Hooray For CHANGE!

Archive for the ‘2010 Election’ Category

Wholesale prices jumped last month by the most in nearly two years due to higher energy costs and the steepest rise in food prices in 36 years.  In related news, energy prices rose 3.3% last month, led by a 3.7% increase in gasoline costs.  Way to go Obama… Hooray for CHANGE!

Yahoo! Finance

“A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday the proportion of people who believe the United States is on the wrong track rose seven points to 64% from February” and that this is a two year low.

On the bright side, “Obama’s approval among independent voters who he will need for his 2012 re-election drive took a sharp dive, to 37% from 47%.”

Good job Obama.  Hooray for CHANGE!

Reuters

Get ready for hundreds of millions of private dollars and taxpayer dollars to be spent in print and on television by Obama and his cronies to get you to change your mind on something you’ve been against for awhile now… Obamacare, one of the worst and most socialistic laws ever passed by Congress and signed by a President.  The Democrat’s entire November 2010 election depends on brainwashing the American public.  So, get ready for it, here it comes, whether you like it or not, thought control persuading you that paying 10 years for 6 years of health insurance is a good idea… that the federal government cannot force you into a religion, but it can force you into purchasing something you may not necessarily want under threat of fine and imprisonment… and as our public spending reaches unsustainable levels, that this economic monstrosity is actually going to decrease the debt (absurd!).  Drink up the Flavor-Aid, kiddos.  Hooray for CHANGE!

New York Times

There is a huge scandal brewing. Sestak said that Obama’s White House offered him a job if he would drop his run against Spectre. This (1) violates anti-bribery laws, (2) prohibitions on gov’t officials interfering with elections, and (3) prohibition on using federal jobs for political purposes. Today, Clinton takes the blame. But can we trust a guy who lied to the American people while under oath? Hooray for CHANGE!

UPDATE: Apparently, Obama’s lunch yesterday with Clinton was all about doing a little coordinating and getting advice on how best to lie to the American people…

The latest Washington Post piece states, “Bill Clinton was tasked by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to make such an approach to Rep. Joe Sestak” – Rahm “Dead Fish” Emanuel, the White House Chief of Staff… the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/white-house/how-the-sestak-job-offer-becam.html

Obama said yesterday to the American people: “I can assure the public that nothing improper took place. But as I said, there will be a response shortly on that issue.”

Kinda reminds you of this one: “But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you.”

So, now we know that the White House actually violated (1) anti-bribery laws, (2) the prohibition on gov’t officials interfering with elections, and (3) the prohibition on using federal jobs for political purposes. And now we know it came directly from the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.. So much for that “different kind of White House.” So much for “accountability” and “transparency.” So much for “Hope” and “Change.” Maybe between 2006-2009 the American people drained the swamp of some bad fish, but all we have now is the left over scum and rotten dead fish. It’s time to clean the swamp out… refill it and get back in some good fish.

Just in case you haven’t seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSORKTIyP1o

Larry Kane: Have you ever been offered a federal job to get out of the race?

Joe Sestak: Yes… I would never get out for a deal.

Larry Kane: Was the job offered to you by the White House?

Joe Sestak: Yes. Someone offered…

Larry Kane: It was big, right?

Joe Sestak: It was, uh, let me just not comment on that…

Obama’s second biggest single source donor in 2007 and 2008 was Goldman Sachs employees and family members.  They sent him a whopping $994,795.00 in campaign contributions.  In fact, three-quarters of the $5.9 million in political donations from Goldman Sachs went to Democrats in 2007 and 2008.  Rahm Emanuel received approximately $80,000.00 from Goldman Sachs between 2002 and 2008 while he was in Congress when he assumed a leading role championing the trillion-dollar TARP banking bailout law which lined Goldman Sachs’ pockets with $10 billion in preferred stock investment from the U.S. Treasury in October 2008.  If you claim there is no Democrat-Obama-Goldman Sachs connection, then you are blind to the facts.

The Obama-Democrat-Goldman Sachs conflicts of interests are staggering.  The stage gets set during the Bush years with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs.  One of his first acts was to save his alma mater Goldman Sachs and let their two biggest competitors, Bear-Stearns & Lehman Brothers, fail.  Paulson’s next act, under the counsel of Goldman Sachs current CEO Lloyd Bankfein (a staunch Democrat), was to bail out AIG with $85 billion of taxpayer money.  Coincidentally, the single biggest payout from AIG was to Goldman Sachs for a whopping $12.9 billion.  But wait, there’s more.  Paulson appoints Neel Kashkari, a former VP of Goldman Sachs, as the Interim Asst. Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability in the Treasury where he bought troubled assets from U.S. financial firms under TARP.  The first thing he did was change Goldman Sachs to a bank holding company so that they could have access to TARP money, FDIC money, and Fed money from the Discount Window (allows eligible institutions to borrow money from the central bank) AND not be regulated by the SEC.  Kashkari’s term bleeds over into the Obama administration where he is praised by Democrats and Obama, but eventually replaced by Gary Gensler, a former partner at Goldman Sachs and major contributor to the Democrat Party.  Since Goldman Sachs became a bank holding company, they were regulated by the Fed and now being overseen by Stephen Freidman, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs and, at the time, a current major shareholder and member of the board of directors (major conflict of interest where a member of the board of directors is actually overseeing the company… but Geithner approves… and not only that, allows him to buy more shares!).  At this point Goldman Sachs begins to get back on its feet and starts to endorse and invest in carbon assets… a blatant endorsement of Obama’s Cap & Trade agenda. To this end, Goldman Sachs hires a former top aide to Democrat Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, as their director of government affairs, Michael Paese (major Democrat campaign donor).  The position he was filling?  Well, the former Goldman Sachs lobbyist was Mark Patterson (and major Democrat donor) who became chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Geithner (didn’t Obama make a campaign PROMISE that he would limit the influence of lobbyists in his administration and run anti-McCain ads stating the McCain would do exactly what Obama has done since?).  If you claim there are no Democrat-Obama-Goldman Sachs conflicts of interest, then you are blind to the facts.

Aside from Obama breaking his promise of no lobbyists working in his administration, he also broke his promise to the American people that there would be no more sweetheart deals.  This sweetheart deals with several more Democrat donors and Goldman Sachs alums.  The FDIC seized IndyMac in 2008 after a run on deposits led to the fourth largest bank failure in U.S. history. The run on deposits was caused by Democrat Congressman Charles Schumer after he released a letter that “expressed concerns about IndyMac’s viability.”  In March 2009, most of IndyMac’s operations were sold to a sole bidder, OneWest Bank, made up by a investment group of private- equity backers that include John Paulson (billionaire hedge-fund manager with Goldman Sachs and huge Democrat campaign contributor and Obama supporter – remember this name), George Soros (huge Democrat campaign contributor and Obama supporter), J. Christopher Flowers (formerly with Goldman Sachs), Steven Mnuchin (formerly with Goldman Sachs and a huge Democrat donor) and Michael Dell. OneWest pumped $1.55 billion into IndyMac and struck a loss-sharing agreement covering a majority of the acquired loans with the FDIC. The Feds agreed to share the losses 80/20 for the next 7% of losses and 95/5 thereafter of the original mortgage price regardless of how much was paid down or owed at the time of the loss.  What does that mean?  Simply this, approximately 80-95% of $11 billion in old IndyMac mortgage loans are guaranteed by the taxpayers and are no risk to the investors.  So, if 100% of all loans are paid back to OneWest, the investors stand to make almost $4 billion in pure profit, but if 100% of loans default, the investors stand to make $1 billion in profit (remember, the bank still owns the property and sells at it as a short sale or foreclosure… AND the borrower still owes the remaining amount to the bank).  The issue is that there is no risk and no losses no matter what to this investor group that includes major Democrat contributors and former Goldman Sachs alums… and you and I are footing the bill.  If you claim there is no Democrat-Obama-Goldman Sachs sweetheart deal in a sole bidder no risk investment, then you are blind to facts.

Now what’s the latest problem with Goldman Sachs?  The SEC fraud lawsuit against Goldman Sachs alleges the firm failed to tell investors of a 2007 collateralized debt obligation (CDO aka derivatives… which would NOT be regulated under the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 signed by Democrat President Clinton).  Hedge fund Paulson & Co. (John Paulson, the billionaire OneWest Bank investor, huge Democrat campaign contributor and Obama supporter) helped select the underlying assets that Goldman Sachs would bet against. In other words, Goldman Sachs created and sold a mortgage investment that were secretly devised to fail so that they could profit by betting against the very mortgage investments they sold to their customers.  After they take the losses, their cronies in the Federal government bail them out and now that Obama wants to pass more socialist reform, they devise a lawsuit that states investors lost $1 billion.  A drop in the bucket compared to what Goldman Sachs got in TARP funds ($10 billion directly and another $12.9 billion indirectly from AIG).  This will be a storm they weather easily.  Not named in the SEC lawsuit is, you guessed it, John Paulson.  Oh, and don’t worry too much for Goldman Sachs, the SEC lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones, who was appointed to the bench in 1995 by Democrat President Clinton following the recommendation of Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Why is this all troubling?  The abuse of power by the federal government and the lengths it will go to pass a highly controversial piece of legislation known as the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010.  The irony is that this bill was sponsored by Democrat Chris Dodd who is retiring from political office this year because his financial history is tainted with economic scandal ranging from corrupt Countrywide loans, to his staunch defense of a failing Fannie/Freddie – his biggest campaign contributors, to his Irish Cottage controversy, to his AIG lies.  Of course it makes perfect sense that Dodd would be the one to craft a financial reform bill!  So he did and it was introduced on April 15, 2010.  Dodd’s bill included a $50 billion liquidation fund which is just more bailout, which is opposed by Republicans.  Well, since the Republicans have been winning the debate game despite all the laws and mandates Democrats are stuffing down our throats, this latest decision by the SEC is a way for Obama and the Democrats to create the “Wall Street Villain” once again, so they can pass their financial reform bill through with positive public favor.  Well, it probably wouldn’t be a question if it wasn’t for the timing of everything and obvious organization and coordination by Democrats.  Here’s how it goes:

● 2008 – The probe of Goldman Sachs began two years ago and most often the SEC settles such cases with banks and investment firms

● April 15, 2010 – Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 is introduced and certain elements of the bill are immediately opposed by Republicans

● April 16, 2010 – The SEC’s commissioners approved charges against Goldman on a 3-2, party-line vote, with all three Democrats voting for the charges… a rare occurrence for approvals of enforcement litigation.

● April 16, 2010 (10:39am) – The New York Times had a lengthy story (1,638 words) ready to go (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/business/17goldman.html) posted on-line

● April 16, 2010 (11:00am) – The SEC wrote their complaint and press release marking the first time that regulators have taken action against a Wall Street deal that helped investors capitalize on the collapse of the housing market.

● April 16, 2010 (11:07am) – “Organizing for America” (the community organizing arm of the DNC) sent an e-mail to supporters urging support for President Obama’s financial regulation reform bill within an hour of the announcement.

● April 16, 2010 (2:00pm) – The Democratic National Committee posted ads on Google that appeared when users searched for “Goldman Sachs SEC” that takes the Internet users the White House website, “Help Change Wall Street,” and asks for donations.

● April 20, 2010 – Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight committee, demands a documents from the SEC, asserting that the timing of civil charges against Goldman Sachs raises “serious questions about the commission’s independence and impartiality.”  Furthermore, he noted, “We are concerned that politics have unduly influenced the decision and timing of the commission’s controversial enforcement action against Goldman,” implying that the timing was a bit too convenient, saying Obama’s push on Wall Street reform “neatly coincided with the commission’s announcement of the suit.”

So, take your pick.  We got lies, sweetheart deals, major Democrat contributors, ethical questions, backroom deals, abuse of power, partisanship, cronies, payoffs and bailouts.  Where do you want to start draining the swamp first?

STORY UPDATE:

April 22, 2010 – It came to light today that lawyers for Goldman Sachs negotiated with SEC over their civil fraud charges while their CEO visited the Obama White House at least 4 times.  Obama doesn’t plan on giving back almost $1 million in campaign contributions from employees of Goldman Sachs.  Hooray for CHANGE!

April 28, 2010 – Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein underwent vigorous questioning yesterday at a Senate hearing where he wholeheartedly endorsed the Obama-Democrat’s partisan finance “reform” legislation. Hooray for CHANGE!

April 29, 2010 – The SEC has referred its investigation of Goldman Sachs to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution.  The SEC claims the firm and an employee named Fabrice Tourre broke the law and committed fraud when they sold clients a complex investment linked to the value of home loans that was secretly designed to fail. Another firm, Paulson & Co., a hedge fund, helped Goldman create the investment and planned to bet against it. But the SEC claims that relationship was not disclosed to Goldman’s clients, ACA Financial Guaranty and the German bank IKB.

A young couple was savagely beaten by 3 to 5 men after leaving the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.  The girl, Allee Bautsch, suffered a broken leg which required surgery and her boyfriend, Joe Brown, suffered a broken nose, a broken jaw, and a concussion.  You can draw your own conclusions.  Hooray for CHANGE!

Hat Tip to Kathy
Big Government