Thursday Night News and Notes

Hola. Que pasa? I guess in lieu of today's epic speech by The One I should have said it in Arabic as he did but couldn't bring myself to do it.

Anyway, here's what's new:

A six pack of the water below costs $15 (not sure American of Aussie) but still $15. You've got to be friggin' kidding (via Tim Blair who notes "It’s sort of like a bargain, except … it’s just water with Barack Obama’s picture on it":



-Countrywides Angelo Mozillo is about to be indicted. I hope "friend of Angelo" Chris Dodd follows close behind.

-Strip clubs can be dangerous places, dude.

-More buyers remorse? Don't blame me, I voted for Palin.

-Non-union, non-stimulus money grubbing Wal-Mart keeps right on rolling.

Libs Turning on Dodd

When the uber liberal and, at times, anti-Semitic Tony Auth turns on you, it's time to give it up, Senator Dodd:

Here's another example.

Wednesday News and Notes

A beautiful day in South Jersey today. Did I ever mention how much I hate winter?

Anyway, here's what's news:

-The "Seinfeld Stock Rally".

-Chris Dodd admits that yes, he was responsible for adding the loophole that allowed AIG to pay the bonuses. Yesterday he said it wasn't him. Dodd is shameless but you knew that. He also is in jeopardy of losing his seat. We need the worlds biggest congressional enema (keep your Rep. Frank jokes to yourself).

-Obama's trainwreck is giving the GOP something that appeared gone in November...life.

-Rep. Cantor is playing the AIG thing very well indeed. Instead of Obama skating on it, Cantor's shoving down the Dems throats (no, you still can't bring Frank into this).

-So, how's that stimulus thing working out for you, Obama?

-Rick Moran takes down Jane Hamsher. It's fish in a barrel easy but a good read.

More Dodd Game: Tries to Overturn His Own Bonus Protections

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) is the stereotypical politician and always has been. Their is no line he won't cross or donation he won't take. He's shameless and a huckster while wielding a ton of political power. But even this is too much to take:

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9199, 0.1398, 17.92%) bonus recipients so the government could recoup some or all of the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.

The move represents somewhat of an about-face for the Senator.

While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” -- which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax.

The amendment made it into the final version of the bill, and is law.

Emphasis mine.


Dodd was the largest recipient of donations from AIG given to anyone in the House or Senate. So, as payback to AIG, he added this little stipulation into the bill so the bonuses could be given and he'd keep his donors happy and willing to give when it came election time again. One problem though; the Obama administration gave the order to the Dems to go out and slam the bonuses in every media they could. They went on the Sunday news shows and it was all over the papers yesterday and today. So now, Dodd is in a curious predicament: he has to simultaneously act outraged by the bonuses but also reconcile how it was that he was the one who allowed them in the first place.

But don't worry, the oily Dodd has come up with new, stricter rules that will show those rich white men what's what.

With any luck, maybe Dodd will get beaten next election, His numbers are bad and it seems that the good folks of Connecticut are paying attention. With his questionable Countrywide loan and his Irish "cottage", it may well be time that they show him the door. Alas, I thought the same thing about Pennsylvanians and Murtha but they re-elected him after he called them all racists.

Delaware Senator's Blame Placing a Bit Suspect

Senator Edward Kaufman (D-DE) is on the warpath. The junior senator from the First State wants those who were responsible for the mortgage meltdown and other assorted crashes that neutered the economy to be investigated and jailed if judged guilty. Here's what the good senator had to say:

The Wall Street collapse that precipitated today's economic crisis has many causes, from regulatory failures to recklessness and greed. But before Congress begins to write new rules, we must investigate any crimes that may have been committed, whether by local mortgage brokers or the biggest banks.

Hmmm...mortgage brokers, banks...someone is missing in this list and I can't quite put my finger on who it is. Give me a second or two while we read on and are treated to the stunning intellectual brilliance of Sen. Kaufman:

Let's enforce the laws that were on the books and throw those who broke them in jail.

Good idea and I just remembered who the senator forgot: His fellow senators and congressmen. Chris Dodd, Charles Rangel, Barney Frank, they all were responsible for this mess but the senator neglected to mention them. It must have been an oversight on his part. Okay, what about Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick and the rest of the crew who took huge bonuses while simultaneously cooking the books. That's fraud and those laws were on the books so let's throw them in jail as the esteemed senator recommends.

I am not prejudging anyone. We may well find that only a few cases involved outright criminal behavior. And we must take care that our anger does not cloud our judgment.

Nor am I prejudging anyone, Senator. I say we investigate them all starting with Raines and work our way around to "Friend of Angelo" Chris Dodd.

Mortgage brokers may have fraudulently solicited mortgages or engaged in predatory practices.

But, but didn't the government encourage the practice by relaxing regulations? Did not Democrats call the entire idea of auditing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac an act of racism? Didn't President Bush and Sen. McCain sound the alert on the crisis that was building at both Freddie and Fannie in 2005 when Raines and Gorelick were cooking the books and accepting huge checks?

As the housing bubble burst, banks may have failed to disclose material information as they went from supposedly profitable to insolvent, leaving investors holding the bag.

They probably would have remained solvent had they not given sweetheart loans to congressman who sit on committee's that regulate them. Chris Dodd pops into mind as one who received such a loan.

Attorney General Eric Holder has emphasized that federal law-enforcement officials can understand exactly what happened and investigate the people and firms involved only by "drilling down" into the records of complicated financial transactions. Right now, the resources to do so are not there.

I say we do indeed investigate the people and firms and "drill down" into the records. Let's start with Countrywide and look at who exactly qualified as a "friend of Angelo". They shouldn't be that complicated when it comes to a certain US Senator from the great state of Connecticut. But where to get the resources?

We must dramatically increase the number and training of FBI agents investigating these crimes. Our bill authorizes $155 million a year for the Justice Department to hire fraud prosecutors and investigators in 2010 and 2011. It also provides $65 million a year for 190 additional FBI special agents and more than 200 professionals to fight white-collar crime.

Awesome! All that for only $155 million? Anytime I see a new spending bill that asks for millions instead of billions or trillions it's cause for celebration. I just hope we have $155 million left. If not we can just ask the next three or four Obama nominees to pay up on their past taxes and we'll cover that cost.

Prosecuting bad people won't put an end to all bad behavior. But it will make people in the board rooms, on the trading desks, and in the mortgage industry think twice before they look the other way, put greed over fiduciary duty, or deal from the bottom of the deck. At the end of the day, this is a test of whether we have one justice system in this country or two.

Or three when the House and Senate are added in. But of course, Dodd, Rangel, Geithner and the myriad other Obama cronies are not greedy, just mistake prone evidently.

This is not about vengeance or politics. For our economy to work for all Americans, investors must have confidence in the honesty and transparency of our financial markets. Our economy will flourish only when Americans again trust that everyone is accountable to the law.

Of course it's not about vengeance or politics, heavens no. I mean, Obama is above the fray and his attacks on Rush, Cramer and Santelli are not about vengeance and politics either.

It's true, "our economy will flourish only when Americans again trust that everyone is accountable to the law". that includes members of the House and Senate Mr. Kaufman.

Signing An Entire Generation Away

Barack Obama today signed the single largest bill ever and one that by many accounts will accomplish very little. Claudia Rosett notes that he has broken yet another of his campaign promises:

Today, Obama returned to Denver, and with elaborate ceremony signed the $787 billion “stimulus” bill passed last Friday by Congress, which runs to more than 1,070 pages. That left fewer than 96 hours between passage and signing (thus also violating his promise about posting legislation for five days on the internet before signing, to allow for transparency and comment).

When did Obama even find time to skim this monster bill? Let alone go through it “line by line?”

Obama enjoyed an intervening weekend heavy on R&R. Carbon-emissions-notwithstanding (personally I don’t care how much carbon he emits, but Obama wants all the rest of us to sacrifice on this front), on Friday Obama flew with his family and entourage to Chicago, where he helicoptered in from the airport, to spend time at his Chicago mansion and — as The New York Times put it — see a few friends and “reconnect to the rest of the country.”

Today marks the day that we as a country sentenced our grandchildren to a life of paying for our collective sins. we spent when we didn't have it and allowed a government to pass legislation that allowed encouraged business to run roughshod over the populace. But we citizens didn't exactly curb ourselves and we now face the result.

The problem I have is that we suffer no consequences; Barney Frank and Chris Dodd colluded with Fannie Mae and Countrywide respectfully allowing them to grant loans that should have been denied. Business doesn't suffer because they've gotten a bailout but we the people get essentially nothing from this bill unless you are a lobbyist or a union member.

The correct action should have been to do nothing or at the very most a stimulus package based on tax cuts and basic spending. Call it our penitence for irresponsible behavior. Anyone with kids knows that they learn a hell of alot more responsibility when they have to suffer then when they get exactly what they wanted when they performed the bad behavior in the first place.

American government and it's citizens needed to be grounded or at the very least been issued a timeout; instead we were rewarded for our bad behavior big time.

Tuesday Night News and Notes

It's snowing nicely in South Jersey, not sticking to the roads but lying on the lawns.

Thngs I found pretty funny today:

I find it funny that liberals are the only ones that care what the NY Times Editorial Board writes and actually will quit because of those words.

I find it funny that when the aforementioned guy quit, he did so emotionally to Andrea Mitchell who no one has taken seriously for years except liberals.

I find it funny that Katie Couric thought she had the scoop of interviewing hero Captain Sullenberger first and ESPN's Ricky Reilly beat her to it.

I find it funny that Dem tax cheats are falling left and right and we can all sit back and make fun of them in clever ways.

I find it funny that shady Democrat Senators feel the need to tell us that Rush Limbaugh has 1st Amendment rights and can criticize Obama.

I find it funny that Hollywood continues to make anti-Bush movies that crash and burn stupendously.

The Top Ten News Stories of 2008

It's been a weird year to say the least. One in which history was made on several fronts while issues that were paramount twelve months ago have gone by the wayside.

Here's my list of top stories.

10. The Mumbai Terror Attacks
A small group of Islamic zealots attacked a train station, a Jewish center (where they tortured the Jews) and two hotels and held one of India's most important cities hostage for days. This incident showed once again how a small group of motivated Muslim terrorists can attain maximum news coverage and kill the maximum amount of people including women and children to attain their goals. The repercussions have yet to be completely felt as India and Pakistan are in a hostile mode still.

9. The Irrelevance of Environmentalism/Global Warming Hysteria
Last year at this time, the global warming alarmist's were looking as if they were going to win; they had a huge majority of people convinced that the Earth is getting warmer and it is either the fault of the human race as a whole or the US in particular. Then gasoline hit $4.00 per gallon and every one's sense of environmentalism was tossed to the side of the road. "Drill baby drill" became the rallying cry. Add to that the record low temps experienced in Southern California, Las Vegas and parts of Europe and the words of Al Gore seem to have lost much of their urgency. Global warming has been disproved to all except the worshippers at the altar of Gaia.

8. The Mortgage Meltdown
A recession was already in the offing but the financial crisis got infinitely deeper when many established firms were rocked by a sudden drop in housing prices and foreclosures. Government sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were shown to have been the main contributors along with inane government policies implemented by the likes of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. Because of their policies, corporations that were big players for a hundred years suddenly ceased existing.

7. Obama Beats Hillary
He started in Iowa and gained traction before crossing the finish line on vapors. Fueled by enormous donations and former Clinton cronies who bailed on Hillary when they saw the wind blowing in Obama's direction, BHO delivered several knock-out blows. His campaign used the race card expertly and that card trumped the sexism card in the end. Amazingly, the media dropped the candidate they've been shilling for since 2004--Hillary--and instead used the same tactics against her that they've been using against Republicans for decades. The schadenfreude was awesome to say the least.

6. Government Bails Out Businesses
President Bush gave the finger to the free market system and bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Banks and AIG. American auto manufacturers were also given assistance (except Ford) without even providing a clear plan to solvency and sustainability. We, the American taxpayer, became the owners of some of the biggest firms on the planet.

5. Natural Disasters
As in most years, nature will make us remember who's boss. Hurricanes in Texas, Cyclones in Myanmar and earthquakes in other areas such as China killed tens of thousands. While Hurricane Ike caused massive damage to the Texas Gulf Coast, the people of that area managed to pick themselves up and dust themselves off without free handouts from FEMA, concerts played for their benefit or any of the things that were afforded to those who suffered in the aftermath of Katrina.

4. The Downfall of Many (Democrat) Politicians
Rod Blagojevich, Charles Rangel, Wayne Bryant, Vincent Fumo, Chris Dodd, Eliot Spitzer...They all had bad years ethics-wise. The Blago scandal will play out well into 2009 and Obama and Rahm Emanuel will get drawn deeper into it due to the amateurish way they've dealt with their first scandal. It seemed like it was only Republicans getting indicted for corruption (and we had our share), but this year was the year of the Democrat perp walk. Look for more as we move into the new year.

3. Sarah Palin Enters the Political Landscape
Like a meteor or someone with more staying power? That's yet to be decided but Governor Palin electrified the conservative base and turned a landslide Obama victory into just a win. She energized crowds and was credited by Sen. Chambliss with putting him over the top in Georgia. No one has had to weather the withering negative media attention directed at her on issues not even related to politics: her daughters pregnancy, insane, formerly respected members of the media calling into question whether or not her child was actually her child, members of that same group of heathens questioning (and then cowardly deleting his post) whether her pre-natal care contributed to her son Trig's Down Syndrome and myriad other biased attacks. While Obama was not even vetted on the most basic issues, Palin was subjected to a media enema on a daily basis and smiled the entire time.

2. Obama Wins Presidential Election
America is not racist. Who knew? Well, many of us did but it took a man from Chicago's machine politics to prove it. BHO bested the Clintons and whooped an outwitted McCain in the general election while maintaining an above the fray approach thanks to a compliant media. Interestingly, once Obama won he realized that he would be insane to govern from the far-left like he promised the barking moonbats on the left and has nominated a fairly center-left cabinet. The liberals are still insane over this, a fact that makes me very happy.

1. The US Wins the War in Iraq
To the consternation of liberals (and the media) the world over, the American military turned around a certain loss into a rousing victory. The defeat that liberals wanted so badly was in their grasp and President Bush, John McCain and a General named Petraeus constructed a strategy that led to a coalition government with a mandate and the eradication of Baathism in Mesopotamia. Plus, it was the central fight in the greater War on terror and we made a serious statement to al-Qaeda. Our boys and girls did it with skill, brains and guts and should be commended. Note that this barely makes any of the top ten news stories of this year on any major news site. It only goes to prove the bias if you ask me; where else but in America circa 2008 can a nation win a war that was considered lost and it not be the top news story of that year?

Tuesday Evening News and Notes

Plenty of new posts below. Here's some other great stuff from around the net:

Blogs are influential. The NY Times even says so. I guess someone still reads that rag.

A must read about the declining city of Detroit. Matt Labash writes like I wish I could. Picture at right of modern day Detroit courtesy of this site.

Richard Cohen's panties are in a wad over Obama choosing Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the inauguration.

A convenient document dump. Obama's in Hawaii, his internal report on the Blago disaster is released two days before Christmas and it shows that they have been lying. Emanuel had more than one discussion with Blago (perhaps multiple).

Sen. Chris Dodd, the man who had the responsibility of overseeing the banking industry and took advantage with sweetheart loans from Countrywide still refuses to discuss his shady dealings.

More good news for bloggers.

Sen. Chris Dodd Gives America the Finger

Connecticut Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd has more chutzpah than anyone else in the US government. That is one amazing statement I know, yet Dodd has managed to retain his position in spite of bearing the largest burden of anyone for the current financial mess we find ourselves in:

Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, suggested on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Rick Wagoner, the chief executive of GM, “has to move on.”

Where does Dodd get the temerity to make such a proposition in light of his own incompetence and scandal? Dodd is in charge of the committee that could have kept us from entering the current credit crisis. He’s the same man who is in charge of regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and is No. 1 on their list of donations.

When Congress approved $25 billion to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Dodd denied rumors these firms were in financial crisis. He called the firms “fundamentally strong,” said they were “in good shape” and to “suggest they are in major trouble is not accurate.”

Dodd also received preferential loans from Countrywide Mortgage Bank, and then said he wasn’t aware that he was getting a “special” deal. How is that possible?

Good question, I would suspect the answer is that Connecticut voters are among the most uninformed voters in the nation or the most stupid. I'm guessing the real answer lies somewhere in between. Note that when Dodd was given a forum in front of the American people as a whole, he registered zero interest among the electorate.

Now Dodd wants the federal government to bail out each and every failing business in the US and tell the executives of those firms how to run their businesses or worse, to "move on". The man has balls the size of Groton and a morality meter that never works. Yet he is among the elder statesmen of Congress and will continue to be re-elected every six years.

Release the documents, Senator Dodd. Allow the American people to see how much of a screw up you are and a liar to boot. We bought these bad debts and failing companies, not you. We are funding the largest nationalization of goods and services in history, not you. Release every applicable document that sheds light on the who, why, where and when of every company we now own as a nation including the mother lode and your the companies that donated money to you more than anyone else: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

H/T: Glenn Reynolds.

The Henry Waxman Coverup

The two biggest players in the mortgage meltdown--Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--are getting some preferred treatment from California Democratic Representative Henry Waxman. A report into the mortgage collapse lays a great deal of responsibility at the feet of Freddie and Fannie:

But previously undisclosed internal documents that are now in Mr. Waxman's possession and that we've seen tell a different story. Memos and emails at the highest levels of Fannie and Freddie management in 2004 and 2005 paint a picture of two companies that saw their market share eroded by such products as option-ARMs and interest-only mortgages. The two companies were prepared to walk ever further out on the risk curve to maintain their market position.

The companies understood the risks they were running. But squeezed between the need to meet affordable-housing goals set by HUD and the desire to sustain their growth and profits, they took the leap anyway. As a result, by the middle of this year, the two companies were responsible for some $1.6 trillion worth of subprime credit of one form or another. The answer to Mr. Waxman's question about their role in the crisis, in other words, is that they were central players, if not the central players, in the creation of the housing boom and the credit bust. Mr. Waxman released some of these documents Tuesday but kept others under wraps.

In early 2004, Freddie's executive team was engaged in a heated debate over whether to start acquiring "stated income, stated assets" mortgages. And in April of that year, David Andrukonis, the head of risk management, wrote to his colleagues, "This is not an affordable product, as I understand it, but a product necessary to recapture [market] share. . . . In 1990 we called this product 'dangerous' and eliminated it from the marketplace." Freddie went ahead anyway.

And what is Waxman doing to help this bunch of liberals run wild? The single weirdest-looking dude in Congress is keeping the documents from the public and protecting not only men like Franklin Raines but his fellow members of Congress like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd who are neck-deep in this. Congressional Democrats made it a goal to get people into housing not only because of their liberal ideology but because they knew it would help them politically through donations and in the case of Dodd, personally by getting reduced interest rate loans.