Irish Wish for AIG

Irish Wish for AIG
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St. Paddy's Day wish for AIG and the rest of the vandals and berserkers and barbarians still holding sway from the era o'Bushie...a curse still in play.
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To the vandals of AIG and their minions near and far,
May the spirit of the Irish come crap upon your car.

You destroyed the American economy and now you whine
Oooh, oooh, them bonuses must be mine.

Yet while your eyes widen and your conniving brains spin
We've people living in tents and praying for regular meals ag'in.

'Tis a good time to be Irish or living with one, too.
'cause then I can take this moment to send this wish to you...

All of you, you know who you are.
Your craven greed and recklessness and avarice runs beyond the bar

of human decency and there should be just reward.
Not bonuses and big bucks lives, but a coat of feathers, richly tarred.

Yes, on this day of St. Paddy's here is my wish for the likes of you.
An indictment from Fitzgerald and the sting of his shillelagh, too.

hat tip to Prairie Sun Rising.

New Obama Ad: "Tested"

McCain's mortgage plan would force us the taxpayers to buy bad bank loans at full value -- no matter what the value of the property is. So if a bank loaned a homeowner $300,000 to buy a house that's now worth $200,000, we the taxpayers would pay $300,000 to the bank for a $200,000 house. Net profit to the crooked bank: $100,000; same net loss to us. A terrible plan. I don't think this ad explains it very well.

John McCain Lied On Sunday Night

John McCain stated flatly on Sunday night that his campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with Freddie Mac for the past two years. Yesterday the NYTimes reported that this statement was a lie as Rick Davis's firm was paid $15,000 a month UNTIL LAST MONTH to lobby for the mortgage giant.

John McCain is a liar. I am sick of listening to Democrats wax on about how heroic he was 40 years ago (Bill Clinton did it on The Daily Show last night) without out pointing out the basic fact that the John McCain who is running for President in 2008 is a habitual liar.

NYTIMes: McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac

More Like This, Please

From an email sent by an unnamed member of Congress:

[]

I'm not voting for a blank check for $700 billion for those mother fuckers.

[]

I don't want to trade a $700 billion dollar giveaway to the most unsympathetic human beings on the planet for a few fucking bridges. I want reforms of the industry, and I want it to be as punitive as possible.

OpenLeft: Yes, There Are Deeply Angry Democratic Members of Congress

This is Not a Liquidity Problem

Another pithy explanation of the current financial crisis from Duncan Black:

[T]he problem is that lots of bad loans were made, lots of people made highly leveraged investments in those bad loans, and still more people bet on those loans by insuring them. The loans are bad. The mortgages are not going to be repaid in full. Housing prices are not going to magically shoot up 50% over the next 6 months. People gambled and lost and now the Democrats are racing to bail them all out.

When you hear member of Congress on TV enthusiastically talking about taking over these illiquid assets and selling them, remember: They're worthless paper.

The houses weren't worth what the mortgage documents said.

The homeowners can't pay the mortgages.

When the government takes over the properties, they're going to sold in a fire sale as real estate prices tank.

Republican shell game. Democrats fall for it every time.

McCain's Role in the 1980s S&L Crisis: Charles Keating's BFF (Updated)

PDF file, Phoenix Sunday Gazette, September 13, 1993
Charles Keating III and McCain, than a member of the U.S. House, celebrate their August birthdays [McCain's 51st] at the Keatings' beachside estate at
Cat Cay in the Bahamas [1987 photo]

Here's what the prudent action John McCain took last time we let him anywhere the financial system:

firedoglake: John McCain Still Living The Keating Five Lush Highlife

He partied with Charles Keating by night, and by day "carried water" for Keating by pleading his case for less regulation with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Which led to the failure of the S&Ls, and left the taxpayers with the $1.3 trillion dollar bill.

You know what, I turned 51 years old this year, and I'm not so stupid that I would be seduced by some rich guy squiring me to his houses around the world. Maybe 20 years ago. Maybe, but I doubt it. Not at the age of 51. I lost my naivete a long time ago. Not John McCain.

If McCain didn't have that much wisdom when he was 51, I rather doubt that he's gained it since.

UPDATE: Here's another good summary of McCain's deceitful role in the Keating 5 scandal.

The Financial Crisis Explained

By my favorite economist Duncan Black (sorry, Krugman, you're 2nd) at Eschaton:

The Bag Holders

The mystery all along throughout all of this is who would be missing the seat when the music stopped, who would be left holding the bag.

This is not a liquidity crisis. It's an insolvency crisis. People made bad loans, and other people made hugely leveraged bets on those loans, and still more people insured those bets.

And now the taxpayer gets the bill.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Never Forget

Congratulations, America, your government's going to buy BIG SHITPILE for what is estimated to be the bargain price of $3, or 5, or 7 trillion dollars!(they really have no idea of the actual number) Because the thieves of Wall Street had built businesses that were TOO BIG TO FAIL!

So next time your government tells you that we can't afford universal healthcare, social security, medicare, paid family leave, childcare, Head Start, all those programs that benefit ordinary Americans who earn less than six figures, remember this day.

We can afford anything. Republicans and conservatives just CHOOSE to give their money to their rich pals on Wall Street.

Do you think the CEO of AIG knows how many houses he owns? Of course not. Like John McCain he is awash in wealth and is completely divorced from the problems of ordinary Americans. Yet we just lavished $85 billion dollars on his empty shell of a company, which paid him to pretend the sham mortgages were worth something.

Wall Street just ran a giant Ponzi scheme and the US government let it happen, then rushed in to pick up the tab.

And John McCain's response? The fundamentals of our economy are strong.

Every Democratic surrogate who appears on TV for the next six weeks must repeat that statement at least once.

The fundamentals of our economy are strong.
The fundamentals of our economy are strong.
The fundamentals of our economy are strong.

A man who would say that in the middle of the greatest destruction of financial wealth that the world has ever seen isn't fit to be President.

Chris Matthews Tears Into Eric Cantor (R-Va)

Even Tweety can see that this dog won't hunt.

"The Old Boys Network, in the McCain Campaign That's Called a Staff Meeting"

Obama delivers the best line of the campaign today:



And he's finally talking about Phil Gramm, the man who gave us the mortgage crisis. Phil Gramm cost American taxpayers $85,000,000,000 today. He's John McCain's chief economic adviser. This country cannot afford any more Republican steal from the poor, give to the rich country club economics.

Yes! We! Can!

hat tip to JedReport for the video. Jed rocks!

Socialism on Wall Street

You've Got the Fed (song parody)

Last night your government spent $85 billions dollars (that's $85,000,000,000) to buy an 80% share in insurer AIG.

We bought an insurance company that is saddled with piles of Big Shitpile debt! Whee-hoo!

Corporate welfare at it finest.

This is the ultimate conclusion of the Bush Era. Billions to prop up the shells of the corporations that the oligarchs have looted to buy their mansions and private planes. They got the money; we got the shitty debt.

The Republicans base is now larded with money to give the Republican Party for the rest of our lives.

Maybe that was the real Bush Doctrine. No wonder Caribou Barbie couldn't answer the question.

House-rich McCain Stealing The Right To Vote From Americans Whose Homes Have Been Foreclosed.

John McCain owns between 8 and 10 houses. (He's not sure how many!) He is rich beyond the imagination of most Americans. His Republican Party has run Washington for the last eight years. (They've run Congress for the last 14 years.) McCain's chief economic adviser Phil Gramm wrote the legislation that deregulated the banking industry and gave us the mortgage crisis.

Now the Republican Party is trying to get the owners of foreclosed homes thrown off the voting rolls.

The Republican Party is further abusing the suffering Americans who are losing their homes because of the Republican Party's terrible economic policies. Losing their homes isn't enough? Now the Republican Party must steal their right to vote, too? How cruel of the very wealthy John McCain to let his party do this to poor voters. Haven't they suffered enough?

McCain is the nominee. He rules the party that is doing this. This is his policy. House-rich McCain is stealing the right to vote from Americans who no longer have homes.

That's the Republican Party for you. First they steal your money, then they steal your house, then they steal your right to vote.

Obama/Biden '08

Crooks & Liars: GOP seeks to contest voters from foreclosed homes

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

McCain: People with Subprime Mortgages Need to Work a Second Job, Skip a Vacation

Coronado Shores

It is truly unbelievable how out of touch John McMansions is with the problems of ordinary Americans.

TPM: McCains Bought Second Beach Condo At Around Time McCain Said Struggling Homeowners Needed To Skip Vacations

Here's the speech he gave chastising Americans, while he was buying (or his rich heiress wife was buying) his 10th, or 11th, or 12th house.

TRANSCRIPT:
JOHN MCCAIN: A sustained period of rising home prices made many home lenders complacent, giving them a false sense of security and causing them to lower their lending standards. They stopped asking basic questions of their borrowers like "can you afford this home? Can you put a reasonable amount of money down?" Lenders ended up violating the basic rule of banking: don't lend people money who can't pay it back. Some Americans bought homes they couldn't afford, betting that rising prices would make it easier to refinance later at more affordable rates. There are 80 million family homes in America and those homeowners are now facing the reality that the bubble has burst and prices go down as well as up.

Of those 80 million homeowners, only 55 million have a mortgage at all, and 51 million are doing what is necessary -- working a second job, skipping a vacation, and managing their budgets -- to make their payments on time. That leaves us with a puzzling situation: how could 4 million mortgages cause this much trouble for us all?

What's wrong with all those poor people? Couldn't they just marry up and let their rich spouse buy them another house?

More Help for McCain's Memory

This intrepid college student helps John McCain count his houses -- there are 10!



Nice job Aaron Walker!

This Will Jog John McCain's Memory

Maybe one of McCain's children or staffers can get him on the internet so he can watch this video, a GoogleEarth tour of his 10 houses worth more than $13,000,000, from the JedReport:



John McCain is fighting back, with his well-used line of attack "A noun, a verb, POW!"

"This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post.

And a Hanoi Hilton to you!

McCain Doesn't Remember How Many Houses He Owns

HuffPo: McCain Doesn't Remember How Many Houses He Owns

and Obama pounces:

The Real John McCain

Latest video on McCain and the mortgage crisis from Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films:

Monday Morning Quarterback

Flickr: Brooklyn Museum
Egypt. Abu Simbel. Colossus No. 4. 19 Dyn?, n.d., B.J. Brooklyn Museum Archives (S10|08 Abu Simbel, image 9488).

The U.S. government is buying Big Shitpile! The feds are going to give Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the huge finance companies, billions of dollars of federal money -- your taxes -- to avoid bankruptcy. Atrios asks, why don't we just take them over rather than giving away our money for free?

The military is throwing firecrackers into the fire: 1 in 10 military recruits require a moral waiver, for "serious criminal conduct", or alcohol or drug abuse. Just the sorts of people you want to drop into a powder keg. Way to go, Bushie. Oil, meet match.

Nine American soldiers died in Afghanistan yesterday when more than 100 "militants" (who are those, anyway? Taliban? Afghans? Pakistanis? We are never told. George W. Bush says we fight "The Enemy", and the specifics are rarely mentioned.) attacked a remote base in northern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.

Obama has an Op-Ed in the NYTimes today outlining his plan for Iraq.

McCain = Bush. So much so that South Carolina governor Mark Sanford (rumored to be on McCain's VP short list) couldn't come up with one major economic policy difference between McCain and Bush. Watch the video here. (Because there are no major economic differences between McCain and Bush. McCain = Bush, like the librarian said.) So long, short list.

When I heard on the radio this morning that the International Criminal Court had for the first time brought charges against a sitting head of state, I cried "George W. Bush is called to the Hague!" Wrong, moose breath; it was Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charged with masterminding the genocide in Darfur.

BAGNewsNotes eviscerates that execrable New Yorker cover.

We're All A Bunch of Whiners

So sez the loathesome Phil Gramm. That's John McCain's TOP ECONOMIC ADVISER. Don't worry, be happy! I'm rich, why aren't you?

I guess he thinks we regular folk who don't have Gulfstreams and millions are kind of bitter about the economy. The media talked about that for weeks. Do you think our whiner status will merit the same?

Don't hold your breath, kittens.

Shameful

And because of the policies of rich Republicans like UBS Swiss Banker Phil Gramm and Private Plane McCain, things like this are happening in the richest nation in the world:

Bloomberg.com: Foreclosures in Military Towns Surge at Four Times U.S. Rate

Military families were targeted as customers during the boom in subprime lending because their frequent moves, overseas stints, and low pay meant they were more likely to have weak credit ratings, said Rudi Williams of the National Veterans Foundation in Los Angeles. In 2006, at the peak of U.S. subprime lending, the number of VA loans fell to barely a third the level of two years earlier, according to VA data.

VA loans totaled 135,000 last year, its fourth consecutive annual decline.

An Army or Marine Corps sergeant with four years of experience makes $27,000 a year, plus combat pay of $225 a month, according to the 2008 Military Authorization Act, which increased basic pay rates 3.5 percent from a year ago.

Soldiers authorized to live off-base also receive a housing allowance that this year starts at about $500 a month, 7.3 percent higher than in 2007, paid even when they are deployed. Counting the stipends, they still fall short of the 2007 median U.S. household income of $59,224 as measured by the National Association of Realtors in Chicago.