Even More Professional Behavior from President Teleprompter

This is unbelievable:

The bankers struggled to make themselves clear to the president of the United States.
Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees — and, by extension, to themselves.
“These are complicated companies,” one CEO said. Offered another: “We’re competing for talent on an international market.”
But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”
“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”
via Inside Obama’s bank CEOs meeting – Eamon Javers – POLITICO.com.

Talking about cashing in on the public outrage! What’s more is this one here:

There were signs from the outset that this was a business event, not a social gathering. At each place around the table sat a single glass of water. No ice. For those who finished their glass, no refills were offered. There was no group photograph taken of the CEOs with the president, which typically happens at ceremonial White House gatherings but not at serious strategy sessions.
“The only way they could have sent a more Spartan message is if they had served bread along with the water,” says a person who attended the meeting. “The signal from Obama’s body language and demeanor was, ‘I’m the president, and you’re not.’”

Way to go there Mr. Bambi, piss off the very people that made you on wall street. What more do the people need to see, to realize that electing this buffoon was the biggest mistake America ever made?

You know, I criticized Bush relentlessly during the man’s time in office. But the actions of this new President is starting make me really wonder just how better off we truly are. I mean; this guy is right now over in Europe, and now going to France to make speeches saying that the United States of America was arrogant?? I have to admit, I do not always agree with Sean Hannity, But tonight he was spot on. Obama ought to be impeached for treason, first for bowing an Arab leader and then going overseas and basically sounding like the Dixie Chicks! I am, quite frankly, surprised that our media here has given him a pass on that one. But then again, when you are in the tank for the guy. What can one expect??

Not to mention that, he is spending like a drunken sailor, which is going to weaken our dollar. It is truly unbelievable.

You see people want to say that Bush caused all this economic recession, and that’s just flat out horse hockey! Bush did not cause this recession, Bill Clinton did! Clinton was one the one who placed the high pressure on the big lending institutions, like Freddie Mack and Fannie Mae to give loans to those who could not normally afford them. Then the people on Wall Street, thanks to the stupid deregulation of the Markets, cooked up these crazy credit swaps. Bush’s White House saw the impending disaster and warned sternly the Republican controlled Congress that there were signs that the Markets are showing signs that there was about to be a serious problem. This was in 2003, Congress then began an investigation and the then President/CEO or whatever the hell you call him, who was black, did what any black person does when they’re under the gun. He played the race card. Rep. Barney Frank sat right up there and said there was no crisis.

So, this whole notion that is being peddled by the Democrats is totally false and is basically revisionist history. No wonder Bill O’Rielly flipped out on Barney Frank. Because the man is a damned liar. As are the Democrats in general. But yet, the President can sit there and act like a total asshole?!?! It was his party that created this whole mess!

Unbelievable, just totally unbelievable.

Generational Theft Act of 2009 has been passed

It seems that the Liberal Congress and Obama are hell bent on devaluing our dollar:

Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama’s ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday, endorsing a $3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.
Voting along party lines, the House and Senate approved budget blueprints that would trim Obama’s spending proposals for the fiscal year that begins in October and curtail his plans to cut taxes. The blueprints, however, would permit work to begin on the central goals of Obama’s presidency: an expansion of health-care coverage for the uninsured, more money for college loans and a cap-and-trade system to reduce gases that contribute to global warming.
The measures now move to a conference committee where negotiators must resolve differences between the two chambers, a prelude to the more difficult choices that will be required to implement Obama’s initiatives. While Democrats back the president’s vision for transforming huge sectors of the economy, they remain fiercely divided over the details.
via Congress Approves Budget – washingtonpost.com.

$3.5 trillion dollars; That’s more money than I’ll ever see in this lifetime. Spending that much money will do nothing more than devalue our dollar to the point where the simplest things will cost more than most can afford. Ron Paul said it right in this video here; the Liberal Congress are simply trying to recreate the bubble that burst and they are simply going to try create another.

This of course will create another burst somewhere down the road that will be greater than this one. Our only hope is that someone like Mark Sanford will get in there and order the fed audited and possibly closed. Also maybe Sanford would put us back on the Gold Standard and back Austrian Economics and put this silly Keynesian economics to pasture, where it belongs.

One can only hope.

Others: Sweetness & Light, , Fausta’s Blog, Donklephant, Hot Air, Right Wing News , Dr. Sanity, , QandO and Wake up America

The Southern Avenger on "Steadfast Sanford"

When hundreds of protesters showed up at the South Carolina statehouse to protest Gov. Mark Sanford’s refusal to accept $700 million in federal stimulus, it was worth noting how Sanford doesn’t represent economic disaster – but perhaps the only chance we’ve got.

The Article referenced in this Video is found here

The Southern Avenger’s Blog

The Southern Avanger @ Taki’s Magazine

Is the Obama Administration letting G.M.'s New C.E.O. do it's dirty work for them?

Full Disclosure: My Father is a Retired General Motors Worker and U.A.W. Member.

——-

It sure as heck looks that way to me here.

The reason I ask this question is because a new report from CNBC that the new C.E.O. of GM is essentially saying that bankruptcy is the only option:

General Motors’s new chief executive told CNBC that filing for Bankruptcy may be the best option for the struggling automaker.
In a taped interview to be aired tonight on NBC Nightly News, Fritz Henderson said that because of greater demands from the Obama administration to restructure, GM is considering the bankruptcy option. The auto giant previously had ruled out such a move, saying it would discourage people from buying GM cars.
Henderson’s comments came after President Obama bluntly rejected turnaround plans by GM and Chrysler and demanded that both companies make fresh concessions in order to get more federal aid.
Henderson, who was GM’s president and chief operating officer, was named the new CEO after the government forced the resignation of CEO Rick Wagoner on Sunday. GM’s board is also being restructured.
Henderson told reporters that the company would still prefer to restructure outside of court, but the level of support Washington is offering would help the company quickly restructure through bankruptcy.
Henderson says GM needs to work faster and go deeper to get more concessions from bondholders and the United Auto Workers union. President Obama has demanded that GM come up with a better restructuring plan in 60 days in order to qualify for more government aid.

I find it very interesting that President Obama, instead of doing the dirty deed himself, ousted the CEO of G.M. and basically has let the new G.M. head honcho be his fall guy for basically screwing the bond holders and also the unions. This way, Barry comes off clean. It is a strategy that is quite slick, quite risky; but none the less slick.

The Wall Street Journal has more:

Inside a windowless, ornate room Thursday just across from the Oval Office, President Barack Obama and a group of senior economic advisers began the job of remaking the American automobile industry.
The first order of business: Oust General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner.
It “wasn’t the hardest decision,” said one government official.
Steven Rattner, a former investment banker who is heading the administration’s auto restructuring; chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers; and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner were among those gathered around the polished wood table of the Roosevelt Room in the White House’s West Wing. They were there to decide under what conditions the government would continue to prop up once-powerful Detroit car companies GM and Chrysler LLC.
In the post-World War II boom, they were at the pinnacle of a quintessentially American industry. At Thursday’s meeting, once the Obama administration concluded the pair were running out of money, their effective dismantling began.
Beyond seeking Mr. Wagoner’s resignation, the officials also gave failing grades to GM and Chrysler for the restructuring plans they submitted to the government Feb. 17. They also set a deadline — one month for Chrysler, two months for GM — after which the government might force a bankruptcy restructuring of both companies and break up two of America’s business icons.
Many of GM’s problems didn’t start during Mr. Wagoner’s term, and most predate the economic downturn that sent car sales slumping, such as union contracts and the costs of paying for retiree health care. GM made a bad situation worse with huge bets on trucks and SUVs that piled up on dealer lots amid soaring gas prices last year.

While I will be the first to tell you, that General Motors has had its own share of issues. What Barack Obama did to G.M. and by proxy to the Union members and Employees of the company; was just flat out cowardly. Instead of forcing General Motors into bankruptcy himself. Obama is allowing the new head honcho of the company and his Auto Czar; do it for him. This way Obama does not burn through his political capital as quickly and more or less comes out looking like the hero. Of course, President TelePrompter will say that he inherited this mess, and by rights he did. But to pass off the basic executing of a company and it’s people to someone else, is quite the cowardly move in my book.

Hey Barry, If you ever happen to read this; Grow some freaking Gonads,will ya? I mean, come on. If you going to screw the American worker; why not do it yourself? Instead of letting your damned patsies do it for you. Just a thought.

The Southern Avenger on "AIG Bonuses are a Ruse"

How the controversy over the AIG bonuses imbedded in the stimulus obfuscate the root problem of spending in general.

The Southern Avenger’s Blog

The Southern Avenger @ Taki’s Magazine

The Southern Avenger on "What Happened to the War on Terror?"

On the sixth anniversary of the war in Iraq, why are the loudest champions of the War on Terror no longer talking about it?

The Southern Avenger’s Blog

The Southern Avenger @ Taki’s Magazine

President Barack Hussein Obama's March Towards Communism

In all honesty…. it is more like a marathon run towards Communism actually.

Thanks to the stupidity of the Carter and Clinton Administrations and the inaction on the Republican controlled 2003 Congress. We are now becoming a Communist Nation. We have no one to blame, but ourselves.

The Communist owned Washington Post reports:

The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.
The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.
Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president’s Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal Reserve and other regulators, according to the document.
The administration plans to send legislation to Capitol Hill this week. Sources cautioned that the details, including the Treasury’s role, are still in flux.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is set to argue for the new powers at a hearing today on Capitol Hill about the furor over bonuses paid to executives at American International Group, which the government has propped up with about $180 billion in federal aid. Administration officials have said that the proposed authority would have allowed them to seize AIG last fall and wind down its operations at less cost to taxpayers.
The administration’s proposal contains two pieces. First, it would empower a government agency to take on the new role of systemic risk regulator with broad oversight of any and all financial firms whose failure could disrupt the broader economy. The Federal Reserve is widely considered to be the leading candidate for this assignment. But some critics warn that this could conflict with the Fed’s other responsibilities, particularly its control over monetary policy.
The government also would assume the authority to seize such firms if they totter toward failure.
Besides seizing a company outright, the document states, the Treasury Secretary could use a range of tools to prevent its collapse, such as guaranteeing losses, buying assets or taking a partial ownership stake. Such authority also would allow the government to break contracts, such as the agreements to pay $165 million in bonuses to employees of AIG’s most troubled unit.
The Treasury secretary could act only after consulting with the president and getting a recommendation from two-thirds of the Federal Reserve Board, according to the plan.
Geithner plans to lay out the administration’s broader strategy for overhauling financial regulation at another hearing on Thursday.

You see folks, this is where it starts. They start seizing businesses, and taking the assets for themselves. Then the Government decides to take YOUR assets; because they happen to think that you are making too much money. What amazes me, is the resounding silence from the Republicans, especially the Neo-Conservatives like Michelle Malkin and over at HotAir.com. Could it be that the Neo-Conservatives secretly approve of such actions? Possibly the Republican Party as well? Could it be that the Republican Party is now infiltrated with Communists to the point of having lost it’s true identity?

You decide.

Others: The Moderate Voice, Reuters, pw, , The Strata-Sphere,Bloomberg, Washington Monthly, Pajamas Media, Right Wing News, Sweetness & Light, Neptunus Lex, Stop The ACLU, Sister Toldjah, and Fausta’s Blog

(Via Memeorandum)

Tim Geithner reveals his plan and it still sucks

There’s a great deal of coverage on this… go here to check it out. We’re screwed, and I do mean badly.

Others covering:

Frank James / The Swamp: Geithner’s financial-rescue plan, take two

Jeremy P. Jacobs / The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room: Geithner lays out toxic asset plan

Caitlin Taylor / The Note: The Note, 3/23/09: Crisis of Confidence …

Simon Johnson / The Baseline Scenario: Breaking The Bank — My problem with Monday’s expected announcement …

Bloomberg: Obama Seeks Investors in Plan to Buy Illiquid Assets

Atrios / Eschaton: Risk — One thing which stood out from Timmeh’s WSJ op-ed (perfect place to leg hump the

The Heretik / theheretik.us: Toxic Update — Geithner on those troubled toxic assets …

Ben Pershing / Washington Post: A New Week, A New Economic Plan to Sell

Clay Risen / The Plank: Foxes Guarding the Henhouse?

James Joyner / Outside The Beltway: Geithner Plan: TARP 2.0?

Caitlin Taylor / Political Punch: Will the Public Want to Partner with Wall Street?

Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire – bk: Geithner’s Plan, Take Two — In advance of his second attempt …

Betsy Newmark / Betsy’s Page: Obama and the AIG bonuses

Barry Ritholtz / The Big Picture: US Futures Higher: Dow 212+

Democracy in America: Geithner’s big day — FOREIGN stocks are up as the markets anticipate …

William Richards / Dealbreaker: Opening Bell: 03.23.09 — Geithner Looks To Announce New Plan Today (Bloomberg)

Charles Lemos / MyDD: D-Day for Geithner — It’s showtime for Secretary Geithner.

Lambert / Corrente: What you mean, “we,” Timmy?

Doug Stanglin / On Deadline: Geithner set to unveil bank bailout plan

Brad DeLong / Grasping Reality with Both Hands: The World Is Divided into Four Groups of People

DownWithTyranny!: Is This Really How Geithner Plans To Keep Us From Falling …

Gaius / Blue Crab Boulevard: The Plan. Such As It Is. — Timothy Geithner has a plan:

more via Memeorandum

Editorial: The psychos are running the nuthouse!

Originally published over at my column at NolanChart.com:

It has been a while since I have written an article for my column; with all my days spent blogging about the political happenings post-Obama election, I just have not had the time to sit here and hammer out a good column. I have not forgotten to write, I just have not had the time to sit down and gather my thoughts and put my opinion to the current matters.

President Barack Obama has not been in the White House for 100 days yet and already it seems that our Country is headed for either one of two things; either economic disaster or outright European socialism. Although I tend to believe that one will follow the other, I do firmly believe that capitalism is in grave danger. I also believe that our Nation is going to be one that is going to become a society that rewards failure.

This applies in the area of the home mortgages; since when do we bail out people who have gotten in over their heads in debt? To be clear, I do understand that there were those who were victimized, and those who did this, to innocent people, should be prosecuted. However, those who knowingly got into mortgages that they knew they would not normally be able to afford, I have zero pity for. You make a stupid mistake you pay the consequences. That is how a free and democratic society works. You have to responsibility for your own actions.

Let me give you a personal example. When I was 19 years old, Discover Card sent me an application for a Credit Card. My parents came on as co-signers. Between the time that I first received that card and the time in 2004, when I finally filed for bankruptcy, I was over 14K in debt. Conversely it was over 18K of debt with the new truck that I bought, that I could not really afford; however because I had a job, I could make payments. One day the unthinkable happened, I lost my job; the gravy train stopped and threw me off. Those gravy trains never were known for their cordialness. After doing the obligatory and quite painful grunt and skid across the debt parking lot. I decided I had better go see a bankruptcy lawyer.

What does this have to do with what is happening now in the United States Government? It has quite a bit to do with it actually. Did the United States Government come in and offer to pay off my debt? No. Did the United States Government offer to come in and give me any kind of relief on my truck payments? Nope! I ended up losing that truck someone else owns it now. In other words, I was not rewarded for making stupid decisions, like going over my head in debt. Which by the way, was my own fault, I am the one that charged items on my discover card and got over my head in all that debt not anyone else, not that American taxpayers, but me.

Another way that the United States Government is rewarding failure is by losing their ever-loving minds over bonuses that were contractually awarded to employees of a company. Now I understand the reasons why people are upset about the bonuses. The problem is, the people on the left, or the Democrats are looking at this from a rather idiotic point of view. If the Democrats in Congress are so mad about these bonuses, then why in the heck did they vote to prop up these banks in the first place? The bonuses were a drop in the bucket to what we spent to take ownership in these companies. Why nationalize a company and then gripe about a bonus? It makes zero sense to me.

Again, even bailing out these companies in the first place is rewarding companies for failure. Sorry, I do not buy the notion of a business being too big to fail, that is simply stupid political double talk for a nationalization argument.

Let me give you another personal example of why I think this propping up a business is just simply stupid and why it teaches that it is okay to have a bad business model. I used to run a small electronics out of my house here. I would never buy more than one or two items at the most. I would always tell my customers, you want something, you pay up front, and I will order the item. I would get the money and order the item, and whatever I had left over, I kept for profit. That is called responsible business practices. However, what if I went out, got a loan for say $500.000, and bought a bunch of inventory and then the market fell out in the electronics business or what if I just did not bother to advertise? I would be stuck with a bill for the loan and a bunch of inventory that I could not move. Now would it fair for me to want the United States Government to bail me out of that situation? I think not. Nevertheless, that is what the Government is doing; they are essentially saying that some businesses are just too big to fail.

Not only this, but we are bailing these banks out with money that we do not even have. We are using money that we are borrowing from china, money that is not even ours. What we do not borrow from China, we are printing ourselves, which will devalue the dollar. It is as the title of this column says a case of psychos that are running the nuthouse.

Obama's Katrina Moment?

Seems that way to me!

The Video:

(Via Jim Treacher on Twitter)