Day: February 11, 2009

Treasury Speaks…..And?…..Nothing!

Say guys I hate to tell you that “I told you so”…well that is lie…I really enjoy being right…Life is good.

Go to search and check out what I have been saying about Geithner….I had serious doubts about his leadership of the economy and yesterday’s announcement just confirmed that …He Is Not The Person To Lead Treasury”!

His announcement did not lay out plans for the economy…he talked in circles…and most of all he just looked like a deer in the headlights.  All his talking sounded like a continuation of the Bush policies of helping Wall Street and ignoring what the problems really are.  He talked and said nothing…no plans..no schemes…nothing!  The markets bombed to 380 points down while he was speaking…that should tell you that he had nothing to say that would give investors confidence.

Doubt what I say?  Then go check out what I have been saying…he is the wrong person at the wrong time.

A bailout by any other name….

Still smells like crap!

We all have heard of the Toxic Asset Relief Plan (TARP)….right?…well since it has gotten such terrible press that the Sec of Treasury has decided to rename it to TALF, Term Asset-backed Loan Facility and then there was another change…the Financial “something”.

Does the name change really change anything else about the bailout?  Nope!  It is still BS for Wall Street and very little for where the problem is….Main Street.  It is kinda like renaming a jungle to a rain forest…it changes nothing…only gives it a kinder, more serene sounding title.  IT CHANGES NOTHING!

All his vagueness has shown one thing….banks get cash..people get screwed!

2009 Anal-Ocity

It never stops!  They just keep talking and just keep making the dumbest flippin’ statements we have ever heard.

This entry into consideration is from the new RNC headman, Michael Steele, when he was interviewed by Stephanoupolus on ABC.  When analyzing the new stimulus bill he said:

“It will create work not jobs……only business creates jobs….the others are just contracts that eventually end…….”

Along that reasoning is that a work must last forever to be called a job…..thinking…..then there are very few jobs in the US at all….basically we could all be labeled as “unemployed”.

God, I love my job……

Israeli Elections Go Crazy

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hard-line rival Benjamin Netanyahu both claimed victory Tuesday in Israel‘s parliamentary election, but official results showed a race so close it could be decided by a third candidate — a rising power among the hawks.

Right-wing parties — including Netanyahu’s Likud Party — appear to have won a clear majority of 65 seats in the 120-seat parliament, which would give Netanyahu the upper hand in forming the next government.

However, with 99 percent of the votes counted, Livni’s centrist Kadima Party had 28 seats, while Likud had 27. Those results could change by a seat or two — enough to alter the outcome — when soldiers’ votes are tallied Thursday evening.

The winner of the election wasn’t clear in part because Livni could try to form a coalition with hawkish parties. It appeared ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman, who based his campaign on denying citizenship to Israeli Arabs he considers disloyal, could single-handedly determine the country’s next leader with his decision of whom to join.

He declared after the vote that he spoken to both Livni and Netanyahu and told them he could be persuaded to join either one, but he added that he wanted a “nationalist right-wing government.”

Whoever comes out on top, the political wrangling was likely to drag on for weeks, and with it the fate of international Mideast peace efforts.

A government led by Netanyahu, who opposes concessions to the Palestinians, could put Israel and the U.S. on a collision course. Netanyahu says he would allow West Bank settlements to expand and is seen as likely to contemplate military action against Iran.

Even if Livni could overcome the formidable obstacles and become Israel’s second female prime minister after Golda Meir, she would almost certainly be hindered by right-wing coalition partners opposed to her vision of giving up land in exchange for a peace deal with the Palestinians.

The partial results gave Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu Party 16 seats, placing it in third place behind Kadima and Likud — and ahead of Labor, the party that ruled Israel for decades. That gives Lieberman a key role in coalition building.

Lieberman said his party’s strong showing means he holds the key to forming the new Israeli government. Lieberman could serve in a Livni government because he is not a classic hawk who rejects any compromise with the Palestinians. Like Livni, he favors giving up parts of the West Bank. Lieberman and Livni converge on other issues that could for a basis for cooperation.

There will be weeks of crazy backstage dancing to come up with a ruling coalition.

But It Does Not Exist

During the whole political drama that was the debate on the American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan, Obama’s stimulation plan, I kept hearing all about the CBO report that basically said that if left alone the economy would recovery on its own in 10 years.  And also they kept saying just how this report stated that very little would be accomplished by the plan being offerd by the administration.

From a post in the Huffington Post:

Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won’t be spent until after 2010, have Democrats on the defensive and the GOP calling for a pullback in wasteful spending.

Funny thing is, there is no such report.  How is that for BS?

“We did not issue any report, any analysis or any study,” a CBO aide told the Huffington Post.

Rather, the nonpartisan CBO ran a small portion of an earlier version of the stimulus plan through a computer program that uses a standard formula to determine a score — how quickly money will be spent. The score only dealt with the part of the stimulus headed for the Appropriations Committee and left out the parts bound for the Ways and Means or Energy and Commerce Committee.

The CBO numbers were given to a small number of congressional Democrats and Republicans, but were not posted online because they’re not an official CBO product. (Media outlets, while reporting widely about the “report,” have declined to post it online. Here’s the whole thing.) Democratic aides say they are certain that the GOP leaked it to the Associated Press in order to undercut the spending portion of the stimulus.

The press broadly picked up on it and a simple narrative developed: the stimulus bill won’t stimulate the economy. The administration tried to push back against the CBO numbers, sending around a set of talking points making the case that the “new CBO spendout rate report is being taken out of context.”

So once again the GOP has resulted to using BS to make their case.  I guess if you do not have any facts to back up your claims then make them up….it has worked in the past…it will work in the present.

We Will Not Repeat Past Mistakes

Recently, Pres. Obama held his first official news conference as president of the US.  Most of his comments were about the trials and tribulations of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan as it makes its way through the Congress.  Personally, I thought it was a well given and acted performance.  He was cleasr and explained stuff rather simpoly so that most America could understand what he was saying.  I give him a thumbs up on that part.

However, in my opinion, he began to fall apart when the questions were asked.  The first question came from AP’s Jennifer Loven she asked about his rhetoric of the plan’s wording say that he was dumbing down the dire consequences.  Obama set off to explain why he was making the situation so dire.  All in all it was a good answer until he came to the part and said,  “What I won’t do is return to the failed theories of the last eight years that got us into this fix in the first place, because those theories have been tested, and they have failed. And that’s part of what the election in November was all about.”

That is just so much BS!  Bank bailout–Bush, tax cuts–Bush, massive spending–Bush.  He cannot say that he is changing the direction of government when he is using the same logic that was employed by Bush and the Boyz.

I do agree that some form of intervention is needed and the Repubs and that damn reoccurring “tax cut” thingy is not the way to go.  I personally would prefer a more incremental approach…..spend and see how it works and then spend some more with adjustments and see how it works and so….

Sorry guys–Obama is using basically the same failed theories of the past eight years.  Now when was that change suppose to come about?

“Gotcha Politics”

Have you people enjoyed the last couple of weeks of political theater?  Or what I call “gotcha politics”.

You know what I am talking about…..all the posturing in the debate over the Obama Stimulus plan.  Theater?  Yes indeedy…political theater at its best (or worst, depending on your point of view).  All that he said they said was nothing more than a positioning of a party looking to 2010.

I have to hand it to the Repubs, they did a fine job of taking the message away from the President.  Now they will continue and pray that the stimulus plan is a failure or at least does not do as much as is expected.  Then the stage will be set for their return to power in 2010 mid term elections.

After all that was what this whole debate was about……the power thing!