Did “The Steamroller” Help Trigger the Credit Crisis???

The closer you look at the star-crossed tenure of former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer, the worse that train wreck looks.

Most of AIG’s problems began after March of 2005
after the company's board buckled under pressure from then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and fired longtime CEO Hank Greenberg.

As the WSJ reports, “Almost immediately, Fitch took away the company's triple-A credit rating, which allowed it to borrow at cheaper rates. AIG subsequently announced an earnings restatement. The restatement addressed alleged accounting sins that Mr. Spitzer trumpeted initially but later dropped from his civil complaint.” AIG itself later reversed many of the other elements of the restatement, but the damage had been done. The restatement triggered more credit ratings downgrades.

As the WSJ reported, “Mr. Greenberg's successors seemed to understand that the game had changed, warning in a 2005 SEC filing that a lower credit rating meant the firm would likely have to post more collateral to trading counterparties. But rather than managing risks even more carefully, they went in the opposite direction. Tragically, they did what Mr. Greenberg's AIG never did -- bet big on housing," by issuing Credit Default Swaps (CDS’s are veritable insurance policies on investments) to Merril Lynch, Bear Stearns and other major institutions, that bolstered their own appetites for risk.

If nothing else, Eliot Spitzer’s actions seemed to contribute to a “perfect economic storm,” his scorched-earth, witch-hunt tactics cowed major Corporate institutions, like AIG, lowering their bond rating and making it harder for such institutions to borrow money at preferred rates.

That inevitably led to those institutions taking on more risk (CDS’s in AIG’s case). As AIG took on more risk, by, in effect, insuring the high risks that other major players took, those institution’s appetite for risk grew, making the inevitable housing bubble bust far, far worse than it otherwise would have and should have been.

Apparently Ashley Dupre wasn’t the only one that “Client 9” (Spitzer's name in an affidavit filed in US Federal Court) was screwing over.

Now THIS is Just TOO FUNNY!...

“On Wednesday (March 11, 2009), only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicitly bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

“The provision was buried in the 465-page omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. Known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, it has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/co...px? RsrcID=44943

So, I guess we can safely say that Barack Obama SUPPORTED ESC Research openly to court the base, before voting AGAINST it in private a few days later.

Kind of like his "No earmarks” pledge - the Stimulus Bill had over 9,000 earmarks (40% from Republicans)...and THAT was going to be "the last such Bill,” but now the new Omnibus Spending Bill is chock full of bipartisan earmarks too!

I guess that pledge went the way of the one that promised "No government Bailout Money will go to pay BONUSES."AIG (a Company that taxpayers NOT "the government" BUT taxpayers have a $170 BILLION stake in) is paying out over $165 million in Executive bonuses!

I wonder how this second-coming of the Carter administration looking to the far-Left about now?

Rendition - Said NO, but YES

NSA Surveillance and Telecom Immunities – Said NO, but YES

ESC Research – Banned on Monday, March 9th, 2009 and amended 2 days after the ban was lifted, with a RE-BAN on any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

Earmarks - Said NO, but YES

G W Bush-styled Big Corporate Bailouts - YES

HUGE Executive Bonuses paid by Bailed Out Banks - Said No, but YES

I guess THAT'S what you get by bringing Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Robert Rubin - the architects of the eradication of Glass-Spiegel, the law that kept the banks from becoming the ominvores they are today - merging banking, brokerage services and insurance.

EVERY one of the Obama Economic team is from the banking and finance sector, NONE from the hard industries (auto, oil, agriculture, etc.), NONE from the regulatory sectors of government!

Keep believing that the Democrats are NOT controlled by Corporate America....they're even MORE Corporately owned! They always have been.

Filed Under “Good Answer to a DUMB Question;

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“Katie Couric, while interviewing a Marine sniper, asked:

" ‘What do you feel.....when you shoot a Terrorist?’ "

"The Marine shrugged and replied, ‘A slight recoil.’ "

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WHY do Liberals always feel compelled to ask such idiotic questions?!

H/T to Dan O (http://lagrangeohio.blogspot.com/ and Paul @ GottaGetDrunkFirst (http://gottagetdrunkfirst.blogspot.com/2009/03/best-answer-to-stupid-question.html

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UPDATE: Indeed Snopes.com debunks this story as a humorous anecdote;

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http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/recoil.asp

On My Renewed Respect and Appreciation for Andy Cuomo...

OK, so being a Conservative (“Zell Miller”) Democrat, perhaps it’s easier for me to look at the good in SOME Democrats, when they indeed do something good, but I’ll say this, “I never thought I’d have ANYthing to praise a Cuomo over, but NOW, I DO!”

Turns out that NYS Attorney General Andy Cuomo has so rattled the pro-pedarist group NAMBLA that one of the NAMBLA scumbags has apparently offered a $10,000 reward for “Anyone who’d shoot the New York State AG in the face."

“ The "reward" was offered under the headline: "$10,000 to shoot Andrew Cuomo in the face!"

"I am an official of NAMBLA, and I can confirm that we have raised the cash to reward any individual who manages to accomplish this task. Thank you," read the message, a transcript of which was obtained by The NY Post.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03092009/news/columnists/perv_group_puts_10g_hit_on_andy_158663.htm

According to NY Post reporter, Fred U. Dicker, “The threat, described by a source as "unprecedented" because it is believed to come from an organization, prompted a sweeping and ongoing criminal probe by the Attorney General's Office and at least one other law-enforcement organization, and subpoenas were issued, sources said.”

He went on to report, “The message, which investigators have linked to an imprisoned pervert with strong NAMBLA ties - and whom Cuomo's office is seeking to keep behind bars under a "civil commitment" law - was spotted by a citizen who brought it to the attention of Verizon, his Internet service provider. Law-enforcement sources declined to reveal the imprisoned man's identity.”

Turns out that NAMBLA and their supporters are angry at Andy Cuomo over his making the various Internet service providers, like Verizon, take responsibility for policing child pornography, supports the ubiquitous online “pedophile stings” and for being a strong advocate of keeping NAMBLA types behind bars through civil commitment – the practice of keeping especially dangerous felons behind bars beyond their allotted sentences.

According to reports Verizon’s security officers removed the posting quickly and then notified law enforcement, including Cuomo's office, sources said.

Through today, Andrew Cuomo's office has kept at least 75 convicted sexual predators, including several linked to NAMBLA, in state prison under a tough, new civil-commitment law approved in 2007.

According to Fred Dicker’s report, “Criminal investigators, working with Verizon, tracked the message to a news group maintained by a woman living in a private home in The Bronx.

“The woman denied any knowledge of the message, allowed investigators to examine her personal computer, and was eventually told she was not a suspect, sources said.
"She was clearly not involved," one source said.”

The case against the NAMBLA perv is ongoing and I hope for a fast and draconian resolution for the perverted would-be assassin.

For being an enemy of NAMBLA, I have to acknowledge a renewed respect and appreciation for Andy Cuomo, even if I DO often disagree with him on other matters.

The Folly of Class-Envy...

"Only 2% of households earn over $250,000 a year - so yes they are rare. They're also the ones who have benefited from the phony "investor class" economy that ballooned at the expense of workers whose wages have barely doubled in 30 years." (Liberal poster)

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WoW! That statement is entirely and completely untrue.
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FACT: investors don't earn "income" from their investments, they earn "Capital Gains" which are taxed at a much lower, flat rate, which is necessary to stimulate further investment (risk of capital), as THAT’S what investment is, putting already accrued (worked for or inherited) Capital at risk. The lower Capital Gains rate recognizes that a leveraged, invested dollar is worth many, MANY times what a dollar exchanged for labor is.

Moreover, the income disparity mentioned, is virtually ENTIRELY the result of differing costs of living throughout the country.

The overwhelming bulk  (well over 90% of those earning over $250,000/year) of the highest income earners tend to live in high cost of living areas, like NYC, San Francisco, the Metro D.C. area, L.A, etc.).

For instance, in NYC $123,000/year is exactly equivalent to $60,000/year in Houston TX. or Atlanta, GA.

The "Investor Class" isn't hit by increasing income taxes, regular working people ARE. In other words, those "suckers" who work for a living in those high cost-of-living areas. For instance, two cops in NYC earn over $250K/year with overtime factored in, so do two Corrections Officers (with OT), so does an Accountant (CPA) and a school teacher.

And so do many of the small business owners, who produce upwards of 80% of the jobs in America!Hey! I'm ALL for giving tax breaks to those living in low cost-of-living States like North Dakota, Arkansas, Wyoming and Montana...those folks work HARD and under some very rough conditions.

I just don't like the idea of further punishing those folks living in far more expensive, not to mention less picturesque places, like New York City, San Francisco and places like that.

D. L. Hughley Says “The Republican National Convention looked like Nazi Germany.”

In response to the uproar over RNC head Michael Steele’s referring to Conservative icon Rush Limbaugh as an “entertainer” whose show can be “incendiary”, CNN’s D. L. Hughley (pictured above) had the above to say about the Republican National Convention.

Without question, Steele’s calling out Limbaugh was a little out-of-line, at least within the broader context of some fringe Democrats trying to demonize Conservatism.

The "racism" charge against the likes of Limbaugh is especially ludicrous - if he were a racial bigot, he wouldn't have Walter E Williams (a black economist) filling in for him on the radio.

Steele, at best, "mis-spoke," and by mis-speaking in that way, bolstered and emboldened the Liberal fringe.And to make matters worse, D. L. Hughley (OK, hardly a scholar) says, “The RNC looked like Nazi Germany” - apparently because there weren't ENOUGH black faces there.

There were blacks, there were Jews and there were many Hispanics (in 2000 and 2004 nearly 60% of Hispanics voted Republican, mostly because they rightly perceived Liberal Democrats to be anti-religious and specifically anti-Christian).

Look D. L. Hughley spewing that kind of malicious crap makes the likes of Bob Grant (who was occasionally over-the-top, ie. On the day Ron Brown was killed in a copter crash over Kosovo, "I'm hearing reports of one survivor, my luck it'll be Ron Brown.") look tame by comparison.

Bob Grant was fired for that above remark.....Hughley's was even more malicious and disgusting and it wasn't said, as Grant's faux pas was, in jest.

SEE Video: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/03/02/dl.michael.chuck.cnn?iref=videosearch

Jim Bishop: The LAST FREEDOM-LOVING AMERICAN???

John Bishop...knows that ALL oppression comes through government...YOUR OWN government!

For those who CLAIM to think that, “Government’s taking from those who’re doing well to help those doing less well,” is a “GOOD thing,” the fact that they wouldn’t themselves do that on their own, voluntarily, proves, that even THEY don’t think it’s all that “good,” or even necessary.