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Sarah Palin Delivers Speech In Hong Kong
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin delivered a much anticipated speech to the world’s top investors at a conference in Hong Kong. She discussed a wide range of issues including the U.S. budget deficit, health care, foreign policy, The Federal Reserve, trade policy, and China.
Media wasn’t allowed at the event, but no doubt someone has a video of the speech. I’ll post it when I find it.
AFL-CIO President Named Head Of NY Fed — What Could Go Wrong?
From the WSJ:
The Federal Reserve chose a labor leader to succeed a former Goldman Sachs executive as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of New York’s private-sector board of directors.
Denis Hughes, president of the New York state branch of the AFL-CIO, had been serving as acting chairman of the New York Fed board since May, when Stephen Friedman stepped down from the position.
Put big labor in charge, that’s the ticket!
This calls for a repost of the best union ad ever:
Video: The Economy Then And Now
Here’s how the media treated a recovering and then soaring economy under Bush and how they’re treating the economy under Obama.
(hat tip Gateway Pundit)
Video: Obama Talks GM
Here’s president Obama talking about his bailout of the UAW GM:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Chutzpah: Obama Warns Current Deficit Spending Is “Unsustainable”
You really have to admire the chutzpah that president Obama displays time and again when talking about fiscal matters.
He said the following during a town hall meeting in New Mexico:
“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”
Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.”
What he neglects to mention as usual is that he is the reason we keep borrowing from China and mortgaging our children’s future.
Obama loves to talk about the deficits he inherited, but his only solution to Bush’s out-of-control spending and record deficits has been even more spending and ever larger deficits.
Obama’s spending in his first 100 days in office dwarfs all of Bush’s spending for his entire two terms.
So maybe the president should take some of his own advice.
Madoff Guilty Plea Expected
The Feds have reached a deal with Bernie Madoff which requires him to admit to his role in the biggest financial fraud in American history. His phony investment firm may have stolen as much as $50 billion dollars from investors over the years.
The plea deal does not include any agreement on the amount of prison time Madoff could receive or any promises not to prosecute other Madoff family members. Investigators believe Madoff’s sons were aware of the scam and active participants in it.
Three different investors have committed suicide since it was revealed that Bernie Madoff’s entire business was a fraud. Director Steven Spielberg reportedly lost millions to Madoff and actor Kevin Bacon lost his life savings to the con man.
Personally, I can’t wait to see this scumbag rotting away in the clink for the rest of his miserable life. You have to be one sick bastard to knowingly scam your own friends out of their life savings.
I truly believe that if this country was really about justice, Madoff would be tried, convicted, and then taken behind the courthouse and shot.
-Chris Jones
Geithner Confirmed As Treasury Secretary 60-34
From the AP:
The Senate has confirmed New York Fed chief Timothy Geithner to be President Barack Obama’s secretary of the treasury.The 60-34 vote puts Geithner at the helm of Obama’s plan to rescue the economy from the worst financial crisis in three generations. It also dislodges one of Obama’s most troubled nominations.
Some senators were concerned that Geithner, who would oversee the Internal Revenue Service, did not pay all of taxes until he had been tapped to the president’s Cabinet. Geithner called it an unintentional oversight and settled his $34,000 overdue tax bill.
It’s certainly no shocker that he was confirmed. Geithner probably really was trying to cheat on his taxes, but in the grand scheme of things I’m really not all that concerned about him. Eric Holder’s nomination for AG is the one that keeps me up at night. He’s going to be total disaster for our intelligence community and the entire War on Terror. The Clinton era mindset of treating terrorism as a law enforcement matter got us to 9/11 so we changed approach and have prevented further attacks.
A little more than seven years later history is repeating itself once more. The DOJ is being stuffed with clueless Clinton cronies who don’t understand that we’re at war.
One step forward — two steps back.
GOP Revolt: Auto Bailout In Jeopardy
The auto industry bailout looked like all but a sure thing this morning, but growing Republican opposition to the measure has put the $14 billion dollar aide package in jeopardy.
Emergency aid for the nation’s imperiled auto industry was thrown into
jeopardy Wednesday, opposed by Republicans who were revolting against a
hard-fought deal between Democrats and the Bush White House to speed
$14 billion to ailing carmakers.Democrats detailed the compromise
measure and laid the groundwork for quick votes on it, holding out hope
the bailout could be enacted by week’s end. But a growing number of GOP
senators declared they would not go along.The White House,
though not formally endorsing an agreement with congressional
Democrats, dispatched administration officials to Capitol Hill to make
a case for the rescue package. During a contentious, closed-door
luncheon with Senate Republicans, they got an earful of criticism from
the rank-and-file, some of whom have already announced plans to block
the measure.“They got a good dose,” said opponent Tom Coburn, R-Okla., as he emerged from the session.
Even auto state Republicans who have pushed hard for a bailout said the
measure needed work. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said he wanted to see
changes. And Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, said the measure didn’t
have the necessary Republican votes to pass Congress.
I can remember when a billion dollars was a lot of money — or at least it seemed like it was. Now, the Congress hands out billions like it’s loose change. This financial crisis is an outrage. We bailed out the financial sector which may or not have been necessary, but what’s done is done. However, allowing this culture of bailouts and handouts to continue is completely unacceptable. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry in this country now has their hand out begging for their multi-billion dollar Christmas present.
The U.S. auto industry is a relic. Decades of bad management, out of control unions, and foreign competition has rendered the domestic auto industry a dinosaur. This romantic notion that we should just keep the car companies in business simply because they employ a lot of people is ridiculous. Why should a company that doesn’t turn a profit be artificially kept alive through government intervention?
A $15 billion dollar loan to the auto companies is like giving a homeless man $20. It will be gone in a day or two but the man will still be homeless. We should not even consider giving the ailing auto industry a single crying dime until they fix the root causes of their predicament.
Bank Of America Caves To Factory Workers
I can’t believe Bank Of America caved to public pressure over the laid off workers who staged a sit-in in Illinois.
The Republic Windows & Doors factory suddenly closed last week and the workers were laid off without their severance or health insurance.
Believing Republic was in violation of their contracts and state employment law, the workers staged a sit-in at the factory and refused to leave the premises until they got their money.
The reason Republic had to close was because Bank Of America refused to give them a loan. The reason they refused is because Republic is broke and can’t pay it back — which is how this whole financial mess started to begin with. Giving people loans who cannot pay them back is absurd.
Yesterday, Gov. Blagojevich visited the plant and the outraged workers. Afterwords, he called on Bank of America to “do the right thing” and give Republic some money. He then went further and called for all state agencies to refuse to do business with B of A until they extend credit to the failing business.
Incredibly, B of A announced today that it’s caving to the workers and will extend credit to a business that can’t pay it back. Which means it’s not actually credit but instead a gift.
What really brings this whole episode into razor sharp clarity is this morning’s arrest of Gov. Blagojevich on corruption and bribery charges. We now know the reason he gave such full-throated and absurd support to the workers — he was hoping to get a cushy job with a labor union in return for Obama’s vacated senate seat.
He was trying to show he was a union man by calling for a boycott of B of A, but in reality the governor is just a corrupt scumbag who’s looking at serious prison time.
Obviously, I feel bad for the workers. Nobody wants to lose their job — I certainly don’t. However, when a business fails — it fails. When did it become a rule that regardless of how your business performs — you have a right to keep that business operating? Even if your business can’t make money, the government will keep you in business just for the sake of keeping you in business?
I don’t know what that’s about, but what I do know is that Bank of America set a dangerous presidence by caving to Republic Windows & Doors.
Say It Ain’t So: The U.S. Government Embraces ‘Islamic Banking’
One of the most important things America can do is continue the War on Terror and resist the global Islamic movement in general. That means opposing any form of Sharia-law in a democracy. Most democratic countries have acted like sheep and capitulated to radical Islam and allowed a parallel society to take root.
America has long been resistant to the idea of parallel societies, particularly of the Islamic variety — until now. The U.S. treasury recently began teaching so-called “Islamic finance” to U.S. banking regulatory agencies, Congress, and other parts of the executive branch.
The forum is called “Islamic Finance 101” and it’s designed to help inform the policy community about Islamic financial services — which according to the treasury is an “increasingly important part of the global financial industry.”
Islamic finance is a system of banking which adheres to the rules of Islamic Sharia law. Meaning that some cleric must decide that an investment meets the standard of Sharia or Muslim law before it’s approved. Which I would assume also means that any other type of investment is for infidels or non-believers.
It’s inconceivable that our treasury is so greedy that it’s willing to overlook what is an obvious sham to spread the reach and power of Islam around the world. Not just any kind of Islam, but the radical and militant variety.
Take for instance the countries in the world that govern by 100% Sharia law. There are 3 of them and they’re Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. Not exactly the folks who need to be spreading their influence around. Through unchecked immigration and liberal attitudes, countries throughout Europe have allowed Islam to wield tremendous power and influence. Large, concentrated populations of Muslims in Britain and France rise up and threaten to destroy the city from time to time whenever they’re challenged.
Allowing Islamic banking to get a foothold in America is an incredibly bad idea. Where do you think terrorists are going to invest their money? We already fund both sides of the War on Terror by spending billions on Middle East oil — this is just another step. We should not recognize Sharia anything. We should have one set of laws which governs everyone in the United States — including Muslims.
If they don’t like that then they can always go back to their 3rd world sh*thole and leave us infidels alone.
For more on Islamic banking check out WWW.SHARIAHFINANCEWATCH.ORG
Mark Cuban Charged With Insider Trading
Dallas Maverick’s owner Mark Cuban has been charged with insider trading by the SEC. After learning that mamma.com was raising money in a private offering, he dumped his 6% stake the very next day. Once it became public that mamma.com was privately raising money the stock dropped by more than 10%. By using his insider knowledge, Cuban saved himself an estimated $750,000 dollars in losses.
Barney Frank: “I think there are a lot of rich people out there who we can tax”
It takes real chutzpah for the a*shole who caused the mortgage meltdown to recommend more spending and higher taxes. Frank should have been booted out of Congress long ago.
(hat tip Hot Air)
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