Criminals Of Wall Street

When a guy who calls himself The Easter Bunny walks into a CEO's office and told him his company was being targeted by a financial media cartel in bed with the Russian and Italian mob, who are part of the biggest fraud in the history of the country, the CEO initially dismisses him as a crackpot conspiracy theorist.

But then the Easter Bunny makes predictions--his company would begin to be traded on foreign exchanges without his permission, easier for short-selling of phantom (non-existent) stock. Smears would be published by the financial community, lowering the value of his stock. The SEC would begin a bogus investigation into his firm and a crooked lawyer would bribe witnesses to file a class-action lawsuit which would further depress his stocks. All of this so a small cabal of hedge-fund managers could profit by short-selling, or betting that his stocks would fall, as they surely would given this full-court press, led by the press of the financial community.

The CEO later admitted that no matter how crazy a theory is, when they make predictions that come true, they tend to have some credibility.

And come true they did. Read the whole sordid story here.

Two things become abundantly clear; this is precisely why us political bloggers, both on the right and left, continually rail against the corporate media--and I will never look at Jim Cramer of CNBC--or indeed that entire network--the same.

h/t dday at Hullabaloo

Leaderless Hivemind Republicans Left Witless And Scrambling

As President Obama throws an entire nation on his shoulder to wrench it out of the ditch of neglect and despair, the creators of the ditch try to decide whether to help push, aim for Obama's hamstring, or merely circle like buzzards from the distance.

Newt, the creator of the language to deride Democrats, calls Rush irrational for wishing Obama to fail.

You’re irrational if you don’t want the new president to succeed because if he doesn’t succeed, the country doesn’t succeed.

Rush may be somewhat perplexed since he merely used the language of Newt to define the Democratic party...

Contrasting Words

Often we search hard for words to define our opponents. Sometimes we are hesitant to use contrast. Remember that creating a difference helps you. These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party.

abuse of power anti- (issue): flag, family, child, jobs betray bizarre bosses bureaucracy cheat coercion "compassion" is not enough collapse(ing) consequences corrupt corruption criminal rights crisis cynicism decay deeper destroy destructive devour disgrace endanger excuses failure (fail) greed hypocrisy ideological impose incompetent insecure insensitive

intolerant liberal lie limit(s) machine mandate(s) obsolete pathetic patronage permissive attitude pessimistic punish (poor ...) radical red tape self-serving selfish sensationalists shallow shame sick spend(ing) stagnation status quo steal taxes they/them threaten traitors unionized urgent (cy) waste welfare

to create a $400 million empire of dittoheads. Rush's political muscle is questionable, though. Recall how he declared John McCain to be "insufficiently conservative" to be the Republican nominee, yet McCain won in spite of Rush's claim. What cannot be doubted is the loyalty Rush has from his listeners. Political figures who gainsay him are inundated with hateful emails and are driven to apologize shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile the top republican in the House of Representatives, John Boehner, is calling for all things, a spending freeze. Right now, the government is the only one spending and John Boehner wants it to stop. That's like trying to smother a fire with dry grass. Even right-wing hack and self-proclaimed moderate Bobo Brooks thinks that idea is insane.

The Failure of Unregulated Raw Capitalism

Like Digby, I have had to put up with the notion from wingtards that the global economic collapse was brought about by a conspiracy of irresponsible blacks, illegals and fannie/freddie. Shame on the unsophisticated and economically challenged for outwitting global financial tycoons. Harumph.

As insane as this premise is, it is indeed the one put forth by the likes of the Hannitary napkin and "Dick Doper" Rush Limbaugh and their flying monkeys. Digby highlights this from the latest issue of Vanity Fair:

The truth is most of the individual mistakes boil down to just one: a belief that markets are self-adjusting and that the role of government should be minimal. Looking back at that belief during hearings this fall on Capitol Hill, Alan Greenspan said out loud, “I have found a flaw.” Congressman Henry Waxman pushed him, responding, “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right; it was not working.” “Absolutely, precisely,” Greenspan said. The embrace by America—and much of the rest of the world—of this flawed economic philosophy made it inevitable that we would eventually arrive at the place we are today.

So apparently the fan of Ayn Rand, Alan Greenspan disagrees with the spin twins. I only hope this message of careful, thoughtful regulation holds sway over the ideology in opposition for a long, long time.

Fundamentals

On the day that the stock market suffered the second largest loss since 9/11, Senator McCain quoted Herbert Hoover by declaring the fundamentals of our economy are strong. Ignoring the loss of over 600,000 jobs this year, gas prices so high those out of work cannot afford to look for new ones, massive trade deficits, crushing national debt, startling home foreclosure rates, across the board inflation in everything except real wages, I was puzzled at his claim.

He cleared it up by saying he was talking about me. The "fundamentals" John McCain was talking about was the American worker, which is what I am.

That's right, OilFundamentalGuy is the fundamental John McCain was talking about. My puzzlement increased, as no one has ever called me a fundamental before.

Of course this is the same ridiculous Rove/Bush ploy used against opponents of the Iraq war. McCain, clearly in the Phil Gramm mode of seeing all of this as a "mental recession" thinks he can cheerlead massive failures away by saying "Go Team Go!" McCain simply changes the definition of what he said so those who laugh in his face, in the Mcain/Bush/Rove playbook, hate American workers.

McCain was scrambling so hard to hit the right notes to correct his obvious elitism, he was opposed to excessive government regulations on one network interview and in favor of excessive government regulation on another network within one hour.

The bottom line in all of this is these are serious times. We now see the fruits of the labor of the failed economic policies of the Republican Revolution for the past twenty years. No Republican at all should feel safe in this environment.

It's The Economy, Stupid

Since the benefits of the Bush Economic Miracle, that McCain promises to continue, are in full flower, it is important to lay out what is occurring in plain English. The safeguards that were put into place in the aftermath of the Great Depression were removed because the "Social Darwinists" prevailed after a twenty year and $200 million lobbying campaign in congress purchased enough politicians to unleash the predators on the American consumer.

See, not all regulations are bad.

Case in point is the Glass-Steagall Act, which placed a firewall between those who take deposits (commercial banks) and investment banks. What happened in the Great Depression is the fictional account holder (I'll call him John) had ten grand worth of stocks in RCA. At the time, RCA was the dot com of the era, radio being big shit and all. Now John, bought this stock on the margins, meaning he didn't have to shell out ten grand at the time, just a small percentage of it.

John hears from his sisters next door neighbors cousin's babysitter that there is an even hotter stock, so he goes to his bank to purchase those stocks. His only collateral is his ten grand in RCA, which is gold, right? So they happily loan him money to buy more speculative stocks on the margins (a percentage of the worth).

See the problem here? A cascading effect occurred which caused a massive depression. The removal of the Glass-Steagall act is named after its primary opponent, Phil Gramm, who is McCain's recently dismissed, but completely adored, chief economic adviser. Mr. Gramm is the one who said Americans are "a nation of whiners" and said this is merely a "mental recession."

It is easy to parade around like the Phil Gramms of the world, scolding people for their lack of work ethic and questioning their mental fitness, especially when his boss has so many homes he can't even recall how many. The hard part is just being a regular person and fighting against these $200 million lobbying efforts which purchases avenues allowing predators to rape, pillage and plunder our economic infrastructure.

Make no mistake, the individuals that benefited from the "Bush-McCain Economic Miracle" have achieved generational wealth. We need some Change We Can Believe In.