CORRUPTION: Barney Frank directing bailout funds

Saturday, January 24, 2009

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123258284337504295.html

JANUARY 22, 2009, 2:45 P.M. ET
Political Interference Seen in Bank Bailout Decisions
Barney Frank Goes to Bat for Lender, and It Gets an Infusion
By DAMIAN PALETTA and DAVID ENRICH

*** begin quote ***

Troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston didn’t look much like a candidate for aid from the Treasury Department’s bank bailout fund last fall.

The Treasury had said it would give money only to healthy banks, to jump-start lending. But OneUnited had seen most of its capital evaporate. Moreover, it was under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives’ use.

Nonetheless, in December OneUnited got a $12 million injection from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. One apparent factor: the intercession of Rep. Barney Frank, the powerful head of the House Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Frank, by his own account, wrote into the TARP bill a provision specifically aimed at helping this particular home-state bank. And later, he acknowledges, he spoke to regulators urging that OneUnited be considered for a cash injection.

*** end quote ***

Maybe they will give you are ride in the “taxpayer’s” Porsche!

How do we have Barney Frank still in politics?

Gay prostitute. Community Reinvestment Act. Banking system abuse. Now this.

I don’t understand?

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POLITICAL: Selecting interim senators

Friday, January 23, 2009

FROM A COMMENT ABOUT CAROLYN’S WITHDRAWAL

How about picking some poor taxpayer with an AGI of under 100k, with only a public school education (College is OK if it was a CCNY night school or a community college), with a family of at least two kids?

For one six year term, at which time, the clock will strike 12, the carriage turns back into a pumpkin, and that person — man or woman — returns to private life. I think NY, the country, and the world would be well represented.

Never happen, but an interesting thought experiment!

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How about Lottery losers? Everyone writes their name on a losing lottery ticket and puts it in a big drum. Patterson wouldn’t need a blindfold. Great fun.

How about non-violent felons? They’d be able to tell the other politicians what happens for corruption.

How about a lucky winner form the unemployment office? We know they’d be free and they are looking for work.

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INTERESTING: The unsung heros

Thursday, January 22, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer187.html

An Outbreak of Order in NYC
by Butler Shaffer

*** begin quote ***

Upon landing in the river, and with the fate of 160 people in the balance, rescue efforts immediately began. Officials of the FAA, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, New York Mayor Bloomberg, and Senator Hillary Clinton, all descended on the scene to begin helping passengers to safety. No? It didn’t work out that way? But it must have been so. Is it not an integral part of our thinking that social order can be fostered and sustained only by a political system that can plan for responses to troublesome events? Wasn’t this the logic upon which federal, state and city governments acted in New Orleans, following hurricane Katrina? Do we not elect politicians who, in turn, create bureaucracies to make our lives secure?
Initially, the only seen presence of government at the site of the U.S. Airways emergency landing involved police helicopters interfering with rescue efforts by keeping the water around the plane churned up. These helicopters were of value to the state, of course, as a visual symbol of its superintending presence above a scene in which its practical role was nonexistent. Like a president or state governor flying over an area hit by a tornado or flooding, such an aerial presence reinforces the vertically-structured mindset upon which political authority depends. After rescue efforts were substantially completed – with no loss of life – New York and New Jersey police officials arrived (those whom the New Jersey governor incorrectly described as the “first responders”).
The real work of rescuing passengers and crew members was left to the sources from which the only genuine social order arises: the spontaneous responses of individuals who began their day with no expectation of participating in the events that will henceforth be high-water marks in their lives. After the airliner came to a stop, one private ferry-boat operator, sensing the danger of the plane’s tail submerging, began pushing up on the tail in an effort to keep it elevated. Other private ferry-boat operators – whose ordinary work involved transporting people between New York and New Jersey – came to the scene in what became a spontaneously organized rescue under the direction of no one in particular. Photos of the area show the plane surrounded by ferryboats on all sides.
*** end quote ***

My point exactly. The Ferry Boat guys (captain and crew) and THEIR PASSENGERS who lent a hand were the real unsung heros in this “miracle”.
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GUNS: Bring guns on planes; it’s the American way!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

http://uncabob.blogspot.com/2009/01/way-it-should-have-been.html

Saturday, January 3, 2009
The Way It Should Have Been

*** begin quote ***

Hijacker: This is a hijacking! I have a boxcutter!

Grandma: I have a .45! Now reach for the sky, or I’ll put a hole in that diaper-hat on top of your pointy little head!

*** end quote ***

If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny.

Arming the pilots versus the large stupid unionized democratic voting intrusive TSA that can’t find squat!

What stupidity!

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POLITICAL: Lincoln may not have approved of O, but Lincoln wasn’t so great imho

Monday, January 19, 2009

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/338/story/59958.html

Pitts: Lincoln might not have welcomed Obama’s election

*** begin quote ***

Actually, Lincoln likely would have been appalled. How could he not? He was a 19th century white man who famously said in 1858 that “there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which . . . will forever forbid the two races living together upon terms of social and political equality.”

How do you reconcile that with all those cartoons of Lincoln congratulating Obama? You don’t. You simply recognize it for what it is: yet another illustration of how shallow our comprehension of history is, yet another instance where myth supersedes reality.

*** and ***

Of course, Lincoln freed no slaves. That’s the myth. His Emancipation Proclamation was a military measure to demoralize and destabilize the rebellious South; it covered states he did not govern but did not apply in slaveholding states that remained under his jurisdiction.

None of which is to deny or diminish the greatness of the 16th president. His greatness stands unquestioned, unquestionable. We would be a very different nation, a lesser nation, without his political genius, his dogged faith in the unsundered Union, his refusal to accept less than Union, even when haunted by reversals and setbacks that would have broken anyone else.

No, the argument is not about Lincoln’s greatness.

*** end quote ***

But, it should be!

Lincoln is up there on my list of “Worst American Presidents”.

As a corrupt Illinois politician who was in bed with more than the railroads, one has to take not of the following:

(1) The War of Northern Aggression. What you call the Civil War. What some call the Second American Revolution. The is no Constitutional, legal, or moral justification for this war. That alone would rocket him too the top of the list.

(2) Income tax to pay for that war. Government debt too.

(3) Freedom of Press savaged when editors dared to criticism him.

(4) Atrocities against civilian populations like Sherman’s “March to the Sea”.

(5) Single handedly destroying the concept of a Union of Equals amd morphing into the USA as the tyrant state.

And, don’t forget, he want to send all the “Negros” back to Africa. A racist among his other “endearing” qualities.

Those are just my uneducated points. There are much smarted folks than I who can give you “Chapter and Verse” about Lincoln.

But, don’t disturb the sheeple.

One of these days I should codify my “worst list”!

But that’s hard on the old BP.

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QUOTE: Gooferment debases the currency … ALWAYS! – Friedrich von Hayek

Saturday, January 17, 2009

“With the exception only of the period during which the gold standard was in effect, virtually all governments throughout history have used their exclusive power to issue money, as a method to defraud and plunder the people.” – Friedrich von Hayek

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POLITICAL: Despise Health Insurance Companies? Just wait!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

http://distributedrepublic.net/archives/2008/12/23/simple-indeed-or-the-audacity-cluelessness

Simple Indeed, or The Audacity of Cluelessness
Submitted by Brandon Berg on Tue, 2008-12-23 21:52

*** begin quote ***

The International Herald Tribune showcases the astonishing cluelessness of people who are presumably among the best and brightest of Obama’s supporters:

   When a dozen consumers gathered over the weekend to discuss health care at the behest of President-elect Barack Obama, they quickly agreed on one point: they despise health insurance companies.

   They also agreed that health care was a right; that insurance should cover “everything,” not just some services; and that coverage should be readily available from the government, as well as from employers.

   “We have to keep the momentum going,” said Hijane, 34, who was a volunteer in the Obama campaign and is active in women’s health advocacy. “We are not lobbyists. We are simple citizens.”

*** end quote ***

Get ready for national health care. Delays, Higher Costs, Rationing, and … … yes, sadly, deaths.

That’s what happens when the Socialists take over.

Sigh.

Need a new category … STUPIDITY!

Anyone want to start an insurance company? No. Me neither!

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NJ: Budget “cuts” are too late, too little, and don’t “solve” the problem

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

http://lonegan.com/Where_Steve_Stands.aspx

*** begin quote ***

CORZINE’S BUDGET “CUTS” — A SCALPEL WHEN AN AX IS NEEDED

Governor Corzine yesterday issued a budget proposal that tinkers around the edges when real solid cuts are needed. While the Corzine proposal requiring unions give up a scheduled pay raise is a good one, the Governor refuses to eliminate any of the thousands of state government bureaucratic fiefdoms that helped (along with the Governor’s own mismanagement and ineptitude) created this budget crisis.

Unfortunately, Corzine refuses to end the mandates on local communities through the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) — the group currently pushing 100,000 Low Income Housing units on every New Jersey town. And Corzine continues to support the Abbott court decision that has led to exploding per pupil costs in (Democrat-run) urban areas as high as $25,000 per student.

Meanwhile, suburban towns have had their state aid nearly eliminated — even though the sales tax and the income tax was sold on Garden State residents as a way to reduce “high property taxes.”

*** end quote ***

The State Gooferment politicians should be in jail.

Corzine, the financial genius from Goldman Sachs, earlier said “no problem”. Some genius. Anyone with an IQ higher than a rock knew that the state was out of control.

If a private business didn’t make it’s pension contribution for decades, then the corporate officers would be Bubba’s girlfriend.

But the State can just ignore it. And the State Workers’ Union is in the bag going along with it. Bubba should have them as well.

And, state pensions shouldn’t be for anyone who makes more than 75k. Or, any political appointee.

Argh!

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QUOTE: all politicians, of all parties, are fundamentally unqualified!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

“Once again, we believe all politicians, of all parties, are fundamentally unqualified to decide how other people should live. We do not believe in top-down social engineering by Republicans, Democrats, or anyone else. We believe in critical thinking, limited, decentralized power structures, individual liberty, and personal responsibility.” — D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h (DownSizeDC dot ORG)

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RANT: See where bailouts take you? To absurdity and beyond!

Friday, January 9, 2009

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/stimulus/2009/01/08/why-a-tiny-alabama-town-wants-a-375-million-chunk-of-the-stimulus.html

Why a Tiny Alabama Town Wants a $375 Million Chunk of the Stimulus
By Amanda Ruggeri
Posted January 8, 2009

*** begin quote ***

At first glance, the town of Edwardsville, Ala., with a population of 194 people, might raise a few eyebrows with its bid to receive $375 million from the economic stimulus package being assembled by Barack Obama and lawmakers in Congress.

The tiny town, located near the Georgia border and 26 miles from the nearest “big city” of Anniston (population: 24,276), added 33 proposals—about two thirds of them related to “green” energy—to the list of “ready- to- go” projects assembled by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Total sum: $375,076,200.

*** end quote ***

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95J4DV00&show_article=1

Obama warns of dire consequences without stimulus
Jan 8 01:29 PM US/Eastern
By JENNIFER LOVEN
AP White House Correspondent

*** begin quote ***

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) – President-elect Barack Obama warned of dire and long-lasting consequences if Congress doesn’t pump unprecedented dollars into the national economy, making an urgent pitch Thursday for his mammoth spending proposal in his first speech since the election.

{Extraneous Deleted}

Obama laid out goals of doubling the production of alternative energy over three years, updating most federal buildings to improve energy efficiency, making medical records electronic, expanding broadband networks and updating schools and universities.

*** end quote ***

www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2009/01/08/flynt_porn_bailout.html

*** begin quote ***

Jan 8, 2009 … In an announcement that launched a thousand unprintable puns, adult- entertainment moguls Larry Flynt and Joe Francis said Wednesday that …

*** end quote ***

There must be something in the air in the District of Corruption. The smell of the People’s money being available?

We really should thank Larry Flynt for pointing out the absurdity of the whole circus!

Have you contacted your congresscritter yet?

http://www.downsizedc.org/  

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