I know what you’re thinking: You drank the Obama Kool-Aid and now you’re pissed.
President Obama has been in office for 55 days and counting. After the election and the inauguration we, the people, were dancing in the streets, as I predicted. That was the mood then. What is the mood in this country now? Not so good. It ranges from deep depression to, well, downright discomfort. We are collectively uncertain about these times.…
Article comments
26 - Baritone
Pablo,
Your #3. Well, at 62 I doubt that much of anyone would look to include me in anyone's youth movement.
This bit of sarcasm coming from someone who never saw a conspiracy he didn't make hot, sweaty, grunting love to is rather ironic.
Just remember Pab, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
Boo!
B
27 - Heloise
I got the motto for AIG and all the creepy (Cramer-like) derivative masters: "In Greed We Trust."
Heloise
28 - roger nowosielski
You should look as some news stories breaking out about AIG, Heloise. The whole thing is obscene.
29 - Dan(Miller)
Here is a video of Rep. Manzullo (R-Illinois) questioning Mr. Neel Kashkari, Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary in Charge of Not Knowing What's Going on. It's encouraging to see that our money is in really good hands.
Dan(Miller)
30 - Heloise
Roger, I have. And actually when I wrote this article I really did not know that the AIG bonus boondogle was about to break.
I was railing against Tim "F" Geithner. And what I heard today on Rush was that, what I hinted at, he was the architect of the AIG stuff.
And I had a scary thought: that the reason BHO chose TFG is because they did NOT want other eyes to see what had been done, what was about to be done, and what should HAVE been done.
But truth told, the bonus stuff was already in the pipeline.
Today at the Trough I wrote a piece "Why BHO is no JFK" and the premise being that JFK was really conservative fiscally. He was not a liberal nor a populist. I went along with them being sympatico, but can't buy that any longer. It's not true.
JFK did some learning on the job but HBO I mean BHO is doing all his learning on the job.
The latest is that the President has full confidence in Tim. Well, that's exactly what Wachovia said the day before it had to be bought by Wells Fargo "We are financially sound...don't worry." Famous last words.
I think, dare predict that Obama could throw Tim under the bus. Wouldn't that be funny? I hate that term however.
Heloise
31 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
You should look as some news stories breaking out about AIG, Heloise. The whole thing is obscene.
Roger, was it really a surprise considering all the bailouts this guy has been giving the green light to? Seriously,this isn't a knock...I'm just asking.
32 - Bliffle
I've been critical of Geithner since he first appeared on the scene. He's no good. Inexperienced and an architect of the original Paulson bailout. He should be dismissed.
Neel Kashkari is also no good. Just a glib bumbler. Another Paulson appointee.
But the knave of the day is Ed Liddy. He sent out the bonus checks on March 15. He knew that once he sent the checks it would be all but impossible to call them back, but he could have merely stiffed the employees, as managers across America do regularly when they don't approve of the bonuses. Why didn't the administration know that the checks were going out? Or did they just neglect them? Why? Who's in charge?
33 - Dan(Miller)
According to Wikipedia, a perhaps dubious source, in 2003, Mr. Geithner
And, according to Huffington Post, I agree. I can certainly understand Heloise's disenchantment with the Geithner appointment. Never having experienced enchantment with President Obama, I can't claim to be disenchanted. I am, however, a wee tad disgusted; see also comments #55, 58 and 59.Dan(Miller)
34 - Mr. Dock Ellis
Obama, Timmy and the rest are charlatans. The government owns 80% of AIG and they are outraged? They own it!!
It will be very interesting to read your blog in two or three years, Heloise and see what kind of mood you see then.
More so than ever, the Presidency is a most massive testing for any individual. There are no do overs or mulligans. Fakers are ascertained and dispatched to the rubbish heap of history. Carter comes to mind. This 4 years is going to be a very rough ride. Prepare accordingly.
35 - bliffle
The should have paid off the AIG execs with food stamps. That way they wouldn't have been able to spend the money on cigareetes whiskey and wild wild women.
Shouldn't the Princes and Barons and Duchesses of the economy be subject to the same moral restraints as cobblers and farmers and other peasants?
You see, this is the problem I brought up with Rogers noble attempt to unite ethics and politics: it's designed to deepen the oppression of the weakest in society, while letting the most powerful off scot-free.
But if we applied the same rules to peasants as we apply to royalty, then we could NOT demand that supplicants for mortgage relief demonstrate their virtue.
But that is exactly what is proposed!
36 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
I'm starting to think that Bush wasn't so bad after all... I was able to purchase my new mattress with his stimulus plan. With Obama's I'll be lucky if I still have a place to put that mattress! People thought the computers would be responsible for a crisis in 2000 but we will now see a real Y2K with this Banking Industry Huckster. Or maybe we should call it Y2L: Year 2 Leave...
I don't see how anyone can just place blame on the cabinet members, it was Obama who chose these hacks!
37 - zingzing
oh guppy. with bush, all he got you was a mattress to cry on while he fucked your country in the other room. obama is just left with the sticky mess.
38 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
obama is just left with the sticky mess.
I know, huh, that money can get all over your hands.
Man, I'm sure glad he had those people to help him clean us,er..I mean IT out...
39 - zingzing
who's hands? and what's left to clean out other than a bunch of unemployed people?
shit, if there's any cleaning to be done, neither bush nor obama seem to have the right tools.
i'm beginning to think that bush dug the hole so deep that obama thinks it better to keep digging, hoping to come out on the other side.
40 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
Sure thing Zing...Well, I guess the way to start cleaning up this "mess" that supposedly started with Bush wasn't to start handing bail-outs to companies that had a history of poor decisions or assigning a cabinet of people whose interests did not mirror the people who voted in the "Great Savior". Huh, Bush took 8 years to make this "mess" and it only took Obama less than 55 days to make it 10x worse...
41 - bliffle
The usual defense one hears against this charge is that the 80% USA ownership of AIG is in non-voting Preferred shares (which count before voting common shares in bankruptcy proceedings).
Nevertheless, it is common in business for Preferred shareholders to exert considerable influence over company management. To say the least.
So I would conclude that it is disingenuous to claim that defense, and Dock Ellis is right.
My conclusion in this whole AIG mess is that Geithner, Summers and Liddy were either naive to the point of idiocy about such matters (which won't work for Liddy) or they corruptly conspired to defraud US taxpayers.
Gee, harsh words, eh?
But how else to explain the silence last week which allowed Liddy to mail out the checks on March 15 with no notice and discussion, thus accomplishing a fait accompli?
There are grounds for dismissal of Geithner, for cause, for incompetence. And Summers and Liddy knew enough to be indicted for fraud, at least, and misappropriation of funds. Hell, an acquaintance of mine went to San Quentin for a couple years for misappropriation on a much smaller less flagrant case.
"#34 " Dock Ellis
Obama, Timmy and the rest are charlatans. The government owns 80% of AIG and they are outraged? They own it!!"
42 - zingzing
guppy: "Bush took 8 years to make this "mess" and it only took Obama less than 55 days to make it 10x worse..."
well, that's not true. this is like trying to stop a runaway train.
43 - Dan(Miller)
Once again, for the 10500th time, this is what happens with legislation which is rushed along much too fast, is unavailable to be read prior to being voted upon, and which, therefore, nobody reads prior to the vote. Our Congresscritters probably wouldn't have bothered to read it even had it been available, but at least then they would have no excuse. Some eagle-eyed, speed reading reporter might have done so, but . . . .
Neither side of the aisle, and neither end of Pennsylvania Avenue, has shown much good sense. Now, they are trying to cover their exposed backsides by complaining.Here is a recent take.
Any chance that the Congress and the President will reduce Congressional and Executive Branch pay, allowances and perks to atone? Whoops. I'm being silly.
Dan(Miller)
44 - bliffle
One of the big problems for the Obama admin is getting Dept. of Justice and Treasury both staffed up properly. Each suffered immense resignations and retirements under Bush due to the cronyism which resulted in political hacks appointed throughout those departments.
It resulted in the infamous politicization of Justice, and the diminution of anti-trust which lead directly to the "too big to fail" phenomena.
Treasury is seriously understaffed, and cannot track the intricate scams they are confronted with.
Both departments suffered big losses of experienced and trained Civil Service experts.
I suppose that's a natural result of the government-hatred inspired by RR and Grover Nyquist, etc.
45 - Heloise
I wrote an article last night "Natasha Richardson--Death By Ski" and just checked the news, and she did in fact die. My article was at The Trough
I told the reader that by the time they read this she will be pronounced dead. Many denied that she was brain dead but I didn't.
Anyway, I think this is breaking. Can't publish it here because I published it at my blog. Last night a surgeon said she had what's called "Talk and Die."
More later
Heloise
46 - Heloise
Mr. Dock, Heloise knows all about being POTUS. That's where her information comes from. I wrote last night that Natasha Richardson was already dead, only it was not public. I was right, because i read the signs and I have a medical background.
Same here. I read the signs and I have a political background. In fact it is my ray. So, "the mood's the thing."
Heloise
47 - Dan(Miller)
This just in on the latest reaction of Senator Dodd to the AIG mess. Anyone who can explain it gets a cement bicycle, a (fake) gold parachute, and my appreciation.
Dan(Miller)
48 - Cindy
Dan S.(Miller),
WTF? I think trying to read that gave me a seizure. I understand this part though:
"Dodd also said in the statement that his comments on Tuesday and Wednesday to CNN did not conflict."
Let me spell that out. Dodd said, just because every other sentence he utters seems to conflict. Something he said on those two days didn't. But, how would anyone be able to tell?
49 - Cannonshop
#42 Zingzing, you stop a train by applying The BRAKES, not by opening the throttle to full, then breaking the lever off.
50 - Cannonshop
To be clearer for you, This last 55 days has seen a president hire a Treasury Secretary (top tax collector) who blames his preparer for cheating on his taxes-if you were to do that and NOT be a big wheel in the Party, you'd go to jail for Tax Evasion just like anyone else who isn't a big wheel in the party...for a much smaller amount, at that.
The "Stimulus" package is light trying to fight a forest fire by dropping GASOLINE ON IT.
51 - Heloise
LOL #47 Miller.
I think I recall when they were under fire from the conservative radio hot heads like Rush who said that we should not be foolin around with the free markets. And advocated that we let the bastards have their dough.
my TARP + AIG = WTF really said it all, IMHO.
Is Senator Dodd trying to throw Obama under the bus?
Howdy Doddy IS the smoking gun! According to daily kos Dodd's seat is up for grabs or at the least threatened by contenders.
Recall when he was a candidate, Dodd was pulling a freakin 1%! And I screamed at him--Get the fuck out of the race, you idiot. He acquiesed by embarrassment. Worse than his 1% was Ted Kennedy endorsing Dodd (this was early on) for POTUS! At the time I was still at kos and I wrote Ted and told him to drop that stupid Dodd and get behind Obama, I also asked Gore, but he ignored.
Ted and Chris are buddies and it is the good ole buddy network that is killing DC. Speaking of killing, last year I already predicted that the US and the world economies are planning a total coup of the monetary system. What better way to take over something than to destroy it?
Heloise
52 - Dan(Miller)
Well, it is a bit clearer now. Senator Dodd says the stimulus amendment seemingly tailored to permit AIG to pay the bonuses was all the fault of the Omama administration.
Meanwhile, the clever folks who voted on the language permitting the bonuses (without reading the fool thing because it was not available to be read) now plan to get that money back.That's cool, because it will stimulate all sorts of litigation. The families of tax lawyers need not fear that they will go hungry.Dan(Miller)
53 - Heloise
Every time a law is passed it registers on the tax payer. We will foot the bill for their mistake.
I blame white people for this mess.
I mean any idiot knows that the reason there are no black CEO or board members on most of these corporations is because it is all RUN by and propped up by BONUSES! And bonuses are the domain of white men in white collars who are experts at white collar crime. Get it?
No, well Black people don't get those kind of bonuses because we can't get in the door of big corps such as advertising and Wall Street. In my life, I've known exactly one black corporate type (lots of other successful black men too mind you) who was an executive and had company stock and bonuses, but that's it. And I'm over 50.
However, to be fair, we did get our foot in the Fannie Mae door. And look how that went--bad, bad. I rest my case even though I did not win it.
Heloise
54 - roger nowosielski
You do have a sense of humor. And it's good because it's needed.
55 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
@ Cannonshop...
Thanks for clarifying my point....
IMHO, Bush brought the economy down while trying to liberate a continent & Obama's bringing it down further trying to liberate the criminals.
Who does it benefit to give bail-outs to automobile manufacturers that have only produced crap & made bad decisions in regards to their employees for the past 20 years? Who does it benefit to give bail-outs to the crooked execs of the banking industry that screwed people out of their homes & have already been living pretty from their own ludicrous paychecks?
I know this in the past 55 days this president retracted every promise he made during his campaign. Especially, the biggest lie that he was going to bring the troops home.
56 - Heloise
Yeah, watching "Who Killed the Electric Car" will make you mad. And you would know that it was pure conspiracy that killed that car. It also reinforces the point that automakers killed themselves with greed and collusion and clogging their arteries with oil.
Heloise
57 - roger nowosielski
Keep on plugging. But I'm starving for some minds, away from the madding crowd.
Do you dare?
58 - pablo
Did someone say conspiracy? OH my god.
59 - roger nowosielski
Yes, Pablo. You have a likely convert.
60 - Cindy
pablo,
I think there was conspiracy to kill the electric car, too. Both oil industry and automaker had the same interests in their own profits. It looks like they worked together, based on who bought what technology, to kill it--in addition to other evidence that suggests this.
61 - Dan(Miller)
Poor old President Bush. He's out of office, regarded as the worst president in the history of the universe, cooling his heels down in Texas, and the press still won't leave him in peace. Shame! I say.
Oh. Wait a minute. It's just a parody. Whew!
Dan(Miller)
62 - Dan(Miller)
Senator Dodd, (D. Conn), looks and sounds really ticked of at the way in which the Obama administration suckered him into agreeing to his amendment authorizing the AIG bonuses.
His pique is understandable, and we now know that he is not at all to blame. Doubtless, he thought the reference to 11 February 2009 in what he assumed was a merely "technical" amendment was to groundhog day (2 February) or, more likely and to the point, Valentine Day (14 February).
Dan(Miller)
63 - Heloise
Here's what bothers me:
I asked today on my blog "Is Obama channeling Bush?" because he sure ain't channeling JFK, if he ever did. Jack would call out an employee who screwed up but not Bush, not Obama.
"Is President Obama channeling former President Bush when he pats Tim on the head in public and says that he has full confidence in him? We know, we’ve been knowing that they KNEW all about the bonus past, present and future per CSPAN and other sources.
We know that Tim is a tax cheat. We know that Obama has thrown Tim off a cliff. We know that he is still backing Tim. Recall, after Katrina and Brownie et al went shopping while NOLA drowned?
Remember how President Bush patted Brownie on the head in public and t old him and the world that “Brownie’s doing a hell of a job?” Brownie indeed, another butt man as Rush calls them.
So I ask you is Obama revisiting that crap that Bush pulled over the worse natural and man made disaster ever that was Katrina?
Obama we don’t have your back on this one."
Heloise
64 - Heloise
Old Dodd will be dead Dodd come next election cycle. I don't think he can maintain his seat. He can't even lie straight. I thought there would be nothing to laugh at once the GOP was gone. But I was wrong--they're all funny as hell.
Obama can't get enough of the spotlight. What a ham!
Heloise
65 - roger nowosielski
Heloise,
Forget JFK (or Robert Kennedy, for that matter). They don't make 'em like that anymore. Even when Clinton was being compared to Jack, I laughed. Vestiges of a bygone era.
66 - Clavos
Heloise knows -- she is JFK.
67 - roger nowosielski
Well, she knows genuine from a fake. Although Obama, bless his soul, is trying.