall Street people write them instead, but that would be even worse. And the revelations keep on coming: bonuses, billions for Wall Street banks and foreign banks, and now even billions for hedge funds, all in taxpayers' money. Geithner's days are numbered, no matter what.
Barack Obama was a senator in September, and is therefore responsible, no matter how many mitigating circumstances there may have been. Being too busy campaigning to halt laws that contradict what you want to do as president is no excuse. The demands made on a president should be higher than for anyone else in the nation. So far, nobody calls the president on these things, but that can change as his poll numbers go down. He gets the benefit of the doubt for now, but that's all."
- Pretty good summary. I really hope all this crap turns around soon. All this bad news makes me want a shack in Montana.tommyo
- Like this guy?
http://www.kk.org/th…TheBlueOne - hahahahaDrBombay
- Exactly like that guy. Who wants to sign up for my Christmas card newsletter? Email me your addresses. DrB?tommyo
- 1313 Mockingbird LaneDrBombay
- DrBombay0
The dollar yen exchange rate has gone from almost 99 yen per dollar to 94 per dollar in the past 2 days. Still nowhere near the extremely fucked 89 it was trading at a month or 2 ago. I still have some more yen to buy you motherfuckers!
- TheBlueOne0
Come back Elliot! From Elliot Spitzer's article at Slate earlier in the week. He nails it:
"Why can't Wall Street royalty shoulder some of the burden? Why did Goldman have to get back 100 cents on the dollar? Didn't we already give Goldman a $25 billion capital infusion, and aren't they sitting on more than $100 billion in cash? Haven't we been told recently that they are beginning to come back to fiscal stability? If that is so, couldn't they have accepted a discount, and couldn't they have agreed to certain conditions before the AIG dollars—that is, our dollars—flowed?
...What was the precise conversation among Bernanke, Geithner, Paulson, and Blankfein that preceded the initial $80 billion grant?
Was it already known who the counterparties were and what the exposure was for each of the counterparties?
What did Goldman, and all the other counterparties, know about AIG's financial condition at the time they executed the swaps or other contracts? Had they done adequate due diligence to see whether they were buying real protection? And why shouldn't they bear a percentage of the risk of failure of their own counterparty?
What is the deeper relationship between Goldman and AIG? Didn't they almost merge a few years ago but did not because Goldman couldn't get its arms around the black box that is AIG? If that is true, why should Goldman get bailed out? After all, they should have known as well as anybody that a big part of AIG's business model was not to pay on insurance it had issued.
Why weren't the counterparties immediately and fully disclosed? "
All those who think the little prostitute sting he got caught up in wasn't politically motivated to get a sharp guy like him out of the way, raise their hand...
*raises hand
- At the fear of sounding like a horn dog today. That prostitute was really sexy. At least that guy has great taste. I like him.tommyo
- And yeah, this Goldman Crew in Washington is a little curious considering their involvement throughout.tommyo
- I mean, he was a moron, but most politicians get that stuffed hushed under the table..TheBlueOne
- ..at least those that "play along to get along"TheBlueOne
- .. and not those who tap dance between bathroom stalls. :Otommyo
- ukit0
Let's face it, no one really knows what the real situation is. It's not impossible that the bailouts were abused by the Wall Streeters, but still totally necessary.
Look at what happened when Lehman was allowed to fail - the one company they didn't bail out. That pretty much precipitated the mass panic of last fall.
Of course, it could also be some massive scheme, right out in the open, to steal our money. Hell if I know at this point.