Archive for the 'Corruption' 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!!!

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.

What have you accomplished, Mitch?

Joe Sonka June 6th, 2008

(crossposted at Barefoot and Progressive)

The theme of Mitch’s (unsuccessful) ads in the past 8 months has been “Look at what a powerful D.C. insider I am and how much I get done for Kentucky!”

But, as Cooler King points out in a recent AP article:

“Destruction of stockpiles by chemical neutralization has yet to start in Pueblo, Colo., and Richmond, Ky.”

Yes, we’ve had leaking WMD’s threatening a high population KY area for 24 years, and powerful Mitch hasn’t even been able to get a solution to the problem to START. Very impressive, Mitch.

But perhaps I’m selling Mitch short. Check out some other “accomplishments” of Mr. Powerful D.C. insider:

-KY poverty rate: 15.3% (2nd lowest in country)

-KY unemployment- 5.7% (8th highest in country)

-KY Median household income- 4th lowest in country

-KY College educated population- 20% (3rd lowest in country)

-Commonwealth Fund ranking on Health System performance- 45th

Wow. I guess you haven’t accomplished a whole lot for Kentuckians, eh?

But wait, let’s take a look at some folks that are better off:

High gas prices may have cinched American consumers’ wallets in 2007, but they loaded the coffers of the big five oil companies: BP, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell. ExxonMobil, after record high profits in 2005 and 2006, smashed the record for highest profits ever made by a public U.S. company—previously held by Exxon—by posting a net profit of $40.6 billion in 2007.

To put these figures in perspective, Exxon’s $40.6 billion profit in 2007 is roughly equal to receiving “$30 for every person in China and $132 for every U.S. resident.” Another way of looking at it is that Exxon made $77,245 per minute in 2007—that’s more money generated per minute than 70 percent of Americans earned all year, according to the Census Bureau.

Shell also had a record breaking year. Its $31.3 billion 2007 profit set a new company record, and was 23 percent higher than its $25.4 billion profit in 2006. Analysts believe that higher crude oil prices are responsible for the company’s success. Chevron also matched its prediction of positive gains with $18.7 billion profit, primarily due to high gasoline prices at the pump. ConocoPhillips made $11.9 billion, its third best year since 2001. And its fourth quarter 2007 revenues exceeded last year’s fourth quarter by more than $1.2 billion, due partly to high energy prices. BP had a turbulent year, posting a gain of $20.8 billion in net profits. However, their fourth quarter earnings rose 22 percent from last year’s fourth quarter, mostly due to high oil and gasoline prices.

Ah… so Mr. D.C. Insider can get some things accomplished. You just need to scratch his back first. Maybe if ordinary Kentuckians weren’t such cheapskates and gave Mitch some cash, they could get in on Mitch’s “accomplishments” gravy train.

So pony up and give Mitch some cash Central Kentucky. Otherwise you deserve to live next to leaking chemical weapons.

Mitch gives $70,000,000 to millionaire horse owners

Joe Sonka May 14th, 2008

(crossposted at B&P)

There is no greater advocate of handing out pork in return for political favors than Senator Mitch McConnell.

And it appears that Mitch McConnell has outdone himself again in political cronyism.

While Mitch McConnell is busy filibustering to stop the expansion of health care for poor families, he has finally found a constituency that is worthy of our tax dollars.

Millionaire thoroughbred owners.

Seriously.

This week, Congress is expected to take up a $300 billion farm bill, which President Bush has vowed to veto. The AP reports that the bill “contains something for everyone” — including the following important project tucked within the massive bill:

A tax break for horse owners was included by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Politico’s Crypt explains:

The measure would essentially allow race horse owners — who pay millions for Triple Crown contenders — to write down their investment over four years. … Senate aides say it will cost between $60 million and $70 million.

Shocking, eh?

Well, if sick kids can’t get the health care they need, at least our millionaires will be able to cover all of their thoroughbreds’ veterinarian bills. After all, we need to have our priorities in order, right Mitch?

Anyway, a review:

Covering sick kids from poor families = socialism

Giving $70 million in tax breaks to millionaires = The American Way

And once more, I can’t wait to see Mitch “Porky” McConnell and John “Pork-Intolerant” McCain on the same stage campaigning this year. I will literally pay money to see that uber-awkwardness.

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)