Mary Shapiro Will Watch Your Stock Account like a Blind man

Mary Shapiro, the new head of the SEC is old news to me and represents more of the same, not change. She was head of the CFTC when I was a commodities broker and the commodity scams under her eagle eye were insane. She did jack shit. Assigned all complaints to the Industry created National Futures Association (NFA) which, as one might expect, was staffed by the biggest firms in the business, the heads of exchanges, and other crooks and cronies. Under her watch anything and everything went on from forging trading authorizations, forging signatures on account papers, hiding the risk disclosure docs from client view, and worst of all were the total lies told on the phone to prospective clients as well as the "re-loading" pitches made to existing clients. Churning was the name of the game and if we didn't trade every ten days they took the account away from us. Shapiro was simply an associate of the big players in the business and she allowed, through indifference, criminals to flourish. She is connected to everyone in every exchange as well as to virtually every congressman in both parties.

A bad bad appointment.

Hate Driving Republicans

Hate toward Wall Street from the party of small business that has never liked "eastern" money is in every conversation.  It is this gut hatred that could kill the "bailout."   Add to the fire the fact that the "fat cats" have donated a ton to Democrats and you have the formula for continued financial paralysis.   The idea that the Republicans are pro "Big Business" is simply an east coast idea pushed by Democrats during the Depression in order to get votes, and by and large this was true.  Ain't true now.  "Main Street" Republicans mistrust Wall Street as if they were the old time communists, in fact their dislike runs deeper than most of you realize.  Take a look at the Republicans opposed to the "bailout" and you will see essentially reps from rural dominated states, not places like New York or California.  This is quickly becoming Wall Street vs Main Street.

Another reason for the bailout problem is the "I'm better than you" attitude of both Paulson and Bernanke who use language only the elites can understand.  I ask a simple question: would any of you hire either one of them as salesmen?  Who would they sell anything to?  Ivies, elite school grads, and beach club members.  This also feeds into the Main Street hatred of the plan.

The Near Total Corruption of the USA

We've all been at the party. Now we're crashing on the drive home.....
Most details about the Fannie and Freddy el foldo are in the WaPo on Sunday. Read about Congress fucking this up, important only in that the whore house that is Congress is holding hearings this week in order to divert blame to the Bush Administration. Clinton Administration went to Congress in March of 2000 and warned of this entire debacle. Make no mistake, this entire "problem" is the result of Congress making Fannie and Freddy the conduit for entitlements. Lending to minorities, women, poor people, and so on; loans that were virtually guaranteed to fail, were literally ordered by Congress.

Last weekend, the federal government seized control of the two companies to protect the very mortgage market they were created to lubricate. The cost to taxpayers could run into the tens of billions of dollars.

So Barney Frank one of the key enablers of this bribe machine spoke on the floor of Congress way back in 1992

On the other side stood Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who said the companies served a public purpose. They were in the business of lowering the price of mortgage loans. Another great piece here says

These are outstanding pieces and clearly shows how most top Washington people in both parties had warned Congress repeatedly and all they did was take bribes and increase their size.

In October 1992, a brief debate unfolded on the floor of the House of Representatives over a bill to create a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. On one side stood Jim Leach, an Iowa Republican concerned that Congress was "hamstringing" this new regulator at the behest of the companies.

He warned that the two companies were changing "from being agencies of the public at large to money machines for the stockholding few."

On the other side stood Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who said the companies served a public purpose. They were in the business of lowering the price of mortgage loans.

Congress chose to create a weak regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The agency was required to get its budget approved by Congress, while agencies that regulated banks set their own budgets. That gave congressional allies an easy way to exert pressure.

Further, keep in mind that Angelo Mozilo, chairman of Countrywide wanted the complete elimination of any down payment.
Our real problem in this crises is the near total corruption of our political processes.

Late Add: Jamie Gorelik, the one who was involved deeply in the 9-11 hearings that accused her of building the Chinese Wall between agencies that prevented any actions at all, is also at the center of serious accusations of bribery within the agencies. (Hat tip:Reynolds)

Oxymoron of the day: Republican Leadership

Republicans lose a 100% GOP seat in Mississippi and the headline reads that the defeat is a "wakeup call for the party." Wake up call? You cannot wake somebody out of a vegetative state. These guys sold every one of us down the river for "entitlements," bigger budget deficits, bigger government, and outright corruption. The only thing we can do is get rid of all of them and start over, and there is no time like the present. It's the leadership, stupid. Why are they still there? Because the party is completely disconnected from it's so called leadership, a leadership elected by.....the leadership. Hey leadership! Fuck you.......

Late Add: the comments over at Ace's place tell the tale. We are all totally fed up with the Republicans. They are liars......

All Public Servants Can Afford a 1.65 mln Dollar Mansion

Don't Ask Don't tell: Obama may be involved in a real estate fraud or two with this guy Rezko or he ain't. He may be involved with another recognized crook or he ain't. He may be involved with crooks who are in bed with the Queen of England, or he ain't. But nobody in our wonderful media bothers to ask how the hell a life-long public servant can afford a $1.65 million dollar mansion.

Our MSM is spinning this particular tale as just a house purchase and anybody who dares say anything else is (or course) a racist. They do their best to make this real estate deal seem so complicated that only those of us in the genius class can hope to understand it, and besides Obama did nothing.

However, once again the Brits, in the form of Times of London, really does nail it down so us stupid failures can grasp it.

A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.

A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama's bagman Antoin "Tony" Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million. Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city's South Side while Mr Rezko's wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.

Mr Obama says he never used Mrs Rezko's still-empty lot, which could only be accessed through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn.

Mrs Rezko, whose husband was widely known to be under investigation at the time, went on to sell a 10-foot strip of her property to Mr Obama seven months later so he could enjoy a bigger garden. Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city's South Side while Mr Rezko's wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.

Mr Obama says he never used Mrs Rezko's still-empty lot, which could only be accessed through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn.

Mrs Rezko, whose husband was widely known to be under investigation at the time, went on to sell a 10-foot strip of her property to Mr Obama seven months later so he could enjoy a bigger garden.

This is understandable but our ever vigilant MSM is selling the story as "Obama Regrets buying a House." If this story keeps being told by people who can write and care about the truth Obama will have some serious trouble. But not to worry, our ever vigilant media will get us all to the Promised Land. The balance of The Times piece is here.

Beware Non-Profits entering political campaigns

It seems as if they are doing it and I have broad experience with these people. They are phony, almost to the organization. This goes for all sizes, big and small. They are non-profit only after the suits skim every surplus dollar and pay themselves huge salaries. Women are particularly good at "fronting" these things because they smile and talk "doing good for people" as a part of the scam. Discovering salaries is next to impossible unless you are the FBI and have a warrant.

Paris the Genius

So she picks up a mil for getting out of jail and everybody is outraged thus guaranteeing ratings for NBC that couldn't possibly be attained any other way. And who do you think "leaked" the supposedly outrageous deal? Can you spell "N B C?" Or as a part of her contract could it have been Paris her own self doing the leaking? I know one person who knows her outside of any show biz shit and he has told me that Hilton is one smart cookie, her mom and dad are just as bright, and that her outside income last year--- from this "stupid" bitch --- was over 5 mil. She demands payment for every appearance everywhere, including transportation and meals. And that means everywhere.

Why Big Media CAN Matter

A "scandal" has been revealed locally involving the Hilton prosecutor who sent Paris to jail for a completely outrageous amount of time when compared with anyone else guilty of the same offenses (four days) and then pranced around like he was a fucking saint. So who steps in with a bomb? The LA Times doing what any NEWS paper used to do, which means digging into everything surrounding the Hilton situation, that LA Times, has a blockbuster. It seems that the Prosecutor's family has done precisely what Hilton did---records have shown that the prosecutor's wife was caught driving with a suspended license, no insurance, and with a DUI; to top it off. She never went to court on any of the charges so for several years there has been a bench warrant out for her arrest AND somebody in city government covered it all up. And oh by the way, she crashed a city vehicle (driven on her own time) and got the city to pay for it. Even more better, the prosecutor has been abusing his office by making his office help baby sit, do yard work, run errands and so forth on city time and with city money. It used to be that all newspapers covered the local news like a blanket; there is no way this prosecutor could have been elected without the local paper digging into his past first. We have one of the most corrupt city-county governments in the country, stealing money on almost every building built in the area, selling permits, demanding partnership arrangements with many restaurants and other small businesses in order to be allowed to open. But nothing is ever in the agenda driven LA Times that isn't hard core left, with their focus on state and national politics so as to elect "their" people. Oh yeah, who do you think sicked the dogs on the prosecutor because somebody did You see the original charges against the Prosecutor's wife were issued against her with her maiden name---her first name was also mispelled--and without a detailed road map this story couldn't have seen the light of day? Could it have been the Hilton people? Naw, that's impossible. Late Add: Patterico is all over the one complete with juicy links. My graduation duties have kept me away from all media for almost a week so I didn't know. Anyway, if your local fish wrap did their job maybe news paper circulation wouldn't be in the toilet.

Really interesting late add: According to LA Observed the LAT has hired the only real reporter in town, a guy who actually goes after a local story balls out. Meaning that instead of phoning from a cushy Times office suite getting information, the SOB actually goes out and calls on his quarry. Could be that the local rag has finally figured out how to actually report news and not propaganda.

The Federal Reserve of New York warned today about hedge funds; note my quick overview of them here. The problem really is that there is much too much money in the market, money that simply has no place to go. The rich are the same as everyone when it comes to thrills: cheating on your wife is number one and high stakes gambling is number two. The other problem with hedge funds is that their trading devices are so complicated that no regulator can possibly know what they are doing. The biggest (and so far the only) hedge fund implosion happened when the darling of Wall Street, a hedge fund manned by Nobel Prize winners and math geniuses collapsed when their bets on Russian Bonds went south so fast that not even their hedges could save it. The "Smartest Guys in the World" ruined hundreds of "sure thing" rich people. Now the Federal Reserve has issued a caution, sending the bond market into the toilet, for a while. Here's a Google ref for those of you who want to read. This pile of extra capital sloshing around in the markets with no place to go will either favor a big raise in taxes or much higher interest rates.

SATURDAY HALLUCINATIONS: Did Boxer try to make Rice look like another ghetto uppity nigger lesbian? Without the nicey nicey MSM bullshit, the Left thinks that Condeleeza Rice is a fucking dyke---that's what Boxer called her . As you know, I place Boxer into the Parthenon of dumb cunts between Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton's dog, but what is the big fucking deal? Is there anybody out there who doubts in their heart of hearts that Hillary, Rice, and that butt ugly Senator from Maryland are sexually compromised or confused? Boxer just said what most of us think. Next case. What does chomping an occasional consenting rug have to do with being a lousy Secretary of State who knows jack shit about everything other than the Soviet Union (What's the Soviet Union, you ask?) What does Rice bring to the table besides being a twofer (kneegro and "single woman") in the PC appointments game? Super Bay Area Liberal Boxer played a sex innuendo card for the sole purpose of reminding all of us that Rice is just another ghetto uppity nigger lesbian so as to tarnish her POV. Sorry, I can't get excited. And the Republican cluelessism is again revealed: "I'm shocked. Shocked that those scummy Commie Democrats would stoop so low....." Yeah, right.

Not so fast Dookies: Southun' Justice has no relationship to justice. These are the same clowns who validated lynchings, beatings, Huey Long, Bull Connor, and an endless parade of scumbag sheriffs who falsely accused almost anyone they could rob. The Southern ol' boy network is more likely to stick together and protect their own crooked asses than they are to seek a "justice" that will make all of them look bad and risk a ton of lawsuits. Remember that there are a luxury liner full of shitheads who stepped out of line here: cops, many on the "I'm better than you" faculty of a "prestigious" university, Durham Blacks (a potent "voting" block), and plenty of public officials who stuck their heads in the sand as usual. Everyone wishes this thing would just "go away" and finding some evidence of physical force would validate the corruption of the various institutions in NC. The resignation of one of the most vile members of the "Group of 88" ought to tell you that the moral jackals that compose the "Duke 88" faculty members ain't going gently into that good night.

Playoffs: I like the Packers and 49ers to go to all the way. What? It's not 1996 any more? Jesus, I must owe my connection a fucking fortune. Just another way of saying that any of these teams could make it. I like the Eagles, Bears, Chargers (a great looking game on paper), and Ravens this weekend. Keep in mind that for four years straight I couldn't pick four winners on those old Mafia betting cards. BTW, we all watched the re-run of the last four minutes of the Fiesta Bowl last nite. Miracle confirmed. This will be replayed for at least twenty years, easily as big as the no time remaining Hail Mary Flutie to Phalen bomb that beat Miami way back when everybody believed in Jesus.