Sunday, December 18, 2011

OBAMA'S STAGGERING CORRUPTION - The Man That Hated America


Shaping up to be the most corrupt
administration in American history:

  • Obama’s team: Not the “best of the Washington insiders,” as the liberal media style them, but rather, a dysfunctional and dangerous conglomerate of business-as-usual cronies and hacks
  • In the first two weeks alone of his infant administration, Obama had made no fewer than 17 exceptions to his “no-lobbyist” rule
  • Why the fact that the massive infusion of union dues into his campaign treasury didn’t trouble him in the least reveals Obama’s credibility as a reformer
  • The lack of unprecedented pace of withdrawals and botched appointments -- and how getting through the confirmation process was no guarantee of ethical cleanliness or competence, even as Obama’s cheerleaders were glorifying the Greatest Transition in World History
  • Inconsistency: How Obama, erstwhile critic of the campaign finance practice known as “bundling,” happily accepted more than $350,000 in bundled contributions from billionaire hedge-fund managers
  • How Obama broke his transparency pledge with the very first bill he signed into law -- helping make hostility to transparency is a running thread through Obama’s cabinet
  • Michelle Obama: Beneath the cultured pearls, sleeveless designer dresses, and eyelashes applied by her full-time makeup artist, is a hardball Chicago politico
  • Joe Biden: It’s not just that he lies, it’s that he lies so well that you think he really believes the stuff he makes up
  • Treasury Secretary Geithner: His ineptness and epic blundering -- including how he nearly caused the collapse of the dollar in international trade with a single remark
  • The appalling story of Technology Czar Vivek Kundra, the convicted shoplifter in charge of the entire federal government’s information security infrastructure
  • Obama’s “Porker of the Month” Transportation Secretary, Roy LaHood: An earmark-addicted influence peddler born and raised on the politics of pay-to-play
  • SEIU: Responsible for installing a cabal of hand-chosen officers who exploited their cash-infused fiefdoms for personal gain and presided over rigged elections -- in the process, becoming all that they had professed to stand against as representatives of the downtrodden worker
  • How Obama lied on his “Fight the Smears” campaign website when he claimed that he “never organized with ACORN”
  • ACORN: How the profound threat the group poses is not merely ideological or economic -- it’s electoral
  • ACORN’s own internal review of shady money transfers among its web of affiliates: How it underscores concerns that conservatives have long raised about the organization
  • Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire: How Hillary Clinton has already trampled upon her promise not to let her husband’s financial dealings sway her decisions as Secretary of State
  • How even a few principled progressives are finally beginning to question the cult of Obama -- even as Obama sycophants in the mainstream media continue to celebrate his “hipness” and “swagga”

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The Democrats’ Culture of Corruption


Posted 10/23/2009 ET
Updated 10/26/2009 ET



Democrats took control of the House in 2006 and the White House in 2008 by successfully painting the Republican majority as a "Culture of Corruption."

Will voters now hold Democrats to the same standard as an even worse culture of corruption unfolds among Democrats?

To kick off the Culture of Corruption campaign against the Republicans, on January 18, 2006, Nancy Pelosi gathered Democratic House leaders for a press conference in the Thomas Jefferson building of the Library of Congress to declare "Independence from special interests" and "an end to the Republican culture of corruption."

Pelosi charged that the Republican House majority had "turned Congress into an auction house--for sale to the highest bidder", vowed to end "the K Street project" and to lead the effort "to turn the most closed, corrupt Congress in history into the most open and honest Congress in history."

Pelosi went on to specifically vow that she would "end 'dead of night' special interest provisions that turn bills into special interest giveaways" and that "lawmakers must have the opportunity to read every bill before they vote on it. It's common sense."

She further vowed to "prohibit cronyism on key appointments by making sure any individual appointed to a position has proven credentials" and demanded "strong (ethics) enforcement, with an active and functioning Ethics Committee."

Pelosi concluded the press conference flatly promising "With this agenda, Democrats will create the most open and honest government in history, and put power back where it belongs -- in the hands of all the people".

Nearly four years later, power flows to more lobbyists than ever, thousand-page plus bills are not made available for anyone to read before they’re voted on and special interest amendments festoon these bills like ornaments on the White House Christmas tree.  More than 30 "czars" (too many of them radical leftists) are appointed with no "proven credentials".

The President shakes down Wall Street for campaign contributions as a "thank you" present (as the New York Times put it) for the big bailouts.  Candidate Obama repeatedly said, "I'm the only candidate who doesn't take money from corporate PACs and lobbyists," but he really never bought the Pelosi "corruption" rhetoric.

On October 1, 2007, candidate Obama spent three hours in person and in a video conference in the Miami offices of Greenberg Traurig with employees and partners of this billion dollar law and lobbying firm once associated with Jack Abramoff. Obama raised $125,000 from the firm that year.

Charlie Rangel claims ignorance on taxes owed on rental income, even as he writes tax law for the House. On Pelosi’s orders, the Ethics Committee ignores Charlie's lapses and refuses to hold hearings or investigate. Charlie keeps his chairmanship.  He does not resign as Tom DeLay did.

"Turbo Tax" Tim Geithner claims ignorance on taxes not paid he previously acknowledged in writing he would pay. Tim becomes the Treasury Secretary.

The revolving door of executives from “too big to fail” companies into the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve and then back out to jobs and big bonuses in the firms they “regulated” stinks of corruption.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid holds days of closed door meetings with two other Democrat Senators and Rahm Emanuel from the White House to secretly write the health "reform" bill. A "dead of night" amendment at Reid's request immunizes only his state of Nevada from increased costs associated with the "reform" bill's expansion of Medicaid.

“The Most Honest and Open Government” sounded good, but calling Reid, Pelosi, and Obama’s actual practices the most open and honest is a whole lot like saying that Tammany Hall represented good government for the citizens of the City of New York!

To be sure the GOP has had its problems with corruption; but for every Jack Abramoff there is a Jack Murtha. For Every Duke Cunningham, there is a William Jefferson (D-La.) with a freezer full of cold hard cash. Where’s the promised clean, honest, and open government ?

For Nancy Pelosi’s 2006 assertion to ring true one would have to see the pool of lobbying and pay-for-play money dry up. The number of registered lobbyists has increased since Obama’s inauguration to over 18,000 and campaign contributions to both parties are coming in like there is no recession.

It is not for nothing that Washington, D.C. has a 6% unemployment rate and the Washington Times regards the Beltway as the new ‘it’ town when it comes to being young, rich and beautiful. These are not the best and brightest, they are the bought and paid for -- and they are buying and selling you, on behalf of the Pelosi, Rangel, Geithner, Reid, Obama regime.

Lest I be labeled a naked partisan, let me give some credit to Obama, who was correct when he said in 2006, “"Freedom today is in jeopardy it is being threatened by corruption. Corruption is not a new problem…it is a human problem.” Obama was right. But when he uttered those words he was speaking to students at the University of Nairobi about their country, Kenya. Sadly those words now apply to Obama’s America.

It is a shame the President and the Democrat congressional leadership has come up so short for those who voted to see hope and change but who instead have experienced being short changed by the new culture of corruption.

Will American voters hold the Democrats accountable in 2010 ?  Will the Republicans offer an alternative or show any sign that they have learned their lesson?



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Lou Dobbs Tonight
Thursday, July 9, 2009

And Harvard economics professor JEFFREY MIRON will weigh in on the state of the U.S. economy—and why the only plausible argument for bailing out banks crumbles on close examination.

GET THIS BOOK!

Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses




BY TIMOTHY P CARNEY

 Editorial Reviews

Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?

Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.

Congressman Ron Paul says, “Every libertarian and free-market conservative needs to read Obamanomics.” And Johan Goldberg, columnist and bestselling author says, “Obamanomics is conservative muckraking at its best and an indispensable field guide to the Obama years.”

If you’ve wondered what’s happening to America, as the federal government swallows up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts deficit exploding “stimulus packages,” this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam. Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book names the names—and it will make your blood boil.

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Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?

Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers.

Investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics. In this explosive book, Carney reveals:

* The Great Health Care Scam—Obama’s backroom deals with drug companies spell corporate profits and more government control
* The Global Warming Hoax—Obama has bought off industries with a pork-filled bill that will drain your wallet for Al Gore’s agenda
* Obama and Wall Street—“Change” means more bailouts and a heavy Goldman Sachs presence in the West Wing (including Rahm Emanuel)
* Stimulating K Street—The largest spending bill in history gave pork to the well-connected and created a feeding frenzy for lobbyists
* How the GOP needs to change its tune—drastically—to battle Obamanomics

If you’ve wondered what’s happening to our country, as the federal government swallows up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts deficit exploding “stimulus packages” that create make-work government jobs, this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam. Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book names the names—and it will make your blood boil.

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Praise for Obamanomics

“The notion that ‘big business’ is on the side of the free market is one of progressivism’s most valuable myths. It allows them to demonize corporations by day and get in bed with them by night. Obamanomics is conservative muckraking at its best. It reveals how President Obama is exploiting the big business mythology to undermine the free market and stick it to entrepreneurs, taxpayers, and consumers. It’s an indispensable field guide to the Obama years.”
—Jonha Goldberg, LA Times columnist and best-selling author

“‘Every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich.’ With this astute observation, Tim Carney begins his task of laying bare the Obama administration’s corporatist governing strategy, hidden behind the president’s populist veneer. This meticulously researched book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how Washington really works.”
—David Freddoso, best-selling author of The Case Against Barack Obama

“Every libertarian and free-market conservative who still believes that large corporations are trusted allies in the battle for economic liberty needs to read this book, as does every well-meaning liberal who believes that expansions of the welfare-regulatory state are done to benefit the common people.”
—Congressman Ron Paul

“It’s understandable for critics to condemn President Obama for his ‘socialism.’ But as Tim Carney shows, the real situation is at once more subtle and more sinister. Obamanomics favors big business while disproportionately punishing everyone else. So-called progressives are too clueless to notice, as usual, which is why we have Tim Carney and this book.”
—Thomas E. Woods, Jr., best-selling author of Meltdown and The Politically Incorrect Guideto American History

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·         Hardcover: 256 pages

·         Publisher: Regnery Press (November 30, 2009)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 1596986123

·         ISBN-13: 978-1596986121

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ARE AMAZED AT HOW UTTERLY BRAZEN THESE CORPORATE OWNED POLITICIANS ARE?

GET THIS BOOK!

Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies

by Michelle Malkin

Editorial Reviews

In her shocking new book, Malkin digs deep into the records of President Obama's staff, revealing corrupt dealings, questionable pasts, and abuses of power throughout his administration.

From the Inside Flap

The era of hope and change is dead....and it only took six months in office to kill it.

Never has an administration taken office with more inflated expectations of turning Washington around. Never have a media-anointed American Idol and his entourage fallen so fast and hard. In her latest investigative tour de force, New York Times bestselling author Michelle Malkin delivers a powerful, damning, and comprehensive indictment of the culture of corruption that surrounds Team Obama's brazen tax evaders, Wall Street cronies, petty crooks, slum lords, and business-as-usual influence peddlers. In Culture of Corruption, Malkin reveals:

* Why nepotism beneficiaries First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are Team Obama's biggest liberal hypocrites--bashing the corporate world and influence-peddling industries from which they and their relatives have benefited mightily

* What secrets the ethics-deficient members of Obama's cabinet--including Hillary Clinton--are trying to hide

* Why the Obama White House has more power-hungry, unaccountable "czars" than any other administration

* How Team Obama's first one hundred days of appointments became a litany of embarrassments as would-be appointee after would-be appointee was exposed as a tax cheat or had to withdraw for other reasons

* How Obama's old ACORN and union cronies have squandered millions of taxpayer dollars and dues money to enrich themselves and expand their power

* How Obama's Wall Street money men and corporate lobbyists are ruining the economy and helping their friends In Culture of Corruption, Michelle Malkin lays bare the Obama administration's seamy underside that the liberal media would rather keep hidden.

            Publisher: Regnery Publishing (July 27, 2009)

           Language: English

           ISBN-10: 1596981091

           ISBN-13: 978-1596981096

 JUDICIAL WATCH’S TEN MOST CORRUPT............................................ 2007

Unfortunately the corruption of these politicians noted is only a drop in the bucket of what they’re guilty of.

One common ground for all of them is they will all protect and cover each other’s crimes.

1. SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON D-NY: In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release her official White House records. Many suspect these records contain a treasure trove of information related to her role in a number of serious Clinton-era scandals. Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint against Senator Clinton for filing false financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate (again). And Hillary’s top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu, was exposed as a felon and a fugitive from justice in 2007. Hsu pleaded guilty to one count of grand theft for defrauding investors as part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.

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CLINTON IS A MAJOR LA RAZA SUPPORTER AND ADVANCED BUSH’S BIT BY BIT AMNESTY ALONG WITH HER OWN CHAIN MIGRATION WHICH IS CALCULATED TO DOUBLE THE 40 MILLION ILLEGALS ALREADY HERE.

CLINTON IS ALSO VERY MUCH IN BED WITH THE SAUDIS WHOM GAVE 10 MILLION TO BILL CLINTON’S LIBRARY. NO COMMENT ON THE FACT THE SAUDIS ARE MAJOR FINANCIERS OF TERRORISM, INCLUDING BOMBERS IN IRAQ KILLING OUR PEOPLE, OR THE SAUDI FUNDED WAHHABI SCHOOLS WHICH PROMOTE ULTRA-FASCIST MUSLIM IDEOLOGIES.

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2. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI):

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3. Senator Larry Craig (R-ID):

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4. SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA): As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on military construction, Feinstein reviewed military construction government contracts, some of which were ultimately awarded to URS Corporation and Perini, companies then owned by Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum. While the Pentagon ultimately awards military contracts, there is a reason for the review process. The Senate's subcommittee on Military Construction's approval carries weight. Sen. Feinstein, therefore, likely had influence over the decision making process. Senator Feinstein also attempted to undermine ethics reform in 2007, arguing in favor of a perk that allows members of Congress to book multiple airline flights and then cancel them without financial penalty. Judicial Watch’s investigation into this matter is ongoing.

YOU SAW FEINSTEIN, AND HER PIMP-HUSBAND, RICHARD C BLUM,  AT OBAMA’S INAUGURAL. BLUM KEEPS DEM POLS MOUTH CLOSED TIGHT ON FEINSTEIN’S SELF-SERVING CORRUPTION, PIMPED BY BLUM, BY HANDING OUT MONEY LEFT AND RIGHT. BLUM HAS PAID LEGAL  BRIBES TO – BOXER – KERRY – KENNEDY – CLINTON – OBAMA – AND THE OTHER WAR WHORE, JOE LIEBERMAN.

DIANNE FEINSTEIN IS THE PAID ADVOCATE FOR RED CHINA IN CONGRESS.

FEINSTEIN TRADED TWO (BOXER’S) NO IMPEACHMENT PROMISES TO GEORGE W. BUSH FOR HER PIMP’S ACCESS TO THE CARLYLE BIG BUSH SAUDI OIL WAR PROFITEERING CLUB. WITH HER FIRST WAR PROFITS CHECK FEINSTEIN WENT OUT AND PURCHASED A $17 MILLION DOLLAR MANSION IN SAN FRANCISCO. FEINSTEIN RANKS AS ONE OF THE MOST CORRUPT POLITICIANS IN AMERICAN HISTORY WHICH MADE HER ATTRACTION TO BOTH BUSH AND OBAMA OBVIOUS.

FEINSTEIN HAS LONG BEEN ENDORSED BY THE FASCIST MEXICAN SUPREMACIST POLITICAL PARTY OF LA RAZA, AND TIRELESSLY WORKS FOR NO AMNESTY, NO WALL, NO ID FOR ILLEGALS TO VOTE, NO ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS PROHIBITING THE EMPLOYMENT OF ILLEGALS, AND NO E-VERIFY.

FEINSTEIN HAS LONG ILLEGALLY EXPLOITED “CHEAP” LABOR ILLEGALS AT HER SAN FRANCISCO HOTEL.

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5. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY):

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6. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR

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7. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby: Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick

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8. SENATOR BARACK OBAMA (D-IL): A “Dishonorable Mention” last year, Senator Obama moves onto the “ten most wanted” list in 2007. In 2006, it was discovered that Obama was involved in a suspicious real estate deal with an indicted political fund raiser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko. In 2007, more reports surfaced of deeper and suspicious business and political connections It was reported that just two months after he joined the Senate, Obama purchased $50,000 worth of stock in speculative companies whose major investors were his biggest campaign contributors. One of the companies was a biotech concern that benefitted from legislation Obama pushed just two weeks after the senator purchased $5,000 of the company’s shares. Obama was also nabbed conducting campaign business in his Senate office, a violation of federal law.

FEW HAVE TAKEN MORE MONEY FROM WALL STREET BANKSTERS THAN OBAMA, AND FEW HAVE DONE MORE FOR THEM TO PROTECT THEM FROM PROSECUTION, AND CONTINUE THE TRANSFER OF THIS ONCE GREAT NATION’S ECONOMY OVER TO THE CORPORATE CLASS WHICH OWNS HIM.

OBAMA IS A MAJOR HISPANDERER AND HAS PROMISED WALL STREET AMNESTY FOR 38 MILLION ILLEGALS TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED AND PROFIT MARGINS SWOLLEN. NO WORD FROM OBAMA ON MEXICAN GANGS MURDERING BLACKS IN COLD BLOOD IN LOS ANGELES. DO SEARCH LOS ANGELES TIMES.

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9. REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who promised a new era of ethics enforcement in the House of Representatives, snuck a $25 million gift to her husband, Paul Pelosi, in a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act recently passed by Congress. The pet project involved renovating ports in Speaker Pelosi's home base of San Francisco. Pelosi just happens to own apartment buildings near the areas targeted for improvement, and will almost certainly experience a significant boost in property value as a result of Pelosi's earmark. Earlier in the year, Pelosi found herself in hot water for demanding access to a luxury Air Force jet to ferry the Speaker and her entourage back and forth from San Francisco non-stop, in unprecedented request which was wisely rejected by the Pentagon. And under Pelosi’s leadership, the House ethics process remains essentially shut down – which protects members in both parties from accountability.



PELOSI HAS LONG HIRED ILLEGALS TO WORK HER 20 MILLION DOLLAR NAPA WINERY. SHE HAS SUBSTANTIAL INVESTMENTS IN SUNKIST WHICH HAS A POLICY AGAINST PAYING LIVING WAGES OR HIRING LEGALS.  SHE WORKS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS WITH THE OTHER LA RAZA SUPPORTERS, FEINSTEIN, BOXER, ESHOO, LOFGREN, SANCHEZ, WAXMAN, KENNEDY, HARMAN, BACA, HONDA, FONG, BECERRA  AND REID TO KEEP THE BORDERS OPEN. SHE HAS WORKED TIRELESSLY TO SABOTAGE THE WALL TO PROTECT US FROM NARCO-MEX.



10. SENATOR HARRY REID (D-NV): Over the last few years, Reid has been embroiled in a series of scandals that cast serious doubt on his credibility as a self-professed champion of government ethics, and 2007 was no different. According to The Los Angeles Times, over the last four years, Reid has used his influence in Washington to help a developer, Havey Whittemore, clear obstacles for a profitable real estate deal. As the project advanced, the Times reported, “Reid received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Whittemore.” Whittemore also hired one of Reid’s sons (Leif) as his personal lawyer and then promptly handed the junior Reid the responsibility of negotiating the real estate deal with federal officials. Leif Reid even called his father’s office to talk about how to obtain the proper EPA permits, a clear conflict of interest.

ON BEHALF OF HIS BIG GAMBLING BRIBE-STERS, REID WORKS WITH THE CALIFORNIA LA RAZA GIRLS FOR OPEN BORDERS, AMNESTY AND NO LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST ILLEGALS. HIS STATE IS NOW 25% ILLEGAL, AND NEXT TO CALIFORNIA, HAS THE HIGHEST RATES OF FORECLOSURES.

SENATOR BARBARA BOXER, CA. Although Boxer did not make the TOP TEN CORRUPT in 2007,  it’s probably only because there wasn’t enough room. Boxer is as corrupt as they come. She has used her elected office to collect a staggering fortune labeled “CONSULTANT FEES”, which she then siphoned off to her son, lawyer DOUGLAS BOXER. Senator Barbara Boxer voted NO to stop this form of corruption, and keeps herself on the SENATE’S NO ETHICS COMMITTEE to sabotage any investigations into FEINSTEIN’S massive corruption. Other politicians that collect special interest bribes they refer to as “CONSULTANT FEES” are Kennedy and JOE BIDEN who has collected big money from BIG BANKERS. This made the clown an obvious choice to be VICE PRESIDENT for OBAMA pandering for more BANKSTERS BRIBES.

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WHAT DID THE BANKSTERS KNOW ABOUT OUR ACTOR OBAMA THAT WE DIDN’T KNOW?

Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).

BARACK OBAMA HAS COLLECTED NEARLY TWICE AS MUCH MONEY AS JOHN McCAIN

BY DAVID SALTONSTALL

DAILY NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

July 1st 2008

Wall Street firms have chipped in more than $9 million to Barack Obama. Zurga/Bloomberg

Wall Street is investing heavily in Barack Obama.
Although the Democratic presidential hopeful has vowed to raise capital gains and corporate taxes, financial industry bigs have contributed almost twice as much to Obama as to GOP rival John McCain, a Daily News analysis of campaign records shows.

 "Wall Street wants change and wants a curtailment in spending. It wants someone who focuses on the domestic economy," said Jim Cramer, the boisterous host of CNBC's "Mad Money."

 Cramer also does not discount nostalgia for the go-go 1990s, when Bill Clinton led the largest economic expansion in history.

 "It wants a Clinton like in 1992, but not a Hillary Clinton," he said. "That's Barack Obama."

For both candidates, Wall Street's investment and banking sectors have become among their portliest cash cows, contributing $9.5 million to Obama and $5.3 million to McCain so far.
It's a haul that is already raising concerns that, as the nation's faltering economy has become issue No. 1, the two candidates may have a hard time playing tough on issues like market regulation or corporate-tax loopholes.

 "No matter who wins in November, Wall Street will have a friend in the White House," said Massie Ritsch of the Center for Responsive Politics, which crunched the data for The News.
Wall Street's generosity toward Obama, in particular, would seem to run counter to its self-interests.

 In addition to calling for corporate and capital gains tax hikes, Obama has proposed raising income taxes on those earning more than $250,000.
But Wall Street is often motivated by something more than money - winning.

 "In general, these are professional prognosticators," said Ritsch. "And they may be putting their money on the person they predict will win, not the candidate they hope will win."

 Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).





CRAIGSLIST SURRENDERS FREE SPEECH TO CA LAWYER RICHARD HILARY GIBSON, a/k/a THE CL FLAGGER STALKER


CRAIGSLIST is substantially a highly profitable platform for CRIME.

THOSE THAT HAVE ATTEMPT TO USE THIS “FREE” PLATFORM FOR POSTING ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ARE AWARE OF THE CL FLAGGER, AND HAVE PROBABLY GIVEN UP ATTEMPTING TO POST, AS GIBSON’S CONTROL OVER CL CONTINUED FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS TO EXPAND UNTIL NOW HE CONTROLS ALL OF CL POLITICS AND RANTS FORUMS AROUND THE COUNTRY.


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While CEO Jim Buckmaster would claim it is a platform for FREE SPEECH, on the CRAIGSLIST politics and rants forums around the country, in fact CL has long permitted on individual, RICHARD GIBSON of California turn these forums around the country into his personal platform for HATE CRIMES, RACISM, ANTI- SEMITISM AND HIS UNRELENTING CRIMINAL HARASSMENT and STALKING of those that attempt to post on these forums.

GIBSON CONTROLS ALL CRAIGSLIST politics and rants forums around the country. Gibson overrides flagging and deletes ALL posts that are not his own!


FORECLOSED ON AMERICA - OBAMA & HIS CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS


OBAMAnomics…
Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).
Obama has done absolutely nothing about FORECLOSED ON AMERICA, after all the crisis was caused by his criminal bankster donors, and they’re hauling in record profits now. Obama has kept his promise of not punishing his banksters. Not even one has gone to jail, or ever will be. Just as Bush 1 made sure his SAVINGS & LOAN donors would escape by the statute of limitations, OBAMA will watch a nation being foreclosed on as he fills his pockets with bankster pillage!

NO PRESIDENT IN HISTORY HAS TAKEN MORE MONEY FROM BANKS THAN BARACK OBAMA.


Modification blunders bedevil U.S. housing recovery

By Aruna Viswanatha | Reuters – 2 hrs 40 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Shirley Burnell, a community activist from Oakland, California, has been trying to get her subprime loan restructured since 2007.

She never missed a payment, but the adjustable rate mortgage she got in 2004 shot up to a monthly payment she could no longer afford.

First she provided documents without getting any response, then she was denied in April by her servicer, Bank of America, for not providing documents it never actually asked for.

As one part of the bank appealed that decision and approved her for a trial modification, another part denied her again - twice - providing two new reasons in part based on inaccurate calculations, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.

When asked about Burnell's case, a bank spokesman said she was unable to qualify under "imminent default provisions," a third reason that Burnell said she had never been given.

At one point, Burnell even received notice the bank would accelerate foreclosure proceedings, despite her perfect payment record and the letter itself saying the bank owed her $281.01.

"They gave you a funky loan in the first place, and now they're refusing to work with people to get it worked out," Burnell said. "It just keeps you upset all the time."

Bank of America is "committed to keeping customers in their homes whenever the homeowner has the financial wherewithal to make reasonable payments and the desire to keep the home," a spokesman for the bank said.

Three years after the foreclosure crisis began, the process to apply for a loan modification remains a bureaucratic nightmare that is complicating the housing recovery and could dull the impact of any Obama administration initiatives in the works.

The administration's biggest foreclosure-prevention effort, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), targeted to help 3 million to 4 million homeowners, has reached only about a quarter of that since its 2009 inception.

The program pushed mortgage servicers to cut interest, extend terms, or defer parts of a loan in an effort to reduce monthly payments and keep borrowers in their homes.

But servicers have dragged their feet on providing wide-scale modifications. They continue to lose documents, use inaccurate numbers to issue denials, or both approve and deny applications at the same time, according to housing advocates.

"It delays resolution of the problem of defaulting loans and it is adding uncertainty to the market," said Susan Wachter, a housing expert at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Around one in every 12 mortgages in the country is delinquent, and only a fraction of them have received modifications.

"Somehow the borrower is unreachable, or the servicer hasn't found the right way to reach the borrower, but the fact is, we see (modifications) piercing maybe 10 to 25 percent of the potential population," said Diane Westerback, a managing director of global surveillance analytics at Standard & Poor's.

Banks have stepped up efforts to deal with the foreclosure crisis since 2009. Chase, for example, set up 82 centers around the country specifically to deal with struggling homeowners. Wells Fargo hosts one-day fairs for homeowners to bring in all of their paperwork and potentially get approved for a modification on the spot.

Bank of America says it has completed almost 1 million modifications since 2008, and Wells Fargo says it initiated or completed more than two modifications for every one foreclosure of owner-occupied homes in the past two years.

But the majority of homeowners, advocates say, still get stuck in byzantine mazes, with no real enforcement mechanism to pursue under HAMP.

"If you get a minor traffic ticket, you get a right to an impartial hearing, but if you are applying for federal home saving assistance, the bank is judge, jury, and executioner," said Joseph Sant, a lawyer at Staten Island Legal Services who helps defend homeowners facing foreclosure.

'GOING IN CIRCLES'

It took nearly one year for Hakan Tale to convince his servicer, Chase, that it overvalued his house by more than $100,000 in rejecting a modification.

Once he was able to convince Chase of that mistake, it rejected him again, dropping his monthly income by almost $4,000 and determining he didn't make enough money to qualify, even though his actual income had not changed.

In November, more than two years after Tale first sought a modification, Chase asked him to submit an entirely new application.

"Maybe they don't want me to be an example for other people," said Tale, who lives with his wife and three children in Staten Island, New York. "Any excuse they find, they deny it."

"We have worked with the customer and reviewed his application multiple times, and have been involved in multiple mediation meetings," a Chase spokesman said.

Another Staten Island resident, 77-year-old Hamson McPherson, was first denied a modification two years ago by his servicer, Wells Fargo, after it miscalculated his income.

The bank then served him with a foreclosure summons and complaint, which in New York can lead to court-supervised settlement conference. But it stalled on moving forward for so long that McPherson triggered the proceedings himself in August 2011 to try to negotiate an alternative to foreclosure.

In October, more than two years after he first applied for a modification, the bank told him there was an investor restriction on the loan, which meant it couldn't modify it.

That investor agreement was public, Wells Fargo told him.

But after confronting the bank with that agreement, which did not include any such restriction, the bank told him there was a previously undisclosed secret document that included the restriction.

"It's a nightmare," McPherson said, "when you have these things, you don't get proper sleep at all."

In an ironic twist, the hold music played when he called Wells Fargo once was a song called, "Going in Circles."

"I listened to it for five minutes and then hung up because I was so upset," he said.

A Wells Fargo spokesman said the bank has "worked for some time to find payment assistance within the investor guidelines of the loan."

"We continue to work with him to find alternatives to foreclosure," the spokesman said.

'NOT DOING THEIR JOB'

Even with staff additions -- Chase, for example, added some 10,000 employees to deal with defaults, and Bank of America increased its 5,000 employees to 40,000 -- individual negotiators can still have hundreds, or even thousands of cases open, according to housing advocates.

Employees can be so overwhelmed that applications languish for months. Banks consider financial documents "stale" within two or three months, forcing homeowners to provide updated documents all over again.

While housing counselors have seen some improvements in the past few years, many borrowers are still not even able to email applications in; they have to fax them in, thus creating no real paper trail.

Carlos Cespedes, an advocate with the Neighborhood of Affordable Housing in Boston, said his files include 25 faxes of the same document, provided over and over to a servicer that said it never received it or lost it.

One of his clients traveled to Central America to obtain her deported husband's signature on a document renouncing his interest in the property, but had to send that same document six times to her servicer who kept losing it.

"These are institutions that have taken a huge amount of bailout money. There should be a level of responsibility to communities," said Josh Zinner, an advocate with the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project in New York. "HAMP is far from perfect, but the biggest problem is servicers not doing their job."

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http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/06/assault-on-america-by-obama-his.html

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/08/barack-obama-one-of-greatest-tragedies.html

As part of the bank bailout, the Treasury Department was given $46 billion to spend on keeping homeowners in their houses; to date, the agency has spent about $1.85 billion.

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They also say programs to curb foreclosure are voluntary, so they are limited in how far they can push mortgage servicers and investors, who often make more from foreclosures than from offering aid.

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NEW YORK TIMES

June 4, 2011

For the Jobless, Little U.S. Help on Foreclosure


The Obama administration’s main program to keep distressed homeowners from falling into foreclosure has been aimed at those who took out subprime loans or other risky mortgages during the heady days of the housing boom. But these days, the primary cause of foreclosures is unemployment.

As a result, there is a mismatch between the homeowner program’s design and the country’s economic realities — and a new round of finger-pointing about how best to fix it.

The administration’s housing effort does include programs to help unemployed homeowners, but they have been plagued by delays, dubious benefits and abysmal participation. For example, a Treasury Department effort started in early 2010 allows the jobless to postpone mortgage payments for three months, but the average length of unemployment is now nine months. As of March 31, there were only 7,397 participants.

“So far, I think the public record will show that programs to help unemployed homeowners have not been very successful,” said Jeffrey C. Fuhrer, an executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Data released last week suggests that the administration’s task is only growing more difficult as the problems created by unemployment and housing persist. New job growth in May was anemic, and unemployment inched up to 9.1 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Earlier in the week, a widely watched index found that housing prices had dropped to their lowest level in nearly a decade. And while the rate of homes falling into foreclosure has slowed, the reason is delays in processing foreclosures, not a housing recovery, according to RealtyTrac, a company that tracks foreclosures. There were 219,258 foreclosure filings in April, the latest month available.

Critics of the Obama administration’s approach to preventing foreclosures have pressed for two years to get officials to focus more of their attention on unemployed homeowners, with meager results. As part of the bank bailout, the Treasury Department was given $46 billion to spend on keeping homeowners in their houses; to date, the agency has spent about $1.85 billion.

Morris A. Davis, a former Federal Reserve economist, estimates that as many as a million homeowners slipped into foreclosure because of insufficient help for the unemployed.

“The money was there and they didn’t spend it,” said Mr. Davis, an associate real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin. “I don’t mean to sound outraged, but I am pretty outraged.”

Administration officials said their programs have had a positive impact, albeit not as large as they had hoped. But they say that the problems of unemployment and negative equity on homes are not easily solved. They also say programs to curb foreclosure are voluntary, so they are limited in how far they can push mortgage servicers and investors, who often make more from foreclosures than from offering aid.

“We are trying to be careful in designing programs that at the end of the day aren’t just about spending money but getting people back on their feet,” said James Parrott, a senior adviser at the White House’s National Economic Council.

President Obama has been scrambling to curb the number of foreclosures ever since he arrived at the White House.

At the start of 2009, the administration announced its primary foreclosure prevention initiative, the Home Affordable Modification Program. It provides incentives to banks to modify mortgages, reducing monthly payments for eligible homeowners.

The administration said the program would help three million to four million homeowners, but so far, only 670,000 homeowners have received permanent modifications. In addition, the program was primarily meant for homeowners with risky mortgages; jobless owners are often ineligible because some payment, albeit reduced, is required.

Administration officials said the program was helping homeowners whose income had been reduced. Sixty-one percent of homeowners who received permanent modifications listed “curtailment of income” as their reason for applying, though it is not known how many of them are unemployed or simply had their hours or pay reduced.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development received $1 billion as part of the financial regulatory reforms that passed last year to help unemployed homeowners. That money will be used to provide government loans to unemployed homeowners for up to 24 months.

Though the program was announced last fall, so far applications are being accepted in only five states; the others are delayed because of “implementation challenges,” a HUD spokeswoman said.

Critics do acknowledge one bright spot — the Hardest Hit Fund, a federal program that will provide $7.6 billion so that some states can administer their own programs for struggling homeowners. Of that, 70 percent will be directed to unemployed homeowners, said Andrea Risotto, a Treasury spokeswoman.

So far, $455 million has been spent. Over the last several years, academics, housing groups and government economists offered proposals to Treasury officials to help the unemployed avoid foreclosure.

One, which Mr. Fuhrer of the Boston Fed helped write, called on the government to provide loans, or grants, to unemployed or underemployed homeowners to make up for the amount of income they lost. The loan would have to be repaid once the homeowner found a new job.

Another proposal, by a non-profit group called the PICO National Network, a coalition of faith-based community organizations, would have allowed unemployed homeowners to postpone much or all of their mortgage payments for a year or more.

But administration officials have balked, arguing that regulators and “other industry stakeholders expressed strong reservations” about allowing unemployed homeowners to extend payments for longer terms, according to a Dec. 23 letter that Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner sent to Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, who had pressed for measures that would more directly aid the unemployed.

The debate is playing out on the sidelines of partisan Washington politics, since Republican lawmakers have made clear they would like to get rid of anti-foreclosure programs altogether, and would block any new programs. Instead, it is setting homeowner advocates against administration officials over how to spend money already appropriated.

Administration officials maintain that the decision on whether to offer mortgage relief to homeowners ultimately was up to mortgage servicers and investors, not the government, which can provide incentives but not compel action.

“We as an administration have limited levers,” Mr. Parrot said. “We can push them on the margins.”

But Lewis Finfer, a PICO organizer, said he could not understand why the administration had not been more receptive given the extent of unemployment.

“We have a program to deal with this,” he said.

Many unemployed or underemployed homeowners said they would welcome an extended break in mortgage payments.

Mary Ernest, 51, of Blackstone, Mass., lost her job as a school aide and said she had been “reduced to begging, more or less,” to keep her home. Adam Heyman, 41, of Chelsea, Mass., scraped together enough money to pay the mortgage on his condominium for about 18 months. Though he finally got another full-time job, his bank had already foreclosed on his condo.

“If I had a way to slow down the process or stop it for a while, that would have been nice,” Mr. Heyman said, adding, “Now I can certainly afford to pay.”
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OBAMA’S BANKSTER DONORS DOIN’ GOOD! PROFITS UP! FORECLOSURES UP! BANK NO REGULATION GUARANTEED! BAILOUTS FOR BUYOUTS…. And not a single bankster donor in prison!

WHAT DID THE BANKSTERS KNOW ABOUT OUR ACTOR OBAMA THAT WE DIDN’T KNOW?

Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).

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“Obama's rhetoric covered the whole financial industry, but the key changes will affect only a few high-profile players, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., while sparing investment banks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc.”

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Lou Dobbs Tonight

Thursday, July 9, 2009

And Harvard economics professor JEFFREY MIRON will weigh in on the state of the U.S. economy—and why the only plausible argument for bailing out banks crumbles on close examination.

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"There is a populist and conservative revolt against Wall Street and financial elites, Congress and government," Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg warned in an analysis this week. "Democrats and President Obama are seen as more interested in bailing out Wall Street than helping Main Street."

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August 21, 2010   

 Janet Tavakoli.President, Tavakoli Structured Finance

August 15, 2010  



How to Thwart the Assassins of the American Dream

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Arianna Huffington's new book, Third World America: How Our Politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream, paints a grim picture of the State of the Union:

"Every day, Americans, faced with layoffs and tough economic times, are forced to use their credit cards to pay for essentials such as food, housing, and medical care -- the costs of which continue to escalate. But, as their debt rises, they find it harder to keep up with their payments. When they don't, banks, trying to offset losses in other areas, turn around, hike interest rates, and impose all manner of fees and penalties..."

Third World America, (P. 77)



Our mediocre grammar school and high school educational system continues its downward slide. The Great Recession is squeezing school budgets. We are failing our children, our most important resource of all.



In 2009, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation's infrastructure a near failing D rating:





"Flip on a light switch, and you are tapping into a seriously overtaxed electrical grid. Go to the sink, and your tap water may be coming to you through pipes built during the Civil War. Take a drive, and pass over pothole-filled roads and cross-if-you-dare bridges. The evidence of decay is all around us." (P. 95)



The over-hyped American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 earmarked only $72 billion of the $787 billion appropriation of taxpayer dollars to projects to improve the country's infrastructure.



Meanwhile, multi-national corporations avoid taxes, sheltering $700 billion in foreign earnings to end up with a measly $16 billion (2.3%) tax bill. GM is among those companies, yet it took almost a half billion dollars in bailout loans. Boeing and KBR Halliburton are among the defense contractors that avoid taxes, while enjoying government contracts worth tens of billions.



Banks (not Fannie and Freddie) Crippled the Housing Market



Fannie and Freddie do not make loans. They purchase mortgage loans and earn fees for guaranteeing payments on the loans. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, in 2006, Fannie and Freddie accounted for 33% of total mortgage backed securities issuance. In the first half of 2010, they accounted for around 64% of new issuance. They were forced to pick up the slack and buy more when Wall Street's private label securitization Ponzi scheme blew up.



Fannie and Freddie are Wall Street's dumping ground. They would have had problems on their own, but their problems would not have been close to their current scale, and they did not create the housing bubble.



Congress twisted arms to make Fannie and Freddie buy more than $300 billion of phony "AAA" rated mortgage-backed securities from banks, not counting loans that didn't meet their stated requirements. Today Fannie and Freddie want banks to repurchase tens of billions of these loans, since they fail to meet representations and warranties, and the banks are fighting this obligation.



Top subprime lenders included Wells Fargo; Countrywide, purchased by Bank of America; Washington Mutual, now part of JPMorgan Chase; CitiMortgage, part of Citigroup; First Franklin (now closed), purchased by Merrill Lynch, which was purchased by Bank of America; ChaseHome Finance, JPMorgan Chase; Ownit, partly owned by Merrill Lynch, which was later purchased by Bank of America; and EMC, part of Bear Stearns, which was purchased by JPMorgan Chase. Most of the rest depended on massive loans from Wall Street. Many of these lenders were sued by states for fraud and paid billions in settlements.



According to Inside Mortgage Finance, the top mortgage backed securities underwriters during 2005-2006, only two of the subprime abuse years, included now defunct Lehman Brothers ($106 billion); RBS Greenwich Capital ($99 billion); Countrywide Securities, which is now part of Bank of America ($74 billion); Morgan Stanley ($74 billion);Credit Suisse First Boston ($73 billion); Merrill Lynch ($67 billion); Bear Stearns, which is now part of JPMorgan Chase ($61 billion); and Goldman Sachs ($53 billion).



The above doesn't even include the credit derivatives, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), and structured investment vehicles (SIVs) that amplified losses. Yet, Arianna notes how America imploded while bankers soared:



"Someone like [Robert] Rubin is able to wreak destruction, collect an ungodly profit, then go along his merry way, pontificating about how 'markets have an inherent and inevitable tendency -- probably rooted in human nature -- to go to excess, both on the upside and the downside.' This from the man who, as Bill Clinton's Treasury secretary, was vociferous in opposing the regulation of derivatives -- a key factor in the current economic crisis -- and who lobbied the Treasury during the Bush years to prevent the downgrading of the credit rating of Enron -- a debtor of Citigroup." (P. 150)



Robert Rubin operated an economic wrecking-ball from prestigious positions of influence including former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, director of the National Economic Council, former Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton, board member and senior "risk wizard" counselor at Citigroup, member of the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations, member of the SEC's Oversight and Financial Services Advisory Committee, unofficial econmic adviser to President Obama, and co-chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations.



Rubin is just one example of the many bankers, who helped destroy the economy while creating a connected financial oligarchy.



Hide Billions of Losses, Take Bailouts, Collect Billions, Skip Jail



Instead of apologizing for screwing up, the banks demanded the Great Bailout. At the start of the meltdown, the IMF and the U.S. administration estimated losses of $2 to $2.5 trillion. Unemployment and the losses are now shockingly worse. What was merely a recession escalated into the Great Recession.



How big are the actual losses? No one knows.



After destroying the value of major banks, culprits used their enormous political influence -- funded with taxpayer dollars -- to get Congress to force the accounting board to change accounting rules (as of April 2009) so banks don't have to recognize losses until they sell the assets.



According to William K. Black, after the much tinier S&L crisis, there were over 1,000 successful felony prosecutions, several thousand successful enforcement actions, and roughly 1,000 successful civil actions.



This time Congress gave us the Great Cover-up. Bank officers dodged jail time and collected billions in bonuses. As one of my South American friends observes, he's witnessed this third-world corruption before, and this time it's in English.



Banks Stall the Recovery and Prolong the Great Recession



Unemployment marched upward, delinquencies soared, and banks stalled foreclosures. The longer banks delay foreclosures and sales, the longer they can avoid acknowledging losses. Phony accounting and zero cost funding from taxpayers created an illusion of recovery.



Stalling helps banks while they pressure Congress to bail out failed mortgages with taxpayer dollars. Instead of working out mortgages with homeowners, they can wait for a government program to buyout or subsidize their failing loans. The markets aren't recovering, because banks own colossal chunks of mystery-meat assets.



It's a black hole of debt. If banks were forced to price these assets at market values and sell them, the market would clear, and the market would make a faster recovery. When Japan did this, it stalled its economy for twenty years, and it still hasn't recovered.



Voters Must Demand the Solution



Voters must demand that Congress uncovers and publicizes facts and prosecutes the financial system's massive multi-year frauds. This will mean thousands of felony prosecutions, enforcement actions, and civil actions.



Congress completely failed in genuine regulation and enforcement. It must start over on financial reform, regulate derivatives, commodities trading, update Glass-Steagall, and more. It will have to break-up the Too Big to Fail financial institutions.



CEOs of our Systemically Dangerous Institutions (SDI's) fail to manage them, because no one is capable of doing it. Like a morbidly obese junk food addict, banks won't even get on a scale. Our banks refuse to properly measure (account for) the problem.



Third World America elegantly summarizes the way forward. Arianna Huffington names the culprits and gives a roadmap for solutions. The rest is up to us. We deserve better than a third world economy divided by ultra-rich on one side and debt-ridden middle class and dirt poor citizens on the other. Citizens must demand a clean-up of corruption and a foundation for healthy growth.



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OBVIOUSLY WE ALL KNOW WHAT OBAMA’S DONE ABOUT FORECLOSURES. AS IS ALWAYS THE CASE WITH THIS CLOWN, HE WENT LIMP ON THE TOPIC! AS SOON AS HE FOUND OUT HIS BANKSTERS WERE MAKING HUGE PROFITS OFF THE VERY FORECLOSURES THEY CAUSED, HE ASSURE THEM THE PILLAGING WOULD ONLY GET BETTER WITH HIM IN THE WHITE HOUSE!

WELLS FARGO, AS NOTED BELOW, HAD THEIR CALIFORNIA MORTGAGE LICENSE REVOKED IN 2003 FOR CORPORATE CORRUPTION AND MALFEASANCE. THE BANK SIMPLY DECLARED ITSELF ABOVE THE LAW AND WENT ON PILLAGING AN ENTIRE NATION WITH THE SAME EXPLOITIVE AND CROOKED DEVICES THAT HAD PROVEN SO PROFITABLE IN THE PAST!

BOTH WELLS FARGO AND BANK OF AMERICA ARE MAJOR CAUSES OF FORECLOSURE AND THIS NATION’S ECONOMIC MELTDOWN!



“I’M NOT HERE TO PUNISH BANKS!” BARACK OBAMA IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION IN THE FACES OF A NATION RAPED BY BANKSTERS!



OBAMA WILL RANK AS ONE OF THE MOST LIMP AND CORRUPT PRESIDENTS IN HISTORY!

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Obama administration moves to quash state investigations of Wall Street banks

By Andre Damon and Barry Grey
24 August 2011

The Obama administration has intervened to support a settlement by banks charged with fraudulent practices in the processing of home foreclosures that would prevent state governments, New York in particular, from carrying out their own investigations of major Wall Street firms.

The New York Times reported Monday that Shaun Donovan, the US secretary of housing and urban development, together with high-ranking Justice Department personnel, has been “waging an intensifying campaign” to persuade Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, to drop his opposition to a settlement of the home foreclosure charges.

Under the proposed settlement, major banks including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Bank of America, would pay a combined total of $20 billion, which would supposedly go toward home loan modifications and homeowner counseling. In return, bank executives would be shielded from possible civil suits or criminal prosecutions arising from state probes into their role in fueling the sub-prime mortgage bubble, whose collapse triggered the financial meltdown of September 2008.

Schneiderman’s office has opened several inquiries into banking practices during the mortgage boom of the mid-2000s.

Last year it emerged that banks and mortgage companies forged documents and paid employees with no knowledge of the homes in question to sign legal documents that were then used to process foreclosures.

The amount of the settlement of charges arising from these practices—$20 billion—represents a financial wrist-slap for banks that made multiples of this figure from the creation and sale of securities linked to toxic home loans. These banks have continued to reap huge profits from speculative bets in the midst of a global economic crisis of their own making that has destroyed the jobs and living standards of countless millions in the US and around the world. Nevertheless, the banks have resisted paying even this token sum.

$20 billion will barely make a dent in a foreclosure crisis that has already thrown millions of Americans out of their homes. US homeowners collectively owe the banks $753 billion more than the market value of their homes.

Schneiderman has based his opposition to the deal on provisions barring future litigation against the banks. The Times quoted Danny Kanner, a spokesman for Schneiderman, as saying, “The attorney general remains concerned by any attempt at a global settlement that would shut down ongoing investigations of wrongdoing related to the mortgage crisis.”

Schneiderman is only the most prominent of several state attorneys general, including Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Beau Biden of Delaware, who have refused to support the proposed settlement.

In pressuring Schneiderman to drop his opposition to the deal, the Obama administration claims to be motivated by a desire for a quick resolution that would funnel $20 billion in aid to hard-pressed homeowners. “Our view is we have the immediate opportunity to help a huge number of borrowers to stay in their homes, to help their neighborhoods and the housing market,” Donovan told the Times.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department echoed this line, telling the newspaper, “The Justice Department, along with our federal agency partners and state attorneys general, are committed to... bring relief swiftly because homeowners continue to suffer more each day that these issues are not resolved.”

This pretense of humanitarian concern for the plight of distressed homeowners is utterly cynical and dishonest. Since the mortgage crisis began more than four years ago, the government, first under Bush and then under Obama, has done virtually nothing to help homeowners stay in their homes.

Under Obama, the major cause of mortgage delinquencies and defaults has shifted from predatory loan practices to the impact of prolonged unemployment. But the administration has refused to take any serious steps to halt foreclosures in deference to the banks, which fiercely oppose any measures that would negatively impact their balance sheets or profits.

The White House would have the public believe it a mere coincidence that its newfound urgency in regard to the foreclosure crisis coincides with a campaign by the banks to block legal action against them.

Executives of the major banks are meeting with law enforcement officials Thursday, the Financial Times reported, to continue negotiations over the settlement, which the newspaper said remains several weeks from completion. Representatives of Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America have remained in “frequent dialog” with state attorneys general and prosecutors, the newspaper said.

The Times article noted that Schneiderman has also come under criticism from the Obama administration for suing to block a separate deal reached earlier this year that would settle civil actions filed by 22 institutional investors against Bank of America. Investors, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the giant asset managing firm BlackRock, and Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund, sued Bank of American over 530 mortgage-backed securities which the claimants say were sold on the basis of false information.

The deal, brokered by Bank of New York Mellon, would require Bank of America to pay $8.5 billion to the investors holding these securities. Schneiderman intervened to block the settlement on the grounds that the $8.5 billion represents a mere fraction of investors’ losses and that the deal was worked out behind the backs of many holders of the securities.

The Times article reports a recent public altercation between Schneiderman and Kathryn S. Wylde, the chief executive of the Partnership for New York City and a member of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which supports the settlement. Speaking to the newspaper about her argument with the attorney general, Wylde gives voice to the attitude of subservience to Wall Street that characterizes the Obama administration and the political establishment as a whole.

“Wall Street is our Main Street—love ‘em or hate ‘em,” she tells the Times. “They are important and we have to make sure we are doing everything we can to support them unless they are doing something indefensible.”

Evidently, the threshold in official circles for what is “indefensible” is infinitely high when it comes to Wall Street. Under Obama, the federal government has failed to file a single criminal charge against a high-level banker or even bring a civil case to trial in connection with the fraud and lawlessness that pervaded the dealings of the banks during the sub-prime mortgage boom and its catastrophic aftermath.

This is not for lack of evidence. Last April, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 650-page report on the financial crisis that provided a detailed factual account of banking fraud as well as the collusion of federal regulatory agencies and the credit rating firms. The report concluded with a list of federal securities statutes that it suggested had been violated by major Wall Street firms.

The Obama administration has ignored this report as part of its efforts to shield the financial elite from being held to account for its actions.

Now, having blocked any federal prosecution of senior bank officials, the administration is intervening to quash investigations at the state level. Nothing could more clearly demonstrate its role as a tool of the US financial oligarchy.

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OBAMA DEMANDS HIS BANKSTER DONORS BE ABOVE LAW




An initial term sheet outlining a possible settlement emerged in March, with institutions including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo being asked to pay about $20 billion that would go toward loan modifications and possibly counseling for homeowners.

In exchange, the attorneys general participating in the deal would have agreed to sign broad releases preventing them from bringing further litigation on matters relating to the improper bank practices.

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OBAMA AND HIS WALL ST CABINET

OBAMA’S CRONY CAPITALISM, A LOVE STORY BETWEEN THE ACTOR PRESIDENT, AND HIS BANKSTER DONORS!



Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).




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Obama’s Economic Advisers: International Socialists, Union Thugs, NBC Execs, Soros Scholars, Subprime Lenders, Amnesty Shills, and Campaign Cronies




Posted on February 24, 2011 by Ben Johnson