Worried about the economy? Feel like it is in such bad shape that it will take the best economic minds in America to fix it? Well friends, the Obama administration would like you to believe that they have put together the best economic team you will ever need. You just need to get past those petty tax dodging facts surrounding Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner and take a look at Lawrence Summers, the head of the Presidents National Economic Council.
Only the smartest, most ethical and diligent vetting process in history could pick such winners.
Larry Summers is being blamed for encouraging Harvard to make a bad bet in the financial markets.
Forbes Magazine reports that while Summers was president of the esteemed university he encouraged money managers to lock in interest rates which looked low at the time. In fact, rates went substantially lower so Harvard's gamble chewed up a lot of cash.
The interest-rate swaps Summers reportedly urged Harvard to get into have contributed to a cash crunch which has forced the university to cut spending, freeze hiring, and float new bonds to borrow money.
No one seems to be blaming the collapse of Harvard's endowment, from $37 billion down to a very roughly estimated $26 billion, exclusively or even primarily on Summers. He resigned in June 2006 after a falling out with the faculty and a flap over comments he made about the paucity of women in academia. The financial tsunami didn't hit until the end of 2008, so Harvard had plenty of time to unwind anything Summers had a hand in.
Hope and Change, baby!
From The Weekly Standard.
When John McCain's economic adviser Phil Gramm said that this country is a "nation of whiners" when it comes to the economy, the Washington Post featured its 1100 word story on Gramm's controversial remark on the front page: "Gramm Remark Adds to McCain's Difficulty Addressing the Economy"
When Barack Obama's attorney general Eric Holder said that America is a "nation of cowards" when it comes to race, the Post buried its 200-word story on the second page, nestled amongst a bunch of ads.
Why didn't Holder's remark get the same treatment as Gramm's? Sure, the campaign's over, so the "horse-race" aspect isn't there any more. But if the Treasury secretary had called America a nation of whiners, that would get front-page attention, no? Why does the Post downplay an attorney general's statement that America is a "nation of cowards"?
As Goldfarb wrote yesterday, it's more offensive to be called a coward, and an administration official's words carry more weight than a campaign adviser's.
Holder's statement is clearly controversial--after all, Democratic politicians aren't willing to defend it. And the remark is all the more offensive because it is plainly false--America has done a pretty good job discussing racial issues. Most people who have gone through school during the last 30 years--whether public or private, K-12 or college--have endured seemingly endless discussions on race.
Now, it's true that some topics, namely conservative criticism of racial preferences, are out of bounds. But I doubt that that's the kind of conversation Holder wants to encourage.
I had my doubts, but according to this site, it's the real deal.
This view is from the Turlock area, but it caused me to wonder just what snowcapped peaks those are that can be seen from Kern county on those clear days before and after a storm.
"VIDEO: ‘The government is promoting bad behavior… do we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages… This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage? President Obama are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgage! It’s a moral hazard.’ "
It is encouraging to see these opinions making it past the MSM censors.
How low can they go?
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- During a decade in Congress, California Representative Grace Napolitano has pocketed more than $200,000 of political contributions by charging as much as 18 percent interest on money she loaned to her own campaign.
The suburban Los Angeles Democrat made the $150,000 loan in 1998, when she was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Through Dec. 31, her campaign committee has used donations to pay Napolitano $221,780 of interest while reducing the principal by just $64,727, a review of her Federal Election Commission filings shows.
Just words?
- End the Practice of Writing Legislation Behind Closed Doors: As president, Barack Obama will restore the American people's trust in their government by making government more open and transparent. Obama will work to reform congressional rules to require all legislative sessions, including committee mark-ups and conference committees, to be conducted in public. By making these practices public, the American people will be able to hold their leaders accountable for wasteful spending and lawmakers won't be able to slip favors for lobbyists into bills at the last minute.
Instead, lobbyists got the bill before Congress.
And even worse, is that no Congressman can be found who even read the thing.
Now what kind of idiot would vote for something costing 800 - 900 billion dollars that they haven't even read? Oh, yeah.
And I was just about to lose all hope in B.com's ability or desire to police a liberal.
"Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."
These are the words of Barack Hussein Obama in an opinion piece in today's Washington Post.
So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.
Well, well, well. A whole 16 days into the era of "Hope and Change" and the Middlenameless One has already changed back to fear over hope. *Now* you're seeing change you can believe in.
Some might think that is a little bit harsh of a description of this woman, it is in the title of the video, and I'm open to hearing other descriptions. But dang! 500 million American workers will lose their jobs every month that this trillion dollar pork spending bill isn't enacted? I'm thinking maybe she has been partying with Michael Phelps.
This is great news!
One week into his Presidency, Barack Obama gets high marks in a new poll, with a majority of Americans agreeing with the statement, "Barack Obama is even more awesome than I originally thought."
The percentage of voters who believe that Mr. Obama is awesome surged during his first week in office, with 82% thinking he is awesome now compared to 77% who deemed him awesome last week.
And in the latest measure of his popularity, Mr. Obama receives higher approval ratings in the new poll than either leprechauns or unicorns, mythical beings that almost everyone agrees are totally awesome.
In a head-to-head contest, Mr. Obama beats leprechauns and unicorns combined, garnering 64% compared to 21% for leprechauns, 14% for unicorns, and 1% for Congressman Ron Paul.
Click on the link to read the whole story and to see how women rated him. It's one word: Awesome.
But heck, look at all the back taxes he has managed to collect just by giving out Cabinet positions.
If it wasn't for a small upstate New York media outlet, this story would probably not see the light of day. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on the mainstream media to pursue this story. Jack Abramoff is looking like a piker compared to the people in charge today.
"New York's Charles Rangel and five other Democratic members of the House enjoyed a trip to the Caribbean sponsored in part by Citigroup (see above) in November - after Congress had approved the $700 bailout for financial firms (including Citigroup).
The members no doubt will object to the terms "junket," but that shoe fits. The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group, has asked Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to investigate the Nov. 6-9 excursion to the island of St. Maarten.
It was called the Caribbean Multi-Cultural Business Conference, but "the primary purpose ... for most participants appeared to be to take a vacation," said the NLPC. And not only was the timing lousy, but "corporate sponsorship of such an event was banned by House rules adopted on March 1, 2007, in response to the (lobbyist Jack) Abramoff scandal," the group pointed out.
Joining Rangel on that trip were Donald Payne of New Jersey, Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Donna Christenson, delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands."
