Home > Jay Bookman > Archives > 2008 > September > 22 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USGrab the pitchforks and torches, Part II
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Guess how much the top five firms on Wall Street — Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley — paid in executive bonuses last year alone. I’m talking bonuses alone — not salary, not options, just bonuses.
When you have a figure in mind, open the comments. Oh, and remember that the stocks of those five firms fell a combined $74 billion in 2007.
Comments
By JAY BOOKMAN
September 22, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this
from ABC News:
“As the Bush Administration asks for close to a trillion dollars to prevent a worldwide financial cataclysm, here are some numbers you might find interesting — courtesy of the ABC News Research Center and ABC News’ Barbara Paulson.
In 2007, Wall Street’s five biggest firms— Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley - paid a record $39 billion in bonuses to themselves.
That’s $10 billion more than the $29 billion loan taxpayers are making to J.P. Morgan to save Bear Stearns.
Those 2007 bonuses were paid even though the shareholders in those firms last year collectively lost about $74 billion in stock declines —their worst year since 2002.”
By BDAtlanta
September 22, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this
$40 Million
By hillbilly ragger
September 22, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this
A lot?
By hillbilly ragger
September 22, 2008 3:23 PM | Link to this
Hey, I was right! it WAS a lot!
By Paul
September 22, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this
BOHICA
By getalife
September 22, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this
Enough.
w’s proposal:
“DECISIONS BY THE SECRETARY… ARE NON-REVIEWABLE … AND MAY NOT BE REVIEWED BY ANY COURT OF LAW OR ANY ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCY”
Dems counter proposal:
“Unacceptable power grab. Resign and we will try to fix your mess.”
Vote early and fire the gop
By Dusty
September 22, 2008 3:39 PM | Link to this
Dear Jay Bookman,
Perhaps you would like to tell us how the super rich Cox family got that way? Or the super rich Kennedy family got theirs? Or the Rockefellow family got theirs?
I don’t like the sound of big bonuses either. But it seems no matter where you go, smart people often get rich by using their minds. Others get rich by hook or crook.
These rich people were running some of the biggest “businesses” in the world. Most of them were not “crooks”. Most were hired by contract. That means a “board” hired them and signed their contracts.
Sorry,but “fixing” salaries gets very close to communistic ideas, everyone should have a share.
The rich are easy to envy. That does not necessarily make them crooks.
Are you going to let me decide how much you should be paid as a journalist, no matter what your “contract” says or the newspaper goes broke??
By getalife
September 22, 2008 3:51 PM | Link to this
“WASHINGTON - A key Democrat negotiating a $700 billion financial bailout says the Bush administration has agreed to include mortgage aid and strong congressional oversight in the plan.
Rep. Barney Frank, the Financial Services Committee chairman, says a great deal of progress has been made in talks between lawmakers and President Bush’s team on the rescue.
A government official with knowledge of the talks also said the administration has agreed to create a plan to help prevent foreclosures on mortgages it acquires as part of the bailout.”
It’s a start.
By CJ
September 22, 2008 3:55 PM | Link to this
Dusty said, “These rich people were running some of the biggest ‘businesses’ in the world. Most of them were not ‘crooks’. Most were hired by contract. That means a ‘board’ hired them and signed their contracts.”
Evidently, Dusty needs a law to discern the difference between right and wrong. In fact, laws are a function of ethics, not the other way around.
Those who argue that “it’s okay if it’s legal” need to go back to preschool.
By Dusty
September 22, 2008 3:57 PM | Link to this
There you go, getalife 3:35
The rats want to run the ship.
No plan except to sink it!!
Vote early and keep a Captain at the wheel
McCAIN..the winner 2008
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 4:13 PM | Link to this
So that leaves roughly 960 Billion dollars unaccounted for.
Duh.
By Dusty
September 22, 2008 4:13 PM | Link to this
CJ,3:55
You forgot to tell us what was illegal in these bonuses. Dislike is not illegal.
Are you saying that breaking a contract is ethical? If the CONTRACTS were legal, then changing the law about such contracts should be the next step.
I would hope such laws would be based on ethics. BUT…ethics vary. I hope those of America do not. But the ethics and laws of some countries allow the chopping off of hands for thieves. What do you suggest for huge bonus takers? Breaking contracts, chopping hands or changing the law?
We are responsible for making our own laws, you know.
By TeaTime
September 22, 2008 4:32 PM | Link to this
All I need to know about the bailout I learned in the cub scouts.
Once, I forged my mother’s signature on one of the merit badge applications for the bear ranking in cub scouts, and I kept erasing it and trying to make it more real, and the funny part was that I was using a pen, with one of those pen erasers, and by the time I turned the paper in, it was a shredded mess. So, the den mother called my mother and asked if she had signed it. Later, my mother and the den mother came to me with the forgery and asked if I was responsible. I looked at the total mess and then tried to pretend like I was inspecting it to be sure, and said, “no”. I wish you could have seen the exchange of looks those two gave each other. Fortunately they both laughed, and gave me a lecture about lies and dishonesty and not earning your merit badges. I put both of my index fingers in my ears and went, “La la la la la” during the entire diatribe, believe you me.
Ditto the transactioneers in the mortgages for the past ten years. Forged proof of income, forged resumes, forgery and lies and deceit and when more cautious sensible financiers talk, congress puts their fingers in their ears and go, “la la la la “.
This bailout cant work. it only transfers wealth to the haves, from the half-witted.
This bailout is the largest transfer of wealth in world history.
And I only wanted a merit badge in cub scouts.
By TeaTime
September 22, 2008 4:36 PM | Link to this
Stay tuned for an episode of “the snow witch”.
By TW
September 22, 2008 4:36 PM | Link to this
Wait…does this mean the redneck GOP ‘base’ didn’t share in any of this bonus? Huh?
What if all that ‘support the troops’ stuff was just a smoke screen for gathering the redstate moron vote so the wealthy rightwing could keep policies like this in place?
Nah.
By Paul
September 22, 2008 4:42 PM | Link to this
CJ
[[Those who argue that “it’s okay if it’s legal” need to go back to preschool.]]
Actually, they’ve already been to school. Law School.
Let’s see… those running for office with law degrees…
By Midori
September 22, 2008 4:43 PM | Link to this
TW hits it out of the park: Wait…does this mean the redneck GOP ‘base’ didn’t share in any of this bonus? Huh?
yet, by their constant braying, one would think they did….
By RealityKing
September 22, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this
Where was the media for the last two years!? Making political news instead of investigatively reporting the news that effects us!!??
Yes, yes pitchforks and torches. And lets make the Cox buildings our first stop on the way to Washington..
By TeaTime
September 22, 2008 4:49 PM | Link to this
The SnowWitch.
The snow witch had been planning a real speech for some time; the old fashioned kind, where you say more than one word.
She practiced in front of a mirror. She gesticulated wildly for emphasis. She paused at critical points for drama. She varied her tone and at some parts would yell out at the top of her lungs. She would be ready.
The day of her speech arrived and she stood before the throngs, silent. She didn’t move, or say anything for a few minutes. The tension grew quickly as the seconds passed and she just stood there looking at her audience, who were on pins and needles. More seconds passed, another minute, how long would she wait. The electricity was unbearable. Then, unexpectedly, she took a drink of water. That broke some of the tension and murmurs of remarks could barely be heard, but it was soon as quiet as a tomb again and still the SnowWitch did not flinch or say a word.
The agony of silence was broken anticlimaticly when the SnowWitch uttered in a barely audible, low voice….”Ladies and Gentlemen, Pointy heads, Fellow Pundits, Bloggers, Council Members, members of the army, members of the gentry, and of course, the rabble…..”
She started in such a low volume that the pointy heads were leaning forward in their seats to try to glean some phrase or every other word or something….
The Snow Witch then spoke at times in normal tones at normal volume, and at other times in shrieks of outrage and dissent, and the pointy heads settled back, totally absorbed in the main body of the SnowWitch’s address……and when the speech was finished, the Pointy Heads had their scapegoat, a group who had previously gone under the radar, a group who was most certainly responsible for all that had gone wrong in the past.
…..it took the SnowWitch to see it, and to point it out to the pointy heads who lived in the land of the pundits…..
and they believed…..
By Bud Wiser
September 22, 2008 5:08 PM | Link to this
Good old Barney Frank. Good old gay, stupid, lispering Barney Frank. He makes comment about how he wants to attach another stimulus package, and other Democrat giveaways to the being-formed economic relief package, and the Dow, which had been stable all day, immediately begins anothet nosedive as investors fear the Govt will add on all kinds of crap to the bill, watering it down enoug to endanger its passage, or signing by GWB.
Old Barney just has trouble keeping his mouth closed when he likes to hear himself talk, or whatever, can he?
Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 5:08 PM | Link to this
Damn, Urinal, you guys didn’t even get an honorable mention:
“Whatever the New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization,” said Schmidt on a conference call with reporters.
“It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day attacks the McCain campaign, attacks Senator McCain, attacks Governor Palin, and excuses Senator Obama.
You should have.
By Bud Wiser
September 22, 2008 5:11 PM | Link to this
Class envy.
Wealth envy.
Intelligence envy.
Take you pick.
Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid, and envious
By Dusty
September 22, 2008 5:14 PM | Link to this
Oh sure, TW and Midori,
The old liberal (communistic) mantra: the rich are taking away all the money from the poor.
That one is older than Lenin and just as wrong.
Do try something new. Americans don’t care for communistic doctrines. Liberals fare better without them. Better tell Obama because he is about ready to promise you the moon, the stars and a free lunch.
By jasper
September 22, 2008 5:16 PM | Link to this
Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, Jim Johnson, Frank Raines
Obama 08 - Guilty by Association
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 5:17 PM | Link to this
And look at what the Dimwit kkkampaign presented as evidence the Treason Times is biased against them too:
In Law School, Obama Found Political Voice [New York Times, 1/28/07]
So Far, Obama Can’t Take Black Vote For Granted [New York Times, 2/2/07]
Obama Says His Investments Presented No Conflicts of Interest [New York Times, 3/8/07]
Charisma and a Search for Self In Obama’s Hawaii Childhood [New York Times, 3/17/07]
Clinton Camp Challenges Obama on Iraq. [New York Times, 3/22/07]
After 2000 Loss, Obama Built Donor Network From Roots Up [New York Times, 4/3/07]
A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith [New York Times, 4/30/07]
Thee horror!
How can little Obambi go on in thee face of such adversity!
By getalife
September 22, 2008 5:20 PM | Link to this
Looks like the Times struck a nerve.
Must of told the truth.
butt wiper,
No class.
Socialism.
Ignorant.
McLiar/Palying- the economic meltdown making it an easy Obama/Biden victory.
Now go vote early and fire the gop
By Paul
September 22, 2008 5:20 PM | Link to this
Management 5:17
That’s a parody, right?
By Midori
September 22, 2008 5:22 PM | Link to this
who’s the Snow Witch?
One of Dusty’s sisters?
By getalife
September 22, 2008 5:26 PM | Link to this
Paul,
Andy is all parody.
Andy is our little parody troll.
By Midori
September 22, 2008 5:26 PM | Link to this
anyone see Luckovich today?
it’s so funny cause it’s true!!!
:)
By TW
September 22, 2008 5:27 PM | Link to this
Well hello, Dusty - trust your life partner has been hiding your shoelaces and brazeer during what must be some tough times for you, what with your snake oil having made the country violently ill it being the only thing on your shelf.
Maybe things’ll turn around? I hear this business about Palin charging rape victims for the exams has a place in the reason Alaska has more than 2.5 times the average. Hear the redstate chicks are even taking a second smoke break to kick that one around.
By getalife
September 22, 2008 5:30 PM | Link to this
Midori,
No, crusty is the witch palin’s pastor ran out of town.
She was causing fatal car accidents with her evil magic.
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 5:31 PM | Link to this
Paul: Nope.
That’s what thee Oblahma kkkampaign offered up as “evidence.”
They must be awfully touchy or awfully stupid<———————!!!
By Midori
September 22, 2008 5:32 PM | Link to this
getalife:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
By Paul
September 22, 2008 5:38 PM | Link to this
Management
My earlier question: are we sure this is the same team that defeated the Clinton Machine?
By professional skeptic
September 22, 2008 5:41 PM | Link to this
Welcome, fellow Americans, to the United States of France.
At the end of eight years, we’ve finally arrived.
Bonsoir!
By GodHatesTrash
September 22, 2008 5:41 PM | Link to this
This post has been pulled.
By Dusty
September 22, 2008 5:45 PM | Link to this
Well, Midori @5:22, was that a racist “funny” by any chance? It was a little better than the “hide the children” comments you usually make. You can do better, I think.
TW,@5:27
You can say “husband”for my life partner. That is correct at our house.
Don’t quite make the shoestring connection you presented. Is that liberal lingo or just ignorance? Oh, you mentioned Palin and I am sure you have read the latest Palin news. The son of a DEMOCRATIC politician in Tennessee has been caught as the THIEF in the Sarah Palin internet break-in. Just ONE of those LIBERAL “things” no doubt.
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 5:47 PM | Link to this
Aahhhh, yes:
Political contributions-
Goldman Sachs: Democrats $3,148,850 Republicans $1,152,061
Lehman Brothers: In the current Congress, 271 lawmakers have collected nearly $3 million since 1989, with 72 percent going to Democrats. Democratic presidential candidates and senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama top the list of all-time recipients for the company, collecting $410,000 and $395,600 respectively.
Morgan Stanley: $318,070 to Oblahma KKKampaign/ Smear machine.
JPMorgan Chase & Co: $442,919 to Oblahma KKKampaign/ Smear machine.
Citigroup Inc: $448,599 to Oblahma KKKampaign/ Smear machine.
Interesting, isn’t it?
By TW
September 22, 2008 5:50 PM | Link to this
Dusty - I’m sure those Alaskan women who didn’t have the money to report their rape will be ecstatic about the solved computer crime.
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 5:51 PM | Link to this
I like this one:
University of California $611,207 to thee Most Magnificent Oblahma
Gee, I wonder where that money came from, hmmmmmm.
Government backed student loans possibly?
Out of your pocket?
By Midori
September 22, 2008 5:51 PM | Link to this
what are you mumbling about Crusty?
Looks like you are trolling the board looking for a fight.
Shouldn’t you be monitoring the brew cooking up in your cauldron?
Liberal this!! Liberal that!!!
I am sooooo over your clap trap.
By Midori
September 22, 2008 5:54 PM | Link to this
McCain’s Camp Head, Rick Davis, Scrambles to Spin the $2mil He Got to Help Fannie/Freddie Duck Regs
I’m sure Andy was just about to post that.
Yeah.
Sure.
Interesting, isn’t it?
By Dusty
September 22, 2008 5:59 PM | Link to this
Ah ha, getalife, now I put a HEX on YOU!!
Alligators at your feet,
Lizards at your lips,
Buzzards for breakfast
Midori as your moll going BWAHAHAHAHAHHA from morning ‘til night.
Sleep tight in fright, you ol’ Cajun coot!!
By Gabe
September 22, 2008 6:01 PM | Link to this
The little people can fight back. We should assemble mass protests and go to the trading floors and demand that the government stay out of our private markets. Demand as share holders that companies come up with private solutions. We all lose if we leave this issue to public government and lazy corporate boards.
Write your congress person and tell them to stay out of private capitalist markets.
By Midori
September 22, 2008 6:03 PM | Link to this
Crusty:
double, double, toil and trouble.
it appears that’s all you “understand”
By Dusty
September 22, 2008 6:15 PM | Link to this
No more talking trash for now..dinner time, little toadies ..Did I tell you about the son of a Tennessee politician who BROKE INTO ……..
By Bud Wiser
September 22, 2008 6:19 PM | Link to this
Instead of hurling your mindless little stupid insults back and forth at each other, why not offer a solution? Is it because the Huffington Pus/POS, DailyKos, or Media Matters, etc etc, never taught you to think on your own? Of course they haven’t, how presumptive of me.
You idiots wait patiently at your little keyboards to be fed your latest mantra from your slave masters at the Democrat party headquarters. You are incapable of independent thought. You must be told what to do, what to say. The Master Dean, he’ll take a whip to your back if you do not obey. You must obey your master. You serve The Token One, Obama.
Why, if you don’t like the govt bailout, do something, like withhold your house payment for 2 months or more in protest of CEO compensation. I know that none of the entitlement crowd is as fortunate, or smart, as I, having already paid IN FULL my mortgage. Maybe you can get a second mortgage, and withhold payments on that too! Ha ha ha ha ha
Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid
By Midori
September 22, 2008 6:26 PM | Link to this
that’s ok, Crusty — it was the son of a republican president who broke the country.
By RW-(the original)
September 22, 2008 6:31 PM | Link to this
This is getting to be quite a story that will never see the antique media shine any light on.
I tried to link to Rusty earlier, but the server apparently ate my post. Basically it’s a clear case of astroturfing a smear ad about Sarah Palin. I’ll link to Ace, but you really need to read the stuff Rusty put together to know the players. and how this leads right back to the Obama campaign.
After you read this link click the update at the top of the page, then click on the “just posted” button right below the flaming skull.
By Bosch
September 22, 2008 6:32 PM | Link to this
Midori and getalife,
Witches everywhere will hate you for your comparisons, be careful.
The other night my son and I were cooking and he spilled four dozen raw eggs all over the floor - I looked at him and said, “Oh sh!t.” There are just those times when such a phrase is appropriate:
Jay’s recent post is one of those times as well.
If you are not outraged at this, you are not human, or rather, you are not one of those reaping those billions in bonuses.
By Midori
September 22, 2008 6:42 PM | Link to this
check it out, Bosch
looks like Scarborough is giving the last rites, huh?
By getalife
September 22, 2008 6:58 PM | Link to this
Recession: The Movie
Toil, toil, crusty and gop trouble.
Poof, there goes the economy.
Nice work gop.
What is left for you to destroy?
Start another war to have our cities bombed and million killed ?
Get us nuked?
How about staying home this cycle?
By Bosch
September 22, 2008 6:58 PM | Link to this
Midori,
Does this bailout count as being compassionate?
No, I don’t think so, because a majority of us are getting screwed. Maybe in their screwed up minds, that’s what this is all about.
Like Yankee Stadium, the good ol’ GOP is toast.
RW,
Getting your popcorn ready?
By Midori
September 22, 2008 7:05 PM | Link to this
Bosch,
it’s compassionate for those CEOs who will leave those companies with billions stuffed in their pockets.
By RW-(the original)
September 22, 2008 7:05 PM | Link to this
By the way, when Jay cut and pasted that Jake Tapper ABC blog story he decided to spare us from having to read the last paragraph.
If split equally among the approximately 186,000 workers at the former Big Five Houses, that bonus money means an average of $201,500 per person — more than four times the $48,201 median household income in the U.S. last year.
Now obviously that wasn’t the bonus distribution structure, but I suspect most of the 186,000 workers in these firms had some sort of a bonus plan. It’s still an outrageous number, but it isn’t the picture of a very few fat cats splitting all the loot the way it’s been presented here.
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 7:09 PM | Link to this
It’s nice to see that the PMS has subsided now that McCain is gone but do notice how they all have their legs crossed and squeezed tight, I wonder why?:
BILL: HILLARY ‘DIDN’T’ WANT TO BE OBAMA RUNNING MATE…
By RW-(the original)
September 22, 2008 7:15 PM | Link to this
Bosch,
Popcorn?
I’m cooking a stir fry, I’ve got some cucumber rolls and salmon rolls, then we’ll be heating up some sake about 8:45. The first hour doesn’t have me that interested, but I’m psyched for the 9 to 11 block.
Got to get in touch with my inner Hiro Nakamura you know!
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 7:19 PM | Link to this
Shouldn’t have dissed the woman:
Anti-Iran Rally Turns Into Anti-Obama Rally
It was a simple sign that read “We Want Sarah. Shame On The Rally Organizer.”
Political signs brought by some at the rally, like an anti-Obama sign that said, “Jews Against Obama & Ahmadinejad.”
By getalife
September 22, 2008 7:19 PM | Link to this
Andy, Stay on topic.
Will you or crusty ever pull a Joe and admit your party has failed?
Think about it, w gave them tax cuts in a time of war. w let them ship our jobs. w let them get drunk. w let china take over.
Now w wants us,we the people, to bail them out. He never goverened or cared about us. He killed the middle class.
As an American , I will pull a cheney and tell w to GFY and resign in disgrace.
By Midori
September 22, 2008 7:24 PM | Link to this
asking Andy to stay on topic is like asking Bush to show leadership.
By Bosch
September 22, 2008 7:29 PM | Link to this
RW,
“Got to get in touch with my inner Hiro Nakamura you know!”
You need to, because the Japanese are the ones buying out our mess!
Sorry, couldn’t resist! Enjoy the show. I’ll be the same way when Battlestar starts back up in January. But I don’t think people abandoned in space looking for a mythological planet that will save them from their own self-destruction have a specific cuisine. Maybe I’ll fix bread and water (and frakking Scotch).
Seriously, enjoy the show.
Midori,
As our friend Andy would say, “Duh!” We can’t let those management guys lose their Country Club spots! That would be down right UN-compassionate!
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 7:34 PM | Link to this
Speaking of liars:
“If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where Bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me,” Biden said. “Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are.
Biden said that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., “says he’ll follow them to the gates of hell. You don’t have to go to hell. Just go to Pakistan. Just go to that area. That superhighway of terror that exists between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
We hadn’t heard before about Biden’s helicopter being forced down, so we did some Googling.
In February 2008, Biden — along with Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. — was on a chopper that made an emergency landing in the mountains of Afghanistan.
A snowstorm had forced them down.
He said that, uh, today.
By getalife
September 22, 2008 7:47 PM | Link to this
Then they have the audacity to try to rush it and set condititions.
No wonder their phones are ringing off the hook.
Did you call them Andy?
By TW
September 22, 2008 7:53 PM | Link to this
Wait a minute…bin laden? The guy who dropped our towers? The cave dweller who took the supposed leader of the free world to school? That guy?
Make no mistake, in whichever cave bin laden resides today, no doubt there’s a nicely framed portrait of Republican George W Bush atop the mantel. Never in bin laden’s wildest wet dreams could he have imagined the Republican President urinating all over himself, and the rest of the country, the way he has in the seven years that have followed. George W. Bush did the bulk of bin laden’s work for him.
God I miss the real Republicans.
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 7:57 PM | Link to this
I didn’t know Has Been Laden was working to slaughter all of his goony terrorist followers like dogs.
Huh.
By Jason
September 22, 2008 8:04 PM | Link to this
CEOs who have caused untold damage to companies, employees, and shareholders should be forced, by Federal Law, to relinquish their salaries, bonuses, and severance.
If their actions were obviously motivated by a short term self-interest payday, they should be imprisoned.
This kind of systemic corruption that reaches directly to a CEO’s wallet will only end when the CEOs are held financially and personally accountable.
By Dawn
September 22, 2008 8:24 PM | Link to this
McCain - was for deregulation before he was against it, but still kinda for it, because it really did help, but of course not so much, but we shouldn’t overreact, unless we really need to, and this time we really need to, because well…this is bad…but not so bad that we need to totally regulate again, because that could make things worse, but nothing is worse than what is happening to the American people right now…and he’s with them, but he would counsel them to be cautious so that too much regulation doesn’t make it worse…
That about sum up his position?
By Jen
September 22, 2008 8:33 PM | Link to this
Bush is notorious for appointing people to positions for which they are not qualified. Remember Brownie.
So now we are supposed to trust Secy. Paulson with $700B to do with as he sees fit. How do we know Paulson knows what he is talking about?
I do not trust Paulson, I do not trust the Bush administration, and I do not trust McCain on this.
McCain is being fed everything he says and he is so afraid of losing this election he will do what he is told.
Hopefully the Democrats will stick by their position on this bailout and not let the Republicans get by with their demands. The Republicans are very good at playing on the fears of the American people but this time we must stand firm and not rush into something just because the Republicans say we should.
By Just_Me
September 22, 2008 8:34 PM | Link to this
Bud Wiser
You lost ALL credibility-and I am sure I am NOT the only one who stopped reading this after this lovely GEM of yours…
“By Bud Wiser September 22, 2008 5:08 PM | Link to this Good old Barney Frank. Good old gay, stupid, lispering Barney Frank….”
What the HELL does B. Frank’s sexual orientation or LISP have to do with ANYTHING?
Why not just stick to the comments he’s made that you disagree with without the disgusting comments?
You were called out on the other blog as racist; Apparently you’re just a garden-variety bigot. Either way, you hurt your own argument when you can’t support it without throwing epithets that have nothing to do with the issues. How does Franks’ sexual orientation enter into this issue? How does his LISP enter into it?
It must be hard to be you, walking through life so perfect, having to deal with those who are not…
/ignore Bud Wiser
By Just_Me
September 22, 2008 8:38 PM | Link to this
DAWN LOL…you got McCain’s position nailed.
Bravo!
By G
September 22, 2008 8:41 PM | Link to this
Just_Me,
I’ve been ignoring Bud NOT Wiser, and others like him.
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 8:42 PM | Link to this
JM: Hubby home yet?
I’m not at all defending Bud Wiser, I’m pretty sure that he’s being jacked again, but I do know that Barney Frank pimped male prostitutes out of the basement of his house.
Yes, yes, of course I know that this is no big deal for you righteous, chest pounding, Larry Craig attacking two faced morons, but this shows an appalling lack of judgment and character, if you ask me.
Just an opinion (-;
By ByteMe
September 22, 2008 8:45 PM | Link to this
OMG, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. You gotta see this report:
http://www.theonion.com/content//node/86319?utmsource=embeddedvideo_2
By sunshine and thunder
September 22, 2008 8:51 PM | Link to this
Jay
Here’s what I think. The top ten earning celebrities of 2007 should give all but 10 million of their earinings back to the stockholders. What? No stockholders? You mean they earned all this money for themselves?
Oprah Winfrey 260 million
Jerry Bruckheimer 120 million
Steven Spielberg 110 million
Tiger Woods 100 million
Johnny Depp 92 million
Rolling Stones 88 million
Jay Z 83 million
Tom Hanks 74 million
Madonna 72 million
Howard Stern 70 million
Well how many jobs did they create? How much wealth did they create?
What other businesses did they foster? How much money did they raise for start up businesses? How much financing did they provide for low income housing? How much risk did they take to do all of these things? How much liquidity did they provide for the markets?
By G
September 22, 2008 8:58 PM | Link to this
ByteMe, I don’t think the economy can recover from this.
ROFLMAO!
By sunshine and thunder
September 22, 2008 9:00 PM | Link to this
And we’ve got people on here linking the ONION as if it’s news. What rabble.
By Bud Wiser
September 22, 2008 9:00 PM | Link to this
I don’t know, but I always figured that some gay fool who gets elected to office in Massachusetts, home of the original Chappaquiddick Waterboarder - Ted Kennedy -and has sat on his arse while his supposed oversight committee did nothing as the avalanche of finance gained momentum going down the hill, had very little credibility, except with his people.
Just_me, you are one of his people apparently, so anything I say to you, you will find ‘disgusting’. Like I care.
Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid
By Midori
September 22, 2008 9:08 PM | Link to this
Bud Wiser - making it easy to call a racist homophobe a racist homophobe.
By Heather D
September 22, 2008 9:12 PM | Link to this
Having watched McCain’s 60 Minutes interview last night, I kept asking myself how in the hell this stupid, out of touch, old fool is dead even with Obama.
And just once I’d like to see a journalist hold McCain’s feet to the fire and NOT let him dodge questions.
I do not have much faith in the polls but even that being said, it is too close and alarming. One reason McCain is so close is that many Americans are racist and will never vote for a black man. Sad. If these people would stay home on November 4th it would be fine with me.
With McCain’s age and health, both mental and physical, it is really scary to think Palin is waiting for that last heart beat. She truly believes she is ready to step up and be POTUS. Now THAT is horrifying.
By "The Corporal"
September 22, 2008 9:25 PM | Link to this
My Assorted Vent submissions for today
Can you imagine the incredible outcry if Saturday Night Live had produced a skit insinuating that Obama was “doing” his daughters?
The so-called bigotry directed at Senator Obama pales in comparison to the pure vitriolic hatred directed at Governor Palin.
Anyone uniformed enough to wait for the debates to pick their candidate should not be voting in the first place.
By JAY BOOKMAN
September 22, 2008 9:47 PM | Link to this
Yeah Sunshine, that’s right. Those folks have no stockholders. They earned that money for themselves, and more power to them. Amen.
Now let’s turn to Wall Street. Those people don’t own the firms. The stockholders do. Those people are supposedly EMPLOYEES who pay themselves enormous sums of money because US law disenfranchises the stockholders who actually own the company.
They are playing with OPM — Other People’s Money — and because they take “risks” with OPM — they claim to earn gargantuan sums of money. Except none of that risk is their own. It’s the risk of the stockholders, which in many cases have been left penniless.
And it is the risk of the taxpayers, who are being asked to pony up $700 BILLION to cover the loses of those playing with OPM.
Your attempted comparison between true entrepreneurs who put their own talents and money on the line and those leaches on Wall Street is naive and absurd.
By AJC/DNC Management
September 22, 2008 9:47 PM | Link to this
I don’t know, I’m still waiting for a CEO to do the perp walk.
Ain’t gonna happen.
Too many in Congress and Arkkkansas get cold chills up their spaghetti noodle spines thinking about thee testimony being broadcast live on C-Span.
But you harpy liberals do be sure to keep on whining about it.
Maybe you can force the issue.
By Bud Wiser
September 22, 2008 9:47 PM | Link to this
“By Heather D
September 22, 2008 9:12 PM | Link to this
Having watched McCain’s 60 Minutes interview last night, I kept asking myself how in the hell this stupid, out of touch, old fool is dead even with Obama.”
Well, if what you say about McCain is true, then you have pretty well trashed The Token One as well. You libs never know how to say anything just quite right, do you? Throw out the insults, or better yet, engage mouth before engaging brain. Idiots all.
Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid
By ByteMe
September 22, 2008 9:51 PM | Link to this
sunshine and thunder: you do understand why there are no “conservative” humor shows, right? No alternatives to The Daily Show or even SNL. Fox tried to do one but it failed miserably. Turns out that conservatives have no sense of humor. None. Nada. Zip.
Only you would think my posting was intended as “news”.
By JAY BOOKMAN
September 22, 2008 9:53 PM | Link to this
And just for the record, when I noted earlier that Bud Wiser had already exposed himself as a racist, this is why:
Under an assumed name of “Monkey Meat”, this is what he posted back in late August:
“Rufus, you stupid inbred white trash what I mean by they is the Govment. It is their job to take care of the poor black folk that caint take care of themselfs.
It is the Govments job to provide them with shelter and food and money and transportation from their shacks that the govt built last time when they promised them real homes. They always look to take care of the black folks last. George Bush is Satan to the black man.
They should have given them all jobs after Katrina to help rebuild, but they didnt. They should have at least given them money to get by but they didnt. They should have fed them when they was hungry but they didnt. They dont do nothing.
And stupid white trash like you Rufus is the reason. They got to take care of their white friends first, that what George Bush say. Thats why he aint gonna get reelected neither. He afraid to run, knowing the powerful black man Barak Obama would wipe him out. He sends that old fart McCain, who aint got the brains but to pick a woman for vice presedent. She not even a good looking white woman either. She too skinny, and too stupid like most all other womans.
So get your robe and dunce cap back on Rufus and go to your meeting, you worthless white scum sucker.”
So no, Bud, I haven’t forgotten.
By sunshine and thunder
September 22, 2008 10:01 PM | Link to this
JAY
Your inability to distinguish between creating wealth for stockholders and employees and creating wealth for one’s own pocketbook is incredibly pitiful.
The people you vilify were hired by those stockholders to raise the value of their holdings. Which they did.
Now that the bottom has dropped out it turns out that the heavily regulated firms such as Bear, Lehman and Merrill were not so vetted as we thought.
Why did the SEC allow a publicly traded company to leverage itself 30 and 40 to 1??
Maybe it was because they were providing liquidity for the holy grail of low income homeowners.
Sure, when the whole political machine is encouraging the funding of the Alt A and sub prime loans and Fannie Mae And Freddie are turbocharghing the process it’s pretty damn tempting to placate all of them - especially when you’re creating a hell of a lot of wealth for those you answer to.
Now Barney Frank is trying to hold up the whole bailout process by playing the class warfare card of caps on executive salaries (just as Jay Bookman is doing).
When is someone going to frog walk that little loon down the aisle? He needs to answer to all of us.
What, do we all get to vote on a cap on your salary? Based on your value to the newspaper (was it 5 columns in a row about Sarah Palin lying?)I’d say that cap is pretty low and you may have already exceeded it.
By JAY BOOKMAN
September 22, 2008 10:07 PM | Link to this
From Sunshine:
“Your inability to distinguish between creating wealth for stockholders and employees and creating wealth for one’s own pocketbook is incredibly pitiful. “
Really? Let’s review the facts posted above, shall we Sunshine?
The wealth of the stockholders in those five companies FELL by $74 billion last year.
Yet the people who engineered that decline “rewarded” themselves for that wonderful performance with bonuses totaling $39 billion.
You’re right — somebody here is unable to distinguish truth from absurdity. And if you look in the mirror, you might find that person.
By sunshine and thunder
September 22, 2008 10:25 PM | Link to this
JAY
You wrote:
The wealth of the stockholders in those five companies FELL by $74 billion last year.
If, as you say, 74 billion in wealth disappeared what was it really worth? And how did the market assign such a value to it?
Wall Street contracts are based upon how much money you make for the firm. The head honchos are paid based on how much wealth the firm creates.
There is nothing wrong with those bonuses. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make enough money trading on Wall Street to garner 39 billion in bonuses?
If those executives combined created 200 billion in profits for their firms how much money should they be paid?
I guess you have the answer, huh? Right, some newsie from downtown Atlanta has the answer.
You’re a class warfare goon. Which is worse, playing the race card or the class warfare card? I’d say they both represent incredible ignorance.
By getalife
September 22, 2008 10:43 PM | Link to this
butt wiper a racist homophobe?
Well, he is gop and that is part of the membership rules.
sunshine is a Wall Street genius don’t ya know? Stay classy sunshine.
w is a one trick pony.
Scare and act tough.
The gop are against it and would not be surprised if they use it to say the dems wanted to bailout corporations but they voted no.
They are that sick.
By Hillbilly Deluxe
September 22, 2008 10:53 PM | Link to this
As Sen. Everett Dirkson supposedly said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”
Aren’t there any fraud laws anymore?
By The Peoples for a Nuked Amerika' Century
September 23, 2008 2:14 AM | Link to this
So this is how Capitalism Dies —- !
Long live the Communist/Fascist/Nationalist ideology called “Corporatism” - Monopolies supported by our tax dollars…Monopolies who should have never existed in the first place. Weep for the People as their representation is truly gone…
By AJC/DNC Management
September 23, 2008 5:42 AM | Link to this
Patriotic?:
Democrats in the Senate and House believe that if they can string out negotiations on the federal financial markets bailout through Tuesday, “we can get everything we want and more, including solidifying the Obama campaign,” says a Senate Banking Committee staffer working for the majority.
“Let’s see what the White House has to say when the market is cratering again.”
On the other hand, senior Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, believe they can still gain all concessions on the bill, plus gain long-term political points this election cycle by “stringing this thing out to Thursday, or just letting the whole deal collapse.”
Who would have ever thought that the economy of the United States was just another kkkampaign prop?
By TeaTime
September 23, 2008 5:52 AM | Link to this
What if nobody knows how this credit crisis escalated? If we cant form an understandable narrative, then the bailout cant work.
The CNBC pundits all agree that the crucial detail in describing what went wrong involves deterioration of the trust and confidence of those participating in our economic system. Trust in the institutions brokering the money is crucial.
The implication here is that all participants ignored common sense, and that we’ve seen a society-wide erosion of legal consequences of fraud. No, America, you didn’t all make 85 thousand last year, and no, investment banker, you cant trust a taxpayer to pay his taxes without there being people rotting in prison for not paying their taxes.
Perhaps this is a symptom of the decline and fall of the american empire. Historians think Rome fell because Rome wasn’t Rome anymore. Persia was Persia, not Rome, and Persians simply erased “rome” from the map, and wrote “Persia”, and there was no consequence for doing so.
Similarly there is no consequence for purchasing a 750 thousand dollar mortgage, just to flip it. 99 percent of americans would have to liar loan that application.
They say when the sex goes, the marriage cant survive. We’ll, when the trust in the intercourse of your countrymen goes, then the country cant survive.
Think about whether you would loan money to a stockbroker right now, or even a banker. America, would you loan money to a Wachovia suit? I wouldn’t. I’d give him my two cents worth and tell him he hasn’t the “trust Collateral”, and that after a year or two of building trust collateral, then maybe he could have my fifty cents, but I’d also tell him that if he din’t pay it back, I’d have to “fiddy cent” his sorryAss.
This is CEO Dawg representin’ the Bank Bangers….
peace out
word, brah (camera to my hand doing impossible-to-follow hand shake bank-banger vitriolics, warnings and group-loyalty endearments)
By Bionic Blonde
September 23, 2008 6:13 AM | Link to this
When you put people in charge of government who really don’t believe in government —you get what you’ve elected—catastrophe after catastrophe. No brainer!
By swolf4810
September 23, 2008 6:45 AM | Link to this
More tyhan enough to wipe their collective a**es on $100 bills…and the US taxpayers!
By AJC/DNC Management
September 23, 2008 6:47 AM | Link to this
In light of the collapse of Fannie and Freddie, both John McCain and Barack Obama now criticize the risk-tolerant regulatory regime that produced the current crisis. But Sen. McCain’s criticisms are at least credible, since he has been pointing to systemic risks in the mortgage market and trying to do something about them for years. In contrast, Sen. Obama’s conversion as a financial reformer marks a reversal from his actions in previous years, when he did nothing to disturb the status quo. The first head of Mr. Obama’s vice-presidential search committee, Jim Johnson, a former chairman of Fannie Mae, was the one who announced Fannie’s original affordable-housing program in 1991 — just as Congress was taking up the first GSE regulatory legislation.
Name one thing Oblahma has “changed” in his short, butt kissing career.
Bet you can’t.
By AJC/DNC Management
September 23, 2008 6:53 AM | Link to this
In 2005, the Senate Banking Committee, then under Republican control, adopted a strong reform bill, introduced by Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole, John Sununu and Chuck Hagel, and supported by then chairman Richard Shelby. The bill prohibited the GSEs from holding portfolios, and gave their regulator prudential authority (such as setting capital requirements) roughly equivalent to a bank regulator. In light of the current financial crisis, this bill was probably the most important piece of financial regulation before Congress in 2005 and 2006. All the Republicans on the Committee supported the bill, and all the Democrats voted against it.
If the Democrats had let the 2005 legislation come to a vote, the huge growth in the subprime and Alt-A loan portfolios of Fannie and Freddie could not have occurred, and the scale of the financial meltdown would have been substantially less. The same politicians who today decry the lack of intervention to stop excess risk taking in 2005-2006 were the ones who blocked the only legislative effort that could have stopped it.
Interesting, isn’t it?
And here they are at it again, blocking the relief for the disaster that they caused.
So that they can create another disaster, or at least get a few measly votes out of it.
By AJC/DNC Management
September 23, 2008 6:59 AM | Link to this
The one thing absolutely nobody is talking about or even understands:
The bailout consists of shifting the risk of loss to taxpayers. Actual losses could not reach $700 billion unless the securities were literally worthless, which would mean the value of the underlying real estate fell to zero.
Pass the freaking legislation.
By HK
September 23, 2008 7:34 AM | Link to this
I thought a bonus was a perk for a job well done?!? a share of the profits to foster continued success. What are they successfull at ruining peoples retirement funds and livelyhood. Robber Barons continue to feed off the masses and their descendants live above us and learn to do the same. Its time for a CHANGE people Real CHANGE. Will this country put away it obvious fear and Vote Obama or will they find every excuse but 500lb gorilla in the room they are afraid to face. We have to come together if we don’t you’re expieriencing the demise of the once great America. Your ancestors will be speaking chinese, arabic, and russian learning about the great civilization that brought itself to ruin.
By AJC/DNC Management
September 23, 2008 7:37 AM | Link to this
I like this one:
Seven weeks before the 2008 presidential election, liberals are warning America that if Barack Obama loses, it is because Americans are racist. Of course, that this means that Democrats (and independents) are racist, since Republicans will vote Republican regardless of the race of the Democrat, is an irony apparently lost on the Democrats making these charges.
It cannot be said any better than that. I wouldn’t vote for a lib even if they were purple.
Am I bigoted against spoon fed, marrying up socialists from Massachusetts?
Did I discriminate against red faced lunatics overcome with junk science and idiotic anger towards America, who happen to hail from Tennessee?
Am I a klanner because I didn’t vote for a pathological liar and serial rapist?
But you can call me a bigot against inexperienced, rabble rousing, machine politics, more of the same, tax raising, teleprompter readers, if you must.
Go ahead.
By hillbilly ragger
September 23, 2008 7:45 AM | Link to this
Jay, isn’t it time to run a column destroying the notion, posted in here and elsewhere, that the financial meltdown is all on account of Those People getting mortgages?
I know you didn’t much care for my takedown of The Corporal’s regurgitation of this stupid meme but isn’t it high time someone called them out?
This notion is getting a LOT of play on Reich-Wing radio and the blogs. I would like to see you perform the same public service that you did on the the Boortz/Linder “Fair Tax” scam—revealing the believers as cult members, and exposing their idiotic belief system to the light of day.
By hillbilly ragger
September 23, 2008 7:54 AM | Link to this
From the dead thread: by Hillbilly Deluxe - Just an aside, I typed in my zipcode to Jay’s link. A couple of foreclosures I know of aren’t listed. It might be even worse than it looks.
Just wanted to second what the Other Hillbilly wrote. I checked my own ZIP and found that at least one property that I know to be in foreclosure wasn’t listed.
So yes, it might be worse than it looks… or, this particular database driving this particular website might just be lagging behind.
By Mrs. Godzilla
September 23, 2008 8:04 AM | Link to this
JUST FREAKIN’ LOVELY
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley may be among the biggest beneficiaries of the $700 billion U.S. plan to buy assets from financial companies while many banks see limited aid, according to Bank of America Corp.
Call TODAY
No Blank Check Bailout!
Chambliss Main: 202-224-3521 Fax: 202-224-0103
Isakson (202) 224-3643 Fax: (202) 228-0724
By GOPs got to go
September 23, 2008 8:24 AM | Link to this
Wait just a dog gone minute here. Yes there are numerous issues, and I do not claim to be a economics major, but how does Paulson get away with demanding no Judicial or Congressional scrutiny for his bail out proposal? You know what, maybe these hen house guarding foxes NEED a little scrutiny from SOMEBODY. No freaking bonus money should be handed out to anyone. If I killed someone in the ER I doubt my hospital would be giving me a