Local Story: Kathleen Edward has passed away

I noticed the spike in traffic on my old blog and wondered what was going on.

The world’s prettiest little angel has gone to be with Jesus.

The video:

The Story via Fox 2 Detroit:

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WJBK) — They are heartbroken. They’ve always known this day would come, yet it has still taken everybody by surprise. Nine-year-old Kathleen Edward took a turn for the worse a couple of days ago, but she was peaceful and smiling to the very end.

“She was an angel and she did bring a lot of joy and happiness to everybody,” said Rebecca Rose.

She was by her granddaughter’s side as Kathleen passed away peacefully Wednesday night at her home surrounded by family and friends.

“We whispered in her ear and told her, ‘Go be with your mommy,'” Rose explained. “She really did have this glow about her. She really looked like an angel laying there, and she opened her eyes and took her last breath.”

I won’t bother rehashing all of that old nonsense that happened, if you really want know what happened, click here.

A little angel is with Jesus tonight, not suffering anymore.

Rest in peace  Kathleen. 😥 I was very happy that I was at least able to bring a little comfort to you, while you were with us. 🙁

This video is dedicated to her memory:

As for Jennifer Petkov; I hope that you are truly satisfied, you feckless bitch. 😡

Ann Arbor, Michigan – The Home of Liberal Reverse Discrimination

Michigan Never ceases to amaze me, how it continues down the slippery slope of liberalism:

(H/T to Duke Over America Via FTR Radio)

Principal Mike Madison - Segregationist-in-Chief

An Ann Arbor elementary school principal used a letter home to parents tonight to defend a field trip for black students as part of his school’s efforts to close the achievement gap between white and black students.

Dicken Elementary School Principal Mike Madison wrote the letter to parents following several days of controversy at the school after a field trip last week in which black students got to hear a rocket scientist.

“In hindsight, this field trip could have been approached and arranged in a better way,” Madison wrote. “But as I reflect upon the look of excitement, enthusiasm and energy that I saw in these children’s eyes as they stood in the presence of a renowned African American rocket scientist in a very successful position, it gave the kids an opportunity to see this type of achievement is possible for even them.

“It was not a wasted venture for I know one day they might want to aspire to be the first astronaut or scientist standing on the Planet Mars.

“I also think it’s important that you know that I have talked to the children who did not go on the field trip, and I think they have a better understanding of the purpose of the AA Lunch Bunch now, as I hope you do. I’m sorry if any kids were upset by the field trip or my discussion afterwards with them, and I have let them know that.

“The intent of our field trip was not to segregate or exclude students as has been reported, but rather to address the societal issues, roadblocks and challenges that our African American children will face as they pursue a successful academic education here in our community.”

A handful of parents have complained to district administrators about the trip, the group and Madison. More than a half-dozen parents contacted AnnArbor.com to raise the complaints, but none would agree to talk on the record, citing concerns of reprisals to their children by Madison.

[…]

District spokeswoman Liz Margolis said after the trip was over, those who went returned to their fifth-grade class and were greeted by boos by those who didn’t go on the trip. Margolis said Madison, who is black, heard the boos, and went to talk to the class. She said he and the class had a “discussion” about race issues.

“He wasn’t yelling at them. He was very passionate about it,” Margolis said.

Parents have complained he was yelling at the class and belittled a Muslim girl who said she also had experienced racism and discrimination.

via Field trip for black students sparks controversy at Ann Arbor elementary school – AnnArbor.com.

On  January 14, 1963 Alabama Governor George Wallace, a Democrat; said the following:

“In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Democrats have not changed that mindset one iota. Except now, the only people being discriminated or segregated are the White people. This whole idiotic idea that we have to “Celebrate Diversity”, basically means “Be ashamed of your White Skin.” It is the mantra and talking point of the far socialist black liberal Democrat Party. It is the mindset of most blacks, especially Liberal Blacks that those evil White Capitalists are out to oppress the Black man; and to atone for that, blacks must be given special privileges and must be given jobs, ahead of the White Man. (like me, for instance…)

That is what I have to deal with here in the great Liberal State of Michigan. It is no wonder that Michigan went to Obama and McCain left early. McCain was no dummy, he knew what he was doing.

We understand kid, we really do

I feel his pain, don’t you?

Video:

The Story:

One of the Kalamazoo Central students — who was seated behind keynote speaker President Barack Obama during Monday night’s commencement ceremony — fell asleep.

The student, who earned such a prime seat by singing in the choir, was captured on video due to his proximity to the president. He also was a hot topic on Twitter and the subject of several recently created Facebook pages.

Our video, at left, shows the student yawning and fighting to stay alert. At one point, he leans back, only to jump alert and join in during applause. The student then leans forward and appears to nod off.

via Student sitting behind Obama was asleep | WOOD TV8.

Man, if that is not a good video for someone running against Obama in 2012, what isn’t? Anyways, Yes, Kid, we feel your pain. Poor guy just was up late and had to get up early and listen to the President tell how wonderful he is. It can make for some pretty heavy eyes!

Hopefully, he ended up getting some good sleep. 😀

Judge throws the book at Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick

Here is the video of the sentencing:

The Story via The Detroit Free Press:

Judge to Kilpatrick: "To Jail with your dumb ass!"

10:46 a.m. | An audible gasp erupted in the courtroom as Judge David Groner sentenced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to 18 months to five years in state prison for probation violation.

Deputies rushed up to a row where Kilpatrick friends and relatives are sitting. They escorted one unidentified woman out.

“Your testimony in this court amounted to perjury,” the judge told Kilpatrick. “Most compelling is that you lied to this court, continue to lie, after you pleaded guilty to lying….

“The initial 120 days incarceration did nothing to rehabilitate you.”

After the gasp from the audience, Kilpatrick was ordered to sign papers. Some reporters saw his hands shaking. Groner asked Kilpatrick’s lawyer, Schwartz, to assist the former mayor.

As the courtroom began to buzz, Groner raised his voice and ordered Kilpatrick to be swift.

“Sergeant could you secure the defendant please and put him in the back?” Groner said. A deputy then handcuffed Kilpatrick behind his back and led him to a side room. The former mayor kept looking over his shoulder, mouthing words toward his sister.

His attorneys vowed an immediate appeal of Groner’s sentence.

Comment from Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Athina Siringas: “We always felt a department of corrections sentence was appropriate. We are pleased.”

The judge’s order also raises questions about whether Kilpatrick will continue to have a job with a Compuware subsidiary in Texas. Compuware chief Peter Karmanos had given Kilpatrick a six-figure sales job with Covisint in an office just outside Dallas after the ex-mayor’s release from jail in February of last year. But Karmanos said at the time that Kilpatrick’s continued employment was contingent upon Kilpatrick staying out of further trouble.

….and if that was not bad enough; Kilpatrick got fired from his Job too! Ouch!

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was fired from his job today after being sentenced to prison for probation violation.

“Kwame Kilpatrick will be off the Compuware Corporation payroll at the end of the month,” said a company statement. “We don’t have any choices. It’s an unfortunate situation, and we feel bad for his family, but our hands are tied.”
Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos Jr. hired Kilpatrick for his Detroit-based company the day after the former mayor was freed from jail in February 2009. The job paid a base salary of $120,000 with potential for bonuses.

Of course, the Kilpatrick enablers and supporters are now crowing:

Rep. Shanelle Jackson, D-Detroit, today criticized former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s sentence as too harsh for a nonviolent parole violation.

She said it would be better to have Kilpatrick repay the city and require him to do community service than sit in a costly prison cell.

“This sentence shows there is no mercy in society and no grace in the judicial system,” Jackson said. “We are looking at ways to reduce the prison population because of a lack of revenue, yet we’re giving this to someone who could ideally have more to contribute to society if we looked at restorative justice.”

She goes on:

Womack said the sentence perpetuates a common public perception that politicians are crooked.

Um, Mrs. Jackson? That because Kilpatrick WAS a damned crook and he is getting just what is coming to him. It is about damned time, that this idiotic thug was put right where he belongs. The video is priceless and is one that should be shown to anybody thinking of running for Mayor of Detroit or any other city. You decide to lie, cheat or steal and you get caught; your ass is going to jail. Here is hoping that he will get the FULL 5 years in jail, as that is just what this goldbricking jack ass needs.

Sad News: The Voice of Detroit Tiger Baseball is Dead – Ernie Harwell has died

To me, and everyone who grew up in Detroit in the 1980’s; this is the ultimate heart-ache.

Video:

This Story from the Detroit Free Press:

The Voice of Detroit Baseball - Ernie Harwell

He died in his apartment at Fox Run Village, a retirement center in Novi, with Lulu, his wife of 68 years, at his side. His death came eight months to the day after he revealed to his fans, in an interview with the Free Press, that he had a cancerous tumor in the area of his bile duct and that in late July he had been given only a few months to live.

“I’m ready to face what comes,” he said at the time. “Whether it’s a long time or a short time is all right with me because it’s up to my Lord and savior.”

In the ensuing months, in an emotional farewell ceremony at Comerica Park, in his columns for the Free Press and in interviews with national media, Harwell referred to death as his next great adventure, a gift handed down by God.

“I’ve had so many great ones,” he said. “It’s been a terrific life.”

Harwell had one of the longest runs by a broadcaster with one major league club, calling Tigers games for 42 seasons. For the first 32 of those seasons, he made and cemented his legacy by doing play-by-play on the radio. His Southern voice — rich and authoritative but not overbearing — became as distinctive to Michigan listeners as baseball itself.

Unlike some announcers in recent decades, Harwell didn’t litter his broadcasts with shouting, excessive talking or all-knowing pronouncements about players and managers. Listening to him was as pleasant as being at Tiger Stadium in the summertime. As he fell silent between pitches, listeners got to hear the sounds of the ballpark — the crowd’s buzz, the vendor’s cry — and absorb the rhythm of the game. Harwell thus became an ideal companion for a listener anywhere: the couch, the yard, the car or the boat.

“He’s a master craftsman,” former Tigers broadcaster Josh Lewin, now with the Texas Rangers, said in 2002. “He’s always kept it simple, which I think is part of his charm and staying power.”

In 2005, author and historian Curt Smith ranked Harwell as the third-greatest baseball announcer ever, only placing him behind Dodgers legend Vin Scully and Yankees stalwart Mel Allen. Just behind Harwell were St. Louis’ Jack Buck and New York’s Red Barber. Smith, a student of baseball broadcasting, had 10 criteria for his rankings, ranging from longevity and acclaim to voice and personality.

Beyond his consummate broadcasting skills, Harwell’s cheerfulness and friendliness made him a local treasure.

“He always had that warmth, that inviting lilt to his voice that always made you feel welcome,” Lewin said. “No one can do that like Ernie can.”

At home games, Harwell would report that a foul ball had been caught by “a man from Ypsilanti” or “a lady from Muskegon.” Of course he couldn’t know where the fan lived, but pretending that he did added a distinct local feel to his broadcasts.

On the day of his career-ending broadcast in 2002, he said, “I look on life as a joyous adventure.” He had lived by that ideal. He constantly conducted himself with joy, on and off the air. “Howdy, howdy,” he would greet friends and strangers, smiling and extending his hand.

Harwell was in his 80s when he returned to the radio in 1999 for four final years of broadcasting every Tigers game, home and away. He didn’t sound tired, old-fashioned or nostalgic, even as the Tigers in those years stacked one losing season on top of another. During Harwell’s final season, Boston Red Sox announcer Joe Castiglione said, “Ernie is the most contemporary octogenarian I know.”

The Detroit News remembers too:

Ernie has died.

After a battle against bile duct cancer, one he knew he would lose, Ernie Harwell died Tuesday. He was 92.

With his death, Michigan — and baseball — loses one of its most beloved figures.

For 55 years, Harwell was a major league broadcaster, 42 with the Tigers. He broadcast his last game Sept. 22, 2002.

Instead of moving away from the Detroit area, he spent his final years in Novi, still being part of our lives as an author and corporate spokesman.

William Earnest Harwell was born Jan. 25, 1918 in Washington, Ga.

As a boy, his family moved to Atlanta, where he grew up loving newspapers and baseball, which is how and why he became a paperboy and a batboy for his hometown minor league club, the Atlanta Crackers.

“I remember there was a drug store in Washington where they’d put me up on the counter and let me imitate the baseball announcers of the day, re-creating ball games,” Harwell said two years ago when he turned 90.

“I was tongue-tied at that time, though. I had a speech impediment. Words like sister came out thith-ter. But I was interested in baseball broadcasts even then, so I’d try to imitate the announcers. It wasn’t a very good imitation, but I tried.”

This is hardest things that I have ever tried to write in my life.  How does one explain someone like Ernie Harwell?  I will try my best.  However, I can tell you this; there is going to be a big hole in Detroit baseball for a very long time.

Ernie Harwell was a man from Georgia.  Detroit; from early 1950s until the late 1970s, experienced something called the “Appalachian Migration”, this is where people from the south, like say places like Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and other such places in the south, would come to Detroit to find work.  Listening to Ernie Harwell was like listening to home for these people.  People like my Father, who migrated from Middlesburo, Kentucky in 1967. People like me, who was his son.

There was George Kell on TV and there was Ernie Harwell on the radio.  That was Detroit Baseball.  Ernie was home on the radio for many people.

I have many fond memories of walking with my Dad through Patton Park in Detroit over to the softball diamond, to watch the games over there; all the while carrying his little black portable radio, with Ernie Harwell on the radio.

Old Memories — Old Detroit — My Childhood.

The Diamond is still there, my Dad is now 64, and Ernie is gone.

The just do not build them like that anymore.

It is truly a dark day in Detroit baseball.

Rest in Peace Ernie.

“I wanted to be a newspaper writer, but when I got out of college in 1940, none of the papers in Atlanta had an opening. So I auditioned with a radio station, got lucky, won the audition, and that’s how I got into radio.

“I didn’t know anything about radio, though. I just took a shot at it.”

That he did, and did it damned well he did.

He will be truly missed, at least by this Blogger. 🙁

Update: Statement from Senator Carl Levin:

Video:

Transcript:

WASHINGTON – Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., delivered the following statement on the Senate floor today:

“For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.”

Mr. President, spring after spring, for four decades, a man named Ernie Harwell would recite those words. He would recite them at the beginning of the first baseball broadcast of spring training. And those are the words that would tell the people of Michigan that the long, cold winter was over.

Ernie was the radio voice of the Detroit Tigers for 42 years, and in that time, there may have been no Michiganian more universally beloved. Our state mourns today at his passing, yesterday evening, after a battle with cancer. He fought that battle with the grace, the good humor, and the wisdom that Michigan had come to expect, and even depend on, from a man we came to know and love.

This gentlemanly Georgian adopted our team, and our state, as his own. And his career would have been worthy had he done nothing more than bring us the sound of summer over the radio, recounting the Tigers’ ups and downs with professionalism and wit, as he did.

But without making a show of it, Ernie Harwell taught us. In his work and his life, he taught us the value of kindness and respect. He taught us that, in a city and a world too often divided, we could be united in joy at a great Al Kaline catch, or a Lou Whitaker home run, or a Mark Fidrych strikeout. He taught us not to let life pass us by “like the house by the side of the road.”

In 1981, when he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Ernie told the assembled fans what baseball meant to him. “In baseball democracy shines its clearest,” he said. “The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rulebook. Color merely something to distinguish one team’s uniform from another.” That was a lesson he taught us so well.

Mr. President, I will miss Ernie Harwell. All of Michigan will miss the sound of his voice telling us that the winter is past, that the Tigers had won a big game, or that they’d get another chance to win one tomorrow. We will miss his Georgia drawl, his humor, his humility, his quiet faith in God and in the goodness of the people he encountered. But we will carry in our hearts always our love for him, our appreciation for his work, and the lessons he gave us and left us and that we will pass on to our children and grandchildren.

Video: We Will Remember

(H/T HotAir)

Sign the Pledge at We Will Remember.

Stupid: General Motors plays a shell game

Here’s one for the “Stuck on Stupid” file that seems to be getting bigger and bigger by the day.

AP Headline: Gas in the tank: GM repays $8.1B in gov’t loans

Quote:

WASHINGTON – Fallen giant General Motors Co. accelerated toward recovery Wednesday, announcing the repayment of $8.1 billion in U.S. and Canadian government loans five years ahead of schedule.

The Obama administration crowed about the “turnaround” at GM and fellow bailout recipient Chrysler LLC, saying the government’s unpopular rescue of Detroit’s automakers is paying off.

Much of the improvement comes from GM slashing its debt load and workforce as part of its bankruptcy reorganization last year. But the automaker is a long way from regaining its old blue-chip status: It remains more than 70 percent government-owned and is still losing money — $3.4 billion in last year’s fourth quarter alone. And while its car and truck sales are up so far this year, that’s primarily due to lower-profit sales to car rental companies and other fleet buyers.

Chrysler, now run by Italy’s Fiat Group SpA, said Wednesday it lost almost $200 million in the first quarter. But it said it boosted its cash reserves by $1.5 billion, reducing the likelihood that it will need more government aid.

“This turnaround wasn’t an accident of history,” said White House economic adviser Larry Summers. “It was the result of considered and politically difficult decisions made by President Obama to provide GM and Chrysler — and indeed the auto industry — a lifeline, if they could demonstrate the will to reshape their businesses.”

Vice President Joe Biden said President Barack Obama “took a lot of heat” to keep GM alive. “And this has even exceeded our expectations.”

Everything is happy yappy and yippie skippy right?

Wrong.

Jamie Dupree dishes the straight dope on this little shell game: (H/T Q & O)

General Motors will make a big splash in the news today by announcing that the automaker will repay several billion dollars loans from the federal government earlier than expected. But it’s not really coming out of the GM wallet.

The issue came up yesterday at a hearing with the special watchdog on the Wall Street Bailout, Neil Barofsky, who was asked several times about the GM repayment by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), who was looking for answers on how much money the feds might make from the controversial Wall Street Bailout.


“It’s good news in that they’re reducing their debt,” Barofsky said of the accelerated GM payments, “but they’re doing it by taking other available TARP money.”

In other words, GM is taking money from the Wall Street Bailout – the TARP money – and using that to pay off their loans ahead of schedule.

“It sounds like it’s kind of like taking money out of one pocket and putting in the other,” said Carper, who got a nod of agreement from Barofsky.

[….]


Most of Uncle Sam’s bailout money that was given to GM has now been turned into stock in the U.S. automaker.

“The assumption is that, over time, hopefully the value of the stock will appreciate,” said Carper.

Long term that could prove to be a money-making investment for the feds – or if things go the wrong way for General Motors – a big, fat loss for Uncle Sam.

As most of you know, my Father is a 31 year veteran of the General Motors company. I find this little idiotic shell game right here to be just plain immoral. I mean, how in the hell are you going to use money from the Government to pay off the Government? That is basically taking money out of one pocket and putting into another. That is not paying off your debt; that is nothing more than a  shell game. The reason why this is so upsetting to me is; that it is just going to hurt my Father. Because sooner or later, this company is not going to be able to pay my Dad’s pension.

As the son of a General Motors worker, I want to see G.M. succeed; but I want to see them succeed the right way and honestly. Not by playing a dirty, underhanded shell game, and that my friends is what this is, a dirty shell game to fool the American people and the workers at G.M. into believing that they are on to the road to recovery, when in all honesty, they are not.

The American Taxpayers, The workers and retirees for General Motors; deserve better than this.

Shame on General Motors for their deceptive tactics and shame on the White House and Yes, the President for aiding and abetting in this little scam.

The real cute part is that not a word of this, has been said in the media, as to just HOW this loans are being paid back. That my friends is a damned human tragedy.

Others: Questions and Observations, Mish’s Global Economic …, TigerHawk, Sweetness & Light, JammieWearingFool and The TrogloPundit

Update: Not surprisingly, Ed Morrissey Agrees with me.

My Submission to HotAir.com

They’re having a contest over at HotAir.com, for videos explaining how existing Government regulation has affected you or someone you know.

Here’s my submission:

A somewhat of a transcript, it was an e-mail to Ed Morrissey and I decided to film it:

Ed,

I am sending this as an e-mail, but I might send this as a video submission.

This short story about Federal Regulation. You may or may not know this; but, I have a Commercial Drivers License, Class A. I took advantage of a “Socialist” program here in Michigan, offered to people who have disabilities, such as mine. I have A.D.H.D. (I was diagnosed at age 5.) I got my CDL-A. I also have Doubles and Tanker endorsements. I did have Hazmat, until Michigan got this stupid idea to charge an ungodly sum for an idiotic background check to get the stupid endorsement.

Anyhow, I have this license; and you want to know what it is worth? Absolutely nothing. Why? Because I do not happen to have at least two years of experience of driving a class A vehicle.

A little background… Back in the 1970’s and the Early 1980’s there were a rash of accidents, involving Semi-trailers. Many of accidents were due to negligent business owners, who did not properly maintain their trucks. The State of Michigan, with it’s liberal enlightened intelligence; instead of fining the businesses, who did not maintain their trucks; instead the state of Michigan and also the Federal Government, passed all sorts of insane regulations for Trucking Company Owners and also insurance companies.

One of more brilliant laws passed, basically forces Insurance companies to REQUIRE ALL DRIVERS to have AT LEAST TWO FULL years of experience in order to be hired.

What’s so horrible about this? Well, let me explain.

Most trucking companies in Michigan, and also Country-wide, REQUIRE at least two and sometimes 3 years of experience. Which is fine, if you are like 21 years old, and have no disabilities and can live on no sleep and drive all over the Country. But, what about someone, like me, who, because the medication that I take, and just because I happen to be a little older and need at least 4-6 hours to function? Basically, because of over-reaching federal and State regulation — I am left in the cold, and as a result, my license, which I happened to have to work a little harder for, because I have A.D.H.D. — is basically useless.

Welcome to Michigan Liberalism.

-Patrick

I really do not expect to win. As it is not entertaining as some might be. But, I did try.

Justice: Goldman Sachs sued by the SEC for the Meltdown of 2008

Finally, some justice to these bastards:

Via the NYT:

Goldman Sachs, which emerged relatively unscathed from the financial crisis, was accused of securities fraud in a civil suit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly devised to fail.

The move marks the first time that regulators have taken action against a Wall Street deal that helped investors capitalize on the collapse of the housing market. Goldman itself profited by betting against the very mortgage investments that it sold to its customers.

The suit also named Fabrice Tourre, a vice president at Goldman who helped create and sell the investment.

In a statement, Goldman called the S.E.C. accusations “completely unfounded in law and fact” and said the firm would “vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation.”

The instrument in the S.E.C. case, called Abacus 2007-AC1, was one of 25 deals that Goldman created so the bank and select clients could bet against the housing market. Those deals, which were the subject of an article in The New York Times in December, initially protected Goldman from losses when the mortgage market disintegrated and later yielded profits for the bank.

As the Abacus deal plunged in value, Goldman and a prominent hedge fund made money on their negative bets, while European investors like IKB and ABN Amro lost more than $1 billion, the S.E.C. said.

According to the complaint, Goldman created Abacus 2007-AC1 in February 2007, at the request of John A. Paulson, a prominent hedge fund manager who earned an estimated $3.7 billion in 2007 by correctly wagering that the housing bubble would burst.

Goldman let Mr. Paulson select mortgage bonds that he wanted to bet against — the ones he believed were most likely to lose value — and packaged those bonds into Abacus 2007-AC1, according to the S.E.C. complaint. Goldman then sold the Abacus deal to investors like foreign banks, pension funds, insurance companies and other hedge funds.

But the deck was stacked against the Abacus investors, the complaint contends, because the investment was filled with bonds chosen by Mr. Paulson, who is not named in the suit, as likely to default. Goldman told investors in Abacus marketing materials reviewed by The Times that the bonds would be chosen by an independent manager.

“The product was new and complex, but the deception and conflicts are old and simple,” Robert Khuzami, the director of the S.E.C.’s division of enforcement, said in a statement. “Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party.”

In response Goldman Sachs says:

The SEC’s charges are completely unfounded in law and fact and we will vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation.

Yeah, sure the accusations are unfounded. If I were a Goldman employee; I would be looking for a new job pronto.

From the SEC Press Release:

The SEC’s complaint alleges that after participating in the portfolio selection, Paulson & Co. effectively shorted the RMBS portfolio it helped select by entering into credit default swaps (CDS) with Goldman Sachs to buy protection on specific layers of the ABACUS capital structure. Given that financial short interest, Paulson & Co. had an economic incentive to select RMBS that it expected to experience credit events in the near future. Goldman Sachs did not disclose Paulson & Co.’s short position or its role in the collateral selection process in the term sheet, flip book, offering memorandum, or other marketing materials provided to investors.

The SEC alleges that Goldman Sachs Vice President Fabrice Tourre was principally responsible for ABACUS 2007-AC1. Tourre structured the transaction, prepared the marketing materials, and communicated directly with investors. Tourre allegedly knew of Paulson & Co.’s undisclosed short interest and role in the collateral selection process. In addition, he misled ACA into believing that Paulson & Co. invested approximately $200 million in the equity of ABACUS, indicating that Paulson & Co.’s interests in the collateral selection process were closely aligned with ACA’s interests. In reality, however, their interests were sharply conflicting.

According to the SEC’s complaint, the deal closed on April 26, 2007, and Paulson & Co. paid Goldman Sachs approximately $15 million for structuring and marketing ABACUS. By Oct. 24, 2007, 83 percent of the RMBS in the ABACUS portfolio had been downgraded and 17 percent were on negative watch. By Jan. 29, 2008, 99 percent of the portfolio had been downgraded.

Investors in the liabilities of ABACUS are alleged to have lost more than $1 billion.

The SEC’s complaint charges Goldman Sachs and Tourre with violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Exchange Act Rule 10b-5. The Commission seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement of profits, prejudgment interest, and financial penalties.

Allow me to humbly submit that I hope that these bastards get exactly what is coming to them. I mean, these guy literally gambled as the stock market and by proxy; our economy went straight into the toilet.   Many people that I know; like my parents, lost a good deal of money on this stuff. Not only that, after the credit crises hit; G.M. ended up having to shed a bunch of expenses; and as a result, my parents lost their optical and dental insurance. That came as a indirect result of this Wall Street mess. So, as far as I am concerned; throw the book at these bastards.

Capitalism is one thing, heartless greed is another; and these bastards crossed that line, big time. 😡