Wednesday, September 17, 2008

AIG Hong Kong. Appropriate, China still has money.


AIG Tower
Photographer, Niels Jakob Darger


Oh, look, the market is going up again. Now watch after all the bartering today, it will fall again tomorrow. We've been here before and an $85 billion bailout is nothing compared to the $200 billion for Fanny and Freddie. The 'bailouts' are a bounce that never sustains. Institutions are collapsing folks, the 'bailouts' are meerly a down payment on what is actually happening globally.

When bailouts occur there is contracture of the market place because there is consolidation of middle management that is duplicated in the take-over. The company being bought out is cannabalized and its products marketed under a new name that no one recognizes. A 'take-over' or 'bailout' succeeds in doing one thing, it cuts the jobs in the market and synthesizes assets into liquid and the demographics of the 'business/fiscal' world changes.

The 'bailout' of AIG will bring what every other measure by the FED and US Treasury has brought, a 'bounce' that lasts about 36 hours. That is all that is going to happen here.

Look, this is serious. These are long standing financial institutions that once garnered a great deal of respect. They are gone. That is trauma and loss of fiscal clout within the infrastructure of the USA. Barclay's is welcome to obtain whatever advantage it can find by purchasing Lehman, but, its a British Company and its not purchasing Lehman to keep the doors open, so much as salvage its assets.

This is bad news no matter which way one looks at it and I just can't wait until the federal notes come due and the USA Treasury has to print more money without any commodity to back it up. These programs are only 'stop-gaps' to disaster and nothing more. The markets will bounce today, but, will stagnate again by Friday. This market is not going to recover. The reason the markets haven't completely collapsed yet is because they are bouyed by promissory notes that appear to have a degree of integrity. It won't last and in the meantime, Bush and his administratin is trying to figure out why the tax cuts aren't working the way they should.

This isn't terribly different than the 'negative feedback loop' of Human Induced Global Warming. An institution fails, it is rescued and hacked apart placing more people out of work, hence creating more problems with mortgages and so on and so on. This entire mess is a house of cards and it ain't over yet !!!

Barclays to pay $1.75 bln for some Lehman assets (click here)
Reuters , Wednesday September 17 2008
...Most of the price tag was accounted for by Lehman's New York headquarters and two data centers, while the British bank will pay just $250 million in cash for Lehman's North American investment banking and capital markets businesses....

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Supporters flock to rally, take aim at Palin, McCain


..."This election is going to be a game-changer," Clinton said. "We have the opportunity to go beyond the failed policies of the past eight years, or continue them."
She spoke in broad terms about encouraging companies to provide health and retirement benefits and creating jobs through green energy.
Clinton also slightly reshuffled a line from her Democratic National Convention speech in which she urged her supporters to become Obama supporters: "No way, no how, no McCain and no Palin."...

Wednesday, 17 September 2008
The National Organiastion for Women has decided endorse Barack Obama and Joe Biden's bid for power, snubbing Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin (above)
America's largest women's rights organisation delivered a snub to Sarah Palin's history-making candidacy yesterday by endorsing Barack Obama and Joe Biden's bid for power.
The National Organisation for Women (NOW) is 500,000 strong and hugely influential. The feminist organisation almost never supports a presidential candidate, but the Alaska governor's Christian fundamentalist faith and her opposition to abortion rights has forced its hand.
Other women's rights organisations are also campaigning against Governor Palin, pushed along by a spontaneous anti-Palin movement among women.
In Alaska at the weekend, a Welcome Home rally for Mrs Palin was dwarfed by a demonstration organised by Alaska Women Reject Palin, which was held on the lawn of a downtown Anchorage library....

Palin's Bridge to Wasilla. That is what I call change. People die in bridge collapse in the lower 48, but, Palin cronies receive gov't subsidies .


Palin supports $600 million 'other' bridge project
By GARANCE BURKE – 18 hours ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Sarah Palin may eventually have said "no thanks" to a federally funded Bridge to Nowhere.
But a bridge to her hometown of Wasilla, that's a different story.
A $600 million bridge and highway project to link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents is moving full speed ahead, despite concerns the bridge could worsen some commuting and threaten a population of beluga whales.
Local officials already have spent $42 million on plans to route traffic across the Knik Arm inlet, a narrow finger of water extending roughly 25 miles northeast of Anchorage toward Wasilla. The proposal exists thanks to an earmark request by Republican Rep. Don Young, whose son-in-law has a small stake in property near the bridge's proposed western span....



Bridge repairs going nowhere (click here)
by Alyson E. Raletz
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Gov. Matt Blunt called on highway officials to initiate an overdue statewide bridge repair program Monday.
The plea came one year and 15 days after he stood on an Interstate 29 overpass in St. Joseph and signed legislation that enabled the work on 802 of the state’s worst bridges.
Dubbed one of the oldest bridges in the state, the deck of the U.S. Highway 169 bridge that runs over Interstate 29 was slated for a makeover, Mr. Blunt said on Sept. 5, 2007, during a special ceremony.
Mr. Blunt had called a special session that summer to hasten the repairs.
Virtually untouched, the local bridge still resembles a patchwork quilt in September 2008.
“We’ve put it off long enough, but we want to make sure we have a great value for the citizens of Missouri,” Missouri Highways and Transportation Commissioner David Gach, of St. Joseph, said of the entire project....


That is a heck of reality in the USA. First people die and then bridges are repaired beyond what is even expect. Something "W"rong here !!

Wis. bridges safer after I-35W collapse (click here)
By: Sara Lieburn
The Daily Cardinal - September 16, 2008 A little over a year since its collapse, the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis will open Thursday. The tragedy sparked an inspection of similar bridges in Wisconsin.
The Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed last summer, is scheduled to reopen Thursday, and officials say Wisconsin has taken appropriate measures to protect against a similar tragedy.
The collapse of the bridge in August 2007 killed 13 people and initiated a special set of inspections on 16 similar bridges in Wisconsin.
Beth Cannestra, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, said the design error responsible for the I-35W bridge collapse was isolated to that bridge.
According to Cannestra, Wisconsin has taken a proactive approach with the special inspections following the collapse....


NTSB close to identifying cause of 35W bridge collapse (click here)
Last update: August 29, 2008 - 8:36 PM

The National Transportation Safety Board is close to identifying the cause of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse and plans to discuss its findings at a public hearing in Washington on Nov. 13.
The board said Friday that investigators are moving ahead with a draft of a final report after meeting Thursday with the parties to the official investigation.
They include the Minnesota Department of Transportation; the Federal Highway Administration; Jacobs Engineering, which acquired the bridge's original design consultant in 1999, and Progressive Contractors Inc., whose crews were resurfacing the bridge when it fell on Aug. 1, 2007.
Thirteen people died and 145 were injured in the collapse....


Overweight rig blamed in collapse of Kaufman County bridge; 3 hurt (click here for video)
06:51 PM CDT on Thursday, September 11, 2008
By DAN X. McGRAW / The Dallas Morning News

dmcgraw@dallasnews.com
A construction contractor pulling an oversized load estimated at 100,000 pounds disregard the posted weight limit of 24,000 pounds, causing a bridge in Kaufman County to collapse, authorities said. Three people were injured.
The bridge, on FM 1836 just north of FM 90 near the town of Prairieville, collapsed about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday when a crew from R.K. Hall Construction Co. drove a tractor-trailer hauling a backhoe over the bridge, said Kelli Petras, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of Transportation.
The bridge had earlier been deemed deficient by TxDOT and was going to be demolished....

Bush envoking a new 'War Strategy' in the Tribal Regions of Pakistan will most likely fail.


Darren McCollester/Getty Images
U.S. troops near the Afghan-Pakistani border


It might prove first to be beneficial to defeat anarchy 'post Musharraf' before taking on the Warlords that flourished under him. The USA invasion without the consent of the Pakistani government may turn into a challenge to sovereignty and the USA will again be an unwelcome entity on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan Border. With additional USA troops promised to Afghanistan, it would be best to secure NATO's position and move from that vantage point. Shooting from the hip in the Tribal Regions of Pakistan cannot result in a good outcome. Not at this juncture. It would be helpful is Russia was a willing partner to secure the region and stop violence. I take it asking Russia for assitance is out of the question for Bush.

Analysis (click here)
The Pakistani army has ordered its forces to open fire on any U.S. troops attempting to cross the border from Afghanistan, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Sept. 16. Using the words “open fire,” Pakistan is clearly trying to deter continued unilateral U.S. action inside its borders, as it has been doing with talk of firing on U.S. helicopters and intercepting U.S. “spy planes” in South and North Waziristan....


Bush wants to capture or kill Bin Laden before he leaves office. An admirable goal, however, one that is being met with resistance by Tribal leaders, especially since the recent Pakistani elections. The Bush Redress of the Afghanistan mess seeking to enter Pakistan's tribal region comes at a time when the new government has yet to build a strong concensus among the people of this region.

Pakistan, with its new leadership, is strongly positioned to reach out to allies such as Afghanistan and close the gap on cooperation with India, hence, focusing on Kashmir. But, if the people of this area become disgruntled with the new Pakistani government, the progress to greater stability will surely be met with instead greater unrest.

For as much as the tribal areas need to be addressed to rid the world of terrorist elements, turning the people of Pakistan into enemies is not the way to 'stability.'

Kabul needs to join with New Delhi and Islamabad to close the gap of unrest. Strong ties between these leaders can begin to defuse the circumstances now faced with expanding reaches of the Taliban and the ever disconcerting violence of Kashmir. With the assistance of the United Nations, regional border differences with Kashmir can be settled and new ways of governing can be found.

Pakistan now has a reasonable government, it is time to allow that to 'take hold' while bringing a strategy that will disarm terrorist networks forever.

Pakistani tribal chiefs threaten to join Taliban (click title to entry)
US warned of uprising if armed incursions continue
New counter-terror policy backfires on Washington
A controversial new US tactic to mount counter-terrorist operations inside Pakistan has met with fresh hostility, it emerged yesterday, as Pakistani tribesmen representing half a million people vowed to switch sides and join the Taliban if Washington does not stop cross-border attacks by its forces from Afghanistan....



Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a ceremony marking the seventh anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Masood, Afghanistan's national hero who was killed by al Qaeda operatives two days before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, in Kabul September 8, 2008.

Chevy's Return of the Electric Car. YES !!!! I want it, I want it, I want it.


GM unveils Volt on company's 100th anniversary

The Democrat's Plan is Working

...Speaking to reporters at GM's 100th anniversary celebration, Wagoner said the $25 billion in loans were approved last year as part of an energy bill and should now be funded to help the industry build next-generation automobiles and meet government fuel economy standards....

How is it that revenue can fall 51% and there is still profit taking?


Goldman Sachs Group CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, looks on as he attends a session at the World Economic Forum WEF in Davos January 24, 2008. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Goldman - Sachs knows that there just is nowhere else to go. When profits take a downturn and all your peers are posting "Going Out of Business" signs, it is a sure bet that GS has all the assets that can be had and there just ain't any more money around except what's in their treasury, pockets and balloons. Maybe Lloyd can explain why he is STILL "The Last Man Standing." I thought that was a strategy exclusive to Bin Laden.

...AIG has hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to seek the $75 billion. (click here) However, they must find the $75 billion by tomorrow. If they are unable, AIG is expected to declare bankruptcy. Response by AIG’s stock was immediate following the downgrade by S&P last night. This morning AIG is trading at $2.95...

GS is the only game left in town. Paulson will pull some strings to make a gesture of good will, but, with falling value anything at this point in time is simply a bandaid. It's over. The market is dead. Gross mismanagement by Republican legislators for 6 long years. You can't empty the treasury, continue to raise the USA debt ceiling and still expect to find gold in Fort Knox. It doesn't work that way.


Rather than trying to adhere to a Republican strategy of lower taxes to increase business's potential for expanding the economy, maybe its time to actually pay off the debt and take back the money Wall Street squandered to bouy Bush's economy in 2004. Maybe, just maybe, the folks with the money need to put it back. Read my lips, NO NEW TAX BREAKS !

Women in Alaska are voting for Obama. Look at this tee-shirt. Get yours today. Holy Smokes.


Get the feeling she was shopping for a new job anyway?


Palin Drilling to Nowhere !!!!

Not bad quoting.


Franklin D. Roosevelt: "The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism-- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." (Corporations)

14 09 2008
I attended the Welcome Home rally for Sarah Palin this morning. Hooo. It was an experience. About a thousand (maybe) hard-core Palin supporters showed up to hear her speak at the new Dena’ina Convention Center in downtown Anchorage.
After shaking it off with a good double shot of espresso, and a brisk walk back to my car, it was time to head to the Alaska Women Reject Palin rally. It was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Home made signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women, or men. I had no idea what to expect....

Senator No is facing his toughest foe, Senator O

...Now Winfrey has squared off against Coburn, who has blocked S. 1738, the Combating Child Exploitation Act.
Winfrey asked her viewers Monday to call and write the Senate to demand their support for the legislation, sponsored by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden (Del.).
Winfrey, herself a victim of sexual abuse, has asked viewers to sign and send a letter posted on her website calling for action on the bill.
Winfrey’s show is the top recipient of campaign advertisements after the leading news programs.
Coburn initially blocked it because it would have authorized nearly a billion dollars over eight years to fund a law enforcement crackdown on child exploitation. Coburn has insisted that new government programs be offset with spending cuts, a budget-saving device Biden’s bill lacked....




20 months ago: In this Tuesday, Jan. 2 2007 file photo, U.S. talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, second left, and students are seen during the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in the small town of Henley-on-Klip, South Africa. A dormitory matron at Oprah Winfrey's school for disadvantaged girls in South Africa has been suspended amid allegations of serious misconduct, The Star newspaper reported Friday Oct. 19, 2007. South Africa's Child Protection Services have been notified and U.S. and South African private detectives have been engaged to investigate the allegations, the newspaper quoted the school's CEO John Samuel as saying.

McCain is a great patriot, but, he lacks the capacity to be a President. An Iconic President, but, not a leader. He openly admits bias against Gays.

Gays in the military (click here) : “To protect our servicemen and women and ensure that America’s Armed Forces remain the best in the world, we affirm the timelessness of those values, the benefits of traditional military culture, and the incompatibility of homosexuality with military service.”


McCain: 'Wall Street Is The Villain' (click here)
July 27, 2008 1:28 PM


Basically, he and Bush agree on the subject. They deregulated the financial district of the USA Infrastruture and then complained because it reacted to deregulation with complete abandon.

That facilitated Goldman-Sachs (click here) a clear field to be the Wall Street Carpetbagger. Let's see, GS can afford to appear to 'take a hit' on any given day, they have eliminated Bear-Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Merril-Lynch is nearly there, then comes AIG, and with a little distance to destruction comes Morgan-Stanley. Did I get that right?

Crashing the USA economy did many things, it loosened available monies for those prepared to exploit others' losses and misfortune, it demised any and all infrastruture causing a rush in housing and freeing up prime real estate otherwise unaffordable.

McCain may as well have called Wall Street 'Drunk' no different than Bush. He blames deregulation failures on greed.

Like.

No kidding.

What I want to know is that once Goldman-Sachs has the corner on the financial markets, will the SEC step in to investigate? Or maybe they'll just get 'a pass' on surviving the day. What do you think?

I've never seen Mike make "The National Enquirer." A little too responsible for that, huh, Mike? September 23rd, "The Slacker Uprising"

Go, Mike, Go !!!!

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

How 'Bout a Free Movie? ...from Michael Moore (click here)
Friends,
As you may have heard, I've decided to make my new film, "
Slacker Uprising," available for free to everyone in the United States and Canada. It is the first time ever that a major feature-length film is debuting as a free download on the internet -- legally. I am doing this for two reasons:
1. Next year it will be 20 years since my first film, "Roger & Me," so I'd like to give those of you who've supported my work over the years a thank you gift in the form of a brand new movie; and
2. I hope the release and wide distribution of this new movie will help to bring out millions of young and new voters on November 4th.
"Slacker Uprising" takes place in the wake of "Fahrenheit 9/11," during the run-up to the 2004 election, as I traveled for 42 days across America, visiting 62 cities in a failed attempt to remove George W. Bush from office. My goal was to help turn out a record number of young voters and others who had never voted before. (That part was a success. Young adults voted in greater numbers than in any election since 18-year-olds were given the right to vote. And the youth vote was the only age group that John Kerry won.) ...

To John McCain. "We know incompetency when we see it."

The nation's transportation infrastructure needs an overhaul.


Vijay Vyas holds a photograph of his late son Atul Vyas, 20, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008, in Simi Valley, Calif., who died in a commuter train crash on Friday. Federal investigators worked Sunday to unravel what caused the collision of a train with a freight locomotive that killed at least 25 people, urging caution as a transit company blamed its own engineer for the horrific accident. (AP Photo/Ric Francis)

There is no sense to place technology on any rail services today, unless, the USA doesn't care about the potential of rebuilding. They need to be replaced with a national project to build "High Speed Magnetic Rail (click here)." With the replacement of the current passenger train infrastructure there will be new technology that will not only create a booming economy for some time, but, also provide a level of safety the USA has yet to enjoy. Sometimes a nation's lessons are learned the hardway.


Train-Safety Technology Could Take Years to Deploy Nationwide (click here)
By CHRISTOPHER CONKEY, ANDY PASZTOR , ALEX ROTH and PETER SANDERS
Federal regulators and railroad officials said a nationwide deployment of technology that could prevent accidents like last week's deadly Metrolink crash in California would cost over $2 billion and could take years because of technological challenges.
Government and industry leaders on Monday cited a host of cost concerns and technical challenges preventing widespread adoption of "positive train control," or PTC, technology designed to prevent collisions by automatically slowing or stopping trains if engineers speed through stop signals.
On Friday, a Metrolink commuter train that wasn't PTC-equipped crashed into a Union Pacific freight train in the Chatsworth suburb of Los Angeles, killing 25 people. Investigators are focusing on the commuter train's engineer and whether he missed a red stop signal.
Shortly after the crash, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said the agency was at fault because the engineer had failed to heed a red-warning signal. On Monday, Ms. Tyrrell resigned and Metrolink distanced itself from her remarks by calling them "premature." The agency declined to comment directly on her departure....

One might want to pay attention to the Caribbean Sea and its current vortex, noted in this picture. It's anti-cyclonic. Just thought I'd mention it.


September 14, 2008
1530z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite

What good is offshore drilling? Oil is the worst form of fuel this nation can have.


Ike (click here)


Boats and debris piled up in Galveston, Tex., after Hurricane Ike. (click here)


Ike's death toll reaches 32 (click here)


September 15, 2008 13:11 EDT
CHICAGO (AP) -- Hurricane Ike is being blamed for a weekend of devastation in nine states.



The storm and its remnants are responsible for 32 deaths and power outages from Texas to Illinois, on to Ohio, Kentucky and New York.


Nearly one and a half million homes and businesses have no electricity today. Flooding touched off by a half foot or more of rain is reported in parts of Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. As many as 5,000 people are being evacuated from Munster, Indiana, where the town manager says they've "never had flooding like this."


Farmers fear all the rain could wreck what may already be shaky corn and soybean crops.









"Freak" Hurricane Ike Will Cost $22 Billion (click here)


Willie Dryefor National Geographic News
September 15, 2008
Hurricane Ike will be entered into the record books for the severe damage it inflicted in and around Galveston, Texas, experts say.
"This one's going to be famous for a long time, if for no other reason than it hit Texas, which hadn't gotten a strike by a damaging hurricane in 25 years," said Jeff Masters, director of Weather Underground, a private commercial forecasting service....







Ike pushes U.S. retail gasoline price -gov't (click title of entry, thank you)


...The EIA said the national average price for regular, self-service gasoline surged to $3.84 in the week ended Monday, Sept. 15, from $3.65 the previous week.
Hurricane Ike was the second hurricane to slam into the Gulf Coast in recent weeks, shutting 99.9 percent of Gulf of Mexico's oil output. According to a Reuters survey 16 refineries were closed Monday, representing 24.6 percent of U.S. capacity.
Despite Hurricane Ike, crude oil prices closed below $100 for the first time since March on Monday. Lower crude prices did not offer Americans much relief at the pump, however, with the average price of gasoline $1.05 higher than a year ago....

Monday, September 15, 2008

State Ranking: T-44 out of 50 states


ALASKA STATE GUN LAWS - A Free For All (click here)

Republicans opposed to 'Big Government,' except in Alaska (click here)
In 2001, Alaska's gross state product was $28.6 billion, with 19.5% accounted for by the public sector, the 2nd-highest percent among the states (after Hawaii), and well above the state average of 12%. Both mining and government contributed about $5.6 billion to gross state product in 2001, but for mining this represented a 19% decrease from 1997 and for government a 10.8% increase over the same period. Public utilities and transportation contributed $4.6 billion, up 15% from 1997. Both general services, contributing $3.96 billion, and the finance, insurance and real estate sector, contributing $3.2 billion, increased about 29% 1997 to 2001. Other important sectors included retail trade, at $1.9 billion (up 12% from 1997) and construction, at $1.4 billion (up 24% from 1997). The manufacturing sector contributed $1.06 billion, down 5% from 1997.

She’s Not Ready


Hello everyone there in Delta !
Governor Palin came to visit Alaska National Guard soldiers here in Kuwait today. She had a town hall like meeting with all the soldiers. It was very nice to ask the governor straight forward questions and get straight forward answers that haven't been washed through 3 or 4 people to only get half the truth !
I myself have been confused with Delta politics and the proposed borough. I liked the answers that I recieved !
I gave Sarah Palin my personal thanks for vetoing un-needed spending in Delta Junction. It was a great time today haveing access to our state leadership directly !
Only about 3 months to go !
Cant wait to get home !
SGT Sherman Stebbins, HHC 3-297th Inf. Alaska National Guard

GREENSBURG, Pa., March 25 (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday she made a mistake when she claimed she had come under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia in 1996 while she was first lady....(click here)


Palin's aides admit she did not visit Iraq (click here)
Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent
September 15, 2008
BARACK Obama's presidential campaign has seized on reports that Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin never made it into Iraq last year, despite her campaign staff previously saying she travelled there.
Attempting to mount a counter-attack in the face of falling polls, the Obama campaign is jumping on a series of claims from Republican presidential candidate John McCain and labelling them as "outright lies" to try to regain a better footing in the race for the White House.
Senator McCain has been on the front foot since his surprise selection of Ms Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five and the charismatic Governor of Alaska, to be his running mate....

McCain and Palin are way out of line. So much for the Corruption Fighters. Hard to address the issues of the nation with this mess goin' on.

Its obvious this is STILL another distraction from 'the reality' of Americans faced with a profound recession brought on by purposeful Republican mismanagement.

McCain needs to address the issues of the nation. Its unfortunate his Veep choice comes with scandal at every turn. Can't he discern the issues at hand without bring in 'The National Enquirer' at every turn (click here) ? Sometimes the military helps straighten young men out, too.

"...The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that Sarah's oldest son, Track, was addicted to the power drug OxyContin for nearly the past two years, snorting it, eating it, smoking it and even injecting it. And as Track, 19, heads to Iraq as part of the U.S. armed forces, Sarah and her husband Todd were powerless to stop his wild antics, detailed in the new issue of The ENQUIRER, which goes on sale today...."

Seems very obvious to me McCain and Palin are attempting to obstruct justice by trying to interfer with an investigation.


"She's not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten," said Walt Monegan, the Alaskan official whose dismissal by Sarah Palin is the focus of a state investigation known as "Troopergate". "And she's not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me."

The question seems to be why Mr. Montegan couldn't gain the cooperation of his collegues. It wasn't that he was the issue so much as those he requested cooperation from. If Governor Palin wanted cooperation after it was known Mr. Montegan requested same on her behalf, it would seem as those others had nothing to report OR had no confidence in the request by the Governor. It was her responsiblity to bring those that were not in compliance with the request into compliance with her Public Safety Commissioner.

By the way, has the information she requested been forthcoming now? And what exactly was the vital information?

An investigation seems in order, Palin and McCain have something to hide? Like baseless allogations of Mr. Monegan?

Some people can handle power and some can't.

The intrigue thickens when one realizes, her former Brother-In-Law wouldn't have a chance for custody and/or visitation if he was unemployed and unable to support his children.

I would think the Governor would bend over backward to help find a more suitable job for the father of her nephews/neices, after all the State Trooper had done so well for so long, but, faltered over time while dealing with a failing marriage. As a rule, good marriages don't fail overnight, there is usually a progression to the event that destroys the marriage.

I find the priorities all along the way involved with this episode questionable and suspect.

How are the kids doing anyway and do they see their Dad and how do they feel about him? I think its called 'joint custody,' right?

I find this all very odd. No real cohesive understanding of 'family' or 'valued employee' with a former Brother-In-Law and father to her sister's children. Hm. These are more of the Christian values that also brought the nation a pregnant 17 year old. It doesn't give me that 'Bush Feel Good Feeling.'

And about the misunderstanding of 'The Bush Doctrine.' I don't know? Lots of missing pieces and misplaced priorities every place. She was pretty slick in that interview. Let's see, "? The Bush Doctrine ?"

"So, Charlie, what aspect of the Bush Doctrine are you implying means anything to Americans that love me?"

Slick, the chick is slick.

See, if she bats her eyes the right way and leans a little into a posture of vulnerability, maybe Charlie would 'give her a hint.'

Right, Charlie?

Nope.

Charlie didn't take the bate and he knew he wasn't taking the bate. It took two other questions before he finally had to 'inspire' the correct response by leading her in the right direction. Amazing.




Palin: E-mails explain 'Troopergate' firing (click here)
By GENE JOHNSON – 4 hours ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Lawyers for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have released e-mails detailing what they say is the real reason she dismissed Walt Monegan, the public safety commissioner whose firing prompted the "Troopergate" controversy.
In a papers filed Monday, the lawyers wrote that Monegan was fired for opposing Palin's budget priorities. They cited e-mails in which top Palin staffers expressed concern with his approach.
They also cited an e-mail Monegan sent his colleagues encouraging them to communicate better with Palin.
Lawmakers are investigating whether Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, fired Monegan because he refused to dismiss an Alaska state trooper going through a child-custody dispute with her sister.

And this is just nonsense. This investigation started long before Palin was nominated for Veep, but, it keeps up the focus on Palin over the next couple of months while casting the character of 'victim' over her.

Palin won't meet with Monegan investigator (click here)
by Jason MooreContributing reports from The Associated PressMonday, Sept. 15, 2008
McCain campaign questions motives in Monegan inquiry
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A McCain-Palin spokesman says Alaska's governor won't speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look into the firing of her public safety commissioner.
McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan told a news conference Monday that the governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, will not cooperate as long as the investigation "remains tainted."
He said he doesn't know whether Palin's husband would challenge a subpoena issued to compel his cooperation.
The campaign attacked the independent investigation into the termination of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on the basis that it was politically biased.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Faux GDP under Bush - Lehman Brothers, another one bits the dust


Bush buoyed his economy to insure his re-election at the expense of the American Dream. The minimaly productive years of his presidency should not have occurred. If the USA economy wasn't 'toyed' with for a faux sense of economy, the 'mess' that exists today would never have happened.

Crashing the USA economy was a way of Republican restructuring, hoping the entire time the government infrastructure would tumble with it, including Social Security (Remember the alarm by Bush after the 2004 elections, does the American electorate want the same surprise by McCain?) and removing much of the need for federal taxes with it.

We have witnessed the gross deterioration of 'long lived fiscal' infrastructure of the USA including institutions such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; while 'insiders' to the administration maneuvered 'for the kill.'

Where is the conscience of Americans to disavow the reality that is before them in some kind of 'game of chance' that Republicans are putting forward as a solution to the nation's problems?

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar fell on Friday, posting its worst one-day decline against the euro in six months, as weak economic data and uncertainty over the future of troubled investment bank Lehman Brothers prompted investors to lock in recent steep gains.
Worries about Washington Mutual Inc , the largest U.S. savings and loan institution, also added to selling pressure on the dollar after the bank projected further write-downs,
Lehman shares tumbled to a near 14-year low on worries it might fail to find a buyer because the U.S. government was reluctant to provide financial support.
The U.S. retail sales and producer price reports also weighed on the greenback as they revived expectations for another interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve this year....

By James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent
Last Updated: 8:31pm BST 14/09/2008
Global investment bank Lehman Brothers is teetering on the verge of collapse after Barclays pulled out of an 11th-hour rescue.
The departure of Barclays left US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, spearheading desperate last-ditch attempts to put in place some form of a workable rescue package.
Traders fear that the collapse of Lehman would send shockwaves around the world and spark a global sell-off of shares.
Lehman which employs 4,000 staff in London and 24,00 around the world, could be placed into liquidation as soon as Monday. The bank would be the single largest casualty of the current credit crisis and its collapse one of the biggest failures in Wall Street history...