September 18, 2008
I’m sorry. What is happening in the financial markets right now, should have happened at this time, last year. I put my money where my mouth was, in the belief that a laissez-faire Republican government would have let market conditions run their course. That strategy caused me to lose money for the past year. When precious metals should have been going up, they were going down. Something “stinky” was happening. At this time, last year, Jon Markman of msn.com was discussing the “duct tape and pixie dust” being used to hold the economy together. In hindsight, I suspect that there may have been an effort to keep the ca-ca from hitting the fan until after Election Day (November 4). Time will tell whether there was some skullduggery involved in such an effort. Do you think that the “oil speculators” realized, at some point, that they could manipulate the prices of the small handful of stocks (30) that comprise the Dow Jones Industrials, by manipulating the price of oil? Are these same “oil speculators” on “good behavior” right now, out of fear that the “Enron Loophole” could be doomed?
I apologize because I have been making (back) lots of money this week, while many people have seen their retirement plans crash and burn. I stuck to my belief that the emperor was not really wearing any clothes. It cost me money to adhere to that opinion, although it is now “payback time”. To no surprise, the Carly Fiorinas of this nosedive will walk away with their golden parachutes intact. However, will AIG still be free to make crucial decisions about which lawsuits to litigate? Do they have a right to make those (and other) decisions as they used to, now that you and I own eighty percent of that company?
Meanwhile, John “Keating Five” McCain claims that he will champion the interests of those suckers who vote for him, by bringing “The Good Old Boys of Wall Street” to Alaskan frontier justice. Why would anyone believe this? Based on his record, McCain could not expect the voters to consider him as the advocate of the downtrodden. For some reason, the Obama campaign has expressed an unwillingness to use the “Keating Five” episode of McCain’s life, as fodder for negative ads. (They may find themselves thinking more clearly in late October.)
Let’s take a look back at the “glory days” of The Keating Five, from what is available on Wikipedia.org:
The Keating Five scandal was prompted by the activities of one particular savings and loan: Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California. Lincoln’s chairman was Charles Keating, who ultimately served five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of Lincoln. In the four years since Keating’s American Continental Corporation (ACC) had purchased Lincoln in 1984, Lincoln’s assets had increased from $1.1 billion to $5.5 billion. Such savings and loan associations had been deregulated in the early 1980s, allowing them to make highly risky investments with their depositors’ money, a change of which Keating took advantage. Lincoln’s investments took the form of buying land, taking equity positions in real estate development projects, and buying high-yield junk bonds.
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The core allegation of the Keating Five affair is that Keating had made contributions of about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators, and he called on those Senators to help him resist regulators. The regulators backed off, to later disastrous consequences.
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(f)ive senators, Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), John Glenn (D-OH), John McCain (R-AZ), and Donald W. Riegle (D-MI), were accused of improperly aiding Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).
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After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised “poor judgment”. All five of the senators involved served out their terms. Only Glenn and McCain ran for re-election, and they were both re-elected.
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McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981, and McCain was the closest socially to Keating of the five senators. Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain’s wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard Keating’s jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating’s opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. On his Keating Five experience, McCain has said: “The appearance of it was wrong. It’s a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do.”
So where is the Obama ad using “Poor Judgment” as its theme? Wouldn’t it be nice to see that phrase repeated under a picture of Sarah Palin?
The Real Republicans Stand Up
September 25, 2008
On Monday, September 22, the real Republicans in Congress stood up to the “bailout” plan, written by the Bush Administration and ratified by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. As I wrote in my last posting, there has been a serious question as to whether the Democrats in Congress had the cajones to stand up to the Bush Administration’s proposed Seven Hundred Billion – to One Trillion Dollar bailout of those financial institutions holding fuzzy mortgages and mortgage-based securities. The Administration’s plan, as originally written, gave autocratic authority to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson for administration of this plan, without oversight by the Courts or Congress. At this point in the 2008 campaign, it has become time to give the well-deserved recognition to those Republican and/or conservative members of Congress as well as those conservative pundits, who put philosophy ahead of political allegiance and who spoke out for what they felt was right on this issue. The Congressional Democrats alone, would have backed down and simpered away from a fight with the “lame duck” Bush Administration on this proposal. Were it not for the intestinal fortitude and existential authenticity of the following individuals, Congress would have, once again, provided the “rubber stamp” for yet another, despotic Bush plan.
Before I congratulate them by name, let’s take a look back to the words of a great patriot, Thomas Paine. This passage was the opening to an article called The Crisis, written on December 23, 1776. His words are as important now as they were then:
Accordingly, the following Republican members of Congress should be given their due congratulations for rising above political loyalty on this monumental issue:
House Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) who expressed skepticism about the Treasury Department’s proposal (last) Friday, saying he was “unconvinced that this is the proper remedy for our nation at this time.” (This was reported by Jackie Kucinich and Alexander Bolton for TheHill.com on September 22.)
The article by Kucinich and Bolton also disclosed that:
The Kucinich/Bolton article went on to describe the action taken by Republican Congressman Scott Garrett of New Jersey:
Last, but not least, was Republican Congressman Cliff Stearns of Florida, who took time out to chat with Rachael Maddow on Wednesday night. Kucinich and Bolton noted how:
Were it not for the integrity of these individuals, the Democratic Party’s opponents of the original Bush Plan would not have enjoyed a chance at challenging the Administration’s original draft bailout proposal.
While we’re at it … let’s give a pat on the back to one of those bold conservatives, motivated by philosophy, rather than the televangelist lobby or the neocon trend: George Will. He has always been on my blogroll for a reason: his opinions are often philosophy – based, rather than party – based. Here’s what he had to say about the bailout plan in the Jewish World Review on September 23:
What is the real motivation behind the McCain campaign’s proposed “time out”? Is it because McCain’s campaign manager, (Jeffrey Dahmer look-alike) Rick Davis, as corporate Director and Treasurer of his lobbying firm: Davis Manafort, had been monthly collecting $15,000 from the vilified Freddie Mack, up until August? Or is it because Sarah Palin had been caught on video, going through some strange ritual with avowed “witch hunter” Bishop Thomas Muthee at the Wasilla Assembly of God church? I suspect it’s because McCain is lost in the woods without a compass, moral or otherwise.