Archive for the 'Bailouts' Category

Hell, It Seems To Me, The Terrorist And Bin Laden Can Relax And Take A Vacation!

Jim Pence September 22nd, 2008

Why Mitch???????
Before George W. Bush and the members of congress get too giddy about spending $700 billion dollars, we don’t have, to bailout the work of thieves and leaving it for our children and grand children to pay. How about telling that bunch of lazy ass slacker, thieves to kiss our ass, but if the Washington politicians don’t have the stomach for that, then fund the bailout, even if it means raising the taxes, yes raising taxes. Of course the morally unrighteous right wing neocons would rather strap our children with this debt than pay for it themselves. What a bunch of self serving, greedy hypocrites.
Hell, it seems to me, the terrorist and Bin Laden can relax and take a vacation because George W. Bush, John McCain, Senator Mitch McConnell and their lazy ass slacker, thieving pals are destroying the United States of America faster and more efficient than the terrorist could have ever imagined!!!!
Phil Gramm would probably call me a whiner, but Mr. Gramm was a sponsor of the legislation that got us to this point (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) of mortgaging our children’s future to bailout the wall street thieves and John McCain voted with Senator Mitch McConnell to pass this piece of shit law, that also included the "Enron loophole "  for their morally unrighteous right wing neocon, lazy ass slacker, thieving pals.
Folks like John McCain and Senator Mitch McConnell own this mess and now they need to tell their the morally unrighteous right wing neocon, lazy ass slacker, thieving friends we’re going to tax your asses till the cows come home to fund our, John McCain’s and Senator Mitch McConnell’s, mistake!!!

Senator Mitch McConnell, Where Is Your Heart?

Jim Pence September 18th, 2008

It has been said  “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." So let’s take a few minutes and examine where Mitch McConnell’s heart is.
Remember Senator Mitch McConnell saying this March. 6, 2005 on Meet The Press? " That personal accounts are is an extraordinarily good investment.  Let’s take a 25-year-old, for example.  Invests $1,000 in regular Social Security, gets a 2 percent return over 40 years, he gets $61,000.  That same young person investing that same $1,000 in a personal retirement account, looking at the average return on investment of the stock market, would get $100,000 more.  Why don’t we at least discuss that in the context of the overall effort to save Social Security for our children and our grandchildren?"
Those of of that knew what was going on then and now, know now what Senator Mitch McConnell wanted, he wanted to infuse Social Security money into the stock market to drive the market up temporarily, so his rich pals could make a quick killing and increase their wealth and then his rich pals would bail out of the market, leaving regular folks holding the proverbial empty bag.

Remember SCHIP and how folks like Senator Mitch McConnell fought tooth and nail to defeat a program that would help provide healthcare to our children at a cost of $35 billion over five years.
Remember Mitch saying this "Our Democratic colleagues have taken SCHIP hostage , and what they want in exchange is Republican support for government-run health care., courtesy of Washington."

Remember Medicare Part D and how folks like Senator Mitch McConnell voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug makers to lower the price of medicine for seniors.

OK I could go on and on here, but it’s obvious where Senator Mitch McConnell’s heart is when it comes to regular folks and he, Senator Mitch McConnell, has no problem telling us, but when it comes to his rich pals receiving gaudy amounts of money while running their companies in the ground he , Senator Mitch McConnell, is silent.

Senator Mitch McConnell’s ties with AIG .

Senator Mitch McConnell seemed to approve of AIG CEO Martin Sullivan’s $47 million severance package back in July and the reason I say this is because Senator Mitch McConnell never hesitates to express how he feels and he approved of this gaudy $47 million severance package for his pal Martin Sullivan with his silence. Here in Kentucky we call that welfare for the rich!

Senator Mitch McConnell, with his silence, also approved the gaudy millions paid to the CEO’s of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd reaped a 7 percent rise in pay to $13.4 million in 2007 while the company lost $2.1 billion and its shared fell 33%. How would you like to have a job like that?
Using a pay-disclosure measure that the SEC prefers, which treats the value of stock and options differently, Freddie Mac chief Richard Syron ‘s pay for 2007 was $18.3 million , up 24% from 2006. That ain’t bad either.

Where is Senator Mitch McConnell’s heart? Follow the money all $800 billion of it!

Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Lazy Ass Greedy Slackers?

Jim Pence July 20th, 2008

(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report )

Crooks!!

Opinion:
During Hurricane Katrina TV showed folks looting over and over. Remember when Coralnelle Little, 36, Rhonda McGowen, 42, and Paul C. Pearson, 36, were sentenced to 15 years for looting during Hurricane Katrina and the judge said he wanted to send a message that looting would not be tolerated when he gave the maximum 15 year sentence?
Well where in the Hell is that judge when it comes to the thieving subprime lenders that have come close and may even succeed in bringing our economy down. I’ll tell you where I think that judge is, he’s in the pocket of Corporate America because that’s where the real thieves are and the judge will find plenty of money in their pockets!
The Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the subprime debacle has cost our economy more than the 911 terrorist attact, but it’s not as interesting as the New Yorker Magazine cover or photos of Britney Spears with no underwear. No this is not interesting stuff, but there are investors poised to make millions from this debacle and the Bush administration, with the support of politicians like Senator Mitch McConnell , is more than ready to help them and let them know when to invest. In the meanwhile most of us will be working our asses off trying to make ends meet and the investors with inside information will make fortunes without hitting a lick.
The subprime lenders are and were nothing more than common thieves and should be treated as such, (where are you judge ). Hells Bells these crooks have caused cities to file bankruptcy petitions and others to sue the subprime lenders! The lawsuits have just begun and it wouldn’t surprise me if our government gave the thieving banks immunity just like they did the telecoms .
Our children and grandchildren will be paying for this banking misadventure for years to come and when all is said and done we may have to work a few years more than what we anticipated, because of these jerks, kinda like being sentenced to several years of "Forced Labor". I hope when our children and grandchildren ask us why we let it happen our answer is not " I was more interested in seeing a photo of Britney Spears with no underwear or bitchin’ about the New Yorker Magazine cover" than looking into all that boring banking stuff!!!

CNN MONEY.com
Using a pay-disclosure measure that the SEC prefers, which treats the value of stock and options differently, Richard Syron’s pay for 2007 was $18.3 million , up 24% from a year ago.
Freddie Mac chief Richard Syron is hardly the only executive making out at Freddie. Six other executives or former executives made at least $2 million last year, the filing shows: Finance chief Anthony Piszel, business chief Patricia Cook, technology exec Michael Perlman, multifamily sourcing exec Michael May, former operating chief Eugene McQuade and ex-technology officer Joseph Smialowski.
Read more.

Huffington Post
Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd reaped a 7 percent rise in pay to $13.4 million in 2007 while the company lost $2.1 billion and its shared fell 33%. Nice work if you can get it.
So now the Bush administration proposes to make the federal guarantee explicit and even to offer taxpayer money to help recapitalize the two banks if needed. Everything has been nationalized — except the profits and the pay scales of the bank’s executives.
That’s right. If the guarantees work, private speculators, having driven the stock down, will clean up on the upside . And the bank’s CEO’s will continue to pocket the multi-million dollar salaries that are de rigueur on Wall Street. Call it Wall Street socialism. Their losses are socialized; their profits are pocketed. You and I will pay for their failures. And if conservatives have their way, their families will pocket their successes, without even having to pay a tax for the transfer of the estates we’ve helped to create.
Read More.

The New 21st Century Baby Mommas, Big Oil, Bankers and Farmers!

Jim Pence July 15th, 2008

Have you ever been in a rural Kentucky church or restaurant and hear folks wailing about all those "Baby Mommas" on welfare? Well I have and I hear it all the time and it’s coming out of the mouths of those receiving more money than you can imagine, what a bunch of hypocrites!!!!!!
Recipients of USDA Subsidies in Kentucky’s 1st Congressional District (Rep. Ed Whitfield ) totaled $1.253 billion , with a "B", from 1995-2006, that’s a lot of dough and, in my opinion, it’s nothing more than welfare!!!! It sure as hell ain’t the free market.
Meanwhile food prices are skyrocketing and some farmers are being paid not to grow crops !!!
It seems to me if you want a government hand out your best bets are:

  • Get into the, "Baby Momma ", oil business.
  • Put on your bib overalls and become a, " Baby Momma ", farmer.
  • Put on your shirt, tie and Armani suit and become a, "Baby Momma ", banker.

I suggest your chance for a government hand is not so good if you own a small business or you’re a regular guy/gal with 1,2 or 3 jobs and don’t even think about asking the government to help with healthcare.

No Banker Left Behind

Terri Whitehouse March 15th, 2008

There is an excellent post on Greg Palast’s blog linking the Eliot Spitzer scandal with the recent bailout of Bear Stearns:

It was the night of February 13 when Spitzer made the bone-headed choice to order take-out in his Washington Hotel room. He had just finished signing these words for the Washington Post about predatory loans:

“Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.”

Bush, Spitzer said right in the headline, was the “Predator Lenders’ Partner in Crime.” The President, said Spitzer, was a fugitive from justice. And Spitzer was in Washington to launch a campaign to take on the Bush regime and the biggest financial powers on the planet.

Spitzer wrote, “When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners the Bush administration will not be judged favorably.”

But now, the Administration can rest assured that this love story – of Bush and his bankers - will not be told by history at all – now that the Sheriff of Wall Street has fallen on his own gun.

It looks like Gov. Spitzer wasn’t the only one getting screwed.

(h/t: Crooks and Liars)

Quick Hit: Welfare Kings At It Again

Terri Whitehouse March 12th, 2008

Dean Baker has an excellent commentary about the recent bailout of financial services companies, and the media’s lack of reporting on it, at The American Prospect:

There is one other issue that is extremely important that has been completely omitted from the media’s discussion of the Fed’s actions. There are people who have shorted the counterfeit notes (mortgage backed securities and related assets) because they recognized that these assets were in fact going to lose much of their value. While these short sellers were trying to make money, they were actually performing a valuable public service. They were pushing down the price of these assets towards their true level. If we had many such short sellers in the market we would not have seen the housing bubble grow to such dangerous proportions. The same holds true of the stock bubble.

However, if the Fed acts to sustain bubbles even after they have started to collapse under the pressure of their own weight, it makes it far more risky for short sellers. This means that even investors who realize that Citigroup has nothing but counterfeit currency will be reluctant to short its stock or other assets supported by counterfeit currency. As a result we can expect to see even bigger more dangerous bubbles in the future.

This is not a pretty story and there are economists who can make this point. The media should be talking to them, not just the cheerleaders for the housing bubble.

When it comes to personal responsibility, the rich need not apply. Go read the whole thing here.