The Republican Thread

[kapkomet]

A-freaking-men.

 

These comments have enraged many in the industry but few have spoken out publicly. Asness, whose firm doesn't hold Chrysler bonds, says the industry is genuinely afraid in the face of Obama's power. Stating that he himself is "fearful writing this," Asness still pulls no punches:

 

"Let’s be clear, it is the job and obligation of all investment managers, including hedge fund managers, to get their clients the most return they can. They are allowed to be charitable with their own money, and many are spectacularly so, but if they give away their clients’ money to share in the “sacrifice”, they are stealing."

 

"The President screaming that the hedge funds are looking for an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout is the big lie writ large. Find me a hedge fund that has been bailed out. Find me a hedge fund, even a failed one, that has asked for one. In fact, it was only because hedge funds have not taken government funds that they could stand up to this bullying. The TARP recipients had no choice but to go along."

 

"The President's attempted diktat takes money from bondholders and gives it to a labor union that delivers money and votes for him. Why is he not calling on his party to "sacrifice" some campaign contributions, and votes, for the greater good? Shaking down lenders for the benefit of political donors is recycled corruption and abuse of power."

 

Link

[NorthSideSox72]

A-freaking-men.

 

 

 

Link

OK, I'm confused. Did Obama say that hedge funds want a bailout? I assume this is about the Chrysler bonds issue, which hedge funds are complaining about maybe.

 

if Obama characterizes their being upset as asking for a bailout (by changing the bankruptcy terms), then he's exagerrating for politcal effect. Kind of annoying.

 

But frankly, these hedge fund folks have only themselves and Chrysler to blame for the bad result on those bonds.

 

[kapkomet]

OK, I'm confused. Did Obama say that hedge funds want a bailout? I assume this is about the Chrysler bonds issue, which hedge funds are complaining about maybe.

 

if Obama characterizes their being upset as asking for a bailout (by changing the bankruptcy terms), then he's exagerrating for politcal effect. Kind of annoying.

 

But frankly, these hedge fund folks have only themselves and Chrysler to blame for the bad result on those bonds.

They are upset at Obama's crucification of hedge funds... which he had no business doing. It's the typical straw man Obama argument on everything when his administration doesn't get their complete way.

 

[NorthSideSox72]

They are upset at Obama's crucification of hedge funds... which he had no business doing. It's the typical straw man Obama argument on everything when his administration doesn't get their complete way.

Sure it is, like I said, its a political vendetta that is an unfortunate part of his way of doing things. Still doesn't change the fact that the hedge funds haven't been "targetted" in any real action (which I hope stays that way), nor the fact that the Chrysler bond holders have no basis at all to blame Obama.

 

[kapkomet]

Sure it is, like I said, its a political vendetta that is an unfortunate part of his way of doing things. Still doesn't change the fact that the hedge funds haven't been "targetted" in any real action (which I hope stays that way), nor the fact that the Chrysler bond holders have no basis at all to blame Obama.

Obama's administration is full of political vendettas. In fact, it's his standard operating procedure.

 

Your second point, they are not "blaming Obama" for their losses, they are blaming him for crucifying them in public opinion because they are trying to hold out for their investors, which they are legally entitled to do.

 

[Cknolls]

THIS IS TOO GOOD:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8034027.stm

[HuskyCaucasian]

THIS IS TOO GOOD:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8034027.stm

HA! Irony at its absolute best.

[southsider2k5]

THIS IS TOO GOOD:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8034027.stm

 

They should have let nature take its course...

[mr_genius]

THIS IS TOO GOOD:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8034027.stm

 

haha

 

thats great

[Cknolls]

http://spectator.org/blog/2009/05/07/obama...nion-enforcemen

 

The payback never ends does it?

 

Poor school kids, F*** off, public schools are good enough for you. When will the oral sex end with the teachers unions?

 

 

[southsider2k5]

Obama, not only a greedy speculator, but a subprime borrower most likely...

 

http://www.scrivener.net/2009/05/was-presi...e-borrower.html

 

Was President Obama a subprime borrower?

 

Not quite. But it seems that during his pre-Senator years, he and Michelle spent substantially more than their income and made up the difference by repeatedly taking out loans against the rising value of their home during the home-price bubble. At least according to this story...

 

In April 1999, they purchased a Chicago condo and obtained a mortgage for $159,250. In May 1999, they took out a line of credit for $20,750. Then, in 2002, they refinanced the condo with a $210,000 mortgage, which means they took out about $50,000 in equity. Finally, in 2004, they took out another line of credit for $100,000 on top of the mortgage.

 

Tax returns for 2004 reveal $14,395 in mortgage deductions. If we assume an effective interest rate of 6%, then they owed about $240,000 on a home they purchased for about $159,250....

 

And they weren't exactly "poor" during this time. They were what they now call "the rich". Apparently they were just free with their money, not rich enough, spending more than they had coming in ...

 

During the presidential primary campaign, Michelle Obama complained how tough it was to make ends meet ... "I know we're spending - I added it up for the first time - we spend between the two kids, on extracurriculars outside the classroom, we're spending about $10,000 a year on piano and dance and sports supplements and so on and so forth."...

 

The Obamas' adjusted gross income averaged $257,000 from 2000 to 2004. This is above the threshold of $250,000 which Obama initially used as the definition of being "rich" for taxation purposes during last year's election campaign.

 

The Obama family apparently had little or no savings during this period since there was virtually no taxable interest shown on their tax returns.

 

... until he got elected to the Senate in 2005 ...

 

the Obamas were living off lines of credit along with other income for several years until 2005, when Obama's book royalties came through and Michelle received her 260% pay raise at the University of Chicago.

 

This was also the year Obama started serving in the U.S. Senate ... Michelle explained, "It was like Jack and his magic beans."

 

Wasn't it lucky that they found their magic beans just as he got locked into a limited-salary government job for six years? Anyhow, for them things easily could have been much different.

 

Barack might well have lost his Senate run, but for his respected and well-financed Republican opponent being done in by allegations that he had wanted to take his wife to a sex club ... that were contained in four-year-old sealed legal documents, which a Chicago judge decided to release to the press during the campaign, that had been filed against him by his wife in a divorce proceeding ... which she'd initiated after pursuing an on-the-job dalliance with a man who was the near co-destroyer of the Star Trek franchise. But I digress (though in case you are interested).

 

If Barack hadn't been elected...

 

Without those magic beans, the Obama family would have eventually suffered the consequences of too much debt ... and they might have suffered financially during the decline in housing prices had they relied on taking ever larger amounts of equity from their home to pay the bills...

 

Here's a counterfactual: Let's imagine a world in which long-sealed court documents remained sealed during elections, and Star Trek producers didn't hit on married actresses.

 

Suppose in that world Barack had lost his Senate run, and he and Michelle had thereafter continued to live their lives as previously, beanless. Then the housing bubble burst, leaving them as short of income as ever before but now with no way to cover the income gap, and also tens of thousands of dollars "underwater" on their home, owing that much more than it was worth.

 

Today, in response to the mortgage crisis and masses of foreclosures everywhere, the new Clinton Administration is putting together its Innocent Overstretched Homeowner Bailout and Mortgage Relief Plan.

 

Should the plan be written so that that Barack Obama -- a virtuous, hard-working citizen, state legislator, respected professor (indeed a person fully qualified to be President of the United States!) -- should have tens of thousands of dollars knocked off his loan balance and his interest rate reduced, dropping yet another loss on the staggering banking system and endangering its creditors, because he and the wife always liked to spend more money than they had? Can he say greedy bankers exploited him into over-extending himself like that?

 

Or should the Obamas be told: stick it, move to an apartment, forget all the fancy private lessons for the kids, wear the same clothes for a while, and cut your spending until it is less than your income and you finally are saving something.

 

Discuss.

 

In the meantime, it is nice to know that as President Obama leads our nation into by far its biggest spending-over-income deficits in peacetime history, he has ample experience in dealing with such situations in his personal life and a solution that's worked for him before: magic beans.

[Cknolls]

http://thehill.com/the-executive/lawmakers...2009-05-06.html

 

I still say this will be bigger than Abramoff, if it isn't already.

[NorthSideSox72]

http://thehill.com/the-executive/lawmakers...2009-05-06.html

 

I still say this will be bigger than Abramoff, if it isn't already.

I guess I'm missing the controversy here, as it relates to politics. I understand how its really bad for this subcontractor to have skimped on parts like that, of course. But how is this like Abramoff?

 

[Cknolls]

I guess I'm missing the controversy here, as it relates to politics. I understand how its really bad for this subcontractor to have skimped on parts like that, of course. But how is this like Abramoff?

 

 

PMA lobbying group.

[ChiSox_Sonix]

NYC Flyover Cost $300K

 

An Air Force flyover that caused panic among some people in New York last month cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $357,000, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a letter to Senator John McCain released Friday.

 

Gates, providing details demanded by McCain in the wake of the incident, said the cost of a jumbo jet that is used as the president's plane Air Force One was estimated between $300,658 and $328,835.

 

The cost of two accompanying F-16 jets was $28,177 for a total of $357,012, Gates said.

 

The flight over lower Manhattan for a photo-shoot scared some New Yorkers who remember the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 involving hijacked airliners. Some people panicked and evacuated office buildings when the planes flew over.

 

Obama furious

The Air Force's presidential airlift group planned the April 27 flight in part to get pictures of the planes flying with the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline as a backdrop.

 

Gates said in his letter that the reaction to the low-flying planes was understandable and "we deeply regret the anxiety and alarm that resulted from this mission."

 

President Barack Obama was said to have been furious about the incident and had ordered an internal review. The mission had been approved by the White House military aide, Louis Caldera, who apologized.

 

Gates said the photo-shoot was only part of the planes' mission, which also included practice instrument approaches and landings at Atlantic City International Airport.

 

The entire mission had been coordinated with officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control representatives in the New York area, he wrote.

 

"I am concerned that this highly public and visible mission did not include an appropriate public affairs plan nor adequate review and approval by senior Air Force and DOD (Department of Defense) officials," Gates said.

 

He said the incident was being reviewed carefully by defense officials.

 

McCain, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the incident an "Air Farce 1 photo op."

 

[lostfan]

Seriously - Photoshop.

[kapkomet]

While not really vitally important, who was on that plane? There was probably a nice group of campaign contributors, I would imagine. I'm sure by now if this was Bush right before he left office, we would have every memo/related conversation leaked that there was.

 

And "Obama furious" is bulls***. I'm pretty sure he had to know, if I understand Air Force One protocol.

[mr_genius]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-b...briefed_on.html

 

CIA Says Pelosi Was Briefed on Use of 'Enhanced Interrogations'

By Paul Kane

 

Intelligence officials released documents this evening saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was briefed in September 2002 about the use of harsh interrogation tactics against al-Qaeda prisoners, seemingly contradicting her repeated statements over the past 18 months that she was never told that these techniques were actually being used.

 

seems you have been busted again, Nancy

Edited May 10, 2009 by mr_genius

[BearSox]

 

How does this guy have his own tv show? He is by far one of the biggest pieces of s*** out there.

[mr_genius]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/White-House-...99183.html?.v=8

 

US red ink to top $1.8 trillion, 4 times record; gov't borrows 46 cents for every dollar spent

 

yea!

[dasox24]

 

How does this guy have his own tv show? He is by far one of the biggest pieces of s*** out there.

Well, that's nothing new. Olbermann is a jackass. He appeals to that base, which is why he still has a show. Though, that clip shows exactly why it's no wonder MSNBC's ratings are by far the lowest compared to the other major cable news networks.

[KipWellsFan]

Well, that's nothing new. Olbermann is a jackass. He appeals to that base, which is why he still has a show. Though, that clip shows exactly why it's no wonder MSNBC's ratings are by far the lowest compared to the other major cable news networks.

 

I concur that Olbermann's comments lacked any kind of class, but I have to disagree with the second part.

 

From what I understand MSNBC's weeknight ratings are actually up, and in some slots have beat CNN. Apparently people like their news right wing or left wing.

[lostfan]

lol

 

http://www.wbaltv.com/money/19435100/detail.html

ANNE ARUNDEL, Md. -- Millions of Americans on Social Security are receiving $250 checks as part of the president's stimulus plan -- including an Anne Arundel woman who died more than 40 years ago.

 

The woman's son, 83-year-old James Hagner, said he got the surprise when he checked his mailbox late last week.

 

"It shocked me and I laughed all at the same time," Hagner said. "I don't even expect to get one for myself, and I get one for my mother from 43 years ago?"

[Cknolls]

lol

 

http://www.wbaltv.com/money/19435100/detail.html

 

 

What's 2,500,000?

[Cknolls]

lol

 

http://www.wbaltv.com/money/19435100/detail.html

 

 

The best thing about this story is the agency saying they had to meet a strict mid-June deadline to mail out all checks, and that didn't leave them much time to clean up all their records......THE WOMAN DIED 40 YEARS AGO