Pays to be Dick

Former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld Jr.(yes that IS his real name) sat before a dog and pony show hearing this week to answer questions about his company's demise.

First of all, these silly hearings by Congress are worthless. They don't accomplish anything. The person is not being tried, won't be convicted and will only be indirectly chastised by Congress through leading questions. Congressional Hearings are the equivalent of the first O.J. trial.

So after a shameful display of finger pointing and question dodging, Mr. Dick Fuld gets to go home and relax in his mansion and savor the fact that in the last five years he has paid himself almost a half a BILLION dollars. And Congress thinks this is showing the American people it's doing something about the crisis. He also said that he thought his compensation was "fair." (Express Outrage ...........................................now!)

The only solace I got from this news was a report that the Sunday after Lehman announced its bankruptcy, Mr. Fuld was working out in the company gym when Hans, the brother of Franz, came up and decked Dick. Reportedly he was knocked unconscious. Ah to have seen that.

Dear Taxpayer

Dear Taxpayer,

I am an executive for AIG. I wanted to let you know how we are using the $85 Billion you loaned my company. The week following the loan we laid aside the worries about horrendous leadership, bad investments and deplorable management. AIG executives were sent on a luxury retreat to California to regroup before spending the $85 billion. Have you ever tried to spend that much money?

The cost for this little getaway was only $440,000, including $23,380 for spa services. Now we are actually ready to spend the rest of the money and solve this problem. The only holdup is that none of us have very good toupees. So when we get back we'll do something about that and then we will really get to work. By the way...thanks taxpayer. I am confident that you knew we would use the money wisely. Wink.Wink. Write your congressman and say thanks!

Sucker.....

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081008/D93M0K6G3.html

ACORN Has Grown to a Giant Oak Tree

So I have been doing some homework on ACORN. I have been hearing about it in the news and didn't even know what it was. It is an acronym for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and is the largest left wing radical group in America. They have over 150 sub-organizations with various fields they concentrate their efforts. They are a group of community organizations that use two forms of activism. One of force, civil disobedience and fear tactics to get their messages out. Second, an inside approach where they control a situation through legislation and bullying tactics. The group makes no effort to conceal that they are a radical socialist party. ACORN turns in thousands upon thousands of new voter registrations each week throughout the country. Massive task forces must be employed to review these application due to a track record of voter fraud. ACORN is currently being investigated in as many as 12 states for voter fraud. Naturally the majority of them democratic.

ACORN is the modern successor of the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO)that sought to remove eligibility restrictions for welfare, thus flooding the welfare rolls and requiring a massive government rehaul of the entire welfare system for our "socially unjust capitalist society." Their efforts did nothing but destroy the inner cities and create a culture of dependency.

Now you may be thinking, this kind of sounds like the bailout problem that now requires the government to intervene. Well, there's a bit more to the story than this.

Under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)passed under the ACORN supported Clinton administration, banks are required to make a certain number of sub-prime loans to certain ethnic and low-income groups. If the banks want to expand or merge, they are required to show that they have met these requirements. So the banks comply and the housing bubble begins to build. The banks begin making plenty of money and ACORN no longer has to threaten lawsuits to push these lending practices. You know the rest of the story now.

Now I am not one for believing in and loosing a lot of sleep over conspiracy theories but this is not a coincidence. In the bailout bill as it was voted on the first time, those Congresspeople close to ACORN included a loophole to allow them to give the first 20% of any profits made to organizations such as ACORN. Before the taxpayer! Many house republicans recognized this bamboozle and voted against it. It was removed in the second version of the bill because of public outcry.

A side note now. Apparently, Obama has close ties to ACORN. He has trained staffers for them during his community organizer days, argued for them as a lawyer in major cases and while serving on the board of directors of two foundations, funneled millions of dollars to ACORN.

When all this bailout started being talked about, I find it funny that Obama remained so quiet and unopinionated. Perhaps because he knew of these connections and how ACORN stood to potentially profit from the bill passing.

So the organization that helped cause this massive financial meltdown is now sitting in the corner watching their plans for the meltdown of capitalism as we know it unfold. I think now our eyes are open and we can see what has happened and it's too late to fix this in a rational way. France, Germany, Russia and now Al Queda are all watching this happen and claiming this is a result of our corrupt capitalist society. Perhaps the problem with our capitalist society is we allow the government intervention that allows groups like ACORN to exert their influence on private enterprise and legislators that taint the system with failed policies. I categorically reject the stance Obama takes on this mess. He claims it is the Bush administration's failed policies. In 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005 both Greenspan and the Republican treasury secretary warned of the impending crisis if action was not taken to reform lending practices of Fannie and Freddie. Each time, democrats voted no along party lines on reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If you need proof check the congressional record.

I apologize for the lengthy post.

Frankly, I don't care for you....

I was never really interested in politics at all growing up. I could never figure out what a republican or democrat was but I knew it was impolite to ask three questions. One-How much money do you make? Two-What religion are you? And three- Are you democrat or republican? So instead of looking it up, I just ignored it all together. Until I went on a mission to Europe. I saw socialism at it's worst. The government was even more "out of reach" there than it feels here. I realized how good I had it in America. I wasn't in the states for the big Bush/Gore election debacle so this feels like the first time I have actually had a strong opinion in a presidential election. When I came home, I began learning, forming my own opinions and defending my positions and beliefs in college. It was good for me. Many of my professors would have been right at home in Austria. So, in my accounts in political history be kind, I am only an 6 year old!

One of these items of my political naivety is that I thought when you hold public office, you handle your affairs in such a way that is above reproach. Maybe it's the way I was raised but it seems like just the opposite now. When you get elected now you must get a goodie basket that has two get-out-of-jail-free cards, one lack-of-judgement card, one dozen free lies, an extra marital affair, love child or run in with a prostitute, and four bad personal association cards. Nixon, Clinton, Dodd, Craig, Clinton, Obama, McCain, Edwards, Clinton and now Barney Frank.

So I have been learning a little bit about Barney Frank lately. Again, call me naive or ignorant but apparently he's been "out of the closet" since 1984. He said he didn't want to make excuses to keep his private life in check with his political life anymore. There's no room for anything to go wrong now that everyone knows he likes other congressmen!

So, in the 80s, he hires a male prostitute for 80 bucks, moves him in, and tries to help the young man change his life around and then dumps the kid. (Let's leave the prostitute life changing to Richard Gere) Everyone finds out that favorite politician from Boston hires long term male prostitute-no prob Frank. We'll re elect him another couple decades or so. He has a card for that! Remember? And anyway, what he does in his personal life is his business! Quit meddling.

It's now the 90s and Mr. FRANK is on the House Financial Services Committee overseeing the big government run programs such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. During the same time, Mr. FRANK accepts over 40,000 dollars from Fannie Mae while serving on this oversight committee that advocates lax lending practices for minorities and sub-prime loans. (As does senator Chris Dodd, also on the committee) Guess what direction the Financial Services' Committee leans? You guessed it. Oh and one more thing. For 10 years on the HFSC, Mr. FRANK was involved romanticly with a man named Herb Moses. He openly called Mr. Moses his spouse. Herb Moses was an executive for none other than our now favorite government bailout-owned Fannie Mae. I wonder if there was any possibility of a conflict of interest there? Since 2003, Mr. FRANK has been the chairman of this committee that "oversees" government programs and makes policy recommendations as to lending practices, government backed mortgages and banking policy. Gee, this is the same guy criticising republicans of letting this whole economic mess happen? Also the same guy that just 5 weeks ago said publicly that Sarah Palin's personal live was fair game?

Excuse my cynicism a moment while I ask a couple rhetorical questions.

If Mr. FRANK was a straight conservative republican, would not the press be reporting this with fervour?

If Mr. FRANK was a straight conservative republican, would this not be grounds for dismissal from this critical committee or from office altogether?

Although I am a bit naive still when it comes to politics, I am at least smart enough to know that if elected to public office, I'd better keep my nose clean. That is unless that goodie bag comes with some kleenex. As for Mr. FRANK, he is now being investigated by the FBI.

Maybe someone will finally tell Mr. FRANK to leave the ballpark. He may feel right at home in federal prison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgctSIL8Lhs