Obama Hypocrisy Meter Off The Charts: "I Did Not Run For Office To Be Helping Out A Bunch Of Fat Cat Bankers On Wall Street"
Obama goes back to his Wall Street-bashing rhetoric in today's 60 Minutes on CBS, after he has already doomed this country to tens of trillions in excess debt to make sure that Wall Street not only thrives, but prospers, courtesy of Bernanke's vertical bond curve and the daily destruction of the dollar. With statements such as "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street" which the WSJ disclosed will be uttered by Obama shortly, only the most clueless viewers will find empathy with Obama's latest message of banker "anti-hope."
And it is not only Obama, but Wall Street protege Larry Summer himself who continues the banker bashing:
White House economic adviser Larry Summers also voiced aggravation with Wall Street on Sunday. "Here is what I think they don't get…It was their irresponsible risk-taking in many cases that brought the economy to collapse," Mr. Summers, who chairs the National Economic Council, said on CNN's "State of the Union."
"And they don't get in some cases that they wouldn't be where they are today, and they certainly would not be paying the bonuses they are paying today, if their government hadn't taken extraordinary actions."
"For them to be complaining about serious regulation directed at making sure this never happens again is wrong. For $300 million to be spent on lobbyists trying to gut serious efforts at financial reform is not how this country should be operating," Mr. Summers said. "For firms that have benefited from taxpayer support to be complaining about the government burdening them is, frankly, a bit rich."
First you bail them out, and now you bash them? It is one thing to dash criticism upon rhetoric but at least be consistent. If people can not read between the lines of this administration's endless hypocrisy, they deserve all they get. And if Matt Taibbi's latest controversial piece in Rolling Stone "Obama's Big Sellout" needed any final validation, you just provided it Mr. President. Because while your Wall Street-centric policies can be explained by your lack of financial comprehension and private-sector experience (thereby justifying your desire to be "advised" by those who are an integral part of the banker syndicate), your complete disdain for the average American's intellectual level exemplified by your most recent, upcoming 7 pm TV appearance is what is truly insulting. Maybe you can put Mr. Geithner up there next to you on the TV screen, and he can justify his reasoning for why incremental "fat cat" bonuses are such a bad idea. Come to think of it, why not make it into a round table, and include Larry Summer and Robert Rubin: we are confident they will have no problem distancing themselves from the very bankers they talk to 10 hours a day, telling them (and thus you) how to run national policy.
You say "Some people on Wall Street still don't get it"... The problem, Mr. President, is that more and more people on Main Street, do get it. They now realize just whose agenda you have at heart. And said Main Street expects nothing but merely more theatrics during your upcoming meeting with Wall Street "fat cats" tomorrow.
(22 votes)
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on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:09
#162447
"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street"....
(1) With the exception of appointing a bunch of Wall Street guys to positions of power within my administration.
(2) With the exception of collecting your donations to my presidential campaign and seeking more donations to my re-election efforts in 2012.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:56
#162508
Agreed. After all, that's why Goldman Sachs was his second biggest contributor to his election campaign.
you go Obama! I guess the latest Taibbi article hurt his fweeellliinggss.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:46
#162656
+1
No way Obama would be pulling this ridiculous bit of kabuki theater unless he read Taibbi's article calling him a puss and a sellout. Which he is--a couple of months ago he went on the radio to beg the banks to start lending again. Their response was to get the DJIA to drop about 150 points the next day, and he never uttered another word about it until now.
The interesting question is, how many people are going actually be fooled by this little act of his at this point?
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:55
#162672
I hear Obama's new pay czar is going to be Angelo Mozilo.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:11
#162522
(2) Donations to my presidential campaign.
Hey the Real Money kicks in AFTER you leave office... then you can see who they were really working for. (HINT: It isn't the citizens of the USA)
Heres a list from Bill Clintons payoff... if he took the bribe money while in office it would be illegal.
Now do you understand Clintons financial and foreign policy? And yes I know it's legal guys... and Goldman even waited a couple years for things to cool down after Clintons abolition of Glass Steagal and implementation of FSMA.
I'm just sayin' that's all.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2007/clinton-speeches/list/
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 23:26
#162796
And who is Phil Gramm, the author and lead name on the bill you speak of, working for now?
UBS, formerly, Union Bank of Switzerland.
Speaking of hypocracy. . .
Your Clinton bashing is quaint, "fly-over country" mentality.
They're all in on it, Boy. Everyone you get to vote for has been vetted before you even get a chance to vote for them. How do you think any of them get the money they need to run.
Back to the presidency, do you think McCain would have done any of this differently? He was going to put John Thain (he of the $38,000.00 toilet fame) in Treasury.
The "two party" system and those who inhabit it are puppets in a false choice.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 00:19
#162885
Cummon! Surely your count's missing out all the old political hacks that are hunting for a cure for cancer and doing a stint in Medecins Sans Frontieres?!
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 07:42
#163083
"He was going to put John Thain (he of the $38,000.00 toilet fame) in Treasury."
Link please. I saw the "fire Cox > install Cuomo" interview, but didn't see the list of prospective cabinet appointments. TIA
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 13:07
#163379
Hey milbank...
I'm in total and complete agreement with you bro'...
Seriously "They are all in it"... it's what I have been saying all along.
And Clinton is a very special case since he was in charge in Arkansas while his buddy was selling tainted prison blood products and he did nothing to stop it.
Thousands of Americans and Canadians now have HIV and hep thanks to Dollar Bill Clinton.
Hey did anyone ever figure out what Hilary's $99,000 futures payout extravaganza in Chicago (cattle or pork I believe) was all about? Payment from Tyson chicken for reducing water quality standards in Arkansas I think? Correct me if I'm wrong... just askin'...
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 08:38
#163119
And of course they're all at it - who hired Tory Blair after he got booted out over here in sunny England ?
JP Morgan ....
Same sh!t, different smell ...
It's all rigged ...
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 10:47
#163207
$31 million just in speaking engagements.
All those "legal fees" they accrued while in the Whitehouse for Whitwater and Monicagate went away in a hurry.
What is Bush getting for his "motivational" engagements?? I bet a bit more than a Popiel's Pocket Fisherman.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:15
#162535
Well you do have 'Lee Harvey Obama' what did you expect?
The Patsy President!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:20
#162689
"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street"....
In the USSR there used to be a saying that went something like...
"Nothing can be confirmed until it is officially denied."
Now... Denied/Confirmed it has been.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 22:20
#162740
His poll approval numbers are tanking, thus the so-called tough talk, but people aren't buying it at this point... unless he really turns it around, and he's batting 0 from where I sit, 2010 Democratic congressional majority gets seriously whacked, and he loses big in 2012.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 02:02
#162972
And then we get the same shit different party.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 10:22
#163182
Exactly. That is why the Taibbi is a day late and a buck short. He should have been writing this article a year ago, when anyone with a pulse could see that Obama was just George W. Bush v.02. There is no criticism of the two party system. America needs a new party, whether it is Ron Paul or someone else. I don't know when America will understand that the Nation's continuance rests on this.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 15:23
#163570
JET55118, you are dead on. Unfortunately, most Americans have no pulse when it comes to being informed citizens. To some extent, it's the fault of the fawning Main Stream Media, but if you really listened, I think the information was there as well as on internet sites. His sharp turn to the right after securing the nomination was obvious and had to be explained away by the pundits as an "adjustment". I was lukewarm on him and didn't trust him even before that, but after that my 3rd party vote was cinched.
As 3rd party politics is impossible given current US and state constitutions with their lack of proportional representation, the only alternative is massive civil disobedience. Things still aren't bad enough yet, not quite having reached 1930s levels yet. Anybody see "The People Speak" on the History Channel last night? It was direct action that forced Roosevelt to act and save elite brethren.
Incidentally, the avowed Neoconservative http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/communists-speak-howard-zinn.html calls Zinn a Marxist but if you actually read the information in the post, it provides evidence supporting a non-intervent foreign policy. What can these people be thinking?
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 15:25
#163575
JET55118, you are dead on. Unfortunately, most Americans have no pulse when it comes to being informed citizens. To some extent, it's the fault of the fawning Main Stream Media, but if you really listened, I think the information was there as well as on internet sites. His sharp turn to the right after securing the nomination was obvious and had to be explained away by the pundits as an "adjustment". I was lukewarm on him and didn't trust him even before that, but after that my 3rd party vote was cinched.
As 3rd party politics is impossible given current US and state constitutions with their lack of proportional representation, the only alternative is massive civil disobedience. Things still aren't bad enough yet, not quite having reached 1930s levels yet. Anybody see "The People Speak" on the History Channel last night? It was direct action that forced Roosevelt to act and save elite brethren.
Incidentally, the avowed Neoconservative http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/communists-speak-howard-zinn.html calls Zinn a Marxist but if you actually read the information in the post, it provides evidence supporting a non-intervent foreign policy. What can these people be thinking?
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 19:18
#163933
JET55118, spot on. But, 3rd party is not the answer. The first thing on the agenda is to hammer on Obama for his corruption and hypocrisy until we drive him from office. As soon as Geithner was appointed, I started screaming. Nobody wanted to hear it, but it was as plain as the nose on your face what that meant. It meant Obama was a liar. It meant nothing good was going to be done. The worst thing I did in that moment was NOT go long on Goldman and the private prison industry, and short on the U.S. housing market.
At the same time, we have to make campaign finance reform the top priority. If there had been CFR when this crisis hit, everything would have been different. The zombie banks would have been placed in temporary receivership, cleaned up, with losses spread among counterparties, shareholders and senior bond holders, then broken up, and sold. Glass-Steagall would have been brought back. The transparency of banking activity that would have resulted would have blown the lid off the whole scheme and could have been used to write effective regulatory reform legislation, which would prevent this kind of a crisis from ever happening again.
You implement campaign finance reform and EVERYTHING changes. Third party candidates suddenly can compete. Progressives can suddenly compete. Policy, not who you are letting use you in the back room, becomes the driving force behind electoral success.
The most glaring thing this crisis has revealed, the most glaring thing Obama's shocking and immediate hypocrisy about it has revealed, is just how broken our system is. Both parties are so deep in the feces they can't even smell it, it looks like food to them.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:04
#163224
Same big party with left/right media show in high gear. The repub vs. dem show is WWF wrestling. The outcome is pre-determined.
Forecast: More shit including the same old combined with some new.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 10:17
#163176
yep.........I intend NOT to vote in 2010, as my Dem seanators, Webb and Warner, voted for TARP, for confirmation of Bernanke, etc.
I've notified them at each step, how I wanted them to vote.............you know how that went.
All we can do now, is NOT vote in incumbents, that's what I'm doing.
on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 14:51
#164866
I understand your frustration, but you MUST vote for either 3rd party candidates, write-ins or if neither of those is possible, deliberately spoil your ballot.
Failing to vote is interpreted as apathy and a license for the politicians to do whatever they like. When 3rd party ballots get numerous enough, one of the major parties will start adopting their positions and actually supporting them with votes in Congress. If we truly care about the issues and want change, that's what we want.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 23:21
#162807
I would never believe another word out of this heinous President's mouth.
He is a consummate, professional liar.
He is owned, bought and sold by the
Wall street gang.
He is the most utterly despicable head of office that we have today.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 04:46
#163028
I quote Hans-Hermann Hoppe:
“A state, in accordance with generally accepted terminology, is defined as a compulsory territorial monopolist of law and order (an ultimate decision maker). “
(“On the impossibility of Limited Government and the Prospects for a Second American Revolution”
http://mises.org/story/2874)
In those rare moments in history where a group of people have won their freedom and attempted to preserve their freedom for future times and generations they have resorted to various means to try to preserve it, as history records: monarchy, democracy, oligarchy, and so on up to the 18th century when a minority of Americans tried using a republic with strictly limited powers as granted in a constitution. Any such endeavor that grants a territorial monopoly of law and order must ultimately fail. (Failure in the sense that it must sooner or later cease to be efficacious in preserving life, liberty and property of the people in general and become a tool of plunder by the few against the many).
To be brief: the characteristics inherent in a monopoly of this sort ultimately create the conditions for that failure. The natural laws that govern human action will always lead to this failure, given the starting condition of monopoly that meets the above definition of a State. Its being as such a monopoly, over time, will naturally attract the minority of individuals who consider taking from others through force or fraud a preferred survival strategy. The early stages of their aggressions take on various forms of deception that have become more sophisticated though history, leading of late to central banks, fiat currency, grants of economic and business privileges and so on. In earlier ages religion was often used but that trick is wearing a little thin by now. Eventually as the non-parasitic class becomes aware of the nature of the deceptions and how it has been enslaved, (and eventually it always will happen given the human power of reason, learning and communication: hence the state's perpetual war against reason, learning, and communication), the system enters into its final stage that America is quickly approaching: overt despotism, and open aggression, being unable to exploit by deception any longer.
Many American Colonists reasoned that they needed some kind of minimalist state in order to survive in a world populated by other aggressive states, not at that time in history being aware of how a strictly voluntary system of exchanges amongst individuals and groups could arise and long endure to solve the primary needs of individual and group security and justice. As is always the case, along side such individuals were those who viewed aggression and deception as a preferred way of life and saw the forming of a state as their opportunity. The dynamic of these two forces, the subsequent struggles that ensued, in the formation of and subverting of the United States is a fascinating study, or as is often said: “ the rest is history”.
For those who want to understand how to form a viable, strictly voluntary contractual society may I suggest they study Ludwig Von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Hans-Hermann Hoppe as a good starting point.
We are at a very exciting moment in human civilization. The State and its thus empowered despotism has never been so vulnerable in known human history. The understanding of how to end the “State” and what to replace it with is well developed.
To put it simply, for we who wish to be FREE, the foundation has been staring us in the face since the beginning of civilization:
VOLUNTARY EXCHANGE.
To all the States of the world and their allies, let the proclamation sound: All those who initiate aggression or use fraud are declared illegitimate. Your system rests upon that which cannot and ought not to endure. You will no longer be obeyed or served. You who have lived by plunder will plunder us no more. Make restitution and go in peace, or face the consequences of open aggression against your moral and just teachers.
Friends, it is high time that we figuratively fight like “warrior poets” and win our freedom! Let those who stand with me against aggression openly declare to each other -
“I AM FREE!”.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 10:31
#163191
http://www.thetradinggang.com/index.php?topic=1229.0
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:08
#162449
This piece could not be more spot on!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:09
#162452
Well, it certainly is with an epic sense of relief that I read these "trial balloon" statements. So nice to know that the President was looking out for me all along and is going to protect me from those dirty bankers who completely run financial policy in his administration.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:09
#162453
Obama sends troops into his eternal war and gets a peace prize for it. Obama has been a hypocrite from day one. This is no surprise. He is just showing his true colors now that the election is over. Good luck America, your going to need it!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:51
#162586
Obama is not a hypocrite, Americans were (and continue to be) incredibly stoopid to cling desperately to catchy slogans and hype in electing someone who never had a job before he became prezident; Jim Rogers publicly supported Ron Paul and he should have been given the chance at the job, after 30 years in public office. And the old men in Oslo continue to show their senility, Obama did not really try to win that. In a world full of fools, the outcome would favour the crooks. Americans deserve what they get and should just shut up and let themselves be screwed.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:12
#163240
stoopid??? prezident?????
"Americans deserve what they get and should just shut up and let themselves be screwed." And where do you live asshole?
Keep your eyes open. Things will change.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:34
#162705
"He is just showing his true colors..."
Yeah. White...
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 13:50
#163449
Evil has no skin color.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:18
#162457
Yeah, make Timmy do it. I like it when he gets mad.
That Nobel Prize is looking more like a finger in the dike - they're just giving them awaaaaaay! People get so hot and bothered when frightening parallels are drawn using history.
http://nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/nomination.php?action=show&showid...
The only reason he didn't get it was because he couldn't be content with Poland. He had to invade Pakistan - er, France, too.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 22:31
#162751
You know, you nominate and award ONE Nobel Prize to a megalomaniac hell bent on global domination and the eradication of the Jewish people and they never let you forget about it.......If he/they would have won the war, you wouldn't be thinking of it this way i can tell you that!
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 00:54
#162926
Exactly. It's a good thing us flag-waving 'Mericans have a stong megolomaniac detector. If we can't beat 'em, we'll innovate! We're 'Mericans!
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 03:03
#163004
Wait, not the exactly anymore. I've been drinking too much.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:15
#162458
I've heard this before, somewhere...
"See, I never just did things just to do them. I mean come on, what am I going to do just jump up and grind my feet into somebody's couch? I got a little more sense than that. Yeah, I remember grinding my feet into Eddie's couch."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUb06iLjTKA&feature=related#t=1m18s
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:33
#162644
Buy another one, you rich motherfuckers!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:17
#162461
Larry Summers giving lectures on risk is rich.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/11/29/harvard_ignored_warnings_about_investments/
It happened at least once a year, every year. In a roomful of a dozen Harvard University financial officials, Jack Meyer, the hugely successful head of Harvard’s endowment, and Lawrence Summers, then the school’s president, would face off in a heated debate. The topic: cash and how the university was managing - or mismanaging - its basic operating funds.
Through the first half of this decade, Meyer repeatedly warned Summers and other Harvard officials that the school was being too aggressive with billions of dollars in cash, according to people present for the discussions, investing almost all of it with the endowment’s risky mix of stocks, bonds, hedge funds, and private equity. Meyer’s successor, Mohamed El-Erian, would later sound the same warnings to Summers, and to Harvard financial staff and board members.
“Mohamed was having a heart attack,’’ said one former financial executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of angering Harvard and Summers. He considered the cash investment a “doubling up’’ of the university’s investment risk.
But the warnings fell on deaf ears, under Summers’s regime and beyond. And when the market crashed in the fall of 2008, Harvard would pay dearly, as $1.8 billion in cash simply vanished. Indeed, it is still paying, in the form of tighter budgets, deferred expansion plans, and big interest payments on bonds issued to cover the losses.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:39
#162486
Yep, Larry Summers....the smartest guy in the room.
Fade to Brooksley Born......
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:50
#162497
The Oligarchs in Russia adore him however.
The Russian people who had everything of value after the collapse pretty much stolen by the Oligarchs who were assisted by Mr. Lawrence Summers... not so much I'm afraid.
Larry is a Squid amongst Squids.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:10
#162529
Are you for real? The Russian people didnt have anything to begin with. The crap that was "privatized" was already stolen, following Gorbachev's reforms in the 80s. All that Summers did was try to instill some ownership rights in those properties and before Comrade Putin erased the concept, many of the corporations were actually functioning as well as their Western counterparts.
Fastforward to now, thanks to angry populists like you, and we have Putin's Russia. Which weirdly looks a lot like America. Regulator Capture + life support for national champions.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:00
#162588
Crap like oil, natural gas, nickel, aluminum, diamonds... yup real crap alright...
I believe you may wish to revisit your history my friend... Summers was lead man with the IMF on this dealio...
http://iskran.iip.net/review/september/la1.html
Heres a lovely little passage for those too lazy to check it out... like you maybe?
The Harvard Institute, together with the Chubais "dream team," as Summers called it, presided over Russia's economic "reforms," many of them U.S.-funded, including privatization. But the reforms were more about wealth confiscation than wealth creation. The first stage of privatization, which had substantial input from U.S.-paid Harvard advisers, fostered the concentration of property in a few Russian hands and opened the door to widespread corruption.
Sound familiar? Perhaps a little too familiar?
And it's you who sounds angry by the way... just sayin'
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:23
#162636
You have quite a wonderful mind you know.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:51
#162662
Thanks Hephasteus... there are some lucid moments when the drugs wear off... generally I calls 'em as I sees 'em.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:26
#163248
"the concentration of property in a few Russian hands" Many of whom were high ranking X-KGB
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 13:25
#163401
Not the Major players though Ripper...
Go here to Wiki and check out the background Bio's of the big tunas my friend... they do have Larry in common sometimes...
The most influential and exposed oligarchs from the Yeltsin era are Boris Berezovsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Mikhail Fridman, Vladimir Gusinsky, Vitaly Malkin or Vladimir Potanin [4].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_oligarch#Post_Soviet_Russian_Oligarchs
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:07
#162613
That was beautiful dh. Well done!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 22:56
#162771
Bullseye
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:50
#162583
blast from the past from fat larry & the gang:
Speculative Dynamics and the Role of Feedback Traders
http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/3243.html
if ZH can get its hands on a copy of this, it would be probably see its last 9 months of posts as ex post facto proof of the hypothesis containted in this paper.
go long m&m's
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:20
#162464
Obama needs to back actions with words. So far his actions are heinous. Here are just a few things to add a few brownie points with the American people:
1. Replace Tim Geither with someone who really gives a damn.
2. Ditto with Larry Summers.
3. Replace Ben Bernanke with Paul Volker at the Federal Reserve. Push for full transparency by supporting Audit the Fed.
4. Replace Mary Shapiro at the SEC. Eliot Spitzer (while morally off the mark) would be a better choice.
Can't do any of those? Well, your presidency is going to be a one term failure. Enjoy.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:04
#162521
Im hoping he gets reelected, and brings the whole thing down. Better chance for a Schiff presidency in 2016....
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:10
#162523
Unfortunately Volcker is in his 80's, and probably would not take the job.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:22
#162631
I'd take one year of Paul Volker... if it set us on the right path.
Any more than a year of Ben Bernanke's experimentation on neo-classical Keynesianism is more than enough in my view. He really needs to go before the damage can't be reversed.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:13
#162680
I'm with you
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 00:56
#162928
Hate to say it, but both you guyses are a pipe-dreamin'. How about no Fed Res, since we are still 'free enough' to have an opinion about it?
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 07:40
#163081
I'm currently reading Ron Paul's book "End the Fed". Only part way through but he's already made the case IMO.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:36
#163261
Volker is another Trilateralist/Bilderberger.
This group needs to be tried tribunal style like Nuremberg.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:28
#162474
So, monday will be up 300 pts?
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:18
#162543
Led by the financial stocks.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:31
#162477
Bang On Post.
I wonder how many more tens of trillions are they willing to toss into the pit (pun intended), to puta gag order on Doctor Copper-----
http://oahutrading.blogspot.com/2009/12/eur-and-doctor-copper.html
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:44
#162478
I sadly have to agree. More than Afganistan/Iraq, repeal of DADT, healthcare reform non-support, this has to be the issue on which Obama has succumbed.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:34
#162479
Barack:
I'm going to dispense with the Mr. President formalities and address you as one person to another.
Honestly, you are either completely clueless when it comes to economics and finance or you are completely full of shit.
You talked about change yet hired the same phucks who got us into this mess in the first place...what the phuck Barack?
You talked about transparency...what a joke. How about auditing the Fed? What about the Bloomberg FOIA request that your solicitor general is tying up forever at the behest of a man who is a clear and present danger to the U.S.A., to wit, Ben Bernanke? What about today's articles about the results of the FOIA to the FDIC in regards the WaMu seizure and your buddy Jamie Dimon? Did you see the redactions? Phucking hilarious...
you have not changed anything in the banking system and are allowing the same group to openly steal the wealth from this country.
Barack: you are bitching today about the bankers in regards the House recently passed Financial Reform legislation. You have gotta be kidding me...YOU are the President of the United States for pete's sake. Draft your own bill and submit it to the Congress or don't you have the balls to call the banker's bluff? or is it their money? or is it the fact that they have tried to scare you shitless with their mantra that the world will end if you phuck with the TBTF banks? Use the Presidential bully pulpit to get it done, not spew out some populist, hypocritical bullshit because your internal polls show that even your base is deserting you based on your horrific subservience to the wall street gang. Even your worshippers at Huffington Post are crucifying you daily for being such a suck up to the banking crowd.
Sorry Barack, but I'm done with the respectful "Mr. President" crap because it is time to call out your bullshit about "change" and "transparency". I'm a 50+ yr old registered Republican who voted for you and have spent my career in the financial services industry: what a phucking moron I am for believing your crap.
Time to man up Barack and like Andrew Jackson, throw these phucking vipers out.
How about you have some people from Zero Hedge and similar ilk come down to the Oval Office and tell you the other side of the story.
just send the invite to tips at zerohedge dot com. feel free to have the smartest guy in the room there so you can see some other financial folks rip him a new one.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:40
#162487
It's pointless Deadhead... he has become a "Viper" already.
Taibbi's latest article linked above is an order of magnetude more important than the Goldman/Vampire Squid one.
Unless Americans get smart very soon (and even then I have doubts) this is going to end very badly I'm afraid.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:57
#162505
once Obama (you too Rahm, you snake) comes to the realization that he has lost his base because of the banking matter (they are near the tipping point but caught up in health care reform), he will respond to them and will be forced to expose the banks and the Fed for what they are or lose his effectiveness and become an early lame duck. The parallel between him and Tiger Woods is drawing close, i.e. from being on a pedestal admired by most to a precipitous downfall (i note that Obama's results in national polls show him declining in approval faster than any other Prez at this juncture in his term).
Plus, maybe Obama will listen to the other side of the coin and realize that the Bernanke, Summers, Geithner, Dimon, Blankfein (yes, you to Rubin, hanging out quietly behind the scenes) is simply wrong and not in the best interests of the U.S.A.
Americans are starting to get it, I think (hope!). One thing about Americans is that if you bullshit and lie to them just a little too much, they will then turn vicious. I believe Americans have begun to recognize that they are being bullshitted as far as the improving economy, jobs picture, financial system overhaul. It's become to obvious of a "push" and CONfidence game....Obama's folks are playing a 3 card monte and the game is being exposed.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:49
#162663
the people, will just not vote for his reelection, impeachment, I doubt it. the bankers will have him assasinated, if he betrays them, and he knows it. rahm is drooling at the prospect, of exploiting that crisis. marshal law, military action, diversion of current financial crisis. yes, there is a way to kick the can again.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:34
#162704
Bingo, delacroix - see my post below.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 23:34
#162820
I'm disturbed by his actions and non-actions, but I'm holding on to the little bit of hope that he has kept the enemies close for a reason.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 09:36
#163155
Hey Deadhead, since Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and the Dead worked so hard to get Obama elected (how many benefit concerts did they give, anyway), do you feel any compulsion to change your Avitar? After all, Obama is a trained liar from the most preeminent liar training school on the planet (Harvard law school). Any Deadhead not completely blown out on drugs should have been able to see that this was exactly what we were going to get....
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:43
#163278
They are musicians not politicians. You should look a bit higher up the chain to start your blame game.
You are a Kiss fan I'll bet.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:32
#163257
Americans are suckers for rhetoric. Obama (or Bush II) would have never been elected if they weren't.
Anyone who was paying attention at all would have known Obama's words were completely divorced from his deeds during the early primaries. But people prefer nice, soaring words to actual deeds. They excuse, justify, ignore, and distort the actual deeds (and any signals in the words that don't conform to their mental picture) in order to reinforce their good feelings about the candidate/office holder. It works in reverse, too. People who don't like a candidate/office holder tend to demonize her/him and ignore anything good the person does. That's why it's so easy for candidates and the media to manipulate the US population into believing any of the jokers the two-party system nominates. It's good cop/bad cop. And we seem to fall for it again and again. I have no faith whatsoever that we won't continue to do so.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:00
#162515
Well said deadhead.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:17
#162538
+1MM, so with your sentiments. We were conned. Again.
War = peace, down = up, lies = truth, Obama= change.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:20
#162547
Sorry Ned, I wasn't conned. Until we get rid of whats effectively a "one party system" of 2 parties, its the same shit different guy.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:46
#163280
Agreed. When you control both parties there is no chance for loss of power. 2 parties, divide and conquer. The oldest crowd control technique known to civilization. The same power group controls big media. Fair and unbiased reporting.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 22:37
#162758
"We were conned. Again."
Speaking for yourself, Ned.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 00:58
#162929
I was conned until Geithner and Gates were kept on board.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:31
#162564
Deadhead,
Here's another way to say it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KaMeqD6T0s
(F bombs galore)
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:52
#162585
Obama is an empty suit. I mean really who thinks he got where he is at purely on merit? Or that be believes anything he says?
I'm sorry I was busy looking at Soros standing behind him pulling some strings, and of course GS. If you want to try to influence Obama's decisions then you would be better served directing your correspondence to Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, and George Soros. Funny how he continues George Bush's policies and only a change in rhetoric, even though he effectively ran against George Bush. Makes you wonder who is really running the show...
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:45
#162710
Soros got a nice quid pro quo with Indymac
Booyah!
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 06:19
#163048
i'm willing to bet a silver dollar that ol' georgie got played by the jazz singer routine as much as ol' man volker did. sorry these current policies do not reek of soros.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 07:58
#163089
Ah, but can you think three steps ahead like Soros? Do you not think he has enough cash to "invest" in an elaborate headfake? The ultimate destroyer who had an epiphany? I don't buy it, never have.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:32
#162698
deadhead,
Would love to do as you advise; however, I am a student of history (as well as ex-community organizer/senator/president). As such, I can spell LINCOLN, GARFIELD and KENNEDY. By the way, how "Old Hickory" ever stuck around to die of natural causes is beyond me....
As I said, I would love to help out, but do you see my predicament?
Your less than faithful public servant,
Barack
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 08:03
#163093
+1M - the "official" motives may widely vary, but crossing The Bankers is the common theme. Find a suitable stooge with a grudge, and make it happen.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:52
#163284
Student of history: they tried to get Jackson but were unsuccessful.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:57
#162723
oh HELL YES on all points, DH.
kudus on a fine, spot-the-F-on post, sir!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 23:34
#162817
I gotta say, deadhead, that I really like your stuff - but in this case you are completely overlooking the fact that 'tennis-match' (teleprompter) O doesn't care. He reads speeches FED to him. That's all. What, you think this guy was really about change - you want a debate? Ask Charlie Sheen how that's working out for him. O is probably a great guy to have at a beer summit because I don't believe that escalating the warz, wire-tapping US citizens without a warrant, suspending habeus corpus, and keeping (increasing?) FEDerally-controlled troops on the streets are his ideas. We got the lesser of two evils we wanted and the Bush All-Star squad too. Do ya know what O decided to do for his first exectutive decision? It'll make you laugh:
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/2009-obama.html
'Nope' - not, 'hope'. This freight-train of tyranny isn't going to be stopped by well-worded, thoughtful letters and phone calls to senators. You're not politically active by contacting your representatives and voting - you're just consenting. The tired argument that those that don't vote don't get to soapbox is offensive - the voters keep the charade going. It's a charade!
We have a corrupt community organizer-celebrity as Commander-in-Chief! What a comedy! And what a shame. The liberty system is busted. The longer it takes for 'free' Americans to realize it the worse it is going to get. That's as good as gold - history all over again - we already know the outcome.
Throw, not vote, the bums (squids) out. Our representational form of government is now a farce. Face the music. Being angry at O is like being angry at Tiger Woods.
Otherwise a great post!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:27
#162480
Also strongly suggest to all to read Matt Taibbi's "Obama's Big Sellout" as linked above.
The message that I get from Obama's "criticisms" is that 'Bankstermania' will continue unabated for as long as possible up to the moment of systemic collapse.
The planned changes in the laws to allow the Executive branch and Fed to continue future bailouts in secret without congressional oversight pretty much gaurantees that result. With congress pretty much bought off anyway it almost seems redundant at this point... that's how seriously they take their ... errr... your money.
It will probably occur sooner than most think... Obama knows this and is ready to position himself as a populist once again to "attack" the same banksters he is now surrounded by and indeed a part of. Kind of like pre-empting a class action against your own defective products by initiating the class action suit yourself and settling with yourself in/out of court for peanuts I guess.
He has been absorbed by Squidco... they are one.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:35
#162482
Next week Obama comes out and slams the law-breaking telecomms companies for helping BushCo indiscriminately spy on the American people...
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 01:02
#162934
Haha! Nice. That would be amazing. Some dumb**** junked you.
O owns all of this now. O-change = status quo.
Truer words rarely spoken in so few letters.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:40
#162488
I voted for McCain only for one reason: What you see is what you get.
Obama? Now there's a set of moving goal posts.
"Pull out of Iraq", but add more in Afghanistan????
"Vote for change", but appoint Geithner et al to positions of power.
"Change you can believe in." Well, the change I've seen I never would have believed, but now I am forced to by seening the mess you've failed to stop. Yes, Bush policies kept the thing going, but it is now up to you to STOP the nonsense.
So far you haven't though. I'm extremely disappointed in you.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:50
#162498
I'm curious what makes people think McCain would have been better? If his people thought Sara Palin was a viable VP, who would be a viable Sec Treasury?
Sorry but 08 was an election between two crap choices but unlike 2000 the lesser of the crap choices won.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:53
#162503
I voted for McCain only for one reason: What you see is what you get.
What I saw in McCain was a guy named Phil Gramm. That scared me more than anything, but in retrospect it couldn't be any worse. At the end of the day it probably didn't matter, the puppetmasters rule.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:13
#162533
I voted for Ron Paul. Yea I had to write his name in, and the vote prolly was never even counted but I didnt settle for the lesser of two evils. I voted for the right guy. No regrets.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:37
#162540
To vote is to consent to be governed. Do not do that anymore. This game doesn't stop until people realize we are past the point of no return. Everyone, please Shrug.
Unless you're one of these guys. Cushy jobs report!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-12-10-federal-pay-salaries_...
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:45
#162576
I'm with you WaterWings since 2002 on voting and incrementally greater shrugging.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:47
#162578
For a second I thought you said "hug".
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:11
#162619
lol
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 01:03
#162936
Hug, with an 'sh**' in front.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 22:56
#162770
I don't agree. I will vote, and I will vote for Bugs Bunny. Not voting sends no message and moves nothing. Making it clear that we are out here, we are willing and able to understand the levers of democracy, and we find the current system a complete travesty is at least the beginnings of a movement for real change. The two-party system needs to die. It has grown senile, corrupt, and dangerous.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 01:08
#162942
Two-party system! Good one! I need a Daffy Duck-hysterics laugh track right now. Democracy! Haha. More comedy! Keep it up! Once you've decided what's really going on in this country I'd love it if you signed up with a name and pic so we know it's 'happy hour' every time you post.
Senile! 1 !! !
Corrupt!
Dangerous.! !1
I can't even see my keyboard anymore because my eyes are so full of happy tears! Come back! Come back!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:46
#162491
Yes, we have seen this tape:
"I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:47
#162495
This is disgusting. Repeat after me:
"Obama's war on the middle class"
"Wall Street owns the current administration and congress."
Pass this on to everyone you know and repeat it over and over again until it sinks in for people.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:51
#162501
That quote from Obama made me throw up in my mouth.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 18:57
#162510
I stopped listening to Bush speak very early in his presidency because I used to get an urge to vomit.
Obama makes me feel like vomiting and putting my fist through the television at the same time. He is sooooo one term............
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:05
#162524
soooo one term...... as in just like Bush
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:13
#162532
Americans who voted for him have been betrayed and they won't forget.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:18
#162545
To the extent that they are paying attention, yes, but that is only 0.0001% of us.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 22:46
#162761
Exactly, Ned...EXACTLY.
Granted, that number IS growing...but VERY slowly...maybe up to 0.0002% by now.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:28
#162550
Many still lob conversational nuclear bombs ('racist', 'tea-bagger') at you for direct criticism at this point - and they are the least 'aware'. And most of the rest, using this comment on the WSJ story, demonstrate how little many WSJ readers actually know about their government:
For example, the founding fathers never intended for the executive branch to run the country - in fact, that would be one of the signs of the need to 'reset'.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:47
#162659
They never intended for black people to have a full franchise either, but we got over that as well.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 01:25
#162949
Actually I invite you to re-read the Constitution and decide for yourself whether or not the founding fathers discriminated against any other type of human being. Most subsequent legislature is redundant, like the 13th Amendment. In fact, after the 10th Amendment, there is little value in any other Amendment. It has been largely useless, and even repealed - thank you, Mr. Jack Daniel! - don't tell me what I can and cannot put into my organism - now that's freedom!
The problem is that the clarity of the imperfect Constitution has been selectively ignored - even right after it was ratified. But this is easy to predict - the upper classes rarely experience true 'due process'. If you want to bring up race issues, you might as well bring up gender, nativity, and real estate. Be creative - don't be one-sided.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:43
#162709
Let's embrace reality - the truth is that less than 25 individuals/entities decide who the US president will be every four years. Sometimes when necessary we can even have great theatre (see Supreme Court decision in Bush/Gore election). It's been that way for quite a while and will only end with a Beatles song from the White Album (disc 2, track 8).......
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 23:56
#162852
my prediction - gets second term easily
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:01
#162512
It's called "I ambeing M ind F ucked" (oToolish ones).
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:29
#162637
LOL These are not the crooks you are looking for.....
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:01
#162516
Makes "W" look like a brain surgeon.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:18
#162520
Larry Summers from earlier today on how Obama will persuade the bankers
video
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=9324177
text
http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=9323511
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:22
#162549
Obama: pretty please with sugar on top?
Bankers: Fuck you!!
Obama: just kiddin'....
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:27
#162554
With respect, I will amend the conversation:
Obama: Pretty please?
Bankers: Fuck you.
Obama: Rahm, what do you say?
Rahm: Fuck you Barry....do what they say
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:26
#162552
Summers is doing an Alexander Haig by declaring the recession over and conveniently ignoring the NBER. Larry claims that "everybody" now believes the recession is over.
Everybody? This is the smartest guy in the room?
What about the stimulus keeping unemployment at 8% or less? Now Larry claims that forecasters universally agree that employment will pick up in the spring; it is very clear what Summers is suggesting and he is simply playing the con game. what the phuck is with this guy?
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:36
#162569
and the uber left Ms HuffPo on why she doesn't like Summers (but she clearly is a big supporter of President Obama)
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=9324177
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:56
#162596
consider that ms. huff is playing a very astute game of political poker...and she & her buddy mr. O may be the last people at the table.
"i'm not a liberal, i just play one on the internets"
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:09
#162618
I think you have nailed it - she is one shrewd and calculating individual - serving Kool-Aid to her readers
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 22:54
#162769
I don't watch or listen to Glenn Beck, but recently I saw an MSNBC interview with Arianna Huffington where she basically said that what Glenn Beck does is shout fire in a crowded theater 'and we make exceptions for free speech for that'. She basically saying Glenn Beck should not be allowed to exercise his free speech.
When I watched her say that, I wanted to see someone put out her teeth.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 23:12
#162794
and she shouts out stay calm, don't try to leave the burning bldg, the authorities will put the fire out. popcorn anyone
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 12:17
#163317
It's kabuki. It gets both the "left" and the "right" riled up and distracted from what's really going on.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:34
#162566
In all seriousness - why during this video does Summers eyes keep looking to his left?? Any body language experts have an opinion?
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:42
#162570
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/signs-of-lying-eye...
Signs of Lying Eyes # 2: Eyes Move Up and to the Left
http://www.blifaloo.com/info/lies_eyes.php
http://www.nlpu.com/Articles/artic14.htm
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:48
#162581
You saw that too...how about shaking his head -no- when saying what Obama is going to do. He looked and sounded like a hostile witness
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:06
#162525
Obama...Epic Truth Fail.I came here after seeing the story in the MSM....I was hoping to commiserate with The Enlightened.As usual, Zero Hedge did not disappoint.
Thank you Tyler et al.God, I love this site.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:11
#162530
ZH should start taking out full page ads in the WSJ and NYT to refute officials whenever they lie in public like this. Count me in to donate for such a cause.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:12
#162531
The president’s remarks about “fat cat bankers on Wall Street” so inflamed me that I was moved to write one of my strongest lines of invective, but, Tyler, after reading your comments, I’ve gotta say,“Thanks!” and I guess I’ll pass.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:29
#162559
write it anyways JR....you have a gift for stringing words together.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:03
#162608
Thanks, deadhead, and thanks for your excellent comments up above. I’m just content to watch from the deck as Tyler turns his sails into the wind and delivers the broadside.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:15
#162536
I no longer refer to Obama as Mr President. He no longer warrants my respect. I judged him by his actions and now only refer to him as Mr Obama.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:01
#162674
at this point, I'd drop the mister too.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 23:09
#162790
... or Uncle Tombama.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:18
#162542
Can someone please tell me when this whole scam is going to blowup and the whole economic system come crumbling down? Im tired of listening to all this crap. Put this dying economy out of its misery, Let all the Banks go bust and lets call it a day! I want to see Banker pain, agony and destruction.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:21
#162548
We don't elect problem solvers, we elect politicians. And politicians PANDER! Mr. President you have some serious problems address them.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:27
#162555
Obama's words are absolutely hollow. Does anyone believe what he says anymore? Check out this article which is a perfect example of Obama's hypocrisy... the Biz Journal requested emails from the FDIC and OTS and got nothing back except some blacked out emails. So much for government openness and transparency:
http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2009/12/the_fight_for_wamu_documents.html
"On Wednesday, an OTS official told the Business Journal in an email: “After careful review, I have determined that your request, as it pertains to the above-referenced documents, is denied in full.”
The denial came a day after the Obama Administration announced an open-government directive to its agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which oversees the OTS.
The White House press release said: “Today’s announcement will help to make government more open, transparent, and accountable to bridge the gap between the American people and their government."
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:28
#162557
What is incredibly funny is the Dems latest move towards a Transaction Tax....which taxes the Banks .....
This could not be further from the truth....
What it actually does is to grant the total market making function to the big banks .....which grants the big banks a wider spreads that are protected from all other competition.....
The banks now own the govt. guaranteed wider spreads and the banks are free to do as they please with.....
A guaranteed multi billion $ govt. protected revenue stream constructed solely for the large banks.....
RETAIL pays it all.....Gratus Brown, Pelosi, Harkin, and DeFazio.....Which in turn tell the public RETAIL it is a way to make the banks pay ..... when it does just the opposite ......
Anybody feel the insanity yet ?????
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:30
#162562
Tarp extended to 10/10.... = new all time highs in the SPX
the bid will not go away folks
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:30
#162563
It certainly begs the question, "Then exactly why did you run for President Mr. Obama"?
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:36
#162568
O is for orifice. I'm sure the bankers already know which one of Obama's is turned up for their pleasure.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:41
#162573
Who should the public be mad at? The people who gave the bankers their money! Find out if your congressman or senator voted for TARP...
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll681.xml
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm...
Don't let the politicians distract you, and don't vote for them if they voted for TARP! Write them and tell them why you won't...
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:47
#162577
We're doomed.
I just hope cable TV is still working when the vicious and angry mob brimming with small arms and Molotovs burns Manhatten Island and Washington DC to the ground.
That will be a sight.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:00
#162601
That's what they're empowering. One of the tenets of (my) Fight Club is: don't pick a fight with someone/thing you haven't chance against.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:52
#162589
This is after the taxpayer has been 'tarped & feathered'!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:52
#162590
ImHo sir, there if there is one absolute in this country it's that all politicians lie. Long live the United Banks of America. Can we move our Fight Club to another country soon? I find this one no longer suits me.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:54
#162593
barry o sold his soul to the non-christians --- the clintonistas and rubinistas --- they will drop him like a used trojan --- wake up people --- the only land mass to save the sorry ones is usa turf --- they do not want a repeat --- ....................
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:57
#162597
A lot of us, for a lot of different reasons, believed in Obama.
He fooled us, but good.
Retaining Geithner/Summers/Bernanke; enabling Goldman Sachs to serve as the fourth branch of government; allowing that fourth branch to trump the other three...
Shame on us and shame on him.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 19:59
#162600
Welcome to a world where everybody's bullshit meter is pegged, and most listener's thresholds are pegged as well.
Welcome to 1984.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:02
#162604
Tiger Woods corporate sponsors found a way to get out of there expensive contracts with him. But they tell us that he just does't fit in with there new plans. What do you believe!!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:03
#162605
Wow.. that was too much obama bashing for my taste.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 03:39
#163019
*chuckle* better get used to it...
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:03
#162609
I wonder how many will blame Obama for declines in the stock market once he takes decisive action against the fatcats similar to the beginning of this year in late february and march when the market was down and he was being blackmailed by the TBTFs, Cramer CNBC et al because he was not accomodative enough to wall street
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:32
#162642
No need to worry about that - he's not taking "decisive" action against anything or anyone. Count on it.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:05
#162610
I loathe Barry O as much as the next guy - but he's merely the latest in a long line of symptoms to our larger problem. To wit, we elect people to "fix things" and then are amazed that the first things to get "fixed" are self-same politicians.
It's O'Rourke's Principle writ-large (not quoting directly, but pretty close): When buying and selling are controlled by legislation the first thing to be bought and sold will be legislators.
When the Federal Government (and you can include the states and locals here too) has the power to toss around billions (trillions???) of Other Peoples' Money and can through the force of law pick the winners and losers in every industry, why should we expect that everything (anything) will be done on the level? It won't, and it's simply naive to suggest otherwise.
Just about the only guy in DC who seems to understand that at all is the Honorable Gentleman from TX-14 and even he is hardly the perfect messenger (he has to play along, after all). We have two parties of government; there hasn't been a true party of anything resembling "limited" or "Constitutional" government in 90-years (probably longer) and I honestly doubt American Idol Nation would really go for anything that even approaches said ideal. And so, the beast will continue to grow, and grow, and grow.
I wish it were otherwise, but short of the whole thing crashing down I just don't see this being reversed - and of course we have to realize that if it does all come crashing down it's entirely possible that, rather than going back in the direction of freedom, Idol Nation will be looking to go exactly the other way with all deliberate speed.
/ Rant Off
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:06
#162612
legendary Walter Scott Bruan, wall street pioneer dead RIP
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:08
#162617
Look, a politician is a politician. None of us would have been elected president.
Rather than attack the guy for inconsistency/hypocrisy, it might be good to congratulate yourselves for moving the needle far enough that this is the line at the center of the road.
As a politician, he doesn't need support from the Left, because they have no choice. It may even help him with the dynamic center to hear the shrill and sharp attacks from this direction.
But ... Are you really saying you knew exactly what to do at the time of TARP or could have marshaled the political backing to do it, or that the perception of the country if it could have been done would have been widespread rejoicing? I understand that Summers and Geithner and the rest of the Treasury-Wall Street Cabal are not going to lead us out of this mess, and I think I was among the first to question Triple T Larry, (Targeted Timely and Temporary) when we needed somebody like Stiglitz or Galbraith.
On the other hand ... Democracy comes from the bottom up, not the top down.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:42
#162652
Well put.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:17
#162627
Well, Barack we're glad to see you're incensed about the injustice
WTF are you gonna do about it?
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:21
#162629
Obama job description: keep the peasantry quiet while we hit the reset button on the banks and set things up for a golden age of financial services.
So keep up appearences! Make sure they see you as a champion of the people! Make 'em feel all giddy when you say "banks could never have done it without your sacrifice!"
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:22
#162630
hypOcrisy you can believe in...
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:23
#162635
Obama wants the banks to keep lending?? TO WHO??!!
Have we learned anything by the Bush "ownership society" fantasy?? I used to work for a big lender, where there were strong "emerging markets initiatives and government-enabled mandates to lend to anyone with a pulse...where the hell did that take this country?? And that brings us to reality right now---
A. No one wants the loans! (Why allow the govt. to keep you tethered to an over-priced and rapidly depreciating asset)??
B. VERY few are financially qualified and stable enough to take on the purchase of a home right now due to falling wages, tanking house prices, and unemployment...
If YOU were a bank Mr. Obama, would you take the risk and loan YOUR money in this kind of a market right now?? (NOOOOOOO--you wouldnt)--not if you were trying to stay solvent.
Propping up these artificial housing prices IS NOT THE ANSWER. The government and the banks need to get the P#$@K out of the way and let the free markets set the price to clear these homes.
Maybe if the majority of Americans arent spending every dime of 2 full time salaries to keep a roof over their heads, they could actually afford to spend money on other things--What a concept.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:27
#162638
Man, I used to look for intelligent comments on this forum. Obama was passed a live grenade at the door, the plutocracy handled that for him and it screwd us. Politicians are here to give you the idea you have freedom of choice...you dont. To think now that the plutocracy is in control and some of you somehow think that Obama has anything to do with it means you are all falling in line to dance to their song. Thats what they want you to think to take the focus off them.
Here, you want a real no frills explanation of whats going on articulated ? Ill say no more because this says it all clearly, and it aint funny!
Read Creature from Jekyll Island again or YouTube it but give up on all the Obama this/that blah blah hot blog air. This isnt a democracy unless you fight. For you whiners that dont know where you are this is supposed to be the Fight Club....Google "Tyler Durden".
One last quote: "In times of great moral duress Its those that don’t protest that end up in the hottest corners of hell."
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 22:47
#162763
"Man, I used to look for intelligent comments on this forum. Obama was passed a live grenade at the door, the plutocracy handled that for him and it screwd us."
I'm getting tired of the excuse-mongering. Obama knew damn good and well what he was getting into when he was elected, seeing that TARP was passed before the election took place. If he didn't want to deal with it, he shouldn't have taken the job. If he's not going to put on the Big Boy Pants and display the kind of strength and leadership to confront the guys who held the global economy hostage last year, his supporters are in NO position to be pleading with everyone to "give him a chance!" The Presidency is for men, not boy-kings who want everyone to adore them.
"To think now that the plutocracy is in control and some of you somehow think that Obama has anything to do with it means you are all falling in line to dance to their song."
Spare us. Obama voted for TARP last year and his economic team is loaded with squid cronies. He IS responsible for it, because he had a hand in it. Accept it.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 01:38
#162964
This is great! Real gold! Hahahackhackha! I'm glad I gave up Comedy Central - I don't know everything there is to know (especially voodoo-Keynes-finance), but you should actually read Jekyll Island - or at least pay attention! I can't use enough '!!!!' in this reply. Fighting in a democracy? Getting fat eating fast food? Having sex in a porno? Hey, tell me what a constitutional republic is for!
Next thing you'll be telling me the executive branch can legislate! Hey, O, write us up some better laws - you're getting away with everything as it is!
I missed the first one! I'm coughing up blood! Somebody stop me!!!
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 07:58
#163088
Obama was passed a live grenade at the door...
Uh, what was Obama's previous job?
In other words, he either knew precisely what he was getting into and went along with it anyway, or he was in a position to know precisely what he was getting into and was too criminally stupid and/or full of himself to notice.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:24
#163243
Tarp was divided into 2 tranches. So was the GM bailout. Bush bent over backwards to try to give Obama a far smoother (and more honorable) handover that the one he received from Clinton. That is why they agreed to split bailout into 2 parts. Later, Obama pressured Bush to implement his part of the bailout before Obama took power. Even though it was clear that this was really a bailout of UAW, Bush did it anyway.
The first thing Obama did upon taking power was to sink the knife into Bush's back (blame the entire Tarp and GM bailout on Bush). Now you claim Obama was handed a grenade. What really happened is Obama stuck the grenade in Bush's coat pocket as he left office. This was no more surprising than the way Obama reneged on all his campaign promises.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:30
#162641
BACK IT UP BARRY...and we aint talking about your money maker..
TAKE ACTION against your biggest campaign donors now. They dont belong on your administration, they belong in JAIL.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:40
#162649
We need to organize.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:41
#162650
I don't think it's hypocrisy. I'm reasonably certain that he didn't run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat Wall Street bankers.
But once he took office, he got some real bad advice about who to appoint as Treasury Secretary and as lead economic advisor. Timmeh and Larreh are the poodles of fat cat Wall Street bankers and have done nothing to dispel that image.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 09:16
#163143
Yeah, but this is what doesn't make sense...Any 3rd grader could do 20 minutes worth of reasearch and KNOW that the FED has not only done NOTHING to protect us, but was complicit in the biggest daylight robbery this country has ever seen.
Obama is a very smart man. How could he now state he wants to give MORE power to the FED, instead of fully auditing this obviously criminal institution??
When you read between the lines, it is truly very scary.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:42
#163274
Once he took office? Were you paying attention AT ALL during the primaries and the general election?
Rahm was a close advisor during his whole run for the presidency. The Squid was one of his largest contributors. He was wishy-washy about doing anything with teeth in the Illinois legislature and in the Senate. He surrounded himself with advisors who would recommend people exactly like Geithner and Summers. But people ignored all that because they wanted to believe his rhetoric.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:45
#162654
Look, a politician is a politician. None of us would have been elected president. Rather than attack the guy for inconsistency/hypocrisy, it might be good to congratulate yourselves for moving the needle far enough that this is the line at the center of the road. As a politician, he doesn't need support from the Left, because they have no choice. It may even help him with the dynamic center to hear the shrill and sharp attacks from this direction.
But ... Are you really saying you knew exactly what to do at the time of TARP or could have marshaled the political backing to do it, or that the perception of the country if it could have been done would have been widespread rejoicing?
I understand that Summers and Geithner and the rest of the Treasury-Wall Street cabal are not going to lead us out of this mess, and I think I was among the first to question Triple T Larry, (Targeted Timely and Temporary) when we needed somebody like Stiglitz or Galbraith. But this is not betrayal by Obama, it is a measure of victory.
Democracy comes from the bottom up, not the top down.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 16:41
#163699
As if. I knew and most of the conscious knew you can't have Goldman Sucks monopolizing all the decisions, beginning with Robert Rubin, and Hank Paulson who shafted everyone.
What I would have done?
You mentioned two, there are many more, including a rotting corpse which could have done a better job in NOT SOCIALIZING
all the losses, sticking the taxpayer with a bill that as bad as it is now is nothing compared to what it's gonna be, all the while the Goldman Sucks partners like Lord Blankfiend walk away with trillions.
A democratic republic voted 4 to 1 against bailouts and instead got stuck with multitrillions of toxic trash.
You have to be kidding.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:46
#162658
I'm sorry I cannot add to the above statements. You guys covered it all. Taibbi was spot on in his recent article in Rolling Stone. I was surprised he did not appoint Sandy Weil as head of SEC...lmao
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:49
#162664
Obama: the political face of the economic shock troopers. While they prep the field for a further putsch to consolidate the hegemony of financial services in American life, Obama keeps the peasantry docile by feeding them tripe on how patriotic they've been in sacrificing for the cause. How much gratitude the powerful must feel toward the multitudes for nobly keeping them in Italian suits this Holiday! Man, they must be toasting us at this very moment with tears in their eyes! That makes me feel proud to be American, I stand up tall! Lead on, herr Obama!
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 20:54
#162671
Meanwhile the Senate just today passed an ominous spending bill that increased last years by 12% and contained 5000 earmarks. The house had all of 24 hours to read the 100 page bill before they passed it.
Just waiting for your signature Mister Hopey Changy.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:09
#162678
I just need to be loved by you all...signed Mr. President
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:13
#162682
Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. Thomas Jefferson
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 00:53
#162925
How is Jefferson's quote, concerning failed attempts to establish a uniform Christian church, relevant to the subject at hand? The full quote is:
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 03:32
#163017
Thanks for bringing it into the light. Interesting quote - easy to take it as anti-Christian.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:13
#162683
Let obungle have his wall street rant. He won't be the one lining up next year to suck their cocks for the mid terms. In 2012 though, it'll be open wide for Blankie and Dimon...
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:14
#162685
'Mr President....YOU LIE!"
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:17
#162687
The "White House " ????
Really ?????
I thought Obama won ....
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:24
#162691
"Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, its that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people." -- Obama, 4 Nov 2008
Quite the contrary, it would seem. At least in the short run.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:29
#162693
Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Today is the second straight day that Obama’s Approval Index rating has fallen to a new low.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administra...
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:28
#162695
"You Haven't Done Nothing"
We are amazed but not amused
By all the things you say that you'll do
Though much concerned but not involved
With decisions that are made by you
But we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!
It's not too cool to be ridiculed
But you brought this upon yourself
The world is tired of pacifiers
We want the truth and nothing else
And we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!
Jackson 5 join along with me say
Doo doo wop - hey hey hey
Doo doo wop - wow wow wow
Doo doo wop - co co co
Doo doo wop - naw naw naw
Doo doo wop - bum bum bum
Doo doo wop
We would not care to wake up to the nightmare
That's becoming real life
But when mislead who knows a person's mind
Can turn as cold as ice un hum
Why do you keep on making us hear your song
Telling us how you are changing right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!
Yeah
Jackson 5 sing along again say
Doo doo wop
Doo doo wop - oh
Doo doo wop - co co co
Doo doo wop - sing it baby
Doo doo wop - bum bum bum
Doo doo wop - um
Sing it loud for your people say
Doo doo wop - um um um
Doo doo wop - stand up be counted, say
Doo doo wop - co co co
Doo doo wop - ow
Doo doo wop - bum bum bum
Doo doo wop - ah hum
- Stevie Wonder
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:34
#162702
I guess this means "hope & change" can have bad connotation's as well as good ;-)
A "savior"???...from Chicago???...LOL.
"The government I live under has been my enemy all my active life. When it has not been engaged in silencing me it has been engaged in robbing me. So far as I can recall I have never had any contact with it that was not an outrage on my dignity and an attack on my security."
HL Mencken
nmewn
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:42
#162708
Amazing the only place we are getting real financial reporting in the MSM is from Rolling Stone.
Perhaps Tiger Beat could do an expose on the LOOSENING of derivatives regulations in the new financial reform legislation.
http://www.bopandtigerbeat.com/
Then we'd have two mainstream sources for accurate financial commentary
What a fucked up country
AndyC
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:46
#162711
Anyone who would take mccain over what we have now, would be flushing this country down at warp speed.
Sorry palin is an idiot, phil gramm is worse than larry summers, and that is a low bar. I voted for the President, he could have handled things very diffferently, I am sorry to see the path he took.
This whole thing, now, is a coverup. Now there is no way for the President to go after the banksters. He had the chance when he came in. The whole system is still a flimsy house of wet cards. The world went to the brink last year when all of the big houses were bidding up the price of oil. It was the only place there was real money, and they needed if fast. Sept 30 is when Basel II was going to go into effect and everyone had to prove they were solvent. All that money that mr. hankey and ben threw out of the treasury went to all the people/countries we sold that cds crap to.
I'm sure they got the call from europe, make us whole or you're toast. It is flagrantly obvious when bernanke tells Elizabeth Warren, that he can't tell her where the money went, he won't.
We were part of, and are paying for, fraud on a sovereign level and the treasury was, and is, being used to restore liquidity to the root canal that the 'financial instruments' business is. joseph cassano is still a free man.
The President blew it out his ass yesterday when he said 'what happened is in the past'. Well, every crime, once committed, is in the past. First you commit it and then it is the next day.
I hope to the divinity of your choice that behind the scenes the FBI and justice are looking into who and what they can bust for this. It is impossible to believe the entire world economy could implode 'legally'. I have been hoping that it takes a while to build a case, they have to play cool.
That said if there isn't some serious high profile perpwalks in the next year the dems are going to be sniffing teabags, we'll be stuck with a congress of idiot crackers, and we will have another monoterm president.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:52
#162716
Matt,
What the fuck? As I read the first five pages of the article I began to feel genuine hope that sufficient members of the left might actually be willing to join with independents and angered conservatives in an effort the take the nation back from Wall Street. Then, in the final page, you dive headlong into the phony left-right paradigm with a totally off-target characterization of the resistance that was in town that day. That protest was organized specifically to protest health care measures.
Were you afraid that your strident critique of Obama would ruin your left-wing street creds if you didn't close the article with an obligatory "Yeah, well, the Right sucks too!"? I'm really fucking disappointed. Did you understand when you wrote your closing rant that it helps prevent any cooperation between left and right on this pivotal matter, guaranteeing the continuation of the situation you so aptly decry? Do you want to fix this or what?
What the fuck?
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 03:09
#163005
+1 WTF!
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 03:29
#163016
+100, I think he got an attack of cognitive dissonance
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 12:06
#163302
I think Taibbi was using the protester to illustrate how ignorant most Americans are about policy, even that small minority who are politically active enough to attend a political protest. (And those who are that politically active are probably better informed than the average voter.) I.e., voters are as much a part of the problem as the politicians.
I thought Matt was spot-on about the protester. I think she does represent one of the biggest problems in USA politics, in both parties and in independent voters. Very few voters know much about more than one issue, if that, even if they care passionately about those issues. That's true no matter where they lie on the political spectrum. That's how Bush got elected and how Obama got elected. That's how political consultants help manipulate voters of either party - you market your candidate by subtly or blatantly pushing the hot button issues to drive voters away from the opposition and to your candidate. I think it makes perfect sense that Mary Matalin and James Carville are married. Their products may differ SLIGHTLY but the game is the same. I think Taibbi was trying to highlight that voters' ignorance (and lack of interest in details about laws or candidates) makes it easy to manipulate us, though I think he should have made it clear that the protester represents voters of all stripes.
on Sun, 12/13/2009 - 21:52
#162717
Why do we all patronize the companies that do business with Goldman Sachs? Wouldn't it be quite easy to post the names of companies that hire GS and just not use their products/services? Isn't that the American way?
When a TV or radio personality offends watchers or listeners, people boycott, or at least threaten to, the advertisers' products/services in order to apply pressure to exact a particular result.
Everyone bitches and moans about GS but it seems that this would be the one way to reach into THEIR pockets for once.
on Mon, 12/14/2009 - 05:42
#163039
+1 this is a great idea, king silver, outstanding idea.